Everyone stood around trying not to look at the bodies of the mice. We’d managed to keep going on pure adrenalin during the fight, but now it all looked very real, and very much like a crime scene.“Dudley, you know the washing line outside? Pull it down and bring it in here. Maurice, go get the sacks from the island. Claire, take Flossie to the pond and wash her eyes out, she looks like she’s still got some of the dust in there. I’ll take care of this.” I pointed at the bodies without looking at them.They all stood still for a moment — I thought they were going to have a go at me for trying to boss them around — but they turned and went off as instructed. I didn’t particularly feel like giving orders, but they needed to stop dwelling on what we’d just done, and I think they were glad to have something to do. The other reason for my sudden take-charge attitude was that I really needed to be alone.As soon as they’d gone, I sat on the ground with a bump and burst into tears. I know,
There was a cart and horse outside the shed. It was the first horse we’d seen. It looked like a regular horse, no wings or horns. Soldiers were piling sacks and boxes into the back while Grayson watched. He saw us approach, and his eyebrows rose.“Ah, you’re back. Looks like you’ve been busy. What have you got there?”We dumped the bodies in front of him.“First, I want to ask you about this.” I took the bunnicorn horn out of one of the sacks and showed it to him. He jerked back like I was offering him a severed penis.“Why,” he asked, “are you holding that severed penis?”I looked down at my hand. “No, this is a horn from a rabbit.”“Yes,” said Grayson, “a rabbit penis. When it’s their mating season, they incubate inside an ogre and come out with the horn.”I stared at the thing in my hand unable to work out what to do with it. How do you dispose of a severed penis? If I had access to the internet, I’m sure I’d have thirty million search results to that question.“But they all
Of all the things you might force someone to do by pointing a sword at them, reading probably isn’t one that immediately springs to mind. I pointed at the posters on the wall, each with a line of something unintelligible written on them.“I said read it.”Grayson stood with his hands held up, more requesting calm than offering surrender. “Now, you don’t want to — argh.”I only meant to poke him slightly with the sword to show him I meant business, but the tip slid into his side with ease. I pulled it back out, a red smear on the end. So this was how a real weapon worked.Grayson started reading. “Ogre, easily confused, 300 bits. Frogman, uses basic beast magic, 200 bits. Gnome, weak to bright light, 100 bits. Lamia, able to mesmerise, 250 bits.”“Maurice, grab some paper and write this stuff down. Claire, you get some paper too and copy the map off the wall. Mark where the different creatures live. The colour of the poster matches the same colour r
One of the things I bought on my way out of town was a small cooking pot. The smells of the chicken and mixed spices (sold by the butcher in a small bag — who knew?) as we sat around the bubbling pot made all our stomachs growl.“If I’d know you were going to buy all this stuff,” said Claire, “I would have given you a list.”“Good reason not to tell you, then,” I muttered under my breath. Both girls looked hacked off at missing the chance to do some shopping. “Once we get to the city, you can buy whatever you want.”“And how long is that going to take?” Claire asked, with a definite implication that no matter the answer, it would be too long.She wasn’t wrong. Our clothes were in a pretty bad state and didn’t smell good. The food I had bought, while a marked improvement on our usual diet of rabbit, rabbit and more rabbit, would only last for maybe one or two more
After our experience with preparing rabbit, gutting and cleaning the fish was quite straightforward, if a little messy.We roasted them over a fire and picked the flesh off the bones. There were a lot of bones. It tasted like regular fish, thankfully. We now had a ready supply of food and water. We also had the chance to wash our clothes and ourselves.The girls went first while the boys sat on the road pretending we couldn’t hear them splashing about. Images of naked girls kept invading my thoughts, so I got up and started practicing with the sword.I was really regretting giving up my spike. It was light and easy to use — aim at the head, stab, stab, stab. With a sword, you have to know what you’re doing. All I had to go on were movies I’d seen, and I’m pretty sure they weren’t the best source of reliable info.What I discovered very quickly was that even a short sword that feels quite light at first, will make your arm ache after a few minutes of swinging
The sounds of destruction continued behind us. We picked up the pace as we speed-marched down the dirt track.“What’s the plan?” said Maurice. “I mean, if that thing comes after us, what do we do?”“We run,” I said, “and hope whatever’s at the end of this road has plenty of places to hide.”The silhouette in the distance had started to take on the shape of a building, but it was still too far away to be sure what kind. In this world, when you ran from danger, you were just as likely to be running towards it at the same time.“Do you really think we can outrun it?” said Claire, nervously looking over her shoulder.“We don’t have to outrun it,” I said. “We only have to outrun each other.”This comment, which I felt was simply stating the truth, did not go down well.Claire sped up until she was ahead of me and turned her head to give me a full-in-the-face glare. “You really think it’s okay to let Flossie get eaten?”“Hey,” said Flos
The interior of the farmhouse was large and airy. The room contained a stove with a number of pots simmering on it, and a wooden table with benches on either side and a chair on each end. It could easily seat eight, maybe more.We stood in the doorway, all wiping our feet on the mat for longer than was required. The woman came out of a side room carrying a whimpering toddler. The kid stopped the moment he saw us and stared. Mainly at Maurice.“Sit down, then,” said the woman as she walked over to the stove where she began stirring one pot after another. “My name’s Margi.”We all introduced ourselves as we took a seat at the table. Margi didn’t seem too worried about having five strangers in her house, but then, she looked like she could beat the crap out of us with the kid in one hand and a rolling pin in the other.“My husband’s not here at the moment,” she told us, “but he should be back soon. I take it you’re not here for the rogue ogre.”We all lo
Margi looked out the window over the sink. “Oh, I can see my boys. Perhaps I should show you the barn now. Once the boys get here, I won’t have time to do anything but shovel more food at them. You want to see some real appetites, you don’t see them bigger than my boys’.” She beamed with pride.She led us out to the barn, which was full of bales of straw. Ladders led up to a loft, and the place had a comforting smell to it. Like summer in the park.“Oh, and another thing,” said Margi. “That little shed we passed on the way here, that’s the outhouse. Feel free to use it when you need to take care of your business.”The kid in her arms finally spoke. “Poo poo.”We were left to settle in and everyone flopped down on the bouncy straw. Compared to sleeping on the ground, this was like a bed of clouds. Full of food and feeling safe for once, we lay there revelling in the luxury of not having to fear for our lives. Once the farmer returned, we might even be able to