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 nodded. “Yes. He hasn’t changed into a human form. I don’t know if he can.”
It made me feel slightly better that Duncan’s magic was such a mystery. I had tried to figure it out on my own, spent hours and hours looking up whatever I could on certain beings. On some I’d never heard of. Some that were more well-known figures.
There was only so much information available.
Somewhere in history and time, it became dangerous to be different. The trolls left their bridges, the unicorns fled their forests, and the thunderbirds abandoned their great nests in the greatest mountains.
And gods that were once worshipped for millennia became names that you couldn’t find in textbooks….
But people weren’t ready for that knowledge bomb, and I had a feeling that it would take centuries before that was the case, and even then, whatever I was, wasn’t something even most of those who were “different” could handle. Case in point: the Jenny Greenteeth, the chupacabra two years ago, and a handful of other people I’d run into when I didn’t have my bracelet on for some reason.
But this wasn’t about me.
This was about the sleepy baby on my lap who was back to yawning. One of the modern wonders of the world, I told him. A myth of a myth.
He was no dragon, no chimera, no giant devil dingo, no Shisa, or white greyhound. He was missing two heads, otherwise I would have thought he was a Cerberus. There were a few other options I thought might fit, but the rarer the magic, the harder those beings would be to find. The magical people of the world were secretive for a reason after all.
And there was no master list of mythological creatures to check off. Every culture and civilization had its share, and there were a lot of them. Rumor had it, they overlapped and went by different names in different pieces and places of mythology. They adapted with time to survive.
The elders whispered among themselves again, their voices too low for my ears to pick up, but since Matti didn’t seem to be getting tense and he could hear, I didn’t worry about it too much. Either they would help us, or they wouldn’t. I liked this place, so far, but I would never stay where we weren’t wanted.
When they stopped murmuring, the man with the glasses got my attention. “We have some ideas on what the pup may be.”
“You do?” I almost squeaked. Could it be that easy?
He inclined his head. “I would need to make some enquiries to confirm my suspicions, but I have reason to believe I may.” The men and women around him nodded in agreement, and he kept speaking. “It will take some time and effort to validate, but once I get an answer, I’ll share what I find with you.”
I kicked Matti, and he kicked me right back. I hadn’t expected it to be this fast. “Okay,” I said. “Thank you. We would really appreciate it.”
None of them said another word. The elders kept staring. Freaking Sienna coughed, and I almost turned around because that hadn’t exactly sounded like she was trying to muffle a laugh. I’d probably misheard it; Matti didn’t seem concerned about that either.
I waited, then I waited a little more, hoping someone would say something. But a minute passed, and then another, and I started counting in my head each second, so I had something to focus on. When the third minute hit, I tried not to feel disappointed that they couldn’t at least let me know they weren’t interested in having us join their community.
I wasn’t going to pitch a fit or fight them… I understood.
Maybe they thought Duncan was a danger. Maybe they thought I was. Maybe they just didn’t want someone new living here in this special place with them.
Duncan lifted his head at that moment to peer up at me. We’re here for him. How could I have forgotten? It might take months until we found another safe place, if this one didn’t work out. We needed this to work.
I’d beg if I had to, dang it.
We didn’t have the luxury of letting them say no without trying. I couldn’t forget that.
Someone across the table let out a long, long exhale. “I have so many questions,” the silver-blue-haired woman suddenly admitted in a rush.
“I do too,” another woman added. “It’s taken all of my self-control to stay quiet, but I can’t anymore.”
What was happening?
“This is the most exciting thing to happen here in the last ten years, if not longer,” the cyclops chimed in.
“Oh” was all I could say, because I didn’t think “Are you messing with me right now?” was an appropriate or polite response.
But were they? Messing with me, that was.
“You seem surprised,” the man with the glasses noted as I watched them, not sure what was going on. First, none of them could say a single word, and now, they seemed kind of excited. They were going to give me whiplash.