Six walked beside Harry as he fell from the door handle. The pair of them stared at the new room they found themselves in.

"Woah…" Harry said, taking in the splendor of the room. Six found herself nodding along with his assessment. It was a far different room than any she has found herself in prior.

The first thing was the size, for the room was truly massive. Not surprising, since it spanned nearly the entire length of the rather long hallway they just traversed. But that was only the first two dimensions. The room's height is where its true depth lies.

Six looked up, the ceiling was at least twice as high as the length. It was a marvel any light at all made it down to them. There was also a second floor, though it was more like a walkway, encircling the room with the center being open, allowing whoever was up there to peer down to the floor below.

The railings of the second floor were made of carved wood, depicting things she couldn't see from this far away. Gold paint chipped and fell to the ground, forming large piles of glittering lies.

The walls were covered with more wallpaper, but these ones were colored black and white. Large white expanses with fleur de lis in matte black stood out as contrast. Overtop the wallpaper were paintings, which is something she was rather accustomed to. Like all the others, they were of places and things no normal human would ever wish to visit or encounter.

There were a few that stood out. A large, decrepit ship, fighting against a tumultuous storm. A skull and bones flying proudly from the mast.

A cabin in the deepest and darkest part of a deep and dark forest. A light coming from the windows with a shadowy silhouette waiting for its next guests.

Eyes of course, and grotesque children with heads stretched like gum. She couldn't see their eyes or mouths, but she knew they had one. All monsters had a mouth. How else would they eat their victims?

Animals with too many limbs, their insides spilling into the outside. But all that one did was make her hungry. It may have looked gross, but a dead animal meant food, no matter how many extra legs it had.

A beautiful castle with a starry backdrop, boats filled with normal looking children in robes sailing towards it. A large man with a thick beard and a lantern guiding them towards it.

That one stood out because of how relatively normal it seemed.

There was also one of a giant key done in a sepia tone. Not the weirdest thing she's ever seen, but it was odd enough for her to remember. It was also in the center of the wall, making it stand out that much more.

But the most predominant painting that she could see was, of course, one of The Pretender, staring down at them with a mocking superiority. It stood out, mostly due to the enormity of its size. It was at least four times larger than any other painting in the room, with its frame carved with delicate images and more gilded paint falling from it.

Other than those, there were also two paintings that had nothing in them, just a blank canvas. She wondered why they would put those up. Even for mindless creatures such as them, it didn't make much sense.

But it wasn't just paintings that the room held. Right dab in the center of the room was a familiar looking contraption. One they had caught a glimpse of in the secret room holding the medallion.

The base of it was made of layered stone, forming a circle with an opening in the center. Jutting out were gears that ran in every direction without rhyme or reason, seemingly having no use beyond aesthetics. The twisted metal that made up the bulk of the machine was cut into strips, and formed a hollow spherical shape with one last ball-like object in the center, covered in small, closed eyes.

It looked out of place, like someone thought it was "artsy" looking enough and didn't know what else to do with it, so they placed it in here. But she doubted that was the case. Everything had a reason for being somewhere, even if the reason was nonsensical to her.

On either side of the thing were white statues of winged humans, angels, facing towards it. Both of them were covered in black filth, much like what came from the monster made in the ritual room. Their wings were closed, nearly touching. But what was most curious about them wasn't the dirt and grime, that was pretty much par for the course here. No, it was the large jewels embedded in their foreheads.

The one on the left had a red jewel, and the one on the right a blue. Both of their eyes were also closed, and considering how important eyes seemed to be to these people, it was something worth pointing out.

There appeared to be other statues in the room, or at least the remains of them. Large piles of crushed white stone could be seen in various spots, and the few that remained standing were in too great a disrepair to tell what they may have once been.

There was no carpeting on the floor, nor were they greeted by barren twisted wood. It was some kind of stone marble, the white having been stained a putrid yellow. Intricate patterns of black swirled in dizzying patterns around large, open eyes.

