Obscurity Steals The Spotlight [Aero & Liza]

No need to tell her twice! She looked over and nodded before hurrying over and opening the barn door. "Much smaller than I remember..." After finding a dry place to put her only tangible memory of her family, she made sure her matches were still try and looked for something to burn. Thankfully there were a few dead limbs by the windows and she broke a few of them up before lighting them. Once all that was settled it was back to shivering and realizing just how freezing it had gotten. Then came a massive wave of confusion as to how her family's painting got to the island. "I don't understand. How did it all end up here?" she asked herself. Amidst everything else tears were pouring down her cheeks and she was overall a wreck. There millions of things to say buzzing around in her head, but couldn't bring herself to stop sobbing and say any of them.

It was several minutes before she warmed up enough begin to deal with everything. The first thing was to dry her face and stop blubbering like a scared child. "I-I guess it all got to be too much. I'm so sorry about all this Russell..." She'd now embarrassed herself beyond explanation by any single person's opinion and couldn't even look at her friend. It was at that moment that she realized she had a nosebleed. "How long has my nose been bleeding, Russ? If this happened because I ran into a tree I'll feel very stupid indeed."

Getting out of the rain was a good step in the right direction, but Russell quickly came to find that it wasn't going to be the end of the little emotional roller coaster that his companion had suddenly found herself on. He was exploring the insides of the small barn for the driest looking area, gathering the tiny amount of light from outside around his fingers once more to find somewhere to settle for the night and quickly went to help Silence gather the branches sticking through holes in the side of the wall to pile on for the fire. Devoid of anything else to busy her hands with, Russell then bore witness to the rapid breakdown as Silence dissolved into tears.

The sight tugged at his heart in a decidedly alien way and he couldn't help but feel bad for the poor girl. She looked so alone, shivering and crying while clutching the faded picture in her hands. He knelt down next to her, using a bit of his sleeved to blot away the blood on her nose. "The whole time." he replied with a gentle smile. "Is this where you used to live?" He deliberately kept his voice soft and soothing, it would take an idiot not to realize that she was in need of a little comfort right now. "That might explain the picture being here. You told me that you didn't remember much from your childhood once… Maybe this is where it was."

"I always thought I didn't come from Dragons Cove. This place is so alien compared to what I remember; I'm so confused!" The way it happened seven years before was a little hazy. After calming down a bit more, she pointed at the rubble outside and nodded. "That was the house, a-and I could swear this barn was a good deal larger, but apparently yes; I grew up right here. The house had two floors, mother and her husband stayed on the ground floor and I was upstairs in the only actual bedroom. There was a hollow space in the kitchen floor that father covered with a rug, don't think the rug itself survived but perhaps whatever he covered is still there. Mother had a pretty wooden box that she put all her treasures in, including the silly little thingamajigs I'd "invent" for her. If not for her I'd have been a very unloved child, her husband denied being my father time after time, so I stopped addressing him as anything but Sir early on."

"Now and then I still slip and refer to him as "father" but he always said I was a bastard child and didn't deserve to call him my father. I got his last name and he wasn't remotely happy about it. When that dragon tore him to bits a small part of me was happy for a moment, then mother was gone and I was left barely alive. How I got to the southern half of the island I don't rightfully know." She pointed to her mother's picture and smiled. "The greatest woman in the world is depicted right here." She turned to her friend and (after carefully moving her precious picture away from the fire) threw her arms around his neck to hug him.

After spending weeks in Silence's company, one would assume that Russell would be an expert on her moods and how to deal with them. But this was a whole new side that he'd never seen before and it left him simply sitting there, listening with an empathetic ear. When she hugged him he immediately wrapped his arms around her back and drew her close. "It's alright, Silence." He mumbled and rubbed her back in a soothing gesture, noticing with no surprise that she was chilled still from their little jaunt through the rain and spending the majority of the evening in the ocean. Outside the storm was still whipping the forest around, the rain pelting the sides of the barn. "Well, that gives us one more thing in common." He said with a self-depreciating laugh that was very short lived. "I guess we're both bastards. Birds of a feather flock together as they say." Russell was babbling in an attempt to calm the girl. He simply couldn't draw from the same experiences that Silence could, though he could sympathize well enough, and that would simply have to count.

