The Hatch

By Etherer Daz

Disgruntled by her mother's eviction of her otherworldly pet, Lily decides to go through the forbidden hatch it emerged from to get it back. The trip calls for preparations before hand, and she soon meets with a number of strange types along the course of her journey to rescue her furry friend, the wogwim. Fortunately for Lily, the help of a perfect stranger helps her locate the general whereabouts of her lost friend, though he's sure her plight will land them both is serious danger. Can Lily brave the pitfalls waiting at the depths of the hatch to help them find their way back to safety when the headstrong girl ignores his warning and pushes forward anyway?

Genre: MG/YA fantasy
Format: 15k word novelette

 

 

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: VioletPaper/7Spirals
• Release date: Feb 21, 2013
• ISBN: 9781497784581

Book preview

The Hatch

1

Mrs. S. opened the hatch with a quick, mean glance at the door behind her. The hatch let off a slight swish and gave under her forceful steering. She quickly lifted up the wogwim and lowered him inside. She gave him a stern look to dissuade any escape attempts and lowered the hatch lid, securing it with a fierce turn to the right. Her bony, brown arms were stronger than they looked.

Clearing her throat, she glared at the hatch and turned toward the door.

Inside the space, the wogwim huddled by the hatch door uncertainly. The familiar scent of moss prickled the hairs in his nostrils. He bristled, making an expression as close to a frown as his lovably roundish face could manage. He'd chosen the wrong house.

––––––––

That thing certainly chose the wrong house if he was aiming to make himself a permanent fixture.

Mrs.S. stormed into the kitchen wearing a deepening frown. It was a quiet storm, but it stirred the air with her particular brand of annoyance (the kind that set the house on edge). She quickly raised the waterspray with the back of her hand and pumped several streams of ecos soap from the dispenser beside the faucet with the side of her wrist onto one open palm. The homemaker worked up a good lather and rinsed.

Then, with a sigh more dramatic than necessary, she returned her attention to the cookie-making the little beast had interrupted. She was making Cliff's favorites: the french vanilla soy creamer cookies with mint chocolate (fair-trade) middles. Mrs S. stopped and smiled forecasting the mood it would set her husband in before continuing on to stir the batter with a hum.

––––––––

Lily eyed her mother from the stairwell with narrowed eyes.

That wogwim had been hers, and her mother had no right to take him.

She folded her frail, toffee-colored arms over her chest. Germs. Whatever. Germs were everywhere. Her friend wasn't bringing dangerous microbes into the house.

It was some time before she tired giving her mother's back the stank eye and finally flipped open the book on her lap, quickly turning to the page where she'd found the passage about the creatures. Lily scanned it intently, biting her lower lip in concentration.

Her frown deepened into a scowl, and her eyes glazed over, becoming redder the more she thought about it. It didn't take long for her to raise resolve for her next course of action.

She was going to get him back.

––––––––

When she later ate dinner with the family, Lily stewed silently with keen resentment. She stabbed her vegetables lightly with her mother's prized silverware and consumed them with a bitter expression. Lily issued one word answers to her mother's questions, but she gave generous paragraphs of conversation to her father. Him she didn't mind talking to.

Mother hadn't told him about the wogwim, and that was fine by Lily. In just a few short days, she would gather the supplies she needed for her sojourn through the hatch, and she would find him. She hadn't quite worked out where they would live after that, but she was quite sure she would if she gave her brain enough time to turn over the possibilities.

When dinner was concluded, Lily rose, cleared her dishes into the sink, and stepped quietly up the stairs. Mrs. S's eyes followed her daughter. She knew the look Lily had given her, but she chose not to court thoughts (that were really intuitions) which suggested extreme defiance was on the horizon.

In the sanctuary of Lily's room, she used the powder blue notebook her father had given her just because to make a list of the essentials she'd need on her trip into the unknown. She'd read enough from the old book to give her an idea what the climate might be like and what kinds of foods to pack. Biting the end of her pen cap contemplatively, she paused to look over her list. It was missing a flashlight. She'd need one of those. And, some batteries. Maybe the rechargeable sort.

The next afternoon, she unscrewed the bottom of her octopus-bank and emptied its contents. There were plenty of 5 dollar bills, thanks to Auntie Mek. Lily decided to pocket them, and put the large pile of coins back. She might return, even if it was only to grab some needed change. It was better that she had some waiting.

With her father's permission, she took a walk to the local Spacehat and loaded up on freeze-dried daiya-cheez pizza slices, mushroom-onion pastries (also freeze-dried), and freeze-dried butterscotch, almond, and grape