Forced To Breed With The Dungeon Beasts (Monster Breeding) by A.J. Hamilton Page B

your way by teatime.’
    Sally rolled her eyes
again. ‘You guys have seen too many bad horror movies.’
     
    Outside, the sunlight seemed bright after the dark dingy
interior of The Broken Cross. They found the tiny path leading into
the woods and started along it.
    ‘What
do you think the bartender was trying to warn us about?’ Amy asked.
The happenings at the pub had unnerved her and she was no longer so
sure she wanted to investigate too deeply into the village and the
castle. Right now, a large hotel room in London sounded very
inviting. And a few drinks in the hotel bar, which would be
civilized and nothing like the Broken Cross pub in
Slaybury.
    They
walked for an hour before they came upon the ruins of Slaybury
Castle. It was just like Amy’s dad had told her; a collection of
ruined stone walls and battlements around a central building that
still stood solid and proud even as its defensive walls had
crumbled around it. Her dad had said there were even rumours that
the castle dungeons were still intact beneath the site but no one
had ever found the entrance to them. The thought of rooms
underground beneath her feet made Amy shudder. People used to be
tortured in castle dungeons. Perhaps there were still bones down
there, manacled to the cold stone walls.
    ‘Pretty cool,’ Sally
said, climbing over a ruined wall to get closer to the standing
building.
    ‘Yeah, it’s hard to
believe my dad came here when he was a kid even before I was born
and now here I am, all grown up and standing here too.’
    ‘Hey, look there’s a
door,’ Sally said, pointing at a stout wooden door set into the
stone wall of the one good part of the castle.
    ‘We
should leave that alone,’ Amy said, ‘and stick to the ruins. It’s
probably dangerous in there. The floor could have collapsed, or be
unsafe or something.’ She really didn’t want Sally to open that
door and the fear that rose inside her was irrational but there
just the same, making her mind imagine all sorts of bad things
behind that door.
    ‘Yeah, whatever,’
Sally said. ‘I’ve come all the way out here to a no-guy zone so I’m
going to try and find some kind of fun.’ She braced herself against
the heavy door, turned the iron ring that served as a door handle,
and pushed with all her might.
    The door opened and
Sally fell through the opening.
    ‘Sally!’ Amy ran over
to make sure her friend was OK.
    Sally sat on her butt
in the middle of a large room. She got up and brushed dust off her
jeans and denim jacket. ‘Wow, look at this place!’
    Curiosity overcame Amy’s fear and she stepped inside. The room
was large with a high beamed ceiling. The walls were hung with old
tapestries and a large stone fireplace dominated one
wall.
    ‘We need to get out of
here,’ Amy said, suddenly panicking.
    ‘What? Why?’
    ‘Because there’s a
fire burning in the fireplace. Someone lives here!’
    Sally looked over at
the pile of logs burning with bright orange flames. Then both girls
saw a high-backed leather chair near the fire and a man sitting in
the chair. He stood up and stared at them. Well over six feet tall
and dressed in a dark blue jacket and pants over a waistcoat and
white open collared shirt, he was thin and graceful. His face was
bordered with a closely trimmed black beard and moustache that
matched his collar length hair. His eyes were dark and piercing. In
one hand he held a gold-topped walking stick.
    ‘Ladies,’ he said,
‘welcome to Slaybury Castle.’
    Amy and Sally looked
at each other. ‘What do we do now?’ Amy asked.
    Sally shrugged. ‘He
seems harmless enough. A little odd maybe.’
    The man stepped
forward, bowing slightly. ‘I am Grayson Highfield. Pleased to make
your acquaintance.’
    ‘I’m
Sally and this is Amy,’ Sally said. ‘Do you live here?’
    ‘I do. I look after
the beasts in the dungeon.’
    Sally laughed but to
Amy it sounded nervous. ‘Yeah, right,’ she said.
    ‘Oh
I’m not joking, my dear. In fact, your