The Monster Hunter's Manual (5 page)

“Bonjour!” she said cheerfully. “You had a long night, no?”

“Yes,” I said.

She put a bowl of cereal in front of me and I sat down to eat it. As I ate, she sat down and watched me. She looked
at me intensely as if she was trying to read my face and I looked at her with the same intensity.

I realized that she must have been pretty in her youth. She had clear, blue eyes and fine features. She was fat and squat, but with the fat gone, she would have been lovely. Her crinkled hands were covered with pretty rings that looked as old as the castle. With her knitted hat removed, I could see that she had long, curly hair. It was nice.

I knew what I wanted to ask her, but the words were stuck in my throat. The questions seemed silly – childish – but I had to know.

“Is this castle magic?” I asked.

“Bien sur,” she said. “It is magic.”

“Are you magic?”

“What do you zink, little prince?”

“You have to be.”

Aunt Perrine only grinned.

“What are you?” I asked stupidly.

“All in good time, little prince. All in good time. Now is ze time for you and your brozer to learn French. You cannot go to school without French. Come.”

I followed her into the living room. There was an old table with clawed feet in the corner and the top of it had been covered with workbooks and a CD player. She pointed and I sat down. She opened the workbook. The book was called
Beginning with French
. Aunt Perrine hit play. The voice on the other end of the CD said, “Bonjour.” I answered it.

“Alex,” Aunt Perrine called. “Alex!” She vanished out of the room; I was left listening to the CD and writing simple French phrases in my workbook. After a few minutes, Aunt Perrine returned dragging Alex behind her. He had a scowl on his face and seemed deeply unhappy. Aunt Perrine pressed a button and the CD began again. “Bonjour,” the
voice said. I answered it, but Alex scowled and sank deeper in his chair.

“I have to go out now,” Aunt Perrine said. “If you do your work, I will 'ave a special treat for you when I return. Work 'ard.”

She waved and I heard the front door close behind her. As soon as the door shut, Alex turned the CD player off.

“Let's go,” he said.

“But our lessons…we need to learn French.”

“You're such a killjoy.”

“Aunt Perrine is our guardian now and we have to respect her. We can't go off and do whatever we want. She told us to study.”

“Blah, blah, blah,” Alex said. “That's all I hear you saying and I'm going to see Eleanor with or without you. Have fun with the French.”

It only took me a few seconds to decide to follow him. I wanted to study, but there was no way I was going to let my little brother explore all the magic in the castle while I was stuck inside saying bonjour to a CD player.

It didn't take me long to catch up with Alex. He was running across the courtyard to the keep. Uno was already there, wearing a ridiculous looking cape that covered his entire body, only leaving a small slit for his eyes. He looked like a cartoon picture of death from an old comic book. He could have been scary, if he hadn't of tripped on his own robes on the way up the spiral stairs. It was like watching a toddler in clothes that were too big. He fell at least four times.

Roger caught up with us on the way up. He got there just in time to watch Uno fall flat on his face.

“Good one!” Roger yelled.

Somehow, we made it to the top of the stairs and went into Eleanor's room. The sun was shining brightly in the window. I pulled the curtains closed so we could see her. She came from nowhere and materialized out of dust and shadow. There was a small smile on her lips. “Good morning,” she said softly. She curtsied.

I bowed to her out of instinct. “I trust you are well this morning.”

“Very well,” I answered honestly. “And you?”

“I'm better now that you are here to keep me company.” She looked around and saw Roger and Uno in the corner and her face twisted in snobbish contempt. “What're you two doing here?”

“Sorry, Your Highness,” Roger said. “Didn't mean to soil your filthy room with our feet.”

“What's wrong with them?” Alex asked defensively.

“They know why I'm mad,” Eleanor said.

“Say you're sorry, Roger.”

“No,” Roger said.

Eleanor colored up. “If you can't apologize you can leave.”

Roger's bony lips twisted into something that resembled a frown. “This isn't your castle.”

“But it's my room and I want you to leave,” Eleanor insisted.

Roger threw up his hands. “Fine. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Are you happy?”

Eleanor smiled. “Yes.”

An uncomfortable silence filled the room. Eleanor kept smiling like a Cheshire cat, and Roger scowled and pouted like Alex when he didn't get his way. I really wasn't sure what was going on or why Roger was sorry. I was completely confused. “Why is he sorry, Uno?”

“Last time we saw Eleanor she said she was a princess. He told her she was a liar. He said everything she said was a lie.”

“Was she really lying?” I asked.

