Serial Saturday: "Fairies Under Glass" Part 27

Part 27

"Final Examinations"

Silence hung over the lecture hall in a thick cloud. Lewis moved with automated precision, scrawling his sentence responses and filling in bubbles under that overbearing sense of being carefully watched by the proctors standing at the corners of the room. His eyes remained locked on the page. As far as he was concerned there was only him, his pencil, and the Final Exam in front of him. Every lecture he'd heard, every textbook he'd pored over, every Study Hall he'd attended all led to this moment, the moment he'd make the transition from sophomore to junior. Nothing else mattered as he turned the last page and kept marking down answers.

"Time!" The proctor's announcement reached him from a great distance, and Lewis saw the welcome words "END TEST" on the page just below his last answer. He'd finished! He and forty others in the room let out a collective sigh, and followed the proctor's directions to form a single-file line to turn in the completed exams.

Lewis set his test booklet down and the girl behind him in line joked, "Now we just have to do this four more times and we're finished for the summer!"

He peeked over his shoulder with a laugh on his lips. She had curly brown hair and bright-blue eyes, and today she wore a plain white t-shirt under a soft green linen romper.
"Hi, Christine," Lewis greeted her.

"Hi, Lewis," Christine responded. "How did that one feel?"

Lewis tilted his head back and forth with a noncommittal expression. "History hasn't been one of my stronger subjects, but I think I did all right."

Christine chuckled. "At least if you can't remember the particulars of an event, it helps that the questions kind of lead you to the information the professors who grade our tests will be looking for," she said.

Lewis nodded. "If you can't answer the test, at least answer the professor, right?"

"You got it!" Christine flashed him a thumbs-up. "Good luck at your next class!"

"You too!"

Lewis headed down the corridor to the mathematics wing with a straightness in his spine and a lightness in his step that definitely hadn't been there last semester. He caught the eye contact of passersby and gave a smile or a nod as they passed each other. Those he knew by name, he waved to--and that number had even started to grow.

Perhaps nearly becoming a freak show display did wonders for one's desire to connect to other people.
It helped that the last bout of chaos (which he caused) at the carnival, coupled with his "weekend disappearance", prompted yet another change in employment. Melanie delivered a letter from Dean Rushford that officially recognized Lewis' efforts at fulfilling the required number of work hours, instead offering him a position on the Academy's social committee, in charge of networking with students and welcoming newcomers. Danielle happened to be on the committee already, so Lewis willingly accepted the position.

He reached Intro To College Algebra and immediately glanced to the corner typically occupied by Quincy, Jesse, and Henry, but all the seats around them were already filled. The opposite corner was still mostly open, while groups of students clustered around the middle tables in the room. Lewis found a table with one more open seat and took it.

The four students already sitting there gave him uncomfortable glances. He was pretty sure the boy with the thin face and shaggy dark hair was named Toby, but he didn't know the others.

"Hi," he said softly, as the professor still conferred with his teaching assistants over the particulars of test administration. "I'm Lewis. How's everybody doing today?"

"All right," said the girl, and Lewis realized that he'd seen her a few times at the carnival. "This is my first final of the day, and I'm really nervous!"

The dark-haired boy rolled his eyes. "It's just math; it's supposed to be hard! I'm just going to blow through it as quickly as possible, and maybe next year I'll actually get some tutoring."

Lewis wagged his head. "It's Toby, right?" When a nod confirmed his guess, he continued, "I remember taking my finals at the end of last year, and I definitely felt the same way! Taking classes at a private Academy like Browning is way different than grade school. But my advice would be to take the time to really focus on each question as if it's something you were already taught, even if you hadn't been paying attention that day. Approach it just like you would any other math problem, make sure to write down your methods--show your work--and even if you get it wrong, at least you might get closer than just blind guessing. Who knows, you might actually get more problems right than you think."

"That's good advice," the nervous girl said. "Thanks!"

Lewis reflected on that moment as he left the classroom in the company of his usual friend group. Where once he felt inadequate and excluded, he now had something to offer, and that helped him branch out from his usual habits.

Lewis’ stomach let out a gurgle, and he willingly headed toward the cafeteria. Lunchtime consisted of a choice between taco salad or soft tacos, and Lewis chose the latter. Drink, side of fruit, and meal secured, he surveyed the array of tables at the center. He saw Danielle sitting with a group of girls at a table that still had a few open spaces, notably one next to Danielle herself. She laughed at something one of the girls said, the sound of her voice breaking through the hubbub of chatter around her.

“You should go over there,” a voice said behind him.

Lewis flinched guiltily and turned to see Quincy, Brayden, and Jesse standing behind him. Quincy had a knowing grin on her face.

“I think she likes you,” she said to Lewis. “Or she is starting to. I don’t know how much you interacted at the carnival, but you should have seen how worried she was when we didn’t know where you were.”

Lewis squirmed uncomfortably. Did he have a crush on Danielle? Was it that obvious? “I dunno…”

“Dude, just go talk to her!” Jesse chided. “A year ago you were so awkward and reserved that you wouldn’t have even wanted to interact outside this friend group, but now? You’ve changed, man.”

Lewis felt his heart racing. He knew if Ashwyn was watching him right now she would probably be halfway to creating a situation to attract Danielle’s attention by now.

“Maybe later,” he confessed. He nodded toward an empty table across the auditorium. “My arms are getting tired of holding this tray. Let’s sit down over there.”

“Suit yourself,” said Quincy, and nobody pressured him anymore.

As Lewis finally left the table to dispose of his trash and head to his next class, a small winged creature zinged right for his neck and fluttered between his collar and his shoulder.

Ashwyn’s gentle, twinkling voice reached his ear. “I found one!”

Lewis shied away from the people milling around him, putting some distance around himself before he whispered back, “Found what?”

“A portal to Phsntasm!” Ashwyn replied. “There’s one due to open either tonight or tomorrow morning, not far from here.”

Lewis felt a surge of energy. “How close?” he asked.

“Somewhere with lots of trees,” said Ashwyn. “I’d be able to find it on a map.”

Lewis stopped in at the computer lab to select a kiosk and open a digital map. He pointed to a series of rooftops. “Okay, here is Browning Academy. Where are these trees you speak of?”

Ashwyn directed him to move the cursor around the screen till she chimed, “There is where it’s going to be!”

Lewis checked the location. “Magnolia Park, it’s only a mile from here.” He smiled. “Okay, that is definitely doable. I guess one benefit of knowing ahead is that we can be getting things ready before it actually happens—“

“Before what happens?” Quincy’s voice floated over his shoulder.

Lewis flinched and almost knocked the keyboard off the computer desk. “Um, I was just—“

“What’cha looking at?” Quincy asked, squinting at the map on the screen. “Magnolia Park? That’s a nice view. Are you looking for a date spot?“ She stared hard at Lewis and noticed his flushed cheeks. “Are you planning a date with Danielle?” Her eyes sparkled and she twisted a lock of her long dark hair around her finger. “That’s a great idea! I hope it goes well for you.”

Lewis muttered an incoherent response as he closed down the computer and bolted. Let Quincy make all the assumptions she wanted; at least it would keep her from digging for the actual truth!

Once he was outside the building, he called out, “Ashwyn!”
She flew out of his collar and hovered invisibly in the sky. “Yes?”

