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

[growcrooked]

"Plenty."

[mute_pen]

Etty considers this.

She looks around the room for hiding places.

[growcrooked]

Under the bed is probably the best prospect.

Not-Odile watches her curiously.

[mute_pen]

"I'm trying to figure out where to hide if he comes up the stairs while I'm here."

[growcrooked]

The sheet wrapped around her shoulders has been falling off all this time; it finally drops away.

"He'll know you're here, I bet," she says. "He always knows where I'm hiding."

[mute_pen]

Etty - looks a moment longer than really seems prudent, then drops her eyes.

"How does he do it? More magic?"

[growcrooked]

"Probably," she says, declining to cover herself.

[mute_pen]

"Are - you sure you wouldn't rather - put on some clothes -?"

[growcrooked]

"...Why?"

[mute_pen]

"Most people prefer it, in company."

[growcrooked]

"I don't think you're going to fuck me, so what do I care?"

[mute_pen]

Etty swallows. This person is the only friendly individual remotely accessible. If she wants any help getting out she'll have to accommodate her, at least on minor subjects. "As you like."

[growcrooked]

"...Something wrong?"

[mute_pen]

"Apart from my having been kidnapped and cursed?"

[growcrooked]

She shrugs. "Guess not, then."

[mute_pen]

"So someone managed to claim an unclaimed heart before? How did that happen?"

[growcrooked]

"Some prince was out hunting and almost shot her, then she turned human and he was smitten on the spot, apparently. He was very sweet to her. When the Baron sent me to him it was the best a man has ever treated me."

[mute_pen]

"- Then what happened?"

[growcrooked]

"He found out I wasn't really Odette and panicked and went to her and they threw themselves in the lake. When they died it loosed the flock and the Baron had to run and get another one to get his immortality back. I wish I'd killed him when I had the chance."

[mute_pen]

"He specified that I couldn't drown myself."

[growcrooked]

She snorts.

[mute_pen]

"I haven't tested it," Etty adds.

[growcrooked]

"Are you going to?"

[mute_pen]

"Things would have to be worse than they have been so far. Or I'd have to be able to accomplish a lot by dying that I couldn't do any other way."

[growcrooked]

She shrugs.