Chapter 4 #2
The two men in uniform glanced at each other. The taller one shrugged. “Sure, let the mythological eat them. I bet the werewolves won’t even cook them. Have you seen them? Just like a horror movie.” He bared his teeth and curved his fingers into claws.
May there always be a seed stuck between his teeth.
“I haven’t seen any,” said Noah. “I’ve been too busy helping Nan with the pub.”
“I thought I recognized you. I’ve seen you there,” the short one said, nodding like everything was okay. “It’s Linda’s grandson…from Australia?”
“Have you got mythologicals in Australia too?” The tall one said.
“According to my mother, yes.” Noah smiled, but it was tight.
“Of course there are mythologicals in Australia. It’s everywhere, so we can’t get no bloody help.” The shorter one shook his head. “Go on. The cows are already dead. Might as well not waste them.”
“Thanks. Um…do you need anyone to help with the searching? Maybe some of the mythologicals could help?” Noah scuffed his foot in the dirt. Pan suspected he was pushing a little too hard.
The two men spoke in the other language that Pan had heard on the radio at the restaurant, Welsh. Noah gave him a look that suggested he didn’t speak it either.
“Look, we need the help, but the higher-ups haven’t approved the use of mythologicals, even to go through their own buildings.
So as much as I’d like to agree and point you in the direction of the search and rescue coordinator, I can’t.
Besides, they don’t speak English, and we don’t speak their language, so communication is a problem. ”
Pan opened his mouth and shut it because he couldn’t decide between a reprimand and stating the obvious that it wasn’t that hard to learn a language.
He really needed to learn Welsh because he hated it when people spoke behind his back.
Perhaps he should start teaching Noah how to use magic to learn language, given his affinity for magic. It shouldn’t be that hard for him.
“Hmm, okay, that’s good to know. Maybe the first step is teaching them all English.
How useful would it be to have werewolves sniffing things out?
” Noah nodded. “Am I able to lead some of the werewolves back to the pub to collect the cows? ‘Cause I don’t know how to transport them with the roads being the way they are.”
The tall one sighed as if he really didn’t want this problem. And while Pan felt the same way, they didn’t really have a choice. “Let me make a call.”
The tall one walked several paces away and spoke into a device on his uniform.
The short one put his hands on his hips.
“Have you been following the news? There was some video this morning showing an island that sprang up in the North Sea, and now there’s an oil platform stuck in the middle.
Of course, the guys on the platform are stuck because we can’t send a helicopter out because of dragons.
And we can’t send a boat either. I don’t know what’s going to happen to them. ”
Pan frowned, not sure where this North Sea was, or what an oil platform was.
It sounded like something that belonged in a bathhouse, but he was sure that was the wrong meaning for the words.
What he wouldn’t give for a proper elf-run bathhouse with a full horn to hoof—or toe in his current state—service.
Pan drew a breath and decided to play the part of curious human.
To get in the correct frame of mind, he figured it was much the same as when he arrived on the beach and had no fucking idea what was going on.
“What kind of mythologicals are on the island?”
Then he might know which island it was. Because there were some islands where one definitely didn’t want to be stranded.
“The video the guy took showed people with blue skin and no hair, but also some who look human, which is weird, right?”
Pan tilted his head. “Why is it weird? You…and me”—because he was pretending to be human—“have stories of mythological beings, which means mythologicals must’ve been here at one point, so why wouldn’t humans go to their world?”
The cop pressed his lips together. “I hadn’t thought about that. That means there might be humans from that other world walking around, and we wouldn’t be able to tell.”
The other cop beckoned Noah over, leaving Pan with the short, chatty one. He might as well keep him talking.
“There’s so many weird things.” That wasn’t a lie; everything was fucking weird. “And so much damage.” Another non-lie. Pan was getting good at this. “I don’t know how the world is going to recover.” He was practically human at this point.
“Between you, me, and the fence post, I don’t know either. It’s going to take years. And what are we supposed to do with the mythological people? Are we supposed to bring them into society somehow? Send them to school with our kids?”
Pan shrugged because he didn’t know how it was going to work either. “What if they don’t want their kids to go to school with your kids? Do we end up with two different schools? And what about shops?”
“It’s well above my paygrade.” The cop sighed. “I don’t know how I feel about them, but I feel sorry for them. They’ve arrived here and know nothing. At least this is our world, and we have a better handle on what’s going on.”
Pan doubted anyone had any kind of grip on what was going on. Everyone was just hoping for the best. Or at least most people seemed to be hoping for the best. Some people were actively being assholes. It seemed it didn’t matter what world he was in—there were always a few.
“What did you say your name was again?”
Pan smiled. He hadn’t given a name. “Silas Wild.”
“And you’re a friend of Noah’s?”
“Yes, I’ve been helping down at the pub. Linda is doing such a good job, having to deal with dragons and such.”
The cop nodded. “Yeah, we were a bit concerned about that. Thought they were going to eat everyone.”
Pan laughed. While dragons had been known to eat the people who pissed them off, they generally had more taste than that. “Fortunately, the farmer has given them dead cows.”