“I have one more class to get to, but I want you to send a fairy or two over to Rawlings Point to tell the others that we’re going to try and make it to the portal either tonight or tomorrow morning. They can meet us in those trees at Magnolia Park, okay?”
Ashwyn saluted. “You got it, boss!”

Lewis watched her zip away. A few months ago he wouldn't have accepted being the “boss” of anything, but just hearing Ashwyn say it gave him a burst of confidence that made him smile. He headed in for his final class of the day, Language Arts. The professor handed them back their final essays from the week before, each marked with their final grade, and since they had no other assignments, he allowed everyone to leave early with a book to spend the rest of the class period reading.

The only book Lewis had on him at the moment happened to be a murder mystery, so he made sure to find a sunny spot to read it. He was barely two chapters in when a voice said, “Shouldn’t you be in class?”
He looked up to see Danielle standing in front of him, a satchel over her shoulder and a grin on her face.
Lewis shrugged. “We finished all there was, so the professor let us go outside to read.”

Danielle chuckled. “Sounds like the faculty is as ready to be done with the school year as we are!” she joked. “My Classic Literature professor just did the same thing. Mind if I join you?”

Lewis glanced to the space beside him in the bench. “There’s plenty of room,” he agreed.

Danielle sat down and pulled out her book, a cloth-bound hardback copy of Peter Pan.

Lewis felt his interest perk when he saw it. “You like fantasy novels?” he asked.

Danielle nodded. “Oh yeah, anything with dragons or fairies in it is totally my jam! That’s really why I had wanted to see that Phantasmenagerie show, to see how realistic those creatures were… except the part where they started attacking the audience.” Her face fell and she shuddered.

Lewis gripped his book and fought the urge to broach the subject of the reality of the fantasy world after her horrified response. He focused on his book and the two friends said nothing more.

Lewis headed toward his dorm after finishing the last class period. He reflected on the week before, when he’d been relegated to reserve housing after Adolf had trashed his room. What a relief to be getting it back again! He almost didn’t mind the added security features it now had. At least he could still have some privacy!

He lay back on his bed, relieved at not having to study or think about tomorrow’s classes tonight at least. His eyes drifted shut, and he might have even dozed off a little, when a rap on his window jolted him awake. His room was dark because the sun hadn’t yet set when he’d walked in the room, and now night had fallen. He flipped on the lamp and peered at the window. A wide something like a bedsheet of canvas hovered outside, surrounded by many pricks of light. He opened the window to allow in the fairies carrying a blotchy piece of what looked to be canvas from one of the carnival tents.

“Special delivery!” Ashwyn jangled as they spread the dirty tarp over his bed. Lewis could see that some of the blotches were words written on the canvas—or they used to be. Most of the substance used as ink had washed away, except the words at the bottom of the note, “Your Giant Friend.”

“The fairies Queen Evalia sent found Lisa like you said,” Ashwyn explained. “And when we delivered your message, she told us to wait while she and Gathlen abandon Kharrie all set off toward the captor’s castle.” She settled on the desk as the whole throng of fairies and elves came out from their temporary village in the closet to learn what happened.

Ashwyn continued, “I was worried we were going to have to wait all night, but then Kharrie came back with the note, and we brought it to you.”

Lewis frowned. “Please tell me you read the note when it was fresh; the words have all but disappeared by now.”

The little fairy fluttered her wings apologetically. “I know, I’m sorry! Just so you know, I actually did read it. It said that she has the Gyth and they will all meet you at the park first thing tomorrow.”

Lewis smiled and yanked the canvas off the bed. “I knew they could do it!” he gushed. “They’re not afraid of Krasimir anymore; and now that I have the Chain, there's nothing he can really do to exert control over them!” He got ready for bed as the little folk celebrated with cheers and dancing.

“The portal is opening soon!” Ashwyn informed him with a drowsy half-loop. “I can feel it coming.”
Lewis nodded and yawned. “Wake me the moment it opens,” he said. “I don’t want to miss it in case it’s a long time till the next portal arrives.”

“Don’t worry,” Ashwyn reassured him. “The plan is all coming together. I won’t let you down.”

That thought comforted Lewis as he drifted off to sleep, little dreaming of how tomorrow could change his whole reality.

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Serial Saturday: "Fairies Under Glass" Part 26

Part 26

"I'm Not Your Mummy"

“Lewis? Lewwwwissss…”

Lewis groaned as his consciousness returned with a pounding headache. His body felt like someone had weighed it down with sand. It took incredible effort and concentration to simply turn his head and prize his eyes open in response to the voice calling his name.

He saw bars, and a bare concrete floor. On the other side of the bars, Krasimir Schlimme sat in a chair and grinned at him.
A surge of alarm gave him the energy to lift his head and work his way up to a sitting position.

“I’m sure you’re vondering vhat you are doing here.”

Lewis looked around the space. The cage wasn’t very big, like a human-sized crate. He could stand up, walk a few paces, and lay down on the ground, but it was very much secure. Across the fairly large basement room, a second cage housed the unicorn, whose paint job had mostly melted away, next to a floor-to-ceiling cage holding Lisa, cramped as she was with her knees up near her chin and barely enough room to lift her head all the way. A leather gag strapped over her face kept her from opening her mouth. Suspended from the ceiling was a fourth cage holding the gryphon. A shelf across from the unicorn held many jars and bottles containing glittering fairies and milling elves.

Dominating the center of the space was a huge work table littered and stacked with vials and beakers and small distilling machines and scientific paraphernalia. His eyes traveled back to Krasimir, and he croaked the word, “Where?”

Krasimir spread his hands. “Velcome to my lab! I haf used zis space for my many experiments and developing my… artwork.”

As more of his faculties returned, Lewis began looking around for any windows, any sign of a phone besides the antique sets standing on the long table. He even patted his own pocket for his cell phone, but Krasimir must have anticipated this move. He held up the familiar device with a savage grin. “Looking for zis? You von’t be needing it till I am done vis you. If you must know, zis house is several miles avay from ze academy, and since it is ze veekend, no one vill miss you until you do not show up for your classes… vich I haf also prepared for.” He patted a stack of papers on the small table beside him. “A series of letters Adolf vill dispatch for me if ze Academy starts asking kvestions. All seem to be written by you, and zey merely say zat you haf been doing some soul-searching and haf taken a week-long trip into ze mountains to escape ze grind of studies and meaningless verk.”

Lewis rubbed his face, noting the shackles around his ankles attached to one side of the cage. “How long do you expect to keep me like this? My parents will get worried, or the Academy might send out a search party for me—“

Krasimir chuckled darkly as he reached into his pocket and drew out the Chain to the Phantasmagyth. “Oh, you stupid boy! You seenk you are zat important? Zat your existence is meaningful to anybody but you? No, I must keep you locked down here until my verk is done, and zen… who knows?” he shrugged his shoulders. “I have ze time to decide vat is to be done vis you vonce I have ze full power of ze Phantasmagyth at my disposal.” He turned to the table and began fiddling with papers and substances as he muttered to himself.

“My own mutter und pater, rest zeir souls, taught me to develop zis restless spirit I have now. My pater vas a renowned explorer, traveling all over ze verld to see ze most amazing sights zat no one else could reach. Mein muter taught me to appreciate beauty in all its forms, to capture it on paper, to create my own designs and not to shy avay from realizing vat my mind could dream.” He paused and looked back to Lewis. “But neizer of zem could amount to much. History forgot zeir names. But ze histories of two verlds vill remember my name!” He threw back his head and laughed.

