Sophie Green's Bequest

Part 2 of 2 After finding she is half Elttil, Sophie finds she must locate and save her long absent Elttil father using her newly discovered powers.

Bogdale took the guise of a small speckled mongrel dog and aggressively lead Sophie from her row house on a leash making it difficult to discern who was leading whom. Margery drove them to the bus station where the attendant resisted letting Bogdale the dog on a bus. Sophie force-fed an outpouring of tears and sobs with quick glances aside to assess the attendant’s feelings and urged Margery’s intervention. Margery picked up on Sophie’s lead and Verge-Persuaded the resistant attendant, and instantly received a response of a fresh new smile and reassurance that Sophie and Bogdale would travel unhindered. With a quick farewell, mother and daughter embraced and said goodbye with dour faces notwithstanding Bogdale who tugged at the leash to board the bus.

Sophie put on a face of might, “With Bogdale leading me, I feel like the blind with a seeing-eye dog.”

Margery flashed a quick smile and sobered with a wave. With a directed furtive-voice to Sophie, she said, “This is a terrible thing to put you through�"a hell of a task for my little girl. Be strong for human and Elttil both�"engage and apply your whole self, once the path develops before your feet.”

Sophie glimpsed back at her mother’s words, stopping for a moment to sling her small satchel over her shoulder, but the speckled dog called Bogdale dragged her up the bus’s steps. In a few moments the bus roared away; the twosome was on their way. A few hours later in the evening, they arrived at the city’s bus station; they disembarked and inconspicuously strolled to a quiet area in the vast station.

Sophie couldn’t prevent the tremble in her voice, but tried to compensate with wit. She bent over and whispered, “Now where, lead dog; I’m blind here in this strange place.”

“Ruff, ruff,” Bogdale fake-barked and glanced about. “I’m not quite sure where exactly the lair is,” his eyes shifted about, “only rough reports from Elttil spies�"that didn’t engage DeVarped and lived to tell that is.”

“Don’t do the barking thing�"it doesn’t work well,” Sophie said, with a finger to her lips. “Call a cab or go on foot?”  

“Foot!” Bogdale said, trying to make it sound like a dog, then in a whisper, “Believe it isn’t too far from here. Are you ready?”

Sophie stood up straight, took a deep breath and said, “Let’s go!”

The unlikely pair made their way out of the brightly-lit bus terminal and out to the dark street. The overcast and hazy night had a sinister feel to it with the sidewalk exhibiting a dull sheen from an earlier rain shower. The sky illuminated in staccato flashes of distant silent lightning. Sophie’s innate sense of direction told her that the thunderstorm was to the southwest�"it was very likely coming through here; the realization didn’t help her instinctive feeling of unease.

“Not such a bad night to walk the dog, eh pretty half-blood?” Bogdale said over his speckled shoulder through teeth that glinted in the street lamps. Sophie’s stomach twisted with his dog-accented enthusiasm. They walked for several minutes along well-lighted streets and suburban homes; up and down paved rolling hills and made several turns; Sophie kept track from the terminal�"two blocks-left, three blocks-right, one block-right�"four blocks to a tee; suddenly, the street lights stopped, and the dark closed in around them.

Sophie looked back to the lighted street with yearning, “How do you feel about this area, Bogdale?”

“Not a problem, young girl child,” Bogdale said. He transformed into his elf-like self; the leash collar fell off his neck as he continued altering into a young, dark long-haired boy about Sophie’s age. “How do you like this look for me? A bit more desirable, pretty one? I could make you quite happy with this persona, you think?” He said, with his older elf voice sounding odd from the younger body.

Sophie coiled the leash around her hand and backed away a step, scanning the street in both directions. “Why change into this,” she gestured, “this body?”

“I think in this neighborhood it’ll be much more believable for young lovers to be out on the street instead of a single alluring girl walking a dog alone.” Sophie could feel his aura grow and reach out for her. It felt pink to her�"she recoiled.

“I suppose; let’s keep going�"which way?”

“Right, here�"take my hand,” young boy Bogdale said offering.

“No, I’m okay. We can perform the charade as well without.”

