Windmills and Waffles by Khosi

@@c-Windmills and Waffles
Prologue@@
     It certainly wasn’t a usual day. No, it wasn’t the rain; it rained quite often, in fact. It couldn’t have been the fog; there was always fog in the early morning, rolling over the streets so that nothing could be seen even a foot away. Instead, there was something else, and the inability to identify the issue sent little Lottie into a fit of frustration, enough to drive her to claiming this day a bad one. The sandy dog didn’t stray from her side one step on that walk, but walking him still struck her as more of a chore than usual. She simply wasn’t in the mood. So, instead of prolonging her misery, the young girl turned the next left, to circle around the block, instead of the normal trip to town and back.
     At first, she didn’t recognize the extra bit of light illuminating the pavement, nor did Lottie notice the blockade stuck smack in front of her. Not until the mutt at her side pushed its way between her and the shimmering mirror and refused to take another step did she return from her trip to Never Never Land (the escape for every child’s mind). After nearly having to pick herself up off of the damp ground, Lottie glared down at her companion and, with an irritated groan, attempted to move the furry canine out of her way with a gentle shove. A whimper rose from the shaking animal, causing the scholar’s brow to knit in confusion. Only then did it seem that she was really brought back to the here and now. Since she had definitely stopped, the rather large and cowardly dog took that instant to slink around its mistress’ legs and stay there; staring straight ahead into the shiny roadblock that Lottie had still failed to notice.
     Now, Lottie Wimbossa wasn’t a dense girl by any means, having skipped two grades; it placed her in fourth, and still she maintained the highest grade point average in her class. However, curiosity drove even genius minds to do outrageous things, and when her emerald eyes met that shimmering curtain, a series of strange questions flew through her ticking brain. None of those questions would normally fit a girl of her age: nothing like, “Is it going to eat me?”, “However will I live to see tomorrow?”, and the all-famous “Woe is me!” Instead, it went something like this as she addressed her canine companion: “Why, Fredrick, what do you suppose this could be?”
     Of course, the dog had never shared her capacity for discovery, and he presently hid behind her as best he could, brown hair on his neck and spine raised in his pathetic attempt at intimidation. Although he found a small amount of comfort in the young lady’s hand resting on his box-like head, Fredrick slunk closer to his much smaller protector. The over-sized mouse of a canine poked his head around her just enough for the lights reflecting off of the object hindering their path to come into view, and it was almost as if Lottie could hear the bloke gulp in fright.
     She shook her head full of brunette curls and reached a steady hand out to touch the thing. “Come now, Freddy, I’m sure it’s completely harmle—”
Her unsuccessful sentence to console her furry friend was cut short by the sensation of a million tiny pinpricks as her fingers reached the glassy surface.
Instead of a solid wall, as she expected, Lottie’s little hand was swallowed up by the protrusion and was unable to be seen through the liquid-like material. Intrigued beyond the thought process allowing the young mind to consider dangers, she simply opened her eyes wider and gave a silly grin. The idea to investigate the scene cautiously was shoved aside by a myriad of scrambled pictures from movies and books; things that, when played back in the head of a silly, wonder-filled, seven-year-old child, only made her think on what really would come to be. Maybe she’d turn into a rabbit and the abominable snowman would be her only companion; they’d live on the hilltops near the Great Wall of China and become the leaders of the honored guardsmen (and rabbit), like in Mulan, while only a kiss from the most handsome of llama kings would free her from her floppy-eared form. Oh, the possibilities!
This sparked the female’s curiosity further, while throwing Fredrick into a fit of low yowling and pawing at his mistress’ legs. Lottie, however, merely pulled her other hand off of the animal’s head and placed it and its twin inside the glossy object. Pinpricks shot up to where her forearms could be seen, and she took a step forward, much to the dog’s dismay, and instead of stopping, Lottie proceeded to walk right into the pinpricking thing.
The animal seemed to stand in horror, head low to the ground, big, oddly blue eyes wide open, at his mistress’ disappearance. He whined, pulling his tail firmly between his legs, lowering his ears to the top of his skull, and prancing a bit back and forth before running head-on into the curtain after his beloved food-provider.
Chapter One
Little Lottie didn’t exactly wake in the most ideal way; in fact, it was one of the worst ways a child could wake: hung upside down with a rather uncomfortably muscular shoulder digging into her abdomen. Raspy, incoherent, unhappy, and most definitely male whispers were what had woken her, and now that she was brought back around and had completely acknowledged and gotten over her position, she strained to listen to the conversation. It seemed smart--to her--to merely lay limp, since that’s the way she had woken, and by the pounding of excess blood in her head, she assumed she had been that way for a while.
Once Lottie had convinced herself that the voices were behind her and oblivious to most of her actions (assuming she didn’t move too much), the youth opened her eyes to a rather astonishing sight: the pair of tan trousers in front of her, ones she had never seen the likes of before, had an attachment… or so she would have like to believe. This was certainly not an appendage found on any human being she had ever encountered before, and by the feel of the shoulder and muscles beneath her, she could very well make the conclusion that this was a human. Instead of the normal backside of a male, this strange person had attached a dog’s tail to his pants. However, with the way it swayed from side to side without any form of breeze or outside movement, it would give the looker the idea that it wasn’t simply attached to those strange pants.
That very same backside that she studied so curiously startled her when it moved, taking her with it. Instantly, she forgot her curiosity and closed those scrutinizing forest eyes to ward off any suspicion that she had regained consciousness. It wasn’t until now that she realized that the men had stopped talking, and as she was shifted, she felt the other person walk past her and her carrier, the wind from his movement having caught her hair. Lottie silently cursed both her luck and the never-ending endurance of that shoulder. So, to take her mind off of the continuing frustration of her day thus far, she wiggled her toes inside her boots… only to find that her feet had fallen asleep, adding to her insurmountable problem of the day’s irritation.
While the quizzically-cursed girl wallowed on in her frustration, the arm attached to that enduring shoulder lifted, its hand pressing firmly against the small of her back. Again, Lottie was startled out of her thoughts and fought the urge to open her eyes and protest as a second hand, hopefully belonging to the shoulder opposite the one she rested on, assisted in pulling her off of the buff appendage and laying her down, quite gently, into a very puffy chair. The instant she was safely on that chair, the hand left her, and she felt the breeze from the man moving away from her. His presence was replaced by the warmth and scent of a fire and the slamming of a door.
Lottie fought the urge to open those all-seeing orbs until she listened, probably for much longer than necessary, to the popping of burning logs and the absence of anything but that and her own breathing. Finally, with the utmost of caution, she opened her eyes to a room lit by that warming fire.

+++

He’d escaped to that darned planet for a reason, and there she went, like their modern-day version of Nancy Drew, off to solve mysteries in that very same place he’d gone away from. Perhaps it was fate, but he highly doubted it. The man stood in the center of his late home and turned in a small circle, eyeing everything suspiciously… not that there would be any indication of someone fiddling with his things seen through the layer of fine dust. Sir Fredrick, as little Lottie called him, groaned in frustration with that girl and pulled a few layers of old newspapers off of his printed couch.
     Fredrick sat, uncomfortably looking around at the belongings he had done without for the past four years. His writing desk still sat: a dried-up inkwell, a quill, and parchment of all shapes and sizes strewn about. The fireplace could hardly be seen through the dust-tanned grate, but he assumed that hadn’t been straightened out, either. Again, the middle-aged man sighed, and he let his head fall back onto the cushion behind him. It was enough to be temporarily banned from his own globe for a misunderstood newspaper article (because he wasn’t really insulting the Queen), but now he was brought back, much to the dismay of him and his groundskeeper.
     The groundskeeper, who was supposed to take care of the estate while Fredrick was on his “holiday,” had a rude awakening when Fredrick had sauntered through the door holding an unconscious young woman and his hidden spare key. Fredrick had promptly ushered the arguing gardener out the door and rid himself of the muscle-ache of a girl in the only decently cleaned room he had thus far found. Now, a discontented Fredrick sat alone on his dusty couch in his abandoned home with a girl he had invulnerably kidnapped. The only reasonable solution was get himself drunk, pass out, and forget this had ever happened. His only problem with his only solution was that his liquor cabinet, most conveniently set in the living room, was open and filled with nothing but dust.
     Again, Fredrick groaned.

+++

     Lottie was on her fur-booted feet by the time she had surveyed the entire room and made sure she was alone. An open bottle of what she assumed to be liquor by the nasty stench it gave off sat on the oak table beside the obnoxiously patterned chair. The fireplace only lit the room faintly, but enough for her to tell it was a study or library of some sort. Oddly enough, when she searched around the room, she could find nothing in the way of light switches, lamps, or anything else that didn’t run off of fire. So, making a final decision, she chose a challenge and picked up a candle, uncomfortably short for the use she would put it to. Pulling off the dull maroon overcoat of extraordinary warmth and fluff, she laid it on that very same chair that she had been set on and went about her idea.
     The brunette stepped up to the blazing fire, candle in hand, and gingerly pulled aside the metal grate, just as quietly as she could. With one hand shielding her face, she leaned forward, reaching out with the other hand, the candle held firmly between two fingers. Lottie didn’t even wait to make sure the bit of wick had lit before pulling her hand back from the heat rather quickly. Its purpose had been served, and the wax candle now held a miniature fire (minus most of the wax off of the top). Smiling at her own ingenious plan, the girl got back to her exploration, holding the candle to the dusty bookshelves that lay embedded in two of the walls.
By now, she was thoroughly confused. No electricity, leather-bound books, and an assortment of crumbling scrolls. Still, she was intrigued and turned around, holding the candle on the side opposite the fire, nearly illuminating the entire room. Not until Lottie’s eyes had followed her candle-holding appendage to its tip did she nearly jump out of her skin and withdraw her hand, almost putting the flame out. Now, directly in front of her, a full suit of armor stood with shadowed eyes, holding a menacing spear. Still, nothing seemed to faze the quizzical child, so she stuck her arm back out, illuminating the shiny thing.
