Under Her Spell

by Maggie Morton

  But after about two hours of driving, and shortly after cresting a steep hill, she could see what looked like a midsized town only a few miles down the road. They soon passed a sign that read MISSIOU TOWN LIMITS.

  “Wonderful!” Terra exclaimed.

  Onyx stopped snoring as she did so, shaking his head back and forth. “What is it? Are we there yet?” he asked sleepily.

  “Wherever ‘there’ is, yeah. Apparently we’re almost to Missiou City. Or just Missiou, I guess. Ever heard of it?”

  “Sounds…vaguely familiar.”

  “You sound vaguely familiar, too.”

  “Ha. Ha. Hopefully, once I’m done laughing, we’ll be there, and I can get a nice room to sleep in. I was starting to worry I’d be stuck on this lumpy car seat for the whole night.”

  “Lumpy? This car is a classic, in perfect condition, and I happen to think the seats are rather comfortable.”

  He scoffed. “You humans have no idea what true comfort is. None at all.” Onyx jumped forward and placed his front paws on the dashboard, stretching out to his full length. “Civilization at last. At least I suppose you could call it that.”

  “Your standards are too high,” Terra said, as they pulled into the city and onto what was apparently Main Street. “I think it’s delightfully…quaint.”

  The buildings were all one-story high, it seemed, with wooden, retro-style signs in front of the storefronts. They passed a couple of barbershops, both with the old-fashioned spinning barber’s poles in front of them, and a number of clothing stores and a drugstore. A few minutes later, Terra noticed a parking spot in front of a restaurant that appeared to be open. Painted on the large window, in dark-green lettering, were the words THE TOWN RESTAURANT, a name she couldn’t help chuckling at. Beneath the silly name, it said something much less funny—LUNCH FROM 12-2. It was much less funny because, having eaten breakfast close to six and a half hours ago, she was a fair bit beyond merely being hungry. “I’ll make sure to get something with meat in it,” she told Onyx as she pulled into the parking spot. “So you don’t feel as bad about having to wait in the car.”

  “You mean I have to wait? And without a magazine to read?”

  “Didn’t think to pack one, sorry.”

  Onyx sighed loudly, then settled down onto the seat and crossed his paws. “Something with chicken, if you please.”

  She parked and got out, after making sure to roll down the windows a few inches so it wouldn’t become too hot for Onyx. It wasn’t especially hot outside the car, but it was rather warm—pleasantly warm, with a slight breeze tossing her short hair just a little as she walked toward the restaurant’s front door.

  Once inside, she found a table and waited to be noticed. A few moments later, a waitress with lustrous red hair and a tiny black apron came over to where she was sitting, handing her a laminated menu and giving her a big grin. “Want something to drink, honey? We have the best sweet tea you’ve ever had, since our chef comes from the South.”

  That was at least one hint about her and Onyx’s whereabouts. They weren’t in the South, whatever the South was. But it seemed to be the one Terra knew about, since she knew sweet tea was usually served in the southern United States. Did that mean she was still in the United States? She decided it was probably not smart to ask, lest she sound like a loony. Probably not a good idea to ask if there was any magic in this town, either. Instead, she told the waitress, “Sweet tea sounds great. And does the menu have anything with chicken in it?”

  “We have a very yummy chicken-salad sandwich. Comes with coleslaw or fries.”

  “I’ll have the coleslaw.”

  “Be right back with your sweet tea, then, hon.”

  She couldn’t help watching the waitress as she walked away. Her face had been quite cute, but her sashaying butt created a few fantasies of said butt and what it might feel like cupped in Terra’s hands. Athene was much more attractive, but both of them still found other people attractive, too, and neither of them really wanted to become members of the “thought police.” They’d even turned each other on a few times with stories about what a threesome would be like, but neither of them wanted it to go beyond that.

  She might have liked that waitress’s cute, tight butt, but she didn’t love it, much less love her. That fact, though, didn’t manage to stop a bit of fantasizing from flitting through her head as she waited for the waitress to return.

  When the redhead returned with her tea, Terra had to resist the strong urge to shake her head a little in order to clear out the last fragments of her short fantasy.