“Fine!” Bogdale said, visibly annoyed with her snub and began briskly walking. Sophie felt his pink change to gray�"like everything else around that she could make out. Their wet steps echoed on the damp, broken pavement. After another two blocks, Sophie felt a rumbling in the earth and soon afterwards to their left a bright light speared into the sky and lit up some of the run-down industrial storage buildings. For a few ticks, Sophie wasn’t sure what it was, but then she heard the familiar clackety-clack-clack, then a double-short blast and a long blow on the air horns that woke the night, confirming the slow moving freight train’s approach.

“How much longer, Bogdale?”

“Impatient?”

“No, not really�"I don’t know, nervous, unsure about everything.”

“Perfectly understandable�"the place�"his lair is near the tracks. Not far�"I think.” He pointed toward the Morse-code flashing shadows of box cars moving against the backdrop of the city skyline. A flash of lighting strobed beyond; Sophie longed for the brighter, cheerful nightclub part of the city she recalled from television�"another left, after two or three blocks now? Sophie recalled her inventory of turns and distance�"it became confused, combining with her growing trepidation.

“Ah, Bogdale�"we should have discussed this earlier, but I-guess-there-is-time- still,” Sophie said, faltering looking around and increasing her step to keep up with Bogdale’s pace.

“Yes?” He said over his shoulder to Sophie; she could tell by the sound of his voice.  

“Your plans here in the lair�"my father, your clanfather?” She said nervously. “What are you going to do�"once we get there?”

“From what I’ve heard from our sources�"nothing. I can’t even get close because I’m a kobold�"a full Elttil.”    

“Oh�"right.” Sophie said, her voice trailing off. In silence except for their steps, they passed a brick building and began along a ten-foot chain link fence, the cross-hatching distinct against the glow of the city. They turned a corner, a left along the continuing chain-link, and Sophie saw the last railroad car pass down the tracks not a hundred feet up the street. The storm-laden gusts picked up, whistling through the chain link akin a thousand aggrieved far-away whispers.

“Not long now,” Bogdale said. Sophie could make out the sign as they passed by: “Railroad Renovators and Surplus Suppliers.”  In there? Sophie thought.

“It’s there, he is in there�"apparently,” Bogdale read her thoughts.

They came to a driveway with a double gate. Sophie saw a glow emit from inside the long warehouse and piles of stone rubble and lumber flanked the driveway inside the gate.

“How do we get in?” Sophie whispered.

“Easy,” Bogdale grasped one of the gates and squeezed his manipulated elongated boy-form through the scant three inch gap between the gates with a nearly inaudible rattle. Sophie felt a sense of defeat already�"seeing Bogdale’s form manipulation; she knew she couldn’t do that. She stepped back to survey the gates and fencing in the twilight-like illumination�"there was no other way in. An urgent sense swept through her consciousness and a surge of adrenaline tingled her nerves. She felt like her consciousness separating from her body; in a trance, she walked to the gates’ gap and slipped easily through. On the inside she looked out and wrapped her arms about her body, confused to how she passed through.

Bogdale stood a pace away and scanned her, “Nice clandaughter, you are a fine and most pretty catch!”

“Indeed she is,” a loud, most familiar voice came from behind her. She whirled; the large figure stood as a dark silhouette with an absence of glow surrounding him�"the figure absorbed the light from behind. “Thank you Mister Bogdale, you are a fitting descendant of the kobold line, so you may partake of the untold riches from this fortuitous venture with me.” Sophie thought the voice sounded familiar but with her heart pounding in her ears and with the wind blowing, she remained uncertain.

“Aye, I look forward to the rewards,” Bogdale said toward Sophie; she glanced at the large form moving toward her and backed away toward the gate.

“Bogdale, how could you?” Sophie reached one arm through the gap in the gate but couldn’t even wedge her shoulder through; she rattled the gates.

“Don’t bother, Sophie Green Ashford, it was my servant Bogdale’s influence that allowed you entry. You are now my guest�"along with your father.”

“Bogdale, please!”

“Sorry, my love. I couldn’t resist my own roots as a kobold ne'er-do-well, after Doctor DeVarped approached me with his plans.”

Double flashes of lightning strobed the city skyscape; the wind bore across the driveway; it rattled a discarded soda can and tossed a few bits of paper; Sophie felt and heard the rumble of distant thunder; she turned to Bogdale and stepped closer. 

“So you really aren’t an elf, are you?’

“Told the truth, I did. Elves are considered so goody-goody like your sorry stories depicts. I am smarter and stronger than that image�"and the reality of elves.”

