Page 16 of Wishing Upon a Monster
“At the very bottom, about seven feet or so, just in case someone or something were to fall in. Broken limbs are not pleasant from what I have seen,” he said, still peering into the darkness.
I waited for... what I didn’t know, but eventually, he uncrossed his arms. “It is done, I have connected us to our...community in order to travel, but I closed off the well to receiving visitors.”
“We would have visitors?” I asked, surprised.
“Yes. My home at Weller Pond has been moved here. It will be noticed. My people will respect that I have woken and do not wish company. This happens from time to time,” he sighed, “I am not the first to rest and reawaken, and I won’t be the last.”
A twinge of guilt surfaced. I pushed it down, distractingmyself with the prospect of jumping down a well. “How do we do this?”
“I will hold you, as I did back at the pond, and we will descend into the void. I will navigate us through to the place you showed me on the map earlier. I have connected us with that well for the time being.”
“Not permanently?” I approached Olan with the document folder in hand.
“I do not wish to leave an avenue for the ECCM to come to us. There are other wells in the world that you would call public access. This well is not, and neither will the one there be. May I have your papers?” he gestured, “I wish to focus on holding you as we travel and not on safeguarding these things. I can stow them with my gold.”
The thought of being dropped as we traveled the insubstantial darkness had me thrusting the folder out with no objections.
He flashed me a toothy grin, taking the folio and vanishing it in a plume of black, shadowy smoke, with small shimmers of gold that glimmered in the afternoon light.
“Shall we?” He extended his hand, and I took it, allowing him to easily lift me into his arms. We were now face to face, and my breath hitched at being so close.
I made sure my crown was in my mind’s eye.
Olan smirked, and the appealing tug of his lips made my heart flutter like fairy wings. I was unsure of my feelings in that moment, so I wrapped my arms around his neck and ducked my head down, hiding my burning cheeks from view. His just-rained smell did a lot to soothe my nerves.
His sure steps brought us over to the edge, and then a step up encouraged me to cling to him tightly.
“Are you ready,min lille skat?”His arms tightened around me.
A feeling of safety washed over me. “Yes,” I whispered, and I felt him drop us down into the darkness.
It was like being stretched taut, like a string on a bow, and then we were plucked, shooting off and away. No lights flashed, no sounds could be heard, as we traveled in the black and yet... I felt possibly the safest I’ve ever felt, cradled in the arms of this old god.
I don't know how long we traveled, but eventually the feeling of rising, much like I felt in the waters of Weller Pond, came over me, and I realized we would be exiting soon. Which, strangely, felt sad. Maybe because there were so many things to deal with in the light?
The sound came back instantly, almost painfully. Ignatius Avenue was in the back of the human’s Shelly Lake Park. I had hoped some temporary protections had been erected for our arrival, but I didn’t feel any discomfort or the sudden, urgent feeling of having forgotten something at the house. Maybe they forgot we were coming.
“Good afternoon, folks,” a voice called.
Snapping my eyes open, I looked down at a tall brunette, her hair tossed up in a bun, wearing black slacks, a cream button-down shirt, and a badge around her neck. She looked strong and sure of herself, and with that, I knew she had to be a Council Enforcer. They were like us on the preserve, but instead of protecting the monsters from the beasties, she would protect the ECCM staff and visitors should trouble arrive.
I smirked, thinking that for once in my life, my talentless self was bringing the trouble.
“I’m council enforcer Odessa St. James, badge number 1666, and I am here to take y’all to the ECCM undetected,” she supplied, her southern accent shaded with something more deeply southern than even my own. She wasn’t from here, but she was from the south, maybe more towards the western part.
“Aurora Aurum and my husband, Olan,” I said from a few feet above her head.
Olan didn’t seem interested in letting me down, and I had to admit, I was pretty comfortable where I was at.
“If it’s alright with you and your husband, I’ve got this van here that our gargoyle shifter, Bryce, says is roomy.” She gestured behind her to a black van like those Zon delivery trucks.
“Very well,” Olan said, still making no move to release me. Instead, he walked us to the van.
Enforcer St. James opened a sliding door on the side of the tall van, revealing an L-shaped leather bench seat, like some sort of modified limo. Olan ducked inside, sitting with me on his lap.
She shut the door on her way to the front and started up the vehicle, then pulled out onto the road.
Unlike a limo, there was no partition, and I shifted slightly, hoping I was going to whisper in wherever his skull receives sound, “Are we concerned that Council Enforcer St. James is not as she seems?”