"Once it's light again, we can look around and see if anything else is left behind." It wasn't a simple suggestion, but a promise. If she wanted to turn over the ruins of the house, he would be right there alongside her. "But lets get you warmed up first, huh? You're freezing, and frankly, so am I." He hesitated for a moment, wondering if suggesting that they sit together would be outright rejected, but decided in the end that if they wanted to get warm, just relying on her small fire wasn't going to get the job done. "Just sit with your back to my chest. We can share body heat. You can tell me more about your mother." For once, he wasn't being suggestive or lewd, but practical, and Russell certainly hoped that his tone reflected that.

Without a word of protest, Silence cuddled up as close to Russell as she could get and sighed. "I'm so sorry." she whispered. Once the wind started picking up, she added a bit more kindling to the fire and used a match to blow a small fireball at it. "Now cooperate, were freezing." Why she felt compelled to talk to the fire she hadn't a clue, but she wiped the tears from her face and tried to pull herself together. "Tomorrow will be another adventure no doubt." If rummaging through a wrecked house was to be an adventure at any rate. "Russell, what do you actually look like?" she asked sleepily. The day's events had taken their toll and she was now rather close to passing out. It didn't help that her cuddle buddy was the perfect pillow.

Shortly before going out like a light, she pulled a drawstring out of her skirt and laid it over Russell and herself. "Ten yard...Skirt..." she explained yawning in between. "Makes...an excellent blanket." "There" was the ulterior motive behind not wearing her skirt the whole way to the barn. It wasn't to drive Russell crazy, though it was rather humorous, it was because it would've likely been damaged and/or gotten drenched if she'd been wearing it. With a tired glance up at the elf, she let her eyes flutter shut and sleep through the remainder of the storm.

(OOC: We can do a timeskip any time!)

Once Silence was settled in Russell wrapped his arms loosely around her waist and shivered once, the chill leeching away with an added fireball and a body to share the heat with. Hopefully it would last the rest of the night. "Tomorrow is going to be an adventure into the unknown to try and find society." He mumbled mostly to himself, leaning his chin against Silence's shoulder. Russell could navigate a city well enough, but he was completely useless out in the wilds with no streets to follow. "What I actually look like?" He repeated, glad for the extra layer of skirt when it was draped over the top of them. "Not very interesting, really." He continued, beginning to nod off now that he wasn't so cold, his magic beginning to slip as well. Russell simply couldn't keep his illusions up when he was passed out. Maintaining spells while he was asleep or otherwise unconscious just wasn't something he knew how to do, so if Silence woke up before he did, she would certainly get to see what he looked like under the glamours. "Mostly the same. You saw it when I had to use the moonlight…" Her even breathing gave away that she'd dropped off to sleep and he smiled gently, brushing a soft kiss against her cheek. "'Night lass."

*~*

By the time that dawn rolled around the storm had blown itself out and left a dewey morning in its wake. The forest had suffered some with the high winds and branches were scattered along the forest floor making it even more hazardous to traverse. Luckily with the sun back up it would be a walk in the park compared to their night time adventures, which would be a great relief.

Russell woke with the dawn, a habit that hadn't gone away despite weeks of not needing to be looking over his shoulder all the time for assassin's with a grudge. For a moment he was confused as to why Silence would be sitting cuddled up with him, then remembered the events from last night and held off on layering up his illusions, though he did make sure to hide the scar marring his right cheek and bridge of his nose. That was one thing that he would never show if it could be entirely helped. "Silence…" He whispered and tapped her gently to get her awake.

A pained groan growled in her throat and the morning sunlight was a proper annoyance rather than a welcome relief. "Hell's bells." she grumbled. She wondered why she didn't want to move, and then realized she was laying against someone. Specifically, Russell. Her face instantaneously flushed red and she tried her best to move and assess the situation; then it occurred to her what'd transpired the night before and she calmed back down minus keeping a bit of the blush. "I will never sleep sitting upright again." she swore as she raised her arms above her head and heard everything from her neck to her lower back crackle in a rather disturbing way. "I've slept on stone, on wood, on mud and dirt, in a tree, and on an icy rooftop, but this is the worst I've woken up to since that cursed dragon shredded my back to ribbons. I trust you slept like a baby, hm?"

