Ebby Flint and the Sword of Sorrows (Book 1 in the Artis Trilogy)

A Wolf, a Tiger, a Lion, and an Elephant Walk into a Bar...Ouch

Chapter Ten - A Wolf, a Tiger, a Lion, and an Elephant Walk into a Bar...Ouch

Billy left me in the ballroom mumbling some words that are best not repeated. The ballroom looks completely different from when I last left it. The fairies, who were once dancing here the night before, are nowhere in sight. The long red velvet carpet was replaced with a large buffet styled table. Different breakfast foods are placed along the table. At least, I'm assuming it was breakfast food. For all I know it could be human body parts. My face has a disgusted look sketched into it that I'm trying to cover up while I walk past the table, but it doesn't help that the smell makes me want to vomit. I'm not a picky eater, I mean I could without having to ever eat a mushroom for the rest of my life, but I swear I'm not a picky eater. However, whatever is placed so elegantly on the dining table makes me want to puke my earlier breakfast.

"Eboni, control yourself. Your human side is showing," I'm not too sure where the voice came from until I look down and see an orange cat at my feet.

"I'll have you know that I take pride in my human side."

"Yes, how unfortunate that is as well." Now I know for sure this voice didn't come from the cat. I whip around to find King Tyri standing behind me. I'm not sure how he was able to sneak up on me. I thought I did a pretty sneaky once over of this room.

"Mister...Sir..." I stumble on my words.

"King." He replies unamused.

"Yup... that's you," I say awkwardly gesturing towards him. I can practically hear Bartholomew's disappointment behind me. But in my defence, I can't talk that good.

The King raises his eyebrow. "I'm aware." There's a split second where neither of say anything, but feels like an eternity. I can feel myself begin to sweat through my clothes.

King Tyri breaks the uncomfortable silence, and I'm not sure if I'm relieved or just more nervous about having to continue talking to him. "Eboni, I believe you are supposed to be training today? This was part of our deal, was it not?"

"Uh...yeah...yes, it was. I was just confused as to where the whole training business was going on?" I mumble, swirling my hands around.

"Eboni, I hope you realize how serious this whole 'training business' is, and I would appreciate it if you took this a little more seriously. Now I have other business to attend to, but I trust Bartholomew can take you to the (TRAINING BUILDING NAME)." King Tyri walks past me finding his way to the head of the table.

Bartholomew, still behind me, says, "Come now, Eboni. We don't have all day."

He trots away, and I follow suite leaving the disaster scene and ballroom behind me. I follow the cat's orange tail through a series of hallways that look all too familiar to me, but at the same time I'm sure this is the first time I've walked through them.

I call out to the cat. "You never told me that William Shakespeare great-whatever-son lives here."

"Yes, that is true."

"I could've used him for studying purposes when I was in English 10."

"But you did not."

I slow down to a casual walk, and mumble, "Wow, so you're quite the conversationalist today."

The cat pauses at a fork in the hallway, and turns on me. "Eboni Flint, I do not believe you are aware of how serious this situation is. People are dying, we are at war, and you are here making jokes. Jokes? Today, we have learned that another village on King's land has been attacked by another unknown force. Now, you would have learned that if you did not sleep in till noon. We are losing people by the second, and all you can do is try to make pointless banter out of nothing. You do realize that you are the only person who will be able to save this kingdom, do you not?"