there was a light coming from the behind the barn and i found lancaster out there, looking for something on the ground with a flashlight. * i know it was here before, he said, without looking at me. * i asked him what it was he was looking for. * a jewel, he said, a jewel with fantastic luck. * luck, i asked. * yes, he said, still looking around the ground, it will bring me all the luck i need when i go to battle the ingatians. * what? i asked. who are the…in…whatevers? i looked back at the house. mom would be looking for us now, since dinner had been ready and she thought eating cold food was the work of the devil. * the ingatians, he continued, are the people who live below the barn. * i rolled my eyes. under the barn, are they? i asked. i put my hand on his shoulder, trying to lead him towards the house. as soon as i laid my hand on him he shook it off violently. * i need the jewel, he hissed, and for the first time, i noticed his right eye was puffy and crusted with dried blood. * lancaster, i said, what the hell happened to you? where have you been all day? * he returned to scouring the ground with the flashlight and said the ingatian diplomat that had been sent to see him punished him for disobeying the laws of the barn. * look, i said, knock it off. who punched you? let’s get back to the house…you know mom’s gonna give us hell for being late for dinner… * he abruptly cursed at me, hit me over the head with the flashlight, and ran off into the corn field. i fell holding my head and cried out for him but he was already through the stalks. i tried following the bounce of his flashlight but after a few minutes of running after him i lost it. crickets. moon full, i put my hands on my knees and tried to catch my breath. i decided to turn back and get mom. then i heard something breaking down stalks on either side of me. * are you cranix? a voice asked, the sound of it like the droning wheeze of a large machine. do you have the jewel? it continued. * who’s there, i yelped. lancaster? * then the objects bounded away, and in the moonlight i saw, for the first time, the thin, extended bodies of the ingatians as they leaped twenty feet in the air towards the house. towards the house and mom.