“And when they run out?”
Pan was silent for a moment. “I guess they’ll hunt…which means the farmers might lose a few more cows.”
“My grandfather was a farmer. You should really talk to that farmer who dropped them off. His friends, too. And maybe the vet because there’s always sick or old farm animals, and if a dragon is happy to eat them…” The cop shut up as Noah and the other one returned.
Noah gave Pan a nod.
“I’ve checked, and there’s no problem with you going to the rec center and talking to the mythologicals there.
No problem with them collecting the cows either.
I think the higher-ups were happy that they didn’t need to worry about the cows or finding extra food for them.
The roads are pretty shit, which is going to make trucking food into town difficult for a bit.
Apparently, in London, people have already started hoarding rice and toilet paper.
Anyway, enjoy your walk and best of luck.
I don’t know how you’re going to communicate with them. ”
Noah grinned. “We’ll figure something out.”
And with that promise, Noah led them past the cops and down the cracked and buckled road.
“Do you know what island he was talking about?” Noah asked.
“I believe so. The only people I know with blue skin and no hair are the krakke. They do not tend to worship me, though humans who also live on the island do.”
Noah pulled his phone out of his pocket. “I need to find this video.”
Pan put his hand over Noah’s. “We need to make a plan. We can’t walk into a building full of homeless and scared Tarikians without a plan. And that plan needs to involve more than eight dead cows.”
“Okay, what does it need to involve?”
“You’re human. You know this world. My knowledge of this world is about two centuries out of date.
” And while he appreciated the advancement in technologies, he was not enjoying the terrible clothing.
“My people need to be able to show they can function in this world. Learning the language would be a start.”
“Agreed. Which means they need people to talk to.” Noah glanced at him.
“Maeve likes to talk.”
“Most of our regulars like to talk. Some of them tell me the same story three times a week…okay, maybe not that often.”
“And those regulars are missing out on talking to their friends because the pub is closed.”
“We can’t open until the building has been assessed. And I have no idea what impact having the palace next door will have. Probably not a good one.”
“I don’t understand this opening. You opened the doors today, and they worked fine.”
Noah grinned. “We can’t open to the public and sell alcohol.”
“But you can open the doors?”
“Yes.”
“So you can invite friends over to talk?” He gave Noah a pointed stare.
Noah’s eyebrows pulled together. “I guess, as long as we don’t serve alcohol or food, people can come over and catch up on the latest gossip. And if some of those people were mythological, we could always say they are visiting the palace?”
“And the only way into the palace is through the bar.”
“This plan is a whole lot of maybes. We’re assuming that some of our regulars will want to talk to the mythological beings.”
“Maeve didn’t have a problem.” She had happily hung out with vampires and been bitten by vampires, according to Linda.
“Maeve is a different kind of problem all on her own. From some of the stories she told me, I’m surprised she’s made it to sixty-five.”
“Does Maeve have friends?”
“Of course she does.”
“No, I mean, does she have friends like her? Who might want to alleviate some aches and pains?” He was trying to solve too many problems at once, but quite frankly, there were too many problems to solve them individually.
Noah blinked. “You want to feed the old people to the vampires?”
“I’m not feeding anyone to the vampires. And vampires won’t just feed on anyone either. They can be quite fussy. They don’t like lesser dragon blood, and they don’t like werewolf blood. I think it’s something in the shifter blood.”
“Do they like your blood?”
Pan walked a few more steps before answering. “Yes. They can taste the residual magic. They would probably like your blood too…or maybe not now. I don’t know. Maybe it would be worth asking them.”
“You’ve lost me.”
“Well, if your blood doesn’t taste like selkie, or shifter, it may mean that it is possible to separate you.
” Somehow, they’d returned to the problem he didn’t want Noah to think about.
“Back to the language. We would only need a handful of volunteers to come to the pub and listen and learn. They could then spread it. Inside of a month, my people will all be speaking English.”
“That fast?”
“Yes. And I will teach you Tarikian.”
“You’re supposed to be teaching me about magic.”
“I can do both.” And it gave him an excuse to spend more time with Noah.
“So the first problem is the cows, for which we need a pack of werewolves to carry them. The second problem is requesting some volunteers to come to the pub every day—”
“They will be able to stay in the palace while they learn.”
Noah gave him that raised eyebrow look, as if he didn’t believe Feryn would allow more people into his palace. Feryn may not be happy about it, but since Pan was acting Lord while Feryn was hiding from the world, he didn’t get much of a say.
“There is plenty of room in the palace,” Pan continued.
“There is not plenty of food.”
“There is enough.” All palaces had well-stocked larders of food that were designed to be stored.
“You heard what the cops said. If food trucks can’t get through, food is going to become a problem for everyone.”
“I heard, though I don’t know what you expect me to do about it.
I can barely deal with eight dead cows.” Eight cows became a dozen werewolves, which became five volunteers to learn English and some elderly humans to pay the vampires in blood.
He really needed a bloody Strega to read the fate lines for him, because for all he knew, he was tangling them up and making the situation so much worse, but what else was he supposed to do?