Of Spinning Gold and Song

| Six | The Dwarf

Stumbling back with a gasp, I backed away, going over every curse I knew in my mind. Of course he would follow me here. Of course.

It wasn't enough that the hellion was the reason I hadn't been with Rosie yesterday morning. It wasn't enough that this whole mess was the greedy pig's fault. No, he just had to follow me here as well.

"Hi," I said cautiously, for lack of anything else to say.

"Did you think you could run away from me?" the dwarf snapped. "Because I'm here to show you that you can't."

I tried not to glower. "Have you really not heard about everything? I thought you specialized in other people's misery."

"Touche, girl, touche," the dwarf drawled, his black eyes glinting. With me sitting and him standing he was actually looking down on me, a rather disturbing feat. Shaking back the cold, I got up myself, more confident when I could tower over him. It was a small victory that meant nothing in the grand scheme of power, but I knew I enjoyed my resistive little condolences.

Nervously, I glanced at Bradyn, hoping he was sound enough asleep to not awaken. I didn't want anyone else dragged into this mess I was foolish enough to start.

"Why are you here?" I hissed. "And can you keep your voice down?"

The dwarf leered at me. "Why? Afraid to wake Lover Boy over there?"

"He's not my lover boy," I snapped. "He's just a friend. A friend that deserves some rest and I don't want him to wake up! I wouldn't want to wake anyone sleeping!" I wasn't sure how much of that was a lie, but I didn't care. I was mad enough as it was that the blasted dwarf had tracked me here. I was beyond caring.

"Look," the dwarf snapped. "Is this that something or other about the dragon I was hearing yesterday?"

"Yes," I said after a long silence. I considered lying to him, but decided in the end it wasn't worth it. It wasn't like I could fool the barbarian anyways so I might as well not fool myself into thinking so. "Yes it is, okay? The dragon took my sister and we're going to get her back."

"Listen girly, I knew you were never as smart as I, but do you really think that if a dragon has taken your sister, she's still alive?"

"Why not?" I snapped back. "I've heard crazier things from you and if I'm fool enough to believe them, this isn't a stretch at all."

The dwarf threw back his head in a laugh, a cackling, hee hawing, malicious laugh that had me glancing nervously back at Bradyn. Luckily, he still seemed to be asleep. I envied it; I was a light sleeper and woke at the slightest of noises. I was sure part of it had to come with basically raising my sister on my own; some maternal instinct that ensured I would always hear the baby cry. Either way, I'd suffered many a sleepless night as such.

"Well then, today's your lucky day," said the dwarf, cackling. "Because you're right. Crazy as it is, I can promise you that your sister is still alive. And I can keep her that way."

Despite what I'd vowed to myself, despite everything, I found myself leaning closer to hear. I despised it, and I could see the smug satisfaction on his squashed in face, which only made me despise myself more, but there was nothing I could do. I would do anything to protect my family. Many a time I'd wished I wasn't like that, wished I could just remove my heart and stop caring. It would solve a lot of heartache.

"What?" I breathed.

"So maybe I knew about the dragon. You should have come to me first instead of running off."

I ignored him. "How do you know? How do I know you're not making this up?"

"That's the best part. You don't. But then again, such has been the case for the past year and that hasn't stopped you from coming back, and back, and back again." He had a ridiculously smug and gleeful grin splitting his hideous excuse for a face.