My Wolf, My Crow

Theory and practice

"So who should train Enid? If this whole thing is a legend and nothing is known for sure."

On Wednesday she was at the very least altered at Manor's last words. After all, this mess was only brought up because of a barely mentioned legend.

"Me of course."

Wednesday's blood freezes in her veins, already she is a cold-blooded creature but now she becomes a real piece of ice at just hearing her mother's voice coming from behind her.

Enid, too, on hearing Morticia's voice, immediately turns to look behind her, and just to the side at the stairs they had walked down, a second flight of steps that had appeared from nowhere shows the slow but determined arrival of Morticia Addams.

"My dear Morticia, it is my honor to finally meet you in person after all these years."

The woman looks with a frown not so much of surprise but more of curiosity at the animated painting that addresses her.

"For me, too, it is an honor to make the acquaintance of the spirit that has given life to my abode in recent years."

"I just finished telling the girls about the legend of the Blood Moon Wolves. I see you had the idea of taking Jacob's journals with you."

Morticia looks at the four books in her arms and then returns with a sweet smile on her face to look at Manor.

"Yes, I thought Wednesday should read them in person to ascertain how much is legend and how much is actually reality."

Not even finished saying this that Wednesday reached out her claws and grabbed one of the books and began flipping through it with voracious curiosity.

"From the paper from the cover and the worn state of this book, I would say it's very old. But there's something strange about it, it almost looks out of place and we're in the Addams estate, everything here is so out of place that it's exactly where it should be."

Manor nods and takes the floor.

"It dates back to Goody's heyday, just before her death in fact and you've hit the nail on the head, these diaries, of your ancestor Jacob Addams, have been I'm not sure why ignored by both myself and the rest of your family for hundreds of years and only now have they caught my attention, as I've told you before, upon your and Enid's arrival together here at the Addams estate something was set in motion here."

Morticia advances and stands at Manor's side.

"I had noticed them in the past, too, but there was always a little voice in my head telling me it was not the time to read them."

Morticia and Manor exchange a look of understanding, apparently this was yet another Addams family mystery that would probably never be solved.

"Before proceeding further I would like to have the time to read and analyze these journals myself, after all even what is written in them is interesting, they seem to be mostly the results of some research and personal observations, a lot of what is written in them is all completely theoretical and is all based on hypotheses, there is nothing actual."

"That's right my daughter and we will give you time, after all we still have all summer ahead of us and since there is no imminent danger I don't think this will be a priority for us. You brought Enid here for a reason, to give her a better life, so how about taking this as a nice summer pastime with no pressure, no hurry, after all if it's a legend everything will remain as it is now but if it's the truth, Enid can only benefit from it and I guess you'll find a way to gain from it too. Won't you my daughter? After all, I know you well."

To say that Wednesday had not already devised millions and millions of scenarios in which she could exploit Enid's new ability to transform on command to carry out her evil plans would be blasphemy.

"Very good mother."

Wednesday gently lays the tome in her hand back in her mother's arms and on top of the others, and then also reaches out with her other hand grabbing all four and snatching them from her lap and clutching them to her chest.

"I'm going to have a very interesting read this evening, however, I have to agree with you on the other matter, in fact I was really planning to clear some things up with Enid tonight, possibly alone at a picnic in the woods."

Usual Enid face with mouth gaping, jaw dropping and blah blah blah.

Morticia smiles, nods at the girls, and then resumes the staircase that had appeared from nowhere, which between blinks of the girls disappears again.

"However my dear spirit, would you like to explain why you had to involve my mother in all this?"

"Communicating with you in this form requires quite a lot of energy and I needed, or rather, you needed a third party to act as a go-between, you two are at the beginning of your relationship, I honestly don't know whether to call it still loving or of simple friendship is something you have to determine. Surely that freaking appendix would also have been a useful teacher if she still had all her memories but alas she can't do much, Morticia was certainly the better choice and anyway she did it all by herself, the only thing I did was to drop a diary when she passed by us to point them out."

Wednesday raises an eyebrow in curiosity at Manor's words.

"I want to elaborate on this Thing thing apparently you know him better than the rest of my family does, you didn't happen to witness his creation, did you?"

Manor smiles contentedly, knowing full well that he has just drawn a great card from the deck with this little revelation.

"I have seen many things Wednesday Addams and the creation of the much trusted hand of the Addams family could perhaps be among them. Now, however, I must urgently ask you to leave the crypt after all this room is totally disconnected from the rest of the castle, buried several tens of meters below the dungeons, so quite difficult to reach, the stairs I make them appear in time of need but it is rather hard to maintain them so if you don't want to be stuck here for the next 12 hours or even longer, depending on how long I need to recover, you'd better go, after all you have a picnic to go to."

Wednesday steps toward Manor with urgency after seeing Enid already starting to make her way toward the stairs.

"One last question."

The animated painting nods.

"You said this is Goody's crypt, but I don't see any tomb here."

Manor crashes, Wednesday sees it and Enid immediately identifies it as a video call that crashes, as if the connection slows down, the picture starts to flake and the audio goes out of sync.

"Th-th-this is-this is Go-Go-Goody Addams' crypt, Th-this is what you need to know p-for the rest do-do-you-have-to-go-now, by-and-by."

The girls are startled but at the slight earth tremor that can be felt, they realize that it is indeed better to take the curtains down and hurry back up the stairs.

"Okay this was strange, because it seems to me that the best question you asked was the last one?"

"There is something that doesn't sit right with me, I think we should investigate not so much Manor, I think he is almost an unconscious servant and there is some other mystery related to Goody and apparently also her grave."

"Yeah and then you saw the look on his face after he fizzled, it was almost glassy like an automaton giving a preprogrammed response."

Wednesday rolls her eyes, as much as she understood the intrinsic meaning of Enid's words these digital terms confused her.

"I think it's exactly as you say, whatever that means. In any case, I imagine for this summer and next year at Nevermore we will have as many as two more mysteries to solve."

Wednesday smiles after all it would have been boring another Nevermore year without some good mystery to investigate."

List limits report signed by Wednesday Addams and Enid Sinclair

Item 5: Enid Sinclair agrees not to report any kind of illegal act (including murder and genocide) enacted by any member affiliated with the Addams family, unless the main Addams family files the complaint first.