“I'm so glad I have my own copy. I can read them again and again. I can read them again and again on trains, all my life, and every time I do I'll remember today and it will connect up. (Is that magic?)”
― Jo Walton, Among Others
I ran up the giant hall that I had unashamedly admired only hours before, screaming Eustace’s name. Adrenalin surged through me and I forgot about my hunger, my exhaustion and my bruised body as I took the stairs two by two, dashing up to the dais and towards the wall that I knew wasn’t as solid as it looked.
But when I tried to run through it, I hit an immovable object and fell back.
“But…” I got up and pressed my hands against it. “Eustace! Eustace!” I beat my fists on its surface. “Eustace! Don’t give it to her! Eustace!”
Suddenly the wall gave way and I fell through the surface into the elemental throne room, tripping over my own feet into a stumble that would have been embarrassing in a public place. But I was too desperate to care.
“Bethany?” Eustace stood over me with his hand reaching down to help me up. “Are you hurt?”
“Where’s the egg?” I demanded and saw it in the crook of his arm. “Don’t give it to her!”
“But…it’s hers. It’s the game. I have to.”
“It’s not a game! It’s a sick manipulation.” I looked at his mother sitting on the throne with her arms outstretched. I clung at his arm, holding him back. “She’s had you running around finding these eggs so she can kill them!”
Eustace looked at me and where I’d hoped there’d be shock or horror, there was only mirth.
“It is the game. The eggs hide and I have to find them and bring them back to mother.”
“You are a good son,” the girl said warmly, “you are the best at finding the eggs. You are the only one I trust.”
“The only dragon who can get down here, you mean.” I snapped. “Eustace is the only water dragon left in this world.”
“See how she speaks of things she does not understand.” The girl shook her head. “My son, give me the egg and we will play another game.”
“I like games.” Eustace pulled away from me and went towards her. “Come on, Bethany. Games are fun! Let’s play!”
“Then this baby dragon will die!”
He frowned at me. “I don’t understand…”
“Foolish little human,” the girl mocked, “you think you understand but you do not. There is no death here.”
“There’s a whole room of death!” I yelled at her. “Hundreds of dragon eggs smashed to bits, their bones scattered across the floor where you killed them! I can show you, Eustace!”
“My son would not know what it meant.” She smiled and as her pointed teeth showed, my heart lurched back. “He is innocent and pure.”
“You’re just using him!”
“Bethany,” Eustace’s tone was tinged lightly with rebuke, “this is my mother and this is our game.”
“Then where are all the baby dragons?” I blurted. “Ask her, where are they!”
“What do you mean?”
His mother began to laugh in the face of my astonishment.
“You see the futility of what you are trying to do? My children are innocent. They do not know of the things of which you speak.”
I floundered. “Eustace…what is in the egg?”
He looked at me as though I was insane. “It is an egg.”
The sheer magnitude of his naivety nearly floored me. “Eustace…inside that egg is a baby dragon.”
“Give the egg to me, my son and we will play another game.”
“And a baby inside an egg is helpless and fragile…”
“I know a really good hiding spot this time.”
“When it’s old enough, it breaks out and starts to live!”
Eustace was torn between both of us trying to get his attention. The egg was in his arms as we bought fought for it.
“The human thinks she knows, but she does not, about dragons.” The mockery in her voice as she spoke about me was infuriating.
“How can your mother hide the eggs if she’s here all the time?” I demanded.
Eustace paused, the thought never occurring to him until now. He looked at his mother.
“They naturally spawn in this world. I am simply aware of the passage of time and that a new egg has formed and must be found by my cleverest son.” She answered smooth as silk but I thought I saw a muscle in her jaw spasm as though she was gritting her teeth.
“Then why do they hide?” I slapped my forehead. “Because they’re trying to escape you! They don’t want to be found!”
“I am their mother.”
“No mother in her right mind could do what you’ve done! You kill baby dragons! They’re dead because of you!”
“My son, she does not understand and she will never understand the game. But you are the best finder of eggs and there is a new game to play.”
Eustace looked at me and I saw my words hadn’t gotten through to him at all.
“I like games. I want to play.” He began to walk over to where her mother reclined with her outstretched arms.
I felt rage and panic flood me, my mind seeing Eustace playing in the surf, unaware that he was carrying babies to their death…unable to even comprehend what death was.
He held out the egg towards his mother, inches from placing it in her arms.
“Eustace, wait,” I gasped, dashing forwards, “death…if you give the egg to her…the baby will be dead.”
His mother smiled a superior smile, her eyes still closed, her hands waiting patiently for her son to give her the egg. She had reason to smile. Eustace looked at me without comprehension.
“Dead is a human word.” He replied calmly.
“Dead is when something that was alive is no longer alive.” His blue eyes were blank and without understanding. “When this baby dragon is dead…it will never play.”
There was a flicker in the calm, bright blue of his eyes, like a stone had been thrown into a calm pond. I held my breath, praying.
“It will never…play?” I shook my head. “It is asleep, like Jo. I will wake it up.”
“No Eustace, dead means it will never wake up. Dead is gone. Ended.”
“It will be alive tomorrow?”
Oh gosh, how could I get through to him?
“Eustace, dead means the game is over. There are no more games. No more play.”
As I watched, the corners of his mouth, that had always been up in a smile or flat in confusion, turned down…and the bright, joyful light in his eyes dimmed.
“Not ever?” He asked.
I realised now I had to break his heart and my own tore as I did so.
“Never.”
He looked at the egg in his arms then raised his head to the girl.
“Mother?”
Her sightless gaze managed to convey foreboding and her gentle outstretched hands became taut and needy.
“Give me the egg.” She demanded quietly, her lips in a thin line.
I trembled then looked around, seeing the flames of the elements flicker. I looked up and saw a ripple across the surface of the water, the fish scattering from sight.
Eustace held onto the egg. “I…no.”
Her mouth turned down and her arms dropped by her side. This time the tremble I felt couldn’t be mistaken for anything less than an earthquake.
“Why did you have to grow up?” She asked. “You have spoiled everything!”
Her eyes tore open. I shrieked and leapt back and Eustace recoiled from his mother that he had been so loyal towards. Her eyes were yellow, rimmed with red and there were reptilian pupils scored across their width like black chasms across a river of lava. Her hands became hooked and her fingernails grew long and black. Another shake rocked the castle, stones that had withstood hundreds of years and countless tonnes of water pressure, cracked and splintered. The floor became jagged, tipping me one way, Eustace another. I looked up, feeling something wet touch my face. It was water. Salt water.
“No, no, no!” The seal above the elemental throne room gave one final shiver then ruptured, water pouring into the chamber. “Eustace!”
He and I fought to reach each other through the water that was already knee high, Eustace thrusting the egg into my hands and changing into his dragon form. I climbed onto his back and he darted for the exit. I looked over my shoulder.
His mother was standing on the throne and then, she disappeared into darkness before the ceiling caved in and the throne disappeared, the elements consumed.
Eustace ran through the castle, dodging the statues that fell and the murals which shattered, huge block of stone falling from above. A giant pillar toppled over in front of us and I screamed as Eustace darted away.
I cannot go the way I came. Hold on.
I wrapped my arms around the egg, pinching Eustace’s back between my knees, my legs hooked over his foreclaws as he backtracked and dove into a hole in the floor. The gap was much smaller than the one he entered by. So was the passage. Eustace had to scrape and claw, the water churning and the clarity, turning into a murky haze. Soon I couldn’t see much at all.
It is tight. Make yourself small.
I leaned forward, curling my body around the egg, trying to make myself as small as possible. Though I felt a couple of bumps, I was sure Eustace was bearing the brunt of the squeeze. And then there were more thuds and loud crashes above our heads.