“Who knows?” Uno answered. “She's been here forever. She could make up any stories she wanted, couldn't she? It doesn't matter. I like her either way.”

“You are common, Roger, and I'm your better and you should treat me with respect,” Eleanor said.

“I am no more common than you,” Roger argued.

“Yes, you are.”

“It doesn't matter,” Alex said. “We're common too. No one is royalty any more. Who cares anyway?”

“No, Alex, You are wrong. You are everything but common. You are the heirs of this kingdom. You are lords,” Eleanor said passionately.

I laughed despite the seriousness of Eleanor's tone. I couldn't help myself. Lords of what? Lords of a rubble?
Orphan kings of a broken castle in a village in the middle of nowhere? And we were hardly lords of even the rubble.

“I can go if you just came to laugh at me.” As soon as the words were said, Eleanor began to fade away. She vanished as if she had never been there at all and only the memory of her remained. I had almost forgotten that she was a ghost until she faded away. I peered into the darkness looking for any piece of her in the shadows.

“Wait!” Alex cried. “Don't go! My brother's an idiot. He didn't mean to hurt your feelings.”

“I'm sorry for laughing,” I muttered. “I really didn't mean to be rude. I just don't see myself as a lord.”

She looked at our faces and smiled. “All right, but those two can't come with us.”

Eleanor became bright again – a light in the darkness. She glided across the room to stand as close to Alex and me, and as far from Roger and Uno, as she could. She scowled at them and crossed her arms.

“They are our friends,” Alex protested. “Roger said he was sorry. Can't you just pretend they're our servants or something?”

“Oh,” Eleanor said softly. “I guess that's fine.”

“I am no one's serving person,” Roger declared and with that, he made an ugly face at Eleanor and ran down the stairs.

Uno stayed on inching slowly closer to Eleanor.

Eleanor watched Roger go with a hint of anger.

We could all hear Roger as he stumbled down the stairs and out of the door. The door slammed shut, with a bang and I could almost hear him as he stomped through the courtyard and back into our little portion of the castle. I felt bad for him. I imagined him going up to his attic and sitting alone surrounded by cans of diet blood and old board games. It seemed like a pretty depressing way to spend
your day.

“You shouldn't treat him like that,” I said.

Eleanor cast me a wicked glance. “Why not?”

“Because he's a good guy and because we're alone in this castle. We should be nice to each other.”

Eleanor's face softened a little. I almost thought she was going to call after him. “I'll be nicer to him next time.”

“Thank you,” I said.

Eleanor smiled. “Would you like me to show you more of my friends?”

I nodded eagerly, but Alex had something else on his mind.

“I was wondering…” he spoke hesitantly. It was a tone that wasn't common for Alex. “I, um…” His voice trailed off and we waited. “…You're dead. And I just wanted to know if you ever see any other dead people while you are, you know, being a ghost in the ghost world?”

Eleanor's eyes filled with genuine empathy. “I'm just a ghost,” she whispered. “A phantom. I have no more power or knowledge than you.”

“But you must know something,” Alex said. “You died. What happened after you died?”

“I think I was supposed to leave. I should have followed the light, but my mother was weeping, so I stayed and the light faded and I stayed here.”

“So, don't other people stay here? Can't we find the other people that didn't follow the light?”

“Alex,” I said. “Mom and Dad are dead…”

“So is Uno. So is Roger. So is Eleanor, but they are all still here. Why can't Mom and Dad be?”

“You have to let them go,” I said gently. “They are in a better place.”

“Don't say that! Why do people always say that! You don't know that. You've never been dead, but Eleanor has.”

“I don't know how to find other ghosts,” Eleanor said.

“There has to be a way.” Alex's eyes filled with tears.

Eleanor frowned. “Maybe there is.”

“How?”

“The old ones know the old magic. They know many things of this world and the next. Maybe they can tell us.”

I didn't like the way she said, “the old ones.” They sounded like the type of creatures you wouldn't want to visit. They didn't even have real names and I couldn't trust anything that didn't have a name. The old ones sounded dangerous.

“Where do we find them?” Alex asked.

“They aren't far. They live by the dolmen and the ancient places of old magic.”

“Isn't this place ancient.”

“It's old,” Eleanor said. “But I lived here. No, the ancient places were here before the English, the Franks or the Gauls. They were here before the Romans or the Celts. They were here in the twilight time, before men wrote. In those dark years, people worshipped the old ones and built the dolmen, to honor them. They buried their dead beneath them. They say there are many people buried there.”