Just then, a stray sunbeam entered the room at just the right angle, glinting off Gathlen’s horn. Lewis watched a small red bead like a laser pointer glide along the wall behind the unicorn. An idea formed in his head, and he waited till Krasimir turned back around to lift his hand and wave to the unicorn.
“How did you even discover Phantasm, anyway?” Lewis layered his voice with disgust and despair. His words had just the right effect. Krasimir saw the question as an invitation to brag, and Gathlen’s head came around quickly, his dark eyes full of concern. Lewis gestured to reassure him as Krasimir jumped on the topic, seizing his field journal notes.

“You vant to know how I did it? I vas looking for somesing no one had yet found, just like my pater. I happened across zese journals of an explorer named Pierson MacPherson in ze late eighteen-hundreds, who described crossing into a verld so different from our own, vere unicorns roamed and fairies danced. He disappeared long ago, leaving all of his research behind. I discovered it, and I studied it very closely until I found a portal of my own.”

While Krasimir talked, Lewis subtly coaxed Gathlen to turn his head till the beam of light flashed on Lisa’s face. When she lifted her head to see what was glinting in her eye, Lewis used the beam of light to show her the part of her cage that was not quite as secure as the rest. He then led Gathlen to indicate the gryphon cage. He figured if Lisa could break through the top of her cage, she could reach the chain holding the gryphon’s cage, and the resulting debris would fall and smash much of the jars holding the Little Folk.

Krasimir prattled on, unaware of the conspiracy happening behind him. “I used ze portal many times, learning zat zese creatures who had never seen a human before were also very suggestible, prime to be ruled by one as knowledgeable as myself, and ven I had captured enough creatures to lure ze red-horned unicorn out of hiding—“ He looked toward the cage and Lewis attempted to freeze in place.

Adolf emerged from the shadows at the back of the room. “Hey!” He barked, pounding on the bars of Lewis’ cage. At a frown from Krasimir the henchman yelled, “He’s doing something! He’s signaling the others somehow. I caught him waving to the unicorn!” Before anyone else could react, Adolf wrenched the door of Lewis’ cage open and grabbed the young man by the collar. “What’re you tryin’ to pull here, eh?” He lifted Lewis off the ground and shook him like a child. “You tryin’ to sabotage my master like you did at the circus?”

“Calm yourself, Adolf!” Krasimir ordered. When he turned away from the table, Lewis saw a hefty hypodermic needle in his hand. “Bring ze boy here.”

Adolf dragged Lewis toward the middle of the room. At least he could see Lisa’s massive hand pushing on the bars where he had indicated. Sure enough, they seemed to bend quite a bit at her touch.
He couldn’t watch her anymore as Krasimir loomed over him. “I had hoped it wouldn’t come to zis,” he said, as the vile green-blue liquid sloshed in the needle’s shaft, “but I can’t have you messing up any more of my plans!” He plunged the needle into Lewis’ shoulder and depressed the plunger.

Lewis felt the cool rush of liquid enter his bloodstream at his shoulders and spread everywhere. With the coolness came a numbness that encompassed his entire body before spreading to his face as well. Within thirty seconds he could not move.

“Zere, you vanted to be vone of zem, now you can!” said the artist, as Adolf pulled Lewis upright, stiff as a board. Krasimir raised Lewis’ arms and folded them across his chest as easily as posing a wire doll. “I can wrap you in antique bandages and seal you in a sarcophagus, and no one would ever know you were not anozzer mummy!” The mad artist cackled.

CLANK! 

Over everyone’s head, the chain suspending the gryphon’s cage snapped under Lisa’s grip, and the mythical beast screamed free in a whirlwind of feathers and claws. As Lewis had hoped, the cage and chain fell on the shelves of jars and shattered enough of them that the free fairies could break the rest and free all the little folk—including Ashwyn. Lewis could only watch from the ground as Lisa finished pushing her way out of her cage and promptly collapsed the nearest wall. Chunks of plaster, brick, and support beams came crashing down, exposing the room to daylight.

The gryphon was absolutely furious at being cooped up for so long. It launched across the work table and tore at anything it could grasp in its talons. A mass of goblins poured into the space as Krasimir ducked under Adolf’s protective stance. The warty Underworlders leaped and snatched to try and reclaim the Little Folk, but if they leaped too far, it put them at risk for being grabbed by the gryphon. Lisa, meanwhile had smashed a hole big enough for her to stand.

The whole time this was happening, Lewis lay stiff on the ground, his arms folded, unable to move or speak. The gryphon’s murderous gaze narrowed on him as a vulnerable target, and Lewis could only brace himself for the vicious talons, when a bright-white shadow swept over him.

“Calm!” Gathlen commanded. “He is a friend, you must not hurt him!”

The gryphon responded at once, veering toward the cluster of ogres surrounding Krasimir. With a screech of wild glee it dispersed the Underworlders, lashing with its talons directly at Krasimir Schlimme himself. The artist ducked and Adolf morphed into a wolf to lunge at the animal, who skidded across the work table with a cry of disappointment. Lewis watched the last of the Phantasmians escape, even Gathlen, who managed a soft, “Hang in there, Lewis,” before he vaulted the broken wall. Would they really leave him behind like that? After all he’d done for them?

Seconds later, before the goblins could overwhelm his helpless body, Lewis watched Lisa’s huge hand descend into the open space. She lifted him into the air as Ashwyn swooped and dived around him.

“You did it! You did it!” The little fairy twinkled. “I knew you would come back for me! We’re free! We’ve escaped the Captor, all of us!”

She landed proudly on his chest as Lewis wished he could tilt his head, or smile, even, to show his relief. Lisa seemed to walk as if she knew where she was going, which baffled him. Did they all agree on a place without his input?
Ashwyn answered his unspoken question. “We even planned a meeting place where we can hide safely away from other humans: the Rolling mountain place!”

Rolling mountain? Lewis didn’t recall any rolling mountains in the vicinity, until it hit him: Rawling’s Point! It was a bus ride and a long hike away from the campus, several miles from the carnival, and surrounded by tall trees. It was definitely a great hiding place for the fugitive Phantasmians, even Lisa.
Sure enough, Lisa stopped and set Lewis on a high outcropping in the midst of lots of crags, difficult to hike to from the bottom, but easy to access from above. The fairies all gathered around him, jabbering excitedly, while Gathlen patiently chomped on some grass the fairies had gathered for him. Lisa crouched at the entrance, concern on her face as she watched the immobilized Lewis.

“Can we do anything for him?” she asked.

“What’s wrong with him?” asked an elf.

“He was poisoned by the same venim that the Captor used on all of us,” Ashwyn declared.

“Oh, you mean we can do this?” A group of fairies tugged at Lewis’ arms, pulling them out straight, while a crowd of elves bent his legs in a sitting position, all the while Lewis remained on his back. The Little Folk giggled as they massaged his face into a baffling expression, stretching the corners of his mouth and fiddling with his eyebrows.

Even Gathlen couldn’t resist a nicker at the playful fidgeting. “Careful now,” he warned. “Deal gently with him.”

