Chapter 8: A Secret Visit
Samantha hangs out in her bedroom in the fisherman's lodge, when her dad knocks on the door. After Sam invites him in, he proceeds to earn his Father of the Year award:
Sam rolled away from her father and pulled the sheet up over her head. He stood and made an awkward attempt at tucking her in.
“No,” he said, “I guess you’re not old enough yet. Anyway, you can’t stay here. I have my work. I’ve made a call to social services. A case worker will come tomorrow to take you away.”
“Take me away?!” Sam screamed from beneath the sheet.
“You’re going to live with a foster family until your mother gets better,” he announced.
“Are you kidding me?!” Sam asked, jerking the sheet down and sitting upright.
“You can’t stay here, Sam. I’m sorry. I just don’t have time for you.”
Wow. What an asshole. Way to be involved with your kid's life like that, Professor. And poor Sam! Her mom gets put in a coma, her dad doesn't want to live with her, and rather than relatives, she's going to be taken to a foster family of total strangers?
Crooked fisherman and hooligans. The man's got a way with words. A Google search for the phrase "crooked fishermen" doesn't yield anything that sounds menacing in the least.
Sam's dad turns out the light over Sam's protests to leave it on, and closes the door. Sam starts to wish she hadn't yelled at her mom and argued with her before her coma. As she's feeling sorry for herself, Malachi the parrot comes in.
It squawks "Hel-lo! Hel-lo!" and "Re-turn. Re-turn," as it flies to her wrist. And Captain Tithers stands in the door. But he's not alone. He has, um, some kind of fantasy creature floating by him.
“What’s that?” she asked.
“A willawog, of course,” the Captain replied.
“Oh,” she said, in the way that we say “oh” when we’re pretending we know what’s going on, but really we have no idea.
The creature looked like a blowfish six inches in diameter, but it was furry instead of prickly. It glowed on and off like a firefly, yet somehow it reminded Sam of a round-faced puppy too – but just the head of one. The willawog had no body, no legs. But it was cute as a baby’s nose and a great source of light to boot.
That's some good Lemony Narrating right there, actually. I love that little aside about the use of the word "oh".
The willawog flies over to Sam, and Tithers tells her its name is Benly. Sam, deciding there's no way what's going on could possibly be real, asks if she can have one. The book even tells us that since she assumes that she's dreaming, she doesn't see any reason to be alarmed. Yet.
Tithers asks Samantha to come with him, and she says she's just going to go sleep now. But Malachi the parrot is having none of that, and flies over and rips the sheet of the bed off Sam. She gets up, annoyed, and Malachi starts nudging her towards Tithers with his beak.
Which makes one wonder. Why was Malachi so nasty towards Sam's dad earlier? He definitely seems to be pretty intelligent for a parrot. Maybe he knows something we don't.
Sam agrees to head out with Tithers, being a little annoyed, as he tells her there's no time to waste.
Chapter 9: A Prophecy
That's quite a nighttime trek to be taking all of a sudden! The trek itself isn't described in detail, though, since it's the destination that's important. They get onto the boat Animus, and head across the water through the dense fog. Tithers stops the boat at one point, and the willawog, knowing exactly what to do, shines its light right where the two humans need to see.
And Tithers dumps unbelievable backstory on Samantha.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
“Malachi is your guardian, sent from Aerynon. He’s been following you for some time now. I am the gatekeeper,” he explained.
I wish I knew how to pronounce "Aerynon".
Anyway, this explains a few things. Like why Tithers greeted Sam so warmly when you'd assume that a guy who hangs out in a ship with a bunch of "crooked fishermen and hooligans" would want nothing to do with her. And why Malachi kept showing up in the most unexpected of places.
Tithers tells Malachi there's too much to tell Samantha at once, and Malachi nods and urges him to "Re-turn. Re-turn."
So Tithers continues with his implausible tale:
“You’re crazy,” Sam laughed.
“He cast her out,” Captain Tithers continued, quite seriously. “Now his ruthlessness grows. Your people suffer. He must be stopped.”
I swear, Tithers' explanation sounds like the prologue to an old-school video game. Just imagine playing an old game like Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, and having everything Tithers just said in that quoteblock scroll by before the player starts the game.
I can see it now. Imagine this scrolling up, like an old-school video game
:
It's just so amusingly... blunt.
Tithers tells Samantha that she's the warrior princess in the prophecy. What prophecy?
Samantha points out, quite reasonably, that she's only ten years old. Malachi insists that she "Be-lieve. Be-lieve."
Lots of willawogs, those glowy puffballs like the one Tithers has, appear suddenly and illuminate a path along the water. Stones spring up and continue the path, curving back and forth, then the stones stop rising, and
What kind of analogy is that? Oh narrator, you assume too much of us readers to think we have the vocabulary to know what a beignet is! (It's a type of food common in New Orleans, which, along with the other New Orleans-specific things mentioned, makes me think the author likely lives there)
Tithers points out that the attacks against Samantha's mom and dad were actually intended for her. As if they were waiting for that cue, two more Mordantaurs show up.
Malachi casts a spell, shouting "Re-tractum! Re-tractum!" The water over the rocks parts, and Captain Tithers grabs Sam's hand and pulls her across. Malachi squawks and summons lots of pelicans and seagulls to attack the Mordantaurs, and try to block their path onto the road. When they reach the light (the one that's as bright and white as confectioner's sugar powdered on a beignet, ya know), Sam gets scared of going inside and tells Tithers that she's not ready for this.
But Tithers points out that if she stays behind, these things will keep trying to kill her. If she goes inside, well, she's in danger there instead. But don't forget, no matter what happens, she's the Chosen One.
Sam looks behind her and sees some of the Mordantaurs capture the birds fighting them, and one snaps a bird's neck and tosses the bird's corpse into the water. She makes her decision, and jumps into the light, entering the world of Aerynon.
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