Page 5 of Trapped By Clocks and Hearts

“You’ll get used to it in no time,” the caterpillar stated, put the hookah back into its mouth, and began smoking again.

She looked around, at a loss. “What, you mean being here?”

The caterpillar took the hookah out of its mouth once more and yawned. Then it began to slither slowly down off the mushroom, crawling away on the grass, merely remarking as it went, “One side will bring you up, and the other side will bring you down.”

Her lips pursed. “The sides of what?”

“Of the mushroom,” the caterpillar finished before it disappeared into the woods.

Just then, a low rumbling from across the valley caught my attention. Glancing up, I clenched my jaw.

Here it comes.

The shadow.

Chapter 2 - My Hero

Alarge flock of birds squawked and flapped upward from a clump of trees on the horizon, a flurry in their efforts to escape the eclipse that blotted out the light like a tidal wave of darkness visibly coming closer and closer to the clearing where the giant mushroom stood.

Letting out a haggard sigh, I rode the air to coast swiftly down, scooping the girl up in my arms before she even noticed I had arrived.

“Whoa—” She grabbed my neck to secure herself against me before she looked up to meet my gaze. “It’s you!”

I was sure she could read the disapproval in my eyes, the wind whipping past us as I flew us away from the forest.

But her cheeks were pink, her smile wide with pleasure.

It was odd. Since I had found her, I’d left her to herself, presuming she required more rest, presuming my companions were more than capable of dealing with her.

Perhaps I should have cared about who she was, why she had been in that cave, where she was from. But my only interest was to solve the puzzle of this mysterious heart.

I had only seen her once while she recovered from her state.

That time I’d had to physically come downstairs to deliver her food. Still bedridden, the expression in her tired eyes when they met mine was most definitely not delight. Apprehension, yes, but not delight.

Definitely not pleasure.

This situation did not warrant the pleasure in her eyes.

Then it hit me.

That damn caterpillar.

“What did you just eat?” I asked in suspicion.

Her pupils dilated, she laughed merrily. “Oh, don’t be such a downer.” She’d clearly sampled some of that caterpillar’s mushroom when I wasn’t looking.

I shook my head again. “Don’t you know what magic mushrooms do?”

“It didn’t look poisonous. It didn’t say poison on it.” Her face fixed into mock sobriety. “Besides, you know what they say. If at first, you don’t succeed, try two more times so that your failure is statistically significant.”

I scoffed in ridicule. “You are so intoxicated right now.”

She smacked her lips out loud. “It tasted like waffles. Did you know everything in this world tastes like waffles to me? Besides, the caterpillar made it sound so fascinating. I was just curious.”

“You are much too curious for your own good,” I mumbled.

“I’m a scientist.” She threw up one hand as if to gesture the obvious.