forgotten

[mute_pen]

It's past dark, but when you need the outhouse, you need the outhouse.

Isabel picks her way across the yard of her father's house in the moonlight, hoping to sneak back into bed without waking him.

Comments

[mute_pen]

"What happened to you?"

[pythbox]

It should be fairly clear at this point that no coherent answer is forthcoming, and indeed there isn't.

[mute_pen]

Yeah, Etty's getting that.

Keeping a half an eye on the... flock of girls... she starts a circuit of the lake, venturing away from shore into the surrounding forest periodically, scoping out her - new home, pessimistically; starting point from which she'll venture to rescue, optimistically. She wants hiding places in which to stash things she may acquire; sources of food, like nuts or berries, because she has no idea what she'll be fed or how regularly; and any interestingly shaped rocks that could allow the creation of tools. Or weapons. Maybe she can alternatively break the curse by stabbing the bastard.

[pythbox]

There are some interestingly shaped rocks around, and plenty of trees and bushes, some of which are indeed the sort that produce nuts or berries. In fact there is even an orchard next to the castle, surrounded by a wall but with the gate unlocked.

[mute_pen]

Etty takes inventory of the orchard, and takes some fruit for right then - food helps one to stay awake, and if she's going to turn into a bird at dawn, she's going to be as nocturnal as possible to make the most of having hands. She's also going to try flying away, of course, but if that worked -

Then there probably wouldn't be a flock of braindead girls who look so much like her at the lake, now, would there.

On the other hand she can easily believe that none of them were particularly clever about less straightforward means of escape. Maybe she can cut his cloak and he won't be able to fly and then - well, she'll have to think this through now, even without that he'll be easily able to overpower her. She'll think.

She wishes she had paper.

She finishes her circuit of the lake and goes back through the orchard to investigate the castle itself.

[pythbox]

The front door of the castle is enormous, forbidding, and closed.

There are other doors.

[mute_pen]

Etty... considers the value of information very high right now.

She tries a side door.

[pythbox]

The side door creaks rustily open.

[mute_pen]

Etty slips in with as little creaking as she can manage, judges the wind gentle enough not to slam the door shut if she declines to re-close it, and proceeds into the castle cautiously.

[growcrooked]

In the distance, someone is crying.

[mute_pen]

...

Etty follows that sound.

[growcrooked]

It leads her, with a few acoustic detours, to a room at the top of a tower. It's a beautiful room, containing beautiful furniture and a beautiful canopied bed, and in the bed is a girl who may or may not be beautiful under normal circumstances but is currently red-eyed and tear-streaked and cocooned in a tangle of beautiful sheets.

[mute_pen]

"...Hello," breathes Etty.

[growcrooked]

She blinks and sniffs and looks at Etty.

"Oh," she says, her voice wavering. "You must be the new one."

[mute_pen]

"...I guess."

[growcrooked]

The girl wipes her face distractedly with one hand and swings her legs over the edge of the bed, not particularly bothered that her sheet cocoon is gradually sliding off.

"Did he bring you just now?"

[mute_pen]

"Tonight. I don't know how many minutes. I walked around the lake first."

[growcrooked]

She nods.

"Why'd you come up here?"

[mute_pen]

"I was - exploring - and I heard you."

[growcrooked]

"Nobody else ever did that."

[mute_pen]

"They can't have all been so - despairing as to not even look for tools to get away in the obvious places. Can they? Whatever they are now." A shudder of fear goes through her. "Will that happen to me?"

[growcrooked]

"It takes years," says the stranger. "Years and years. I don't know how many. And then when you're too far gone he'll find another one."

[mute_pen]

"What are we for?"

And -

"They all look my age."

[growcrooked]

"So do I," she snorts. "It doesn't mean anything. You're for the Baron. I don't know what he does with you; I've never looked."

[mute_pen]

"Who are you, why are you here?"