Shrike and Ollie were waiting for them in the main hall. Shrike was sitting on a familiar-looking lounger, and Ollie was leaning over the back of a very clean wooden chair.

Eim had gone quiet after her request, and she was hoping she hadn't upset him somehow. She hadn't tried to speak to him on the way home, hadn't even had a chance, he'd been walking so fast.

Now that we're here, I could ask?

But humans didn't ask if they'd upset each other, it wasn't the done thing. Instead, they kept silent and hoped the other person simply worked it out.

It was extremely annoying.

Kobolds weren't like that, except…

Except sometimes they were, she realised with a rush.

Asking why Eim was being so weird about her hair was a bit like asking a kobold what happened up at the Peak. Even between themselves, they wouldn't talk about it, and she had never, not even once, heard anyone mention what happened up there.

She knew it was cold, that's where all the snow was after all. She also knew that it was where you went to commune with the Mountain, when you were starting to lose yourself.

She knew too, that it was where she'd been found, half-frozen in the snow, but other than that?

Nothing.

She had asked Rat-tail once, when she was very young, and before she'd learnt better, and she could still see his face if she closed her eyes. His face, and his back, as he turned and walked away.

It was a memory that would never leave her, even when she got old and started to Forget, even when it was time for her to make her own way to the top. That moment would stay with her.

"Where've you two been?" Ollie asked as they approached, "did you sell the bird?"

"Yeah," Eim rubbed his fingers together for some reason, "got more than we expected for it, too. We need to get Yaris to strangle the monsters to death more often."

Ollie laughed, pushing up off the back of the chair, "did you speak to her?"

"Yeah," Eim sighed and flopped onto the lounger beside Shrike, "she'll be back here this evening, she said. It actually went pretty well. She didn't punch me or nothin'!"

Jump-touch sat carefully on the other side of the lounger, looking at Ollie. They'd changed their clothes, but their hair was loose today. They'd had it tied back in a bun, back in the dungeon. The split leather skirt was gone, replaced with loose linen trousers, and their shirt looked clean and new, without any scattered embroidery.

"That's progress," Shrike said, an inflection to his voice that she was beginning to understand, but still didn't have a word for.

"Mm." Eim stared up at the ceiling, leaning heavily against Shrike, "hey Ollie, you levelled up yet?"

They blinked, "I haven't seen any notices, but everyone tells me they're easy to miss. If you'll spot me the silver I can book a trip to the Stone, but it'll be a week or more at this rate? What do you need?"

"Think you'll get some sort of weaving class?"

They frowned, "I uh, very much doubt it? I'm training to be a [Tailor], not a [Weaver]. Did you tear a hole in something? I can probably darn it already."

"Nah," he flopped, laying his head entirely in Shrike's lap now, Shrike didn't look impressed, glaring down at him.

"If you know somebody who like, makes braided bracelets or something, can you direct them to us?"

Oh, he was asking for her! Jump-touch had already decided not to ask again, she hadn't thought-

"Hmm," Ollie stretched, "I might have a cousin with the right skills. You looking for jewellery or trim?"

Eim hesitated, "uh, what's trim?"

"The stuff down the front of a fancy shirt, or along cuffs."

"Oh, no. Jewellery I suppose. Bracelets. Those things kids make. They might get some bizarre class experience for it, if that helps sweeten the deal?"

Shrike looked down at him, a strange expression on his face as he stared at Eim, lying in a pool of red hair on his lap. Was it making his knee hurt? She hoped not. He should be more careful.

I'll go into my Heart later and make it all comfy, she decided. And when she had coins of her own to spend, she would get a nice fat cushion stuffed with Peck Peck down for him to sit on, and lots of books to read while they travelled.

The Stone said the space'll get bigger as I level, I wonder how long that'll take.

If it got big enough then she could give the room both walls and a ceiling. That would be nice, and she could build a separate-

"-Jump?"

She blinked at Ollie, "hello?"

"There you are, we lost you for a moment. Eim said if you're not too tired, that you wanted to meet my cousin and buy some braided string?"

They sounded a bit confused, but not unhappy.

"Oh, yeah!"

Ollie laughed, "I didn't think you were into jewellery, but sure. They live not too far from here, down in the traders quarter. I'll get you both directions. Meet us back here in a couple of hours? Yaris should be back by then, and we can head out."

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Her legs did ache, probably because she had climbed a lot of stairs recently, and she wouldn't have minded catching up on the lost sleep, but to have her hair out of her eyes...

That was worth walking for.

****

There was a river running through the city. Not a stream, but a whole river, and she'd managed to be here days and seen no hint of it.

How big was Resper, the city Angel had described as a tiny, sleepy town?

Jump-touch stared out over the water, rocking back and forth slightly on her heels. It wasn't so wide that she couldn't see across it, but it was wide enough that there were boats going up and down easily without having to move out of each other's way.

I've never seen a river before.

So why does it feel so familiar?

The closest she'd seen were the swamps and springs of the valley, or the streams of meltwater up on the Mountain. They flowed down from the peak every year, huge chunks of ice bouncing down the mountain, crashing into pieces until there was nothing left but water.

Was this where those streams ended up?

"Come on, anyone'd think you'd never seen the river before," Eim laughed, hustling her along, "Ollie said their cousin lives on the bank along here, shouldn't be far now."

She'd tried to get a definition for cousin out of her skill; but had had to eventually give up. 'A less-close family member' was as much as she'd managed to comprehend.

"I need to write it down," she muttered to herself in Other, getting a strange look from Eim.

How would she write Other anyway, the kobold scratch-

"Whatever you're doing, time to rein it in, we're here," Eim reached up and knocked on a wooden door.

