She smiled and nodded. “Do you have anything on Wolf?” “Navy blue-spined books next to yours. Embroidered with the A. Top shelf.” She nodded and pulled a blue one down, tossing it to me. I skimmed through it, impressed at all the detail he’d managed to acquire from just watching me. “Do you have anything on magical items? Like, cursed ones and stuff?” Naomi asked, using her usual strategy of slowly diving into the topic she really wanted to talk about. “Bookshelf closest to the hourglass. I’m assuming you want the ones on rings. Center four or five books with the emerald green covers,” Chaiyn said, turning away from her as he reshelved the notebook he’d been writing in. He pulled his hair away from his ears and turned around to watch us. Naomi reached out and pulled down a book. She skimmed through that one, then looked through all the others. “Useful information, but where’s the info on the rings like yours? There’s no way you just didn’t write about those.” Chaiyn sighed and reached over his center table, grabbing a book with a black cover. “Here.” He tossed it to Naomi, who caught it one-handed. She skimmed through it and stopped at a page. “Where’s the next one?” He tilted his head. “What do you mean?” “The next page. You’re talking about why you were cursed and then when you turn the page it just skips to how your parents cursed you. Where’s the why?” He sighed. “Unimportant.” She closed the book gently and tossed it to me. “Chaiyn, we can’t help if we don’t know all the details.” He slammed his hands down on the table. “I don’t need help! I’ve gotten this far on my own!” he yelled. “How long do you have left? A month? Less? You might not want to admit it, but you need a fresh pair of ideas,” she said gently. He gritted his teeth, muttering something in another language under his breath. “I have an idea,” I said quietly, not really wanting to provoke him. The two of them looked in my direction. “Yes?” Chaiyn said. “Okay, hear me out. What if you either tinkered with the current ring you’ve got or made a new one with different enchantments? Maybe then you’ll be able to balance out the curse and be able to get back home.” He held his hands up and almost backed into the table. “No. No way. I don’t tinker anymore.” He might have been able to control his facial expression, but his eyes looked like a deer in headlights. I tilted my head. “Why not?” He took a sharp breath. “Once I was banished I promised myself I wouldn’t ever tinker again.” “Well, you can either break this one, teeny tiny promise to yourself now or never be able to make another after your birthday,” I pointed out. He sighed in exasperation and buried his face in his hands. “What if it doesn’t work? What if it goes… like last time?” he asked no one in particular. “We can’t prevent what happened last time if we don’t know what happened last time,” Naomi pointed out. “Fine. Fine!” He said, hands flying up. “I’ll do it again, this once. And then never again.” He took a deep breath and reached behind the hourglass, pulling out a piece of paper and tossing it to Naomi. “There. Now you can know what happened.” She nodded and unfolded the piece of paper. Harlow looked over her shoulder and read along with her, while I watched the Seer. He was facing away from us, and I got the feeling that he did that when he didn’t want anyone to know what emotion he was feeling. Harlow and Naomi talked quietly together for a few minutes, then went outside the Seer’s lair as the dinner bell would be ringing soon. Chaiyn looked over his shoulder at me. “Aren’t you going to follow them?” I nodded. “Yeah. Why don’t you want our help?” He shook his head. “I do, I guess. You should know that it’s hard to admit your weaknesses when you’re so used to acting as if you’re on the top of the world.” “I never thought you acted like that,” I said quietly. “You said it yourself, we’re similar. So you can talk to me, even if the world seems against you. And give the tinkering a chance, maybe it’ll be better this time.” I turned around to leave before he could reply. I almost ran into a small girl as the curtain of vines closed behind me. “Hi there,” I said, startled. She looked up and her two-toned eyes met mine. Her skin was pale, paler then it should have been. Her brown hair looked black in the shadows. Her left eye was black while her right eye was a blue green. “Who are you?” I asked when she still hadn’t spoken. She continued with her silence. I sighed and dropped down on one knee so I was at her eye level. “I’m Acwulf.” She stayed silent, backing away from me slowly. “What’s your name?” I asked softly. “Elena,” she whispered after another few moments of silence.
Notes/Credits: If you're reading this, you probably know I wrote The Wolf Boy. Well, here's the sequel: The Monster's Curse. This is Chapter 22 Pt 2. Previous Chapter(s): Chapter 1: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/652476202/ Chapter 2: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/652950608/ Chapter 3: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/655177024/ Chapter 4: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/655177565/ Chapter 5: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/655621072/ Chapter 6: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/656955201/ Chapter 7: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/657580423/ Chapter 8: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/657583863/ Chapter 9: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/657586191/ Chapter 10: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/657668860/ Chapter 11: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/658404211/ Chapter 12: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/659115920/ Chapter 13: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/659116659/ Chapter 14: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/659117186/ Chapter 15: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/659420154/ Chapter 16: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/661425573/ Chapter 17: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/661428771/ Chapter 18: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/661974554/ Chapter 19: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/662108449/ Chpt 20 Pt 1: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/663144219/ Chpt 20 Pt 2: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/663156194/ Chapter 21: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/663760516/ Chpt 22 Pt 1: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/674644356/ Credits: Me, for being the author Shannon Messenger, JK Rowling, Eoin Colfer, and many other authors for inspo @aqua_di_angelo, @AL600AWESOME, @Lanze_cupcake_face11, and @Yayabinks for inspo and supporting the story! QOTC: Who do you think Elena is?
