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So the visit isn’t free. “What’s the payment?”
He smiles. “Story time.”
Beast-man says that Master must tell his stories to the other scholars for posterity, so I’m taken to a windowless room with a small bed made of wooden slats. There’s a bucket in the corner that smells like shit. I assume that’s the bathroom.
This entire place puts me on edge, like some bad dream where at any moment, the boogeyman is going to jump out with a chainsaw.
I sit on the bed and try to calm my hunger pangs. I don’t know what they’re going to bring me to eat, but I don’t want the guilt of killing some poor helpless creature.
I suddenly start laughing. Is anything really innocent in Monsterland? I think not. It’s kill or be eaten in these lands,though I have to admit the Scholar People seem more civilized. Except for the naked part.
What makes me nervous about them is the Roach Motel welcome I received.You can come in, but you can’t get out.Also, why are they sending their scholars to my world? How come nobody told me? Did Grandma Rain know that her dog wasn’t a dog?
None of it makes sense when I take into consideration everything I know about Monsterland. They’re all about food. But I’m supposed to believe that these half-dog creatures send their people to my world, undergoing an irreversible transformation into a dog, because they’re on some sort of humanitarian, learning expeditions in the name of historical preservation? Sounds like a bunch of BS.
I don’t want to stay here all night, so I have to find out what this storytelling entails. Will they ask for specific events? Summaries of portions of my life?
I don’t know.
Fucking Alwar. Why didn’t he warn me?Yes, yes, he tried to tell me something before I entered the big hole, but here’s the thing: they’ve talked about the Scholar People before. They never indicated they were nasty cave-dwelling masterbeasts who live in a moving structure, surrounded by leeches and thorny creatures. They never indicated there was a bartering system here. One would think that if Alwar was trying to be helpful, he would’ve mentioned some specifics the moment I said I wanted to come here.
My stomach rocks back and forth, vacillating between massive hunger and unease.
There’s a knock at my door, and I still. “Yes?”
“Lake, it is I, Gabrio.” His booming voice is a welcome sound.
I stand and open the door. “What are you doing here?”
“I did not feel comfortable staying behind in the Blood King’s—I mean—inyourpalace. There is a restlessness there, everyone tiptoeing and whispering.”
“Did you tell Alwar about it?”
“Yes. Of course. That is the other reason I came.”
“Good,” I reply. “So why are you here, in the Scholar People’s temple?”
“Alwar asked me to come check on you. He said you prohibited him from accompanying you.”
“So he wanted you to spy on me?”
Gabrio shrugs. “He cares about what happens to you. As do I. The journey here can take a while to shake off.”
I take his words with a grain of salt. “You mean the muddy tunnel of horror filled with barbs and teeth?” I leave out the part about seeing my grandma or having a minor freak-out over being a vampire.
“My journey here was completely underwater. I kept drowning over and over again. Not a very glorious death for a warrior.”
I frown with confusion.
“The moment the thorn serpent stings you, your worst nightmares and fears come to life. They have a sort of poison.”
“So those leeches weren’t real?”
“Oh yes, those were real—nasty bastards—but nothing else was. It was a test to see if your intellect is high enough to conquer fear before you are bled to death. The more primitive animals go into a panic and never make it through.”
I fucking hate this world. Every inch of it.“Glad that I could stay sufficiently calm not to die and that my husband couldn’t be bothered to tell me any of this.”
“He had no reason to worry. Your intellect is not primitive.” He smiles. “Most of the time.”