"So… is this some kind of, art room?" Harry asked, looking around the very large, yet fairly empty room. The pair of them cautiously stepped further in, looking for anything that might pose even the smallest of threats.

"Hmm… more like a gallery, maybe?" Six suggested. It didn't look like they created any art here, only displayed it. And there were some unique paintings she's seen nowhere else. Plenty she has seen, as many seemed to be reused for some reason, but that just made the ones she didn't recognize all the more distinctive.

"Not sure this art is worth showcasing," Harry mumbled. He knew art was supposed to be subjective and all, but this was a bit much. But as creepy as the art itself was, he would take that over being chased by monsters any day of the week.

Or being turned to stone, a phobia he never expected to develop. But this place had a way of making you fear things you never knew needed to be feared, and reminding you of the things that should be feared.

"At least we found… whatever that thing is," Six said, gesturing to the massive sculpture. That, Harry could agree with. Part of him thought they would be searching endlessly through the halls trying to find the thing, and yet here it is, right down the hall.

"But what does it do? The room might be filled with them, but it doesn't exactly paint a picture of what we're supposed to do," Harry said. Six couldn't help but frown at his words, and not because of the awful pun.

Truthfully, she was hoping to get more of a hint based on where it was found, but so far, nothing came to mind. Besides its interesting appearance, she didn't see what it had to do with art at all.

"Only one way to find out," she said. Harry groaned quietly at her words. Finding things out, usually the hard way, tended to lead to things trying to eat them. Or just, make them not alive anymore. Both were bad options.

The two walked as quietly as they could over to the contraption. The room seemed to grow smaller as they did, the ever present darkness encroaching on them once more, like it was trying to keep them out.

That was either a really good sign, like they were on the right track, or a really bad one, and something was going to pop out of one of the paintings and kill them. But that would be silly. Things in paintings can't move…

Right?

He turned to stare at one of them and he could swear the twisted face of the human simulacra looked away. He continued to gaze at it, wondering if it would move again, but it remained stubborn, refusing to budge an inch.

"Hairy," Six called out, having reached the thing they were here for, her near silent voice easy to hear in the quiet of the room..

"Coming," Harry said back, never taking his eyes off the painting. But it still didn't move. And Harry had better things to do than stare at a painting all day, especially one as creepy as this one.

"...Must have been my imagination," Harry concluded, turning away to join his friend, never noticing the gaze that followed him.

Six was already over by the device, whatever it was, staring up at it, trying to solve its mysteries. Along the floor were little footprints in the coating of dust that lie on the ground, leading right to his friend. The trail distinctly avoided walking over the eye pattern in the floor. Harry didn't know why, but he found the sight amusing.

"So, this is it, huh?" Harry asked, coming to a stop next to Six. He pulled out the medallion, staring at the sheen of gold it gave off. "Now we just have to put this thingy…"

He then gestured to an indention in the machine, "In that thingy…"

"And then that thingy…" he continued, indicating the larger continuation of the apparatus.

"Should move. Right?" he finished, turning his gaze toward Six, whose dark eyes were alight with mirth as she stared at him.

"You have such a way with words," she japed. Harry gave her a smirk in response. "Would you have preferred I called it a doohickey?" he asked. Six gave a small snort and rolled her eyes before returning her gaze to the "thingy" as Harry so eloquently put it.

"Whatever you want to call it is fine with me. But why don't we see what this thingy does?" she suggested. Harry gave a nod and walked in front of the small indention, ready to activate it. But before he did, he noticed Six take a few steps back.

"Uh, what are you doing?" he asked, now feeling a little nervous. Six gave him an innocent look, "Nothing. Just getting a better view."

Harry raised an eyebrow at this, but didn't say anything else. Perhaps it was better if one of them wasn't so close to it as he started it up. Who knows what would happen?

"If you say so. Ready?" he asked. Six's expression turned serious, all manner of jesting removed as she gave him a nod. He returned it before turning back around, staring at the slot the medallion slid into.

