Untitled Novel, Day 15 - Words to Go: 23,159

Total words needed to keep on track: 25,005 Total words written: 26,841

Kiffen's head almost touched the ceiling. The breathing still sounded angry - snort, growl, snort, growl. What was happening? Goldie glanced at Floyd. He looked completely relaxed except for the fact that he was hanging out underneath the piano, the same as she was. There must be a little bit of something to fear, if she read him right. She wasn't sure, though, because if this was still Kiffen and he was still just that little wyvern half-snake guy with arms and legs or whatever, it seemed to her like she shouldn't be afraid. But, she couldn't keep from tucking her legs against herself a little farther. Oh, well, her legs moved now. That was basically all that needed to be done. Kiffen was the only person in her three man adventure team that she could understand, therefore, she'd have to brave up and figure out what she needed to do. And, to do that, she needed to speak to Kiffen.
Kiffen was standing in the center of the room. He'd barely moved since he'd grown. He was graceful enough he hadn't knocked anything down of course that could just be because he'd barely moved since he'd grown a whole lot taller in a matter of seconds. Goldie scooted forward, legs, butt, legs, butt, till she was out in the pathway with Kiffen. She grabbed the top of the piano to help pull herself up and succeeded in playing a few dischordant notes with her stray fingers. Kiffen turned and looked at her - snort, growl, snort, growl. Goldie opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out.

Kiffen had no problem speaking up, although, his voice came out in a growl. Snort. "You're small."

Goldie giggled. "You're big!"

His voice didn't sound like two voices anymore. It was just one big, scary sounding dragon voice. She was standing close enough to feel the heat radiating from his mouth. His breath smelled kind of like, ummm, fireworks. Now that he was big, he seemed much more dragon-like. Wyvern-ish or so she assumed, since she'd never seen a real wyvern and Kiffen had admitted that he wasn't full blooded. Goldie wasn't sure which parts were snake and which parts were wyvern. The chicken feet must be wyvern, since snakes obviously don't have feet. Oh, but she'd forgotten, Kiffen's snake parent did have arms and legs, in which case, the legs could have been chicken legs. She'd never seen a snake with legs, either, so the anatomy of a wyvern as well as a snake with legs were both completely out of her knowleged base.

"So, I know you don't like questions, and for some reason because you're big now, it's scarier to think about asking you questions, but I'm just wondering, and if it angers you, don't answer... I was wondering WHY you're big. And, if you'll be small again any time soon? And also, how are you going to get through any of the doors we encounter along the way in this adventure?"

Snort, growl, snort, growl. He scratched his sheiled belly. His silver plated scales had literally melded together to create a breast plate. Goldie could tell they were still scales upon closer inspection, but there weren't any spaces between them. It was almost like one large, metal-like scale. A natural shield to guard his most vulnerable places. He was kind of like a knight in shining armor. Very fairy tale. Except, maybe he was more like Night in Shining Armor. Or, the dragon who ate the knight in the shining armor and somehow became part of the armor he ate.

He put his claws on his hips. "Didn't I tell you that I was still growing?" He poked the butterfly lying dead on the stairs.

"Yeah, but I thought that you would grow slower and not get quite so large." Kiffen just snorted and poked the butterfly again. "I'm pretty sure the butterfly is dead."

Goldie just nodded. She'd seen what he looked like. That butterfly was definitely dead.

"Maybe I can still harvest the poison. I'll be right back." And with that, he turned and walked up the stairs. Surprisingly, with the size of that guy, he didn't break a single step. The boards above their heads creaked as he walked across the room up there. Boy, if anyone was looking at that bedroom window, they would be so shocked to see some random dragon guy, just hanging out, collecting butterflies, being all human. How in the world did he not break any of those steps? What in the world? How did I break that last step? Goldie wondered much wonders. Wonders, wonders. Wonders. She'd seen glitter all over the floor while she'd been affected by that drug. She studied the floor. They'd said it was probably all imaginary. But, what was that?

She noticed a glimmer in between the cracks in the floor boards. The floor boards were covered with dust and the cracks were mostly all the way filled up with dust and other dust-like things. She got down on her hands and knees and brushed the floor with hand. Stupid idea.

"Owwwch," said Goldie while staring at the hand she'd just brushed across the floor. Yup. She got a splinter in about five seconds of being on the floor BUT she had wiped away enough dust to see where the glimmer was coming from. It wasn't fairy dust. It was actually shattered glass. At least she hadn't cut her finger. A splinter was probably better than cut. They were both bad, but the splinter was definitely better. Much less chance of infection, Goldie decided.
A long time ago before this room had been shut up and papered over, someone had been down in here and they'd broken something. Maybe it was when the movers or the previous tenants carried all of this furniture down here? Maybe this room had been used in the past and it wasn't just a weird storage room.
A music room! That made sense. The piano and... well, the piano. A music room needs a piano. The grandfather clock to keep time and keep track of the time.
So, if the glimmer is real, that may have caused all of the sparkles, which might mean that every one of her weird visions. The strange creatures, the glitter, the glowing fairy on the wall... was it a glowing fairy? Whatever, something was glowing on the back wall. She couldn't remember anymore. She moved toward the back corner of the room, past the grandfather clock.