Told by Flinch
Part 3 of the Homegrown Help series
Master sent me down to see Lichmyface, and I’m writing the whole of it down proper, same as I do everythin’ else, only this time it’s mine to tell rather than somethin’ I’m reportin’ on.
Went past the new stairs first, on the way, and there’s the gargoyle sat up top of it same as always, still as stone ’cause it is stone, and somethin’ about seein’ it there caught me somewhere I weren’t expectin’. Home-shaped feelin’, if that makes sense. Revendreth had stone fiends all over, same sort, same stillness, and I never thought I’d miss the sight of one till I got one starin’ back at me from a stairwell that ain’t even mine yet. Didn’t say nothin’ to it. Don’t think it’d have said nothin’ back neither, but I stood there a moment longer than I needed to all the same.
Spiders were about further down, the big sort what’s been causin’ bother. Didn’t run from ’em, which surprised me more than it should’ve. One came close enough I could’ve bolted and didn’t, just watched it circle and go off again after somethin’ else. Felt braver than I am, standin’ there. Might’ve just been that it weren’t interested in somethin’ my size.
Knocked on Lichmyface’s door with the tea in hand, heart goin’ a bit, if I’ve got one of them proper. He opened it and just looked at me a good long while, which I’m told is normal for him and didn’t feel normal at all from where I were stood. Offered the tea. He stepped back from the door, which I took for a yes, and I went and sat with him a while. Told him about the corner, and the colour I picked, and a bit about Master, though I kept that part short. Got no words back — can’t, with the jaw — but he wrote a line down after a bit. Company’s fine. Tea’s a nice thought. That were the whole of it, and I’m told, from him, that counts as warm.
Didn’t get as far as the front door on the way back up. Heard it before I got anywhere near — a screech up high that weren’t Master’s voice nor Lichmyface’s either, somethin’ quick and light skitterin’ across a floor not far behind it, and under both of those a heavier sound, more than one thing movin’ with real purpose, close enough together that I couldn’t tell where one left off and another started. Didn’t go and look. Told meself it were none of my business yet, bein’ as I’ve not properly started me duties, and went back to the corner instead to write this down while it were fresh.
Might ask Master what all that was, next time I see him. Or might not. Some things in this house, I’m learnin’, sort themselves out without me needin’ to know the whole of it straight away.
More in the Homegrown Help series
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