When the Other Shoe Drops

When the Other Shoe Drops

By April Grey

Author\'s Note: Warning--You are about to read an unedited rough draft version. Typos, grammatical errors, whatever abound. I\'m putting this up for curiosity’s sake. I will be working on One Foot In and When the Other Shoe Drops and combining them into one, hopefully workable novel. So that is why this one is posted unpolished. Read at your own Risk!


Chapter Five – In the Well

To my surprise Eben was waiting and had already found a volunteer. Eben’s son, Kember, was headed in that direction up the mountain and was quite willing to take me part of the way. He was a good-natured Folk, then again, they all seemed rather good-natured, it was rare to find one in a bad mood. Or maybe it was just a matter of putting on a good face for the visiting Elfish girl, I don’t know. I try not to generalize things.

Kember looked like his father, a huge oversized mole with clothes. Yes, straight out of Beatrix Potter. The thing is, I don’t find mole’s very attractive so I kept my normal sight as much as possible around him. Then he looked like a middle aged chap with straight brown hair and green eyes who was a couple of inches taller than me. Which view of him was more real, I can’t say. I don’t understand the double vision that I get seeing people as normal and then seeing them as anthropomorphic versions of animals. Nope, no answers here at all. But my querying about it kept my mind busy while we walked.

“Why are you heading up this direction, Kember?”

“Well, curiosity mostly.”

Silence, as we continued walking. He was keeping a sharp pace and the path wasn’t a clear one. I spend much of my concentration on not tripping on roots or stones or ruts.

As we crossed a stream I again caught my breath enough to ask him, “Well, what are you curious about.”

“Oh, all sorts of things.”

“But your father said that you had an errand in that direction, all ready.”

“Ah, but that’s where you are mistaken.”

“Umm?”

“I’m going with you because I’m curious what will happen if that thing which looks like a woman is a flesh eater. What will happen? If I hear your screams, I will run, but in which direction? Will I save you, like in some old fashioned tale? Or will I turn tail and run, and feel myself to be a coward for the rest my life?”

“So you are going up here with me to test your courage.”

He gave me a beaming smile, “Exactly. Oh, I do hope that I am the heroic sort. And wouldn’t it be nice if I proved myself to you and you fell in love with me and we lived happily ever after?”

“Errr. Did I mention I have a fiancée?”

“Your kinsman who you are trying to find? Well, I thought of that. He’s dead. You and I shall roam all about looking for him. We shall travel together for years and years until one day we come upon his grave. And you shall fall into my arms, wailing. And I shall of course be very noble and comfort you. And then we will be free to live happily every after.”

“Tell me, when you and your family were living in Prospect Park, did you have a television set?”

“Oh yes, it was a lot of fun.”

“I thought so.” I continued walking. And thinking. He probably got it right. So who was I to judge? We could wander for years and years and then find nothing but Leo’s grave. I was getting more depressed by the minute.

The climb was steady on a path that meandered across the mountain.

“So how much further do you think it is?” I huffed.

“Well, since I’ve never actually been there—“

“What?”

“No one has actually been there or seen her in quite a while. Just another reason why it was wrong of Cistal to say anything. She’s a bit of a legend.”

“Oh, crud.” My back hurt, my feet hurt, and I just wanted to cry. I sat down.

“Cindy, are you very upset?” Kember had moved about twenty feet ahead of me and was waiting for me to get up and join him.

“Does it matter?”

“Yes, it me it does. I’ve already had my family. Kids all grown and I’ve been a widower for five years now, so I should tell you that I don’t mind that Folk and Elfish don’t interbreed. I’d be glad to give you lots of comforting.”

I looked up into his face. He was almost leering at me. I jumped up and quickly set myself to rights, “Oh, no. I’m not upset at all. I just had something in my shoe. No need for comforting here, ha!” I gave him a very cheerful smile.

His face fell and he continued onward. I really would have to be much more careful around him.

We reached a point where we were not officially at the top of the mountain. The trees had thinned a bit and one had quite a view of the valley down below where we had come from and the next valley over.
“I see smoke,” said Kember waving me over closer to him.

Hesitantly I got into hugging range of him.

“Right over there.”

I smelt the wood smoke before I could see it, but it helped direct my eyes to the wisps of grey. It was twilight and I wondered if being a mole type of Folk meant that his eyesight became sharper in the darkness. I would have never been able to see it if he hadn’t pointed it out. However, my sense of smell just seemed to get more acute as my time in this land increased.

We’d gone twenty more yards when the first bones showed up. It was something that looked the skeleton of a human arm and it was nailed to a tree facing us.

Kember gave out a low whistle.

“You can stay here. If anything happens and I don’t return, you can go for help.” There I’d said it.

“And what of my proving myself to you?”

“Was that really what you wanted-- For us both to wind up in some witches oven? It makes much more sense for one of us to stay here and be able to go for help.”