She flopped back into the ground and gazed up at him, still looking a bit tired, and gave him her best smile. "You're a very lovely pillow, but my back is not happy with the position I chose to sleep in." His natural looks proved to be very distracting, and even when she wasn't looking at him she was tempted to turn around. "Ah well!" A few back bends, some ballet to stretch her legs, and she was rearing and ready to go. "I rather like you without all that magic covering your face, you should leave it like that more often!"

Blushing Silence was cute, he had to admit. This little woodland adventure was showing him all sorts of sides of his companion that he'd never thought he'd get to see. "I've slept in worse-and similar -places." Russell grinned back and lifted his arms above his head, cracking his shoulders with a loud pop and a relieved sigh. Staking out assassination sites often ended with him sleeping while propped up against the wall, which wasn't fun to wake up to but definitely something he'd become unfortunately used to. Having a warm body to share the experience with however had definitely made it better. "Well, just for you, I'll let you indulge in my natural beauty." A symphony of spine cracking accompanied his standing up, his normal playful grin back in place.

"Now, I believe that there's a house that needs exploring, yes?" He wandered out of the barn into the sunshine, inhaling the fresh air that had been left after the rain. With a deep breath and an appreciative look at their surroundings, he turned his attention on the partially dilapidated house. "Just be careful not to get splinters." Russell mumbled upon seeing a few broken timbers.

"You'll let me indulge?" she repeated with a laugh. She then wondered what he thought of her, since he could now see a good deal more of her than on an average day at home. "Must admit I wouldn't quite word it that way, but close enough." She hadn't meant to belittle him, she would have simply phrased it a different way. "Takes all my concentration not to stare at you, I'll be totally honest. Natural beauty doesn't really cut the bread." As soon as he mentioned splinters she turned over a beam and jumped up on it to let a rather large lizard pass by her. "Eesh, wonder what else took up residence here since all this happened." It didn't take much digging to find what was left of the furnace that sat by the wash tub, or where the tub used to be at any rate. "On stormy nights I used to sit right in front of that heater and fall asleep. Nodded off within an hour, without fail."

She moved a few more things and stomped her foot once or twice before falling into the ground. "Hellfire!" came her trademark tone from a hole in the ground. "Russell! Russell you should see this, it's a bloody maze down here!" There were casks, barrels, a half-rotten wooden door that led to who-knew-where, and shelves of wine. It was easy to tell what kind of alcohol it was, because it was stored on its side. Beer and things of its kind had no trouble being stored upright, fermented juice was a finicky thing to work with. "There's all kinds of wine and spirits, some sort of barrels, and an eerie looking door!" She picked up a bit of wood and lit it up before taking a good look at what was around her. "Some of the contents of these wine bottles are over a decade old. This has been here for quite a long time. . ."

He could maneuver through the wreckage like a fish through water, easily climbing over the broken beams and avoiding places that looked eaten by time and mold. All in all, it looked much like any other house that had been abandoned in his opinion, complete with cobwebs and growing things where there really wasn't supposed to be things growing. He looked at the things that Silence pointed out, painting a mental picture of what the house must have looked like before it had all gone to hell in a hand basket, and secretively took note of Silence's reaction to it all, watching the expressions on her face change. The crack of the wood underneath her feet instantly sent Russell into defense mode and he had skillfully backed himself into a more solid part of the floor just as Silence fell through, his heart in his throat. Gods! Did she just die? Please don't let her be-

"A maze?" Quickly he slid to the edge of the hole, testing his weight before putting himself any closer than was necessary and got a bird's eye view of what had to be a basement or wine cellar of some sort. After making sure that Silence hadn't broken her legs or been impaled in the fall, he looked for a graceful way to get down and assessed wither it would be possible at all to get back up once down. Eventually he decided that his wall running skills would eventually get them out of there and jumped down in a patch that wasn't entirely littered with bundles of rotted broken wood. "Seems that your family was either a bunch of raging alcoholics, or wine makers of some sort." He said observantly, scanning his new view of the room briefly and went to inspect the dusty bottles. "Do you remember this at all?"

