The Call of Nys #5 (Waverly Stump and The 7 Realms)

6 - W A V E R L Y

Over time and for hundreds of generations past, stories about certain kinds of supernatural beings circulated; some thrilling and some uninteresting. All retold the same tale, but Waverly thought it an utter frustration that in all the stories she had heard about ghosts, no one pointed out that they could be overwhelmingly talkative.

Until they arrived The Coath, Ghost never paused. Not once. He did not even stop to breathe. She doubted he had any air to. He talked about things she understood and those she did not. To get to The Coath, he claimed they needed to wait for Zors' pet, Reek, to take them.

"What is that?" She had asked.

Just before a gigantic doglike thing lifted its large head over the cliff side and barked in her face. Originally hesitant to climb aboard such a creature, she only conceded after Ghost assured that Reek was friendly.

"He never even bore a hatred for whosoever killed him." Ghost said, patting the creature's large nose. "Simple Reek. He is a good Aur."

Waverly retracted a few steps, more from sincere dizziness than fear. "Aur?"

"Yes." Ghost nodded and ushered her unto Reek's back. "Once he was a valiant warrior, but was ended in battle. . . by someone, of course. Only, he does not remember who."

As soon as she settled into a seating position, Reek flipped with severity and the landscape with it. Her eyeballs might have rolled into her forehead and back again. Her insides went berserk with sickness and as she returned upright, every organ jingled inside her body.

"We are here." Ghost announced, after concluding his take on contention amongst the upcoming ruling powers in The Balderdash.

She felt too sick to ask what he was talking about. Thankfully, he clarified.

"Balderdash is the name for those babbling creatures that cannot speak in words like I do. There are a cursing number of them flooded in The Hoax; orderless, they are, and bloody-minded fools. Every one says he wants to rule, but he refuses to be a subject first."

At first, the gnawing sickness from the unexpected somersault motion began to slowly ease away. Waverly, who laid face flat on the ground, was feeling just a slight hint of relief when a second wave hit. She moaned and turned over. Her skin was crawling as if a basket of roaches had been emptied right over her; the back of her eyes felt steaming hot and whatever little surviving substance in the form of food left in her stomach was indecisive on whether to come out or stay put. Temperature rose and fell about and her throat felt like dry season.

In spite of audible signs of her uneasiness, Ghost kept on talking and a helpless part of her listened to him.

"Thank you so much for your help, Reek. Until next time, eh?" He dismissed kindly and the creature left in silence. "As I said before, bloody-minded fools. Zors tells me he proposed a coordinated vote twice and nobody paid him ear. They hack themselves to pieces over the smallest misunderstanding. Lousy things. I wonder if at all Nys truly sees what goes on in. . ."

At that moment, he turned in a fleeting moment and noticed Waverly writhing on the ground.

"Oh, oh dear!" He exclaimed and floated toward her. "You are being affected by the atmosphere."

"Why?" She managed, clutching her gut and digging fingers with the other across the sand.

"Because it is pestilence. The Coath is pestilence, and you suffer it because you are not a dead thing yet."

"Why. . . did you bring me here?" Even the words were bitter as she said them. It seemed as though the entire atmosphere was dominated by the Night's Plague or something twice as strong.