breakdown to build anew
With ease, Kutkha hefted the heavy box off the floor in the foyer where Valsur had dragged it inside as pathetically and noncommittally as possible. They stood there eyeing each other for a moment, Valsur frowning petulantly as if it were Kutkha’s own personal fault that the desk in Charlie’s room was an ornate piece from 1832, carved of cherry, and also awful to use a laptop on while working. There was such a thing as too ornate, it turned out.
“Is something amiss?” Kutkha asked Valsur who frowned harder and waved his hands in Kutkha’s direction.
“Is something amiss? Oh, no, no, no. Just going on up there to break shit in my beloved home with your huge body and small head,” Valsur returned, scowling and baring his little dragon teeth in Kutkha’s direction, who smiled politely in the way that a nervous dog might wince while panting around a stranger. “Very much okay with me.”
“Thank you for the compliment,” Kutkha stiltedly said, adjusting the desk on his shoulder as if it weighed as much as a dozen feathers. “Can you point me to where Charlie is living?”
“You don’t even know. Sick. Go up the stairs and down the hall three doors. Take care not to accidentally go two doors down, you’d never survive,” answered Valsur, smug. Kutkha immediately knew that Charlie lived in the second room down and noted this. “May you not get a splinter.”
With that, Valsur spun on his little tippy tappy feet, scurrying away into what Kutkha remembered was the kitchen area. Kutkha sighed, then began up the stairs so he could wander down the hall. The walls were tight and intricately decorated and Kutkha knew he’d have to stoop to get into any of the rooms. He reached Charlie’s, knocking with his knuckles with his free-ish hand (there was a reusable shopping bag of snacks in it).
