Entry 7: 

 I chuckled while closing the door to my office. Outside, I could hear Kyle shouting. 

"Hey, Bran! So the boss said-" Click. I let out a heavy sigh just as a high-pitched voice touched the ends of my left ear. 

"Christian. Can we talk now?"

"-AH!" I shouted, pressing myself to the door.

"-AH!" The voice shrieked back. The intruder had positioned herself near the end of the sofa under the window. They floated in the air, scowling while grabbing their long, pointed ears. 

 "Why are you screaming?" I hissed at her. 

"I could ask you the same thing, dummy! Did you forget I was here?!" She hissed back, a slight growl in her voice for extra intimidation (but it sounded more like getting threatened by a mouse.) "My ears are sensitive, you know." Suddenly, there was banging on the door. 

"Champ, you good in there?" Kyle said from the outside. 

"No, yeah, I'm good. Just had a..." Nightmare," I responded quickly

"A what?" 

"I didn't get much sleep last night. Standing nightmares are a real problem, kid. It's why it's important to get ya z's!" I shouted through the door. There was silence for a few moments. 

"Alright, champ, I'll take note of that. Get some rest. Bran and I will be out here working," she said. I waited for her footsteps to move until I exhaled. 

"Ahh crap." 

"Standing nightmares? That's the best you could come up with?" the intruder said, giving me a sour face.

"It feels like one," I said, walking over to my desk. 

"Excuse me?" she said before floating down onto the sofa and brushing her snow-white hair to the side. She stood maybe 4'9 ", super slim, with high cheekbones, a small button nose, and tiny lips. She wore her usual black lace wide-leg pantsuit, which exposed her tiny arms and shoulders. The only big things on her were her long, pointed ears and cartoon eyes. 

"If teleporting me in here wasn't bad enough, now ya popping out of the shadows." 

"It's not my fault you throw up every time we teleport, Christian, and I was trying to be respectful of your guest." 

 "You wanna talk respect, Merith? How about not coming and going in and out of my office like you own the place."

"I AM a part owner of this gym, Christian." 

"Really? Then who pays the rent every month? What kind of freaky elf money you got lying around that helps keep the lights on?" 

  "I am the guardian of the realm! I do not-"

"-Yeah?" 

"-Don't interrupt me, and as Guardian I have certain privileges that-." I was about to open my mouth again, but suddenly Merith's body flickered. What followed was a gust of wind, and her large black eyes swallowed me whole as our noses touched. 

"Don't interrupt," she said firmly before slowly drifting away down to the floor. I stopped holding my breath and adjusted my hair.

"Sorry. I'm a brute, my elf lord." She rolled her eyes at me.

  House-Elves, the most powerful things walking, or…hovering around. They're smart, live for hundreds of years, and use space-manipulation magic. Flying, teleporting, making other things teleport, or moving objects with a flick of their fingers. They're basically gods compared to the rest of us, able to go everywhere and do anything. You never want to get on a house elf's bad side. I've been personally toting that line for the last three years. 

"As Guardian, it's my duty to check up on troublemakers like you," she said condescendingly. "You think I show up here because I have nothing better to do? I have an entire magical ecosystem to manage, yet I'm here with you multiple times a week. So, Christian, let me remind you of something." She said, wagging her finger at me, ramping herself up. 

"Oh, please, not this again. I know-"

"-YOU ARE A RUNNER!" she shouted over me. "A community of people with unusually large amounts of mana, the life energy that flows within all things. An energy system that uses linear metrics-" 

"-The damn Mana meter I know-" 

"-Interrupt me again, I will drop you into the middle of the Hudson!. Now, a typical human has an M.M. rating of around two. What is the level of an average rating for a Runner Christian?" I stayed silent. "Christian??" she said, in a voice high enough to hurt. "CHRISTIA-

"FIFTEEN-

-FIFTEEN! Good job," she said with an annoying smile on her face. At this point, I was sure the friction from my hands rubbing my face could spark a bonfire. "That means the animal class known as Monstrosa, or monsters-creatures who hunt based on the consumption of mana- find your kind particularly tasty, and time-efficient. I mean, if a griffin needs to hunt five normal humans to feel fed, the prospect of a single Runner seems like a gift from the universe."

"I am VERY aware of all this, Merith," I said in my flattest tone. 

"Oh, are you now? Then why am I here all the time? In this gym, we went fifty-fifty on that; it's covered in enough energy wards and incantations to make it the most secure building in the city, arguably. A fact that doesn't seem to make a difference in the amount of trouble you seem to find." 

"Things escalate, I can't control what happens when I leave here!" 

"You're not the only Runner in New York, Christian. No one gives us calls as you do." 

"It's not that bad!" 

"A troll skirmish leaving five cars totaled?" 

"I- uh.."

"An army of jackalopes destroying a bar in Throgs neck." 

"I miss that place-and it wasn't just me. The owner was breeding 'em. Also, I didn't know they ate meat." 

"Barbecued wyvern on the grand concourse. REAL easy to cover that one up by the way." 

"It was the fourth of July!" I said. She waited. 

"That's it?" 

"That's it." 

"Three displaced Sirens and one merperson with second-degree burns." 

"Oh-pff. I was going to the beach, and they jumped me. And screw that merman, he tried to feed me to those things for a bit of action!"

"Why were you even going to the beach?! You're like nine feet tall. You look like a lighthouse. Stay home! Ugh!" She plopped her face in her hands. 

"Look, if ya bring up the Sphinx again, but I can only apologize so many times," I said

"You mean Earnie? You gave him depression. How do you even do that?" she asked, floating over back to the sofa and sitting down with a tired moan. We were quiet for a moment.  

"Look. I know it's a lot. Being trapped here. I get it. But you're safe for once in your life. You aren't on the road, you don't need to use your wits to survive every waking minute. You have a roof and help now, Christian," she said, trying to sound supportive. "I understand it sucks always having a target on your back-"

"-Do ya now?"

"I'm on your side here." I didn't reply. I met Merith in my first week after moving to the Bronx, after an unusually bad day. Half dead in a ditch somewhere by Soundview, she saved me. House-Elves were guardians of the land. They worked in harmony with local governments to keep order amongst humans, and what wasn't. Each borough in New York had a guardian. Merith was the only one I knew in the Bronx.

"I think I messed up today, Merith." I finally said

"I'm aware. Tell me everything," she said, so I did.