Read Online The Monster Hunter's Manual by Jessica Penot - Free Book Online

looked even younger than Alex.
    â€œBut you said that you were named after Eleanor of Aquitaine?” I said angrily.
    â€œI did? Sometimes I forget things. I meant that she was named after me.”
    â€œWhen did you live in the castle?”
    Eleanor looked up in the air above her as if she was searching for an answer. “1012.”
    â€œI read a book about France on the plane and it said the Eleanor of Aquitaine lived in the 1200s or something like that. You were dead a long time before her.”
    Eleanor opened her mouth and then closed it. She shrugged her shoulders. “I lie sometimes,” she said. “It was all so long ago and hardly anyone ever listens to me in any case. I didn’t think it mattered.”
    â€œI am so sick of all this,” I said. I stomped away down the road to the castle leaving everyone else behind.
    I trudged all the way back to the castle, thinking about how irritating all of the monsters and ghosts and spirits were. I thought that it would be better if I learned French and found some nice, normal friends down in the village.
    I walked in the house, sat down at the table and turned on the CD. “Bonjour,” it said. And I answered back because sometimes it is better to sit alone talking to a CD player.

Chapter 6
The Lantern of the Dead
    I didn’t know where Alex went. I didn’t even care. I spent the next hour practicing my French. I learned how to say
How are you?
and
Where is the bathroom?
I learned how to say a lot, when Aunt Perrine came in, I was happy to show her everything I had learned.
    She sat with me and listened and checked my work. “Very good,” she said and slapped her hands together in delight.
    â€œIt is too bad your brozer didn’t study,” Aunt Perrine said with a sigh. She opened a bag and gave me my special treat. It was incredible and it wasn’t little. It was a small replica of an old castle with tiny knights, ogres and monsters. Each piece was perfect in its detail and the castle was so realistic I could almost see the moss on the gray stone.
    â€œYou like?” Aunt Perrine asked.
    â€œI love it.” I threw my arms around her and hugged her. She hugged me back.
    â€œI’m very glad you and your brozer are ’ere,” she said sweetly.
    â€œMe too. I mean, out of every place we could have ended up, this is the best.”
    â€œMerci.”
    She took me in the kitchen and we ate a lunch of fresh bread, strange cheese, ham, and fruit. It was delicious. Even the Orangina was pretty good. I told Aunt Perrine about our life as we ate. I told her about our little house just outside the city and about our school. I told her about my friends and karate. I even told her about my favorite videogames. She listened attentively.
    â€œDo you miss it terribly?” she asked.
    â€œYeah,” I said. “I do. Sometimes I miss it so bad my chest hurts, but it’s not so bad here and you are really nice.”
    â€œMerci. And what about brozer?”
    â€œHe misses our parents. He was always a little impulsive, but he’s gone a little bonkers lately.”
    â€œBonkers?”
    â€œYeah. You know, crazy?”
    â€œOh, yes. We all go crazy sometimes.”
    I looked at Aunt Perrine and wondered how many secrets she kept hidden in the old castle. I knew nothing about Chateau Larcher. I didn’t even know when it was built. Big Foot could be hiding The Holy Grail in the basement for all I knew. “Tell me something about this castle. How old is it?”
    â€œZey built zee first walls around 900 and zey didn’t finish until 1066.”
    â€œIt’s a strange place.”
    â€œEvery place ’as secrets if you ’ave zee eyes too look.”
    â€œMy mom used to say that.”
    â€œYour mamman was a very smart woman.”
    Aunt Perrine seemed to like my mom. She smiled when she talked about her. She spoke with such fondness it seemed like they would have