Ashfall: City of Shade (UNDER EDITING)

Chapter 8 | Health

GRETA

Tall mirrors line the walls of this small rather empty chamber. I must be somewhere in Adler's temple. In the center of my room is a small clout surrounded by the soft glow of candles on the ground.

A small stream of water lines the perimeter of the room. The sound is soothing. I know the water must be coming from somewhere else outside. For this room has no door but a beaded entryway leading out into the back of the temple and into the courtyard. From here, I can easily see the massive fountain and rows of endless hedges and gardens.

No more is my hair wiry and thin, but long past my shoulders and thick. It is a miraculous change. Along with my hair, I have grown since waking from my nap.

How long have I been sleeping and when did I get here? I pick my Fluff up from the clout. It crawls up onto my shoulder where it curls into a ball.

"Greta?" Brommy's voice comes from outside.

He enters. It takes me a long moment to recover from my shock. I am nearly eye-level with him!

"Indeed, you have grown. How are you feeling? I hope someone has provided an explanation as to why you are being housed here against hospice orders."

"No...nobody has. I only just woke."

He stands very close to me. With a frown, his stare hardens as I step back.

"Why am I in this chamber, Brommy? How long have I been asleep? Why are you watching me like that?"

"Like what?" he chides.

"Ahem, Brometheous, you are blocking my way!" Adler announces in a sing-song. He walks out from around the corner of the temple as though intentionally having let Brommy enter first. "Let me see my little pearl. Oh! Look how you have grown-"

"All this time...I was indeed not dwarfed. Why are you still trying to repress my height, Adler? Why have you both come to me at this hour of the evening? There is nothing appropriate about either of your behavior."

With a lazy yawn, he leans against the wall and folds his arms with a smirk.

Brommy scowls at him.

"We have found a substitute to go in your place to Zard. Unfortunately, she does not know of our plan. It must remain that way. Right, Adler?"

"Huh?"

Brommy sneers, "If you wouldn't mind, for once, open your ears and start using them! Help me clean up the never-ending messes you leave behind...and give Greta the explanation she deserves for being shoved into this cramped space instead of the hospice!"

Adler laughs.

"Do you ever think, Brometheous, that these messes I create are intentional? As intentional as your time here rather than at home...with your wife. Why, I would dare say you just want to make a fool of me in front of a beautiful young lady. A lady much prettier than your own-"

With thinning patience, Brommy's voice lowers, "I think you have had enough of your fair share of pretty ladies. When you decide to go home to your wife, I will go home to mine!"

Adler straightens. Brommy's curly hair falls over his eyes as he turns to face me once more. Adler moves right behind him making mocking faces as Brommy explains my illness.

His smile turns toothy. I frown as his mischievous gaze looks me over slowly from behind the wall of Brommy's back.

"He's standing right behind me, isn't he?"

"Yes," I mumble while holding my Fluff, nervous.

Like a child, Adler continues to willingly poke someone he truly shouldn't.