AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The ‘Event’
BY MIRANDA GRANT
The ‘Event’ by Miranda Grant
The Kingdom of Tails and Feathers is getting ready to open its doors to the public. But, um...there’s just one small hiccup. All the animals have disappeared.
I stare at my assistant as she bounces on one foot and then the other. Aeria clears her throat as a blush flares across her freckled cheeks. She looks anywhere but at me, her green eyes roaming around my still-to-unpack, box-crammed office before lingering on the off-white wall just behind my shoulder. But it seems even that is still too close to my gaze, so she quickly looks away, back down at the red fern-patterned carpet she is standing on. She clears her throat once more, but it is soft and wheezy, as if she already knows how pointless the gesture is.
“How in Zeus’ name,” I say slowly as I place both palms on my dark mahogany desk and rise, “did you lose all the animals one week before we’re about to open?”
My pulse spikes. Sus Oklina, the head journalist at the Otherworld Adventures magasine, who is supposed to be here on opening day, is not going to pull any tentacles when she arrives, and we don’t have a single animal. We’re supposed to be the upcoming attraction, where we have at least one of every type of mythical creature out there in large natural habitats that will protect them should any disasters happen to their species in the wild, allowing them to not go extinct. We’ve kept ahead of all safety protocols. We haven’t even lost a single zookeeper to a chimera or a dragon – something the Otherworld Zoo, the current biggest attraction, had happen three times before they opened. And now we’ve lost all our animals?
“How, Aeria?” I push out.
“Ah… Well, um… You see…” That soft, wheezy noise expels from her lips again as she rubs a toe into my carpet. “There was a glitch in the transportation spell…”
My jaw locks as I try very, very hard not to fall to the floor under the force of the sudden headache slamming into my skull. “A glitch?”
She nods meekly. “Yes?”
“You’re telling me, Aeria.”
“Ah, of course…” She clears her throat again. “Yes, ma’am. A glitch.”
“That transported all the animals elsewhere?”
She nods a bit stronger this time.
My headache starts to relax a bit as I sigh. “Okay, well, that doesn’t sound too bad. We’ll just go to this spot and recollect…” I trail off at the sight of her wide, panicked eyes. The pain in my skull starts to increase again. “What is it, Aeria?” I ask, a knot twisting in my stomach.
“Ah… Um… well… you see, the glitch was uh...pretty big, and uh…”
“Spit it out.”
She swallows audibly, her face going from hot red to worryingly pale. “They all ended up somewhere differently.”
“Somewhere. Differently,” I say slowly, not liking where this is going at all. “But all on Earth, right?” I ask hopefully even though deep down, I already know the terrible truth.
“Ah… No…”
“On the same plane of existence?”
“Uh...”
“On the same timeline, at least?”
She shakes her head, looking horribly sick.
Groaning, I fall back into my chair. “Zeus’ hairy balls.” Getting them all back before our opening next week is going to be one Underworld of a task. I’m going to have to bring in the Rangers…
My eyes flick to the Otherworld Attractions magasine on my desk. If we get a horrible article about us, we will lose our public support and funding. Then how will we be able to feed the animals? The dragons alone eat a whale every other week. My eyes flick to Aeria. She might be a troll, but she’s still too freaking small to be anything more than a snack.
Sighing, I push the big red button under my desk. In an instant, a vampire phases in, his slicked back white hair and dark-red eyes as crisp as the suit he’s wearing. “Yes?” he asks, a smile on his lips at the idea of going hunting.
“Call everyone in,” I say.
His eyes light up even more. I’ve never had to call in more than a few Rangers at a time. He doesn’t ask questions, his training keeping him silent until I have finished with my orders, but I can see the slight shaking of his hands. The head of the Rangers is absolutely obsessed with the hunt.
