fic: Solar Winds (52/?), part 1/3
Media: Fic
Title: Solar Winds (Avatar: The Last Airbender Fusion, 52/?)
Rating: PG-13 for innuendo, swearing, violence.
Spoilers: None for either series that I am aware of.
Warnings: Potentially squicky/creepy imagery involving (highlight for spoilers) [taxidermy.]
Word Count: 8800
Summary: When a usurper sets eyes on the Fire Nation throne, Avatar Kurt and friends find themselves on the run with the deposed Prince Blaine in a country gone mad. Can they escape Lady Sylvester’s wrath? Or will her minions snuff them out for good? Fusion fic!
Author’s Note: This chapter was extremely fun to write, which is a little disturbing considering how creepy it is. o_o;; The gang discover an old house in the middle of the wilderness, and find far more than they bargained for when they deign to explore it. Don’t forget-only two chapters until the Big Surprise!
Master Post
~~~
CHAPTER 52 - A House Is Not a Home
18 days after the riots…
The sun rises on a partly cloudy sky the next morning, and the day quickly finds everyone rolling on the river.
Or, you know, up it. Whatever.
After everybody is up and reasonably fed, Kurt freezes a nice-sized chunk of ice from the pondwater, steps onboard with Finn, and invites the others to join them. It takes them a couple minutes to really get going-mostly because a sleep-deprived Finn has a tendency to forget which way to swing his arms to propel them forward. There’s quite a log of zig-zagging and spinning in place before they finally find a groove and get to boogieing.
All told, ice rafting with waterbenders is a pretty decent way to get around. There’s really only one major downside.
After a few minutes, Kurt pulls them to the riverbank. “And… break!”
Everyone leaps off. It takes less than a second for Blaine to find the nearest flammable thing and set it alight, and shortly thereafter, several pairs of very cold feet (and one nigh-frozen butt) are steadily being thawed back into feeling again.
“Shoes,” Rachel says. “Item number one on our list of things to buy-”
“Steal,” Artie corrects.
“-buy,” Rachel insists, “when we next get to civilization. Good, sturdy shoes to protect our feet from the elements. All of them.”
There is a murmur of agreement among the many frostbitten toes in attendance. They’re far from barefooted, but the fancy dress shoes of the various costumes they absconded in don’t exactly provide much insulation.
After a short break to warm everyone up again, they’re headed back upstream. A few hours of the freeze-thaw cycle sees them making pretty good time on their way up the river. It’s about mid-morning when they spot it.
“Is that a house?” Blaine says, eyes to the starboard.
“STOP THE RAFT,” Rachel orders.
Finn obeys instinctively. Kurt does not. The result is a minor skid-out that, to their credit, only throws off two people.
“Sorry, Artie,” Finn says sheepishly. “Sorry, Blaine.”
“We cool, we cool,” Artie sighs, hanging upside down in some bamboo shoots.
“Don’t worry about it!” Blaine says cheerfully, picking himself up out of the mud.
Kurt is just getting ready to tell Rachel off for back-ice driving, but she is already far out of hearing range, running towards the aforementioned house with the fervor of a madwoman.
“Whoa!” Mercedes says. “Hold up. We don’t even know who lives in that house!”
“Who cares?” Rachel shouts back. “It’s a house. People! Civilization! Salvation!”
“Hard to argue with that logic,” Blaine shrugs.
Finn and Kurt melt the ice raft as Mercedes puts Artie on the ground again, and the rest of them steadily approach the two-story abode.
They find Rachel stopped just outside what appears to have once been the ‘yard’ or whatever passed for it. Her heartbroken face tells them a lot. The actual sight of the house tells them even more.
The ‘yard’ as it stands now, is overgrown almost beyond recognition. Weeds and vines of varying levels of thorniness choke out whatever grass might have once been there, and heaven only knows what kind of creatures live in the underbrush. The house itself isn’t faring much better-vines creep up basically every wall, reaching into the broken windows like they’re reaching for a lost loved one within. The front doors hang haphazardly off the hinges, broken and weighted down with years of grime. The deep reds and rich golds that make up most Fire Nation homes are long faded to dingy browns and urine-stain yellows. Mold hangs thick on many surfaces, a sure reminder of nature’s unwavering commitment to reclaim any and everything that human hands neglect.
