The Night They Came

As Jamie and I sat in the back of the movie theatre waiting for the mad rush for the bathrooms to thin out I felt a hot breath across the back of my neck. I brushed at it but it came again and with it the stench of burned matches.

"You could have waited till we got outside for that." Jamie whispered.

Just as I leaned over to tell her it wasn't me there was a guttural growl from the seat behind us. I turned only to come face to face with a fuzzy muzzle and a black nose as big as my face.

I wanted to scream. I wanted to grab Jamie and run. What I did was sit frozen in my seat. In the dim light of the movie credits rolling up the screen I could see Jamie had also noticed the large creature now hovering behind us.

My mind screamed and I was sure I was about to wet myself when the creature sat back on it's hunches to stare at us with it's glowing yellow eyes. It huffed at us, yes, huffed at us and another belt of sulfur wafted passed us. I gagged and the creature actually smirked at my reaction.

It was then I noticed someone standing beside the creature.

She laughed at me as I rolled my eyes up to meet hers.

"I see you've met Tribal." Her voice was soft and whimsical and only then did I notice the gossamer wings on her back.

Again my mind screamed, only this time I could actually understand what it was trying to tell me. I was looking at a fairy! A real fairy! And the creature breathing on us must be her familiar and his name is Tribal.

"You call him tribal?" I managed to whisper.

"Of course, Silly. What else would I call him?" She giggled.

"Um, I don't know. I've never seen a, um, what is he?"

"Boy you are silly, aren't you? He's clearly a Pterolycus."

"A terra what?"

"Not terra what. He's a Pterolycus. Terra as in terra as in earth and Lycus as in werewolf. In short he's a winged wolf. You really have no clue what I'm talking about, do you?"

She seemed honestly confused at the fact that I was honestly confused.

About that time Tribal decided to demonstrate and opened his magnificent wings. They were stuff of my childhood dreams, or more realistically, my nightmares were made of.

I couldn't understand how Jamie was staying so calm but when I looked at her seat, she was gone. I looked around for her and only then did I notice the theatre was empty except for myself, the fairy, the terra...Tribal and Jamie, who was now standing beside Tribal scratching his ears. Leave it to my baby sister to make friends with a giant wolf with a wingspan longer than she is tall. She was cooing in his ear and the fairy was giggling.

Wait! The fairy! She wasn't tiny at all, in fact she was almost half my height. I pinched myself really hard, and it hurt! I was awake. I was awake and standing in an empty movie theatre watching my little sister pet a giant wolf while I am talking to an honest to goodness, real life fairy.

"Jamie!" I whispered loudly.

"Oh chill out, Jason! You always get so crazy when I try to make new friends. It's like you're afraid they're going to eat me or something!"

"Maybe. But this one actually can eat you!"

"Don't be such a silly fluff!" The fairy laughed. "Tribal won't eat her. She's not a sheep nor is she trying to bring me harm. She doesn't look big enough to bring harm to much of anything. I really don't see him having her as a snack."

I sighed as I leaned back on the seat that used to be in front of us. "Let me get all this straight. Tribal only eats sheep and people who try to hurt you..."

"Anything." The fairy interjected.

"What?" I asked

"Anything. Tribal will eat anything that tries to harm me, unless he doesn't like how it tastes then he just chews on them for a bit a spits them out." She stated calmly, as if this was an everyday occurrence for her.

"Okay, so I'm standing in an empty theatre talking to a real life fairy while while my baby sister scratches the ears of a giant wolf that eats sheep and anything that tries to hurt you because you decided to come watch some stupid movie. Have I covered everything so far?"

"So far you've done rather well at calling me fairy, even though that's not my name. I like it well enough. I will answer to it if that's what you're comfortable with."

"No. I mean, I wasn't calling you fairy as your name. I was calling you fairy because that's what you are. I don't know your name, or if you even have a name."

"Well now. My name is Tierabeth and I am not a fairy. I am a Kelpie and I didn't just decide to come watch this movie thing of yours. I followed Tribal. He must have had a strong pulling to cross the dimension barrier. He knows we aren't supposed to be here."

"Then why would he bring you here?" Jamie piped in.

"If I had to guess I would say he is here for you." Tierabeth answered, turning her attention to my little sister. "You see, Mirasant, Tribal's mate is about to have a litter and they are going to need someone to watch over and protect. My guess is you are his chosen companion for one of his littles.

As my mind tried to snap all these pieces together there were only 3 ways I could see this working out. One, Jamie goes to the other side of the dimension barrier. Two, Tribal brings his little here to live with Jamie. And three, Tribal eats me for trying to stop the first two from happening.

"Tierabeth, this isn't going to work. Tribal's little one will never be happy here. He or she would never be left alone. On our side of the dimension barrier you are all mythical creatures."

"Well of course not silly! Jamie will come to our side of the barrier. Tribal and Mirasant would never let one of their litter grow up without being there to watch over them!"

With that Tribal let out another low growl and turned his yellow eyes on me. I just knew he was about to eat me but I had to stop him from taking Jamie.

"But you can't take Jamie to the other side of the barrier! She's all I have since the accident took our parents. It's just us now and if you take her..."

As Tierabeth took a deep sigh Jamie turned her green eyes on me and giggled.

"You really are a silly boy. They are taking both of us. Tribal knows that's the only way.

With her smile everything around us changed. The darkness of the theatre was gone and we were surrounded by bright green trees and plants I had never seen before and the animals coming to greet us was every bit as amazing as Tribal himself.