Theiden realized his mistake that very first night.

He'd woken up to a muffled thump from somewhere in the far corner of his bedroom, only to then witness the door open by itself and hear a disembodied scrabbling of nails against the hardwood floor. At first, he thought it had been some kind of dream, but when a crash had sounded from downstairs, he had rolled out of bed to investigate.

A hairy red creature was crouching in an open cabinet in the kitchen, rifling through the pots and pans.

It took him a stunned moment to make the connection to the goblin face reflected in the teacup, and then to realize how it had gotten there. He had left it in his pocket. Of course.

"You," Theiden called out. The little creature froze at the sound of his voice and looked up, fixing its large gold-rimmed irises on him. "Gil, isn't it? I remember Kivirra told me about you. The snarl-y one."

Sure enough, the little goblin bared its teeth and growled in reply.

Theiden continued, a bit annoyed and emboldened by sleep-deprivation. "Well, you might not be expected to behave at the witch's house, but you're in my home now, and it's rude to go rifling through someone's belongings, especially in the middle of the night. Get out of the cupboard—you're getting all the pots dirty with your grimy paws."

The goblin made a sound like that of a cat that had stopped to yawn mid-yowl. It rather seemed to Theiden like a protest.

"Quiet down, would you?" he hissed. "You'll wake the whole neighborhood."

Theiden held out his hand, and took a slow step towards the goblin.

"If you'll just come with me," he continued in a more coaxing tone, "we can just go back upstairs and I'll figure how to return you as soon as possible."

Gil's bright round eyes darted down to Theiden's hand, then back up, considering the request. Then it gave a dismissive flick of its tail and turned back to the skillet it had been inspecting.

Theiden let out a breath.

"Right, that's it. Come here—" He lunged for the creature, determined to capture it and contain it in his room for the time being, at least.

It didn't go well.

Glasses shattered and pans banged against the floor as the goblin leapt across the shelves, out of Theiden's reach. When the goblin jumped down to the counter, Theiden took the opportunity to grab a large pasta pot and slam it upside-down over the creature, effectively trapping it.

"A-ha!" he exclaimed, momentarily forgetting the late hour in his exhilaration. He bent over the pot, leaning his weight against it to keep it still while scratching and hissing sounded from within. "I've got you now, you little bugger."

"Theiden! What is all of this mess?"

Theiden froze at the voice, and for a moment, the goblin inside the pot grew still as well. Then, the creature gave an experimental bang that shifted the pot over, and Theiden pressed down more firmly on the metal.

Once he was sure the goblin's temporary prison was secure, Theiden turned to see his mother standing at the foot of the stairs, peering into the kitchen with a candle raised to survey the damage.

"Uh—a rat got in, Mother," he said. "A very large one."

The goblin made some sort of gurgling protestation that echoed eerily from within the pot, sounding very much not like a rat.

"Hmm," was all Theiden's mother said, eyeing the damage with some skepticism. "Well, I'm going back to bed. I'll help you clean up in the morning."

Theiden watched as his mother made her way back up the stairs. Was it just his imagination, or did she seem more distant towards him? He hadn't noticed when he'd first returned, but ordinarily she would have immediately challenged any obvious lie he told. Perhaps, he told himself, it was just because it was the middle of the night.

~

When the morning came, however, Theiden realized there was more than just his mother's withdrawn demeanor to worry about. He had decided to clean up before his mother came downstairs, but his daughter had woken up early to shadow him, as though afraid that he would suddenly disappear again.

"Aren't you going to school?" Theiden asked, as Em followed him around the kitchen. He'd cleaned up all the broken glass by the time she'd awoken, but there were still the dented pots and pans to pick up.

"I stopped going," Em said.

Theiden paused and looked down at her. "You stopped? Why?"

She twisted her hands in her skirt, and for the first time that morning, looked away from him. But rather than give an answer, she just shrugged at the floor.

Theiden set the last pan in the sink to clean later and crouched down to Em's level. "Does your grandmother know?"

She nodded mutely, and Theiden's heart leapt to his throat when he saw tears forming in her eyes. Gently, he pulled her closer into a hug, where she took a giant shuddering breath against his shoulder.

"Th-the other kids don't like me anymore now," Em began after a moment, pulling back a little and hastily running the back of her hand across her eyes. "Ever since you and Helaine disappeared. They think it's my fault."

"It's not your fault," Theiden stated firmly, setting his hands on her shoulders so that she could see the sincerity in his face. "Never believe that for a second." His jaw clenched at the thought of the other schoolchildren flinging insults at his daughter. He could only image the horrible thing's they'd called her.  Murderer. Abandoned. Unlucky.

"I didn't want to believe it," Em said. "But Mama already was gotten by the witches and when you went away too, I thought maybe it was a little bit my fault."

Theiden closed his eyes for a moment at the reminder of his stupidity. If he had died in the forest, his daughter would have been without both parents. But he couldn't have just let Em live with green skin. She would have been a pariah, one way or another.

"Would you like to go to school today?" he asked, pushing a stray tendril of hair from Em's face. She had always loved learning, and it was horrid to think that she had been bullied away from the classroom. "How about I walk you there, so the other children will see that you have nothing to be blamed for?"

