Firekeeper's World: The Woods Outside Setting Sun Stronghold - The Next Morning
[Continued from here]
The report Blind Seer and Truth brought back after sunrise was discouraging. They had found ample evidence- broken branches, bits of vine, a trail blazed directly through the undergrowth- that Plik had been taken to the unnatural copse of trees that the bracken beasts that had attacked them last night guarded. That was where the trail ended, neatly as if it had never been.
Truth
"Wiped out," Truth said, through Firekeeper. "Like a wave wipes paw prints from the sand. Gone."
Harjeedian
"So do we go after Plik?" Harjeedian asked. "If we do, I say we go all together. There is no need to send two, then two more, then two more until those remaining are left wondering whether there would be greater wisdom in going forward or back."
Firekeeper
"This copse," Firekeeper explained to those who hadn't been there when they first learned of it, "We think is like spiderweb. Simply walking in would be alerting spider to new prey, and set more plant-beasts on us. Merlin," she turned to him, "you have way to go in without waking spider? And then be like opening door from inside for rest of us?"
Truth
Truth's tail gave an annoyed twitch at this question. Almost as soon as she'd returned from the scouting mission, the jaguar had taken to alternately glaring at and ignoring the three newcomers, as if their very presence offended her for some reason.
Merlin
Merlin looked from Firekeeper to Arthur for a moment before nodding. "I can try."
Arthur
Arthur's hand had not left the hilt of his sword all day. He shot Merlin a cursory look, then glanced in the direction of the-- something. Magical border? Whatever it was. It was beyond his knowledge, at least.
"Then try," he said, finally. "But be ready."
It was obvious advice, yes, but the idea of sending any of the lot of them in there without him at the forefront was still a frustration, despite acknowledging the local authority above his own.
Francine
Francine had neither a sword hilt to ...fondle... nor anything that would help with sneaking into spider-webs. As such, her greatest contribution seemed to be staying the heck out of the way, and helping pack up the camp supplies where she could.
And trying not to stare at the very large, very Not Blind Seer wild animal that kept staring at her.
Finally, when Firekeeper passed by close enough that she didn't think she'd be interrupting things or drawing attention to herself, Francine asked, "Did we do something to make her mad?" with a small, nervous nod towards the jaguar.
Firekeeper
Firekeeper rolled her eyes at Truth's behavior. "Truth see things, much like Layla do. But she never seed things not of this place before you. It trouble her vision some," she explained as she threw things rather haphazardly into a pack. Typically, she was one to conveniently disappear when there was packing to be done, but more hands made for quicker work, and the sooner they finished here, the sooner they could rescue Plik.
Derian
"Firekeeper," Derian touched her arm lightly and spoke quietly, "Why would this Merlin fellow have a way to get us in past the trees?"
Firekeeper
"Because." She shrugged. "He know magic." Before he could work up an outraged protest, she continued: "And I have knowed him several seasons now. He is not another Melina. He know magic, but I trust this magic."
Francine
"I don't know who that is--" Though the tone made Francine slide the name into that same shady, worrying place that Nimueh lived. "But Merlin won't hurt anybody here," she said to Derian with more fire than she'd normally use to a stranger who sort of qualified as an adult. "He's one of the people I trust most in the world."
Arthur
Which was very endearing all around, really, but Arthur was used to distrusting magic, and he was well aware a good deal of words weren't going to make that fear go away. "We all vouch for him. And like it or not, you need a sorceror," he said, "Don't mince words about the one you've got." He nodded his head towards the woods. "What else might we have waiting for us?"
Derian
"Out there," Derian answered with a look toward the rest of the forest, his judgment held in trust on the issue of magic for the moment, "Not much; the briar creatures have scared off most of the wildlife." He pointed directly to the copse of trees that Firekeeper had described to Merlin. "That's where it'll come from, if it comes. There's not just the animals; the vines themselves attacked Bitter and Lovable."
The larger of the already over-large ravens gave a weakened crawk at his name.
Merlin
Merlin focused very hard on packing up a bedroll during the discussion about him, jaw set and eyes down. Fandom had absolutely spoiled him with people being so accepting.
"Do you believe something is controlling them?" he asked finally. Because an actual foe was always easier than... evil plants.
Harjeedian
Harjeedian, who had been spooning out liver paste for Bitter, looked over his shoulder to answer. "It seems likely. We came seeking twins, a brother and sister, who may possess the talent for sorcery as well. Night's Terror, a Wise Owl who has remained in the forest despite the danger, watching for her missing mate, tells us that they were here. That they lived there." He pointed to the strange, still copse. "Before there were trees there."
