chapter 8 (veruca)

one evening, when amira jessan and delia were traveling, they came upon a small cottage with a thatched roof and vines nearly swallowing up the entire structure.
"What is that?" asked amira quietly. it was getting on to night and she didn't want to disturb any one's sleep.
"Um, it looks like a house...." answered delia a bit louder. she was riding toward it, the hoses plodding seeming louder than usual.
"Should we knock? What if someone is in there?" asked Amira cautiously.
"Well," said jessan speaking matter-of-factly, "If we don't knock, then we will never know what lies behind that door... and i'm really curious."
and that was that. He walked up to the small wooden door, and noticed that it was intricately carved with birds and trees with some kind of flower that looked like a star in its beak.
"Woa! Come look at this." jessan was thoroughly excited now, and he couldn't tell why.
Delia got to the door before Amira.
"What kind of flower is that? the one the bird is holding in its beak?"
"I wonder..." amira felt as if she was being watched. she turned and peered into the small grimy window. She gasped, stepped backward and stumbled on her dress. Delia yelped and tried to steady her but only succeeded in falling back herself.
"What in the world?" said jessan incredulously catching Delia and Amira in his strong arms. "what was that all about?"
Steadying herself and brushing off her dark purple dress, Delia said, "I haven't a clue! Ask Amira!"
but Amira was already looking through the window again, eyes wide with horror.
"Amira, love, what-"
"Shh-" amira was walking over to the door now. opening it as quietly as she could (which isn't very quiet because it was so creaky) she stepped over the threshold.
"Amira what are you doing?" Delia hissed.
"Shh!"
"Don't do that agai-"
"SHH! just come here!"
and laying in the middle of the small room was Catire. with one look at amira, he seemed to tense up. that was when amira noticed a miniature version of the large cat crawling out from behind a broken mirror in the corner of the room. Purring loudly, Amira guessed it was supposed to be a growl, the mini Catire plodded over to its mother and curled up, and promptly fell asleep.
"What is this?" squeaked Delia, "Shouldn't we get out of here?"
"So, Catire's a girl... How do you think she got all the way here? We last saw her, oh i don't know, two months ago in the forest outside the castle..." amira trailed off.
"Honestly Amira. You are the queerest person i know! You're standing here in the same room with the same cat that tried to kill you, and you're wondering how it got here!" Jessan was admiring Amira's bravery and worried that something was wrong with her head at the same time.
"No offence Amira, but i think we should leave...NOW." Delia was nervously looking around as she was afraid more cubs would come prowling out behind miscellaneous objects. Come to think of it, there were a lot of funny things in that cottage. Amira could see a table set with chipped pieces of china, a pot with a decaying plant, a small musical instrument that looked like a cross between a violin and a banjo, and a shelf stuffed with so many books, Amira could not believe that in one cottage, there was a whole wall dedicated to books.
Delia, forgetting her terror of Catire at seeing the large volumes, walked over and ran her finger along the bindings.
"It must be deserted......" she said, "That's funny, there is a book here missing from the collection 'Great Beasts From A to Z'. It's the letter H."
"Start looking!" said Jessan, "We must find that book!"
they looked, and looked, and looked. None of them could think about how one small book could get so lost in the tiny house.
"Found it!" yelled jessan from behind a pile of nothing but dirty wigs. "Great Beasts from A to Z, Harpies to Horned Vampires."
"Bring it over here!" said Delia impatiently.
Once Jessan clambered over a chess board around a statue of a swan and past a doll house, he sat down and gave the book to Amira, who immediately began thumbing through the heavy, threadbare, book.
"Hags....... harpies..... hell's fire birds....... AHA!! Hippotruckles."
"Well? what does it say??" inquired delia who was getting more impatient be the minute.
"Um... it says here that they get younger, they like jewelry. that would explain why she made all the necklaces that does who knows what to your brain...."
suddenly, they were all interrupted by piercing yowl. the trio looked around and they could see that a little old woman was walking up they path behind the house. the howling was coming from the baby Catire. not stopping to see what all the commotion was about, Amira, Jessan, and Delia stood up and ran to the door by which they had come in. now completely dark, they could just make out their horses. after they got saddled up (which took hardly any time at all) they started riding away.
Amira could barely hear the old woman saying, "Hello there my pet... how is your new son?"


