Page 20 of Monsters of Mayhem

“She’s a frost giant. There’s nothing between me and Hurgud,” Ratchet countered.

“You seem to know her pretty well, or she seems to have a soft spot for you.” I pointed out.

“What can I say, the ladies like me.” He shrugged, “but who could handle going through a month of all those mood swings from being young to going through midlife to old age. I can barely handle a normal woman’s periods, much less menopause.”

“I think you’ve got it right with Caroline, going out with an older woman. She doesn’t have all the young whimsical crap going on that happens with the hormonal swings.”

The laughter that erupted from my chest was genuine.

“You don’t think Caroline has mood swings?” I asked. “There’s a lot you don’t know about women going through menopause.”

“Now what, you’re the expert on ladies in menopause?” Ratchet muttered, grabbing another handful of ice as he hoisted himself higher.

“No, I’m not an expert on human menopause,” I pointed out. “I have seen how it affected Caroline as she got older. It’s been hard.”

“You haven’t even been with her. How do you know how it’s been affecting her?” Ratchet asked.

“It’s not like I don’t keep an eye on her,” I said.

“You know, it’s a little creepy,” Ratchet stated. “Should I be worried? Did you turn into a stalker?”

“I look after my own,” I replied flatly.

“Yeah, but Caroline‘s not your own anymore, is she?” Ratchet countered.

I took a deep breath and chose to ignore the comment. There was no winning the argument because the reality was, he was right. Caroline wasn’t mine to look after, but at the same time, she always would be mine. Even if she decided to choose someone else, she would always be mine. Of that I had no doubt. I had claimed her. Claiming could never be undone. I was a monster, and we were loyal unto our own. It was part of our nature. It was one of the things people never gave monsters credit for; they thought we were all chaos, but it’s not like people saw monsters hanging out with other people. They stuck together.

“Now she’s a banshee, you can really keep her,” Ratchet grunted as his leg slipped on the ice.

“She’d disagree with that,” I pointed out.

I said the words out loud, but I didn’t really mean them in my heart of hearts. I owned her. I loved her, and she was mine. It didn’t matter where she went or who she was with, I would always hold onto the vision of her and I together. No matter what it cost me mentally or emotionally, I couldn’t help it. It was just the way I was wired.

I looked up and said a silent word of gratitude that we had finally reached the top. My muscles were aching and sore and the cold had frozen almost every part of me. I felt like I was just a beating heart inside a frozen torso trying to get to where we needed to be.

“These flowers better be worth it,” I said.

“I’m pretty sure they’re the thing that’s healing me,” Ratchet said.

I looked at him sideways. I believed him but I wasn’t quite sure I liked the enthusiasm and his voice around the flowers. There was something on edge about it. He needed the flowers. Not just he wanted it, but he needed it. If there was something I knew, it was needing something that was a very dangerous place to be.

We crested the mountain and slid between two frozen stones. A small pathway led to a wide opening. When we got to the opening we stood side-by-side, both of us inhaling deeply of the sweet, cloying smell that rose from the valley of flowers.

“What in the hell?” I said. In this frozen wasteland under the harsh conditions where a monster and a demon could barely survive, before us was a sparkling sea of purple flowers that looked like shooting stars with their petals flying behind them and little black pointy tips aiming toward the sky.

“They are beautiful,” I murmured, instantly thinking of how much Caroline would love a bouquet of these flowers brought to her. The thought was quickly followed by the notion I needed to get back to her as quickly as possible. “Come on. Get what you need. Let’s get you healed and let’s get out of here. We’ve got problems to solve that are not in the frost giant world.”

“Didn’t your dad spawn the Giants?” Ratchet asked.

“I think he found some of them,” I admitted. “We’re distant cousins at best. They don’t recognize the relationship. Who wants to be cousins with a monster?”

“You’re not so bad,” shrugged Ratchet.

“Ratchet, get your flowers.” I said, but he was already moving toward the flowers and grabbing the ones he wanted. He had brought a bag and he was collecting large bunches and laying them carefully in the bag. When it was full, he swung it over his shoulder.

“Is that all you need?” I asked.

I shivered in the high cold winds that sailed across the high valley.

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