Myths and Gargoyles by Jamie Hawke (interesting books to read in english txt) 📕

“Excalibur,” I nodded, intrigued.

She smirked. “Not the real one, but it had enough of the original’s essence to draw in potential protectors. And you were drawn to it, no? Felt it calling to you.”

I stared, not wanting to answer that.

“Well, I saw that you were,” she continued. “But that’s not enough. Our test would’ve been the confirming factor, but they found you first, so that did it.”

“Still, I wanted to be sure,” Pucky chimed in.

“There was no need.”

“Well,” Pucky shrugged, giving Red an annoyed glance. “Did you see Sharon actually bite him?”

“I saw Sharon,” Red replied, equally annoyed. “And how Jack looked. I talked to others who, as much as they weren’t sure what they saw, told stories that involved his dick being out for some reason,” she paused to give me a distasteful glance, “but otherwise confirmed he might have been bitten.”

“Show me,” Pucky said, turning back to me.

“My… dick?” I asked, still focused on that part of the story.

Both women laughed then composed themselves again.

“No,” Pucky said. “As much as you might think I want to see that, I’m here on a bigger mission—”

“Bigger?” Red said with a grunt, trying to hold back a laugh again. “How would you know?”

“Oh my…” Pucky shook her head then held up her hands. “Let’s go back a step. Jack, can you show me where you were bitten?”

I was full-on blushing at that point, I was sure, so was relieved for the change of subject. Lowering my jacket and then pulling at the collar of my shirt, I showed them my shoulder.

“It was here,” I said, “but… as you see, I don’t know. I thought maybe it was all a dream or something.”

“No, no dream. And, I hate to ask but you got me curious. Why, exactly, was your dick out?”

Red stifled a laugh again, then returned to her glare, though now I knew there was more to her than just being stern.

“Yeah, about that.” I shifted in my seat, feeling very awkward at the idea of the topic at hand with these two. “What’d you call her…. Shannon?”

“Sharon,” Red said. “The Big Bad Wolf, some call her. Or Wolfy, if you want to piss her off.”

“Like me with Robin,” Pucky said. “Not a name I would’ve ever selected for myself.”

“Especially when they also call me Robin,” Red said, “But that’s annoying for entirely different reasons.”

“Right, so… the Big Bad Wolf.” I frowned, processing this, and said, “I’ll stick with Sharon, for now. She tackled me in the bathroom, when, you know, and the door didn’t lock properly.”

“And somehow it was still out when you ended up in the stairwell?” Pucky gave me a skeptical look, but shrugged. “I hear they have minds of their own.”

Red chuckled, nudging the other lady slightly in a playful way. So they weren’t always bickering, I thought. Studying people around me was kind of my thing as it helped me get into my art, really understand the figures I was painting. Something of a hobby, and right now I was trying to focus on that and how I would capture the essence of these two—anything, really, to get my mind off the insanity they were spewing forth.

Of course fairy tales weren’t real. Of course no Big Bad Wolf named Sharon had bit me, and I wasn’t some protector.

“Right, moving on from the weirdness of all that,” Pucky said, picking up on me being uncomfortable.

“Can we get back to this Sharon character?” I asked.

“She likely bit a few, but maybe not,” Pucky said. “Many die, if bitten by the likes of her. But she must have sensed something in you, maybe somehow been able to smell the protector in you.”

“And who exactly is she? Doesn’t sound like the wolf stories I’ve heard.”

“Many of our real existences are quite different from those stories,” she countered. “And in this case, quite true. Sharon used to be one of us. For some reason, though, the hunt for our kind drove her to the other side. She was too mad at the fact that humans would turn on us like that, after—believe it or not—practically worshipping our kind for so long.”

“And… our kind being?”

“The low down—the good ones amongst us are called Myths, and that’d be us, who you see here, and others you’ll meet. The bad ones are called Legends. Why it got divided that way beats me, but probably it was some early Protector who labeled it so.”

“And I’m supposed to save you from the Legends?”

“Not exactly, though we’ll definitely have to fight some along the way.” She leaned in, and I had to force my eyes to stay up. That loose green shirt fell in such a way that I was pretty sure I’d just seen a nipple.

“What then?” I said, shifting as I felt a surge of blood flowing south. Now wasn’t the time, I tried telling myself, but these women weren’t helping.

“Because the Legends haven’t played nicely. Now your government has sworn to indiscriminately eradicate all fairy tales, Myths and Legends alike, from the face of Earth. Your job, as was the Protectors before you, is to stop that from happening.”

“You want me, a college kid with no military training or anything like that, to stand up against my government and defend fairy tales, all while possibly fighting monsters and crooked myths?”

“Up until that last part,” Red said. “Remember, Myths refers to the good ones.”

“What the fuck ever,” I replied, trying to stand again, only to have Red step forward and slam me into my seat this time.

“You have to take this seriously,” she said through gritted teeth. “Too much is at stake.”

“There’s no way I’m going up against my government,” I replied, trying to stay calm but finding my voice rising in irritation. “And I’m not going to fight a bunch of monsters and fairy tales on my own!”

“You wouldn’t be alone,” Pucky interjected. “Protectors have teams. Red and I, for instance, are on your team. We can get more