“Let me make this very, very clear. I will let you use the whole crystal palace. But if I come back and find it’s a mess, I will cut your head off. Understand?”
Elksia nodded, trying to hide her excitement.
“So you’ll kill me if I make a mess. Got it.”
Kairos glared at his bouncy assistant. “I said I’d cut your head off.”
“Is that not the same as killing me?”
“No. I’ll still your still-living head in a jar.”
Elksia blinked, then decided not to question Kairos’s statement further. “Alrighty! I’ll keep the place nice and clean!”
“You’d better…” Kairos grumbled, picking up a small suitcase with h is tail and grabbing a robe off the coat rack.
“Where are you going anyway?” Elksia suddenly perked up, just as Kairos opened the massive, gem-studded front door to his crystal keep.
“I told you already.”
“I don’t remember.”
Kairos grumbled some more. “I told you. I am going to the local Time Drake Decay Lord conference.”
“OOH!” Elksia beamed. “Sounds boring! Have fun! I promise I won’t make a mess!”
The Whenvern rolled his eyes, grabbed his things and left, slamming the door behind him.
Once the palace had stopped rattling, Elksia glanced around the large hallway, not really sure what to do with herself. After a moment of thought, the Time Vrekan disappeared, only to reappear with her little smart phone. With a smile, Elksia began to take pictures of the whole castle.
Why? Elksia paused to remember why. She was pretty certain she had massive memory issues, what with having been nearly beaten to death recently. It took a second for Elksia to remember: she wanted a photo of what the keep looked like, so she knew not to make a mess and could clean everything up later.
With that small diversion out of the way, Elksia decided to wander around the palace, slowly remembering just how damn big it was. Of course it was big. The Whenvern was big. He needed lots of space.
After some more thought, Elksia remembered what she wanted to do. The dining room was empty. And she was going to have guests around soon. So she needed to do some cooking!
Bouncing with excitement, Elksia almost exploded into the kitchen, very nearly knocking over a dragon-shaped vase that was probably very expensive. Luckily she managed to catch it and place it gently back on the rather small pedestal, but Elksia was quickly beginning to realise that this place was a mess waiting to happen. So instead of going into the kitchen as intended, Elksia made a detour for the nearest storage room.
After a lot of rummaging around, she finally found what she was looking for. Sticky putty. In a whirlwind of sudden productivity, Elksia rushed around the palace, using the putty to stick every single artifact down to the surface it was being displayed on. Sure, it wasn’t perfect, but it was better than nothing.
Satisfied with her previous work, Elksia headed back to the kitchen. She had a lot of cooking to do! But just as she pulled out the bowls from one of the cupboards, the doorbell rang.
“Oh no!” Elksia exclaimed as she bounced out of the kitchen and back down to the main hallway. She hurriedly opened the door, only to find the exact opposite of what she was expecting.
“Hello.”
“Oh! That was quick!” Elksia giggled. “How was the conference?”
The Whenvern grunted. “I haven’t gone yet. I forgot something.”
Both the time deities turned to the small dresser by the door, where Elksia had fastened a small silver urn to the top with putty. Next to it was a small wristband, a communication device. With a big, innocent smile, Elksia silently reached for the wristband and handed it to Kairos.
“Thank you. Don’t make a mess.”
“I won’t!”
The door slammed shut, again making the whole palace seem to shake. Once everything had settled down, Elksia waited for a few moments, before rushing off back to the kitchen, exploding with excitement.
“COOKING TIME! WOOOOO!”