Elise Runs and Dorothy Falls

Chapter 6

Elise hadn't any neighbors in Elmul. Her family had grown its own crops on its own green meadow and there hadn't been another family or soul in a half a mile. Where she came from they called it a town; by comparison, she would call Mirborne Harbor a city. How little she had seen!

Besides Dorothy, the only company Elise kept was Germón. Apparently Dorothy found him outside of her house, and, as she later would with Elise, taken him in. Due to the trauma the poor cat sustained, however, Germón no longer spoke. In fact, as Dorothy confirmed, he had lost his magic altogether. Perhaps one day it would return. In the meantime, Elise spent many hours holding him and petting him, especially while Dorothy was away. When Dorothy was around, Germón liked to sit with her instead. For whatever reason, Germón very much liked Dorothy. Elise couldn't fathom why.

Prideful, distant, and rude, besides the fact she had saved her life, Elise couldn't really ascribe to Dorothy any endearing qualities. She wouldn't so much as let Elise outside! All day, Elise watched her stomp around, enchanting and selling little rocks, hardly troubled to say hello even when Elise attempted to start a friendly conversation.

Finally, after days of this behavior, Elise had seen enough. While Dorothy sat sleeping in her armchair—snoring like a baby elephant—Elise climbed up the ladder towards the roof, unbolted the hatch, and climbed outside.

"At last!" Shutting the door behind her, she took big sips of the cool night air. Above her, a clear sky twinkled with all the constellations of the universe. Quinta, Saturna, Rafael and Lye, she recited the legends and science of a world she had barely seen. That had to change.

"I have to be grateful for what Dorothy did," Elise said quietly, "but I can't live like that forever. I have to be out here, where I belong." Moving carefully to the edge of the home, she looked down on Market Street where, not long ago, Inspector Chapelure had confronted the witch; had tried to confront her. Moonlight now blanketed the stalls, which flickered with occasional lamplight.

From this height she could also see out east, onto Third Street, where most homes lay dormant; and out west beyond Main Street whence she heard and spied the river Thomas, which stretched as far north and as far south as her eye could travel beneath the stars. Wide and flat, it ferried fishing boats that lulled in the breeze, fishing boats with little gas lamps that twinkled, too, like tiny stars on earth. North, south, east or west, each way inspired her specially, but the winds that swept her hair had a scent all the same: fragrant with the unknown.

Which way would she go?

Sitting down at the edge of the roof, she began her search for a way off this bizarre little home that had become her prison. She'd heard Dorothy climb down dozens of times, which gave her a place to start, so she went about turning over, easing herself off, and testing her foot in attempt to find something. She discovered what she supposed to be the head of some window siding, but by that point had nearly slid her entire body off the roof.

Now what?

"Urgh!"

With one hand clinging desperately to the edge, she threw her other hand every which way to find something to grab in the dark, but to no avail. She tried to investigate the unpredictable structure with her eyes, but the distance she perceived to the ground only made her legs weaker.

"Ack! How does she get down this thing?!"

Looking behind her again, she nearly fell, but this time from surprise.

"Dorothy!"

Riding her bune wand sidesaddle, the witch observed her smugly.

"Havin' a hard time?"

"Help me down! Or help me up—I don't care—but do it quickly!"

"Why should I? You'll just wind up here again tomorrow. End up as a puddle of goo somewhere..."

"Only the poor little animals you meet end up as puddles of goo! Eep!"

"Oi!" Dorothy raised her voice defensively, ignoring the fact Elise had now lost her footing as well. "Those lobsters are nuffin but trouble! Anyway, if I had so bad a disposition, I'd have snuffed out your cat as well, know what I mean?"

"LEAVE GERMÓN ALONE!"

"I said I WOULDA. That's the whole point!"

"You're nothing but a—aaah!"

Elise landed bum first next to Dorothy on the bune wand.

"Well anyway," said the witch, suddenly a lot less boisterous. "Probably get goin' back in. Cold out here..."

When Elise got back inside, she curled up in the bed and thought to herself. She tried not to worry thatthe house swayed, or that objects would occasionally float past, or that Dorothy snored. She tried to think about herself and what she would be in her strange new world, if not someone always running away. She also remembered that Dorothy's house had no windows.