Turning the broom over, I glared down at the lizard clinging to the broom straws.

  Where had it even come from? I glanced around, and luckily found myself still alone… so I stepped away from the courtyard bricks and over to the nearby wall.

  Lifting the broom, I placed the end up against the mossy stone wall… and waited.

  The lizard didn’t move.

  Sighing at the thing, I reached over to tap it. “As bad as Lujic, I swear,” I mumbled as the lizard finally took the hint. It crawled along the broom straws for a moment, and then reached the stone wall. It climbed up a few feet, and then paused… only to tilt its head and stare at me.

  “What? Did you want to get broomed?” I asked it as I stepped away from the wall as to return to sweeping.

  Wait… Broomed…? Shouldn’t I have said swept?

  Feeling a little embarrassed, and then silly because I had gotten embarrassed over misspeaking to a lizard of all things, I returned to my duties.

  Sweeping was honestly one of the better chores to be assigned to. There wasn’t much they made me do here, in this giant noble’s house, but out of all the things I found sweeping to be the less stressful. It was far better than working in the kitchens, or doing laundry. Not so much because those tasks took a little more attention and care, but rather sweeping was something I typically did alone. Thus didn’t need to spend much time with anyone else, or have to pay much attention to what I said or how I said it.

  As I swept, I glanced up at the dull sky. It was a little gray today, with the clouds, but I neither smelled nor felt rain in the air. In fact it wasn’t even that cold.

  A day like this was where I met Lujic and Ginny. I wonder how many seasons have passed since then. Two? Three?

  Surely not more than four, right?

  “Renn!”

  I stood up straight and turned around, quickly finding the old woman who had just shouted at me. She had a large basket, one nearly half her size… and judging by the way the old woman was able to hold it up without any effort, it was likely empty.

  Which meant only one thing…

  “Come fetch all the laundry! In the guards quarters!” she shouted an order.

  Great.

  Oh well. Peace never did last.

  I hurried over, making sure to not let the cloth headband tied around my head slip off. It was held only by a pair of tied straps, nothing more, so I needed to be careful.

  “Nancy’s sick. Just gather it all up and hand it off to those working laundry today,” the old headmaid said as she put the basket down before me.

  I nodded as she held her hand out, open palmed, and obliged her and handed her off the broom I had been using.

  “How’re the kids?” she asked as I grabbed the large basket. Even though empty it stunk. From its years of being used to hold dirty clothes.

  “They’re fine. Lujic though suddenly thinks he’s going to become a guard,” I said as I lifted the thing. I made sure not to do it too easily. I had once lifted a large basket like this, full of stuff, too effortlessly and others had saw me and found it odd. They had almost condemned me to always carrying all the heavy baskets of dirty clothes, and I didn’t want a repeat offense. I’d not be able to laugh it off again if I did.

  “All boys do, at least once in their lives. Make sure the boy keeps it just a passing fancy. Any man who wields a sword for a living is doomed, and not worth the time of day,” the old maid said with a huff, and then turned away. She walked off quickly, eager to get back to whatever task she herself needed to finish before the day was over.

  Watching her go, I frowned at her.

  Those words hadn’t been scornful, or said in jest. She had been serious.

  Turning around myself, I began heading for the guard’s quarters.

  Luckily at this time of day, the guards would not be within their rooms. They’d all be out doing their jobs. Either guarding the village resting at the bottom of the hill this large compound sat upon, or one of the many roads that led to and from.

  Not that I really ever had much issue with them. A few of the other servants who worked here hated them, such as the headmaid, but I as of yet had not had any issues with any of them. A few sometimes made odd comments, or asked if I wanted to share their beds or not, but not a one has pressed anything beyond the polite decline I gave them.

  A part of me wondered if maybe it was because they all thought me to be a mother. Lujic and Ginny were my children, in their eyes, and as such maybe no man wanted to really pursue me because of it. But it might also be because of my personality, or maybe my appearance. My clothes were more worn down than most, having been given the spares and hand-me-downs, and I also knew I wasn’t the most attractive woman here. Some of the others, such as a few who directly served the noble family who ruled this town, were stunningly beautiful.

  Walking through another courtyard, one I had spent this morning sweeping, I noticed the dried leaves scattering some of the paths and bricks. I knew no one would blame me for them, since it was obvious they were leaves from the last few hours of wind, but it still annoyed me. That meant by morning, again, I’ll have a good amount that I’ll need to clean up again.

  “Though there is a small joy in sweeping a bunch at once,” I mumbled regretfully.

  I liked the sounds they made as I swept them. It was almost musical sometimes.

  Reaching the end of the courtyard, I passed through a small opening in one of the large stone walls which separated different sections of this compound. I entered the area the guards and other servants lived in, and heard the noise that accompanied such a thing. I could only see a few people occasionally, what with them all being busy, but there was only one I was looking for as I walked around anyway.

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  As I neared the guard’s quarters, I huffed a little as I reached it without finding Lujic. I knew the boy lately had been helping out around the guards area, but I wasn’t entirely sure where or who he had been helping.

  Like most children his age, they were given chores but not enough to keep them occupied all day. Before Lujic’s attention had been grabbed by the guards he had spent most of his day helping me with my own, or just staying at home with his sister.

  Entering the guard’s quarters, I walked down the large hallway and down another smaller one. This one had a bunch of small rooms, ones that only had a small bed and a few pieces of furniture each.

  As I had figured, it was empty. I heard footsteps down one of the halls, but ignored them as I went room to room.

