Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 71045 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 355(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71045 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 355(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
Three days seems far enough away that worrying about it would be on the unnecessary side. I’ve had life change so much in three days it’s completely unrecognizable. Three days ago we didn’t even know Tabby, and now she is the most important thing in my life.
We settle into the cabin. It has two double bunks and two singles up top. It’s designed to sleep six, which is generous. Tabby immediately climbs to the very top bunk and looks down at us.
“This is mine,” she says. “I need my space.”
Skor and Krall look put out about that, but I just smile. I think she’s cute, I think she’s smart, and I’ll never forget how strong she is. If she wants a top bunk, she can have a top bunk. I’ll spend my life getting her what she wants.
“I’m going to patrol,” Skor says.
“I will take the other way,” Krall says.
That leaves me and Tabby alone in the cabin as the train starts to hiss and snort like a wild animal. She looks a little perturbed. She’s never been inside a vehicle before. This is going to be wild for her.
“Can I come up?” I ask the question as if she’d be doing me a favor, not as if I’m trying to protect her from her fear of being in the train as it gets going.
She pretends to think about it for a second, then shuffles over obligingly. I jump up there, using one rung on the ladder.
“Here,” I say, producing a crumpled brown bag from my pocket. It contains a dozen sweets that I noticed she particularly liked.
“What is that?” She grins at me as she looks in the bag and her pupils dilate with excitement. “Where did you get these?”
“I dropped into the store before we left. I woke up a little earlier than the others. I usually do.”
“She let you buy them?”
“She did.”
“She was going to cook me alive and eat me.”
“Well, nobody is perfect,” I deadpan.
She giggles, and offers me a sweet. That says a lot to her nature. She loves these treats, but her initial impulse is to share them with me. We are incredibly lucky to have found a mate like her. We could have been left with a feral mountain girl with a cold heart and cruel tongue. Instead we have one with a loving bosom and a sweet tooth.
“They are for you,” I tell her. “All of them. Save them. We might not find others as good.”
“Really?”
“No,” I say. “There will be others, but those are the only ones from this place.”
“Oh,” she says, looking at me with something like surprise. “Oh!” she says again. “Yes,” she says, tucking them into her satchel. “Thank you.”
The train makes a jolt as it starts to move, along with a loud whistle.
She reaches for me with a little shout of shock.
“We’re moving,” I say, stating the obvious in case it helps. “Look out the window.”
Tabby
The world is starting to slide by outside the window. It makes me feel slightly sick, if I am to be honest. The few buildings of Last Stop slip away, and then the outdoors starts to get very fast in a way my brain has never dealt with before.
I grab for Thorn in an effort to steady myself, lie back, and close my eyes. But there’s no real escaping the movement. I can still feel it, a pressure pushing me backwards.
“I don’t like this sorcery,” I say.
“It’s okay. It’s weird to get used to at first,” he says. “It might be easier to deal with if we go outside and get some air on your face.”
“Go outside? Go outside where?”
“There’re little balconies between carriages, and at the end of the train.”
I find myself quite unable to move from the bed. Mostly because I am clinging to it with an absolute death grip.
“I can’t.”
“It’s okay,” he says soothingly. “I’m right here with you, and you’re going to be okay. Just let yourself get used to it.”
I don’t know how anybody gets used to being in the belly of a charging beast. It’s the most unnatural thing I have ever experienced in all my days. This should be illegal.
I grip the walls on my way past, feeling very unsteady as the train rocks back and forth, side to side. I feel a sort of low grade queasy terror that is not like proper fear. It’s some other kind of thing, a fear of unfamiliar things. I have lived my whole life with only familiar things. Easy evils.
The door to the carriage opens at the far end, and Krall walks in.
“What’s wrong with her?” Krall looks immediately concerned.
“She’s getting her sea legs,” Thorn explains.
“The train is moving,” I say, barely able to get the words out.
Thorn opens the door at the end of the carriage. Wind rushes in, the tracks rush away. I collapse to the floor and scream. It’s not my proudest moment.