|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Sat May 27, 2006 9:34 pm
"Mommy?"
"Yes, Coailiann?"
"How come those wands are still there?" she sat quietly on one of the stools, feet swinging back and forth in rhythm to a song in her head. She, amazingly, had spoken in english. She'd been having quite a bit of trouble with that lately.
"I don't know, Kay," Ianna said warily, shifting on her stool and laying her elbows on her desk, "Hopefully their guardians will get their behinds in here so I can stop sitting in here day after day...At least until another one turns up."
"Do you like your job?"
"Huh?"
Coailiann had spoken in gaelic again.
A deep blush touched the young child's cheeks, "Do you like your job?" she repeated, making sure her words were english. Ianna gave a nod of her head, but did nothing else, eyes sinking closed.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat May 27, 2006 9:42 pm
Michael tipped his head slightly to one side as he drew to a halt. It was a rare occassion indeed when the man ventured outdoors, and usually such outings were characterised by a haste that clearly said the man wanted to get his task done as quickly as possible and then retrear back to his own living quarters as fast as humanly possible. Perhaps becuase of this, Tovar found he'd walked quite a few steps before realizing that his companion had drawn up. Starting -- thinking for a moment that Michael might have fallen and cracked his head open when he wasn't looking -- Tovar floundered about and turned his attention hastily back to the older man.
Michael's features were drawn and thoughtful, eyes lingering on the slightly darkened windows of the shop front he'd stopped at. "Tovar."
"Er?"
"Let's," he said, moving to the door. "Go in here."
Tovar blinked, glancing up at the shop's sign. A...wand...shop? He'd heard of a few low grade hedgewizards and witches in need of magical assistance to augment their skills, be it through an artifact such as a wand or an amulet, but he'd never known Michael to be interested in such things. In fact, Tovar was almost certain Michael had called them 'ridiculous and silly,' and had gone on to say quite a few more rude things about the magic users who owned them... --but he could never be sure with Michael.
Frowning slightly, Tovar moved to the door and levered it open. He held it apart for the doorway for Michael to slide in, and then closed it gently behind.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat May 27, 2006 9:48 pm
Both men were greeted by a very beautiful looking young girl, who, upon arrival, slid from her stool and ran up to meet them. Her pink dress was floating around her in quite a flurry, as well as her white hair.
"Hi! Are you two guardians?!"
"Coailiann!"
The sidhe turned around to look at her mother, giving her a look that simply said, "What?" before turning back to the men, "So are you!?"
Ianna, had she not been in front of people, would have slammed her head into the desk, "Sorry about her, you two. Welcome to Ghosts of the Past, may I help you?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat May 27, 2006 9:54 pm
The taller and elder of the two immediately drew back from the child, shooting her a long look down the length of his nose and taking full advantage of the opportunity presented by the gibbering of his younger apprentice to settle himself farther from the child. Michael didn't like children; they were dangerous.
Tovar ignored him. Inside his own home, Michael might have been perfectly tolerable to live with (well, mostly tolerable anyway), but outdoors he was a right nuisance; all dark and forboding like some shadow lurking in a corner. He blocked the man from his mind, instead turning his attention first to the young girl -- though she only recieved a slightly mindless blink or two --, before his gaze traveled to the woman behind the counter.
"Ah...excuse me? --Oh. Yes, yes. Of course..." He hesitated, glancing toward Michael over his shoulder. What on earth had the man wanted in here; and what could the girl possibly mean by 'guardian?'
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat May 27, 2006 9:58 pm
Ianna raised a brow and Coailiann looked absolutely crestfallen that someone was pulling away from her when all she had done was greet them. The sidhe huffed softly, full of hurt before she fled behind her mother.
"Mmph. Well. Only one way to tell, hmm, Kay?" she muttered, dragging the leather bound book up and to the top of the desk. Matilda had been away for some time, so the book would be the one to tell her if the men were guardians or not.
"Come closer, please," she murmured, barely loud enough to be heard. Slowly, she sank back onto her stool and picked her daughter up to set her in her lap.
