Home For DIFFERENT Monsters

CHAPTER: 11

"Tink!" Mike cried, the lizard now the size of a large dog. It ran at him on its hind legs, letting out a high pitched shriek. He saw Tink off to the side, wrestling with a house that had too many kinks in it.

A thousand pounds of stone slammed into the elemental from above, grabbing it around the neck. Flames licked at Abella's stone skin, but the fire wasn't hot enough to bother the gargoyle. Clutching the elemental in her talons, Abella lifted into the sky, crossing over into the backyard. Mike and Tink ran back through the house and into the garden in time to see Abella fighting the angry elemental above the fountain.

"Naia!" Mike shouted, the nymph appearing directly below Abella. She waved her hands, forming intricate patterns in the air as a wall of water formed around the fountains perimeter. Abella landed in the fountain, holding the fire elemental in place as Naia made the walls crash in. The fountain steamed, the elemental desperately fighting through the waves that kept catching it and pushing it back toward the middle.

Abella pinned the elemental in place, the water in the fountain beginning to boil. Naia ran around the edge of the fountain, coaxing more water up from below. The garden filled with steam as the elemental unleashed its magic attempting to boil off the water and escape. Abella's face was a mask of anger, her teeth bared at the threat beneath her as it shape shifted, an amorphous being determined to survive. Mike and Tink could only watch helplessly as the air became too thick with vapor to see.

Several minutes passed, the noise dying down. A cool breeze sucked the steam away, revealing Abella crouched in the middle of the fountain, a tiny glowing ember trapped beneath her hand. Naia nodded at the gargoyle, and Abella crushed it with her fist, extinguishing its light.

"Holy shit," Mike muttered. Abella collapsed in the fountain, breathing hard. Mike hopped in, the warm water soaking his pant legs to help her stand. The gargoyle was covered in soot marks across her stony body. She sat in the cool water, breathing hard.

"That was no simple fire elemental," she told him. "He was almost too hot for me to hold onto."

"She's right," Naia added, kneeling by Abella's side. She ran her hands gently over Abella's skin. "Whoever summoned that creature has use of some powerful magic."

"We know where it came from." Mike explained what he and Tink had found in the trash can. "The fact that it came from the trash and didn't just attack me when I walked in the door means something, but I have no idea what. The Society clearly wants this house, otherwise they would have just burned the place down. Ideas?"

"I'm thinking this was partially a scouting affair," Abella said, holding up a blistered palm. Naia summoned a streamer of icy water to wash across it. "The elemental needed to see who was here first. I'm sure they have ideas, but it would be a bad idea to just attack without knowing who and what. I saw it in wars all the time."

"You've been in wars?" Mike asked.

Abella nodded. "Usually I used forts or castles as a hiding place. I loved watching the people below, and nobody questions another statue on the roof of a church. I have seen my share of sieges. My guess is that they sent in the elemental to scope out the territory and then kill you if possible." 

"If I die, that's it. It was hard enough to find me, and as far as I know, I have zero family left anywhere." Mike shook his head. "I almost sold the place anyway, but the will stipulated that I had to come and see it first, and could only sell when full ownership transferred, which takes a few days. I die, it's only a matter of time before the Society gets this place, and then they get to you."

"Who are they?" Naia asked.

Mike looked at Tink, who sat on the edge of the fountain.

"Let's find out."