A banging noise from the front of the building jarred me awake, and I clung to the pile of cloth I'd hidden away in the walls. Was someone here to tear down the building at last? It was in pretty bad shape, no one but me dared step inside for fear that the walls would come crashing down around them. I was light though, and I was quick, I could dash away before anything fell on me.
I hoped people weren't here to tear down my home though, I'd been here for a long long time, as long as I could remember. There used to be a man here, who would sell clothes and things to people who came to the building, but he'd gone away a long time ago. So long ago that the pictures on the walls telling about his clothes were yellow and crunchy. The paste on the back was good though, still chewy and yummy, I liked to pull the paper off and eat it sometimes when the market didn't have any fruit on the ground and the baker didn't spill any seeds.
I pulled myself up the wall and onto the top layer of the house where the rafters were and peeked out of the hole in the wall. There was a woman with curly dark brown hair standing in the doorway, coughing, and waving her hand in front of her face. She wasn't old or young, just around the older side of younger, but I couldn't tell human ages well, so she might have been old or young after all. She had a big, floppy, blue hat with a belt on it, and her dress was sort of like a bath towel with two parts wrapped around her. It matched her hat, and even had a big belt around her waist to keep the two halves closed. She tossed a large book onto the center of the table with a thud, sending a cloud of dust up into the air and setting her coughing again. She waved a wooden staff with a black crystal on it around to clear the puff of dust, but it didn't help and she let out a growl.
"Sure, 'lightly used', 'in great shape', 'perfect location!'." she shook her head, "This place is a sty, I can't believe I spent half my gold on this."
Gold? I had a gold, I'd found it at market once! It was under a booth, and I'd snuck off with it before anyone could notice it was missing. I used my fur to keep it nice and shiny, and I put it under my pile of rags while I slept! I wondered if this woman had any more, or if she'd miss any. I'd better not take any from her right away though, I'd hate for her to get mad at me and make me leave. Did she know this was my house? Maybe she didn't, I didn't know if it'd be better for her to know I lived here too, or if I should hide. The man with all the clothes had chased me with a big stick and put out food with bad stuff in it, I didn't want to be chased again... I should hide for sure, then.
The woman drug her finger along the wooden surface in front of her and looked at the dust, scoffing. "I swear I'm going to try and get a refund..." she muttered.
She stepped behind the counter and tried the door leading to the room with boxes. The knob fell off and she groaned, but that was an easy enough fix. I slipped down into the wall and over to where the door was, poking my paw through the hole and pushing the bolt of the lock open. I wanted to help her a bit, juuuuust in case she was friendly. The knob-hole clicked and the door swung open, and I heard the woman gasp in shock, tapping the door with her knuckles and pulling on it for a moment before cautiously entering the room.
It was mostly empty, I'd pulled the few clothes into my nest ages ago, and the only stuff that was still there were some boxes of icky juice and some shelves. I went back up the wall to peek out another hole to watch her as she walked through, inspecting the shelves and shaking her head. When she got to the box of juice, she pulled one of the bottles out and made a surprised noise, pulling the top off quickly. She drank the yucky, sour stuff and smiled, nodding in satisfaction. She could have all of it, I didn't mind at all, even if it was in my house. It was too yucky for me, and it had made me dizzy and made my head hurt when I tried to make myself drink it one hungry winter.
She came to the doorway to the last room and frowned, looking at the empty frame. There wasn't a door there, just a hole. It was at the very back of the building so it wasn't too bad, no one would go all the way over there, so there wasn't much need for a door. I didn't have a hole that peeked into that room, it was tacked on to the back of the house, so the walls weren't hollow like the main building was, but I after she went in, I heard her sigh and groan. A moment later, she was dragging the mattress out of the room and tossing it on the floor of the big room.
"Last time I trust a realtor to sell me a shop sight unseen." she said, brushing off her dress.
She held out her staff, and blue goo started drizzling out of it right onto the mattress. That wasn't good, she was going to get it all soggy! I watched in frustration then mild horror as she leaned over the mattress herself too and opened her mouth, the same blue slimy stuff gushing out of her mouth and eyes onto the bed. Was she ok?! Was that her blood? Something was wrong, humans didn't make goo! At least, none of the ones I'd seen had! I bit my claw in fear as she straightened back up and the goo swirled around the mattress, glowing and flashing with strange lights. She pulled a rag out of her sleeve and wiped her face off, making sure to get the blue stuff off of her as the mattress wobbled and shook, flashing and poofing, the blue stuff turning to mist and flying up towards the ceiling, vanishing before it touched it.