     Once she had assured herself that no, it wasn’t going to put up a fight, Lottie dropped her hand a bit and tapped the metal. It resonated much louder than she thought it would, and she jumped at that as well, looking about her suspiciously. It almost felt as if she wasn’t supposed to be in this room at all, but how could that be? Lottie justified her actions by telling herself that it wasn’t her choice; she was brought there…. Yes, that was exactly the excuse she would use, too. Satisfied now, she continued her tiny expedition, bringing the candle closer to the spines of the books. Most of the titles she could barely make out, since they were either smoothed away by age or written in Latin, a language completely foreign to her.
     It didn’t take long to explore the entire room--not that it was extremely large, maybe twenty paces between walls--yet she hadn’t brought herself to wanting to see past the incredibly heavy-appearing mahogany door. Instead, she pulled an interesting looking book off of the shelf and opened it, only to find that one written in a different language, so she promptly replaced it and turned herself around again. Lottie felt herself drawn toward the shining suit of armor, and she moved the candle back and forth, not entirely realizing that the reflection was only enticing her more.
     Lottie set the candle down on the bookshelf beside the ominous metal statue and peered around it. Nothing held it up but the two legs it stood on and the graphite slab set underneath it. Curiously, the girl tapped the metal once more with a glittery red nail, having not brought any attention on herself the first time, and waited. Absolutely nothing greeted her anticipation; she felt the urge to do just what she knew she shouldn’t. Young Lottie placed her hands on either side of the iron helmet and lifted carefully, releasing it from its perch with near trembling arms.
     Immediately after picking the weighty object up, she regretted it as she watched the entire statue begin to tremble. As quickly as she could, Lottie set the helmet on the floor and placed her hands on either arm attached to the shaking statue. In response to her touch, the arms fell, and she watched them hopelessly drop to the ground, the rest of the armor following.

+++

     Fredrick, who had comfortably drifted off to sleep for the first time in nearly eight hours (a long time for a previous dog), was rudely woken by the crashing and final clattering of metal on a hardwood floor. At first, he had jumped to his feet, reaching to his side for the pistol he had normally kept there, but after emerging from his daze, he recognized where the sound had come from, let his hand fall and his shoulders slump, and merely lowered his head sadly.
     He let pity for himself drift across his mind for a while before straightening and stepping to the door separating him from his long-time food provider. A strong hand grasped the handle and twisted, opening the door to a flustered Lottie. Fredrick merely shook his head and walked toward her, her back still to him, to observe the mess he knew she had been bound to make.
     The girl turned to the older man when he neared her; the first thing she saw was the familiar pant leg, and then she looked up into oddly recognizable eyes. The man simply stepped around her and squatted down, sitting back on his heels to further take in the catastrophe his war souvenir had so quickly turned into as long fingers slid through a mess of ginger hair in the typical sign of frustration. He felt, and ignored, the curious green gaze Lottie stared at him with, still having made no attempt to start a conversation.
     Instead, he picked up one of those arms from the pile and stared at it a long moment before letting it drop with another loud bang. Fredrick sighed and sat, pulling his knees up and resting his arms on them. Incredulously, he turned and met Lottie’s emerald gaze with his steel-blue eyes, “I had assumed it’d take you longer than this, Lottie-dear.”
     At those words came nothing more than expected: the astounded, once-infallible girl stared at the strange man with wide eyes and a nearly opened mouth.

+++

Lottie stood quickly, dusting her jeans off to make herself a bit more presentable, despite the mess on the floor before her.
     “Pardon me?”
     Quite suddenly, it hit her that he had used her name, and not even in the way a stranger would. This caused her to blink a few times and her brow to knit, as she stared at the strange man. “How do you know my name?”
     It wasn’t until he stood that she again noticed the canine-like tail that followed him when he moved, and again, she gaped at him, blinking once or twice to make sure her perfectly lucid vision was really seeing clearly. The strange man gave a nervous smile and looked back at her.
     “I believe you know me as Sir Fredrick Glashagel… and I’d much prefer that name over the one I was given at birth, so it’s Freddy.” He had answered her silent question only to receive her blank response.
     It took more than a moment for the little scholar to inhale sharply and close her mouth. “Fredrick? You’re… oh, my.” Lottie found herself at a loss for words, not that she should have known exactly what to say. It was utterly and scientifically impossible for that to be true, yet there he stood. The girl also noticed the familiar gleam of his eyes, and it sent shivers down her spine.
The not-so-strange stanger spoke. “Ehrm… Well, it’s odd for you, but for people like me, it’s actually quite normal.” He gave an attempt at a reassuring smile.
Although it wasn’t meant as an attempt at a joke, Lottie gave a tiny chuckle, letting it go. However, she forgot her apprehension about her previous dog now being a rather handsome man, and she stepped around him to examine that tail. The curious young woman picked it up once and let it fall back into place.
     Fredrick laughed, turning to face his examiner. “I can wag it, too, you know.” And he did, causing Lottie to jump back, startled.
     Lottie recovered quickly and tapped her chin, a familiar gesture, simply thinking about the situation. The youth gave a quick shake of her head to rid herself of those empty thoughts, and she stared up at the taller being, squinting her eyes suspiciously.
     “You just fell over unconscious once you reached the other-side… it’s hard on an outsider, and doubly difficult for someone your age and for their first travel. I picked you up and brought you here.” He accompanied the last sentence with a sweep of his hand, and Lottie noticed the opened door. Beyond it was another, larger, fire-lit room, in which half of the furniture was covered in white cloth or newspapers. She could see the particles of dust floating about, even in the dim light, and blinked a few more times.
     “Why was I brought here? What do you mean ‘other-side’?” The questions may have been a bit persistent, but she figured she had near every right to demand an answer. There weren’t many people at all who wouldn’t bombard a dog-man with questions. Especially when this dog-man used to be only a dog--a pet dog--and the previous owner now finds herself in a strange place where nothing seems to be modern. Lottie ignored the other thoughts for now and focused on his answer.
     “Well now, little miss… I don’t believe that is an answer I can give without an aide….” With that, Fredrick turned his back to her, picking up the candle she had nearly knocked over, and walked to the end of the room. Lottie couldn’t make out what he said, but he mumbled as he pulled a slender finger over a row of books, shoulders slumped slightly to lower his head in order to read.
     Lottie used that moment to take him in. His clothes were like pictures she had seen once in a history class, about men and women in the medieval times. That and the missing electricity gave her at least something to put together in her head. She decided to convince herself that she was simply dreaming and would wake up fairly soon to a ringing alarm clock and arguing neighbors. Still, everything so far had felt so very real: like the Wizard of Oz, when Dorothy was swept up by the tornado and lands in a fairy-tale world, only she was fairly certain that animals couldn’t talk here. After all, why should animals be able talk when humans had animal parts?
     Fredrick had found the book he was looking for and had already stepped to the fireplace, flipping through it with nimble fingers. Lottie moved to stand toward him, peering around his arm from a distance.
The book itself appeared to be centuries old. Its pages were yellowed, crispy, and looked to be near crumbling apart. On it were drawings--very detailed drawings--of very different-looking human beings; walls of what looked like water on dirt roads, city streets, in the middle of various rooms; and an abundance of old symbols.
     “What is it?” Lottie asked, staring at the page he had landed on. This one held a variety of drawings, much like the astronomy maps her professors used. Her eyes squinted slightly, staring at that picture. It simply didn’t look right.
     “They’re the planets, see?” Fredrick gave an exasperated sigh at his disability to teach. “This one here is yours. Earth, right?” He pointed to the very outer planet, it seemed, surrounded by little speckles.
Lottie couldn’t help but give a laugh,
     “They’re out of order… and what’s that?” She stepped around him, grabbing the edge of the book gently and turning it toward her to place her finger on the--what looked like--dust surrounding her “planet.”
Fredrick flipped a page or two to give her a larger, more detailed picture. The dust actually appeared to be tiny satellites. Lottie noticed that the markings of differences between land and water were exactly as she had remembered seeing them. A bit more confused, but fully intrigued, the girl looked up at her make shift professor and waited for him to explain.
“Well… We call each of these planets here globes… Each of these,” He pointed to the planets besides hers, the ones without those satellites surrounding them. “Each of these lone globes established a treaty many, many years ago. Yours, Earth, simply refused. They didn’t believe in the conservation ours did.”
Fredrick turned the page, showing his listener the pictures of eight other planets, each half the size, or less, of Earth, none of them even closely resembling the pictures she had seen. Instead of asking her endless questions, Lottie let the man talk.
“Because Earth didn’t want its citizens to be a part of this ‘conspiracy’, it kept its distance until it had developed the technology to hide itself from the outer globes, and in doing so, they shut out the real world.” Fredrick gave the young one a small smile, continuing. “Our globes have strict codes on inventions and such, to conserve what there is of our land. You have electricity; we use candles. You have cars; we use horses, and the list is really endless.”
Lottie hardly struggled to take all of this in. In fact, she berated her home in the back of her mind. These “globes” had done it right. They had conserved everything that her planet was trying to get back, and here, no wonder even the air smelt funny: it was pure. She voiced what came to her mind next: “If our planets are exactly the same, simply dirtier or cleaner, then why do you have an animal’s tail? How am I here if my planet was blocked off?” She turned an inquisitive face up at him, thoroughly drawn into the conversation. Fredrick gave a sigh and sat down, closing the book and placing it on his lap. His student sat herself on the floor, looking into the same fire he did, waiting patiently for his answer. It came after a short while.
