Total pages in book: 49
Estimated words: 45319 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 227(@200wpm)___ 181(@250wpm)___ 151(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 45319 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 227(@200wpm)___ 181(@250wpm)___ 151(@300wpm)
I was hoping to get around the curve in the road before he could spot me, but luck wasn’t on my side. A moment later I heard a deep angry voice bellow,
“Who’s that walking on my path? Who dares to come and wake my wrath?”
Seriously? I couldn’t help thinking. But at least his rhyming gave me an idea of what he was—Great Aunt Gertrude had taught me several ways to tell the different Creatures apart. Giants were, of course immensely huge and usually completely bald. And Trolls almost always had more than one head, according to her. Ogres spoke in rhymes. So the hairy, smelly creature behind me must be an Ogre—not that I wanted to hang around long enough to be sure.
After a quick glance over my shoulder to be sure he wasn’t following, I sped up my pace and kept walking. But then the Ogre spoke again.
“Girly, I can see you there! Did you come to steal my pears?”
I sped up some more. I was nearly running when I heard the rustling, cracking sound of a huge body breaking through the hedge. Great—he hadn’t even bothered to step over it—he’d just crushed his way right through it!
I started running in earnest then, though I still kept a tight grip on my basket. After all, it wasn’t heavy at all, so it wasn’t slowing me down. I might as well hold on to my valuable harvest of pears—or so I told myself.
I was nearly to the curve in the road when the Ogre spoke a third time—and this time his words had power in them.
“By the laws that bind us all, I bid you now to stop and stall!” he roared from behind me.
His roar shattered the early morning quiet and the birds which had been singing in the nearby trees suddenly fell silent. I tried to keep going and ignore him but, to my horror, I found that my footsteps were slowing. Suddenly it was like I was moving in slow motion, with every step getting harder and harder to take. And every minute I could hear the Ogre getting closer.
I dared to turn my head again and saw that he was only a few paces behind me. His long greasy hair was whipping in the wind and his putrid scent, like unwashed genitals and rotten garbage left in the sun, was suddenly all around me. His long, curving jaws were open and I could see a horribly long, red tongue behind them, reaching out as though he wanted to taste me!
I opened my mouth and screamed for help—only because I had eaten a Golden Warbler pear, I sang it instead.
“Help!” I cried and it came out sounding almost operatic—like a soprano singing a high note.
The Ogre let out a grating laugh.
“No use to cry, you’ll soon be dead. I’ll grind your bones to make my bread!”
My heart was pounding as though I was running a marathon but my feet were now stuck to the ground as though someone had super-glued the soles of my sneakers to the stones of the path.
I could feel myself starting to hyperventilate. Oh God, was I really going to die here and now? Aunt Gertrude had tried to warn me about evil Creatures—she’d told me I shouldn’t wander too far from the house near the edges of the magical bubble that surrounded the town. But I hadn’t listened to her and now I was going to pay. This was the end—the Ogre was going to bite my head right off my shoulders! Or else he would literally tear me limb-from-limb. He would—
There was a rushing sound in my ears and suddenly Malik was there, right beside me. He was dressed less formally than he had been last night, in jeans and t-shirt that strained over his broad chest, but I barely had time to notice his clothes.
Before I knew it, the Incubus was putting himself between me and the Ogre and glaring menacingly up at my would-be attacker.
“Get back!” he growled, his voice deep and menacing. “And remove the spell you cast on my woman!”
I was able to turn my head enough to see the Ogre scowl at his words.
“If she’s your woman, take control! She trespassed on my ground and stole!” he declared.
“No, I didn’t!” I said but again my words came out in song—a squeaky, high, frightened melody that was in all minor keys, probably because I was still scared to death. I appreciated Malik standing up for me, but the Ogre was taller than the Incubus by several feet and his big, meaty fists looked capable of crushing a person’s skull with one blow.
“She stole, she stole! Look at her bowl!” the Ogre insisted.
“If you mean her basket, I don’t see any problem,” Malik said coolly. “She was simply harvesting fruit.”