Page 15 of Stitches
Another rustle of the trees made Levi look up in search of the glider monkey, wondering if it had decided to follow them, but the trees ahead were still. He paused, peering cautiously behind them. No higher branches were wavering there either.
“G-Grillo—”
“Boo!” A small figure lunged at Levi from out of the shadows, and Levi dropped the handle of the cart, skittering backward.
“Kenner,” Grillo scolded in a low, parental tone, wiping the smile from the boy’s face. “You know better than to traipse into the wood alone!”
Kenner’s arms, which had been up like a playful mimic of a monster with claws, sagged to his sides. Well, like a monster with sharper clawsthan the boy.
“I wasn’t alone!” Kenner defended. “I followedyou.”
“And we will purposely be getting near the barrier. Do you understand? I will be safe thanks to Levi and the warding crystals, but you—”
“I can keep an eye on Kenner,” Levi said, causing father and son to stare at him in equal surprise. Perhaps it was the rapport Levi and Kenner had already formed, or simply that it eased Levi to know that even a boy could make it through the wood unharmed. “Would that not be safer than him heading back alone?”
Grillo’s brow furrowed at the suggestion. “I suppose that’s true. But do not think for a second this is a prize for disobedience.” He centered on his son. “You will have no sweets after dinner for being so reckless. Understood?”
Kenner nodded emphatically, clearly happier to have his way now, even at the cost of something later.
“You stick to Levi like planks nailed to a wall and watch the crystal just as vigilantly.”
Kenner nodded again.
“Come on then.” Grillo faced forward, and a smile lit up Kenner’s face as he scurried to Levi’s side.
With Levi pulling the cart once more, the three walked in close formation, the crystal held outward in Levi’s free hand.
“Did you think me the demon?” Kenner asked, his voice a whisper, though they were far too close to Grillo for anything to be kept secret.
“Or a dangerous animal,” Levi admitted, keeping his voice low too. “You believe in the demon? That it lives in the wood?”
“Of course!”
“Yet you boldly entered it?”
“After you and Father. I know I’m safe,” Kenner said without falter.
A quiet snort came from Grillo, buthe said nothing.
“Then you are braver than me.” Levi glanced around at the glittering trees and the all too silent dark. “I always thought the wood comforting—from afar. Being amidst the trees, I feel less certain.”
“I’ll protect you,” Kenner declared more loudly. “I’m really strong. I’m gonna be strong like Father, and with, um… procession like Mother!”
Levi stared at the boy in thought. “Precision?”
“Yes, that! She’s the best hunter in all the Dark Kingdom, you know.”
“So I have heard. What does the demon look like, do you think? I haven’t read many stories about it, other than basic accounts of the curse.”
“You don’t know the whole story? There are tons of them! Mostly the same though.”
And mostly by Klarent, apparently. “I know a demon cursed the old prince, who was lost,” Levi said, “and King Ashmedai, who wasn’t king at the time, defeated it and took over after everyone turned into monsters.”
“But did you know the princesummonedthe demon?”
“He did? Why?”
“Some think for more magic, but others say the old prince would never have done that, that he didn’t care about power. Some think it was so he could pass the kingdom to someone else, since he didn’t want to be king and no one else did either. He thought a demon was his only choice.”