“No one exactly knows why. Theories say that it’s a form of supernatural magic, and it was produced by the land itself to make up for the lack of energy. My great grandfather’s generation was the first to be born with something different. Most of them were hardly visible; maybe unusually strong eyesight. Later, they found that the average lifespan had increased…. So, during my grandfather’s time, the scientist began fiddling with DNA, attempting to figure out just what this epidemic was. It had seemed that each globe had discovered its own traits.” Fredrick flicked his tail to emphasize that. “The theories have been proved wrong multiple times, though, but visitors, like you, who develop their own appendage or ‘mutations’ like ours, don’t exactly appreciate it. After all, it’s difficult to return home with a tail, or ears, or anything really… different. Your people don’t accept different; they shun it and hope that if they ignore it, or act nasty toward it, then it’ll go away. But it never really does, does it?”
Here, the man gave out a small sigh, and Lottie looked up at him.
“My grandfather once had a cow with two heads born on his farm. He wouldn’t keep it… so he let it go into the woods for the wolves. It was only three weeks old.” Lottie echoed the other’s sigh. “I suppose that we Earthlings don’t really have such broad minds as we think we do, huh?”
Fredrick shook his head and looked to her, though her back was to him. “I found it strange that you accepted me so quickly, in fact. You’re quite odd yourself, you know.” He smiled a bit, remembering how many times she had argued with others over simple things: over recycling, over saving the life of a tiny bug. Lottie gave a short laugh and shook her head, “How can you be so sure that I’ve accepted you?”
“Well, considering you haven’t tossed the candle stick at my head yet and you’re still in my house, I’m quite sure you’re alright.” Fredrick gave a coy grin in her direction and waited for the laugh he knew she’d make. She did, shaking her head before sobering and letting the humor fall from her face.
“Then how did I get here, Fredrick? If my globe is so closed off, I mean, then how am I here?” For this, she turned toward him, waiting for an answer patiently.
Fredrick simply gave a shrug and looked back at her. “You saw the Curtain. They appeared around the same time as the changes began. They don’t exactly choose to stay in one place very long, but we know there is at least one of every globe, even yours. Many of your people run away from it, though, so we don’t have very many visitors from Earth. I think you’re the second.”
Lottie sat for a while, just thinking on all he had said, and Fredrick stayed quiet, knowing her well enough to be aware not to interrupt her. A few moments later, when she glanced at the fireplace, Fredrick gave a grin and got up, offering her a hand.
“Are you hungry?”
Chapter Two
It wasn’t exactly the kitchen she’d expected. It wasn’t covered in dust or only consisting of a simple wood-burning stove. Instead, the large room was decorated with copper pipes lining the walls; a stove sat in the back corner, and it didn’t look like it was ever used; pots and pans were stacked on the burners, though not in such a way as to make it looked cluttered or messy. Fredrick led the way to a wide, graphite-colored slab of granite placed securely on four copper legs, and Lottie remained only a few steps behind him, her eyes following the twisting maze of glittering pipe. “Those,” and Lottie’s hand was in the air, pointing up at the copper walls. “What are they?”
Fredrick turned a bit, grasping an antique faucet with one hand before opening his mouth to answer his guest’s question. It did no good, considering her attention had already been taken away from those protruding pipes and had now had landed on the perfectly clear, un-aerated, stream of water falling from that faucet and dropping with a quiet drumming into a copper basin below it. Until then, Lottie hadn’t notice the bowl set into the center of the counter-top.
The dog-man followed her gaze to the water and sighed exaggeratedly. He knew there’d be questions galore once she found the words to ask them. Already, he was beginning to loathe the showy house he had proudly bought some twelve years earlier. Not that Lottie would know, or care, that the home itself was set far back on more than one-hundred acres of land, complete with a nearly empty stable, kennel, and all things a real sporting man would need. He preferred to have been escorted the fourteen-odd miles to the castle walls every day and continue on foot the last three to his cozy little upstairs office opposite the main gates of Granne Hall, the home for royal families since farther back than his family history had been recorded.
Still, all that show of wealth hadn’t married him, or brought his status up from a novelist and newspaper writer, nor did it help him now with the abundance of questions that that young thing would ask on a daily basis. He almost regretted the ability to walk on two feet again, the ability to be understood, and most of all, the returning of his voice box. Just before Lottie opened her mouth, Fredrick raised his hand to stop her. “I’ll show you.”
He turned on his heel and headed out the door, leaving a bitterly interrupted youth to glare daggers at his back. Lottie didn’t dwell on it long, for fear of missing something; she followed that odd man, just a few steps behind him. Through the dusty living room, past the door to the broken suit of armor, and down a narrow hall just to the left of the disappointingly open and empty liquor cabinet was another heavy wood door, this one sporting a lock above the gracefully curved doorknob. The girl watched her guide reach into the pockets of those still-strange pants and pull out a jingling set of crooked old keys. One he selected, it seemed merely out of luck, and placed into the lock. It turned when his wrist twisted, and the door popped open with a whoosh of cold air.
Pushing the heavy thing open further, Fredrick walked out into a vast nothingness of dead forest and snow-covered ground. The both of them shivered, and Lottie pulled her arms close to her chest, the thin cotton sweater simply not enough to fight off the dead cold and what little bit of a breeze there was. Again, the man before her stepped forward, turning to walk along the brick wall. Frosted windows were set every ten steps or so, all above her head so that she couldn’t peer in to examine which rooms they led to. The entire side of the house, from the tresses leading to a second story balcony, and from as far as she could see of one side to as far as she could see of the other, was nearly completely smothered in brown ivy.
Pictures of English cottages dusted with an inch of snow wouldn’t have done this idyllic sight justice, even if she’d seen one in person. Suddenly, it occurred to her that her dog-man had left her behind. The worrisome youth almost panicked before she realized that the footprints in the snow were a bit of a dead give-away and an easy-to-follow trail. So Lottie did just what she was supposed to and followed it around the corner of the house to an even wider expanse of sparse nature and mounds of deeper snow. Windows and another much bigger balcony decorated the back of the over sized home, and the young scholar just caught a glimpse of Fredrick before he ducked under a low doorframe set into the opposite side of the wall. Lottie hurried to jog over, hugging herself with slender fingers balled up inside of those hardly long enough sleeves, and noticed how the snow in front of that door had melted into a puddle of perfectly untouched mud.
     When Lottie approached the open doorway, she felt the heat exuding from it and tilted her head, peering into the small and overcrowded room. Filled with more pipes and a wood stove, the room was lit by a dull orange glow. It wasn’t the type of glow that a fireplace shed, but a different, almost dusty sort of color. It came from that stove, where, through the misted glass, particles of orange light flitted around in more numbers that Lottie could, or cared to, count.
Fredrick spoke, breaking the silence and pulling a glass jar off of a shelf made of four pipes set parallel in a horizontal row. “These are dust bunnies. They’re everywhere. Live, breathe, eat, and give off a form of energy you’d never believe possible.” He shook the container gently, and the grey form of what her people would call a dust bunny began to writhe and move. The more it moved and the farther apart it spread, the more that jar began to glitter and spark with the same orange glow that the wood stove gave off. Fredrick grinned and looked to the girl standing just inside the door.
It wasn’t an explanation to be taken lightly. Instead, she had memories of wondering at little specks of dust as they floated around the house. Once they caught the light of a sunset in front of a window, they almost seemed to glow and squirm.
“The heat gives them their motivation. To summarize, I employ them--same with every other household--and they make the water run, the winters warm, and the summer’s cold… Like our own efficient form of electricity, see?” Fredrick finished his explanation by placing the bottle back onto the pipes, all of which, Lottie noticed, ran into that wood stove and back out through all three of the inside walls back into the house.
It took a long minute for the young, curious child to recover from her wonder, and she knelt in front of the stove, tapping on the glass lightly. Around her stilled finger, a cluster of light grew, and she could barely make out the tiny brown dots in the center of each. “They’re dust… Just… regular dust?”
“Just regular dust, Lottie, dear. Simple specks of dust. Your planet has them, too, but the environment caused them to lose their properties. There are some strict laws in our outer planets about ruining their resources.” He leaned down next to her, placing his longer finger next to her short and skinny one. More of the little critters clustered around his digit, and Lottie grinned at the simplicity of it all.
     “Just dust. Who knew!?”
     “We did--and we perfected our theory--gave them a place to live, heat, food, and something to keep them busy.” Fredrick spoke proudly about the successes, and Lottie watched him, nearly laughing at the glowing of his cheeks. Though she’d really only met the man an hour ago, he was so familiar to her. Already, she had stopped dwelling on her fascination of his now-wagging tail. She had momentarily forgotten to figure out how she had gotten there and why her dog had turned into a person; instead, her mind was utterly taken over by the endless possibilities this new place gave.
     “Now we can eat…?”
     Fredrick’s eyes rested on Lottie, and she tore her gaze from the gathering dust, following him when he stood. His expression had turned from one of pride and excitement to grave sincerity, and Lottie made an attempt not to laugh. “I suppose we could, yes.”
     She stood, making her way to the door without any direction from her companion, and stopped before leaving. Maybe her curiosity had shielded her to the cold, or maybe stupidity had overcome her in those few moments it took to trek through the snow to this enticingly warm niche. Either way, the chill sent her into a fit of shivering, and like any immature child would, she clenched her eyes shut, squealed, and ran out the door, along the wall, and continued back the way she had come.
     However, the youth didn’t get very far when she opened her eyes just in time to stop in her tracks and stare in wide-eyed wonder at the tiny critter sitting before her. It appeared to be an over-sized squirrel, only its tail was simply a nub. It stared at her, its ruddy body shivering even with the coat of shimmering fur; great yellow-tinted eyes looked up at her, almost mimicking her look of astonishment, and both creatures jumped when Fredrick’s footsteps approached.
     Lottie turned her eyes from the little furred creature back to the man, curiosity blazing. Fredrick peered around her, an eyebrow raised in a bit of surprise and, it seemed, amusement. “You’ve found a Mwelar.” He smiled to her, and then to the round critter.