  She gave the waitress a small smile and thanked her. Because she was starting to blush a little, she turned her head away, busying herself with pulling the paper off her glass’s straw. Then she realized something. “Any chance I could get some water in a to-go cup? My cat’s waiting in the car, and I’d love to take him some, as I didn’t realize today would be so warm. He’ll chew me out if I don’t.”

  Terra almost clapped her hand over her mouth, but the waitress just laughed. “Sure thing. I can even bring it to you in a soup to-go bowl. Be right back.”

  After she returned with the water, Terra took it out to Onyx, who looked both surprised and pleased when he saw the bowl. “You know I don’t have to drink and eat as often as a normal cat, but I was getting a touch thirsty in this warm weather. What a dear girl you are.” She placed it on the floor in front of his seat, and he climbed down to it, beginning to lap away. He was purring when she left him, which made her feel like it had been worth the little bit of extra effort.

  Terra almost started purring herself once she was back inside, as an incredibly delicious-looking sandwich sat on a checkered plate next to a small bowl of purple-and-green coleslaw. The first bite was just as good as she’d guessed it would be, and she devoured two-thirds of the sandwich in almost no time at all. Two-thirds, because she was saving the last third for Onyx. If he had been that grateful for the water, she couldn’t wait to see his reaction to the sandwich.

  And Onyx was indeed delighted, gobbling up the meat and bread in no time at all. Terra had already removed the remaining lettuce and tomato, but she hadn’t expected him to lick up the bit of coleslaw that had wound up in the box as well.

  “I didn’t know cats liked coleslaw,” Terra told him as she watched him devour the last bites of food.

  “Mrrmph, mmm, crmnph. No, cats usually don’t. But really, darling, do you think I am just a mere little pussy cat?”

  “Of course not, Onyx. You’re much cuter than a normal cat, for one thing.”

  “While I appreciate a compliment just as much as the next fellow, I must stop you there and begin to groom myself. That sandwich proved to be a rather messy endeavor.” Onyx licked his paw and rubbed it across his face once, then a second time. Her work on the kitty’s behalf was done, at least for the time being, so why not take in the town while the weather remained nice? After all, she had a fair number of hours before she wanted to turn in, and she wanted them to pass quickly, as right before she slept for the night, she would be visiting Athene with the special rock. So she shut and locked her door, and started exploring.

  As she had said to Onyx, the town sure was “quaint.” Terra didn’t know if it was intentional or just that they were low on money for updating things. But after seeing a few SHOPPES and GENERAL STORES, she decided that yes, they were going for retro and probably hoping it would draw in tourists. That was a title she qualified for, she realized, and for the first time ever, too.

  She hadn’t had enough time off from working in the mansion to take in the sights anywhere other than the city it was on the outskirts of. The mansion and its grounds weren’t short on beauty or entertainment, so she hadn’t really considered what she was missing. Not until now. Being somewhere she’d never been before, which hadn’t happened since she was fourteen, was kind of nice. Refreshing, even, perhaps. She enjoyed noticing all the differences from where she lived—how the people were dressed, what the center of
the town looked like. Everything was delightfully different and new.

  And then something less different caught her eye, in the form of a store across the street. She gasped as she read the dark-windowed store’s hanging sign: YE OLDE MAGICK SHOPPE—ENTER IF YE DARE.

  Well, did she dare? Hell yeah, she did, so she dashed across the street, causing a few honks and one “Ma’am, please watch where you’re going,” which came from a man in a red truck. Now that was more than a little different, too. Who was ever that polite in her city?

  Once she was safely across the street, thankfully without causing any accidents, she saw an OPEN sign hanging from a hook on the shop’s wooden front door, a door that was also open itself, but just a few inches. A glass ball sitting on a metal stand was holding it that way, so she stepped over both carefully as she swung open the door and walked inside.

