All throughout the afternoon, the girls stealthily hid and assisted HK with some of her chores if they proved to be too risky. Meanwhile Snatcher did his routine appearances and finally decided to send the kid to the Manor. But not because he was supposed to but he had a hunch about something. So he called the kid over to his tree home to talk about the mission and other things.
“I’ve got a lonely old friend who’s living all by herself in a dusty old house.” Snatcher was saying to Harriet. “You should pay her a visit.” He brought out a contract for her to sign. "Her cookies are absolutely to DIE for~." He said with emphasis on the DIE part.
She wasn't too sure about the mission but she reluctantly signed it anyway. As soon as she was out of ear and eye shot, he started to investigate. He followed HK from afar, only to see footprints on the thin layer of snow but no one was there. Or so it seemed. As soon as Harriet parkoured across the broken off bridge, he focused his magic and swiped at the space he was able to detect. And as soon as he scooped up the little weight on his hand, it let out a loud "Eep!"
With his magic he decloaked Wren and stared intently at her shivering form.
“O-oh G-god… p-please! D-don’t h-hurt m-me!”
Snatcher merely grinned maliciously at her words. “Well then, you best tell me what I want to know then, shouldn’t you?”
Wren gulped.
But before she could say anything, a golden ball of light slammed right into him. Knocking Wren out of his grip.
"RUN!!!!" Lydia yelled as she reapplied the cloaking spell on her cousin. She grabbed her hand and booked it.
Wren was stumbling behind her. “H-how d-did he kn-know?!”
"I don't know! But I'm not going to find out!" They made their way deeper in the forest and finally made it to their hideout.
"D-did… we l-lose h-him?" Lydia huffed and puffed in exhaustion.
“Y-yeah… I.. I th-think s-so..” She huffed in reply. She looked behind them, just to be sure.
To their luck, he wasn't there. But that didn't mean that they weren't alone. A crescent shaped entity peered down at them secretly.
“Are you ladies quite alright?” He asked, looking forward to having some fun with them.
Both of them practically jumped out of their skin.
"W-who's there?!" Lydia ordered as she lit up her hands with magic. Wren took a defensive stance but was still scared. She could fight still though.
“Well you won’t find me there.” The voice mused. “I am Moon Jumper, a pleasure to make your acquaintance.” He hummed and called Snatcher over. “Oh Jack-O-Lantern! Your prey is in these woods! All you have to do is find them.”
Lydia found the voice and gasped. 'Moonjumper?! B-but I-I only thought that he was only mentioned in the attic of Vanessa's! Why is he here as an official character?!' But she had no time to think. She and Wren had to get out of there with their belongings before Snatcher arrived. She snapped her fingers and mumbled a packing spell. The cabin was gone and everything was packed in their backpacks. She cloaked both of them and their things, grabbed Wren and left like the Devil was on their heels, which in retrospect, he was.
“Oh come on! I just want to ask a few harmless questions!” Snatcher stated as he looked for the girls. He wasn’t far either.
The girls ran a bit farther and when Lydia had enough breath, she threw her voice in the opposite direction to confuse him.
"HARMLESS MY ASS YOU SOUL STEALING FLOOF NOODLE!!!"
“WHO ARE YOU CALLING A FLOOF NOODLE!!!” He chased after her voice.
Luckily for them he went in the opposite direction of where they were running.
'Good! It worked. Curse that croissant ghost!' They somehow managed to arrive at a deeper and darker part of the forest. By then, we slowed to a stop.
"I- hack- I think we're safe for n-now… hold on, let me…" she flicked her fingers like a lighter and a golden glow of a fire lit up in her hand and she shone it around. All she saw was nothing but black and a heaving Wren.
“P-please…… t-tell me….. We a-are…… alone…” She wheezed.
Lydia wasn't sure. All she could see was nothingness. But she didn't see the jack-o'-lantern face of Snatcher. "I think so… but we better be on guard. Let's set up." She snapped her fingers and the cabin and their stuff was all laid out.
"Okay. If my magic is as spot on as it is now, we and Harriet should be safe until after she defeats Snatcher after the contract has expired. Let's rest." They walked back into the cabin and slept with one eye open the whole night.
“W-WHAT W-WAS TH-THAT?!” Wren yelped.
"THAT, is our cue to pack up. We need to get to the upper half quick, then after HK signs the deal and retrieves the Timepiece, we pull her aside and hand her our share. Then YOU are going to go with Harriet. You have enough magic to defend her and yourself. You ready?" Lydia said as she and her cousin stepped out of the cabin. Lydia snapped her fingers and everything was packed up.
"As for temporary living arrangements, just ask her if you could crash at her place until everything is complete. Okay?"
