Clayton should commence with examining the scene.
Unfortunately, there was nothing to examine. The floor in front of Grampy’s shack was swept clean. There was no one helpfully standing nearby in the shadows, giving off a suspicious vibe, and his spidey sense was not tingling.
Clayton wished he had a spidey sense.
He was about to admit that he might not have this guardian thing on lockdown quite as much as he had thought when a dark figure stepped out of the shadows suspiciously.
“Yes!” He pumped a fist into the air and hurried toward his new favorite person in Boston Below.
Unfortunately, his new favorite person didn’t share his feelings.
Clayton had just enough time to get an impression of snow-white hair before he found himself twisted into a pretzel and tucked firmly under his assailant’s arm. Now he had an excellent view of an impressive forearm and a pair of boots.
“Excuse me, sir or ma’am,” Clayton wheezed through an alarmingly constricted airway, “but could you spare… a moment of your time… for a few questions?”
“Questions about what?” a baritone voice growled next to his ear, raising goosebumps on Clayton’s neck.
“They’d be easier… to ask… if I… could breathe.”
The arm around his neck loosened just enough for Clayton to take a moderately-sized lungful of air.
“Thank you, that’s lovely. I don’t suppose you’d release me, would you?” The arm tightened again, causing Clayton to squeak, “This is fine too!”
Questions, questions… Clayton should be asking those, but his thoughts were racing even faster than his heart, so he was finding it difficult to latch onto anything specific. He examined the arm of his assailant to give his mind a chance to settle. It was a nice arm, all things considered.
It was well-muscled and wrapped in a gauntlet from wrist to elbow. The material of the gauntlet was made of a shimmery black material that reminded Clayton of a sample of dragonhide he’d seen in a museum. Dragons didn’t get out much anymore, so it was the closest he’d ever been to one.
Until now.
Aware of the mounting tension around him, Clayton fired off the first question that came to him. “Nice weather today, isn’t it?”
“There’s no weather down here.”
The arm hadn’t tightened, so Clayton decided to take it as a good sign and continued. “It’s actually been fantastic all week on the surface. I don’t suppose sometime during the lovely weather you haven’t been having down here, you’ve noticed anything funny going on? Especially involving missing objects?”
The arm tensed, but didn’t tighten. “Only missing objects? No people?” The rumbly voice did interesting things to Clayton’s nervous system. If he hadn’t been certain he was about to die, it would have been quite soothing.
Clayton looked to Eira, who was standing in front of Grampy with a steel pipe clutched in both hands. Her voice may have been shaky, but she held the weapon steady as she answered. “N-no people have gone missing. I would have noticed.”
“As comfortable as this lovely material is against my face, could I trouble you to let me go now?” Clayton pulled at the arm, but it was like pulling on a stone column.
“Guardian?” Eira gazed at him suspiciously.
“Guardian?” A deep chuckle vibrated through Clayton’s frame, but it wasn’t his. “This isn’t a guardian.”
“I could be,” Clayton muttered, his lip jutting out sulkily.
Now that the jig was up, his job was going to be a lot less fun.
He’d really liked all of the respect he’d been getting.
It wasn’t like the residents of the chapter house were mean to him or anything, but they did tend to treat him a bit like a pet, or like a useful potted plant. With the exception of Cym and Samantha, rather. Both of them were so nice to him that he’d have to make sure to get them a souvenir before his adventure was over.
Maybe he could see if Gelda had something appropriate in her tent.
“No, you couldn’t. You’d be a useless guardian,” the arm wielder said in a nasty tone. Then he delivered the final blow to Clayton’s ego by adding, “You have no magic.”
“You take that back!” Clayton’s head throbbed painfully, and his entire body went hot as anger and embarrassment flooded his system.