I watched him mull over it. Bless him, he really was quite the romantic.

Well, if rational argument didn’t work. I leaned over and kissed his cheek. He blushed.

“Stay here and I’ll come back for you.”

The kiss had worked. He was frozen to the spot, red faced with his hand touching the place on his cheek where my lips had kissed him. I slowly continued on my way.

There were more bones, laying both on the ground and nailed to trees. All of them looked very old and I found that a bit reassuring. Perhaps they were merely décor and not to be construed as warnings?

And finally I saw the compound. There was a shack, something definitely a step up from the huts and hovels I’d been seeing, and a fenced in area with pigs and a cow. They were the first other world, meaning my world, normal livestock I’d seen. So I would hazard a guess that who ever lived here was indeed a carnivore.

“Hello?” I yelled trying to make sure I didn’t get killed for sneaking up on whoever lived there. “Hi! Anybody home?” The smoke was curing not from the shack itself but a smaller structure that was probably in use as a smoke house. Bacon anyone? My mother didn’t eat the stuff herself having been raised in a Kosher home, but she labored for an illusion of normalcy. I didn’t like pork too much either, but not for religious reasons, it was just too fatty. I like the faux bacon though and always kept a large bottle of Bac-Os in the larder for salads. Josh found it funny. Breakfast at the Connor’s was filled with rashers of bacon, cartons of eggs, stacks of flapjacks. It was a big family and a happy one.

I shook off the thought. I’d be getting back to him. I would. It was my fourth day here, so barely one day had passed. And with Josh being involved with filming, he wouldn’t notice my absence much. No, not at all.

“And who in the Blazes are you?”

I turned around and was faced by a beautiful young woman. I blinked a few times. Nothing else special about her that I could pick up. Then again, it had been that way with the true magic users here. They all registered as human and nothing more. But she was gorgeous with long, red hair, tied up into a ponytail, and her skin, pale white with delicate freckles across the bridge of her pert nose. I felt my usual twinge of envy when confronted with someone who was far more attractive than I could ever hope to be. Hell, she could be a model in New York City, if she ever wanted the work.

“I’m Cindy White of the White Moon Clan.”

The woman stared at me. “Elfish, but mixed blood.”

“Yeah.”

“Half human, are you?” She nodded. I noted that her eyes were the color of sea foam and matched the robe she wore.

It was getting dark and I felt a chill run through me.

“And you are?” I kept my voice low and respectful.

“None of your business.”

Not quite an auspicious beginning.

“I’m very sorry for bothering you. I just wanted to get some information.”

“I don’t give out information. Now be on your way.” She walked by me, accidentally shoving me as she passed.

“Fine, be a snooty bitch,” I said under my breath as I turned to go back to Kember.

“What did you say?”

I turned to find her staring at me, eyes ablaze with fury.

“I called you a snooty bitch. Okay?”

“I should turn you into a wood louse for your temerity.”

“Well, I’m sure you could. I’ve seen stranger stuff. All I want to know is how to contact the Faerae.”

She stood stock still, and a nasty smile crept onto her face. “Oh, is that all?” She went all very wide-eyed.

Yes, I felt it. Cat fight! I swallowed heavily. I could take her in a regular, hair pulling, scratching type fight, but if she was a mage, and the way the air was shimmering around her kind of tipped me off she was, well I was screwed. Still, it was a bit late to try and get back on her good side.

“Well, half-breed. I shall tell you.” She continued smiling. “They are easily summoned.”

I got that uh-oh feeling. Like when there was that very long blonde hair caught in Josh’s hairy privates-- that sort of I really don’t want to know, but now I’m going to find out sort of uh-oh feeling.

“It’s within your petty powers, I should think, to call them.”

Mommy! She was freaking me out. Goose bumps rose all over my body and their was the sort of stillness in the air that came just before all hell let loose.

“All you need to do is summon them,” she took a step towards me, “if you aren’t too stupid or week.”
Right. A dare. I had watched a mage summon the Faerae. And there was Ms. Sweetness and Light telling me I could do it. Okay. I would.

I held out my hands as I had watched the mage do. He hadn’t makes any special movements or said anything, so I didn’t either. I simply focused on what I wanted—the Faerae! I thought of them in both their incorporeal forms and how they looked when they took human size and shape. I thought of the heart rendering beauty of them and the sound of their music, they taste of their food. And then I felt them. There were there before me, a cloud of them radiating a blue light with sparkling little motes.

I heard the Mage laugh and it was an ugly, grating sound filled with triumph. The sinking feeling came over me again, like I’d gone from the frying pan to the fire. But why, I had nothing to fear from them, we were friends, weren’t we?

“You’ve done it, you stupid twat. You’ve summoned them and now you shall pay the prize.”

