“Later. Escape now.”
The beast lowered himself and allowed us to climb onto his back. “Yes, my lord. Is that little human yours as well?” The big chimera nodded to the side.
The little human was Rexi, tied to the laundry line with hot-pink panty hose. Her eyes were closed, but she stirred a little, so at least she was alive. Of course, if she opened her eyes and saw a massive chimera and a metal giant about to step on her, she might have a heart attack.
Tinman’s creaking was ear-shattering, worse than fingernails running down a cauldron. It made a great early warning system though. Bigger-version-of-Kato flapped his enormous black, feathery wings and took to the sky as the Tinman swung his ax in an attempt to bring us down.
“No!” I shouted. “We have to get Rexi.” She wasn’t much, but with Verte gone, she was the only tie I had left to Emerald.
A scream sounded from the ground below. Rexi was awake.
“What would you have me do, Highness?” asked our ride.
I started to reprimand the chimera when I realized that I was not the Highness the he was referring to.
“We don’t have time for this, but leaving her here would give the Gray Witch the upper hand. Bank left and use the gigan’s higher center of gravity to knock him over. Then fly swiftly and snatch up the line.” Kato spoke with confidence and grace, giving directions with ease.
I’d had my doubts about Kato’s claim to royalty—understandable given his earlier appearance, then kittenish nature after the change. That playfulness disappeared the more he grew, and there was no mistaking the air of authority he now wielded. Furry or not, he was a prince and not my pet.
The larger chimera did exactly as he was told, swooping low and using his tail to swat the Tinman.
That saying, the bigger they are, the harder they fall? Totally true. The Tinman flew back and landed right on the house, squishing it flat. He looked like a silver turtle stuck on its back, unable to flip itself over.
We took advantage of our fallen foe and flew back over to the clothesline. The chimera gingerly gathered the poles in his mouth, letting the line—and Rexi—hang down. If screaming and cursing were any indication, Rexi was not happy with her mode of rescue.
The Tinman creaked and groaned as he rolled off to the side, readying himself to stand.
“Fly, Bobbledandrophous! Take us home,” Kato ordered.
Bobblewhatshisbucket curved sharply and flew away, hitting and denting the tin gigan with his barbed tail.
The chimera flew quickly, and I watched Crow’s house and the Tinman grow rapidly smaller. Soon, I no longer heard his scraping sound, just Rexi’s shrill shrieks as she kicked and flailed helplessly in midair.
“Shouldn’t we get her up now?” I said.
Kato looked sheepish—and on a lion’s face, that is something to see. “Do we have to? It might do her some good, you know.”
“It might, but she’ll also scream herself hoarse.”
“I’m not hearing a downside.”
I smacked his furry side. “Do I have to try and do it myself?”
Kato’s cool blue eyes stared into mine.
“What?” I squirmed, suddenly feeling very self-conscious in my extremely expensive dress/now rag.
“I don’t understand you. If you wanted, you could have that girl executed for treason for striking you. You lost an opportunity to get help from the wizard because you were too soft. Even Crow manage to garner your concern. You think personal accountability is something to do with your pocketbook, yet for some reason you still keep attempting to help people that don’t deserve it.”
“Thanks, I think.”
He shook his head. “It’s not a compliment, Dot.”
My chest felt like it was being shredded by the shards of glass that still littered the big chimera’s fur. Dot. That was the nickname Verte had given me as a child.
Kato huffed in his growing mane. “At best it’s slightly noble. At worse it’s dangerous and puts everyone around you at risk. You mean well, but that won’t keep us alive.” He turned away, carefully padding his way up to speak to his friend and figure out a way to better secure Rexi.
I felt anything but secure. Sitting alone, I had nothing left to distract me from…me. Or what Kato said. Was he right? From playing with a lost child in the garden, to giving Crow information for food, my best intentions had brought nothing but ruins.
Soaring high in the clouds, my thoughts weighed me down like lead balloons. Everything was…wrong. This wasn’t the way my life should be written. The Storymakers had made a misstep somewhere. Verte couldn’t really, truly be gone. She had to be missing, just like my parents.