Chapter Fifteen: Ferbish and Grigor

     For the first few moments outside, it seemed as if I’d lost all my vision. But slowly as my eyes adjusted, I could actually see Brenden surprisingly well in the dark. His skin almost had a spooky silver glow all its own, which I felt made him an easy target for something that might want to eat him. I didn’t say that out loud, though, for his sake. And as we walked farther along, I felt as though the darkest dark became more vivid like this was how the Under Realm should be seen. Things were clearer and more vibrant at night than in the daytime, even in the mist. So strange.

    “Listen,” Brenden said, stopping so we’d catch up. “Follow me. I saw a place we could hide for the night while you all were having tea with a monster.”

“I liked Mr. Payne,” Holly said.

    “Hey, you missed out, sour-pants,” Francisco said. “Those brownies were awesome.”

    “I would kindly ask that you refrain from referring to me as my dressing drawers and be quiet,” Brenden whispered. “There’s something scuttling about up ahead.”

He shrunk into the nearest bush. We followed hiding behind a large tree.

     I heard a voice say, “I’m telling you, Ferbish, I sawr it. A fairy. Its skin was like a flash of moon, it was.”

     Two winged creatures bobbled toward us. As they got closer, I noticed they looked like the gargoyles guarding Payne’s place. I had no idea if gargoyles were nice, but I didn’t want to find out. I stayed still as a stone.

     The other creature laughed a high-pitched throaty sound. “Go on, Grigor. Fairies wouldn’t be within a hoot an’ a hickle from here. You’ve had too much of Plum Willie’s good ale.”

    “Did not. I’m telling you…hold on…what’s that?”

    “What?”

    “That?”

    “That’s ye large mole at the end of yer nose, ye globstroppet.” Ferbish, the one with the blue wings, took a poke at Grigor’s nose.

    “Ow! That hurt.”

  “Serves ye right, ye big baby,” Ferbish sniggered.

   Then he stopped laughing. “Oh, wait a minute, Grigor, ye might be right.” The gargoyle flapped his wings and jumped into the bush where Brenden was hiding. He launched upward, holding Brenden by his scruff. “Lookie what I found?” The nasty gargoyle wiggled Brenden in the air.

     “Not fair, Ferbish, I sawr him first.”    

     “Finders keepers!”

     “If you don’t mind,” Brenden yelled, trying to pull the gargoyle’s hand off him, “Let me down.”

     The gargoyles laughed. “Think fast!” Ferbish hurled Brenden over to the other gargoyle. Grigor flew up and caught him with one hand before Brenden could flutter away.

    “Amazing, I am!” Grigor boasted.

    I whispered to Francisco, “What should we do? We’ve got to help poor Brenden somehow.”

     “Eh…he can take care of himself,” Francisco said, scratching his shoulder like he does when he’s nervous.

     “But what if they try to eat him?” Holly asked, ominously.

     “I haven’t heard them say anything about eating him,” Francisco said. “Looks like they just want to play.” He leaned in closer to me. “And besides, he had it coming.”

    I felt bad. I had to think of a way to rescue him somehow. But I didn’t have anything to fight off two large, muscle bound gargoyles. I hoped Francisco was right and they weren’t going to do anything horrifying to Brenden.

     “Tell you what,” Grigor said. “Let’s cut him in half. Then you can have your share and I’ll have mine.”

     “Sounds reasonable.”

     “No one is going to cut anyone in half,” Brenden said. “Now let me down.”

     “You gots a knife, Ferbish?”

     Ferbish hit Grigor on the head. “You know I don’t owns any knives.”

     “Well, this is a pickle.”

     I couldn’t take it any longer. If I was part witch, I had to start acting like one. Rolling out from the tree we were hiding behind, I hollered, “Hey, Thing One and Thing Two. Release him or die.” 

     “Look, Grigor, get a load of her?”

     “Yeah…it’s a little girl.”

     “Aye…and she’s still in her shroud.”

     Brenden waved me off. “Athena, get out of here. I have this matter in hand.”

     I smirked. “Yeah, you look like it. They’re about to cut you in half.”

    The two gargoyles snorted.

    “Didn’t you hear me?” I yelled. Although they didn’t seem menacing, I had to pretend I was. 

    “Aye, lass, we heard,” Grigor said.

    Ferbish giggled through his nose, sounding like a car sputtering. “Yeah, but we ain’t listening.” The two thought that was such a funny joke.

    When they stopped laughing, Ferbish flew up to me and said, “Miss, it’s not nice to be in shroud after dark. People might get the wrong impression.”

    “Yeah, like ye was trying to hide somefing,” Grigor agreed.

    “Take it off,” Ferbish commanded. His beady eyes grew cold. “And we’ll give ye back yer little friend.”

     I rolled backward as a knot formed in my stomach. I wasn’t feeling good like I was about to puke. “I…no…I can’t…”

    Ferbish grabbed my leg. “If you’re not going to take it off, I will.”

    I screamed.

    Francisco burst out and leaped onto Ferbish, but it was too late.

    Whoosh!

    Like a fingernail ripping off of a finger, Ferbish tore the shroud off my body. Fire erupted all over my skin and I fell out of my wheelchair, shaking and writhing in pain.

     Holly ran over to me, and I screamed at her, “DON’T TOUCH ME!”

     Fire thundered through my legs as though hot liquid was burning them into existence.

     “Ahhh!” I shrieked. I’d never experienced stinging like this. It was as if a never-ending blaze had turned my skin to bubbling flesh. Darkness swallowed me. I had to escape the torment. I wanted to die.

     I could hear Holly crying next to me. “Francisco, we need to do something!”

     As an inferno burned through my body, rage welled inside me. It was like a caldron or volcano that needed to explode.

    I rose up on legs I didn’t know existed, rising higher in the air, I roared. Flames erupted from my mouth. The gargoyle cried out, dropping Brenden.

    But then a crushing weakness overpowered me as if I hadn’t eaten in weeks, and I collapsed. Tiny lights flickered before my eyes. My breathing was short and rapid like a dog panting.

    Holly cried out, “Brenden, please help her! Is she dying?”

    Brenden kneeled next to me. “I don’t know.” He thrust two of his fingers against my neck. “Her heart is weak. She needs help. We have to get back to Middle Realm somehow.”

    “Awr…” said one of the gargoyles. “We didn’t means any harm.”

    “Aye,” said the other. “We was just having a wee bit o’ fun.”

     One of them smacked the other. “Why’d you go and take off her shroud? You know that’s not polite.”

    “Ow! I wasn’t finking, okay? Nurse Mellecant can help her.”

    “Aye, that. Come with us. Hurry.”

I want to thank Natalie Auditore for her explosion cc she made for this story. (There’s more to it as well that you’ll see in the coming chapters.)

Next update will be Monday, December 17th. 

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