And she turned and rapidly walked away. I swallowed and watched as the swarm grew larger and filled out. The motes became larger until I could make out tiny figures, so precious and so perfect in aspect. Far beyond any artist could ever render and far beyond our reality.

They became larger and one in particular approached me. I opened my mouth to greet him, but with a gleeful look on his face his drew back his arm… and everything went black.

I’ll be the first to admit, I don’t have a great sense of time. And it gets worse when locked up in a cell somewhere in complete darkness. I couldn’t begin to say if I’d been there ten minutes or ten hours; plus the fact that that son of a bitch of a Faerae had hit me with something and knocked me cold. Suddenly, I wasn’t feeling very friendly toward our neighbors, the Faerae. In fact, I was feeling a bit like maybe my grandfather had had a point in feuding with them. Two sides to ever coin they say. I was getting to see the other side and I didn’t like it.

My head hurt and I didn’t move around for fear that I’d throw up. Didn’t that mean a concussion? I wasn’t sure. And though I had fairly good night vision, you still needed some amount of light to see. I was sure I’d learned that in High School Biology class.

I was thirsty and hungry. And I wouldn’t have minded a restroom as well. I needed to pee. Yeah, too much information, but the place was smelly in an unkempt, mildewed sort of way and I was afraid that if I did go take a leak I’d be stuck having to live with the smell of urine. Yuck. I could only hope that this was just a holding cell and nothing more permanent. I guess it might seem rather stupid of me, to not try to explore my cell. Maybe there was food and water in a corner. How about a latrine, or a bucket or a drain? Still, I just wasn’t ready. I felt ill and tired and not interested at all in scoping out my prison. Now there was a thought, maybe it wasn’t a prison? Maybe I was just staying in a room and it happened to be midnight and very dark outside? That was a happy thought. Then why wasn’t I in a bed? The floor felt cold and slimy. If this wasn’t a prison, I’d really have a bone to pick with the person in charge of housekeeping.

I closed my eyes and slept a bit more. In the darkness it was hard to tell when I was sleeping and not, except for when I had dreams. In one of the dreams, we were on his couch back in his apartment and sharing a pint of Ben and Jerry’s, One Sweet Whirled. I was stretched out over him, with my head in his lap and he was spoon-feeding me ice cream. He was whispering my name. He stroked my hair, and kissed me. I reached up and rubbed his chest. I felt cozy and warm and happy.

When I woke up, it was to cold and hunger and thirst. I wondered why I hadn’t dreamt of Josh. It was strange that it was Leo comforting me, but maybe not that strange. Josh was too macho to be nurturing. He liked me to be the one taking care of him and he was supposed to be the strong silent type or that was the role he tried to maintain. I couldn’t have lived with him as long as I did without the mask occasionally slipping. It wasn’t that he never encouraged me, but it was usually some sort of physical activity like karate. Leo liked to take care of me in a mother hen way. I suppose it was his comfort I was seeking in my dream. It had felt very good.

My head was doing a bit better so I decided to explore. If I could find a drain, I’d be able to relieve myself without too much odor. I didn’t try standing up but simply reached out into the darkness. The floor was rough and gritty while being moist and yucky all at the same time. After a had scoped out a section in front of me I moved a bit forward and did it again. I tried to move slowly in case a reached a wall, but managed to hurt fingers anyway when I did find a wall or some sort of obstruction. I reached up wards, again trying to figure out if this was a perimeter or something else. I got to my knees and continued on quest upwards. Yep, it sure seemed like a wall. The question which came to mind was-- what next? Should I keep one hand on the wall and attempt to go all around? I hated being in the dark like this, my breath came loud and sobbing in the cold, still air.

I extended my left hand and placed it flat against the wall and slowly got to my feet. Then I crept along waiting to find a door to the place, or a latrine or steps or something. And I found nothing. I walked and walked and still no corners, nothing but the roughness that was abrading my fingertips. A horrid feeling of despair shivered through me. The reason that there were no corners was that the room was round. And the reason I could walk completely around it without coming into contact with stairs or a door was that there were none. The room didn’t feel round, but create a large enough circle and one wouldn’t feel it.

I was in an oubliette.

Right there and then I lost it. I was totally completely without hope and helpless. I collapsed to my knees and began sobbing. Damn it. And I didn’t even know if Leo was here or not. But if he was here, then he was just as doomed as I was. I sobbed until I fell asleep. These dreams were feverish and paranoid. I was being chased in the dark and I couldn’t see what was following me, but I was in mortal terror. My heart was thumping fit to explode and I was so afraid. And then there on a dias in a circle of light was a toilet!

The beginning of wetness in my underwear woke me up. Either I peed now or I could suffer the indignity of dying with soaking wet pants. I figured that if this was an oubliette, then the drain should be dead center. I got to my knees and crawled in the direction that I thought might be the centre. I took it slowly inch by inche, fearful that there would be no grill on a drain, if a drain existed, and I might just fall into it and break my neck. Yet, that would be a blessing, wouldn’t it? To die quickly and not just stay here, forgotten until I died of dehydration, which is what I guessed must happen to most people after about three days.

