It had been a while since Sif was able to take human form, so he took his time dressing, stretching out and luxuriating in the feeling of being back on two legs.

" Can you really not hide those at will?" Iudrige complained as he tied a kerchief around his head, flattening down his ears. He ignored her.

Brannagh was away at breakfast, and the servants were being sent out to clean. Douglásc had already fixed it so that no one would interfere with him.

Once dressed, he left Douglásc's room, and beelined straight down into the guest corridor, carrying borrowed cleaning supplies. His cattish traits were hidden; and since many servants came and went from the castle, he did not fear being stopped for looking unfamiliar.

As he looked over the doors, trying to catch which one carried Brannagh's strangely sour scent, one of them opened, and a portly middle aged woman bumbled out with a basket of laundry.

" My! Haven't seen ye around yet! What a comely young man, you are!" she greeted him, hefting the basket to her hips. Sif found himself frozen in place.

" I'm new," he said. " I've been sent to Priest Brannagh's room."

She kicked close the wooden door she'd just come out of.

" It's cross the hall, dearie, second door over," she said, head bobbing like a hen as she looked him up and down. " Is that a ring? Fancy piece of work for a new servant..."

Paranoid that she'd become suspicious and report him, he fumbled for an excuse.

" Master Douglásc gave it to me," he said lamely.

She clucked, and shook her head.

" You're best stayin' away from that one, lad," she said, now beginning to bustle away. " 'E's a bit strange about other men. Don't say I didn't warn ye!"

And then she disappeared around a corner, leaving Sif still standing in place.

" Are you going to go in?" Iudrige asked. " We don't have much time."

He set himself back to his purpose, and went to the door the servant woman had indicated.

The room itself was a bit smaller than Sif had expected, and many papers and scrolls were strewn about it; fine goods from across the sea were neatly stacked against the walls. A few beams of morning sunlight struck across the bed and far wall.

He ignored the paper laying around; it seemed ridiculous to him that an inanimate object without a soul or a voice could speak its own language, the way Brannagh said it could. He barely understood the ritual circles Douglásc used when writing runes.

Dropping to his knees, he looked under the bed; there was nothing.

Where could someone possibly hope to hide a grown woman's body?

If not under the bed, then perhaps in the wardrobe, or one of the chests...

He stood back up, crossing to the wardrobe, but just as soon as he laid his hands on it, he felt something snap, an imperceptibly thin thread coming apart under his palm, and jumped back as the doors flew open, a blast of rotten, cold air assailing him, a snapping of jaws and a fierce, deep growl.

Sif hit the ground and rolled as a large black hound crashed after him.

" Thief!" it growled in a strangely textured, gravelly voice.

" Fuck!" Sif hissed, scrambling away from it with all his hair raised on end. Of all things, this fucking Brannagh had a goddamned dog!

It braced itself to launch at him again.

" Nasty thief! Pilfering servant after Master's things!" it snorted out, jaw agape and tongue lolling. " Stinks like a cat!"

It lunged at Sif again, and Sif kicked at it, beating it over the head with his heel as he fought to pull himself up with the side of the bed. This didn't stop it; it flailed upwards again, snapping its teeth, and Sif barely dodged. The dog was blocking off the door, and Sif saw no way around it; the only other way out was the window. As the dog lunged forward at him, he dove out, its teeth barely missing his ankle.

He crashed down to the ground below, turning to a cat midair. He landed just barely in the shrubbery; the dog was hysterically barking out the broken window at him, but no effort to pursue.

After disentangling himself from the clothes and grabbing a hysterical Iudrige, carrying her in his mouth, he darted back around the building to the servants' entrance.

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