But They’ve Never Had a Bird
“Willi! Willi! Willi! Willi! Willi! Willi! Willi!”
As Willi and Strange Cook enter the kitchen, Little Mushroom Man jumps on the counter, waving a familiar looking letter in his hand.
“This came for you. Look, see? Do you see it? Can you read it? Read it to me, Willi. What does it say? Hey. Willi. Willi Willi. What does the letter say? Is it something good? Did you win a prize? Did you win a punishment? Tell me! Tell me!”
The continuous spew of words burst forth from Little Mushroom Man as Willi reaches up and takes the letter from his hands. Opening it, she reads:
How is that fiendish mushroom doing? No chances of him coming back, yes? I hope so, for I have a new job for you. It has been brought to my attention that an excellent item of value can be found in the great big room. The one on the second floor with the odd looking tree. Do you think you can go and bring it to me?
I will sign this for your sake, but I hardly find it necessary since you likely know who this is from
The Attic Antiquarian
Willi hums to herself. The great big room with the odd looking tree…it’s likely to be her parents’ that they speak of, but Willi was just in there and she didn’t see anything particularly valuable. Should she go to them and ask for more information?
“Can I come with you?” Little Mushroom Man asks. “I wanna help find the valuable thing.”
“No, you should stay here,” Willi tells him as she pockets the letter. “The Attic Antiquarian doesn’t like you.”
“I don’t like them either,” Little Mushroom Man says before blowing a raspberry.
“I’ll be back,” Willi says, despite not knowing whether she’ll actually be back or not.
The bedroom is the same as Willi had found it. The same items are on the desk. The same strange tree is on the wall.
Willi decides this is a good chance to get a better look of the tree. Did her parents draw it? Or did it just appear here when the house was stolen, like the creatures did?
It’s a barren tree, not a leaf in sight. It doesn’t have very many branches—only about a half dozen, and a couple of them are broken off.
Carefully, Willi leans closer to it.
“Are you a creature?” She whispers.
The tree stays silent.
Willi puts a finger on the tree.
“What are you doing?”
Willi jumps, squealing as she turns to see Little Mushroom Man.
“Little Mushroom Man!” she exclaims in a puff. “I told you to stay in the kitchen. The Attic Antiquarian doesn’t like you.”
“But the Bossy Thing isn’t even in here,” Little Mushroom Man whines. He walks up to Willi and looks at the tree. “What’s that?”
“I don’t know,” Willi confesses. “I just found it here myself.”
“It looks dead.”
“Perhaps. Or at least dormant.”
“What’s that mean?”
“It sleeps for a lot of days until it gets warm again.”
“Oh. Is this the valuable thing Bossy was talking about?”
“I hope not. I can’t imagine how we can get it up to them.”
Willi gets on her knees and looks under the bed. Perhaps there’s something valuable down here?
Wait…there is something.
Willi reaches and pulls out what looks to be a silver birdcage, though she doesn’t remember ever having a bird. It’s pretty, shiny, if slightly dented.
“Oooooooo,” Little Mushroom Man says, the black slime dripping from his cap bubbling and pouring onto the floor. “That’s gotta be it.”
“I wonder what it’s doing here,” Willi says. “We’ve never had a bird.”
“Maybe it’s for someone else’s bird?”
“Hm. I’m going to see The Attic Antiquarian now. Stay here. Or, rather, go where you like, but don’t come in the attic.”
“Ain’t no one wanna see Bossy anyway!” Little Mushroom Man folds his arms and stomps his foot with a harumph!
Willi allows a giggle to escape before turning to head up the attic ladder.
Thank you so much for reading! Been working on Nanowrimo this year, but I’m pretty ahead on my goal so far, so I thought I’d allow myself to edit this as a break X3
Anyone else doing Nano? How’s everything progressing? Are you doing the 50000 word goal, or something else? Lemme know!