The castle has collapsed.
My whimper of fear was lost in the cacophony of the disintegration of the heritage of humans and dragons. Eustace clawed and scraped, wriggling through diminishing space.
Then he announced the one thing I’d been dreading.
The tunnel ends.
“We’re buried alive.” I whispered.
But we are alive.
That little statement was actually quite comforting, especially given the precious egg I had been entrusted with. Eustace began to dig with his foreclaws, using his snout to push into the collapsed rocks and stone, tearing aside the blockade, pushing, digging and scraping again until, after what felt like an eternity of darkness, his snout nosed into open water. It took another minute for him to dig an exit large enough for his body to pass through without knocking his two passengers off but he did and suddenly, just like that, we were through.
His dragon form wove through the water, curling upwards to where the water was brighter and brighter until, with a final thrust, Eustace broke through the surface and into the open air. The bubble around myself and the egg immediately popped and I inhaled the best lungful of air I’d had since, well, probably the day before.
Eustace rose through the sky, heading for the floating islands. I checked the egg as we flew. It seemed no worse for wear for the dire situations it had been in. I hugged it in my arms gently as Eustace headed for an island and when we landed, I slid off his back with the precious cargo.
He’d taken us to the island where the door rested in its hollow, the island having righted itself. I had come through it only yesterday, yet it felt like a century. I felt old and withered.
“Okay, let’s go…Eustace?”
He stood nearby, his eyes downcast, focussed on his hands and they were trembling.
“All those eggs…all those babies…dead…” His whole body began to shake and he dropped to his knees. “My fault…it’s all my fault…”
“No, no, no,” I knelt by him, “Eustace, it isn’t your fault. It isn’t!”
“No more play. No more games…forever…”
His voice was hollow. There was no joy, no light or life. It was flat and broken.
“It’s not your fault. It’s hers. She did this.” I insisted.
“But she couldn’t have…without me.”
How could I refute this?
It was true. He had played her ‘game’ and followed her instruction without questioning it once. He had never looked at the murals on the walls and read the story they told. He had not thought why it was strange to have such a giant hall fit for dragons but steps the size for humans. He had not known that an egg had the potential to hold life. It was possible that all dragon eggs held unborn hatchlings inside, unlike chicken or duck eggs in my world.
But ignorance did not change what he had done.
“It’s not…” Words failed me. My own immature wisdom failed me. I couldn’t think of what to say. “Eustace…” My joyful water dragon, convinced the world was a giant playground and knew nothing of grief or regret or death, was doubled over with terrible knowledge. “There’s this one,” I put it down in front of him, pushing it so he couldn’t help but see it, “you saved it.”
Eustace’s fingers trembled above it then drew back. “I…I am…not…”
Then we heard a sound like the earth had split apart. Eustace stood up as I scooped the egg into my arms and we looked over the ocean. A giant chasm, ripped into the earth by the rising of the reef of islands, had appeared. Only they weren’t islands. They formed the back of an incredibly large dragon, the reef shaped as it had curled up and gone to sleep on the ocean floor, the waters covering it and the castle it had protected. The ocean surged forward to fill the gaping wound it had created, a giant geyser ripping into the air where the waters collided. The waves pulsing out from the chasm were enough to overwhelm some of the islands that rested in the ocean, decimating mountains, crushing forests and drowning volcanoes. The dragon that defied logic, belted wings as large as mountains and rose into the sky. It was black where moss and oysters did not cling to his body. Debris fell as it pumped its wings and rose higher and higher, its head, easily big enough to swallow a rock dragon whole, opened wide and it bellowed…and the dragons of the four elements scattered, even the rock dragons woken from their slumber, rose into the air in fright.
“What is it?” I cried.
“Mother.” Eustace whispered.
“That’s the little girl?” I exclaimed. If I had known as much, I wouldn’t have had the courage to confront her. “That’s crazy!”
The mother dragon roared again and as a rock dragon came too close, she opened her large jaws and snapped down.
“No!” Eustace screamed while I stood, stunned at the horrific cold bloodedness of the dragon.
“What is she doing?”
The dragon began to fly towards the floating islands, the dragons of the elements darting away as best as they could. Despite their ‘play’ mentality, even they had realised that this dragon was not there to play. Yet some of them could not get out of her way fast enough and were crushed within her jaws.
“Is she out of her mind?”
“She is looking for me.”
“You?” I looked at him. “Not the egg?”
He shook his head. “I can hear her…I can feel her searching for me.” He looked at the egg. “There will be other dragons foolish enough to play her game…but she has to silence me first.”
His voice was quiet and reserved. In a way it was more frightening than the giant dragon.
“I have to stop her.”
“Why?” I demanded. “Just leave with me! Let her have this world!”
“She’ll wipe out the other dragons trying to find me.” Eustace walked towards the edge.
I clutched at his arm, my other scooped as best as I could around the egg. “Don’t go. Come to my world.”
“She knows about your world. If she doesn’t find me here…she’ll destroy yours in her search.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “Are you insane? She’ll crush you!”
Eustace looked at me for the first time and I let out a sob at the sorrow in his gaze. “Look after the baby for me.”
“Eustace!” I screamed as he leapt into the air, changing as he fell. He darted away. “Eustace! Get back here!”
But he didn’t and soon his small, lithe, white body caught the attention of the giant mother dragon.
In hindsight, I should have run for the door and thrown myself through it…but I couldn’t desert Eustace. I couldn’t leave and not know what happened. I should have put the egg through but all I could do was stand and watch what could only be described as a David and Goliath battle.
The mother dragon roared and went after the water dragon. She wasn’t fast but just one pump of her wings was enough to propel her the length of a football field. And as Eustace didn’t have wings, he had to curl and weave like he would in the water, losing valuable ground. In a straight line race, he would have been overtaken in three pumps of her wings. As I watched, holding my breath, I saw him dart from her biting jaws, taking her attention away from the other dragons and disappear into the clutter of floating islands. He flew in and out with far greater ease than she could, using the islands for cover.
He hadn’t reckoned with her strength of resolve or callous nature, however, and after a few minutes of being thwarted, she simply rammed into one of the largest islands, knocking it into subsequent islands and turning his cover into a deadly pinball game.
“She’s insane!” I cried. “Oh no…”
The crashing islands started a chain reaction, the push pulsing from where she struck the first island, out to the outlying islands…and I was standing on one of them. I thought I was safe as I couldn’t see anything coming towards me but I didn’t think of the islands that were behind the small mountain the door was embedded in and one of them hit it at speed. It was the most horrific earthquake I’d ever experienced, the ground cracking and blistering as rocks clashed together and dirt showered over me and the egg. The surface lurched into a terrifying slant, one of the islands that had rammed us jammed beneath, pushing my island onto a treacherous angle. I landed on my backside and began to slide, the door getting further and further away once more. My battered feet were powerless to stop the relentless descent to the edge and I could grab nothing without letting go of the egg.
A loud crash sounded nearby and another two islands entered my vision, hurtling towards me as the island hurtled towards it. I didn’t even have the chance to scream before we crashed into each other and I was thrown up and backwards, landing on my back as the island righted itself with a vengeance, dislodged from its forward propulsion and precarious lean.
“I…I can’t do this.” I staggered to my feet. “Eustace…”
The floating islands were broken and scattered, the largest of them splintered into several pieces. Elemental dragons flew overhead, fire dragons singeing me as they came a little close, wind dragons beating the air and rock dragons clinging to any island they could, all watching the battle with me. I couldn’t see Eustace but the mother dragon was impossible to miss. From the way she was searching, she hadn’t found him yet and her violence was becoming a rage that would consume the entire world.