Lewis couldn’t feel it, nor resist it in any way. Overhead, the gryphon came in for landing with a screech, sending the cloud of fairies scattering. It held something in one of its taloned foreclaws. When it hobbled over to Lewis, he could see the gleaming Chain dangling from the gryphon’s grasp. Hope surged as the gryphon transferred the Chain to its beak and leaned over. The Chain dropped neatly around Lewis’ neck, and he felt a jolt like a gentle electric buzz down his spine and through his whole nervous system, and at once his muscles relaxed and his limbs dropped to be under his control once again.

He sat up at once, and all the Little Folk cheered.

“Welcome back, Lewis!” said Lisa.

He stretched his arms and sighed with relief. “It’s good to be away from Krasimir and out of danger!” Lewis smiled up at Lisa. “Thank you for rescuing me.”

The gryphon gave a squawk and edged toward him. Lewis watched it carefully, in case it decided to try eviscerating him again. It blinked at him, swinging its head back and forth to focus on him with each eye.

“And thank you for getting the Chain back,” Lewis said. It tipped its head toward him, so he slowly reached his hand out to stroke the gleaming feathers. “Good boy—“

Before he could connect, the gryphon suddenly bucked forward, bowling Lewis over with a head butt. It screeched in his face, but did not scratch him.

Gathlen chortled. “I think you’ve got the wrong impression, Lewis.”

Lewis blinked. “What do you mean?” He looked at the gryphon, who chirped again and bucked its head. “I was just trying to thank him—“

Bonk! The gryphon clocked him in the head a second time. The connection fell into place.

“You’re a female?” he asked. “So I should say… Good girl?”

The gryphon’s talons skittered against the rock as she ducked her head and raised her feathery tail playfully. This time when Lewis reached out to rub her head, she didn’t evade him. His fingers sank into the downy feathers. The texture reminded him of his mom’s plush microfiber fleece blankets. There was almost no real texture, just silky smoothness. A low rattle like a purr emitted from the gryphon’s beak. She rubbed her head against Lewis’ chest, not hard enough to knock him over this time. She squawked again, and this time, Lewis noticed a pattern in the sound. “Kkkahh-rree! Khaw-ree!”

He looked down at the golden head resting against him. “What was that? Are you trying to speak to me?”

The gryphon pulled away and positioned herself facing Lewis. She bobbed her head and repeated the cry. “Khaa-ree! Khaa-ree!”

Lewis watched her. “Kharie,” he mimicked the sound she made. “Is that your name? Kharie?”

She bucked excitedly, repeating the sound with more energy. “Kahrie! Kahrie!”

Lewis imitated her nodding. “Lewis,” he introduced himself. “Lewis.”

Kharie stood still and tilted her head back and forth. Lewis repeated his name once again, and she blinked twice and whistled, “Oowee… Ee-wiss… Wee-wiss… Oowis! Oowis!”

She settled on the closest approximation she could manage, and Lewis felt goosebumps spreading over his skin. A wild creature just learned his name!

Kharie wasn’t done interacting, though. After a quick spin after her tail, she made a teasing dart around beside Lewis. Just before he could spin around to face her, Kharie’s head appeared between his legs, and when she lifted to stand upright, the move tossed Lewis back over her feather ruff and onto the tawny fur of her back.

Lisa’s eyes lit up at the sight. “Better hold on, Lewis!” she warned.

He grabbed the feathers over her shoulders just in time. Kharie bounded forward to the edge of the rock cliff and leaped over it, spreading her wings at the same time. He felt his stomach flip as the gryphon soared through the air, swirling on an updraft and gliding in a wide loop over the whole forest. Lewis could almost see all the way back to Krasimir’s house from that height. Up and up Kharie pushed with powerful strokes, through a bank of clouds that left a sheen of moisture on Lewis’ skin, and spiraling down toward the ground in a move that made him dizzy. He clung to her with his hands and knees as she banked upward again and looped around Lisa’s shoulders. The giantess held out her arm and Kharie latched onto it, perching like a bird of prey and cheeping happily, “Oowis! Kharie! Oowis! Kharie!”

“That looks like so much fun!” Lisa gushed. “I wish I was your size so I could try it too.”

Below them, Gathlen paced uncomfortably. “We will be safe here, you need not fear, but there might not be room enough for everyone to stay out of sight.” His waving ruby horn indicated the sparkling fairies who were becoming more visible as the evening set in.

“I can keep the Little Folk in the dorm with me,” Lewis said. “Queen Evalia and Ashwyn can help keep everybody organized and hidden when I’m not around.” He glanced back to Lisa. “Krasimir’s going to do whatever it takes to keep the Gyth and reclaim the Chain, so I think it’s best if we keep those separate as much as possible, till we can figure out how to find a portal back to Phantasm.”

Ashwyn sprang up next to him. “That’s not going to be a problem,” she said. “I’m a Meadowglade fairy, and as such, I am equipped with a sense of when and where a portal will be. As soon as one opens up, I’ll know about it.”

Lewis blinked at the little fairy who continued to surprise him. “Well,” he stammered. “I guess all we would need to do then is wait till you three—Kharie, Lisa and Gathlen—figure out how to steal the Gyth from Krasimir.”

Lisa grunted. “Hmph! Why don’t you do it?”

Lewis rolled his eyes and shook his head. “I think we’ve established that Krasimir is always expecting me to try something. I think if I just stay away from him for a while it will be for the best—and you are all much better equipped to withstand him if I’m not in the mix, anyway.” He patted Kharie on the head and nudged her with his knees. “Okay, girl, take me back to the ground again.”

Kharie lifted off Lisa’s arm and came to rest in the grass beside Gathlen, at the foot of Rawling’s Point. The Little Folk soon swarmed around him. He waved to the three Phantasmians staying behind. “We'll wait for your message that you have the Gyth again, and get the nearest and soonest location for a portal where we will meet up to send you all back home again.”

A chorus of bells rang over his head.
“Did you hear that, everyone?” Ashwyn’s happy jangle stood out from the rest. “Lewis is going to send us home!”

The young man smiled. “I’d better find the nearest bus station to get me back to my dorm,” he said. “Best of luck, everyone!” He headed toward the road and absently reached for his pocket—only to remember that Krasimir Schlimme had confiscated his phone. “Great,” he mumbled. “I’m probably never getting that back again.”

A chatty group of elves gathered at his feet. “Hey!” one of them shouted, “Won’t you be needing this?” 

Lewis looked down at them, only to see his phone in their midst, supported by at least thirty elves and looking none the worse for wear. He reached down and grabbed it. “Oh no way!” he cried. “Thanks guys!” Armed with his phone, he saw multiple missed text messages and calls from his coworkers and his classmates, wondering where he was, and if he was okay or not. He texted a few of them back to let them know he was fine, and then swiped over to the bus routes to find the nearest stop.

The minute he landed at Browning Academy, he saw Quincy, Brayden, Danielle, Jordan, and Henry waiting for him.
“Where were you?” Quincy demanded as Danielle wordlessly threw her arms around him. “You’ve been gone for a whole two days, Danielle says you were supposed to come back with her last night but you never did. What happened?”

Lewis didn’t have the energy to come up with a convincing story. “I got lost,” he said. “And it took me a while to figure out where I was. I’m okay now. It shouldn’t happen again.”

“You’d better not, man!” Brayden chided. “All our professors are going to give you extra assignments to catch up on everything you missed today.”
Lewis nodded. “I know; sorry for freaking everybody out, I just needed… A mental health day; you know, to figure some stuff out.”