     “A what?” This time, it was Lottie’s turn to raise a brow in amusement. Most definitely not the name she’d expected.
     “A Mwelar? It’s like… a squirrel--a big squirrel--with a rounder body, and no tail, and all,” Fredrick responded.
Lottie laughed a bit. “They’ve got more fur, too.”
     “They have to; it’s cold out here in the winter.” The man gestured to the snow falling around them as the tiny little tailless squirrel hop-skipped closer to Lottie’s now outstretched fingers.
     “It doesn’t seem so cold out here. It isn’t even windy. I think you’re just a bit of a wimp, you are.”
     “Definitely not, little Lottie; it’s only November, after all.” Fredrick crouched down next to the female after she did the same, sticking his hand out into the air, palm down, to place it on the Mwelar’s fuzzy little skull. “Wait until January; then you’ll see why.”
     As amused as she was by the little critter, the dust, the house, and Fredrick himself, she wasn’t exactly positive she wanted to stay that long. “Well, Sir Fredrick, I was hoping to be home by than, at least. After-all, I don’t really have a place to stay or my family here. My school,” That she scoffed at, but it was true, she couldn’t fall too far behind. “It doesn’t seem so practical.”
     The man gave a laugh when the Mwelar began pushing back on Lottie’s hand, trying to crawl into her lap. The small animal didn’t look so tiny compared to the little frame of Lottie’s slender body, and it didn’t take much effort for the furry thing to push the girl off of her heels and onto her tail-less behind. Lottie chuckled, just as Fredrick did and gathered the Mwelar into her arms, hugging it.
     The creature didn’t take much notice to her affection, and instead nestled itself against her for warmth. The youth’s green eyes met the man’s humorous gaze, and she grinned. “I’m keeping him, you know. Someone stole my dog, so I think I need a new pet, yeah?”
     “Uh--no! That thing won’t set a foot into my house; it won’t!” The older man got to his feet just when Lottie did, and stared at her incredulously. “It’ll ruin my-”
     “Dust spots?” Lottie interrupted, beginning her journey back to the warm door ahead. “It won’t harm a thing, I promise.”
     Fredrick followed her, stammering a string of definite reasons why that was the worst idea anyone had ever thought of, because… and it seemed he hadn’t figured that much out just yet, but he certainly remained adamant that it shouldn’t happen. The young woman simply shrugged her shoulders and picked up the pace ‘til she reached the light-filled entrance.

Chapter Three

     It didn’t take long for the girl to have found two empty crates; one, she filled with dusty parchment and read newspapers, and the other, she filled with an assortment with semi-clean sheets and throws (still filled with years of un-touched dust). The fuzzy creature she had recently adopted was asleep in her arms instead of the bed she had placed thoughtfully near the fireplace. Fredrick was left to clean up a plate of half-eaten dinner and shook his head at the young girl curled up on his favorite armchair. It didn’t matter; the couch was just as clean and fit him better anyway. Still, even after he had laid his head on the cushion, he couldn’t help but look over at the sleeping youth and the animal. How was he supposed to care for another when he wasn’t supposed to even be on this globe? It made no sense to him, but it didn’t seem like anything made sense anymore.
     Four years ago, he had ruined his own life by writing an obscenely honest article for the Globe Weekly about the Queen, whom he knew personally. It wasn’t for the fame and money, or punishment and exile… it was really only because it made him laugh, and that seemed like reason enough for him. However, the Queen didn’t seem to have seen it in the same comedic light as he did, half of the Royal Guard came to arrest him and find the nearest Curtain. Even now, he chuckled a bit at the amusement it gave him, nearly wondering why people didn’t like when others laughed at their expense.
     With an exaggerated sigh, Fredrick brought himself back to the here and now, to draw up a plan. He’d been gone so long that he figured the first thing he should do is find a newspaper--and he had ever intention of doing so… after he slept off the hard work.

+++

Fredrick hadn’t slept long; instead, he had lain in the same place for just long enough to doze off and give himself a nasty crick at the nape of his neck. It took him longer than it should have to check over the house, Lottie, and the creature he was sure was going to spoil the patterned antique rugs placed over the polished hardwood floors. Lottie had curled up into a tighter ball, and Fredrick couldn’t help but give a fond smile before turning to a moderately smaller door than the one leading to the library and opposite that wall. His tanned hand met the brass knob and, with a twist of his boney wrist, he turned the handle and pulled the closet door open. An array of jackets, coats, boots, and other outdoor clothing were hung on the wall in a strategic mess. He chose a black overcoat and slid heavy leather boots onto his feet, securing them tightly before exiting the closet and shutting the door firmly behind him. He considered writing his guest a note, but decided that he should be back by the time the youth woke up.
A mess of sealed envelopes in one hand and a cracked pouch of leather that jingled when he moved it in the other, the dog-man started to the doors, not four steps away on the adjacent wall. He almost had an idea of where to go first and which questions to ask, but he knew better than to follow his own plans, considering the girl asleep in his living room and the whole fiasco with being banned from his own Globe. The heavy mahogany door swung open with a creak from the unused twin next to it when he pulled it, and a gust of cold air swept into the room, bringing with it that crisp, fresh scent and feel of a winter night.
Fredrick stepped right out into the crunching layer of snow and shut the door behind him. There wasn’t any light but that which the full moon gave off, so he made do with that, buttoning the thick coat over his broad chest and flipping the collar up and around his neck before beginning his trek through the forested road.
+++
It hadn’t been long at all, sleeping soundly on that overly-comfortable piece of furniture, before Lottie woke with an unpleasant groan. The Mwelar, having been previously in her lap, had found its bed by the fireplace and had curled up. It had taken the girl a moment to remember where exactly she was, but when she did, she sat up, glancing around the dim room for any sign of that strange, strange man. For some reason, she didn’t expect him to be around at all; in fact, she assumed she really would have been surprised if he was, but didn’t dwell on the thought. Her little stomach growled, and she was reminded of the empty and probably lonely kitchen.
Due to the lack of light pouring in through the windows, she presumed the sun had gone down and, in knowing that, she didn’t waste a moment getting up from her place and running into the kitchen. Once she stepped over the threshold, the now excited tailless squirrel following her, she stopped in her tracks and blinked once or twice, waiting for her eyes to adjust to the dark. Without a fireplace to light it and without the sun to push its charming rays in through the window, the room was extremely ominous.
Not that the feeling of fear had ever been an issue for Lottie before, and especially not with the enticement of a warm meal or something edible. Still, she paused, but only for a moment before the chandelier she had failed to notice before began to give off a faint glow. Catching Lottie’s attention, she and the animal behind her had shimmering gazes locked on the object hanging from the high ceiling, and the girl grinned, squinting her eyes to see the those little specks of dust floating about their business inside of miniature glass bulbs. Green eyes followed the hollow tubes making up the frame of the fixture into a wider one leading back into the ceiling.
The inquisitive child was almost tempted to look, but she was kept in check by yet another rumbling of an empty and obviously upset stomach. Lottie placed a slender hand over that fuzzy sweater in hopes that patting her abdomen would settle it. It didn’t, of course, and she found herself wondering if those little dust mites could cook. Her eyes flowed over the walls and counters, taking everything in with a deep sigh.
Her follower had wandered ahead, now that the room was brightly lit, and walked along the counters and cabinets, jumping up when that little nose twitched in response to a pleasant scent. The girl couldn’t help but take the creature’s silent advice and stepped alongside the counters as well, opening cabinets to shining copper cooking utensils, more pots and pans, and the like. It didn’t make much sense to her to keep food below the granite slabs where it was easily accessed by a myriad of different fuzzy critters, so she focused on those wood doors above her head.
The issue of her height was made to be a very minor one when she hitched that faded striped green, red, and sand-colored skirt up above her knees and clambered atop that shimmering black countertop. It wasn’t at all graceful, but it was practical, without considering the fact that she had to lean back precariously in order to open those wide cabinet doors, but she did the best with what she had… or lacked.
Once she had those ingredients on the counter under her, she double-checked one more cabinet before hopping down off of that cold, granite slab and landing with a soft thump on the slate floor. A particular smile was painted on that innocent face even as she hop-skipped to the stove, grabbing a miscellaneous pot from the stack of clean dishes.
In no time at all, the kitchen had suffered its own snowfall. Flour dusted nearly every horizontal anything in a mess like only a child can make, but the stove was on and a waffle iron set firmly over one of the six burners. Lottie had checked the flickering flame seven times now, just to make sure it was just as warm as it needed to be before pouring the settled batter onto the sizzling object. The Mwelar, which she had previously been considering names for, stood on the counter beside the stove, licking a moist nose as it watched Lottie make those mouth-watering morsels.
A pile of baked breakfast grew higher on the little plate Lottie had set on the counter beside the stove. The more she cooked, the more pieces she pulled off of each waffle she placed to the left. Before long, the batter ran low, but her stomach growled with ten times as much fury that it had been, causing her to hurry a bit more. While she cooked, Lottie ran different names over her tongue, thinking hard on what to call her little adopted pet. Thus far, she had decided on A-Wallaby, after the critter he resembled most (now that she’d thought about it, anyway).
With one last flip of baked batter, Lottie tapped on the copper tube just above her. It had taken her a long period of fiddling with pointless knobs before she had figured out that this was how to tell those curious little dust mites how to start and stop… whatever it was they were doing. A few times, in between names, she had considered how confusing it must be for them. After all, when someone accidentally knocked into a pipe, the whole house could go up in flames. Still, despite the intriguing picture of a burning home, she only entertained the idea for a little while before the back of her mind (still stuck on names) seemed to yell, “A-Wallaby!” And so it was left.
