[Kitty]

  Even now she was only touching the surface of how brilliant Moose’s words were.

  She had learned her lesson. Don’t get mad at the small things for no reason. If she didn’t understand something, that was her fault.

  ‘I still don’t understand most things they do. Maybe I need to stare at a wall more?’

  She had been watching the small things as much as possible. They were an endless source of new things that didn’t make sense to her. They used a lot of small thing words as well. So much was new, that she even learned how to use some of the old small thing words in better ways. A discovery that had her wondering just how much the Pages had.

  And how much she had missed.

  Padding down the magic tunnel after the small things, she kept herself and her thoughts quiet.

  ‘I know the small things can see, but most of the time they act as if I’m not there.’

  Had she found a magic spell that even Moose didn’t have?

  It was an intriguing line of thought, but she dismissed it fairly quickly. Moose had a lot of magic that he had not shown her yet. The talking lights alone had been a massive discovery. What more was Moose not showing?

  A lot, obviously.

  Moose didn’t need to use his magic, so why show it? He didn’t need to move very much, so why move? It all felt very lazy and made perfect sense. Moose could do anything he wanted, but why spend the effort? Especially when the small things seemed so eager.

  She could feel the change in herself. Her own magic was growing. A feeling of motion, a need to not be still had found itself at home in her chest. It demanded she expend all of that magic. Something she did quite happily now, running alongside Moose up and down the tunnels. The activity so much more understandable once the feeling had gripped her.

  Had shown her why.

  She had been surprised when Pup joined the running, the small thing far too slow to hope to keep up with her, let alone Moose. But she dismissed that in the end as well. Pup did a lot of strange things. She was beginning to suspect that Pup was trying to stay close to Moose.

  ‘Had the transformation begun in her? It doesn’t feel like it has been as long as for me, but Pup didn’t run away like I did at the start.’

  The more she followed Moose and watched. The more she did as Moose said and felt the world around her, more and more things started to come into focus. The wall did not help her learn words, it helped to slow her mind, bring things into focus. The pages were not traded for words, they were traded for the magic they might contain. Something she still wasn’t moose enough to understand. The rain room wasn’t for water magic, it was for removing the outside.

  ‘It is no wonder that Moose keeps the tiny creatures in the garden. The small creatures are so dirty.’

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  The bed sheet Moose had wrapped around her had annoyed her at first. It felt scratchy and uncomfortable pressed so close to her body. She hated it. She had planned to remove it after she was out of Moose’s sight.

  At least that had been the plan, until she stepped out of the magic tunnel into the small thing area.

  Her feet had never felt so sticky and slippery at the same time. It was clear in hindsight that the small things had gathered where they were to avoid all the disgusting stuff. It had taken all her practice to stay quiet while she made her way around the worst of it, off to the side.

  She wouldn’t risk a monster attack, regardless of the dirt.

  The slow water in the rain room had never been so welcome before. The whole process far more enjoyable as she felt the disgusting bits of outside wash away. She had left the bed sheet in the magic tunnel, same as she left Pup’s ruined bit of cloth. She wanted to be as far away from it as possible.

  She had skipped the bed sheet this time. Now that she knew why Moose had insisted the first time, she had learned. Moose hadn’t asked her to come with the small things this time so she didn’t have any advice from him, but she couldn’t continue her transformation if she waited for Moose every time something happened. All she needed to do was avoid anything that looked bad. The outside was a terrible place and she wanted nothing to do with it, but the small things acted the strangest when they were out there.

  Not something she could miss at this point.

  ‘At least the small thing cloths make sense now. Pup wore it because she was outside.’

  …

  ‘Wait, does that mean the place where the small things are is outside as well, since they always wear those cloths? Doesn’t that mean the talking lights were outside?’

  Something to talk at Moose about later. She wished Moose would offer more insight when she shared her musings with him, but just putting words to them helped her more in the end than keeping it in her head.

  ‘Is that what the little book is for?! Maybe I should try to find a little book.’

  She watched a small thing sneak around behind Pup’s group as the possible revelation bloomed in her mind. She already knew words were powerful, knew that giving words meant something. It was why Pup was Pup and not girl. If Pup had been girl, the new small thing would not be able to use that word.

  ‘I wish Moose would give the new small things words. It is hard to think about them without… them.’

  The uncommon use of the words in her thoughts causing them to stumble. It just highlighted why the right words were so important.

  Why she had been wrong before.

  She watched the small things talk, not bothering to get close enough to hear this time. It was always some silly small thing game anyways. It was only their actions that interested her now.

  ‘Hmm, the small thing that looks like Pup seems to be nervous. Did the small thing games not work out for them?’

  When they had come to the talking lights and taken them from Pup, she had been intrigued enough to pay attention. Even Moose had spared them some of his time. A short command to use words after Pup seemed to want to battle was his only real contribution though.

  That and holding Pup.

  She on the other hand had been happy to pay attention. That time alone hadn’t meant much, but putting it together with all the rest of the times she had been watching told her who was in charge among the small things.

  She cocked her head.

  ‘Is that some strange magic attempt?’

  She had seen the small things get up real close and wrap around each other like that at the last small thing area but had never seen anything come of it. They had always been away from other small things though.

  ‘Probably why Pup and that other small thing are unhappy. The blue one should know better.’

  As she got close enough to hear, she had to come to a different conclusion though.

  “…nd now you’re going to hand it over.”

  She sniffed.

  Picking up the new small thing by its cloth, she watched it unwrap from the blue one.

  “Moose’s. Not yours.”

  ‘I was doing so well. Why are all these small things so dirty! Maybe Moose can help me rub this time. I can try wrapping Moose, see if it is magic.’