In the Shadow of the Mountains

[CM]

::No need to shock them again? Again? Better to let them sleep? Two things puzzled her about that. One, was she that shocking to look at? and Two, did those people sleep all day? Cadence kinda glanced arouind and wondered if it was getting darker instead of lighter, perhaps the first hint she had a serious lag going on. Her response was a strange puzzled sort of smirk::

"The village is immune to surprise magical attacks and they have a watchful eye on things."

::Blink::

Oh, so if theys know before hand that someone is going to fireball them, then they won't be immune to it? I didn't know anything could be immune to Surprise magical attacks like that. Sounds kinda fishy to me...er, something.

"You know you could fly us both but the trip out there is best taken slow. Besides, there is no rush, right?"

::Confusion gave way to a smile as she nodded::

"As for your appearance, they might freak out somewhat, but like I said. Maybe it would be best to not bother them at the moment."

::Back to a frown. So self conscious in that moment, she felt her looks must be displeasing but she tried not to let her disappointment show::

That's twice yous hinted to it. I guess I am kinda freaky lookin. maybe I shouldn't go at all. I get enough comments from the children at the Academy sometimes. Theys tell me my wings are fake or that there must be something wrong with my eyes and that I can't speech or spell right and theys make fun of me. Like that one lady. She was makin fun of me, I could tell. I think she thought I was real stupid or something.

::She shook her head sadly and finally answered his question about food::

Pancakes..... and sausage... lots of maple syrup! ..aaaand scrambled eggs with cheese.... Oh... maybe make a sandwich like that... hey, can yous cook all that? I can help.

::and maybe that cheered her up just a bit just thinking about doing something so mundane as cooking, but mostly watching Bob do it. She didn't want to talk about what was bothering her, not on an empty stomach.::

[Chaos]

Bob laughed then. "No no, you see. Like the barrier protects their village from teleportation and stuff like that, you see nobody wants an army of Deathguard soldiers showing up there in the middle of the night and burning the place down, you see? Even I had to walk to get to where we are now. No teleporting allowed. However the whole fire ball thing, no immunity to that sort of thing, but the bad guys won't be teleporting into the place. No surprise here in that kind of way."

He hoped that cleared things up for her. He was often confusing sometimes. Then that second part came and he just had to sigh to it, he didn't want to concern her with what he did that night before he got here, but to make her feel better he guessed he had no choice but to say it.

"Listen. The village had a rough night last night and something came from the city in the dreamwave cycle. Almost all off of the kids there had terrible nightmares and nobody got much sleep, they might be alittle on the cranky side today. And the arrival of a new person so soon after such a event mixed with tiredness means something bad could happen."

He then patted her on the shoulder. "You don't look freaky to me, if you wanted to though we could make it happen. But to me. No. Hinted at it, me..how could I ever do that. I am not the type to make hints. You know that by now. Sometimes my words can be misread I am sure. I am confusing like that. As for the academy people. We could always, oh I don't know, Terrorize them a little for making fun of you." He smiled darkly, old habits truly do die harder than he thought. "For a friend it would be no trouble at all to come up with a plan for you."


He smiled, then blinked at her request, Bob the chef? Oh man this would be interesting. "I, I can try to cook all of that. Ive never actually made anything like that before. But I was careful to install a nifty little fridge with a dimensional unit so the food is no problem."

"Shall we begin the journey into the unknown realm of cooking? When ever you are ready." Then he stood up and waited.

[CM]

;:He laughed and she blushed while she nodded to his explanation. It did help her understand the term Surprise that he meant. The hand on the shoulder was accepted warmly with a smile::

I will wait a day or two ... or whatever.... before I come into town. Last thing I want is to freak out a bunch of kids. Although, maybe some day we can pay back a few others...

::she grinned darkly to mirror his smile about causing havoc on Ravensheart kids::

Except, yous gotta promise it won't be a bad kind, just enough to freak them out is all.

