Total pages in book: 60
Estimated words: 57184 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 286(@200wpm)___ 229(@250wpm)___ 191(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 57184 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 286(@200wpm)___ 229(@250wpm)___ 191(@300wpm)
I crinkle my nose. “And yet, you all walk around naked.”
“Clothing is for protection from the elements or predators. We have neither here.”
“So what about Master? How come he’s a Great Dane?”
“He crossed over into your world.”
Meaning his monster genes were filtered out. “So your kind’s basic DNA is a large dog?”
“I assure you, we are much more intellectually advanced than your common household pet. We speak over three hundred tongues, including most from your world. We can read and write in a hundred more languages.” The beast turns away. “Now come. The others are waiting for you, Master.”
I pass through the doorway, unable to look away from my dog, who seems pretty stoked about being here. All along, I wanted to believe he wasn’t a creature, but I always knew this day would come. I’d have to face the truth.
The three of us walk along a passage filled with narrow wooden shelves displaying dried-out specimens of small creatures. It’s like a taxidermy carnival sideshow, and I don’t know what’s more disturbing, the squirrel with a scorpion tail or the rabbit with gills and a fin.
“So Master, is that even your name?” Because it sounds like his title.
“It is what you should call him,” says the beast-man.
So Master has another name, one I’m not allowed to use.
“I guess I finally know why Alwar understands you, Master. He went to school here.”
He barks.
“Alwar understands him because Alwar spent ten years learning our languages, including those used by our traveling scholars, like Master,” says the beast-man.
“So his job is to travel to my world? How many are there?”
“We have many in your world.”
“Why?” I ask.
“Because we must keep records of all the events.”
That was a vague answer.
“Is that not why you are here?” he adds.
“I want to know what the prior rulers of this world did for their inaugural addresses. I’m told this is a big deal, and given the extenuating circumstances, I want to ensure I say the right things.”
The beast-man nods. “We can arrange for a story time with the appropriate scholar.”
“Story time?” I’m not a child. “Can’t I see the records?”
“No. And I doubt you could decipher the writing anyway. We use the sacred No One script.”
I point to my torso. “You mean this?”
“Yes.”
“Is there any other written language used here?”
“We teach our students several, but the No One script is the only language used for our historical records.”
Interesting, I guess.
My fangs begin to ache, and I know I’m pushing myself too far. “I need to eat. What do you have? Preferably something I can’t murder.” I don’t want to attack anyone here, but I might, even if they all smell disgusting.
“I will show you to a room and send something to you.”
“You’re very hospitable.”
“You sound surprised,” he says.
Because I am. “I was told I wouldn’t be welcome here.”
“Anyone who can pay is welcome.”
So the visit isn’t free. “What’s the payment?”
He smiles. “Story time.”
Beast-man says that Master must tell his stories to the other scholars for posterity, so I’m taken to a windowless room with a small bed made of wooden slats. There’s a bucket in the corner that smells like shit. I assume that’s the bathroom.
This entire place puts me on edge, like some bad dream where at any moment, the boogeyman is going to jump out with a chainsaw.
I sit on the bed and try to calm my hunger pangs. I don’t know what they’re going to bring me to eat, but I don’t want the guilt of killing some poor helpless creature.
I suddenly start laughing. Is anything really innocent in Monsterland? I think not. It’s kill or be eaten in these lands, though I have to admit the Scholar People seem more civilized. Except for the naked part.
What makes me nervous about them is the Roach Motel welcome I received. You can come in, but you can’t get out. Also, why are they sending their scholars to my world? How come nobody told me? Did Grandma Rain know that her dog wasn’t a dog?
None of it makes sense when I take into consideration everything I know about Monsterland. They’re all about food. But I’m supposed to believe that these half-dog creatures send their people to my world, undergoing an irreversible transformation into a dog, because they’re on some sort of humanitarian, learning expeditions in the name of historical preservation? Sounds like a bunch of BS.
I don’t want to stay here all night, so I have to find out what this storytelling entails. Will they ask for specific events? Summaries of portions of my life?
I don’t know.
Fucking Alwar. Why didn’t he warn me? Yes, yes, he tried to tell me something before I entered the big hole, but here’s the thing: they’ve talked about the Scholar People before. They never indicated they were nasty cave-dwelling masterbeasts who live in a moving structure, surrounded by leeches and thorny creatures. They never indicated there was a bartering system here. One would think that if Alwar was trying to be helpful, he would’ve mentioned some specifics the moment I said I wanted to come here.