Page 28 of Geoffrey the Very Strange
"Uh, Geoffy?" Cecil began uncertainly. "You want me to go after the rabbit?"
"No, no." Geoffrey wiped at the tears of joy streaming from his eyes. "She's earned her second chance. Let her be."
Cecil sighed. "Guess I get to clean up the rabbit droppings on the altar, then." He dug under the desk, came up with a dustpan and brush, and had just turned back to clean up the bunny mess. "Uh… You might wanna hold off molesting your boyfriend and come see this."
"What is it?" Geoffrey patted the center of Aspic's chest, asking him to stay put, before he hurried over to Cecil.
Even from where he stood, Aspic still had a good view of the shells and rocks on the altar. Their movements were small, a hint of rocking here, the start of a turn there, but easy enough to witness. As they watched, the movements became more pronounced.
"What's happening here?" Cecil hovered anxiously over the altar.
Geoffrey tugged at his braid, frowning. "I'm not sure. Some leftover effect from the successful animation would be my guess. They should settle soon."
Instead of settling, the shells began to rock violently on their curved halves, and the rocks began to drag and hop toward the edge of the altar.
"Aspic." Geoffrey's voice held an anxious edge. "If you have any protective magic, pull it around you now."
He didn't have much—a bit of shadow skill—but he called it up to make himself less visible to the living and the spirit world. The bivalve shells now clacked their two halves together, reminding Aspic far too much of snapping teeth. They gathered on one side of the altar. Geoffrey raised his wand, to do what, Aspic couldn't guess.
One of the clamshells opened, and Aspic thought his heart had stopped when itscreamed. They lunged as one entity, shells and rocks, toward the corner where Aspic stood. But they weren't coming for him. They were after the sorted shell containers.
The herd of shells and rocks hit up against the pots like a wave against a cliffside, and the lead clam shrieked its earsplitting call again. Sundrop screamed in answer from her nest in Aspic's hair.
"Move aside!" Geoffrey shouted. "Other way, Aspic!Ulosk eitti ostan!
A wall of blue light raced outward from Geoffrey and knocked the tiny attacking army back from the pots. Several clams screamed in defiance, and the mixed herd thundered out of the laboratory in an eerie confusion of hopping and rolling almost too fast for the eye to follow.
"What in all fuckity fuck was that, boss?" Cecil called out from behind the inkwell. "Why did the wards stop them? They're shells! And why did they come alive? They'reshells!"
"They're undead shells now. That's why the wards stopped them." Geoffrey leaned against the desk, breathing hard. "Aspic, are you all right?"
"I'm fine," Aspic squeaked before he regained control of his voice. "Fine. But shouldn't we go after them?"
Geoffrey gaped a moment, then nodded. "Yes." He strode to the storage passageway, and Aspic followed. "You and Cecil should stay here. You should be safe."
"No. Absolutely not." Aspic wanted to grab Geoffrey and shake him, but he didn't want to interfere with him stuffing potentially important things in his pockets. "You're not going after undead anything alone."
"I don't want you harmed. Please. I've made this mistake. Let me fix it."
"If I were your human lover, I'd say that was only sense. Geoffrey, my dear Geoffrey. I'm half demon. Much more likely to survive something… unnatural than you are."
Geoffrey's shoulders heaved in a sigh. "All right. Thank you. Cecil, guard the cave."
"Do my best, boss." Cecil didn't sound at all sure.
Then Geoffrey was jogging out of the cave, and Aspic had to scramble to keep up. The near-full moon provided plenty of light and the shell-rock zombie horde had left an easy trail to follow. They'd headed straight down the hill, chomping off grass stalks and beheading flowers as they went—vindictive little bastards.
At the bottom of the hill, they turned toward town.
"Oh, no." Geoffrey stopped, clearly at a loss, when rustling sounded from the other direction, heading closer by the second.
"Geoffrey…" Aspic moved to stand in front of him, claws out. Stupid to stand in front of the person with the zappy wand, but protective instincts fought hard against sense, sometimes.
A dark figure approached from the forest, hurrying footsteps now audible. Aspic crouched, anticipating an attack.
"Geoffrey! Aspic!" Grandma Tutti called, waving a hand and clearly out of breath. "I felt something terrible happen. Are you hurt? Is everything all right?"
"Grandma." Geoffrey peeked out from behind Aspic. "We're… fine. I did something, um, perennially stupid."
