That night, my dream picked up where the last left off.
I ran as fast as my 6-year-old legs could carry me with Tabbatha close behind. Daddy had to be around here… somewhere. The place was deserted, though. I was scared, not knowing what to do. "Tabbatha?" I asked, "How do we get home?"
Tabbatha's lip quivered. "I don't have a home," she said miserably. "I was on a field trip with my orphan school. They probably left by now." Tears streamed down her face.
I sniffed looking around as we got to the main room. There were bodies on the ground, a sight far too gruesome for a 6-year-old. I looked around at the bloody scene. Then I spotted a man with short blonde hair and a suit lying in a pool of red. "Daddy," I whispered. I went running, weeping harder than ever before.
Tabbatha stood there, dazed, staring at the door. I didn't look. My dad wasn't moving, and he had no pulse. I curled up in a ball on the ground and cried. I heard something approaching me on the marble floor, but it didn't sound like footsteps. It sounded like mallets hitting against the ground.
I looked up to see a boy towering over me. He was 6 by the looks of it. His curly brown hair was wet, as if he had just walked out of the rain. His bit his lip and knelt down by me. I sat up to come face to face with him, when I noticed something was wrong with him. His legs were fuzzier than my teddy bear, and he was missing feet. He looked funny.
Tabbatha finally snapped out of her daze and came to us. "Kitty," she decided, petting one of his legs.
The boy smiled a thin smile. "Goat," he corrected her, standing up. He offered me a hand.
I grabbed it and stood, feeling a little wobbly. Daddy still hadn't moved. Maybe he was sleeping. I tried to encourage myself, but it didn't work.
"Come with me," he said, helping us out the door. We went, because we didn't know what else there was to do.
"What's your name?" asked Tabbatha, looking at the boy.
"Shawn," he said, opening the door.
I nodded, soaking it in. "Where are we going, Shawn?" I asked, wiping an eye.
"Somewhere safe, where you'll be cared for," he said as we stepped into the rain.
Something pushed against my shoulder, trying to shake me awake. I lazily opened one eye to see Tabbatha kneeling by my bed. "Hey," I said sleepily.
"Hey yourself," she said, grabbing my arm and trying to pull me out of bed.
"Where's the fire?" I asked sleepily, rolling back into my bed and pulling the covers over my head.
"It's gonna be in your cabin if you don't get up," she said, grabbing my pillow and hitting me with it.
"Whoa!" I said, lifting the hem of my white nightgown up to my knee and waving it. "I surrender!"
"Good," she said, dropping the pillow. She was already dressed in camouflage bandanna, which covered most of her blonde hair that she cut last winter. Now it barely made it down to her ringless earlobes, because she wanted to keep her ears pure and told me I had better do the same or else she would pierce my nose in the night. She had on a light blue shirt with one of those yellow smiley faces, and underneath it were the words 'Just keep on smiling, it confuses people,' and blue jeans that she personally cut with her pocket knife to make tears in the knees. To top it off she had the world's coolest pair of Converse hightops with skulls, crossbones, and a pink background.
I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and stood up, wishing I could crawl back under the covers and never come out.
"Are we leaving, like, now?" I asked, brushing back my soft black hair that looked a lot like a rat's nest at the moment.
"I think we should get going in maybe half an hour," she Tabbatha, cracking her knuckles before dropping some food into my frog's tank.
"Okay," I said, "I probably should get changed then, right?"
"Unless you want the monsters to die laughing at you in your pajamas," she replied.
"I think I will change," I said, pulling out a yellow T-shirt that said 'Stupid is as stupid does', a pair of black leggings, one led black one leg pink, and a black and pink skirt that just screamed "I wanna punch someone." I reached far underneath the dreeser and grabbed some brown moccasins decorated with beads.
"Nice choice," said Tabbatha, giving me a thumbs up in approval
"It's my questing outfit," I said, walking to the bathroom to change. Let's skip the details of that, shall we?
Five minutes later I walked out like a model, with one hand on my hip and another swinging at my side. Tabbatha sat on a bed and cheered like an over obsessive fan seeing their favorite supermodel.
She smiled, getting up from the bad and said, "So… when do we go? I say now."
I gave her a puppy dog lip. "Aw we gon' have bwekfast?" I asked like a two year, rubbing my stomach.
Tabbatha shrugged. "Might as well," she said. "Our last chance for free food."
That made me stop and think for a moment. "Tabbatha," I said. "How are we gonna pay for ourselves on this quest. You know gas prices have gone so high that only Hades can pay for a whole tank."
Tabbatha thought that over. "That's a problem," she said. Then she brightened up as if she had just gotten a brilliant idea. "But it's Tabbatha to the rescue!" she said, and ran out the door. Great, there went my good old spastic friend.
"Tabbatha!" I whined, running after her. She knew that I suck epically at track, but she was in a world of her own right now, racing to the pavilion.
I slowed down and began walking there at my own pace, figuring I'd just yell at her when I got there. Then I noticed something. There was a long scaly shining rope lying on the ground nect to my foot. It looked like a golden yellow cord.
I wanted to step away from it, but I couldn't. It was luring me in. My fingers were itching to touch it. My breathing became uneven. Then, as if it had a mind of its own, my hand began to reach down. It went slowly. It got closer and closer, until it was three inches away from the rope. I paused, wanting to pull my hand away, but another part of me not wanting to. My hand moved again, growing closer and closer. My fingers were about to touch it when there was a screech behind me.
A peacock ran in, grabbing the cord with its talons. The cord began wiggle from side to side like a worm, and the gold melted off. It became gray, with a rattle at one end and fangs at the other. Long fangs.
I gasped and took two steps back, tripping over a tree root and falling on my back.
The peacock tore at the flesh of the rattlesnake, spilling crimson blood on the green grass. It stopped moving a lay still. The peacock turned to look at me. Respectfully it bowed its head. I reached over to pet the large bird. "Thank you," I whispered, running my fingers through its feathers. It closed its eyes and sat still. Then it disappeared in a puff of turquoise and green smoke, blowing away in the wind.
I heard the pound of feet behind me. "Phoebe," Tabbatha called excitedly. She was waving a leather pouch in the air. "I got Silena's wallet!"
I didn't move. I was shocked by what I had just gone through. Tabbatha ran up, but frowned when she looked into my eyes. "What's wrong?" she asked, deadly serious.
"Zeus just tried to kill me," I whispered, because that was all I could do.
Tabbatha looked horrified. "What happened?" she asked, lowering her voice.
"A… golden rattlesnake… pretty… had to touch it… peacock…" I stammered. Suddenly, I burst into tears and put my head on Tabbatha's shoulder.
Tabbatha dropped the leather pouch immediately and put her arms around me as if to shield me from any further harm. "I'll protect," she said. "I'll give my life for you if I have to."
I sobbed into her shirt, changing the shoulder from light blue to dark blue with my tears.
Tabbatha pulled me up. "We're leaving," she said, helping me to the car. She put me in the passenger seat and pulled out the keys. She was trembling as she stuck them in the igniton. I was shaking violently.
The car started up and we ripped up the hill. I took one more look at the strawberry fields, water, cabins, and forest because I knew that I wouldn't see them for a long time… if not ever again.