The Snowmaiden, A Bride for Krampus - Jeanette Lynn Page 0,18
was really taking it out of me.
Taking a deep breath while they watched, waited, for once, waiting for more because I obviously wasn’t finished yet, call me crazy too, but I muttered on a sigh, “What am I supposed to maybe, kind of, possibly do? You know, as a Snowmaiden person? Do you even have a hint of something, or are we just going into this butt blind?”
Ded and Bels exchanged a look. Ded pointed at the Elf. God, if this was all real and my gut was saying this was so, I was looking at a freaking Christmas-y alternative cursing, honest to god Santa’s helper and his furry, anthropomorphic sidekick. Did he pull the sleigh, I thought with a poorly muffled laugh.
“Bels would know more. It’s in the lore. The Team doesn’t have access to lore.” Ded shrugged apologetically, then, folding his hands in front of his person, camouflaging the semi hardy he’d been sporting for most of this trip, looked to Bels.
Clearing his throat, Bels lifted his chin and gave a sniff. “Well… it’s all very… magical, a bit complicated, if you must know, and I’m not entirely certain how it’s specifically going to work, just that a, erm, maiden is needed, and that you will deliver Shnikel from his… illness.”
“Look, guys, you have the wrong gal. I’m not a healer. I have no special capabilities unless making up stories is your kind of juju, okay? I-”
“I love stories!” Ded said quickly, that stubby tail over the top of his furry ass crack starting to waggle away. “Tell us one!”
“Ded, now is hardly the time,” Bels blustered, huffing and chuffing his annoyance.
Ded’s face fell but his stubby tail remained at half wag. “Later then, after she helps Shnikel? When she makes him well?” Ded looked to his friend for confirmation.
Bels stood there staring and blinking at his friend for so long, like he was waiting for him to catch something the Elkfen just wasn’t catching on to. I’d certainly caught the drift all was not as it seemed. The Elf knew more than he was willing to say in my presence, something he might have at one point told or hinted at the Elkfen to. An uneasy feeling twisted my guts but again, what the hell could I do but bide my time until the right moment, hopefully, struck?
Ded leaned around me, glancing between the Elf and me.
“Sure, Ded, whatever you want, buddy,” Bels said quickly, shaking his head to turn, taking lead with my rope leash firmly gripped in his hand, heading off in the same direction Ded had.
“Joy to the world,” Ded said excitedly. His antsy clops behind me had the hairs on my nape standing on end. “We’re almost there,” he whispered, a note of excitement in his voice that had my guts tumbling all over again.
“The caves aren’t too far from here!” Bels called over the wind starting to come howling in. We were entering a valley, a strange mishmash of Earth world landscape and this wilds of Other, Christmas-y kookiness.
“What is that?” I just had to go and ask. Sticky looking, sweet smelling clumps bursting from gingerbread looking leaves on a sticker filled blood red bush.
“That?” Ded plucked a sticky ball of brown with bits of hard looking pieces and green and red chunks inside it. Squishing the spongy, moist mass, he popped it into his mouth and happily began chewing. “Fruitcake bramble,” he mumbled around his mouthful. “Won sum?” he mumbled out around his bite.
“No,” I said in a rush, and shook my head.
“She might lose her stomach again,” Bels cautioned Ded. Motioning us to keep moving as the rocks and that mountain to our left grew larger and closer, he said with the first bit of real cheer I’d heard from the male since being forced into his company.
“We didn’t pick the first person we found,” Ded drew closer to whisper in my ear. Watching him through the corner of my eye, he licked his lips, his large-eyed gaze dipping from me, focusing too long on my nape peeking from my coat, to his friend. A chill crept up my spine. I wasn’t sure what would be a worse fate, meeting this Shnikel to try and help him, or having to deal with Ded’s weird eyeball fucking, fearing what he might impulsively decide to try with me, a moment longer.
“You were the naughtiest one we came across,” he quickly continued on, but stepped back and quickly assumed the position of cautious