Addicted To Adventure (Whim)

[Eckhart_Von_Musel]

Randal beamed excitedly, throwing his hands into the air. "Woo-hoo!" he cheered. "You passed!"

Hildegarde gave the muddy boy a smile. "That's perfectly fine. Besides, I'd have given you to Narlis if you said yes." The woman glanced to the side. "I don't like it when people hurt kids."

Randal rocked back and forth on his pillow, grinning. "Ahahaha!" he laughed. "Oh Kia, I've always wanted a Friend my age! This is so cool!"

The pink-clad woman chuckled. "Don't get too excited. We still need to think of a good job for him..." She gave Ewan a curious look. "What sort of 'mancy did you use at Wyrdwood?"

[Whim]

Ewan sighed in relief at the laughter, color rushing to his ears. What if the person who hurts a kid is also a kid wouldn't they be hurting kids too then if they sold him to a slaver!? But then he wasn't really a kid. So did that count?

"Like I showed Randal I'm an animancer! I can make stuff grow, or turn people into animals. Here, let me-" His arms spread wide, prepared for an invocation, but halted. "-well I'd better not. I'll need a proper wand since I'm small now. But I could do potions, or disguise people, or make your plants grow fast!" The little wizard puffed our his chest, all proud. They'd be super lucky to have the best sorcerer in all of Le'raana, and he'd get a new wand and be back on the road in no time.

[Eckhart_Von_Musel]

Hildegarde's face paled slightly, though she retained her cheerful grin. "An animancer?" she thought worriedly. "But that's what Fluffmuffin told me Ecks really was..." The woman blinked, standing up gracefully. "And he says he knows Eckhart? Curious..." She stepped forward, beaming at the boy. "Why, that sounds perfect!" she exclaimed happily, clapping her hands together. "If you can grow plants, then I bet Tiffany will have all sorts of things for you to do!"

Randal crossed his arms, pouting. "Aw, what? But Taza could use him more! Come onnnn!"

Hildegarde chuckled, ruffling the boy's hair. "Aw. Ewan can help you both, 'kay?" Upon seeing Randal's face perk up a bit, she continued. "Now, could you take our new Friend to Tiffany's room? I'm sure he'll be thrilled to bits!"

[Whim]

Ewan beamed at Hildegarde's bubbly enthusiasm, trying to hide his smile so as to look somewhat dignified. She looked like Eckhart, but wasn't nervous or sweaty at all. "Well I don't just grow plants ya know. I can do other stuff too. I'll help with anything, really!

"But whose Tiffany?" a look of brief concern crossed his face, eyes darting to Randal for reassurance this Tiffany, whoever she was, was safe. This pouting child was his closest friend and confident now, the little wizard supposed. At least he was friendly!

[Eckhart_Von_Musel]

Randal beamed "Thank you Lady Hildegarde! You're the best!"

