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Chapter 54. Ella Enchanted

by Dominic

Ella sulked in the corner. She was naked but for her diaper and the small pot that hung on a string around her neck. Poppy sat on a chair across the room, wrapping his paw up. Ella was not fond of that paw. It had scrubbed her too hard in the bath and then it had smacked her tail when she bit it. She was glad Poppy was putting the paw away now. Served that paw right.

She banged her wooden spoon against her pot. Ponk, ponk, ponk.

The sound made Poppy smile, and Ella took that as her cue. She came out of the corner and marched around the room, ponking all the while. Sometimes she would stop to zheep at something that caught her attention.

Home had changed! This was not her cottage, but her cup was on the table and her pot was here and she was banging on it. Her crib was gone but there was a different one that she had slept in the night before. There were no windows in the walls but there was a basket with all of her clothes in it. It would make a good hiding place for her treasures, if she found any. Already she had found a squished bug, but she had lost it in the bath.

She stopped in her course and stared intently at the door. She had learned a few things about the door that worried her.

First, the door would sometimes make noise like her pot. And then Poppy would say "Come in!" and the door would open, and somebeast carrying fire would come out of the darkness. In this manner, it was like the door that led to the yard. Except these beasts did not come from the yard. They came from where the clothes were supposed to be. She had tried to tell Poppy this, but he had only scolded her for piling her dresses in front of the door and he wouldn't listen to her explanation.

Then there was the stairs. Ella had only seen stairs like them at Redwall. They were the third set of stairs she had seen in her life. She didn't know what to make of them. There were stairs at Walkin's house. She had stood at the top and looked down often. These stairs, she stood at the bottom and looked up, and there was a door in the ceiling. Poppy sometimes took her up to the door, which led to another house and there lived Hannah, who had a prettier dress and had bit Ella's ear when Ella had bit her tail. And so Ella was content to leave the stairs alone.

The room now fully explored, she returned to her new crib and climbed in. The mattress was soft and bouncy.

Poppy was picking things up and putting them down in different places again. He would do this a few times, walk awat, look at them, and then walk back and put them back in their original spots and shake his head. He would smile at her when he saw she was watching him. Ella jigged and banged her pot for him. Ponk, ponk.

She began to sing for him.

"Here's a mouse, a mouse, a mouse, a mouse!
Wiv a sword anna campin', I'm Ella a campin'!
Mouse anna sword, cuttimup, cuttimup, wiv a sword! Vikrararara...
An' all Redswall, kerpoosh, blood 'n' rats, I'm a campin' Ella wiv a sword!"

"Hah, you want to go camping?" Poppy said. "Where's your blanky? Hmm? Where's your blanky, Ella? Where's your tent?"

Poppy rustled about in her crib, lifting the mattress a little, but her blanky was nowhere to be found. He started sorting her clothes from the basket, and searching through bags.

"Hellgates, they must've missed it! Poppy didn't just say hellgates."

"Uh-huh, Poppy's cussin' like a horderat." Ella grinned.

"Tchk! Ella! Oh, I knew I shouldn't have left you alone with Walkin... Where's your blanky?"

"Vikrararara...rarara...ra... Vikrarara..." Ella screwed up her face and stared down at her nose, as if glaring at the tongue beneath it would help it to spit the name out right. "Vikrararara...ra-"

"Vikraja?"

"Big lizzer took it."

"Vikraja wouldn't do that. She's a merchant. She sells us things, she doesn't take them."

"Vikrarara took my sword!"

Poppy reached down and took hold of her paw, the one she held her spoon in. He gripped tightly.

"This is your sword. And this," he said, tapping her pot, "is your shield. But you know, Poppy's going to keep you safe no matter what, right?"

"Uh-huh."

"Who's gonna patch your boo-boos?"

"Poppy!"

"And who's gonna make you dinner every night and tuck you in so you're cozy?"

"Poppy!"

"And who's gonna kill the scary monsters in the closet?"

"Martin!"

"Who's Martin?" Poppy frowned, flabbergasted.

"Dominic?" a voice called from above. "Are you all set up down there?"

Ella stared at Poppy a while longer. His sad face made her feel bad, so she ponked to cheer him up. Instead he just turned away and shouted at the ceiling.

"I think so! I can't get everything to look the same. I guess it will have to do."