Trees that by the look of them should have taken years to grow.
Merlin
"Um." Merlin blinked at the trees for a moment. Either a very long time or they were very good at making things grow. Far better than Merlin had managed in his attempts. "Does Night's Terror know what they look like?"
Firekeeper
Firekeeper shook her head. "She never even seed a human before they come, so she not have words for describing features. We know only their father have feature like Derian's people, while their mother look like Harjeedian's, so they probably somewhat in between."
Harjeedian
"The twins are young, just nearing adulthood. We've seen carvings made of them, at least," Harjeedian offered, seeming to realize that in his distraction at caring for the raven, he hadn't been clear. "Night's Terror says they came here and moved into the remnants of a keep, and for a time lived in friendship with the local yarimaimalom, the Wise Beasts. It was only later that the trees and briars grew up. Almost overnight."
Francine
"Are they trapped in there too?" Francine asked as Derian took the last of the camp supplies from her and stowed them away in one of the horse-packs. "With your friend?"
Derian
"That's what we're here to find out," the young man said as he rose and began leading the horses towards the copse, motioning the rest of them to follow.
Arthur
Arthur kept his eyes set on the copse, his body showing the slightest few signs of tension under his forced calm. The shrubs and weeds up ahead seemed to be entirely unremarkable, but even that could hide something-- and then his eyes slid down to find the edges of something altogether more worrying.
The bushes looked pretty, tamed by human hands into animal shapes, but he'd faced off with one of these things. He sucked in a breath of air between his teeth, skimming his eyes over the great bear that reached ever more obviously towards the sky.
"More of those beasts," he said, "But they don't appear to be animated by sorcery."
Merlin
Merlin crouched down, hands on the ground as he looked at them. It was--a lot easier to feel life in things when they were just a small seed. This was a whole different creature all together as far as things were concerned.
"Gif béo ungesewen, strang ic stælwierðe hwíl eotonweard ðu ríce þín níedhús," he muttered, trying very hard to keep the words correct.
Firekeeper
Firekeeper may have become used to magic during her time in Fandom, but there was likely always going to be a part of her that was uncomfortable with it. For now, though, she buried those uncomfortable thoughts and reached to clench a fist in Blind Seer's fur for a moment's reassurance before stepping forward.
The plant-beasts did not move.
"They not see us," she said, relieved. "Can go through now."
Arthur
Arthur stepped forward, himself - kept stepping, giving Merlin a grateful pat on the shoulder as he passed. "Now," he agreed, but cast a look at the creature shaped as a great cat. He sucked in his bottom lip in thought. "But that may change. We should restrain them in case they come back to life again."
He'd gotten used to these kind of 'surprises.'
Francine
Francine eyed them warily. "There's rope in the pack that Smudge is carrying," she said, glad she could contribute something.
Firekeeper
"Is good thinking," Firekeeper agreed.
Within a few minutes, the group rigged up a snare of sorts -- should the bracken beasts move, they would trip a line, and it would bring down a sizable chunk of timber upon them.
Merlin
Which all happened rather quickly with so many people helping.
Merlin nodded as they walked on past the beasts, and the illusion of the trees fell away entirely. They were standing now in what appeared to be a yard of some sort, leading up to a... small estate. It almost reminded him of being back in Ealdor to look at it.
"Shall we go in?"
Arthur
The estate seemed normal enough, but Arthur had by now moved past this is all comfortingly familiar into this is like home which means we've got to watch out for anything that'll want to horribly maim us. So his swagger, for what it was, towards the lot held a notion of wariness. He cast a look across the outer buildings.
All he said, however, was, "Sounds like a good pass-time," and pointed himself into the direction of the boarded-up door (and wasn't that promising).
Sometimes, machismo helped.
Derian
Closer inspection proved that it had been sealed, and then unsealed again.
"And this time, sealed from the inside rather than out," Derian realized aloud, "though they took some care to make it look as if the place hasn't been opened."
Firekeeper
Truth growled low in her throat, and Firekeeper translated: "Truth say, door have something like curtain in front: it look like just wood, but is not."
She knelt, poking at the edge of the boards, and then grunted in apparent satisfaction.
"I step away," she said, glancing at Arthur, "You look. Find edge, then peel back. You will feel it on fingers like the song of bees."
Arthur
Now that was nice and poetic.
Arthur gave the door a look, but reached, callused fingers sliding across the surface of the wood, seeking a different kind of edge.
Strange. He couldn't see anything.
He pulled anyway.
