“Emma, get back inside!” her dad said as she stepped onto the metal steps.
Too late.
“There you are, cat-girl!” called a familiar voice above her head, though something about the sound made Emma wince. She peered up to find herself staring into an olive-skinned face with pale yellow eyes. Long black hair fell down to the door.
Emma took a step back, grasping the handrail to make sure she didn’t fall. It was the harpy, the one she’d seen vandalizing the crag school last night.
“I remember you,” she said. “Chloe, right? What are you doing on my roof?”
Chloe straightened up, flexed her talons on the corner of the roof. “It just seemed like the most convenient place to land. Anyway, you said I could come over and watch Gnomebots on your TV.”
“I think it’s a rerun,” Emma said.
“So?” Chloe tilted her head to the side with a quick, birdlike movement. It was disconcerting.
“I guess I could try to move the TV so you can watch it.” Of course, she hadn’t planned to stay home today, not when she could be looking for Helena. But she wasn’t about to say that in front of her dad.
Inside, the phone rang again.
“This is a friend of yours?” her dad asked.
“I guess so,” Emma said. “I mean, yeah. She lives around here. Somewhere.”
Her dad swallowed. “I think I liked it better when you had Marie over. Even if I had to cook vegan food for dinner all the time.” He tried to smile up at the harpy. “It’s nice to meet you, Chloe. Do you think maybe you can come down off our roof? I don’t think it’s really meant for landings.”
Chloe blinked at Emma’s dad. She took a few steps back, then peered at him again. “Is this your dad?” she asked.
“Yeah,” Emma said. “Who else would it be?”
“Just like on TV,” Chloe whispered. “That is so weird!”
“What’s so weird about having a dad?” Emma asked.
“Harpies don’t have dads,” Chloe said. “It’s just weird. You live with him and everything? Why don’t they just kick you out? I mean, you can’t fly, so I guess that’s not a good test, but maybe once you’re able to run around and stuff. Or drive. I know humans drive a lot.”
“I bet I could turn into a harpy,” the Toe-Chewer whispered, peering out from under the steps. “I could learn to fly and everything. Do you think she’d teach me how to fly?”
“You should start small,” suggested Fat Leon, licking his paw and glaring at Emma’s dad. “A regular bird. Something lighter. Something that can’t talk, maybe.”
“I could still be annoying even if I couldn’t talk,” the Toe-Chewer muttered, biting at his front paw. “I’d just chirp real loud from the air and you wouldn’t be able to get me or anything.”
The phone rang a third time. Emma’s dad made an irritated noise in the back of his throat. “You’re okay here? She’s, uh, safe?”
Emma nodded. Safe enough. Probably.
“Too much noise!” the hag croaked from her window. “Cats is bad enough, now I has to listen to harpy squawks.”
“Sorry, we’ll try to keep it down.” her dad called back. “I’ll be right back, okay? Try to get her down off the roof.” He went inside, and the ringing stopped. Emma could hear him talking, but he was facing away from the door and she couldn’t quite make out the words.
“Is she talking about you?” Chloe lifted her head to peer into the neighboring trailer. “Why does she think you squawk? Humans mostly just sound like, blaaaaah blaaah blah, hardly any interesting sounds at all.”
“I don’t sound like that,” Emma said. “And you really should get down off the roof. It’s not like you’ll be able to see the TV from up there anyway.”
Chloe glanced over at the cats. “Your attack cats aren’t going to try to eat me, are they?”
“Of course not!” Emma said. Then she added, “At least, not if I tell them not to.”
“It’s okay, I could probably take them anyway,” Chloe said. Then she spread her massive wings and started flapping. The wind blew Emma’s hair into her face, and she had to turn away as Chloe maneuvered down onto the grass.
The hag sniffed the air and squinted at Emma. “So we has harpy friend now? And I smells ratter magic on you. Too much magic too quickly. Lost in the forest, yes, lured in by something you want. Too bad it wasn’t me.”
“I’m not lost,” Emma said. “I know what I’m doing.”
