Tales From Werlyt

“Since the four of you will be staying here for quite some time, I think you deserve a place to yourselves, where you can have discussions and do as you please without the citizens and soldiers observing your every move. The house has been unoccupied for several moons, as far as I recall, but it comes fully furnished and is one of the more spacious homes available, not to mention it is located right in the main square, so you will have a clear view of the goings on around you.”

Father shook his head and replied;

“You have my thanks, but I believe the house may be better used to house the incoming refugees from further inland who have lost their homes. Besides, my companions and I are… accustomed to unconventional living conditions, you could say.”

“Oh, we have plenty of room for them, more so than we need, in fact,” said the Commander. “Nearly half of the homes in Terncliff are vacant, you see. Many of the occupants died in the plague, long ago, and what with the Empire’s constant conscripting of the younger citizens- well, you understand I’m sure.”

Father furrowed his brow and rested his fingers on his temple, as I’ve seen him do several times. We all stood still in silence for what seemed like nearly an hour, before, thankfully, Valdeaulin finally broke the silence.

“For what it is worth, I would welcome the opportunity to stay in a proper home for a change, and sleep in a bed instead of a cot or on the bare ground as we have been for so many moons. Plus, what the commander says is true. We could use a space of our own.”

I had been standing next to Father in silence up until this point, but upon hearing Valdeaulin’s words, a sudden thought sprung to mind. I had been wondering for some time how I could help Father and his friends, but couldn’t think of anything useful. Father would be worried if I tried to help him with anything dangerous, and I didn’t think I’d be much use to him in other ways, but now, an opportunity had just presented itself to me.

“I agree, Father,” I said.

The four of them looked down at me in surprise. I suppose it was justified, seeing as I rarely spoke during important conversations, for fear of being a burden.

“If we had a house, there is plenty I could do for you. I could take care of the cooking and cleaning, and you wouldn’t have to worry about a thing. Plus, we’d have more time to spend together.”

“Are you, sure, Allie?” asked Father.

I nodded quickly.

“Please, Father. This is my chance to help you. Just leave everything to me.”

The Commander chuckled, and a few minutes later, we were standing in front of the home he had offered to us. Like all the other homes in Terncliff, it stood about two stories high, with white brick and pretty blue trimming along the doors and window sills. As we were preparing to go inside, the Commander gave us some final words.

“Now, as I said, the house has been unoccupied for many moons, so it may need more than a little bit of cleaning and care. I, er, trust one or more of you has homemaking experience then?”

Father and his friends give him some strange looks. I supposed the Commander had the right to question them, after all, given their rugged attire. (And I myself was not sure when any of them last dusted a shelf or swept a floor.)

“We will manage,” said Severa, in a tone that suggested she may have taken some offense to his remark.

“I shall leave you to it then,” replied the commander. “Feel free to contact me should you need anything.”

He walked away hastily. Father took the lead, and opened the door first.

The first thing we noticed as we stepped into the house was a plain dining room table surrounded by six wooden chairs. The next thing we noticed was that said table was covered in a layer of dust so thick that we couldn’t quite make out what color it was, and that three out of six chairs had cobwebs wrapped around their legs.

“To be fair,” said Valdeaulin, “I actually expected worse.”

Severa, upon seeing the state of the room, sighed heavily, and pushed the sleeves of her coat up slightly higher on her arms. 

“Right then. Valdeaulin, would you be so kind as to fetch me a pail of water? I suppose we should start in the bedrooms first, and then move to the kitchen…”

It was at that moment I realized they intended to clean the entire house themselves. I immediately rushed into the middle of the room and begged them to stop.

“No, no!” I shouted. “I promised I would be the one to do the cooking and cleaning, and you agreed to it.”

“‘Tis a large house, Allie,” said Father, who was still standing in the doorway. “I seem to recall the Commander saying it had five bedrooms and two bathrooms, and that does not include the kitchen and dining room, nor the living room.”

“Indeed,” said Severa. “It will take the three of us multiple days to make it livable, and we can hardly expect you to do it all on your own.”

I sighed, and looked down at the floor in disappointment. Upon doing so, I noticed I had left several footprints in the dust layer that apparently extended to the entire dining room floor as well.

“How about this, then?” said Valdeaulin, who had been examining the dust layer on the table. “We’ll divide the rooms between us and Allie. Let’s see… Five bedrooms, two bathrooms, one kitchen…”

We discussed it at length over supper that night, (which consisted of field rations from the barracks, as the kitchen was unusable,) and decided that I would be in charge of two of the bedrooms and one of the bathrooms, as well as the kitchen, and the rest would be done by the three of them. I agreed to this, and bright and early the next morning, immediately began my new task with enthusiasm. 

I am pleased to say that everything went exceedingly well for the first few hours of the morning. I began with sweeping, dusting, scrubbing, and washing my own room, first of all. After which I moved onto Father’s room, which, I am disappointed to say, had already been semi-cleaned with stealth by Father. (Whom I suspected had already done some dusting of his own at some point in the morning. I intended to scold him later.) With the two bedrooms out of the way, I moved onto the first bathroom, and that is where the trouble began, unfortunately.

In terms of cleanliness, the bathroom was not as dirty as some of the other areas of the house I had seen earlier that day. Nor was it a challenge to clean around the various nooks and crannies that were substantially filthy. No, none of that presented a problem. In fact, I had nearly finished cleaning, when it appeared…

There, sitting on the wall, a few inches above the bathtub, was the biggest, hairiest, and most disgustingly dark brown spider I had ever seen. And it was hovering merely a few centimeters above my head.

In an instant, all the confidence that had kept me in high spirits that morning vanished into thin air. I turned around and raced down the stairs immediately, right into the dining room, as fast as my legs could carry me.