“Come on, A-Wallaby, let’s eat.” The girl didn’t really consider the whereabouts of her host; so instead, she balanced the plate of steaming waffles in one hand and picked up the furry brown critter with the other. Together, they returned to the living room, Lottie sitting herself down on the couch, with the tailless squirrel watching her intently from the ground, “I suppose you could share this with me, A-Wallaby. After all, Fredrick obviously isn’t here. Obviously, he wasn’t very hungry, so obviously, we need to eat it all before he comes home.”
Tearing off a chunk of crispy, brown waffle, she held it between two fingertips and leaned forward, speaking to the critter as if it were Fredrick, dog form or no, “Now, you be gentle and don’t eat my fingers, or I won’t ever make you waffles again; I won’t.”
A-Wallaby stuck its front paws onto the couch, pulling itself up to its full fifteen inches, and gingerly took the food from the offerer’s hand. The squirrel-thing hopped back down and carried the wobbling bit of waffle to the bed Lottie had so thoughtfully made for him.
The child gave an exaggerated sigh and pulled apart the rest of the waffle, slowly munching the pieces down. However, before she could really finish the first bite she took, the same oak door Fredrick had left through was thrown open, and in came that silly man, along with a swirl of glistening snowflakes.
Chapter Four
Fredrick’s eyes rested on the girl for only a moment before he shut the door behind him and hurriedly opened the closet once more. Reaching inside, he pulled out a few heavy jackets and two scarves, eyeing Lottie and her food whenever they came back into view. With his arms full, he backed away from the opened door and kicked it shut with a rather unpleasant slam of wood against door-frame; he seemed to be quite finished with that area of the house because he briskly stepped to the couch and threw the array of clothing down on the cushions beside Lottie.
Lottie had stopped, mouthful of waffle growing soggy in her mouth as she stared. A-Wallaby had stopped eating, too, and now stood, tailless bottom wiggling like it would if it had had a tail to wag. Almost as a mimic to the girl’s previous sigh, Fredrick exhaled loudly, turning his attention to the excited creature, to the not-so-excited girl, and then to the plate she held in her lap. Blue eyes brightened, and the ginger eyebrows that framed them so distinguishably rose in curiosity. Of course, as any man would, he stuck his hand out to grab for a piece of baked batter, but Lottie swiftly smacked his hand away, pulling the plate closer to her abdomen.
“What do you say?!” she questioned, raising her own, much thinner eyebrows in appraisal.
The man answered her with a grunt and shook his head. “We don’t have time for this. Lottie, come, we have to go on a bit of an adventure.” He knew this would perk the youth’s interest, and it did.
Lottie threw her arms up with a grin before Fredrick had managed to finish the sentence and clapped her hands twice in excitement. “Come on, A-Wallaby! We’re going!” The girl promptly set the food aside and jumped to her feet, nearly running across the room to pick up the disdained critter that had just begun munching on its meal for the second time.
Fredrick did his best to intervene. “No, we’re not taking the… er… What did you call it?” And it was left to him to be distracted.
Lottie shook her little head, the curls bouncing in every which direction. “A-Wallaby. Because he looks like a wallaby.” A sigh accompanied that, and the girl pulled her tongue against the roof of her mouth to create a “tsk” noise. “Can’t you put two and two together? Honestly, Fredrick, I don’t know what I’ll do with you.”
Now that she was on her feet and had heard of the journey, Lottie pulled aside the jackets one-by-one, examining them. “I suppose I’ll be needing one of these.” Her hands landed on a silky soft scarf, and she smiled. “And one of these. Oh, and I’ll need to find a coat for A-Wallaby.”
Here, Fredrick really did interrupt, stepping in front of the girl before she could turn and size the furry (and most-likely dirty) little thing into a coat. “No. There will be no pets along for this trip, Lottie. It’s serious business. Now, grab a coat and a scarf and bundle up.” He made the mistake of turning his back to her to pull on the last jacket in the pile over the one already around his shoulders. Twice, he rotated his arms, attempting to make the overcoat fit a bit more comfortably, and then turned back to the child and animal.
Of course, Lottie had already bundled herself up, pulling the scarf so high over her that her eyes could hardly be made out. She held the Mwelar in her arms, snuggly wrapped in the third coat, while attempting to balance the plate of waffles in both hands, at a far enough distance so that the scrambling animal couldn’t get a hold of it.
By the look those green eyes gave him, Fredrick knew it would be hopeless to argue, and instead of wondering over how she had done all that so very quickly, he walked forward and grabbed the plate from her with one hand, the other reaching around to pull the scarf up around her ears. A fatherly sort of smile crept onto his lips, and he nodded, turning to the door, “We’ll leave everything as-is, all right?”
Lottie’s answer was muffled by the cloth covering her nose and mouth, but to the man, it sounded an awful lot like, “mfgrand mokmend,” so that’s exactly what he left it at and, instead, opened the wide oak door to a horse and carriage and blizzard-like snow.
+++
Fredrick had opened the door to a fairytale carriage and its background of swirly-twirly snowflakes. As if to finish the picture, the shod-hoofed horse stomped its foot on the cobblestone driveway and neighed, sending up a cloud of frozen breath.
Now Lottie was quite happy to have the oversized coat wrapped around her shoulders, since the chill seemed to seep through the seams. She pulled the furred critter closer to her chest, resisting the urge to bury her face in its fur only because she hadn’t given it a bath yet. When Fredrick led the way to the door of the carriage, Lottie was careful to step only in his footprints, nearly having to jump to land in the next one, but she kept most of the snow off of the worn brown suede that kept her toes snug.
Before the girl had even made it the four yards to the very elaborately carved, white carriage, she was shivering like crazy; one look at the hunched older man showed her that she wasn’t the only one. A-Wallaby, however, squirmed in her arms until its carrier had safely reached the doors to the wooden vehicle and carefully pulled herself up and into the coach. Just as Lottie was sitting herself on one of the two padded benches, Fredrick closed the door behind them, and the girl let the animal in her lap go.
He seemed to be more excited than anything else and went about like a curious rabbit, nose twitching in a frenzy with each new scent he discovered. Lottie and Fredrick both found themselves smiling at the fat thing’s antics; Fredrick pulled his eyes away with the tiniest bit of disgust with himself and sat down on the soft bench opposite the girl. Lottie gave out a short laugh before settling herself back against the wall of the carriage. It startled her and her pet when the entire thing jerked forward, beginning to move. Curious once more, little Lottie turned her eyes from the animal and looked up at her companion.
“Where’re we going, Fredrick?” she inquired.
Fredrick heard that the tone had taken a bit of a turn for suspicion, and the expression the youth wore confirmed his feeling; still, he felt a bit obliged to answer her something. He’d only dragged her along, after all.
“There was… an issue, see. When you were asleep, I thought I’d catch up on some work, so I did. Only, there’s been a tragedy, and it’s my job to fix it all.”
The way the sentence dragged on led Lottie to the edge of her seat, curious eyes glittering, “A tragedy? Oh, my. What happened?”
Curiosity dripped from every word she uttered. Fredrick, however, wasn’t as inclined to be excited for news of a tragedy. In his opinion, normal people avoided that sort of thing.
“Well, the Queen and her council were kidnapped a year after I left from here, see, and I have to find them. No one knows where they are, and everyone has looked. Even on the other worlds. Two of the officers never even showed up again, so, you see, it’s a bit of a mystery.” Just as he suspected, that girl’s eyes lit with a brighter light, and a goofy grin began to spread across her face. The older man shook his head sadly. “This was three years ago, Lottie, dear. There is hardly a chance in the eight worlds that they would be alive still, but I was asked to go.”
“Oh, but there is a chance, Fredrick, dear. Isn’t there?” The question was exactly what Fredrick should have expected. Before he could open his mouth to speak, Lottie continued. “Who do you think took her? Why did it take her? Was it a monster? Do you think it tortured her for information? Oh, like that one movie! Oh, I love that movie!”
The last bit startled even the man who had been companions with the young thing for four years. He shook his head, eyebrows knitting together in frustration, “No, Lottie. I don’t think they tortured him at all. And it was probably Trahaeam what took her. Here and there weren’t getting along so well when last I checked, and I checked quite often.”
Lottie mimicked Fredrick’s expression, only hers was more twisted with held humor. “He wasn’t tortured?”
Patience was beginning to fade for the man and he shook his head. “No, I really don’t believe he was tortured at all. It isn’t in the Code.”
Lottie assumed he hadn’t caught the emphasis on her words and, even so, he had still made the Queen a man. Again, she spoke, raising an eyebrow with interest. “He?”
“Yes, he.” The expression of “duh” on Fredrick’s face was enough to cause Lottie to giggle, the knowledge that the “queen” really was a “he” simply added to the humor. At first, Fredrick opened his mouth to speak, but his mind stopped him, seeming to remind him of the change between their worlds. Then, he laughed as well at the thought of the man he knew with long blonde locks and lipstick. It wasn’t a pretty image, most definitely.
As soon as their laughter had faded, Lottie looked up at her previous dog and grinned. “So, we’re going on an adventure?”
“No, we are not. You’ll be staying with my aunt until I find a Curtain to take you home in. Then, you can return to your fretting parents.” The humor in Fredrick’s voice disappeared, replaced by a stern, fatherly, and much-too-familiar tone. The girl’s jaw nearly dropped to the floor, the glitter in her eyes now turned to ashes by the flames that had replaced them.
“I think you are terribly mistaken, Mr. Fredrick. I will be accompanying you in search of this queen-man, whether you like it or not.”
The frustration Fredrick had felt had melted with the glittering eyes as soon as Lottie had finished her statement. He knew that tone and the clenched fist all too well, and it would be difficult, if not impossible, to sway. A bit of desperation began to show with the shaking head and gentle voice. “Now, Lottie, it’ll be too dangerous for you. I won’t be the only one trying to find him, you see. Er… well, I mean”
His slip caught even the seven-year-old’s attention, and her head tilted to one side slightly. “But he was kidnapped, said you. I don’t think anyone would be looking for a presumably dead ladyerman.”
