Free Ravenspell Book 3: Freaky Fly Day by David Farland Page B

the Flies was powerful—more powerful than any of them knew. Ben asked, “How will you fight her?”
    “I have long known that the day would come when I would have to face this monster,” Lady Blackpool said. “I have seen her face in dreams and visions many times. Her power is great, greater than mine. I will have to fight her as best I can, matching my wisdom against her greater strength . . .”
    The whole family was sober.
    “Is there anything I can do to help?” Ben asked. “Do we need to drop you off someplace?”
    The shrew shook her head. “It is no accident that we are flying south. I go now to meet my destiny.”
    The paparazzi continued to take pictures, lights flashing like lightning. Ben felt trapped, and for some reason, he was unaccountably sad.
    A helicopter buzzed over the house and hovered above the car. Black-ops agents fired rubber bullets over the heads of the paparazzi and forced them back, while the props from the helicopter made such a strong headwind that it started to blow photographers’ cameras away.
    Ben watched the scene from the windows and suddenly had a disturbing thought. “This is what my life will be like from now on,” he whispered mournfully. “I’ll have photographers chasing me all the time. No matter what happens, even if I turn back into a human, I’ll always be the boy who was once a mouse.”

Chapter 11
    IN FLIGHT
    A single pair of houseflies breeds so quickly that if there were no spiders, bats, and other predators to eat them, over the course of one year the flies’ offspring would multiply to the point that they would cover the earth to a depth of half an inch.
—FROM THE RAVENSPELL COOL BESTIARY
    Amber had never flown on a plane before, but now Butch had rented a Learjet to take them to Disneyland, a small jet with only a dozen seats. It was very comfortable. Amber had flown in a magically powered flying saucer made from a garbage can lid and a fishbowl. She’d ridden on the backs of mallards and geese. But a Learjet turned out to be the best of all!
    The cushions were made from crushed red velvet, and everything was very fancy. There was no stewardess, only a captain to fly the jet, but it did have a nice little minibar filled with root beer, candy bars, and sandwiches.
    It took only minutes for Ben’s mom and dad to take their seats, and then Amber and Ben raced around, exploring the plane. Lady Blackpool just sat thoughtfully on an armrest while the butterfly Serena landed on the back of a seat and looked out the window.
    “If there is anything you need,” the captain had said before they departed, “just holler. The intercom here on the plane is voice-activated, and it works both ways.”
    The captain put on a movie for Amber to watch— Stuart Little. Afterward, he went into the cockpit and started the plane. It had gone surging down the runway like a speeding car and had suddenly lifted into the air.
    For a moment, Amber watched the earth fall away, the trees and houses growing smaller and smaller until she really couldn’t see them at all.
    So she watched the movie for a bit. It left Amber confused. It was about a little mouse named Stuart who was somehow living in a human orphanage. Stuart could talk to humans, but didn’t seem to have any magic powers at all. Nor did any humans even notice that he was a mouse. He was a very odd mouse who walked funny and wore human clothes. “Mice don’t walk like that!” Amber groaned after just a few minutes. “Whoever made this up has never even seen a mouse! Why isn’t Stuart grooming?”
    Ben tried to explain the movie to her, telling her that it was a fantasy. He wanted Amber to relax and just enjoy the film, but she couldn’t tell if it was supposed to be serious, funny, strange, or just stupid.
    Eventually, Amber got bored. So she merely sat on the armrest while Ben’s mom petted her. Mona would gently take her big warm finger and stroke it down Amber’s head, from nose to tail, sending shivers of