The Goblin Warrior (Beneath Sands Book 2) by Emma Hamm (100 books to read txt) 📕

the long ivory length of the tusks. Willow had always been foolishly unafraid of anything that was in her path. One day, it might be that quality that got her killed. But today, she had chosen correctly again.

“What did you say when you startled me?” Catherine asked behind her. She was wringing her hands.

“That it came here to find the others.”

The haunted words seemed twisted coming out of a bow tie mouth that was red as an apple. Premonition dripped from her tongue as though she could see the very future. Catherine had to still her hands from crossing her chest. It was just a child standing before her. This little girl was no oracle. No magic woman. She was just a child.

And yet those eyes seemed older than a child. Or at least any of the children she had seen in the City.

“Why do you say that?”

The girl was moving now. Twisting herself until she had ducked underneath the large head of the creature and could touch its legs.

“Because, the ones you’ve got are females. This here is a very handsome male.”

“It’s a male? How in the world do you know that?”

There was a flash from the shadows underneath the creature. A smile that blinked so brightly it seemed to scare the shadows away entirely. “I know.”

“Shouldn’t you be in school?” Catherine’s confidence was returning as the child talked more to her. She noticed now the uniform that was almost entirely ruined. It hung around the child’s frame limply. Someone hadn’t even attempted to fit that large garment to the little girl.

The creature lifted a leg. Catherine could see now that the girl had placed a gentle hand underneath its paws that were tipped with sharp claws. The girl nodded firmly and continued her survey of the animal.

“Everyone always says that when they see me. Don’t you all know that before I came here, no one ever mentioned school to me?”

“You aren’t from the City?”

The girl snorted loudly. “Nah. I grew up in the sands. The storms blew loud at my birth and the sandcats raised me as their own!” She jumped out, her hands raised in claws as she let out a mock snarl.

The creature growled behind her and hunkered closer to the ground. If sandcats were the ones to raise her, then the beast behind her hadn’t been in that group. Her movements had startled it.

Willow backed away from it with a few shuffling steps, then put her hands back down at her sides. “Sorry there old fellow. I forgot you were standing there.”

Catherine arched an eyebrow. “You forgot he was standing there?”

“He’s easy to forget.” Another shrug from the child.

Willow leaned back towards it then, and sunk both of her hands into the fur at its chin. The beast tilted its head back and let out a rumbling sound that remarkably was close to a purr.

Finally, Catherine remembered that she was the adult in the situation. She shouldn’t be standing around arguing with a child when she should be doing her job. There was too much to do now that she had taken another creature under her wing.

“Alright then. It’s time for you to go back to school.” Her stern tone was ruined when there was a long pause as the two stared at each other. Finally, Catherine flapped her hands at the child. “Shoo.”

“No.”

That easily, they were at another impasse.

“No?”

“No.” Willow repeated. Her arms crossed over her chest and her hip cocked to the side. “I don’t want to leave. Besides, you need help with the mountain of fur.”

Catherine followed the hooked line of the girl’s thumb and she realized it was entirely true. She did need help with the creature. But she certainly didn’t need it from a little girl.

“How in the world do you think you’re going to help me? And with something that large?”

“It’s been trained.”

Catherine’s hands flapped in the air. “You can’t know that.”

“Can too.”

“Can not.”

“Can too!” Willow stomped her foot hard against the ground. “It lifts its feet when asked. It didn’t even attempt to attack me when I walked up to it. This has been around humans. Which means it’s trained.”

The girl had a point. Catherine paused for a moment to think about it and then firmly shook her head once more. “It’s too dangerous. You have no idea how to even control it.”

The expression on the girl’s face was clearly unimpressed. She reached out and tugged lightly on the rope that was wrapped around the creature’s neck. “I’m guessing this is how they got it in here in the first place. Poor beastie, was probably raised by one of the desert tribes. Or a miner that didn’t know any better, and now it’s been led astray.”

“It’s too dangerous.” Catherine couldn’t even believe she was considering it. This wasn’t some man she had asked to bring dangerous creatures to her. This was a little girl. A brave little girl certainly, but not someone she should be trusting with something this large.

But she didn’t really have much choice.

“If you tell anyone…”

“I won’t tell anyone.” Willow rolled her eyes. “I didn’t tell anyone about your other secret, did I?”

“What secret?” The panic that burst through her chest was enough to send her into another coughing fit. There were too many secrets here for her to count. The child could know about any number of them if she had managed to sneak this far into the building.

She couldn’t know about the other strange and wondrous creature that Catherine had chained to a table in a lab only she and the Doctor were allowed into. There simply wasn’t a chance.

“About the green man of course.” Willow had waited to answer until she had completed untying the large tusked sandcat. It immediately shook its fur off and started down the tunnel towards freedom.

“What?” Catherine’s calm tone had shifted into a shout of shock and anger. She couldn’t run after the two, not without spooking the beast into harming the little girl. Indecision lost her