Chapter Six

As the group approached the glaciers, what appeared to be a piece of snow detached itself from one of the nearer ones and floated towards them. It was an owl, with the lazy amber-eyed gaze of a snowy.

"Saari, it’s us,” called Maru up to the bird.

The snowy owl swooped down and landed on Maru’s rear and turned it’s head around, fixing it’s naturally sarcastic face on Shiv.

"Hi," the owl said with a distinctive, musical feminine voice.

"Hello," Shiv replied, watching the bird curiously.

Linia introduced the two. "Shiv, this is Saari. She’s an owl-Beast, and on the Guard. And this is Shiv, the lion-Beast, and we just collected him from the circus.”

After greeting the owl-Beast, Shiv said, “You have quite a lot of Beasts here, don’t you?”

"It's a zoo in there,” sighed Linia.

The five of them approached one of the glaciers. Saari alit and disappeared into the white sky to resume her guard duties as Maru led the group of them to the side of one of the crystal-blue icy giants.

"So Kuma’s House is a glacier?” said Shiv.

Love laughed as they entered a crevasse, cleverly hidden in a sheath of ice,  in the side of the glacier. “No. This is just a pathway to the House. The House is among these glaciers, but we avoid having to use the front entrance if we can. It’s a bother to get through everything.”

The real entranceway must have a lot of security, then, thought Shiv.

The glacial pathway was wide and tall enough for two elephants to walk side by side in. The sunlight filtered through the thick ice and bathed the tunnel in a blue glow. Shiv knew they were headed underground as the glow dimmed as the pathway slanted downward. And then it became completely dark as the tunnel went into the earth. There, gentle golden lanterns were mounted on the wall every few meters.

A minute or so later, Shiv found himself walking on a luxurious carpet instead of hard ice. When he looked back up, Love had stopped in front of an enormous door. The wood was of a curious bright wood. Stained-glass windows stood on both sides of the door.

“Welcome to Kuma’s House!” smiled Love as she nudged the door open with a paw and led him up a short flight of stone stairs.

Shiv stepped into the House, eyes wide with awe. Everything before him was grand but simplistic. A thick crimson carpet with simple sunset-gold patterns covered the entire floor of the grand entrance hall. An enormous floating spiral staircase wound itself all the way up to the ceiling many floors away. At the very top was what appeared to be a miniature sun; the inverted dome-light, which must have been about twenty feet in diameter,  emitted a gentle bluish light that mimicked morning sunlight. Beautiful glassy balconies overlooked the entrance hall, and as Shiv stared up at them, a couple of faces appeared and stared down curiously, reminding Shiv of tree squirrels.

It was so warm that Shiv’s muscles seemed to melt. He hadn’t realized he was so cold and tired until he had reached a comfortable place. Then he self-consciously remembered the state of his own hygiene. 

I really need to wash, he thought as he once again caught a whiff of his own month-old stench.

Just then, something large and white loomed in his peripheral vision. Shiv turned to see an enormous white bear padding silently towards them from one of the side corridors. It was nearly three times the size of Shiv, and its paws were large enough for him to imagine the bear easily decapitating him with one swing. 

Shiv involuntarily drew his ears back.

"Kuma! We’ve retrieved him,” Love called towards the bear. She shifted into her human form again with a barely perceptible sound, like a soft whisper of silk sliding on silk, and wrapped her arms around Kuma’s neck. Her arms did not even reach half way around, and disappeared into the thick ruff around the bear’s neck.

“That’s Kuma!” exclaimed Shiv. He had assumed Kuma was a man, not a bear-Beast.

The enormous white bear fixed his eyes on the lion-Beast. Shiv noticed his eyes were like deep pools, with what looked like tiny flecks of white gold and silver in them. They looked like spheres of the night sky.

Maru and Linia greeted Kuma, who nodded wordlessly at them. Linia slid off Maru’s back and the two stood aside as Kuma returned his gaze to Shiv, who stood there awkwardly in all his stinking glory.

“Shiv, this is Kuma, our Housemaster. And this,” said Love, looking back to Kuma and nodding at Shiv, “is the lion-Beast.”

The lion-Beast? That meant he had been a topic of conversation, by people he did not even know existed, while he was in the goblin circus. The knowledge unnerved him a little, but he pulled it together and shifted into his human form with a crackle of bones.

“Thank you for taking me in,” said Shiv.