"Not that I know of besides the fact that the man I share a name with loved his spirits. Looks like he had a budding business down here, and most of these bottles are nearly as old as I am, up to 15 years on some of them. Mother didn't drink much, but apparently she shared more than one glass with him, 'cause she was expecting when she passed away. Knew there was a reason I liked strawberry wine!" she piped as she dusted off one of the bottles. "Could've been mother's business if this is the same stuff I've had everywhere else. If all this was hers there's no discrepancy who it goes to, then again if all this hasn't been claimed in seven years I suppose it goes to me whether her husband turns flips in his hellhole of a grave or not."

"If you're asking if I've been down here before the answer is no. I caught father coming up from here once or twice, and he threatened me with beatings if I came down here. A curse on him I say." she grumbled as she fiddled with the cork on the bottle she was holding. "Break open a bottle if you like! I'm going to look for mother's most valued worldly possession. If you find it please let me know. Her husband never kept his valuables where I could find them. Likely enough if they survived this long they're down here somewhere. If you find anything you like feel free to keep it." She popped open the bottle and took a sip. "I'll be darned, this stuff's in every tavern I've ever sat in!" This would have to continue, the business wasn't dying on her watch! "I'll have paperwork to file concerning this, but that will be after all this is sorted."

Looking around the basement, he couldn't even begin to fathom that Silence, teetotaler she was, would find herself in charge of a wine making business. Curiously he ran his fingers over some of the bottles, listening as she spoke about her father and examining the old vintages. There were some truly old bottles down here. He hoped that they had survived. It would be a shame to throw a majority of the wine away if it had expired. Carefully he picked up one of the bottles and examined the color in what little light there was to be had in the hole that Silence had punched through the ceiling. Heeding her words, he took out one of his knives and pried the cork out, trying not to damage it too bad and let the wine breathe a moment before taking a drink. "Well, if your mother made this, she knew what she was doing." He called over his shoulder with a grin and watched as Silence took a sip.

Holding onto the wine bottle, he looked around the room a bit, his eyes adjusting to the semi darkness and took another drink from his bottle, clearing the dust from some of the nearest bottles. The room was impressively large given the location in the middle of the forest, but it had more surprises than just being filled with wine. Russell's eyes set on a doorway and wondered absently if it was the easy way out. He didn't particularly want to try his footing with all the rotting wood to get out of the basement if he didn't have to.

"What's behind here?" He asked out loud, gesturing toward the door and walked toward it, trying the handle to see if the structure would collapse if he touched it.

"Hellfire if I know, I've never been down here myself. For all I know there could be something waiting to take our heads off. Door's likely been there a pretty long time and with nobody down here it might fall to pieces if you mess with it enough." She wasn't prepared for anything to really come after them seeing as the door was nearly mulch on hinges as it was. She took a rather large gulp of wine, forgetting what she was drinking, and followed him to the door, not caring what she had to step over or step "on" to get there. The area behind the door was dark and unmoving, so whatever was behind there was either a dark room or corridor, something invisible, or hiding in the shadows waiting for them to move. "Age before beauty if you really wanna check this out Rusty." Why the heck did she call him Rusty? She didn't rightfully know but his hair color seemed to fit the nickname.

Of course if he didn't move fast enough she'd take a large chug of wine, put bottle aside, and kick the door in due to impatience and inebriation. "Or beauty before age if you're missing your spine." she spat. Thankfully nothing could be seen in the dark of the room in front of her, but the room was really a corridor and it seemed to cover a good bit of distance. "Well let's go then shall we? You're traipsing about with a human torch so you won't be running into walls like I run into trees in a thunderstorm. Don't just stand there staring at me, let's go Rusty!" There was a hidden insult/joke in calling him that, but she wasn't about to go letting him in on her little jest.

