Meet the Neighbors

Cordelia watched in a mini panic as her older brother shrank into the horizon on the horse. Getting him to trust her decision had been no small task. The wizard gave him a mirror that would allow Tom to see what she was doing anytime he looked at it. But not before Tom made it clear that he would be visiting every week to make sure the wizard was doing good on his promise that Cordelia would not be harmed.

Standing alone with the wizard, she was beginning to think she had made a very big mistake. He ducked into the small barn and returned with a box wrapped in brown paper and tied with string. He lowered his head, messy blond hair falling in his eyes and blew dust off it. Like the dirt he wiped off off his hands earlier, the dust turned red and vanished.

“What do you want me for?” She asked, trembling. Was he going to fatten her up and sacrifice her? Her hair wasn't a good enough sacrifice so maybe all of her was? Or, was this one of those stories where he fell in love with her at first sight and wanted to marry her? Maybe he just needed a maid.

“Right now?” The wizard thought about it, then gestured to her with the box. “To deliver a package with me.”

“To who?”

“The beast.” He winked walking toward the forest, shoving the package into a brown sack that no doubt contained other magical oddities. “Come along.”

Cordelia realized she had been frozen in place, while the wizard was already more than ten paces ahead of her. She tightened her hands into fist for courage and ran after him.

“Is it true that it drinks blood?”

“Only when he feels like it.”

She really hoped that was a joke. The approached a forest that was somehow dark, twisted, and menacing when the midday sun was shinning so bright. Purple trees twisted looking rather gnarly and something in there stared back with beady red eyes. She held onto her pink skirt and found herself drifting behind the wizard for an once of comfort. Whatever would try to kill them would hit him first. He held out his hand to her.

“Don't walk behind me, just come here.” His voice was confident but not unkind.

“And if something jumps out at me?”

He looked around, picked up a stick the length of her arm and handed it to her.

"Good now?" he asked her. His hand was still outstretched toward her and she took it, allowing herself to be lead forward so they entered the forest together. She didn't think she'd survive long enough for Tom to visit her in a week. She really hoped he's be looking at the mirror right not, turn around and rescue her.

However, nothing with red eyes jumped out at her. There was a mysterious fog reducing their visibility, but it smelled like a meadow after the rain. Tiny twigs snapped her her boots, and she bit her lip listening for anything that slithered, crawled, ran, or flew.

She heard something else entirely.

The plants really were whispering.

"Can you hear them too?" she asked. She became aware that she was still holding his hand and quickly let go, confident enough now to walk on her own.

He nodded.

"I told you they do most of the talking. The real trick is getting them to shut up."

A smile crept over her as she tried to make out what they were saying.

They're here. Here. Here. There. There. There. Ahead. Ahead. Ahead. Feed me. Play the music. Tell a story. Look out! They're coming. Coming. Coming. Coming...

Cordelia braced herself for danger. A repetitive sound came from in front of them, and above them. The flapping of wings. They were bats but bigger bats than she had ever seen before, and they had big teeth with forked tongues already escaping in anticipation of a meal.

The bats swarmed at them, and she lost sight of the wizard. She closed her eyes and swung her stick, but didn’t connect it with anything. She opened her eyes and a huge sharp fangs were an inch from her face.

She screamed, her legs buckling and giving out. The stupid wizard froze it before it hit her, and it stared at her with wide eyes and it’s tongue hanging out from its dislocated jaw ready to consume prey much bigger than itself.

She heard laughing from the bushes.

The wizard was holding his stomach from so much laughter.

“Ha! You should have seen your face!”

“That’s not funny! You shouldn’t have frozen it there!”

“I stopped it from biting you. Why didn’t you do anything but close your eyes and scream?”

“I swung the stick too." she held up the stick examining it. It wasn't a weapon it was just a twig. "This was a joke wasn’t it? I couldn’t have hit it with this thing.”

“You can if you aim with your eyes open.”

“You're just messing with me!” He was infuriating!

“Next time, try ducking rather than standing there with your eyes closed waiting for me to stop him.”

She rolled her eyes and growled like Tom does.

“Just unfreeze it.’

“Fine.”

That looked like it sped up to make up for the time spent still against it's will. She stood to the side realizing it wasn't mean or hungry. It was as panicked as Tom had been when he was frozen, his eyes moving erratically looking for any clue to explain what happened.

They walked for another hour in silence. Well, silence except for the very talkative plants. Cordelia didn't care what he felt about wanting them to shut up, she thought it was amazing. The gnarled purple trees looked beautiful in this new light. They were actually rather playful and some even told jokes. A few times she had to hide her face from the wizard after one of the trees elicited an unforeseen snort from her.

