The Bewitching Hour

✧ chapter four: the contract

With the drought getting worse by the day and stretching on longer than anyone could have anticipated, the citizens of Plaht are quickly becoming unhinged. Demands are laid at the chieftain's feet— stop this warlock, or we will do so ourselves! He cannot allow so many to throw themselves into a fool's mission, so he knows he must do SOMETHING.

There is an emergency meeting. Takashi Shirogane and his husband from Jitan are not invited and most of the young ones are told to stay away. But some of them— older teens, mostly, most of them the sons and daughters of various council members and local businessmen— are allowed an exception.

That is why Hunk Garrett is allowed in the room for this discussion, seated beside his father. Hershel "Pappy" Garrett fixes just about everything in town that breaks in his little tinker-shop and Hunk is dutifully following in his footsteps. He is nervous because Lance and Pidge aren't present, but one of Lance's brothers is, along with Pidge's father Sam. And there are several others around his age that he considers friends. Once, not so long ago, he and these other young people were crammed into a tiny one-room schoolhouse together nearly every day. Even when business and distance change things and they can't see one another very often and don't have time to catch up, that fact remains the same, and it has a funny way of bonding people together.

"It is apparent that force will not work when dealing with Yorak," Interim Chief Coran sighs from his podium. He seems so fatigued these days. He was full of righteous fury at first, but according to Sam Holt, Yorak's dismissive attitude proved strangely effective in draining him of his will to fight. Hunk found that strangely humorous.

"It's best not to attack him unless we know what he is capable of," Ryan adds. His father smiles proudly. He probably taught his son all about being cautious in a potential standoff.

Ryan's father, Councilman Kinkade, is a valuable bow-hunter, and Ryan doesn't want to disappoint him. Ryan's friends have the same ideals regarding their families, but they seem less relaxed about it than Ryan must look to them. He may not show it in his mannerisms, but Ryan is often just as anxious inside. Hunk respects Ryan a great deal and knows this to be true. He can just barely see nervousness in Ryan's brow.

James is getting a lot of stares. Ina, too. Their parents are the town intellectuals, and so they're expected to have clever things of their own to add. But it isn't fair. It's quite unjust, James feels, to treat them all like children one day and to expect pearls of wisdom from them the next. But as usual, he swallows these complaints and says not a word.

"...If he does not respond to threats, we need only determine his language," Ina says after staring James down. "We must find the kind of messaging that gets through to him— make it worth his while to cooperate."

"But what could he POSSIBLY want from us?" James retorts, already hopeless. He's always been a little high-strung. "We're talking about immortal monsters here, are we not? And he's managed to keep himself clothed and fed without any input from us thus far."

"Everyone likes money, right?" Hunk suggests just to say something and show his father that he's willing to cooperate. "I'm sure he wouldn't turn down gold."

Hunk gets several glares from the others. His joke was not appreciated.

"...If he needed gold, he could get it," Romelle quietly explains. "With that kind of magick. If he were desperate for money he would resort to intimidation."

Hunk wants to argue that Yorak might, very simply, not be that kind of man, but he knows that that answer will not earn him any allies here. James is nearly collapsed into himself with his arms crossed over his chest. Ryan, beside him, has an impatient finger tapping against his knee. Ina is trying to hide her face. Only Romelle manages to maintain her elegant posture. Her mother is Plaht's seamstress. Beauty and poise are everything to that family.