::She laughed at his blank expression about cooking::

Cooking isn't hard, Bob. Yous can do it. I teach yous how. Lyndra taught me so yous be cookin like a professional real soon.

::Her smile got bigger and she put a hand on his arm, mostly an act of comfort, as he stood::

Yep, I'm ready! Lets get cooking Bob. Lead the way.

[Chaos]

Inside Bob's House.

The place was simplistic at the most. Not what you would expect from a former major bad guy by any means, however there was a few odd things. The first thing you see when you walk into the place is the living room, it is smaller than the average, but not congested..or dirty for that matter. Nothing in this place has one speck of dust on it anywhere. Along the far wall there is a fireplace there, the are no flames there now though. Above it on the mantle on a stand of its own is a silver shaft, it is the hilt of the black lightsaber, it is deactivated obviously.

Beside the fireplace there is an opening that leads to somewhere dark and the end can't be seen. To the right is a opening that leads into the kitchen. It is actually bigger in size than the living room, but this is because in the far left hand corner there is another doorway, it is open and there is a stairway leading down, again the way down is shrouded in darkness. The kitchen is also spotless and clean, not to mention the cupboards are filled with many different things. The oddest feature of this room was in the corner was a black bookshelf filled with very old books, in good condition, but they just felt like they were old. The rest of the kitchen was dark red in color. It had a smooth surface for the floor, but it felt like no tile one would know right off the top of their head.

Infact most of the walls of the place were dark red in color, that could be seen anyway and oddly enough there were no windows, but a breeze could be felt as if one had been left open somewhere. It smelled sweet, but it was faint and always moving.


Bob stood up from his place and that door opened up on its own accord. And just this once he would lead the way, although it was customary to let the women go first according to his sources, but this time he would go first.

"Well, its not much, but it does the job nicely I think. But what do you think?"

He would have promised, to just freak out those Academy kids, but his imagination sometimes proved to be too much, so he just nodded and smiled as best he could.

[CM]

::The first thing that caught her attention was the lack of dust. She was so impressed with how clean it was, she slipped off her little slipper shoes and left them by the door. The floor was pleasantly cool to her barefeet. The second thing that caught her attention was the fireplace and the strange looking metal thing hanging above the mantle. She moved to the fireplace and ran a finger along the mantle, inspecting for dust. Impressive that there was absolutely none::

Oh, Nice clean job, Bob. I was going to offer to clean for yous but yous seem to already have that in hand.

::Then she stared at that strange object hanging on the wall above for a moment trying to figure out what that was. Cadence had never seen a lightsaber before. She was going to ask but he seemed to be moving off to the kitchen. She simply glanced down the darkened hallway wondering where it lead but decided, just like the strange thing above the mantle,  that could wait to ask about.::

I'm thinkin it's a nice cozy place that just needs a little something. I want to get yous something for yous new place here, Bob. Maybe something decorative, like a picture or some nick nacks and stuff. What do yous like, besides the color red?

::she realized as she walked along the strange smooth tile in the kitchen, that she absolutely had no idea what kind of art forms Bob liked. She had never been to his other place and so this new place was all she knew. Again, she glanced down the strange dark opening in the kitchen but decided to wait until later to ask about it. She glanced over the bookshelf and the cupboards, opening them and the fridge to find the ingredients they would need for breakfast and began pulling them out::

Although, I gotta ask, Bob. What's the floor made of? It's ... different.

::her little toes wiggled and grasped at the floor as she looked down to them and back up at Bob with a quizzical smile and mirth in her pretty blues.::

[Chaos]

He just smiled. "A guest should never have to clean anything. I can handle that my self." He then looked around as she did at the various things in the place, then that next question came. "Red has always seemed to do well for me. But I've never had much use for pictures or anything like that. I have more than enough nice things to look at. Anything you decide to get me will be good I am sure. Surprise me."


He watched her pull out the ingredients to make things. "The floor is...well it is made out the stuff dreams are made out of. It is the base of the house and from it all things are connected. Think of it as the main power source of the house. With out the floor there can be no house."

