The Otherkind Book One:Heart

~*~ 20 ~*~

Inside he was fuming. He wasn't as good a seer as she expected him to be, but he could and did hide his rage that barely simmered inside him. He had talent! More than she knew. One day he would show her.

"Get up off your lazy bones and come here. Take this cup inside and scrape the leaves into a wooden box, no" she appeared to be thinking "a stone one. Make it marble, cold and lifeless! I've been carrying that with me for a while now. Make sure nothing happens to it boy! The time is nearly right for all this to come together! He is coming!"

Gingerly he took it. He did a double take between the cup and the hag. It really was just a stupid teacup.

"Cold and lifeless!" She repeated laughing at her own private joke. "I have to do something. Make sure everything is ready when I return!" In a flourish of cloak and multi-colored gaudy dress, she spun around going back the way she had just come. Her glamor spell falling away as she half skipped, half hopped back into the forest. She looked hideous. Her garments and even her long tangled and dirty gray hair seemed to have a life of its own, levitating around her in an animated cloud.

He looked down at the teacup in his hand and wondered whose life was about to get yanked around. Maybe he could add a pinch of his own magic to it too! He had no love for any of his kind. They had abandoned him. Let them all suffer! He wondered who was coming. Maybe he could find a way to follow up on the leads he had been gathering while the old hag had been away. No, better if he stay here for a while longer. Bide his time and learn some more.

Taking the eggshell thin cup inside with him, he kicked the door shut behind him with a satisfying bang. He heard the sound of scratching claws as creatures rushed away to hide. Soft distressing whines and hissing noises came from every shadow and darkened corner of the hovel he shared with her.

"Oh shut up!" he snarled clunking the cup onto the battered and scarred wooden table dominating the center of the room. When he saw that it didn't break he flicked it with his finger setting it wobbling again. Frowning he moved towards the fireplace and carelessly tossed on another log swinging the cauldron over the suddenly animated snapping flames.

"Make sure everything is ready when I return!" he mimicked. "I'll make sure everything is ready! Who does she think she is?" he talked to the darkness. "I mean really! Toad do this! Smack! Toad do that! Smack! Someone ought to smack her! Someday!" he whispered to the dancing flames "Someday!"

Something misshapen and indistinguishable reached out a tiny hand compassionately to his pant leg, mewling softly.

"Get away from me!" He shrieked kicking it away harshly. His lips curled back in a sneer as the creature squealed and crawled back to a corner to commiserate with other creatures that huddled together there. Pulling out the bench he sat down poking at the teacup, watching it rock back and forth. "I've got to find away!"

The door burst open. "Find a way to do what?"

"Nothing." Startled he jerked guiltily upright. The bench falling backward with his sudden movement.

She watched him critically and then her moods shifted again suddenly. "Leave that cup alone Toad! It's for something too big for the likes of you!" she cackled again.

Righting the overturned bench he turned back to the fire, stirring the vile contents of the now madly boiling cauldron.

"Good! Because if you wish your freedom from your chores" she smiled speaking in a false sing-song voice, "all you have to do is say so."

Yeah, and he would end up like the other tortured disgusting creatures that resided within these walls.

"No, I'm fine."