I'm Looking.

[Bag of Sunshine]

Waking up in a house that isn't your own is always a strange feeling.

The awkwardness of waking up first in a sleep over and the incessant curiosity of everything and anything around you. Anything to keep the boredom away while you wait for your hosts to wake.

For Myrtle it's not much different. She awakens in her cot tucked away by cabinets and chairs, surrounded by books and pictures and random baubles all of which are not hers. The mane of burnt sienna tresses floof to an almost comical level of unkemptness and exhaustion still stains under her eyes, but fortunately the house remains as asleep as she was only moments ago. Oddly quiet and still, the wizard took the time to really inspect her surroundings.

Books, at least several shelves worth having migrated from the library down the stairs into the living quarters of the home. Of course they were mostly arcane and academical things from mundane to arcane and all things in between. Papers that might've belonged to notes or essays interspaced between bindings with the scent of tobacco staining the air and walls that weren't covered with art or books. The hallway she was sent to stay in had two doors to two rooms, both locked and- potentially occupied with sleeping or quietly reading owners. She thought about them a while, her host who had insisted to offer his hospitality and the spitfire companion he gave boarding to. And then she thought about the house and its books and studies, the laughs that were had here and the tears and the fights.

A sigh came from Myrtle then as she slowly pulls herself up and off the cot and began packing everything away.

"For a circle of morally ambiguous mages, they're got a good threshold here."

The voice came from another hin who peeks around the stairs to Myrtle as she packs. This hin, unlike the tired and anxiety driven wizard that is Myrtle is bright with life and an easy smile across her lips.

"Yeah. It's nice here." She responds as a stuffed rabbit is shoved between blankets and cot folded up right like a sleep-over-supply-sandwich.

The newcomer rounds the stairs, fingers dancing over books and titles. She wears raggedy apprentice robes and of course- no boots as some hin are wont to do. "You know he'd probably let you stay here if you asked."

Myrtle continues trying to wake up, rubbing fingers over pliant cheeks and through the tangled frizz of hair.

"Or you could actually stay in Guldorand for longer than an hour."

"You know that's not how this works out Addison."

A grimace then as the wizard shoots a glare toward her companion's attempt at helpful advice. Addison frowned, only mildly put off, which suggests this conversation is a common occurrence. But the apprentice resumes pursuing the various titles on the presented spines of the reading material. She wasn't wrong, Myrtle could likely make a consistent living arrangement if she so asked. Waking up every morning to eat breakfast with others, enjoy tea and practice the arcane- it didn't take any effort for the dream to take image in her mind.

And it didnt take any effort for the pleasent thought to be invaded by the intrusive senario of a cantrip to warm tea gone wrong and the entire kitchen consumed in purple flames.

She didn't realize her breath had caught in her throat until the weight in her chest was tight enough to crush an apple.

"Well biscuits I didn't mean for you to get all worked up over it. We'll go back to your stupid mud house." Addison remarks with a guilty huff. The sound of stirring consciousness emits from one of the bedrooms, and Myrtle tears herself from her sondering to finish packing.

The walk down the stairs is challenging, balancing a cot already unwieldy as Addison sits on a stack of books at the landing. "Doin' great Myrts! Watch the corner there." Helpful coaching and moral support, great. Each step its own trial, the noodley wizard manages as best she can with her physical limitations.

"A spell would make it easier. Do that hand one!"
"Mister, hrngh, Poe, doesnt want me castin in here."
"Well screw him and his stupid hat. Do the hand thing!"

As Myrtle is about to hiss an unkind reminder of the sleeping denizens of the library, she, and her sleep-over-kit tumble down the last flight of stairs. A thud bang bang as the unforgiving floor grows closer.

She doesn't even realize the cantrip forming on her tongue, foiled as her head knocks into the railing.

----
It's dark here.

Outside perhaps? Though the sky was dark and unsettlingly empty without star nor heavenly body. Vast and endless enough the emptiness felt consuming instead of void. We're not on Toril anymore Toto.

Ears blare with the sting of a head wound which does more to offer some comfort in this lonely place. With some effort, the hinnish wizard is able to sit herself up right to better inspect her surroundings. And perhaps she then immediately wishes she hadn't.

An empty plateau in the middle of quite literally No Where, floating amongst a place between planes and on the fringes of time. Isn't there usually a man here, standing vigil over the stars and what might lie beyond?

Might? Definitely. Definitely lies beyond. We've transgressed the point of doubts and second guessing now- but that's something else.

The head splitting headache wrapped her thoughts like a too hot blanket pulled from the dryer, making it difficult to try and recall how exactly to get out of this mess. Rhythmic beats of her heart began to lull her mind back to unconsciousness-

Wait. What's that?

Far far away it seemed, something against the emptiness. Slowly it approached, moving like it had all eternity to get where it was going and had no motivation to make any haste. Her fingers extend upward toward the tiny object, and then met with a sharp sting as something breaks skin. Inspecting her hand the offender appears to be-

A tiny, disembodied mouth. The speck she saw in the distance before? This tiny mouth with not so tiny teeth bit and gnawed at her finger, a tiny rivulet of blood streaming. And while she was trying to make sense of this, another bite.

A small swarm of equally small mouths, biting and nipping and chewing and consuming any bit of open flesh. She could feel a scream in her throat but it never quite got to manifest.

----

"Hey, hey wake up. Was your stuff like this when we left?"

Vision comes to her eyes slowly, adjusting to the dim lighting of the dank and lonely cavern. Though this is more familiar than the library back in Greyhammer where this all started. The colourful assaults of paint staining sections of walls brought a sense of comfort and familiarity.

But the position of all of her fixtures did not.

To explain, Myrtle has precisely two desks, one full of alchemical apparatus and the other a writing desk stacked with books and inkwells and unfinished wands (but oddly no quills). A chalk board and bookshelf to sit against two barren walls, the former near the alchemist desk and the later off to some corner. Finally a lone chair, often moved between either desk depending on the day.

But today the desks were switched to the other side of the room, and the only chair was put into a dark corner of the cavern, facing the wall as if designated for naughty children.

This would be fine if there were any naughty children here, but neither Addison nor Myrtle are children or naughty.

Which makes this definitely, not fine.

Addison is already inspecting the changes with a decided frown as Myrtle peels herself off the damp ground, head still pounding. She couldn't remember getting here, let alone rearranging her furniture. She also didn't remember writing this note scrawled along her chalkboard.

Let's not talk about the note and the chalk board.

Instead let's talk about the cold sweat growing under the wizard's collar as she takes note of the new arrangement of her little underground lab. She didn't remember changing things, but she knew it had to be her, no one else would do it. But why? Chunks of time are replaced with the sensation of tiny mouths gnawing at her fingertips and are likely left in the same empty abyss that hid under the rug at the landing of the stairs of the library.

"I... I don't remember."