Flash Fiction Friday #3

Bellatrix was not suppose to wander beyond the gates of her village, but she did and good things to otherwise this would be a short, boring story. She, Bellatrix, had just turned twelve and decided that she absolutely would not ever, and she meant never ever, get married or wear frilly fancy dresses no matter how loudly her mother and auntie crooned. So I suppose I’ll hand the story to her, well because it is one only she can say…

I know mother always told me to be weary of strangers, but this creature, this goblin looked soo pathetic that I couldn't leave her panhandling under a bridge. Melba, for she told me that was her name, was eighty hundreds and twenty three thousand seven hundreds and twenty days old- though I suspect her math is a bit off. 
“Oh deary me” Melba gurgled “I am just soo tired I can’t walk another step”
“Well, I can’t take you into the village, they will surely hang you, and then cook you in a stew” I shivered at the thought of goblin bog stew.
As we stumbled through the woods there was an abandoned, though slightly shabby cottage.
“Why not here bell?” I pointed “It looks like its been left to rot.”
Melba gurgled and began shuffling toward the run down cottage. It truly did look as though someone had left it to rot. Maybe once upon a time a lovely family lived there, I could imagine four happy children and a scruffy dog who would play in what was now a rotted wood floor. The dusty and spider infested cabinets would have housed the richest of tea leaves and and most darling tea sets fit for the queen herself. 
Melba, for she was after all quite old and tired and of course sore, did not care for the imaginative beauties, but being a very observant goblin (if she should say so herself) noticed peculiar claw markings on the floor.

“Look here girl” she said crouching to the ground. I was all too lost in my imagination to pay her mind, but now looking back I wish I had. Melba continued looking at the most peculiar details from the etches on the walls. When I was about to tell her of a strange portrait I discovered I heard Melba snarl and so I ran to her.
“Alkjdalkjgklad” she guffled speaking in a mix of her goblin dialect and her own confusion. We were in what had been the main bedroom, and it was hard to see in the dark, but Melba quickly found a wax candle and lit it shining into the room… jars filled with eyes, fingers, and hair all labeled with different creatures. The nails of the last female griffin, the tail of a harpie…
“What is this place..?” I held onto Melba’s hand and she gave it a squeeze and we started to back out of the room, when the jars started to shake.

The jars and the floorboards shaking and thank all of the gods for goblins having great balance or we would have been thrown across the room from all the movement.
When the shaking stopped there were loud footsteps, coming toward the room. Melba urged me to hide, but there was no where for either of us. 
“We are in this together” I whispered “you are my friend, albeit new, but I would never leave you to face whatever this is alone”
Melba snarled at me,but she positioned herself in front to greet the owner of the footsteps.
The door came open and there were three women, all dressed in puffed sleeves and what looked to be party dresses.
“Why hello dearies, what took you so long to say hello?” the first lady cooed
“We’ve been expecting you” said the second peeking from behind the first lady
“Yes, do come the fates have told us much, though by the look on your face they never relayed the message” giggled the third lady.
Melba, still standing in front of my snarled and her claws started to grow,
“Now, don’t you get fresh with us! This is partly your fault you know” the first lady said swatting Melba with the back of her fan. “Now, we don’t have much time so come and talk”

Reluctantly Melba and I sat with the three ladies and as they went into the kitchen things began to change, well shine I suppose. They all started singing and as they did everything they touched started turning new. Spider webs vanished, and the rotted wood became new and crisp, and I would love to add I was right the cabinets were filled with the most darling tea sets.

“One lump or two?”
I wanted no sugar. I didn’t even want her tea. I sat in the musty room trying to come up with any excuse to escape.

“I’ll add three” so concludes from Melba’s snarls, and my silence. 

“Now this,” the three ladies say in unison “is a message from the fates, and not to be scoffed or taken lightly”

“Bellatrix Audriella Ruskin” The first lady begins “you are not who you have been raised to think you are.. You see” 

By the wide eye look I gave she continued “ look closely” she pointed to the peculiar portrait and when I walked over (Melba beside me) I saw a girl, sort of , she had on a dress similar to the three ladies, but  her eyes seemed a bit different, a little non human

“Yes, dearie, what you see isn’t deceiving you” the second lady said “ this here is the first of her kind..”
“Gargoyle” Melba hissed
“Yess you plucky thing you” the first woman tried to pet Melba and nearly lost her fingers
“She was the first made creature, gifted the eyes of a gargoyle, and she grew up with a peculiar and slightly boring life until--”

“Until you were born!” the second and third woman chimed.  I would have deemed these women senile, if it hadn’t been for my own eyes shaking, and changing colors.

“Now you must give back what has been stolen”
“You want my eyes?!” 

Prompt for this post :“One lump or two?”
I wanted no sugar. I didn’t even want her tea. I sat in the musty room trying to come up with any excuse to escape.