Titania

Chapter 2

Titania

 

“Haaaaah…! This is amazing!” I yelled.

“This is Titania at night. We have three moons, and those orange things are the stars.” Teo said, sounding like a tour guide. “Over there you can see one of our neighboring planets, Hikoramoore. Believe it or not, that planet is completely covered in water, and is inhabited by nymphs.”  While he was talking I ran to the field and flopped down on the magenta grass.

“Mmmmmm! Everything smells so good! This is gre" ahh!!” a small furry thing brushed up against my leg, and from under the folds of my dress a little head popped out. The animal was about the size of a large chipmunk, except it didn’t look like a chipmunk at all, it looked more like a miniature mongoose. It skittered out and sat down on my chest. It was the same pink as the grass; great for camouflage. It had very blue eyes too, and long brown stripes down its back. It looked almost like a small ferret. On top of its head were two little brown ears and it had a small brown nose. My favorite thing about the little animal was its tail. The tail was pink and really fluffy, around it were brown rings with dots in between them.

“Hey cutie!” I said to the creature, “What’s your name?”

A small voice replied, “Vixen,” it said. I was startled for a moment and then looked at Teo.

“Was that you?” I asked.

“No” he said.

“Then…” I slowly turned to look at the animal. “You can talk?”

“Yes, well I simply responded to your question. You asked and I answered. Isn’t that what talking is?” The animal, hopped off my front and I sat up and faced it.

“This. Is. So. COOL!” I said and scooped up the creature.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you...” Teo said just as the creature buried its teeth into my finger. 

“HOLY CRAP OWWW!!!!” I yelled and then I shook off the animal. “Why did you bite me? You can talk right? You shouldn’t bite people!!” I whined, and then put my bleeding finger in my mouth.

“Those are some feisty creatures, they’re called Pluis.” Teo chuckled, “Here” he reached out and grabbed my hand, and then to my surprise he bent down and kissed the finger that was bit. 

Again I blushed, “Whoa… umm w-what’re you doing…?” I stammered. “Well… I umm… you see… this…”

Teo stood up. “Relax,” he said, still laughing. “Look at your hand.”

“Oh yeah right. My hand is going to all of a sudden be magically"“ I looked at my hand and it, in fact was, “… healed.” I looked at Teo, then back at my hand, and then at Teo again and said sarcastically, “This is… cool. A shape shifter, I mean slider that heals with a kiss, along with changing into like whatever he wants to be. Sweet.” 

Teo seemed to be enjoying my reaction because he said, “There’s more where that came from,” and with a snap of his fingers, my dress, shoes, hair and make-up were fixed.

 “Good as new.” He chortled. I made him laugh more when I squealed and hugged him with delight.

“You’re…. you’re amazing” I said. “You fixed it just like that!” I snapped my fingers. “Literally, and like I look all prettified again! Thank you so much I don’t know what I would have said to my parents… oh my god…” a surge of wild dread filled me as I remembered back home. “My parents… and the chorus concert… they’re all probably so worried and "“

“Shhh!” Teo said, with frantic eyes. He was looking at something behind a tree, far away.

“What the hell! I was" mmmhmmm” Teo covered my mouth with his hands and dragged me behind a group of rocks. I waved my arms frantically and lost a shoe. He crouched down and looked at me hard, and before uncovering my mouth he said this:

“There is something over there that can’t know that we’re here. It’s called a Nephilidae. They’re spider people that crave flesh. Any flesh will do, even if its rancid, but for some reason they particularly crave flesh from Earthlanders.” He released his hands and continued. “Their blood is white and chalky and burns whatever it touches, like acid.  They can shoot webs sharp as razors that can slice a person clean in half,” my eyes widened in fear, “and the worse thing, is that they can only die if their heads are sliced clean off and burned. They have spider bodies and human heads and they are the spawn of a human and a creature from the chaos. Sadly they can talk, which makes it much harder to kill them.”

“Your world has awful monsters like this?” I whispered.

Teo looked back at the tree where it was and responded, “ Like I said they’re not from our world, they are from the chaos around it. I’ll tell you more later but right now I have to kill that thing.” He stood up and turned around, pulling white fabric bands out of his pockets and fastening them around his arms, neck, and legs.

