How to Slay a Beast (Book 1)

Chapter 4 - Merielle

Night came quickly in the forest. Of course, Del and I spent every remaining possible minute defending our tree fort. Enoch came too, much to his delight, and together, we stopped the invading forces of darkness. Del was delighted with the new book, and forced me to read and then interpret sections, for as Mr. Breeden had predicted, it was a bit thick for him. Enoch was equally enchanted, with that book as well as How to Slay a Beast and he was loath to come in when Jade came out looking for us.

"Merry? Del? It's time to come in," she called standing on the edge of that ancient forest, just as dusk was beginning to settled, contented to make the leaves shine their best with the evening glow and not light our path in any way. I had been keeping an eye on my wrist watch and knew that it was time to return. But the boys were hesitant to leave their game, and they complained bitterly when it was time to come.

"Enny? Where are you guys?" she asked, beginning to set foot into the forest. But she need not have worried then. We were on our way back, walking our bikes, because Enoch was with us. and of course, it was dangerous to ride with him on the back of my bike. But when Jade wasn't around, that was what we always did.

"We're coming," I called.

"It's almost time for dinner," she said, "Your mom called."

"She did?" I asked, eagerly, running past her towards the big, wrap around porch.

"Wait—we left one of the swords," Del said, stopping short and turning back to look towards the darkening woods.

"You can get it tomorrow," Jade said.

"Yeah, mom's on the phone," I said, hurrying inside and dropping my sweatshirt onto a chair and going to Jade's cellphone, which was sitting on the stone kitchen counter.

"Mom?" I asked, eagerly.

"Hi, sweety how are you?" she asked.

"Fine, Del and Enoch and I were out playing—sorry you had to work late," I said.

"I---that's okay, honey, I'm just glad you were having a good time," she says.

"Yeah we were," I said, "I miss you though."

"I miss you too baby," she said.

"Del's here, come on, Del say hi to mom," I said, holding out the phone.

"Please it'll only take a minute—"

"No, now dinner's ready, come on in and say hi to your mom."

"--fine," Del sighed, as Jade ushered him in the house. he slouched over to the phone. "Hi mom."

I left for his part of the conversation, going to empty my backpack and get out my school books. I had a history test the next day and I wanted to be ready. I would never take that test.

"Dad, Del and I left one of the swords out at the fort, can we go get it?" Enoch asked, finding our father sitting on the sofa, staring at his laptop.

"If Merry goes with you, fine," he said, glancing up.

"It's too late, dinner's on the table, and none of them should be going out after dark," Jade said, going to the kitchen to start getting plates out.

"If dinner's ready it can wait till tomorrow," he said.

"Aw come on---you just said if Merry goes with me it's fine," Del groaned, he had just finished saying goodnight to our mom.

"If your---if she says dinner's ready dinner's ready go wash your hands," he said, dismissively, still not looking up.

"We'll go get it first thing in the morning," I said, going to wash my hands.

"It'd take five minutes," Del muttered, putting his books down on the coffee table.

"Go put those in your room, don't need them cluttering up down here," our father said.

"Fine," Del clumped up the stairs, pouting.

"Merry, one of your friends called the house phone, you don't need to give out this number, since you aren't always here," our father said.

"Who called?" I asked, helping Jade set the table.

"I don't remember, asking you about an assignment," he said, "I didn't expect you'd be here tonight, so I didn't take the message."

"Thanks," I said, a little sarcastically. It didn't matter. I only had one friend, Dawn. She lived in the apartment complex near our mom. She wasn't really even a best friend or anything, we just studied together sometimes, and she didn't talk to many people at school either.

Jade just shrugged at me like I should ignore him. I smiled at her a little.

The rest of dinner was quiet. Our father never was much one for conversation, and Del and Enoch were sullen about not being allowed to retrieve the sword. And I had my history test to think about. I admit that consumed most of my thoughts for the evening.

We children were sent to bed not long after the dinner dishes were washed. I had homework to complete in my room, Enoch was sent straight to bed, and Del retired with his precious books. I had long since forgotten about the lost sword.