The Wilting Rose

Chapter 12- The Giants

James sat up, and his face turned into Jatt’s. I screamed, falling to the ground next to him. “No! Listen to me! You are JAMES, and you are supposed to be my brother!” The face of Jatt opened my brother’s mouth and started talking. .

“Rosslyn Victoria, that is the second time this month one of your cursed family has entered my mind. Do not be such a fool. I thought holding you in darkness for a few weeks was enough to deter you for a good long while. Apparently, it was not. I will let James go, but you are lucky.” Then a higher clearer voice chimed in. I recognized it instantly as Solie.

 “Do not be such a fool, Rose. You’ll make us all look bad.” There was a hint of play in her voice, but she was doing a really good job at trying to squash it out. I grinned. “No smiling!” Solie exclaimed, “I can see you smiling with Jatt’s eyes.” She was staring into Jatt’s eyes? Creepy much?

“We are going to help you, so you might as well tell us where to go, or we’ll probably do something stupid that will put your mission in danger.” I forced a tone of airiness into my voice, but they were not dumb enough to overlook the threat. Jatt’s eyes on my brother’s face narrowed. I felt bad, but hey! He shouldn’t have locked us in a prison!

“The army is not ready. We have lost many troops, and Solie is insisting they all be properly trained before being deployed.” I could practically hear Jatt rolling his eyes. I giggled, as James’s face rolled its eyes.

 “Can we get a number?” Connor asked, his face contorted with what looked like painful thought. James with Jatt’s face turned to the air, and cocked his head.  I could only imagine that must be where Solie was standing.

“7,853” Solie’s voice echoed out of the throat again. “We need three more generals, and roughly 3,000 more troops before an attack can even be considered logical.” A light bulb popped over my head.

“Speaking of three generals…” I mused, hoping he would get the picture. He didn’t, either that or he was trying to ignore what I was saying. “How about us?” James stood up, and smiled, then raised one eyebrow. The smile looked like Solie’s, but the eyebrow raise was exclusively reserved, in my mind at least, for Jatt. Connor seemed to agree, because the clash between the two made him start laughing uncontrollably. He looked hot when he laughed.

“That would be great! No.” Both voices clashed and James looked happy, giddy even. I could picture Solie immediately. Then the angry, stunned voice that was annoyed I would ask such a thing. That, well, that had Jatt written all over it.

After a whole lot of pleading, I finally won. Jatt agreed if we could find 1,000 soldiers each, we would be promoted to the rank of general. He was not happy about it, you could tell from the tone of his voice, but I was. I just needed to know one more thing before he let James go.

“If all these mythical creatures are real, elves, talking animals, and stuff… Are there goblins?” I crossed my fingers, hoping I could get a billion of the little creatures to be in my army. That would be so sick! Imagine being attacked by hundreds of biting little green things as you were about to fire an arrow. That would stop you dead in your tracks, literally,  because you’d be dead.

“Solie already recruited the goblins a while ago. Not the smartest things, but certainly vicious enough.” I was disappointed. I wanted to be the one that got the goblins. Oh, well, I thought about all the other magical creatures. One popped out in my mind, and I was a little afraid to ask.

“What about… giants?” I asked, crossing my fingers that Jatt got them already. James/Jatt chuckled, and I knew I had said something that either touched upon an inside joke he had with Solie, or that it was so utterly, ridiculously stupid that it was funny I would bring it up.