The desperation now showed by Fredrick’s fidgeting hands. Normally, he was a wonderful liar; it must have been something, some odd thing about the… well, who knew, really. He let out a sigh and rested back on the rattling wooden wall.
Lottie spoke once more, “You’d better explain yourself, I think.”
Chapter Five
“Explain myself? Well, yes, I suppose so, but, see, it’s complicated, and….” Fredrick’s explanation dragged on for a moment longer than it should have, causing Lottie’s eyes to narrow. Just as her mouth was about to open, the carriage jerked to a halt, and both Lottie and the animal on the ground looked up and around them. Fredrick, however, stood, grinning sheepishly, and pushed the door open, “Oh, look! We’re here. Auntie Gaz will be so thrilled, she will.”
Confused and a bit irritated—as seemed to be the theme of the journey—Lottie stood as well, scooping A-Wallaby up before it had the chance to dive into the thickening snow two feet underneath the vehicle. Her eyes squinted in response to the gust of cold air, and she found her breath rudely stolen away. In the moment it took to catch it, Fredrick had disappeared into the flurrying snowflakes; Lottie blinked twice, pulling her jacket around her and the critter she held, before gingerly hopping off of the step and into the deep snow.
The fluffy white mess nearly met the top of her boots, so she assumed it was at least a foot high already; she also assumed they had moved further north… or south, or, well, she didn’t really have a base for an assumption, but she made one anyway. Pulling one foot out of the steadily growing pile of winter, she carefully took another step, trying to avoid covering her cozy toes in freezing water. She had absolutely no direction to follow, until a rather high-pitch and definitely female squeal pierced the air, coming distinctly from behind her.
Now she found Fredrick’s overly large footprints, seeming to lead out and around the twin horses, which snorted and stomped away, trying to fend off the cold air. Lottie followed the footsteps once more, keeping her eyes on the ground before her, at least until she was invulnerably stopped by a squishy, yet un-yielding blockade.
Although the thing stopped her in her tracks, it really wasn’t much larger than she, she found. Lottie took a step back from what she assumed to be a person and blinked a few times, petting the flustered animal in her arms. The boy who stood before her didn’t look much older than Lottie herself; however, from underneath the brown cap on his head, two floppy, tan ears hung. Wide-eyed, Lottie stared a few inches above her own head and furrowed her brow once more, “Oh, my.”
The boy, however, was much more polite. A shimmering smile drew her attention down to the darkly patterned face. His skin was much tanner than hers, she noticed second, and the brown eyes he stared at her with seemed almost transparent. Again, her curiosity was piqued.
“Beg yer pardon, Miss. I didn’t see you, Miss.” The boy’s voice shook slightly, not enough to make him seem unconfident, but startled. The way he kept his eyes locked on the girl’s emerald gaze discouraged any traces of him being timid. It took Lottie a moment, but she shut her gaping mouth and gave a charming smile in returnmostly to cover up for her mistake and how stupid she figured she looked.
“Oh, it’s all right… What’re you doing?” It hadn’t hit her until she had said it that he was obviously holding the reins to both of the huge, hoofed animals, and her cheeks began to grow a slight pink.
The boy wasn’t fazed and grinned at her. “I’m taking care of your horses, Miss, like Missus Gaz told me to.” The freckles that bridged his nose were the exact color of the bunny ears attached to his skull. His eyes fell on the squirming animal wrapped tightly in the leather jacket and he gave a glittering white smile.
“You’ve got a Mwelar? I used to have one but Missus Gaz’s husband is allergic, see.” He let a sigh go, switching his hands to hold the reins in one and pet the furry critter with the other. Lottie’s confusion had ended, replaced by a sense of needing to be somewhere, still, she beamed with her own sense of pride and returned the boy’s smile, petting A-Wallaby’s head gently.
“His name’s A-Wallaby on account of him looking like one.” She nodded, not realizing that he wouldn’t have a clue what she was talking about. He wasn’t given the chance to ask her another question; her name was called from the direction she was headed and she recognized the voice as Fredrick’s.
Lottie flashed another smile to the stranger and continued, around him this time, and followed the trail of oversized footprints.
She couldn’t see much at all of the building itself, but she peered through the bright door. Fredrick stood, his hands in his pockets, giving that same sheepish grin to a much older woman standing just to the side. Whom was presumably Auntie Gaz had a hand on the door, staring at Lottie with wide grey eyes. Salt and pepper hair was pulled back into a bun she’d probably slept on once or twice, considering it stuck out at odd angles, and the little pieces of hair almost glistened in the burning firelight.
“Oh, Fredrick, what did you do now?” The woman stared at the youth before her for an awkwardly long period of time before seeming to remember herself and jumping into action. The elderly woman gave Lottie the warmest smile a woman could give, stepped forward, and ushered Lottie into the room, cooing to her, “Don’t worry, love, we’ll get you warm and dry. That’s some kind of blizzard out there, it is. Come in; I been just making cookies, Dearie. Chocolate coconut cookies—would you like some? Andoh, my. You’ve got a friend there. A Mwelar? Oh, well don’t you tell Byron or he’ll pretend to be sneezing up another storm!”
Lottie allowed herself to be pushed into the room, a bit overwhelmed, as a child would be. As soon as the extremely motherly woman offered cookies, Lottie’s silly grin reappeared, and she seemed to become aware of the flower-filled apron wrapped around the slender woman, along with the distinct scent of chocolate chip cookies with a hint of something more, probably that aforementioned coconut.
While Lottie was led into a kitchen, which closely resembled Fredrick’s with a much more feminine feel, Fredrick followed behind, muttering to his dear aunt about why exactly Lottie was there with him. Being a seven-year-old girl and all, Lottie thought she’d leave him to his explaining, while his lovely aunt set a tray of cookies and a glass of chilled milk in front of her. The girl took a seat at an ornately painted table, the colors corresponding with the leaves and vines painted on the pipes that would have been copper in her host’s room. It looked as if it had all been done by hand, and when Auntie Gaz place a napkin next to the plate of steaming cookies, Lottie noticed very slender, artistic hands.
That put her at awe, and she took a longer look around her, but didn’t miss the hastily whispered altercation behind her. Even as she took in the elegant blues and pale yellows of flowers and vines wrapped all around the cozy room, she listened to every bit of the conversation.
“Don’t you go and tell me she’s yours, now! You’ve only been gone four years, and she’s much more than that, boy.” The motherly voice had turned a bit cold, and suddenly Lottie found herself glad it wasn’t directed at her.
Fredrick piped up after a moment of more incoherent whispers. “Of course she isn’t! Look, Aunt Gaz, I don’t mean to be a bother, but I need you to take her in for a while”
“Take her in! Fredrick, oh, my boy, somewhere you’ve gone wrong. You can’t just have a child and run off”
“No, see, Auntie Gaz, no. She isn’t mine, and I never intended to come back before my punishment was over, but that’s just it, see?” Fredrick’s voice had become strained. Lottie wanted desperately to look, to walk over and make herself a part of that conversation, but instead she played like the deaf child she was supposed to be and took a bite out of a surprisingly delicious cookie. She chewed slower when the conversation started again.
“See, what, lad? There’s nothing to see, Fredrick. I love you dearly, but something isn’t right in that brain of yours; it isn’t.”
“Auntie Gaz, come on now. You know by law I shouldn’t have been able to pass through that curtain in the first place! So how did I? Aunt Gaz! Listen, please!”
“I have a guest to care for here, Freddy. I don’t know what you’re getting at, but make it quick.” The older woman was beginning to tire of the whole affair; Lottie could tell by the sigh she let loose.
“I will, really. See, you know I wouldn’t have been able to come back without my sentence being let up. And who has control over that, Auntie?”
“The Queen does, you fool, and”
“Yes! Exactly! The Queen!.” He was beginning to get excited, and in doing so, he steadily grew louder. The girl heard a hastened “hush” and held back a laugh. Fredrick cleared his voice, volume back to a nearly impossible whisper. Lottie stood, cookie in hand, and stared at the pipes, gradually stepping closer.
“I’ve heard nothing to be wrong with the Queen, Fredrick. I would be one of the first to know, I’m sure you’re aware of.”
“He’s an imposter!”
“Don’t talk stupid, boy! There isn’t a way in the eight worlds he’s an imposter! I know my own nephew when I see him, and I saw him just for Midwinter celebrations. Oh, don’t you go calling me a fool, Fredrick.”
Fredrick was growing frustrated; just as he began to speak, Auntie Gaz interrupted him, clearing her voice. By that time, Lottie wasn’t far from them, staring up at the woodwork making up the ceiling intently. She heard the clipping of boots on the tiled floor approach her and turned to face the matured woman’s smile.
“Dearie, I’m sure you’re tired. Would you like a nap? Or, I’m sure Bennie would love to show you around. He’s our stable boy, see. We don’t get many visitors his age. How old are you, anyway, love?”
Lottie gave her most charming smile and drew herself up to her full height of four feet and seven inches. “I’m seven, and I’d really rather know what Mister Fredrick is talking about, Missus…?”
“Gaz, dearie. Auntie Gaz, if you please. Well, I appreciate your curiosity.” With that, she heard Fredrick give an unpleasant snort, but Lottie didn’t blink an eye. “Still, I think it would be better for someone of your age to go and play while us adults figure out whether Sir Fredrick is crazy or not, love. I’ll find Bennie so he can give you a round of the estate. It’ll be like your own little adventure.”
Presently, Auntie Gaz did Lottie’s least favorite thing in the entire world: she pinched one cheek between her two boney fingers, and suddenly, Lottie wasn’t nearly so keen on being in the same room with her. Oh, the fire that burned at that moment! Fredrick stepped forward before Lottie’s trembling lips could utter any sort of disastrous phrase.
