09-18-06
Characters involved: Harper, Asthore, Rois, & Vassely.
RW Abbey: Great Hall
The life of a novice is never boring. Well, okay. Maybe it can be boring, but you're at least always doing something. Harp appears from the breezeway with a great big bag of flour in his arms. He grunts with the exertion of it all, staggering toward the kitchen.
Asthore is snoozing in a chair just five feet away from the fireplace.
Harper's stagger leaves him to sort of stagger into the kitchen door. Which is closed. He "oofs!", trying to regain his balance. But it just ends in him dropping the bag of flour... on his foot. That's an ouch. He literally yelps, jerking back a step and hopping on one foot.
Asthore jumps out of the chair and sees Harper " Are you okay?!?"
Rois enters the great hall by way of the stairs, just in time to see Harper drop the bag of flour on one footpaw. She winces in sympathy. "Ouch, that must have hurt! Are you alright?" She repeats Asthore's concern.
Vassely appears behind rois " Are you alright?"
Harper pulls a rather comically pained expression, grabbing his foot while dropping to the ground. This is where being a novice - what with wearing sandals - is somewhat unfortunate. He grits his teeth, his eyes watering. "... /Ow/." It's then that all of the others' reactions are noticed. He blinks, glancing around in brief surprise. "... I... think so. Just hurts." Pause. "Thanks." He drops his gaze to his foot, grimacing slightly.
"Well, do you need some help with that?" Rois offers as she approaches the hare, "It looks kind of heavy." She notices Vassely behind her then, and gives a slight start - alright, more than slight - at the appearance of a ferret. The mousemaid blinks and gives a slight shake of her head, trying to hide her surprise before looking back at Harper.
His watery gaze follows the line of sight of the mouse maid to fall upon Vassely. His reaction isn't nearly as volatile as Rois'. He merely blinks a couple of times and returns his attention to his foot. Slowly, tentatively, he starts to stand, very gingerly placing weight on the foot. He winces, glancing back up. He nods. "... If ya wouldn't mind, ma'am."
Vassely seems oblivious to what is going on.
Rois steps over to the kitchen door, pushing it open. After making sure that it will stay open, she moves back over to Harper and bends down to pick up one end of the flour. "Here, I'll get this end if you get the other. That is, if you can walk alright. Can you?"
Harper takes a step. He winces again, but his foot holds. He nods, worrying at his lower lip. "Yeah. I can." Another pause, and then another, "... Thanks." He bends down also, picking up the other end of the sack. "Sorry - I'm Harper. What's yer name?"
"Rois," the mousemaid replies as they begin to move towards the kitchen door, with the sack between them. "I think we sort of met the other night, when that squirrel was down here, the one who was having bad dreams, La... La something, I think, I forget her name. I know it started with an 'L' though." Rois gives a slight shrug and a smile. "I'm horrible with names."
Vassely steps off the stairs and seems to be daydreaming.
Harper's eyebrows shoot up. "Ohhhh." He nods. "Yeah. I remember, now. Do you know if she's all right?" He's walking backwards with her walking forward, and each step brings a little 'ooch' of winciness.
Harper's eyebrows shoot up. "Ohhhh." He nods. "Yeah. I remember, now. Do you know if she's all right?" He's walking backwards with her walking forward, and each step brings a little 'ooch' of winciness.
Rois shakes her head in reply. "I haven't seen her since. She seemed to be alright when she left though. She struck me as sort of odd... but I guess for some beast that has been through--" Her words are cut off as the kitchen door suddenly decides to close, slamming right on poor Harper's derriere.
Vassely walks over " Let me help you with that." He opens the door as wide as possible.
Vassely walks over " Let me help you with that." He opens the door as wide as possible.
Darn that door! It smacks him right in the tail, literally, and his eyes well up yet again as his lips press together in a manly, 'Oh, I am so /not/ going to cry' face. His eyes close briefly whilst he is no doubt counting to ten or some such thing, and then the door is held open for him. He doesn't say a word at first, only nods, and then, his voice having gone squeaky, "... Thanks." He starts back through the doorway again.
