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 Posted: Fri Dec 30, 2005 1:46 am
“Oh, thank God this is the last of it…”
There were a lot of things Naien liked about where she lived, but the lack of transportation wasn’t one of them. This meant hauling all of her Christmas gifts and such home herself. The walk from Barton normally wasn’t that bad, she actually quite enjoyed it, but when you’ve got to lug a ridiculously heavy box with you… Well, it’s not so fun then.
But nothing quite beat the joy of rounding that last bend and seeing her cozy little house come into view. She could’ve cried in relief, except that then it’d take longer to get there. It seemed to take far too long as it was.
Despite that, she did make it, thankfully without major damage to the box.
The first thing she was greeted with as she stepped up onto her porch was a raucous chittering, and the dull thump of the resident gargoyle landing on the box, ending up nose-to-nose with Nai. She gave him an impressive scowl. “Damnit Kokennin, this thing is heavy enough! Get off!”
Nothing.
Thank God for bribery. “I’ve got chocolate…” That worked like a charm, and the little green gargoyle hopped off the box without hesitation. He had a real soft spot for junk food, she’d found.
Of course, this meant that she actually had to give him some, when she’d much rather hoard it all. With an overly dramatic sigh, she dug a large chocolate Santa Claus out of the box and threw it in the gargoyle’s general direction.
He scrabbled to catch it, then scrambled up onto the small patio table. After taking a sizeable bite of the chocolate, foil and all, he chittered something through the mouthful and waved a clawed hand in the vague direction of Nai’s feet
She blinked, then let her gaze follow the gargoyle’s pointing. There, sitting innocently on her doormat, was a small parcel. Raising a slender brow in curiosity, she bent to pick it up. It was fairly squishy and soft, and there was no sign of a card or tag on the outside. “Hm, that’s interesting. Did you see who left it?” The last bit was directed at Kokennin, who shook his head and took another bite of chocolate.
That was almost stranger than the package itself. In the few days since she’d brought him home, the little gargoyle had made it his business to know damn near everything that happened in or around the house. Well, she supposed, he did have to sleep. The parcel must have been dropped off when he was having a nap, or something. She was mostly satisfied with that explanation. “Well, thanks anyways Kokennin. I’m sure there’s a card inside or something that’ll explain.” The gargoyle inclined his head, and then promptly scuttled back up the roof with the rest of his chocolate.
After narrowly dodging a few wayward clumps of snow kicked up by the retreating gargoyle’s feet, Naien set the box down and fished her house key out of a pocket.
It was a bit of a feat for her to hold the heavy wooden door open and manhandle the box inside while still holding the mysterious parcel under her arm, but she managed somehow, and plopped the box down carelessly next to the door. Her soggy boots, coat, and gloves were quickly shed, and left in a heap on top of the box, leaving her in her slightly thin, but dry, jeans and tee. She set the parcel on the counter as she passed, even though her curiosity was screeching at her to open the damn thing.
First on the priority list was tending to the fire, a rather important task when it’s the only source of heat in the house. Peering into the antique-style woodstove, Nai was relieved to see that the fire hadn’t died completely in her absence. She poked a few pieces of fresh firewood into the coals, blowing gently to encourage them to catch fire. She stayed crouched in front of the fire until it caught and blazed merrily, then stood and closed the grate.
The room started to warm up nice and quickly, one of the advantages to having a very small house. Feeling rather lazy, Nai decided to poke at the package, and that any other chores could wait. She grabbed the parcel, and a blanket to curl up in, then plopped down in the overstuffed armchair in front of the woodstove, her favorite seat in the house (that opinion was obviously shared by her four newest house-mates, as she had to forcibly remove the miniscule felines before she could sit down). After she’d settled down comfortably and wrapped the blanket around her shoulders, she finally gave the parcel in her lap her full attention.
