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 Posted: Sun Jun 07, 2009 1:12 am
Who: Milton, Adam, Xiu, Hazeline
When: Nightime, dark enough to see the stars!
Where: North Aeka Caves, Milton's house
Weather: Coooold! The night makes this region pretty nippy, especially with the winds blowing down some of the chill from the top of the mountains
What: A meeting. It was cold at night, every night save for some summers. Milton had long sense grown accustomed to it. He might have even grown to love it had he the capability of it. So crisp and cool, and tonight it was cloudless. He was on the roof with his telescope, adjusting it placidly and ignoring the tugging at the bottom of his robe. He checked the eyepiece and the view. There.
He reached down and scooped up the child that had quietly demanded his attention, grunting quietly at the tremendous amount of weight despite its size. "Here, boy, look. That's the star Vega. The sun itself is a mere infant in its wake."
Adam would croon appreciatively at the lights swimming before his vision, although he was unsure just what was so special about them. Milton seemed to like them, though, so he should too. His clay-made hands fumbled against the body of the telescope, patting. Soon enough he was put down, back to sit upon the roof while the wizard went to looking himself.
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Posted: Tue Sep 08, 2009 6:18 pm
“Hazeline, this road…it is not shown on the map,” said Xiu quietly but with some measure of worry in his voice. “Are you sur-,”
“Yes, Xiu. I talked with some of the locals back at the gas station,” said Hazeline with a shrug. “This road through the North Aeka Caves would save us at least half an hour’s drive, Xiu; and the map’s probably outdated. Can’t remember the last time anybody used it,” said Hazeline as she gave the ancient looking piece of paper a glance. “Where did you find it anyway?”
“In the old trunk back home; beneath what I think used to be a bag of sweets…,” said Xiu wrinkling his nose. “It smelled horrid,”
“Wouldn’t be surprised,” said Hazeline with a laugh. “That trunk has never been opened since Joshua and I moved into that bookstore. It belongs to Dad and Dad often has sweets stashed away somewhere. He’d probably forgotten about it,”
“But why would a trunk belonging to your fathe-,”
“Stepfather,” corrected Hazeline “But go on,”
“-A trunk belonging to your stepfather be in the bookstore?” asked Xiu curiously.
“Our old home probably ran out of space,” said Hazeline with chuckle. “It’s big, that old house but with bigger space, junk tends to accumulate in the most alarming way sometimes,”
“I’ve never seen the old house,” said Xiu turning to face his guardian. “What’s it like?”
“Oh, it big…and old,” said Hazeline dismissively. “But there’s probably no one home. The last I heard, Dad and Mum were off on some tropical island,”
“Umm…Hazeline, is the car supposed to be smoking like that?” asked Xiu worriedly as a stream of pale smoke began appearing beneath the car’s bonnet.
“No, it isn’t,” said Hazeline before cursing softly as the car came to a gentle stop by what was probably the darkest stretch of road in the area. “And I’ve just had it checked a couple of days ago…,”
“The automobile emergency number?” suggested Xiu as he peered into the darkness. Something about it made the frei uneasy.
“The reception’s bad over here,” said Hazeline checking her phone. “Perhaps it’s the mountains or something. Well, anyway, let’s see what we can do,” said Hazeline stepping out of the car to inspect the engine. Xiu nodded and floated beside his guardian.
A couple of minutes of silence passed between guardian and frei before Xiu flared his wings slightly. “Hazeline, I haven’t…the faintest clue what’s wrong with it,” said Xiu. “Perhaps it’s best that we think of an alternative…,”
“I’m all ears, Xiu,” sighed Hazeline as she slammed the bonnet down. “What would you suggest?”
“We backtrack and…find a safer place than this,” said Xiu quietly. “This place…it is dangerous,”
“Well, yeah…it’s dark and all but, Xiu, walking back all those miles on foot…,”
“It is safer, trust me,” said Xiu as he gave the darkness surrounding the road a frown. There was something amiss. The air was still and yet… barely discernable shapes were moving in the dark.