“I can’t believe that such a manner comes from an Elttil.”

Bogdale began to gesture to Sophie, but he wasn’t given the opportunity to respond. “Enough chit-chat, boo-hoo-speak. Come Bogdale, bring your quarry,” said DeVarped. Sophie saw a flicker of his facial and haircut profile before the large figure turned his back and began walking toward the warehouse.

Bogdale motioned for Sophie to precede him inside the warehouse. She had run the possibilities for this encounter through, but she hadn’t foreseen Bogdale as a turncoat�"how could she have missed that? His sneers and leers had seemed arrogant, but still…she sensed a strong presence within the building�"no, two strong presences. Sophie straightened and stiffened her spine; she placed each step precisely; she kept her head squarely forward to the light and the figure dissolving within, but her eyes flicked right, left, up and down scanning about, taking it all in; she saw the figure go to the left and disappear behind a pile of lumber. Glancing aside, she saw Bogdale strolling a sloppy uneven course behind her apparently overly pleased with himself.

A lightning bolt fractured the city’s twilight darkness with a blast following closely as Sophie stepped across the warehouse’s threshold onto the scarred and tire-treaded concrete. Salvaged building materials were stacked along the sides in category of doors, windows and room type; she twitched when she saw four stone gargoyles inside the doors along the wall seemingly guarding the area. She narrowed her focus to them and stretched her thoughts in their direction�"stark, insidious glows paled from behind the gargoyles’ eyes. Sophie’s stomach twisted.

Bogdale, still in his black-haired youth persona, motioned her to a small, square office. They went inside the normal countered office with a computer on the desk’s corner and various colored paperwork pieces lying about or clipped to a number of clipboards. Bogdale closed the door, pointed and touched a small picture of a charming stylized gnome on the wall.

“How quaintly ironic is this not?” A button was behind it, and he pushed it. Electrical servo motors hummed and shutters slid up around the office cutting them off from the warehouse area.

“What is this place?” Sophie said, arms folded across her chest.

“A way to get where we’re going sweet thing.”  

“So what is your part in this�"your reward?” Sophie asked as she felt the room shift sideways and began to drop; she took a tiny balancing step.

“You.”

Sophie knew the likely answer forthcoming, but it still physically and emotionally affected her. “You trust him�"your boss? Maybe,” she swallowed. “There won’t be anything left of me when he, he is done with me.”

Bogdale whirled to look at her in the eyes, a shocked look, but then relaxed. “Not hardly clandaughter.” He looked her down. “I’ve had my eye on you for sometime now�"he assured me of the spoils.”

“You call me clandaughter occasionally, but you have little, no loyalty for the Elttil principles of clanship.”

“Humph! It was easy to lose clan loyalty when Elttils are traditionally sanctioned to do only good for others�"forever! And nothing for us, pah!” Bogdale threw the last word aside with an open-handed gesture.

“Oh, so you think there should be some personal reimbursement for good deeds and pleasant interactions with others?” Sophie said, pondering her own depressive lonely singularity.

“What do you know?” He said calmly. “Quiet now.”

Sophie hurt with her own thoughts of her past actions�"or inactions layered upon Bogdale’s blatant profligacy. The office shook to a grinding halt.

“We’re here�"first floor: Imprisoned clanfathers, ha-ha!”

Sophie took a deep-breath as the back wall of cheap paneling slid open. She first saw a rock-lined room with bare light bulbs dangling from a cord, casting hard distinctions between light and shadow. A blinding radiance cube made up one corner that provided most of the illumination in the dungeon�"at least that’s what Sophie related it to. The man turned to Sophie and his face illuminated for the first time�"along with the distinctive gray-black flattop. Sophie felt a chill in her spine but restrained all non-verbal, physical responses.

“Principal Liveos? You? Here?” Sophie said, glancing about.

“Recognize me now, Sophie? You might say this is my weekend job, taking over the Vergeambit but�",” Liveos laughed. “After this, I won’t need that thankless weekday position now that you and your father are under my care. Principal indeed, I only took the job for this outcome. Dull, common people are so easily swayed to let me lead them and genuflect to my perfect advice and superior authority.”