“I…I’m sorry…” I whimpered and turned to go through the door before anything else stopped me.
In front of the door was the girl Eustace had called mother.
Her eyes were closed, her hair hung limply around her face and her fingers still bore black, sharpened nails.
“This,” she hissed, “is all your fault.”
“My…my fault!” I exclaimed, recoiling from her.
“My son was innocent! He was happy!” She snapped. “He knew no sorrow, no pain…”
“You’re the one who fooled him into bringing you dragon eggs that you crushed.” I clutched the egg in my arms, knowing I had nowhere to run should she attack.
“You are a shallow, callous, manipulative human that stains whatever you touch! You ruined everything!”
I took a breath. “You’re talking about the humans from before. I’m not like them!”
“In every human exists the folly of all its kind.” She snarled. “Dragons know not of such things. They are instinctual and pure, innocent and joyful. Then humans created the dragon that ended all things…”
“Is that what you are?” I shivered in horror at the thought that the insidious dragon which had brought about the end of utopia was standing in front of me in the form of a girl.
“I was the only one left!” She cried. “All the other dragons, all the humans…even the one who started the war that boiled oceans and ruined this world…I was the only one who survived…”
“Except for the dragon babies, protected in their eggs…”
“I had to keep them safe. I had to preserve their joy, keep them innocent…keep them young…”
“You…you’ve been looking after them this whole time…smothering them…” I shivered and looked around. “That’s why they’ve never grown up…that’s why they can’t breathe fire!” Her head snapped up and she took a step towards me. “You…you castrated them! You won’t let them mature…they can’t even have their own children…oh!” I felt the horror overcome me and buckle my knees. “That’s why Eustace didn’t know what was in the eggs…because you stopped them from having children…”
“They must not change! They must not alter!”
“Baby dragons born into a world with no parents…they’re all toddlers…playing endlessly with no concept of anything beyond instinct and fun.” Tears streamed from my eyes as I imagined the baby dragons hatching into a world where there were no parents to greet them. My tears dotted onto the egg in my arms. “But…why destroy the eggs? Why kill the baby dragons?”
“A father must not be born.”
“A father…” My heart trembled. “This egg…there’s a father dragon inside…who will show these dragons how to grow up!” I looked up. “You killed them all…just to keep your children from maturing?”
“I did what I have done to keep my children from suffering!” Her claws grabbed my chin and I felt blood trickle from where her talons pierced my skin. “And I will not allow a human, or the dragon it has tainted, to take my work away from me. I will remake this world if I have to.” Her other claw reached out and I heard her nails scrape the shell of the egg. “There are others who will bring me the eggs. I will not allow a father to be born.”
“Eustace…” I whispered.
Abruptly the sightless eyes opened, the reptilian pupils becoming even narrower as her face contorted into rage and shock. Her hands suddenly drew back from me and she looked down to see a white spike protruding from her chest. She clutched at it, her nails unable to grasp it properly or even comprehend what it was.
I won’t let you hurt or trick anyone ever again.
I felt the press of Eustace’s back against mine, his words thrummed through my body rather than heard. His body was curled around me and the egg, his tail behind the girl he had once called mother, the spine at the tip of it having pierced her chest straight through.
I heard a roar and twisted to see the large dragon clutching at its body, writhing and smashing an island into rubble. It clawed at the debris, howling.
“She is the dragon and the dragon is her…” I gasped. “You…you’ve stopped her!”
The girl snarled and spat blood to the side, the red hue staining her tattered clothing.
“You think you’ve won?” She barred her bloodied teeth at us. “You think this is something great?”
“I think it could have been great a long time ago but you wouldn’t let the dragons grow up.” I retaliated.
She laughed in a hacking manner, Eustace pulling his spine from her chest. She staggered sideways, heading for the edge of the island. Eustace kept his body curled around both myself and the egg as we watched her stumble towards the precipice. In the distance, the giant dragon was losing its grasp upon the fragments of island that remained.
“You think sorrow…regret…responsibility…are things to be admired?” She winced. “Look…look at my son!”
I glanced at the dragon face of Eustace. Even though he didn’t have the same expression as a human, I could almost feel the sorrow emanating from him.
“Look what growing up has done to him!”
I would not trade my happiness for the lives of dragons. Eustace responded. Not anymore.
Abruptly there was a flurry of wind around us. I felt myself slipping backwards. Eustace scooped me and the egg into his forearms as the air filled with wind dragons. Their many wings beat the air into a mini twister, their claws and jaws snapping at the girl at the edge. She batted at them, their talons scratching into her skin, tearing at her dress.
Look, mother, Eustace said darkly, your children want to play.
“Fool of a dragon!” She snapped, teetering on the edge. “I should have killed you years…ago…”
Then her feet slipped…and she was gone.
The wind dragons darted after her. I didn’t look. I didn’t dare. It was possible she simply vanished beneath the surface of the water or the wind dragons, in their unrestrained need to play, might have torn her to pieces. It was impossible not to see the giant dragon fall, hurting towards the ocean, sending yet more waves across the world as the body struck the water then sank, the froth churning mightily, consuming the corpse.
It’s over.
I blinked and turned to Eustace whose blue eyes were not as bright as they had once been.
“I’m so sorry…” I whispered.
It is not your fault. I was a fool.
“Stop it.” I stomped my foot. “You didn’t know better but when you did, you did the right thing.”
By destroying half of the world?
“Is this life really worth that kind of peace?” I thrust the egg into his forearms. “Eustace, would you really deny this life a chance to live and play for ignorant happiness?”
He gazed at the egg from down the length of his snout.
No, he whispered, I cannot be ignorant anymore, he looked up, but I don’t know how to look after it.
“I’ll help. We’ll all help at ‘House of Figs’. I promise.” I smiled.
Eustace gave the faintest smile. Thank you. Then the smile was gone.
“What?” I went to step forward but he shook his head. I froze…then I saw a wind dragon hovering over Eustace’s shoulder, its head turned on its side, eyeing the egg. “Uh oh…”
It wants to play… Eustace whispered and I could feel the tremor of terror.
“Not just it…” The sky behind Eustace became littered with dragons, wind, fire and earth all gathering to look at the new object in their midst. There were hundreds of them. In the past, Eustace would have plunged into the fray without a second thought, but he had the egg in his claws and one wrong move would shatter it. “Can’t you tell them to go away?”
They’re not listening…they want to play.
The idea that the dragons could be playful after an apocalyptic event had nearly torn their world apart only minutes earlier was a sign of just how ignorant they were. They weren’t even grieving for the loss of the dragons consumed by the mother. There was no consequence. There was just play.
Bethany, walk slowly to the door and unlatch it but do not open.
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“Okay…” I crept backwards, trying not to stumble over unearthed tree roots or rocks. The dragons paid me no attention. They were looking at the egg. “They’re not interested in me.”
I know. They’re waiting for me to start the game. Eustace breathed.
I approached the door and spied the envelope bearing my name still pinned to its fire emblem exterior. I pried the pin out of it and tucked it into the waistline of my jeggings. I slipped my fingers on the handle and gently turned it, feeling it give ever so slightly.
“I’m ready.” I called softly and felt the brush of Eustace’s tail against my skin. His voice came to me softly.
When I say go, get through the door and close it when I cross the threshold.
“You’ll have to change into a human to do so. I should take the egg…”
The dragons will chase you instead and you won’t be able to protect it…but I swear I will. Eustace’s voice, though quiet, was firm. On the count of three. One. Two…three!
I yanked open the door and flung myself through. Impossibly Eustace was only a split second behind me, spray hitting my face as he changed form in the blink of an eye.
“Shut it!” He cried, cowering on the ground.
