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“Good. That’s what it sounds like so all you have to do is be very quiet,” he instructed. I was so intrigued to listen to the very sound that I closed my eyes and allowed myself to repeat the words in my mind.
Pitter patter. Pitter patter.
The tempo was easy to continue, and it came to the point where my breathing wasn’t as labored as before. I felt exhausted, but I yearned to catch onto the sound of rain, having not heard those dropping beads against the ground for a long time.
I was about to state I still wasn’t hearing a thing, but I caught the sound at the last second, and how the serene noise filtered through my surrounding until it was all I could hear. Just for that moment, I let myself close my eyes and enjoy the soothing sound.
Second after second of appreciated noise helped the tension leave my system just like the threads of panic, and when I finally opened my eyes, I was back in the room I’d woken up in.
“You heard it!” the puppet declared like he was so proud. “A calming sound, isn’t it?”
Staring before me, I looked at the puppet with teary eyes and trailed my gaze from its knitted body to the mastermind of the puppet show.
The puppeteer.
“Sometimes when the world feels like it's caving in, I force myself to shut it away and focus on listening for the sound of rain,” Colton whispered with a pleased expression. There wasn’t a line of judgment in his expression as his puppet danced from side to side while his other hand was the culprit in making the rain noises—a tiny white cloud hovering over the palm of his hand while beads of water fell into his grasp and downward to the floor.
I hoped it wouldn’t ruin the carpet, but lo and behold, there was the fleet with a bowl to hold the water. Five of them held the white container while the others had mini buckets to help drain the filling bowl and pass it down the line that made its way to the slightly opened window where they dashed the water out onto the desolate soil.
Zasper was quietly leading, an umbrella in his hand that moved from side to side while he singing the melody Momo normally did to encourage his fleet.
The sight of it all made my eyes water before I looked back to Colton and gave him an appreciative smile.
“You’re right,” I whispered. “The sound of rain is very calming.”
He agreed with a bob of his head as the cloud faded away.
“It’s my time to go,” the puppet declared. “With a poof, I go!”
Just like that, he poofed into a cloud of blue. Colton’s hands were now free, and he used that to his advantage to reach out and lightly brush away the tears that ran down my cheeks.
“We’re going to figure everything out, so don’t stress,” he assured me. “We’ll get to where we need to go and get the information you seek. All you have to do is be confident that we can do exactly that. Can you do that from me, Lexiboo?”
“Lexiboo?” I cringed at the name and that made him chuckle.
“I’m hoping it’ll make Malifer jealous. Unlike Felix and Fynn who unintentionally piss Alpha Malifer off, I enjoy the idea of annoying the shit out of him. Makes living life as a demon more exciting when there’s not much to do here.”
“Well then,” I began and smirked. “Continue.”
He nodded in approval before he encouraged me to take a few deep inhales and let them out.
“I want you to just close your eyes and just envision Alpha Malifer standing in front of you. He doesn’t need to say anything. Just focus on his image and breathe in and out.”
I followed his lead and did what was instructed until it felt like I was meditating to try to get the answers I yearned for. It took a bit to fall into a state that muted the rest of the world, but when I did, everything came rushing back.
Instead of trying to keep it all inside as the flashes of the conversation came to the surface, I let the words out and explained everything as it flowed into my mind. By the time I finished, I was out of breath again as the importance of the matter settled in, but Colton held my trembling hands in his while he met my worried gaze.
“Breathe, Lexiboo. We have all the information we need to make a plan.”
“Yes,” I whispered as the word “plan” seemed to ease all the anxiety that was building up at the idea of now having a course of action. “We’re going to create a plan.”
“ViViVo!” Zasper and the others cheered while they carried mini notepads as if they were taking notes on everything I’d been saying.
“So, all we have to do is get Felix, Fynn, and Wallas. With them in tow, we can easily get to Alpha Malifer and find these apparent crowns. Time may not be on our side, so we gotta jet. If Travis’s intention is to ambush us, we just have to lure him into our own trap.”
“Lure him?” I asked. “How are we going to do that?”
I felt like a noob in this situation because, despite my confidence in many other areas, the valley was still new to me.
