A
werewolf
WANDERS
T HURSDAY , J ULY THE T WENTY -N INTH
Today we arrived at the Monster House! Th is is
the part of the tour I was most looking forward to!
We stay at the house of the most famous monster
hunter who ever lived, Lu-Yan! I say house, but it
is more of a fortress!
Th e pagoda-style building is overpoweringly
beautiful. Part of it, I am told, is a bed-
and-breakfast for guests, part is the house of
the famous man himself, and the rest is a prison
where nearly every monster imaginable has been
captured and interred! Th e rooms on the inside
of the building are built around a large pole from
which the roof and walls hang. Percy tells me
that this prevents structural damage during an
earthquake, and keeps the monsters completely
interred during natural disasters.
Lu Yan was not available to meet us in person
for some reason, though he was scheduled to, and
the rumor is that his wife has taken ill.
Our tour was joined by a man, who, I daresay,
has caught my fancy. His name is Winchester.
With a ridiculous American accent and a beautiful
smile, he is surely a parvenu, but that in itself is
quite exciting! Heavens, he is handsome. I have
not yet had the pleasure of meeting too many
Americans, and if he is any sample of their quality,
the men of England could hardly compare. Sturdy
and rugged. I hardly know what he said to me, I
WITHIN
was trying so hard to look interested. Something
about striking gold in the Wild West!
He is glad to stay with us at the house—he
is a guest of Lu Yan for entirely separate reasons
— because it means he will get to know so many
accomplished monster hunters! He says he has a
keen interest in monster hunting.
Sir Hammerhorn was asked to introduce us to
the house since he has been here every year for
the better part of a decade guiding these tours,
and Winchester stepped in as well, claiming he
knew his way around after staying there a few
weeks. Winchester has informed me that the
famous monster hunter's wife is deathly ill. Th e
conversation turned to the woman's famed beauty.
Hammerhorn claims that every time he has met
Lu Yan's beautiful wife, he has noticed the same
pretty little ribbon around her neck. He praised
her modest sensibility as she did not ever change
it out to follow fashions and he suspects it is a
family heirloom.
Of course, everybody's fi rst interest was scaling
the Monster Prison steps. It ascends upward in
a circle with secure little rooms with windows
looking in every few steps. Every monster
imaginable holds a space within! I can hardly
write fast enough to describe all the creatures I
have seen! And yet there is a sort of pang of guilt
within me, for each creature was truly trapped in
the truest sense of the word.