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Arielle blinks and then looks up at Roswitha. "Aren't we going to keep going to toward the big house down the path there?" The little girl points in the direction they were heading, as Roswitha starts to turn her mount in the direction Gruffley's cart is moving.
Arielle cranes her neck from where she sits in front of Roswitha on the saddle. She seems rather interested in something on the ground.
A particular young girl whispers quietly: Perception DC 10:
"The voices here say awful things, Bubbles." Looking up at Roswitha, she mutters a bit louder, "I think the giant statues don't like us disturbing their meal."
She looks up at Roswitha's face, so close as she hugs the sorcerer astride the horse. Her eyes are big and brown. "Could we? But only if you come with Bubbles and me. Just in case they come alive." The girl looks up at the huge statues with concern.
Arielle clutches Bubbles tightly with one hand and Roswitha with the other. She listens to Ciri with wide eyes, gasps in all the right places, and giggles at the thought of stone ogres losing their pants. When the woman is finished, Arielle peers around the area. "Do you think they were out last night? Trying to find children to eat? Maybe this deer distracted them so they didn't find us."
"Bubbles and I can help you," the girl pipes up, her big eyes examining Roswitha's handiwork. "I don't think I can reach the packing,but I can definitely tell you when Stem is happy."
Stem brays softly and nuzzles on the young girls head who almost smiles slightly and raises one hand to pat the mule's large snout.
Ciri: "The midnight sword said the kobolds had him, and you should come get him because he's getting pretty bored."
Arielle nods in satisfaction. "That's all."
Ciri: "I dreamed about him, too. He said it seemed easier to reach me than you."
The girl frowns. "I think he muttered something about being excited about having to deal with another drunk yard? He didn't actually seem excited though. I think he was fibbing. I dunno. He's a sword, so maybe they always sound like that. No one else's sword talks, but Miss Kalica's sword sings. She says it does anyway. But I've just seen it kill people. And those people just gurgle and make wet splishy sounds." Arielle crinkles her nose. "That's not really singing."
Ciri: The girl shakes her head. "Nuh-uh. Miss Kitty and Miss Rozweefa are very nice, and they treat Bubbles good. They and Ameen and Kalica always kill everyone who gets mean and scary."
She cocks her head. "They don't seem to like it if I help Bubbles fight though. He kills stuff real good, but they don't seem to want me around it." The lack of concern or awareness is an odd companion for the innocence of the girl's face, but they fit together perfectly like fast friends. Arielle looks down at her teddy suddenly. Then she bursts out, "Oh! Bubbles told me not to forget. I'm here because of that dream you had last night. The one about the sword made of midnight and dark. The one that calls out to you."
Ciri: At some point the usual conversations had become boring, the usual foolhardy attempts to flirt had occurred and then ceased once the fool was educated heartily, the usual alcohol had been consumed...and Ciri had returned to her room to get away...from all that noise.
When the door to Ciri's room has been summarily kicked open, she realizes she's not alone. A pair of opalescent eyes catch the faded light of the rainy day and seem to sparkle from where their owner sits perched on Ciri's bed clutching a teddy bear with only one eye of its own. The glass bead also catches the light, but within it is fire. "Hullo, Surry," the young girl says looking somewhat sheepish. She fidgets with the ribbon tied around the teddy's neck in a bow.
Arielle looks up at Roswitha, her brown eyes large and mysterious. "I am fine and all safe thanks to you and Bubbles and everyone," she replies softly. She's once again holding Bubbles the teddy bear in her arms. His transition from towering monster to toy once again somehow unobserved. She reaches out a hand and squeezes Roswitha's finger. "Thank you...Corrie always told me that's what I should say when someone does something for me."
Arielle cranes her neck trying to see her teddy bear until settling to peer under Stem's belly and nervous leg movements.
Arielle reaches out a hand in concern for her teddy bear, but doesn't resist being moved by the adult woman.
Round 1 Arielle whirls around and suddenly cries out, her small hand pointing towards the saddlebags on Blossom's saddle. "There you are, Bubbles!" The girl takes a few steps toward Kalica and the melee...
"You want to play, Bubbles? Right now?" the girl says with a surprised look to the teddy bear in her hands. "Alright...go and hide then, and I'll try and find you." Arielle pulls away from Kalica slightly in order to press one arm and her face against Blossom's flank and begins to count backwards from sixty. Oddly, Bubbles is nowhere to be seen though the toy's exit from Arielle's hands was witnessed by no one.
Arielle looks up at the sky as the light sprinkle begins. She shudders slightly, and Kalica draws the girl's hood up over her brown hair and pulls her closer while they stand next to Blossom having chosen to wait outside for the others.
Arielle emits a laugh. The outburst is brief, and almost over as soon as it begins. However, the high-pitched and girlish sound is unmistakeable. Afterwards, the typically melancholy girl seems to shrink back against Kalica embarrassed. She whispers to her teddy bear, "Bubbles...he said Glen was a kittenfolk. That's so silly."
"What's that, Bubbles?" Arielle mutters and holds her teddy bear up to her ear as if the toy was whispering a secret. She turns to look up at Kalica who had placed the girl on her horse today. "Bubbles says there's something with those snakes there." She points to the bushes next to the lamp on the stump.
"Hey, didn't expect to see you back here. Can't stay away from Ciri, huh? That reminds me, I have something..." With an exaggerated look of concentration, she digs something from a belt pouch with long and arduous effort, finally drawing forth a length of wide, satiny ribbon. "Look! I thought you might like this for a neck ribbon, or a belt. Or maybe a cravat for Mr Bubbles?" She cocks her head at the child, offering the frippery. Arielle looks up at Ciri, her brown eyes wide but without concern or surprise. "Hullo, Surry. Thank you very much," the girl says simply. "The ribbon is very pretty."