I held back a gasp, where the old, lumpy, hay filled mattress had been was a new, blue square one. She poked it and turned and sat on it, and it held up as she bounced. Had she changed a mattress into a different mattress? I'd never seen anything like that before, she must be so powerful, maybe not even a human, maybe... an elf! I'd heard them talked about in town while I snuck around, they seemed to be spoken about with reverence, she must be one of them. The townspeople called them 'longears' though, but her ears were regular? Smaller than mine, even. I needed to find out more.
She tugged the new-old mattress back into the room behind the boxes room, and there was a thud a moment later. I waited as sounds of clattering and shuffling came from the little bedroom, and before long, I heard snoring. I slipped up to the rafters and crawled along them, getting to the other wall quickly. I crept along the ridge of the room until I was over the door, and carefully lowered myself to peek at the woman. She was on her back on the mattress, now on the old bed that had been here as long as I had, and her dress and staff were on the clothes rack next to her. She had a blanket on, one I hadn't seen her with when she came in, and she was fast asleep.
I watched her from my place up on the doorframe, my tail twitching. She was acting like she was staying, which might be nice. It was very boring to just sit and wait for market days or try and catch bugs. If she was here, I could take her food while she wasn't looking and not have to sneak all the way to the market! And I'd have someone to watch if I was bored, I got bored a lot... Oh, and maybe there would be other people to come and see too! This could be very nice.
Hm, on the other paw though, if she was mean, I could be chased out and have to live in the big scary outside, with hawks and big stompy horses and the sun in my eyes all the time, blech. I'd have to see what kind of person she was, if she was kind, I'd help her and try to get her to stay. If she was bad... I'd try and ruin her things to make her run away. I hoped she was good though, I was ever so lonely.
That was a thing to think about in the morning though, she'd woken me up after all, and I had a lovely nap to get back to.
~~~
I woke up to a banging noise, and I squeaked in surprise, scurrying around my nest before I remembered my new house guest. I slowed to a halt and listened again, the banging sound came louder and then there was a crash and I yelped. I heard shuffling and a muffled yell from the back room, and I climbed up to my peeking spot to see what had caused the noise. Where the front door used to be was now a brand new hole. There was a tall green man awkwardly trying to pick the door up off the floor where it'd fallen to prop it back over the hole, but he wasn't having much luck getting it to stay. The woman burst into the main room, her hair a mess and her face bleary, and she squawked in anger at him.
"Gorthath you oaf! My door!" she yelled at the green man.
"Ah, uh, hey Lexra..." he said sheepishly, "I was, uh, trying to see if you needed any help-"
"Any help destroying my new shop?!" she barked, "No thank you, I do not! It's in a perfectly fine state of disrepair as it is without your clumsy ass smashing things!"
"Aw, no, I just- it was barely a tap." Gorthath said, "See? The hinges are fine, the wood is rotted though, you'd have needed a new doorframe anyway."
"And I needed one that much sooner because of you, out!" the woman, Lexra, said, pointing at the door.
"Alright, alright..." he muttered "Hey, if this doesn't- uh, if you ever miss the adventuring life, we'd be happy to have you back in the group, you know."
"I told you, I want to retire." she shook her head and her shoulders went droopy. "I need to settle down. I want- I want to just be able to lay my head down on a soft bed every night instead of a cold cave floor, I want good food from an inn, and not just when we're passing through a town, I want to know I won't have to fight for my life at any time during the day..."
"I get it..." he said sadly, "Well, we'll be at the inn tonight, come by and we'll all buy you some food and drinks, on us, ok?"
"Yeah, ok." she said, still slumping, "And just- leave the door on the ground, I'll try and find a carpenter to reinforce stuff in a bit..."
Gorthath waved at her and she waved back as he ducked out the door and left my sight. She was going to open a shop? Maybe for clothes again? Or a food shop? I would like that very much. I wiggled back as she scanned the room with her eyes, yawning slightly and smoothing down her hair. She glanced right at my hole but her eyes didn't linger long, I was too shrouded in darkness to see.