The thought of old stones on top of lots of dead people didn't sound like a fun day in the sun to me and it certainly didn't sound like a good idea. In fact, it sounded like a completely crazy idea. I couldn't think of a much worse idea than marching off into the woods to look for old spirits on top of a bunch of dead people. “I don't like this, Alex.”

“Where are the dolmens?” Alex asked.

“They aren't far, just past the village, in the old woods,” Eleanor answered.

“Will you take us?”

Eleanor hesitated and looked down at the ground. She was unsure. “The old ones can be crabby.”

Alex was more determined than I had seen him in a long time. His jaw was set the way it used to get when he told Mom he didn't want to eat broccoli. “I don't care,” he said.

I shook my head. “We can't do this.”

“Don't you want to even try to see them again?” Alex implored. “Don't you miss them at all?”

“I do, but…but…” I couldn't think of anything else to say.

“I'll take you,” Eleanor said. “But don't tell your Aunt.”

We followed Eleanor down the stairs and out of the castle. We followed her into the village where the villagers gave us strange looks. It was morning and most of the people must have been at work, because only a few people were out. Some greeted us with a hesitant
bonjour
, but others saw Uno in his robes and looked at us as if we were just a little bit loony.

It didn't take long to walk through the narrow, cobbled streets of the medieval village to its edge. The village ended but the road continued on through lush farmland covered in sunflowers and grape vines. Occasional farmhouses dotted the landscape. We walked through the farmlands to the end of the pavement. The road ended abruptly and the woods began. Tall, dark trees toured over us like giants staring down at us with angry eyes. The main road was made of gravel and it widened a little, but Eleanor took us off it and down a hidden path into the deeper parts of the woods.

There were many dolmen along the path. Small dolmen were little more than piles of rock, but at the end of the path were five large stones piled up to make a table and they were surrounded by a circle of even larger stones. The woods parted for these old stones, the grass thin and dotted with tiny flowers.

I stopped on the edge of the circle and looked in
pensively. There was an eerie silence about the place. There were no birds, no animals, and no wind. It wasn't natural.

Eleanor walked into the circle and sat on one of the large stones. Alex followed her and stood beside her. Uno stood on the edge of the circle like me.

“This isn't a good idea,” Uno whispered. “Bad things happen when people mess with magic they don't understand. Look at Roger. That's what happens when people mess with stuff. Poor Roger.”

Eleanor stood on the stone and a cloud passed in front of the sun, making the forest dark. Everything was still and Eleanor became luminous in the dark. She raised her arms and extended them to the woods. She spoke in a language I had never heard and then she sat back down.

I looked around. Alex seemed nervous. He chewed his nails when he was nervous. Before our parents died, I always tried to avoid Alex as much as I could. He was never into the things I was into. He liked sports and spent most of his time riding his bike or playing ball. It had always irritated me that he was as big as I was even though he was younger. I had a few friends and we were pretty tight, but Alex always acted like he ran the whole neighborhood. Generally, Alex drove me nuts. I had thought he was spoiled, irritable, and annoying, and he thought I was a, know-it-all, bossy, killjoy. But looking at him in the field chewing his nails, I felt sorry for him. So I stepped into the circle with him.

A wind passed through the leaves of the trees and the clouds thickened. I could hear branches crunching and cracking in the distance and leaves rustling on the ground. There was a whisper of wings, like birds flying away.

Eleanor smiled. “They are coming,” she said.

“What are they?” I asked.

“Wait,” she said.

At first, I didn't see them. The trees moved. I saw them move, but I thought it was a trick of the light. Alex stepped back and I could see the fear in his eyes. The forest swayed and the trees grew limbs. I suppressed a yell that got caught in my throat. I didn't want Eleanor to know how
afraid I was. Alex gasped. The trees turned into living beings. The beings had faces like people, but bodies like trees. They were part of the forest. Their long limbs moved and swayed and propelled them forward. Eyes stared out of the bark and into the shadowy wood that surrounded us. The old ones were everywhere. They were the bushes and the shrubs and the trees and they surrounded us. The leader was a woman or, at least, she was shaped like a woman. She had long leafy hair and birds nested in her tresses. Her eyes were green as the grass and her lips were pretty and red.

“Eleanor,” the woman said. “Here again? Have we not warned you?”

“I did not come for myself, My Lady.”

The woman looked at Alex and me and raised a single, mossy eyebrow. “Time has passed so quickly,” she said. “A thousand years has come and gone and now it's time to start again.”

“My Lady?”