Counting Crows

Four: Her Hourglass

Eli stuttered a couple of words before he cut himself off. "You've heard—No. I don't know how to say this without sounding insane."

He shook his head, and stretched in his high-backed, mahogany chair. His strange cloak fell down one shoulder, revealing modern clothes underneath. A wrinkled dress-shirt peeked out from a winter coat hidden beneath the folds.

Eli rapped his knuckles against the wood of the table as he released a deep breath. Noor couldn't figure out why he was nervous. She was the clueless one, the one who had been ripped away from her world.

"Just hear me out, okay? Even if I sound crazy," said Eli.

At this point, Noor would listen to anything if it gave the semblance of answers. She urged him on with a quirked eyebrow and a curt nod, but to her surprise, he stood up instead of offering her an explanation.

"I think I'd better show you." He stood and motioned her to follow him out of the dining hall.

Much to her chagrin, Noor was forced to leave her food behind and scurry behind him. Even though she'd only been through two rooms, the size of the castle astounded her, and she knew she'd never be able to find her way around.

She followed Eli as he led her through room after opulent room. The intricate rugs blended into the inlaid wood floors as he swept through his palace, Noor trailing behind as she admired the scrollwork that adorned the walls. She was certain that by the time they stopped walking, they'd passed through at least two equally impressive ballrooms, another dining hall, and an endless number of seemingly useless sitting areas.

Eli reached into his cloak and retrieved an hourglass. A small plaque attached to its base glinted under the fluorescent lights tucked into the chandelier overhead, and the flow of sand inside was frozen like a waterfall in the depths of winter.

Noor had opened her mouth to ask Eli why the sand wasn't moving when he offered the timekeeper to her.

"This one is yours," he said, before pushing open a door revealing thousands, millions, of hourglasses, lined up in rows and stacked five deep on shelves that extended past the edge of the light.

Momentarily distracted by the sight in front of her, Noor peered into the room, wondering how big it actually was. Snapping back to her thoughts, she grabbed Eli's shoulder before he could step through the door.

Pointing at the little nameplate, she asked, "Why is my name on this?"

Eli deadpanned. "I told you. It's yours."

He brushed off her hand and swept into the room. Noor followed blindly as Eli navigated through the shelves of hour glasses, not wanting to lose him the gloom beyond the light's reach. It would be terrible to get lost here after experiencing near death at the hands of a stranger with odd, icy powers. And the deeper they went, the darker it got, until the shelves were just grey outlines, looming out of the darkness in Noor's peripherals. She reached out, grasping for the soft folds of Eli's cloak, to keep from losing her way.

"Couldn't have turned on a light in here, huh?" grumbled Noor, almost tripping as they turned left into a narrow aisle between the shelves.

Not pausing, Eli responded. "I can see fine. I suppose your eyes are not as strong as mine, though. We're almost there."

Thoughts rushed through Noor's mind. She knew he wasn't normal. Her brain cycled through every book she'd read and movie she'd watched. The idea of vampires and werewolves was preposterous, and science fiction didn't seem to fit with the old-timey castle, but Eli's abrupt stop broke her out of her spiraling thoughts.