"The first thing we need to do is to get rid of all this dust..." she muttered.
She went back out of the room, taking the book from yesterday off the table and leaving me alone for a moment, but reappeared a moment later holding a staff and a small biscuit. She tapped the staff on the ground, causing the gem at the top to glow blue. The staff lifted into the air, and she took a bite of her food, crumbs tumbling down her front to the ground. My tummy growled in anticipation, she was making a mess, I'd pop out and get a nice treat as soon as she wasn't looking!
A round black ball appeared on top of the staff, and the whole room burst into a whirling tornado of wind. I gasped and braced myself against the opening I was against, my four paws clawing at the inner wall to stop me from getting sucked out as the whole room was pulled inwards, the tongues of air raking across every surface, beating into me as they passed. Dust, posters, dried glue, the crumbs, everything was pulled inward, sucked into the orb.
After what seemed like an eternity, the whirlwind died down, and I sagged, my limbs shaking. The black orb was shuddering, the vibrations rattling the staff as it flickered. Lexra ate the rest of her biscuit and took the staff back in her hands. She turned to the door and pointed, the black ball shooting off and out the opening with a hum. A moment later, there was a dull thud and a small 'boom' noise from somewhere outside the building. I watched her in awe as she looked around the room and made a grunt of satisfaction.
"That's dusting done, it's already looking loads better!"
~~~
The rest of the day Lexra worked hard. She went out and found someone to come back and start putting new bits of wood up where the rotten parts were, and while she was out, I explored her room. The bed was bouncy and soft, and I would love to sleep on it if I could do it without being seen, but I couldn't find the blanket or biscuits she'd had. I even used my nose to sniff all around the bed just in case she'd hidden the food under the mattress, but all I could smell was her and the weird earthy scent of that book she had. I was getting hungry, where would she keep the food? Her pockets didn't look big enough, it had to be somewhere, right..?
I heard a noise from the front of the store and I bolted out of her room, up the wall, over the rafter, and into my space, diving into the pile of rags and holding my breath. I'd forgotten there was no door now, anyone could walk in and see me! I slowly climbed up and put my face to the very tiniest of holes I'd poked in the wall near my nest, barely big enough to see out of, but safer than the big hole. Lexra was standing in the middle of the room with a tall, strong man, glaring around the room, one hand to her ear.
"Uh, miss, you want I should-" the man started to say.
"Hush!" she snapped, "I heard something! I think this place has rats. Or..." she looked over at the door to the box room I'd opened for her and got a funny look on her face. "Or something else?"
"Well if it's rats, I can help there, I just gotta get my brother, we can flush 'em out for you." the man nodded.
"I don't want you flushing out anything yet." Lexra snapped, "If it's a house spirit, this whole place could come down if we insult it."
"House spirit, huh?" the man looked around the room and shrugged. "It doesn't smell like rat piss in here, so maybe?"
"Ugh, look, just start reinforcing stuff." she said, walking for the counter and out of sight of my peep hole, "I need to consult my book about this, and I've got a lot of cleaning to do too."
"Can do!" the man gave a salute and walked back outside.
I carefully moved up to the upper section of the wall and looked through my box room hole, watching her go into her room. I heard rustling pages and I sighed, flopping back down into my nest. What was the point of having an interesting new person to watch if they kept going into the one place I can't see? At least I'd be able to watch the man put up new boards or whatever he was doing, that was pretty interesting. I turned back to the other room and carefully looked out the hole above the rafters. Maybe this man would have some food and drop it, humans ate at least a couple of times a day, if he was here long enough, he'd have to eat sometime, right? Market day was still two days away, I needed something yummy in my tummy!
~~~
I crept across the rafter and into the wall against the exterior of the building. I couldn't get there through the walls because the corners were solid wood, but I could get into the walls from the tops, where the rafters were. The man was eating a sandwich, a big piece of crusty bread with lots of meat and cheeses stuffed into it, and he had it sitting right next to the door... I slipped down into the wall and edged over to the doorframe. Usually I wouldn't be able to reach where the sandwich was sitting, but he'd removed the rotten wood of the frame, leaving a big gap!
