Chapter 11 Part 3

Skye screamed so loud that the dogs, who had been sitting patiently beside their bowls as Savannah maneuvered a big scoop in their dog food bag began to bark furiously and race out of the room. Their breakfast had been forgotten at the thought of protecting Skye. Kona being larger than Angel took the stairs in large strides, 3 at a time and beat the shorter legged dog to the bottom of the ladder and stared up at the hole and growled. Skye screamed so loud that Cyrus jumped and let out a small squeal himself. Skye paid no attention as she fought the urge to jump on the couch and hope the rodent would run the other way but right away she saw it scurry under the couch that she briefly thought of as her temporary refuge.

   She had always hated them, mice, rats, gerbils any of the small disease carrying monsters. She didn’t even think Gerbils carried diseases but who knew? As she fought the urge to run, she turned to Cyrus who had come up beside her so silently and he was laughing so hard that no sound came out. “Shut up…” she said breathlessly with her hands shaking and then added “or you’re grounded…again.” Her skin was pale and Cyrus’ laughter faded. He had to prepare to hold her up for fear of her passing out all over again. “Oh god…rats? Why rats?” and just like that her head started pounding again and she felt woozy.

   Cyrus held her steady and was looking in the direction that the furry creature had gone and after a small twitch of his nose (little things he wasn't even aware that he was doing yet) he had realized something that his mother wouldn't like, “It’s not a rat mom.” He said calmly and he turned to look at her.

“It is definitely not a rat.”

   24 hours before Skye spied the rat that was not a rat Gertie got off of a Greyhound bus roughly 10-12 blocks away from the Dune household. She had no idea where she was only that she was following a beat inside of her that would lead her to her mistress. The last time she had felt her, the feeling was accompanied by a vision of where Georgia was. It was brief and wavered but gave her a distinct impression of where to go and she wasn’t far.  If Gertie had thought to check that feeling again she would have noticed that she couldn’t feel Georgia anymore, but confident in the fact that she was headed in the right direction she saw no reason to double check. She had no idea that Dominic had taken her mistress away.

   Gerties hair was in a shambles and while the weather was warm she wore an over-sized sweater that was covered in moth size holes and leggings that looked as though they came from the same time period as the 70’s decor of her cottage in orange, brown and paisley. To Gertie that seemed so far away already. In her left hand was her tote bag, lightly packed because she didn’t know what to take with her and in her right was a cage covered in black cloth that housed Jack. She slowly looked right up the badly paved road and then to the left. After a brief consultation with Jack whom said nothing at this point she turned right and walked up the shoulder of the road as close to the ditch that ran along the side of it as she could so that if any cars went by that she and her parrot were safe. She stumbled once over a stone and received an outraged squawk from Jack so she minded her steps carefully after that.

   All she would have to do when she got to the residential area she was looking for would be to walk up the street until she came to the house that was in her vision hoping they didn’t all look the same. What she would do from there she didn’t know or care. All that mattered was that she fixed what was wrong…if she could…with no interference.

  Gertie felt sure that would not be the case because this time was different.

   While Gertie made her way along the road to the house, alarm was on Skye’s face now. The confusion had set in very quickly “WH…what do you mean…it’s definitely not a rat?” She didn’t try to hide the fear from her voice but to Cyrus she sounded scared enough.

“I mean…it’s not a rat.” He paused and looked into his mother’s pale face. “It’s a Squirrel mom!” he said with his arms still around her, now to stop her from bolting. “It’s just a squirrel.”

   After a moment of her brain trying to comprehend what he had just said to her, Skye relaxed a bit. “Well I don’t like those much either, but at least they’re cute and eat nuts.” She took a deep breath and side-stepped towards the ladder keeping her eyes on the couch. “It can’t stay here Cy,”

  “I know, I know.” He sighed and the tension that had been present only moments earlier had lifted and Cyrus had a smile on his face now. “Come on, let’s get some coffee into you and I’ll come back up and flush it out.” Skye didn’t need to think about that much longer than a second before she was moving full stride and had the ladder in her sights. During all of this Kona had not stopped barking and it wasn't until they saw Skye descending the ladder that she stopped. Once Skye was safely on the ground Cyrus followed her down and made sure he raised the ladder.

   Skye put her arm around his waist and mumbled about how tall he was getting as they walked to the stairs and down to the kitchen with Kona at their heels. Only Angel didn’t leave the spot under the attic door, she sat still with her head cocked to the side as she listened.

   Up in the attic, under the couch where the squirrel hid its nose poked out of its hiding spot and twitched as it sniffed the air. It dragged itself out from underneath it with its tiny sharp claws digging into the wood and pulled itself the rest of the way out. Slowly it rounded the corner of the couch leg and looked around to see an empty room and a small squirrel sized sigh came from its lips.

   The air around it began to stir and a shimmer appeared around the squirrel, a gray smoke circled it getting larger and larger like a small and gentle tornado picking up dust as it turned. There was the small sound of cracking bones and the squirrel began to pant as it’s face shifted and changed. One eye would bulge and the other still changing of and on for a series of minutes. The tiny claws retracted back into its skin as well as the brown-grey fur and fluffy tail shrunk in on themselves. When the smoky haze had dissipated there in the midst of it stood a man 6 feet tall give or take and inch and fully naked.