Heaptober Day 3: Beetle Day
Feat. an excerpt from the next chapter of my Kid Fic, Seventh of the Seventh
O. Beetle Beetle was on his way to his apprenticeship when he was knocked over by the Princess.
He had been introduced to her before, so of course he recognized the most important person of his age. But strangely, she was not wearing a gown, or even her circlet. No, she was running through the ramblings in a tunic, with a Heap.
As Beetle bent to help her up, he wondered why his life was so strange now. It seemed that working at the manuscriptorium was not the boring desk job he had once thought it was. When he had gotten the apprencitceship last year he thought he would be running fizzfroots and getting pens for the scribes, but instead they had him working the front desk, which meant he was getting to meet a lot of interesting people.
Now, it was spreading outside of work, and he wasn’t sure how he felt about that.
“Are you okay, Princess?” Mathilda started, and Beetle realized she had’nt recognized him, which was fair, but kinda hurt. They had had a nice conversation while he mother had talked with his master, the Cheif Hermitic scribe, but he supposed she met a lot of people.
“Oh! Beetle!” Mathilda said, “thanks for helping me up!”
“Not at all, Princess” Beetle said, happy she had recognized him.
“SHHHH” Mathilda covered his mouth as she started walking, that Heap boy ( Nicko? Septimus? Beetle had met him once but could never tell them apart) following behind, glancing back at the ground like he was searching for something following them.
Beetle liked the Princess, as self-importat as she was, and she was in fact his boss’s boss, technically, so he shushed. “What are we running from?” He whispered under her hand, before pushing it away with a grunt.
“Message rat,” she said. The boy (and it was the wizarding one, so Septimus) shrugged, and exchanged a commiserating glance with Beetle as they turned a few corners.
“Jenna, do you have any idea where you’re going?” Septimus asked, clearly knowing she did not. Betle did wonder why the wizard boy was calling her Jenna, but it suited her, so he left it be.
“No, but Beetle was going somewhere, so we can go with him and they can't find us!”
Beetle sighed. Kids. Always wanting to follow you around. (He was only 13, and they were 11, but it felt like a big difference at the moment). “Sure, but I’m just going to work.”
“Perfect! Mama can’t be as mad if she finds me in the Manuscriptorium! I’ll just say you were teaching me something!”
Beetle was pretty sure this would end badly. But that was okay, because he kinda liked these kids, and even if he didn’t, he felt like saying that the Princess told him to would be a good enough defense for his boss.