He shot one last grin at Hildegarde before walking to the door, holding it open for his new Friend. "Tiffany's the cleanup guy!" he said cheerily, only a little jealous that Ewan would be spending his first few days with somebody else. "He's really nice! He paints stuff too, but not like Porcelina does. Like, he paints Taza's nails for her sometimes!"

~~~

Hildegarde watched the two boys walk out the door, smile fading from her lips. Taking a deep breath, she leaned back on her desk. "Sweet Ansgar, why did he have to be one of those?"

"An animancer, huh?" Terrence said, stepping forward. Noticing the look on Hildegarde's face, the teenager placed his hand on hers. "Hey, it's gonna be okay. You're past that, remember?"

Hildegarde gave her boyfriend a pained smile, pulling him closer to her. She stroked his hair gently, allowing herself to relax. "I know, Terry. It's just..." She shut her eyes tightly, then opened them again. "No matter how many times I say that... I still don't want it."

Terrence frowned, and pulled himself up onto the desk next to her. "I don't think he does either. You remember what happened last time somebody tried to-"

"Yes, but that was Kaida. You were in the room with us that one time, you remember what she was like."

Terrence scratched the back of his head in embarressment. "Yeah, that's true. I honestly thought Porcelina had dyed her hair white at first."

The gang leader snickered. "Aw man, now I wanna introduce them..." She shook he head. "Gah. All I can do is wait now, I guess." She looked at the teenager longingly. "Terry. Terry, help me take my mind off it."

The boy smirked, and pulled the girl into a kiss...

[Whim]

Just what did a cleanup guy do? "You mean like getting rid of dead-" color drained from Ewan's face at the thought. By then Randal had tugged him through the door. "-By Lady Hildegarde and thanks!" The little florist had to poke his arm for the last bit.

Once more they were pattering through the halls. "So what does this guy do? How does he paint nails and get rid of, um, dead people? I'm not afraid or anything. Just don't know if I could really hurt people for money." The boy felt almost bad saying that. They did admit to smuggling and stealing, but everyone had been so nice so far!

"And if he does paint nails why hasn't he sone yours?" The little wizard took one of Randal's hands, dirt caked nails and all, holding up with a grin.

[Eckhart_Von_Musel]

Poking Ewan's arm to make sure he thanked his new boss, Randal led the boy down the hall. His eyes widened as the boy held his hand, and he quickly pulled it away. "Um, please don't hold me like that. I don't like it when people touch me without asking..." He shook his head, shooting Ewan a apologetic look. Was it mean to say that to a new Friend? Randal blinked uncertainly. "Sorry. I've had... things before..."

Deciding not to dwell on bad thoughts, Randal forced himself to smile. "Tiffany cleans up all the dirty stuff on our turf! The dead bodies are just one part, he gets rid of garbage too!" He put his hands in his pockets, as if he was worried Ewan would grab them again. "He also repaints the run-down buildings so they look nice again! Lady Hildegarde can't decide on the shade of pink she wants ours to be though..."

[Whim]

Ewan canted his head, trying to conceal a look of surprise at Randal's discomfort. It was easy to forget the flower boy was, after all, some sort of criminal. Or being used by them at least. His life before this mustn't have been easy. Was it really so easy now? "Sorry. I didn't want to scare you. Were you sick or something?" But that wasn't quite right. He seemed spooked.

"Do they take care of you good here?" the boy dropped his voice to a whisper as they neared the Tiffany's quarters. "They don't make you do any of that? I mean I wouldn't mind, I don't think, but you're a real kid."

[Eckhart_Von_Musel]

Randal shook his head, feeling a mental block starting to form in his mind. "S'fine..." he said quietly. "Taza won't make me do stuff I don't like..." Why was Ewan asking about this? Couldn't he just drop it? It wasn't nice to ask about, especially after he already changed the subject...

Randal abruptly stopped in front of Room 317. "We're here..." he said softly. The boy knocked on the door. "Tiffany? Lady Hildegarde has somebody she'd like you to meet!"

"Oh! Come in!" an effeminate voice called from inside. Opening the door, Randal stepped inside of the overwhelmingly pink room. The smell of freshly baked cookies filled the air, causing the boy's mouth to water. Fluffy pink beanbag chairs took the place of seats. Everything in the room was completely spotless- as if any dirt and grime had left of it's own accord.

Tiffany Starbrite stepped out from behind the kitchen counter, wearing a pink apron with a flower design on it. "Hello! I just baked snickerdoodles!" he said cheerily, beaming at the two boys. "You can have some once they've..." He trailed off, blinking in shock. "Why, you two are all muddy!" the young man exclaimed. "That's no good! Are you both okay?"