Harjeedian
The 'curtain' itself might be nearly invisible, but it was no figment of the imagination; once Arthur pulled up on it, the door beneath the door was revealed. It stood in worse repair, more faded, showing long splinters here and there along its grain.
"If you would hold that," Harjeedian said to Arthur, "while one of us forces the true door, it might be best. Simply pushing through it may set off defenses like those at the edge of the trees."
Francine
"It doesn't look like it needs much forcing," Francine said. Not that she was about to do it, but it looked old enough that she almost suspected she could. Maybe. If she had a hammer or a baseball bat. "We just need to get rid of the boards on the outside, then--".
Firekeeper
Then was Firekeeper huffing in impatience and simply bursting the door open by slamming her shoulder into the wood. The lock was old and snapped almost immediately.
"There," she smirked. "Done."
The shutters boarding the windows had warped with time, providing enough light inside to see by. There were bulges in the ceiling where water had leaked in and ruined the plaster, and bits of sawdust, leaf litter, and other trash. Most promising of all, clear traffic patterns into some of the other rooms broke up the debris.
Merlin
Merlin peered on in after Firekeeper, taking the step to cross into the house and see how much in disrepair it was. "Perhaps next time a window instead of bursting on in?"
Because... ow?
Arthur
Arthur followed after him. His expression suggested that he was maybe a little more impressed by Lady Blysse's quick thinking than Merlin was.
He was a simple man. He liked it when things broke to bits. "Yes, breaking a window would make this place much more charming," he opined.
Blind Seer
Blind Seer and Truth were busily sniffing the various paths. "Humans have been here," Blind Seer said through Firekeeper. "More than two, and most of their scents months old. One or two, maybe days."
"He have Plik's scent," Firekeeper added. "We think he was mostly carried, but here," she gestured to a spot on the floor, "was set down."
Francine
Francine listened to the silence of the building around them. "But nobody's here now. Where did they go?"
Firekeeper
"One trail runs deepest," Firekeeper supplied. Broader might have been a better term, since it wasn't like there was an actual groove worn in to the floor or anything, but semantics never were Firekeeper's strong point.
Merlin
""Shall we follow it then?" Merlin prompted, looking around as well as though something would pop out at them any moment.
Derian
Derian nodded and lifted his lantern to both to signal the rest of the party and light their way. The sudden whirr of wings was all that heralded the ravens landing on his shoulders to accompany them; the light flickered as his arm dipped in surprise.
Truth
Truth and Blind Seer's scouting led them down the wide main corridor, the floor solid stone beneath their feet, the track visible enough in the dust that even humans could pick it out, until finally the animals halted, sniffing the suddenly fresher air.
Arthur
Lovely. They were putting their fate in the hands of sniffing animals.
Arthur let that particular strand of annoyance play across the back of his brain, but didn't voice it. He did know patience sometimes. Especially since he did, in fact, notice--
"They're taking us back outside."
He wasn't sure whether that was a good or a bad thing, so he threw a skimming look across everyone else.
Edgy, yes.
Firekeeper
Firekeeper nodded towards a heavy-looking door. "This one not locked. Truth, it have magic curtain like outer door?"
When the jaguar indicated that it didn't, Firekeeper shrugged and opened it.
The area they could now see looked rather pleasant: a large garden, a well, a young apple tree... and beneath it all, the sour scent of blood and blood briar. Firekeeper found her hand drifting unconsciously to her Fang as she stepped forward.
Francine
"Pretty." Francine, lacking the ability to smell more than flowers and sunshine, took a deep breath of that, and looked around. And frowned. "There's no gate." Just a high stone wall that encircled the garden, with no breaks in it anywhere. "If they came this way, how did they get out?"
Truth
Truth gave the girl another unreadable golden stare, holding it for just a beat too long before shaking her head free of invisible paths to concentrate on the flagstone one in front of her.
The weeds that grew up through the stones were beaten down by human feet, a trail that should be plain even to the nose-dead, unless they were blind as well. The one that showed the most wear, though, the one that Truth followed, was not towards the well, nor the smooth polished bench beneath the apple tree. It led instead toward what was in all appearances a solid wall overgrown with some innocuous flowering vine.
Arthur
Yes, he'd followed. Followed, with his hand by his sword, and a guarded expression on his face, and the usual. Followed the path, ready for whatever waited at the end of it. Whatever monstrosity of twins might befall them, he would be ready. All of it led him to--
"Flowers," Arthur said, flatly.
Yes.
"All of this," he continued, sweeping an arm at the tracks, "For flowers."
