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The guards threw Nott into the cell unceremoniously, throwing her on her face. She scrambled to her feet, running towards the cell door as they shut it again and locked it. She grabbed the bars and hurled every single insult she could think of at them.
“Bastards! I didn’t do anything wrong! If you didn’t want people to steal that wine you shouldn’t have left it unguarded!”
The guards ignored her. Nott sighed, scratched the back of her neck and turned back towards the inside of the cell.
The cell was comprised of stones bigger than she and smelled of mildew. There was exactly one bed, comprised of what looked like a lumpy, uncomfortable, straw mattress and a too thin blanket covering it. Above the bed was a window- too small to fit through, even for someone of Nott’s particular stature- that allowed for just enough light to get through to know the time of day. It looked like there had once been glass in the window, but it had long since shattered and now cool night air seeped into the room. All in all, she had seen worse.
On the bed, though, was a body. Nott cringed slightly, wondering if the body was dead and why the guards had not gotten rid of it. She approached it curiously, figuring that she could at least eat it if the human guards did not take it away, although upon closer inspection she could see the gentle rise and fall of its chest as it laid there on the bed, curled up towards the wall with its hands covering its head.
Nott did not bother the body and the body did not bother Nott. Neither of them said anything to one another for perhaps several hours or so, but after a while the silence was starting to get to her. She tried to think of something to say to it, but the words died in her throat when a guard passed their cell, tossing a chunk of stale bread between the bars and placing a cup of water within with slightly more care than the bread.
She snatched the chunk of bread and devoured it without a second thought. The body did not stir, but she remembered its existence too late and supposed that it might have wanted some food too. She looked towards it guiltily.
“Did… did you want some water?” Nott asked sheepishly, gesturing towards the cup vaguely, knowing that the body was not looking at her.
The body flinched at the sound of her voice and then shook its head.
“Are you sure?”
The body rolled over slightly to look at her. Nott could now see that it was a human man. His skin was fair and she could see a faint spray of freckles across his cheeks and nose underneath the dirt and grime that covered his face. His hair was dirty and tangled, long enough that it hung in his face in matted clumps. It, too, was very dirty so it was difficult to tell what color it was, but Nott suspected it was auburn. He was far too thin to be healthy he almost reminded Nott of a child, in a way, what with how he was practically swimming in his too large tunic and coat. He was certainly younger than she had thought, at first.
His eyes were blue, but they were dull and tired and had dark bruises beneath them. They were void of want or care. Empty. He looked as if he had already been through hell and back and that he couldn’t possibly care what happened to him anymore. His eyes looked vacant save for perhaps a flicker of fear, but it was not the panic that Nott was used to when people saw that she was a goblin; rather, the fear in his eyes was an old one, one that came from a weariness of being alive.
He shook his head again and curled back up facing the wall. Nott watched him for another moment or so before saying, “My name is Nott.”
The human did not respond, so Nott tried again. “What’s your name?”
He shifted to look at her again, confusion echoing in his empty eyes. Nott waited expectantly, but he did not say anything to her and simply continued to watch.
“Do you speak Common?” Nott demanded, growing impatient.
He nodded.
“Then here!” she said, grabbing the cup of water and waving it in his face.
He flinched at her abrupt movements. He watched her for a moment, a curious expression on his face like he was trying to figure out what her ulterior motives could be, before slowly sitting up and taking the water from her.
Nott grinned at him encouragingly. His sunken eyes lingered on her teeth for a moment before he takes a sip of water. He grimaced and passed the cup back to her.
“I’m sorry for eating all of the bread,” said Nott.
The human shrugged like he couldn’t possibly care before turning back towards the wall and settling back onto the bed. Nott watched him for another moment or so before taking a sip of the water.
She gagged and threw the cup across the cell, the rest of its contents spilling all over the stone floor. The cup landed with a clatter and Nott stared at it for a moment, eyes narrowed, as she wonders if they retrieved the water from their horses’ water troughs.
Nott sighed, scratching the back of her neck. She managed to locate a dry patch of floor and curled up as tightly as possible to try to stay warm.
----------
When Nott awoke, there was morning frost creeping in from the window. She was shivering, but upon sitting up, she realized that the thin blanket had been draped over her body. It was a blanket made for someone much bigger than she, so it had been folded in half to make it marginally thicker.
