**

Although this chapter can be read as a stand-alone chapter; if you haven’t read and would like to start from the beginning, the beginning is The once loved.

**

As she stepped in and closed the door behind her Trisha could feel the difference immediately, the cool room in contrast to the hot, burning sun outside. She stepped into the kitchen to grab some water and saw Monica reading a book, sitting on the kitchen counter, the boiling stew on the stove totally forgotten. She was so immersed in the book that she only glanced up at Trisha as a way of greeting.

“Save your time, that’s a very lousy book you know” Trisha observed as she turned off the stove.

They had had these kinds of discussions far too many times and knew that they weren’t going to stop the debate anytime soon which made Monica close her book and look at Trisha to say “At least it’s closer to reality – unlike the books you read.”

“Hey, the books I read are pretty good. They are the epitome of the wondrous worlds that a human brain can create if given an opportunity. They are interesting.” She said as she filled a glass with water.

“Come on! What are the chances of meeting wand-wielding wizards or broomstick-flying witches on the New Concord road that we walk every day? What are the chances of falling in love with non-existent, mutated species of homo-sapiens that diet on blood in the stretch of Mallard-Creek trails that we walk?” Monica laid out the facts as Trisha was gulping down the water.

Trisha collected her thoughts, taking her time as she placed the glass in the dishwasher and leaned against the counter. She looked at Monica to say “You know the world is far too big to be contained in the stretch between the New Concord road and the Mallard-creek trails. Moreover, if you overlook the character’s species and flying broomsticks you will see that the books have very good messages, morals. You don’t have to take them literally. You can see it metaphorically like facing the monsters as facing the demons of our day to day lives.” She wasn’t done. She continued “Having said that – who wants to read and revel in reality again when there is so much reality around that totally sucks not to mention- it’s downright boring.”

“Well, good messages and morals are overrated,” Monica replied pensively.  But before Trisha could come up with anything to say, Monica jumped down from the counter exclaiming “O-oh!” when Trisha asked what the problem was, Monica ran up the stairs shouting “I am supposed to meet my advisor in like five minutes. I totally forgot about that.”

She came down running with her book bag after a few seconds and ran out the door shouting “Close the door, be in and don’t let any strangers in.” as a way of – see you later.

Just before locking the door, Trisha stood in the doorway watching Monica jog up the road. As she turned back to get inside she had the feeling again like she had had all her life – like someone was watching her. Her pulse quickened. She looked around and like always there was no one around. She walked in and locked the door behind her and again like always the feeling was gone. She looked at the stew on the stove but had no appetite so she dragged herself up the stairs into her bedroom and locked the door behind her.

**

Personal account of Bria:

It’s been so many years since I made his acquaintance and yet the opinion I have had about him hasn’t changed. I don’t know whether to condemn him for the murders he committed or to commend him for standing up bravely to protect the cause that our secret society of Anuger has existed since the prehistoric times.

The first time I made his acquaintance, I remember was one of the hottest days of the year and we were sitting in the car waiting for Monica to come out of the house so that all three of us could work together to put protection around the house against any Anuger priers with bad intentions. More than one Anuger working on the protection spell together meant that it would be strong so that even the best wouldn’t be able to pry but the disadvantage was that we had to renew it every day. Usually on a normal day, it was the work of the other two but today I had to accompany because I was stupid enough to argue on top of my lungs about a silly thing with my father.

I remember that we sat in the hot, baking car and he was wearing a plain, gray pullover, breaking not a single drop of sweat and here I was through half a dozen water bottles. “Isn’t it quite hot in here?” I remarked as I fanned myself hoping he would turn on the AC. The only indication I got that he had even heard my remark was when he rolled down the car windows after a couple of minutes. He kept gazing at the house like it would vanish if he blinked. I almost hit myself in frustration for talking back to my father that morning and wished I had saved myself the torture of being stuck with one of the most eccentric guys on the earth.

At that moment, the door to the house we were watching opened and Monica walked out followed by another girl – I presumed it had to be Trisha, the person for whom all this protection was in place. Her eyes followed Monica as she crossed the road on the other side and then Trisha went back inside and shut the door.

