Two Rats and a Cat
Characters: William, Amethyst, Skuld
Location: Moledeep
Moledeep: Mole Hall
William is sitting at the table in mole hall with a bowl of hot soup, his cloak draped over the back of the chair. It's gotten even colder today then the previous days and there are signs of a storm moving in from the west though it may take a while for it to reach this part of Mossflower.
Amethyst is also in the hall sitting in one of the arm chairs nearest the garden burrow, where the fireplace is. The blind maid's crutches are leaning against the chair beside her as she sews on something. The cloth is red but piled up in a heap in Amy's lap so there is little way to tell what she is working on.
The noise of a door might be heard, and a slight change in the temperature may be felt, as the door does indeed open and close. It's a subtle announcement of the entrance of a still growing cat- and a familiar one too. Skuld wanders, eyes a little wide and vacant, down into the hall. Her lips are moving, but she doesn't seem to be saying anything.
William looks up from his soup toward the tunnel entrance curiously. They'd been getting a lot of visitors lately with the weather getting colder, probably just another beast looking for shelter from the cold. "Hello?" the rat calls out wondering when his home turned into a second Abbey. When the cat comes into the hall he smiles a little at her, at least it's a familiar face. "Back again, Skuld?" he asks the cat, "Want anything?" He's chooses to ignore whatever odd ritual or whatever it is she's doing.
"Cold." The cat responds, turning her head towards Will. Though her one good eye looks a little to his right, unfocused. And she decides to sit there on the floor, before her unfocused gaze wanders to a spot just above Amethyst. "No. You are both well?" A distracted quality in a quiet voice.
William says, "Yes it is. With luck it'll snow sometime soon. You don't like th cold?" he asks the cat."
Amethyst shrugs, "We're here, alive and have enough food, between what we could harvest from the garden and the Abbey, to last through winter. Otters are still here but not much can be done about that."
"Snow... There was snow in the Abbey..." The cat muses, her eye now apparently fascinated by the ceiling as her head tilts upwards. "Cold is... good," She sighs "Winter. Cold takes sleep, hides food." It's true that she's looking thin. "Otters..." She repeats, then, and looks to be trying to think of something, or remember something, just out of reach.
William nods a little keeping his eye more on the cat then Amy. "Snow is good and I don't mind th cold too much. It's milder here than up north." He frowns a little at her, "Otters, like my parents and sisters. And your ... and Sinway. Remember him?"
Amethyst hisses at Will softly, "Don't provoke fortunetellers. No good will come of it."
Skuld looks back to William, her eye still unfocused, but wide and staring. "I've not seen him." She states, firmly. Sounding more like it should be 'I don't want to see him'. Her tail twitches at Amethyst's hiss, but her gaze drops to the floor instead, and she idly traces a claw over it. If she were to make a mark, there'd be looping design of three, connected, unending circles, but her claw hovers just over it.
William isn't one for superstitions especially after living so long with Aikuen. He frowns at Amy briefly before turning back to Skuld and trying to look happy or at least neutral. He sighs wishing the cat would just go talk to Sinway about whatever it was that was off between them. "Are you sure you don't want anything t eat?" he asks again, "We have plenty t spare."
Amethyst has gone back to her sewing, she's staying out of this.
Skuld halts her claw, and taps it down. At the centre of where her design would be. If the floor's soft enough, her claw's going to sink into it. "Food..." She considers it. Still doesn't look very focused. Her ears twitch. "I can't pay."
Amethyst says, "That's fine. We aren't allowed to charge you for it anyway."
Skuld looks a little more vacant at this, if possible, but a small grateful smile might be very briefly seen, flitting across her muzzle. It's only there very shortly. "Thankyou. I think I do need to eat."
William nods, "You're welcome. Food here is free same as at th Abbey. Anything inparticular you want or would just anything be fine?"
"Anything." The cat confirms, a little too quickly. And now, her eye has wandered to linger on the red door, staring quite intently.
William picks up his empty bowl and goes off to the kitchen to get Skuld something to eat. He drops his bowl off in the sink and digs out a tray. "Hotroot soup ok or no?" he calls back out to the maids
"Thankyou." It's not that much louder, but Skuld hopes the rat can hear it and take it as an affirmative. Her eye wanders to settle on Amethyst now, watching her sewing with that unfocused gaze.
From the kitchen William says, "Alright. Hope you like it hot. It doesn't come in mild around here. Just hot an' hotter. Unless you're an otter then it might be mild but not everybeast here is."
Amethyst may not be able to see but she can sense if she's being stared at. She stops sewing momentarily to raise her head up, as if to look at the cat. "Do you want something?" she asks not quite sure what else to say to the cat before returning to the task at paw.
"What are you making?" The cat asks, though it lacks much of the inflection that a question is supposed to have. Her whiskers twitch, along with her tail, but her one eye remains unchanged.
"Capesth," is the answer but it gets a little mangled as Amy's tied off the excess thread and is cutting it with her fangs.
"Capes." Skuld repeats, still watching. There's some curiosity though. "...How are you?" There's a slightly different tone now. A tad more concentration on the question.
Amethyst smiles a little, "They're for the twins. Knowing Will he'll want to take them out in the cold and wet once it snows. This way they'll stay a warmer and red on white should be easy to spot even for their brother. As far as how I'm doing. I'm .... sober. They have the worst rules around here. How are you doing today? I'm thinking it might rain today. Might even snow. I hope not though. If it does I know somebeast who'll try and drag me out into it and I can't swing a stick at his head /and/ walk on crutches at the same time."
William emerges from the kitchen with a tray of food for Skuld which he sits on the floor beside her. On the tray is a cup of tea a glass of water a bowl of very hot hotroot soup and several chunks of hardtack as well as some cheese and miscellaneous fruit.
"It might snow." Skuld agrees, then "Red is a good colour." Will' returns with food, then, and the cat looks from him to the tray and back, and manages a slightly longer grateful smile. "Thankyou."
William nods and smiles back at the cat, "You're welcome. There's two dorms off the hall back there if you even need a t stay a while for some reason and they're free too. The one's on each end marked 'guest room' are taken though."
Amethyst sighs at the mention of snow, "I hope not," and nods as the talk comes back to her work, "I thought so. More than good enough for otters. And he returns," she raises her head as Will comes back in. "If it does snow ask before taking the twins outside. They are very little and I don't want to think about what Aik would do to you if something happened to them."
The cat starts to eat, and, at first, seems bothered very little by the hotroot. She doesn't talk though, and nods, amiably, still with a grateful expression, at the offer to stay. She swallows, pauses to listen, then "How is Aikuen?
William shrugs, "He's fine. Don't know when it was you last saw him but he's married t Fira now and I got a set of twin little otter sisters. They're just babes still not even near a half a season old yet. How - " 'is your family?' He starts to ask but it looks like Skuld as dropped off to sleep after having her fill.
After a long pause Amethyst asks, "Is she gone?"
William kneels down and picks up the tray, putting the dishes back on it. "Nope just sleeping. I'm gonna put this stuff away and see if Pa wants t move her to the sleeping hall or leave her here. Might see if the weather's gotten any worse or not while I'm up," he says.
Amy nods and says, "Go ahead," and continues with her sewing.
Will takes the tray into the kitchen and on this way to find Aikuen he takes a look outside just to see what it's like out there. "Hey! It snowed!" he calls back in to Amethyst excitedly.
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