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Post by seraaches on Feb 9, 2008 22:23:57 GMT -5
The woman smoothed her fur nervously, before raising a hand to knock on the door. She knew exactly where she was, though, Light willing, the man on the other side didn't. She'd been pulling strings and swapping favours for months to get this one thing to work out. This was something she desperately wanted; had desperately wanted for as long as she'd known Theofilus. This was the culmination of all of her hard work and now she anxiously waited for a response to her gentle rap at the door. He wasn't supposed to know it was her; it was supposed to be that someone else was supposed to care for this matter, but somehow he'd been roped into it instead. It was supposed to be a surprise. It needed to be a surprise. She might not be able to do it without that little one-up. |
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Post by Kari Muffin on Feb 9, 2008 23:51:26 GMT -5
Theofilus sighed as he absently looked through the book. This whole lack of depth perception thing was hard to get used to. He carefully turned the page, as he studied the text. Then, there was a well placed knock on the door. The sparrow wasn't about to get up. It was his appointment, how he had gotten the appointment was still a mystery to him. One minute he was reading on his break, and the next minute he was told that he was going to have a visitor. A potential King he was told. It would be nice to know the name of his appointment, but he was told in a bit of a hurry. Pushing up his glasses and shutting his book he looked up to the door. "Come in, I've been expecting you." He slipped one of the books into a drawer of the writing desk. He briefly looked over at the tea that was sitting on next to his desk. He rolled his eyes--or rather eye since one was very much glass--and debated on actually getting up to fetch the tea. He'd live without it. |
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Post by seraaches on Feb 12, 2008 0:11:12 GMT -5
Kel heard the familiar, beloved voice and took a deep breath even as part of her mind analyze wot she read in it. He sounded annoyed. Well, that should be all right. Should be.
The woman slipped into the room to march herself swiftly to Theo's side, almost instinctively shifting her path to reach the tea. She quickly poured out a cup, prepared it the way he preferred, and brought it to his desk. She placed it gently near his hand then backed off a few strides to drop to a knee. The skunk willed herself to continue to breathe as her gaze touched the floor before the Queen's desk.
"Your Majesty," she said in a soft voice that was still clear and easy to hear. She'd practiced speaking like this for months. "I would like to become one of your Kings. Please tell me how I may prove my worth to you." One hand fisted at her side as she tried to keep her nervous shakes from showing.
Time and time again, Theofilus had proven that he didn't -quite- trust her, that she wasn't yet good enough to be at his side. And after his fight with the last Queen of Diamonds, Kelasia refused to be pushed aside. They hadn't even found out until much later. Even her! Calia... well, she could almost understand. Calia was one of the delicate flowers of their family and, sad to say, she wasn't of their Court. But she! She was a Jack of Diamonds and she was proud of that accomplishment. By all that was good and right, Theofilus would have to sit up and take note or she... well, she didn't know wot she'd do. But he... he just had to take her seriously. He had to.
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Post by Kari Muffin on Feb 12, 2008 0:44:31 GMT -5
Well. That was... a surprise. Theofilus hadn't expected that at all. He looked down at his tea briefly and carefully lifted it up to take a sip. He sat it down just as carefully as he had picked it up. "Well, your Excellency, you need to stand up and prepare for your Quest then," Theofilus said, as serious expression on his face. If she wanted to be so formal than he would be as well.
He mused for a moment. He was confident that Kelasia would preform any task she set out to do, but he didn't know how well she could act on the spur of a moment. There were a variety of things he could do, but the idea that popped into his head seemed like the best.
"I need you to go to my room and acquire my goblet from the glass cabinet in my room. You need to go completely unseen, however. Zane and Eilwyn are in the room, and I don't want you to bother them." Theofilus opened one of the drawers and carefully finished out a set of keys to the cabinet. "You absolutely mustn't be seen and you must leave everything except for the goblet the way it was so the boys don't get suspicious."
He held out his hand and offered her the keyring with two rings on it, "Good luck. If you fail you won't become one of my Kings."
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Post by seraaches on Feb 15, 2008 14:07:16 GMT -5
Kel rose, her nerves showing easily to the man who knew her so well, though she thought she was covering them. "Thank you, your Majesty," she said softly. She accepted the keys with a sense of relief. She had a quest. It could be a silly quest, if she paused to think about it, but she didn't. It wasn't like she gave Theo a chance to really come up with something 'official', if that made sense.
She had gone out of her way to surprise the man, and he had taken it with natural aplomb. She wasn't certain if she was pleased about that or saddened. She longed to be something more to the man, something important and needed.
"I will return with the goblet as soon as possible." She bowed again and would depart unless Theofilus had anything further to say to her.
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Post by Kari Muffin on Feb 15, 2008 20:15:24 GMT -5
"Make haste, You're dismissed to complete your quest," Theofilus said as he picked up his pen once again and looked back to his book. He was confident that she wouldn't fail, but he wanted to know how she did. It was just a matter of how fast she did it, and what she did to go about it.