“Well,” Artie says, sliding forward. “I think it’s safe to say that nobody lives here.”
“Are there any other houses around?” Kurt asks, glancing at the wilderness.
“I don’t see any,” Finn says.
“I don’t even see a pathway that leads to this place,” Mercedes says.
“It looks like it’s been abandoned for years,” Blaine chimes in. “Maybe long enough for an untraveled road to disappear.”
“This is a joke,” Rachel says flatly. “An unbelievably cruel joke. The universe hates me.”
“Welcome to the club,” says everyone, in a moment of slightly disturbing unrehearsed synchronicity.
The six sets of eyes stare in trepidation at the old house for a few more moments.
“Well, we don’t have all day,” Kurt says. “Are we going in, or not?”
“I don’t see what it would hurt,” Blaine says. “At the very least, there might be some old clothes in there. I need a shirt.”
“If you say so,” Kurt sighs.
“What if it’s dangerous?” Rachel asks bleakly. “There could be wild animals in there! Or it could be unstable! Or there could be a dead body! Or an evil spirit! Or… or…”
“Or shoes,” Finn says helpfully.
This seems to perk her up. “…well, nothing worth having comes without its risks, I suppose,” she says warily.
Artie put his hands on the ground and closes his eyes. “Whoa!” he says. “Okay, item number one-y’all better step back. There’s barbed wire on the ground here.”
“On the ground?” Finn asks.
“Probably from a fence that fell over a while ago,” Blaine says.
“Item number two-the old place is mostly stable, far as I can tell. Not too clear on the insides-there’s a lot of clutter that hinders my vibro-vision.” He opens his eyes. “As for evil spirits… that’s more Kurt’s domain.”
“How you feeling, bro?” Finn asks.
“Strange,” Kurt says, peering at the house. “It isn’t a threatening or evil feeling, just a heavy one. Like… spiritual stagnation. There’s nothing… moving here, and it’s odd. Not pleasant, but not particularly dangerous, either.”
“Alright then,” Blaine says. “I say we go in. Who’s with me?”
Four sets of hands rise at varying speeds. Kurt is the first, Rachel is the last. Only one abstains.
“Artie?” Finn asks.
“I’ll hang back here for now,” the earthbender says with a shrug. “Just to make it easier on you guys.”
“Okay, dude,” Finn says. “Yell if you need us.”
Artie nods, and bends aside the barbed wire to make way for everyone to go through without cutting their feet.
Blaine takes point, burning a path through the growth, going slow enough so that any unfortunate creatures in the way have plenty of warning to move before they get toasted. The great thing about fire is that animals are almost universally afraid of it, so clearing out critters is no trouble for him.
After that, they go step by creaking step up to the front door. The sun is fairly high in the sky, but the abundance of trees surrounding the place would make it seem dark no matter what time of day, so Blaine holds a small flame steady over his hand as he steps inside.
After accidentally lighting up a spider-web that nearly scares him off the porch, the Prince leads the way through the opened front doors, into a small living area, full of dusty, decaying furniture, and shockingly intact-
“Animals,” Rachel says, her voice thick with dread. “Oh, heavens. There are dead animals everywhere…”
A moose-lion head mounted above the fireplace with massive antlers stretching almost from wall-to-wall; a snarling platypus bear on a pedestal; a komodo dingo acting as the legs to a side table… Everywhere they look, they find shudder-inducing examples of taxidermy done right (or wrong, depending on your point of view).
“A hunting lodge,” Mercedes says quietly. “Well, at least now we know why it’s so far out in the woods…”
“I’m going to be sick,” Rachel says. “This is horrible.”
“Hey, come on,” Finn says, pulling her into a gentle hug. “Let’s go outside. You don’t have to be in here.”
The airbender lets herself be pulled into Finn’s arms as he quietly ushers her from the room. He gives a questioning look to Kurt, but Kurt nods him onwards.
“Wow,” Mercedes says. “This really bothers her.”