“Just warn us next time!” Danielle nudged him. “I was worried that you might have been trampled to death!”

Lewis nodded. “Next time this happens, I’ll make sure my friends know about it.” Unless it has anything to do with Phantasm, he thought to himself. As amazing as they were, he could not wait to have everything put back to normal again!

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Serial Saturday: "Fairies Under Glass" Part 25

Part 25

"A New Show"

Attention carnival fans! The bullhorns blared. The next show at the Phantasmenagerie will begin in twenty minutes!

Lewis felt his stomach turn yet again. He stood by the entrance to the rollercoaster, glaring in the direction of the large, imposing gate separating the fun and exciting carnival from the spooky and horrifying freak show.

Queen Evalia carved anxious patterns overhead. "It's worse than we feared!" she jangled, using the noise of the ride to cover the sound of her voice. "It seems he has found a way to use the Gyth without the Chain!"

Lewis felt his cheeks burn with indignation. "He didn't bother trying to get the Gyth from me before, since he probably assumed it wouldn't work without the Chain. I'll bet that's the information he tortured out of Ashwyn, and once he knew that he could, he sent Adolf to steal the Gyth from me!" He had to shake the fury from his face as a fresh group of riders approached the coaster. Maintaining a welcoming manner became harder when he realized the three people in the front of the line were making plans to see the new show at the Phantasmenagerie afterward.

"I mean, I thought it was all just art displays and side shows," one of the girls said.

"It was," a guy responded, "but then one of the tents collapsed and shut the whole thing down for a couple days. You'll like the new show; I've already seen it twice today."

"What is it, like a bunch of puppets and animatronics? From what I hear, they're not using any live acrobats or stunt performers." another guy asked as they walked past Lewis to sit in the cars. He pretended to check his controls extra-thoroughly to let them finish their conversation.

A second girl asked, "So it's not like an actual circus show?"

"No, it's definitely circus-like, although it's got mostly animals performing tricks instead of people," said the first guy. "But the animals aren't like anything you've ever seen before. They actually look like mythical beasts spliced in a mad scientist's lab or something! It's crazy! They even have a 60-foot giant in the show!"

"I call hoax!" cried the first girl. "That one's still just a puppet, I think."

"Okay, but the gryphon hybrid is awesome!" said the guy with all the knowledge. "It looks just like the ones you've seen in pictures from Greek mythology, with a lion body and it actually flies through flaming hoops on eagle wings, and perches like a bird of prey."

"Now that I'd pay to see!" his buddy declared.

Lewis had heard enough. He flipped the switch to initiate the voice-over countdown and launched the group down the track. Flaming hoops? Spliced beasts? True, he and the gryphon hadn't started out on the best of terms, but he still felt sorry for the creature forced to perform like a prized pet.

He felt Queen Evalia settle on his shoulder while he stood alone. He could almost sense the waves of anxiety radiating off her tiny body.

"He really can control them somehow," Lewis whispered, reaching toward his collar to brush the Chain with his fingertips.

"No matter how much he tries, it still does not compare with the power of the True Phantasmagyth," said the Queen. "You must never forget that, Lewis."

The roller coaster returned, and Queen Evalia had to leave, but her words stayed with Lewis for the rest of the evening.

His shift ended as it was starting to get dark. The show had been announced several times, but as Lewis prepared to clock out and head to the food court for dinner, he heard the bullhorns announce that the final show of the night would begin in the customary twenty minutes' time.

Danielle joined him on his way to the food trucks. She smiled as he fell into step beside her.

"These extended hours make you really feel like summer is almost here, don't they?" she gushed.
Lewis nodded. "That, and all the final assignments we're doing!" he replied.

Danielle laughed. "I won't miss those, for sure!" She broke away to order from the truck selling chicken fingers and french fries. As they waited, she asked, "Well, it's the end of the week, have you been to the new show at the Phantasmenagerie yet?"

Lewis shook his head, trying not to let the revulsion he felt show on his face. "No, I only come here to work. I haven't really had any interest in going there at all."

Danielle gave a shy half-grin. "Oh, the squeamish type? I get it; spooky vibes and horror stuff is not for everybody."

Lewis paused at the pizza truck and ordered a slice. "It's not that," he retorted.

"Then what?" Danielle prodded as they walked together to a table. "Do you have classes first thing tomorrow? If not, will you go with me? I was curious about the show, but I didn't want to see it alone."

Lewis mulled the offer over. "I don't have Saturday classes this semester, but won't we miss the bus if we stay late? I seem to recall it tends to arrive right after we finish dinner."

"Yeah, normally," Danielle gestured with the fry in her hand. "But, c'mon, man! It's Friday night! There's another bus line that stops later a few blocks down the road, and it goes right by the main entrance to Browning Academy campus. We can take that one, ask the driver to drop us off there, and just walk to our dorms."

Lewis winced. "I don't know about walking around there so late at night..."

"Don't tell me you're scared that the creepy man and his weird dog will show up again," Danielle said as she rolled her eyes. "There are more cameras on that side of campus anyway, and we'll be walking together. Please?" Her gaze held his with a level of enticement that surprised him. "Just come; we might actually end up liking it!"

Lewis didn't want to tell her that he seriously doubted he would ever enjoy something so heinous, so he covered his hesitation with a bite of pizza.

Worse than we feared... The memory Queen Evalia's words returned. How hard he tries... he'll never match the power of the Real Phantasmagyth...

Lewis chomped a bite of pizza crust between his teeth. As much as he abhorred the idea of being a spectator to Krasimir's cruelty, he knew he couldn't sit by and ignore him as he tortured the Phantasmians into oblivion. In fact, agreeing to go with Danielle gave him an excuse he'd been looking for to go in there without having to sneak in. The time for keeping his head down and avoiding contact with the arrogant artist was coming to a close.

"All right," he said with a sigh, "I guess I can stay a bit extra tonight."

Danielle grinned and held up two tickets printed with admission to the Phantasmenagerie. "I was hoping you'd agree. Finish up and let's go so we can get good seats." She left to throw away her garbage.

Lewis touched the Chain around his neck. "Evalia, can you hear me?" He whispered under his breath. A flicker of light blinked twice, too bright and deliberate to be a random firefly. "Tell all the other fugitive Little Folk that we are sabotaging the show tonight, once and for all. For Ashwyn's sake, I'm going to try and use the Chain to save all the Phantasmians trapped in the circus. Maybe with the power I have, I can break his control from the audience." As he breathed the words, Lewis could feel his confidence building. He was feeling reckless, almost daring--

"Ready to go?" Danielle stood beside him.

Lewis smiled and wiped his greasy fingers with his napkin. "All set," he replied.
>>>>>>>>>>

The lights in the tent were sparse, but plenty of light illuminated the space. This was mostly due to the numerous glass orbs filled with swirling, flickering lights that appeared at first glance to be wandering sparks. On closer examination one might notice that the “sparks” had arms and legs. When one looked harder, one might see the dim shapes of tiny humanoids passed out from exhaustion at the base of the orb.