She had to get past someone who could hear her movements, and someone who knew that his brother would never lie and rarely "heard things." It would be interesting to hear what the boys reported after this little Quest was over.
--
Meanwhile in Theofilus' chambers, Zane was sitting at his father's writing desk. He fished around in the desk for a pen while Eilwyn sat in a chair not to far away from him. The eagle was fiddling with a glass sculpture that he had just made.
Zane gave a frustrated sigh as he slammed one of the compartments shut. Why was Dad so horribly messy? Eilwyn looked up at him, curious expression painted on his face despite his sightless eyes. "You can't find any pens can you?"
The sparrow just made an annoyed sound as he walked across the room to one of the spare bedrooms. Why didn't his father have pens in proper places like a normal person?
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Post by seraaches on Feb 18, 2008 3:52:13 GMT -5
It took almost no time to get to the rooms; she knew where they were by heart, of course. She'd come here more times than she could count at all hours of the day and night. She knew Theofilus' suite better than her own. She pressed an ear to the door, listening for a long moment, until voices and footsteps told her where the boys weren't; the front door was clear.
She open the door softly, another thing she knew how to do from her many nights in and out, and slipped in on silken toes. It took only another few moments to close the door silently behind her as well even as her rounded ears flicked up to listen some more. Almost instinctively, the woman went invisible. There was a creaky part to the floor right over there and she eased the other direction to move down the hallway on the part that would make no noise. She held the keys clasped tightly in one hand, keeping them from jingling. She continued to listen closely for the movements of the boys even as she headed for the needed glass cabinet.
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Post by Kari Muffin on Feb 18, 2008 12:39:50 GMT -5
The floor made a creaking sound in protest. The young eagles head shot up with surprise. Hadn't Zane gone the other way? The eagle hesitated. Did someone else come in and he didn't hear them? A worried chirp escaped Eilwyn's beak. "Zane? Zane? Where are you?" he called out.
"Behind you," the sparrow replied as he came out of one of the rooms with a variety of pens.
Eilwyn jumped a bit where he sat, clutching the small glass figured tightly. So he had heard the clicking of Zane's nails on the floor behind him. What was going on? "I-I think someone else is in here."
Zane paused in mid-step. His brother usually didn't hear things. If he thought he did he usually kept it to himself. Maybe he heard Xanthe flopping around? Still, why would he mention it unless he thought something was wrong? "Maybe it's Dad's bander?" Zane offered.
"No... she's in the bedroom. This was out in the hall."
The sparrow hesitated before saying, "All right. I'll check." With that said he slipped out of the room quietly and looked around. The hall was empty. He raised an eyebrow as he walked over to the creaky part of the floor. No, no one was around. He turned to look at the glass cabinet. Maybe he should check if everything was there?
Hastily he moved over to the cabinet to check all of the shelves. Yes, everything was there. From the goblet to the small glass figures that Eilwyn had made of the family when he was younger. His hand hovered over the glass pane. He tapped it lightly in thought. If he had the key he would have opened it, squeaky door hinge and all, just so he could take a closer look at all the happy little glass figures.
With a heavy sigh the sparrow slowly made his way back into the room. "Everything's fine, don't worry about it."
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Post by seraaches on Feb 18, 2008 14:18:43 GMT -5
That was very odd; the floor must have developed a new creak. The skunk made a mental note about that from her new position up on the ceiling. Very strange. The woman floated up above the boys' heads, following their progress into the other room and to the needed glass case. Well, how convenient. She thought for a moment; she needed a distraction.
Flying silently above the pair, she went to the bedroom where Xanthe was. She swooped down to toss one of the bander's toys out across the hallway, so the yellow female would chase after it and, hopefully cause a bit of a ruckus. She flew back out, avoiding the floors and everything else entirely.
She was back out into the needed room again fairly quickly, waiting for the boys to leave so she could start the next part of her quest. She had to figure out how to get the goblet out of the cabinet.
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Post by Kari Muffin on Feb 18, 2008 16:08:45 GMT -5
Xanthe snapped up from her nap wide eyed when she heard the soft thump of her toy. In an amazing feat of bander agility and joy she attacked the toy with an amazing fury. The squeaking and growling of the bander could be heard throughout the various chambers.
Zane rolled his eyes as Eilwyn snorted at the sound of her practically destroying one of her favorite toys. It was a very good distraction to cover up the sound of the less than perfectly oiled cabinet.
The keyring that Theofilus had provided hadn't contained the proper key to open the cabinet. It did, however, contain the key to open various drawers in one of the nearby dressers. That might contain the key--but with the way Theofilus organized his drawers it would probably take hours to find the key.
Now, the cabinet was a well made piece of furniture, and on first inspection looked to be impossible to open. On a closer inspection of the lock that looked rather well built, it could, just like any other lock be picked. It was a matter of finding the proper tools to pick it with. Theofilus had them lying around somewhere (since he had locked himself out of the cabinet more than once) it was just a matter of finding it.
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