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Post by Alma on Feb 28, 2020 23:43:49 GMT -6
Well, at least she still had Iago to divert any unwanted attention.
She stood at the threshold, examining the room beyond. It was not as brightly lit as the outdoors had been, the primary source of light not provided by any windows but instead flickering flames. The gas lamps were spread throughout the rooms walls, each flame contained within a glass bubble which was in turn held by a stem of metalwork that she could not make out from the doorway. The light pouring in from the door behind her gave more light than the lamps, the shadows the latter sent dancing around the room more than enough to hide any potential enemies. The furniture too seemed just as carefully wrought as the other metal items, the backs and legs appearing to carry the same designs.
She might have hesitated longer if it were not for the sarane tethered to her. 51
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Post by Alma on Feb 28, 2020 23:44:04 GMT -6
Iago had no interest in the furniture or the flames. He did not care about the color of the long carpet, the way it deepened into another color as it extended beyond the light of the doorway. What he was interested in was the ways the shadows twitched and shifted like moving things, surely meaning that there were things hiding just out of his immediate sight. And he fully intended to drag them into the light and have for himself a snack.
The sarane hatchling strode into the place as if he had lived there his entire life, only stopping once the rope grew taut. A look back at where Haix still stood allowed them to look directly at each other's eyes, the annoyed urgency of Iago clear in the bright light of the outdoors. The little sarane could not understand why Haix hesitated any more than why she started to move shortly after meeting his gaze. 52
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Post by Alma on Feb 28, 2020 23:44:16 GMT -6
Being challenged by a crafted hatchling that had only minutes ago cowered under her legs due to a loud noise was insulting. But, as stinging of an insult as it was to have a cowardly beast question her, she refused to continue immediately into the mansion for two reasons. The first and better of the two reasons was to watch the moving shadows a few seconds longer, recalling the warning outside that the mansion was celebrating a time of harvest and darkness. If there were creatures lingering in the shadows, or being the lurking shadows themselves, she expected waiting in the light of the outside would protect her and the little sarane would provide a tempting enough target to trigger any ambush early.
The second reason was to make it clear that she, not the beast on the end of the leash, decided when they would move. He was nothing more than a pet despite his lofty species name. 53
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Post by Alma on Feb 28, 2020 23:44:27 GMT -6
When no attack was forthcoming, the shadows remaining consistently where the flames allowed them to, Haix stepping in after the sarane. She did not wait by the open doors but moved to get a better look at a small table under one of the flickering lights, dragging Iago across the carpet after he tried to lunge at a nearby shadow. A white lacy thing that reminded her of a spider’s web lay across the tables top, keeping the fluted glass vase on top of it from directly touching the table. A single rose rested within it, the flower just as perfect as those blooming on the hedge walls outside.
The table itself was not metal as she first thought, though it was made of some shiny dark wood. The carvings on it would have been more impressive had they not featured more of the same flowers and leaves she had already seen plenty of. 54
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Post by Alma on Feb 28, 2020 23:44:40 GMT -6
Then again, the place was cursed and no natural being had likely crafted the table any more than they had pruned the roses or cleared the dead leaves from her last visit. Growing so comfortable within such a dangerous place as to consider it’s furnishings as tacky as she might have expected from a soft-skin hut would not aid her in any way. The house might have made them like such to distract from what horrors it planned to visit on intruders.
She could not help but think the plants and lavender motif was a little over the top though.
The sarane hatchling was too busy watching the shadows, straining both to make out anything moving within them and to escape the leash. Haix had wound the rope back over her arm to lessen the odds of the sarane getting into trouble and causing her to be reeling in alongside him. 55 ((Iago-11.0))
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Post by Alma on Feb 28, 2020 23:44:54 GMT -6
There had been just enough slack to allow him to remain on the carpeting when Haix stepped off of it onto the wooden floorboards, the slats just as polished and unmarked as the table standing upon it. The carpeting was plush enough that his feet disappeared into it as he stood on it, the thick fibers providing a great deal more traction than the polished ground would have. But, though he dug his claws into the carpet and tried to pull himself to the nearest shadow, the lizard he was attached to responded with nothing other than a few muttered words and a tug of the rope before returning to look over the table.
He was annoyed by this, though whether it was due to the lack of a greater reaction or not being freed to hunt the shadows would not be apparent, and he started to gnaw on the rope. 56
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Post by Alma on Feb 28, 2020 23:45:07 GMT -6
The rope was a foul-tasting thing, and while the fibers that made it up were small and thin, he could not sever them through his chewing. A few already loose strands made it feel like he was chewing on hair, the strands sliding uncomfortably between his teeth as he continued. He had forgotten his earlier attempts at breaking free, but the taste of the rope brought it back. The sarane hatchling kept chewing, dutifully chomping at the rope as if it would break from the combination of drool and teeth.
Haix ignored the sarane slobbering on the rope as she looked at the table for any sign of magic more dangerous than had been used to craft a perfect table. Finding none, she paid the house a compliment for the work it had done, unsure how it’s mind worked. Did it really just like crafting scenery for each of the soft-skin holidays? 57
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Post by Alma on Feb 28, 2020 23:45:17 GMT -6
It would not be such a bad thing if that was the case. It would mean there would barely be a reason to hunt on the property, but it also meant it might be a great deal safer than the scrawled warnings outside had spoken of. Then again, she was more inclined to believe them than the supposedly peaceful state of the house. Even had she not dealt with the changing thicket of thorns and roses out in the garden, she had been at the mansion when everything in it had looked dead. And when skeletal beasts that resembled dead children had roamed around it. Even if the house itself was not dangerous, something here was.