"Well of course it's not going to look the same." Ella watched in awe as Belette came through the door in the ceiling and padded down the stairs. "It's a cellar, not a cottage, silly. Rod tells me you left a bunch of things as well. You're probably missing them without knowing it."

"Maybe..."

"What's this?"

Ella stood up and peered intently as Belette began sifting through Poppy's Do-Not-Touch box.

"Uh-oh," Ella warned. She gripped the railing of her crib. Worry rattled her world, and she whined in the back of her throat.

"Don't touch that!" Poppy cried, bounding over. "I've just got it ordered again! It was all jumbled."

"Salvia, hmmm. Motherwort... Foxglove? Isn't that poison?"

"It's a herbal remedy. It helps slow the heart and calm the nerves. It's the best way to heal my nervosa. It's chronic."

"Are you sure you're using enough?" Belette laughed. "So long as it's not contagious, why don't you and Ella come up for some tea? No use wasting the afternoon down here."

"I guess that would be alright," Poppy said. He fretted over his Do-Not-Touch box.

Belette came and hunkered down in front of Ella, peering at her through the bars.

"What's that you have there, Ella?"

Ella stared up at Belette and banged her pot harder than ever. Ponk! Ponk! Ponk!

"Don't you have any other toys?" Belette said, wincing. Ella shook her head and ponk! Ponk! Belette straightened up and looked over at Poppy. "Doesn't she have any other toys? Something a little quieter?"

"Does she need any other toys?" Poppy said. He closed the lid with a snap. "She's happy with her pot."

"Surely she must be tired of it by now," Belette said. "Fates know I am. May I, Ella?"

She held her paws out. Ella recognized the gesture. Ponk! Ponk! She jigged on the spot, bunching herself down and then zooming back up again, a precursor to actual jumping. Belette tucked her paws under Ella's arms and let her fly a moment before squeezing her tight.

Score! Ella wasted no time. Her treat was seconds away.

Dropping her spoon, her little paws undid the first three buttons in one tug, and her nose went searching into the unveiled dark, fuzzy crevice.

"Ella, no!" Poppy hissed, his voice strangled. Ella paid him no mind and tugged another button loose, searching lower, her whiskers brushing soft white fur to no avail. Belette stifled a giggle.

"It's fine, Dom. She won't find anything."

Ella ceased her snuffling a few seconds later. She scowled darkly. How dare Belette cheat her like this!

"You're not our mum!"

"Sorry, dear, I'm not. That's some instinct she's got, Dom..."

Ella kept scowling even as she changed paws. Poppy flicked her ear gently, then turned her around to rest her head on his shoulder. Belette offered her her spoon back. Ella took it, but this did not win Belette any forgiveness points.

"I'm sorry," Poppy mumbled. "Usually I have to ask, er, patrons from Walkin's tavern. I didn't know how to feed her myself... Faye's been helping. I've been trying to get her off..."

"Hey now, it's alright. If I was still producing, I wouldn't begrudge her. As it is, we'll have to settle for greensap for our tea."

Poppy took Ella up the stairs. She tensed in his arms, her fur bristling. This was Hannah's domain. Ella was not welcome here.

Hannah was making more dolls at the table in the kitchen. Ella hissed at her as Poppy sat down, and the other weaselmaid bolted from the room. Poppy flicked her ear again.

"Ella, that was rude."

"Don't mind Hannah," Belette said. "She's been difficult since her father died. I mean... my husband."

Poppy sighed. He let Ella down into Hannah's vacated chair. Ella wriggled and ponked boisterously, and then jumped in fright as Belette went "Tchk!"

"Enough of that pot. Here, Ella, do you want to play with one of Hannah's dolls?"

Ella stared hard at the proffered conglomeration of pine cones and sticks. She knew these things weren't food, and they weren't spoons either. They looked to serve no immediate purpose. She took one, and found to her surprise that the entire array came along with it. She waved it in awe, marveling as not a cone nor twig came loose. As a final test of its entertainment functions, she slammed it against her pot. Whereupon it exploded.

This she deemed "fun."

"Want another doll!"

"Maybe not," Belette said, picking up the pieces. "Dominic, there's a ball on that shelf up there, can you get it down?"

"Want another doll!" Ella said again, because they hadn't complied.

"This is a ball?" Poppy said as he took the object down. "I never had one as a kit. Are you sure it's safe?"

