Total pages in book: 151
Estimated words: 147649 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 738(@200wpm)___ 591(@250wpm)___ 492(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 147649 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 738(@200wpm)___ 591(@250wpm)___ 492(@300wpm)
“I was here but now I’m gone.
Because, my friend, I don’t belong.
I walk the world on borrowed time,
Out of place and out of line.”
If my warning shall find you,
Then you are off the timeline too.
No horn, or hoof, or magic spell
Will save the life of the monster Pell.
No cakes, or cookies, only Pie.
Moths and fireflies in the sky.
You must go back, you must relive,
Accept, and honor, and forgive.
Go back in time and make it true,
Take the monsters with you too.
Then you will see it’s not so bad,
Goodbyes don’t have to be so sad.
Real fate is not by chance.
Not a product of circumstance.
You must choose, you must decide,
But peace will come when you abide.
To be sure, it won’t be easy.
Do not convince, do not bully.
For this decision must be made,
Freely and never swayed.”
“Another long one.” I’m so tired of the riddles.
“Yeah,” Pie agrees. “But they mostly say the same thing. So at least they’re not complicated.”
“Go back,” I say. “We have to go back.”
“And we have to offer the monsters the same chance.”
“What monsters?” Tomas is still a little hysterical. “They’re gone!”
“Maybe the eros?” Pie offers. “If he’s all that’s left? Maybe we just need to make him an offer?”
“And then what?” Tomas shrieks. “We all die? I didn’t even get a chance to live yet! This is a stupid curse! I hate this curse!”
“Calm down, OK?” I’m growling now because Tomas is acting like a child. “Didn’t you hear the poem? No one is gonna force you to do shit. It’s all by choice.”
Tomas just stands there in the middle of the apothecary, breathing hard. He looks like he might burst into flames any moment. But then he wilts a little. “We’re going to lose, you guys. We’re going to lose everything.”
I walk over to him and place a hand on his shoulder. “We’ve already lost, Tomas. It’s already gone. The only choice we’re making is how we meet our fate.”
“What choices?” Pie asks. “I didn’t hear any choices.”
“The choices were implied. We could use our doors and go somewhere else.”
“Run away?” Pie asks.
I shrug. “I’m not saying it’s a good choice, I’m just saying it’s an option. Another option is to fight some war.”
“What are we fighting for?” Tomas asks.
I throw up my hands. “I don’t have all the answers.”
“If that’s the Pie-has-a-baby-with-a-bull plan, I’m voting no.”
“For the record”—I hold up a finger—“I’m voting no as well. And then a third choice is to go to Eros and offer him… well, I’m not sure it’s salvation, but I’m also not sure it’s not. So. That. We’ll offer him that.”
“And if he says no?” Pie asks.
“I’m a hundred percent sure he’s going to say no.”
“Then he’ll try to kill us,” Tomas says. “Or take Pie prisoner, or shoot us with a love arrow, or any number of horrible things.”
“Yep. He could do all that,” I agree. “But I don’t think that’s how it’s gonna go. I think the monsters might not be dead. I think they might be in Granite Springs.”
“You mean Savage Falls,” Pie says.
“Right.”
“Wait.” Tomas comes over to me. “You think they all went to Savage Falls?”
“I don’t know for sure, but the poem was pretty specific. ‘Take the monsters with you too.’ They have to be somewhere around here. And we already know they’re not in the Bottoms.”
Pie nods in agreement. “And they were pretty eager to get to town this morning, remember?”
“Oh!” Tomas looks like he just fell in love all over again. “Oh! You’re right, Pie! They are in Savage Falls! Let’s go! I choose number three! All in favor, raise your hands. The motion passes, it is done!”
And then he just… runs out of the room.
Pie and I look at each other, unable to stop the smiles. “It’s nice to see Tomas happy,” I say.
“Isn’t it though?” Pie agrees. “You know, I never used to be able to imagine him as some fire-breathing dragon, even though I’ve seen it with my own eyes. But losing those eggs… I dunno, Pell. It changed him, I think.”
It has. But I don’t agree with her out loud. Tomas has always been dangerous. He’s just been resigned to his fate. No real opinions about anything, actually. But now he has hope. And hope really does change a man. Even a dragon man. When a man has hope, he also has opinions. He’s got skin in the game, as they say.
“OK,” Pie says. “So we’re going to Savage Falls, we’re gonna make an offer of salvation to Eros, offer to send the monsters back in time, then come back here and… what happens after that?”
“The doors? It’s the only thing I can think of.”
“We send them through the doors.” Pie considers this and sighs. “Wherever they want to go?”
“Why not?”
“That’s a pretty good offer, I think. They were all bitching about going home this morning. I think we’ll have takers. But what about us? Is this the end of us, Pell? Pressia’s poem—”