At first, she was not aware of what had woken her, until her glowing yellow eyes found her human companion. He was curled into himself even tighter than he had been the previous day, whispering in a language that Nott did not understand.
“Vergib mir,” he whispered over and over and over again. His voice was quiet and hoarse from disuse.
Nott watched him for a moment, noting now his shoulders were shaking. She got to her feet and approached him silently. Nott stood on her toes to try to see his face.
“Oh,” she whispered. He was asleep. Not only that, but he was crying.
The human must have heard her because, before Nott could do anything, his blue eyes snapped open. He sat up, grabbing Nott by the collar with his left hand and his right hand drawing back as if he was going to punch her. To her shock and horror, however, his right fist burst into flames. His eyes were unfocused and Nott got the impression that he was not really seeing her.
Nott cringed and tried to cover her face with her hands, knowing full well that it would do nothing to stop the impact of whatever had made his fist burst into flames, frantically squeaking out, “Sorry! Sorry!”
His eyes widened in horror and he dropped her to the stone floor with a slight thud. The fire on his hand flickered before disappearing. He buried his face into his hands in shame and began to weep harder.
Nott stared at him for a long time, making no attempt to get up off of the floor for several minutes. She hesitantly got to her feet and put a gentle hand on his shoulder. He flinched before looking up at her with guilt stricken eyes.
“It’s okay,” said Nott quietly. “You didn’t hurt me.”
The human took a shaking breath and put his head into his hands again.
“Was that magic?”
A nod.
“Where did you learn to do that?” Nott asked eagerly.
“Was?” The human looked up at her, the horror and guilt in his eyes faded only slightly and was replaced with a cautious confusion.
“Where did you learn magic?” she said earnestly. “Can you just make fire or can you do other things too? There wasn’t really anyone in my clan that could do magic.”
He continued to stare at her with dubiety as she moved over to sit next to him on the bed. Her dangling legs kicked back and forth like a child’s. The human looked at her curiously, his hands fidgeting in his lap.
“Do you… know how to turn things into other things?” Nott asked suddenly.
The human’s eyebrows raised slightly and nodded. Nott’s face broke into a grin, revealing her jagged, yellowed teeth. The human was startled into a smile, too, but it was not as wide as Nott’s; it was a small, crooked, broken almost smile. He was clearly out of practice, and it made Nott happy to see it, although she could not really explain why.
“Do you think you could-?” Nott broke off abruptly, her eyes narrowing. The human cocked his head slightly to the side and peered at her curiously.
She hopped down from the bed, tracking the movement she saw with her eyes. She got low to the ground.
There!
Nott leaped at the rat, but it slithered away out of the bars of their cell, its pinkish tail whipping out from between her fingers. Nott did succeed, however, in bonking her head against the stone wall.
“Gods damn it!” Nott hissed, rubbing her forehead where it hit the wall.
The human watched her with a somewhat bemused expression. Nott bit her lip, gestured vaguely towards where the rat escaped her grasp, and said, “There was a rat. We could have eaten it.”
He raised his eyebrows at her.
“Um… I guess you humans don’t eat rats much, then,” Nott mumbled.
The human gave her that almost smile again and shook his head.
“So what do you eat?” she asks, hoping he will actually speak to her because her conversation with him was feeling very one sided.
Unfortunately, though, it does not work because the human just shrugged at her. Nott threw her arms into the air in frustration, causing the human to frown. She folded her arms over her chest and sat against the wall. The human continued to watch her for a moment, still frowning, before he sighed and seemed to curl into himself. He brought his legs to his chest and rested his forehead to his knees.
Neither of them moved. Daylight from their lone, tiny window drifted across the floor. Eventually the guard came by and dropped off their daily chunk of stale bread and cup of dusty water. Nott snatched the bread off of the floor immediately. Before stuffing it in her mouth, though, she looked towards the human again. She fidgeted with it in her hands for a minute, painfully aware of the growing emptiness in her stomach.
Nott swore softly under her breath and returned to the bed, sitting down next to him and purposely ignoring his wince when she did so. She tore the bread in half, purposely leaving a chunk closer to the human since he seemed to be reluctant to reach out.
She devoured the bread ravenously, wishing once again that she had caught that rat… she had already in there for about a day and she already missed real food.