  But Terra had always been a little accident-prone, and so she was only a little surprised when her foot caught on the ball and sent it rolling across the floor. It rolled until it reached the feet of a skinny, short man, who had a balding head of wild, white hair and, seemingly, very quick reflexes, as he caught the ball while walking toward Terra. Standing up, he cupped it in his hand, staring down at it for a moment. “If only I’d been given the full gift of divination like my mother. But all I have is her leftover wine cellar, and with its bottles so heavily depleted—I do fancy a good glass of wine from time to time—I can’t be sure if you’re Terra or someone else.” He looked up from the ball now and placed it on a mid-height shelf at his shoulder level. Strangely, the perfectly round ball stayed in place, even though gravity would normally have dictated otherwise.

  But she was clearly in the world of magic again, and the normal laws of science were only occasionally welcome in that realm. “May I ask you what your name is, before I tell you whether I’m Terra?”

  “Just like her mother, quick on her feet. Hmm, what do you think?” He was silent for a few moments, then straightened his horn-rimmed glasses. “Yes, I suppose you’re right.”

  “You must be Terra,” he said, walking over to her and extending his hand, “and I am Jeremy. My people don’t do what your people do and act grandiose when we name our children. No, we prefer to lead a simple life, except when there are Wolfrans in the backs of our shops. And she’s been there for years, hasn’t she?”

  Terra had been ready to shake Jeremy’s hand, ready to do that and then ask him how he knew her mother (it seemed everyone so far had known her, actually). But he had withdrawn his hand just as she’d reached for it, and so instead she placed her hand on her hip as she asked him, “So what’s this business with a…Wolfran, or whatever?”

  “Ah, the glorious, deadly Wolfran. You know, my dear, this used to be a two-person shop, run by me and my brother Mason. But our pleasant times together were not ended by a normal death, no sir. They were ended by a Wolfran moving into the cave behind our store. Now, if you’ll just follow me…” Jeremy turned and began walking toward what must have been the sales counter, as an outdated-looking cash register sat on it next to an opening that Jeremy was now walking through.

  “Wait a minute, Jeremy.” Now she had both hands on her hips. “Wait just one minute. I didn’t agree to help, you know,” she said, following him as quickly as she could. For a man who must have been less than five feet tall, he really could move! “I don’t even know if I can trust you.” Now she followed him through a beaded curtain behind the counter. “I don’t even know if…”

  On the other side of the curtain, it was twilight, and she was standing a few feet away from a large cave’s opening, suddenly waist deep in dry, sweet-smelling grass, and possibly waist deep in trouble, too. “What happened?” she called out. “Where the hell am I? Jeremy, or whoever the hell you are—what have you done?”

  “Merely what I said I was going to, and just what Mason told me to. Don’t worry, you will be rewarded. Look in the mouth of the cave for your weapon.” He was standing behind her now, but just as she started toward him, he pushed back through the beaded curtain and was gone. Terra rushed up to the curtain and flung it back, but the only thing behind it was more grass and more twilight. “I’ll let you come back once you’ve vanquished the beast!” Jeremy’s voice now seemed to be coming from very far away.

  And it also “seemed” that she was mightily pissed. She didn’t have much of a choice, though, so, with a fair bit of fear, she went up to the cave’s entrance and looked inside. “Holy mother!” she gasped, clapping her hand over her mouth. At least four human skeletons littered the floor, and there was another one that looked like it might have been part something else. So, she was supposed to go up against some beast that had killed this many people? Just to return to her quest?

  Or perhaps this was part of her quest. Could that be it? “Vanquish a foe,” as Zeus had said the previous night. “Huh, worth a try,” and she glanced around for any sort of weapon. Off to her right, a few feet inside the cave, she saw a glint of silver. Anything would do at this point, so she went over to it to check it out. It turned out to be a foot-long, unsheathed dagger, with runes or something similar to them carved into the blade. It was this or nothing, because it was the only weapon she could see in there. Unless she wanted to use someone’s femur.

  She began to go farther inside the cave. Luckily, a fair bit of light was coming in through cracks and holes in its roof and walls. A few steps deeper in, she heard a sound of some sort. That wasn’t a…roar, was it? She began to shake a little, but told herself it was just because it was cold in here, and not because she was scared shitless.

