Page 78 of How to Seduce a Slender

Melody

“AndMelodypaintedMoonpiefor me!” Dahlia held up the painting in her office seconds before Melody slipped in, following their voices. Ophelia and Kayla, her friends were ogling it, pointing to their favorite parts of Moonpie in a rather precious pose. The werewolf stood by the door and knocked once. Dahlia glanced up, smiling warmly. “I was just showing them the art you did.”

“You’re so good. My hand-eye coordination is jealous right now,” The blond wizard, Kayla, hissed with appreciation.

“Even Cthulhu said it’s remarkable, so you know if you impress Tentacle-Face McGee, you’ve got talent!” Ophelia chirped with a giant grin.

“Thanks.” Melody flushed, trying to take the compliments. She knew better than to brush them off, especially in front of Dahlia. “Uh, you wanna take a walk?”

“Sure!” Dahlia clapped her hands, grabbing up a wicker basket full of roots off her desk. “I’ve got a few things to throw to the chickens for Kevin and the girls wanted to love on Bessy a bit.”

Melody stepped out into the hall, hanging back as the other women strode out into the hall. Dahlia stood beside her with a serious look on her face. “Before you say anything, I am sorry.”

With a grimace, the werewolf motioned for her to lead the way. “Why are you sorry?”

“I’ve hurt your feelings, and though I’m not sure what it was I said, or if it was a general declining your request, but I’ve hurt you. And I’m sorry. I care for you, and unfortunately, I’m not really good at showing it.” Dahlia rearranged the dried husks of vegetable roots in her basket as she spoke. “My friends bite back now if I bite their heads off. Sebastian knows how to talk to me when I’ve lost my temper.”

Melody nodded along, trying to wrap the words around her tongue before they spewed out of her lips. She didn’t have much say as the confession just tumbled out…because she did want Dahlia to like her. She wanted to be friends. The werewolf liked sitting with her in the kitchen and body doubling. She enjoyed listening to Dahlia discuss a book or taking tea with her when Smith was gone. “I may be stupid, but my feelings are still the same. I still want to go see the witch.”

Dahlia flinched, sighing loudly. “Ah…Melody, I apologize. I didn’t mean to infer you’re stupid. In fact, I meant to infer you are very smart. As you are. You’re much smarter than that. You’re smart enough to know that it’s a bad idea. You’re way too smart to just let her emotionally manipulate you like that.”

Melody chewed on her lower lip. The group wove through the house and out the back door. The animals immediately sprung to life. Despite what Dahlia said, Melody knew there wasn’t much she could do but go see the witch. That’s just that. The witch had her wolf. Melody wanted them back. Needed them back. She just needed to figure out how to beat an eldritch god at their own game.

Which wasn’t particularly her strong suit.

“Dahlia, Melody! Hurry!” Kevin bellowed from the barnyard. He was waving around something that wiggled, while Ophelia and Kayla were dying laughing.

“Is...is that a squirrel?” Melody blurted out, scrambling forward.

“A squirrel on this property? Probably cursed,” Dahlia huffed, chucking the dried roots out into the yard before following the others to the barn. Melody saw Butter and Bessy step up to the front of their paddocks, mooing at them as they passed. Dahlia chucked them both whatever was left in her basket. Tentacles sprang from their mouths and scooped up the roots mid-air. Melody didn’t have a chance to ogle at their talent as Kevin was calling for them still.

Melody stepped up into the gaggle of people surrounding the zombie. Carl swooped in and got between Dahlia and Melody for pets while the zombie held up the largest woodland creature in all creation. If a rodent was also the size of a baby pot belly pig. Kevin knelt by the barn doors and set the squirrel down onto a turned-over wooden bucket. “Okay, now buddy, just like we were doing earlier. Squeakity, squeak, squeakin’.”

Melody ruffled Carl’s head as the dog growled at the squirrel.

“Kevin?” Dahlia huffed, fingers pinching the bridge of her nose. “You’re not speaking squirrel are you?”

“Yeah! Kinda always known how. Helps me keep their little grubby grabbers out of my seeds.” He returned his attention to the squirrel. “Squeak-squeak.”

Dahlia glanced at Melody in a ‘save me’ expression as Melody snickered under her breath. Ophelia and Kayla were fully crouched by Kevin, engaged in the conversation. To Kevin’s credit, the squirrel did answer back. Hands flying left and right, stood up on his massive haunches, the squirrel explained what felt like an entire story to Kevin. The zombie nodded, squeaking with him.

The longer the conversation went on, the more Melody was convinced he actuallydidspeak squirrel. However, the longer the conversation went on, the more Carl’s hackles rose. By the end, Carl’s teeth were barred. Melody’s attention fell away from the zombie to the hellhound. He kept glancing up at her as if for permission. She furrowed her brows.What is he trying to say?

“So, little man says that there’s a lady in the woods. Says she’s been throwing things over the fence or making other animals carry them into the fence. Cause you know how Lord Rosemont doesn’t care about little creatures wandering onto the property. And she was poisoning Carl. Little man feels bad about Carl’s upset tummy, because he brought the arm bone that got him all sick. However, he’s hoping to stay here... cause the lady in the woods is eating things raw.”

“Raw?” Melody furrowed her brows. Carl backed up a step, growling low in his belly.

That’s when Kevin pulled a weasel from his pockets that was missing chunks out of its body. It was mostly bone and sinew, tufts of fur still stuck to it. Ophelia and Kayla gagged, stumbling away. Dahlia lurched backward. Melody leaned forward crouching before Kevin. He held up the dead weasel. Something radiated off the body. She studied it, watching it grow. A smoke cloud of rotten green and purple, floating around the carcass.

“Burn it,” Melody stated, climbing to her feet. Carl barked as if to agree.

“What?” Kevin stood up with her. The large squirrel squeaked at her, clutching his hands together in front of his large belly.

“Burn the weasel body. It’s infected.” Melody scrunched her nose as the stink finally hit her nostrils. She could smell the blood and disease on the weasel body. Unfortunately, as her eyes glanced at the large squirrel, she realized the weasel wasn’t the only one who stunk. “Kevin...where did you get the weasel?”

“Little man brought it to me.”

Melody glared at the tiny creature. The longer she looked, the worse it became. It was uncanny how close but not squirrel it looked as she glared at it. The stench cleared her vision of the illusion before her... and it began to break.

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