  Each room had a large basket near the door. It was all I needed to worry about. If there were any clothes in it, I was to gather them up. If it was empty, I didn’t grab anything in those rooms.

  By the time I reached the end of the hall, the basket ended up half-full. I took it to the next hallway, and found that this hallway had likely been gathered up already. Each and every basket was empty, not even a sock to be found.

  I wasn’t going to complain over the lack of weight, so I simply took my half-loaded basket and left. As I did though, I got rewarded.

  Pausing a moment, I stared across the yard to a nearby building. Off in the distance was Lujic. He was holding a small bundle in his arms and following what looked to be an older man. One I recognized. He was one of the head guards of this noble family. He was often talking to the headmaid and even the noble family members.

  Lujic was following the man dutifully. The two didn’t even notice me as they entered the building in the distance.

  I smiled at the boy. “Well, out of anyone I suppose,” I decided as I carried my own burden away.

  Better an older, more experienced man, to take Lujic under his wing than some weird hotshot. Though maybe I should be worried, as the headmaid had mentioned? What if being a guard was actually a bad thing…?

  I’ll need to ask a little about it. Maybe even talk to that old man myself.

  After all… how long would it be before Lujic actually needed to start working? The boy was still small. Still scrawny… and it had been only a few months since we’d arrived here, but I knew better than to think he’d be small forever.

  How long did it take for humans to grow anyway?

  Witch’s children had grown quickly. Too quickly. There had been times I had held the little newborn babies in my arms, and then turned around and found them grabbing at my tail. Only to turn around again and instead of getting hugged but a smile or handshake instead from someone as tall as me.

  A little upset over the idea that Lujic was already growing into a man, I barely noticed myself walk into the laundry room.

  “Oh? Drop it there Renn,” One of the pretty women I’d thought of earlier said in greeting.

  I nodded and obeyed, dropping the basket off onto a table. Before I even fully stepped away two other women had stepped forth, tilting the basket over as to go about sorting the dirty clothes.

  As I watched them sort and throw the clothes into their own baskets, socks into their own, shirts into another and so forth… I wondered something odd, that I hadn’t noticed before.

  “How does anyone not know which is theirs?” I asked.

  One of the women sorting the clothes laughed at me, which made others laugh as well.

  I felt my ears flutter beneath my hat, and panicked for a half moment until I realized none had noticed. They had all been too busy laughing at me.

  “Shush! Get out of here Renn, go take a rest. Come back before dinner to help us with that!” the pretty woman shouted as conversations throughout the laundry building picked up. Only a few were about me, at least.

  Although a little worried at what had happened, or why they had found what I’d said so funny, I decided to just let it be. I was trying to keep myself from drawing attention, after all.

  As I left the laundry room, I sighed and wondered what I’d done wrong again.

  This happened more than I wanted to admit. Either I said things that they all found utterly foolish, or they thought I was making some kind of weird jokes… which was depressing since I didn’t mean either of those things.

  Walking away from the now noisier laundry building, I headed to the south most section of the compound. Where small, single room, houses were lined up along the back of the hill. Where the roads weren’t flattened properly, but pointy and rocky. Too pointy for carts or wagons to use.

  Although the houses were small… and the roads to them bumpy, they were in fact the reason I had accepted the job here. To be a servant.

  It wasn’t just a house we got. We got fed. Three meals a day, though the one during the morning was just a single loaf of a bread each. Plus we got clothes, and access to the village’s doctor if we needed them.

  If I had been alone I would have likely only spent a month or two here. It was fun, but not enough to justify the risk of hiding myself or putting up with the menial tasks I had to do all day.

  But I wasn’t alone.

  Not anymore.

  Stepping off the bumpy road, I smiled at the young face staring at me from the window.

  “Renny!”

  I crouched a little as Ginny ran out of the house at the sight of me. She ran straight into me, and I wrapped my arms around her as she hugged me. Lifting her up off the ground, I squeezed her and laughed as she did.

  Lujic may be growing too old to hug me, but Ginny hadn’t! At least not yet!

  “You stink!” Ginny said as she hugged me.

  Oh. Right. The dirty clothes.

  “Sorry,” I apologized as I carried the young girl into the house.

  It really was a simple house. A single room. Two beds. Neither big enough for all three of us to sleep in together. A small kitchen-like area alongside one wall, and another wall full of shelves and chests for storage. Behind the house was a large barrel for water, that other workers filled for us, and a small outhouse. One that needed to be cleaned and emptied more often than I wanted to admit.

  “I cleaned today!” Ginny said happily as I placed her down onto the bed.

  Glancing around, and not really telling if she had or not, I nodded. “I can see that! What am I going to do without all that dust?” I asked as I patted her head and glanced out the window.

  Thanks to how small the houses were, they weren’t necessarily close to one another… but the other house near us, one where a single woman lived; one who worked in the gardens, was close enough I always worried over her seeing us. Or rather, me.

  I went to close the door, and the shutters of the window, so that I could relax a little and take off my hat and reveal my tail. I only had a few hours before I needed to back and help with dinner, and I wanted to enjoy them.

  “What’d you do today?” Ginny asked as she bounced off the bed, to allow me to sit and take off my shoes.

  “Well…” I began to tell her of my day. Of sweeping, and then the reason I stunk.

  A simple life. One somehow more simple than I’ve ever lived… yet at the same time, it was more complex than ever.

  All thanks to the children.

  But it was for these very children I lived it.

  For now at least. I wasn’t sure how long I could hide amongst these people. But I planned to abuse this place as long as possible.

  For now, at least.

  For now.