Brave New World
Grave Robbing and Lesson Learning

August4, 2005

“And then, after, like, fiveminutes of these two guys fighting human style, one of them was just like‘screw this’ and, like, bit his lip or something, and then they were finally able to shift—”

“Yes,Reyna,” Dunstan sighed, “All these stories are just fascinating, and I’d love to keep hearing them, really I would, butonly if you keep that flashlight still!” He finished with a growl.

Dunstanand Reyna stood in the middle of one of Manhattan’s many cemeteries. Reyna was holding a flashlight and wassupposed to keep it steady over whatever Dunstan was digging up. Dunstan was bent over a grave, shovel inhand, and glaring at Reyna and her less than steady hands.

Sighing, Reynafocused the light on the grave Dunstan was digging up. “You know, another cool thing about Weres isthat they’re completely cognizant while they shift, so the fights are, like,just as safe as normal ones. It alsomeans people who are bit during full moons and stuff, are really only bitbecause the Weres feel threatened. Or, Iguess they could do it on purpose, but I don’t know why they would oranything. I think most of them are onaccident . . . Hey, how come you never taught me about them like you did withthe Vampires or the Fairies?”

“Because I didn’tsee the point.” Dunstan replied, takinga few second to move a large rock out of the way. “They’re just mutts, Reyna,and the faster you realize that the faster you’ll make your way up in theworld. We benefit from interacting withthe Fairies and the Vampires, but the Weres, well, they don’t bring anythingvaluable to the table.”

Reyna hummed insteadof voicing her disagreement. She didn’twant to test Dunstan’s already thin patience, “Yeah, well, whatever,” shemumbled. Glancing up at the tombstone ofthe person who Dunstan was digging up, Reyna sighed sadly after she did themath and figured the poor girl had died at the age of eighteen. Molly Cox was her name, and her parents had apretty poem engraved on the stone. Looking back down at Dunstan, Reyna asked,“Hey, isn’t this, ya know, like, illegal or something?”

Instead ofanswering, Dunstan simply pounded his shovel into the ground until a sickeningcrack engulfed the silence. “She diedover a century ago, dear. No one willcare.” He finally answered beforebending down and ripping the hole he’d created in the coffin even bigger.

“Whyare you robbing her grave anyway? Andwhy are you doing it the boring way?”

“Reyna,dear, if by ‘the boring way’ you mean without magic, it’s because this isactually the safest way to ensure that the remains aren’t destroyed. I know nothing of this girl’s grave, onlythat it’s here. I didn’t know how deepit was, what condition it was in, or anything of real importance. Diving in head first with magic would havebeen foolish. Keep that in mind,” he saidas he looked her in the eyes, emphasizing his lesson. “Magic may be useful, but it’s not always thebest way. Now,” he grunted beforebending over again to look into the coffin he’d broken in to, “point the lightdown here.”

Sighing,but doing as instructed, Reyna filed the new information back away into therecesses of her mind. She supposed hehad a point, but magic just made life so much easier! Looking back down into the grave, she gasped,“Whoa! Is that her hand?”

Dunstanpulled out the bony limb with a nod and a hum. “What do you need her hand for, anyway?” Reyna asked again when she heard the snap of the carpal bones breakingfrom the radius and ulna.

“Here,catch,” Dunstan said before tossing the limb up towards her. Catching the yellowing, dead hand with abarely repressed noise of revulsion, Reyna suspended the hand away from her soshe no longer had to touch it.

With her handspread out in front of her, mirroring the skeletal one to hold it steady in theair, Reyna asked, “Couldn’t you have just gotten a hand from a morgue or ahospital or something? This is so gross.”

“No, neither ofthose places would have had a hand this rotted, nor would they have sold it tome if they did. Legalities and allthat. This way’s the best way, trustme.”

Puffing out hercheeks, Reyna continued to stare at the dead girl’s hand and wondered if she’dmind that her grave had just been robbed. “Here,” Dunstan said, grabbing the suspended hand and wrapping it up ina brown leather cloth before tucking it away in his satchel. Then, with a lethargic wave of his arm, hemagically moved the disturbed soil to cover the grave. “Time to go home, Reyna.”

