Page 16 of Curse the Flame

Okay.

“Nobody,” I squeak.

“Nobody,” the cyclops grunts, lowering his club to his side. “It’s always nobody.”

I wait for him to rage again, turning toward the tree we’re still hiding behind. To my surprise, he continues on his way. It’s that easy. He stumbles through the gap between the trees, going on his way as if that was enough to satisfy him.

I wait. Long enough that Sir gets antsy and I have to risk setting him down on the dirt again, and I wait. When it becomes clear that we had one heck of a lucky break and the monster isn’t going to return, I decide that I definitely did hear someone speaking to me inside of my head.

Here goes nothing…

Hello? Are you there?

When no one answers, I figure I imagined the voice, and then⁠—

I’m not ready to awake just yet. I need a few more moments for my beauty sleep, to prepare myself. Polyphemus could wake the dead, says the voice, a delicate little chuckle that says she amuses herself even as she adds, and I would know. But, for now, you’ve found his hound. Trust him to get you home.

There’s a finality to her tone that warns against asking any questions.

Trust the hound?

I look down at Sir who is currently lifting his leg, peeing against the tree next to me.

Relief mixed with amusement mixed with disbelief has a laugh bubbling up in my throat.

He can’t possibly be the hound that the voice means, can he?

Though, to be fair, that isn’t any more insane of an idea than trusting the disembodied voice that suddenly decided to start speaking from inside of me, is it?

CHAPTER 4

PERSEPHONE

WILLOW

Trust the puppy.

Trust the puppy.

Oh, boy. I’m in trouble.

So far, I’ve trusted the puppy to lead me even deeper into the woods. I’m beginning to think that there is no end to it. It doesn’t help, either, that I’m hungry. I’m thirsty. I kind of have to pee, but I’m holding out hope that the woods end, I find myself on a highway somewhere, and if I head far enough down the road, I’ll chance upon a McDonalds that’ll take pity on me and slip me some McNuggets and the bathroom code because I definitely don’t have any money on me.

Since I don’t think that’s going to happen despite my overly optimistic nature at times, I keep on trucking, hoping that—at the very least—we’ll run into some who might be able to help us.

The woman’s voice that made me second guess my sanity for a minute or two has disappeared. She’s not around to give out any other instructions except to follow after Sir, and since that was what I was doing anyway, I just keep on going.

For a good amount of time, it’s just the two of us. I try talking to him, hoping that maybe he’ll surprise me by speaking back. I mean, he smokes. He has fire in his eyes. Why can’t he talk?

He doesn’t. He yips and he growls, he barks, and he sometimes whines when he thinks that I’m taking too long to follow him wherever he’s taking me, but since I’m supposed to trust him and I can’t think of anything better to do, I let him lead the way, hoping he’s leading me to someone who can talk to me.

Is that what he does? Or is it just pure dumb luck that someone else happens to find us?

No idea, but not even Sir sensed the woman before she suddenly appears, stepping out from behind one of the thick trunks of the tree to my right.

I jump. Sir digs his front paws into the dirt, rump arched as he growls softly at her while keeping me behind me.

The woman doesn’t seem to notice. She just pauses for a beat, then her head jerks up, finding me.