The human’s blue eyes were on her as she finished off the bread, getting crumbs all over her. Nott looked at him expectantly and nodded towards the bread. He took it carefully with shaking hands, but he still did not eat.
“Do you not know how, or something?” Nott demanded. “Eat!”
He looked startled, but he carefully raised the bread to his mouth. He tore a bite off with his teeth. He grimaced as he chewed, but Nott was beaming at him. Nott continued to grin at him until he finished the bread. Once he was done, she scrambled off of the bed and thrust the cup of water into his hands. He looked at her, deep confusion on his face, but he drank the water anyway.
“Good!” said Nott encouragingly.
The human passed the cup over to her. He cleared his throat while Nott took a sip.
“U-um,” said the human, his voice hoarse and scratchy.
Nott leaned forward eagerly. “Yes?”
He shrank into himself slightly, but he said quietly, “Thank you.”
Nott grinned from ear to ear. “You’re welcome! You need to eat; it’s not healthy.”
“Ja, probably not,” said the human.
“Certainly Nott!” Nott said proudly.
The human frowned deeply. “What?”
“I- that’s my name,” she said, her smile flickering. “It was a joke.”
“Oh,” said the human. He looked down towards his hands, a very worn expression coming across his face.
“You should sleep,” Nott said. “You look dead on your feet.”
The ghost of a smile passed his face when he looked at her again. “You’re probably right. Did… did you want the bed? I can…” He trailed off, looking at the floor.
“No- no, you’ve been here longer,” said Nott. “You deserve the bed.”
“I deserve nothing,” the human said lowly, “but let me know if you change your mind. Keep the blanket, at least.”
“Deal,” Nott said.
She snatched up the blanket and wrapped it around her shoulders, curling up on the floor. The blanket was still thin and flimsy, but it was better than nothing. She stayed still for a long time, watching the shadows creep along the stone wall, a thought eventually occurring to her.
“What’s your name?” said Nott, picking up her head slightly to look at her companion. He was already asleep, though, judging by the gentle rise and fall of his chest from what she can see of him curled up on the uncomfortable bed.
Nott watched him for another moment or so before shrugging and laying back down. It wasn’t long before sleep overtook her as well.
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Nott awoke to a weight on her chest and a throbbing headache. She opened her eyes blearily to find something directly in her face. She howled in alarm, scrambling to her feet, dumping the cat unceremoniously onto the ground. The human looked up from where he had been sitting, his startled blue eyes darting around the cell.
The cat regarded at her reproachfully with amber eyes, a dead rat in its mouth.
“Stupid cat!” Nott hissed. She tried to kick it, but the cat disappeared at the same time she heard a snap from behind her. The cat left the rat on the ground.
She whipped around, following the source of the noise, to find the cat standing primly on the human’s lap. The cat looked at her with an almost proud expression on its face. The human, however, looked somewhat pained.
Nott began to think about how much that cat would be able to feed her if she could catch it when the human said, “Please don’t hurt him.”
“...What?”
“My cat,” the human clarified, scratching the animal behind his ears. The cat gently headbutted his hand. “His name is Frumpkin.”
Nott racked her brain, trying to remember if there had been a cat in the cell with them the last two days. “How did you let the guards to let you keep your cat?”
“They, ah, didn’t,” admitted the human. “I’ve been… keeping him hidden.”
“Hidden how?”
The human snapped his fingers and the cat disappeared. He looked kind of sad to see him go, but Nott was impressed. She clapped her hands over her mouth and looked around, waiting for the cat to show up again, but he didn’t until the human snapped his fingers again. The cat reappeared next to Nott’s ankles.
“That’s amazing!” she gasped.
“Be quiet down there!” a guard shouted from down the hall, making Nott and the human jump.
“It is nothing,” said the human quietly with a frown after a moment or two of silence. “It is just a spell.”
“You must be really talented,” Nott said. She purposely chose to ignore how he shook his head as she continued, “Are you a… um… sorcerer?”
“Wizard,” mumbled the human. Frumpkin padded up to him and jumped up into his lap where he was before.
“We didn’t have any of those when in my clan,” Nott said, shrugging slightly. “There wasn’t time to learn, really, so if you were born with magic you could do magic, but otherwise…”
The human made a noncommittal noise. He gestured vaguely towards the dead rat with his hands, silently for a moment before he seemed to manage to find the words. “I- ah- had Frumpkin get it for you since you… um… seemed to want it yesterday.”