The hag laughed quietly, and shut the window, melting into the darkness of her trailer.
“I didn’t know hags talk so much,” Chloe said. “Is she going to talk all the way through Gnomebots?”
Just then the front door swung open and banged against the railing. Emma’s dad stood in the door frame, clutching their phone. “Emma.” He sounded breathless. “I have to go back into the forest. I’ve got a lead on Helena. Someone who says they know where she is. I think it’s the real deal this time. They know what she looks like and everything.”
“Wait.” Emma grabbed his sleeve. “You tell everyone what she looks like, remember? You made a hundred copies of that one photo.” It wasn’t like she didn’t want this to be real, but there’d been leads before. Maybe she just didn’t want to think she’d gotten herself turned into a crag for nothing. But the fact was she had an address and he didn’t: 500 Ocean Avenue, and that was where she was going this morning. “Why didn’t they just tell you where she is over the phone? Why do you have to meet them in the forest?”
“The person on the phone was probably a crag. A lot of them don’t ever leave the forest, you know. Or maybe they have something they want me to see. Anyway, I just have a feeling about this one,” her dad said earnestly. “This time it’s going to be different. I’ll be back soon. You can make yourself something to eat and hang out with your new friend. Just be careful, all right?” He seemed to realize he was still holding the phone, and he held it out to her. “You can call the police if anything happens. Make sure to tell them you’re with the human family, or they might not come.”
“Let me go with you,” Emma said.
“No, Emma. It’s too —”
“Don’t say it’s too dangerous! My cats can help. And I’m way better protected than you are.” She extended her claws as proof.
“Sweet,” Chloe whispered.
Her dad stared at the claws, and Emma realized he hadn’t actually seen them before.
“You’re definitely not coming with those things,” he said. “They’ve already got you into more than enough trouble.”
She retracted the claws and put her hands in her pockets, suddenly self-conscious. “At least tell me where you’re going in case Mom calls.”
“It used to be a diner in Old Downtown, the Red Caboose. She said to meet her there.”
“That was our territory until the trolls moved in,” said one of the cats on the grass. “We’d hide out from the rain there sometimes.”
“There were cushions on the seats,” another purred softly. “I always liked the cushions.”
“Trolls?” Emma said. “Dad . . .”
Her dad glanced at the forest as if he wanted to go immediately, but turned back and knelt in front of Emma. “Listen to me. I’ll be fine. I have to do this. But I’m not going to put you in any more danger than I already have. You’ve been through enough, and I’m sorry about that. But this is what it was all for.” He kissed Emma on the forehead. “Try not to worry, all right?”
Then he was off, jogging across the yard, climbing awkwardly over the fence and disappearing between the trees. Emma looked around at her pride. Their ears perked up as if they knew something was about to happen. Fat Leon stood and stretched.
Maybe there was a trace of ratter magic still in her. Maybe she was just more suspicious than she used to be. But something about this smelled wrong.
“We’re going after him. The whole pride this time,” Emma said.
The cats all stood and clawed at the ground. A few stalke
d back and forth in excitement. Jack strolled out of the trailer and down the metal steps to her side. She met his eye. He looked hungry. “Forest first, New Downtown later,” she said to him, then glanced at Chloe. “Sorry we can’t watch Gnomebots together today.”
“Gnomebots?” Chloe said. “Who cares about Gnomebots? It’s a rerun anyway, and I bet this is going to be way more fun to watch.”
CRAG FACT OF THE DAY:
“Newborn trolls are created from piles of rocks and dirt collected by the parent. Some trolls only collect rocks they think are particularly nice-looking, while others favor size.”
CragWiki.org
Emma paused at the tree where Jack had first tried to teach her to use her claws. “I’ve never been in the forest. I mean, for real.”
“It’s usually pretty boring,” Chloe said, circling above her. “Just a bunch of trees. Sometimes you see a troll, but they’re pretty boring, too. Even the wild ones. But at least you can fly wherever you want without a license. Well, I can.”