I tried but the wind of the dragons pushed me back. “I can’t! They’re too strong!” I pushed against the door but couldn’t get it to latch. The dragons struck it, beating at it with their claws and snouts, the wind of their wings so strong that it was all I could do to keep it as closed as I could.
“What’s going on here!”
“Enough talk! Push!”
Suddenly strong bodies joined me in slamming the door shut and it closed, the latch falling into place.
“Lock it!”
“How?” I cried, feeling the slam of bodies against the door.
“Pull the book out!”
I reached up and yanked the ‘Omnibus of Dragons’ from its position, throwing it on the floor, the dust cover going askew in my haste and the pounding on the door stopped instantly. Then I staggered backwards, seeing Eustace curled up on the floor, unmoving.
“Query, are you injured Bethany?”
“She does appear to be bleeding in several places and she has lost her shoes.”
“You bloody fool, Eustace! How could you be so reckless as to drag her to your world. She could have been killed!”
“I swear you never, ever think!
“Shut up all of you!” I yelled at the vampire, werewolf, elf and robot. “Just look at him!”
They paused in their reprimands for a moment to take in the sight of the usually buoyant and joyful water dragon curled up and shaking. I pushed them out of the way and knelt in front of him.
“Eustace, it’s okay. We made it. You can let go now.”
His arms were locked around the egg but his face lifted…and I saw despair in his eyes.
“What’s wrong?” I asked softly.
He trembled and looked down at the egg, moving back so I could see the crack across its dark exterior. It was about twenty centimetres long in a jagged line. It wasn’t gaping but it was a definite crack.
“It’s okay,” I started to say without really knowing if it was, “it’s alright, it’s just a little crack, nothing major. I’m sure the baby is fine.” His eyes broke my heart as they implored me to tell him it would be okay. “We’ll take it inside and find somewhere safe for it to be.” I stood up, helping Eustace to rise. He needed to hold onto the egg as desperately as the egg needed someone to protect it. I couldn’t spare the other guys any attention and my bruised body was forgotten as I coaxed Eustace out of the Observatory, across the courtyard and into ‘House of Figs’. We went upstairs and into the lounge room. I managed to get Eustace to sit on the lounge by taking his arms and pushing him down.
He was trembling.
“I’m sure it’s fine.” I assured him.
He was utterly stricken, almost to the point of shutting down.
I pushed my fingers through my hair and turned to face Faelan.
“Can you take a look?”
“A look?”
“Can you see if it’s alright?”
Faelan faltered. Rafael urged him out of the way and leaned down towards the egg. “Blood is pumping,” he said, standing upright, “but I cannot tell if it is Eustace or the baby.”
“Eustace,” I put my hand on his shoulder, “you have to let go.”
“I have to keep it safe…”
I floundered then gasped. I pushed past the guys who had a thousand unanswered questions and ran to my room. I grabbed the old bassinet and turfed the doll out of it without any precious attention towards my pretend baby. There was a real one that needed my attention. On the way back to the lounge room I found a crocheted blanket in the linen cupboard and pushed past the guys again, putting it next to Eustace on the couch.
“Look, we’ll put the egg in here where it’s safe.” I told him. “This is a bassinet. It’s for babies.” I knew my enthusiasm was over the top and my words were like talking to a child. “I’ll put this blanket into the bassinet and we can make a nest for the egg in it, okay?”
I busied myself with making a nest for a basketball sized egg then looked at Eustace. He was still trembling.
“It’s okay,” I guided his hands to lift up and deposit the orb with all the painstaking attention of an artisan handling a Fabergé egg, “here we go, into the basket. It’s so cosy in there, isn’t it?” Eustace’s arms were still locked around it. “It’s okay, Eustace, you can let go.”
It took long minutes for him to gather enough courage to do so, his eyes never leaving the crack. It didn’t widen or lengthen when he released it.
I stepped back. “Rafael, can you tell now?”
He sat next to the bassinet and, with a careful look at Eustace, put his hand delicately on its surface and closed his eyes.
“Dragons are cold blooded,” he said softly then looked at Eustace, “but I can sense blood flow within the egg in rhythm with a heartbeat.”
I nearly sagged in relief.
“Are you sure?” Eustace asked.
“As much as I can be.” Rafael admitted.
“May I?” Faelan offered and knelt, leaning over the egg and studying it. “I do not sense distress. I believe it is…sleeping.” He stood up. “Much like Rafael, dragons are not my forte but that is what I feel.”
“Thank you.” Eustace croaked, drawing the bassinet as close as he could.
My knees buckled, beyond their ability to endure. A strong hand grasped my arm, holding me up.
“We shall assemble some refreshments. Query, would you like something to eat, Eustace?”
“I’m not leaving the egg.” Eustace shook his head.
“I will bring you some pancakes.” Faelan offered. “With every kind of topping you like.”
There seemed to be a universal understanding that we ought to leave. Bastian’s strength held me up until we reached the landing and Rafael half closed the door.
“Are you sure he’ll be alright?” I asked weakly.
“I am more concerned with you.” Bastian remarked.
“I’m fine…” I insisted, pulling free of his arm…then discovered just how much I’d been leaning on his strength and collapsed.
Even with Faelan’s healing ability which he used to repair my body from the abuse I’d suffered, I slept nearly twelve hours and was quite stiff when I finally emerged from my room. A hot shower helped warm up my muscles and I dressed warmly, enjoying the sensation of shoes on my feet before easing open the door to the lounge room. I felt bad after promising to help Eustace take care of the egg, that I’d been asleep for so long but Rob, who had kept watch, assured me all was fine.
I peered into the lounge room and spied Eustace curled up around the bassinet, his head on a lounge cushion. My heart ached for him. I drew a blanket off the lounge. He probably didn’t get cold but just as I had felt that an egg would feel better with a blanket nest, I wanted to let Eustace know that he was thought of. I draped it over him, tucking it around his body then crept out of the room and headed downstairs.
‘House of Figs’ had yet to open for the day and I found the four guys preparing their stations.
“Ah, the intrepid explorer graces us with her presence.” Rafael said but I sensed nothing sinister in his tone.
“Intrepid explorers don’t usually start civil wars.” I yawned.
“How do you feel?” Faelan asked me pointedly.
“I can recover on my own. You’ve done more than enough.”
The cuts on my face from where the girl had pierced me with her fingernails were healed and gone also was the cut on my foot. The bruising in my body from the ‘play’ had been lessened considerably. Faelan had said he sensed bruising on my bones which was deep, painful and could last months…unless you had an elf on hand to deal with it.
“You are walking stiffly.” Rob announced and I looked at him sharply.
“Nothing that a little good food and movement won’t fix. Faelan can’t heal me every time I get a paper cut.”
“Your injuries were decidedly more than a simple paper cut.”
“I really will be okay.” I insisted. “I am hungry…”
“My princess only has to ask!” Bastian declared. “I shall cook you a full breakfast. Bacon, sausages, mushrooms if I cannot talk you out of them, sourdough toasted with a drizzle of olive oil, fried tomatoes…”
“Ugh, so greasy.” Faelan shook his head.
“No egg, please.” I said and we all grew quiet, our thoughts turning to the water dragon above.
“No, no egg.” Bastian nodded.
My stomach was about ready to leap out of me and devour the food as it cooked but I stayed firmly seated at a table until it was put in front of me…and I displayed only the barest of manners as I inhaled everything.
“I like a girl with a good appetite.” Bastian chuckled.
“I’m sorry, I know it’s uncouth.” Memories of the drilling my mum had given me on polite manners came back to me…but she’d never endured twenty four hours like I had. “How long was I gone?”
“About two hours.”
I dropped my fork. “Two…hours?”