As I stood in the corner of the room, recoiling in horror at the sight that clouded my judgment, I saw Valdeaulin enter from the kitchen. (I realized he had returned to the house for lunch, and that Father and Severa would probably be right behind him.) He took one look at my horrified expression and rushed over to me, obviously very concerned for my welfare.

“Allie! What in the gods’ name happened? Are you alright?”

I was silent for a few moments, trying desperately to catch my breath and form words. At last, with some difficulty, I managed to utter the words;

“Spider…bathroom…!”

Valdeaulin, to my surprise, did not seem to be comforted by this revelation, though he did appear to relax somewhat. He leaned up against the wall next to me, and folded his arms.

“Ah, I see,” he said. “A spider…”

“Yes,” I said.

“A large spider?”

“Enormous.”

“On a wall?”

“Yes.”

“Ah…”

Valdeaulin did not ask any more questions. Instead, he seemed to be thinking hard, and after a few moments of silence, said;

“The spider should not be killed. If it is no more than a common house spider, it should be caught and placed outside, where it will be free.”

“I…I supposed,” I replied. 

“Can you show me this spider?”

I nodded, and led him upstairs to the bathroom, where I stood in the doorway and pointed the creature out to Valdeaulin. By this time it had moved slightly higher up on the wall, but it seemed somewhat less terrifying now, because we were observing it from afar and not standing directly in front of it.

“Ah,” Valdeaulin said, yet again. “As I suspected, it is a small spider. Very easy to capture and release.”

“Yes,” I said.

There was another long silence, abit somewhat more awkward this time. I was beginning to suspect Valdeaulin might have been somewhat intimidated by the spider, but obviously this couldn’t be true. Finally, he turned to me and said;

“Please go fetch me a mug and piece of parchment. I have decided to make the capture attempt.”

I obeyed, and after a few minutes of searching downstairs, found the objects he required and handed them to him. Upon receiving the mug and parchment, Valdeaulin took a deep breath, mustered all his resolve, and entered the bathroom. With bated breath, I watched as he approached the spider and prepared to place the mug over it, when suddenly, disaster struck.

The spider lept. Onto Valdeaulin.

Multiple things happened at once. I screamed, and Valdeaulin jumped backwards. Unfortunately, upon doing so, he slipped on the tile, which I forgot was still wet, and fell, backwards, into the bathtub. This made a very loud noise, so I wasn’t surprised when I suddenly heard two sets of footsteps racing up the stairs, and was suddenly joined by Father and Severa, who apparently had just returned.

“Allie! What happened?! Are you hurt?” shouted Father.

“We heard your scream from outside and…” began Severa, but she quickly stopped mid sentence upon looking into the bathroom and noticing Valdeaulin’s feet sticking out of the bathtub.

“You alright, Valdeaulin?” she asked.

“Physically or mentally?” replied Valdeaulin.

“Both.”

“Physically, yes. Mentally, I am unsure.”

Severa sighed with relief, and Father covered his face with the palm of his hand.

 “If I were to venture a guess, I would say you were trying to capture a spider, despite your fear of them, and it made physical contact with you in some way.”

“Correct.”

Valdeaulin carefully, and somewhat sheepishly, made his way out of the bathtub and walked over to us. I noticed him trying very hard not to make eye contact with Father as he did so. Severa, however, was rather indignant.

“Look, it’s only one, tiny spider,” she said. “I still do not understand why you insist on releasing them outside. The fate of the star does not rest on the life of a single spider.”

“Because it would be cruel to snuff out the life of a creature which, when not terrorizing one in one’s bathroom, is benificial to the environment.”

“Look,” said Severa. “Let me go in and just get it for you. You don’t have to watch.”

“By ‘get’, you mean, ‘crush’, do you not?”

“It’s on the ceiling now,” said Father.

We all looked into the bathroom, and saw that Father spoke true. The spider had made its way to the bathroom ceiling, just above the privy,  while our attention was diverted to Valdeaulin, and now it seemed as though there was no way of either killing it or retrieving it. 

“I shall capture it,” Father said. “Severa is not tall enough to reach. Do you still have the mug and parchment?”

“You are not tall enough either, Gaius,” said Severa. “The ceiling is too high for any of us. Unless you intend to stand on the-”

Father nodded. The rest of us gasped in horror.

“If you fall,” said Severa. “I’m not mending whatever injuries you end up with.”

“I understand,” replied Father.

Valdeaulin handed the spider catching tools to Father, who bravely entered the room, and after some moments of hesitation, hopped up onto the privy. He carefully navigated the mug over the spider’s body, and struck. Unfortunately, the next few seconds filled us with horror, as we watched him immediately lose his balance and fall to the floor, hitting his forehead on the side of the sink as he went. 

“Father!” I cried out, and immediately rushed to his side. 

I need not have worried so, however, as father rolled onto his back, and hoisted the mug and parchment into the air in triumph. He had successfully captured the spider.

“Gaius, you’re bleeding,” said Severa, and I noticed a tiny but rather painful looking cut on his forehead, from which a small drop of blood was emerging.

“Severa, take this outside and free it,” Father said. He sat up rather gingerly and passed the items to her. “After all the trouble we have been through, I think it deserves it.”

Severa sigh in exasperation, and reluctantly left the room. After which Valdeaulin and I helped Father to his feet. I happened to have a cloth sitting in the sink, so I wet it under the faucet, and then passed it to him, and instructed him to press it to his forehead, which he did.

“I must say,” said Valdeaulin. “You hopped onto the privy with such ease that I would think the Empire’s legeatuses did so on the regular.”

“You’d be surprised,” replied Father.

***