The expression on Trisha’s face bothered me “She seemed rather anxious.” I remarked after considering it for about a minute. “Do you think she could sense our presence even from this distance? Do you think she is that good?” I asked forgetting for a moment that my partner here was – a reticent and then resigned that I would get no answer but I almost jumped out of my skin when I got an answer; it was not from the inside of the car but from the outside “Trust me she is. She can sense things and know a person better than some of the full-fledged Seers we know.” The interesting thing was while I was half scared to death at the sudden voice he didn’t even flinch. There was no way he would have known that Monica was back – she was too quick and too quiet –and yet the car that was locked initially was now unlocked without a hint even before she had answered my questions.

At that moment I think I might have been relieved that he was on our side of the team in this ever waging war.

**

Personal account from Bria:

The next time I met him was a couple of days later. I woke up in the wee hours of the morning to the ringing in my ears and as soon as I woke up I realized it was a summons. I immediately recognized the signature, it was him. I wanted to go back to sleep but dragged myself to answer the summons as my father – before he had left town on business had asked me to keep an eye out for this guy. Well, in this case, it was actually ears that were needed.

I dragged myself to the study table, took out a paper and a pencil and closed my eyes and concentrated on the ringing. When I opened my eyes, I had written down the address to an old clock tower, about 10 minutes away from home, a note to get a first aid kit and something for pain immediately. I grabbed the first aid kit and some morphine from my mother’s medicine cabinet and sneaked out of the house without waking her.

As soon as I reached the uppermost level of clock tower I saw him sitting on the loose floor boards, leaning against one of the huge, dismantled, old gears of the clock. I knew immediately something was wrong.

“Are you going to just stand there?” He asked without lifting his head.

I walked up to him asking “What happened?” I observed there were cuts on his hands and shoulder. Normally an Anuger would have healed from such wounds with the help of energy and even De-Anuger, dark at heart as they are were, would have healed but for some reason, energy healing never worked on him – I have always wondered if that was the price he had to pay for turning into the De-Anuger  – the unnatural Anuger.

“Ring enforcers caught up with me.” He said meaning the police of the sorts of our society of Anuger. You see to deal with special powers you would need police with special powers and this police were called Ring enforcers – don’t ask me the etymology for I have forgotten.

As I set down the first-aid kit, the first thing he did was to take the morphine. Although he didn’t show it, he must have been in real pain. As he pulled out his pullover, I could see that the cut on the shoulder was rather gnarly. He tried to dress it up by himself but couldn’t. Rolling my eyes at his stupidity, I threaded the needle and set to stitch his cut on the shoulder and as I stitched his wound, I told him “Father wishes he could do something about the ring enforcers but he is afraid that directly ordering them to stand down would create suspicion and betray our plans to the other side. I can see that it bothers him a lot for some reason.”

It was only after I finished stitching him up and dressing the wound that he spoke “Bria, after the incident at Sara’s house. I am sure your father wouldn’t have been able to call off the enforcers even if he was the king himself. Ask him not to beat himself up for I was involved in the murder of one of the royal blood and not just any royal blood but the one in line to the crown. Tell him I agreed to do it knowing full well of the consequences.” His eyes became distant and I knew exactly what was going on in his mind “It was not your fault you know… whatever happened to Sara…”

He scoffed “Yes, that is exactly what I keep telling myself every day to get out of bed but the problem is day by day it is becoming less and less convincing.”

I looked up at him in surprise for that was the first time he had ever told me something personal. “Is the Morphine kicking in?” I asked as I knew it couldn’t be otherwise.

He frowned for a moment and chuckled “I think I will take a nap now, otherwise this conversation is going to turn into a psych – evaluation or something.” He said as he slid down on the loose floor boards of the clock tower with his pullover under his head; as a makeshift pillow.

“Yes, we can’t have that. Can we now?” I asked sarcastically.

He considered that for a moment and shook his head “uh, uh.” and closed his eyes.

When I thought he had fallen asleep, he suddenly opened his eyes and asked “Can you please wake me up at 12:00 in the noon for my watchman duty?”

I nodded. Wondering even then whether to like him, detest him or pity him.

**

“This is lame,” Trisha complained. “How did I end up agreeing to accompany you to the library again?”

Monica answered still engrossed in the article she was reading. “That’s because I am smarter than you.”

“Ha.” Trisha replied not impressed. She looked down at her book that hadn’t been read in the last half an hour since she opened it and then at the surroundings. “Not a single handsome face around to bid my time. Not even that one average looking guy who used to usually sit there” She pointed to a vacant table in front of them “I am getting bored. Please let’s go out.”

Monica ignored her. Trisha pouted her face and said “You know the stew you cooked for the week is over. We will have to either cook again or go out for lunch. So, let’s just grab something outside?”