“By the time we noticed you were missing.” Faelan pulled a slightly guilty face. “Actually, Rafael was the one who noticed you were missing.”
“When Eustace is quiet, it usually means something has gone wrong.” Rafael muttered.
“We did wonder if he’d dragged you to his world but when we opened the door…”
“It was upside down. It’s why I couldn’t get back…initially.”
“Really?” Rafael folded his arms. “You’re not protecting a certain water dragon?”
“It…he…”
“What happened over there?” Bastian asked.
Oh gosh…how did I put what had happened into words?
“Query, would it be prudent to wait until after closing time to discuss it?”
I nodded. “Yeah…I think that’d be wise. I might be able to find words to explain it then.”
“Regardless of vocal explanation, physically and emotionally, it is clear that you endured violence and danger.” Faelan removed the chocolate bowls he had made from dipping into low filled balloons he’d blown up, turning the chocolate into stemless wine glasses. With a hot knife he gave them a crisp, smooth edge. When they were completed they would contain a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream as an island in a little cherry syrup, fresh berries, and a mint sprig with a decorative toffee shard. His attention to detail and his creativity were mind blowing to me.
“We did…but for all I suffered, I really think it’s Eustace who bore the brunt.” I slumped in my chair. “I hope he recovers…oh gosh…if that baby dragon doesn’t survive…”
“We have all gone in several times over the night to check on both Eustace and the egg.” Rob assured me.
“I can still sense blood flow.” Rafael insisted, drinking deeply of his coffee.
“And I can detect no distress.”
“That’s so good to hear.” I paused. “Wait, have you all been here all night?”
“We thought it prudent to stay.”
My heart ached with gratitude. “Thank you.” I said, looking at each of them in turn. Rob blinked. Faelan gave a head nod. Bastian gave me a pointed canine smile and Rafael flicked his fingers in a dismissive wave. “I should get moving if I’m going to be ready to work today…”
“Ah, no,” Bastian chuckled, “you’re going to rest.”
“And visit Jo in a taxi.” Rafael added.
“Oh but I…”
“Eustace will wake at some point,” Rob stopped my protest, “he may need a friend.”
I knew they were right but it was strange to hear them speak so firmly about my wellbeing. I hadn’t really had anyone watching over me like that for a long time. I didn’t feel smothered but it was nice that I didn’t have to rally myself and push through, ignoring the pain until I forgot it rather than dealt with it.
I took my phone to the lounge room, careful not to wake Eustace, sat cross legged on the lounge and caught up on what I’d missed.
My dad had sent me a couple of messages which I answered in a perfunctory manner. My old work had sent me an ultimatum, return or else your spot will be given to another apprentice who will value the condescension they were shovelling out. Along with running from the break up with Eden and his subsequent ignoring of said break up, I’d also run from my old job. I hated it there, the gossips sniggering in smoking groups or around the cliché watercooler while I sat at my desk and shredded documents and answered angry phone calls. I’d told them I had a family emergency and my supervisor had, begrudgingly, given me two days compassionate leave…that had ended a week ago…but I’d not contacted them in the same way I’d avoided Eden’s texts after I’d broken up with him. I hated confrontation.
However, after going through what I had, suddenly not even my supervisor with his two pack a day cigarette habit that kept him out of the office more than he was in, scared me.
I wrote back saying that there had been a family emergency that had gone on for longer than expected and that I would not be returning.
I was surprised to get a text message back almost immediately.
“You know you’ll be fired.”
“Yeah, well…fair enough.” I mused then paused. “Actually, it is fair enough…I should have let them know. I should have communicated, regardless of whether or not I hated the job.” I sighed and set about writing an explanation text and apologising for not letting them know I would not be returning. Firing me under such circumstances would be entirely acceptable.
“You’ll never get anywhere in life if you don’t commit to something.”
He was angry and probably rightly so. I sighed and wrote back, “I’m committed to family and at the moment, it’s in trouble and all the people connected to it. They need me…and more than that they want me here and I’m valued and respected. There’s nowhere I’d rather be than here. Please accept this as my formal resignation or feel free to fire me. Either way, I am not coming back.”
I sent the message and breathed out a deep, long sigh.
“I should have done that in the first place,” I mused softly, “no…I couldn’t have. I didn’t know I was valuable enough to be treated well and brave enough to confront a mother dragon, let alone my supervisor.”
It was funny how less than ten days in Glenwilde had changed my perspective on things so quickly.
Mind you, no other place had a home/work life quite like ‘House of Figs’.
My visit with Aunt Jo took over an hour. I sat by her bedside and told her everything that had happened. It was like laying out the pages of a book and putting them in the right order.
“It was by far the most dangerous day of my life.” I concluded. “Really…just…mad. I don’t know how I survived it, honestly. And I really, really hope Eustace survives it.”
I checked the pot plant to make sure it wasn’t thirsty and jiggled the beans in the coffee bag to revitalise their aroma. Though I protested the cost of a taxi, by the time I left the hospital I was deeply grateful for the insistence of the guys that I use one. I nearly fell asleep in the backseat. The driver might have thought I was drunk. The euphoria and energy I had after my lengthy sleep had deserted me.
‘House of Figs’ was busy so I went upstairs to check on Eustace and the egg. Astonishingly, he was still asleep, lying on the floor cocooned around the bassinet and its precious cargo. Aunt Jo’s lounge was one of those deep, modular creations and currently it was in a U shape, if you were using font from the eighties where even the curved lines had to be straight. Eustace’s back was against one of the sides. I sat cross legged on the couch, feeling myself grow heavier by the second. It was becoming hard to hold my head upright.
Eustace began to whimper in his sleep. I tried numerous ways of getting closer to him to let him know he wasn’t alone without waking him but all the positions were awkward, too high or not effective enough. In the end I grabbed a cushion and lay down with my back against the opposite side so I could face him with the bassinet in between us. With my right arm hooked beneath the cushion, I reached out with my left and slipped my fingers into his grasp and gave them a squeeze. He seemed to settle in his sleep. I didn’t know if it was fully effective because five minutes later I was fighting to keep my eyes open. I tried so hard to stay awake but my eyelids seemed to gain weight each time they closed.
At last I gave in and shut my eyes…
…only to open them with a start.
I was back in the dragon world. I was standing on the beach with a night sky overhead, embedded with thousands upon thousands of stars, shimmering rainbows of colour rippling across its expanse. The water lapped at the edge of the sand, leaving behind bubbles of foam and scatterings of seaweed.
I looked all around, baffled as to what I was doing there.
The world seemed peaceful and calm yet my heart was a heavy stone in my chest.
I pressed my hand against it then heard a whimper nearby.
I turned back to the water and saw the form of a man sitting in the breaking surf.
“Eustace?” I called softly, moving forward. “Eustace?”
He stiffened as I called his name and his body straightened. I tried to catch his eye but he deliberately looked away.
“Eustace, it’s me, Bethany.” I knelt in the sand. “Eustace…” I put my hand on his face and drew it back round to face me.
It was streaked with tears, his blue eyes shimmering with them, flooded with sorrow and his face was contorted with grief.
I had attended the funeral of a person who had suicided once before. I didn’t know them but I was friends with their friend and went for support. I’d sat through the heartbreaking service, listening to how the world was a duller place without them in it and the loss of their potential and caring soul. I’d felt sad but I hadn’t cried…until I looked at my friend…
…then you couldn’t have told me apart from all the others at the funeral. I was swept up in their grief…
…just as I was with Eustace.
I knelt in the water and drew his head forward to lean on me.
“Hush now,” I urged gently, “it’s alright. It’s alright.”
“All those eggs…all those babies…what have I done?”
His agony was soul crushing. He wasn’t tossing about in a mad frenzy yet I could feel the weight of the sorrow that was trying to break him.