"Dom, it's a ball. It's made of snakeskin and filled with feathers. It's not going to kill her."

"She could chew it open and choke on-"

Belette snatched it from him and set it down in front of Ella.

"Here you go, Ella. This is a ball. You roll it around."

Ella watched as Belette gave an example of the ball's function. Ella furrowed her brow as the ball rolled up to her. Then she pounced on it.

Because her pot was still secured around her neck and hanging in front of her, the pot hit first, followed by Ella. The world whirled around until she found herself on her back. Her stomach hurt, but she was too shocked to cry. Then the ball came down from wherever it had gone and hit her in the face.

"See? See?" Poppy cried, swooping her up. Ella blinked and tried to get her nose out of his neck fur so she could breathe. "This is exactly what I said would happen!"

"Dom, I don't think-"

"Just because you've raised one kit doesn't mean you know everything!"

"What in hellgates, I never said-"

Ella still hadn't made a peep, but she did belch a little as Poppy jostled her in his race to the front door.

"Good day, Belette!" The door slammed.

Ella bellowed, "Good day!" and ponked so loud that her spoon broke, and then she cried.

-

"You know, looking back... it's kind of stupid to storm off like that when you're living in their cellar."

"And why are ye telling me this?" Shandi said. They were sitting on the porch of the inn. All was quiet for now.

Tink, tink, went Ella's new silver spoon, without much enthusiasm for the sound.

"Well, I couldn't find Vikraja. And you're the only one here who doesn't do that simpering thing with their eyes at me."

"Eh? What're ye talking about?"

"I've seen the looks they give you, too. It's like they're secretly ashamed to be helping us. Tchk! Helping."

Ella threw her spoon down and rested her chin on her pot, staring idly at nothing and everything.

"Ye... ye didn't really kill an otter, did ye?"

"Of course not!" Poppy snarled. Then he laughed nervously. "If I did kill an otter, my teeth would be falling out. River scurvy's in their blood. If it gets on you..." He carefully began wiggling each tooth.

Ella's eyes focused on a buzzing black thing. It was small, like an ant, but it went in circles in the air. She watched it, following its movements with her nose.

She reached for her sword- no, her spoon- and began batting at the air.

"Have you seen Vikraja?"

"She's having a nap. Which is probably more interesting than anything else she could be doing at the moment."

"A nap does sound good. Time for a nap, Ella?"

She turned and clapped her paws at Poppy, and jigged so hard for him that she fell on her bum. The fly landed on her nose. Her eyes crossed, and then uncrossed as it flew away. She began chasing it.

Poppy gasped.

"Hellgates... did you see that?"

"See what? The fly?"

"Ella's eyes. She's tracking it."

"So? What's the big deal? Kits chase bugs."

"No, not Ella. She's never- Fates, look at her go! She's never been able to. She chases them, but she can't see them. Not like this. Ella, mind the stairs!"

"What d'ye mean, can't see them? She's not blind."

"No, but she doesn't focus well. It always takes her a moment. By then she loses the bugs, but keeps crawling after them after they're gone. But look! She's-"

Ella zheeped. At last! She bit the flying ant right out of the air and swallowed it.

"She's going to get whitetongue! Ella, spit it out!"

Ella grinned and displayed her empty mouth. Poppy's shoulders slumped. Then he cheered up.

"Well, time for some physick, then!"

"Oh, nooooooooo," Ella said. He grabbed her tail before she could get away.

-

Having administered an unhealthy dosage of the most foul medicine of all time to her, Poppy took her back outside and turned her around to rest her chin on his shoulder. He patted her back until she burped. This always made her sleepy.

Staring at the wall of the inn, the long wooden boards began to deepen. One board in particular sunk into the wall, and from her perspective, she was looking down at a long hallway. Flickering torches dotted the sides. A mouse began to walk through, singing to himself.

Ella floated down until her footpaws were on the ground in front of the mouse. She looked up at him. He smiled and sat down, placing his sword across his legs. She reached out for it. He let her take it by the hilt.

The sword in her paws fit perfectly. She smiled back at the mouse, and at the army of eyes in the shadows behind him. A set of claws clasped her shoulder gently, and she looked up. Vikraja looked down at her. Ella zheeped at her.

And then the mouse began to talk.