extradimensional space

[thaumobabble]

Here is a house.

It is pretty and trim and green-and-cream and really ought not to be able to hold itself up like that, and yet here it is, somehow defying the laws of architecture. It is surrounded by a neatly bordered garden of ornamental and useful plants of all sorts: here vegetables, there herbs, there spell components, there rows of flowers.

There is a sign out front. It says only: Magic. Not, Beware, Magic or Magic Emporium or anything like that. Just: Magic.

Sitting on top of this sign is a cream cat with smoke-dark points of color on each paw, his ears, and his face and tail.

All in all, you could be forgiven for thinking that a witch lives here.

Comments

[calendarofcrime]

"The forest knows."

[thaumobabble]

Calemar shakes his head vigorously.

"But Calemar, you don't have to tell her anything, she can just lead you straight to -"

"No! Not supposed to bring people! I have to find it by myself."

"How long have you been lost?"

"A - a couple days," sniffs Calemar.

"Are you hungry?"

He nods.

Bella unpacks a sandwich from her sleeve and hands it over. He bites into it without inquiry about its properties.

"So you're not just generally suspicious of strangers," Bella concludes.

Calemar doesn't answer. His mouth is full.

[calendarofcrime]

"I am going to find it anyway," Sherlock says quietly.

[thaumobabble]

"No!" exclaims Calemar around a mouthful. "No, strangers aren't supposed to."

"Why not?" Bella asks him.

"It's a secret."

[calendarofcrime]

"If it is not a secret from the trees," says Sherlock, "it is not a secret from me."

[thaumobabble]

"The trees?" says Calemar with deep suspicion, looking at the tree that he has been sitting under.

[calendarofcrime]

"The forest," she says. "Trees and air and light and water and moss and dirt and rock. All together, they know things, and they have no secrets from me."

[thaumobabble]

"But - but it's a secret," burbles Calemar. "Daddy said it's not safe."

[calendarofcrime]

"It is much less safe for you to be out here on your own," Sherlock points out reasonably.

[thaumobabble]

"I have to find home by myself so it can be secret," Calemar says.

[calendarofcrime]

"You cannot find home by yourself," she says, "and it is not secret."

[thaumobabble]

"Daddy will be mad."

[calendarofcrime]

She shrugs.

[thaumobabble]

"He'll think I told!"

[calendarofcrime]

"You did not tell," says Sherlock. "The forest did."

[thaumobabble]

"He won't believe me if I say the forest told you where we live."

[calendarofcrime]

"Will he believe me?"

[thaumobabble]

"I don't know," says Calemar.

"He ought to," says Bella.

"But I don't know if he will!"

[calendarofcrime]

"I believe that I can convince him," says Sherlock.

[thaumobabble]

"But who're you? Why should he believe you?"

"This is Princess Sherlock," explains Bella.

Calemar stares, then bursts into tears.

[calendarofcrime]

Sherlock sighs.

[thaumobabble]

"Aw, Calemar, she's not sca- she won't hurt you," corrects Bella.

"I don't wanna meeeeeeeeelt," wails Calemar, "it looks like it hurrrrrrrts!"

Oh.

Bella sits back a bit.

"Melting doesn't hurt," she offers. "It's just inconvenient."

"I don't belieeeeeeeve youuuuuuuu!" Calemar wails.

[calendarofcrime]

"I am not going to melt anyone today," says Sherlock.

[thaumobabble]

"Daddy said you would if anybody found us but the trees told you and we're all gonna be melted except Mommy and I don't wanna meeeeelt!"

Bella pats Calemar on the head awkwardly. It doesn't seem to help.

[calendarofcrime]

"Your father was wrong," says Sherlock. "Observe: I am not melting you."