Evermoor Imminent | An Evermoor Chronicles Fanfiction

Chapter 3: Birds of a Feather

"Tara! Bella! Hey, wait up, you guys!"

The two girls slowed their pace and turned at the demigod's shouts. Ahead, Sorsha and the boys did the same, sharing looks of confusion as Otto plowed around the bend, nearly upsetting an apple cart in his haste. He skittered away slightly, as though realizing his mistake, but he kept his eyes firmly focused on his friends as Bella threw up her arms to brace for an anticipated collision.

Otto slid to a halt inches away, a glazed-over and slightly panicked glint in his eyes. Tara saw this and moved immediately to intercept. "Whoa! Otto! What's wrong? You're acting as if you've seen a ghost!"

Sorsha frowned at the girl's choice of phrasing. "Spirits are not something to joke about, Tara. They listen often and see more than we mortals could ever know."

Seb rolled his eyes at Cameron who looked torn between agreeing with Sorsha or backing up his best friend.

Tara glanced back at her. "It's just an expression! I'm not talking about actual ghosts!"

"No," Otto interjected, pulling the conversation back to its intended purpose once again, bouncing back and forth on the balls of his heels. "There...aren't any ghosts. I just...wanted to thank you again for...for giving me a home. It's...it's been so long since I was...so yeah, anyway, just...thanks."

The last part came out as a nervous squeak and Tara knew immediately that something was wrong, even as the boy rushed on with a hasty, "Well, we should be getting back to the manor to overthrow the tapestry's predictions, shouldn't we?" and then bolted as though all the heads of Cereberus and his descendants were after him, leaving the group standing there, blinking in confusion.

"Uh...okay?" Bella commented, turning after him with a frown. "Nice talking to you, I guess? Thanks for the pep talk. Really motivating, right? Okay, let's go." She turned and sloshed off after her boyfriend.

"What's going on with those two today?" Tara wondered aloud, spinning to follow her sister.

Cam and Seb shared a glance and followed close behind. 

"It's going to rain, you know," Sorsha commented as they jogged. She lagged behind the rest of them, rubbing her mittens together and shivering but refusing to complain at the quicker pace of the others. 

"Rain?" Tara remarked. "But, Sorsha, there's snow on the ground."

"I know," the dark-skinned girl replied. "But just trust me," Tara paused to look upward and Sorsha shuffled past her, "you'll see what I mean soon enough."

"Uh...okay?"

"So, what's got you so spooked?" Cameron asked from up ahead, having finally caught up with the fleeing demigod, going so far as punching him lightly in the shoulder. "You don't usually get this freaked out about something. Was the dorm too much? Bella was really worried you wouldn't like it, by the way." He lowered his voice to make sure the blond wouldn't overhear. "Between you and me, she was afraid you'd prefer to stay in the snoot cage forever. She kept mentioning how much she wanted you to see what it was like to be a normal person."

Otto snorted at the use of the word 'normal', but to Cam's (and everyone else's) blatant relief, whatever had scared him into moving like a jackrabbit had apparently passed and he had returned to his normal antsy self. Tara found this a little suspicious, for she was sure something had really scared him, but she knew better than to try to pull the answers out of him. He would just push them even further away, claiming that everything was all right even when he, and everyone else, knew that it wasn't. He had always been that way and his friends had long learned that whatever was on his mind, he would tell them about it in his own time when he was ready.