I got to the place where the hole was the biggest, and froze as his hand came down. He scooped up the sandwich and I heard nomming noises, and the sandwich was returned to the cloth on the floor he'd set it on. The angle was perfect, he was turned away, the bitten part of the sandwich was close to me, I could just reach out and... I snapped my hand out, grabbing for the yummiest looking ingredient, and pulled it back, clutching my prize to my chest and backing away. I'd done it! I'd snagged a whole piece of meat!
I wiggled in excitement, meat was so rare for me to find! The butcher was very careful to block my ways to his wares, and the food vendors usually didn't leave the meat low enough for me to snag. I edged back into the darkness and took a big bite, the crispy, flavorful skin crunching under my teeth as I ate. This was wonderful, maybe he'd come back again, I needed more of this! I took the remainder in my mouth and ran up to the rafters again, I'd enjoy this in my nest. I scampered over the rafters and down to my pile of cloths and snuggled up, munching on my treat and rocking back and forth, this was a great day!
I listened for Lexra in the box room and heard her shifting things around and moving furniture to make room for whatever, and held in a giggle at the funny squishy noises her staff made as it cleaned the floors for her with that blue goo. It must not really be her blood, because there was a lot of it, and things didn't usually live when they were missing that much blood. I ate my meat until I was full and my tummy poked out, then I curled up in my nest and closed my eyes. I needed water, the meat had been a little dry, but I could go down to the stream under the house when I wasn't so sleepy. I passed out to the noises of constriction and cleaning, and didn't wake up for a long time.
~~~
I cracked my eyes open and smacked my mouth. I needed a sip! I wormed my way to the bottom floor of the house and found the path to the trickle of water that ran through the stones of the building and slurped up the liquid, gulping it up and feeling much better. I also did my business, further downstream so it'd wash away, then I wiggled my way back up to my nest, my still-full tummy making the trip harder than usual. I could get used to this, all full and satisfied. Even on market days I had to be careful and save food for the rest of the time before market day.
I heard a scraping noise and knocking on the walls, and I flinched, if they busted through the walls, I'd be caught! I slipped out of my nest, grabbing the gold and getting ready to flee under the house and away the moment a hole was knocked through the wood. The tapping stopped right in front of where I was, and the wall went quiet for a moment, then Lexra's voice came through the walls to me.
"Spirit? Are you there?"
I wasn't a spirit, was she talking to me?
"...I know you're there, you unlocked the door for me, and I've heard you moving around the walls since I got here."
Drat, I'd tried so hard to be quiet, she must have good ears. Is that what people meant by longears?
"I'm leaving some things on the counter for you, spirit." she said "A bowl of cream, a single gold piece, a roll of bread, and some berries. What you take in the night will tell me what kind of spirit you are."
I heard pages flipping, she must have her book with her.
"If you take the cream, you'll be helpful in keeping the home clean, if you take the coin, you'll help me with my business endeavors, if you take the bread, your presence will help my relationships with others, and if you take the berries, you'll make my garden thrive..."
The book snapped closed.
"I've never worked with spirits before, but if I have one in my house, I'd like to at least try to get along. I'm going to bed, so you can come get your pick when I fall asleep, ok?"
I wrinkled my nose. I was still too full for a snack, but if she was giving me another gold... I'd take a nap while she fell asleep and then go grab it! I curled up and snoozed a little more while she got ready for bed, and before long, I was awake and the moon was high. I could tell because the light through the still broken door shone into my wall hole, lighting up my nest. Time for gold! I made my way up and over the rafter and looked down at the counter. Sure enough, there were the items she'd set out for me. She must be nice after all!
I hopped down and eyed the gold. Not as shiny as mine, but I'd polish it up and make it nice and pretty soon. I sniffed at the bread and eyed the saucer of cream. It'd been a while since I ate that meat, I could have a little snack. I didn't want to waste food after all. I drug the cream over to the plate with the roll and moved the berries over to the same plate. I think... I'd try to make a sandwich, like the man had! I tore a chunk of the bread off and pulled a bit of a berry apart and squished it between the bread. I was a baker now! I took a bite and thought to myself, I could make it better! I dipped it in the cream and took a bite of the now soggy treat. That was way better! Hopefully this wasn't a one time thing, I'd love to have it again. I ate the whole sandwich and half of another one before deciding I was too full for more. Time to get back into the walls before morning.
