The Marvelous Adventures of Gwendolyn Gray by B. A. Williamson

Author:B. A. Williamson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: JUVENILE FICTION / Dystopian / Fantasy & Magic / Steampunk
Publisher: North Star Editions
Published: 2018-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

Odd Vacation Plans

Vacations are exhausting things. You spend all day seeing new sights, eating new food, and generally tiring yourself out. At the end of the day, you lie in an unfamiliar bed, in an unfamiliar room, and try to scrounge enough sleep to make it through the next day as all the memories from the last one run through your head.

Adventures work in much the same way, but with the addition of mortal peril, fearsome monsters, and even more running. Gwendolyn lay in one of the hammocks in the crew quarters belowdecks, swaying gently. Starling lay below, snoring. Gwendolyn was more tired than she could ever remember, but sleep was not her friend that evening.

She sighed. “It’s overwhelming, isn’t it?” she whispered to the ship. She placed a hand on the cool metal, and felt the engines hum in response. “Yes, you’re right. I did want adventure, to go outside the City. But not like this.”

Getting the things we want is no simple matter. Things seem much less shiny and fantastic once we go from wanting to having. And now that Gwendolyn had the adventure she wanted, all she really wanted was to know her parents were safe. Maybe if the Mister Men were in Tohk, then they weren’t erasing people back in the City—though it was cold comfort to know they were erasing people here. She heard the screech of the Abscess in her mind, and dark thoughts rushed to fill the stillness of the sleeping quarters.

~~~

A horn sounded from the ship’s intercom. Gwendolyn fell out of the hammock and smacked onto the cold metal floor.

Wincing, she looked around. She didn’t remember falling asleep, but Starling was gone and daylight streamed through the porthole, so she must have. Voices were coming through the hatchway above.

“Remind me again why we’re helping this girl?” said Starling. “She dragged us into this mess. In fact, all she does is drag us into trouble.”

“She’s lost her home too. But she managed to bring us here on purpose. There’s got to be a way she can get us home too. No more bouncing between worlds,” Sparrow said.

“Don’t get distracted by a pretty face. We aren’t any closer to getting home, and now we’re fighting some giant shadow monster, and I’m tempted to grab you by the shirt and find the nearest portal out of here.”

“And leave Gwendolyn behind? Leave all these people to get eaten by that thing? And what if it doesn’t stop at eating one world? What if it finds our home? Besides, you didn’t seem so eager to leave when you were making googly eyes at Cap’n Puberty yesterday.”

“What? He’s an arrogant jerk! Googly eyes? Watch your mouth, or you’ll find it getting personal with my—”

But that was when Gwendolyn decided she had eavesdropped enough, and popped through the hatch onto the deck.

“Good morning, sleepyhead,” Sparrow said quickly. Starling looked away, out at the sky.

“Good morning to you too,” she replied, a little coldly. “Where are we now?”

“Approaching the

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