A Grim Fairy Tale

Chapter Forty-Nine

After breakfast, Charlotte and Alastor set to work getting the cottage clean and tidy. They started by gathering up all the dirty clothes and putting them aside, then they dusted all the corners, and swept and scrubbed all the floors. When they were done making the beds and wiping the windows, they walked down to the stream to do the laundry. A special device was waiting for them at the stream. A small, water-mill looking machine that had been firmly planted in the water while a babbling brook was right next to it. The wheel had been built over a barrel, the two connected by a wooden rod.

"What's that?" Charlotte asked.

"Every washer woman's dream come true." Alastor said. "Observe."

Alastor filled the barrel to the top with all the dirty clothes they had brought and tossed in a few soap flecks. Next he moved the wheel of machine underneath the water the fell from the brook. At once, the wheel started to spin and the rod spun as well, turning the clothes, the soap, and the water around and around.

"Now while we search for dinner, this machine will take care of all the clothes." Alastor said.

"I can't believe he was able to make something like this." She said. "He must be the smartest person in the world."

"I always thought so." Alastor said.

Using his advance sense of smell and hearing, he was able to locate where some pheasants were nesting and caught one in almost no time at all. Charlotte on the other hand, was able to collect a basket full of edible mushrooms, hazelnuts, and blackberries. The mushrooms, hazelnuts, and pheasant meat would surely make a tasty stew and the blackberries could be saved to use in a pie or in porridge. She knew Alastor had never liked sweet things but perhaps his family had different tastes.

"Have you made stew before?" Alastor asked her as they were walking back to the stream.

"Plenty of times." She answered. "Dolores showed me. I just hope everyone likes pheasant, hazelnuts, and mushrooms."

"They're not picky eaters, and even if they were, they wouldn't refuse a meal that was cooked just for them. Well Blitzo maybe, but his manners have always been something to be desired."

"He doesn't like me, does he?"

"No. But he dislikes all human beings. Always has for as long as I can remember. He never liked me. Wanted to get rid of me from day one."

"Why?"

"I don't know. I've asked Moxxie and Millie countless times and they've always said that they can't tell me. They were sworn to secrecy and Blitzo will obviously never tell me anything personal. So I guess I'll never know. Not that I care to know, I never liked him either. He had a nasty habit of belittling me when I was a child. Acting like he knew everything and I knew nothing."

"Well lots of adults think that way in regards to children, and no offense, but normally adults do know more than children."

"Not in the case of Blitzo and myself. Shockingly I knew a lot more about things than he did. I remember one time when I was ten, the chimney had a little nest infestation and he decided to fix it himself. But I warned him that-"

...

A ten year old Alastor stood outside the cottage, carefully watching Blitzo dig twigs and branches out of the chimney.

"Blitzo I think you should wait til Millie comes back." He spoke. "She can turn into a bird and speak their language, so she would be better suited for this."

"Pipe down squirt!" Blitzo said. "I know what I'm doing. I know my way around animals."

"I'm not so sure about that. Remember what happened last time you thought you knew your way around animals? You tried to milk a chamois and I told you that thing hanging from it was probably not it's utters. But you didn't listen, you grabbed it, it turned out to be male like I said, and then head-butted you off the mountain in blind rage."