Moon's Call (Sample)

Chapter Four

The bowl clattered to the floor and Theresa jolted out of bed. She wiped her face to clear her sleepy blur as she scanned the room for where the loud sound had issue from. The rain had stopped but it was late evening already and the candle had also burnt out. She groped her way in the dark, pulled out another candle from a Corner and struck a match but it went out. She groaned and was about striking another match when a bright light came on.

Theresa squinted, trying to adjust to the bright light when she suddenly noticed that it was coming from the head of the creature and she was surprised to see that it was on its toes which consist three big toes and was rummaging inside her basket.

"Hey!" She cried out. "What are you doing?"

It lifted its head and blinked its big eyes at her then went back to rummaging. "Get away from my basket this minute!" She said sternly. He ignored her and pushed deeper into her basket, took something and leapt on the bed, sat down and began to eat whatever it had taken. Theresa looked closely at him and noticed that he was eating a mushroom.

She squatted and examined him with interest as she looked at his transparent head which seemed to contain an image of the galaxy with millions of stars and nine balls which must be the nine planets rotating around a bigger orb which she guessed was the sun and was the major source of the light shining in its head.

He blinked at her curiously and suddenly yawned. Theresa found out that it had very tiny jagged teeth and when she examined its features, she realized it was a hermaphrodite which meant it was both of the male and female sex. She stared at it in awe. "What am I going to call you? He or she or just it?" She asked and it only blinked at her. "Are you from the stars?" It didn't reply.

She was about touching its transparent head to see if it felt hot due to the sun shining there when a loud knock on the door startled her and Berry ran from her and went under the bed, dimming the light in its head to avoid detection.

Theresa sighed and gathered her skirts then walked to the door. She unlatched it and opened it a bit. There was a rotund guard with a full beard at the door. "The Queen summons you." He said and waited. She hesitated, thinking about berry then slipped out and closed the door behind her.

She followed the guard out of the servant quarters across the wet courtyard to the royal quarters. Up several flights of stairs, down different corridors until they reached the Queen's lounge. They passed the guards standing guard at the door and walked into the lounge. The Queen was couched on an elevated lounge of fur and the whole place was lit by a chandelier of candles.

The queen propped up on an elbow and narrowed her eyes at them. "Excuse us." She told the guard who gave a low bow and wobbled out.

Theresa scanned the lounge for her uncle. She always felt a little bit comfortable with his presence whenever she was around the queen. "I can see you are looking for Lucas." The Queen's terse voice interrupted her search and she diverted her gaze to the Queen's angry face. "That's the very reason I summoned you in his absence." She finally sat up.

Theresa looked down in respect but was confused about what the queen was talking about. "Your mother..." The queen continued. "...stole my husband from me and now... Her slutty offspring seeks to do the same. Letting history repeat itself is quite distasteful." The queen got up and walked to the long window and looked out into the night.

Theresa was the only one the queen openly spited with the fact that she was sleeping with Lucas. Even if the other in the castle suspected, they dared not mention it because of fear for their lives. "Have you ever wondered how your mother died?" The Queen asked with an evil smile without looking at her. "She saw what she wasn't supposed to."