Russell couldn't help but to lift and eyebrow at her behavior and took another sip of his wine but decided not to indulge too much. Silence seemed intent on getting herself cross-eyed drunk and was already mostly through a bottle. It would probably be good to have at least one of them sober enough to get them out of the basement. Although, dredging up old memories was probably a good enough excuse as any to get drunk. He certainly would if he had to go back to Didienne and visit the whorehouse he was raised in. When she kicked down the door he corked his bottle and set it down. Yeah, he would need to be sober for this, although he did appreciate a new nickname to add to his list. "I don't think there're any spines missing here-"

He would have something funny to say on the subject, but he was broken off by a fierce growl that suddenly sounded from inside the dark hallway. Russell stiffened, his hand instantly going to the knives that he always kept at his hip. Even when performing he'd always had a weapon on hand. Life lessons learned early stuck like a bad habit. The source of the growling made an appearance, after a moment of trying to terrify them away, a creature about the size of a dog with fangs bared menacingly and looking intent on murder. Russell inhaled sharply, slowly putting his hand out to keep Silence from walking forward toward the creature. "Just back away." He whispered, withdrawing one of his knives and keeping his eyes on the wolverine.

Silence noticed just about too late that there was a bloody WOLVERINE just a few feet in front of her, and the eye-shine caught her first. "Oh...Hellfire..." She tried to back away and tripped up on her own feet, falling on her butt. She scrambled backwards a bit frantically, quite the contrast to Russell. "Where will we back away 'to'? There's nothing the other way but the wine cellar." On second thought. . .Better to go back and then knock this thing over the head THEN go and explore. "Should we run or just inch backward, I might have an idea if this is the only one down here." Her head was now swimming from the alcohol, but she was half-coherent at least and that was all that mattered.

As she looked around she just about started off in the wrong direction, but quickly turned tail and tried to at least make sense of the myriad of thought going through her head. "Oh I can't think straight..." she muttered bitterly. "Russell hit it over the head or knock a shelf over, something!" Then came the slurred speech and after that was going to be a sky-high head rush of giggling and flirting followed by a massive crash with a migraine and possibly vomiting. "'m startin' to lose my talking skillssss...Need to make this work fast..." The only thing she could think to do was finish the bottle of wine and break it then get ready to bash its head it.

"Of all times-!" He hissed, completely unable to keep Silence from provoking the creature to attack. It was irritated by the talking and the flailing and the first thing it did was try to grab her by the ankles. Quick as a whip he struck the wolverine in the side as the leapt for Silence and immediately the creature turned on him instead, all teeth and spitting and claws. Russell danced backwards as far as the confined space of the basement would allow before inevitably hitting his back against some of the shelving and a couple of bottles met an untimely end. The wolverine leapt wildly, and its claws sank thoroughly into his shirt, tearing long rips and grazing the skin underneath. "Silence! Now would be a great time to light this thing on fire!" He was terrible at one on one combat, especially against an unpredictable opponent like a freaking wolverine.

In between trying to not knock over every bottle in the basement and not get eviscerated by the wolverine he realized that in her compromised state, it might actually be a bad idea for her to do anything involving fire. The wolverine snapped at him and sunk its teeth into his leather boots. With a startled cry he sunk his dagger into the wolverine's side, making the furious creature let go at the very least. "DON'T SET IT ON FIRE!" He shouted and tried to back up more, swiping his dagger in front of him to keep the wolverine from getting its teeth into him again.

Finally something snapped her out of the haze her mind had been in and she picked up a very old bottle, lucky for her it'd been there far too long to still be of any use in terms of drinking, and tried to be surreptitious before just legging it over and smashing the bottle over the thing's head. Well the attempt was there at least, she'd swung in the right direction and KNEW she hadn't hit Russell, but whether or not she hit the beast was a matter of luck. Fighting with booze was not something she usually did. Hoping that she'd at least landed a hit she moved back and noticed that she'd at least broken the bottle on something, but her vision was a bit fuzzy so seeing the wolverine wasn't easy.

"Did I land a hit...? I hope I did or it'll be pissed." The edges of the break in the glass were jagged and razor sharp, and what she thought was wine was actually a bit of blood from whatever damage she'd managed to do to the animal. "Something to be said for adrenaline and intoxication I suppose." She glanced about to make sure she wasn't going to sit on anything harmful then fell on her rear with a soft thump. "Rusty are you okay? Did it do any damage?" She really was concerned, but the slurring and the stumbling didn't do anything for the sincerity.

