Submission (#2385) Approved

Quest: Resonance - Act #3
Act Type: Bravery
Word Count: 1846
Adult Elnin present: N/A
Regional Affinity: Ahza
Claiming Regional Affinity for: Beatrix [ELN365]
[Noble] Rank Unlock Mini-Requirement: Far from home (home region Faerindell and currently living in Bellmoril)

There were days that Beatrix wondered how she survived as a kittom. Jayce often made her go on questionable errands but somehow she always made her way back home in one piece. Some memories were fonder than others and some she still had shivers down her spine whenever she thought about them. 

 

One of his fools errands brought her back to Ahza which was far away from home and she knew there she wouldn’t have any help from him or anyone she was familiar with. Being originally from Faerindell and having moved to Bellmoril as a kittom to be Jayson’s apprentice had not been so hard on her. But what she found the hardest was when he sent her to places far away in Eyre. She was more accustomed to beautiful nature, softer breezer climate, while Ahza was the complete opposite of those places. It was full of sand and heat and barely any vegetation. Most that was found was around the oasis and closer to the towns. The rest of the region was sand dunes and bones … lots of leftover bones. The last time she had visited Ahza she took sand out of her fur for weeks and she was really not looking forward to that. She wondered how the locals ever got accustomed to it. Even water was rare there and if you ever got stuck in the desert without it chances are you wouldn’t last very long. She knew she had to stock up on resources before she left town and she also couldn’t travel as much in a day as the heat was so exhausting. Being born there might make a difference she thought to herself since most elnins she encountered there didn’t seem to mind the heat as much as she did. The food people consumed there was also different from what she was used to and she wasn’t sure she would ever become accustomed to it. She also hoped this would be her last ever visit to this sand land. She had no complaints from the locals, most were very nice and helpful but she couldn’t seem to understand why they also built their houses out of sand. Weren’t they ever tired of that blasted gritty material. Just the mere thought of being stuck there made her miss home already. 

 

When Bixy had returned home from her last adventurer one of the locals had given her a letter to give to Jayson wondering if something might be of interest to him. Had she known what the letter was about and that it would have brought her back to Ahza, she would have buried that letter in the sand making sure it had never found its way to Jayce. The local went on about how strange things kept happening near one of the abandoned homes in the city of Bejali. It seemed that things kept going missing and even some locals had been reported as having disappeared. Of course these tales of missing folks and objects caught his attention and brought Beatrix back to the scene to report on it. At times she felt like he was the worst mentor in the world. He constantly put her in arms way, while he sat safely at home amongst the books. “THAT’S IT THIS IS THE LAST TIME”. Bix screamed at the top of her lungs in frustration in the middle of the desert as she tried to dust away the sand from her fur. She was almost at Bejali as she silently cursed after Jayson. She realized her behaviour might seem a little mental to the locals but it did not stop her from acting out in any way. She threw her backpack in anger as far as she could and then started stomping in the sand. She was absolutely infuriated. “I really do hope some creature snatches me up and then he can feel bad forever since I never returned home with his precious research.” Luckily this time the townsfolk had been nice enough to already provide a map as to where the abandoned home was. She felt a little blessed she didn’t have to spend days inquiring about information this time around. Bixy picked up her pack that she had thrown as far as possible realizing that she broke the jar that was inside it. She really had to learn to control her anger as it brought her troubles at times. Opening the bag slowly she emptied it’s contains mixed in with it was shards of broken glass everywhere. Cursing loudly as she cut herself trying to gather back her belongings as she put her finger in her mouth trying to suck away the blood a shard of glass went missing. Thinking the heat was getting to her she shook her head and when she looked back at her belongings the rest of the glass had simply vanished. “WHAT THE!!!!!” Her eyes grew wide as she couldn’t believe what was happening. Things simply didn’t just vanish out of thin air especially when nothing else was missing it seemed. She slowly started putting back her belongings in her pack having accounted for everything but the broken jar. It was one thing to hear from townsfolk reporting strange happenings but it was always another to actually experience it. During her anger fit she hadn’t realized that she was already in front of the abandoned house she was looking for. 