“I’m not exactly okay with it myself,” Kurt says. “Look at this!” He kneels down to pick up what appears to be a pipe, made from the body of a salamander. “It’s ridiculous. The Water Tribes depend on animals for survival, but we’re always careful to kill only what is necessary and to use every part of the animal, out of respect for the life we’re taking. There’s no respect here. This is just killing for the sake of killing.”
Blaine swallows thickly, a strange, unidentifiable feeling creeping up within his stomach. “I don’t think I’d want to wear anything we find here.”
“We’re already this far,” Kurt says. “We might as well keep going. Besides… even if we do find some animal skin clothes, at this point I think it would be more respectful to use them than to just leave them as a trophy.”
It’s just as bad as they get deeper into the house. Fur rugs carpet the hallways, disgusting with years of mold and mildew on them. Bits and pieces of small animals can be identified here and there-probably from confused predators who wandered into the house and thought they’d found a meal, only to bite in and find stuffing where the meat should go.
When they find the staircase, the house goes from moderately creepy to seriously skeevy.
“Those are bones!” Mercedes says, pointing to the railing. The balusters that hold up the handrail are clearly large animal bones. At the bottom, the handrail ends in some kind of unidentifiable sharp-toothed skull.
“This is seriously messed up,” Blaine says. “I’m not sure I want to know what horrors are waiting for us up there.”
“If you want to go outside,” Kurt says. “I won’t hold it against you. Honestly, at this point, the only thing keeping me going is morbid curiosity.”
“Well, now that you mention it,” Blaine says, looking a little uneasy. “…damn it. Now I do want to know.”
Kurt lets out a soft laugh, but it echoes oddly in the still, empty air of the house, so he quickly stifles it. “Let’s go. Step carefully,” he says.
Blaine again takes point. He makes it about three steps before one of them cracks under his feet. Only lightning-fast reflexes keep him from outright falling.
“That’s it,” Mercedes says. “I’m out. I’ll keep looking around down here, but I ain’t going up there. Those steps cannot handle this much woman.”
“Very well. Be sure to listen for any screams of horror,” Kurt says. “Especially ones that come to a very sudden stop.”
“You are not helping,” Blaine says flatly, continuing to step very lightly up the old staircase.
The upstairs area is even more dilapidated than the downstairs. There are holes in the ceiling, some leading to an attic of sorts, others leading directly to the open air, letting in little beams of sunlight that somehow make everything else seem even more gloomy by contrast. Papers are everywhere. Some are hanging on the walls- most are on the floor. All are very much faded and decayed-whatever might have been on them is lost to time.
“Wait,” Kurt says, holding Blaine back. He gathers a bit of air between his hands and thrusts it down the hallway. The amount of dust and cobwebs he gets rid of is actually a little frightening.
“Wow,” Blaine says. “Burning that much cobweb? I might’ve set the house on fire.”
“I like that idea. Let’s save it for later,” Kurt says, pressing onwards.
As they continue to explore the upper level, strange things begin to jump out at them (figuratively, not literally).
“You know, I haven’t seen a single animal-thing up here,” Kurt says. “Besides the bones on the staircases.”
“You’re right,” Blaine says. “This whole part seems like it belongs in a completely different house.”
The more they explore, the more the strangeness of the contrast sticks out to them. Here in the upper rooms, things seem almost… innocent. Where below they had stuffed animals of the most unsettling kind, up above, they find only the cute variety-faded and falling apart, of course, but still oddly endearing. A wooden, rocking ostrich horse peers at them from a pile of toys-a top, a music box, a doll with one eye missing.
“They had children,” Kurt says, appalled. “Whoever was responsible for that… butchering down below actually had kids.”
“I feel bad for anyone who had to grow up in this place,” Blaine says quietly.
The childlike nature of the majority of the floor soothes their spirits a little. As they move around, they find themselves growing calmer with every step. Their jitters lessen, and they even find their minds wandering slightly, trying to imagine people playing in this strange place.
It only serves to make what they find next even more jarring.
Blaine opens the door to the master bedroom, and is immediately greeted by the sight of a massive set of teeth, large enough to swallow him and Kurt whole in a single bite.
“WHOA!” he shouts, accidentally snuffing his own flame and stumbling backwards.
“AHHH!” Kurt shouts with him, upon seeing the enormous, grinning… thing that awaits them beyond the door.
