Read Online Beauties of the Beast (The Yellow Hoods, #4): Steampunk meets Fairy Tale by Adam Dreece - Free Book Online Page B

quote. It’s bad enough to read them, but hearing them is worse,” he said, half-joking.
    “If you think that, then you still don’t understand them,” she said, a mock look of disapproval on her face. “How did I go from reaching for the sky, to being happy on the ground with you?”
    “Because, I come from a long line of windbags. So I give you the sky and the ground, together,” he said, giving her a kiss. “Careful Amy!” He shook his head. “Our children will be the end of me, I swear it.”
    Tsuruko laughed and tapped his chest. “Lunch?”
    “Lunch,” he replied.
    As Tsuruko opened the cellar doors and walked inside, she smiled at the old water pumps. What they didn’t salvage from her flying ship to make the pumps, they’d used in the house or as decorations in the yard. She checked the gauges and dials.
    Everett jumped as Tsuruko tapped his arm, his deep blue eyes focusing. “You scared me. Weren’t you checking the pumps?”
    “I did. I called to you as I approached, but you didn’t hear me,” she said, concerned. Maybe his increasing tendency to daydream was more than just loving life. “Did the mountains steal your soul again?”
    He chuckled. “No. But you know, they aren’t alive. They can’t do that”
    “That’s not what my ancestors say,” she said hugging him.
    “Really? I didn’t know that.”
    “No, I am joking,” she replied. “How is my… sarcasm?”
    “It’s getting there,” he said giving her a kiss.
    “I worry about you sometimes.”
    “I’m just… I don’t know. I haven’t heard from my brother in a while. I hope he finds happiness one day, figures out how to get away from the affairs of the Tub and Fare and the royals, and just have a life he can appreciate. You know? Just be who he is, enjoy the dirt, enjoy being alive.”
    “You worry about things you cannot change.”
    Suddenly, both kids screamed. Tsuruko and Everett bolted to the other side of their one story home.
    At the edge of their land, where the grass turned back to dusty, hard soil, stood a man in his sixties. He had a full head of grey hair, a white shirt with frilly sleeves and beige pants. Despite the heat, over top he had a beige jacket that went halfway down to his calves. His presence and intensity gave them pause. Behind him were three men with camels, all dressed for desert riding, and clearly local.
    Tsuruko put her trembling arms around her whimpering children and pulled them back to the front door. They’d fended off raiders before, but this felt entirely different. “We have nothing. Go away.”
    “My name is Marcus Pieman,” said the man in a passable local accent. 
    “Pieman?” whispered Everett, worried. He’d heard the name before from his father before, long ago.
    Marcus continued, “I didn’t mean to scare the children. I have come seeking the truth to a local legend. It is said that once, years ago, there was a streak in the sky. It was said to be a metal bird from over the Eastern Mountains, and that it died in a ball of flame. But no signs of it seem to exist, and everyone points in different directions as to where it might have crashed. My search has led me here.”
    Everett glanced at the camel-riders, all were armed with pistols. “Never heard of it,” he said sternly. “Please leave. This is our property.”
    Taking a step forward, Marcus said, “This flying thing, I’ve heard it called the Hotaru. I’m told that means firefly. While others might think your little green oasis here in the desert is luck or from hard work, I am more than just an inventor, I am a leader of our kind. I know innovation when I see it, and there is no doubt in my mind that all of this,” he gestured at the thriving oasis, “is tied to the Hotaru. I have been to Olsmos in the north, and to the border of Endera in the south. There is nothing like this home of yours. So, please, do not insult me. I need to know what you know, and to have what remains of it.”
    “Leave,”