"Well, here goes nothing…" he mumbled, taking a deep breath. He placed the medallion in the space allotted for it, pressing it down until he heard a click. Once he did, several things started to happen at once.

Harry took a few steps back, standing next to Six as they watched the gears begin to move, making a grinding noise as they whirred to life. As the gears slowly turned, the twisted metal frame also began to shift, spinning in seemingly random patterns.

Next, a brick in the base spun around, revealing a button. Then, on the front left side and front right side, two holes opened up, and a pair of levers rose up from the depths.

The angels, which had been staring at the device, rotated to now stare at the two blank paintings on the wall. Their wings opened up as well, flaring outward.

When all this was done, the room itself seemed to dim, two of the eyes on the center ball opened up, light shining from them and going through some kind of ring held in the metal frame.

Harry and Six continued to stare at it for a minute, wondering if anything else was going to happen. When it seemed like nothing would, they let out sighs of relief. Especially Harry, who flinched at seeing the light coming out of the eyes.

Hopefully they didn't turn anything to stone.

"So… now what?" Harry asked, confused. It seems like there was some sort of puzzle to solve. But what it was, he had no idea. Six hummed in response, walking towards the thingy with slow measured steps. Just because it didn't seem dangerous, didn't mean it wasn't. Danger lurked in the places you least expect.

She stared at the thingy, watching as the beams of light shot out, seemingly without purpose. But she knew that to be false. There was a reason, she just had to find it. Next she turned her attention to the button and levers, likely operating the thingy in some capacity. Probably to move the metal bands and alter where the light shot out from.

Finally she looked towards the angels, closed eyes staring at the blank portraits. What was their purpose? For what reason did they move? And why were they now staring at empty pictures?

Something connected them all, she just had to find out what. If she was honest with herself, she was a bit excited by the puzzle. She'd always enjoyed figuring things out and solving mysteries, so long as it engaged her natural curiosity.

And she was certainly engaged right now.

"We need to figure out what the button and levers do first," she suggested. Harry was a bit nervous by the prospect, but had little better idea of what to do.

"Alright, sounds good," he agreed. Six must have heard the nervousness in his voice, because she tried to settle his fears. "Don't worry. I don't think this thingy is all that dangerous."

Harry snorted when she called it a thingy. But his nerves did settle, just a bit. Seeing he was calmed down at least somewhat, Six proceeded to walk up to the button, and with only the slightest hesitation, pushed it.

It clicked, and the eyes turned off, and the outer layer of the thingy began to move. After rotating about 90 degrees or so, it stopped, and only one eye opened this time, shooting a streak of light through another ring, this one straight up.

"Hmm, so the button rotates it… Now let's see what the levers do," Six muttered, walking over to them. Harry noticed the small gleam of exhilaration in her eyes as she did so. Well, at least one of them was enjoying the interactive piece of art.

She then proceeded to pull the left most lever, and one of the strips of metal spun around. When it stopped, another eye opened, shining light through a new ring.

"So the eyes open only when they can look through a ring. Interesting…" Six said. With that being the case, it appeared as if they needed to focus the light in a particular direction.

"The light needs to point at something. See if you can find it," Six said after thinking things over for a bit. Harry nodded and the two of them began searching for whatever the light was supposed to hit.

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But with the room having darkened when the thingy activated made things a bit harder. They wandered around, circling the room, looking for anything that fit the description. But Harry couldn't see anything that might be what they were looking for. And judging by Six's sigh of frustration, neither could she.

Harry thought about it for a moment, and an idea popped into his head. If they needed to know what the light should hit, why not use a light of their own? Walking over to the thingy so he could get the right vector, he pulled out his flashlight, pointing it at random things around the room.

Six, seeing the moving beam of light, turned to see what was going on. Seeing it was Harry with his flashlight, she wondered for a second what he was doing, but then her eyes widened at realizing his plan.

"Good idea," Six said to him, making Harry jump a bit, having not heard her approach. She watched from next to him, trying to spot anything that looked right.

