Hi all! Annabelle Hawthorne here with the first chapter of book 6!
Real life has been busy for me, but I should be able to return to my regular posting schedule for a bit. I keep the schedule in my bio, so pop on over and check it to see when you should start anxiously hitting refresh.
New reader? Welcome! If you are adamant about starting here, this is probably a good place to begin. I try to write the first couple chapters with reminders about past events, so it may help.
Returning reader? Welcome back! We're about to go full throttle into some uncharted territory involving a mythos many of us are well versed in. I'm super excited for the events in this one, and I hope it shows in the words ahead!
Thanks to everyone who still comes by to see these words and read these stories. Mike and the girls appreciate it almost as much as I do. Don't forget to throw me some stars when you're done, because it really does help others find this story.
I won't keep you any longer. I'm excited to begin the new year with you, and here's hoping that nothing but good things are coming to all of us!
T'was the Night before Christmas
The crisp morning air of late December filled Mike Radley's lungs with a chill that was tough to contain. He had to fight the urge to cough, and the stray hair sticking out of his scarf that kept tickling his ear wasn't helping matters. Kneeling down in the snow, he contemplated the small map of his front yard that he had drawn with a gloved finger.
"Tink think pincer move still best attack." The goblin across from him was bundled up in a thick winter jacket that she had altered for herself. Her voice was muffled by the yellow gaiter across her face. Between the magical goggles and the aviator hat she wore, only a small patch of green flesh could be seen along the bridge of her nose. "Surround invaders, bust heads."
"It won't work," Kisa growled. "There's too many of them." The catgirl wore white ski pants and a dark red sweater with a black vest. Her tail twitched behind her as if tuned in to a demented metronome.
"We need to succeed." Mike looked up at them from behind a pair of ski goggles. His eyes had long ago adjusted to the blueish tint. "The consequences if we fail..." He shook his head in disgust.
"You can't hide forever." The woman's voice had a mocking tone and came from several different places at once. "We already found your pet rock, by the way. She's down for the count."
"Dammit!" Mike smashed his map with a fist. Abella had been hiding in the hedge maze, ready to spring an ambush once the intruders moved past her. Right now, he was hiding in a gap beneath the gazebo, a structure in the center of the maze.
"Caretaker..." A masculine voice with a low growl taunted him. "I'm going to find you."
"Not if I find you first," Mike muttered, then looked over at Tink. "They're in the maze. No pincer attacks. There were four of them left at last count. Are you up for this?"
"Tink show no mercy!" She saluted him so hard that her red braids bobbed across her chest, and then she picked up a thick, wooden club and ducked out the hole.
"I'll see what I can do," Kisa added. "I don't know how they keep spotting me, though. I think they've found a way to counteract my magic." The catgirl had a natural gift for being forgotten, even in plain sight.
He reached out and put one hand on each of theirs. "Be careful out there. If we lose...nevermind. C'mon, let's go." Mike got on his belly and slid out of the hole. Around them, the frozen hedge maze had formed icy trenches that they now used for defense. Tink and Kisa were short enough that they could hunch over and run without being spotted, but Mike had to crouch to remain hidden.
Heavy footfalls to his left had him holding still while Kisa ran ahead. Mike tilted his head to peek through a gap in the bushes, but was startled to see a large pair of eyes looking back.
"Found ye!" The figure leapt over the hedges with little effort, landing in a crouch with the buckles on his leather outfit jingling. Thin wisps of black smoke drifted from the gap in his neck as he threw a pair of snowballs at Mike.
Mike's magic surged forward, leaping from his outstretched hands to cause both of the snowballs to explode in mid-air. His precognition triggered, and he leapt hard to the left as a massive snowball crashed down where he had been crouching moments ago.
"Nice trick!" He grabbed a double handful of snow and tossed it into the air, his magic striking it with miniature bolts of lightning. The snow vaporized and then froze in the air, the icy mist hovering like fog as he ducked around the corner and then dove over the top of another hedge.
"Ye can't run forever, Caretaker!" Suly called to him, but Mike ignored it. He needed distance right now, and the only way to get it was—
Turning a corner, he saw Asterion standing there with a large snow shovel full of snow. The minotaur was wearing a thick black scarf and winter pants. His torso was bare with little flakes of snow catching on the edges of his exposed body hair.
Asterion bellowed and swung the shovel, launching the massive amount of snow. Mike slid under it, but lost his footing when his boot got caught in the branches of a nearby shrub.
"Shit," he muttered as he tried to free himself without losing his boot.
Asterion shoveled some more snow and held it high, ready to dump it. Kisa leapt from between the shrubs and pulled off her hat, which she pushed over Asterion's eyes.
"Save yours—" she managed before Asterion accidentally dumped the load of snow on himself and Kisa. Both of them went down with a thud.
"Asterion, Kisa, you're out!" Yuki sat on top of an ornamental throne of ice by the front door of the house. She held a steaming cup of hot chocolate in one hand as she surveyed the grounds and acted as the referee.
Mike cursed, then moved away from the spot. He moved through the hedges until he came upon a massive pile of snow with a pair of stony wings sticking out of the top.
"Abella?" He scraped away the snow from where he thought the gargoyle's face would be. When he got to her, she spat out some snow and frowned. "Who did this to you?" he asked.
"I would hate to ruin the surprise," she told him with an emotional smile. "Also, Suly is right behind you."
Mike grabbed a handful of snow and threw it as he turned. The dullahan leaned sideways and allowed his head to drop to the side so that the snowball missed. Suly's gloved hand grabbed tightly onto his hair as he threw a snowball with his free hand. The snowball struck Mike in the leg, but didn't count for an elimination.
"You missed," Sulyvahn declared with a grin as his head swung like a pendulum.