Sophie glanced about. Another like device rested inactivated beside the lit cube. She took in as much as she could in the room�"heavy cables snaked down from above along the elevator shaft, the largest cable going to a device near the light cube and another to a workstation with double flat-screen monitors. Beside the workstation, a huge metal box the size of a Mini-Cooper, and from what Sophie recalled seeing pictures of, figured it was a liquid-cooled CPU. The sound of fans and liquid running were perceivable. She steeled herself.

“Bet you can mass-produce detention slips on that thing�"or do you just play Angry Bird on it all day?”

“My, my you’re quite the smarty pants considering the situation you’re in here. Down here within my power, it is not as easy as picking on those defenseless imbecile school boys.”

Sophie felt the blood run from her face and suddenly felt chilly and damp. With the brief surge of adrenaline gone, she felt weak in the knees. “I s’pose you are right,” she mumbled to the floor. “Now what?”

“Well, I know my presence was a bit surprising and my minder Bogdale assistance too, but how about getting your biggest shocker? You ready?”

Sophie couldn’t bear the idea of seeing her father in whatever condition, who she was sure in the light cube. She glanced over at it.

“Partially right�"yes, long lost father is there but moreover�"look.” Liveos went to the computer and with a keystroke, the screens flashed to life. Several bar-graphs and readouts filled one screen; the other had a program running on it. He typed in a few commands, the program slowed and gradually the light cube dimmed. A man’s unmoving figure soon took form, floating in mid-air. Sophie’s eyes welled up and teardrops formed on her cheeks.

“Is he�"dead?” She bowed her head but didn’t avert her eyes.

“No, that wouldn’t do us any good would it? Just safely suspended.”

Suddenly as her eyes adjusted, Sophie could make out the man’s face and gasped, “That’s my father? That’s Mr. Nifle!”

“One in the same. Never did I dream in my search for you, I would find the illustrious Clanfather Green Ashford himself. What an opportunity finding both of you in the same place because I heard he was dead from my spies�"their reliability and usefulness waned pretty quickly. I guess Ashford wanted to keep a personal eye on his baby daughter.”

Slowly Sophie’s father opened his eyes and despairingly moved them around the room without any other body movement. His eyes halted on Sophie and instantly squeezed shut.

“I’m sure he realizes that you are here because of him�"oh well, too bad, so sad.”  Sophie averted her eyes toward the computer trying to be nonchalant. “Don’t get any ideas prissy half-breed. Turn the light field off, and daddy-o is el cooked-o.” Liveos chuckled and looked at a subdued Bogdale who hesitated, then managed a short fake laugh. “And you�"” he gestured to Bogdale. “Get out of that boy costume. Be proud of who you are�"a deceitful kobold.”

Boy Bogdale stood there with a blank look. He shook his head, “But I picked this form to bond with Sophie Green, so when she leaves...”  

Liveos held up a dismissing hand without looking, “Sorry Boggy, but the girl isn’t going anywhere with you. I need her for breeding stock�"for my army.”

Sophie cringed physically taking the “breeding stock” harder than if he had said “her life.” Sophie took a few steps toward her suspended father; he had his eyes turned to her. She slowly raised her palm up to her father. Sophie could feel her father’s essence and inner being broadcast into her body. She recalled his advice in art class that the substitute teacher had restated; she turned back to see the boy Bogdale slowly phase out of this universe plane becoming translucent and then blurry, eventually shrinking down and widening into his real elf-form in the human plane.

“Ah, there is the Bogdale I know,” Liveos said gleefully. “Now to get on with this project.”

“So how does the Vergeambit break down with these two?” Bogdale asked.

“Oh, I don’t think that is possible at all. My goal is to turn these two to my bidding or at least turn the offspring of the girl. A human being never had the opportunity to control or have true bidding messengers that can pass over to the other side�"and take me with them! I long to act as supreme intermediary between two universes, and to the one universe most people don’t even know exists.” Liveos threw up his hands in animated exhilaration and laughed hardily.

Abruptly, the lights dimmed an infinitesimal degree, but relit to normal brightness. Liveos pointed up, “Don’t worry about being in the dark little girl, no monsters here except me�"besides I have back up power.”

Sophie saw a tiny flashing icon lit up on the bottom of the computer screen. Liveos smiled broadly at Bogdale. Sophie looked at the radiance cube. Her father moved a hand to his face and placed a finger to his lips�"Sophie saw him smile, move his hand away and instantly freeze back into his floating stance. Sophie turned to Liveos, who appeared shocked.

“What? Did he move?” Liveos said.