Merlin
"It's not flowers," Merlin said slowly, looking at the vines and flowers more closely. "Look at the center."
There was a gap in the plants that didn't quite seem like anything natural. An archway was really more of a man-made sort of thing.
Derian
"It's shaped like a doorway," Derian realized.
The Meddler
"That's because it is one," came a voice from... nowhere. Unless you were Truth, who gave a surly growl at the sound of the voice in her head suddenly becoming a voice in the air.
Nowhere became the area in front of that doorway quickly enough, though, the shape of a man fading into view. Mostly - he remained slightly translucent, the vine-covered wall visible behind him.
He looked a bit like one of Harjeedian's people, but with iron-grey hair, his clothing similar but clearly the fashion of a different time, and his smile... well.
Derian
When Derian had first seen him, he realized shortly after that he was reminded of nothing so much as his favourite disreputable uncle, the one everybody knows isn't honest, but you can't help but love him anyway.
Harjeedian
"Meddler," Harjeedian said flatly, in the voice of someone who could indeed help it. "It lacks certain attributes generally required of a doorway, such as the ability to pass through it." You'd have to forgive Harjeedian; there was a reason the trickster god was not a beloved minor deity of his people.
The Meddler
The Meddler just gave him a look. "More accurately, then, it's a portal between this place and somewhere else, only to be opened through sorcery."
Merlin
And, look at that. They just so happened to have a sorcerer with them.
Merlin blinked in surprise, looking from the man to the door and back again. "Just magic opens it?" That shouldn't be hard.
Really.
The Meddler
"Ah, the spellcaster." The Meddler turned to Merlin and smirked slightly. "I must congratulate you on your resourcefulness in getting this far. I have to admit, I didn't anticipate that little trick you did with the trees."
"Unfortunately," he added with a shrug that really didn't seem apologetic at all, "from what I know of gates like these, they require a specific key, and the chances of you stumbling upon the correct combination of words or gestures is... minimal."
Firekeeper
"Do you know these?" Firekeeper demanded sharply.
The Meddler
"I'm afraid not. You may need to wait until those who carried your friend Plik away return," the Meddler informed her. "Which could well be a very long time," he added as he started to vanish once more. "I will do such scouting on my own as I can, but look to yourselves in the meanwhile."
So helpful, really.
Merlin
"I could try," Merlin said, going to touch Firekeeper's arm to calm her. With that he turned to look at the gateway, taking a deep breath.
...
This was going to be a bit more difficult than previously assumed.
If only because he, for the life of him, couldn't think of anything to help open it short of trying to blow up something that wasn't really there.
"Um."
Arthur
"Um?" Arthur repeated.
He was a little lost on who to stare at in this entire mess, but since the Meddler had suddenly made himself scarce, Merlin would have to do. "That's what we've got?"
Francine
"Um," Francine repeated, rather quietly. It was the um, though, of I have a thought, and I don't usually have those, so it's probably not a useful one and you'll probably laugh, but. Um.
Firekeeper
"What um?" Firekeeper asked, turning to Francine. She didn't make much use of 'um' in her own speech, but she was accustomed enough to human patterns to recognize when it meant I have something to say.
Francine
"If we can't get it open ourselves, and there's people inside we want out, maybe we could try...knocking?" She didn't mean literally, exactly, but there had to be something like that.
Firekeeper and Blind Seer
"Knock?" Firekeeper frowned, examining the stone wall. Perhaps she was missing something; she didn't understand how knocking on solid stone would help.
Blind Seer, on the other hand, gave a bark of excitement and wagged his tail at Francine.
"She has the right idea," he told Firekeeper. "The bracken beasts, after all, were awakened when we stepped too close to the copse. But what if they're not the only ones who were alerted? What if the copse also has the means to set forth a howl to those whose scent we have traced?"
"Blind Seer say, your thought is good," Firekeeper told Francine, before translating the rest of what the wolf had to say.
Merlin
"You want me to let the plants go?" Merlin asked. "There may be more than just the two of the beasts there."
If they went in prepared for battle instead of being tossed on in, perhaps the odds would be more in their favour, though.
"I could try to retain some of the control. Just in case."
Because he was just that good with fine tuning his powers. Really. No need to worry about a thing.
Arthur
Yes. No reason at all.
Unfortunately, Arthur saw little merit in any other plan - mostly because there wasn't any other plan. "All right," he said, turning back towards the building. "Let's make certain that we are ready, if we're to take the battle to ourselves."
[Preplayed with the lovely and medieval kestrelswolf, bigdamndestiny and bitch_prince. NFB/NFI, OOC A-OK. SORRY FOR WORRYING YOU, KATCHOO.]
