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Post by The Jenn on Dec 28, 2009 11:30:13 GMT -5
Thyme rocked backward a hair at her sister's shout, staring at her with slowly dawning realization in her eyes.
Ah... yes. Tulgey. This was her home, once upon a time, but she had never really belonged here. That was why she left in the first place. No one without pure white fur belonged in this place, regardless of birth. She really couldn't go harrowing off on her own to track her mother. She would need a Tulgey beside her, at the very least. Living in the Highlands and then the palace of Clubs as a noble hadn't robbed her of all her sense, had it?
"You're right, Rose," she agreed quietly. "I'm going to need you. But we have to go now, before the trail gets any colder. And Forge can take care of Dad. When we come back, we can show our respects, but you know that Dad would want us to find Mom before anything. You know that. So come on. Let's... let's go see if anybody knows anything they're willing to talk about."
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Post by Kari Muffin on Dec 28, 2009 12:47:09 GMT -5
She didn't want to go. She didn't want to leave Dad. It seemed wrong. It seemed heartless. And what hope was there of finding Mom? It was probably far too late for them to make a daring rescue. This wasn't some fantasy adventure novel, this was the Wood and this was reality.
"All right," she said after a few moments. "Let's go, and Forge... please be careful."
"Don't worry about me, get going and be safe," the summoned weapon said with a reassuring smile before he made his way down the stairs. Burying a body seemed like it would be a complicate process. Not to mention he had to move the man by himself.
Rosemary looked to her sister. "Where do we start according to you? We should probably ask Mr. Willows if he heard anything... I can't imagine it was a completely silent affair. Then we would at least know what we're dealing with before following the trail. I don't want to run into some demonic monster and be completely unprepared."
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Post by The Jenn on Dec 28, 2009 13:49:07 GMT -5
"Willows is a good idea," Thyme sighed in agreement, arms slowly wrapping around to hug her middle. "I'm not sure anyone else is close enough to have heard anything. Mom liked her privacy. Maybe Margie would know something - she's pretty nosy. If she even lives in this village anymore? I haven't seen her since I was fourteen. Is she still here or did she move away?"
She really had been away from the Wood for a long time. She wasn't thinking right. Her thoughts were distinctly Outsider. Whatever had killed Dad, it was probably a thoroughly Tulgey threat. "We should ask Mister Vren, too," she said after another moment's thought. "He's still alive, isn't he? I can't imagine that old man dead. He was just too weird. And he knew a lot of people, and a lot of what was going on. He might know something about what happened, or at least what kind of threat we should be looking for."
((We can fast-forward through a lot of the fiddly interactions, if you'd like. <3 Whee summaries!))
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Post by Kari Muffin on Dec 29, 2009 17:23:57 GMT -5
"When I came home a few months ago she was still around," Rosemary said quietly as she turned around to walk out of the room. Everything seemed entirely too wrong. Her sister. Her dead father. The lack of mother. Nothing seemed right. Nothing was okay, and she didn't like it.
"He's still alive. I swear he and Aunt Josephine are going to live forever just because of sheer determination." She snorted. Humor. If she didn't have any she was fairly certain that the invisible weight on her shoulders was going to crush her.
And really the feeling only grew worse when they set out to find their mother. Mr. Willows had seen the swan dog enter the house when he was peeping through the windows, and he had only seen one person leave. But the one person he saw... it didn't make sense.
No one else in the village was really helpful. Some of the people didn't even answer their doors. Others had slammed the doors in their faces. Margie was at least nice enough to give them what little gossip she had heard after a bit of persuading. It all seemed terribly hopeless.
And the last stop was Vren.
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Post by The Jenn on Jan 1, 2010 0:17:24 GMT -5
After about five minutes of waiting, Vren greeted them at the door looking older and more sour than ever. He gave both of them a long, slow look before waving them in and ushering them upstairs.
Yes, he had seen their mother several days before. She'd been alone, oddly sane and coherent, and... acting quite strange. He'd assumed it to be yet another phase of her mental illness and humored her, but by the end of their visit he'd felt decidedly ill-at-ease.