Then Bob laughed at himself a little bit as he heard how funny that sounded, at least to him it did.

"Shall we begin?"

[CM]

::Cadence blinked at Bob, who was laughing at himself. Then she covered her mouth and giggled, too, just because it was funny::

Yous silly, Bob! Dreams are everything. Yous know, like that song...

::she sang::

Row, row, rows yous boat gently downs the stream... merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dreams.

::she nodded she was ready::

[Chaos]

(Sorry bout that, My internet died, now with out further delay...)


"Of course I know what dreams are, they are indeed, as you say, everything. Just like that song." He watched her as she sang, not sure if he heard her or not. "Ready are you. Well then let us...me...er..yeah, Lets begin!"

Was Bob actually nervous about this, of all the things he was, a professional chef was not one of them by any means. He turned his attention from her to the things there before him and slowly he began to reach for the first item. It happened to be a carton of eggs, Bob had actually never needed to know what this was so he picked up the entire thing. "So, do we eat this thing whole or what? I mean it doesn't look entirely bad after all."

He had no idea about this sort of thing.

[CM]

::blinkblinkblink, snicker::

Um...er... whole? Like that? Uh, no Bob... silly.

::She was grinning gently with a quirk to her brow, surprised at his apparent nervousness. It was more then apparent, actually. She wondered why cooking would make him nervous. Was he afraid? Her tones were gentle and soft::

I don't think I've ever seen yous like this before. Yous don't really knows how to cook, do yous...

::grin turned to a smile and she gently took the box of eggs from him::

It's okay, Bob. Maybe I should just show yous, okay? I'll do one then yous do the rest. I'll help yous.

::which using the whole carton would make way more then she could eat but she didn't know if Bob was going to eat anything or how much he did eat. She opened the box to reveal the dozen of eggs sitting neatly in two rows within it. She set the box on the counter by a mixing bowl and began to crack an egg, splitting the crack wider with her thumbs slipping into the crack and pulling it apart while being careful not to get any shells dumped into it while she let the slimy inside plop down into the bowl::

See? Like that. Yous gotta be careful not to let any of the shells get in there. Here, yous try....

::she glanced briefly around but she didn't see a trash can so she just put the empty shell back into the egg carton right where it was before. Then she watched Bob::

Maybe I should ask if yous gonna help me eat this stuff ... I mean, those are a lotta eggs. Um... maybe if its just me eating them, two or three eggs is way plenty. And why does cooking make yous nervous? Yous not afraid are yous?

::It was an honest curiosity bubbling in her pretty blues, though a spark of mischevious mirth twinkled there too. She'd never seen Bob afraid of anything and she was intrigued to know why cooking would make him so nervous ... Nervousness was something stemmed from fear.. but fear of what? Was he afraid of failing? Bob afraid. It was inconceivable but endearing at the same time for some reason::

[Chaos]

He just smiled. One of Bob's super secret powers was mimicry, he could copy  anybody exactly when ever they did something, she didn't need to know that though. "Hmmm, Kinda just like this?" He picked up the egg and did exactly like she did, although it was perfect, Bob put far too much effort into the action and the fragile thing just crushed into a slimy mess. Then he blinked. " I guess these things are not as...strong as you would think they are." He just shook his head at the mess and sighed. "Let me try again."

That mess vanished and he grabbed another egg, and this time he tried the same thing again, only lighter. The shell didn't break this time. "Hmmmm..This cooking stuff is complex. I can take over the world in a week, but I can't crack an egg. I suppose this wasn't in the supervillain handbook."

"I think these things are going to become my eternal nemesis in due time..nope, zero cooking skills. Nervous. It requires me to show some actual skill. Its a big secret but me, I'm not actually good at anything like this. But don't tell anybody, they might see me as less a threat and stuff like that. Always gotta keep em on the edge, you know."

