“What? What is it?”
He lifts up his pants and points to the pocket. “That fucking bag of rings.” Then he reaches in, pulls out the bag, and yep. Sure enough, they are moving around in there. In fact, they are moving around so much, the bag is leaning to one side. In mid-air.
And not just any side, either. They are leaning towards the shimmering new portal door.
“Uhhhh… what’s happening?” I get to my feet.
“I’m not sure.” Pell stares at the bag, then at the door. He opens the bag and he’s about to look down into it when a ring flies up and starts spinning in the air.
Then it comes straight at me—like a frickin’ bullet!
But instead of taking me out, it slides onto my finger!
“Oh, fuck this!” I shake my hand, trying to get the ring off. But when I look down, it has melded with my other ring. Like… like… melted into it and now I’m wearing a completely different ring!
“What the hell!” I hold my hand up so Pell can see.
“Well… that’s weird.”
“Weird? A magic ring just assaulted me!”
He chuckles. Then he side-eyes the door. “Hmm.”
“What?”
“Why is this happening now? I mean, you’ve been around the rings for weeks. Why now?”
I already know. So I sigh out the word. “Great. That’s just great. This is about that stupid door, isn’t it?”
We both look at the shimmery portal, and then it just fades away as we watch.
Pell and I stare at each other. Then he throws up his hands. “I have no clue.”
“Hmm.” I look down at the new ring. It used to be silver with little leaves and tiny acorns on it. But now it’s kind of a brassy gold with a loop of moths.
Pell comes over and takes me hand, studying the ring. “Moths.” Then he looks at the empty space where the portal was. “Hmmm.”
“Hmmm what?”
“That ring is a key to that door.”
“How do you figure?”
“What do you mean? Clearly it opened the door.”
“No. It closed the door, Pell.”
“Hmm,” he says again. Then he peers into the bag of rings. “I wonder what the other ones do?” And then he actually reaches in, like he’s gonna grab one.
“Well, don’t bring one out! I don’t want, or need, more ring magic!”
“I don’t think these rings are for the monsters, Pie. I think they’re for you.”
“Well… what should I do?”
He shrugs. “Learn to use them?”
I squint my eyes at him.