I tried to take the stairs two at a time but my painfully shortened legs made that an impossibility. I ended up bent over, using my hands as much as my feet. Gotta say I’m not a fan of being bent over like this. It just felt wrong somehow.

I reached the top and tumbled forward, righting myself as quickly as I could and using an almost painfully intense combination of Identify, Advanced Shadow Eye, and Blindsense. The air on the upper floor was in whirling turmoil, battering me from all sides with its icy daggers. The upper floor looked nothing like the one below, everything here was open-plan and stuffed full of an odd amalgamation of classical furniture and freaky-looking trinkets and idols. One of them, perched high on a shelf over an enormous roaring fireplace, looked like a bumpy dong with a bird sitting on its tip. Old Man Wellington had unusual taste, to say the least.

Speaking of Old Man Wellington; the mouse was waiting for me beside a toppled rectangular box made of a ridiculously bright green material I couldn’t place.

This is it. Grab this thing and stuff the damn ghost back inside it.

I ran for it, stretching out my fingers to grasp the thing. Pete, for lack of a better way to explain it, absolutely lost his shit. The buffeting winds turned into a full-blown gale, one that picked me up right off my booted feet and flung me like a ragdoll clear across the room. I hit the hard floor and rolled before letting out a bellowing roar. I turned my eyes to the throbbing pain emanating from my side. My health bar had sunk by a small portion but the pain was intense. Blood spread around the palm-sized spear head poking out of my gut. Delicate scrollwork on the aged metal began to glow a dull red. Somehow, I didn’t think that was a good sign.

What are you doing? Old Man Wellington howled from across the room. You have to get it in the box you fool! If you want all the rewards I can give then do it, do it now!

I glared at the jerk from my place on the floor as Pete’s furious howling continued. Papers and small lighter objects were sucked up into the whirling wind. I was too busy trying to figure out how to remove a spear from my body to pay the angry poltergeist any mind. I could just yank the thing out, it might not drain my health too badly. It sucked that spears didn’t bend, I might have been able to put the thing in my bum bag if it could.

What kind of thief are you?

I swore and stuck my favorite finger up at the pain-in-the-ass mouse. I was regretting coming back to save him. The rewards from this quest better be worth it.

With a hard yank, I pulled the shaft of the spear and pulled it again until the end of the rod came out with a highly disturbing and incredibly painful squelch. I writhed, punching a fist into the ground with my eyes squeezed tight to keep the dampness in. There was no stopping the sweat beading on my forehead though.

With a snarl that would have put Stella to shame, I rose from the ground, my hand covering the still-bleeding hole. With my other hand, and in an incredibly awkward manner, I stuffed the spear into my bum bag, trying not to think too hard about the coating of blood covering the shaft. The new item description came up but with the mouse screaming at me, my body shrinking and my nose growing, and Pete wailing like a little bitch I had a few too many things on my plate to read more than the name.

New Item Received: Spear of Vital Essence Sucking

There had to be a better name for that. There just had to be.

Get out…

“Shut up Pete, I’m not in the mood.”

The wind picked up again and a footstool came flying at me. I Blinked out of the way and halfway across the room back toward the stupid box. I repeated the same lines over and over inside my head to settle myself.

Box. Trap. Reward. Box. Trap. Reward.

Hurry, hurry, hurry! I can’t be a mouse anymore.

I Blinked again but before I got close to the box I dropped to my knees, my tail sticking out stiff behind me. Old Man Wellington was starting to look average-sized. I tried to stand again but my balance was off sending me right back down on all fours.

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Blinking didn’t work well when the best you could do was crawl. I was hit three times by flying objects, each hit eating away at my health but not in a manner that had me panicking. It was more of an annoyance than anything. Pete really had to up his spooking game. That last room had been pretty intense but apparently in a space he couldn’t plan Pete really struggled. This is exactly why I felt kind of bad for him.

Granted, he was turning me into a mouse. That was pretty well done I suppose.

Come on, come on. How can a thief be this ridiculously slow? Grab the damn box and shove the ghost in it. Do it now.

I reached for the box but before I could touch it a sheet of paper slapped against my face dragging a squeak from my mutated lips. I slapped the sheet of paper to the ground, glaring at it for getting in my way.

[… Through the veil.