Monica looked up from the article at the watch in the library which pointed to 5:30 “It has been only 30 minutes since we got here Trisha. Let me at least finish reading this article for my thesis.”

“Ok, fine” Trisha went back to flipping the pages of her book aimlessly. She hadn’t even reached the end when she suddenly stopped and sat up straight. The feeling of being watched was back.

“What now?” Monica asked clearly not happy at the way Trisha was acting.

“Have you ever had this feeling that someone is watching you?”

“Yes, Trisha. Half the people in the library are staring at us – you – at the way you are acting. So, yes I have that feeling right now.” Monica waited for a response from Trisha but she was acting restless; more than usual.

Monica closed the scientific journal with a snap, frustrated at the way Trisha was behaving and said “You know what? Let’s go.”

Trisha didn’t need to be asked twice. She wanted to get out of the place. They grabbed the books and left. The feeling of being watched was gone as soon as they exited the library. They walked in silence to the parking lot. Trisha wary of her deserted surroundings, the silent, smooth rustling trees just beyond the parking lot and wondering what was going on in Monica’s mind.

It was when she was about to open the door on the passenger side of Monica’s car that she felt it before she saw it. She had only a fraction of second to register that it looked like one of the monsters from the books she read.  In the blink of an eye the monster cleared the length of the parking lot and was almost upon them. Two thoughts crossed Trisha’s mind – Dreaming or going mad. She was brought back to the reality when she heard Monica scream her name “Trisha! Duck!”

Though the meaning didn’t register some instinct made her legs buckle and she sat down on the floor – crisscross. From the corner of her eye, she saw a streak of light hit the monster and the monster went flying across the parking lot, hit another car, Monica shouted “Quick in the car” and as Trisha scrambled to get into the car, the car that the monster hit started to beep making the monster furious, it roared and hit the car with its fist that were more of clubs than fists and the car went silent with one tiny little last beep.

By the time Monica could back up their car, the monster was charging at them. Monica stepped on the accelerator and had hit the 90 mile mark even before the car exited the parking lot but the monster caught up and nudged the car with such force that the car went spinning. As they sat there reeling from the impact, the monster pried open the driver side door of the car and extended its hand to grab Monica who had a strange disk of light in her hand. But before either the monster or Monica could do anything the monster was sent flying into the air once again by a black SUV that hit the monster out of nowhere. Two people – a man dressed in a black pullover and a girl dressed in Denim and tee jumped out of the car with the same kind of strange light-disc in their hands like that  of Monica and started directing it at the monster and pinning it down. Trisha could see, although the light from the woman remained and pulsed at the same intensity, light from the man was getting weaker and weaker each time.

Monica jumped out of the car and shouted at Trisha “Quick with me!” and ran to the back of the car. Trisha followed suit and was bewildered to see Monica open a secret compartment in her car trunk that had enough firepower to knock down the north block of the library building. Monica loaded a shotgun and handed it to Trisha and loaded another one as she spoke “The monster won’t go down with anything but iron and even with iron it won’t go easy. We both have to fire. Do you understand?”

“You want me to kill that thing, whatever that thing is?” Trisha shouted in surprise over the noise.

“Of course, what do you think dummy?” Monica asked and added “Can you shoot?”

“You can’t possibly ask me to take a life.” was all Trisha could come up with

Before Monica could reply, the man from the car came up to them asking “Are you for real?” looking at Trisha and grabbed the gun out of her hand. He nodded at Monica who for some reason grinded her teeth and together they started shooting at the monster and the monster was not going to give up easily and so wasn’t Trisha. She followed the man shouting, as he went shooting “What do you mean? Do you think it is human nature to go around, killing things?”

The monster had started to rip the cars in the parking lot and was tossing around the metal at them now. The man turned to look at Trisha, contempt clear in his eyes and spoke “The other option is dying.”  That was all that Trisha could remember before a piece of junk from a car, thrown by the monster hit her head. The next thing she remembered was she was sleeping in an unfamiliar sofa in a house that was decorated in probably pre-Victorian style and then she heard voices. Well, – it was mostly Monica shouting.

“…supposed to be there to renew the protection at 12:00 in the noon and when do you show up?” The man didn’t answer but Monica continued “Can you at least try to do something right for once in your life?”