At her behest, he'd sent out letters to a good number of his connections throughout the Wood. He'd made sure to give a brief history of her 'issues' and mention that she was a Queen with a very protective husband, that he would personally fuck up anyone who hurt her as best he was able, and that they should probably humor her with a cup of tea if they ever had the time.
And then she'd left, in as odd a mood as she'd come. She hadn't mentioned Kazifel at all, even when he'd asked.
Thyme felt sick to her stomach.
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Post by Kari Muffin on Jan 1, 2010 0:57:15 GMT -5
This wasn't right. This wasn't right at all. Rosemary continued to stare blankly at the old man as he spoke.
Mom didn't say a word about Dad. Mom always talked about Dad. Something wasn't right with their mother. If it was even their mother. It was a crazy thought in itself, but what else could it be? Her mother killed their father? That didn't make sense at all!
Dad was her doll after all.
"Thank you, Sir, for all your help. We need to get going now..." Rosemary said with a faint smile. It was hard to be her chipper self when facing this bleak reality. They had to go back home before it was dark. Forge had finished his job a while ago and was waiting for them.
She didn't want to see the inside of the house. She didn't want to have to sleep there. But they didn't have a choice.
Forge would be waiting with their father's cleaned coat in his lap.
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Post by The Jenn on Jan 1, 2010 1:12:48 GMT -5
Thyme was as silent as her sister on their walk home, unwilling to break the frozen silence in the air as their minds attempted to process what the old mage had said. None of it made any sense. None of it sounded like Mom.
Especially the whole 'not talking about Dad' and 'sane' bits.
She opened the door for her sister and slipped inside, escaping the darkening gloom of the Wood and the threats that lurked in the darkness. Forge sitting there with their father's coat didn't help her state of mind in any appreciable sense, especially since that meant he was buried. And gone. For good. And now they had to face this reality, where their mother was crazy and their father was dead.
Slowly stepping towards the man, she picked up the garment and slid down into the nearby chair. Then she folded over and buried her face in it and quietly started crying.
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Post by Kari Muffin on Jan 1, 2010 1:39:11 GMT -5
Reality burned.
Rosemary watched her sister take the coat. She also watched silently as her sister started to cry. That wasn't something she saw everyday. It wasn't something she liked seeing at all. The wolf mix hopped up on the sofa besides her weapon, placing her head in his lap.
She didn't cry, she just stared at the sofa.
Dad was gone. Mom was gone. There was nothing they could do to change the facts. They had to keep on moving and they had to clean up the house. They had to be responsible. Adults.
It sucked. She didn't like it. She just wanted to travel and write stories. A small whimper escaped her as she curled up, her head still resting on her weapons lap as her tail curled over her face. Daddy. Mommy. What had done this? Why did this have to happen to their family?
And they had to tell Sage and Parsley...
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Post by The Jenn on Jan 1, 2010 1:46:53 GMT -5
Thyme shut out the world for a few minutes, just shut down and cried into her Daddy's coat. It smelled like him. This whole place smelled like him and Mom. Their sweat. Their fur. His... his blood.
She cried harder.
After several moments had passed in silence save her crying and her sister's whimpers, a scratchy nose lightly touched the top of her mane. She tilted her head enough to see, eyes bleary and red with tears. Tulgey eyes looked back at her, old and watery and smoked with faint cataracts. Mister Jingles stared at her for just a second before nudging his head into her lap and leaning his lanky frame against her. Then he started purring.
Her throat closed and she carefully wrapped her arms around his old neck, holding him close on top of the jacket as she squeezed her eyes shut. He was coming back with her. So was this jacket. And who knew what else.
They had a lot of work to do...
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Post by Kari Muffin on Jan 3, 2010 20:14:18 GMT -5
There was a lot of work to be done, but none of it would really be accomplished until morning.
They needed to clean the house and collect the valuables. Find Dad's keys for things. Clean up. And then somehow get most of the stuff out of the Wood.
This was complicated. And it would probably be easier if they had help to get all of this work done. But could they put it off for a little while? What if someone broke in while they were gone because of the news? And what were they going to do with the house anyway? Rosemary was the only one who ever came back on a regular basis...
"Thyme," The wolf mix said as she finished cleaning the kitchen. There was still a faint stain on the floor that wouldn't disappear. "What exactly are we going with all of this...stuff?"
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