Twisting her mouthto the side, Reyna took a second to conjure up some flowers from theirapartment to place at the base of the tomb stone before turning heel to followDunstan. They had only gotten about ahundred yards away from the grave they’d just defiled when movement off to theright caught Reyna’s eye. Pausing, shesquinted into the darkness to try and determine what she had seen. Seeing a branch behind a mausoleum snap backand forth, as if someone had stumbled past it, Reyna flashed her light towardsit and inhaled a surprised breath when she saw two beady, yellow eyes staringback at her.

“Dunstan!” She hissed, not taking her eyes off thecreature before her. “Dunstan I think Isee something!”

“Hmm?” Dunstan looked back curiously, glancing overat the direction Reyna’s light was pointing. “Oh, that’s just a Goblin, Reyna. Remember, like the one you met in France?”

“I remember,” Sheanswered with a shiver as the other memories of France fluttered into her mind. “What’s he doing here?”

“I don’t know,”Dunstan said with an annoyed sigh. “Probably stealing from that mausoleum. Filthy creature,” he muttered to himself. Ironic, considering whatthey’d just done. Or maybe it washypocritical. Reyna wasn’t too sure.

Emboldened by hisdisdainful tone, Reyna declared, “I’m gonna go talk to him.”

“Do what you want,dear,” Dunstan rolled of his eyes and shrugged, “I won’t be waiting for you,though.”

Biting her lip,Reyna simply nodded her head and took slow steps towards the small greencreature that crouched a few yards ahead of her. His beady eyes flashed in warning as she tooka step too close. Halting, she croucheddown to his eye level. Silently countingto ten in her head, hoping Dunstan would be far enough away by then and thatthe Goblin would see that she wasn’t going to make any sudden moves, Reyna tooka deep breath before smiling at the green creature. “Hello there,” she said in a hushed tone, “Myname is Reyna, what’s yours?”

“Go away,” theGoblin growled, eyes narrowed with suspicion. “Go away, stinky human!” He growled again when Reyna didn’t move. Growling louder now, the Goblin appearedbefore Reyna faster than she thought was possible. One second he was a good distance away, thenthe next his face was pressed against hers. “Go away!” He screeched into her face before shoving heraway.

Reyna let out asmall “Oomph!” as she felt her body fly backwards. With a resounding smack that echoed in thedark cemetery, her back collided with a tombstone. A sharp pain throbbed in Reyna’s shoulder andshe groaned as she tried to right herself. Sucking in a harsh breath, Reyna had to bite down on her lip to keep hertears of pain at bay. Okay, she thought,maybe she should have listened to the Goblin when he told her to leave. Lesson learned. Standing on shaky legs, Reyna rubbed herbruised and still tingly shoulder, trying to massage the pain away. Glancing one last time at the Goblin, who hadreturned to his original position, Reyna began to make her way towards thecemetery’s exit with her head hung low.

Reyna kicked rocksfrom the path along the way as she headed for the gate. Her right hand kept moving in circles, tryingto get blood flowing in her shoulder to relieve the pain. That’s what she always saw people o on T.V.anyway. As soon as she got home, shedecided, she was learning some healing spells. The basics, at least. She hadfinally made it to the iron-wrought gate just a few short minutes later and wastwo steps away from officially leaving the cemetery when she heard a nasty howlsound behind her. Turning around andseeing nothing, Reyna took a step towards the direction she heard thenoise. Switching her flashlight back on,she illuminated a tree, two grave stones and a raccoon before she heard anotherhowl. This time it ended in a painfulyelp that had her running in its direction. The shouting and howling continued, leading Reyna back towards whereshe’d left the Goblin.

Heart pounding,and breaths coming in and out of her chest hard and fast, Reyna came to a stopwhen the familiar mausoleum came into view. With another heart wrenching yelp, she dashed around the corner of thebuilding with her heart caught in her throat. Reyna wasn’t sure what she’d expected to replace, but it definitely wasn’ta Fairy standing over the now badly beaten and bleeding Goblin. The Goblin was curled into a ball and seemedto be trying to protect something underneath him. From what she could see, his clothing was nowcovered in a dark, wet substance that Reyna could only guess was blood. The Fairy, only paying mind to the Goblinbefore him, swung his foot back to kick the Goblin off whatever he wasprotecting.

The gesturesnapped Reyna into motion and with a growl of her own shouted “Get offhim!” And forced the Fairy away with allthe magic she could muster.

