“Here she is!.. Isn’t she awesome!?”, said Joss with glee. His dinosaur Vash treaded with caution out of the woods.

Never before, had William seen a living being clad in such vibrant colours. Its saturated coat resembled that of a golden pheasant’s. With striped black and gold feathers around its neck and head. Taking the form of a shimmering helmet.

Its chest and legs were covered in bright red feathers, which led down to a pair of sharp claws on its feet. Ocean blue and pink intermingled in a fascinating pattern on its arms. And it had a long tail as well, with a small bush of spotted feathers fanning out at the tip. Vash wasn’t meant to fly but you could imagine from its long slender legs, that it was build to outrun almost anything.

William saw its beauty but not its strength. He praised the pair by proclaiming happily to them, “She’s beautiful!”.

Remony was present as well. She judged the creature with skeptical eyes. After she had spun a circle around it, she asked, “I can’t figure out what advantage it has in a fight?.. Does it have a special ability?”. Joss petted the creature, who purred with content, “No… Either she doesn’t have an ability or I simply haven’t figured it out yet… But don’t underestimate her! She might be pretty but her nature is deadly!.. I remember when we first met, she was already chewing on some other guy who had tried to bond with her. Poor bastard… He thought she was an easy target… Then *BAM!*, the next second she was sucking on his guts!.. ”.

Remony giggled while she shook her head. This reaction wasn’t caused by Joss’ cruel retellings of Vash’s meals but rather because this guy told of it with such spirit. There was definitely something innocent and charming about this fellow.

William on the other hand was reminded of a certain letter from Harvick… Said teen would often send him letters these days. It had then become an assignment for William to read and then delay their contents to Remony, who would check if he understood the symbols properly. In one of these letters a horrible secret was shared.

William said, “Since we’re talking about carnage and the act of sucking guts. I heard recently from Harvick that Guillemet has passed away… I never really got to know the guy... He became very ill after his twin; Batcock, disappeared. Or should I say, after he was kidnapped?.. As you both know, there has been a lot of strife in Halbal lately... It has gotten so bad that they would even target a weak and powerless character such as he...”. Remony knew where this was going. The mere thought of it made her throat itch.

William continued his tale, “When the doctor checked the boy, he found that he had not succumbed to any poison… He was surprisingly choked to death… By leeches!”. Remony felt a burst of acid invade her mouth, while Joss felt his eyes pop.

He exclaimed, “Leeches!?”. William echoed his words, “Yes, leeches!.. Apparently someone had slipped them in his drink. They were just small enough for nobody to notice… After having cut open Guillemet’s throat for evidence, the doctor could confirm that the leeches had latched onto his windpipe and sucked his blood from within. He concluded that their bloated bellies, must have obstructed his airway enough to make the miserable kid choke to death...”.

Joss gagged with a pale face, “That’s some nasty stuff… And you just had to share it?”. William smiled and shrugged his shoulders, “The more you know”.

With some thought, Remony couldn’t help but warn this mischievous servant girl; “Don’t ever tell of this to someone like Brice!.. He’ll eat it right up and within days he’ll be dead from dehydration!”. William found this knowledge odd and so he asked, “What do you mean?”. Remony felt for a second that she had spilled something she shouldn’t have…

She glanced around them, before letting them in on a little secret; “You wouldn’t know it just by looking… But Brice is actually very superstitious when it comes to this kind of stuff!”. William nodded in afterthought. Such precious information would definitely come in handy some day!

Joss however didn’t take Remony’s words at face value. He questioned, “And how exactly do you know of this secret?”. Remony smiled wryly. Reminiscing about her failures as a teacher. She explained, “I’ve read many stories to him… Some of them were harmless fairy tales, while others were tales of monsters and mystical deaths… The following days he didn’t sleep nor eat in fear of these fictional creatures, that even a child would know were fake! I dearly regret speaking of these tales to him. For they ended up scarring us both for life!”. Joss understood and didn’t dig further into the topic...

The rest of Remony’s and William’s holiday was spent watching how acrobatic Vash could be. They clapped and cheered as the dinosaur climbed tall trees and hopped from their thin branches like an elegant squirrel. Sometimes it would even fling Joss around. He seemed to enjoy it for the most part… Although the parts where he almost splattered onto the ground was rather nerve-racking!

The happy trio played and entertained each other, till the frost seeped through their cloaks.

Before they said farewell, William patted Joss on the shoulder and promised him, “After this winter has passed I have a favor to ask of you... And of course it won’t go unappreciated! Haha”. His brother’s spirit rose as he replied, “I see... It seems I have something to look forward to!”. And indeed he had…

For on that very same day, Joss found that his suspicions about his new step-mother wasn’t merely an illusion caused by grief. It was as real as the small black leeches swimming around in his cup of elderberry juice…

When his eyes looked up from the horror, they were met by a pair that studied him with intrigue. “What’s wrong?” Jacqueline asked with great concern written all over her face, except in her eyes. They were too sharp to hide her true intentions. Joss blanked out for a second, before replying, “I thought you knew?.. I can’t stand the taste of elderberries!”. He threw the cup at her before running out of the house.

A place he found hard to call home these days…