Monsters: The Folklore Trilogy Book 3

Where I Make a Pretty Good Speech

We watched as the body of the sphinx slowly dissolved into Amarie's still form. I let out a shaky breath and collapsed onto a bench.

"Oh my god, are you okay?" Sophie asked, running over. My friends surrounded me in an instant. Isaac handed me a bottle of water.

"I'm good," I exhaled, opening the cap and chugging down a quarter of the water.

"Dude, that was sick," Deynan said seriously.

"I have never been more impressed with you in my life," Audrey said, lightly punching my shoulder. Well, light for Audrey.

I grinned. "The footsteps one almost got me."

"But it didn't," Isaac reminded me.

Sierra placed a hand on my knee. "That was really brave of you."

I looked down at her and smiled. "Thanks."

"Well," Audrey declared, "that was exciting. I say we all settle down and chill for a bit, yeah?"

"Wow, Audrey wants us to chill?" Deynan asked in mock surprise.

She aimed a kick at his shins but he danced away.

"I need some rest too," Isaac admitted. "That was a little insane."

Everyone nodded before heading to various spread out places on the boat. I leaned back against the side, letting out a slow breath. I wasn't tired. My adrenaline was pumping far too much for that. I put my hands in my pocket out of habit and felt the familiar crinkle of a certain scroll.

I grinned and pulled Tinder out. He was a good companion, sass and all. I hadn't talked to him in a while.

I took out the quill and scratched my message: hey.

...hello? What's wrong? What did you idiots do this time?

I snorted under my breath. Nothing. I have a question. It's about Monsters.

Ooooh. Yikes. Those things are bad news. Steer clear.

There's one on our boat.

WHAT?! Why?!?!

Ok, don't worry about that right now. How do you defeat them?

Chop off their head, I don't know, how would you kill a bear? Look, the more important question is, WHY IS THERE ONE ON YOUR BOAT?!

It's fine, trust me, she's a friend. I mean, how do you defeat them without killing them? Just, make them transform back?

You're crazy. Get that thing off your boat. It will kill you.

Answer the question.

Well...okay, so Monsters tend to have pretty big egos because they're making up for all that insecurity. So usually you kinda have to prove them wrong. Try to show them you're disinterested and you want their human form back. Monsters were engineered to do whatever gets them the most attention or praise.

I thought about this. So that was why Amarie's transformation dropped when I had beaten her in the battle of riddles.

Nice.

Okay but I'm very concerned about this Monster who is your "friend". What?!

It's complicated.

"Hey," Sierra said, sitting down on the bench next to me. The pit of my stomach grew a little warmer. "What's up?"

"Oh, just talking to Tinder." I gestured to the scroll. "Trying to understand Monsters a bit better."