Em's face brightened. "Yeah! And then they'll know that Helaine will come back too!"

His stomach flipped. "Em...I wouldn't get your hopes up about Helaine. The forest is a very dangerous place, and I was extremely lucky to get out alive. But it's rarely the case."

His daughter bit her lip, worrying for a moment. "Well, we don't know for sure where she is. So I'll stay hopeful!"

Theiden didn't have the heart to tell her the truth, not when she was beaming up at him like that. So he merely gave a small smile in return. "All right then. Go get ready."

Em nodded, but then her gaze fixed on something over Theiden's shoulder. "What's that? It's pretty."

Theiden turned, only to see the red teacup sitting out on the counter, just within arm's reach.

"It's, uh, very fragile," he said, standing back up and setting the cup on the highest shelf, out of Em's reach.

"Then why are you putting it all the way up there? Grandma says fragile things go on lower shelves so they have less distance to fall."

Theiden grimaced. In this case, it was best to route the topic of conversation in a different direction.

"Hey Em—if you can get ready for school quickly enough, we can stop by the bakery for a pastry on the way over."

Em's eyes brightened. "Oh! I thought we didn't have any money for pastries!"

Without waiting for his reply, she darted upstairs to get ready. Theiden stood in the empty kitchen for a moment, then brought a hand up to rub at his forehead. Money. Another thing he hadn't thought about. Of course the two would have had to dig into the family's meager savings to get by while he had been away, and game hunting didn't provide for much to begin with.

"I don't suppose I could sell you," he told the teacup. He'd have to think of something to convince the baker. Perhaps some of the shells Malisse's sister had sent from the seaside kingdom of Miche-en-Mir would serve as sufficient collateral.

Before he knew it, Em was back at his side, tugging on his sleeve.

"C'mon! Let's go let's go!" She darted off to the front door, and Theiden dutifully followed. His daughter's eager steps soon outpaced his own, and he had to hurry to catch up.

"Take my hand, Em," Theiden said. "I don't want you to get hurt if a cart comes speeding by."

Em made a face, but grabbed his hand and continued to tug him down the street, full of energy. "I'm much faster than the carts," she told him. "But there was a big, big wagon last week! And it moved real slow, too."

"That must have been very unusual to see."

"Yeah!" Em grinned up at him. "There was a jam in the street 'cause it was blocking the way."

Theiden smiled back, but then his eye caught the gaze of a man walking the other direction, glowering at the two of them from beneath his cap. Theiden cast a glance at the other passerby, and noticed the stares and whispers. Bel Whilen the cobbler was staring them down as he smoked his pipe outside his shop, and Madame Callagh from the dressmaker's was standing on the curb across the way, surrounded by a flurry of gossiping apprentices, and looked ready to faint at the sight.

Theiden looked back down at his daughter, the smile now tight on his face. Another thing he had neglected to consider—his return to the city would surely cause a scandal.

The baker reacted much the same way when they entered the shop. All other customers moved to the other side of the store as though the two of them had the plague, and watched and whispered amongst themselves as Em skipped happily unawares up to the display case.

"Uh..." Valas Ban Grune was gripping the counter, eyes as wide as the dinner rolls he made. "Theiden Guster?"

"Long time no see, Valas," Theiden replied, forcing the smile to stay on his face. In truth, he felt ready to empty his stomach into the gutter outside. The sickly-sweet smell of the pastries wasn't helping with his anxiety. "How have you been?"

"What...how are you here?" Valas completely ignored the question. At least the man had the decency to whisper his next sentence, out of Em's earshot. "We thought you were dead for certain! What happened?"

Theiden felt his smile slip an inch. "Just ran into some witches, but I managed to work it out."

"Work it out?" Valas let out a disbelieving breath. "You make it sound so ordinary. Decliteur will be wanting to hear about this, for sure."

Theiden merely forced his grin back up a notch, feeling a bit like one of Em's dolls with their painted smiles. "Perhaps I'll share the story with the witch hunters a bit later."

"Papa!" Em was pointing at one of the rolls covered in a brown dusting of either cinnamon or sugar. "I want this one!"

"That looks good, Em," Theiden praised, then turned back to the baker and spoke in a lower tone. "I have a favor to ask, Valas. I'm a bit short on coin at the moment, but I'll make it up to you later. Em's been through a lot. I just want to give her a little something to celebrate."

Valas began to stutter. "W-well, I'm sure, I mean, you mean well, but I—"

"I'll let you know first how I escaped the witches, how about that?" Theiden interrupted.

Valas closed his mouth, coming to a decision. "Deal."

The pastry was handed over without further dispute, and Theiden ushered Em back outside, shooting a glare at the small crowd that had gathered in the far corner of the bakery and shuffled away from the door as the two of them passed.

Theiden bit back a sigh. Coming home was going to be more difficult than he'd thought.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Whew!  That was a longer chapter than I'd anticipated.  But I just couldn't leave out Theiden's reaction to realizing he'd brought Gil back with him.

I don't want to jinx anything, but I've surprised myself with how fast I've been writing chapters for this story lately.  I think a big reason for it has been all of your support, honestly, so thank you from the bottom of my heart.  That said, please vote and let me know what you think of this new chapter too!  <3