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Chapter 6~ Spilled Ink
455Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdj09T1eXnN
When Kit found Bernard, he was stuffed up in his office. It didn’t take her long to track it down. She’d memorized the way years ago. She shuffled her way to the opened door and peeked inside. His office resembled Grandpa’s very closely, only that Bernard’s was just a tad smaller. He had golden-tiled floors and grand cardinal red walls. The gold decoration from the furniture and chairs glittered in the light of the large chandelier above. A small fire was dying down in the fireplace, eager for a good rustle of the logs inside. A balcony window was visible behind a heavy evergreen drape. Outside, an amber lantern glowed behind a shower of snowflakes. She couldn’t pull her eyes away. It was magical in every aspect.
But, she eventually found Bernard at his large mahogany desk that would never be big enough to hold all the paperwork and files he had laid out before him. He was hunched over in his chair, a hand over his forehead. He scribbled fiercely on a long sheet of parchment, occasionally dipping his quill back in a nearby inkstand. His black wild curls were unleashed as his cap laid strewn atop a pile of papers. But, Kit just watched him with a dim-witted smile. She rapped on the door and sent him into a fright. His hand shot out from his work and knocked the inkstand to the floor. Ink spilled all across the tiles, seeping into the cracks along the way. But, Bernard was on his feet with eyes locked onto her. He didn’t even notice the spilled mess until Kit pointed quickly and rushed over.
“I’m so sorry,” she babbled, “I didn’t mean to scare you. I just—”
“Don’t…don’t worry about it. Accidents happen so much around here.” He quickly snatched any type of rag atop his desk. Once his hand landed on something, he drew it to the spill. Kit didn’t even get the chance to stop him. He froze and picked up the rag in his hand. But, the now ink-soaked rag was not a rag. It was his cap. Its large black stain sadly dripped onto the floor as Bernard watched in an intense glare.
Kit couldn’t hold back the laughs anymore and a small giggle escaped from her covered mouth. Bernard looked at her, an expression of disbelief.
“Are you laughing?” he said.
She was at a good chuckle now. His lips raised slightly in a smile that only fueled her wildfire laughs like gasoline.
“I’m sorry…I know I shouldn’t…” But, she couldn’t say another word.
Bernard witnessed her hysterical laughter. Kit hadn’t felt this at ease in days. And he laughed too, mostly at her, but so what?
Once the two died down again, they faced the dripping mess of ink and cap. Bernard reached around and grabbed a real rag this time to sop up the mess. And soon, the floor looked spotless once again. Bernard held up the cap and looked it over.
“What are we going to do?” she asked.
“Easy,” he replied. He snapped his fingers and a tiny bell chime echoed throughout the room. The ink had vanished and the cap was clean as new. He fitted it back on his head and turned to Kit. She smirked and reached up to adjust it just perfectly. His soft curls tickled her wrists but she kept her focus aimed in.
“There,” she giggled, “Perfect.”
He smirked and helped her back to her feet. “Well you’ve made quite the entrance this morning, haven’t you?” he said. His eyes twinkled back.
“I wanted to check up on you and maybe see if you’ve made any progress…?”
He crossed back over to his desk. “Very kind of you to check in but, no, I haven’t gotten any further.”
“Grandpa said you and Curtis are on the hunt.”
“We’re…well, we’re trying. Tracking down missing people isn’t what we’re trained for. I’m more of a ‘paper pusher’ elf than a ‘go out and save the world’ elf.”
“Didn’t know you guys had those—”
“The point is that we’re doing our best. And, apparently, our best is chalking up any info we have on Father Time and picking through it clean.” Kit crossed over to his other side and flipped through a nearby file. She smiled to herself.
“I could help, if you wanted.”
He scoffed and picked up another file to scour through. “Really? You want to do this mind-numbing work? It could take hours, you know.”
She shrugged and took a seat on a nearby couch. “It’s better than doing the absolute nothing I was so busy with before.”
Bernard didn’t look up from his reading but Kit could feel his smile. She snatched a large stack of files and began the hunt.
“Oh, and if we’re gonna be here for hours, you might wanna stoke that fire.”
She didn’t realize the time, but they’d most certainly been at it for hours. Kit was surrounded by a tower of files and papers. Bernard was right; it was pretty mind-numbing work. She had sprawled herself across his small couch and flipped through another file when she suddenly stopped.
“Hey,” she called out, perking his attention from the desk, “In 1859, Father Time attended the grand opening of Big Ben. Ooh, he also had a brief fling with the May Queen. Does that help any?”
Bernard shook his head and turned back to his file. She sat up, her arms aching from the stiff movements. Her neck ached, too, but she kept at it, same as him.
“Oh wow,” Kit quietly said to herself.
“What is it?”
“In 1997, Father Time tried to get a perm. And there are pictures…”
Bernard sighed and let his head fall in his hands. She crossed over to him and leaned on the crowded desktop.
“Can’t we please just take a break? We’ve been at this for hours. Aren’t you exhausted?”
He couldn’t hide it from her. They were both pretty drained and they were getting nowhere. Bernard shook himself and opened another folder. “No, we can stop when Christmas is fixed.”
She snatched the folder from his hands, receiving a surprised glare from him.
“Kit—”
“Just a short break. Please, Bernard.”
“It’s my job to find information on Father Time.”
“And we will—just maybe after a cup of cocoa?”
After a few seconds, his sullen glare softened and he began to smile. She didn’t waste another second but took ahold of his hand and pulled him excitedly towards the door.
They spent their time in the dining halls of the workshop which, oddly enough, reminded Kit greatly of the halls from Harry Potter.
“How’s yours?” Kit asked, gesturing towards the mug of hot chocolate in his hands. He took a heavy gulp, intentionally leaving a milky chocolate mustache over his lip.
“Great, how’s yours?”
She chuckled and threw a napkin at his chest. He hadn’t played that joke since she was quite young.
“That was such a hit with me when I was a kid, wasn’t it?”
Bernard laughed and wiped away his sweet ‘stache. “Made you laugh every time. I didn’t know I was that funny until then.”
Kit smiled and rolled her eyes. “Oh, don’t flatter yourself.”
It wasn’t much later that they met an unexpected visitor running down the halls at full-speed.
“Bernard!” a small, yet persistent voice called. Bernard looked up from his mug and scanned the room around them.
“What is that?” he thought aloud. He followed Kit’s gaze and small smile towards a short elf shoving past the others on his way to the dining hall entrance. It was Bernard’s second-in-command, Curtis.
Instinctively, Bernard groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose.
“Here he comes,” Kit teased.
And, once he reached the pair, he was well out of breath and clutching to the table for support. Kit looked him up and down, pleased to have another friendly face find her. Curtis noticed her and tried to speak.
“Kit…Welcome…Heard you were…Bernard…staying…”
Bernard turned on his serious side and took a boss-like tone with the younger elf. “Curtis, what do you need?”
“Need to…tell you…news…”
“Spit it out!” he snapped.
“…There’s a problem…Problem with the storms…”
“Storms?” Kit interjected. Curtis nodded, finally catching his breath. He propped himself back up and straightened his vest.
“There’s been reports of unplanned storms all over the northern half of the globe. Big storms. We think it might be linked to the time break.”
Kit and Bernard shared a look and turned back to Curtis with expressions of disbelief.
“Storms?” Kit echoed.
“What does that mean?”
Curtis shook his head and looked away. “It means we’re in much more danger than we thought.”
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