The sounds of even breathing filled the guest
room of Shu’s house. It was midnight and exactly four hours have passed since
Luc, Futch, and Sasuke had dragged themselves back to Shu’s house and fell
instantly asleep.
The dark room was peaceful and quiet until a
loud scream and running footsteps could be heard from outside the window. Luc
immediately woke up and peeked outside the window next to his bed.
The screaming man ran directly to Shu’s door.
It only took the flustered man a few knocks before the door was opened by Shu,
who had heard the cries and had immediately came downstairs to check.
"Shu sure does get a lot of
visitors," Sasuke, who had woken up, commented from behind Luc.
Luc glared at Sasuke for his joke.
"This could be important. We have to go
down and see."
Luc pulled off his blanket and scrambled to
the edge of the bed. He put his feet down on the floor, but instead they
touched the blankets that Futch was sleeping on.
‘God,’ Luc thought. ‘Does he sleep through
everything?’
"Futch," Luc called while he patted
the sleeping boy’s arm, but his effort gained him no response.
"That’s not how you do it. Here, I’ll do
it for you."
Sasuke eagerly jumped off the bed to Luc’s
side. The ninja crouched so that he was only a foot away from Futch’s head.
"Heeeyy! Wake up!"
Futch instantly shot up. Sasuke quickly pulled
his head away with a smirk.
"W..what’s going on?"
Futch was flustered and looked from Luc’s
disapproving headshake to Sasuke’s smiling face.
"There’s a problem with Shu downstairs.
We have to go look," Luc calmly said.
He got up and walked to the door as the other
two followed him. When they had reached the stairs, Shu was already handling
the late-night visitor.
"Calm down first. I don’t understand what
you’re saying. Here, have some tea first."
Shu turned towards the kitchen, but stopped
when he saw someone coming out of it.
"I’ve got it," Klaus said while
holding a small, steaming cup of tea with his hands. He carefully handed the
shaking man his drink. The poor man took a few gulps and seemed to calm down.
"Okay, please start your story from the
beginning."
Shu motioned for the man to sit down.
"I..I was taking a walk by the river,
near that small farm by the town, when I saw this huge monster. It was bigger
than anything I’ve seen before—even bigger than the one that used to hang out
at the port. It was huge," the villager said while making a big circle
with his arms.
"With tentacles and everything."
"Go on," Shu commanded.
"I ran back as fast as I could. The
monster tried to get me, but I was too fast. I ran all the way here without
stopping."
"Where is the creature now?" Shu
interrupted.
"It couldn’t get me so it crawled back
into the old cave."
Shu looked up at the three boys who had
already came down and were listening by the stairs.
"There is no time left. We must have the
monster destroyed."
Shu’s voice was hard. Klaus looked up
worriedly from beside the frightened man. The three gave a solemn nod and
wordlessly walked towards the door. Futch stopped beside Shu.
"Can you please watch Bright for me while
I’m gone?"
Shu nodded and Futch walked on to join the
other two.