Moon Diamond, Anna P [epub e reader TXT] 📗

Her look said that she was more than guessing.
“No. Are we on earth?” asked Mariah.
“What is earth? I have never heard of it before.” Although her eyes lit up with interest.
Just then, Tatiana and Taylor brought up cider and some small candy like things. Lily nodded to them and then said, “well, drink up.” And Seamus didn’t hesitate to do as he was told; there was something in her tone that said if he didn’t, he would be sorry. He took a quick, small sip; it was sweet, yet bitter at the same time. It was comforting, however.
He tried one of the candies. It made him feel very calm. Maybe that’s what it’s supposed to do, thought Seamus in a slightly desperate panic. She can do magic, after all, maybe she’s some sort witch.
He could tell she was watching them, and that made him even more nervous. He decided to just act like normal, so after a bit of thought, he asked, “Why did you tell your sister to close the door?”
“Don’t you know?” She looked at them oddly. “Because it’s full moon. If you stay out there, the elves, werewolves, vampires, witches, mermaids, centaurs, were-tigers, and or cat women will get you before you can call for help. I’ve lost more customers to that than I’d care to say. That’s why we built the tunnel, we can go out to the barn without going outside.”
Seamus was frozen to his seat. He had heard of most of these creatures in novels Mariah had read and told him about, but even that didn’t prepare him for hearing Lily just say their names as if there were nothing to it.
“You aren’t from here, are you?” asked Lily, taking Seamus out of his mental reverie.
“No, actually, we just moved into the area.” said Mariah.
“Oh. Well, is that all? I am extremely busy. Would you like a room?”
Seamus thought for a moment. If it was true that they weren’t even on earth, then they would need somewhere to stay until they could figure out how to get back. On top of that, there was the whole full moon thing, which meant that it would be impossible right now to not take a room.
“Alright, we’ll take one. But we don’t have any money, how will we pay you?” Seamus’ mind was still whirling with multitudes of unanswered questions and suspicions, but he would rather not make Lily more curious than she already was.
“Oh yes, I forgot about that. Taylor and Tatiana did say that, didn’t they? Well, what do you have?” Seamus shifted in his seat, wondering what on earth they could possibly pay Lily with.
“Oooh, I know what we have!” cried Mariah unexpectedly. She reached into her vast coat pockets and pulled out an assortment of things; marbles, beads, rhinestones, and some broken jewelry.
“Will this buy anything?” she asked. Lily examined the goods. She selected a marble, several rhinestones, and an old necklace that Seamus suspected was rather valuable. He watched, praying that she would find the items good enough for a room.
“This should be enough for a room, and a little extra, you’ll need it if you’ll be staying here for any amount of time.”
Mariah smiled. “Something like that got us here, you know.” she said. “It was a tiny diamond. We came from this place called earth, and there aren’t any witches or vampires there. Everyone is just human and-”
“We’ll take that room now,” said Seamus, interrupting Mariah. He didn’t much like the thoughtful expression that was on Lily’s face. “Just one thing, though. Who are the neighbors next to our room?” He, personally, didn’t want to sleep anywhere near any vampires or were-tigers, whatever those were.
“Don’t worry about them; those are just some humans from a nearby village. They might know some magic, but just about everyone does.” With that, she led them to their room.

The room had a comfortable feel to it, even though it looked like it was taken out of a museum, but it was nice nonetheless. There were two beds, a trunk, and a dresser, all in a pleasant cream color. Lily told them when breakfast was and how to get to the kitchen from their room. She then left. Seamus flopped down on the bed, exhausted. Mariah sat down next to him.
“I wonder if this is all just a very odd dream,” said Mariah. “Vampires. I never would have believed it. And as for were-tigers and cat-women, I’ve never even heard of them in books I’ve read! And I’ve read a heck of a lot of fantasy books!” Seamus silently agreed with her, but he couldn’t bring himself to talk. It was as if he felt that if he talked, the dream would become real, or he would be stuck in it forever.
“So, I suppose we’d better just play along, right?” asked Seamus as he recalled Mariah’s carelessness with Lily. “What about not telling anyone that we were from earth?”
Mariah blinked. “Oh, come on. She already figured out that we weren’t from around here, what I said made absolutely no difference at all. You need to calm down a little. This is probably some weird Wicca community or something. We’ll be home in no time.”
Shaking his head in disgust, he thought about what had happened that night. Eventually, he recognized the fact that he was tired, so, without bothering to change, he lay down in a better position and slept.

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Publication Date: 03-31-2010

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