Nott picked the rat up off of the ground, sniffing it carefully. “Thank you!” she said eagerly. “Did you want some?”
The human shook his head a little too enthusiastically. Nott shrugged and began to eat the rat raw, the human watching for a moment out of an apparent morbid curiosity before averting his gaze. Nott finished eating the rat, making a mess out of herself, her face smeared with blood. The food did not abate her headache in the slightest.
“Ah, it’s been so long since I’ve had real food!” Nott said happily.
The human smiled at her wanly. Nott wiped some of the rat blood off of her face with her tunic, adding to her companion, “You seem nice,” Nott said.
“I am really not nice.”
“Why are you in here?” she asked at the same time.
The human paused. “I was caught stealing food,” he said miserably. “I deserve to be in here though.”
“For stealing food?” said Nott doubtfully. “You don’t deserve to be in here just for that. People shouldn’t be punished for stealing food.”
She had been punished for stealing food (and, admittedly, alcohol) more than once in her clan. She never thought it was fair; if there was enough food for everyone, people shouldn’t have to go hungry.
The human sighs and his gaze is far away. “I’ve done terrible things,” he said, his voice quiet and flat, “but stealing was what was put down onto paper.”
Nott hummed thoughtfully. “I was caught stealing too- I was stealing wine, though.” She threw her hands up into the air in frustration. “I haven’t had a drink in days! No wonder my head hurts so much!”
Admittedly, the headache wasn’t the only thing that was wrong. Her hands were shaking, she felt nauseous, and their little cell felt altogether too hot, making her sweat. She had dismissed these things as simply not having enough food, but now that she had eaten the rat…
“You wouldn’t happen to know any… healing spells, would you?” Nott asked hopefully.
The human shook his head regretfully. “No. I’m… I cannot heal.”
“I have to get out of here,” said Nott. She turned towards the cell door, grabbed the bars, and tried to crane her head as much as she could to see any guards. “If- if I had a lockpick or a wire...”
“A wire?”
“Or- or if a guard walks by with keys I can pickpocket-”
“I can get you a wire.”
Nott whipped around. “You… what?”
“I can just send Frumpkin to get one,” said the human.
The cat’s ears perked up at the sound of his name. The human’s blue eyes met Frumpkin’s amber, and the two seemed to have a silent conversation. The cat’s tail lashed and the human picked him up, lifting him to the window. The cat clambered outside and trotted away out of sight.
The human turned back towards Nott. “You… are planning on picking the lock?”
“Of course,” said Nott.
“That won’t be enough,” the human said. “When I was brought in, I saw that this building is separate from- from where the Lawmaster’s office is. There are still guards, though. If- if you pick the lock, you will still have to get past them.”
“Oh.” Nott frowned.
“We could- we could do something to… get them to run,” the human said.
Nott blinked and then grinned. “‘We?’”
“Ja, I suppose,” said the human, looking at her sideways.
“What will you do to get them to run?” Nott asked.
“I… may have an idea,” said the human.
“You know,” she said, pointing at him accusingly. “You never told me your name.”
The human paused for a moment. He looked at her calculatingly as he said, “Caleb Widogast.”
Nott grinned. “Nice to meet you, Caleb.”
Unfortunately, it took Frumpkin an hour or two to locate a wire. By the time he returned, Nott was restless, and she cried out in relief when the bengal slipped through the window. The cat deposited a small wire into Caleb’s lap before jumping up to the wizard’s shoulders, purring loudly. Caleb passed the wire to Nott.
Nott moved to the cell door, reached her fingers through the bars, and very carefully picked the lock from the outside. She nearly dropped the wire twice before she heard a quiet click and the door opened a fraction of an inch.
“Now what?” Nott said quietly, poking her head out slightly to look down the hall.
The building itself wasn’t terribly large, with perhaps a total of ten cells. To her left there was a dead end and on the other side were two guards standing with their back to the door. They both looked bored out of their minds; in fact, Nott was fairly certain that one of them was asleep. It was obvious that the security of the jail was not the top priority in the town.
“Shut the door,” said Caleb.
Nott raised her eyebrows at him but did as she was told.
“We will wait until it is dark,” he said, “so it will be easier to escape unnoticed. Lucky for us the prison was built towards the edge of town; we can go into the woods.”
