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Post by Noa on Dec 13, 2019 15:04:27 GMT -6
But at the very least, Nightshade could defend himself when the time came. Aster didn't need to worry about his capabilities in that regard But aside from that, he was surprisingly… gentle wasn't the word Aster was looking for, but it was somewhere in that neighborhood. There was a certain sense of polite restraint in the way that he moved and interacted with Aster, anyway.
Just as Aster was ruminating on this, however, Nightshade came to a stop in the snow. His attention seemed to be directed downward, at one of his feet. "What is it?" Aster said, stopping and turning back to look at the Wiurn.
It was the first instance in which Nightshade had done something out of the ordinary since they had first set out for this walk. Aster felt that he must have noticed something. But here in the mansion, he felt like it could be anything.
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Post by Noa on Dec 13, 2019 15:04:53 GMT -6
He hadn't thought to suspect the snow of hiding anything, but that had been naive of him. It was never that simple with the mansion.
There was always something strange going on, but the months were so many, arid so different from one another, that he never did remember what the specifics were for each of them when they came around again the next year. And he didn't come here so often, or with sufficient regularity, that he could memorize these facets of the place either. He generally only recalled something once he had already arrived at the mansion and seen the state it was in, and even then, his memories tended to be broad in scope, general feelings and sensations rather than specific things that occurred. Unless something particularly unpleasant had happened, of course, in which case he would have been hard pressed to forget that it had ever happened.
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Post by Noa on Dec 13, 2019 15:08:15 GMT -6
Aster didn't have any such negative memories associated with winter, but nevertheless he approached Nightshade with caution. He wasn't afraid of anything that the Wiurn might do, though to be honest maybe he ought to be. It wasn't as if Nightshade was harmless, however even his temper might seem to be now. Il he wished it, the Wiurn could still take Aster's head off with one bite, and arıything that powerful shouldn't be taken lightly.
Then there was the unspoken threat of whatever else the Nightshade could do by virtue of being what he was, and the modifications he had had when they created him. Like those floating stakes on his back, for one. Aster chanced a glance at them, and they stayed right where they were, looking for all the world as though…Well, not as though they belonged there, not exactly, but as though they were just... there.
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Post by Noa on Dec 13, 2019 15:09:11 GMT -6
He had never seen them do anything, and it was still a mystery as to what their purpose was, but he didn't doubt that they did have one. Nothing that strange could exist on a creature merely for cosmetic effect, surely. He just hoped he wouldn't regret anything when he found out what it was.
For now, however, the matter at hand was what had disturhed Nightshade into stopping in his tracks, and for that, Aster had to get close to his feet. He moved slowly, so as not to startle the Wiurn. In turn, Nightshade tracked his progress, craning his head around on his long neck to follow Aster as he walked around. Aster paused next to the left foot, and upon first glance, there didn't seem to be anything amiss with it. This was the side that Nightshade had been nosing at when he did stop though, Aster had noticed.
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Post by Noa on Dec 13, 2019 15:10:09 GMT -6
That was why he was pretty sure this was where it was--- whatever Nightshade had stepped on. "Let's see what we have here," Aster said. He was still moving slowly and deliberately, but this time he placed his hands on the Wiurn's hind foot, applying just enough pressure to get Nightshade to lift it. The Wiurn obliged, and Aster saw that underneath his foot, there really was something in the snow. It was clearly visible against the pristine white of it, even after having been flattened under the weight of a passing Wiurn-- a small shining bell with a scrap of red ribbon on it.
Now that he was seeing it, Aster could remember having seen something like these bells in the past, when he had had occasion to explore here in the winter. You could throw them into the well and wish for a... a fox or something like that.
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Post by Noa on Dec 13, 2019 15:11:06 GMT -6
Once again, the details were a bit hazy, except for the bad stuff. The number of those such memories were mercifully few, though he wondered if there ought to be more of them, since at least that way he might have some chance of remembering the dangers. Though, then again, the mansion hadn't been so fierce of late as he had seemed to recall. Maybe he was just learning to navigate it better, having picked up something of architecture over the years. This place didn't obey any conventional rules of architecture, but even so, maybe it appreciated a more educated mind. It could also be that they were becoming better acquainted, and the mansion, or whatever powers were at work here, was finally beginning to accept him. It was strange to think about being accepted by a place like this, or about the mansion having a will of its own in there.
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Post by Noa on Dec 13, 2019 15:12:20 GMT -6
Just as it was strange to think about the possibility of a Wiurn of all things possibly having an agenda for him. Though right now, Nightshade felt more ordinary than maybe he ever had since Aster had first acquired him. There was nothing like the very mundane task of figuring out what had gotten stuck under the foot of one of your heavy beasties to take you down a peg on how fancy your lifestyle was feeling. Well, except maybe for mucking out their stalls, but Aster wasn't ashamed to admit that he made Rabbit do that particular chore these days. Hey, she couldn't smell any of it, or at the very least she could choose not to smell it. Aster didn't have the luxury of such a function, so clearly she was the one with the advantage over him in that department, and so it made sense to divide their labor this way.
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Post by Noa on Dec 13, 2019 15:13:09 GMT -6
Fortunately it was just a bell, and not something with pointy bits that could get lodged between the scales or dig into the flesh of the poor beast that had the bad luck to step in it. But it was a reminder to Aster that the snow could hide other things too, and that he shouldn't rest too easy just because nothing bad had happened lately.