It was vaguely round, wrapped tightly in a fine, pale blue cloth and secured with a matching ribbon. “Hmm. I think maybe someone was running a little late with their Christmas gifts. Odd that they wouldn’t put a tag or card or something on the outside.” She shrugged, then gently tugged the ribbon free and started to unfurl the fabric. She’d expected maybe a few feet of the fine cloth, then a box or something of the sort. She didn’t expect the fabric to keep going, and going, and going… By the time she felt something fall in her lap, she had nearly six feet of silky blue in her hands. But she was far more interested in what the cloth had contained, and quickly balled the fabric up and stuck it between her hip and the cushion. With that out of the way, what remained in her lap was a slightly crumpled piece of paper, along with the most spectacular bracelet Naien had ever laid eyes on.
It was a gold bangle, composed of sleek lines and delicate swirls that glimmered brightly in the yellow-orange light cast by the fire. But what really captivated her was the stone set in the center; a massive, pale gem that shone with more colors than she knew existed. Moonstone, her mind supplied for her, though she was sure she’d never seen any that looked like this. All she could do really was admire the thing, it had her totally awestruck.
It was several minutes before she remembered that she didn’t know whom it was from, or why. She’d assumed that it was a late Christmas gift, but this thing must have cost a damn fortune. She didn’t know anyone with that kind of money, let alone someone who would spend it on her. She was kind of at a loss.
It was then that she noticed the card that had fallen to her lap along with the bangle. Setting the bracelet down carefully on the blanket, she picked up the rumpled card and smoothed out the corners with her thumbs. “Changelings”, it said, in a flowing, curly script. There was an address that she didn’t recognize underneath that in smaller writing, but nothing else. She flipped the card over, hoping for some sort of explanation, or at least a name[/], but no such luck. Only a short, cryptic message that read “Leave it outside.” The only guess she had was that this was a business card for wherever the bangle had been bought, that would explain the address. But she couldn’t think of any possible explanation for the note on the back, nor did she have any idea why such a gorgeous bauble should be left out in the cold. If anything, the card left her more confused than before.
She sighed heavily and, not really knowing what else to do, started pondering her options. It would be easiest, she reasoned, to just keep it, no questions asked. Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, you know. But that solution didn’t really sit well, she was far too damn curious about it by this point to let it go. So, that’s out. Plan B, she could go back into town tomorrow and track down the store from the card, and try to get some answers there. But that was a long shot anyways, she had no idea what sort of place it was, and they might not be able to tell her anything. Besides, she really didn’t feel like going back into town so soon. So that one’s out too. The only other thing she could possibly think of was to follow the card’s instructions, and leave the bracelet outside. She thought that one over. She rarely gets visitors, and her nearest neighbor was at least 5k away, so there wasn’t really any danger of it being stolen. Even if someone did come, Kokennin is always around. And he is a bit scary-looking sometimes.
It was the only option left, really. She looked the bracelet over again, eyes trailing over it slowly. But the facets of the gem yielded no answers, and she sighed. “Well, I guess it’s outside with you, then. But I’ll be damned if I know why.” She sighed again and shook her head, then climbed out of the cushy chair, leaving the blanket and the blue cloth in a heap. The card was slipped into her back pocket, and she took with her the bracelet itself and the ribbon that had secured the wrapping.
Dressed in her coat and boots (she hadn’t bothered with gloves), she stepped out onto her small porch and looked around for a suitable spot to place the bangle. She barely even notice as Kokennin peeked over the edge of the roof to watch her. Not long after that, one of the smaller nearby pines caught her eye. She headed over, peering and poking at the branches critically, before seeming to pick one. She deftly looped the ribbon around the bracelet and knotted it tightly, tugging at it with her teeth to make sure it would stay, then looped it over the branch, far enough in that it wouldn’t fall off if it got windy.
Then she stepped back and examined her handiwork. And abruptly clapped a hand to her forehead. “Damnit, I must be going nuts…” Despite that, however, she didn’t move to take the bangle back inside, instead turning to trudge back to the house. She paused before going back inside, looking over the edge of the roof to catch the gargoyle’s eye. “…Kokennin, if anyone tries to steal that, you kick their a**, alright?” She didn’t bother to wait for any acknowledgement before disappearing into the house.
