Total pages in book: 254
Estimated words: 240032 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1200(@200wpm)___ 960(@250wpm)___ 800(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 240032 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1200(@200wpm)___ 960(@250wpm)___ 800(@300wpm)
I smiled at them, not sure what to do next. After a second, I pulled a couple pieces of dehydrated sweet potato from my fanny pack and held them out. I’d made them the day before our latest jerky batch. The gnome without the torch reached out and took the rounds, one he put in his pocket and the other he nibbled on before passing it to his friend who finished it off.
When a minute went by and nothing else happened, I cleared my throat. Now this was a little awkward. I didn’t want to put my foot in my mouth, but sitting here being stared at made me squirmy. “The… wolf you spoke to last time isn’t here right now. He’ll be back soon.”
The gnome with the torch made a short grunt. “It is not the Great Wolf we’ve come for. We are here for you, child.”
I pointed at myself.
They nodded simultaneously.
That wasn’t intimidating. This wasn’t nerve-racking at all. They wanted to talk to me? “What do you want to talk about?”
“Talking is unnecessary, we only seek to be in your presence,” the one with the torch answered with a hard stare.
Huh?
“Your obsidian hides nothing from us. We are attuned to elements of the earth,” the other gnome explained, Torch Gnome nodding.
Ohhhh. I thought I understood, at least that part. “So you… want to hang out?” I asked them, hoping not to sound too confused and insult them.
“Yes,” Torch Gnome answered. “We are the oldest in our clan. It is our duty to continue our line.”
I blinked. Just as I was about to ask if they were implying what I thought they were, the talkative gnomes kept going.
“It was a surprise to hear from our brethren in the north that your father is doing well,” Torch Gnome said almost conversationally. “We had believed he had passed on some time ago.”
“It isn’t often they send news,” the other added with a nod.
I wasn’t sure I’d ever been so caught off guard in my life.
And I couldn’t control how high my voice came out. “My… father?”
Both gnomes nodded in sync with each other. “The son of the night, yes.”
My blood pressure might have dropped. I might have even lost my breath for a moment. “I… I’ve never met my biological father. My dad, who raised me, has never met a gnome, as far as I know, and he’s never hid from anything or anyone, so I don’t think you’re referring to him, are you?”
They exchanged a glance.
“In this case, we speak of your true father, not the one of your heart,” one of them explained after a moment.
My stomach churned at their words, at the small clues they’d dropped in front of me in a convenient little pile that felt very, very huge all of a sudden.
“You might have me mixed up with someone else.” For a moment, I hesitated and looked down at my bracelet. Tugging it off, I set it on the ground, watching them both lean forward just a little, filling their lungs once before releasing their breath, even though they’d already implied it didn’t hide anything from them.
They knew something. I’d bet my life on it. I swallowed hard.
“Do not be frightened. There is no confusion. You are his young,” the one with the torch announced.
They sounded so sure of themselves… but it didn’t change the fact whoever my parents were had left me. Both of them. Not just one or the other. And neither of them had ever bothered to check on me. Not in a way that mattered, if they ever truly had.
When I’d been younger, I’d clung to the idea that something tragic had happened to the people I liked to think of as my DNA donors. Only once had I ever brought that up to my parents, and I could still remember the way pity shaped their faces. It hadn’t taken me long to stop believing that.
But I was older now, and I thought I’d come to terms with all the possibilities that could have led me to end up with adoptive werewolf parents. I’d been lying to myself though, I realized, because the idea that my DNA dad was somewhere out in the world, living his life, and that these gnomes could get an update on him?
I didn’t like the way it made me feel.
I didn’t like the thoughts it put into my head.
And I had to take a ragged breath in through my nose and shove the magic stirring in my sternum into the pocket where I usually kept it.
“We meant no harm,” one of them murmured. “We appreciate your offering, child.”
The urge to ask for more information, for a name was on the tip of my tongue, but no.
No.
What did it matter? What did it change? Nothing. That’s what.
The gnomes had already started to retreat before I thought of something I wanted to know. “Wait!” I called out and watched as they stopped. “Why can I understand you but my friend the wolf, the Great Wolf, said he couldn’t?”