“I’m sure Bennie would love to just have some company for a little while, Lottie. You wouldn’t mind terribly for him to show you around at all, I know. Why don’t you call him, Auntie Gaz?” The smile Fredrick gave to Lottie was frighteningly coy, and Lottie returned it with a short, very sarcastic, smirk. Aunt Gaz hurried off, muttering something about a warm meal for dinner and two spare beds. The moment she was gone, Lottie turned on the older man, eyes ablaze.
“So you think you’re just going to dump me off here? Well, I’ve got news for you: I won’t be around this cheek-pinching, cookie-making old lady any longer than absolutely necessary, sir!” Her voice was low, the type of tone that would send shivers down anyone’s spinebut Fredrick held up quite well.
“I beg your pardon, young lady, but this is not your business!”
“‘Not my business’, he says! Oh, well, I’ll have you know I’m only here because of you, you stinky mutt”
“Now, now…, Lottie, love. Don’t go calling names.” The edge had wilted away, and now the man simply looked tired. Lottie’s anger began to melt. “Look, I’m worried about you. I know I dragged you into this mess, and I intend to get you back home to your parents unscathed. I need you to, please just stay here and be a good girl while I’m gone. There’s plenty to do here and Bennie is a good boy; he’ll show you around, maybe teach you how to ride the horses in Gaz’s stable. Just stay here.”
“Stop treating me like I’m five! You certainly couldn’t ever handle this on your own, so just let me come along, and it’ll all be fine. I won’t take no as an answer, Fredrick, sir, and I expect you to leave it at that.”
With a stomp of the small boot, Lottie made her own point and turned on her heel, heading out the door. Fredrick stared at her, mouth open in wonder. He was no father, that was for sure, so he had no idea whatsoever how exactly to handle a would-be daddy’s girl. In fact, it was difficult to overcome the growing frustration in his gut. Not only had his aunt accused him of fraud, but now his ward had told him what to do!
Oh, it was all too much for any man’s pride. Fredrick straightened his shoulders and made to stomp right after that little spark of a girl, but was met at the doorway by a rather busy sort of woman. Fredrick cleared his throat before stepping back, and the woman seemed to mimic his movements. At first, he didn’t recognize the female who stood before him, dusting off the apron wrapped around her waist. A tiny cloud of dirtied air floated into the air with every pat, and she reminded him of a much younger version of Gaz. In fact, the long brown hair seemed to be showing a bit of the same graying hue as Gaz’s did. The instant she spoke, his frustration seemed to be lifted, replaced by a heavy bout of dread.
“Sorry, sir, I didn’t know we were expecting visitors today…” That feeling of dread was mirrored on the woman’s face once she took in the obstruction she had walked into. “Fredrick.”
Her expression was enough to show what her voice may not have. She acknowledged him simply by stating his name and, in that very same instant, her brow darkened. “I certainly didn’t expect you.”
Again, Fredrick was at a loss for words, his mouth gaping at the sight of his long-lost companion. Or, whom he would rather to have had been his long-lost companion. Instead, his thoughts were a little more along the lines of wondering if women ever, ever forgot. The way the woman made to push past him without another word was another form of a simple answer: nope.
It wouldn’t have been in character for the man to just turn away and finish pursuing Lottie; he hadn’t obtained the brain capacity for that, so, when she pushed passed him, he allowed that to turn him to watch her walk. Realizing who it was, she didn’t look nearly as old as she had at first glance. As a matter of fact, she was younger than he by two years, that brown hair a much deeper chocolate than it first let on.
The woman ignored the prickling feeling of his eyes on her back while standing over the sink on the far wall, waiting for the man behind her to speak. When quite a few moments of nothing had passed, the woman turned and glared at him, the fire in her eyes twice as bright as those the seven-year-old held.
“You just left! You never said goodbye or told me where you were going; you just left. Mother told me; she told me you’d be back, and do you know what?” When her question was left unanswered, the fire grew brighter, and Fredrick swallowed hard, bracing himself for the anger he knew would come. It wasn’t like her to grow angry, but it wasn’t like him to blame someone for his faults, so he stiffened and held her cold gaze. He was rather shocked when that anger dissipated, left to a desperate face. The fire had burned down to nothing but the ashes of desperation in those brown eyes and her tone had fallen with it,
“No, of course you don’t know… How could you?” The young woman sighed and turned back to the water. Like any worrying housewife does, she picked up the rag laid over the side of the sink and began to scrub away at the last traces of flour and cookie dough left on the counter.
Fredrick watched for a long while. He certainly wasn’t able to comprehend her change so quickly, so instead, he muttered what would have been the start to a wonderful apology.
“Aggie, I… see, I didn’t have time to say goodbye. Your brother made up his mind, and I had to go. It was for the public”
His explanation stopped with the approaching footsteps and Aunt Gaz stepped into the room. At first, she opened her mouth to address Fredrick’s expression before laying eyes on Aggie. She, too, stood a moment to comprehend the situation, and like any mother does, she found the words to either further or break the tension.
“Darling, you don’t need to clean up my mess; I’ll get it.” The unexpected voice cause the young woman to jump, startled, and she turned to acknowledge her mother.
“It’s fine, Mum.” A twinge of pain had probably accompanied those words after she accidentally laid eyes on Fredrick as she turned. Gaz noticed the difference and turned Aggie away from her nemesis, patting her shoulder gently.
“Oh, no, it isn’t. You’ve been on your feet all day. Why don’t you go wash up and help me to serve supper for our guests?”
Chapter Six
Before long, the entire company was led to a different room, the dining table already laden with a meal that was made to feed the four regular inhabitants in the house. Aunt Gaz, being the improvising mother that she was so exceedingly outstanding at being, the elder woman made do with what they had, nearly having to make the cookies she’d baked as a thoughtful desert into a main course. However, she didn’t, and saved them bundled up in the kitchen while the company sat in the adjacent room.
Silence had almost enveloped the room, and tension seemed to be the very air they breathed. Lottie refused to speak to Fredrick and instead made conversation with the youth beside her. She and the boy had made fast friends, and now sat discussing various injuries they’d acquired in their time alive, much to the dismay of Aunt Gaz, who insistently brought up fun games to play… anything less grotesque for supper conversation.
Each time, however, the chipper woman was shot down, more often than not by a sparked memory of yet another incident, this one involving that appallingly lovely game.
The uncomfortable dinner would have gone on for hours, had Aunt Gaz not have requested one tiny, fateful thing:
“Lottie, dear, how about, once you finish your meal, you and Bennie can go and see to it that the guest room is arranged properly?” The request was more of an order, and those grey eyes rested on the young boy beside Lottie, almost as a last line of insurance that her command was carried out. Lottie, however, made a short glance worth of eye contact with Fredrick before straightening her shoulders and giving her most charming smile.
“Actually, Ms. Gaz, I’ll be accompanying Fredrick, Ma’am. Sorry to spoil any plans, but he said I could.” Lottie turned that shimmering smile onto Fredrick, and he returned with his own rather dejected expression. Auntie Gaz, on the other hand, was rather astonished and stared at Fredrick, mouth opening and closing like a fish in attempt to make its first breath. Before she could utter a word, however, Aggie turned to Fredrick, eyes shifting from the unknown girl to the much-too-familiar man.
“Where? Where are you going?” she questioned. It wasn’t exactly in the most polite or honestly sincere manner; a bit more accusing and commanding for Fredrick’s taste, but it put a smile on little Lottie’s face.
“We’re going on a trip, you see. Fredrick promised to bring me along, and so I’m holding him to it,” Lottie answered, grinning happily at the young woman. Fredrick, however, opened his mouth to be cut off before he even began by a rather flustered aunt.
“Accompanying him? Oh, dear…, lovely, I think it would certainly be best for you to stay”
Bennie cut the older woman short, brown eyes glittering, complete with flushing freckled cheeks.“I want to go! Will it be dangerous? Will it?”
Lottie grinned at him, nodding excitedly. “Oh, yes! Only the best kinds of terrors, and there will probably be lots of death and blood and…” And the both of them began to brainstorm loudly.
Meanwhile, Aggie had turned her frustration on her mother, “You knew he’d be coming? You didn’t tell me! Where’re they going?”
Frantically, Gaz opened her mouth to defend herself, but was quickly cut short by Fredrick standing from the table. The bang that erupted from the wooden chair back hitting the floor resounded, and all four pairs of eyes rested on him in a stunned silence.
It took the man a moment to compose himself before giving a charming smile to the elder woman, “If you would listen to me, you’d know what was happening.” His eyes had turned cold, and his face was set in an unhappy scowl. Within that instant, he had acquired the attention of the entire company. “As I already attempted telling you,” His eyes rested on a startled Aunt before he looked away again, “The Queen was abducted.”
Fredrick’s attention turned to the adults. “You know well the laws concerning those who are banned from a globe. They aren’t let back until their allotted time is up, unless a higher power says otherwise. Well, Aggie, I was banned as a public case. I was to write an article about His Majesty, and he would have no choice but to arrest me and follow through with orders. You know the debates about Trahaeam and the council’s weakness… Well, I was asked for guidance, and that was the only thing we knew would work to restore faith…
“I wanted to say goodbye to you, but I was prohibited, and I knew you would stop me. I was trying to help your family. I was sent away,” here he gestured to Lottie. “To Earth. The Curtain was supposed to be for one of the farther planets, one of the Companions, but somehow, it brought me to her.”
Gaz shook her head, blinking, and Aggie was silent. Lottie and Bennie, however, were caught in the heroic feats Fredrick had just conveyed. After a long bout of silence, Fredrick spoke.
“Thank you, Gaz, for your hospitality.” His eyes shifted to Aggie, expression far more somber. “I’m sorry for leaving like I did. She didn’t know I’d be here or that I was going anywhere, and I apologize, love. I wish to speak to you before I leave, if you would allow it.” He didn’t wait for a response before turning his attention on the children across the table. “Lottie, go put your coat on; we’ll be leaving shortly. Thank Missus Gaz for her help and the fine meal, please.”
