Private Tales A Study of the World

[Arius Flint]

Arius wasn't rude.

Through the cracks in the door he could see into the cottage, get a glimpse of the layers of books and oddities, he could even see the slight figure hobbled in the corner of the room with a rocking chair.

Yet he had been raised right.

Allowing the song to continue just long enough for a break, Arius half concealed the stick in his hand and then reached up with his other hand. Knuckles curled, and he gently rapped his fist against the doorway. Clearing his throat rather loudly. "Hello there, miss."

He offered.

"Excuse me." The Alchemist contended with a smile.

 

[Beckett]

Somewhere hidden behind Arius, there was a facepalm to a fae's face.

The door was already open, so he'd be able to see a slight turn of the old woman's head at the knock. Her rocking continued but her rhyming did not. A small cackle that turned into something more melodic. A younger voice.

Without turning around, she crooned. "Oh deary. Yes, yes. Please come in," she crooned.

 

[Arius Flint]

Arius opened the rickety door. "Ah, thank you very much madame."

He might have been polite, but the young Alchemist was absolutely no ones fool. He knew this wasn't right, knew there was something off about this situation. In his estimation though there was always more than one situation to go about something.

This was just another way.

"Pardon the intrusion." He said with a smile. "But you see, I've been shipwrecked, and I could use some help."

As he spoke Arius' eyes flickered over the inside of the room. He studied the shelves, the items on them. Searching for something he would either recognize or find. After a few moments he took a step fully inside, marking what he'd found in his mind.

 

[Beckett]

"Ah, some help," her teeth clacked together as the fireplace in the corner slowly went out. Rocking chair continued to creak with each move she made. "Come closer so I can see who I'm talking to." She took a light sniff of the air, a frown on her lips.

"Hm, strange smells on you. One I thin is familiar and several that are not. Yes, yes, do come in. Help I can offer. Have you ever heard of the tale of the child who was drawn over to a traveling merchant in the woods?"

 

[Arius Flint]

Slowly Arius made his way into the woman's view, though never did he step that much closer to her. The stick he had been holding in his hand was now stuck in his sleeve. Tucked away in case he needed it quickly. Not the best trick, but one that would for now.

He smiled at the old woman as she spoke to him, an eyebrow popping up for just a moment as she seemed to....sniff the very air.

"A version of it, I suspect." Any fool could see where this was going, and Arius was no fool. His gaze flickered towards one of the narrow windows, and he couldn't help but wonder where it was Beckett had run off to.

Had she seen this woman before him?

Had this all been a set up? "Not much of a merchant, me."

The young Alchemist said with an admittedly forced chuckle.

 

[Beckett]

"Oh-HOHOHOwhhheeeze," she cleared her throat. Gnarled hand gripped one arm of her rocker. She still made no move to turn around to look at Arius. Another cackle as she leaned forward. "Skin and bones and yet," a tap to her nose that he probably couldn't see, as well as a dangerous sparkle in her milky eyes.

"Tasty," she smacked her lips and two things happened at once.

The fire in the fireplace suddenly went out, leaving the cabin in an inky blackness and the front door slammed closed.

 

[Arius Flint]

"Oh." Arius said into the darkness.

Well wasn't this just perfect.

Honestly he probably should have known better, but a scientists best quality was always the curiosity he held for the things around him. Something that he couldn't deny in the few moments before the darkness had swelled around him. "Madame."

The stick fell into his hand from his sleeve.

"I ask that you not try to eat me." The Alchemist took slow steps backwards until he felt a wall behind him. Pressing himself close against it as he tried to peer through the night like dark. "I have...places to be still."

He lied.

 

[Beckett]

"The one thing I told him not to let happen," Beckett swore in orcish as she raced through the woods and toward the cottage. The very thing she did not want to do.

Inside, Arius would hear a malevolent cackle that was significantly closer to him than where the witch had been before the place went dark. The creaking of the rocking chair all but silenced. Not even an ember of light left in the fireplace and it would suddenly seem very, very cold.

"Little pet," the voice would say.

Then silence as another cackle would sound more to Arius' right than where it had been on his left.

"Come closer," she whispered.

There was a sudden scuffle by the fireplace with a flash of light as a shower of ash filled the cabin. The witch snarled in the darkness and growled. "Beckett."

 

[Arius Flint]

"No, I'm quite alright over here thank you." He thought that politeness had always been the best way to fight against this sort of thing.

Most Ruffians and Thieves were so caught off guard by friendly language that it usually gave him a moment or two to act. Of course this time around it turned out that he didn't really need to. Before he could say or do anything else, the fireplace suddenly exploded in a shower of ash.

Black soot covered him, filling the room with a few darkness.

A cough racked Arius' lungs, but he managed to flick his hand forward. The stick in his grasp suddenly shuttered, and then a bright almost searing light erupted from it's tip. Shining to such a degree that it was enough to burn the eye.

As the light burst out, Arius spun on his heel.

Darting forward and jumping towards the nearest window.

 

[Beckett]

There was a whimper at the sudden burst of light. But it was decidedly not the witch's voice but Beckett's. The fae tried to clamp her mouth shut as quickly as she opened it.

For shit's sake.

The witch cackled in the darkness. A sniff to the air like the sound a hound would make sniffing out its prey. Then a flurry of footsteps in one direction. The opposite direction to the way Arius was running.

But now Beckett was temporarily blinded, covered in soot, and trying her damndest not to let the witch get her claws in her. A sudden crash near the back of the cottage as Beckett shoved an entire shelf of the witch's wares over.

 

[Arius Flint]

Arius crashed through the window with a clatter of wood and shattering of glass. He felt something bite into his back, one of the broken pieces leaving a long cut across his flesh. Blood almost immediately spilled free, seeping into his white undershirt.

"I warned you ma'am!" The Alchemist shouted, hearing the clatter within the small shack and assuming it was the woman stumbling about. "I really didn't want to get eaten!"

The words came as he reached for a small bottle in his pouch.

There was a spark as he ran the top of it over a small strip of rough paper on his side, and then a fire lit on the top of the cork. Then, without further ado, he threw the bottle into the building. It's glass bursting almost immediately as a fire snapped into life.

Arius, of course, being entirely unaware that Beckett was inside at all.

 

[Beckett]

There was a cackling scream from the witch as the hut caught fire.

"Ariu--," Beckett's muffled voice from within the chaos of the cottage yelled out before there was a mighty swell and snap to the air around the cottage. Right before it disappeared. The only thing left, the footprint of where the house was by a patch of dead grass on the ground.

 

[Arius Flint]

The word echoed out from the din of the fire, just barely reaching his ears.

Eyes popped almost immediately, and then it struck him. Every word that Beckett had said to him earlier, the whispered hint about the witch, the soot. "Oh fuck."

Then the house disappeared.

"OH FUCK!" The alchemist exclaimed, his voice nothing less than pure panic as he looked around the clearing. Head whirled from side to side, lips thinning. "Beckett?!"

He called out, his voice booming through the clearing. "Shit."

Arius swore as he darted forward and began to meekly search through the empty footprint of the house.