...She was getting too big for that.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat May 27, 2006 10:03 pm
Tovar desired nothing more than to glare questioningly at Michael. Instead, heavily aware of the man's eyes on his back, Tovar moved warily forward toward the woman and her heavy looking book. Michael followed, but remained a good foot farther away from the desk than his companion, and he continued to look at the two women with a clear sense of watchfulness; a certain cautious way that spoke in his movements as much as his gaze. Clearly the older man was paranoid of something, though the cause was certainly not apparent.
Tovar fidgetted. He wished Michael would stop that. He could feel the man being haughty and disdainful somewhere behind him, and it made the place between his shoulders itch uncomfortably. Or perhaps that was the formidable appearance of this book, and the way the two females (and even Michael, in some manner) seemed to be privy to some extensive knowledge he was all but in the dark on.
It was rather disconcerting.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat May 27, 2006 10:08 pm
Ianna narrowed her eyes towards Michael, definitely not liking his attitude, "I'll need both of you to touch the book, please?" she asked, softly yet again. The young woman with silver hair looked harmless enough, and of course, Coailiann was just a giant bundle of cute.
"Wanna hear me play my harp?"
Ianna winced, "You really don't want to," she muttered.
"What?"
"Nothing, sweet heart."
When Michael touched the book, nothing happened. At all.
The minute Tovar touched it, however, the cover flew open, an invisible wind winding through the pages and blowing them rapidly open until it landed, quite suddenly, on a well-worn page. On the page was a very life-like sketch of one of the wands on her Desk. It was the piece that looked more like driftwood with braided seaweed hanging from it. In fact, the piece even looked water logged. The Kelpie? Interesting.
Under the picture read:
"Kelpie. Wand ID 00027. A Soul has been trapped within the confines of the wand. Congratulations, you have become the next guardian to take on the task of raising it from infancy to greatness. We, Ianna and I, have the upmost faith in you to complete your task dutifully. Best of luck,
Matilda."
"Mmph, sir, whatever your name is - You're a father."
Inwardly, she was thankful that Michael had not been the guardian.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat May 27, 2006 10:13 pm
Tovar stared openly at the book as it went on it's merry way of utterly freaking out. He snatched his hand back abruptly, as if afraid the pages might take off it's fingers with their flurry of motion. Fingers clutched against his chest, taking stock of himself as if to make sure he still had all his skin, Tovar barely had time to register what was happening before the book settled.
He squinted at the text, crooking his head to one side. He was rather bad reading upside down...
"--Wait, what?"
"Lovely," Michael murmured, tone pitched low and grating, running like sand paper over the air.
Tovar shook his head. "Nevermind him. What do you mean...?" He grapsed for the right phrase, and then simply opted to let the question fall of lamely and unfinished.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat May 27, 2006 10:17 pm
Coailiann bounced in her mother's lap, "Oh! OH CAN I TELL THEM?!"
Ianna sighed wearily, "Sure, go ahead, you're going to anyway."
The sidhe blew a raspberry and slid from her perch on Ianna's lap, making her way over to them, "We're people," she began, "of magic. We lived before, but we died. I Think. Right mom?"
Ianna nodded, "Yes, you died, Coailiann."
She had had to sit down and explain to the sidhe what had happened to her when she first came home from her quest.
"But we got saved! Like...We got trapped in the wands, you see?" she pointed at the wand on the desk, "Til we could find someone to take care of us and give us another chance! I was...The first? Mommy?"
Ianna shook her head, "No...You were the uh...Fourth? Fifth? Anyway, there's about close to thirty children now. Including that one. I'm assuming it's a boy."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat May 27, 2006 10:22 pm
Tovar blinked, clearly a little dumbstruck. Apparently the poor man, magician apprentice or no, just wasn't very good with taking in information under certain circumstances. Or, he at least didn't do it with a very becoming look settled across his features. Rather, than man looked a little like a half drowned, or excessively confused animal -- and immediately began looking awkward and silly because of it.
The older male didn't seem remotely phased by the statements of the women; meaning his dark expression didn't change much.
"A boy?" Tovar chittered nervously. "How can you...tell? I mean...it's...--excuse me, but. It a stick." Alright, it had a bit of stuff braided at the end but, technically speaking, it really did look just like a stick some child plucked out of the river.
Michael sniffed absently, lips thinning into a severe line. Too logical by far; after so long in his service, Tovar really ought to know better by then.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat May 27, 2006 10:24 pm
"Touch it! Go ahead!" Coailiann said before Ianna had a chance to say anything. At least she lessened the silver haired woman's work load? The sidhe bounded over and picked the wand up, offering it up to Tovar.