"Thanks. I get them from time to time," Harry responded with a bit of cheek. But Six wasn't paying much attention to that, "Wait, go back," she said, grabbing onto his shoulder, and pointing at something.

Doing so, he noticed the light reflecting off of something on the second floor. "Is that… a mirror?" he asked. Turning to look at Six, who had a small smirk on her face, she began tugging on his arm.

"Come on, let's check the other side," she said. She lightly but quickly walked over to the other side, with Harry following along. Pointing the flashlight above them, he tried to find a reflection of some kind, and wouldn't you know it? There it was.

"So, we need to point the light at the mirrors, reflecting it onto something else," Six muttered. She was more talking aloud to herself than to Harry. Not the best habit to have, when making any amount of noise could get them in trouble, but at least her mumblings were quiet.

Without saying another word, she walked back to the button and levers, and began to figure out how they moved. With nothing better to do, Harry allowed her to figure it out, deciding to keep watch instead. It wouldn't do to have something sneak up on them while she was solving the puzzle.

It took her several minutes to discover just how the thingy operated. There were eight strips of metal, each with its own ring. But only two of them were likely to be the ones she needed. The levers only moved one strip each, which confused her for a bit, until she figured out that rotating the thingy using the button changed which of the parts the levers moved.

Four positions, times two levers, equalled eight moving bands of metal. After doing that, it was only a matter of time until she got the right combination. Before too long, she had the beams of light pointing right at the mirrors.

"Got it," she said out loud, drawing Harry's attention. He walked back over to her, staring at the thingy as the light traveled through the rings and into the mirrors.

"Good job. But shouldn't something be happening?" he asked in confusion.

"Hmm, you're right… There must be more to the puzzle than I thought," she said, staring at the reflected light in contemplation. So she solved part one of the problem, now she needed to solve part two.

How hard could that be?

She followed the beams of light as they reflected off the mirrors, hoping to find some sort of clue. But it seemed like they just went off in a random direction. They weren't pointing at anything at all.

"The light needs to hit something, but it isn't. We need to adjust the mirrors somehow," she said, looking for a way to do so.

"What about those?" she heard Harry ask. Turning to see what he meant, she could see two ladders opposite to the mirrors leading to the second floor. Her eyes lit up as she realized what needed to be done.

"One of us needs to go to the second floor," she stated. There didn't seem to be anything inherently dangerous in the room, at least as far as she knew, but separating still made her stomach twist in knots. The second floor was a mystery. Who knows what could be lurking in the shadows.

"I'll do it," Harry said firmly. Six gave him a look, noticing his nervous expression. Not scared, but apprehensive. Not that she could blame him for it, as he was volunteering to move mirrors that were in the center of light being produced by a pair of eyes. They didn't appear to turn anything to stone, but the similarities were too great to ignore.

"Are you sure?" she asked, and Harry gave her a determined nod. He needed to overcome his newfound fear, and this was the perfect chance to begin. The fright he felt wasn't crippling, at least not yet, and he wanted to keep it that way.

"Yeah, I can do it. Besides, you're the one who knows how to work the thingy. Wouldn't make much sense for you to go," he said. Six couldn't argue with that. Well, she could, but any objection would sound hollow. She didn't want him to think she didn't trust him, especially with something as mundane as adjusting a couple of mirrors.

"Right. Just be careful," she insisted. She had no desire to be alone again, and found herself rather fond of her new companion.

"Who do you think you're talking to? My middle name is careful," Harry boasted with a grin. Six rolled her eyes, but she did have a small smirk on her face.

"Really? I could have sworn it was clumsy," she joked back. Harry feigned hurt, grasping his chest in agony, making Six sigh fondly. It was little moments like these that helped drive back the ever encroaching shadows. They may have been a slight waste of time, but they were necessary all the same.

"Just get going already," Six said, giving him a light shove.

"Alright, alright, geez. No need to be so pushy. Maybe that can be your middle name," he shot back, as he made his way towards the ladder. Six shook her head at his antics, watching as he took his first onto the ladder.