The report Blind Seer and Truth brought back after sunrise was discouraging. They had found ample evidence- broken branches, bits of vine, a trail blazed directly through the undergrowth- that Plik had been taken to the unnatural copse of trees that the bracken beasts that had attacked them last night guarded. That was where the trail ended, neatly as if it had never been.
Truth
"Wiped out," Truth said, through Firekeeper. "Like a wave wipes paw prints from the sand. Gone."
Harjeedian
"So do we go after Plik?" Harjeedian asked. "If we do, I say we go all together. There is no need to send two, then two more, then two more until those remaining are left wondering whether there would be greater wisdom in going forward or back."
Firekeeper
"This copse," Firekeeper explained to those who hadn't been there when they first learned of it, "We think is like spiderweb. Simply walking in would be alerting spider to new prey, and set more plant-beasts on us. Merlin," she turned to him, "you have way to go in without waking spider? And then be like opening door from inside for rest of us?"
Truth
Truth's tail gave an annoyed twitch at this question. Almost as soon as she'd returned from the scouting mission, the jaguar had taken to alternately glaring at and ignoring the three newcomers, as if their very presence offended her for some reason.
Merlin
Merlin looked from Firekeeper to Arthur for a moment before nodding. "I can try."
Arthur
Arthur's hand had not left the hilt of his sword all day. He shot Merlin a cursory look, then glanced in the direction of the-- something. Magical border? Whatever it was. It was beyond his knowledge, at least.
"Then try," he said, finally. "But be ready."
It was obvious advice, yes, but the idea of sending any of the lot of them in there without him at the forefront was still a frustration, despite acknowledging the local authority above his own.
Francine
Francine had neither a sword hilt to ...fondle... nor anything that would help with sneaking into spider-webs. As such, her greatest contribution seemed to be staying the heck out of the way, and helping pack up the camp supplies where she could.
And trying not to stare at the very large, very Not Blind Seer wild animal that kept staring at her.
Finally, when Firekeeper passed by close enough that she didn't think she'd be interrupting things or drawing attention to herself, Francine asked, "Did we do something to make her mad?" with a small, nervous nod towards the jaguar.
Firekeeper
Firekeeper rolled her eyes at Truth's behavior. "Truth see things, much like Layla do. But she never seed things not of this place before you. It trouble her vision some," she explained as she threw things rather haphazardly into a pack. Typically, she was one to conveniently disappear when there was packing to be done, but more hands made for quicker work, and the sooner they finished here, the sooner they could rescue Plik.
Derian
"Firekeeper," Derian touched her arm lightly and spoke quietly, "Why would this Merlin fellow have a way to get us in past the trees?"
Firekeeper
"Because." She shrugged. "He know magic." Before he could work up an outraged protest, she continued: "And I have knowed him several seasons now. He is not another Melina. He know magic, but I trust this magic."
Francine
"I don't know who that is--" Though the tone made Francine slide the name into that same shady, worrying place that Nimueh lived. "But Merlin won't hurt anybody here," she said to Derian with more fire than she'd normally use to a stranger who sort of qualified as an adult. "He's one of the people I trust most in the world."
Arthur
Which was very endearing all around, really, but Arthur was used to distrusting magic, and he was well aware a good deal of words weren't going to make that fear go away. "We all vouch for him. And like it or not, you need a sorceror," he said, "Don't mince words about the one you've got." He nodded his head towards the woods. "What else might we have waiting for us?"
Derian
"Out there," Derian answered with a look toward the rest of the forest, his judgment held in trust on the issue of magic for the moment, "Not much; the briar creatures have scared off most of the wildlife." He pointed directly to the copse of trees that Firekeeper had described to Merlin. "That's where it'll come from, if it comes. There's not just the animals; the vines themselves attacked Bitter and Lovable."
The larger of the already over-large ravens gave a weakened crawk at his name.
Merlin
Merlin focused very hard on packing up a bedroll during the discussion about him, jaw set and eyes down. Fandom had absolutely spoiled him with people being so accepting.
"Do you believe something is controlling them?" he asked finally. Because an actual foe was always easier than... evil plants.
Harjeedian
Harjeedian, who had been spooning out liver paste for Bitter, looked over his shoulder to answer. "It seems likely. We came seeking twins, a brother and sister, who may possess the talent for sorcery as well. Night's Terror, a Wise Owl who has remained in the forest despite the danger, watching for her missing mate, tells us that they were here. That they lived there." He pointed to the strange, still copse. "Before there were trees there."