Krasimir brushed a dust mote off the lapel of his crushed velvet coat. He switched on the microphone clipped to his ear and declared to the crowd, “Welcome, one and all, to the mystical Phantasmenagerie, a place where the impossible takes shape!” He thought about the Gyth hanging around his neck underneath his shirt, and a warming burst of power reflected his attention. Armed with this power, he focused on his first team of goblins. They moved reflexively, switching on the floodlights to focus on Lisa the giantess.

The audience gasped as the goblins worked the pulleys attached to her limbs and head. Her arms waggled and her head nodded, sweeping her hair back so her expressionless face and hooded eyes were visible.

“Tonight you will see things that you could only imagine before!”

Krasimir cued the trolls flanking the large cage, and the gryphon burst out with an ear-piercing shriek.

“It’s flying!” somebody yelled.

Krasimir kept his gaze fixed on the creature, reaching into his shirt to hold the Gyth. “Perch on the platform, just like the rehearsal,” he whispered under his breath.

The gryphon gave another angry bellow and made an extra loop around the tent ceiling before landing on the perch as instructed.

“And now, for your viewing pleasure, a bit of a light show!” Krasimir waved his hand to signal the ogres standing in front of the cage full of fairies. The lights from their wings sparkled like glitter under the floodlights, and when the ogres pulled the lid off, Krasimir again held the Gyth and commanded them to come out in a shining cascade.

The cascade ended up as more of a gentle trickle in the eyes of the audience. Krasimir frowned at the cluster of docile fairies hovering in the center of the ring. Wasn’t it bigger when he rehearsed? He moved on with the performance, cuing the goblins in the sound booth to start the music, and waving his hand to guide the fairies into position. They made geometric designs, wove dancing and spinning patterns, and sparkled over the enchanted faces of the audience. As the music swelled, Krasimir swept the fairies into a group again and began cycling through the shapes—but as he did, there seemed to be a problem with the sequences. The gaps seemed bigger, the fairies seemed sparser, the shapes they made weaker and less defined. What was happening? The third pass confirmed that something was wrong; there weren’t even enough fairies to make the same number of shapes anymore. Krasimir hailed his goblin assistants with the Gyth.

“Let out the rest of the fairies,” he murmured.

“There are no more,” grunted the goblin as the music reached the middle of the sequence with only a mere handful of fairies left, compared to the vast amount that had started the show.

Krasimir squelched his frustration and signaled the sound booth. The music started fading and the artist directed the fairies back into their cage. The gesture took a bit longer than it had before, but Krasimir was too concerned about continuing the show.

“Behold!” he shouted to the crowd, “From the enchanted space between reality and dreams, a unicorn roams!”

He summoned the goblin dressed in disguise as a dwarf-sized human, perched in a small chariot harnessed to the gleaming unicorn, draped in sheer, tattered fabrics like decomposed funeral robes.

“But beware,” Krasimir’s amplified voice purred, “These dreams aren’t all sunshine and rainbows.”
The music took a darker turn, and the goblin cracked the whip in its hand, pushing the unicorn into a smooth run. The people applauded as the goblin yanked on the reins, pulling the unicorn into a rearing pose with a whinny that sounded more like a wailing scream. Krasimir watched with calculated glee. Finally his show was proceeding as it was supposed to, and getting the right response.

In the middle of the unicorn’s run, the gryphon suddenly screeched and crouched on its perch, as if waiting to pounce.
“Stay!” Krasimir commanded, holding the Gyth. He needed the audience’s attention on the unicorn for a few minutes longer in order to get the flaming hoops into position without burning the gisnt or the unicorn in the process.

The gryphon howled in protest, but did not rest on its haunches.

Krasimir opened his shirt collar so the Gyth could catch the light of the few lanterns, as if that could reinforce its power. “Do not move,” he remanded the creature.

Unfortunately, the gryphon’s desire to hunt seemed to supersede any submission to the Gyth. It launched over the heads of the audience, no longer playful nor grandiose, but a predator on the hunt. It looped the perimeter of the tent, flying low and honing in on something at the middle of the ring. It didn’t matter what Krasimir said, even if he was speaking directly to the Gyth itself, the gryphon narrowed in on its target: the disguised goblin.

“Nicht zuschlagen!” Krasimir spluttered, but it was too late. The gryphon’s talons reached out and caught in the ruffled costume. The goblin yelped as it was hauled into the air.

Panic settled into the audience, and at once they were on their feet and shoving to get to the nearest exit. The unicorn kicked with its silver hooves till the flimsy chariot burst into smithereens, and worst of all, the giant began thrashing and pulling the ropes that were no stronger than pieces of twine to a normal human.

Krasimir Schlimme surveyed the chaos with simmering anger. He had almost demanded that the gryphon drop the goblin, when he realized that doing so would reveal the hideous creatures to the public, and what a scandal that would be! Every attempt at using the Gyth to regain control of the situation only revealed the limits of his power: the only creatures that responded to his influence were the Underworlders, but they could not be seen by the carnival attendees. Everyone was already beside themselves over the freedom of the Phantasmians.

“Get outside and make sure the Phantasmians don’t escape!” he told the goblins on the catwalk. They followed his orders without question; but what use was their blind submission when he really wanted to control the creatures everyone could already see!

The gryphon screeched gleefully now that it could dive-bomb the heads of the few audience members who remained. The giantess had come detached from her harnesses, and although the reservoir remained strapped to her back, the hose had broken, slashed by the gryphon’s talons and now dangling in front of her face.

Krasimir withdrew into the shadows, heading for the secure back exit. Most of the crowd had made it out, it seemed, except a few in the foremost rows. His keen eyes noted one area of the bleachers the gryphon avoided in its attacks, and as soon as he married his gaze, he figured out why: the boy, his former janitor, the constant meddlesome thorn in his plans for ultimate control over these creatures he had claimed, sat there in tense concern. Lewis Grant! According to the captive fairy back in his lab, he carried the Chain on his person. That must be the reason the Gyth had failed. It was all Lewis’ fault! He pointed through the chaos of flailing giant and swooping gryphon. Those audience members left were too scared by this point to ever blab about what they might witness.

“Get him!” Krasimir roared, and the Gyth flared brightly over his chest. Goblins and ogres came crawling out of underground caverns and dropping from the tent rafters, but Lewis had already made his way out of the bleachers within the last of the crowd. Krasimir sneered; no doubt his command had reached the Underworlders outside and they would all be on the lookout for Lewis. He wasn’t getting away this time! Krasimir slipped away toward his vehicle. They would capture the boy and bring him to the lab, or they would not dare present themselves to him at all.

For his part, Lewis was only just beginning to realize the fatal flaw in his rescue plan. It had been deceptively simple to use the power housed in the Chain to overwhelm Krasimir’s influence over the fairies, a few at a time, so they could stop flying, drop to the ground, and simply walk away by virtue of being too small to see in the shadows of the tent. The gryphon’s rebellion hadn’t been intentional, but Lewis surmised it could have been helped by the Chain’s presence. When the show fell apart at the seams, Lewis had been elated, noting how the gryphon ripped the hose forcing venim down Lisa’s throat, and how the dispersing crowd would be the perfect distraction to allow him and the newly-freed captives to race out into the night…. and then what? Lewis watched Lisa thrash and demolish the tent above her as concern mounted over where a sixty-foot girl could hide in this flat part of the country—and he didn’t realize Krasimir had spotted him till it was too late. He saw Krasimir’s hand come up to point at him and he grabbed Danielle’s hand.

