A dead rat!

A familiar perhaps, he thought hopefully. He nudged it with his foot. It remained still. Just a dead rat afterall.

Straightening up, and sighing with the utmost disappointment, Coal could already feel the disapproving head-shakes of this teammates. He luckily didn’t zone out with self-loathing thoughts this time.
Kicking off a few stray freezer burned cans away from his foot, he surveyed the very neat mess of items. Nothing interesting he concluded, a total waste of energy, and a great way to let any crazed cryomancer standing around to sniff out their location. However, Coal had full faith they were perfectly safe, sadly the team didn’t share his confidence. But Coal was sure he was-

[b]"Kid, I know it's your first mission but,”[/b]

Coal snapped out of running thoughts with a confused “Huh?”, silently cursing both himself and Azai. Himself for zoning out, and Azai for somehow not realising his seething anger when being called a kid. Maybe he did know how much it annoyed him, Coal wondered, it wouldn’t surprise him if another person liked picking on the new kid, going on life threatening missions could make someone cynical.

[b]"Leave this mess, I don't think there is anything useful in a bunch of canned food. Let's go check the bedroom maybe there's something there."[/b] Coal realised Azai was trying to be helpful, he failed miserably at it, but nevertheless, he tried. Wasn’t that worth [i]something[/i]? Coal was mostly just glad he wasn’t the only one without the faintest idea of what to exactly look for.

“Whatever, sure,” Coal replied in unintended teen angst, as he shuffled towards Azai as they made their way upstairs, leaving the mess for someone to either clean up or burn.
The creek and groan of footsteps echoed within  the wooden walls, drowning out Coal’s “hey” when he spotted the other two heading towards the basement. What first caught his attention was how cold everyone else seemed. Coal suspected their refusal to use magic was stubbornness. Were they trying to prove a point? Seem stronger than they really are? Whatever it was, it seemed silly to Coal that they wouldn’t just light themselves on fire. He shrugged off both the thought and the cold as they walked through the glittering staircase. [i]Glittering?[/i]
Yes, Coal’s Rainbow Dust seemed to have splattered everywhere across the walls, the mess of magic he did in the kitchen most likely caused that. At least the walls sparkled prettily if you really focused on them. Glad he did something nice to the home, he finally reached the bedroom with Azai. He [i]gently[/i] swung open the door, no bang this time, and strode in the room. 

Coal wasn’t sure what exactly he was expecting to see. A little dust, maybe mold, old rickety furniture, but not [i]this much[/i]. An evolving colony seemed to emerge out of every damp, green corner. Dust caked every surface, and it billowed everywhere with every step. (What he thought was) A bed draped in moth-eaten sheets. It could’ve been a table for all he knew, 4 legs draped with a cloth isn’t much to go on. A stool in the corner that looked like it could collapse at any moment, and Cerberus stalking from the corner before promptly coming at his side when he sensed Coal’s mood, rubbing his back sympathetically on Coal’s stick-leg. 
He admired Cerberus’ help before taking his eyes off him, and scanning the room. Looking for something. Documents, stray spell ingredients, blood.

Something, [i]anything[/i].