the next night, Amira Jessan and Delia were all sitting around the small fire they had made and were reading the new book that the had just stolen.
"... they also like to be mysterious, but will do anything to live longer. It also says that Hippotruckles are hard to kill." Delia was reading aloud the chapter on hippotruckles by fire light.
"Darn! Is there any other way that someone can... well, dispose of them?" asked jessan who was disappointed at what he had just heard.
Yawning, Amira said "Let's go to bed now. I'm so tired, i could sleep for days... weeks even."
"Amira is right,Jessan. I have been reading this for a while now, and my eyes hurt." agreed Delia.
so they layed down on the thin pieces of fabric which served as mattresses and fell asleep.

Early in the morning, it started to rain waking everyone up to send them scurrying for cover under a large hemlock tree. By the time Amira got there, she was soaked to the bone. as was Jessan who was cursing and swering at the rain for being so cold.
"Where is Delia?" said Amira over the sound of torrential rain.
"I don't... Wait, there she is over by the horses!"
it was true. delia was leading all three of the horses to a different tree and tieing them up. when she finished, she came running across the forest towards Jessan and Amira. But something was different... her sopping hair was plastered to her face and neck, but it was something else.
"sorry. i needed to get the horses safe from the rain." Delia was panting. she leaned up against the trunk of the large tree and rested, eyes closed.
that's it! thought amira her ears are pointed!
"Delia... odd question, but what is with your ears?" asked Jessan who had noticed too.
Delia's face was drained of all color and she looked down grabbing the sides of her head.
"I'm sorry." she said solemnly.

chapter 7 #4 (violet)

"May i name her elva?" asked delia, her old shyness coming back

"Course ya can, she's your horse!" said jessan, amused by her question.

"I've never owned my own horse before! what's yours named, amira?"

"Klea."

"And yours jessan?"

"Demil. and we had better be going." every one mounted their horses and started their ride. they loved to ride together, but delia had always used a borrowed horse, and, like amira had said, they had never gone farther than the clearing. now they were being forced to. they walked, trotted. trotted, and walked. over hills, under trees between rivers. you name a terrain, and they'd gone over it.

the first couple of hours were easy. the next couple weren't too bad. the next three their hips hurt, and the next three was agony. so, after those hours, they stopped. they were eating lunch when, well, nothing. there were nothing. no people. all of the places were shut down. why? oh well.

they were on the road again. they had run out of things to say. they had slowly drifted close enough so that amira and jessan were holding

hands. delia was riding in front of them. they were all going very slowly, but delia was the first to spot the inn. after yelling excitedly, she took

off, far ahead of the others.

"Amira?" Jessan asked cautiosly.
"yes?'
"there is one thing about this quest, that scares me. badly, really. i wouldn't be able to stand it if you were hurt. and i wouldn't be able to
stand it if delia got hurt, because it would hurt you. if anything were to go wrong, i swear..." he trailed off. "i wouldn't be able to make it through

without you. and don't get me wrong. i love delia too. but like a sister, just as you do. just promise me you'll be careful." amira's nod was cut

off though, by delia yelling.

"HEY! are you guys coming? i booked two rooms. one for you two, Mr. and Mrs. Tessle, and one for me." tessle was jessan's last name.
they smiled, and quickened their horses.

after a good sleep in an almost empty inn, the trio was on the road again.

chapter 7 #3 (veruca)

"I have it right here." said jessan, "Thesatous Teasious." suddenly, the saddle he was holding in his other hand turned into a big fat roasted chicken.

"Um... Jessan, i don't think we need that spell quite yet." said Delia playfully. "we should only use it in emergencies."

"Oh al right." said jessan grabbing a new saddle from a hook at the other end of the stables.

"Well... this is it, i guess." said amira sadly. "I haven't been past the clearing since that day i was attacked by Catire."

"We need to get going now." Delia was getting nervous, "By now someone probably got the light back on, and when they see that you aren't there, amira, they will come looking."

amira jumped up on Klea (she was riding bareback) and said,"Delia, you can have that horse over there." she pointed to a black horse. Delia walked over to it.

"what is its name?" she asked

"she doesn't have a name." Jessan said.

"Elva..."