So Thomas carefully took the glasses
including the one with the vials contents
down to the kitchen and hid them on the shelf just above that
hot wood cook stove they had in one corner.On the stove
simmered the hearty clam chowder Mariana's mother had prepared.
Normally Thomas was tasked with bringing the pots of food to the
kitchen table
so the little trickster ,who was still unsure whether to
spike his older sister with the vial laced stuff,figured he could
sneak the glasses onto the table somewhere along the way.
So there sat the slightly shaking glasses of vial stuff
about three feet directly above a cast iron woodstove with
fire inside it ,and since it was a old cracked stove,sometimes
outside of it.
Thomas soon forgot about the three glasses as the family
gathered around the table,said Grace and the kids parents briefly
touched on their dads financial difficulties with
Mr Meanhy the Banker.
The Clara Anns engines were a half century old and the old
fishing Dover Clipper couldn't handle the waves like she had
in their grandfathers time.
For you see after gramps had died three years earlier the
Clara Ann had passed in ownership to their dad.
Which was a mixed blessing.
However their dad seemed to be more excited then worried this night and when he told the wife and kids that some salvors from
the west had chartered him to take them to a World War One
wreck they had recently discovered,a wreck named the
ISC Poseidon ( Icelandic Stram Collier Poseidon )
Marina was all ears as she immediately realized the connection between the stained note in the century old briefcase and the
wreck her dad had been hired to visit....
So their dad told the kids what he knew about the WW1 sunken collier,a spase tale that involved transport of an ancient fabled
weapon from Iceland to Command,Zeppelins and U Boats.
Her dad,her mother and hungry Thomas soon dug into the
clam chowder,but Marina's mind raced as she figured it out
at the kitchen table
Clearly the vial contained the ancient fabled weapon that
Command had a interest in.
Then the three glasses shook off the shelf above the stove
and shattered on its iron hot cooking surface.
The kitchen immediately was filled with acrid brimstone and sulphurous scented fumes that all four found themselves breathing in.
Then came the blackness as the choking fumes in their lungs
ended their coughing fairly quickly
as Maria and her family passed out.
The hours ticked by and slowly the fumes dissipated .
The Sun was just beginning to set when the four returned to life.
I say returned to life because after the four members of Marina's
family got over the fact they had survived the foul fumes that gotten inside their lungs they thought about the chickens in the
backyard,the pet cat and pet puppy in the washing room.
To their horror they discovered the cat and puppy lay dead,as did the chickens.
A chill settled on Marina's chest as she realized she,Thomas and her
parents should have been as dead as the two pets and the chickens.
She wasn't sure just what had happened but she was dead certain
that the ancient fabled Icelandic weapon in the vial had changed her
and the other three members of her family.
And her mouth felt 'funny'
like it contained some foul stuff,nor did her aching jaws and
teeth help to dissuade Marina's certainty that she had changed
somehow .....