[Kitty]

  She didn’t know why Pup had such a problem with her picking up the Pages piece.

  ‘Probably wanted to get it herself to trade with Moose.’

  She wouldn’t be surprised. Pup had been strange recently, asking all sorts of questions about Moose and his words. It was clear what she wanted. All the asking had annoyed her at first, until she realized how foolish she had been.

  Moose had even shown her and she didn’t learn.

  Getting the small things to trade with her was sure to make her more moose and help her transformation along. It might even impress Moose!

  ‘He did try to show me once and I didn’t get it, so maybe not.’

  The other small thing giving her an order had felt strange. Why should she listen to the small things at all? She had watched Pup walk off, also not listening to the other small thing. It was a small tunnel so she didn’t follow, but it made her question.

  What would Moose do?

  It bothered her. Her mind didn’t work well just standing there, so she started to move. It would be nice to find a wall to stare at, to help her thoughts go quiet. She wandered until she found some words on the wall and sat down to stare.

  Furrowing her brows she got back up and walked farther.

  ‘Why didn’t it work? Is it because the floor is colder here? The words invaded my head as well, they disturbed my thoughts. What is the difference?’

  So many new things to learn.

  She knew Moose didn’t stare at every wall. She had assumed it was his preference. He found a wall he liked and stayed there. But was it something else? Did his choice have actual reasons behind it?

  ‘I need to try different walls near the lair.’

  She made her way back, thinking the whole time.

  This was the entire reason she followed the small things. It forced her to think of new things.

  She made her way to Moose sitting amidst all the lights.

  “Moose. Trade.”

  She showed him the piece. She didn’t know what she wanted yet, but maybe Moose would surprise her with something she didn’t know about.

  “Did we finally manage to find a book then? What is it about, let’s see it?”

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  Moose held out his hand, she had to think hard for a bit. Could she just hand it over without at least seeing the trade?

  “Trade?”

  She knew if she could get his word, Moose wouldn’t not give her something. It was still hard to let go with nothing in hand though.

  Moose seemed to be thinking about it, that gave her hope.

  “Kitty, if I don’t know what it is, how do I know what to trade it for?”

  She didn’t know how to respond to that. She looked at the piece, making sure she wasn’t getting fooled.

  “Piece of Pages. Good thing. Moose like. Place for words.”

  Moose sighed. She didn’t like when he did that.

  “Kitty, all words are different. You have to know which words you have, to know how good they are.”

  That was why she didn’t like it. He always made her think really hard after he sighed.

  ‘Can words be a bad thing?’

  “Come here. We can look together and see what it is, alright?”

  She climbed into his lap and held out the piece. At least this way Moose couldn’t escape.

  She heard footsteps outside the opening in the wall. Both she and Moose watched as Pup walked past, then they turned back to the piece. Moose undid the strange part that held it together, something that had baffled her.

  When it opened, she was immediately disappointed.

  ‘Why make holes in the words? It ruins the words!’

  “Bad trade? Holes.”

  Moose rumbled in his chest and she felt the tingles start to spread.

  At least she got something out of all this.

  “Seems like someone wanted to hide things, rather than read. A shame to ruin a book like this though.”

  She poked at the pages, which seemed to be stuck to each other.

  “Holes hide words? Good hiding?”

  Moose rumbled again. This might have been a better trade than she thought. Much better than a holey Pages should be worth.

  “You tell me Kitty. How do you find something that isn’t there?”

  Her brain started to hurt at that question. She started to regret asking it.

  “Moose hard words. Something is there. Something not not there. Bad thought.”

  How could something be nothing? Moose just wanted to trick her.

  She wouldn’t fall for it, even if the rumbles were nice.

  “Oh? Point to the words I am saying then. They are something, so they have to be somewhere, right?”

  …

  She needed a wall.

  This was clearly some kind of word magic. Something couldn’t be nothing and yet she couldn’t point at Moose’s words, so they were nothing. Except words were something.

  She groaned.

  “Bad Moose. Head hurt. Hard thoughts.”

  The rumble soothed her a bit, but she still got up and left Moose to his magic. There was no point trading if she was only going to get things she didn’t understand. Let Moose have the holey Pages and try to find things that weren’t there.

  She would find a wall and test her earlier revelation.

  ‘At least that would be useful.’

  As she walked past the strong light where Pup was, she stopped to listen.

  Maybe the small things would stop the hurting thoughts.

  “… means you will answer to Pup here.”

  She didn’t like the sound of that.

  Moose was in charge. Small things needed to remember that.

  “Not Pup. Moose. Not for small things.”

  The new small thing seemed to fall out of its seat and the blue one jumped.

  Pup just nodded though.

  “I can bring you orders, but I just bring them. Moose is in charge.”

  “…Uh, shouldn’t this Moose be here then?”

  “NO.”

  She was surprised that Pup spoke up at the same time. She crouched and settled in to watch.

  “Don’t bother Moose. Nobody bothers Moose.”

  ‘Good. Pup is learning well.’