“It’s not boring to me,” Emma whispered, taking her first steps past the tree. On either side of her the pride padded silently, Jack just a little in front, leading the way. She felt a strange pull inside her as she walked, and she wondered for a moment if the forest was somehow calling to her, if the Heart’s Blood wanted her to go deeper, or if the cats were trying to draw magic from her. Probably it was just worry for her dad. She tried to ignore it. “How far away is this place anyway?”
“Not too far,” Fat Leon said. “But we should be careful. Look out for wild trolls.”
“Good thing you have me, then,” Chloe said. “How do you even know where you’re going? I bet you’re lost right now, but that’s okay, I know the way, too. I can scout ahead.”
“Keep quiet,” Fat Leon spat, but Chloe had already flown on.
They soon came to what had once been Old Downtown. Emma thought of the ratters tapping on their computers right underneath their feet. They walked past rows of townhouses, their roofs and walls broken by huge trees. A stream flowed out of one house’s rotten front, cutting a path into the depths of the forest. Large chunks of broken asphalt and cement tripped Emma as she picked her way past the rusted skeletons of old cars. There had been a city here once. Streets, shops, people going about their lives. She wondered what it had been like for them when trees suddenly started growing up through their basements and floors.
“It’s hard to believe this used to be a road,” she said. “There’s hardly anything left of it now. No wonder people are scared of the forest if it can do this to a whole neighborhood. What sort of magic made it grow so fast?”
“It’s not just the forest,” Jack said. “The trolls like the cement. They use it to make more trolls when they can’t find enough stone. That’s why there are so many of them now.”
Emma looked back behind her and realized she couldn’t remember all the twists and turns they’d taken. She was completely at the mercy of the cats to find her way back. Jack would stand by her, though. So would the Toe-Chewer, and maybe Fat Leon. The rest of them . . . she wasn’t sure. She didn’t really know anything about them. She couldn’t even remember most of their names. Yet she felt comfortable with them around her: black, ginger, gray, tabby, cats of every color and size. And the smell of cats — her cats — was strong, overpowering the smell of the forest. A part of her knew she wouldn’t have found it very pleasant a few days ago. But now it smelled like home. It smelled right.
Chloe appeared overhead again and landed on a high branch. “You’re almost there!” she said excitedly, and she really did squawk a little. “And I think there’s a troll there. You can see the grass all stomped down where it’s been walking around. Do you think you’re going to fight it? You should turn yourself into another troll and fight it. No, wait! Can you turn yourself into a gnomebot? What about one of their laser tanks? Can you do the laser and everything? This is going to be so cool!”
“Shut up,” Jack hissed at the harpy. “That’s the problem with you harpies. You never have to be stealthy. Just loud.”
“I can be stealthy,” Chloe said defensively. “I can be so quiet you wouldn’t hear me until I was almost on top of you, and —”
“I can smell your dad,” Jack interrupted, stopping. “He’s close.”
Emma breathed in. Yes, that familiar smell — of cooking and home. He was here.
“All right, so be stealthy now,” she told Chloe. “Fly ahead and screech once if you see my dad at the diner and he’s okay. Twice if there’s anyone else there. Three times if my dad’s in some kind of danger. But try to sound like a regular bird when you do it, okay? And don’t let anyone see you.”
“Got it, cat-girl,” Chloe whispered loudly. She took off again.
“The rest of you, spread out a little,” Emma whispered. She wasn’t quite sure what that would do, but it’s what people always did in movies. “Don’t do anything until I say so, okay?”
The cats did exactly as she said. They were following their Pride-Heart. Emma felt their loyalty like a thread tying them all together.
Jack stayed next to her, his one eye flicking around. He looked tense. “I don’t like it,” he muttered. “There’s something going on.”
Emma heard Chloe screech once. She flinched. It didn’t sound anything like a regular bird. “He must be at the diner now,” she whispered, and gestured to her pride to creep closer, moving from one tree to another to stay out of sight.