Wren nodded. “W-will you be ok, I-I’m still not very k-keen on the idea o-of you being a-alone..”
Lydia hopped aboard her Trailblazer as did Wren with hers. Lydia smiled at her. "Don't worry! I can take care of myself. It's you that I worry about sometimes. But that's okay! HK has a teleport that can beam you down to the forest to check on me. Remember?"
Wren nodded reluctantly. "Ok.. still, be careful, Lydia.."
Lydia looked at her with a reassuring smile. "It's gonna be okay! Whatever he has in store, I can handle it. Now let's go!"
As they started up the vehicles and zoomed off ahead, Harriet was already in a void like space where a defeated Snatcher laid.
*Huffs* "You're such a disrespectful young lady. I feel… so weak… *huffs* Please… *huffs* have mercy…Please… HAVE A SEAT!" Snatcher all but flew into Hattie's face. "All the timepieces landed in MY forest. They are MY property!" He ranted. "So, let's make a deal, young lady. You get out of my forest, and we never see each other again. How's that sound for a deal?" He asked, slightly eager. She shook her head. "Well, how about this then? Tell me who your magically cloaked friends are." He pressed.
Hattie looked confused. But either way she wouldn't budge. She crossed her arms in determination .
He looked annoyed at this. “Not a fan? Too bad! You don’t make the calls here.” He made a contract to either leave or tell him what he wanted. “Here. I’ll even make it easy for you! Now all that’s left is for you to sign it!”
She looked it over and squinted at it. She then smirked and practically rewrote the whole contract to him being her BFF. And for the other option. A "Maybe?"
“You understand that’s not how contracts work, right? I’m giving you a chance to scram, kid! There’s no catches or clauses if you choose to leave! What if I give you your soul back, will that make you choose?” Snatcher almost sounded like he was begging, he really wanted to know.
He sent back her soul to her body making her feel rejuvenated and just the normal amount of emptiness. But Hattie didn't say anything. Just stared intently and curiously at him.
“Yes? No? Hello? Are you there? Why aren’t you saying anything?” Snatcher asked impatiently.
Hattie gave him a raised brow in a "Really?" Motion.
"........."
He sighed. “You’re quite the character, aren’t you? And a tough negotiator. Fine, I’ll sweeten the deal for you.” He summoned a timepiece. “Here, take my last timepiece. If I continue to see you around my forest after this, I’ll be VERY disappointed!”
The world went back to normal but instead of going back to his tree house, he stuck around and eyed her down. He was Hell bent on getting to the bottom of who else was in his forest.
“...are you SURE you can’t give me SOMETHING? I’M DYING OF CURIOSITY OVER HERE!!!”
Hattie then remembered that one lady that helped her out. And said lady was hiding in the shadows to see what the heck was going on. "This wasn't part of the game!" She whispered yelled to Wren. Wren looked a bit nervous as she said that. "Change of plans. I'll stick around and you go to the outer edge of the forest that's close to Alpine Skylines. I'll send her your way." Lydia whispered as she narrowed her eyes at the two.
Hattie finally caved.
“There are two of them helping me. I don’t know one of their names, but one of them is called Lydia. But I call her El.”
Snatcher paused. Then he smiled wide. “Lydia… hm? Very useful.”
Hattie looked confused by why he wanted to know. He almost seemed… excited?
“I’m curious, what does she look like? Does she wield magic?” Snatcher questioned excitedly.
Hattie rose an brow. Then stopped. She figured or at least assumed, at what was going on. She made a mischievous and cheeky cat-like smug face.
“... What’s THAT face for?” Snatcher asked to which Hattie’s grin widened.
“Nnnnnnnothingggg..” She replied with the innocence of a hedgehog.
“...”
“Well? I’m waiting.” Snatcher decided to dismiss her strange face and attitude for now.
Lydia couldn't hear what they were saying from the distance that she was at. So she did what any impatient lady in waiting did.
'That's it!' She stepped out of the woods and flung a large magic ball of magic. Which promptly smacked Snatcher between his eyes.
She acted out on the gabby male.
Hattie's eyes grew to be as wide as dinner plates. But she did what every child did once seeing an act of cartoonist violence. She laughed.
“Don’t laugh at my suffering!” Snatcher raged, rubbing the sore spot.
“B-BUT IT WAS S-SO FUNNY!!” She sputtered.
"Wren! Change of plans! AGAIN!!! Grab Hattie and get going!" Lydia called out to her cousin. To which she started up her Trailblazer and swooped in and snatched Hattie and made a beeline to the forest.
Lydia walked up front till Snatcher saw her.
“Well, well, well. You must be one of the young ladies helpers. Is your name Lydia by any chance?”
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