Of all the dumb luck.

Russell stared at the wolverine, which seconds before had been seriously close to chomping off a bit of him now lay unmoving on the floor, shattered glass shining in the half light on either side of the beast's head. Looking up at Silence, he watched her stumble and finally fall over on her backside. "I'm fine lass." He replied and sighed, kneeling in front of the wolverine and jammed his dagger up to the hilt through its head, making sure it was good and dead so that they didn't have to repeat this little episode again. Standing he went over to Silence's side and knelt down next to her, making sure she hadn't managed to hurt herself and gently extracted the broken bottle from her hand. "The beast just nipped me in the ankle a bit. I'll be fine as long as there are no more where that came from."

"I'm glad you're okay at least. I can send a fireball down the tunnel a few dozen feet or so if you wanna brave it again?" She didn't really know what was down there and darn it her curiosity outweighed the risk of more wolverines coming after them. "What's the likelihood that more than one of those could survive down here anyway? Unless this leads up to the surface at some point I don't think we'll see any more." Whatever else was down there would face her rather than Russell since she felt like this wolverine incident was her fault and she needed to make it up to him. "Are you sure you're okay there Russell? If I hadn't freaked out like that you wouldn't have had it bite you to begin with. 'Course if I hadn't just downed a bottle of wine I wouldn't have freaked out. . ." she trailed off feeling rather guilty about what had just happened and sighed.

"Feel free to shut me up any time I think I'm rambling." With the bottle out of her hand she made herself busy looking at some of the other things that were strewn about the room. "Wonder what else got put down here..."

"I'm fine, Silence. Don't worry about it. A little bandage and I'll be right as rain." Russell chuckled at her rambling, leaning his elbows against his knees. "I think you and fire should remain separated for now. The place is full of alcohol, after all." He smiled and rose back to his feet, looking into the corridor and gathered some of the light filtering down from the hole above collect on his fingers, projecting the weak light toward the darkness and saw no more eyes reflecting light back at him. "It looks like we're in the clear as far as wolverines go." He called over his shoulder, looking into the hall again to double check. "And any other critters too, it seems." Letting his hold on the light magic go, he turned back to Silence and offered a hand up. "Let's go see what other mysteries this lively little place has, eh?"

Knowing there was nothing else hiding in the dark corridor for a good long way set her at ease and she swallowed her nerves and hugged her companion. "I'll make it up to you I promise." How she'd do any such thing she hadn't any idea, but she accepted his offer to help her up and started off down the tunnel, half feeling in front of her to make sure she didn't run into a wall. Most of her walk was fairly boring, nothing to run into, until she hit something solid and unyielding. "A dead end, think we missed a side tunnel somewhere?" Whether or not it was a compliment to say that Russell was built like a solid stone wall was up in the air, but soon enough she'd find out that it wasn't an insult at the very least.

"Feels like stone, but it's warm." She turned and leaned back against the 'wall' and sighed. "Shall we go back and see if we missed any side passages?" She looked around in front of her and couldn't see her friend. "Rusty where'd you go?" She dragged her hand down her face. "Seriously Russell where'd you go? This isn't funny if you're hiding to scare me!" She wanted to get another bottle of wine, but was afraid to wander off without him. Instead she waited for him to appear or say something so she'd know where he was.

He blinked when he felt Silence bump into his back, looking over his shoulder at the inebriated girl and laughed at her antics. "The stone feels warm because it's not stone." Russell managed through his laughing and turned around, putting his hands on her shoulders to steady her and get her to look in the right direction. Gently he took her wrist and put her hand on his shoulder. "We'll be out in a second lass, just hold on and I promise not to disappear again." Summoning his magic, he lit up the tips of his fingers again, drawing what little light there was to be had down here in the dark hallway. It took most of his concentration to keep the small light steady, but he managed and quickly found a doorway.

