Skinwalker

Chapter 10

Hmm... Yup. The guy on the right is how I imagined Victor to be. If you prefer the guy you imagined him to be, let's go with that.

Comment, vote/critique

They came to a beautiful angel statue made of marble, its wings spread and meticulously carved with beautiful detail.

            Under her wings was a hole in the thick hedge where there was a burrow of sorts that was bricked up and lined with blankets and all manner of soft things like a nest. Uncle Charlie bent down and began digging among the blankets for something.

            “He lives here? But there are pavilions in the maze…” Anwen said, picking up Blackie who was about to dive into the blankets.

            Victor shrugged, “We don’t know why either. But father built this thing to make him more comfortable. Apparently, Uncle Charlie has lived here since they were children. One day, he just didn’t want to go back in the house and my grandparents couldn’t make him,” he explained.

            Suddenly, Uncle Charlie was out again. He nudged Anwen with something he was holding.

            “Oh!”

            It was a beautifully carved charm made of wood. It was two inches long and one inch wide and had the tiniest animals and birds and flowers carved around the edges with strange symbols in the middle.

            “It’s beautiful…” Anwen said and Uncle Charlie gestured at her, “You’re giving it to me?”

            He nodded enthusiastically.

            “Thank you…” Anwen said, looking at the charm. There was a rough hole bored near the top to allow a string to pass through.

            Uncle Charlie beamed suddenly and clapped his hands, obviously very pleased.

            Anwen smiled.

            Victor hugged his uncle, “We’re going to go now, okay?”

            Uncle Charlie nodded and waddled off, deeper into the maze. “Come on,” Victor said, showing her the way out. Anwen tried to scoop up Blackie but her hands were now full so Victor picked him up instead.

            “Uncle Charlie doesn’t really have much to do, so he spends his time carving. He does beautiful work,” Victor said.

            “What do these words mean?” Anwen asked curiously.

            Victor bent down to look at the words carefully, “Oh- it’s just a philosophical saying of some sort,” he said, “Uncle Charlie doesn’t speak well but that doesn’t mean he’s stupid.”

            “What does it say?”

            “Let’s see… it says, ‘Things are never what they seem’,” he read.

            Anwen frowned, “What does he mean by that?”

            Victor shrugged, “It’s just the same as saying, ‘Never judge a book by its cover’ I guess,” he replied.

            Anwen looked at the pendant and held it tightly. Mother would have liked it.

“Isn’t it too cold to go swimming?” Anwen asked with a frown, looking up from her sketchbook at Aria, Clarisse and another girl she had met the night before, Rosaire.