Aster picked up the bell and stuffed it into a pocket. He didn't have any use for a fox, but the wishing well might have other things to offer. He wasn't sure whether it changed from year to year or only month to month, since he didn't use it regularly enough to have figured out much about it. He knew some people frequented the mansion, collecting things from the place with a great deal more dedication than Aster had ever shown for it, but those people...
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Post by Noa on Dec 13, 2019 15:13:52 GMT -6
Actually, funnily enough, he never ran into those people here. He couldn't remember ever having run into anyone here at all, despite the fact that he sometimes saw items for sale in town that could only have come from here. It had gotten to the point where he felt pretty safe in coming here, even though he usually avoided any place that carried too much a risk of him running into people, just because it didn't actually feel like a possibility that could happen. Maybe he was being lulled into a false sense of security that he would someday regret, but maybe not. The mansion itself was magical enough, so who was to say it couldn't prevent people from meeting orie another while it was exploring its grounds?
But that was also the kind of thing that didn't bear too much thinking about. He could sense that much about the topic already.
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Post by Noa on Dec 13, 2019 15:14:38 GMT -6
Especially if he wanted to get into the mechanics of how it worked. Magic could do a lot of things, but the logistics of something like pocket dimensions or temporal manipulation.. No, that was for all those mages, and scientists they had out here studying this stuff. Aster was here to take his Wiurn for a walk.
In the interest of doing that, he paced back to Nightshade's front, and gave the Wiurn one more once over. Nightshade didn't seem out of sorts, though he was looking at Aster with what might have been a curious expression. Belatedly, Aster remembered that he had been nosing at his foot. Maybe he hadn't gotten a good look at what he had stepped on, and was still curious about it. Aster brought out the bell from his pocket and held it up so that the Wiurn could take a look at it if he wanted.
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Post by Noa on Dec 13, 2019 15:15:50 GMT -6
"This is it," he said. "This is what you stepped on. Impressive, right?" It wasn't, but that was the joke. Not that Nightshade would get it.
But then, that was for the best. If Summer or Dami had been here, they probably wouldn't have laughed. Dami would probably have chastised him, actually, for saying something lame. In his years of living with both sentient and non sentient companions, he had learned that sometimes it was just better not to have an audience that could judge you for what you were doing. Occasionally it was still better not to have company at all, though not for very long.
"Well, let's see if we can find any more," Aster said, taking a few steps forward. He paused, looking back to check that Nightshade was still following. Sure enough, the Wiurn fell in with him as soon as Aster started walking through the yard again.
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Post by Noa on Dec 13, 2019 15:16:58 GMT -6
That bit with the bell must not have bothered him too much, which was good, though by all logic, it really shouldn't have either. Aster had yet to begin the work of properly desensitizing Nightshade, it was true, but even so, something like that shouldn't be enough to unnerve a creature of his size.
Which wasn't to say it couldn't, of course. Animals could be surprisingly timid even when they were big, though this tended to be more true for the ones who were used to being prey. Vigilance was the key to their survival, so he could hardly blame them for it, though there were occasions on which he was sorely tempted to do so after Grunty having a fit over something that couldn't possibly really hurt him. And Grunty, as far as Aster knew, was one of the better specimens of his kind as far as unreasonable panic went.
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Post by Noa on Dec 13, 2019 15:19:24 GMT -6
He wasn't what Aster would have called a docile creature, but he was pretty sedate. Aster walked on, watching his breath fog in the chill air and then dissipate. "If we find six of these," he said to Nightshade, "we could get a prize. Or I could get a prize, anyway. I don't think it's going to be anything you'd be interested in."
Funnily enough, the general trend was towards household items, of all things, though occasionally there were magical items thrown in too. Though he supposed that if he was getting his tokens from what was essentially an old magicked house, then maybe it wasn't all that strange that he was getting things to use for another house.
He wondered if Rey would appreciate any of these things from the mansion, since he had a place of his own now that he could decorate and make up as he liked.
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Post by Noa on Dec 13, 2019 15:20:19 GMT -6
He was always more for that kind of thing, making a neat home and all, than Aster was. This was true even when he had been a Hara. Aster was content that everything worked inside the house and that he had a bed that he could sleep on. It was even a comfortable bed, which was about as much in the way of luxuries as he tended to care about. Well, that and that it was warm in the winter. Being warm was pretty important to him too. That felt particularly relevant these days, considering the snows had come.
By now, however, Aster had managed to repair and renovate the house on his estate to be quite cozy, so he wasn't concerned about being cold when he was indoors, at least. And out of doors, it wasn't so bad if you knew you had some place warm to go back to.
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Post by Noa on Dec 13, 2019 15:21:04 GMT -6
The exercise he got from going out in the winter was good, even a little bracing, though he didn't care for the shorter days or the way that he lost feeling in his extremities after a while.
Out of the corner of his eye, Aster could see Nightshade snap to attention, but he didn't have to wonder what it was. They saw it at about the same time; the little birds that they had heard singing to one another earlier. Their meandering path had brought them argund the side of the house, so that they could see more of the back yard by now, and there, among the trees, little red birds darted here and there. They were still singing to each other, providing a little background noise in what would otherwise be a silent landscape. "What do you think? Aster said to Nightshade. "Think you could catch one of them?"
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