Finally there was a depression beneath my searching fingertips and I trailed around the rim of it. It was not more than a hand’s breath across, but it seemed to go down and down. I didn’t have anything to drop down it to see if there was a splash or something to let me know how deep a hole it was. I pulled down my jeans and underwear and squatted over the hole in the floor and let rip. I was sighing in relief for the comfort. I thought about it. I usually didn’t go more than six hours without heading to the sand box, so I couldn’t have possibly had been there that long. I was just thirsty and hungry and that was creating my panic and depression. Sure I might be in a deep cistern or well, left there for eternity, but I didn’t know that that was my captor’s plan. This all might just be to break me before they saw me.

Oh, what a difference a pee makes. I felt much better, much more optimistic. I had only been there a few hours, tra-la, didn’t mean that the Faerae had sinister intentions. Oh not at all. I was doing an excellent job of convincing myself all was well when a beam of light hit my eyes, causing me to curse and put my arm over my eyes.

“Hey, who’s there?” I called, “please answer me.”

Nothing and I couldn’t see at all. I blinked my eyes trying to get things back to normal. I hurt a loud thud and a grunt. And the light was gone. Easy come easy go.

Some one was with me.

“Hello?” I was rooted to my spot. What if it wasn’t a person? What if it were something sent in to hurt me or eat me up. I stood there listening to my own breath and the beating of my heart in my chest. Eventually some of the fear left me and my body came down from high alert.

Again I said, “Hello?” and I went to my knees, listening. Eventually I heard it’s breathing. It was a slow, labored sound, at times rattling in it’s chest. Whoever it was, sounded ill. I crawled forward and found my other senses coming to help. I could smell the person’s rankness. It was a sour odor. I continued until my hand touched flesh. I quickly drew my hand back.

I sat there listening to it’s breath going in and out. Then it stopped. A few seconds creaked by and then a rattling cough and a sob.

I didn’t want to touch it, not without it’s permission.

“Hello? My name is Cindy. Can you understand me?”

Just more breathing. I feared that the person was unconscious.

I took my faltering courage and forced my hand forward again. I came into contact with fur. It was a thin fur covering a hard flesh. My breath caught. It was an animal or—

I put out both hands and began feeling along his body, and I breath sped up with both excitement and fear. His body. I’d seen him once before like this. I felt along his stretched out spine and thin long haunches. Heading the other direction his misshapen shoulders and neck. The hair along his head and neck were thicker and coarser than along the rest of him. I touched his chest, not flat but barrel shaped.

“Leo!” It was my dear kinsman in his cursed form. Which meant I was in grave danger. If his injuries were not too great, and my hand was sticky with what smelt like blood, when he came too I would be ripped to pieces.

My breath sobbed in my throat, “Leo,” and I cradled his poor massive head in my lap. So this was it. I had succeeded and found him. My mission was over. He’d wake and kill me and that would be it. I stroked his hairy face and kissed him over and over. My poor Leo. A small noise came from me, almost as if I were cooing to a child.

Every few minutes I’d feel a spasm tear through is body and then he’d stop breathing. When he did finally draw breath is was with a cough. I’d murmur, “there, there” trying to comfort him through I suspected were quite painful cramps. Twice I heard him whimper. It really was a curse and he was in pain almost the whole time.

I was growing weaker. My mouth was dry and the adrenaline from finding him had left my body. I felt tire and sleepy. Still cuddling him, my eyes closed and I nodded off.

His wailing woke me and I hushed him. I felt his body writhing under my hands. I wasn’t sure what was happening to him, but he was in agony and there was nothing I could do to help him but reassure him and touch his muscles in an attempt to sooth him.

“Leo, Leo, it’s Cindy,” I crooned after a particularly bad spasm had caused him to cry plaintively. I kissed the top of his head and noted that the shape and texture had changed. My fingers traced his body and I found his shoulders had gone broader and his chest wider. He was returning to human form.

There was something to be grateful for. He wouldn’t be killing me. At least not right away. His body was covered by what felt like goose bumps and I cursed myself for not thinking of his comfort sooner. I stripped off my hiking jacket and wrapped him in it. I shivered a bit in the cold of the dungeon, but was relieved to know my dear one would be warmer soon.

I hear his breathing change once again. It was shallower but less labored. I took his hand in mine.

“Wh—what?” Leo moved about languidly and then in a panic. He was weak and I held him easily.

“It’s alright, I’m here Leo.”

“Cindy? No, oh no.”

“Sorry, Leo, but yes, it’s me. Some rescue, huh?”

He pulled himself up and hugged me and cried.