“How can he move in that horrible thing,” Sophie pointed at the cube and stressed her voice trying to sound emotional. She pulled her long red hair over her shoulder. Some days she wished egotistical, insane men like this should just kick themselves in the a*s. Liveos whirled and looked hard at Sophie in pain; suddenly, one leg buckled and the other flew backwards and up like he was trying to kick himself. He stumbled as he tried to lurch for her.

“I’m no foolish little girl. You don’t have any power over me at school or here in your hole!” Liveos lay on the ground and convulsed; his legs kicked about. Sophie smiled at him, and Bogdale stood dumfounded. “No, Principal Pain-in-the-Butt�"teen aged half-breed Elttil, that’s who I really am.” She turned and pointed at Bogdale with a glare. “And you�"butt out!”

Sophie walked over to the radiance cube and began sign language with her father. With various motions such as turning power down with a knob, Sophie figured out that she could turn the power down gradually and release her father. It was a simple matter, basically replicate the motions Liveos had performed earlier to show his prisoner off.  As she decreased power gradually while watching her father for distress or Liveos for escape, Sophie opened the flashing icon program. She smiled; it was a warning telling the operator that backup electrical power was out of phase with the electrical requirements of this sensitive computer. Thank the powers of nature for thunderstorms! As her father stood on his feet in the dimming light, she also identified that Liveos had stolen the computer from the university’s physics department he had attended before becoming principal at her school. He was a genius without common sense about electricity. The light wasn’t completely gone in the cube as her father fell forward out into the room; he stumbled a step but caught himself. 

“Mr. Nifle-father!” Sophie cried and ran over to grab his arm and slide her shoulder under him to support his weakened form.

He took a deep breath, “Please Sophie, call me father. Sorry about the deception in art class; it was the only�"look out!” Sophie’s enchantment on Liveos had broken with her emotion, and Liveos was up on his knees going for the desk drawer. She tugged on her hair and wished an enchantment, but found she was unable to do anything with her head awash with emotion. She had no affect on the flailing man.

“Father!” She cried when she saw the Tazer gun emerge.

Liveos smiled wide with bright white teeth as he lifted the pistol; her father raised his palm in defiance. Sophie hugged him tight seeing him grimace in pained fortitude. Bogdale flashed out of the human universe. The jagged bolt of electricity wiggled from the Tazer’s dual electrodes. The flash illuminated Liveos’ sneer as Sophie twisted around to stand between the bolt and her father. She looked over her shoulder as the bolt mousied across the gap. Her father cried, “No!” Bogdale materialized above the floor just as the bolt was about to strike Sophie.

“Fool Kobold,” Liveos raved. “Get out of my way!” Bogdale took the entire charge of electricity; it sizzled, and writhed holding inert Bogdale from falling to the ground.

In another second, the Tazer fully discharged, and Bogdale fell to the ground with a thump. He turned to Liveos and groaned, unable to move.

“When you approached me�"Aye, persuaded me�"you dissuaded my true calling, I forgot who I really was�"an Elttil.” Bogdale eyes closed and his form flickered and phased out of the human universe. Liveos turned back to father and daughter.

“Weak elf he, but�"you child!” His words roared in her ears deafening her. “You go nowhere.” Sophie looked down and tried to move; her feet were immovable as if they were in solid concrete.

“Don’t you dare use Vergevoice on my daughter, fiend.” Scarland roared back stretching a trembling arm out toward him. Liveos fell backward, and Sophie’s feet released.

“How could he�"?” Sophie looked back at her father.

“Later Sophie, we must leave this place. I haven’t attained all my enchantments. He could conjure something else down here�"technology or Elttil ability.”  Sophie looked at her father with an open mouth. “Later. Into the elevator!”

“But there’s another way,” Sophie said, as the door closed shut. Liveos was close behind and pounded on the door twice, but then was quiet.

“I know. Go open the other door.” Scarland said, turning back toward the elevator door and bracing himself. “I wonder why he gave up already.

“We’re underground, a solid wall on three sides,” Sophie said, pointing to the rock wall in the opened doorway.   

 “Feel around, a switch, a loose rock must release the passage.”

“Father what are you doing?” She asked, as he gestured back and forth,up and down like he was painting a wall. “Wait�"a loose rock” Sophie said and wiggled it. “No.”

“VergeWall.” He can’t overpower this�"almost done.”