“Come, Hazeline,”
“W-Wait up, Xiu!” said Hazeline as the guardian jogged beside her charge. “Seriously, it’s just a little dark and gloomy, nothing to worry about, Xiu,”
“That…remains to be seen…,” said Xiu slowing down enough to take a hold of his guardian’s hand. “Anyway, I saw a light belonging to a house shining not too far away. We could get help there,”
Thirty minutes of brisk walking later, the raevan had led his guardian to the doors of a rather secluded house. Raising a slender arm, the white frei gave the door a couple of soft knocks.
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Posted: Tue Sep 29, 2009 8:17 pm
The two males were up there for a while. Milton could be lost for a long time when he went stargazing, and despite his plausible excuse, little Adam was not a complainer. So it was relatively peaceful for a while, until the wizard caught a whiff of what he thought was smoke on the wind. Huh. Well, it wasn't the house, or else Celsior was sure to be squealing. The redhead then peered into the distant plains, squinting to try and discern shapes beneath the light of the stars. Perhaps he had just imagined it.
But pointing his telescope down, he found it after a while. The silhouette of a vehicle stuck out of the flat grass like a sore thumb. "Hmph. Looks like some poor dullards got stranded out there in the dark." He told Adam. And then he proceeded to chuckle, darkly.
It wasn't until he heard shuffling below that he started again. An animal? There were lots of unruly beasts out here, especially at night. Bears roamed through this area occasionally, coming down from up in the mountains. And of course, with the farmland nearby (as in several miles away), you had your fair share of wolves too. Whatever it was, it was worth Milton poking his pointy nose over the end of the roof and looking. What he saw made him stiffen. Ohhh no. Those dullards! Poor, simple, miserable wretches from the car, wandering into his property! That meant they were going to want something from him. That meant he'd have to talk. Or perhaps he could just hide up here until something ate them, or else they went away...
He'd left the lights on in the upstairs bedroom, though, hadn't he?
"Dash it all!" He hissed quietly, shuffling restlessly about the roof for a moment in his indecision before he looked back over the roof again. They were closer now, and it looked as if... the one was gliding, rather than walking. No, not gliding... floating. Thin lips twitched with indecision, but in the end, he was scooping Adam up and heading inside through the trap door in the roof.
When the knock came, it took all of five seconds for Milton to open it, light filtering out into the dark past his wayward form. How to open...? Hello, welcome? How can I help you?
"Do you have any idea what time it is?" Milton eyed the youthful face of the Raevan, restraining himself with great difficulty to keep them there instead of floating down to the ribbon. "What do you want?"
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Posted: Wed Sep 30, 2009 1:26 am
The glow from the light beyond the door as it opened to the darkness made Xiu and Hazeline blink a couple of times as their eyes adjusted to the sudden brightness. Then there was a voice;
"Do you have any idea what time it is?"
"What do you want?"
“I apologize, sir,” said Xiu as politely as he could while his guardian looked embarrassed. “But given our situation, it was the best we could do,”
The frei then waited a couple of moments before trying to appeal to Milton’s better nature “Surely, you wouldn’t expect a lady to wait out there in the dark, would you?”
“That’s fine, Xiu,” said Hazeline turning a shade of red. The young woman was not comfortable with seeking help from a stranger and the other’s less than friendly greeting upon opening the door made Hazeline shift uneasily. “If you could direct us to the nearest working phone booth or patrol station we should be able to be on our way,”
“That road is dangerous, Hazeline,” murmured Xiu. “We should not risk it,”
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Posted: Tue Oct 06, 2009 10:01 am
"A lady? Hmph. I don't see how that much matters, what with all the feminists these days." The redhead retorted tartly, though his shrewd eyes located the shape of poor Hazeline in the darkness.
"He's right, you know. There are all sorts of things lurking out there in the grass this time of night, and I don't mean simply animals. You're lucky you made it all the way out here." He addressed her, "In fact, I'm not sure if you are not some sort of demon come to pray on the kindness of others. It's possible."
