ASTRID

Chapter 7 It's Time To Tell The Truth

Surely, the bat creature with a wide piggy nose and sparkling eyes is crawling to me, for I'm the closest to the fireplace. I shrivel ready to be bitten and eaten eventually, but Billy like a furious harpy grabs a fire iron and bats the bad bat like a baseball player.

"Leave my sister alone!" she screams angrily. Prince Erik catches the beast and throws it through the half open door and immediately closes it, "Nice punch, Billy!"

Billy doesn't respond but gives a sniff of resentment, "We must call the Animal control," she says at last. I'm about to cry, but Billy's resolute mien and igneous mood makes me change my mind.

"People must not know about the shifters. Witches spend too much time to protect our world from humans and their invasions," says Astrid's boyfriend. Nina is nodding her head in agreement: her funny narrow face seems concerned.

"But who will protect us humans?!" Billy makes her hands into fists and stubbornly raises her chin. She has always been cocky talking to adults. I usually feel shy and try to be a good girl even if I think they are wrong: I desperately avoid scandals and suffer in silence while Billy is like a petrel who is always searching for a dangerous thunderstorm.

"Stop that!" I raise my voice. Everybody is watching me in amazement. "Just stop this argument!" I repeat my words, feeling the audience attention at last. "I just want to say that we should not fight while these creatures are outside and...we..." I stumble, feeling a little bit shy again, "...and we should stick together, because the cabin has no local phone service or any contact with the outside world."

"That's true," confirmed the young man.

"Medieval hermit!" hisses my sister. "Can't you move to the city and work like any normal person? You don't deserve Aunt Astrid. She needs a man who has at least a cellphone. Sure! What's so hard about being a strange forest hermit and mooching off our Astrid?" Billy smiles, showing her beautiful blond hair back: she seems to poke Astrid's boyfriend where it really hurts.

Nina and I are standing by like two crows with open mouths while Billy is precisely hitting the young man with her spiteful words.

"You are right," says the man with a lion tail. "I don't deserve her! I can give her nothing: only this shack my parents and their grandparents and lots of previous generations used to live..."

"I really hope you and your parents are not the part of some cult!" my sister interrupts him.

Astrid's boyfriend smiles bitterly, "No, we are not. But we can't leave this place," he pauses, "I can't leave this place."

"You're nothing but excuses!" Billy copies Mom's manner of speech. "You are no good for her. You can't even chase these creatures away!"

A loud noise like a devastating thunderstorm is heard outside. We all give a start. Nina turns into a squirrel and jumps on my shoulder, hiding between my dark locks, tickling my sensitive skin with teeny tiny tarsal claws of her paws.

"Stay here!" commands the man and takes a fire iron from Billy's trembling hands. From one of the bookshelves he takes a white crystal that looks quite sharp and gives it to Billy, "If anything happens to me, smash this crystal against the floor. And run along with the girls as far as you can. Nina knows this forest good enough to show you the way home. The bat shifters are not natural creatures. They used to be humans or mages who were turned into shape shifters or lycanthropes. They cannot turn into humans again when they want it like Nina. Believe me: they never bring good tidings once you see them!" with these words he turns and goes off towards the door at a smart paсe couching the fire iron like a spear or a pike.

Everything seems placid and soundless outside. Prince Erik is at the door holding a handle of a solid wooden door. We all keep silence. Billy stands in front of me squeezing a milky white crystal; her knuckles are getting white too. I notice some dark billets in the fireplace and decides to take one of them on the safe side.