And then the trees gave them another warning that "they" were coming. She heard the words "man" and "woes" but wasn't sure what it meant.

The wizard dove for the pushes at any rate. Kneeling up to look around a tree. Cordelia stood her ground. She'd had enough of his tricks and she would not give him another opportunity to laugh at her. She stood her ground.

It was some kind of two legged, white animal running at them. A heard, just like the bats had been. These reminded her of small wolves but also monkeys.

“Cordelia hide!”

“I’m going to keep my eyes open this time!” she said, steadying the stick in front of her.

“No! Hide! That’s a very bad idea!”

“Then I’ll just duck!”

“Also a bad idea! Just trust me!”

She swung the stick at the first creature. It quickly dodged then attached itself to the stick with its opposable thumbs and sharp claws. She suddenly had a very bad feeling about this. One ran for her leg, when suddenly something pulled her off the path and behind a tree.

The wizard panted in her ear, leaning on the tree behind her.

“What-”

“Shhh!” His eyes were intent but not on her. It felt like a hour before the herd passed but Cordelia knew it was only a minute or two.

When they left, she glared at him.

“You almost got trampled! I’ve never met someone so bad at staying alive before! How do you function?” the wizard yelled at her.

“Why didn’t you just stop them, huh?”

“I can only stop things that are from this world.”

She looked behind her at their glowing footprints. They faded and disappeared as if they had never existed. She swallowed a lump in her throat.

“Then what were those?”

“A question for another time. Let’s hurry up, he’s waiting.” he grabbed her hand and pulled her along.

Cordelia wasn't sure what she knew anymore, but she did know one thing. She wanted to get out of this forest. She wanted to go back to her warm bed and pull the covers over her head.

When he was sure they had put the white creatures behind them, the wizard let go of her. He reached into his belt and pulled out a handful of green sand.

“He’s nearby.” he said apprehensively. The green sand floated like a small dust cloud. It shifted left, and the wizard turned to follow it; the cloud shifted right and he turned again.

“Where?”

“I don’t know. He could be anywhere”

“How big is he?”

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know? Have you ever met him before?”

“Lots of times. Why?”

“If you’ve met him before, how do you not know what he looks like?”

“Magic doesn’t work like that.”

Cordelia took a step forward with him. She happened to see that the wizard was about to step on a frog because he wasn’t looking where he was walking.

“Stop!” she yelled, sticking out her arm in front of his chest to stop him from stepping.

He stared and put his foot down behind him.

“There he is.”

“Where?” Cordelia looked around. The wizard pointed in front of them.

“The frog.”

“The frog? The frog drinks blood?”

“Sometimes.”

The frog stared at her, blinking. Then it grew in a shower of yellow sparkles. And then she stood face to face with herself.

“Hi.”

“Hi.” it echoed.

Cordelia moved to stand behind the wizard, but he pushed back in front of that thing, and raised the stick in her hands for her, so she was holding it out in front of herself.

“Give it the package so it leaves us alone.” she whispered to him.

The wizard smiled.

“Are you scared?” He asked, digging in his bag for the box.

“You already said I was incompatible with living.”

His head was still down but his grin spread wider from ear to ear.

“Not my exact words. But yeah.” He found the brown paper package wrapped in string And held it out to... well the other her. “Steve. As promised.”

Her blood red hair spilled down this beast's, Steve’s shoulders and back. Then a frog’s tongue burst out of it’s face and took the package. The box hit it in the face and it turned into a much smaller boy with brown hair and red lips.

Cordelia looked behind her. Who was this boy? Was he somewhere in the forest and she didn’t see him?

The monster opened the box, the twine and paper falling down. Before it touched the ground, it caught fire and incinerated itself. The box was empty.

“Aww man, thanks Gus.” it said like a child. For all she knew this monster was hundreds of years old. It held up its hands admiring... nothing.

“The package was empty?” She asked.

The boy turned back into her and mimicked her voice.

“The package was empty?”

“Stop that.”

“Stop that.”

She glared at herself, and she glared back.

The wizard, Gus, laughed some more.

“Don’t worry. Steve is just learning to copy you.”

“Well it makes me uncomfortable. Why did we come all this way to deliver an empty box?”

“It’s not empty. You just haven't learned to see it yet. Steve can teach you in time."

Cordelia swallowed a lump in her throat. She wasn't sure she wanted to learn from this thing.

"I heard that." the wizard said plainly. "And he can too. You should apologize. He's my friend."