It was a tall, metal thing, going straight up. It was surprisingly straight, all things considered, with only the slightest amounts of warping to be seen. A small comfort, but a comfort nonetheless.

His first few steps were somewhat tentative, making sure the thing he was climbing wasn't going to collapse on him. There were two ladders, no need to be hasty when he had a backup handy.

But it seemed sturdy enough, and soon, Harry was crawling onto the second floor. He stood up, dusting himself off as he did so. Unlike the floor below, this one was made of wood, though it seemed in better condition than the previous wooden floors. He might not even get a splinter!

You know what would be better than relying on well kept floors? Shoes!

Regardless, he started making his way over to the first mirror, using his flashlight to guide the way. But as he turned a corner, something shot out from underneath a small end table, carrying something red in its hands. Harry jumped back, waiting for an attack that would never come.

"Hairy, you ok?" Six called from down below. She had noticed his light hadn't moved in a while, so she grew a bit concerned. When she saw the light move towards the edge of the walkway, and then Harry's head pop out from above it, she released a sigh of relief.

"Yeah I'm fine, but there's something up here," he called down. That made Six worry all over again.

"What is it? What does it look like?" she said back.

"It was small, smaller than me at any rate. Its skin looked gray and wrinkly and dry, and it had this… cone-like thing on its head. I think I saw some in the attic before," he described. It didn't take Six long to recognize the thing he was describing, and felt her shoulders sag in relief.

"It's fine. It's just a Nome," she told him. But it didn't seem like that was an adequate explanation, as he tilted his head in confusion. "What's a Nome?"

"Not sure, but they are friendly. They're all over the place. Don't worry about it," she explained. Harry wasn't sure what to make of supposedly friendly creatures in this place, but he trusted Six, and if she said it was fine, then he believed her.

"Ok. If you say so," he said, before standing up and continuing on his journey to the mirrors. Without being startled by the only nice things in this place, he made quick time to the mirror.

He was a bit nervous to walk into the light cast by the eye, but after taking a deep breath, he gathered his courage and did so. When nothing happened, he released said breath, the tension leaving his body.

The mirror was placed on some sort of mount just below the edge of the walkway. A stick jutted out of a piece that was attached to the floor and looked like it was used to control the direction of the mirror. It could only go left or right, and it was currently set all the way to the right.

Grabbing hold of the stick, he tried moving it to the left, but it was proving to be more difficult than expected. It shouldn't surprise him, as very few things were easy to maneuver in this house. Everything seemed like it was in disrepair, and calling it rough around the edges would be rather generous.

But he was able to eventually move it after applying a bit of elbow grease. It was slow and noisy, the metal of the base and the stick grinding against each other, kind of like the gears on the thingy, but he did it. Now he just needed to figure out what to point it at.

Looking down, there was very little in the way of what it could be. A painting on the other side of the room perhaps, but beyond that, the only thing of note was the statue.

Harry almost smacked his forehead. Of course it was the statue, what else could it be? They even moved after he inserted the medallion into the thingy. That had to mean they were important, right?

Forcing the mirror to shift in the direction of the angel statue with a groan, he was able to center the beam of light directly on its forehead, right on the red jewel. But when nothing happened, he started to second guess his assumption.

"Hairy," Six called. He poked his head over the edge again, his messy hair flopping in his face as he did so.

"Yeah?" he asked, wondering what she could want. Hopefully a better idea of where to point this darn thing.

"Try the other mirror. Maybe they both have to point at them," she instructed. That made sense, or at least as much sense as anything here made. So he gave her a salute, and continued with his task.

The second mount was the same as the first, made of the same dull gray material. This one was slightly easier to move, but only slightly, and with a grunt of effort, he focused the beam right on the second statue.

But again, nothing happened. He almost growled in frustration. What could they be missing?

Six was thinking the same thing, staring at the unmoving statues in consternation. She knew the light needed to hit them, she felt it in her gut, but there was a third part to this puzzle, and she wasn't sure what it could be.

