Rattling Van's Trip (Otherwise Untitled)
#87 of Short Stories
Jake and Linda are on the road, with a tag-along in the back of their van.
~ Linda shifted position in the driver's seat of the old van, gazing out wide into the horizon under the noon-time sun. He couldn't see any other cars out along the lonely stretch of road, only the scrubby plants and meager grasses that sought to encroach upon the path. The jackalope paused to listen for the fox in the passenger seat who was currently plunking away at some video game nonsense. All was as well as could be foreseen, to Linda's consideration. He addressed the gryphon visible in the rear view mirror with his inquiry, "So, why are you traveling with us, anyway?"
~ The fox could be heard to pause his video game, ears perking upright to hear the answer. Swaying calmly in the hammock she'd hung in the back of the van, a gryphon peered out from under her hat. "You two keep providing me beer.", with a polite grin. "Simple as that."
~ Linda leaned towards Greg, with the tone of a whisper and clearly audible he explained, "She doesn't drink on the job, as you may recall." The fox nodded, somewhat comforted by this news. Greg squirmed towards Linda with an actual whisper, "...you never did tell me who she is?"
~ Knowing better than to try and keep a secret from the tag-along gryphon, Linda sat back up to a dignified posture to enumerate. "It's bad magic to say her name, but I can tell you she's honest and takes her job seriously when there's a binding need." Greg glanced back at the hammock, as the gryphon volunteered her own answer to the fox with a scythe lifted into the air. Greg's field of view seemed to wrap itself around the tool, with a blade longer than the van and handle taller than the sky. Before it came to be all that he could see, the gryphon politely dropped the tool to the floor with a silent clatter.
~ The jackalope held up his hand to interrupt Greg's confusion, "One, I'd know. Those are my thing. And two, no illusion. Like I said, she's honest."
~ Settling back down into her hammock with an abrupt puffing of feathers, "I'm going to nap, while the next six pack gets cold.", laying out plans for their afternoon.