The day had turned out longer than expected, and now all she wanted was to sleep.
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Posted: Fri Dec 30, 2005 8:21 am
The morning was just as cold as the evening... and crystals shimmered everywhere on the top of the snow and ice that clung to everything. This morning, however, there was something amiss... several hoofprints, all surrounding the bracelet where it was hanging. It was as if something had come up and inspected it closely.
However, there were no prints leading to the spot... or away from it. It was as if the creature just appeared, paced around several times, then vanished once more.
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Posted: Fri Dec 30, 2005 2:01 pm
It was really one of those winter wonderland days, with frost coating absolutely everything and soft sunshine making everything glimmer like diamonds. Just like the ones in children’s storybooks. Except that the books fail to mention that such days are generally cold enough that ‘freezing one’s a** off’ wasn’t too far from the truth.
Which is exactly the reason Naien hadn’t left her house all day, opting instead to curl up with a good book. In fact, she’d barely left her chair, only getting up occasionally to put more wood on the fire, or make herself another cup of hot chocolate. All in all, she was having a rather pleasant day.
…Well, until the firewood ran out. That kind of put a damper on her mood, really. “Craaaaaap… I really don’t wanna chop any wood today…” Unpleasant as the thought was, it was better than having the fire go out, so she very, very reluctantly got up and donned her winter gear. Almost as an afterthought, she grabbed a small bag of chips from the cupboard before going out.
And oh, was it ever freezing. Her teeth started chattering almost instantly, and she resolved to get this over with as quick as humanly possible. After grabbing the hatchet from it’s place leaning next to the door she stepped off the porch, pitching the bag of chips over her shoulder onto the roof. Moments later, a happy chitter and the sound of the bag being torn open told her that Kokennin appreciated the offering.
She absently wished that she had the same tolerance for cold that the little gargoyle demonstrated, as she rounded the corner of the house to where the woodpile and chopping block sat. After sweeping most of the snow from the block, she grabbed a log from the top of the pile and started chopping.
It was rather hard work, so after not too long the cold wasn’t quite as biting as before, and her teeth had stopped chattering. Despite that though, it still took longer than she’d have liked to chop enough wood to last her the rest of today and tomorrow, and even longer than that to carry it inside by the armload. By the time she was done with the last load, it had been nearly an hour and a half, and she was huffing and puffing, and not terribly cold anymore.
Looking forward to finally being able to continue with her book, she rounded the corner a last time, to put the hatchet away. She hefted it over her shoulder, and proceeded to go back to the porch, but as she turned something glinted, catching her eye.
Oh right, the bracelet. She’d almost forgotten about it, having stayed inside all of today. After setting the hatchet down by the door, she headed over to the tree to check on the bangle, make sure it wasn’t going to fall off and such.
The bracelet itself was exactly as she’d left it, but not two feet from the tree she realized that something was off. There were footprints- no, hoofprints, marring the snow all around the tree. She crouched down to get a closer look, poking at one of the marks. They didn’t look right to be deer, too big anyways. It looked more like a horse, but that didn’t make sense, there weren’t any wild horses in this area, and none of her neighbors owned any, not that they lived close enough anyways.
Scowling in confusion, she straightened up and headed back to the house. Just before going in, she called sharply up to the roof. “Hey! Kokennin!” The green gargoyle’s head popped into view, hanging upside down from the edge of the roof. “See anything odd last night?” He shook his head, and retreated back onto the roof.
Pinching the bridge of her nose to stem the imminent headache, she turned and disappeared into the house, slamming the door behind her. This thing was getting to be more trouble than it was worth.
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Posted: Fri Dec 30, 2005 2:38 pm
The following morning holds yet another surprise...
The bracelet is gone, all traces of the relic vanished. Even the ribbon that held it aloft is missing. However, curled in a swatch of dark green fleece is a wrapped bundle of joy. Alicorne is here!
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Posted: Fri Dec 30, 2005 3:23 pm
(( ...Ooops, wrong button. xD *will edit this shortly* ))
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