Gingerly he tested the knob to see if it would open, and when it did he put his hand to his weapon and looked carefully for any more critters that might have decided to call the basement home. When he saw no more wolverines or other dangerous things lurking in the shadows, he opened the door wider and looked inside. What greeted him seemed to be an average room preserved in time and undisturbed since the residents had either died or left. There was a couch and a sitting chair, both covered in a heavy layer of dust. Some sort of clothing item was draped over the back of the chair, perhaps a coat. Against the wall he saw a wooden armoire, perhaps a little worse for wear, and several other things filling the space. Stepping inside, he held his hand high to get a better look at the room. "Seems one of your folks had a private little sitting room down here." He commented absently, looking around.

She had a private moment of panic and tried to compose herself. "You should warn me when you stop walking like that eesh! Talk about rock hard muscle, can't tell the difference between you and a stone wall." She looked about the room and found a few candles to light up before going through the armoire and pulling out a small chest, tied to one of the legs was a key. "Well, this little lovely is likely the reason we took this tangent in the first place. She pulled the key off the string and opened the box with shaky hands: the first thing she saw was a simple white wedding gown. "Well...I found a wedding gown that she never wore and a will along with it, among other assorted little trinkets that she kept from when I was little." The term 'sitting room' was an overstatement.

"I think this was the storage room for all the old furniture when stepfather would do renovations. Dashing lot of good it did putting it down here I wouldn't touch that love-seat with a ten foot pole." She then remembered why she always hated the furniture in the house, her stepfather loved hideous decor. "Anything of value that you find and carry out of this hole, sell it for all I care. I know a silver tea set got moved down here when I was about ten or so, it'll fetch some money." She read through what she could decipher of the letters her mother had left and then surveyed the rest of the room. "Where should we start with sorting this junk?"

Rock hard, huh? Well, he had certainly never been called that before! Grinning at her antics, Russell ignored the intended insult and chalked it up to drunkenness. He would have a story to tell when they got back to the Circus. He watched her pull out the contents of the box without comment, quietly cataloging the items of note in his mind and let the light on his fingers die when she lit the candles stationed around the room, seeing no need to expend his own limited energy now that they could see just fine without it. Looking over her shoulder, he scanned the letter she held in her hand quickly, picking out key words as he went as much as he was able with the limited available light and the terrible handwriting. A name at the bottom caught his eye, but he wasn't about to cry wolf just yet.

"I suppose that we should start at one end and work our way through. There might be something down here you want to keep, after all." Russell replied in a gentle tone, though fully intended on swiping that silver set if he could find it in the clutter of the room to sell. Some extra coin never hurt, though he wasn't sure if her bitterness at her stepfather was fueling the suggestion or the alcohol. He hoped the bitterness. "Do you mind if I take a look at this?" He pointed at the will in her hands, his tone casual enough.

"If you want, go right on ahead. I can't read her writing for anything." She moved aside bits of rather old fabric, some it falling apart at the slightest provocation, and founds some wooden crates in which some small valuables had been put. "Definitely lots of clothes, some new some falling apart from age. Looks like the armoire was used mainly for storage after it was moved down here. Termite damage beyond repair, a few boxes, I see costume jewelry and some man's jewelry in one of them. Most of this is useless stuff or used to be useful but is unrepairable." A snake slithered out of one of the drawers on the side of the armoire and while normally Silence would have freaked out, she had descended halfway into shock. "Careful there's apparently some snakes around here, there's one staring right at me and it's very disturbing."

Thankfully it was one of the local constrictor species but she had no idea what in the world it was besides simply being a snake. When the snake slithered off after assessing Silence wasn't a threat, she checked all the drawers to make sure nothing else would come crawling out and possibly do them harm. "All clear, there's a few old books in here, none look interesting." Her mother's things would be sorted later, so she relocked the chest and put the key in her shirt so she wouldn't lose it. On top of that anyone who wanted that chest opened would risk being burned alive for reaching down her shirt, so that was an added precaution.

» Family Reunion (Liza, Jula and Aero)
» Lovely Butterfly Wings [Kat x Liza]
» A Game of Cat and Mouse ((Echo/Aero))
» Disappear! (One on one, Aero Gorath and faeriethief)
» Fun and Games~Aero and Tegan