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Post by The Jenn on Mar 22, 2008 19:13:45 GMT -5
Femi knocked on the door to the tower as she had hundreds of times in the past, coming over to see Vren with a question about enchanting one of the dolls Kazifel was looking to sell to a local buyer and how much it might cost the person to do it through him rather than find someone else with the capability, which wouldn't be easy. Not that the woman wanted a complicated enchantment, but it would still be difficult to locate a mage with the experience in that particular area of enchantments who was willing to take on a small job. At her side was one of her daughters who'd agreed to go with her, silver hair fixed into a pretty bun and set with the enamel sticks that seemed to be her favorite. She'd spent a little longer fixing Sage's hair than she normally would have since they were going to see company but it was no chore. She loved playing with her daughter's long silver mane. A young bird answered the door, the motion awkward because of his lack of hands, and peered up at the woman curiously. Parzifal had seen her around a few times in his three years living with Master Vren with his siblings and serving the man, but he'd never spoken with her. He just knew that the mage was fond of her and her family and that her name was Femi. He doubted he knew her name either. "I'll go tell Master Vren that you're here," he told her, the words coming out slightly slurred. His binding prevented him from speaking clearly most of the time. He spared a glance for the pretty girl next to her, probably not much older than him at eight years old, then went upstairs to tell the man he had visitors. |
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Post by Kari Muffin on Mar 22, 2008 19:50:55 GMT -5
Sage clung to her mother's hand. It was nice being alone with her mother. Thyme always made fun of her, and as nice as Rosemary was she couldn't stay nice for very long with her siblings around. She was the outcast and everyone but Mommy, Daddy and Rosemary hated her. Well, there was Mommy's friend too, but she really didn't see him very often. When the door opened to reveal the bird around her age, her ears perked. He was kind of an interesting mix wasn't he? The wolf squirrel watched him leave silently. Maybe... she could talk to him later? That would be nice, having a friend who wasn't Rosemary. There was just the small matter of actually talking to him. She looked up at her mother while they were waiting. Maybe she should ask her if she could talk to the boy. It's not like Sage ever paid attention to Mr. Vren. As nice as he was, it was just difficult to listen to the things he said. |
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Post by The Jenn on Mar 22, 2008 19:59:22 GMT -5
Femi squeezed her daughter's hand, waiting on the front step until the young bird came back with Vren. They'd been able to talk a little bit on the way over, like they did when she sat down and played with her daughter's hair, so she would already count it a successful outing. "Maybe if you're nice, Uncle Vren might let you play with his servants," she said to the girl with a smile. Sage was always far too quiet in public. Maybe someone new to talk to who wasn't her family would help her open up a little bit.
A few minutes passed until footsteps could be heard inside once again and the old human opened the door, already smiling since he knew just who was there. "Femi, dear!" They exchanged hugs and he reached down to give Sage one as well, not shy about affection towards any of the squirrel's brood, even the testy little bat-mix. "Why don't the two of you come in and I can get you something to drink? Parzifal."
Hearing his name and the sentence that came before, the bird standing a few feet back from the door nodded and turned to go put on some tea.
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Post by Kari Muffin on Mar 22, 2008 20:21:08 GMT -5
Sage nodded and said quietly, "That would be nice." She really was to quiet around strangers, but there wasn't much she had to say to people. People were generally scary, and so was some of her family on occasion. Sage refrained from sighing as she held her mother's hand and waited.
It wasn't long until Vren appeared and gave her a hug, she had no problem returning it. He was a nice old man, and she didn't have a problem being shown affection like Alphonse did. She smiled up at the man, but didn't say a word.
She let her mother lead the way. So the bird's name was Parzifal? That was a really pretty name! How did he get a name like that? The little wolf-squirrel wanted to ask him all sorts of questions though... would she be able to. She never was one to talk in front of people even if they asked her to sing she normally refused. That's just the way things worked.
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Post by The Jenn on Mar 22, 2008 20:50:40 GMT -5
Femi followed him up two stories to an area cleared away for guests, the entire first floor of the tower filled with things as far as the eye could see with a small path back to the kitchens cleared. Upstairs she sat down in a chair across from Vren and drew Sage into her lap, chatting with him about how things were doing and how Kazifel and the children were until the young bird came back up very carefully pushing a levitating tea tray with his beak. Vren had enchanted it so that his handless servants could bring him things up the stairs, even if it was a slow walk.
Vren nodded thanks to the boy and poured a cup of tea for Femi, which she accepted with a smile. "Thank you very much. Sage dear, why don't you go and see what Uncle Vren's servants are up to? Would you be willing to take her down with you?" The question was addressed to the young raven.
