Chapter Twenty-One: Figgs

"Cute shoes, Putney," Odell snapped in venomous timbre, "Lambskin? Aren't you a nob…" He and his crew snickered, crinkling their noses and looking at each other with seemingly the same thought. Who invited him?

I dangled a pouch from its bunched overhang, the weight of densely packed powder causing its leather to sag. "If I were a nob, I wouldn't think of sharing." Like vultures, Odell and each of his wiry, skin-stamped, jewel-pricked friends sprung on me, as though I were a plump hare, and they were starving.

Odell was the one to pry it from my grasp, a simple effort seeing that I brought it just for him.

"Well…," he smiled a grin of crooked teeth—browned between each ravine and jagged at the canines, "You're stepping up Putney." I beamed as Odell pulled at the string that bunched the pouch shut. He spread the flaps apart to peer inside with both eyes. "Guess I'll let you do the honors, then."

Tossing the pouch to me, his friends glued watchful eyes on my nail, which dug through the fine dust, coming up with what could easily be mistaken for powdered sugar. I'd seen my father do the same in his office, after years of peeking through the door he left ajar. Of course, father had a miniature golden spoon he scooped the stuff with. My nails would have to do—I'd grown them out, so they were long and packed a fair-sized mound beneath their curve.

I drew it to my nose, hesitated briefly, peeked up at the six pairs of eyes that studied me, and finally pulled my socks up enough to take a whiff.

Sniff.

"Aah!" I rasped at the burning sensation spreading throughout my right nostril. Like I'd snorted chili flakes, each fleck of dust tickled my nasal cavity. I gripped the bridge of my nose and squeezed, as though it would help with the sting.

It didn't.

The pouch was ripped from my grasp as Odell and his vultures went to town, following my lead and dipping their nails, one by one, into the dust. Only their nails were claw-like—their helpings far more dauntless. "Easy!" I exclaimed, "I need something to bring back!"

"Ease up, Putney," Odell—wrapping an arm over my shoulder—coaxed. "You'll have plenty enough to bring back to your pa." His tone was patronizing and caused my face to heat with anger. "It seems you are cut out for lout-life, after all. Of course those ruffles won't do," he took a finger and flicked the hem of my tunic's collar, "We'll have to go shopping. Get you some real threads."

I grinned at the words of approval, any trace of anger having evaporated within breaths.

"When are we going to feel anything?" Queried an impatient girl in the mix of Odell's crew. With stringy hair that shined from grease and teeth that mirrored his, she was far from a filly. Her raspy voice cut through the air like barbed wire, but at least she tore the attention away from my "ruffles."

The rest of the clan's eyes found mine, expressing the shared curiosity.

I, not wanting to admit that this was my first hit, too, shrugged my shoulders. "I suppose it depends on the person," I guessed, "But a few moments… give or take."

"And will we know when it hits us?" That same shrill voice queried.

Again, I gave the girl my best estimate, "Most definitely."

And how right I was to say so…

Seeing sounds and hearing colors—that's how I'd describe it.

Neon blue and turquoise mixed together in rays at the edges of my eyes, beside patterns of violet and trinidad.

And was that Odell? Shouting to me from the other end of a tunnel somewhere I could not see?

"Putney! Come look at this, Putney, my fingernails are aglow!" A voice rang out in an underwater echo. Had I fallen into the sea? The seven of us met along some river that ran along the lower end. I thought we ran a bit since, but perhaps we swam.

I could not tell, for my body felt as though it were afloat, but it did not feel wet.

"I think I'm floating!" I shouted back into the tunnel—the shapes and hues encompassing me before turning into darkness. It was utterly pitch black.

The lack of a reply from Odell or any one of his minions sent me to wonder if I had drowned. "Help!" I shouted, "I'm drowning!" And panic began to consume my every gasping breath.

"What are you spewing, boy?" Queried a gruff and foreign voice from somewhere in the space I could not make out.

"Who's there?"

"What's the matter with you?" It came again, closer but still echoing.

I spun around in search of anything other than black, finally coming to realize that I had no limbs, no body, no neck—perhaps I even had no head and my eyes were connected to the wind and nothing more.

Was the voice from the tongue of a monster, or a gilled creature intent on dragging me 'neath the sea? How could I defend myself if I had no limbs? "Stay away!" I shouted, thrashing my phantom limbs in every direction. "Please, stay away! I want no trouble!"

I begged the Gods that this monster had mercy.

"Son, I recommend you put that down before you hurt yourself…"

Sure enough, I had been right. The voice did belong to a monster. A monster with three eyes and folded skin, swimming in the shadows of the dark. I could see it now, the way it swiveled its head and scratched its skin. It was almost human but not quite. Its skin was salmon pink, and its body was coated in fine threads of silver fur.

Though it wasn't until the misshapen creature began sprinting toward me that I panicked. It was paces away when a trident of brass-plated steel gored its throat. The force of the weapon must have been too much to bear, as the monster shot back, where it was pinned into a wall of shadow. Perhaps the edge of the tunnel, or perhaps the bottom of the sea.

Swelling into chartreuse yuck, I averted my gaze and fought the urge to vomit. Though the bile did rise in my throat, where I forced it back down once or twice.

A piercing scream was followed by hurried footfall atop what must have been wood. Each step sounded more distant than the next, and I was almost sure that Odell had been eaten by the monster already. Otherwise he surely would have said something by now.

Still, I would have called out to be sure, were it not for the rapid waves that carried my body out to sea.