Trees that by the look of them should have taken years to grow.
Merlin
"Um." Merlin blinked at the trees for a moment. Either a very long time or they were very good at making things grow. Far better than Merlin had managed in his attempts. "Does Night's Terror know what they look like?"
Firekeeper
Firekeeper shook her head. "She never even seed a human before they come, so she not have words for describing features. We know only their father have feature like Derian's people, while their mother look like Harjeedian's, so they probably somewhat in between."
Harjeedian
"The twins are young, just nearing adulthood. We've seen carvings made of them, at least," Harjeedian offered, seeming to realize that in his distraction at caring for the raven, he hadn't been clear. "Night's Terror says they came here and moved into the remnants of a keep, and for a time lived in friendship with the local yarimaimalom, the Wise Beasts. It was only later that the trees and briars grew up. Almost overnight."
Francine
"Are they trapped in there too?" Francine asked as Derian took the last of the camp supplies from her and stowed them away in one of the horse-packs. "With your friend?"
Derian
"That's what we're here to find out," the young man said as he rose and began leading the horses towards the copse, motioning the rest of them to follow.
Arthur
Arthur kept his eyes set on the copse, his body showing the slightest few signs of tension under his forced calm. The shrubs and weeds up ahead seemed to be entirely unremarkable, but even that could hide something-- and then his eyes slid down to find the edges of something altogether more worrying.
The bushes looked pretty, tamed by human hands into animal shapes, but he'd faced off with one of these things. He sucked in a breath of air between his teeth, skimming his eyes over the great bear that reached ever more obviously towards the sky.
"More of those beasts," he said, "But they don't appear to be animated by sorcery."
Merlin
Merlin crouched down, hands on the ground as he looked at them. It was--a lot easier to feel life in things when they were just a small seed. This was a whole different creature all together as far as things were concerned.
"Gif béo ungesewen, strang ic stælwierðe hwíl eotonweard ðu ríce þín níedhús," he muttered, trying very hard to keep the words correct.
Firekeeper
Firekeeper may have become used to magic during her time in Fandom, but there was likely always going to be a part of her that was uncomfortable with it. For now, though, she buried those uncomfortable thoughts and reached to clench a fist in Blind Seer's fur for a moment's reassurance before stepping forward.
The plant-beasts did not move.
"They not see us," she said, relieved. "Can go through now."
Arthur
Arthur stepped forward, himself - kept stepping, giving Merlin a grateful pat on the shoulder as he passed. "Now," he agreed, but cast a look at the creature shaped as a great cat. He sucked in his bottom lip in thought. "But that may change. We should restrain them in case they come back to life again."
He'd gotten used to these kind of 'surprises.'
Francine
Francine eyed them warily. "There's rope in the pack that Smudge is carrying," she said, glad she could contribute something.
Firekeeper
"Is good thinking," Firekeeper agreed.
Within a few minutes, the group rigged up a snare of sorts -- should the bracken beasts move, they would trip a line, and it would bring down a sizable chunk of timber upon them.
Merlin
Which all happened rather quickly with so many people helping.
Merlin nodded as they walked on past the beasts, and the illusion of the trees fell away entirely. They were standing now in what appeared to be a yard of some sort, leading up to a... small estate. It almost reminded him of being back in Ealdor to look at it.
"Shall we go in?"
Arthur
The estate seemed normal enough, but Arthur had by now moved past this is all comfortingly familiar into this is like home which means we've got to watch out for anything that'll want to horribly maim us. So his swagger, for what it was, towards the lot held a notion of wariness. He cast a look across the outer buildings.
All he said, however, was, "Sounds like a good pass-time," and pointed himself into the direction of the boarded-up door (and wasn't that promising).
Sometimes, machismo helped.
Derian
Closer inspection proved that it had been sealed, and then unsealed again.
"And this time, sealed from the inside rather than out," Derian realized aloud, "though they took some care to make it look as if the place hasn't been opened."
Firekeeper
Truth growled low in her throat, and Firekeeper translated: "Truth say, door have something like curtain in front: it look like just wood, but is not."
She knelt, poking at the edge of the boards, and then grunted in apparent satisfaction.
"I step away," she said, glancing at Arthur, "You look. Find edge, then peel back. You will feel it on fingers like the song of bees."
Arthur
Now that was nice and poetic.
Arthur gave the door a look, but reached, callused fingers sliding across the surface of the wood, seeking a different kind of edge.
Strange. He couldn't see anything.
He pulled anyway.
