The World Walkers: Unknown World: Malandra: The Talking House

[k_a_webb]

Yawning, Malandra stretched. Slowly she opened her eyes and that was when she remembered what had happened the night before. The room she was in obviously wasn’t the tree she was planning on sleeping under, but she couldn’t help thinking it was a really good hallucination. She had been travelling, without any food apart from the stuff she’d found, for nearly three weeks, and it wouldn’t surprise her in the slightest if it was just a hallucination. Although, she tapped her foot on the mattress, the bed did seem real. Running her hand over the quilt she found herself thinking that maybe she had found herself in an actual bed, in a room, in a house that… It was the house that was the problem. Before she went to sleep she was certain that it had spoken to her.

“I did speak to you,” a voice said. It sounded male and Malandra wasn’t comfortable with it appearing to be telepathic. “You’re projecting, name. It often happens when you’ve just woken up.”

“Right…”

“You needed help, so I brought you here. It’s what I do.”

“Where exactly is here and who are you?”

“Unfortunately those are questions I can’t answer, because I don’t know where here is and I was never actually given a name. My inhabitants have given me numerous names since my creation, but I never share them, although if you ask I’m sure they’ll share the names they’ve given me with you.”

Malandra shook her head. It was hard to believe what the house was telling her, because it was a house and for a house to be sentient… she sighed. There had to be magic involved. Magic had already changed her life once. For it to have changed her life a second time in less than a month was almost too much for her to take in, but at the same time it all made sense, unfortunately. Nothing she could do would ever make things the same again, so the only thing she could do, again, was to deal with what had happened as best she could.

“How many other inhabitants are here?” Malandra asked, trying to sound curious.

“At the moment one hundred and thirty five. When I hear someone calling for help, the way I heard you, I bring them here and I become their home. I bring someone new here nearly every day, because the magic that created me allows me to grow whenever I need to, as well as change whenever someone needs another room.”

“Can I leave the house?”

“Of course. There are gardens for you to explore and a town, but I believe it’s impossible to leave the island the house is on. I suggest you ask one of the inhabitants more about that, if you want to know about where you can go, because they, again, know more than me.” The house sighed. “Geography never was my strong point.”

Strangely Malandra felt sorry for the house. “Maybe you were created so that you were weak at geography, so you couldn’t tell us more than they wanted us to know. That would be just like the fae.”

Mirrored from K. A. Jones Writing.