Fantasyland 03 Fantastical Read Online Free PDF Page A

the fire probably for the same reason I stood by it, in
order to get warm and use it to dry his clothes.
    What he didn’t do was speak to me.
    What he also didn’t do was rotisserie the
rabbits. He didn’t turn the handle that was at one end of the iron
rods at all. That meant one side would get roasted and the other
wouldn’t. Furthermore, even though they were rabbits, which freaked
me out, all their juices were falling into the fire. If they were
captured and used to baste the darned things, they would end up
more succulent and flavorful.
    I decided not to share this culinary
expertise with him either. Instead, I got out from under the hides,
went to get the frying pan and then moved to the handle by the
fire. I gathered as much of my nightgown as I could in my hand
(which was a lot, seriously, there was a huge amount of material
covering me), used it to shield my skin against the heat of the rod
and squatted as ladylike as I could by the fire while using the
handle and holding the pan under the rabbits to collect their
juices.
    I did this for awhile feeling his eyes on me
before he spoke.
    “By the gods, what are you doing?”
    I didn’t look at him as I replied,
“Rotisserie. You cook them like you were, one side will get
charred, the other won’t cook. And everyone knows you need to baste
meat.”
    This was met with silence.
    I kept turning then when I gathered enough
juices I lifted the pan and poured them over the meat. Then I held
the pan under again as I kept turning the handle.
    Truth be told, the actions were tedious, the
pan was heavy and my arms were beginning to ache. But at least I
had something to do.
    After awhile, he called, “Cora.”
    “Yep,” I answered, lifted the pan, basted
the meat then returned it under the carcasses, all the while
turning the handle.
    “Cora,” he repeated.
    “I said, yep,” I replied.
    “Look at me, woman,” he ordered.
    I lifted my eyes to him. His face was blank
but his eyes were alert and working and they were fastened on
me.
    “What are you doing?” he asked.
    “I told you,” I reminded him.
    “What are you doing?” he repeated and I felt
my brows draw together.
    “Dude, I told you,” I returned.
    His face turned cold. “Do not call me this
name,” he commanded. “I do not like it.”
    I stared at him. Then I sighed. Then I
looked back to the fire and muttered, “Whatever.”
    “Cora,” he called again and my gaze cut back
to his face.
    “What?” I snapped.
    “Explain yourself,” he demanded.
    “I already did.”
    “When did you learn this?” he growled,
tipping his dark head to my movements.
    Uh-oh.
    Lazy Cora of this world clearly did not know
how to baste nor would she trouble herself to do it.
    Oh well. Never mind.
    I shrugged and said, “I heard it somewhere
and if I have to eat rabbit, it might as well taste good.”
    He studied me then said quietly, “You are
strange.”
    My hand on the handle stopped moving, I
glared at him and bit out, “I’m not strange!”
    His eyes moved over me then came back to
mine before he kept speaking in a soft voice. “You are not
you.”
    Hmm. What did I do with this?
    It was the perfect opener. The problem was,
I was guessing since he had lots of weapons, and none of them were
guns, grenades or bazookas, he rode a horse and he didn’t have a
camp stove but an iron spit, that this world also didn’t have
movies. So he probably wouldn’t respond positively to the fact that
the me Cora of my world might have been (a guess) switched with the
Cora of this world that he knew.
    Then again, they had curses in this world
that we didn’t have in my world so maybe they had magic. Maybe he’d
get it.
    “Uh…” I started but couldn’t think of what
to say.
    “It won’t work,” he told me and I blinked at
him.
    “What won’t work?”
    “This change,” he stated.
    Oh dear.
    “Uh, Noc –”
    “What you did was unforgiveable,” he cut me
off and I sucked in both lips and bit them at the harsh