“Another loose rock. Oh, a fake one.” The rocks ground away. “Father! I got it, let’s go.” Scarland turned and followed Sophie through the passage. They trotted down the tight rock passageway for about fifteen seconds before coming to another lift device. This one had a button, and Sophie stabbed it. The door slid open, and they entered the lift that was designed for one person. They squeezed together inside. Scarland pushed the button, the door slid shut, and they began to ascend but then slowed and stopped.

“Another power failure!” Sophie cried, tears on her cheeks.

“I don’t think so.” Scarland said pointing up. “The lights remained on. Hold on and prepare yourself.” Scarland’s form became blurry, and Sophie could feel warmth emanate from his body inches away. He shrank down to her waist in height and appeared pencil-thin. He kept his eyes shut. With his skinny arms tight to his sides his diminutive hands flared out like a fish’s fins; he wiggled his fingers. The lift started moving up�"faster and faster; so fast it took Sophie’s breath away. She wanted to look away from her distorted father but couldn’t. She saw a strange toothy smile on the pencil-man form. “Any second,” said a strange squeaky voice. “Brace yourself, here, now!” With a squeal of metal brakes, Sophie felt herself get feather light�"almost weightless as the lift decelerated. The door opened�"Liveos stood there.

“Going somewhere? Ha! Look at you. Little trouble with my one-man lift? Speaking of little trouble, here ‘ya go.” He stepped aside, and the four stone gargoyles rumbled forward. Scarland balled his fists and reemerged into his human form.

“Run Sophie!” Scarland pointed. “This way, right, straight, left and out. GO!” She ran five steps, but Liveos reached out from behind a pile of old entry doors and grabbed her.

“Leave me!” She mimicked a VergeVoice. Liveos twitched, and then smiled in the weak light.

“Nice try little girl, I’m not so weak now.” He bear-hugged her and picked her off the ground. Her legs struggled in midair. “You know, now that I have a hold of your fine little bod, the human physical side of me finds you very tempting.”

Sophie screamed and kicked harder, “Father, help!”

“Don’t worry about him, “Liveos said calmly. “My trained gargoyles are very powerful, probably grinding him onto Elttil bone dust with their stone feet. How about a kiss?”

“I’d rather kiss a gargoyle, pig principal,” she spat in his face.

“Fine!” He ripped the top of her blouse open but in the action lost a grip on her.

She jammed her hard-heeled shoe into his instep causing him to roar in pain. “Half-breed weakling!” He slapped her across the face with fingernails raking her cheek.

“Your human physical side? How about mine?” She broke away. “How about this kiss?”

With every ounce of her strength and fortitude, she reeled back and rammed her foot into his crotch. With an intensity that surprised her, she lifted his body off the ground four feet and flipped him over backwards into a pile of lumber with the boards falling about his screaming and writhing form. She ran on listening for her father. She quickly found the front overhead door threshold. Outside, rain showers fell heavily, lightning flashed, and thunder boomed. Liveos sharp-nailed lash across her face stung bloody in the rain and his enraged scream still rang in her ears. Sophie panted; her lungs burned; she looked back and saw two sets of sharp, yellowed fangs gleaming in the lightning flashes.

“Run, Sophie run.” Came Scarland’s shout. But the gate was there in front of her, the gargoyles behind. The rain splashed down upon the filthy asphalt in great gobbets, battering Sophie’s exposed forehead, shoulders, and breasts as she ran. She drew shreds of her blouse around her, hastening for the outside that lay well out of reach for her pursuers but sought to remain close at hand for someone she cared for. She only needed a trifling static period to access her power to leave the pursuers behind�"maybe.

She ran to the gate, the gargoyle’s rock feet pounded on the asphalt; their eyes glowed like red embers in the dark. Sophie stopped, gripped the gate; she heard nothing, felt nothing, saw nothing thinking only of the other side. She felt nauseous. Her head spun; she felt like passing out�"the gargoyles growled close by. Sophie came to on the outside.

“Father come now!” She heard banging about inside the building. The gargoyles snarled and rammed against the gate as she trotted away backwards. Suddenly in tandem they rammed the chain link; it rattled, then it squealed and groaned. They rammed it again and broke through, running straight for her. She bolted.