And I knew that I, in part, had something to do with it.
He hadn’t known that his game had a sinister edge to it until I had come along and ripped his eyes open with all the tenderness of removing a sticky gauze from a wound.
“Eustace, I’m so sorry.” I whispered. “I’m sorry…I should never have told you. I shouldn’t have…”
“How many,” I cringed, wondering if he was counting the amount of deaths he felt responsible for, “how many more lives would it have taken before someone else pointed out what a fool I’d been?” He trembled. “How many more baby dragons would have died before I finally grew up?”
“If you want to blame me…”
“I’m the one to blame. I’m the one who never understood…what a fool I’ve been.”
“Hey,” I pushed him back and made him look me in the eyes, “it’s a parent’s responsibility to raise a child, to given them the tools to deal with the world and to help them become their own person. That so called mother didn’t do that. She kept you as a child. And not just you, but all of you. How could a child be blamed when a parent is so negligent or worse, manipulative?”
“I should have known…” He rasped, the Eustace I’d come to know, nowhere in sight. This man before me might have looked like him but there was no joy in his eyes. “I should have asked…”
“And she would have lied.” I sat next to him and leaned to put my head on his shoulder, our legs washed over in the surf yet it was not cold or unpleasant. “It was me who corrupted you. She said I would stain you with my human ways…and I suppose I did. Regret. Responsibility. Sorrow. You wouldn’t know about those things if it weren’t for me.”
Eustace shivered and I put my arms around him. “Growing up…it’s hard work.”
“Yeah…it is.” I swallowed and licked my lips. “You know, my mum…she had the best intentions for me. She wanted me to have a fantastic career, a male model husband, perfect children and a house in a fashionable suburb…and they weren’t bad goals…but they weren’t me. But I went after them even though I was getting more and more unhappy as time went on.” I sighed. “She died six months ago…and since then there was no one for me to go to, to ask about what I should do with my life.”
“And you began to make good decisions as you grew up?”
“No, I made terrible decisions about relationships and my job and not coming back here when Aunt Jo offered for me to stay after the funeral.” I shook my head and laughed softly. “I wanted someone to blame. I wanted someone to take the responsibility for it and make it all go away…but I had to grow up and address some of those bad decisions myself. I had to recognise what I’d done…and choose to do differently…and not wait for my mum or someone else to pick up my mess.” I hugged his shoulders. “And then I came here…and I met all of you…and even though I’m still having to deal with bad decisions that have followed me here…I have you guys caring for me.”
“You mean the others care for you.” Eustace’s voice was self-deprecating. “I have always been a burden,” I said no but he talked over the top of me, “and now I’m responsible for a baby that is meant to become the father of dragons…”
I opened my mouth to protest then paused. “You know what? You are,” I admitted and his shoulders sagged, “but you’re not doing this on your own. We’re here. The guys, Rafael, Faelan, Bastian and Rob…”
“The ones who call me useless Eustace? A guy who only cared about having fun?”
“Quite frankly we could all use a bit more fun…especially Rafael who was probably the one who called you that.” I retorted. “Even then, he was probably just bitter that he couldn’t find joy like you could. For all their attitudes, they have big hearts and they’ll be there for you and the baby. And just imagine all the things that you’ve learned about growing up, about being responsible and listening to others and asking questions…that’s what you’ll be able to teach BD.”
“BD?”
“Baby Dragon.”
Eustace chuckled and wiped at the tears on his cheeks. “What about you?”
I blinked. “What about me?”
He turned and gazed at me…and my heart lurched backwards at the strength of his gaze. This wasn’t toddler Eustace, only looking at you to see what he wanted to see and so fleeting that he’d moved on before he’d even landed a look. This was a man’s look, strong and intense, waiting, earnestly hoping for an answer…
“Will you stay? Will you be here?” I faltered, suddenly frightened about how close we were and how the cool night air had become warm and the mood, thick with intention. Eustace raised his hand and touched my cheek, lighting stroking his knuckles across my skin. “Bethany, are you home?”
My chest was tight. “I…yes, I am home.”
He smiled. Not beamed, not laughed or chuckled or pulled a ridiculous expression befitting a water dragon only concerned with fun.
He smiled and his luminous blue eyes glowed with light, the grief of his actions washed away as though they were written in the sand, the waves silencing their words.
“Thank you for sitting with me through the night.” He broke gaze with me and I was a little relieved, turning his face to the dawn which spilled across the endless ocean, sparkles dancing across the surface, streaking towards us so happily I almost heard them giggle with anticipation. “I think it’s time to wake, now.”
I blinked, going to ask him what he meant, when my eyes opened…and I was back in Aunt Jo’s lounge room. I sat up, surprised and looked around. Eustace was still asleep, his body still protecting the egg but I didn’t sense distress in him like there had been before.
The door creaked and I looked up to see Rob peering in. I put my finger to my lips and got up, sneaking out the room.
“Apologies for my intrusion,” Rob said, moderating his voice to a mellow level, “but the last customer has left the café and we hoped for an explanation.”
“I hope Bastian has a big basket of wedges, sour cream and sweet chilli sauce to go with it.” I nodded.
He didn’t but, because of his fantastic hearing, ten minutes after I announced my craving, he produced the wedges that were so hot we had to leave them alone before we could pick them up. This gave me time to tell them what had happened in the dragon world.
They listened with varying degrees of reaction, going from Rob’s impassive expression to Rafael’s downright scathing look. But by the end, any anger that had triggered towards Eustace had dimmed.
“So, what you’re telling us is that, in the egg in the lounge room, is the father of all dragons?” Bastian asked after I’d finished.
“Yeah, she said she couldn’t let it be born.” I shrugged. “Makes no sense to me that a baby dragon would be perceived as such a threat to her.”
“I have many questions about the mother.” Faelan frowned. “Eustace can change his form to be human…but she managed to be separate to her dragon body yet connected so that a fatal blow to her struck the dragon…how is that possible?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“Given that she was manipulating Eustace in his ignorance to do her dirty work, I don’t think you can trust anything she said.” Rafael muttered, drinking yet another coffee which was so dark it was almost black. He caught me studying it, possibly with a slightly disgusted expression on my face and said, “What?”
I held up my hands and shook my head. Rob saved me from getting my head ripped off by the vampire.
“It is possible that the dragon the humans created from the four elements was she.”
“It is just as possible that she really was the only survivor of the war and remained in hibernation to preserve her life.” Faelan remarked, eating a wedge dunked in sour cream. “I feel you were a little heavy handed on the seasoning, Bastian.”
“I’m sorry Faelan but no one wants to eat wedges with icing sugar sprinkled on them.” Bastian retorted. “You’re such a sweet tooth.”
“The fact is,” Rafael interrupted them, “we will never know the true history of the dragon world as it’s likely that the only known ruins of the castle disintegrated, taking any evidence of it, with it.”
“Their utopia was something to be marvelled at,” I sighed, “and the humans ruined it with their meddling…”
“Mother told you that,” Eustace said, coming down the stairs and we all twisted to watch him, “and as we have established, she wasn’t to be trusted.”
“Query, is something wrong with the egg?” Rob asked, voicing our most immediate concern.
Eustace shook his head. “I’m starving, to be honest.”
“Would you like me to make you something sweet?” Faelan asked.
He shook his head again and sat down near the bowl of wedges. “No, I’m good with whatever is in front of me.” He asked quietly and one by one we all stared. Finally he looked up. “What is it?”
“You’re sitting…”
“I did sit and eat with you all…”
“Yes, but you were rarely still.” Faelan pointed out. “Even with a full meal in front of you, your knee would be jiggling up and down.”