"Oh my... I'm sorry! I thought for sure the door would stay open..." Rois has an apologetic look on her face, wincing again in sympathy for the hare. "Are you okay?" Then, as Vassely approaches and holds the door for them, she says, "Oh, thank you!" She looks a bit surprised at first, no doubt because she didn't expect a ferret to do a good deed, but then a genuine smile spreads across her face for Vassely.
Vassely watches as they pass through.
Oh, /wouldn't/ you know it. Harper steps back... back... back... and over Vassely's foot. But just beyond the door is a small footstool. And he /totally/ trips over that. His eyes shoot open in comical surprise as he tumbles back, trying to keep his hold on the flour sack which will either result in the sack tearing, Rois coming down with him, or just the sack coming down with him. Either way, his derriere is /really/ going to be hurting.
Vassely is surprised that Harper tripped over his footpaw.
The force with which the flour sack follows Harper on his journey to the floor pulls Rois down as well. All three, Harper, Rois, and the bag of flour, land in a tangle on the kitchen floor. Sadly, the sack survives the impact pourly, showering everything in the general vicinity, including hare and mousemaid, with flour.
Vassely tried to hide a laugh " Are you two all right?!?" He begins to make his way toward them.
The cloud of flour fall-out is spreeeeading. It's going to get on Vassely, if he's not careful. Meanwhile Harper's lying flat on his back with a flour sack on top of him and some parts of Rois draped haphazardly across him. He blinks up at the ceiling for several seconds, and okay, a man can only be a man for so long. Two pained tears sneak out the corners of his eyes. "... Oh ow," is all he can say.
Her fall having been somewhat cushioned by Harper, Rois does not seem to be suffering as badly. She emits a slight, "Oof," blinks, then gets slowly to her footpaws. She rubs a spot on her side that took a pretty good hit to the floor, then shakes a bit, sending another cloud of flour into the air, before reaching down a paw to help Harper up. "Are you okay?"
"... You know. I was a recruit in the Long Patrol for two seasons, 'n' this sorta thing /never/ happened." He shakes his head, looking awfully sad about the whole thing. Oh man. He slowly, very slowly, starts to sit up. The flour billows up all around him, and he coughs for a good few seconds. "... Ock." He lowers his head, shaking it again. "My re-" -ear? He cuts a glance at the doe, his ears reddening. "My reeeeally, uh. Long... ears hurt?" That made no sense.
Rois brushes more flour off herself, then seemingly gives up, as doing so just sends the flour into the air only to settle on her again. She laughs at Harper's last comment, raising an eyebrow, "Did you bonk your head on the way down? You don't seem to be making very much sense." She offers her paw again to help him up. "What was the flour for, anyways?"
Oh hey, she did offer her paw, didn't she? He blinks, nods, and reaches out to grasp hold of her paw, using it to help pull himself up. He makes a little grimacy face when he straightens and again when he puts weight on that poor foot. He is not having a good day. "It /was/ to appease the cooks fer an evenin'. Guess that didn't work. Pots duty it is." And doesn't he sound excited about it?
"I think maybe you should take a trip to the infirmary... Surely they're not going to make you wash pots when you're all banged up and bruised?" Rois comments with a slight frown. "I mean... first your foot, then the door... and you took a much worse fall than I did." She then peers at the flour covering the floor. "Um... What do you suppose we should do about this?" She gestures to the flour covering everything.
Harper stares down at all the flour for a moment, his first reaction of 'run away quickly' seeming inappropriate. He turns to scan the room for a moment, until he's eyes come to rest on a couple of broom and a dustbin. "Guess we clean it up." He limps over that way, picking up the required objects. He starts back over, holding one of the brooms out to her, though he hesitates. "I c'n get it myself, 'course."
Rois takes one of the brooms without hesitation and begins to sweep up the flour. "Of course not, I helped make the mess, only fair I help clean it up," she says cheerily. The floor is soon swept clean as the two of them work, and one could hardly even tell that a mess had been made but for the two beasts who look rather like ghosts. "Well, I'd better go clean myself up... I really should be getting to bed now. And if I were you, I'd go up to the infirmary and get yourself looked over," she advises before waving goodbye. She waits for an answering wave, and upon receiving it leaves the kitchen towards Great Hall.
