Page 40 of Falling in Love with A Tiny Bat

Well.

Those are sins. And we all know the wages of sin, yada yada.

Real fun concepts for a child to take in and internalize.

Thankfully, I have since grown in my relationship with God and cultivated a faith that I can claim as my own, not the fading carbon copy of my mother’s. In my faith, questions are king. Fearing them means fearing the answers, and if we fear that the answers might change what we believe, then maybe that’s the point of them.

Right?

Nowadays when God appears to be trying the last fraying strand of my sanity, I ask a very, very good question: what can I learn from this?

It’s just that, um, Sir…right at this exact moment, the only answer I’m coming up with forwhat can I learn from thisishow to get out of a straight jacket and flee a facility, so…

Please intervene?

“I hope you don’t mind that I’ve brought a new member!” Wade—our tall, imposing, big, black game master—thwacks me in the back and booms a laugh. “Who am I kidding? Youlovemeeting new people.” He sweeps his free hand out toward thenew member. “Castor, this is Zahra, our beloved benefactor. She owns this whole playground.”

Beaming a pearl-white smile that does not presently match hisshort blonde hair—or, you know, includefangs—Castor clasps a guide stick in one hand and extends the other. “Zahra. What an interesting name. Charmed, I’m sure.”

Wade grins. “Oh, sorry, buddy. She’s holding a platter of what seems to be a cheese and cracker palace? So cool. Did you make this yourself?”

My throat closes, but I manage to force words out, “Yeah. Isent pics to the WonderCraft group chat on Discord. They never kicked me out. Which was a grave mistake. Because now I get to harass them all and suggest they launch a Purge event on an April Fools Day where they all blow up each other’s bases and kill each other with no explanation before reloading their last world save in the next episode and saying JK LOL.”

I’m rambling.

Stop that, Zahra.

Nobody cares about your brilliant ideas.

“Awesome.” Wade grabs a cube off a castle tower and pops it in his mouth before referencing the bandanna wrapped over the top half of Castor’s head, covering his eyes. “Castor’s a spy ninja faerie. What kind did you say?”

“A basilisk-human hybrid.”

My stomach drops.

Merciless, thebasiliskcontinues, “The backstory I’ve concocted for this character includes the humans of Ragonia having dug out my eyes when I was a child. They hated me for being a half-breed monster.” Castor chuckles, smiling a little too bright. “I call itincorporating my disability in a fun way.”

Wade, oblivious and heartwarming as ever, says, “I’ll have to get you his character sheets when this campaign is over, Zahra. They’re some of the most detailed I’ve ever seen. You’d never know it, but he’s completely blind. I swear, it’s like he’s Daredevil or something.”

“Must be those heightened faerie senses,” I supply.

In this direct sunlight, my cheese castle has started to sweat.

Honestly?

Relatable.

Gripping my big girl stockings by the garters, I straighten up. “Looks like Chrissy and Isaac just got here. Why don’t you greet them, Wade? I’ll take Castor around so he knows the general location of where things are.”

“Sounds great!” Wade claps his hands together and fixes his attention on our love birds as they come around the house. In the last session, I killed Isaac’s character—a palace guard—and even though Chrissy is supposed to be on the side of the resistance, she cried actual tears.

It was beautiful.

Once Wade and the others seem out of ear-shot, I let my smile fall. “Castor.”

“Zahra.”

“Why?” I turn toward the snack table and continue the march that was so rudely interrupted.

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