[Whim]

Ewan stared slackjawed at Tiffany. Was this all some joke? This spritely young man, and his plate of cookies, just had to be. Almost immeiately the boy burst into peels of laughter. This was definitely a bad time to laugh, especially since Tiffany seemed so nice, but Ewan just couldn't help it. It took clapping a hand over his mouth to stop giggles from escaping. "Um, sorry! Randal just said something funny." A nervous pair of eyes looked to his new friend to confirm the story. Of course it would probably be a scolding for being rude instead...

"Can we start over? My name's Ewan. Hildegarde thought I could help you with stuff, I guess." Ewan extended a gruby hand to shake. It was mostly clean, really, except all that dirt between his nails. "I'm an animancer and Randal and Hildegarde thought I could help you with... stuff. Maybe I could magic yp some pretty flowers? Or bugs to eat stuff you don't like?

"Man I bet if you combined a bonestripper beetle with a Kishahn stag beetle that could finish off a whole dead dragon in, like, thirty seconds!" He mused cheerfully.

[Eckhart_Von_Musel]

Randal shot the smaller boy a glare as he laughed, crossing his arms angrily. "Ewan!" he hissed. "You're being rude!"

Tiffany, however, simply gave Ewan an knowing smile. "Aw, it's fine!" he said warmly. "Randal's jokes are really funny!"

The young man set the tray of cookies on the counter, and began to wipe a mixing bowl with his hands. "This is really exciting though!" he said, flour and egg disappearing as his hand moved over it. "There's so much I gotta do to get the place cleaned up! You have no idea how much I appreciate the help!" He turned to look at the two boys, beaming. "You two can sit down if you like! cookies she be cooled off soon!"

[Whim]

Ewan scoffed, narrowing an eye at Randal. "It's not rude! I just wasn't expecting, um-" his ears turned red. Maybe it was a bit rude to laugh. Tiffany did bake cookies after all. The smell of cinnamon and warm dough was distracting. His tummy, stomach rather was rumbling at the sight. Ewan stuffed one into his mouth without hesitation. "-thanks is what I meant to say.

"Sho wuff do ya need me to do?" He took another cookie, speaking between bites. "I'ma mashter wizard."

[Eckhart_Von_Musel]

Randal sank into a beanbag chair, snickerdoodle in hand. Tiffany's apartment always had a very cozy atmosphere to it- second only to Taza's room, in his opinion. "Ewan has animal-mancy!" he said helpfully. "I bet he could conjure up a bunch of goats to eat the trash on the ground!"

Tiffany sat down, beaming happily. "Ooh! That does sounds helpful!" he said. "But what I really need is somebody who's good at washing windows!" The waifish young man gave Ewan a unexpectedly intense, serious look. "Do you know that when windows are dirty, innocent people can die? It's true you know."

Randal giggled, and gave Ewan an expectant smile...

[Whim]

"Its animancy! And I wouldn't summon goats, they smell horrible." Ewan cracked a smile at the probably-deliberate mispronunciation. He moved to poke Randal in retribution but stopped, remembering...

The little wizard's mouth fell open at Tiffany's words. "Gosh!" he groaned loudly, throwing his head back, "The witch I escaped from made me mop and scrub and rake. I'm so tired of dumb chores. I can do all sorts of magic for you if I had a proper wand. Really! I can do all sorts of things. Maybe turn into a cat and be a spy, or turn someone's spit to mushroom juice to poison them, or if your face gets cut I can fix it. All of that and more!

"You oughtn't treat me like a little kid, anyway," with crossed arms the boy slumped into the plush chair, taking an aggressive bite of the cinnamon cookie.

[Eckhart_Von_Musel]

"Ewan!" hissed Randal, eyes widening. You're being rude again!"

Tiffany waved his hand dismissively. "It's fine! I think we could come to a really nice agreement, actually!" The pink-haird boy clasped his hands together. "I clean everybody's windows for them, so I kinda have an idea of what the... layouts of peoples houses look like." Tiffany's eyes twinkled at this, and his smile seemed to grow a bit sly. "But there are a lot of windows up high I can't reach! If I had somebody who could turn into, say, a monkey..." He trailed off.

"Ohhh! I get it!" Randal said, grinning excitedly. He really shouldn't have worried- Tiffany's ability to diffuse conflict was nearly unmatched. "Ewan see? You'll totally get to do cool stuff!"

[Whim]

Ewan's expression softened at Tiffany's and Randal's smiles. "Sorry. You don't need to go stroking my ego. I'm supposed to be laying low anyway. If ya need me to wash windows or sweep the street its the least I could do." A grubby hand shot out to shake Tiffany's, accompanied by a sheepish grin.

