Dragons of the Watch - Donita K. Paul [13]
Ellie left her carpetbag in the grass where Tak nibbled a presupper snack and hauled herself up on the first step. Unfortunately three more steps confronted her. By the time she scaled the last one, her breaths came in deep pants. She collapsed on the wooden porch until breathing came normally again.
Who would be in the house? All of the natural landscape seemed normal-sized. Surely the people would be too. However, why would normal-sized people build such enormous houses? She strained her ears to pick up some noise from behind the front door. Nothing.
“Nobody’s home,” she whispered.
The idea that no people lurked within gave her courage. She sat, listened, heard nothing but the sounds of nature, and got up. Rapping on the door with a closed fist, she hoped no one would answer the knock. If someone did, what would she say?
She looked down at her feet and saw a bundle-up bug crawling in front of her toes. “Small, like a bundle-up should be. The people will be normal as well. Or maybe not. Even so, I will not scream, no matter how big they are.”
No one answered. She knocked louder, and still no one came. Stretching and standing on tiptoes, she jiggled the doorknob. Locked.
With a sigh that expressed both relief and frustration, Ellie left the door and stood under a window. If she stood on tiptoes, she could grasp the windowsill. She jumped to look inside. The sun shone in the west windows, illuminating the room. In the brief moment she could look in, she saw big furniture. The next time she jumped, she noticed a huge coat hanging on a hook on the wall. Next she saw a teacup on an end table, but it looked more like a soup bowl. And the last time she jumped, she saw Tak standing in the center of the room.
She jerked around to look where she’d last seen him. Of course, he was not in two places at the same time. Only her carpetbag remained at the bottom of the giant steps.
Ellie scrambled down the stairs with much less care than she had used coming up. Her landing on the grass didn’t contain one iota of dignity. Aunt Tiffenbeth would have been displeased.
She stood and raced around the house. The distance to the corner was just as she had surmised, about a half a village block. The side of the house seemed to stretch forever, but this was not true. Her sore legs protested as she rounded the next corner, and the sight of the back entrance allowed her a brief moment of relief.
Instead of steps, a ramp tilted from the ground to a huge open door. She slowed going up the incline, not because she feared what hid in the house, but because her body protested the long day of walking and the dash to get to the back door.
Tak welcomed her with his usual comment. “Maa.”
He whirled away from her, and she followed at a walk, craning her neck to see all the fascinating features of the room. She walked under the rough-wood kitchen table. A spoon the size of a ladle lay on the floor. Everything looked just like the things at home, only on a larger scale. She passed through the door into a dining room. The eating table here was grand, with carvings on the legs. She guessed they had been polished at one time, but now dust coated everything.
Tak trotted down the hall, and his hoofs clumped on the thin carpet runner. Ellie came to the front room and stood in one place, staring. Cozy chairs and sofas surrounded a much shorter table, with playing cards sprawled across its surface. A basket of knitting sat at a corner, within easy reach of one of the stuffed chairs. Empty shelves stood beside a comfortable chair, and she wondered briefly what they had once contained. A pillow rested on the floor next to the smaller sofa.
Ellie resisted the urge to lie down. Instead, she made the long journey back around the house to fetch her carpetbag. After bringing it inside, she searched for anything from which to make a meal. Dishes and empty canisters cluttered the shelves but offered no sustenance. She found no food or water, so she would go to bed hungry and dirty. But she had four walls and a roof, enormous walls