Hey, guys! New chapter here! Okay, this week it is NOT SHORT! YAY! Also, we will be meeting two other characters (as a side note, I'm really bad at naming things!) and Elinor starts to here a peculiar 'word'. "WHAT IS IT?!" I hear some of you scream? Let's find out, of course!

After the whole talking bat episode, Ruby took Elinor to the other parts of the mansion. Ruby had to admit, if something as simple as a talking bat was enough to make Elinor throw her head back and scream at the top of her lungs, who knew how she would react to the other kids of the house?

No, no, that wasn't worth worrying about. Elinor was one of the kinds of… 'people' living here. She wouldn't be so hypocritical.

Then again, Elinor hadn't been aware that other creatures like her existed until that morning. She genuinely thought that she was the only kind the world had to offer. Ruby guessed it would come as a pretty big shock to someone suddenly finding out there was an entire hidden world in which you were able to fit in to… the only world you would be able to fit in to…

Elinor noticed Ruby had her brow furrowed. Well. That was new.

Elinor still had a little voice in the back of her mind telling her that she could be in danger, but it was more of a whisper now. If anything, Elinor was interested to see what else was in this mansion. If talking animals was only scratching the surface of this, what else could possibly be here?

"You'll really love Poe," said Ruby a little suddenly, "You seem like the type who likes poetry."

"Well," said Elinor, "I guess I kind of like a little bit of classical music every now and then, but I'm more of a rock n' roll type. Y'know, stuff like Short Stack and All Time Low."

"Oh, okay!" said Ruby in an agreeing voice, "I know just who you should meet after Poe, then!"

'I dunno whether to be exited or scared,' thought Elinor, amused and nervous at the same time.

Elinor followed Ruby up the stairs, through the left corridor, a right turn, another hallway, and through another door*. Goodness, that mansion was huge...

When Elinor went through the door after the red-head, she found herself inside a kitchen. An old, Victorian styled kitchen, to be exact*. There was a table by the window, and a stove in the middle of the room. Hanging over the table, was a row of some sort of plant. Elinor guessed it was rosemary. On the other side of the room was a kitchen bench with cupboards attached to the wall above it, and in one corner was a tub full of apples... in green water? Ew. Sitting at the table, with her back turned to them, was a girl with short black hair, wearing a short dress with red stripy socks; not unlike Ruby's little get up.

On the other end of the table was something that was a little more interesting*. A crow.

Wearing a cape. And gloves.

...

And a monocle.

'Ten bucks says he talks too...' Elinor silently betted.

The crow looked up from his cup of tea and spoke, in a strong British accent, "Ah! Ruby! How marvellous to see you! And I see you have a friend?"

'Yep,' Elinor thought, 'Someone in my subconscious owes me ten bucks.'

Just at that moment, the girl who was sitting opposite the crow spun around in her seat, revealing her face.

Elinor's jaw dropped.

"Hi!" the girl said, getting up from her seat and bounding over, "I'm Iris! What's your name? Where do you come from? What are you doin' here in Gloomsville? Do you have a favourite colour? Huh? Huh? Huh?"

Elinor only stared. Okay, she was imagining something along the lines of 'different', but THIS?

The girl. Only had. ONE. EYE.

ONE EYE! IN THE MIDDLE OF HER FORHEAD!

Elinor slapped a hand to her mouth to stop herself from screaming like she did with Scaredy Bat. But, STILL! Who WOULDN'T be freaked out by a Cyclops?! Especially one that was asking way too many questions, way too close to your face...

"Okay, Iris, give her some space to breathe," Ruby said, while gently pushing the Cyclops girl away.

"But I wanna know!" Iris retorted.

"If I may," inclined the talking crow, "it seems that Miss Ruby's accomplice is a little... oh, what's the word..."

"Shocked?" suggested Ruby.

"Speechless?" added Iris.

"Befuddled!" finished the crow.*

"Uh..." started Elinor, trying (yet again) to make conversation, "I'll just try to answer those questions in order; my names Elinor, I come from Australia, or Tasmania, I just came to... Gloomsville (?) to crash from all the running away and I think my favourite colour's purple. Ruby already knows that, though."

'Wow,' thought Elinor, 'That's the most I've talked to someone in ages!'

"M'well, yes," said the talking crow in response, "My name is Poe, descendant of the great poet Edgar Allen Poe's pet budgie, Paco, and graduate from Oxford University." Elinor made a silent note to never, ever, get caught in an elevator with this bird.

"So!" Iris almost shouted, abruptly, "Elinor! Come with me!"

