Micah followed Gilda’s instructions in tying the bow, but he found he was not strong enough to tighten the knot to her satisfaction. She finished the task for him before picking him up. This dress had a front pocket on her belly and she put him in there. Micah found himself standing in a wide stance to lean against the pocket and stay upright. He wouldn’t really be able to sit or lay in it comfortably given how tightly it sat across Gilda's stomach. Especially given how quick footed Gilda could be, as he soon discovered. 

Micah had seen the brownie use her charms to ascend and descend high places but he had not been aware how often she used quickening charms to get her from room to room at blinding speed. After her first burst through the kitchen Micah realized that she was objectively covering ground about as fast as he could run through the house at his old size. But at his current size, and from such a low perspective to the ground, Gilda’s haste was like nothing he had ever experienced before. When she finally did stop he almost felt ill from the constant changing of velocity. 

They were in the conservatory at the very rear of the house. His mother kept some delicate herbs and ornamental orchids in this room that was mostly glass. The sun fell here for longer in the day and it provided a warmer climate for them, with the help of a little elven magic. Gilda charmed a large water jug and watered those plants that needed it. 

Micah could only marvel at the sheer size of it all. Having been stuck in Gilda’s home had made him forget her scale to the rest of the house. From the buckets high above vines as wide as his torso stretched down. Some of the delicate flowers he could have used as a bed. Others he could have fallen into. Gilda plucked some small blue flowers from a large cluster. She pulled a bit of string out from under Micah who moved to avoid her hand. After tying up the bouquet Gilda stuffed it in her pocket next to Micah. 

With the concealment of the flowers Micah could only guess at what Gilda was doing but didn’t want to speak up after she had so plainly laid things out to him earlier. Gilda charmed the large glass plates of the room in large sweeping gestures. Wards against bugs, lizards and rodents which she renewed from time to time. Eleven cities themselves were well warded against pests but Gilda maintained them as a cautionary measure. Today, for Young Masters sake, she would be reapplying charms to each door and window of the house.  

 With that mission in mind she barreled through the rest of the downstairs areas. The parlor, the master bedroom, the bathroom, the dining room, the patio, and finally the tea nook where she decided to stop for lunch. The noon sun was shining through the windows and Gilda sat on the table with Micah in her lap, feeding him pinches of her food. She dropped the flowers off in a vase in her room before heading upstairs to finish warding the house. There she had the rooms of the Eldest Master (Micah’s sister Cherie), Micah’s room, the upstairs bath, the library, the Lady of the Houses office, and the guest room. Though there were far fewer windows upstairs so Gilda made quicker work of it. 

Micah’s room was the last one Gilda attended to. He had stopped comparing his size to objects early on lest he stress himself out. For most of the day he had stared at the floor, but now that he was in his own room he couldn’t help but look around. Gilda jumped up to his desk and began casting her wards. His slate over the desk had chalk thick as he was tall. His feathered fountain pen, twice as tall as Gilda, looked like some fantastical tree. The letter on his desk was like a… Micah paused “Gilda, you never told me I had a letter.” 

Gilda rolled her eyes, she had been wondering when the Young Master would start to speak again. “Yes, Young Master received it yesterday, but then he blasted himself into a bug before Gilda could tell him about it.”

“Oh, I see” was all Micah said. He really would have liked to open the letter but decided not to push his luck. Gilda waited, certain that Micah would ask eventually. She was done with her charms and made her way to the edge of the table before she realized he wasn’t going to ask her. She sighed “Would Young Master like to read his letter?” 

“Yes I would, thank you very much Gilda” Micah said rather quicker than he intended. Gilda walked back to the letter. With one charm she split the end of the envelope open and with another she pulled out the letter and unfolded it. She held it up a reasonable distance away. Unfortunately Micah’s view was still obscured by Gilda’s natural balcony. “Gilda I cannot read the top of the letter” Micah said plainly.

Confused, Gilda looked down and immediately realized the problem. Suppressing a laugh she pulled Micah out of her pocket and sat him on her shoulder. Micah made himself comfortable before reading the letter. 

Dear Cousin,

Oh no, not her, thought Micah. 

I shall be returning to thine doorstep at the end of the Harvest Month where I will enjoy the company of my cousins and aunt for no less than a fortnight. Whilst in your fair home I will have my companions at arms awaiting in the ante-city. Little cousin I will take you out to meet them, and you will have a drink, hopefully several, and you will have a good time outside of your house for once in your life! 

I SWEAR IT!

Rather than a signature there was a large ruby lipstick kiss. Delilah, his cousin, a distant cousin. She rotated through visiting her extended family as she had exhausted the patience most of her nearer relatives a long time ago. She’s an adventurer, and her ridiculous writing style aside, a fairly great one by all accounts.

“Gilda” Micah said “Delilah is coming to visit.” 

Gilda, who made a habit of not reading her masters letters, snapped back to attention. She glanced up and saw the trademark kiss signature of “the Trollop?” Gilda asked. Micah laughed bitterly to himself. 