When he touched it, there came a flash of light and a warm pulsing that flowed through him. It lasted but a moment before fading back to normal, but it had definitely been there.
"You've been acknowledged," Ianna said, cutting Coailiann off, "You can feel him, can't you?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat May 27, 2006 10:33 pm
Tovar took the wand without consideration. He was used to doing what people told him; besides, he was still a bit thunderstruck by the whole book-freaking-out, dead-children-telling-him-stuff sort of thing. He started and nearly dropped the bit of driftwoo--ah, wand--when it lit up. It tingled under his fingers, and Tovar had the momentary sensation of holding a living thing across his palms. It was more than a little creepy, to be perfectly honest. It felt like he was being watched, even when the logical part of his brain insisted that the only thing in his hands was a piece of wood and a bit of damp grass.
Granted, the predominant part of his brain -- the part that had been a magician's apprentice for upwards of ten years -- argued that it was perfectly possible, just rather incredibly rare.
It didn't make the feeling any more welcoming. Still creepy, still a little unsettling. Tovar wasn't sure what to make of himself, much less the thing in his hands.
"Is that it?" Michael questioned from behind him, arching one eyebrow smoothly at the woman behind the desk. "So you're just going to give the boy the stick and send him off like that?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jun 29, 2006 8:43 pm
"Of course not," Ianna said, raising a brow, "There are about thirty more people like him, and my home is always open for them all. In fact, it's usually crawling with guardians. I expect him to bring the child here to see the others. They need to socialize, you know."
Coailiann smiled at the two and tugged gently on Tovar's shirt, "Yeah, cause I wanna meet him, okay?" She was too cute, how could anyone resist?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jun 29, 2006 8:49 pm
Peering down at the little girl on the edge of his shirt, Tovar blinked thoughtfully a few seconds before casting a wand another glance. "Er," he said, and that was about the length of his functioning capabilities at the time being.
Micheal sniffed, turning dark eyes away from the little girl and his apprentice, back to the woman still behind the counter. "Well then, if that is indeed all - Tovar, we should be going. Your unicorn doesn't like who we left him with."
Tovar gawped, shooting Michael a dirty sidelong glance before switching his attention briefly back to Ianna. "I don't...need to sign anything or so forth, right?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jun 29, 2006 9:05 pm
"No, but I need to show you the headquart---" she was beaten to it by Coailiann trying to drag Tovar through the door to the right of the desk. Rolling her eyes, Ianna coughed, "Uhm, sorry dear..She's a bit exciteable."
Coailiann cast a glance to her mother but stopped at the door, "I am not citeable!" she protested, crossing her arms over her chest, "But it's my home too and it's not my fault if all I could do all this time was drool and wave!"
"You're right," she agreed, laughing softly, "Follow us, then?" She stepped through the door portal and into headquarters.
As they entered the main lobby Via the portal connecting the shoppe and the headquarters, the first thing noticable was the vast...largeness...of it. The high ceilings, edged with gold, the large chandeliers dripping with crystals, the smooth white tile-floors, colorful rugs, and beautiful paintings.
To the left was a large recreational area complete with a large flat-screen television, several rows of various games, movies, video game systems and books. There was a basket of toys in the corner, full of plushies, dolls, cards and various other objects which would appeal to most ages. Included in the area were several comfy looking couches and plush chairs just made for sitting, lounging or bouncing in. It seemed to be heaven on a fluffy carpet. It even had a foos-ball table and an air-hockey table....and for the slightly more food-minded GoTP, a mini fridge always full.
To the right was a large elaborate counter, which seemed to have a force-field of some sort around it, keeping anyone who was not Ianna or Matilda from going behind it. On the counter lay a roster with the names of all the Ghostly children and their guardians, and an appointment book.
From there, it branched off into halls with rows and rows of rooms. Some were storage, some were guest rooms, some were bathrooms, and one very large and ornate door to the end of the hall led to the gardens. "Welcome to my house!" Coailiann gleed as they entered, already situating herself on the couch.
Ianna followed, a look of exhasperation on her face, "Welcome to Headquarters. You're welcome here at any time."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
