Page 45 of Claimed By Night

My head hurt like I been gettin’ into Anona’s wine too much agin, but I know that ain’t why I feel like somethin’ one o’ her guards shit out.

It’s this place. It’s dark, like it could be night if a full moon were out but there ain’t no moon. Just clouds, like thunder ‘bout to start rippin’ a new one ‘cross the sky. The clouds circle each other, like a giant whirlpool o’ gray darkness. Not ‘xactly the cure for an angry gut.

This forest got scary-ass trees all over. The ground’s gray or black, I can’t tell. An’ not a hundred yards from us is a huge wall. ‘Course, most things are huge to a sprite, but I’m thinkin’ this wall be considered big to them others in my group, also. It go up an’ up, like it stretchin’ to meet the clouds. An’ it’s made completely outta stone.

This place’s cold, too. An’ the trees look like somethin’ out one o’ my nightmares—like they about to develop mean-ass faces an’ start screamin’ at you, tryin’ ta grab you with them prickly-ass branches. An’ if there’s an owl in one of them tree-holes, I’mgonna jist fuckin’ die right here. Probly shit myself, first, an’ then die.

I don’t like it here. Not one bit. But seein’ as how my wagon’s hitched to theirs, there ain’t a whole lot I can do ‘bout it.

It’s quiet for a long time. I stay next to the angel an’ just watch her sleep. Whatever the fuck Cambion did to her, she almost unconscious-like. An’ Dragan real worried ‘bout her. He won’t leave her side, neither.

That’s whenitstarts. From over the walls o’ the city, we start hearin’ screams an’ yells an’ I ain’t got no idea what the hell’s goin’ on. It’s enough to make me start shiverin’ again, even with the fire toastin’ my tender bits. My brain start thinkin’ ‘bout thosecorn-cobsandshitter-catsagin, or whatever they was called. I don’t suppose their names’d matter too much as they snackin’ on your liver.

Dragan look worried, too, an’ even though I hate all these tall assholes equally, somethin’ ‘bout his expression gets me to thinkin’ maybe he ain’talldick.

He turn to the girl an’ sigh as he look at her. As weird as it sound, it’s like he care ‘bout her. It’s in the way he look at her—all that macho shit, like, melts away. Kinda crazy, considerin’ the guy’s, like, a wild beast.

He’ll take first watch, he says. He tell the elf king the same, but when he look at Cambion, his eyes are real angry-like.

“Elves don’t sleep,” Cambion say coldly, his eyes stayin’ fixed on the fire.

“Fine. Then you take first watch.”

Cambion nod an’ Dragan leave the camp in search o’ more firewood, I’m guessin’. Or maybe’s he gotta shit? I ain’t even sure if gargoyles shit. I means, I’m guessin’ they gotta ‘cause they eats…

Guess I’ll ask him when he get back.

The elf king just stare into the fire, not sayin’ nothin’. For someone that don’t sleep, he look bone tired. Probly owin’ to all that healin’ he had ta do recently. An’ that fucked up spell he put on the angel that wore her out almost as bad as theAtacomitedid.

“Maybe you should give sleepin’ a shot,” I venture at the elf. He cuts me off with an icy look, but I finish my sentence anyway. “You look like shit.”

“Elves don’t sleep,” he repeat. “They meditate.”

“What’s that mean?”

He seem surprised I don’t know. “It’s when you focus on focusing on nothing.”

“What?” Still, I don’t get it, so’s I hope the next explanation’s a bit clearer.

“Usually four hours meditation is as good as a full eight hours sleep for most creatures,” he continue, apparently not interested in enlightenin’ me as to what the fuck he be talkin’ about. “But I may need more than the usual to recover, owing to that asshole.” Then he wave in Dragan’s direction. “I don’t belong here,” he say, and it sounds like he’s talkin’ to hisself again but then he adds, “none of us do.”

The fire crackles.

Cambion walk a handful o’ paces away from the fire an’ sits cross-legged on the ground. His eyes don’t close—instead, they just roll back in his head, leavin’ only white an’ scarin’ the livin’ bejeezus outta me. Combined with the howls, the night is startin’ to look like one o’ my nightmares.

I hear the girl besides me start to breathe funny an’ when I look over at her, her eyes are open an’ she be awake. But she lies there on her back, just starin’ up at the sky like she wonderin’ if gargoyles shit too.

“It’s just us,” I say to her.

She rolls her head in my direction an’ smiles, real pretty-like. “Thank you, Flumph.”

“Fers what?” I ask, all confused.

“For everything you’ve done for me,” she answer an’ sigh. “I owe you a debt I can never repay.”

“Fers what?”

“For helping me get away from Anona.”

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