…demon cannot hide its eyes.

One soul given freely is all it needs to…

… Morphed into underlings…]

The words didn’t mean much with the splatters of liquid turning the majority of the ink into undecipherable splotches. Shaking away the distraction I threw the scrap away and clutched the box to my chest.

Pete screeched and blasted me with everything he had. The blast struck me in the chest, lifting me off my feet and high into the air. I screamed but Pete was louder.

Get out… Get out… Get out…

My bones rattled from the intensity of the poltergeist’s desperate bellows. The gust sent me flinging over the balustrade. The front door opened wider. Stella was curled up in a ball on the stoop, her body as small as a mouse but still colored like the cattle dog she was. If I crossed the threshold the quest would be added to my failure list and all of this would have been for nothing.

I gripped the lid of the box, lifting it just a bit.

Noooooo…

The blast of air was redirected, rushing into the box like dirt into a vacuum. The change in Pete’s screams was more terrifying than the fall that came immediately after. I reached up, yanking my now toothpick-sized sword from its scabbard on my back. I shoved it into the wall, gripping it hard as the force slowed my plunge but threatened to dislodge my shoulder.

The box rattled in my other hand. The icy air crowded around me, stabbing at my face before being sucked inside the box. I’d expected to see Pete’s true form appear as he was trapped inside his box but there was nothing.

My downward tumble stopped with my tiny legs dangling over the peak of the open doorway. In my miniature form, the drop might as well have been a chasm.

Old Man Wellington was standing at the top of the stairs, clapping his tiny pink mouse hands together.

You did it, you did it! I’m finally free. Do you know how long I’ve waited for someone who didn’t just run out the door the minute it opened?

Damn. I knew I should have just done that. It explained why Old Man Wellington was still a mouse. I was dumb enough to stay when all the others had left. I just didn’t want this mission to join There’s No Place Like Home in my failed quest menu. I’d almost forgotten about that quest entirely but now that this one had almost landed on the same list I was getting antsy. Failing missions rubbed me the wrong way.

Another gust of wind swept past me. I gasped, clutching the now closed box tighter to my chest as I swung on the grip of my tiny sword. This gust was different than Pete’s; it was warm and carried with it a cloud of dead and wet leaves it must have picked up outside.

The gust swirled around Old Man Wellington, hiding him from view for a solid thirty seconds before the clumps of leaves dropped around his feet in a ring. I screwed up my nose as the stink of rot tickled my nostrils. None of that impacted Old Man Wellington who stood in the ring adjusting his navy blue vest and beaming at me with overly white teeth. His entire outfit was fine with pointed brown dress shoes, a brown and gold patterned tie held with a golden clip, and a long-sleeved dress shirt as white as his teeth.

“Thank you, sneak thief for setting me free,” the man said in a voice that was still squeaky despite his return to humanhood. “It feels wonderful to be on my feet again.”

The man tossed his head of grey and silver hair and stared at me with forceful red eyes. I waited for the same blast of air to turn me back into a human. All that happened was my arms cramped from the exertion of holding on with my feet dangling. I didn’t grow and worst of all the completed quest notification did not pop up.

“What’s the deal Old Man, why do I still look this way?” I squeaked.

“Fear not, your reward isn’t far away,” he said as he descended the stairs. “I just need you to do one more thing for me.”

“What the hell more can I give you?” I snapped.

He stopped directly under me, his scarlet gaze burning a hole through my forehead. “Give me the box.”

I tightened my grip on my sword and wrapped my free arm harder around Pete’s prison. “What do you want it for?”

“Toss it down and you’ll get your reward.”

“Pete is trapped now. He can’t hurt us anymore. Complete the quest so I can be big again,” I said.

“Did you truly name the poltergeist Pete? I thought that was just a once-off joke, not a real thing,” Old Man Wellington said with a high-pitched sneer.

“I like to name things, lay off will you.”

“Right, well. Toss Pete down. I need to ensure he can never escape again. This trinket has been more trouble than it’s worth.”

My arm was shaking and a slow wave of pain was beginning to radiate further across my chest. I didn’t have a lot of options and yet dropping Pete in his bright green box into the bejeweled hands of the red-eyed noble felt wrong. I was missing something but there was no time to figure it out.