Nott sighed; the last thing she wanted to do was wait more, but Caleb had a point. She sat down against the wall. Frumpkin hopped down from Caleb’s shoulders, padded over to Nott, and sat down on her lap. She froze for a moment, unsure of what to do. Frumpkin headbutted her hand, looking up at her with his tongue sticking out slightly. Nott grinned at him and scratched behind his ears, almost feeling bad about thinking about eating him. Almost.
When the sun went down, and the guards changed their shift, the two of them waited until the new guards became just as tired and lazy as the two during the day. Caleb got up off of the bed and moved closer towards the cell door. Nott watched as he peeked out, taking note of the position of the guards in front of the door.
“Stand back,” he said to Nott quietly. He snapped his fingers and Frumpkin disappears.
Nott scrambled to her feet. She moved towards Caleb’s legs, looking up at him in confusion, as he raised his hands. His hands burst into flames and a bolt of fire shot at the bed. It caught immediately.
“Great,” said Nott. “What-?”
“Help!” Caleb cried out, turning towards the cell door, grabbing the bars, and shouting out to the guards. “Guards, help, our cell is on fire!”
The guard that looks the most coherent of the two calls out, “Yeah, right, keep it down down there.”
“No, really!” Nott calls out. “It’s on fire!”
“We’re gonna die!” Caleb shouted.
“Don’t let us burn to death!” yelled Nott.
Caleb flinched, but Nott did not acknowledge him. The fire was starting to get bigger. Smoke started to gather on the ceiling and poured out of the cell. There was a moment of silence before one of the guards said, “Shit!”
“I’ll- I’ll retrieve the Lawmaster!” said the other guard. Nott could hear the door being flung open and the sound of retreating footsteps.
“Get water! Please!” Nott choked out. She thought she sounded quite convincing.
“The fire is spreading!” yelled Caleb.
There were now sounds of other people in other cells crying out, as they, too, noticed the smoke.
“Fire!”
“Oh gods!”
“We’re trapped!”
“Don’t let us die!”
“Water!”
“Water, yes, right!” stammered the remaining guard.
Once he, too, fled the building, Nott pushed the door open with a creak. She peered out into the hall to find it clear. She scurried down the hallway towards the door, Caleb hot on her heels. She opened the door, looking inside. There weren’t many shiny things, unfortunately, but there weren’t any people either. The door was unlocked and, although Nott had just been intending to walk briskly to the other door opposite, a chest caught her eye.
She veered off to the right towards the chest, carefully lifting the lid. “Aha!”
Nott dug around inside of the chest, taking a shortsword and a hand crossbow. She hesitates before grabbing a a broken porcelain doll on impulse. It wasn’t very shiny, but it caught her eye, possibly because it was nearly as large as she was.
Caleb approached her from behind, wringing his hands nervously and shooting a glance towards the door to the outside. “Is- is now really the time?”
“Did they take anything from you when you were arrested?” Nott asked, looking up at him.
He paused and nodded vigorously. Nott stepped aside to allow Caleb to dig through the chest. He seemed to locate what he was looking for with some swiftness, withdrawing from the chest with his arms laden with books. Nott felt a twinge of disappointment, but if he wanted them who was she to judge?
Nott lead the way outside. There didn’t seem to be anyone nearby, or at the very least watching, so she bolted for the treeline not too far away. Caleb ran after her, clutching the books for dear life. They kept running for a long time until they both mutually decided that they were exhausted and were a safe enough distance away from the town.
“You know,” said Nott, gasping for breath, “I think we work pretty well together.”
“Ja, I suppose,” Caleb said. He started placing the books he gathered in holsters stitched to the inside of his long, ragged coat.
“Maybe… maybe we could… stick together?” Nott suggested. Caleb looked at her in surprise. She went on quickly, “I mean- we don’t have to I was just… If you don’t want to... I don’t want you to feel like you’re, um, obligated to stay with me. You probably don’t like goblins very much-”
“Nott,” interrupted Caleb, “I- I am not used to being around other people very much, but- I can try to make this work, if- if you want. At least for a little while. We can- we can give it a month or two and then see if it’s still working out. I think we worked well together too.”
Nott nodded. “Stick together for a couple of months, then?”
“Sounds like a good plan to me.”