Siren

Chapter Two: The Moss Palace

I was sitting in a little cabin in the middle of the woods. Everywhere I looked was something fuzzy and green and tacky and covered in flower stickers. And Josiah was standing across the living room, watching me. And the woman from my dream was in the kitchen. She returned with a tray of mugs with little plants painted on them.

"Hot chocolate?" She offered, smiling.

"What the heck is going on?!" I blurted, unable to contain it any longer. I was pretty sure I had been pretty calm until that point. Pretty sure. But now I was really freaking out. "Who are you?!"

She was still smiling as she carefully placed the mug in my hands, making sure I had a good grip on it despite my shock. "You remember me from last night, right?"

"Pretty sure she doesn't," Josiah piped up, cleaning his sword, "or she would've remembered the warning, too. Or she just doesn't listen.....actually, that's it."

I wanted to retort but pushed the thought aside. Bigger issues here. "What? My dream? How...."

"Don't worry chica, you'll get used to it," the woman assured me, passing a mug to Josiah, and then sitting down in a green armchair with her own mug. "Mythics can communicate through their dreams in a way humans cannot. It's kinda cool though.....but it can also be dangerous."

"I'm sorry, what? What are you even talking about?" I finally noticed how hot the mug in my hands was. I put it down on the coffee table in front of me.

Josiah huffed in the corner, not looking at me for once. The woman sat forward a bit. "Yeah, this is gonna be a lot, so maybe introductions first before we get into it all. My name is Estella Halcon. Most people call me Esti. You know Josiah."

I glanced at Josiah. He was looking absently out the window at the darkening woods. "Yes," I answered, my voice flat, "I know Josiah." Then I realized how very wrong that statement was. I didn't know this guy any better than the woman sitting across from me. I'd seen him pretty much every day of my life, either at school or from my house, and we'd gotten into our fair share of arguments and unfriendly talks, and he'd always been staring at me wherever I was. But other than that and his name (and now his sword, which he was meticulously making sure was spotless), I knew absolutely nothing about him. Or why he was there today when Andy attacked me.

Or why Andy even attacked me in the first place. My hand went to the scraped up side of my face. It still burned. "Um....can I ask a question, really quick?"

"Is it going to lead to a million more?"

Probably. "Uh...no. I'll restrain myself. Just.....Andy." Josiah was looking at me now. "What....why did she attack me like that? What even was she?"

Josiah pushed himself off of the wall he was leaning against, sheathing his sword on his back. He stopped next to Estella's chair. "Skinwalker. They're pretty rare, but they're nasty. And clever. This one was smarter than most."

"......what?"

"It's a type of monster," Estella added after taking a sip of hot chocolate, "one of many that slip into this town and lurk around under cover of darkness. Only this one was pretty brave, apparently. To come out in broad daylight, in front of a bunch of humans, for years. That's very, very troubling...."

"......what?!"

Josiah fixed me with those permanently vexed eyes. Estella grinned sheepishly.

"We are the worst people to be explaining all this to her, aren't we?"

"I'm not. You are. You said you would."