It takes them a couple of seconds to realize the grinning thing isn’t moving.
“What is that?” Kurt asks, helping Blaine up.
Blaine gulps. “Only one way to find out…” Together, they slowly, carefully tread towards it, still half-afraid it will spring to life like a snake and snap them up.
When he lights his flame up again, he honestly can’t believe his eyes. The chill of complete horror that spirals through his spine is almost enough to knock him out on the spot. There is a king-sized bed, complete with gopherbear fur sheets, inside of-
“A dragon’s skull,” Blaine whispers. “Agni’s mercy… that’s an actual dragon skull.”
Kurt clutches his hand over his mouth. “Oh La. That’s…”
“Unbelievable,” Blaine says quietly. “To attack and kill one of the original firebenders, and claim it as a trophy… whoever lived here was incredibly powerful.”
“And dangerously insane,” Kurt nods. “I hope I never, ever have to meet anyone who would do this.”
And suddenly, it all makes sense. The unidentifiable feeling in Blaine’s stomach twists itself into a familiar shape, and his dread multiplies tenfold. “Oh, Gods…” he says, suddenly sounding sick. “I think… I think I know where we are.”
He stumbles through the room on unsteady legs, his flame wavering in a way that makes Kurt’s heart clench. Coming to a dresser, he scans across the top, looking for something. When he doesn’t find it, he actually gets down on his hands and knees and starts sweeping his eyes across the floor.
“Blaine, what are you doing?” Kurt asks.
Blaine ignores him, as he seems to have found what he has been looking for. A long, rolled-up scroll of unusual, high-quality paper rests against the far wall of the bedroom. With shaking hands, Blaine picks it up, and unrolls it.
And Kurt’s heart stops.
The House of SYLVESTER, is emblazoned across the top. Below, in ink that is faded, but still largely visible, are four figures in a family portrait. A tall, severe man, Alfonse, a feisty-looking woman, Doris, , a young girl with something slightly strange about her, Jean…
…and tiny, smiling Sue.
“Her house,” Blaine whispers as he seems to close in on himself. His shaking hands drop the scroll.
“We’re in her house.”
~~~
To the Next Part...
Title: Solar Winds (Avatar: The Last Airbender Fusion, 52/?)
Rating: PG-13 for innuendo, swearing, violence.
Spoilers: None for either series that I am aware of.
Warnings: Potentially squicky/creepy imagery involving (highlight for spoilers) [taxidermy.]
Word Count: 8800
Summary: When a usurper sets eyes on the Fire Nation throne, Avatar Kurt and friends find themselves on the run with the deposed Prince Blaine in a country gone mad. Can they escape Lady Sylvester’s wrath? Or will her minions snuff them out for good? Fusion fic!
Author’s Note: This chapter was extremely fun to write, which is a little disturbing considering how creepy it is. o_o;; The gang discover an old house in the middle of the wilderness, and find far more than they bargained for when they deign to explore it. Don’t forget-only two chapters until the Big Surprise!
Master Post
~~~
CHAPTER 52 - A House Is Not a Home
18 days after the riots…
The sun rises on a partly cloudy sky the next morning, and the day quickly finds everyone rolling on the river.
Or, you know, up it. Whatever.
After everybody is up and reasonably fed, Kurt freezes a nice-sized chunk of ice from the pondwater, steps onboard with Finn, and invites the others to join them. It takes them a couple minutes to really get going-mostly because a sleep-deprived Finn has a tendency to forget which way to swing his arms to propel them forward. There’s quite a log of zig-zagging and spinning in place before they finally find a groove and get to boogieing.
All told, ice rafting with waterbenders is a pretty decent way to get around. There’s really only one major downside.
After a few minutes, Kurt pulls them to the riverbank. “And… break!”
Everyone leaps off. It takes less than a second for Blaine to find the nearest flammable thing and set it alight, and shortly thereafter, several pairs of very cold feet (and one nigh-frozen butt) are steadily being thawed back into feeling again.
“Shoes,” Rachel says. “Item number one on our list of things to buy-”
“Steal,” Artie corrects.
“-buy,” Rachel insists, “when we next get to civilization. Good, sturdy shoes to protect our feet from the elements. All of them.”
