Chapter 8: Crow
Score heard the patter of small feet down the staircase and roused himself from his nap on the couch. He'd been having an incredible dream, about... well, he couldn't remember exactly what it was about. He rolled off onto the floor and banged his head. A muttered expletive cleared that matter up and he was on his feet and ready to face the tough little boy he and Pixel had temporarily adopted.
Crow peeked around the banister of the stairs before coming out fully into the light. "I'm thirsty," she complained.
She?
Score groaned. Not another roughshod tomboy. The first had damaged his ego beyond recovery, and now this. But there Crow stood, with deep amber skin rubbed free of dirt and wet indigo hair clinging to the sides of her thin face. With the dingy urban life washed from her body, Crow looked positively darling, like somebody's niece from out of town.
"I'll get you something to drink. What would you like?" Score asked, sauntering into the kitchen. Crow trailed behind him, still creeping, hiding from the danger that lurked in every corner of her world.
"Spetzi water," she demanded, clambering up onto her chair from before. Score hadn't the faintest as to what she was talking about, handing her a glass of his favorite cola instead. Crow guzzled it, burped, and slammed the glass down onto the table. "More" was the command. Score glared at her.
"Aren't we little Miss Special. How about some manners?" He took the glass away.
Crow looked sulky. "Please?" She said finally. Score smiled.
"Much better." He refilled the glass with a mental tug and set it down before her. Crow's eyes were wide.
"How did you...?" She trailed off, looking down into the glass and then back up at Score. She sniffed the cola hesitantly and pushed it away. "I dun want it anymore." She declared suspiciously.
Score rolled his eyes. "It's the same stuff. I just made more. Look." Score snatched the unwanted glass and drank half of it. He sat it back down again in front of his small charge and put his hands on his hips. "It's fine."
Crow ignored the beverage and stared up at Score instead. "Where am I?" She asked, as if for the first time wondering that she might not be on her old world. Score hesitated. There were two channels of diplomacy he could take. Pixel would probably know which one was correct, but he was nowhere to be found.
"Screw diplomacy," he muttered as he grabbed the bull by the horns. "See, Crow, Pixel and I are magicians, and we live on a planet called Dondar. We brought you here with our magic because we wanted to help you out. You aren't on Myrd any longer. If you'd like to go back, then we can take care of that. But we don't want to hurt you and we'd like to take care of you. I filled the glass by magic." Finished, Score exhaled and leaned back against the wall.
"You're lying. Magic is a trick. It ent real."
"Not lying. That's what I first thought when I found out it existed. I... I used to live in the streets too."
"You from Myrd?" A glimmer of curiosity.
"No. Earth. Magic freed me from the streets."
"Teach me." Crow demanded. Score jumped slightly.
"What?"
"Teach me." She repeated, sliding off her chair and stalking towards him. "Maybe I will stay here. A little. And when I learn what you know, I will go home, and get off the street, and rescue Sammi, and-" She stopped.
"Who's Sammi?" Score asked innocently.
"Nobody. I'm lying." Crow narrowed her eyes to little slits and hid behind them. Score backed off from the topic.
"Well, maybe I'll teach you a little magic. But it takes a great deal of responsibility. You seem young..." He trailed off.
"Am not." Crow protested, "Got lots of responsibility. My runner, he put me in charge of the other girls cuz he knowed I was best at it."
"Well I don't know your runner. So how do I know you're not lying?" Score resisted the urge to smile. The best way to deal with a kid was to make them feel important. He remembered that from his own days of being manipulated.
"I'll prove it to you. I'll work." Crow flexed her small fingers. "I do good work with hands."
"Okay, okay," Score pretended to relent. "I'll teach you a little magic everyday, but only if you help Pixel in the garden, and only if you're good, and..." he added with significance, "I'd rather you didn't carry your knife around. You might hurt yourself if you fall down."
Crow looked down and slowly slid her knife out of a pocket somewhere. She stared at it. "I won't hurt myself," she said huffily, "I been using blades since real small. Really." She looked up. Score stared adamantly. "Okay. I hide it in my room for you. That good?"
Score beamed. "Perfectly. I'll wait here." He smiled happily to himself as he watched Crow bound up the stairs. Things were starting to be interesting at last. Maybe if he told Helaine, she'd come home.
Gravel beds were the perfect comfort for a goblin. Helaine squirmed uncomfortably in hers. Little pebbles kept falling down her tunic or creeping up the ankles of her pants and causing trouble. She sighed and rolled over again. Dark in the goblin caves was true dark. Not even a hint of light illuminated her chamber. Helaine was finding her reunion with the goblins less than what she expected. The food and the atmosphere were similar, but she missed Gunther, and his unusual wisdom. It made her feel old.
I'd better get used to it. She thought, almost angrily. Score and Pixel and I will live for years and years and have to watch everyone die. Helaine shifted her head and a river of pebbles streamed down past her ear to collect on the inside of her shirt collar. The centaurs will die. The unicorns will die. My family will die.
My family will die.
Helaine stopped and choked on her own thoughts. Her father, whom she had furiously abandoned five years ago, would someday die. And she would never see him again. A hot wetness sprang to her eyes.
"I am not the crying type!" She whimpered fiercely as a tear joined the rocks that were her pillow. It was too late. She made up her mind to visit Ordin the very next morning. She would have to get Shanara to come with her to Treen for Portal purposes, but Helaine was sure she could convince the kind sorceress to accompany her. She had to see her father, even if it was only briefly. She did love him, even if he wasn't her biological parent.
A tingling sensation on her thumb startled her. She created a small globe of dim blue light and after adjusting to the sudden change in darkness, looked at her hand.
The small white monkey ring was animated again, entwining itself around her other fingers and making a diminutive rumbling sound, like a cat's purr. Helaine smiled and lifted up her palm to her face.
"It's nice to be loved," she whispered quietly at it, smiling in the faint glow of the night. She extinguished the globe and smiled as she thought about the boys.
*****
I know I know it's on the short side but it has been hard finding time to write, lately.
Mr. Peter Kim: I completely agree with you in that Score and Pixel are being rather moronic but I take no responsibility for their actions! And I'm NOT going to tell you if Crow will grow up and be a baddie or a goodie or simply go home, first because I really don't know at this point, she's her own person, and second because that would ruin the whole point of writing if I'm going to give away part of the plot in a silly author's note! I'm glad you're taking an interest in my story, but please don't get frusterated if I can't let you in on some of the inner workings :) I'm sure you understand.
To the rest of you: Keep reading, keep up with your own writing, and FOR GOD'S SAKE DON'T PUT THE PORCUPINE IN THE DISHWASHER!!!!
NOOOO!!!!
Aroo!