Closer now, very close�"they pursued her, gabbling a wild and ancient animalistic language. The two shadowy figures were half her height: squat, ugly, heavily  muscled in rock and single-mindedly focused on their quarry�"Sophie stumbled scant meters ahead in the murky alley; she went down�"forward, almost to her knees before catching herself with palms on the asphalt and her hard shoes slapping in the puddles before resuming her frantic pace. Father, what of father?  Her stringy soaked red hair slithered up and wrapped over and around her face. Electricity flashed down, coating and tingling her wet skin. Her hair glowed and tightened, jerking hard about her neck, choking her. She reached up and tore its tentacled grip from her throat. The strangles wrapped around her wrists, and she spread her arms and hair like an eagle taking flight to break loose. She whimpered and blew; she panted�"she spewed rainwater from her lips and sidestepped several steps. How could she shake these�"hideous things?

Scarland materialized in full human size just a few steps ahead of her.

“Father! Run, these things are closing.”

“No, my daughter, I can take these things now.” Scarland walked past her toward the charging gargoyles. He stopped, hands on hips and feet spread wide. The gargoyles snarled and dropped their heads to charge harder. Again, he waved his hands up and down, back and forth. The gargoyles closed their eyes ztill bearing down. Scarland stepped back as Sophie maintained her distance.

The gargoyles ran into the Vergewall full-charge, exploding in dual flashes of physical and otherworldly energy in their single-minded pursuit they to pounce on the stationary unarmed man, but now all that remained were the chunks, bits, and pebbles pummeling down on the street along with the rain. As the final bits of stone fell, two police cars with lights flashing and siren screaming came from the other direction and pulled in at the warehouse.

Sophie caught her breath.  “Good thing the cops didn’t find us there. Would be some tough explaining to do after all that, but how’d they know?”

Scarland pulled Sophie in close to his shoulder and wrapped his arm around her, “Well, a certain ex-Clanfather called 911. Stolen goods you know, my brave daughter.”

“I don’t know about that brave part,” Sophie pulled the shreds of her blouse around her and shivered. She looked up and smiled. “At least the rain’s letting up, but it’s chilly”

“Here’s all I have to offer. He pulled her aside and waved his hands on each side of her body; she immediately felt warmer. “Nice trick.”

“There are no tricks in the VergeAmbit.” He said looking in her eyes at arms length. “Now how do we get home?”  

“I came with,” Sophie swallowed. “Bogdale on the bus.” She brightened a shade, “Bogdale was a dog.”

“Alas poor Boggy, I knew him long and well, but hmmm, not as a dog. SO! Elttil’s on a bus, well I never! I go by cab personally; I called a cabbie and told him to wait at the next intersection.” He waved toward the headlight glow pulling in ahead.

Sophie playfully slapped his arm, “You mean you had all that time to call the police, a taxi�"anyone else?”

“Aye, yor mama too! As formidable as she is�"I think shea’ fainted.” Scarland chuckled; then, he comically sobered.

“So while I was getting physically attacked, running from gargoyles, squeezing myself this thin,” she measured with her fingers, “between chained gate rails you stopped to make phone calls.”

“Shoren, I did. I did make those phone calls for my lil’ lassie, but who said I stopped? I ‘ad my ‘ands busy too.”

Sophie stopped in her tracks. The taxi tooted its horn. “And what’s with the accent�"Dad?”

“Oh, ho, daughter dear. You have much to larn, I traveled from ‘da olden country two-hundred and thirty-three yarens’ ago.” They walked toward the taxi; its exhaust hovering like a heavenly cloud in the cool, humid air, Sophie looked around into his face with a grin.

“Robbing the cradle with mom by ah, maybe two hundred years or so.”

“Lak I said, yor ‘ave much to larn, and your ma, well she’s got some big explainin’ to do! By and by, I ‘eard you are a most fine Vergeflute talent�"glad yor enjoyed my gift�"larn any new notes lately?”

Sophie paused a second speechlessly covering her mouth as Scarland continued walking ahead. He reached the taxi first and exchanged pleasantries with the Pakistani driver in his native language. As Sophie began to step into the taxi, Scarland pulled taut and snarled a strand of her red hair that wasn’t already tangled from her ordeal.

“Your bonny lass hair needs a wee-bit lookin’ after, fair daughter,” he smiled with a glow of fatherly love. “You need to take better care of yourself.”

Reviews

[wondering]

suspensful, fun believable story, keep it going forward, eager to read more