The white bear’s eyes flicked as he looked Shiv over. Then he nodded approvingly.
"You be a Guard. You can thank me that way.” Kuma’s slow voice was a bass felt more than heard. His voice seemed to reverberate from deep inside his chest, for his mouth only made vague motions when he spoke.

Shiv assumed being a Guard would be the same as what Saari did, sitting outside on the glacier on the lookout. He cringed inwardly; lion-Beasts were Fair Folk of the savannahs, why would Kuma send him outside into the harsh cold? But he didn’t raise the question. Not yet, anyway...

"Love, take him around. And make sure he gets a bath,” said Kuma. Then he turned, and with a few strides disappeared down another corridor.

As soon as he was gone, Love turned back to Shiv. “Sorry, he is a bit short with words. It’s hard for him to speak.”
“That’s alright,” said Shiv, though a bit puzzled.

"Now, I’ll show you to the bathroom so you can finally wash that stinking grime off yourself,” said Love.

Shiv followed Love up the floating stairs. The polished dark wood spiraled up solidly around the entrance hall, up all twelve floors, and branched off into the glassy balconies at each floor.

“As you can see, there are twelve floors. The first contains the main kitchen, various training and exercise areas, and Housekeeper dormitories. Men on the left, women on the right. There are also a few lounges, but we don’t use them very much. They’re mainly for visitors, and if we want to relax, there are better places to do it,” said Love, pointing as they ascended the stairs.

Shiv kept glancing down as he walked, for the stairs truly looked like they were supported by nothing. He had assumed they were held up by some sort of unseen contraption from the angle by the door, but now that he was walking on them, he could not figure out what held them up.

“What holds these stairs up?” asked Shiv, stopping and crouching to peer at the step he was on, interrupting Love’s chattering.

“Magic,” responded Love, turning to look back at him.

Shiv snorted at her joke, then realized she was serious.

“You use magic here? Who uses the magic, is it Linia?” exclaimed Shiv. Although Fairyland was a land full of magic, being able to use it was a rare skill to have. Beasts were born with innate magic, which allowed them to shift forms. But for Beasts to be able to command magic beyond that was very rare. The Incendiors were an entire species of wolf-Beasts who had a command over fire, which was what made them so unique.

“Oh, there are a few who use magic here,” said Love matter-of-factly, not answering Shiv’s question. “As I was saying, the second floor contains work areas. The third floor and above are all the library, but because of some strange uncontrollable magic, the spaces there are all jumbled up and may shift from time to time. Weird things happen. Since I’ve been here for so long, I have caught on a few patterns, but I would highly advise you not to venture up there alone. If you want to explore, come get me or another Head Housekeeper. I’ll introduce you to the others later. If you get lost in the library, we might not be able to find you ever again.”

An uneasy feeling formed in the pit of his stomach as he glanced up at the third floor and beyond. Now that he thought about it, there was some sort of distinct feeling about Kuma’s House. Something strange, something off, but he couldn’t name the feeling. It was not necessarily a fearful feeling; he just didn’t know what the feeling was, and that was unnerving.

Love took him to the second floor and walked him to one of the bathrooms. The floor looked to be one seamless slab of pink marble, and giant mirrors lined with tiny lights covered one wall. There were multiple sinks with long shiny faucets and a pile of neatly folded towels. Next to the pile was a wicker basket, which Shiv assumed held dirty towels.

“Hot water faucet, cold water faucet, this is the soap, and here are brushes if you want to brush your claws,” explained Love as she pointed to each corresponding object. She flicked at the hot water tap and steaming water slid out of the faucet in a sparkling clear stream. The polished black tub was so large it could have fit Kuma in it.

“Thanks,” said Shiv, leaning over the tub eagerly, feeling the steam on his face.

Love smiled. “Just make sure you adjust the water so you don’t boil yourself by accident. When you’re done, come back outside and I’ll show you your room.”

As she was leaving the bathroom, a tall young man appeared in the doorway. His shaggy mop of dark hair almost obscured his eyes and ears.

“Is that the lion-Beast?” he asked Love, tilting his head down to look at her.

“Yes, it is. Oh, Shiv,” said Love, turning back to the lion-Beast, “this is Six. Sixth Sun. He’s not dead, either.”
Shiv stared in awe, unable to speak.

Six smiled good-naturedly and touched his own forehead in greeting.

“We’ll leave you alone now. Bathrobes are in that closet. Take your time,” said Love, and then she closed the door behind her.