[CM]

::She felt her teeth press together pinning her lips shut when he broke the first egg. She didn't say anything, just watched him with that same amused glint in her pretty blues. Although there was a moment when she was going to start picking out the shells from the bowl, but he had them cleaned up so quick she wondered if they were even really there at all::

Oh, Nemisis, shmemsis! Don't yous worry, Bob. Nobody ever really gets it right the first time. It's hard to know right where that good breaking point is. Yous shoulda seen me. I went through two dozen afore I got that egg cracking thing right. Here, let me try another approach. Maybe this'll help yous some more.

::she hovered over and wiggled between him and the counter so his arms were on either side of her, with her back to him, and put her hands on his, making sure he had an egg there. Her wings stopped fluttering, as it was uncomfortable to flap with him right behind her at that angle. Oddly, though, she wasn't dropping to the ground. In fact it would seem her body morphed just a tad to become taller, just enough to be a perfect fit so he could see over her, but tall enough that she could reach his hands comfortably, bare feet firmly on the floor::

See, Nana says its in the detail.. you know the little things. I tell you better from here I think. No, eggs don't stand up to your strength, Bob.... but theys do have a strength to 'em.

::she glanced back at him to see if he was comfortable, then quickly averted her gaze back to the egg::

Long ways theys stronger so the momma, or pappa, don't break 'em when they sit on 'em in the nest. That's important. The other way, the short way like this..

::and she pointed out the direction::

...well, it's weaker. So that's where yous gotta make that breaking point, right there. I shoulda told ya to do it there before but I wasn't thinking from this here spot, but now I can see it from here... So.. uh..

::was she getting nervous? Heartrate increased, breathing deeper, quicker just a bit. Nervous. It would seem so, but not about breaking the eggs. She averted those pretty blues from Bob and really kept them glued to the egg in hand::

er..yous need to crack it on an edge of something. Like the side here of the counter. That's a good place.

::And so she moved the egg with Bob's hand over the spot as hers slid down just a bit to help support the egg while she gave the egg a light but sharp crack on that corner of the edge, so Bob could feel the pressure and angle she was using to do it. The egg cracked there smartly but didn't break open enough to spill its contents. Her tones softened and almost seemed like a whisper::

Then yous get both yous thumbs riiiiight there to the crack on either side and very lightly, carefully with an ever so gentle touch.. yous pry it apart after yous get it over the bowl... that's so the egg don't drop on the counter or floor.. and it'll just slide right in there.. like so..

::She had been moving his fingers to the right place and with her thumbs atop his, she gave a gentle pressure pushing his thumbs in and then pulling them away from each other to split the crack open wider, letting the egg plop down from the shells. She wasn't looking to see where it landed... she was half looking back at him::

How'd we do?

[Chaos]

Despite all that went on...and despite all that she had tried to show him, something attacked his vision, his mind too. The attention span simply broke as he could feel the terror descend from the sky! "Cadence. I...I am sorry. I have to go check something out. Stay here...and I am sure we did fine." He said with no smile on his face. His mood had changed considerably.


Bob then took a step back and waved his hand, the silver handle flew into his hand and he took off in a flash of blinding speed out the door, and towards the village, leaving a trail sizzling air behind him and the ground was charred black.

[CM]

::She thought something was wrong and knew it to be true even before Bob opened his mouth to say anything. She just didn't know why she felt so nervous until he did speak. She nodded understanding, though her pretty blues were filled with concern, but there was no way she was even going to try to stop him::

Be careful..

::She watched him go, even followed him until she was on the porch again watching the trail flow into the distance. Then she realized her foot was covered in egg. She glanced down and only half grinned for a moment, shaking her head softly as she moved back inside and set about the task of cleaning up the mess. She would stay in his house, though she really wanted to follow::

[Chaos]

Dear Cadence,

Carcosa village has been destroyed, its people have been locked away in stone by some horrible curse, or powerful magic spell. Nothing I could do about it. I know I told you to stay put, but this has influenced me to become active once more. Keep the house, its yours if you want it. Otherwise return to Rhydin City and help me with my new plans.