Harjeedian
The 'curtain' itself might be nearly invisible, but it was no figment of the imagination; once Arthur pulled up on it, the door beneath the door was revealed. It stood in worse repair, more faded, showing long splinters here and there along its grain.
"If you would hold that," Harjeedian said to Arthur, "while one of us forces the true door, it might be best. Simply pushing through it may set off defenses like those at the edge of the trees."
Francine
"It doesn't look like it needs much forcing," Francine said. Not that she was about to do it, but it looked old enough that she almost suspected she could. Maybe. If she had a hammer or a baseball bat. "We just need to get rid of the boards on the outside, then--".
Firekeeper
Then was Firekeeper huffing in impatience and simply bursting the door open by slamming her shoulder into the wood. The lock was old and snapped almost immediately.
"There," she smirked. "Done."
The shutters boarding the windows had warped with time, providing enough light inside to see by. There were bulges in the ceiling where water had leaked in and ruined the plaster, and bits of sawdust, leaf litter, and other trash. Most promising of all, clear traffic patterns into some of the other rooms broke up the debris.
Merlin
Merlin peered on in after Firekeeper, taking the step to cross into the house and see how much in disrepair it was. "Perhaps next time a window instead of bursting on in?"
Because... ow?
Arthur
Arthur followed after him. His expression suggested that he was maybe a little more impressed by Lady Blysse's quick thinking than Merlin was.
He was a simple man. He liked it when things broke to bits. "Yes, breaking a window would make this place much more charming," he opined.
Blind Seer
Blind Seer and Truth were busily sniffing the various paths. "Humans have been here," Blind Seer said through Firekeeper. "More than two, and most of their scents months old. One or two, maybe days."
"He have Plik's scent," Firekeeper added. "We think he was mostly carried, but here," she gestured to a spot on the floor, "was set down."
Francine
Francine listened to the silence of the building around them. "But nobody's here now. Where did they go?"
Firekeeper
"One trail runs deepest," Firekeeper supplied. Broader might have been a better term, since it wasn't like there was an actual groove worn in to the floor or anything, but semantics never were Firekeeper's strong point.
Merlin
""Shall we follow it then?" Merlin prompted, looking around as well as though something would pop out at them any moment.
Derian
Derian nodded and lifted his lantern to both to signal the rest of the party and light their way. The sudden whirr of wings was all that heralded the ravens landing on his shoulders to accompany them; the light flickered as his arm dipped in surprise.
Truth
Truth and Blind Seer's scouting led them down the wide main corridor, the floor solid stone beneath their feet, the track visible enough in the dust that even humans could pick it out, until finally the animals halted, sniffing the suddenly fresher air.
Arthur
Lovely. They were putting their fate in the hands of sniffing animals.
Arthur let that particular strand of annoyance play across the back of his brain, but didn't voice it. He did know patience sometimes. Especially since he did, in fact, notice--
"They're taking us back outside."
He wasn't sure whether that was a good or a bad thing, so he threw a skimming look across everyone else.
Edgy, yes.
Firekeeper
Firekeeper nodded towards a heavy-looking door. "This one not locked. Truth, it have magic curtain like outer door?"
When the jaguar indicated that it didn't, Firekeeper shrugged and opened it.
The area they could now see looked rather pleasant: a large garden, a well, a young apple tree... and beneath it all, the sour scent of blood and blood briar. Firekeeper found her hand drifting unconsciously to her Fang as she stepped forward.
Francine
"Pretty." Francine, lacking the ability to smell more than flowers and sunshine, took a deep breath of that, and looked around. And frowned. "There's no gate." Just a high stone wall that encircled the garden, with no breaks in it anywhere. "If they came this way, how did they get out?"
Truth
Truth gave the girl another unreadable golden stare, holding it for just a beat too long before shaking her head free of invisible paths to concentrate on the flagstone one in front of her.
The weeds that grew up through the stones were beaten down by human feet, a trail that should be plain even to the nose-dead, unless they were blind as well. The one that showed the most wear, though, the one that Truth followed, was not towards the well, nor the smooth polished bench beneath the apple tree. It led instead toward what was in all appearances a solid wall overgrown with some innocuous flowering vine.
Arthur
Yes, he'd followed. Followed, with his hand by his sword, and a guarded expression on his face, and the usual. Followed the path, ready for whatever waited at the end of it. Whatever monstrosity of twins might befall them, he would be ready. All of it led him to--
"Flowers," Arthur said, flatly.
Yes.
"All of this," he continued, sweeping an arm at the tracks, "For flowers."
Merlin
"It's not flowers," Merlin said slowly, looking at the vines and flowers more closely. "Look at the center."