I was so happy to have a kind person living with me!
~~~
I woke to more knocking on the walls, and I blearily opened my eyes, looking around.
"Spirit, I- you didn't do what we talked about!" Lexra said, sounding grumpy, "You took the gold and made a snack with the rest, does that mean you'll work on all the things? Or that you'll help with money the most but don't mind helping with the other stuff too? This isn't in my book..."
I licked my lips and stretched. I didn't know how I'd be able to help her get gold, I didn't understand about that stuff. She should keep giving me food though, I liked that.
"Come on, I know you're intelligent, you made a sandwich, can you respond? Give me a sign?" she asked, tapping on the wall again.
I stayed quiet. I didn't really know what I'd say to her anyway, and plus she was acting weird, wanting me to help with her garden or cleaning? I didn't clean, if I did, there wouldn't be so much for her to do, duh.
"Ugh, look, the carpenter is coming over later to finish putting all the fresh wood on. I'm not boarding up your holes because I want to be nice and work with you, but once he's gone, we gotta figure something out, ok?"
I ignored her and rolled back over, closing my eyes. She had a lot to do, she should do it, instead of waking me up and bothering me.
~~~
I worked hard, rubbing the new gold on my fur as hard as I could, but the stains wouldn't come off. Had the other gold been this hard to get shiny? Maybe it was more shiny already when I'd gotten it, ugh. I spit on it and rubbed it against my paw. Blah, I'd just have to work on it for a few days, hopefully it would be shiny soon. I heard a thumping noise from the main room and I half listened to the conversation outside the wall as I worked.
"Oh, thank you for your help today, one last thing..." Lexra said sweetly.
"Sure thing, miss, what is it?" the carpenter man said happily.
"Could I borrow your ladder?" she asked "I need to do some work, and I'd like to have it here for the evening."
"Hey, no problem." the man said, "I'll be back tomorrow anyway, one less thing to bring over!"
"Thank you!" she said, and I heard a thumping noise.
I kept working on the gold, I would make it shiny, I knew I could, I just needed to keep at it! The wall shook slightly, and I looked up, confused. What was that? I looked out my tiny peephole and saw the ladder leaned up against the main rafter beam, Lextra carefully climbing up it. I frowned and leaned away, what was she up to? I heard her grunt, and a light scream came from above me, and I looked out again to see no Lexra on the ladder. Had she climbed up onto the rafter? She'd fall! I looked up at the hole in the wall I got in and out from, and saw the opening darken as her face covered it. I knew she couldn't see me from there, but I pressed against the wall anyway, just in case.
She sucked in a breath and muttered something under her breath, and the hole lit up with a blue glow. I clasp my hands over my muzzle to hide my squeak and I shivered in place as I heard the sounds of the blue not-blood gushing out of her face. Was she trying to flood my home? Turn me into a mattress? Something worse? I scrambled for my two gold and backed away to the hole that led under the building. I could pop away in a moment's notice if I needed to, as soon as I saw the blue stuff coming down the hole.
The glow stopped and a pained groan came from the opening. Was she ok? Had her blue goo backfired? The shadow that had been covering the hole was gone now, and all was still. After a moment of nothing, I inched forward. Maybe I should check on her, see what she did, if she was hurt, she couldn't give me any more treats! A hacking noise sounded out, and the wall was filled with a pale blue light and I froze. Along the rafter, into the wall walked Lexra, a glowing orb of blue in her hand.
I stared at her, she was- she'd- she was my size! Smaller, even! She looked bleary and tired, and she stumbled as she walked into my home.
"I hate this spell..." she grumbled, shaking her head.
She got to the edge of the beam and looked down, still not noticing me, and she huffed as she climbed down. she slipped and yelped as she tumbled down, face first into my nest with a thud. She mumbled out a moan and rolled to her butt, shaking her head and looking around. She held up her flickering, sputtering orb and the light finally fell on me, illuminating me for the first time. She gasped and pulled back, a look of shock and confusion on her face.
"You're not a spirit at all..." she whispered, and the light went out.