Flash Fiction 2024 Day 3: In A Hole In The Ground There Lived A Badger (Qin)

 Prompt: In a hole in the ground there lived a…

Xu has developed an interest in having stories read or told to her recently. That coupled with typical toddler behavior regarding wanting to sleep, or not sleep, has made bedtime a more difficult time than usual. Having run out of books to read and no time to go to the library at this point I’m left with two options; either I try and come up with something on the spot, or I call someone with more experience. After thinking it over I decide on the latter, thankfully a neighbor is able to watch Xu while I go find a more experienced storyteller. It is a bit awkward knocking on the door of Caius Cosades as we don’t know particularly well, but I’m pleasantly surprised when Valan is the one who opens the door of the spymaster's small house and I’m invited inside. “Good to see you sergeant. What do I owe for the pleasure of the after hours visit?” the old man asks amid sorting various documents. I greet him back before explaining the situation. Hearing of my difficulties he laughs and tells me a bit of his family back in Cyrodiil. “If I have any skills they’re running covert operations and getting toddlers to sleep.” he laughs, closing one of the folders and getting up to stretch, handing the folder to Valan who sits on the floor sorting braille documents which I’m guessing contain his own assignments. “Where is it you live again- across the river?” Caius asks while for once putting on a shirt and jacket. Why he typically goes shirtless is beyond me, perhaps the climate in Balmora is too hot for him, or it’s a part of his undercover disguise. I give him directions and when he’s ready we set off. I had asked Valan if he had wanted to come and even offered to feed him but he declined- too busy with other things. The moons are rising steadily in the sky as the old spymaster and I cross one of the bridges over the river Odai and return to my little house. I thank the neighbor who had been watching Xu and pay her a small amount even though she initially refuses payment. “Say bye bye Xu!” I tell Xu as we wave to the older woman as she leaves and Xu actually cooperates for once, yelling “bye bye!” at the top of her tiny lungs just as the neighbor leaves. Caius reintroduces himself to Xu though she seems to remember him, which doesn’t surprise me all that much as he is one of the few foreign men she sees on a regular basis who looks very different to most of the other people in her life. After getting her settled back in her crib I take a seat briefly before I’ll inevitably need to go to more chores and Caius begins his story sitting in the larger chair near the window of Xu’s room. “In the hole in the ground there lived a badger. This was a very old and wise badger, and he had three friends- a rabbit, a chipmunk, and a mole. The rabbit once took a trip to visit the rabbits on the moon, and the chipmunk and the badger were friends with a mouse who took back a castle. The mole knew another mole who loved cake…” I must have dozed off, missing the rest of the story as when I wake up with a knot in my neck I look at the crib and find Xu sound asleep and Caius gone. The spymaster was right, he does have two skills and they’re getting toddlers to sleep and covert missions- and based on how he got me to sleep too I can’t help but wonder if they’re related skills…