Up ahead was a rusted-out gas station, and beside it a diner made to look like a train car. A massive oak had fallen on it and continued to grow at an angle, and a few of its branches hung down in front of the door. A peeling sign above it read THE RED CABOOSE.
Her dad was standing a few feet short of the door. “Hello?” he called out. “Is anyone here? I’m Chien Vu. I got a phone call that you had some information about my daughter.”
“Don’t come any closer, human,” came a familiar voice from the doorway. Her dad jumped in surprise, and then Emma saw the small ginger cat in the doorway.
It was Cricket.
From somewhere above them Chloe let out two quick screams.
What’s that cat doing here? Emma thought, just as the realization hit her. Her dad was walking into a trap.
She started to move, opening her mouth to shout a warning, but then a needle-sharp pain shot through her leg. She looked down to see Jack extracting his claws from her jeans, his eye narrowed. “Wait and see what her plan is before you attack. You don’t want to run into any nasty surprises.”
“If she hurts my dad —”
“She doesn’t care about him. She cares about you. About the Heart’s Blood.” He looked thoughtful. “I didn’t think she’d be so persistent.”
Emma’s dad approached Cricket. “Are you the one that called me?”
“I was,” Cricket snapped. “But you didn’t do what I told you. Where’s the other one? Your daughter Emma? You were supposed to bring her, alone.”
“I don’t understand. What do you want with Emma? You said you had information about Helena.”
Cricket turned her head back to the diner and called out, “Show him the girl.”
A girl appeared in the diner window farthest from the door. Her black hair was streaked with white on one side, and she was wearing a trendy jacket even though it wasn’t cold. She looked up and waved. She was smiling. Helena.
“Oh, thank God.” Emma’s dad waved frantically. “Helena! I’m here to take you home.”
Emma stared. She couldn’t believe it. Her dad had really done it. He’d found Helena, just as he’d promised. They were going to be a family again.
She realized she was holding her breath, as if breathing would somehow break the spell and ruin everything. But when she breathed out Helena was still there, waving at the window. The light on the window was dazzling, like sunlight on flowing water. Then, in the next moment Helena was gone, and the window was blank again.
Emma shook her head. No,
she was here. Her sister was here. That was what mattered.
All that stood in the way of Emma getting her life back was Cricket.
She looked around, checking her pride was with her. They stood or crouched in the trees, waiting for the signal to pounce. She couldn’t see Chloe anywhere.
Emma’s dad ran toward the door of the diner, just as a large creature stepped out and pushed him back with one huge hand. It was a troll — a wild troll, too. Instead of clothes, it was covered in moss and grass that was actually growing out of its rocky skin, and a small sapling grew from its shoulders. It towered over Emma’s dad.
“You’ll have your Helena back soon,” Cricket said. “But you have to bring the other girl. Alone, without the cats. They’ve confused her, convinced her to steal something that doesn’t belong to her. The Heart’s Blood. It’s not meant for humans. It’s killing the Emma you know, slowly turning her into a cat.”
Her dad started to protest, but didn’t seem to know what to say.
“I can help her. You’ll have both your daughters back, completely human, and you’ll never see another cat again.”
“This Heart’s Blood,” Emma’s dad said slowly. “Without it she’ll be normal again? No claws?”
“Exactly,” Cricket purred. “I’ll even deal with the one-eyed cat. He’s the worst of them all, you know.”
“And removing it won’t hurt her?”
“Of course not. Oh, a cat Pride-Heart wouldn’t be able to give up the Heart’s Blood so easily. But she’s not really a cat, so it won’t hurt her at all. If she knew that, she’d probably beg you to let her come here.”
From her hiding place behind the pines, Emma asked, “She’s lying, right?”
“Of course,” Jack said.
“Probably,” Fat Leon said.
Thinking about giving up the Heart’s Blood made Emma feel strange. She couldn’t imagine herself without claws now, without the smells, without the feeling of her pride. Would some of that stay? Would she just be the freak girl with claws that used to have magic? And anyway, did she want her life back, exactly as it was before? She felt confused.
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