Chapter 7
Welcome To The Human Race

“Um, he’s not home!” I yelled. Gosh, my voice really was quite high. Well, not even that. I spoke the way I usually did, but the low rumble that usually made my chest vibrate was absent. I took a deep breath and realised I was quite cold, wrapping my arms around myself. Right. Naked. And quite sweaty now, too. I squeezed my eyes shut, trying not to think too much about how I looked right now. “And I’m not decent!” 

There was a pause. “Are you all right?” Octavia asked, clearly still in front of the door. “Are you injured?” I could hear the concern in her voice, and I knew I had to say and do something to put her at ease. I stood up carefully and opened the door ever so slightly. It was nice to see Octavia again, at least. 

“Yes! Um, yes, I am,” I said carefully, and looked inside for a moment. Pancakes was making some truly disgusting noises as he ate the hare. Well, too late to stop him now. I was going to have to clean it up afterwards. “Pan— Pancakes caught a hare, and dragged it inside,” I said, “and it got all over my clothes.” Well, at least part of that was true. Octavia smiled carefully. 

“Glad to hear that,” she said. “That… that you’re all right, I mean!” She was stammering now, and blushing slightly. That was unexpected. “I can wait until you’ve fetched yourself a spare set of clean clothing, if’n you like.”

On the one hand, I wanted to ask her to leave, and leave the magazines by the door. On the other, I was naked, scared, hungry, confused, a woman, and fairly certain the Witch wouldn’t have any clothing in this size. I had to say something. “Um.” I couldn’t think of anything else, so I looked at her, and she looked at what I presumed were two eyes looking back at her through only the smallest gap in a door. “Um,” I repeated. 

Blushing again, she turned away. “I apologise, I don’t mean to stare.” Her breath was a little cloud in the winter morning air. It was almost like she was out of breath. “I can wait here. It’s no bother at all, miss.”

Once, when I was younger, I’d been learning how to ride a bike. Without training wheels, I had to carefully try, over and over again, on the sidewalk. There had been few parts of me that hadn’t been scuffed, back then. But I had kept trying, until one day, I’d fallen down again, but rolled onto the road. The car coming towards me was barely moving, its driver having kept an eye on me. Nonetheless, it had hit me, and sent me flying. I’d broken my arm, and had given me a fear of bicycles and cars that had taken me years to properly overcome. 

That was nothing compared to the impact of being called ‘miss’ by a beautiful woman. Something about the way she’d said it had wrapped a hand around my brain and squeezed it like a stress ball. My heart caught in my throat, blocking the “Thank you!” that tried to edge its way past, and I slammed the door shut. Okay. I had to put something on. Maybe there would be something upstairs? I got up carefully. My knees were still shaking, and my body felt weirdly heavy, until I realised I’d essentially been on my feet and/or running a day and a night. I probably needed some sleep, too. 

Clothes first. Focus. I carefully walked over to the spiral staircase in the middle of the room, and started to climb it. I found myself in the middle of an intersection of hallways. Why was this building laid out like a maze?! It didn’t even look from the outside like there was room for a lot of hallways. Whatever. If I was the Witch, the bedroom, and presumably some kind of storage for clothing, would be close to the stairs. I would want to be able to get to the front door and back to bed quickly in case of visitors. 

It took me three doors until I found a room with a big closet and a bigger bed. I threw it open and found… a lot of black clothes that were all going to be much too big for me. Whatever. There were belts. I was going to have to make do. I quickly threw on an overly large cotton shirt which rubbed uncomfortably against my skin, and then shoved my legs into some pants. Or I tried to. They were much too large, right up until they got to my hips, where they were suddenly too narrow. 

“I’m going to scream,” I whispered under my breath, and was once again surprised by my own voice. I suppressed the giggle that was bubbling up at hearing that voice. Now was not the time to give in to what was undoubtedly either hysteria or madness. Octavia was waiting. 

I squeezed uncomfortably into the black trousers, and then kept them in place with a black leather belt. Those weren’t going to fall down for sure. I’d have trouble getting them past my hips a second time as things stood anyway. Finally, I put on some socks. Surprisingly, they seemed to be made of silk, and it was surprisingly nice to take a second to put them on. Okay. Focus. I hurried back downstairs, making sure to tiptoe around any blood on the ground. Pancakes had fallen asleep in a little ball near the window. Good.

I opened the door again, fully dressed this time, if a bit haphazardly, and wiped some of the hair in front of my face. That, at least, seemed to be roughly the same. “Hi,” I said. “Sorry for the wait.”

“No trouble at all,” Octavia said, and then squinted her eyes at me. She saw my look of confusion, and then shook her head. “I am so sorry, Miss,” she said, poking me right in the brain, “didn’t mean to stare. You just remind me of someone.” She handed me the magazines. “It’s just that I’ve never seen you ‘round these parts before. D’you mind if I ask… are you related to…”

I nodded. That was the perfect explanation. “Yes, I am!” I said, maybe a little more enthusiastically. If I was the Witch’s, say niece or sister, that meant I could just make up whatever and it wasn’t likely to contradict any stories he’d already told. “I’m a cousin. From overseas.” I had to give more. “There’s been a… a fire! Everything I had, up in flames. Which is why I don’t even have most of my own clothes.” I gestured at my outfit. 

