Ghost With Cats ~ Book of Eloh #1.Draft

It was snowing lightly on Christmas morning.

Tal woke up to the sound of a very happy Bries in the room next door to his room. There was a green wrapped box on the end his own bed. He knew what it was. He had been with Annie when she bought the rare sword for him. The gift had almost cost them their freedom.

“Bries, come here,” Tal called out.

Bries came in holding something, he bowed, and responded, “Yes, Master, Bries comes.”

“Why are you so loud this morning?” Tal demanded crossly.

“Bries woke to a Christmas gift, Bries has never received a gift before,” the sword pet declared excitedly happily, and held out the largest chocolate bar Tal had ever seen. The label revealed it weighed 25lbs. Tal started laughing, he couldn’t help it. He remembered it was the first thing Annie bought, it had been wrapped in red paper.

“Don’t eat it all at once. One pound at a time, do you understand?” Tal ordered. Bries nodded eagerly with a giant smile on his face.

“Would you like to see my present?” Tal inquired.

“Yes Master, please open the Christmas gift,” Bries responded excitedly.

Tal realized Annie is correct, he really was just a large child. He unwrapped the sword case and lifted out the blade.

Bries eyed it, amazed. “It is a fine sword, Master. It must have a grand story to tell.”

“We will never know it, Bries. But the beginning of its new story will be Lady Annie’s student warned us, and we escaped the evil men who wished to capture us again,” Tal told him.

“Lady Annie is special, can we keep her, Master?” Bries begged.

Tal knew his true meaning, and refused. “No, Bries, we cannot. No matter how much we want to. Our home is not safe for Lady Annie. She must stay here and we must be strong knowing she is safe. Do you understand?”

A tear ran down Bries’ cheek and he hugged his chocolate, “Bries will miss his new sister, Bries likes feeling loved.”

“So do I, Bries, so do I.” Tal admitted quietly, laying the sword in its silk lined box.

Downstairs, they found Boaz smoking something called a pipe and thanking Annie for the excellent tobacco. Vorn was holding a small rectangle device called a Kindle, from him Tal knew it had 3,000 books on it, and a note on the back that said, “Can you find my 30 ghosts?” It was basically a puzzle. Annie had challenged him to find the books she ghost-wrote.

“It’s Christmas and your birthday Anneliese, and we don’t have any presents for you,” Boaz announced around a puff on his pipe.

Annie just grinned at them. “Giving presents that bring real happiness is the best of Christmas gift of all. Breakfast is almost ready.” And as if on cue the kitchen timer dinged.

Annie took a pan of pastries out of the oven. She flipped sit over onto a large piece of baking paper and peeled the sheet off the bottom revealing nuts and caramelized sugar under cinnamon rolls. They smelled very good. She pulled a second pan out and repeated the process, but those rolls had maple bacon cooked into the nuts and caramel. They smelled even better. She took a baking torch and ran it over the top, crisping the topping.

“I worked on a narrated recipe book, and I had to try all the recipes. I was sure I would end up so fat!” She laughed.

Boaz laughed, “I am glad I am not kosher.”

Bries practically bounced, waiting for her to finish, she kept swatting at his hand. Vorn and Tal watch amused as they make themselves heaping plates of breakfast meats and eggs she and Vorn had prepared earlier.

“Bries, no! They have to cool.” She scolded.

“They are cool enough for Bries to eat, Lady Annie,” he begged, he was actually drooling.

“Eat your other breakfast first, and I mean you have to chew to it before you swallow it, then you can have some,” she giggled.

“Lady Annie, promise?”

“Yes, I promise.”

Bries slid the whole parchment with the bacon praline topped cinnamon rolls toward himself, grinning mischievously, “Bries will eat these, but what will Master eat?”

Annie choked on her coffee, Boaz roared with laughter, Vorn’s jaw dropped at Bries’ boldness.

But Tal narrowed his eyes, and folded his arms, playing along, “Master thinks Master will eat Bries’ share,” mimicking the manner in which the pet spoke.

Bries’ eyes get wide, and he hung his head, “Yes Master,” he rumbled meekly. “Master will eat Bries’ share.”

“And Bries’ can eat Lady Annie’s share,” Tal finished, smiling.

Bries’ head popped back up, “Really, Master?”

“Yes really, Bries,” Annie answered and she winked at Tal. “You may have my share of the bacon ones.”

“You two are terrible,” Boaz laughed.

Vorn just shook his head. Bries would definitely be too indulged to return to his station as a normal foot soldier and sword pet when they returned to Eloh, he would have to be kept with the House of Vanth personal guards, perhaps with young Tome.

^..^

Later that morning, Annie spent hours planning the itinerary. It seemed an inefficient route to travel but it would make them more difficult to track. What would normally be a less than 2 day trip will take 4 and a half days. Annie wants the Eloh to see some more of the scenery of her world. She showed Bries the places they would visit, he was very excited. Vorn found the variety of topography fascinating. Tal was not interested in seeing the images of places they would visit soon, he trusted Anneliese’s choices and had decided to experience each place without bias. Such traveling for the purpose of leisure was something he had not known since he became an Admant at the age of 15. Today, he had turned 31. He was looking forward to the trip, even if its purpose was to make them difficult to hunt.

They would be staying in lodgings owned by her Grandfather Opir’s people, so there would be no need for reserving rooms. They would also change vehicles twice. Boaz explained to Tal and Vorn that as the Sheikh’s adopted granddaughter, Annie was basically a princess. They would be hidden and protected with no questions asked.