  Then, “That was definitely a roar!” she gasped, as a large, scary rumble echoed throughout the tunnel she was in. Either bravely (or stupidly), she still kept walking, deeper and deeper inside, until she reached a large opening. And there stood the creature the sounds were coming from, a creature that whipped its giant head toward her and bared its far-too-large teeth in a growl.

  The Wolfran looked like a wolf, so the name made sense. But unlike a normal wolf, it had large, dark-brown wings, and its head was about the size of her torso. She held up the dagger and assumed what she hoped was a good fighting stance. “I have come to kill you!” she cried out.

  But instead of getting ready to attack, the Wolfran seemed almost to smile. It walked over to her, and instead of biting off her head, it gave her face a big, juicy lick. “A woman! At last, I have fellow female company!” It—or, as Terra realized now, she—nuzzled Terra’s face, then sat down in front of her and lay down. “You can’t imagine what it’s been like, seeing man after man come through here. All wanting to kill me, like you. But you won’t fail, I promise.”

  “And why…why won’t I? I’m no match for you, Wolfran.”

  “Call me Katherine, dear. And I’ll lay it out for you. I want to die, so I can be sent to our creatures’ heaven, our paradise. I’ve lived for too long and seen too much, and to be honest, dear, I’m just plumb tuckered out. The story is this: my dear, dear husband, Gabriel, was killed by a man, so I vowed, as I watched him die, that no man would ever manage to do the same to me. But you are clearly not a man, and so it is my wish that you take my life. I beg of you, do it quickly.”

  “I can’t kill you, Katherine!” How on earth could she kill a kindly seeming creature she’d only just met? Terra was staring at the Wolfran’s face as she spoke, so she didn’t notice when the dagger began to glow or as it began to rise toward Katherine’s chest. When she did notice, she shrieked and tried to pull it back, back and away from the Wolfran. But it just drew closer and closer, the pull of it too strong for Terra to fight off, until, with one strong jerk forward, the whole length of it sank into the right side of Katherine’s chest.

  Terra began to cry then and watched with tear-filled eyes as the Wolfran’s body began to fade, more and more, until only a blue, ghostly outline remained. Then an image appeared behind Katherine, an image that looked like a meadow full of spring flowers. The Wolfran turned her large blue h
ead, and Terra heard her say, so very softly, “My sweet, sweet wolf, I’m coming to you now, finally.”

  The last thing she heard her say before Katherine walked away was, “Thank you. This fulfills the first part of your quest, although I swear I am no longer anyone’s foe, least of all yours.”

  Before Terra could get a closer look at the fields Katherine had entered, she heard a small clicking sound and watched as, far too quickly, the fields, the flowers, and then, last of all, Katherine disappeared. She was almost certain, though, that she saw another winged wolf running up to the female Wolfran just as the door to the flower-filled paradise closed.

  Chapter Nine

  Outside the cave, the beaded curtain was still there. Feeling somewhat emotionally exhausted, Terra walked up to it and pulled back the beads. There was the shop, and there stood Jeremy, holding a dusty bottle of what must have been wine in his right hand.

  “Looks like you were right, my brother!” he shouted toward the ceiling. Then Jeremy looked at Terra. “He thought she had something against men, you see, and so—”

  “You fucking bastard!” Terra shoved him against the counter. Then she stepped back from him and sighed, wiping the last few tears from her face with the back of her hand. “I guess you didn’t have the whole story.”

  “We men never do with you womenfolk. Was she nice to you, then?”

  “Far too nice to someone who took her life. Not that she was wishing for anything else from me, but still…”

  “Ah, I seem to have misjudged the Wolfran. Your brother gets killed by a beast—a creature, I mean—and you just can’t look at it in a level-headed way. My brother kept telling me to just wait till the quest began and someone named Terra arrived. Then our wolf problem would go away. He also liked my mother’s wine, you see, and that’s how he could tell you were coming. He knew you could help us, but then it was just me, and he kept trying to convince me I was looking at things all cockeyed. Then again, he was always trying to convince me of that, old jerkface. Well, here, young woman. You’ve more than earned this.” He held out the dusty wine bottle and Terra took it from him. It felt heavier than she’d expected, much heavier, so she wobbled a little once he wasn’t holding onto it any longer.