The Monster Hero

Chapter 34 - Where's Abby

We exit the forest to see everyone in the village out and about. Everyone stops what they are doing and watch us as we traipse past. When we reach the house, we stop.

"Where's Abby?" A little girl named Jill asks.

Red hangs her head. Elliott looks away and breathes deeply. I sit down on the ground and hang my head. A tear creeps down my face. Everyone gasps. People start heading back home.

"She died," Elliott says.

Mustache Man bursts through the crowd.

"You killed her didn't you!" he yells.

Everyone looks back at our sad party.

"You again! What are you doing here?" Elliott says.

"I live here, for your information. And you killed her! You killed my wife!" Mustache says.

"No he didn't," Red says.

Mustache snorts.

"Of course, you're going to stand up for him! You idiot girl! You are betraying your own kind!"

Mustache's words bring gasps from the crowd.

"I meant what I said at the meeting. I wouldn't hurt you, any of you," Elliott tries to explain.

"Liar! I can see the blood on your hands! I can tell that she tried to fight! Look at those scratches!"

Everyone cranes their necks to get a look at Elliott's cuts. The blood on his hands was, of course, from his own wounds. I look down at Elliott's foot. I see some burn marks. He must have gotten nicked by a fire ball. I pull at Red's sleeve and tell her. Her eyes widen. She yanks Elliott down into a sitting position and kneels down by his foot.

"What are you doing?" Elliott asks.

"Yeah, what are you doing?" Mustache says.

"Shhhh!" I say.

"Look. Everybody, look. He got a burn on his foot that wasn't there before we set out," Red says, holding up Elliott's foot.

"That burn is from a manmoth. He attacked us and Abby got hit full on by a fire ball," Red says.

"He just stuck his foot in the fire," Mustache says.

"We never even made a fire." Elliott stares down Mustache.

A man comes out of the crowd and examines Elliott's burn and cuts.

"They're telling the truth," he states.

The crowd gasps, again.

"This burn is from a fire ball and the cuts are from the claws of the manmoth," he says.

Mustache is starting to look scared.

"Y-You liar! I thought you were on our side!" Mustache says.

"I am. So is this wolfum."

The man stands up. Mustache tries to argue. The crowd starts getting angry at Mustache. They start yelling. Elliott cringes. I do too. Too much noise for my sensitive little ears. I tug at Red's sleeve, again. She leads me inside. Elliott follows us.

"Was that too loud?" Red asks.

I nod. Elliott also nods. We go up the stairs to our room. We look out the window. The crowd is surrounding Mustache Man.

"He may be bad, but he deserves comp - compa"

"Compassion," Red finishes my sentence.

I nod. She looks at Elliott.

Elliott yells out the window, "Stop!"

Everyone looks up at us.

"We should be fighting my brother, Slash, not our allies," Elliott says.

The crowd filters away from Mustache.

"We need some messengers to deliver a message to every human village around here," Red says.

Some people from the crowd come up to our room.

"Everyone else, prepare! Prepare you, prepare your kids, prepare your village! They will not stop until every one of us is killed, unless you stop them!" Elliott says.

People go to their houses to start preparing. We turn to the messengers.

"Tell the other villages that we need their help to stop the other wolfums. If they've been attacked, they'll understand why."

The messengers nod and go back outside. They wave at each other as they go their separate ways. I look at Elliott and Red.

"Is this going to work?" Red asks.

"I don't know," Elliott says, "But if it means my brother doesn't rule the world, we have to give it a try."

Red nods.