“Let’s get out of here!” he said to her.

“What is even happening right now?” she wailed at him.

Lewis fell in with the crowd and emerged under the night sky—and his heart lurched to see the vaguely humanoid shadows carrying jars with handfuls of lights in them. Some fairies had escaped for good, but not all of them. The Underworlders could move about in the darkness of nighttime without fear of being spotted by the terrified spectators racing for their cars and jockeying for the parking lot exit. Lisa’s body unfolded from the tent roof, yelling, “I’ve got him! Where do we go now?”

Lewis looked up to see Gathlen dangling rather ignominiously from her hand and knew he hadn’t done much to free his friends at all. Without anywhere else to hide and regroup, they were all just as trapped as they had been.

“Wait! That’s no animatronic!” Danielle shrieked.

A gruff voice barked, “Hey you!”

Lewis felt his body temperature drop and his skin grow clammy at the sound of Adolf’s snarl. He couldn’t let himself be caught again, especially with an outsider nearby! He released Danielle’s hand and pushed her toward the exit. “Head for the bus!” he told her. “I’ll be right behind you!”

She didn’t hesitate, abandoning him at once. Lewis turned to locate Adolf, but the werewolf wasn’t where he had been before. Lewis kept running, eyes scanning the shadows around him, but then he wasn’t watching where he was going. His shoe caught on something, sending him sprawling to the ground. He had just gotten his feet back under him when he heard the raspy cackle of an ogre and something hard connected with the back of his head, knocking him out completely.

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Reader's Review: "Selkie's Song" by Kimberly A. Rogers

Synopsis from Amazon:

A selkie’s song can enchant a man and tame the sea . . .

Naia’s unusual love for human things led her to become the sole artisan in her clan. But when this passion leads to her abduction, she loses more than contact with the sea when her pelt is taken. Unable to shift forms or return to the sea without it, she knows she will die if she cannot recover the pelt soon. Cut off from her family, Naia must appease the human king while persuading his lovesick son to honor past arrangements.

Malik has loved and lost before, an experience leading him to shy away from love. When Naia is stranded, however, he risks everything to find her. Together they uncover a plot that would sweep up humans and selkies alike in a war that would destroy the Five Kingdoms and possibly all of Sonera.

When the enemy acts, can they save sea and land . . . and each other?

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My Review:

Kimberly Rogers is an author I've followed since the early days of this blog. I read her Therian Way series (currently being updated to get included into her Rogue Spotter Universe) and quickly got OBSESSED with the main pairing and absolutely devoured her storytelling voice. I find her books enthralling and her characters so charming and her plots are absolutely riveting.

Her magical take on the Little Mermaid is no exception!

Naia the middle daughter of three sisters, dismissed as a "runt" and "too human" in her looks. Since they are Selkies, not mermaids, there is a lot less stake in the transformation, in fact they really only wear their seal-pelts in cases of swimming long distances or quicker than they could be in their human forms. But even in their human forms, they must always keep their pelts nearby, because if anything happened to the pelt, it could be fatal.

Naia can use her apparent mundanity to her advantage, withdrawing from her younger sister's overt flirtatious behavior around good-looking Selkie males, and dreaming of one day being recognized for her skill in artistry, particularly jewelry-making and gardening. Then one day she is dancing on the shore with her sisters, and a pair of strange humans discover them almost at the same time as a sea serpent attacks the girls onshore. Her sisters end up being able to escape, but Naia is injured and before she can retrieve her pelt, one of the men takes it, and the man that carries her off the beach happens to be the crown prince. Naia and her pelt are separated, and the prince seems to know a thing or two about Selkie myths: namely that their voice is enchanting and he is smitten by her beauty, insisting that she stay in the castle until she can learn to requite his adoration!

My favorite part of this novel was that it wasn't wholly a Little Mermaid retelling, but there were enough subtle hints and references to it, in and around more Selkie-centered lore and some unique twists that expanded the tale and raised the stakes more than just "fall in love in three days or lose your human legs forever." Naia doesn't trade her voice away, but she is so pained at losing her pelt that she does spend a long while without speaking. Her father isn't the ruler of the Selkie kingdom, but he is certainly high-ranking in the community, such that the Great Selkie will visit the family, much to the delight of her overly-sociable sister. When Naia is taken away, he comes ashore to seek after her well-being, but neither is able to rectify the situation without knowing who has taken Naia's pelt and hidden away, why they took it, and where it might be.

I love all the imagery in this book, I felt Naia's longing every time she thought of swimming while she didn't have her pelt, and every wholesome moment between characters was delightful. I would definitely give Selkie's Song a full *****5 STAR***** rating, and add in the Upstream Writer Certified WHOLEHEARTEDLY RECOMMENDED. This book is wonderful for those who enjoy clean, well-written fairy tale retellings with light romance and plenty of peril along the way--and great news, it's only the first in a whole series of these retellings called Love's Enchanted Tales, and I definitely will want to read more of them!

Further Reading: (Also By The Author/Clean Reads/Superb World-Building/Fairy Tale Retellings)

The Therian Way--Kimberly Rogers
       -Leopard's Heart 
       -Wolf's Path 
       -Tiger's Shadow

Rogue Spotter Universe--Kimberly Rogers

       -Threats By Numbers

Verona: The Complete Mermaid Tales--Pauline Creeden
       -Scales 
       -Submerged 
       -Salt 
       -Surfacing 

Talented Series--Amy Hopkins
     -A Drop of Dream 
     -A Dash of Fiend 
     -A Splash of Truth 
     -A Promise Due 

The Chronicles of Lorrek--Kelly Blanchard
        -Someday I'll Be Redeemed 
        -I Still Have A Soul 
        -I'm Still Alive 
        -Do You Trust Me? 
        -You Left Me No Choice 
        -They Must Be Stopped 
        -Find Me If You Can 
        -You're Not Alone 

The Fair Folk Chronicles--Jeffrey Cook and Katherine Perkins
        -Foul is Fair 
        -Street Fair 
        -A Fair Fight 
        -All's Fair 

-The Wendy--Erin Michelle Sky 

The Bhinian Empire--Miriam Forster
     -City of A Thousand Dolls 
     -Empire of Shadows

Wonderland Guardian Academy Series--Pauline Creeden
       -Red The Wolf Tracker 
       -Belle The Beast Tamer

-Severance--M. A. Smith

-Beauty and Beastly--Melanie Karsak

-Wolves And Daggers--Melanie Karsak

Upstream Updates: Checking In, Mid-Year!

We are more than halfway through 2025, and I thought everybody deserved an update with how I'm doing!

Life Stuff

2025 is proving to be a pretty intense year! The school year ended and I felt more relief than I had in a while. I don't know what made it so difficult this year but I admit I struggled a lot more than in years past. But summer arrived and we didn't have to go too long into June, so I am grateful for that! Regardless of the fact that I am able to sleep better with a CPAP after my sleep apnea diagnosis, I can confirm that I am still NOT a "morning person", so those 5:30 wake-up times just to be able to be at work when I was supposed to were no joke! Luckily that expectation will ease up in the next school year, so I won't have to be so stressed out over it.

