forum The Dark Kingdom (Fantasy BXB, Closed, Stalkers welcome)

Started September 07, 2020 by @bluebee55

tune

Mylan nodded a bit, nibbling on his knuckles while he paced. "Yeah… maybe if I could find some way to sneak in during the night and get the amulet off of his neck…? I honestly have no clue what I should do…"

Caspian put a hand to his chin. "That might work, but it's too risky. The castle will most likely be heavily guarded, not to mention all of the guards were probably be told to be on the lookout for you. It's too dangerous." He paused for a moment. "The best course of action would be to stay here for the next few days. If that's alright with you, Eveline."
Eveline nodded and smiled. "Of course. Mylan is family, which makes you family."

Mylan sighed softly in relief. "Thank you… I'll try not to be too bothersome. I've never lived out in the woods before…" He continued pacing, still anxious. "I wish I had my books so I could research this more while I'm here… but I suppose I'll just have to count on educated speculation for now."

"We have a library out in town." Cas pointed out. "I can grab some books while I'm out getting food later. Of course it won't be as good as the royal library, but it's better than nothing."

Mylan nodded a bit. "That would be helpful, thank you… I'll see if I can find anything about the amulet in those. Still, we're going to have to somewhat rely on simply speculation…"

Cas nodded. "True. There's not much else we can do at the moment."
"How about I show you where you can stay?" Eveline suggested. "There are a couple extra rooms upstairs."
"That would be great." Caspian smiled at the younger girl. "Lead the way."
Eveline began walking up the stairs and led the two down the hallway to two rooms with comfortable-looking beds, but they didn't look like they had been used in ages. "Sorry it's not much," the girl frowned, looking into one of the bedrooms. "I haven't really been able to clean up the place, since, you know, I'm dead."
Cas shook his head. "No, don't apologize. It beats sleeping on the ground in the middle of the woods, that's for sure."

"Thank you very much…" Mylan bowed politely when he and Caspian were brought to the room. "Definitely much better than that… maybe we can help you clean up while we're here?" He offered. "I actually rather enjoy cleaning, so maybe I could get to work on that when I'm not trying to research…"

"That would be great!" Eveline chirped. Cas could see some of her happiness come back to her. Even though she died years ago, she still had a happy, childlike spirit.
"It would help get our mind off things, too," Caspian added. "I'll go look for a broom." The shorter male went back downstairs, and came back up a few minutes later with a broom, a mop, and some other miscellaneous cleaning supplies. He took the broom and started sweeping the room he would be staying in.

Mylan smiled weakly and started neatening things up, cleaning more thoroughly when Caspian brought up the supplies. "Mm… how old are these?" He asked curiously as he examined the supplies. "Can cleaning products… ah… expire?" He hummed softly to himself, hesitating a few seconds before continuing to clean.

"Hm-I don't know," Caspian chuckled as he picked up a container of what looked like cleaning liquid, and couldn't find an expiration date on it. "There's no date on it. What harm could it do?" He shrugged and continued to clean.

"True… couldn't hurt to try it out, anyway." He shrugged and continued on, soon clearing off a thick layer of dust that had been blanketed atop everything in the room. "I think we'll be able to clean up this place pretty quick."

"Yep, it shouldn't take too long!"
After he finished sweeping the room, he switched to mopping, which didn't take very long, considering it was such a small room. Afterward, he grabbed all of the blankets and sheets off of the bed and washed them in a large wooden tub he found, along with soap and river water. He was a pretty diligent worker, despite never having a real job. He hung them out to dry and came back inside, finally straightening up the rest of the room.

Mylan finished up soon after Caspian did, stepping back with his hands on his hips to examine his work. He sighed contentedly, tired, but pleased with himself. "I think we did a pretty good job. Don't you?" He looked over at Caspian, smiling softly at the shorter boy.

Caspian grinned back at Mylan. "Definitely." He turned over to Eveline. "Do you like it?"
"I love it! It looks great!" The girl chirped, spinning around in circles childishly. It was hard to believe that if she were alive, she would be a 23 year old woman.
"Well, it's getting a little late," Caspian pointed out, looking out the window. The sky was fading to a darker blue, which would soon be followed by a pallete of oranges and pinks and purples. "How about I go into town and get some food, then stop by the library?"

"Sounds good to me. I'll wait here for you, alright? Maybe Eveline and I can catch up." He looked over to the girl with a weak smile. "I haven't seen you since I was around six, after all. You still look the same…" He sighed. "I'll see you soon, Caspian." He said after handing some money to the other.

"See ya!" Cas called out to Mylan, before leaving the house and shutting the door behind him.

"You look the same as well." Eveline spoke softly, nostalgic memories flooding back into her mind. "A bit more mature now, of course. It's so weird…you're my little brother, but you're older than me." She smiled sadly.

Mylan smiled gently. "My hair was shorter back then. Still a mess, but… I tie it up now." He sat down on the bed as he looked up at his sister. "I wonder how you came to be a spirit, though? You know, rather than… moving on, so to speak. I don't know if any of my books talk about this… if I ever get to go back, I'll try my best to look into this a bit more for you."

Eveline sighed. "I think…it might be because of father. I never really got over what he did, and…I don't want revenge or anything but…I can't let it go…" Her eyes became distant and she shivered a bit.

"Right… unfinished business, so to speak. A… a grudge being held, I suppose. That makes sense… is there any way that I could help you move on? Not that it isn't wonderful to see you again, of course, but I can't imagine living alone in a house in the woods with no way to interact with anyone or eat or do normal things is very pleasant." Mylan sighed, adjusting his glasses a bit.

"I don't know. I'm not really sure how to move on. Maybe…" she paused for a moment. "The amulet. That might be what's holding me back from moving on. It's…it's what made father hurt me. But there's no way you could do anything about that. It's too dangerous. And I don't want you to end up like me."

"True… but… I want it to be destroyed anyway. I just… I'm not quite sure how to do that." Mylan sighed softly. "I'm only sixteen, after all. They don't listen to me, even more so now that I'm on the run… I just hope that this'll all be over soon. Maybe I could use some kind of magic to get the job done?"

Eveline shrugged hopelessly. "I…I honestly don't know. We'll have to do some more research when Caspian comes back with some books from the library."

Mylan nodded a bit. "Hopefully there's something in those books that can help me… I want to get this nightmare over with as soon as I possibly can, you know?"

Eveline nodded. "Yeah."
All of a sudden, Caspian burst through the door, holding a bag of food and a couple of thick books in one arm. "Bad news." He spoke through pants, sweat trickling down his face.

Mylan jumped a bit at the sudden noise. "W-What? What's the bad news?" He asked nervously, jumping to his feet just in case. "You're not being chased, are you?"