“Monica, give him a break. He was attacked and is too weak…”

“Oh! He was attacked?” Monica cut her off, mocking him “Does he have a boo-boo? Do you want to run to mommy?” When the man didn’t answer she almost shouted “Well, while you were pre-occupied with self-pity over your boo-boo, our only hope was threatened. She was being targeted to be killed If you thought you couldn’t handle it you should have said so to Islin.” This was so not like the Monica that Trisha knew.

The man turned to look at Monica, his calm composure misleading the anger in his eyes. Professor Theni who walked in the door at that moment must have sensed it too for he came in between them “Now Monica, no need to get worked up so much. All of you are safe right?”

“Professor Theni?” Trisha sat up some part of her brain questioning how her Math Professor fit into this entire situation.

All four turned towards her but it was the professor who spoke “Ah! Trisha! You are awake.” Professor Theni said as he rubbed his hand against his shirt anxiously looking around as if he would want to talk to anyone but her.

“Yes, I am awake” Trisha answered.

“Trisha, why are you signing?” Monica asked.

“You Aliens – Aliens No English. So signing” Trisha replied

The girl from the car burst into laugh, while the man stared at her asking the girl “Are you sure she is fine?” while Monica looked at Trisha anxiously.

“It was a scrape. She will be fine.” The girl replied.

“Trisha, one – we have been talking to you in English all this time. Two, if we were aliens what makes you think we would know sign language. Three – we are not aliens.” Monica laid out the facts like she always did in an argument.

“Right…” Trisha trailed off looking at each one in turn and in the end settling her eyes on the man from the SUV who wouldn’t meet her eyes.

Monica snapped her fingers in front of Trisha’s eyes “Hey fangirl. Wake up, some of the stuff you read in those books might be real but we are not aliens.”

“So, what in the name of hell was that thing in the parking lot?” Trisha asked as everything came back to her.

“An abomination conjured up with dark spells from the spirit world.” The girl answered with contempt as she looked at the man as if he had something to do with it. He just folded his hands in his black pullover and turned his head away like it didn’t concern him.

Professor Theni cleared his throat to get everyone’s attention. “Yes, now that we know what it was. We need to know why it attacked you.” He looked at Monica.

“Not me professor, It was after Trisha”

Theni looked at Trisha. “Her? Why?”

“Islin thinks she is the seer that the prophecy speaks of.” the girl answered.

“It’s Trisha? Trisha is the seer?” The professor looked at Trisha in wonderment while Trisha shook her head “I think I am going mad.”

“Interesting, now that you mention it I can see the energy. It’s faint but it’s…” professor trailed off.

“No not interesting.” Trisha looked at Monica accusingly “Monica is this some kind of prank to teach me these things aren’t real. If so, I think I will agree. Can we stop this?”

“I wish it was a prank Trisha.” the girl said “Come to think of it, how did you know someone was watching you yesterday when you couldn’t see us?”

Trisha opened her mouth to counter but closed it as she realized there was no way they would have known about how she had felt. She had never told about this to Monica.

“You haven’t reached your full potential yet but can’t you guess a person’s character the moment you see them? Can’t you?” the girl continued.

“And who are you?” Trisha asked the girl before she could continue.

“I am Bria.” she introduced herself and added a little embarrassed “Sorry, you don’t know me. I just got carried away”.

But that was not the reason Trisha had asked her name “Thanks, for saving us back in the parking lot.” Trisha replied sincerely looking at the man too but he still wouldn’t meet her eyes.

“Speaking of the parking lot” Professor Theni spoke aloud “Monica I think we two should go and check the status there. You know I work there and you go to school there?” implying to say that it wouldn’t be suspicious if they went back to investigate.

“I could come too” Trisha offered.

“Trisha they want you dead so I think it is safe for you to be here under their protection. Even though one of them is the lazy one the other is reliable, trust me.” Monica said pointing the man and Bria respectively.

“They, who are they that want me dead?” Trisha asked in frustration obviously it was all overwhelming to her.

“Trisha, I promise I will explain everything once we come back but let me and professor Theni find out what’s happening at the university and make sure things don’t get out of hand first?”

Trisha nodded as they started to leave. Professor Theni paused and spoke as he looked at Trisha but asked Bria “Bria, if you want to eat or drink something, Kitchen is the last door on the left.” Bria nodded.

“Alright then, let’s go.” He said to Monica.

“Um… Theni?” the man called “Can you activate the protection around the house? We could do it but it’s your house…”

“Ah! Right.” The professor said and drew some sort of rune in the air and Trisha for some reason felt like she was at home. The man nodded “Thanks”.