Parzifal blinked at being spoken to by the Queen and nodded. "Okay." He tried not to be overly talkative, since his binding was enough to prompt teasing from people who weren't used to his way of speech. It would... be interesting to have someone new around their age to interact with. He and his siblings didn't really get to see people very often in the tower.
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Post by Kari Muffin on Mar 22, 2008 21:16:40 GMT -5
Sage was always surprised at the huge amount of stuff that was in the tower. How could anyone live like this? Wasn't it like being in a death trap or something? Maybe she shouldn't think about that while she was inside the tower.
The wolf-squirrel sat quietly in her Mother's lap when she was talking to Vren about family matters. This was terribly boring. She perked up instantly though when her Mommy decided that she could go and play with the servant boy. There were two more weren't there?
"Thank you, Mommy. Thank you, Mr. Vren," she said quietly as she slipped off her mother's lap and gave the old man a bit of a curtsy. Then she followed Parzifal where ever he was planning to lead her.
He had a funny way of talking. Was that because of the rings attached to the bottom of his beak? Why did he even have those? She wanted to ask all the questions but... instead she just fiddled with her hands a bit. She really was unsure of what to do or say in a situation like this.
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Post by The Jenn on Mar 22, 2008 21:24:20 GMT -5
Parzifal led her down a flight of stairs and then started to go down the second, but it felt really awkward with both of them being quiet. He paused at the top of the flight of stairs and looked back at her. "Your name's Sage?" he asked after a minute of waiting to see if she would say anything. She seemed a quiet type, kind of like his sister. He could handle the quiet ones. "You probably heard, but mine's Parzifal. It's... hard for me to say, though, and kind of long. My brother and sister call me Parzi."
After that, they both went down to the main floor and through the small, winding path through the clutter and stuff until they reached the room that would be the kitchens. It was filled with stuff too, but not to the same extent. Something was boiling on the stove but it was bright blue and didn't look especially edible. The raven ignored it.
"Poe and Imre should be back sometime soon," he told her, tucking his wings in. "They probably went outside with the feeders master likes to put out for the wild banders. It's too dangerous to do it around their feeding time."
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Post by Kari Muffin on Mar 22, 2008 21:33:15 GMT -5
"Y-yes, my name's Sage. It's nice to meet you... Parzi," she said as confidently as she possibly could. She was very bad at this people thing. And she was happy that he didn't seem to be all that bothered by her being quiet.
When entering the kitchen she peered around briefly. What on earth was cooking on the stove that was bright blue like that? Vren didn't have a separate room for experiments did he? Sage quietly reminded herself never to eat anything from this place unless she absolutely had to.
"I don't think I've ever actually seen a Bander. I think my Aunt is going to get one for my sister though. She seems to think that a Highland Bander would be perfect for her or something," she shrugged. The girl knew nothing of banders. Dolls made more sense, but she really couldn't talk about dolls here.
"Uh... do you mind if I ask why you where those piercings. I've never seen anyone with something like that in their mouth. I-I hope I'm not being rude."
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Post by The Jenn on Mar 22, 2008 21:47:40 GMT -5
Parzifal snorted and shook his head. "Believe me, you don't want to see any of the wild ones. All the banders that live around here are nasty and wild and more liable to maul you than they are to be a pet. Those kinds are bred specially, from what I remember. Master gave us a long warning about them when he had us start putting lures out. Didn't want us trying to pet them or anything like that."
Her question about his bindings caught him off guard. Couldn't she see the black and the purple? Didn't she know he was part Torque? Obviously not. "I'm only half Tulgey," he explained, one wing moving to lightly jangle the binding that hang from his beak. "The other half is Torquehelm. Everyone from there wears bindings like this. Both of my siblings have their own bindings, and my... m-my mom used to have them too."
That was something he didn't want to dwell on. Noooo, he didn't want to think about that. Bad memories. Horrible ones. He shook his head and looked back at her. "Have you ever been out of the Wood before?" A lot of the people who lived here seemed to just... stay here.
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Post by Kari Muffin on Mar 22, 2008 22:20:29 GMT -5
Oh but. Huh. "Well, I've never been out of the Wood before because Mommy and Daddy are kind of over protective. They only reason my sister has been out of the Wood is because she has the habit of wandering off at random, but she always comes back." It helped that she had a magical ability to do so.
She wanted to ask why he really wore them. What was the reason behind wearing something that probably hurt you if you spoke a certain way? It seemed rather cruel to do that to yourself. But she kept quiet, she wasn't going to say anything stupid. "I really do want to visit some of the regions when I'm older, but I don't know... I'm not very good with people." She looked down at her hands as she laced them together, if she wasn't careful she would start playing with her hair. Mommy wouldn't appreciate that she was sure.
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