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Charlie’s guests were otherworldly.
I was hiding under the lounge chair in the living room when Charlie dragged them all into the house. He slammed the door shut and fell back against it, panting as though the world were chasing him.
I flinched at the loud noise and tried to shake away the fragments of memories that pressed in closer from the edges of my mind. Charlie took deep, gulping breaths, and I copied him, calming almost immediately. When a guest spoke, I froze and looked at them properly. I saw the color of them. The shape. The fact that one had wings. I blinked rapidly. But they were still there.
I’d seen a lot of strange things since I’d been reborn in this time. Dishwashers being one of them. I also lived with a witch, so I saw spells being cast, potions being made, and naked rituals.
Nothing Winnie conjured up could have prepared me for people like this.
“This is your home? It is … quaint,” the beautiful elf said, glancing around.
“What were you thinking? Appearing like that in the center of town! Who knows who’s coming after you now?” Charlie shouted, finally getting his breath back. “I’m going to need to fight my way through so many firewalls to check if the government knows you’re here,” he muttered while walking toward his office.
The creature with wings and horns laughed and said, “Fear not, Charlie the human. We have traveled many times before to many different realms. You won’t need to fight any walls on fire. Although why you would need to do that is beyond me.”
“That’s what you think, but nothing goes unseen in this world. Make yourselves at home. This might take a while.”
The green-haired elf lowered himself onto the sofa hesitantly. He bounced slightly, testing it, and then sank into the cushions. He rested his arm on the side to stop the sofa from swallowing him whole. He began, “What Savida said is true, Charlie. My magic cloaks us when we arrive through the portal and disguises us as the most sentient being. Please calm yourself, and perhaps we can talk more about our trip,”
Savida watched his friend with a huge grin, then launched himself onto the sofa next to him. They both bounced, and Savida chuckled as the elf, disgruntled, rearranged himself. There was only a hint of a smile in his eyes that suggested he enjoyed his friend’s playfulness.
The third guest walked to sit in the chair I was hiding under. I hadn’t studied him properly since he had stayed so quiet, but as soon as I looked at him, I couldn’t look away.
He was huge. So tall that his head scraped along the ceiling as he walked toward me. His skin was golden, not a true gold, but closer than human skin could ever be. He had purple lines like veins that raced over his arms and up his neck with one strand reaching to his left eye, which was also the same stunning color. His hair was a bright white and braided to his calves, swinging around his body like a tail. He had large purple eyes, a nose that was flat and wide, big lips, narrow cheekbones, and a square jaw. He was stunning.
A strange feeling enveloped me as the golden god sat in the chair above me. I felt protected. I felt warm. And I had the urge to rub myself all over him and enjoy his large hands petting me as I fell asleep in his lap.
Restrain yourself, Clawdia. You don’t know if the otherworldly men have ever seen a cat before. You could frighten them, a sensible voice in my head told me.
I giggled at the thought of them all screaming and running from me and then focused on the white braid that lay on the floor next to me. I clawed it closer to me, intrigued by the small pendant dangling from the tie. It looked like a black stone. There was a faint outline of an engraving, but I couldn’t recognize the symbols. I sniffed it and resisted the urge to chew on it. I kept it close so I could continue to breathe in the smell.
I turned my attention back to Charlie, who looked torn. He chewed on his lip and ran a hand through his hair and over his face. “Yes. Okay. Magic. Sure.” He walked back to the chairs and sat down. “Introductions would be a good start. How about you start, large golden one?”
Above me, a voice growled his name, “Zaide.”
I thought of his name, turning it over in my mind. It suited him somehow.
The room was silent as Charlie waited for Zaide to go on. When he said nothing more, Charlie prompted, “And you are a …?”
The winged man smiled and nodded encouragingly as the giant above me sighed loudly. “My people were once titans, but now we are nothing but large, magicless, broken beings. We are slaves, as I once was.” There was a silence and a tension that made my stomach clench. My heart broke for him. “Does that satisfy my introduction, human?”
“It does.” Charlie paused, and his voice softened. “I’m sorry that happened to you. That’s fucked.”
Zaide grunted a laugh. “So it is.”
In the brief pause, I contemplated the term “titan.”Is a titan the same Titans who fathered the classical Greek Gods? Or is that a human myth based on brief interactions with his people?
Charlie turned his head to the elf, who began his introduction, “I am Daithi, Son of Eriman, and I am faei from Álfheimr. My kind has magic to create illusions and portals. I am also cursed with premonitions.”
Faei, as in Fairy?
“Blessed,” the winged person interrupted and looked at his friend meaningfully. “He’s blessed with premonitions.”
“Okayyy.” Charlie drew out the word, clearly taking in all the information but not coming to any conclusions. “And who are you?”
“Savida. I am a demon, but I remember nothing before Daithi found me here.”
A demon?