“No problem at all. Basic protection.” Professor Theni smiled, rubbing his hand on the shirt as he walked out of the door with Monica.

**

Personal account from Bria:

As soon as Monica and Theni left, the house became as silent as a graveyard during the day. Don’t ask me how I know that reference. He settled down on the sofa, with his head against the armrest and she sat staring at him. As for me, who couldn’t stand the eerie silence, I asked “I think I will have a cup of tea, anyone else?”

She peeled her eyes off him to look at me and smiled “I am good. Thank you.” And went back to stare at him and I didn’t get any answer from him. So I turned towards the kitchen murmuring to myself “A cup of tea to the only sane person in the house it is.”

I put the kettle to boil water on the stove and started the treasure hunt for other ingredients. As I was searching for the sugar I heard the voice from the living room “So, you are a wizard?” I initially thought she was talking to me. But then I realized she was talking to him.

I heard him clear his throat and answer “Of a sort.”

She asked something entirely out of context next “I think I have seen you somewhere. Have we met?”

“No” was his cryptic answer.

“What do you mean of a sort?” she asked switching back to her earlier question.

“The official term is Anuger.” He answered.

“In what country is it official?” I sensed a hint of sarcasm.

“The whole world” he answered not giving in.

“What does it mean?”

He drew a deep breath before explaining “Anuger have existed for a very long time, since prehistoric times, if I may say. Anuger means the keepers of civilizations. It’s a secret society of sorts.”

“Anuger?” she tried pronouncing the word and then asked “What language?”

“A long lost one.” Was his reply.

“So, you people protect the world?” I heard her ask.

I knew the answer that was coming “Keepers. Not protectors.” Silence for a moment and then I heard him talk again “Civilizations rise and fall. Every civilization has the beginning, its peak and the end. That’s the way of nature. The Anuger make sure that a civilization doesn’t come to an end before its time or doesn’t exist after its time.”

“The Indus valley civilization, the Mayans?” she trailed.

“Yes and many more” he answered. Congratulations I thought and I think she thought so too for she said with a laugh “And archeologists are breaking their heads wondering what happened to all those mysteriously disappeared civilizations.”

After a pause, she asked “So, are you gods?”

I heard him chuckle “No Trisha, the conundrum of god is a conundrum for us too. We just follow the long kept traditions that are handed down to us.”

“How do you decide, when a civilization has to come to an end?” was her next question.

He paused for a moment and answered “We use crystal balls.” I couldn’t help but laugh and was surprised to know that he had a sense of humor behind that cold mask of his.

There was a silence and then the sudden whistle from the tea kettle filled the entire house but just behind the kettle’s whistle, I knew I heard the unmistakable sound I would have recognized anywhere. I ran into the living room as the house shook to warn him but he was already on his feet.  Sure even he had heard it.

He gave Trisha a scarf and said “Cover your face.”

As she did that I asked “How about we use a portal?”

“Do you know a Rune for this house?” he asked me reminding that both of us knew Theni only as an acquaintance and this was the first time we had been to his house.

He closed his eyes and listened “Moreover, Theni has set traps against it with the protection.”

“So, what do we do?” I asked thinking about other options.

The house shook more vigorously and Trisha shouted “Oh! Come on use that fire in you to burn them down.” He threw her a sharp glance but he did bring out the energy into his hand and then looked at me saying “I will make the way to the edge of the house, out of the protection. Stay close and as soon as we are out, leave.”

“What about you?” I asked knowing very well what he was going to say.

“I will stay until the portal closes to make sure no one follows. Make it to the clock tower and wait for me there. If I am not back in an hour…” He looked at her saying “You know what to do.”

“I nodded.”

He brought out the energy into the other hand as well, closed his eyes and shut down the protection from inside the house and blasted the door, taking with it at least two of the assassins.

We rushed out and together we reached the brink of the house as we struggled to keep away the assassins “What are you waiting for?” He asked as he hit one of the assassins edging towards me.

I immediately set down to draw the rune with my energy and opened the portal. Entered and dragged Trisha behind. I caught the sight of at least a dozen of them circling us and the portal closed.

We waited in the clock tower in silence, unknown of his fate. It was after five past an hour when I was thinking about summoning my father that he stormed in, covered in blood and weirdly a sword in his hand dripping blood. Before we could ask him anything he went straight to Trisha, held her by her hand and asked “What did you mean when you said to use the fire?”