There is a murmur of agreement among the many frostbitten toes in attendance. They’re far from barefooted, but the fancy dress shoes of the various costumes they absconded in don’t exactly provide much insulation.
After a short break to warm everyone up again, they’re headed back upstream. A few hours of the freeze-thaw cycle sees them making pretty good time on their way up the river. It’s about mid-morning when they spot it.
“Is that a house?” Blaine says, eyes to the starboard.
“STOP THE RAFT,” Rachel orders.
Finn obeys instinctively. Kurt does not. The result is a minor skid-out that, to their credit, only throws off two people.
“Sorry, Artie,” Finn says sheepishly. “Sorry, Blaine.”
“We cool, we cool,” Artie sighs, hanging upside down in some bamboo shoots.
“Don’t worry about it!” Blaine says cheerfully, picking himself up out of the mud.
Kurt is just getting ready to tell Rachel off for back-ice driving, but she is already far out of hearing range, running towards the aforementioned house with the fervor of a madwoman.
“Whoa!” Mercedes says. “Hold up. We don’t even know who lives in that house!”
“Who cares?” Rachel shouts back. “It’s a house. People! Civilization! Salvation!”
“Hard to argue with that logic,” Blaine shrugs.
Finn and Kurt melt the ice raft as Mercedes puts Artie on the ground again, and the rest of them steadily approach the two-story abode.
They find Rachel stopped just outside what appears to have once been the ‘yard’ or whatever passed for it. Her heartbroken face tells them a lot. The actual sight of the house tells them even more.
The ‘yard’ as it stands now, is overgrown almost beyond recognition. Weeds and vines of varying levels of thorniness choke out whatever grass might have once been there, and heaven only knows what kind of creatures live in the underbrush. The house itself isn’t faring much better-vines creep up basically every wall, reaching into the broken windows like they’re reaching for a lost loved one within. The front doors hang haphazardly off the hinges, broken and weighted down with years of grime. The deep reds and rich golds that make up most Fire Nation homes are long faded to dingy browns and urine-stain yellows. Mold hangs thick on many surfaces, a sure reminder of nature’s unwavering commitment to reclaim any and everything that human hands neglect.
“Well,” Artie says, sliding forward. “I think it’s safe to say that nobody lives here.”
“Are there any other houses around?” Kurt asks, glancing at the wilderness.
“I don’t see any,” Finn says.
“I don’t even see a pathway that leads to this place,” Mercedes says.
“It looks like it’s been abandoned for years,” Blaine chimes in. “Maybe long enough for an untraveled road to disappear.”
“This is a joke,” Rachel says flatly. “An unbelievably cruel joke. The universe hates me.”
“Welcome to the club,” says everyone, in a moment of slightly disturbing unrehearsed synchronicity.
The six sets of eyes stare in trepidation at the old house for a few more moments.
“Well, we don’t have all day,” Kurt says. “Are we going in, or not?”
“I don’t see what it would hurt,” Blaine says. “At the very least, there might be some old clothes in there. I need a shirt.”
“If you say so,” Kurt sighs.
“What if it’s dangerous?” Rachel asks bleakly. “There could be wild animals in there! Or it could be unstable! Or there could be a dead body! Or an evil spirit! Or… or…”
“Or shoes,” Finn says helpfully.
This seems to perk her up. “…well, nothing worth having comes without its risks, I suppose,” she says warily.
Artie put his hands on the ground and closes his eyes. “Whoa!” he says. “Okay, item number one-y’all better step back. There’s barbed wire on the ground here.”
“On the ground?” Finn asks.
“Probably from a fence that fell over a while ago,” Blaine says.
“Item number two-the old place is mostly stable, far as I can tell. Not too clear on the insides-there’s a lot of clutter that hinders my vibro-vision.” He opens his eyes. “As for evil spirits… that’s more Kurt’s domain.”
“How you feeling, bro?” Finn asks.
“Strange,” Kurt says, peering at the house. “It isn’t a threatening or evil feeling, just a heavy one. Like… spiritual stagnation. There’s nothing… moving here, and it’s odd. Not pleasant, but not particularly dangerous, either.”
“Alright then,” Blaine says. “I say we go in. Who’s with me?”
