The Bird and the Garden 3: The Final Adventure

Chapter 60: Mono, Part Two.

"This will be your house, mademoiselle. I do hope you like it."

Mono stepped through the door, her eye gazing at the cobwebs in the corners, the thick layer of dust that coated everything with a surface. Jack hummed, scratching his chin.

"... Oh, I have almost forgotten. You are but a child," he said calmly. "I will enroll you into school. You'll start next week, mademoiselle."

Mono looked up at him quietly. "... What... What about home...?"

Jack's smile twitched, but didn't shrink nor grow. "You'll be living alone; the house is yours. As for food, you will need to visit Rinys and Harold's inn and kitchen, just down the road. They are nice people, and they will keep you fed until you are old enough to be employed. Otherwise... Do as you will, mademoiselle. Now, I must prepare for the day that wonderful man comes. Au revoir, mademoiselle."

Click.

He closed the door behind him, leaving Mono alone. The little girl pried her eye away from the exit, staring at her new home.

Her first impression of Grimmore wasn't entirely good. The town was dark and dreary, with the stench of the poisonous Great Swamp just outside the gates. Her home reflected that; drab, grey, gloomy. She walked deeper into the dark abode, half-heartedly exploring her residence. She found the kitchen rather easily. When she stepped inside, a large rat scurried away, slipping into a hole in the counter. Mono felt ill.

The living room was the next one she found. Setting down her bag - filled with only necessities that Jack had given her; toothbrush, toothpaste, soap, clothes, and a hairbrush - she looked at the sofa. The cushions didn't smell very good, and stuffing almost seemed to spill out from the seams.

Up the creaky steps that sounded like they would break away under her weight at any moment, she found her bathroom and bedroom, both connected. The bathroom was filthy; the mirror was greasy and opaque, and the chamber pot was rusty and dusty - but thankfully, empty. Her bedroom wasn't much better than the rest of her house. At the very least, she had a complete bed. Even if springs poked out from the mattress, and if her walls had mold growing on them.

She sat down on the mattress, a cockroach, scrambling from one of the holes that led inside. She didn't flinch. She just reflected.

Reaching Grimmore should have taken longer than it did. But it had only taken a couple weeks. Jack had said he knew a shortcut, but Mono had no idea what he meant. Even if they had walked in a straight line from the Wilds to the Great Swamp, it would take over a month to reach their destination.

Jack was strange. Mono sighed, laying back on her bed. She didn't want to think too much of it. The memories of her wasted village and Blair still burned fresh in her memories. Everything she had known, destroyed in an instant.

Would Grimmore be the same? Would she still make no friends here? According to Jack, Grimmore never received travellers. This deep within the Great Swamp, it was hidden from the world. And even then, no one in their right mind would aimlessly wander a poisonous swamp with no goal in mind.

Only time would tell.

Time.

When Mono thought of the word, she felt miserable. Time had done nothing but ruin everything for her. She rolled onto her side, tucking and folding the flat and dirty pillow under her head. She wasn't hungry; there would be no reason to go back outside to find wherever Rinys and Harold's inn was. She didn't want to go outside.

Closing her eye, she struggled to fall asleep. Not only because she occasionally had to swat at the cockroaches that crawled across her legs, but because her mind couldn't relax. She was filled with suspense, with fear. In the back of her mind, she knew deep down that she wouldn't find happiness here, either.