“He was controlling James.” Linn felt her damp face and her tight throat. The tears wouldn’t stop, now they had started.
“No.” Adel was there, now, the warm brown of his scales glinting in the sunlight. “He would not, could not, any more than I could.”
“I–” Linn choked, unable to speak through the tears.
“James let him in, like you let me in.” Monster was warm, wrapped around her, and petting her like a kitten. Linn felt a little hysterical giggle well up at that mental image.
“Then it was me.” She hadn’t been sure, all that mad journey back to Nyx, the fighting, the fleeing.
“You’re a hero.” Monster gave her an image of a tiny kitten, tail straight and bottled, pink mouth gaping in a hiss of defiance.
Now Linn did laugh. “No more heroic than that.”
“Heroes don’t try to be heroes. They just do, what needs to be done, whether it’s convenient to them, or not.”
Linn looked for someplace to sit. She felt woozy all of a sudden. “What comes after, Monster?”
“After what?” He helped her, as she sat on a vertebra, remembering the last time she’d used his bones for a chair.
“After growing up.” Linn felt the warmth of the sun, just like last time. “After... adventures.”
“You never stop growing, or learning. Remember?”
She did remember. The idea of the boys, and her, learning from Monster. And the concept that he never stopped growing, was mentally as vast as Ter’nian had been in physical form.
“You worried Coyote.” Linn scolded him now. “And I didn’t even have time to get shoes on.”
“I’m apologizing to my friend now.” Monster sounded unusually meek. “And I have asked Merrick Swiftfoot to bring you shoes.”
Linn hadn’t known Merrick’s other name. “Thank you...”
She could see him, when she shaded her eyes with her hand, walking toward her, something in his hand. Linn waved. He waved back.
“The wolfling is strong and good.” Monster sounded approving.
“He’s my friend, nothing more.” Linn hoped she’d put enough censure in her tone to keep the irrepressible being from teasing Merrick. Boys could be sensitive about these things.
“Are we all right?” She asked. She felt like they were, her whole body had relaxed when Monster had finally responded. “You aren’t going to slink off and try to die?”
He laughed. Merrick grinned, holding out a pair of moccasins. “You might want these...”
“Want to stay here and go to college?” Linn blurted. He looked startled. She hadn’t meant to say that all at once without working up to it. She wasn’t sure how to take it back, though. “Um...”
“I took my GCSE’s last spring.” He helped her with the moccasins, kneeling in the ash. “I’d planned for University, and then Mac’Lir returned.”
“Monster can teach us, and we can audit the MIT tech courses, and if between all of us we can learn fast enough, we’ll be ready when the old gods try again.” Linn explained rather breathlessly. She wasn’t sure how much he knew about the old gods.
“Makes sense.” He stood up, dusting off his hands, and cocked his head to one side, listening. “Monster says it would be nice to have company besides Coyote for a while.”
Linn got up, and when Merrick offered an elbow to lean on, she took it. Being sick was the pits. “We will have to drag Dee away from her precious library, and make Spot show us his human side. And the woods here are great for a wolf to run around in.”
Merrick stopped walking. She looked up at him. “What?”
“You don’t mind?”
“The wolf thing?” Linn was confused. He nodded, with a shy expression. “My best friend is a big cat. Why would I mind?”
“I dunno.” He started walking again. “It’d be good to get some time away from the fam.”
“We’ll have visitors, I’m sure, and Monster will let us have holidays, won’t you?”
They both heard him that time. “Will you learn to treat me with respect?”
Linn got a mental image of a dragon in front of a vast whiteboard, wearing glasses, looking over the rims at her.
“No. And no adventures, either,” she responded, mentally sticking her tongue out at him.
“You’ve earned that much, at least.” Monster said. “With the portal and Nyx gone, it will be a long time before the peoples who share our worlds figure out what is next. They have been fixated on that... I have been looking only at that, for too long. Now, it’s time to figure out how to get along without killing one another, or enslaving the humans. The humans are right on the brink, a little shove, and they will be able to take care of themselves.”
Linn looked at Merrick. They were at the bottom of the stairs now. He nodded with understanding, Monster had spoken to both of them.
“Then we’ll be a little shove. We can pass as human. Subvert and promote technology for all we’re worth, once we’ve learned enough.”
Monster, his voice impish as she reached out and touched the curve of his skull. “It will be magical.”
Linn started to laugh out loud. She might have nightmares, in the time to come, but she would never forget how to laugh.
The End
What comes next?
When I started writing Vulcan’s Kittens I was just learning. It was only the second novel I’d ever attempted, and the first one I’d completed. It took me a long time to be ready to come back to Linnea and Heff’s world, and attempting to write a convincing teenaged boy in the shape of Merrick was daunting. Before I could do it, I had to write Pixie Noir and Trickster Noir, but the fans of Vulcan’s Kittens were still asking what had become of Linn and the kittens, and the weapon she helped build. I hope you enjoyed this book.
I did decide to end Linn’s story here, for now. I’m not going to say I will never come back to it, but she’s very grown-up and independent. I’d planned for that to be all, of the Children of Myth, but then... I was talking to my friend Peter Grant, who has written the Steve Maxwell science fiction series. He’s from South Africa, and was telling me about African myths. Later, talking to my Evil Muse, he told me I should write Deirdre’s story, and Spot, the enigmatic cat. Inspiration struck, and I will write her tale sometime soon. But I have other things to do first, so you shall have to be patient, and perhaps remind me from time to time...
Author Bio
Cedar Sanderson is a writer, blogger, and businesswoman who can be found in her office pounding the keyboard when she isn't out walking the dog. Her work has been published by Stonycroft Publishing, Naked Reader Press, and Something Wicked. She is the author of the young adult novel Vulcan's Kittens, and her second novel, Pixie Noir, will be released late 2013. She writes regular blog columns at Mad Genius Club, in addition to her own writing blog, where she posts almost daily. She prefers science fiction, mostly writes fantasy, and dabbles in non-fiction when her passion is stirred.
Other Titles by Author
Short Stories and Novellas
Voyageur's Cap (Published by Naked Reader Press) - Space Pirates and the return of the Hudson’s Bay Company.
Memories of the Abyss - She may be crazy, but she knows her only friend was murdered.
Stargazer - Science fiction short story of a mother’s love.
The Twisted Breath of God - A story of second contact with aliens.
Little Red-Hood and the Wolf-Man - Who’s afraid of the big bad wolf? Not little Red with her shotgun!
Dwarf’s Dryad - Who rescues whom from the Witch and her rapunzel?
Plant Life - Exploration of a new planet and first contact.
Snow Angel - A mother’s love can defy any power, even that of angels.
Sugar Skull - what would you do to keep your job?
Novels
Pixie Noir - book one in the Pixie for Hire series. Lom must bring Bella Underhill. Nothing personal, it’s just his job.
Trickster Noir - Book two of Pixie for Hire. Lom is b
roken, perhaps dying, and Bella must take up the job of being Underhill’s enforcer. Together they will face their worst fears and greatest joys.
Vulcan’s Kittens - Vulcan’s granddaughter is kitten-sitting when an old war comes to them. She must protect them at all costs, because they aren’t just kittens.
The Eternity Symbiote - the aliens came in peace, bearing gifts. What could go wrong?
The God's Wolfling (Children of Myth Book 2) Page 20