Four sets of hands rise at varying speeds. Kurt is the first, Rachel is the last. Only one abstains.
“Artie?” Finn asks.
“I’ll hang back here for now,” the earthbender says with a shrug. “Just to make it easier on you guys.”
“Okay, dude,” Finn says. “Yell if you need us.”
Artie nods, and bends aside the barbed wire to make way for everyone to go through without cutting their feet.
Blaine takes point, burning a path through the growth, going slow enough so that any unfortunate creatures in the way have plenty of warning to move before they get toasted. The great thing about fire is that animals are almost universally afraid of it, so clearing out critters is no trouble for him.
After that, they go step by creaking step up to the front door. The sun is fairly high in the sky, but the abundance of trees surrounding the place would make it seem dark no matter what time of day, so Blaine holds a small flame steady over his hand as he steps inside.
After accidentally lighting up a spider-web that nearly scares him off the porch, the Prince leads the way through the opened front doors, into a small living area, full of dusty, decaying furniture, and shockingly intact-
“Animals,” Rachel says, her voice thick with dread. “Oh, heavens. There are dead animals everywhere…”
A moose-lion head mounted above the fireplace with massive antlers stretching almost from wall-to-wall; a snarling platypus bear on a pedestal; a komodo dingo acting as the legs to a side table… Everywhere they look, they find shudder-inducing examples of taxidermy done right (or wrong, depending on your point of view).
“A hunting lodge,” Mercedes says quietly. “Well, at least now we know why it’s so far out in the woods…”
“I’m going to be sick,” Rachel says. “This is horrible.”
“Hey, come on,” Finn says, pulling her into a gentle hug. “Let’s go outside. You don’t have to be in here.”
The airbender lets herself be pulled into Finn’s arms as he quietly ushers her from the room. He gives a questioning look to Kurt, but Kurt nods him onwards.
“Wow,” Mercedes says. “This really bothers her.”
“I’m not exactly okay with it myself,” Kurt says. “Look at this!” He kneels down to pick up what appears to be a pipe, made from the body of a salamander. “It’s ridiculous. The Water Tribes depend on animals for survival, but we’re always careful to kill only what is necessary and to use every part of the animal, out of respect for the life we’re taking. There’s no respect here. This is just killing for the sake of killing.”
Blaine swallows thickly, a strange, unidentifiable feeling creeping up within his stomach. “I don’t think I’d want to wear anything we find here.”
“We’re already this far,” Kurt says. “We might as well keep going. Besides… even if we do find some animal skin clothes, at this point I think it would be more respectful to use them than to just leave them as a trophy.”
It’s just as bad as they get deeper into the house. Fur rugs carpet the hallways, disgusting with years of mold and mildew on them. Bits and pieces of small animals can be identified here and there-probably from confused predators who wandered into the house and thought they’d found a meal, only to bite in and find stuffing where the meat should go.
When they find the staircase, the house goes from moderately creepy to seriously skeevy.
“Those are bones!” Mercedes says, pointing to the railing. The balusters that hold up the handrail are clearly large animal bones. At the bottom, the handrail ends in some kind of unidentifiable sharp-toothed skull.
“This is seriously messed up,” Blaine says. “I’m not sure I want to know what horrors are waiting for us up there.”
“If you want to go outside,” Kurt says. “I won’t hold it against you. Honestly, at this point, the only thing keeping me going is morbid curiosity.”
“Well, now that you mention it,” Blaine says, looking a little uneasy. “…damn it. Now I do want to know.”
Kurt lets out a soft laugh, but it echoes oddly in the still, empty air of the house, so he quickly stifles it. “Let’s go. Step carefully,” he says.
Blaine again takes point. He makes it about three steps before one of them cracks under his feet. Only lightning-fast reflexes keep him from outright falling.
“That’s it,” Mercedes says. “I’m out. I’ll keep looking around down here, but I ain’t going up there. Those steps cannot handle this much woman.”
“Very well. Be sure to listen for any screams of horror,” Kurt says. “Especially ones that come to a very sudden stop.”
“You are not helping,” Blaine says flatly, continuing to step very lightly up the old staircase.
