38. Mischief
"…and as she sat on the log, listening to the eerie sounds of the night, she heard something that was definitely not the average woodland creature."
We had her here. I just had to hope that Elliot from down the street was paying attention as well as I was paying him.
I wasn't disappointed- a deafening, terrifying growl echoed through the forest. Riza flinched and began to sweat a little, but kept her expression calm. She must have got that from her dad.
"Too terrified to turn around, too terrified to run for fear she'd fall, she did the only thing she could. She plugged her ears, stayed where she was, and tried to convince herself she was imagining it all.
"Before long, she heard rustling in the woods, like a big, vicious creature moving through the bushes."
There it was, the rustling. It was amazing what you could do with advanced alchemy, it really was.
"She was just about to give up and run for her life when…"
I waited for Elliot to grab her on her shoulders and scare the living daylights out of her, but he nothing happened. Then, a firm hand clamped down on my shoulder, and I was the one jumping.
"Young man, you have quite a bit of explaining to do. Just why were you trying to terrorize my daughter?"
Crap. I was dead.
"Daddy, he was using alchemy too! He used it to make the trees rustle!"
"Riza, not you too!"
She gave me a mischievous grin. And I thought I was the devious one.
I would get back at her. There was no way to prove it if a bug mysteriously found its way into her cereal tomorrow, was there?