As she continued to ruminate on this dilemma, pacing around and looking about the room again for any clues, a shimmer caught her attention. It was coming from the forehead of the statue.

Turning her eyes to it, she noticed the slight sparkle of the ruby red gem embedded in its forehead. Just like that, her mind connected the dots, but to be sure, there was something she needed to confirm.

Making her way back to the thingy, she focused her attention on the rings connected to the bars of warped metal. It had been bothering her for some time now. Why did the light need to travel through the rings? Looking closely, she could see that they were able to hold something.

Something like a lens.

That was it! They needed a lens. Or two of them, to be precise. One blue, and the other red.

"Hairy! I've figured it out!" Six called out, a bit louder than she intended. She would have to watch that in the future, but she was just so excited at the moment.

"I'm all ears," Harry responded, staring at her from the second floor.

"We need to find two lenses. A red one and a blue one. They go in the rings on the thingy. You look up there, and I'll search down here," she explained.

"Got it," Harry confirmed.

The two began their search for the elusive lenses. Six checked everywhere, not that there were many places for her to check. For all the room's size, there was very little inside of it.

She checked picture frames, thinking it may be behind one or even embedded into the frame, but no such luck. She checked around the statues, but once again came up empty handed. The rubble piles were similarly vacant. Finally she searched around the base of the thingy, thinking there might be a secret compartment or something.

Nothing. No matter where she searched, there was nothing. She hoped Harry was having an easier time of things.

Harry hoped Six was having better luck than him. No matter where he looked, he could find neither hide nor hair of these so-called lenses. He checked around the paintings, the mirrors, on top of the end tables, in their drawers…

But so far, nothing.

However, there was something else missing from the second floor, and that was the Nome. Where could it have gone? He's searched just about everywhere, but he never once saw that little creature again.

Thinking about the tiny thing spastically running for its life, Harry suddenly remembered something. A brief flash of red coming from the Nomes hands. It was carrying something. Could it be one of the lenses?

Only one way to find out. He just needed to figure out where the little guy went.

Thinking about it, there must be a crack in the wall somewhere, and he just didn't notice. So he began his search for the crack in the wall, and it proved to be a far easier thing to find than a lens. All he had to do was look under a table, the one on the opposite side of where he first reached the second floor.

Crawling into the room, the first thing he noticed was that it was dark. He was barely able to see a thing. Thankfully, he had his trusty flashlight with him. Shining the light into the room, he jumped back with a yelp, startled by the image of a snarling hound.

He held his hand to his chest, feeling his heart beat a mile a minute. The monster was nothing more than a painting. A very big painting, being nearly three times Harry's size, but a painting nonetheless. How they got it into this room was a mystery best left to another day.

The dog itself looked like a rottweiler, only one from the pits of the underworld. Its eyes glowed like red hot coals, and a small flame burned on the tip of its tail. A spiked collar hung around its neck with red stains coating it. It stood on a blackened rock, as if it had been burned, and the background was what one would stereotypically associate with hell.

He couldn't spot the Nome, and hoped there wasn't another crack in the wall somewhere that it escaped to. He didn't want to chase the Nome through the whole house just to get the lens.

Pointing his flashlight in every direction he could, he eventually noticed something rather odd sticking out of a pile of cloth. It was pointy, shaped just like a cone.

A familiar cone.

Ok, so the Nome was hiding in a pile of dirty clothes. Good, now he knew where it was. All that was left was to capture it. Harry began to sneak up on the little creature as quietly as he could, hoping the wood beneath him wouldn't betray him and squeak loudly.

As if he were a prophet, the floor did just that. Startled, the Nome jumped up, sending bits of ragged, chewed up fabric everywhere. He turned, staring at Harry for a moment, allowing the green eyed boy to see the lens that was indeed in its hands.

But seeing that it was discovered, the little Nome scuttled away, darting into the crack leading out of the room again.

"Wait! I don't want to hurt you!" Harry shouted after it, but his pleas fell on deaf ears. He began to chase after it, but before he left the room, he could have sworn he heard a threatening growl.