The upstairs area is even more dilapidated than the downstairs. There are holes in the ceiling, some leading to an attic of sorts, others leading directly to the open air, letting in little beams of sunlight that somehow make everything else seem even more gloomy by contrast. Papers are everywhere. Some are hanging on the walls- most are on the floor. All are very much faded and decayed-whatever might have been on them is lost to time.
“Wait,” Kurt says, holding Blaine back. He gathers a bit of air between his hands and thrusts it down the hallway. The amount of dust and cobwebs he gets rid of is actually a little frightening.
“Wow,” Blaine says. “Burning that much cobweb? I might’ve set the house on fire.”
“I like that idea. Let’s save it for later,” Kurt says, pressing onwards.
As they continue to explore the upper level, strange things begin to jump out at them (figuratively, not literally).
“You know, I haven’t seen a single animal-thing up here,” Kurt says. “Besides the bones on the staircases.”
“You’re right,” Blaine says. “This whole part seems like it belongs in a completely different house.”
The more they explore, the more the strangeness of the contrast sticks out to them. Here in the upper rooms, things seem almost… innocent. Where below they had stuffed animals of the most unsettling kind, up above, they find only the cute variety-faded and falling apart, of course, but still oddly endearing. A wooden, rocking ostrich horse peers at them from a pile of toys-a top, a music box, a doll with one eye missing.
“They had children,” Kurt says, appalled. “Whoever was responsible for that… butchering down below actually had kids.”
“I feel bad for anyone who had to grow up in this place,” Blaine says quietly.
The childlike nature of the majority of the floor soothes their spirits a little. As they move around, they find themselves growing calmer with every step. Their jitters lessen, and they even find their minds wandering slightly, trying to imagine people playing in this strange place.
It only serves to make what they find next even more jarring.
Blaine opens the door to the master bedroom, and is immediately greeted by the sight of a massive set of teeth, large enough to swallow him and Kurt whole in a single bite.
“WHOA!” he shouts, accidentally snuffing his own flame and stumbling backwards.
“AHHH!” Kurt shouts with him, upon seeing the enormous, grinning… thing that awaits them beyond the door.
It takes them a couple of seconds to realize the grinning thing isn’t moving.
“What is that?” Kurt asks, helping Blaine up.
Blaine gulps. “Only one way to find out…” Together, they slowly, carefully tread towards it, still half-afraid it will spring to life like a snake and snap them up.
When he lights his flame up again, he honestly can’t believe his eyes. The chill of complete horror that spirals through his spine is almost enough to knock him out on the spot. There is a king-sized bed, complete with gopherbear fur sheets, inside of-
“A dragon’s skull,” Blaine whispers. “Agni’s mercy… that’s an actual dragon skull.”
Kurt clutches his hand over his mouth. “Oh La. That’s…”
“Unbelievable,” Blaine says quietly. “To attack and kill one of the original firebenders, and claim it as a trophy… whoever lived here was incredibly powerful.”
“And dangerously insane,” Kurt nods. “I hope I never, ever have to meet anyone who would do this.”
And suddenly, it all makes sense. The unidentifiable feeling in Blaine’s stomach twists itself into a familiar shape, and his dread multiplies tenfold. “Oh, Gods…” he says, suddenly sounding sick. “I think… I think I know where we are.”
He stumbles through the room on unsteady legs, his flame wavering in a way that makes Kurt’s heart clench. Coming to a dresser, he scans across the top, looking for something. When he doesn’t find it, he actually gets down on his hands and knees and starts sweeping his eyes across the floor.
“Blaine, what are you doing?” Kurt asks.
Blaine ignores him, as he seems to have found what he has been looking for. A long, rolled-up scroll of unusual, high-quality paper rests against the far wall of the bedroom. With shaking hands, Blaine picks it up, and unrolls it.
And Kurt’s heart stops.
The House of SYLVESTER, is emblazoned across the top. Below, in ink that is faded, but still largely visible, are four figures in a family portrait. A tall, severe man, Alfonse, a feisty-looking woman, Doris, , a young girl with something slightly strange about her, Jean…
…and tiny, smiling Sue.
“Her house,” Blaine whispers as he seems to close in on himself. His shaking hands drop the scroll.
“We’re in her house.”
~~~
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