Chapter 4
What Happened
Lettie cut a hazel twig down the middle and held the two ends, not dowsing, she explained, just using it as a guide while they search for something blue. MC found it among some brush and she approvingly nodded. Her hazel twig led them to other directions, black then red. When they came across the blood of a vole, she exclaimed that now they would be looking for a storm and for the MC to grab her arm. They heard the distant rolling of thunder and Lettie swayed and stumbled.
"Are we there?" I asked.
"Not there," she said. "No, it knows we're coming. It feels us. And it does not want us to come to it."
The hazel wand was whipping around now like a magnet being pushed at a repelling pole. Lettie grinned.
They crouched and saw a large flat furry being flying above them. It was a manta wolf, Lettie explained. They were too far. She began to turn around but something was not right. She ordered the boy to place the shilling from his throat on the fork of her hazel wand. The wand starts smoking and then burst into flame, something Lettie had never encountered before.
"I promised I wouldn't let anything hurt you."
"Yes."
She said, "Just keep holding my hand. Don't let go. Whatever happens, don't let go."
Her hand was warm, but not sweaty. It was reassuring.
"Hold my hand," she repeated. "And don't do anything unless I tell you. You've got that?"
I said, "I don't feel very safe."
She did not argue. She said, "We've gone further than I imagined. Further than I expected. I'm not really sure what kinds of things live out here on the margins."
Lettie explained that they were still on Hempstock farmland and that they brought a lot of it with them from the old country. The sky looked orange, the plants alien. Lettie said they were there and the boy saw a huge tent ahead. It turned around and showed its face.
The face was ragged canvas, ripped and torn. Lettie told it to name itself. A voice appeared out of the air that she was the lady of the place and that she had been there long before Lettie had, and to go away or she would blow them away. Lettie stood her ground and the tent asked the boys name. She told the boy not to say a word and he pressed his lips together firmly.
The tent explained that everyone was asking for money so she granted them what they wished. It crouched down and Lettie told it that she would bind it just like any nameless thing and that it would be powerless. Lettie began to sing in another language to a tune that the boy recognized from a lullaby. The earth turned to worms and the tent came hurtling towards them. The boy reacted by holding his hands out to grab it and Lettie immediately knocked it down. Throughout all of this, she continued to sing.
The boy recognized the language as the one he used in his dreams. He called it the first language that was used to control all things. It was the language of shaping. As Lettie sang, he did not understand the words but he knew their full meaning. When it was all over, they headed back towards the farm. The boy noticed furry plants in the ground and Lettie encouraged him to pull one up. She claimed that this was the normal way. He saw the face of a little black kitten emerge from the ground but Lettie told him it was not a good idea to keep things from these parts. He set the kitten down and it darted away.
As they returned, Lettie said the monster was big and old and she regretted bringing him with her. She was sorry he let go of her hand, but there seemed to be no harm done. He agreed and hoped he said the right thing.
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