Chapter Drenched


    Hansel balanced on one foot upon a small piece of fur he had ripped from his vest. He used the rest of it to wrap around his face as he grew and stretched it to a strange position through the bars so that he could place his swiveling ear to the wall while he hummed. He had scratched a symbol into the wall with his nails and he tapped upon it listening until finally it gave a great shutter that vibrated with the force of his tune.


    Hearing footsteps above, he pulled back and threw the vest back on the cage floor, wrapping the little fur around his wrist. The door started to creak open and the trembling stopped, water began to soak into the symbols.  The Dwarf appeared at the head of the stairs. “What are you up to?” He looked cock-eyed at the Wolf.


    “Me?” Hansel squatted with a most insincere smile.


    “No tricks today boy. No wily schemes of escape. I’ll not tolerate dissension while in a mood this foul.” He grunted as he threw his tools for working upon the table then began to stoke the fire.


    “You are always in a foul mood when she comes expecting progress.” Hansel picked at his teeth. Baba Yaga had already tasted him this morning and her reproach like his flavor was bitter.


    “Yes well with that much silver about your not ageing as fast as you should. She begins to suspect the human origins of your blood and since you won’t be forthright with your name or heritage…” The dwarf placed a pot above the fire.


    While he rambled about the methods they were going to use to trace his lineage. Hansel spat out a tooth into his palm, cupping it quickly he whispered to it until it turned red in his hands.


    The dwarf put on great gauntlets and moved the cage along its chain link rail upon the ceiling so it was closer to the fire.


    “I’ll need a bit of tissue.” The dwarf turned for a blade on the table and Hansel threw the tooth in the fire. Holding out his hand through the bars as another finger was removed. “Did it ever occur to you I’m already older than I look?” Hansel gritted as he sawed.Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    “Boy in human terms I’m sure you are ancient and no doubt the fact that you were made so young does make for a fast healing skin what has that to do with silver not affecting your miserable hide?” The dwarf spat and threw the finger into the pot, below the fire exploded him across the room. Hansel caught his hat and pulled bits of the straw from brim and tucked them away in his hair as his cage swung back and forth. He cast the hat aside again.


    The dwarf leaped up raving, red in the face and blackened everywhere else his beard had a great singe upon it. Well not a great singe. Only three inches, that was a mile where a dwarf was concerned.


    Hansel wrinkled his nose, “Ugh that burnt hair smells awful you really ought to wash it.” At that moment the opposite wall crumbled as water exploded through it, several hidden dwarf doors, big and small were revealed by water gushing through the cracks. From extreme pressure, rocks went flying at the little man as he was sprayed to the point of collapsing; then as he came up sputtering water some of the dwarf’s treasures flew out while the rest of it poured out onto the floor.


    “You pest! You flea bitten mongrel! I’ll kill you for ruining my collections and flooding my caves!” The dwarf leapt upon the cage with a little dagger and the weight of him lowered the chain causing the cage to crash to the floor with a splash. Hansel laughed at the little man like a child at a puppet show moving with speed out of reach on the opposite side of the cage from his stabs.


    “What goes on here?” Ivan bellowed stomping down to the foot of the stairs. The dwarf lost color and quickly jumped down from the cage. Hansel noticed the dwarf put his boot on top of one of the sacks of treasure.


    “He means to flood the whole room and drown me! He has ruined my cellar!” The dwarf sneered.


    “That is your fault for putting him so close to the walls. I warned you,” Ivan’s great shadow cast over Hansel making his eyes glow. “Playful and clever…”


    “Shall I leave him in here; to drown until he dies as punishment?!” The dwarf had spittle flying from his mouth as he spoke.


    “Why it will only be a sleep death which to him would be welcome rest. Besides do you want him to swallow anything of value that floats his way?” Ivan warned and the dwarf yelped scooping up more items. Hansel noted that when the dwarf lifted his foot a little he saw broken white little statues of stone in the pouch.


    “I’ll take him above briefly, clean up this mess and make his cage smaller!” Ivan ordered. He reached through and after a brief violent struggle was holding Hansel by the neck with the strength he had acquired by eating his kind. He clipped the silver chain tightly around, this made Hansel turn into a wolf. Ivan opened the cage guiding the great canine to the surface. Which in the end was all Hansel had really wanted after years of rotting in a cellar.