There was a gap in the plants that didn't quite seem like anything natural. An archway was really more of a man-made sort of thing.
Derian
"It's shaped like a doorway," Derian realized.
The Meddler
"That's because it is one," came a voice from... nowhere. Unless you were Truth, who gave a surly growl at the sound of the voice in her head suddenly becoming a voice in the air.
Nowhere became the area in front of that doorway quickly enough, though, the shape of a man fading into view. Mostly - he remained slightly translucent, the vine-covered wall visible behind him.
He looked a bit like one of Harjeedian's people, but with iron-grey hair, his clothing similar but clearly the fashion of a different time, and his smile... well.
Derian
When Derian had first seen him, he realized shortly after that he was reminded of nothing so much as his favourite disreputable uncle, the one everybody knows isn't honest, but you can't help but love him anyway.
Harjeedian
"Meddler," Harjeedian said flatly, in the voice of someone who could indeed help it. "It lacks certain attributes generally required of a doorway, such as the ability to pass through it." You'd have to forgive Harjeedian; there was a reason the trickster god was not a beloved minor deity of his people.
The Meddler
The Meddler just gave him a look. "More accurately, then, it's a portal between this place and somewhere else, only to be opened through sorcery."
Merlin
And, look at that. They just so happened to have a sorcerer with them.
Merlin blinked in surprise, looking from the man to the door and back again. "Just magic opens it?" That shouldn't be hard.
Really.
The Meddler
"Ah, the spellcaster." The Meddler turned to Merlin and smirked slightly. "I must congratulate you on your resourcefulness in getting this far. I have to admit, I didn't anticipate that little trick you did with the trees."
"Unfortunately," he added with a shrug that really didn't seem apologetic at all, "from what I know of gates like these, they require a specific key, and the chances of you stumbling upon the correct combination of words or gestures is... minimal."
Firekeeper
"Do you know these?" Firekeeper demanded sharply.
The Meddler
"I'm afraid not. You may need to wait until those who carried your friend Plik away return," the Meddler informed her. "Which could well be a very long time," he added as he started to vanish once more. "I will do such scouting on my own as I can, but look to yourselves in the meanwhile."
So helpful, really.
Merlin
"I could try," Merlin said, going to touch Firekeeper's arm to calm her. With that he turned to look at the gateway, taking a deep breath.
...
This was going to be a bit more difficult than previously assumed.
If only because he, for the life of him, couldn't think of anything to help open it short of trying to blow up something that wasn't really there.
"Um."
Arthur
"Um?" Arthur repeated.
He was a little lost on who to stare at in this entire mess, but since the Meddler had suddenly made himself scarce, Merlin would have to do. "That's what we've got?"
Francine
"Um," Francine repeated, rather quietly. It was the um, though, of I have a thought, and I don't usually have those, so it's probably not a useful one and you'll probably laugh, but. Um.
Firekeeper
"What um?" Firekeeper asked, turning to Francine. She didn't make much use of 'um' in her own speech, but she was accustomed enough to human patterns to recognize when it meant I have something to say.
Francine
"If we can't get it open ourselves, and there's people inside we want out, maybe we could try...knocking?" She didn't mean literally, exactly, but there had to be something like that.
Firekeeper and Blind Seer
"Knock?" Firekeeper frowned, examining the stone wall. Perhaps she was missing something; she didn't understand how knocking on solid stone would help.
Blind Seer, on the other hand, gave a bark of excitement and wagged his tail at Francine.
"She has the right idea," he told Firekeeper. "The bracken beasts, after all, were awakened when we stepped too close to the copse. But what if they're not the only ones who were alerted? What if the copse also has the means to set forth a howl to those whose scent we have traced?"
"Blind Seer say, your thought is good," Firekeeper told Francine, before translating the rest of what the wolf had to say.
Merlin
"You want me to let the plants go?" Merlin asked. "There may be more than just the two of the beasts there."
If they went in prepared for battle instead of being tossed on in, perhaps the odds would be more in their favour, though.
"I could try to retain some of the control. Just in case."
Because he was just that good with fine tuning his powers. Really. No need to worry about a thing.
Arthur
Yes. No reason at all.
Unfortunately, Arthur saw little merit in any other plan - mostly because there wasn't any other plan. "All right," he said, turning back towards the building. "Let's make certain that we are ready, if we're to take the battle to ourselves."
[Preplayed with the lovely and medieval kestrelswolf, bigdamndestiny and bitch_prince. NFB/NFI, OOC A-OK. SORRY FOR WORRYING YOU, KATCHOO.]