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)
An enchanted forest, a green swamp thing, a couple of satyrs, a werewolf the size of Falkor, and a cyclops.
Where exactly had Matti brought us?
“Over here.” Henri indicated toward the table and the empty chairs at it. “Sit.”
It was time to shine and, like I’d told Duncan, be on our best behavior. I took a seat right in the middle. Matti slipped into the chair beside mine, while Sienna decided to play bodyguard and stand directly behind us. Henri stayed off to the side with his arms crossed over that chest the size of Rhode Island, his expression still that tight one that didn’t tell me if he was aggravated about the Jenny Greenteeth, his cousin being here, my and Duncan’s very existence, or maybe it always looked like that.
The six men, women, and cyclops stopped talking the moment we settled in.
Like a line of dominoes, each one of them slowly caught sight, or possibly smell, of my puppy. Every single set of eyeballs went wide. Then wider.
One of the females delicately gasped. The cyclops rubbed a hand over his single eye. A man with wire-rimmed glasses leaned forward, pushing his frames up his nose….
“Dear gods,” the man exhaled as Duncan let out the cutest yawn, not even slightly worried about his audience.
But my body went on high alert anyway, especially when I realized the man was focused on me, not Duncan.
I hoped he wasn’t one of those people. Some older magical beings were way more superstitious than younger ones. Nothing I could do about it though.
“He’s a good boy,” I claimed out loud, just in case anyone was thinking otherwise.
And that earned me the rest of their attention and similar reactions. The woman who had gasped did it again but slightly fainter, and the cyclops rubbed his eye—a blue one—one more time. It was a striking blue too. The man with the glasses sat up straight in his seat.
For some reason, I had a flashback of the time a woman had thrown holy water at me that she’d carried around in a necklace. I’d been seventeen and on vacation with my parents. Why she had holy water on her was beyond me, but she’d been sorely disappointed when all I did was frown. It had been shortly after that, that I started wearing an obsidian bracelet.
Some people had problems.
And it had only been years later that I’d regretted not asking why her reaction had been so violent. Maybe she had known something I didn’t. She may have also tried exorcising me if I’d done that. I was never going to know.
Matti cleared his throat beside me. He clasped his hands together on the table and bowed his head. “Elders, thank you for allowing us this visit and for the gift of your time and attention. If you remember, I’m Matti—”
The cyclops waved a wrinkled, heavy hand. “Be quiet, Matti. No one here has forgotten the time you lit the kitchen on fire.”
I’d never heard that story.
The one-eyed man snorted. “I’m sure I’m not alone when I say I would rather hear the young lady explain what you’re doing here.”
All right, I guess I was winging it then.
I pressed my lips together and tried to give the group the friendliest smile I had in me. “I’m Nina,” I said. “Nina Popoca.” I lifted my donut a little, grabbing his front legs in the process and then holding them up toward them. It made him look extra cute and like a stuffed animal. “This is Duncan. Thank you for allowing us to experience the magic in your community.”
That must have been the right thing to start with because all the elders nodded. It was the man with glasses who spoke next, his eyes a little narrowed, as he smoothed his hands down the front of the vest he had layered over a button-down shirt. “Hello, Nina. You smell young, but sometimes our ages can be deceiving, can’t they?”
That was… an interesting comment to make.
It meant he either already suspected something or… he was wondering about childbearing years. I hoped?
“Most of the time, I feel old and young at the same time,” I told the man carefully, trying to read his body language. “I’m thirty-two.”
Out of the corner of my eye, Henri shifted his weight and crossed his arms again.
The elder nodded stiffly, still too watchful. “Tell us why you’re here.”
As I adjusted Duncan on my lap, he set his head on top of the table, and I bumped Matti’s foot with mine for moral support to get through this next part. “We’re here, elders, because I need help,” I explained. With my chin, I gestured to the puppy who was busy looking at them. “I didn’t give birth to him, but we’ve been together since he was a newborn.
“Two months ago, he went from appearing like a normal puppy”—that was a subjective description, but hopefully they understood—“to his tail and eyes changing and becoming what you see now,” I explained. “I need to know how to fulfill his needs as he keeps growing. I’ve tried figuring out what kind of being he is, and I have a few guesses, but I don’t know for sure. The only knowledge I have of raising a pup is what I know from the wolves I grew up around, and they’ve all told me how important having a pack is at this age.”