Our story thus far: “Excuse me,” came an altogether new voice from the other side of the yard. Those of us who were facing the worblatts whirled. The worblatts themselves just widened their eyes in shock. Everyone gasped.
“I did not see this coming,” said Grenn the elf.
“We’re very good at moving quietly,” said the owner of the voice.
Standing at the edge of the woods, just over the septic mound from the 20-foot-high worblatts, was a white-tailed deer.
He was a huge buck, with a rack of antlers that would make him quite a target once deer hunting began in six weeks, and he was accompanied by a doe and two adorable fawns. To complete the Disneyesque image, three gray rabbits hopped along by their feet.
It was so breathtakingly beautiful, I almost forgot that we seemed to be in mortal danger.
“You’re not going to chase the bunnies?” I asked Summer and Dejah. The golden retrievers tilted their heads at me.
“Bunnies are too cute to chase,” Summer said.
“Good thing they’re not S-Q-U-I-R-R-E-L-S,” I said.
“Not fair. You know we can’t spell,” Dejah said, a bit indignantly.
“There seems to be some sort of commotion going on around here,” said the great buck.
“You noticed,” said Seth the Dragon.
“You should move along,” said Bellzy the worblatt. “There’s nothing to see here.”
“That’s not exactly true,” said the doe. “I see a human who seems to understand what everyone is saying, a dragon, an elf, two dogs, two worblatts, and a fenced-in yard that could use some waste disposal maintenance.”
“I know, right?” said Bub the worblatt. “It’s downright icky.”
“Thank you,” Summer said up on the deck, and then, to me, “I wish you would do something about that.”
“Hey, I have a day job, I get tired, I’m sorry,” I said. “I’ll take care of it tomorrow.”
“I saw an eagle, too, Mom! It flew overhead a few minutes ago,” one of the fawns said.
“You called her Mom?” Dejah said. “We knew someone named Mom. She left home about a year and a half ago and never came back.” She exchanged a knowing glance with Summer.
“I told you about that, girls,” I said with a sudden ache in my heart. “Your Mom was sick. I know it’s hard for you to understand.”
“She died. We know,” Summer said. “It’s why you were so mopey for so long. We miss her, too.”
“I didn’t realize —” I said.
“Of course not,” Dejah said. “We couldn’t say until today.”
“This is all terribly tragic,” said Bellzy the worblatt, not sounding at all sympathetic, “so why don’t you just move along before Bub and I decide to have venison and rabbit stew for lunch?”
“Oh, deer,” said Dejah.
“That’s a terribly rude thing to say,” Seth the Dragon told the worblatt. “I think you should apologize to these new guests.”
“Funny thing coming from you after what you did to Clancy,” Bub said in an accusatory tone.
“Who’s Clancy?” asked the great buck.
“Those are Clancy’s ashes spread all over the field there, under the swarm of lake flies,” Bellzy said. “Seth here committed the only real act of violence in these first 10 chapters.”
“The guy was threatening my friend Grenn, here,” Seth said, defensively, indicating his tiny elfin friend.
“Clancy was just coming to visit and you snuffed him!” Bub said.
“He showed up right after the Evil One rang the Chime of Doom, what was I supposed to think?” said Seth.
“We seem to have stumbled across quite a complicated incident,” the doe said.
“You don’t know the half of it,” I agreed.
“And neither do you,” said yet another new voice, this time from above.
Summer barked — in alarm or fright or surprise, it’s hard to say. And the three rabbits scampered back into the woods, definitely alarmed and frightened and surprised.
It was the eagle again, and he had company.