Delilah was from his fathers side of the family, and being an adventurer himself he enjoyed her visits the most of anyone in the house. His mother however had never had kind words for Delilah, calling her a trollop behind her back. Well, as it turns out brownies usually refer to guests by their profession and they are pretty generous with what they will consider a profession, so “Trollop” has been Gilda’s title for Delilah ever since. Unable to persuade Gilda to use any other name the family requested that Gilda simply never talk to her if she could avoid it. Though Micah had always suspected that his mother secretly encouraged Gilda’s insistence. 

“Will she arrive before or after the Lady of the House?” Gilda asked as she dismissed her charm and the letter floated down to the surface of the desk.

“At the end of the month” he said, slowly realizing that she would arrive only a few days after his mother came back. 

Gilda made it very clear that Delilah would not be let in without the Ladies permission. Micah looked out past the letter as Gilda continued to describe her objections to Delilahs rare visits. There was a portrait of his family framed on the desk. The last time his father was home, his mother commissioned a large family portrait which now hung in the dining room. Micah had painted a watercolor copy of it to keep in his room. His father had brown hair and his mother had dark red hair like Micah’s. Both his parents shared his emerald eye color. His sister had bright red hair and eyes the shade of reddish amber. 

His parents and sister were taller than Micah, as they were on the tall side for Autumn elves. Micah didn’t resent being average, and looking smaller than his family only in comparison. This non-resentment was certainly not adding stress to his current situation, or the prospect of Delilah meeting her “little cousin” in his current state. To Micah’s chagrin she had always considered herself something of a mentor to him, and strove to break him of his solitary habits. 

He was really struggling with the possibility of meeting her like this, and such worry lead to him thinking that perhaps his mother couldn’t fix his condition, at least not right away. He didn’t actually know what had happened and as Gilda pointed out the night before mixing magic is not always wise. A slight panic set in as he realized how seriously he may have messed things up for himself. 

Gilda had stopped complaining about Delilah by now and noticed the elf on her shoulder was looking rather anxious for some reason so she offered some reassuring words “Don’t worry Young Master, Gilda will protect you.”

Micah was picked up before he could respond and she deposited him back into her pocket. Micah didn’t want to feel better from that little bit of compassion after everything Gilda had said that morning, but he did feel slightly better despite it all. 

Gilda made her way out of Micah’s room and approached the railing that overlooked the parlor. Micah did not deal with heights well. He was very grateful that he hadn’t realized what Gilda was doing last night when she jumped off the balcony, because now he was dreading it. Except Gilda did not jump down between the rails, she jumped up onto the railing instead. Micah was terrified to look down and so he looked up.

Over the parlor was a multi-panned glass dome with an intricate eleven work chandelier that hung from its center. The dome had the last windows Gilda needed to charm. Gilda bent her legs and her lean forward forced Micah to look down. Even through his panic he realized what Gilda meant to do. Gilda cast her charm as she lept forward from the railing. She accelerated towards the chain of the chandelier like a rocket. Micah screamed and clutched the fabric of her dress for dear life. 

Gilda successfully grabbed the chain and spun around it to lose momentum. She placed a foot in one of the lower links and hung out over the chandelier by one arm. Micah collapsed into the pocket and curled up so as to not look down. Gilda giggled as she felt him move about. “Young Master needs to stand up and hold on” she insisted.

“I’m fine here” he yelled up from the pocket. It was a complete lie but more than anything he wanted Gilda to hurry and get this over with. Gilda smiled to herself and climbed further on the chain. At the roof line of the dome she found one of her favorite views in the house. The evening sunlight made the great forest of the city glow orange. 

“Young Master should take a look around, Gilda thinks he would enjoy it” she said teasingly.

“No, thank you, Gilda” he yelled again from the pocket. His sudden timidity put Gilda in a mischievous mood and she reached into her pocket and pulled him out. Micah clung to her fingers fiercely. He was keeping his eyes closed and trying not to imagine the chandelier and the parlor below. Gilda withheld her laughter at the terrified elf but nevertheless commanded him to stand up. Micah swallowed slowly and began to find his center on her outstretched hand. Surprisingly he found it very steady and he was able to balance on it. Once standing she told him to open his eyes. 

Micah reluctantly did so, and while he did find the view impressive he was overwhelmingly focused on not looking down. Gilda had half a mind to drop him and catch him with her tail, but she was genuinely worried that might scare him to death given how nervous he was. Slowly she set her tail to coil around him and then hold him tightly. She laid the tuft of her tail over his face. “There, now Young Master is safe and secure and he doesn’t have to look down. Is that all better?” she asked sarcastically. 

“Yes. Thank You Gilda” Micah said too exhausted to be anything other than genuine. Gilda cast her charms and put the thought of further messing with the Young Master out of her mind. After she was done she jumped down and slowed her descent the usual way. She pulled the tuft of hair back in case Micah decided to open his eyes. He did not. Micah waited until he felt all movement stop and assumed Gilda was on the ground. 

“Gilda had no idea Young Master had such a fear of heights” Gilda said. 

Defensively, Micah said “It’s not all heights, just the incredibly high ones. I had no problem when the balcony was a reasonable distance from the floor.” 

Gilda laughed “It is not the balcony that has changed Young Master.” 

Micah sighed and accepted that without retort. Gilda loosened her tail over the front of her dress dropping Micah in. Once again stuck between her breasts Micah found himself suddenly concerned with what Gilda had planned now that her daily work was over. She petted the top of his head as she casually strolled through the house and back to the pantry.