She blinked out of her reverie, looking at where they'd ended up.

There was only one house here, standing alone on the edge of the shore, and it was barely as wide as its front door. A door, a curtained window, and a low roof, covered with layers of tarp.

But this house.

This house.

If it had been built out of slate, instead of wood, then she could have mistaken this house for a kobold house. Hardly tall enough for a human to stand up in, it stood out like a sore nose in a city of samey boring stone boxes.

It wasn't the location or the rightness of the size that got her, it was the outside.

She stared.

The outside was covered in hanging tails and ropes and braids, all dyed bright colours. So many of them that it almost completely hid the wood beneath. Woven from all different materials and in all different colours, although some were bleached almost white by the weather.

There was an indistinct voice from inside, and Eim pushed open the door.

As she stepped inside, it took her eyes a moment to adjust to the light. The house was dark, but as she looked around, Jump-touch knew she was home. A one-room cottage, the room was well decorated, and the walls and floor both covered with fabric, both dyed and woven, bright colours everywhere.

As she stood there, breathing it in, Jump-touch felt a tension she hadn't known she'd been holding inside of herself fade.

She was home.

Then Eim pushed in behind her, squinting at the change in light and having to duck to avoid bumping his head on the ceiling, and for just a moment, she hated him.

"Hello?" she said, choosing Lower Tongue rather than Given Tongue. Greetings were practically the same anyway, it was more about her own mental state.

"Who's this?" said a quiet voice, in Resper, "I didn't have any visitors booked today?"

Jump-touch squinted, it taking her a moment to find the speaker. There! They were lying in a corner, propped up on a cushion, and they were sadly, human, if the long grey hair and pale face were anything to go by. In their lap, they held a piece of thread, the spinning of their hands the only movement in the room.

Oh well. Jump-touch switched gears in her head, "Hello," a polite nod, "I'm <>"

Eim thumped her gently in the back, "nobody can pronounce that!"

"But it's my name."

He sighed, addressing the figure. "Sorry about her. Your uh, cousin? Ollie sent us. We need some-" he winced as he tried to move forward and almost took himself out with a hanging saucepan, "you know what, the kid'll tell you. I'll be outside."

With that he turned and left, shutting the door behind himself and leaving her standing in the dim room.

"Well. I can't say no to some work from a cousin," there was something in the tone, "open the curtains for me, would you little one? I wasn't expecting any visitors, so I was sleeping in."

Jump-touch nodded, pulling the curtains wide until the room was filled with mid-morning light.

She turned to get another look at the figure.

Oh.

They were human, but they were like no other human she'd ever seen. There were bits missing. Their face sported a gap where an eye should be, and their body ended just below the waist.

How do they move?

and then;

I didn't know humans could lose bits, is that normal? Does it happen to everyone when they get very old?

It was probably a normal thing, right?

Was that going to happen to her?

She distracted herself by checking the kettle on the small iron stove. It was cold, so she spent a moment stoking the heat and searching around for fuel and water. If she was going to impose, she could at least make herself useful.

"Ollie sent you for braids?" the figure asked, watching her with a single silvery eye, and Jump-touch nodded.

"Yeah," she found two cups and set them to warm on the cooler side of the plate, "I need my hair braiding but everyone's being weird about it, and I don't know why."

She huffed, "I don't get it."

The figure pushed themselves a little more upright, "you want one long braid, down the back? Your friend there could do that, I'm sure."

"No," she shook her head, hating the cloud, "I want lots of little ones!" she looked around for tea and found herself admiring the room, "there's so many colours here, I don't understand why nobody uses them."

The figure tilted their head to one side, looking at her, their fingers never stilling. "I see, and you don't know why they're upset?"

She grit her teeth, resisting the urge to bare them. "Eim won't tell me. I'm not from Resper, I come from somewhere else, so I guess it's a cultural thing that I don't understand yet? My Class is going to help me with it, but I've only had it a few days."

And nobody will explain it to me, she wanted to add. But she didn't.

The human blinked, "you must come from very far away, then."

They raised their still-moving hands and pointed at a little box she hadn't noticed before. A moment later Jump-touch was spooning dried leaves into the two cups.

"I guess so. It wasn't that far, but we didn't have much contact with… With other people, from outside of where I lived."

She checked the temperature of the kettle with the back of her hand, determined it was good, and poured the water over the tea. Good, it hadn't been too hot.

A moment later she'd found a cushion and was sitting cross-legged in front of the [Braider], both of them holding cups of tea.

"We didn't even have a Stone, where I lived, so it's all a bit new to me."

They were a woman, Jump decided as she spoke, and she wasn't a kobold, even if her house was beautiful.

"Your house is beautiful," she said, taking a sip of the tea, "when I have coins, can I trade for some of your-" she gestured to the wall hangings, "we had a lot like that back home, and I miss them."

"Oh?" the woman blinked, sipping her tea and nodding, "sure, why not. You want your hair braiding, and you want to buy my wall-hangings?"

"When I have coins." She frowned, "well, you'll need coins too, in return for the hair right? That's how humans do it? That's fine, I can make Eim give you some. We sold a bird earlier so he should have enough."

It was even harder to read the look somebody was giving you when they were missing an eye. Admiration? Happiness that Jump-touch wanted to trade? Horror at the thought of having to part with something she'd made?

Jump-touch just didn't know. The tea was pretty good though, grassy and warm.

The two of them sat and drank for a minute, the stove gently warming the room and the tea warming the occupants, until eventually the woman shook her head and placed her empty cup down on the floor.

"Okay then," she pulled some thick threads out of the basket next to her, "let's work out what you need."