Immediately, Octavia’s expression went from polite suspicion to concern and shock. “Oh, goodness, love! Your cousin should’ve said something when he was in town yesterday, I could’ve given him some of my own clothes for you.” She put her hands on her hips and rolled her eyes. “Men. D’you know if he’ll be back any time soon?”

“No,” I said truthfully, shaking my head. “I have no idea. Uh, why?”

“Well, if’n you want, we can go back to town, get you something that’ll fit you a mite better, yeah? I think most of my dresses and skirts would do you fine, even if you’re a bit more… endowed around the hips.” I saw her look down at my waist, and I looked at her to compare. It was only when we made eye contact that we both realised we’d been biting our respective bottom lip. “Uh, if that’s all right with you, ‘f course.”

“Y-yes. Of course. Yes, thank you. Yes.” I blushed, and Octavia giggled. “Uh, when do you want to go? I’d offer you tea or something, but I honestly think I need to clean up first before I have any guests over.” I opened the door a little bit more to show her the damage Pancakes had wrought. There was a mess of blood and fur close to the door. 

“Ah,” Octavia said. “Cold wet washcloth. Before it seeps in too much, I think, should do you right.” I grimaced. 

“Might be a bit late for that, I’m afraid. Baking soda ought to work, though.”

“Soda?” She looked at me quizzically, and realised that baking soda probably wasn’t around yet. I rubbed a finger against my chin and was delighted at the absence of a grating noise, of a stubble of any kind. I was so soft, I completely forgot what I was doing for a second. Octavia waited patiently before leaning forward a little. “Miss?”

“Oh, sorry!” I shook my head. “I’m sorry, I don’t think I, uh, have what I need to make that here. But I might be able to figure something out.” I hurried over to the washbasin in the kitchen and grabbed what I hoped was a dishrag and not some deeply treasured scarf, and threw it onto the stain. “I’ll figure something out later with vinegar or something.” My grandmother had told me about it once, and I hoped she hadn’t been talking nonsense. “Sorry about that.”

“You’ve nothing to excuse yourself for, love,” Octavia said. “Well, if you like, we can head back to town now, and get you some clothes.” I looked back at the room. I hadn’t slept yet. I was barely standing, and really hungry. 

“I’ve not eaten yet,” I said. “Only arrived in the dead of night, I’m afraid, I’d love to, otherwise.” I gave her an apologetic smile. Much as I liked the idea of a walk with Octavia, right now I liked the idea of sleeping more. My brain conjured up an image of soft, warm sheets, big pillows, as I’d seen them on the bed. Resting on one, letting my eyes drift closed, Octavia lying next to m—

“That’s entirely fair,” Octavia said. “I’ll be by later with something for you to try out, then. You take your rest, Miss. Oh, I’m afraid I didn’t catch your name.” 

I panicked. I had to say something. “I… uh… Mi— May— Maya,” I stammered, and I could feel my cheeks heat up. It was the first thing I could think of, and something about it just felt right. As names went, this one was pretty good. Octavia seemed to have noticed my reaction, and had seemingly taken the wrong conclusion, because she was blushing too. “Um,” I added, “what’s yours?” I already knew, but, well, she didn’t know that. 

“Octavia,” she said, and then she softly bit her lip and looked at me carefully and went. “You can call me Tavi, if’n you like.” 

“Oh, that’s… that’s really pretty. Octavia.” I tried out her name with my new voice for a second and smiled at her. “Lovely meeting you, Tavi,” I said, sticking out a hand out of force of habit. Her smile turned into a grin and she shook it happily. 

“Nice to meet you as well, Mi-May-Maya. You don’t strike me as much of a city girl,” she said. “Are you a Witch as well, if’n I can ask?” 

“Uh, sure. I mean yes. Yes, I am.” If knowledge of stuff they didn’t have in the middle ages was going to be my biggest skill, it probably made sense not to pretend like I was some upper-class socialite or something. “Though I don’t know as much as my brother does.”

“I thought he was your cousin.” 

“Uh, yes, that’s what I meant,” I said, then yawned dramatically. “Sleep deprivation must be getting to me. Thank you so much for bringing these to me, Tavi.” I had an idea, to somewhat salvage the situation and not make things even weirder or worse, while also sparing her some of the awkwardness. “Tell you what, why don’t I come by tomorrow, after I’ve had a chance to get some sleep. If I don’t make it, I’ll ask my cousin to come by. And then you just let me know what I owe you for your trouble and the clothes.” 

“I couldn’t possibly,” Octavia said. “If I’d known he was taking care of family, I wouldn’t have delayed your cousin yesterday. But I hope to see you again, Maya. A beauty like yours is a rare sight ‘round these parts.” She blurted out that last sentence quickly, and she spun on her heels then hurried down the steps and down the path. Clearly it had taken her some effort to get them out. Obviously, it had been worth it, because I was still reeling. 

“Octavia! Two of them, you mean?” I shouted after her. She turned around. 

“What?”

“Two beauties,” I said, feeling braver than I ever had in my life. “Around these parts. They already had yours.” Octavia’s face grew beet red. 

“Best be careful, Maya!” she replied. 

“Oh? Why?” I worried that maybe I’d overstepped her boundaries.

“They say there’s wolves about,” she said, winked, and ran down the road.