The only danger Iago was in was of boredom. He stopped chewing on the rope to look wistfully back at the shadows, wanting nothing more than to rush over to them and pounce. Any of his earlier fears had been completely forgotten. 58
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Post by Alma on Feb 28, 2020 23:45:28 GMT -6
When she finished looking at the tiny table, Iago pulled and strained at the front of the rope as she made her way over to the rest of the furniture. Up close, the illusion of it being metal had disappeared, or else the house had somehow changed metal for wood while she had been distracted by the table and her thoughts.The visible portions of the furniture here was not so heavily carved as the table had been, showing off a few simple lines a a single carved bloom on each armrest of the sitting furniture. The rest of the couch was upholstered with designs that brought to mind the roses outside without looking too similar to them, abstract shapes that she found she did not care to stare at.
While Haix had not yet touched so much as a piece of wood, Iago hopped up onto the couch as she finished looking at it, spinning in a circle and poking his head between the cushions and the backrest a moment later. 59
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Post by Alma on Feb 28, 2020 23:45:39 GMT -6
The couch failed to eat the sarane, his head popping free of the cushions a moment later to resume running around on the cushions. Haix turned away from his playing to get a better look at the table. And the items that she could have sworn had not been there a few seconds before.
The teapot, black and patterned with lavender roses, sat next to a matching pair of teacups, with steam rising hazily from the black liquid contained within them. Next to those was a plateful of small brown lumps, ranging in size and pattern but clearly meant to be a sugary food item of some kind.The idea of touching any of the things on the table did not occur to her, much less consuming any of the things. The roses she might have explained away as being a matter of changed perspective, of just not paying enough attention the first time she had looked them over. 60 ((Iago-12.0))
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Post by Alma on Feb 28, 2020 23:45:49 GMT -6
But this could not be ignored. It felt as if something was toying with her, keeping just out of sight and then changing things. She knew the tabletop had been clear when she had come over, and no trick of the light could explain the fragile vessels, filled to the brim with some unknown liquid, still hot and steaming as if it had been freshly poured.
Iago had not seen the arrival of the items on the table, but he did smell them. The meat he had consumed earlier was no longer as present as it had been upon arrival, and a whiff of the chocolate and tea was enough to pique his interest. He hopped off of the couch to stand beside the green hen, rearing up on his hinds legs to place his front feet on the table top. There was no change of elevation here as there had been outside, and his claws tapped against the surface easily. 61
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Post by Alma on Feb 28, 2020 23:46:08 GMT -6
He kicked off with his hind legs and a flutter of his wings to stand on the table, eyeing the treats resting there with hunger. It was no hunt, no coppery smell of hot blood and warm meat, but it smelled delicious all the same. He ignored the sounds the hen made as he approached, uninterested in anything beyond the feast before him.
So locked onto the food, he almost failed to notice the pressure on his sides as the food moved down and away from him, his claws outstretched and flailing as he tried to grip the dropping table. It took him a second of thought to realize the table was not moving but he was, the noises of the hen continuing as it picked him up. Enraged by this, he swung his head around and sunk his teeth into her hands. Stupid hen, he wanted the food. It was all his. 62
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Post by Alma on Feb 28, 2020 23:46:18 GMT -6
The pressure increased the moment he bit, and he felt the new pain of the claws digging into his own scaled flesh. He had time for a squeak before the hen screeched at him, shaking him roughly. His only response was to bite harder, not out of spite or rage any longer but just to hold on. Then he was slammed against something that knocked the air out of him, then thrown onto it in a tumble of tail and wings.
Haix watched the miserable creature squeak as it bounced around the couch, his tumble coming to an end against the padded armrest. He struggled into a standing position, then looked up at her with flared wings and a hiss. She hissed right back, flaring her frills in lieu of wings, her own yellow eyes narrowed into slits as she met his wide open ones. One could not let any pets get away with such things. 63
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Post by Alma on Feb 28, 2020 23:46:30 GMT -6
He held her gaze for seconds longer than she had expected, but his challenge did not last. His wings trembled and he took a step back into the back of the couch. He flinched as he did so, eyes darting away from Haix for a heartbeat, then locking back onto her. The wings slowly drooped, pulled back to his sides as he lowered himself into a crawl, purposely looking away from Haix’s gaze as he sought to make himself as small as possible.
She watched him for a few more seconds, then looked down at the finger he had bitten. A single round orb of blood welled up from the spot one of his teeth had broken through, and she licked at it. Allowing the mansion to taste even a single drop of her blood would no doubt be the end for her, cursed or not. She could afford to wait a minute for the blood to stop. 64
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Post by Alma on Feb 28, 2020 23:46:42 GMT -6
She kept an eye on Iago even as she turned away from him, trying to make it clear that she would not retaliate for the tiny bit of blood he had taken from her. There was no pressing need felt to examine him for injuries, both as he would undoubtedly take such a check as a threat and because she had specifically aimed for the couch when he was thrown. Any damage he might have taken anyways would have been nothing compared to whatever poisonous substances the house had offered them.
Picking him up had not been the best choice, the sarane hatchling rarely tolerating touch in general for too long. But she had not thought of grabbing him only by the cobbled together ‘harness’, though the collection of bits and pieces might have broken apart under such rough handling anyways, and the option of grabbing the rope protruding from it had slipped her mind. 65 ((Iago-13.0 Haix-183))
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