And he would mean it, any other time. It was Xiu that made him a little more privy to the idea of letting strangers into his home in the middle of the night. He looked nothing like the last (and first) Raevan he'd seen, Zul, but one did not readily forget or fail to notice both were missing their lower halves. Milton was curious to see this boy in a better light, but as per usual, he wasn't going to let things go easily.
"Can you both prove that you are not demons?" He inquired casually. It wasn't likely that they were just going to leave, after all. He could afford to press, or so he believed.
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Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2009 6:02 am
Xiu stared at the perplexing and aggravating human before him with a small frown. The human was obviously a man lacking in common courtesy. He had all but denied aid to Hazeline but instead of merely saying ‘no’, he had gone on to scare Hazeline about the possibilities of something a little darker than your average nocturnal animals existing out there; a move, the white frei suspected, to keep them trapped and desperate enough to humour his bad temper.
“We do not know the least bit about demons,” replied the frei as politely as he could. “However, you, sir seem to know something about them. Perhaps with the knowledge that you have, you could prove that we are, in fact, demons. However, if you are unable to, we shall seek refuge in your home until such time as it is proper to leave,”
“Xiu,” hissed Hazeline, embarrassed even further by her raevan’s reply.
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Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2009 7:04 pm
Xiu would be absolutely correct, at least the part about making them settle with his bad temper. There were some nasty things out there in the night. He'd seen a werewolf, once! But that was beside the point. Milton was expecting someone to dance for his amusement, to be quite frank. What he got, however, baffled him.
"You think you can force your way in here?" He sputtered, not taking it as a challenge but as a threat. His brows cinched menacingly, and he opened the door enough so that his frame now filled it. The hard knob of a wooden staff was pressed into the Raevan's ivory chest, poking him rudely and with meaning, "You have no idea to whom you are speaking, boy. I don't know how they made you, but I'm sure it would take a lot less effort on my part to unravel you!"
His nostrils flared somewhat with anger, but after a rather indignant huff from them, he withdrew, thinking it suitable enough. Was a little fun so much to ask? Was his life not dull enough? Fine.
"I know you're not demons. They are usually children, and not idiots who are trying to drive through these roads at night. I suppose you can come in, although you're going to have to lose that assuming nature of yours, young man. I don't have to give you anything. I don't like how you didn't care to ask me for entrance- you simply seemed to think it should be afforded to you because you have a woman and the night is dangerous. That isn't how it works. Do you understand?"
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Posted: Tue Dec 22, 2009 6:12 am
The manner in which the human huffed and puffed was…in some small way entertaining. Clearly the human had not expected such an answer from him and that itself was most gratifying. A small smirk appeared across the frei’s fair feature but it was quickly removed by the painful jabbing of the wooden staff into what little chest he possessed and the manner which Milton was emphasizing his seniority by calling Xiu ‘boy’ and ‘young man’. Blue eyes narrowed and for an instant, Xiu was sorely tempted to wrench the staff off this hot tempered mammal and …and…
Well…Xiu supposed he could throw the staff away but saw no point in it. Milton had permitted them entry (albeit grudgingly) into his home. Xiu guessed that was reason enough to step off his high horse a little. Besides, his concern was for Hazeline’s safety wasn’t it?
“Yes, sir,” said Xiu meekly enough as he waited patiently for the old man to let off steam (and possibly move aside so that they could enter). “I understand. It was…wrong of me to assume such things. I shall not do it again,”
Shifting and folding his wings neatly behind his back, Xiu waited patiently for Milton to allow them entry.
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Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2010 2:54 am
"See to it you don't," The wizard growled impetuously at the Raevan. He was, however, somewhat mollified. His face cooled, and with that his manners returned somewhat. He'd push the door open wider for them and step aside, his gesture to enter curt.
