The Tale of Amaretto

Tenth Grain

Author's note - This is rather short grain. It was written on my cellphone. You can't type forever on those things...

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In Which a Test Run is Agreed to...

"So I should think of this as a test run then?" Amaretto looked at her aunt with suspicion. She didn't believe that anything that she saw now was going to be easy.

Katherine smiled sadly. "A test seems to be an interesting way to put it, but yes. However, this test has no room for failure." Katherine looked back at La sorcière who simply stared back in incomprehension. Her child like face seemed to be devoid of the innocence that a normal child would have. It made Amaretto shiver slightly. She was not pleased with the situation.

Amaretto bit her lip. "This is totally rushed, I don't like it. Is there a way that we can kind of push this off for a little bit? I need more time."

La sorcière looked at her with clear eyes that seemed to pierce Amaretto to the center. "When you lose someone close to you, then you can come back to me and tell me that you want more time. She is the only person that I can talk with on a regular basis. You travelers are too far in between to stave off the silence. If no one goes to save her, then I may never talk to anyone ever again except for those who have a wish and those who are on a pilgrimage."

Amaretto looked away, feeling shame color her face. The small girl looked as if she was about to say something when the water around them began to boil.

Amaretto looked around panicking not sure what it was that she was supposed to do. "What's happening?"

Katherine frowned and slightly stumbled as she tried to look up something on her palm pilot. Amaretto thought that it served her aunt right a little for wearing heels all the time. "I have no idea. There is no information on an earthquake today." Amaretto was about to say something, but Katherine prattled onwards. "Though we are still in Monde Creux... I don't think that I get reports on the palm pilot for that."

"I think this is something else though," said La sorcière in almost a faint whisper. Amaretto tried to step back when she almost tripped over her own feet. She fell forward onto her knees. She was suddenly glad for the new jeans aunt Katherine had bought her. If she had been wearing her bondage pants, she would have gotten tangled and then more likely fallen into the lake. Her ears picked up a slight keening noise. Leaning forward, she realized that it was coming from the mirror below.

"The sound... it sounds like the same one we heard from when we were with Tempus." Amaretto spoke, with surprise and then looked at her aunt. She tried to get her aunt's attention. "Aunt Katherine!"

Katherine didn't look at her and was busily tapping away on her palm pilot. Amaretto took her index finger and poker her aunt in the side.

Katherine shrieked and whirled on Amaretto, almost dropping her palm pilot. "OW! That was uncalled for!" Katherine narrowed her eyes as she looked at Amaretto with displeasure.

"Just listen!" Amaretto pointed at the mirror.

Katherine rolled her eyes and listened for a moment and then knit her brows in frustration. "It does sound the same," she began.

La sorcière pointed to a section of the water that cleared and said, "That is why. An alarm has been set off."

"Another alarm; great," Amaretto complained. She looked in the direction that La sorcière was pointing in.

At that moment, there was a sudden screech from the water all around them and the otherwise turbulent water turned a rather rapid shade of greenish red. It was probably the vilest color that Amaretto had ever seen. Katherine looked at it and said so in a rather large voice.

La sorcière looked around and then began to wave her hands over the waters, speaking to it in a strange tongue. "Quickly," La sorcière said. Amaretto was not even sure as to what the girl was speaking about.

Katherine held up her hand and shook her head. "There must be something that is tripping an alarm somewhere. What is this alarm for?"

La sorcière waved her hand at the water below them and the whole mirror turned into its innocuous sheet of glass once more. There, displayed on the crystalline surface was a picture of a group of people who were walking across the deserted, sprawling sands of Monde Creux. They were dressed in rather strange motley of clothes which were made out of hundreds of colors. The clothing was sanguine almost as it mostly clung to their frames. One thing stood out though, and that was the fact that they were all wearing large wooden masks that covered their faces.

Amaretto continued to stare at the picture shimmering up from the glass. "Are they walking towards here?"

La sorcière nodded her head. "That is what it looks like. It appears that she has sent people after you."

Amaretto looked up in surprise and then her face shifted to confusion. "There is no reason to... wait what? Who sent them after me?"

La sorcière raised her hand and the whole of the mirror shifted once more. Amaretto tried to say something, but Katherine interrupted her by waving her palm pilot around. "I just got an email dictating that the Hourglass is about to be contested! This is not good."

Amaretto looked like she was getting sick. "Contested? What does that mean? You make this sound like a miserable contract!"

Katherine continued to wave the palm pilot around frantically. "No, that simply means that someone else thinks that you shouldn't be the rightful owner of the glass!"

Amaretto yanked the chain around her neck. "Well fine! Let them have it! I don't want it!"

La sorcière looked angry. "You can't just give it up! You have to flee! It is yours and you have to protect it! No one else can just take it from you and you can't just give it up; it is a remarkably large responsibility and you have to bear the burden of it!"

Katherine grinned. "I think she means that if we don't move, we are going to be killed."

Amaretto looked a little concerned. "Is that supposed to be funny?"

"Not at all, it is merely the truth." Katherine began to giggle slightly.

Amaretto looked to the girl who was frantically moving towards her side. "You have to get out of here now," said La sorcière. "I cannot allow for her to get her hands on your hourglass!" La sorcière raised her hands and the chamber took on a somber hue at that moment.

"Who is she? Who is this 'her' you are talking about?" Amaretto's voice was full of confusion. She looked at her aunt who was frantically using her palm pilot.

La sorcière ignored her though. "I'm going to send you through parallax..."

"Para-what?" Amaretto tried to say more, but was cut off at that moment.