The Bogsworth Lexicon: Book 1

Math Homework

Tony Gaff is sitting under a ginormous maple tree named Quiva. Quiva is at least a hundred years old and has cast loving shade over the Gaff house for years. Tony is of average height for a sixteen-year-old, and has dark brown hair that is cut short on top, and shaved around the sides. His skin is light brown, and he has hazel eyes. He shifts his seating so that he can look up at the branches instead of the house. He casts spells very bored and doesn't notice a tall pale vampire-elf swinging from a branch above.

The vampire-elf's name is Tad Goldfield, and he lives about an hour away from Tony. Tad has blue hair and a haircut that's similar to Tony's.

"Hey, Tony," Tad says, dropping down from his perch, making Tony start with fear.

"Jesus Christ!" Tony yells, getting to his feet, and putting a hand to his forehead in mock horror. "Tad, please don't do that to me!" Tad looks apologetically at Tony, with a rye smile.

"Sorry, you were just so into...." Tad looks around for the right words but fails. "Whatever you were doing." He finishes poorly.

"Sure, well let's go do the math then," Tony says, grabbing Tad's hand and walking with him to the front door of the Gaff house. Tony picks up his backpack, and walks over to Tad's purple truck, and gets into the passenger seat.

"You ready?" Tad asks as he buckles his seat and starts the car.

"Yup," Tony responds, rolling down the window to let in the cool Summer morning air. They drive through a tunnel of trees and forest to emerge onto a gravel road that curves around the edge of Paige Cove. It's an overcast morning, and fog is rolling down the steep forested hills that lead down to the water, which is still, and a stormy grey-green.

"Hoi hoi Hoi! Good morning boys!" Calls a shrill voice from Mx. Dohlgron's house.

"Hello, Mx. Dohlgron," Tony says smiling at her out the window. "Here, Mama said to give you this," Tony says, handing Mx. Dohlgron a scale.

"Oh, she didn't have to! And please just call me Dohlgron." They grab the scale and smiles at Tony widely. "Oh, please tell her that thank you."

"Of course, I hope your resurrecting goes well." Dohlgron smiles and laughs.

"Oh, you're too kind. How are you, Tad?" They inquire, leaning on the car door looking through the window.

"I'm good, but I have one question."

"What's your question?" They lean a bit closer.

"Who are you resurrecting?" Dohlgron laughs, throwing their head back in the air.

"I'm resurrecting my husband for the millionth time. The idiot keeps dying from bee stings, and shit like that, and to think humans couldn't get any stupider." Tad looks like he doesn't know whether to laugh or be sorry, so he just nods, looking slightly confused. "Welp, I'll go do that now, so I don't have his body lying on my table for my dinner date with Colieape, and his partner Knox." Tad smiles.

"Nice to see you!" Tony says waving, as Dohlgron walks back into their garden.

"They get weirder and weirder every time I see them," Tad says idly.

"But you saw their sharp teeth, and little oni horns, right?" Tad nods, laughing.

"Those space buns do not hide them." Tony and tad laugh themselves into silence. Tony looks out the window at the forests and occasional silver stag.
"How much math do we have to do?" Tad asks as Tony rolls his eyes.

"Were you even paying attention to Mr. Tereshval?" Tad shakes his head and turns down a small path into a deeper part of the woods. finally, the truck emerges into a cave of trees, with a huge one in the middle. There's a little navy blue house at the base of the tree, with multiple stories, that spiral up to the top, with the roofs brushing the branches.

"No, I was listening to Queen, like I always do," Tad says, pulling into the driveway, and turning the car off. "I don't know why you think I do anything else."

"I believe you do more productive stuff because I have not yet lost faith in you.

Meanwhile in Undertown...

Wave sits down at his desk knowing how the story ends. He'll fall asleep, Zi will carry him back to bed, and then he'll wake up to get work done. Almost every night he does this, but some nights he can lie down with Zi and read until he falls asleep.

"You could just lie in bed and fall asleep you know," Zi says from behind Wave, as he lays his hands on Wave's shoulders.

"But I've got to do much more work..." Wave trails off, thinking about the fishing tide charts and shells like that.

"You can do it in the morning, but right now you need to sleep." Zi is shorter than Wave, but he has no problem picking him up. "Anyway, maybe you can teach me to do all this, so we can share the load. Wave mumbles something into Zi's chest, who smiles and kisses him on the head.

Wave wakes up and feels cool air on his face, and realizes that the window's open. He gets up to close the window, but Zi pulls him back onto his chest and rolls around to be on top of Wave.

"You're not getting up yet," Zi mumbles into Wave's chest, wrapping his arms around his midriff, tucking his head into the curve of Wave's shoulder.

"I wasn't getting up for the day, I was just going to close the window." Wave says, sitting up, and closing the window then lying back down.

"Suuuuure, you were," Zi says tiredly, yawning in the middle of the sentence. Wave laughs and wraps his arms around Zi.

"Why don't you believe me?"

"You always get up early, and today is going to be different." Wave lies below Zi who curls upon his chest and kisses his cheek.

"I wish you would let me work."

"I wish you would-" Zi yawns, "Wish you would listen to me."

"I do listen to you, why do you think I'm still lying here?" Zi laughs and stretches his arms out as a cat would.

"You know what I mean, hon', I'm just worried about you." There are voices out in the hall. "You don't sleep, so I will sleep on top of you if that will keep you here."

"Well Zoo, I have to be in the throne room in half a tide."

"Let's just... sleep for a bit." Zi smiles into Wave's chest. "I so happy that you don't have to bind anymore."

"Me too Zoo, me too."