The kitchen walls were made of slate gray stone with jutting shelves and an odd menagerie of items lining them. Some of the trinkets were in motion, some smoking with slow color. The image of a dungeon was ruined by a modern stove, oven, and toaster. The was a large black cauldron in a hearth.
"Don't touch anything, especially the golem."
Said golem, Adam, was toddling his way over to clutch at a chair from the spot he had been set down on the floor. His bright blue eyes roamed over the visitors curiously. He was only a child, so he wasn't particularly intimidating, probably no taller than Hazeline's knee. He smiled, a wide gesture that seemed to be a thick crack in a clay face.
"Hiiii."
Once the pair were in, Milton would shut the door behind them.
"My name is Milton Fettua. That's Mister Fettua or sir to you, boy." His gaze lingered a moment on the Raevan before turning to the woman, addressing her. "Who are you?"
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Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2010 5:52 am
At the human’s gesture, the white frei quickly ushered his guardian into the wizard’s home before floating in after her. Both the guardian and raevan stood transfixed at the setting of the kitchen. It was almost as though they had stepped back in time. Save for the stove, oven and toaster, the kitchen was almost an exact replicate of something you’d read in story books; perhaps like Merlin’s home in the Disney animation King Arthur?
"Don't touch anything, especially the golem."
“Golem?” exclaimed Hazeline doing a quick sidestep as though expecting said being to be standing beside her. “What Gole-? Oh!”
The golem child was toddling over. No larger than a human child, the golem was probably a cute creature but Hazeline’s tolerance to non-human things are low at best and as endearing as the child’s grin was, Hazeline was unnerved. Gingerly stepping a pace or two away from the child, the young woman gave it a sheepish smile before turning to Milton. “I’m Hazeline, Hazeline Lee, Mr. Fettua and this bo- ; raevan is Xiu,”
“Yes. Pleased to meet you, sir,” said Xiu with a politeness that is almost painful.
“Xiu,” hissed Hazeline looking ashamed. “Behave yourself,”
“But I am behaving, Hazeline. I am,” said Xiu before turning to the golem. “Hello, there,” said Xiu with a friendly wave. “What’s your name, little one?”
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Posted: Sat Apr 10, 2010 9:46 pm
The comparison to Merlin was not at all far off. In fact, minus the clutter, the kitchen looked quite a lot like a dungeon made into a novelty store. And in the very next room, should Milton have allowed them there, would be carpet and an armchair by the hearth, books scattered all around while the wood paneling of the house seemed to offer even more warmth. There wasn't a room that was the same as the next, and yet the house somehow all fit together and from the outside gave no hints as to the interior.
Milton didn't know people very well, but it really wasn't hard to figure out Hazeline was disturbed by Adam. This amused Milton, who had always wondered if Adam wouldn't be seen as a monster when he grew up by the normal populace, despite the fact the boy didn't seem to have a mean bone in his body. "Mm. Hazeline and... Xiu. Very well."
"Adam!" Said the golem, beaming up at the new boy, "Aaaa'dum!"
Milton had decided to gracefully ignore Xiu's venom, moving to take a seat at the head of his small table. "Why don't you have a seat, Hazeline? You've walked quite a ways, I'd imagine, and you should know I'm not a cruel man... Tea?"
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Posted: Wed Apr 14, 2010 8:38 am
Hazeline nodded as Mitlon repeated their names. The old guy had seemed somewhat amused by her reaction to the golem earlier… and that if anything seemed to have soften the old gentlemen a little. Already he wasn’t looking as crotchety as he previously made himself out to be.
Watching their host as he took his seat at the head of the table, Hazeline nodded in agreement with Milton’s words. The walk had been rather tiring and the chairs were comfortable looking. Choosing one, Hazeline sat down and smiled. “Yes, a cup of tea would be lovely,”
Meanwhile, Xiu was being kept busy with the little golem before him and failed to follow the rest of the conversation between his guardian and Milton. Floating low, Xiu eyed the golem face to face and chuckled. “Adam, huh? And just how old are you, Adam?”
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