"So, um, what should I do now? I don't really have a place to stay. Oh and you really don't mind me sprouting wings and stuff? I suppose I could use a ladder but what's the point of magic if you don't use it?" Well it was terribly expensive and he was meant to lay low...

***

The woman might have been twenty or thirty or forty, pretty or ugly judging by the angle of the fire, though some meat on her bones might have helped. Her voice barely broke a whisper. "So you want to find a boy? A simple trade. What do you-"

"Cut the shit. Boy's worth coin. I got coin."

"Then he will cost whatever you earn. What would be the point? I know you and what you're really after..." the hoarse voice tried to sound playful.

A snort of exasperation broke Narlis' lips. Ironclad fingers fell to a dagger hilt. This prancy nonsense wasn't going to scare him or eat up his time. The dagger was made of bronze and its hilt carved from a shaggabeast horn. It was a useless thing, really, but owned by a centaur chief. The horse men were worse than Duhjari and useless shits. The key was to use a weather mage and moor them in mudslides. With piss poor arrows they lose their advantage. Breaking his hooves, one by one, was glorious! But once a man starts clinging to old war stories he'll be up thrice a night to piss, or pretending girls half his age want anything besides his coin-purse. Not yet.

"A trophy for a trophy." The priestess took Narlis' dagger. As she did so the memory of the centaur chief dimmed. Was it sweat or tears around his face? Was he really begging, or was it a ploy to take a final stab at the victorious commander? New memories, alien and not his own, wormed their way in place of the old. Two little things wrestling in the muck of an old catacomb. One small and bright the other tall and dark. So close they come to the jaws but not yet. There is a sickness on one, a rotten scent, but the other smells good. Very good. A fine meal! But it's too late and he has gone to the fire.

[Eckhart_Von_Musel]

Tiffany beamed back, gripping Ewans hand tightly. When the handshake ended, the boy would see that his hand was now spotless. "I look forward to working with you!" the pink haired man said enthusiastically. "I promise it'll be fun and not boring at all, kay?"

Randal let out a sigh of relief. Thank Kia Ewan hadn't thrown a fit! "Well..." he said, grinning slyly. "We could ask Taza if you could stay in our apartment! I've never had a sleepover before, I bet it's super awesome!"

[Whim]

It was the first time in a few days Ewan didn't have dirt on his hands. It felt nice! Oh shit he got it all over Tiffany didn't he? Cocking his head to give his new bosses hands a looking over: they were
spotless. "Wait did you do that? Can you, um, do the rest of me?

"And maybe Eckhart wouldn't mind letting me stay? We do know each other. And I don't want to, um, bother Taza..." It would be nice to talk about proper magic wirh an adult for a change. He'd mostly met criminals, freaks, or other kids in his travels. Randal was surely very nice, but an early bedtime and non-stop babbling about those Monster Mash cards would erode whatever remaining dignity Ewan had left. But Randal looked so hopeful and wouldn't stop grinning.

"Or I guess I could stay over..." It was hardly forever anyway.

[Eckhart_Von_Musel]

"Sorry Ewan..." the sparkly young man said. "It only works where I touch. It'd... be weird." He clapped his hands together. "Besides! I'm sure there's a bath in Taza's room!"

"Yeah, come on Ewan!" Randal said, walking to the door and holding it open. You don't wanna sleep in Eckhart's room y'know. He has this nasty cat he hangs out with, she's scratched me like, three times!"

The boy shuddered at the thought of Ewan covered in cat hair, like Eckhart always was. How did Bella shed so much when her fur was patchy to begin with?! It made no sense...

[Whim]

That would be weird. Though if he had cleaning magic why did Tiffany need Ewan as a helper? Oh. Right. Can't go wiping his palms on every surface in town. "I'll see you tomorrow I guess!" And with that Randal was tugging him out the door. It wouldn't be so bad, really, it wasn't like he'd need to be a pickpocket or something.

"He's still got that awful cat? I was there when he found her. Tricked him into making her his familiar, and then 'ported them away! Of course I almost caught with her tentacles. I don't know how she was able to slip away. Got a good gob of slime on her, though.

"I bet he smells even worse now." He snickered quietly as they went.

***

The boys, once again, were in Room 204 of the Boarding House. "Hi Taza! Hildegarde said I could help out, but Tiffany hasn't got room for me so I was wondering if, uh, I could stay? I don't want to impose or nothing. You've been real kind so far. And I won't make any trouble for you really. I'll just be helping clean stuff, I think."

Ewan gave Randall a panicked nudge, "Uh, Maybe you should ask?"