Without waiting for a response, Iris had grabbed Elinor's arm and was dragging her away from the rest of the group. Elinor wasn't really sure what to do; a) Go with the flow and let Iris show her what she thought was so obviously in need of showing, or b) Bight, claw, and snarl at the Cyclops girl until the either let go or stopped breathing.* She settled with not burning down the mansion, and letting Iris have her way... for now.

Iris dragged Elinor through another door in the room, back to the staircase, across the hall, through another door, into another hall, down some stairs, and through a left door, to what looked like an indoor circus.

'Maybe I shouldn't waste all the room in my memory with all these twists and turns...' thought Elinor almost sarcastically.

The supposed 'indoor circus' had swinging hoops hanging from the extremely high ceiling, a large fire crackling in the middle of the room, and a bed on top of a very large rock climbing cliff. Elinor guessed this was Iris' idea of a good bedroom.

"You're gonna love this!" Iris exclaimed, "I do it all the time; it's the least I could do for a new friend!"

"... Friend?" Elinor tested the word in her mouth.

"Yeah!" shouted Iris, "You don't have to repeat what I say, y'know. Save your voice for screaming with excitement!"

Before Elinor could protest, Iris had shoved Elinor onto a trampoline and bounced her all the way to the top of the rock climbing wall, where the bed was.

"THE BEST WAY TO LAND IS ON YOUR FEET!" Iris called up to a very surprised Elinor.

Now, normally someone would be screaming for their life and flailing their arms around like a freaked out pelican. But Elinor was used to heights; anyone remember the big wings on her back?

Elinor flexed her muscles, and pushed her wings out either side of her to slow her fall.

"Hey!" Iris shouted, "That's cheating!"

Elinor raised her eyebrow for a moment, then shrugged and pulled her wings back in. The plummet back down was a little faster than she expected, and she yelped a little when she bounced right back up when she came into contact with the tramp.

"WOO!" shouted Iris from where she stood, "Isn't that FUN?!"

'Yeah,' thought Elinor, 'Fun if you like the plummeting through the sky with no parachutes!'

"Can I STOP NOW?!" Elinor shouted a little unnecessarily loudly.

"Okay, okay, fine. Sheesh..." Iris grumbled as the moved the trampoline.

Elinor unfolded her wings and glided around the room back down to the sweet, sweet, floor. Just as she landed, the door flew open revealing Ruby out of breath. Boy, Iris was fast...

"Are you alright?" Ruby huffed.*

"Um, yeah," Elinor started a little uncertainly, "But maybe a little freaked—"

"You guys should've been here! I was like, 'WOO!' and Elinor was like, 'AAAHHH!', and then she tried to cheat using her wings—GASP!" Iris seemed to stand up straighter than she already was, "YOU HAVE TO MEET SQUIG! You guys could be flying buddies!"

"Iris," said Ruby, stopping the Cyclopes girl from having a heart failure from all her excitement, "Maybe Elinor should come with me to meet everybody else, then she can meet Squig, okay?"

Iris crossed her arms and huffed in disappointment, "Fine," she muttered.

Elinor was certainly relieved to be free from Iris' excitable grasp. She left the room with Ruby, and followed her away.

"Is... Iris, always like that?" Elinor asked, twiddling her fingers.

"Yep," answered Ruby, "She's also one of the best friends a girl could have!"

There that word was again... 'friend'. What did that word mean?

'Should I ask?' thought Elinor, '...Nah. It's probably not that important anyway.'

*-Elinor has a tendency to remember where she goes, just so she can plan an escape route, and such. :3

*-Isn't the entire mansion Victorian?

*-HAHAHAHAHAHA! Just you wait, Elinor, just you wait... heh.

*-THE BEST. WORD. EVER. :D

*-I'M SORRY, IRIS! ELINOR DIDN'T MEAN IT! Eheheh...

*-Heh, anyone else find it humorous that Ruby was worried about Elinor being dragged off by Iris? I do!

WOW! That's a lot of footnotes... heh, whoops!

Anyway, GOODNESS GRACIOUS ME! Yes, your worst fears have been realised, (depending who you are, of course) Elinor DOES NOT KNOW WHAT A 'FRIEND' IS.

LEGASP!

What will happen next? Who can guess who Elinor will meet in the next chapter? Will I stop putting all these footnotes on the bottom of the chapters? I ain't tellin', we'll see, and no way Jose!

Ruby Gloom and all characters and locations do NOT BELONG TO ME!

But, of course, Elinor does!