Nineteen

I needed to make a beeline for Jackson Speers. The longer I waited, the harder it was gonna be to get the answers I needed out of him.

What was his role in all of this? He and Heston were apparently once best friends. Sure, Heston kicked him off the bridal party, but surely that wasn’t enough to kill a former best friend over, was it?

Jackson hated fairyfolk. Unfortunately, that was a common thing with us humans. And fairyfolk often hated humans. It was an uneasy wall that not many people were brave enough to climb over.

I needed to get out of Fantasy Park, for now.

Shit, how was I gonna corner Jackson. He was a powerful man too. Heston was a shipping magnate. Jackson was into all sorts of things. Even wealthier and more powerful than Heston.

I knew of him only from the stories in the newspapers back home. And sometimes hearing interviews on the radio. I’m sure he was on t.v. more often, but I didn’t have me one of those.

I’d just about made my way to the gates of Fantasy Park when I noticed two figures were tailing me, one on each side of the footpath.

I didn’t want it to be obvious that I noticed them, so I continued my pace without a change in speed.

I suddenly ducked into a shop and gave one a quick side glance. The one on my side of the street looked to be about my height and similar build. They wore a black cloak and a high, up-turned collar that obscured most of their face.

I shot over to one of the shelves and realised I was in a random goods store. Bits of food, common house supplies and other random bric-a-brac was scattered about. A few elderly customers walked through the shop and an elderly gnome who wore an eyepatch and was missing an arm was standing behind the counter.

The gnome had frizzled, white hair that shot up out of his head like some kind of explosion. Liver spots covered his scalp and as he sat there, I could see his teeth were moving around in his mouth.

So Fantasy Park had dentures too?

“What can I do for you sonny?” The gnome was staring at me. His voice had a worn-out screech to it, and he spoke in a volume that made me think he may have been hard of hearing.

“Just looking at this lovely…” my voice trailed off as I picked up a random item. It was made of metal but had a rusty look to it. It was round and had little spikes scattered about. My brain searched desperately for answers, but it came back empty.

“That’s one of them pomplits,” said one elderly lady. She was an orc. She looked as though she would have been taller than me once upon a time, but age had taken that away from her. She wore a purple, floral dress that was just short of her feet. Covering her feet were oversized, pink, fluffy slippers.

“No its not, Hurfna. Its one of them backscratchers,” said another voice.

I’d started to regret coming into this store, but I noticed the cloaked figure had past the store. Probably waiting for me beyond here, but it gave me a moment to try and figure out a plan.

“How much?” I asked the gnome. The gnome grabbed the device and sat it down on his desk. He leaned in real close and gave it a long, hard look.

“Now gimme a second there, boy. I need to make sure I know what it is first. I don’t want to overcharge you, or worse, undercharge myself.” He gave a little chuckle to himself as he said that.

I wasn’t gonna stay in this shop any longer. I slammed down ten gold pieces and ducked behind some shelving.

I twisted the brass ring on my finger yet again and watched as a clone burst out of my body. I waited for one of the elderly customers to leave and we raced out behind them. As I left, the store owner started shouting out to me about something, but I couldn’t make out what he said.

The clone stayed on the side of the street I had been on, and I ran across the road.

The two cloaked figures were startled. They looked at each other and split up. I’d commanded the image of myself to run as far as it could, avoiding hitting anything.

I ran from the buildings and ran further back into the forestry of the park. I weaved through the trees like I was the wind itself.

“Stop!” the voice called out. I obviously didn’t listen. I heard something whistle and something brushed by my face. “Stop, or the next one will hit.” I stopped at that and whirled around on my attacker.

Before they had a chance to react, I bolted up toward them. I could see they were readying another spell, but I closed the gap before they could finish casting.

I ducked down low and drove my fist into their chest with all my might. They stumbled back. I quickly took them in. This was the other one that had been tailing me.

They were also close to my height, maybe a little shorter. It looked like a lanky build under the cloak, and they wore a bandanna over their hair.

I wasn’t about to let them do anything to me, so I followed through and landed a punch square in the middle of their face. They stumbled back again, holding their face.

“My fucking nose. You broke my nose.”

“You’re lucky that’s all I did. Now, why were you and your friend tailing me?” I cracked my knuckles and advanced on them again. They took a few more steps back and tripped over a tree root.

“Brigg sent us.”

“What’s he want with me?” I took another step closer to the cloaked figure.

“I don’t know.”

“Take me to him, now.”

“Yeah okay. Shit, that really hurt.”

Frustration was starting to bubble up within me now. What did the dwarf want with me?