Silence ensued, and Fredrick nodded definitely. “I’ll go get the horses now.” He backed away from the table, lifted the heavy chair into place, and turned on his heel, hurrying out the door.
Lottie, appalled at first by his actions was a little surprised by his including her in on the journey, and she scooted herself out of her chair, Bennie following her with clear intent.
Aunt Gaz hadn’t recovered her wits yet to stop him; instead, she and Aggie held a staring contest with the wall, silently absorbing the news they both knew would be their job to keep quiet. Aggie reflected on the recent change in laws, but shook her head, contradicting herself.
“He was at Midwinter, Mum. I saw him. We danced, he and I. He was there.” She blinked a few times, her befuddled gaze meeting that of her mother’s. She, too, looked just as confused as her thoughts made her.
“We did, love… We saw him. Fredrick… he told me he was an imposter, but it was just like him. His mother’s eyes and everything.”
The both of them melted into silence once more before Aggie’s chocolate eyes opened wide and she stood, nearly felling the chair to rush for the door. Gaz sat where she was, transfixed by her mind.
+++
Fredrick had made it halfway through hitching the twin steeds together before the snow beyond the opened stable door was heard, crunched under light footsteps. Oddly enough, he recognized that rhythm of those steps and swallowed hard. He kept his back turned, waiting for Aggie to speak. She’d made up her mind faster than he had imagined she would and now, along with a pestering, curious seven-year-old child, he had to attempt to fend off a woman he would much rather have next to him.
Aggie watched the familiar man work, recognizing even the slightest of movements. Fours years earlier and she still would have had that glittering diamond on her finger… not any longer. Once he’d gone it pained her too much to even look at it and one night it simply went missing, her caring mother was too unconcerned about it to make it inconspicuous. The young woman loved Gaz for that very reason and had waited and waited, finally giving up after two years of heart-breaking endurance. Now she simply fended off the courtiers, sometimes with an empty sense of hope and sometimes with a general disliking of the gender.
Somewhere between Aggie’s thoughts, Fredrick had pivoted to face her, watching her as she stared at him without exactly seeing anything. Cautiously, he cleared his throat. His opposite started, blinking twice before giving him a sheepish smile. He returned the smile, his entirely sincere and filled with apology. Aggie studied him quietly before uttering a harsh whisper.
“It’s true then? About the Queen?” The tone of her voice didn’t convince Fredrick that she believed him and he sighed.
“Yes. Honest to the heart in my chest, Aggie… I wouldn’t have ever gone. Not without a promise to return. You know that… Don’t you?” Hesitantly, he took a few steps forward and, as much as she yearned to let him embrace her, Aggie was stubborn and walked backwards in response to every step he took. The look in her eyes, however, wasn’t of hurt contempt because she was aware that he wouldn’t ever break her heart purposely. Instead, those chocolate eyes were filled with a heartwarming sort of glow, but she wasn’t prepared to let Fredrick see that.
“And when you leave now, you’ll come back again?” Her question was spiked with barbs of accusation, but Fredrick kept the smile, recognizing the faded anger in everything from her eyes to her posture.
“I promise you, Aggie. I will be back. On my life, I will.” However, that response seemed to upset her and her eyes widened.
“You never said a word about danger!” Invulnerably, she took a few steps closer, closing the space between the pair. Her reaction simply widened Fredrick’s smile. He pulled his arms around her waist boldly and looked down at her, eyes locked on hers.
“I wouldn’t dream of endangering myself. I’m too pretty.” He wasn’t expecting anything more than for her to laugh, and she did. The sound filled his ears and he felt a little bit of warmth creep into the lonely heart set in his chest. He grinned down at her and she smiled. In any other case, the silence would have been awkward, but the comfort and knowledge of each other prevented that.
Fredrick bent slightly, attempting to make a sloppy contact of lip-on-lip, but Aggie twisted out of his arms, flouncing to the snow-filled doorway. Her smile had grown as well and she looked back at him, the look of frustration on his face like sweet revenge to a previously lonely woman. Aggie curtsied and turned on her heel, flouncing out the door and into the snow.
Fredrick watched her, unable to stop the smile from creeping onto his face. He’d known she’d forgive him, but never thought it’d be that easy. Never. Before he had turned back to his work, Lottie trotted into the doorway holding the leash to an unhappy Mwelar. A-Wallaby looked as if he was being strangled with a coat hanger and constantly made unpleasant attempts at inhaling. The look on the girl’s face was one of incredulous impatience and she reached down to pick the furry critter up.
“It’s like it’s the end of the world to him! For goodness sake, it’s not even tight!” The flustered child looked up at Fredrick and then beyond him to the stomping horses. She smiled. “Are we ready for adventure!?”
Although she hadn’t the faintest idea what had passed between Aggie and him, she knew that something had happened. His face wasn’t dropping any longer like a sad puppy and instead, that tail of his was twitching happily, poking out from underneath the heavy leather jacket.
Lottie felt she was starting to get used to the weather, now she wore only her fluffy brown jacket and the goose bumps didn’t crawl up her legs along with the breeze. In fact, she hadn’t received a bout of the shivers since they’d arrived. She found that personal achievement rudely interrupted by Fredrick. He gave her a stern look and pointed to the house.
“Get your other jacket on and politely ask Aunt Gaz to pack us some provisions.” Lottie gave the man an incredulous look, accompanied by a short laugh,
“You’re in a mood.” Lottie moved away, gripping A-Wallaby with determined arms, and marched back into the house.
Fredrick finished with the horses moments after and led the both of them out the door to a large lean-to housing his and his Aunt’s carriages. Both vehicles were twins to each other, the elegantly carved white wood making up its frame and ornaments. Both were laced with scenes of galloping horses crossing bridges and such. Twelve of them had been handcrafted by the Queen’s cabinetmakers and distributed to each household in his family. Auntie Gaz and Uncle Byron had been thrilled. Fredrick, however, had been faced with the challenge at that time of coming up with a place for storage… and horses to carry it.
He shook his head, ridding himself of the majority of the thoughts and wrapped the horse’s reins around the picket post. Behind him, footsteps crunched through the snow.
“Mister Fredrick, Sir?” Bennie spoke, coming around the side of Fredrick with his own gelding on a lead rope. The small boy let the saddle in his arms drop to the floor and he grinned up at Fredrick. “I wanted you to know I’d be accompanying you and Lottie, Sir. Mostly so you could bring me some foods, too.”
Fredrick gave the boy an incredulous look and opened his mouth to speak before thinking the scenario over. If Lottie had a companion, she’d be more likely to follow the boy around, or maybe vise versa. Either way, she’d be out of his hair, quite possibly out of danger, and he would have someone to hitch those forsaken horses to the darned carriage.
Fredrick looked down at the boy and nodded. “Saddle your pony and hitch the horses, Bennie.” He made to step away, smiling in response to the glow of the ten-year-old’s face and made to follow Lottie into the house.
+++
Lottie had already searched out Aunt Gaz and now waited patiently while she rummaged through her prettily-painted cabinets, setting a myriad of wood containers, potato sacks of food, and anything else the woman believed they might need. The girl watched her movements, wondering why exactly she talked to herself and continuously switched from one cabinet to the next. In fact, it baffled her. Why search through three when you could search through one? Oh, well, though. Food was food no matter how it was found.
Fredrick appeared just after Gaz had finished transferring the loose objects onto one counter. He approached the older woman and gave her a beaming smile before speaking,
“Do you need any help, Auntie?”
Politely, she shook her head and smiled back at him,
“I see things have worked out?” the tone of voice was slightly apprehensive, but hopeful. Fredrick’s smile shifted slightly into a cocky grin and Gaz nodded.
“Good. She’s preparing extra clothes for the children; in fact,” Aunt Gaz turned her smiling grey eyes on Lottie and gestured with her chin to the doorway. “Why don’t you help her? She’s working those Mites to the bone with all the last minute sewing.”
Although she was a bit befuddled by the woman’s meaning, she turned and headed out the door to the kitchen, to the left, and down wide hallway lined with shut doors and frosted windows. Bennie had pulled her this way shortly after they’d first arrived to show her his collection of amber encrusted bugs which she found thoroughly interesting. Now, she followed the same hallway, past his closed door and to the next, on the opposite side where he’d said the washroom was.
Hesitantly, Lottie knocked on the hard wood door and waited for the shuffling beyond it to approach. Once it did, she stepped backwards twice and the door swung inward to reveal the faintly familiar woman and a collection of Dust Bunnies all surrounding patches of cloth set out on smooth wood tables. Aggie looked Lottie over once and a warm smile played on her lips.
“Did you need something, dear?” Lottie noticed her voice change from completely adult to motherly whenever she addressed either of the children. At the moment it did that exact thing and Lottie felt her cheek flush for some strange reason.
“Aunt¬ Gaz told me to come help you if you needed it.” Even the girl’s voice had filtered away to a quiet, unsure whisper. An odd thing to happen to a bold young girl, but Lottie somehow found it uncomfortable to be spoken to in such a way. Any mothers she’d experienced in the past were just cold and strict, always berating her grandparents for doting on her. Lottie assumed that was the same way all mothers acted and she assumed this woman so closely resembling Bennie would have been his mother.
“Lottie?” that very same woman had bent down slightly to see the blushing girl’s face more clearly and she blinked. Lottie looked up at her, a sheepish grin plastered on her face.
“Pardon?” Lottie questioned, feeling the heat in her cheeks rise.
“Well, I said we were almost finished in here, but you’re welcome to see what the Mites do. I’ve heard you don’t have them where you come from. They can be quite entertaining.” And there is was again, that motherly smile. Lottie felt utterly intoxicated, but stepped forward when Aggie placed her hand on her shoulder to guide her into the room.