Slamming into thewall of the Mausoleum, the Fairy was stunned for half a second before hefocused his diamond clear eyes onto the young girl. “Leave, little witch, or maybe I’ll decide toeat you, too.” He ended with a smilethat made Reyna shiver. This Fairylooked nothing like either Queen in terms of skin color. He stood taller than any human Reyna had everseen, and his sharp bones almost seem to protrude from his skin, but whereasboth Queen’s skins reminded the young girl of black marble, this Fairy lookedlike he’d been made from star dust and seemed to illuminate the darkness aroundhim. If Reyna weren’t terrified of him,she’d be captivated by it.

Instead ofrunning, she found herself saying “You’re—you’re not eating anyone!” With another push of her hand, the Fairyslammed against the stone wall. Hegrunted before letting out a low chuckle.

“If that’s the wayyou want to play,” he said before disappearing into the wall of the mausoleum,leaving a bright, golden light where he disappeared. To Reyna, it almost looked like a doorway. Before she could think more on it, it closedand then suddenly she felt her body being flung towards the mausoleum. Feeling the stone scrape against her cheekand blood rushing in her mouth from where she bit the inside of her cheek,Reyna let out a pitiful moan. “Lookslike I’ll be eating a three course meal tonight. Hmmm,” he stopped to think, “I think I’llhave the little Goblin babies first, as an appetizer, then you dear, as themain course, and I’ll finish papa Goblin off as dessert! How does that sound?”

The Goblin hissedin response, though he was still curled into a ball on the ground. Reyna let out a whimper, but her mind graspedfor ideas. She knew iron was poisonousto Fairies, but she didn’t know where she could get any. Dunstan didn’t even keep and iron skillet inthe kitchen!

She could hear theFairy walk behind her and she wished she could see what he was doing. She wished she could just pull out his heartlike she would if it was a Vampire, Werewolf, or even just a normal human. She hadn’t learned the Fairies anatomythough, and didn’t even know if they had hearts. Cursing under her breath, Reyna knew she needto break free from his hold and get herself off this stone wall. Closing her eyes, she focused on her ownlungs and drew in a large breath of air. With a chest full of magically endowed lungs, Reyna blew the air outlike a gust of wind and felt herself pushing away from the mausoleum.

Falling backwardsonto the ground, Reyna quickly spun towards the much too bright Fairy, drew inanother deep breath and screamed at the top of her magical lungs. Both the Fairy and the Goblin cried out inpain and held their hands over the ears. The scream made their ears bleed and rang through their mindspainfully. Knowing she couldn’t keepthis up forever, and that it was hurting the Goblin just as much as the Fairy,Reyna tried to think of how else to get rid of the hungry florescentparasite.

With what feltlike a blast to her brain, Reyna remembered the front gate and its ironmaterial. Cutting her scream off with atired gasp, Reyna backed away as the very angry Fairy stalked menacinglytowards her. When he was finally closeenough to touch her, Reyna waved her hand, summoned one of the iron spikes andslashed it at the white worm.

The Fairy screamedin utter agony and cradled his wounded arm to his chest. Even though the wound seemed superficial,just a scratch to the forearm, Reyna could see the way his skin curdled aroundwhere the iron had touched. It began toburn soon enough and small tendrils of smoke rose into the air. Reyna had to keep herself from gaging at thesmell.

He began to thrasharound, trying to wave the burning sensation off his arm. When that did nothing but fan the flames, helet out a frustrated cry and leapt towards the stone wall of themausoleum. The bright, golden light of adoorway opened up for him again engulfed him and his burning arm beforedisappearing and leaving Reyna and the Goblin in darkness and absolutesilence.

Letting outshallow breaths, Reyna tiredly looked over to the Goblin who still laid curledup on the ground. His body rumbled withanother growl as he glared at her. Sighing, Reyna asked, “You want me to go away?” The Goblin nodded his head once, not takingoff his bright yellow eyes off her form. Trying to steady her breathing, the young girl nodded “Sounds ‘boutright,” she said more to herself than to him.

With a slight limp, scratched cheek, bloodiedlip, and a still throbbing shoulder, Reyna hobbled her way out of the cemetery. As she mentally took inventory of all herbodily tweaks and bruises, Reyna knew at least that she’d done with rightthing, even if the Goblin still seemed to hate her after it was all said anddone.