The Bellbolirumes

The Bellbolirumes are tiny, bell-sized cryptids with a work ethic as thin as their patience is short. They nest in the unseen spaces of human homes, between walls, beneath floorboards, inside attic beams, anywhere they can be close enough to steal warmth without lifting a claw to earn it.

Lazy, yes. But noisy.

Each Bellbolirume sings its own call, an endless, maddening sound.
Some chime like cracked bells at irregular intervals.
Others mimic the scrape of a chair on stone. Many favor a warped cricket’s chirp, just off enough to unsettle, yet familiar enough to keep you searching.

These sounds are not meant for you. They are signals, summoning their helpers.

The Helpers: Half-Taskers

Where the Bellbolirumes laze and hum, their helpers scuttle and scrape.

These helpers are barely glimpsed, described as flickers of limbs and cloth, like beetles trying on human clothes. They are nimble, quick, and tragically incompetent.
Their task is to gather supplies for their idle masters, but they do nothing well.

Flour spilled, but only half the sack taken. Firewood dragged inside, but scattered across the floor. Nails carried up to the attic, but left rusting in damp corners.

A Bellbolirume’s home slowly becomes part of yours, their bits and pieces woven into your walls, your beams, your crawl spaces, a hidden, disorganized nest sustained entirely by half-finished thefts.

The Toll of Their Presence

A house afflicted by Bellbolirumes is not cursed, just perpetually irritating.

Doors stick slightly but never quite break. Cupboards are almost empty, though you swore you had more. The sound, the sound, never ends.

Those who lose their temper and tear down walls to find the source often find nothing but fragments of stolen goods, a spoon handle, dried leaves, half a broom head, woven into a messy little alcove. The Bellbolirume always escapes.

And in the days after? The helpers grow bolder. Sawdust in your boots. Nails in your bread sack. A cup removed, but the water left behind.

Punishing the Bellbolirume only makes the helpers more chaotic.

The Herb of Gentle Dismissal

Bellbolirumes do not hate humans, they simply see us as incidental, a passive source of warmth and resources. To drive them away requires patience, not anger.

It is said that placing bundles of Thyme near their nesting spots convinces the Bellbolirumes that the home is too busy, too well-kept, a place where laziness cannot thrive.

Thyme confuses the helpers, who mistake its strong scent for the presence of other creatures far more industrious than they could ever hope to be.

A week of thyme in the walls, and the Bellbolirumes often relocate, seeking a home where no one bothers to tidy the corners.

Traveler’s Remembrance

When you hear a bell that is not a bell, or a cricket that is not a cricket and nothing seems quite finished around you…

Know that you host a Bellbolirume.

Do not shout. Do not smash the walls.

Sweep your floors. Lay down thyme. Remind them that here, things are done properly.

And they will move on, to find a home where half-finished work is welcomed.