When I open my eyes the next morning, I immediately notice that something is not right. "Adam?" I yell, only to receive silence as a response. I then realize that today was the day that all eight of us were supposed to go to Terrabyssia, the scariest, most horrifying place in Maurasia; at least, to an outsider, it is. Hurriedly, I go through my morning routine; when I finally reach the breakfast table, Adam grabs my hand and smiles at me.
"Good morning, beautiful. Have a good sleep?" I shrug my shoulders and mutter "Yeah, I guess so." He smiles his devilish smile. "I for one had a wonderful sleep; how 'bout you, River?" River rubs his eyes. "I had nightmares about what kinds of god-awful creatures we might encounter." Violet rubs his shoulder as he rests his head in the crook of her neck. Adam is immediately intrigued. "Such as which creatures, River?" River purses his lips in thought.
"Well, I don't know what they're called, but they were ug-ly!" River splits the last word into two syllables, for added emphasis. Violet laughs her tinkling giggle. I turn to him and ask "Can you draw them? Then maybe we can take a stab at the names." I hand River a notepad and pencil, and he draws a creature with bat's wings, a lion's head, a goat's body, and a serpent for a tail. "Chimera" Adam says.
River flips the page over and draws again. This time he uses half the page and draws a cat-like creature; half-tiger and half-leopard. I recognize the animal right away. "Tisegron" I exclaim. And then he draws a creature which most of us don't know; a creature that could only be described as hellish and ungodly. Aiden speaks now; apparently he knows what the creature is. "It's a Heater," he says. The five of us who have no idea what a Heater is look at Aiden, who clears his throat.
"It's the national animal of my Realm, as well as Katie's, just as Ciro and Ayla have the kitty-bird, you two from the Earth Realm have the tisegron, and the Water Realm has those oh-so-boisterous dolphins!" At this comment, River and Violet laugh, and Aiden unexpectedly joins in; Adam slaps him on the back so hard that he coughs a few times. Apparently Aunt Kellie saw this, because she walks into the sitting-room and, at the top of her lungs, yells at the one person with whom I plan on spending the rest of my life.
"Adam! How dare you abuse Aiden like that! You'll be lucky if I don't drag Ilmatar into this!" Now he's pissed; I can tell because his hand, which holds my own, begins to ball up into a fist. My left hand brushes his cheek lovingly, in an attempt to calm the tumult I know is ensuing inside the once-brilliant mind of Adam Birch. Instead of yelling at my aunt, he looks her square-on and begins to explain why he slapped Aiden on the back so hard.
"Look, Kellie, before I offer any sort of explanation, know that we were all just trying to have fun; have a few good laughs, you know?" Aunt Kellie raises her hand so it's level with Adam's face.
"Don't bother, Adam. Were you an only child? Sorry if I'm being nosy; I would just like to know." Adam lifts a hand to his chin; a gesture I know signifies he is thinking. It's a slow burn, but eventually a flame ignites.
"No Kellie; I was not an only child. I had 3 older brothers and one older sister, but at 4 years of age I was taken away from my parents. I still don't know why, Kellie." Violet nudges my arm. "Hey Marie, does Adam normally do that?" I look up to see tears streaming down his face.
River, who had originally been the quiet one, says "The beast has been defeated!" with a loud whoop immediately following. As it had earlier, Adam's left hand begins to ball up into a fist. I move out of the way, but instead of aiming his fist at me, Adam takes a swing at the current origin of his rage.
River tries to duck out of the way, but Adam grabs him by the collar of his fish-patterned pajamas and holds his fist just inches from River's lower jaw. "I think you're a little overdue for some 'quality time' with my fist, River; what do you think??"