Sorry about leaving you like that, however I caught the trail of the one responsible and chased him all the way back to the city, I lost him there.


The choice is yours. If you stay there and go into the basement, there is nothing down there, actually too important. Some minor artifacts I have collected while doing my...work.


See you soon or take it easy, regardless of what ever you choose, I know this isnt goodbye.

Your friend,

Bob.


PS: Time in the house moves slower then in real time. So more time has passed in the city then in the house.

This letter would appear next to her hand, where ever she might have been at the time.


Artifacts in the Basement include:

Scepter of Seeing: Allows people to see the invisible when held.

Red Devil Blade: A short dagger that causes fire damage when it cuts something.

Black Ring: A black ring that, when worn, allows people to read unguarded thoughts

Prism: Basic light refracting crystal that deflects basic magic spells

Silver Dragon Rod: This rod is more of a staff with a silver dragon entwined around it, it summons a dragon to fight by your side, and gives unlimited wealth

Demonomicon: Book of the demons, tells how to summon, control, banish, channel energy, and kill most demons. Possessed book that controls user if book is read from beginning to end, by a powerful demon lord of course.


Nothing else is here, all items are provided with their function on the pedestal they are located on.

[CM]

::Everything felt awkward as she moved into the kitchen to clean up her foot and the floor. Oddly, by the time she got to the kitchen, she realized that there was no egg mess on the floor any more and now it was gone from her foot::

How did that happen?

::Shrugging softly to herself, she fixed herself some breakfast and sat down on the porch to eat it and relax a bit while waiting for Bob to come back. The awkwardness kept getting stronger. It was something she couldn't explain except maybe because she was in Bob's house and he wasn't there. It was the only thing that would explain to herself the strange odd feeling::

Yous gonna miss breakfast...

::she sighed and no sooner then this when she felt something brush against her hand. She looked to find the letter there. It was soon clutched in her small hand and brought closer to be opened while she read it over a few times. A frown was definitely there and she wondered what she could do to help those people. But she knew there was nothing could be done if Bob hadn't been able to deal with it himself then. She could think that maybe this person Bob chased needed to be dealt with before those people could be freed. She pulled out a pen and wrote a letter back to him::


Dear Bob,

I think I will come back to RhyDin but I don't know that I can help yous very much. What I mean is that I don't know how much help I'd be. I kinda get the feeling it's just way out of my league. I will return to Bonnie Corp so yous know where to find me if you really have need of me. It was fun trying to teach yous to cook. Maybe when yous get time again... but I guess yous got better things to do then such simple things like that. Okay, maybe it was boring for yous.

Anyways, I don't want to leave yous collection here if yous not coming back. So, I will bring it with me and keep it safe for yous. Yous can find it in the other place yous made for me. Yous know. And I do so love that place! It's quiet and it's safe and very comfy. So, I will keep yous things there for yous.

And I'm glad it isn't goodbye. I almost thought it might be so, but... no. I'm glad it's not.

See yous soon.

~Cadence.


::The letter was sent by that inexplicable way they had between them. Then she ventured down to the basement to see about packing up the things he mentioned about and to take them for safe keeping. She had no intent of using them .. especially that demonic book. She could smell the demon laced within it. She'd leave that one alone for sure. It reminded her of the one she'd destroyed a while back in Ravensheart School. But the rod, which was definitely more like a staff to her short size, held her curiosity more then anything else there. It was so pretty to her and the artwork of the Dragon held her speechless as she stared at it for a long time before she shook off the mesmerizing effect the rod had on her. The desire to free the dragon was terribly strong. But it wasn't hers. So it was packed away carefully with the others::

::Finally she had gathered the items and was ready to go. She'd attempt to lock up the place anyway before she left and return to her place in Bonnie Corp via the other place he'd made for her... that place in between other places that she was finding to be home more then any other place. It was her very own domain::