Boaz would travel with them and Ari’s brother, Uri, would prep the Matagorda house and the four rentals. Annie and Tal’s plan was for the Eloh to be picked up on the beach, with a decoy pick up on a peak in Colorado, and in the desert of Utah. Afterward, Rabbi Jakob’s jet would fly Uri home. Boaz would return to Colorado, and then Annie would start tracking Dale Bents and his use of Pandora from one of her sanctuaries. She also needed to figure out if he was developing Eloh tech, or just borrowing it and from whom. They were going to build an Eloh communication system in Israel, so they could communicate with Tal and Vorn after they return to their home.

^..^

After lunch, Vorn and Boaz spent the afternoon working on communications system designs and carrying boxes out to the hot springs storeroom, while Annie made candy. Bries watched while Annie was melting butter and sugar and corn syrup, in separate pots, she added chocolate chips to one and peanut butter to the other. Bries was smelling all of her ingredients as she cooked. He was very curious about the peanut butter so she told him to get a spoon and try some. She turned when Bries grabbed her arm.

“Tal, help!” Annie shouted.

He rushed into the kitchen, Bries was choking, a thick brown liquid or paste is coming out of his mouth. His face was turning purple.

“Hold his head,” Annie ordered. Tal grabbed his pet’s head. Annie stuck her hand into Bries mouth and scooped out a handful of the stuff. “Don’t you bite me, Bries!”

She got a second handful out and Bries took a breath. Coughing the stuff all over Tal and Annie. Annie grabbed a towel off the counter wiping his mouth, as Bries was making weird faces, trying to push the sticky stuff out of his mouth with his tongue.

“What is this substance?” Tal demanded. His pet was almost killed. It was both oily and sticky at the same time, too thick to be a liquid but not a solid, and it was now in his hair and all over his clothing.

“It’s peanut butter.” She snapped. Annie held Bries’ jaw, “Open Bries,” she ordered him and she scooped more of it out off the insides of his cheeks and off the roof of his mouth.

After a few minutes, Bries was still making faces, but he was breathing and swallowing almost normally. She sat back on her knees. All three of them were kneeling on the kitchen floor, covered in the sticky, oily mess. But Tal and Bries were the worst. Tal thought it was the most disgusting thing he has ever dealt with even if it did smell good. Why did he ever come to this world with its weird foods that taste odd, have little nutritional value, and could kill someone.

“Why did you eat it, pet?” Tal growled.

“Bries likes peanut butter, Master, but peanut butter does not like Bries,” the sword pet complained, still trying to swallow the rest of the sticky goo.

Vorn and Boaz just stood in the door, looking around at the kitchen. Eyeing the mess, Boaz asked, “Son, how much did you try to eat?”

“Bries just try some on a spoon like Lady Annie said.”

Boaz was shaking, trying contain his laughter. Walking over to the counter, he held up the largest wooden spoon Annie had ever seen and a nearly empty jar of peanut butter. Tal made a disgusted sound. Annie started to facepalm but caught herself because she was covered to her elbows in peanut butter and clone drool. It was at that moment, the smoke alarms went off. They turned as one to look at the stove.

“Lady Annie, you appear to burning two pots of confections,” Vorn announced drolly, turning off the burners.

She gave Tal a death glare, “When is your flight again?” she hissed.

He returned the look, “Not soon enough,” he growled.

They glared at each other in mock hostility for a solid minute, before they both burst out laughing, and she wiped a smear of peanut butter off Tal’s cheek before grabbing another towel to rub the smeared peanut butter off top of Bries’ face and neck. Boaz was still laughing while he carried the two pots of burnt sweets out of the house as Annie and Vorn cleaned the mess. They sent Bries and Tal to go shower.

As they cleaned, Vorn asked a question. Mischief shined in his eyes. “Are all holidays on your world so... exciting?”

Annie giggled, “No, Vorn. Normally making Christmas candy doesn’t involve nearly killing one of my guests. Trust me, the next holiday will involve nothing more than watching a few fireworks go off while we wait for you ship.”

He bowed his head to her. “That is good, Lady Annie. Because as Boaz told me, I am going to need a vacation after our vacation.” Annie burst out laughing and he joined. Suddenly, he tipped his head lightly as if listening, his eyes shined with mirth, “It seems the Master cannot get all of the peanut butter out of his hair, he is unhappy about the smell.”

Annie retrieved another small bottle of dishsoap, “Go on, I’ll finish here. Use this soap. I guess it’s a good thing Bries has no hair.”

“It is a very good thing.” Vorn stood and bowed with a flourish, “Lady Annie Dove.”

She rewarded him with a beautiful smile, “Cypher Talon Vorn.”

Vorn stopped on the stairs to look back toward the kitchen for a moment, Boaz had joined Annie and they were laughing about something. She seemed to bring joy to all around her. He fervently wished they could bring her home with them, but he knew Eloh would be a very dangerous place for someone as fearful and timid as she, perhaps someday she would be brave again. And he meditated on a prayer for her soul to heal as he climbed the stairs to assist his master.

Two hours later, the mess was cleaned up and a new batch of layered peanut butter fudge was cooling on the counter. Bries was not allowed in the kitchen this time. The sun had long set before they sat to eat dinner. Tomorrow, they would begin the snake route as Annie calls it. They would simply drive back and forth enjoying the scenery until it was time to be picked up. One car among millions in the holiday traffic would be hard to find, especially if it wasn’t the same car everyday.

^..^