Eustace gave a small chuckle and a half smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “I was always impatient to go play and irritated that eating took so long.” He glanced up at me and my heart did another little quiver. “I guess I had to grow up sooner or later.”
I recalled the dream, if it was a dream and then began to wonder if we had somehow experienced it together. I wanted to ask but was a little embarrassed with the other guys hanging around, especially when I thought about the way his eyes, that had only ever held a toddler’s shallow wants, had pierced me with their manly intent.
“Query, are you experiencing a fever, Bethany St James?”
“What?” I started and looked at Rob in alarm.
“Your skin has become pink and your heartrate has increased to one hundred and thirty beats a minute.”
“I…”
“Now your skin has reddened and your heartrate has increased again,” Rob stood up, “we have a medical emergency on our hands. I will carry you to the hospital.”
“Oh no you will not!” I stood up and leapt back from Rob. “I’m fine!”
“Query, do you not require medical assistance?”
“No!”
Bastian snorted with laughter and grabbed Rob’s arm. “Sit down you daft robot.”
“Query, have I misread the signals?”
Faelan shook his head and put his long fingers to his forehead. “Good heavens…”
“Ah…so that’s what he means by ‘grown up’.” Rafael mused into his dark coffee.
“No he doesn’t.”
“Oh really?” Rafael’s eyes landed on me with a wicked grin. “What do you think I mean?”
“I…that is…you…he…” I couldn’t think of a way of refuting it. It was like when I was teased in high school for having a crush on someone. Apparently you did if you admitted it or even if you denied. It was a no win situation. “I have washing to do!”
I darted upstairs, away from their chortles and a rather confused Rob.
I checked in on the egg and then sorted my clothes for washing. I picked up my overnight bag which had, now that it was empty, become my dirty clothes hamper and went to the laundry. I pulled out the clothes, shaking them before dropping them in the machine. As I picked up the jeggings I’d worn in the dragon world, deciding that in their distressed state they’d make good gardening clothes, an envelope fell out of them and onto the floor. I promptly dropped in all the rest of the clothes and switched the machine on, scooping up the envelope.
“Why would there be a letter with my name on it, in Aunt Jo’s handwriting, in Eustace’s world, pinned to his door no less?” I murmured, flicking the flap open and drawing the single slip of paper out. There were only three lines on it and by the end of them, my blood was chilled in my veins and I felt the weight of dread on my shoulders, pushing me down.
“Bethany St James…”
“Woah!” I jumped out of my skin. Rob, standing in the doorway of the laundry, tilting his head in his artificial way. “Rob…quit sneaking up on me!”
“I apologise but I did not intend to sneak.” He paused. “Query, would announcing my intent to speak to you before I reach the room be appropriate?”
“No, what…wait…” I shook my head, trying not to draw attention to the paper in my hand. “Sorry, what was it you wanted?”
“I wished to inform you that, in support of Eustace and his ‘single parent’ duties, so defined by Bastian, that we will be staying for dinner tonight. Query, is this acceptable to you?”
“No.”
“Query, no?”
“I mean, yes! I mean,” I fumbled badly, “I…will shout dinner!”
“Query, you will declare it loudly?”
“No, I mean…I’ll go out and get dinner. Pizza!” I blurted, pushing past him. “I’ll get pizza!”
“Query, shall I order it for you?”
“I’ll do it!” I called back, jogging up the stairs and grabbing my handbag, stuffing the note and the haikus Aunt Jo had written for me to unlock the Observatory deep inside. I ran back downstairs to see the guys talking to Eustace. “I’m going to go get dinner for everyone. Pizza!”
“I don’t make pizza,” Bastian chuckled, “this will be an experience.”
“Do you require assistance, Bethany?” Faelan asked.
“Nope.” I pushed through the door.
“Are you sure?” Rafael asked and I swear I heard suspicion in his voice.
“I’ll go get Jet! He can help and I’ll let him know what happened!”
I could feel all their eyes on me as I left the grounds and hurried across the road to where Gary’s house sat at the entrance to the cul de sac. Jet was thankfully awake and bemused to see me.
“Rob told me I wasn’t needed to look after Eustace today.” He said as his greeting.
“Yeah, it’s fine.” I stammered. “Wanna go with me and get pizza?”
Jet eyed me. “What…like a date?”
“Gosh, no!” I exclaimed. Thankfully he seemed to relax at that rather than look hurt. “Just…please come with me to get pizza. I’ll pay.”
“Okay…” After clearing it with his grandfather, Jet left the safety of his house and walked with me down the remains of the cul de sac drive and then we turned as quickly as possible, getting out of sight of ‘House of Figs’.
Jet didn’t make small talk. Despite the fact that I felt I couldn’t be any more obvious in my restrained distress, he didn’t remark upon it…probably because he didn’t recognise it.
We walked together in silence towards the CBD until I finally thought to get my phone out and see if there was a pizza place open and within walking distance. Thankfully there was one. The only one in all of Glenwilde. Even though pizza had become universally popular in the eighties, to the residents of Glenwilde, that was still a little new and trendy for their heritage feel. This particular pizza store had not started out primarily as pizza, owned by an elderly Italian couple who had served spaghetti with a side flare of pizza. But after they passed away and it fell to their children, it was recognised that pizza was a much more convenient thing to serve, especially with such a small storefront. So it still had its authentic flare of the country of its origin but the sit down restaurant had been done away with. However, it wasn’t empty. As the only pizza parlour in Glendwilde, it was always busy.
The line up was intense as we arrived at about the same time as everyone else had who decided that they couldn’t be stuffed making dinner. I could feel Jet’s revulsion at the crammed interior.
“Why don’t we sit for a bit?” I pointed to the tables down the side beneath the draping grapevines.
“Yeah, that’s cool.” He nodded.
We did so, able to see into the parlour through its arched windows to know when entering would not lead to suffocation or, in Jet’s case, a complete social breakdown.
“I’ll be back tomorrow…you know, taking care of Eustace.” Jet said and I realised he was expecting me to rebuke him. “He’s really not bad.”
“No he’s not.”
“And you look like you’re getting used to fantasy characters in your midst.”
“I am…I mean, I was…but it’s all gone…wrong.”
“What do you mean, wrong?”
“Okay,” I nodded, “well…Eustace dragged me into his world yesterday.” Jet stared at me. I waited for a moment but he said nothing. “Aren’t you going to say anything about me visiting a fictional world?”
“Oh…I thought you might have been being metaphorical.” Jet sighed. “I tend to take things literally and then get my head chewed off for taking people at their word. I mean, why call a foothill a foothill and not the base of a hill? Cause it just sounds to me like a hill in the shape of a foot and I wasn’t being difficult when I argued that…”
“No, no, no,” I stopped him, “I mean, quite literally, Eustace dragged me to his world and…well, I’ll fill you in on everything that happened but…” I paused and look at him. “Jet, do you remember what you said to me about Aunt Jo’s coma possibly being someone’s fault?”
“Yeah.”
I licked my lips and reached into my bag. “I found an envelope pinned to the dragon world side of the door…with my name on it.”
“Oh…”
“In Aunt Jo’s handwriting.”
“Oh!” Jet’s exclaimed, though soft, showed he was understanding me at last. “So, that means, she would have had to go to his world.”
“Even if only a few steps but yeah, she must have done. I can’t imagine her entrusting the task to Eustace…at least…not before.”
“What was in the envelope?”
“How do you know something was in it?”
“Because if it was just a note pinned to the door, Eustace probably would have read it. But an envelope with someone else’s name on it?”
“You’re right, it wouldn’t occur to him.” I cleared my throat and put the slip of paper on the table. “I found this inside.”
Jet leaned over to read it.
