Within the moonlit forest, a figure of jarring fuchsia walked along a faded dirt path under the canopy of the darkened woods. The rustling of paper echoed above the natural noise of the trees, a heavy sigh ejecting itself from the vivid anomaly as she gazed upon the depiction of the forest she was currently traversing within. The map El had brought with her has been completely useless so far in her travel, having only bought it to cut the time it takes to get from Point A to Point B. Honestly, who in their right mind would make the "regular" trail go around the woods, instead of
through it? Didn't they think of how pretty everything looked under the moonlight? Of course, the witch completely forgot that said woods was home to a great number of hunters, all of whom were very willing to lynch anyone who even so much as
breathed like a witch, as well as beasts such as wolves, bears, and the like.
As the traveler passed a tree that seemed somewhat familiar to her, the second time in a row, in fact, the black locket around her neck twitched, the ornament quickly detaching itself from her person and changing shape even as it fell to the ground. The inky dark shape molded itself into the humanoid form of the witch's familiar, Caliope, her forged orange orbs gazing upwards at their undeniable master, even as said master barely noticed the change of weight and lack of jewelry. It was only when the small construct had crawled onto her back that El finally gave her familiar attention.
"Ah, maid? Is there something wrong?" In response, Caliope moved herself to her master's shoulder, blue flame flickering and illuminating the map as the small figure tried to make sense of the directive parchment.
"Oh, you wanted to help me? Thank you," El smiled happily at her companion, but it was only a few moments before the blue flame sprouting from the short figure's head shot upwards, Caliope letting out an unintelligible screech of dismay before running down her master's arm. Surprisingly, despite her size, El barely felt any weight on her limb even as her maid stood on her hand. With barely any sympathy, the familiar slapped her master's hand, hard, making the witch release her hold on one side of the map.
"Ow! What are you... doing...?" El's indignant cry petered out into confusion as her familiar leaped onto her other hand, rotating the map before turning back to her with an intent gaze, gesturing to the corrected hold of the parchment. It wasn't long before the witch understood, and she nearly dropped both her map and the familiar in embarrassment.
El had been reading the map sideways the whole time.
"Ummm... whoops?" If it wasn't for the fact that Caliope was very much used to her master's flighty mannerisms, she might have facepalmed with both of her gauntlets. Murmuring daintily with a forgiving tone, the familiar returned to her place on her master's shoulder, taking a seat instead of transforming back into a locket as El tried to understand where exactly
where she had accidentally taken them both to. Caliope, while usually in her locket form for safety reasons in public, was quite happy with staying in her natural form while the two were alone. Unless there was a reason for her to disguise herself in order to protect her master, the construct preferred to be able to interact with her creator as much as possible, and doing so was easier accessible in her default state.
After a few minutes of walking aimlessly, El was about to give up on trying to map her way out of the forest until the treeline finally broke, revealing a manor- no, a castle- standing within a ruin, withered by the hands of time. Both witch and familiar were in awe as they entered the castle grounds, a giddy smile stretching across the woman's face as she skipped around a gravestone. A ruin site in the middle of the woods, after being lost for what was probably hours? Either she was very lucky, or Coincidence finally got over its anger after her attempt of trying to drug it with an <Aging Tincture>. In any case, the witch noticed that there were lights on inside the castle, meaning that there were people living inside... or a lightning storm took residence inside the building. Forgetting that the probability of the second situation being slim to none, El walked up to the doors of the castle, Caliope sitting respectfully on her shoulder as a fist rapped on the dust-covered entrance.
"Hello, anyone home?"@Ellion @WeepingLiberty @shagranoz @Rune_Alchemist @Bishop @Dark Light [@Bloodrose Castle]
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