That being said, outside of work times I had so much fun being an auntie to all my "niblings", and participating more in things with family and friends over the year than I had been in the past when battling that near-constant fatigue. Right now we're into blueberry-picking season at my house, which is my favorite berry to pick! The bushes in our backyard got absolutely fried in the heat wave of '21, and every year since I've been waiting and hoping for the bushes to recover. The last few years have been rather slim pickings, I especially got discouraged last year when it took almost the whole season just to pick a few dozen pounds of berries, whereas in years past I could pick several pounds a day for weeks! This year, I'm happy to report that the bushes are loaded! I've harvested nearly thirty pounds, and with this heat we're having, there are still so many green berries ready to ripen, I am pretty sure we can stock up pretty well at this rate!

Writing

Last year, taking a break from novel-writing to work through new and old short stories was really fun, but it just stings not having anything to show for it by now. (They were only limited-run anthologies anyway, so now all I have are a few short stories that are indeed publish-worthy but nowhere to house them...) But now that they're done, I still wasn't really ready to dive into editing Fugitive of Crossway yet, and I needed something else to hammer out...

Enter Fairies Under Glass. I'd started rewriting it in 2022, again after finishing the first draft of Fugitive, but stopped when interest seemed to wane and I knew really ought to focus on other things. But randomly this year I got inspired to get back into it and finish off the project, because that's something that I think I ought to get better at: finishing things. It's just refreshing when I don't have things hanging over my head like Damocles' sword. Plus, I started reading it to a writer friend of mine, we're sort of accountability buddies. She motivated me to finish the second draft of Fugitive, and it's largely through reading that to her that I realized how much I definitely needed to tweak, and what I could do about it. So as I was going back and reading through Fairies Under Glass with her, I pulled up my notes, opened up the draft, and finished the thing! I know I haven't been very consistent in posting it, but you can read the latest part >here< by clicking the hyperlinked text, and trust me, the end is coming! If you haven't read it yet, you can find the first part of the story >here< at the hyperlink, and read it all the way through from the beginning. (I try to link the parts together at the end of each post, so if you encounter a post without a link to the next or previous part, do comment there and let me know!)

Now that I've finished Fairies Under Glass, I felt ready to take on Fugitive of Crossway. I'm almost halfway through the book, and much to my chagrin, it doesn't seem to be getting any shorter. And the few notes I could remember from reading it through with my accountability buddy, weren't altogether that helpful. (When I've noted that a particular scene is "too vague, needs fixing".... Where exactly did Past Me expect Present Me to go with that supreme lack of information?!?!?!?) As much as I feel like I need a third party to tell me what is needed and what I can remove, I was hoping to at least achieve the bulk of that myself, but it doesn't seem to be happening. Either I'm too close to really know what needs to be said and what is redundant, or the story is too complex and I need to just embrace the complexity and give up on trying to have consistent book lengths for the Undersea Saga. I've spent almost a month now arduously trying to rephrase things and tweak it to bring the word count down, and I've only been able to pare down by the hundreds, not thousands of words. Either it means I need to hire an outside editor to restructure the story to be shorter (like maybe the way I swapped between the two plot lines could be done better), or I just need to embrace the fact that this book is absolutely going to be DOUBLE the length of Princess of Undersea, and let you all have at it! Either way, this is definitely the hardest part of the process, but once it's done, I'll feel so much better about setting my sights on finally publishing!

Meanwhile, I'm still open to the idea of finishing A Writer's Tale and/or The Last Inkweaver. Especially the latter, I'd been stumped on a certain part of it, and it took discussing it with another writer (and an enthusiastic supporter) to make the breakthrough that might yet prove helpful. One of the most basic points I needed was to be able to write the male secondary character in a believable way, not make him completely unlikeable, but just very much clueless at the start, so that I can build his character arc in a way that actually helps the reader like him as the story unfolds. Only time will tell if I have what I need to pull it off, so wish me luck!

In Wattpad news, I finally returned to regularly updating things, I've started posting Fairies Under Glass on there, and I'm thinking about all the other half-finished projects (the ReBible series, Merely Meredith, etc.) I could start adding as well, just to motivate myself to complete them! One issue I've noticed once I started posting regularly, though, is the rampant slew of scammers leaving solicitous comments on my chapters. They are lavish in their compliments but then follow it up immediately with contact info, usually via Discord, Whatsapp, or Telegram--all platforms known to be used by international scammers. I would, of course, respond with questions as to the veracity of their interest. I caught two scammers using the exact same script. The second one, I asked point-blank "Are you really interested or are you just a marketer scraping recently-updated posts for clients?" and they responded "a marketer scraping for clients" and then deleted their profile mere hours after creating it. That's usually the red flag for me, if I receive a comment and click on the profile, only to be greeted by a blank page hours or days old, with no engagement--that's a scammer.

My personal goal of "FOCUS" is yielding some satisfactory results, and lots of things are coming along nicely, so long as I don't get distracted on my way through to the end of the year!

Reading

Now we come to the exciting part... I had been discouraged by the gradual decline of books I was able to finish reading over the last few years, compared with the rate I continued to acquire books through book sales, free libraries, gifts, and bookstore gift cards. I had a list of more than 50 books, and although I had planned to read at least three books a month last year, it didn't happen and I found myself constantly restructuring the list and adding books and taking them off... I needed a new solution to visualize my TBR and a way to motivate myself to keep reading!

Enter social media video clips, and in particular one that showed a reader who had filled out a grid with the covers of all her TBR books and covered them with scratch-off stickers. Each time she finished a book, she could scratch off to reveal the next one. I really liked that idea and immediately started searching for the cover images of every book in my TBR. That's when I ran into a snag: I couldn't use a grid system like the one in the video, because my reading style tends to be more haphazard than just a straight grid. I didn't want to completely randomize my TBR, but at the same time, I craved a sort of variety. I rarely consent to blaze through an entire series consecutively (much to the chagrin of indie authors waiting for me to finish reading the epic series they've spent so much time on!) but I also wanted the option to either "branch off" to continue through a series, or keep it sort of "controlled randomized" by not overloading my imagination with too much fantasy, an abundance of sci-fi, or too many whodunnits in a row. That "branching off" inspired me to arrange my scratch-off "chart" more like a map, a map of my Reading Journey.

Feel free to zoom in to see the books I've read so far!

I had already discovered a monthly reading challenge shared by my local library that happened to list categories into which I could fit books from my TBR, so that was a straightforward given, but the rest I arranged along a winding path. The branches are series. Some of them are complete, sometimes I'll have a book on the "main path" that happens to be the first in a series, so I left myself room to add to its "branch" if I choose. The empty line on the right of the page is called "Library Lane": these are books that I want to read, that I would want to borrow from the library. Once I finish the book closest to that branch, I can start placing those holds, and as the books come available, I will check them out, add their covers to my "map" and keep on reading! As you can see, it's done wonders in keeping me on track and continuing to read! I'm already 16 books in, and I've got a few more that I aim to finish before the month is done, which means I'm already miles ahead of how many I'd read by this time last year or the year before! Out of those 16 books, there have been a handful that were sheer delights to discover and read--I can't wait to give the rundown at the end of the year! (Have you read any of the books you see in the picture? Comment below to tell me if you have, or if you've been interested, and I'll let you know what I thought of it!)

So that's where I'm at so far. Thanks for coming along with me for the journey, and I hope to keep you apprised of my progress as things unfold. Leave comments if you read anything you'd like to respond to, I make sure to respond to each comment as it comes in! As ever...

Catch You Further Upstream!