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“Oh, yes, sir,” Dick said to the tall elf. “I’ve got it right...in the kitchen...” his voice trailed off and he tilted his head to look at his customer more straight in the face. “I swear he doesn’t even see me anymore,” Dick muttered to himself. But all the same, he turned and pattered at an admirable pace to the kitchen where he retrieved the locket and brought it back out for Gwathagor’s inspection.
“Now, it’s a very fine piece,” Dick said as he returned. The elf seemed to have come back to the present and his eyes focused on Dick. “I don’t think you’d ruin or anything, but just mind that it’s not. I’d like to be able to give it back to whoever found it, that is all. Our Gable found it, you know.”
Before he could find something more to say, a deafening crack of thunder split through the air. “Good gracious me!” Dick cried, when the rumbling ceased. He ran to the window, leaving the locket in Gwathagor’s hands, and peered out, leaning on the deep window sill. “It looks like we’re going to have some rain,” he observed, taking in the dark, rolling clouds. “Tollers! Tollers!” He turned and trotted to the kitchen, making arrangements the entire way. “We’ll have to light the lamps and candles early, no doubt, what with those storm clouds comin’ in. Tollers! Make up the fire, will you? There’s the door, better go see if it’s a new customer.” And accordingly, Dick turned right around and went back to the common room.
But it was just Groin the dwarf again, come back from wandering about, apparently. As he shut the door behind himself, the rain began to fall in torrents.
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