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someone near me screamed so loudly that I dropped my burger on the floor. Staring around the garden, my gaze fell on a pair of yellow eyes watching me from underneath a nearby bush. Tommy ran out of the kitchen with a frying pan in his hand. Scrambling up, I sprinted across the lawn and planted myself firmly in front of my giant cat. ‘It’s ok, he won’t hurt you, I promise.’
    ‘ Are you sure?’ Tommy spoke warily. ‘Are you absolutely sure, Ava? I mean, it’s a wild animal and we have the children around, not to mention everyone else.’
    ‘ Let me show you.’ Looking him straight in the eye, I replayed the memory of how the animal had found and helped me. ‘I’m sorry, I should have mentioned it to you before but to be honest, with everything else going on it just didn’t occur to me.’
    The cat pushed his head against my legs and let out a rattling purr. A chuckle came from behind Tommy.
    ‘ Brogan, no!’
    The little boy was just out of reach, his arms stretched out in front of him. The cat watched him approach then lay down on the grass and tucked his paws in like a domestic pet. Brogan reached him and flung his arms around the cat’s neck, cuddling into the warm fur. The creature nudged him gently with his nose and purred again. I looked up at Tommy who was staring open mouthed.
    ‘ Is it ok if he stays?’
    The crea ture rolled on to his back with his paws in the air so that Brogan could tickle his tummy. Tommy rolled his eyes. ‘As long as it doesn’t eat any of us, I guess its ok.’
    I spent the rest of the afternoon sitting on the grass, leaning against the cat and playin g with Brogan. On discovering that I could make objects fly too, we spent quite some time sending items zooming around in the air. Brogan particularly liked it when I made Tommy’s burger fly around the garden, just as he was about to take a bite out of it. We were in the middle of a buttercup race when Oscar and a group of his friends arrived.
    ‘ Whoa! What the hell is that?’ A particularly tall, gangly young man pointed at my feline friend.
    ‘ It turns out that the myth of the Moors Monster is true,’ Brock told them jovially as he flipped some burgers over on the grill. ‘And Ava here has not only found it but has tamed and befriended it.’
    ‘ Sweeet!’ The man whistled and came over to sit next to me. ‘But what is it? Can I touch it?’ He reached out tentatively and touched the creature’s back.
    ‘ I think it’s a panther,’ Tommy replied. ‘There were rumours some years ago that someone in a nearby village was keeping some big cats in their garden. The law enforcement people were called in because of complaints from the neighbours, but the guy let the creatures go before they got there. They were supposed to have found them all but then people kept reporting sightings and the stories took hold. I have to say, I didn’t believe a word of it until now.’
    The man looked at me carefully as though he were assessing me. ‘I’m impressed,’ he said at last. ‘I’m Noah by the way and you must be Ava.’
    ‘ That’s right.’ I nodded, shaking his hand. Several other people came to sit with us. One of them handed Noah a plate laden with food which he promptly began to stuff into his mouth.
    ‘ Nice, Noah.’ Oscar rolled his eyes. ‘Ava, meet Kenzie . . .’ A girl with jet black hair streaked with purple, a small metal stud in her nose, and several tattoos on her arms waved and smiled at me. ‘Lissa,’ a mousey haired girl sitting next to Kenzie smiled and nodded, ‘and this is Skye . . .’
    ‘ I’m Oscar’s girlfriend.’
    I looked up curiously at the girl who had spoken. She was very pretty with wavy brown hair and hazel eyes, yet her tone of voice and body language were hostile. She surveyed me with cold eyes, then made a point of fawning over Oscar. I decided to avoid her as much as possible.
    *
    As the light faded, Brock and Tommy lit lanterns and placed them around the garden. The