I was shocked at his explosion “you are hurting me” she complained.

He released his grip on her hand and sat down apologizing “I am sorry. I just got carried away. Most people call it the light but you called it fire.”

She answered as she nursed the bruise on her hand “No, I wasn’t talking about the light. I mean, for some reason I associate you with a Dragon. I was just saying it in a metaphoric way.”

I knew what it meant for him to be called a Dragon – being the descendant of the Dragon and yet not being born an Anuger. No seer has been able to tell the descent of a De-Anuger but if she could sense his descent…

“What do you see when you look at Bria.” He asked her.

She looked at me “Umm…” she wanted to say something but she made gestures with her hand that we make when we know the word but can’t remember in the spur of a moment. She spoke in broken sentence “Lion body, red, scorpion’s tail, man’s head.” I knew she was actually getting it right.

“A Chimera” He offered, to test if she actually knew it.

“No.” she snapped at him “I mean technically it is a chimera for it has a genetic composition of more than one animal but no.” and then she remembered the word for she snapped her fingers “a Manticore!”

We exchanged looks and she understood there was more to it for she asked “Why? Is it of any importance?” looking at us expectantly. He sat there thinking like he couldn’t hear her so the explanation part fell on me and I set about to tell her the story “so, there is a belief among the Anuger that there was this mysterious egg that came into existence at the time of the first ever civilization and from this egg came four creatures – the Manticore, Dragon, Phoenix and a Naga. All Anuger are said to be descendants of one of these creatures…”

“This is the myth of creation for you guys?” she asked in amazement.

“We would have thought it to be a myth if one of the descendants of each creature did not inherit a part of the egg.”

There was silence for a minute and then he asked her still thinking “Trisha, what do you see when you think of Theni?”

“Um…” She closed her eyes thinking “Nothing just darkness.” She answered.

“How can that be? He has been on the inner council for Monica’s family for years.” I asked.

“And Monica?” was his next question to Trisha.

“A phoenix.” She answered slowly without thinking “It has always been a phoenix with her.”

He turned to me next “Do you know who owns the Phoenix part of the egg now.”

All I could utter was “Damn.” as the realization dawned on me “A De-Anuger we didn’t know of on the inner council?”

He nodded “Contact your father and let him know of this development. I will try to find Monica.” He said and was gone in the blink of an eye.

Trisha turned to me “What’s happening?”

“Well, Monica might be in danger.” I answered still considering the implications of this new development.

“That much I understood but why?” she asked uncertainly.

“Because Monica inherited the Phoenix part of the egg from her great aunt couple of days back.” I replied.

“So?” obviously she didn’t know why that was important so I set out to explain.

“Well, let’s call it vying for power. There are always people who want to end a civilization before its time or people who like the civilization so much that they don’t want it to end- both of which are wrong. There was a rumor that a faction was rising that wanted to bring the end and Theni might be one of them.”

“Bringing the pieces of the egg together somehow ends a civilization?” she asked and I nodded amazed at her inference “Why do you think Theni might be one of them?”  She asked.

“Seers like you can sense the creature from which an Anuger has descended but not for the De – Anuger because they are not natural and you couldn’t see the creature from which Theni has descended which means he is either dead or is an Anuger. Either ways Monica is in danger.”

She sat down holding her head “So, the attack in the parking lot was not on me?”

“Probably” I answered.

“Then the attack at the house?” she asked.

“It may be because Theni didn’t know Monica was protecting you; a powerful seer and when we went to his house he just might have wanted to take down – you know the expression two birds with one stone – leading Monica into a trap and sending the assassins after us.” As an afterthought, I added “But this might all be just our speculation…”

“This is like I am living inside some author’s head; Anuger, De – Anuger, Dragon, Manticore, phoenix and another one.” She paused and then asked “Is Monica going to be okay?” She looked at me. “I just want her to be okay and want to wake up in bed realizing it’s only a dream, a nightmare and I might even stop reading fantasy books.” She shook her head in disbelief.

I sat down beside her “Trisha, you know among our people, Dred sometimes goes by the nick name Grim Reaper and that is for a reason. If anyone can find and help Monica – it is Dred.” At that time I thought I was saying that to make her feel better but now when I think back I know that I actually believed it myself.

“So, his name is Dred?” She asked me and I smiled as I stood up to take her home to father.

**To be continued**