I know, I know. It’s been over two weeks since I’ve posted anything. I’d like to say it’s because I’ve been busy, and while that’s technically true, it has nothing to do with producing creative content for either my website or my portfolio. I designed a layout that I don’t like for my next picture book project, but other than that I’ve played my way through eight or nine Nancy Drew point-and-click adventure mysteries in my spare time. Yes, I’m still on that kick. Fortunately, I ran out of Nancy Drew games last night, which means I might have the time to start working on my novel. Again.
The one consistent duty I perform for my website is daily spam-trashing. Despite my radio silence I keep on receiving comment notices from the seventeen thousand spambots that have not yet figured out that I will never approve their comments for public consumption. Still, If I didn’t have 70+ comments to delete every day, then I would never have received this gem:
Wonderful site. Plenty of useful information here. I’m sending it to a few buddies ans additionally sharing in delicious. And certainly, thanks in your sweat!
In honor of this rousing endorsement, here’s some of my delicious sweat, first perspired out sometime during either my sophomore or junior year in college:
“He’s not…connected right.”
The man looked over at Yola sharply. She was sitting calmly on the couch, no sort of chains or ropes in sight, though he knew she was bound with several of the strongest seals in the world. Any other person (besides her two older siblings) and the binders themselves would have killed her. He shuddered. Unnecessary or not, he’d still feel better if they’d tied her to the chair.
“Not connected right?” he said with a frown, ignoring his orders not to speak with her. What could she do? “You mean he’s crazy.”
“No!” she said angrily. “Well, yes. But no! What I mean is…well.” She huffed to herself, trying to get the right words to come. “Okay,” she finally said. “You’ve heard that I have the most power, right?” He nodded. “Good,” she stated with a nod. “And that I also have the least control?”
He nodded again. It made sense. The girl wasn’t even a teenager yet. She had little experience. But her conversation was obviously leading him somewhere else… “You mean I’d be wrong?”
“No,” she said. He saw her neck muscles strain for a second, the only sign that she was trying to break free. “You’d be right. And completely wrong too.”
He frowned, willing her to go on.
“I have the most usable power, but I screw up because I don’t quite know how to control it all. It’s hard,” she added defensively, as though he had admonished her. He had done nothing of the kind, and would thank her to remember it. “Like holding electricity in your palms and trying not to let it escape while at the same time you’re using it to light a light bulb. Sometimes you put too much in and the light bulb just blows up.”
He eyed her nervously, remembering suddenly what she was and wishing, again, that they had at least tied her up, if only for his peace of mind. She grinned suddenly and he got the feeling that Yola knew exactly what was on his mind.
“You’re really dumb,” she said cheerfully, “if you think blowing up a light bulb is the same as being able to escape the Flamish binds.”
“Anyways,” Yola continued, and he missed the way her fingers twitched because some idiot, she thought with an amused crinkling of her nose, had bound her with her hands behind her back where they couldn’t see what she was doing with them, “it’s…it’s hard to explain properly. It’s like he has it, but no access to it. Like, he has more power than me and Bethla combined, but he can’t use it like me and Bethla because…well, because he’s not connected right.”
The man frowned. Again with this “not connected right” business. Was he loony or not? That’s what he wanted to know.
“Just…don’t push my brother.” For the first time she looked afraid, and that freaked him out.
“What?” he demanded, with all the false bravado he could muster. How long ago had he lost the lead in this conversation? “You’re afraid he’ll kill me? Kill my boss?”
“Oh no,” she said, her face calmly serious. “I’ll kill you myself as soon as I have the chance.”
Mouth dry, he tried not to step backwards, though it would do him no good.
“Funny.” She smiled and bared her teeth at him, suddenly amused again. “You guys always forget that we’re not really human. Kael tried his best,” she continued with a mock frown that didn’t reach her eyes, “but you can’t teach someone to care about a species that isn’t your own. Funny thing is, he cares the most out of all of us.” She made a small movement with her head, indicating “loose connections,” which she should not have been able to do, but the man didn’t think such a small movement really mattered. Yola smiled, glad her small slip had gone unnoticed. Stupid. Who put a guy who obviously had no experience with strong elemental binds in charge of guarding her? They were so dumb.
The smile slid from her face. “No,” she said again, eyes darkly serious. “I’m saying that if you push my brother, he’ll kill us all.”