Exiting the secret room, Harry frantically looked for the Nome, and spotted him scurrying down the pathway. He gave chase, yelling, "Get back here!"

Six, hearing his shout, looked up and saw a familiar beam of light shakily darting down the hall. "Hairy, what's wrong?" she called out.

"It's the Nome! It has a lens!" he yelled back. Her eyes widened at that. Not ideal, but at least they found one.

Harry chased the Nome all the way from one end of the hall to the other. Its legs may have short and defined the word stubby, but it sure was fast. But he knew it had nowhere to go. Eventually, it would reach a dead end.

Which of course, it did. It ran all the way back to where Harry first climbed up to this level. It stared at the ladder, cone head twitching in every direction, looking for an escape. When it couldn't find one, it turned back around to try and run back the way it came.

But Harry had already caught up. Those few seconds of searching bought him precious time.

"Alright, it's over. Now, just give me the lens, and we can all go about our business," Harry said, panting. But rather than listen to him, the little creature curled into a ball and began shivering.

"Uh…" Harry said dumbly, not expecting it to do that. Now he just felt bad. Was he the villain here?

"Did you get him?" Six asked from below him.

"Uh, well… Not exactly. I think I scared him," Harry called down.

"Hairy…" Six said, and he could hear the disappointment in her tone.

"What, I didn't mean to! I just wanted to get the lens," he defended himself. It wasn't like he set out to scare the poor thing, it just sort of… happened.

He heard Six give a sigh before telling him what to do. "Alright listen, you need to hug him."

"What?" Harry asked, confused. He must have heard her wrong. Did she really just tell him to hug it?

"They like to be hugged. Calms them down. So just hug it already," she told him. Harry wasn't sure, but he didn't have a better idea. Taking the lens from it by force would be the simplest solution, but doing so would make him feel too much like a bully.

Too much like Dudley. So he'd rather avoid doing so if he could help it. And if Six said hugging them would work, who was he to argue?

"Alright little guy, it's okay. I don't want to hurt you. That's it, just stay calm," Harry whispered as he tiptoed towards the shaking, frightened Nome. It didn't move, even as Harry stood right behind it.

With one last, unsure look, he bent over and scooped it into his arms. The creature was somewhat cold to the touch, like a lizard that's been in the shade too long. Its skin was rough but not uncomfortably so, and Harry found he didn't mind the feeling.

Not as good as hugging Six, but still fairly pleasant all things considered.

The effect was immediate. It stopped shaking, and actually seemed to purr in delight. It almost made him feel bad to end the hug. But he had things to do, and he couldn't spend all day hugging a Nome.

Even if he kind of wanted to now.

After several seconds of affection, Harry placed it back onto the ground. This time, it didn't run, and stared at Harry expectantly, like a cat demanding more attention. It was kind of adorable, but it was time to move on.

"Hey, I don't suppose I could have that, could I? We sort of need it," he asked, pointing to the red lens in its hand. It looked down at it for a moment, as if contemplating, before it held it out for Harry to take.

"Thank you," Harry said, giving it a smile. It seemed to like the praise, as it vibrated in excitement. Harry chuckled at it, watching as it bounced up and down on its feet, chittering happily.

Harry looked at the object in his hand as it shimmered in the dim light. It looked like it was made of glass, felt like it too. The whole thing was completely smooth and cool to the touch.

"I got it," Harry called down to Six, who sagged in relief. He walked over to the ladder and started to make his way down, giving the Nome one last grateful look. "Hey, hope to see you around. See ya."

The Nome watched him descend to the first floor, running over to the edge and watching him go as his head disappeared from view. It made a sad chirping noise as its new friend reached the bottom.

Harry felt himself hit solid ground once more and let out a sigh of relief. He turned to see Six giving him an expectant look. He grinned and held up the lens, her eyes zeroing in on the object.

"Let's see what this does, shall we?"

Six couldn't agree more.