Read Online Pears and Perils by Drew Hayes - Free Book Online Page B

ask this of you, Great Goddess. To show you respect, we have done as you asked and brought offerings of stone, sea, and fruit. Please, Goddess, if any of those assembled be worthy, we humbly beg you to free Kodiwandae.”
    “Cut!” Dustin yelled standing from his camera. He had to yell because the wind, which had been gentle and tropical moments before, was howling around them and whipping through the tree’s branches. “We’ve got to try again; the feedback on these things is getting unworkable.”
    The crackle was audible now, not just a soft background noise but a piercing note that penetrated even the wind. As Kaia watched, she could swear she saw occasional golden bolts flashing between the limbs of the tree. Somewhere, somewhere deep down under all her essays and studies and term papers, somewhere that Kaia hadn’t trusted since she was little girl, a creeping sensation of what was occurring began to gnaw at her.
    Falcon paid Dustin no mind, continuing to yell up at the sky to be heard over the wind. “Great Goddess, we beseech you on bended knee, please deem one of us worthy. Please set this god free!”
    “Guys… I don’t think we’re going to be doing this again,” Thunder said, his usual flippant tones absent as he stared as the now-undeniable arcs of golden energy leaping from branch to branch. The thrum grew higher and a new sound filled the air, this one like a bubble of grease bursting over a hot griddle.
    “Shit!” Justin leapt aside as a shower of sparks spewed forth from his very, very expensive camera. Dustin’s followed suit less than ten seconds later, and both brothers sat helpless on the ground as the tools they built their career on fizzled and popped their way into the scrap heap.
    “You!” Dustin said, finding his anger and jabbing it, along with his finger, at Kaia. “What the hell is all this? Did you set up some special effects to try and make it more dramatic?”
    “It’s… impossible,” Kaia said, looking for anything from her formerly rock-solid world of facts to cling onto. After much grasping, she succeeded in closing around something. “It’s impossible! It must be some freak storm. It can’t be the god. Kodiwandae can only be released in the presence of someone with the blood of a god!”
    It’s funny the way wind works: had Kaia found her fact and voiced it any sooner, the wind would have blown it to the east, away from the ears of those at the altar and leaving us with a very different story. The breeze that grabbed Kaia’s words was a northward one, though, and it brought her whole statement to the ears of three nervous humans and one mildly-interested cat.
    Cats have not developed the ability to accurately convey a sense of panic, predominantly because such a sensation goes counter to their nature. As it is, their faces are really only suited for expressing displeasure and disdain. Sprinkles was not an ordinary cat, though, and had anyone been paying attention to him instead of the sky, they would have seen a very pronounced “Oh Shit” look on his furry face as he realized what was happening.
    “Hey, calm down,” Clint said as the cat began struggling to get free of his arms. The golden lightning was arcing closer to the center of the tree now, the trunk beginning to glow with a steadily brightening light. Cats are already experts in freeing themselves, and ones with a bit of divine blood move into the realm of supernatural. For an instant Clint felt like he was trying to keep his grip on a shadow dunked in mercury; then it was over and the cat was racing across the field away from him.
    Clint turned to yell after him, and that’s why he didn’t see the burst of light like everyone else. It ripped from the tree, coursed through the pear, and struck Clint in the dead center of his back, hurling him through the air until he landed several feet away.
    Clint’s head swirled, his brain trying to make sense of what had just happened. He’d almost puzzled it