Bending Light

8~The Gardens and Soccer

  The comment seemed pretty mean, but (Y/N) wasn't sure what to think of this boy. He had saved her life, but he wasn't wearing clothes! She was concerned/confused/uncomfortable which came out as a bratty comment apparently. Luckily, it seemed as though the boy had heard clothes comments before.

"Yes, that is something we must address immediately. I wasn't wearing clothes before because you're not supposed to see me. But you do, I assume." The boy seemed very educated. (Y/N) recalled something about a library.

"Um, yeah. Clear as day. Is this some kind of prank?" (Y/N) hadn't really bought the whole peculiarity thing, assuming that it was a trick, or that she was dreaming/in a coma from the concussion. It appeared as though the boy was either ruining the prank, or that her dream wasn't very sensible anymore.

"No, I assure you it is not a joke. My peculiarity is supposed to be invisibility, but it seems as though it's not working quite the same for you. I'm Millard Nullings, by the way."

(Y/N) nodded then said: "Oh, so that's why you were running around without clothing."

"Yes. Unfortunately, my invisibility doesn't extend to my clothing. I must go around completely-"

"Okay, I understand. This isn't a dream then?"

"No." He looked at her strangely. He seemed to believe it, so (Y/N) decided to believe him. For now.

"Well, then thank you for saving my life." 'Thanks' didn't really encompass everything that she wanted to say, but it was as much as she could say at the moment.

"Yes, that didn't exactly go as planned."

"What do you mean?" (Y/N) tried to rearrange her crutch so that she could walk around a bit.

"Here, let's walk around the garden and I will explain." He helped to support (Y/N) as she did a weird limp-hop.

  "Or we could just sit down if you'd prefer." (Y/N) shook her head, so he continued talking.

"I assume you know that Fiona did these," he gestured to the topiaries and (Y/N) nodded. It seemed that the children had talked about meeting her over dinner because Millard knew that she had learned their peculiarities although he wasn't there.

  "The one over there is of Adam from the Sistine Chapel, that one there is a griffin, and that one is a mermaid. Although Fiona can take pretty good care of her plants, Hugh's bees usually pollinate them too. They're quite marvelous, are they not?

"But on to the story. You see, before you came here, Horace had a dream in which you and your cousin came to the island. When the boat arrived with you and your family aboard, we believed that you knew who we were, but when you didn't arrive here within the first few days, we realized that you hadn't come for us. So, Miss Peregrine deployed a few of us to watch over you and—"

"You followed me," (Y/N) said, dumbfounded. "You spied on me, trailed me, stalked me—"

"Only for your own safety. We didn't know what you were doing. You were supposed to come here, but you didn't, and anyway, it was better that we did because on the first night, a wight had already found you."

"What's a wight?"

He paused. "That's for Miss Peregrine to explain. If she hasn't already, then she must have a good reason."

"That's what that man was, wasn't he? When I asked Miss Peregrine who he was, she wouldn't tell me. Why can't I know?"

"Well, you have a concussion. If you were to know now, it would probably be too much to handle. You're going to need lots of rest. I'm surprised Miss Peregrine even let you out here in the first place."

"Fine," (Y/N) huffed. I need a lot of rest? How about: these people need a lot of truth serum so they can stop lying to me and I can trust them.

They rounded a corner and (Y/N) could see some of the kids kicking a ball around.

"Is that...soccer?"

"Well, football."

Of course. They were in Wales, after all. Just as she wondered where Olive and Claire were, they came running up to her with their dolls (whose hair, as Bronwyn had promised, was braided very intricately). The girls had put them in cute little pink dresses that matched.

"Do you want to play with us?" They asked, bouncing on the balls of their feet.

"Sure," (Y/N) said, going to sit down beside them.

"I'll tell you the rest of the story later, if you'd like. I have something important to attend to," Millard said before walking away. For the first time, (Y/N) noticed the pen and the leather bound book that he was holding.

"Okay, perhaps after dinner," (Y/N) called after him, hoping that she would be able to eat dinner downstairs finally.

Once she had fully focused her attention on the girls, she noticed that one of their dolls was moving. It was trying to build a palace out of some sticks and stones, but wasn't having much success.

"How is she doing that?" (Y/N) asked, gesturing to the doll.

"Oh, Enoch put some hearts in them," Olive replied.

"That sounds very...generous of him."

"Oh, I only obliged because they threatened to braid my hair if I didn't," Enoch grumbled as he walked up behind them.

(Y/N) burst out laughing at the thought of it. "Well, at least you would be in good hands."

  He rolled his eyes and went over to sit under a tree while Olive and Claire's dolls were trying to play knight-and-princess. (Y/N) guessed that the dragon was a chipmunk that came down from the tree to investigate. The poor thing almost got its nose slashed off by a stick.

One of the children kicked the soccer ball out of bounds, and (Y/N) bounced it back in.

"Thanks," Hugh caught it. "Would you like to play?"

"I would, but..." (Y/N) gestured to her ankle.

"Oh, that's unfortunate. Perhaps another time," he walked back and they continued their game.

  (Y/N) watched as they kicked the ball around, cheering occasionally when they scored. It reminded her of playing soccer in her neighborhood with her sister, and made her wonder where her family was at the moment. Or if they were even thinking of her. And inevitably, she thought of her poor grandfather, killed by the strange monster that no one would tell her about.

"(Y/N)!" Olive and Claire cried. "Help us save the princess!"

She was brought out of her state and began to play with them again. Perhaps if I wait, she thought. I will get some answers.

Okay, so this was kind of a filler chapter, I guess, but I'm planning on adding a new one very soon, now that I know what to write. Thanks for reading and hope to see you soon!