The large spider monster meandered around, crushing flowers and bushes. A bird flew out of a tree and was caught in a string of web, and slowly dragged towards the thing. I watched in horror as the bird struggled to get free, and was eventually devoured by it. Then suddenly the Nephilidae stuck its head in the air and sniffed, and it lumbered over to my shoe. Two human arms slid out from under its head and they gingerly pick it up. I whimpered, and Teo gave me a reproachful look. It dropped the shoe after sniffing it, and the arms disappeared. It was slowly shuffling towards us as Teo quickly said this:

“No matter what happens with me and that thing,” he gestured at the spider creature, “you cannot say a word, and most definitely can NOT leave this spot. If the Nephilidae finds out that you are here it will be all over, it will call its kind and we will both die painful deaths. If I die, you are going to run as fast as you can to the door and get out of here, no matter what. Do you understand?” I nodded slowly.

“But"“

“Shh. Don’t.” He looked back at me once, his eyes clouded with fear and worry, and left. He then transformed into the most majestic griffin I had ever seen, well it was the only griffin I had ever seen. His fur was a shining gold and his eyes shone like two amber stones. Right before he took off flying his whole body lit up, as if it was protected by some transparent armor.

I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs. I wanted to jump up and save him. I wanted to go home to my family and go into my bed and never wake up. A little ways away I heard a cat screech followed a series of guttural yells. I squeezed my eyes shut and put my back to the fight. I can believe in Teo, I know I can. He can do this. He can do this. He can do this. I felt a warm fuzzy thing on my left hand and looked down. There was Vixen, the devil chipmunk that bit me.

Vixen looked up as me with her blue, somber eyes. Does she know what’s happening? Does she know that Teo is out there risking his life for me, someone he hasn’t even known for an hour? She crawled into my lap and curled up into a ball. I warily moved my hand and petted her, avoiding her head.

Then she suddenly hopped up and climbed over the huge rock. “Claire,” She squeaked when she returned, “the fight is almost over.” I picked her up, still a little tentative of her, but trusting her to not bite. When I peeked over the rock I saw a terrifying sight: a huge flying griffin holding the head of a human in its mouth. On the ground spewing white chalky fluid from its neck was a huge spider body, except it was twisted and contorted into unnatural positions. Strewn across the once beautiful field were various legs of the spider person, oozing the white chalky liquid and still twitching. Some of them were actually moving back towards the body.

A wave of nausea crashed over me and I sat down with a thump. The sight was the worst thing I had seen in my life. A few seconds later the smell of smoke and sulfur reached my nose and I knew that Teo was burning the dead thing.

Again I looked up over the rock and saw a pillar of smoke. Teo was back to his original form and was peeling the bands off his limbs that he had put on before. He was facing the biggest fire I had ever seen. There was still something moving in the fire and with a dull thud it fell down. It was then that Teo turned around and saw me peeking over the rock. He motioned for me to come over. I gave a little shake and mouthed I am not going there ever in my whole life. He looked at me hard and motioned again, and I hesitantly stepped out from behind the rock, and took a few steps. I went to get my shoe, slipped it on, and then continued walking towards Teo and the fire.

The heat became intense and I started to sweat. The fire must have been three stories high and was spewing the most foul smelling and blackest smoke I had ever seen.

Sweating like a pig, I took the last few steps toward Teo and the fire and covered my mouth and nose with my hands.

“Why did you make me come all the way here?” I said, through my sweaty hands.

“You need to get used to this, considering you’re going to be doing this,” he pointed at the fire, “all the time. In fact, you should probably start training now.”

“Whaaaaaat? I’m supposed to go home! I don’t belong in this place. And besides how am I going to kill the Nephilidae when I cant even kill a fly without flinching?”

“Claire,” Teo started, but I cut him off.

“I just,” I sighed, “I just want to go home now.”

 

***

 

After a series of cleanings by Teo and his magical powers I was once again deemed worthy (and clean enough) to go back to my dimension.

“You really need to think about coming back,” said Teo.                       h           “Earthlanders for some reason are exceptionally good at killing the Nephilidae even though they are prize prey for the them.”

“Oh great,” I mumbled.

Ignoring me Teo continued, “There’s special armor you can wear, and special weapons that will help you defeat them. Plus you get to ride me, of course in my griffin form. We could be like a killing machine. So what do you think? Are you in?”

He looked at me with the most earnest expression, causing me to avert my eyes. The thought of riding him made me flush, and well maybe it convinced me a little, but I really just wanted to be home with my family and my cozy bed. I gave in.

“Fine,” I said. “I’ll think about it, but for now I want to get back to Earth.”

Author's Note

Once again just watch out for grammar and if anything confuses you comment and I'll try to fix it!

Reviews

[Susanna F]

This chapter is even better than the last. Exciting episode, and it's revealing more about the characters and where they may be headed. Keep up the good work! Oh, and if you like fantasy, you may like to check out my book in-progress, Baroea.