“Enchanted I was. Friend or fiend? Take care. Too trusting was I.” He looked at me. “I don’t get it.”
“It’s a haiku.”
“A what?”
I blundered for a moment before I googled the meaning of it. “It’s a Japanese poem of seventeen syllables, in lines of five, seven and five, traditionally evoking images of the natural world.” I explained and looked up expectantly.
Jet stared. “I still don’t get it.”
I paused before I got frustrated. “Just know that it’s a style of poetry that originated in Japan.”
“I’m really no good with poems.” Jet shook his head almost fearfully. “Too much…nonliteral stuff.”
“Yes but you need to understand what haikus are to understand this.” I insisted. “It’s a clue.”
“A haiku…clue?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t…”
“Aunt Jo used to write them all the time for me when I was little.” I cut him off before he could try to hide behind ignorance and fear. “She’d leave little clues about what we were having for dinner or where we’d go on our day off. My favourite was, oh…how did it go…” I clucked my tongue, recalling the note to mind that I had attached so many fond memories to. “Gathered in one place, first line, animals of the whole world, second line, and Aunt Jo and me, end.” Jet’s expression was blank. “Where do all the animals of the world gather together?”
“On an ark?” He shrugged.
“Imagine you’re a child looking forward to a day off and you know you’re going somewhere…”
“Animals of the whole world…” Jet’s expression became pained as he looked at me like I was a fearsome school teacher. “A zoo?”
“Yes!” I exclaimed. “She took me to the zoo! We ate fairy floss and lukewarm hot dogs and we ran around the park, seeing all the animals being fed and took pictures of absolutely everything and spent an obscene amount at the gift shop. It was the best day ever. That was what the haiku was pointing me towards. A day at the zoo.”
“Why not just say, we’re going to the zoo?” Jet asked.
“Aunt Jo loves beautiful things, evocative things…books that make you think and artwork that isn’t just pretty but makes you feel something. She always said communication was more than just words. A haiku is like that. It’s words but the way it’s written…it leads you to a place to feel something.”
“And she did this all the time?”
“All the time.” I nodded. “I mean, most of them weren’t traditional haikus and they were dumbed down a bit for a child. But when I came back nearly two weeks ago, I found these,” I laid out the original five haikus, “in the last book she ever gave me. These haikus led me to the Observatory where, upon looking for these books, I realised they were mis shelved and, upon putting them back in their proper place, I unlocked the doors that let in our five unusual guests.”
Jet’s manner was hard to read. He just stared at me and I couldn’t tell if he was listening to me, taking in my ramblings or if he was wondering what toppings he was going to have on his pizza.
“So,” he said at length, “your aunt wrote a haiku…put it in an envelope and pinned it to the door of a fictional world…and knew you’d find it and understand what it means?”
“Yes!” I exclaimed far too loudly.
“What does it mean?”
“Ugh,” I slumped, assuming he’d understood the haiku as well as my explanation, “look, just read it again. Enchanted I was. Friend or fiend? Take care. Too trusting was I.” I pointed to the first line. “Aunt Jo was enchanted by something and what is more enchanting at ‘House of Figs’ than a bunch of handsome fictional fantasy characters? But then she says, friend or fiend? There’s a question mark, that she doesn’t know if one of them is dangerous. Then she warns me at the end of the second line. Take care and the final line, too trusting was I.” I leaned forward. “I think Aunt Jo is telling me that someone had evil intent towards her. And it’s not just an accidental thing either. Friend or fiend? She thought she could trust them…”
“Why not just say that?” Jet asked. “Better yet, why didn’t she just tell you who?”
“I don’t know. Maybe she was afraid her warning would be found. Maybe she wanted to caution me to not trust them so implicitly. Maybe she didn’t even know!”
Jet cleared his throat, staring at the piece of paper. “Maybe she should have given you more to go on. Why is there a ‘115’ in the corner?”
“Is there?” I turned it around and saw ‘115’ pencilled on the paper. I’d missed it because it was much fainter than the other words which had been written in pen. “Huh…”
“A mistake?”
“Doubtful, not after going through all the effort of writing it then leaving it…” I shook my head. “I don’t know. The line isn’t as bad. We should order.”
I should have been spending time studying the menu as I stood at the counter, umming and ahhing about what to order but eventually I came up with a six pizza order and, because we didn’t want them to go cold, we called a taxi and headed back to the cul de sac.
“I have another question,” Jet said as he lifted a stack of five pizza boxes as I paid the driver, leaving me just the one to bring in, “why leave the clue in Eustace’s world? Why not the werewolf world or the vampire world?”
“Aunt Jo probably weighed up which world I’d be most likely to visit first…and realised that Eustace would drag me there without thinking.”
“I’m so jealous.”
“You won’t be when I get around to telling you just how mental it was there.”
“Gotta be better than reality.”
We laid the pizzas on the long table, Faelan laying out knives and forks and Bastian pouring homemade lemonade from a large pitcher.
“Seriously? Knives and forks for pizza?” I asked Faelan.
“I am not handling such oily food with my fingers.” Faelan replied a little tersely.
“I’m with you on that.” Jet nodded.
“Okay so…this is meat lovers which is yours, Bastian,” I handed the box to him, “Faelan, I got you the vegetarian pizza but if there’s anything you don’t like on it, just pick it off.”
“Thank you for your consideration.” Faelan said gratefully.
“Rob, you don’t eat but if you want to try any…”
“It would just be a waste.” He replied without resentment.
“Jet, this is your cheese only pizza.” I gave it to him. “This is my supreme and the spicy pizza is for…where’s Rafael?”
“He returned to his world.”
I stared at Rob. “Even though he already said he’d stay for dinner and knew that I was getting him pizza?”
“Query, is this inconsiderate?”
“Just a bit.” I rolled my eyes and sat down, annoyed with the vampire once more just when I felt like I was starting to understand him. “I got a ham and pineapple for Eustace.”
“He is maintaining vigil over the egg.” Faelan explained.
“I’ll take it up. I’d like to see the egg and Eustace.” Jet offered and took the pizza upstairs.
Bastian and Faelan began to discuss the texture and construction of the pizza base and then debated about who could make the best one. This of course led into the toppings, which looked like it would turn into the classic battle between the meat eater and the vegetarian. Rob commented on the likelihood of either of them being able to create within twenty four hours what Italian culinary creationists had been doing their whole lives then started to look at a budget which would allow them to experiment. Jet came down from upstairs, saying that Eustace was grateful for his pizza but he would stay and keep an eye on the egg. Jet sat opposite me and ate his pizza, which I didn’t think could be any more basic than it was except he pulled the cheese off and ate it separately to the base while Bastian mocked both Jet and Faelan for resorting to using knives and forks when it was clear that pizza was a hands on food.
I listened with half an ear, my heart achingly fractured.
Just when I thought I’d found a place to be safe.
When I thought I was with people I could trust, even after so short a time…
…I was suddenly uneasy and unable to let down my guard.
I looked around the bickering companions with their strange differences and reminded myself how little I really knew about them.
Leaving aside the individual attitudes, one was a water dragon and, in his naïve exuberance, had nearly killed me. Another was a robot that had programming I couldn’t even comprehend. There was an elf who was even harder to read than the emotionless robot and sometimes, a superiority that grated. There was a werewolf with a charged libido and charisma to match and then there was a vampire…need I say more?
Ultimately, they were potentially all very dangerous.
So who had Aunt Jo been writing about?
Who had triggered her suspicions to leave behind a clue?
Yet only a single clue…
…it wasn’t enough to go on…but it was enough to give me cause for concern.
Who had hurt my aunt?
“Query, are you well, Bethany St James?”
“Huh,” I started and then lied, “yes, yes I am.”