 

She slowly started to examine the property from the outside and from the other houses she had seen around nothing unusual could be noticed from this one other than the roof having collapsed in. But something about the air around it felt cold and strange, it would make any passerby uncomfortable. She debated whether or not to step inside, the more she stood in its presence the more it felt eerie. Her fur raised in the back of her neck and her whole body was telling her not to go inside. Knowing clearly why she was here though made her make the first step. “How bad can this be if only my broken glass went missing.” As she stepped through the threshold, most of the collapsed roof had already been cleared out. She wondered then why it had been abandoned, as often it happened here and they simply rebuilt the roof. But this house had been left behind. She gulped slowly taking a look around and she didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary. But something in the air felt odd and out of place. In the letter she remembered reading about the person who had owned the house before it was left to ruins. It seemed he was some sort of wizard, rather he thought of himself as a magician. She wondered then if he had tried to conduct some sort of experiment and it had gone bad. These weren’t unheard things that happened and she thought it was maybe the case considering no one had seen the wizard since. Beatrix had made her way through the ground floor and hadn’t seen anything usual or strange but that meant the scariest place was left. The basement the worst of places she shivered as she slowly creaked open the door that was mostly falling apart. Wondering how many years this residence had been abandoned fearing the door would break as she pushed it slowly. Being grateful she had brought along a witchlight, she took it out of her pack and slowly made her way down the stairs which she was glad to see were made out of concrete. She thought to herself after maybe there were things that weren’t so bad about the sand houses of Ahza the stairs seemed to last forever. Still she was very cautious making her way down those steps. Afraid, she had closed her eyes but she finally decided to open them after a few minutes of having reached the bottom of the stairs. Bix frowned as she felt this was the coldest place she had seen in all of Ahza, it's as if the climate was completely different here.  From what she could tell as she took small steps around this is where his experiments were conducted. There was an alchemist table as well as bookshelves full of old books and manuscripts that had long been abandoned as she noticed the dust covering everything and the spider webs. Taking another step closer to the alchemist table she stepped on a piece of broken glass and she yelled out in pain as she heard it snap in smaller pieces. She couldn’t understand where the glass came from as it had not been there a moment ago. Then she felt a shadowy figure surround her and she put her paws over her mouth to keep herself from yelling out in fear. Before she could even convince herself otherwise she had already run up the stairs and out of the house. It had completely slipped her mind that her foot was wounded and that it hurt as she ran. Bixy had even dropped her witchlight in the house. But one thing she knew for sure was she wasn’t going back for it. As a matter of fact she was out of here and there was no way no one would make her ever go back there. Something seemed strange, cold and scary about that place. 

 

Once she had rested a bit and bandaged her paws, she took out her journal and simply wrote “ Abandoned houses are a no never again. Scary, dark, haunted and strange happenings. Most likely an experiment gone wrong. Nothing else needs to be noted on the house and should simply be avoided by all.” She hoped this would satisfy her mentor but she knew this wasn’t the case but she thought to herself if she didn’t like her reports he could simply go and do the research himself. Beatrix did however notice one book that had been left opened before she ran out of there. It seemed to have been on an invisibility potion, perhaps the wizard had tried to conduct the potion and it had gone wrong. It seemed worthy of noting in her journal as well. For now her research was concluded and she would rest now. 

 

After she had taken a day's rest Bix started her journey back home. It would be a long trip but she was somewhat in better spirits then when she had been on her way here. Home was where she belonged and she knew colder and breezier weather was awaiting her. Her foot still pained her and she wondered if maybe this wasn’t payback for having broken it in anger in the first place. She did not want to dwell on that too much as it brought her back to that scary place. Smiling, she sang a few songs of home trying to banish the fear that still lingered in the back of her mind. 

 

Maybe that old wizard had gone permanently invisible and he had stolen her broken glass and then made her step on it ?