Archive for the ‘Series’ Category
Determined Samantha
Monday, October 12th, 2009
Everyone agreed later that no student had arrived with more mud on her, indeed, more pure ground-in grime, than Samantha MacKinnon—not even when Mirabelle Hayes and Bao-Yu Zheng met and fought a duel in a pigsty on the road to the Women’s Battle College, Isle of Skye.
She arrived ten days into St Brigid’s term, so, not only filthy but a term and ten days late, which was rather more of a problem.
Her excuse?
“I had to walk from the Sierras,” she explained.
“It’s probably true,” pointed out the Bursar. “They ran out of super-refined twice this year.”
“Except that I gather it’s still difficult to walk across the Atlantic,” said the Treasurer.
They looked at Samantha, who glared back tiredly.
“Snuck onto a surplus ship,” she said. “That got me to Up-Liverpool. Walked here.”
She pushed the heels of her hands into her eyes and rubbed vigorously before adding, “Look, can you feed me now and decide about me later? I’m so tired.”
She wanted to add, “And this whole journey I’ve been thinking, if only I can get there it will be okay, just like in the stories… it will be okay. And having to knock out some guy so I could drive his motorcycle to the East Coast instead of giving him my virginity like he wanted, and having to steal every bite of food I’ve eaten, and having to run away from my stupid home with my stupid drunk dad, and having to fight about half the sailors on the ship, and having to beat up and run away from some guys who were obviously procurers, and having to clean every dirty toilet in an entire hotel so I could stay for a week and sleep, just sleep, all of it will make sense, because I’ll be where I know I’m supposed to be. It will all be okay.”
Instead she just stood and looked at them, wearing three weeks worth of dirt and smelling like three weeks worth of sweat.
The Treasurer looked scandalized, but, as Samantha would learn, that was just her way.
The Bursar said, “Forgive us, dear. I can tell it has been a terribly long journey. Do come in,” adding to the Treasurer in a voice she knew perfectly well Samantha could hear, “Of course she can stay. This is the sort of determination we’re looking for, after all.”
FROM THE BOOK OF MONSTERS: YARAMAZ TURKISH CARPETS
Monday, October 5th, 2009
Page 392
YARAMAZ TURKISH CARPETS
Species: Animal
Habitat: Ranges. Prefers city or suburban. Nocturnal.
Designation: See special cautions in hunting.
The above name is a rough translation. They are also referred to as “mischievous flying carpets” in other texts.
Although they bear resemblance to and share the gift of flight with the flying carpets of the Arabian Nights lore, Turkish flying carpets are not inanimate objects imbued with magic but sentient living creatures.
Although not intelligent as say a monkey or a dog they are still highly cunning. The creatures make their homes in carpet warehouses where they blend in and like to sleep during the day. Come dark, they fly out into the night and into the windows of unsuspecting humans, usually children. Through some sort of sympathetic communication that is not yet understood, the Turkish carpet will coax the child onto itself and take it for a wild ride, usually lasting until dawn. It is believed that the carpet feeds upon the thrills of the rider and that the ride itself is not random but somehow linked to the subconscious desires of the host. In 1992 the obese son of one time Monster Hunter Charles Stuyvesant was believed to have encountered a particularly wild Yaramaz that flew him from his Brooklyn brownstone all the way to Hershey Pennsylvania. There is reason to believe that this particular beast perished in a vat of heated chocolate but the police report makes
no mention of the beast, only the child’s unlawful entry into the factory.
Recent Observations:
In 2009, rumors of strange flying objects in Brooklyn has sparked belief that the so called “Hershey” Yaramaz did not perish at all. So little is known about their mating and reproduction that designating this Yaramaz an offspring as has been postulated is premature.
Cautions:
Stuyvesant’s field notes from 1992 also indicate that the Hershey Yaramaz did not perish in the encounter. Stuyvesant went hunting the creature and tracked it to a carpet showroom on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Stuyvesant thought he had surprised the beast but the carpet salesman who had been on his way out reported seeing the carpet rise into the air and that Stuyvesant went into some sort of trance. He claimed Stuyvesant rode the carpet out the window and into the night. Stuyvesant gave up monster hunting in 1992. His last contribution to the field was to caution that only those “dead at heart” attempt to hunt Yaramaz as anyone else could easily fall prey to their sympathetic lures. Stuyvesant moved upstate and opened a chocolate shop which to this day he operates with his son.
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