Arielle listens to Roswitha's description with wide eyes. "That's almost as big as Bubbles!" she squeals squeezing the ironically small Bubbles to her chest.
Arielle doesn't seem startled or upset by either Grub's word or Kalica's sudden manhandling. The girl simply watches the elf with a calm, mysterious expression.
The girl quietly allows Miyari to tuck her and Bubbles into the blankets. Her eyelids grow heavy while listening to Armin's deep rumble and inhaling the calming aroma of Grub's happy pipe, and she drifts off to sleep while the fire crackles with warmth under the lee of stone.
Arielle leans into Roswitha. Arielle whispers:
"I was good? Corrie always liked me hiding, too. Bubbles likes to hide, but he always wants to me find him. Then he kills things when I do." "Mr. Grubby was at Uncle Oleg and Auntie Svetlana's fort when the bad people came," Arielle says in response to Roswitha's louder question.
The tiny ninja frog suddenly leaps onto the female gnome's head, wakizashi raised high. The gnome squawks in alarm. "Ginji!" a small voice hisses from a sleeping cell door. Arielle stands there holding Bubbles under arm. The frog Ginji starts slightly and releases the sword to gesture at the gnome below his webbed feet, and then once again raises the sword to strike. "No!" Arielle stamps her foot. The frog ninja's shoulders slump, and it sighs louder than one would expect. Without any wasted effort, the blade spins to reverse in one hand and is swiftly sheathed. The frog suddenly hops up and throws something which impacts the gnome's forehead and explodes in a puff of blue smoke. Both the gnome and Grub cough as the acrid smoke quickly dissipates. Ginji is nowhere to be seen. "Look, Bubbles! It's Mr. Grubby!"
All is quiet in the bedroom ROswitha left... In the meantime, the Ninja Frog attempts to slice the gnome with its tiny blade once more.
This time the gnome seems to realize something is stinging it and manages to dance around confounding the frog assassin.
No sound comes from the bedroom Roswitha just exited.
Roswitha thinks she may be hearing Arielle whisper to Bubbles under the bed.
Arielle squeezes Bubbles to her chest with both arms. In just her shift, she looks even more fragile. "OK," she whispers. Roswitha catches a slight glimmer of refracted color as the tiny beam of light coming through the small window slit catches the girl's eyes. She clambers down from the bed with Bubbles in tow, and she disappears under the simple bed.
As Roswitha bolts up, Arielle makes a fussy sound and rubs her eyes. Bleary eyed-she frowns with a furrowed brow. "What's happening, Miss Rosweefa?" the girl asks sitting up. Bubbles continues to sleep soundly.
The young girl snuggles against the sleepless Roswitha very comfortably. She makes soft breathing sounds and is clearly sleeping deeply, Bubbles wrapped in her arms.
Roswitha, but anyone can read: Arielle fusses over bathing and having her hair brushed, but she becomes complacent and allows Roswitha to do it. Ironically enough, she scolds Bubbles as if he is resisting having the grime and what appears to be blood cleaned out of his faux fur when Roswitha washes his face and his paws. The teddy bear himself says nothing and makes no moves to prevent this cleaning. His single glass bead eye reflects the light of the forge embers eerily however...
She quietly allows Roswitha to finesse her hair in whatever creative way the sorcerer manages. She reaches up and grabs at the braid trying to feel the shape since she can't see it, probably mussing it slightly. Roswitha may not be too surprised to discover the the yellow dress the girl wears is currently her only clothing aside from her undergarments. While the clothes dry, Roswitha will need to be creative in how to keep from having a ni-ni Arielle running around the smithy. Not that the girl doesn't have some modesty, but she seems much less concerned about her state of undress than the average female would in the company of male humanoids. When it comes to story time, Arielle nibbles at her piece of chocolate in tiny bites making it last a nearly the whole time Roswitha tells her story. It isn't until she's done that Roswitha notices the piece she gave to Bubbles is gone, and there appears to be a smear of chocolate on his stitched mouth. She lowers her head, and then asks Roswitha, "Will the younger sister ever go back? Will she destroy the older sister to get was almost hers? Does she want that?" There is an odd fervency in the girl's hushed voice, a quiet menace wholly new. In the bare light of the cell, Arielle's face is covered in shadows and for once, her eyes are very difficult to see.
Miyari:
Before Roswitha leads her away, Arielle gazes back at Miyari, her eyes again becoming that strange sparkly opalescence. Again the faintest of whispers comes from the girl. "Miss Kitty...I like you." The girl reaches up and touches Miyari's face. Before Miyari can really respond, Roswitha comes to collect Arielle and take her to bed, and the girl moves away.
"A story? Yes, tell one! Bubbles likes stories very much."
Arielle looks at the human woman with big brown eyes and nods her head. She complacently follows Roswitha to the room she's chosen, even allowing the sorcerer to taker her hand or carry her if she decides to do so. "Thank you. Bubbles likes you, so I know he will be pleased to watch over your sleep. Do you want to snuggle with him? I don't mind..." she asks innocently. "
The girl cocks her head to one side. "Well, I mean it only ran backward when she wanted it to." she says simply. Then she looks startled. "My feelings..." Something in her face shifts slightly. "I..." she begins, but she suddenly stops. She turns away her face unreadable. She seems to mouth something... Perception DC 20 (hearing): the whisper is ever so faint.
"I will find them before..." The rest of Arielle's words trails off into darkness.
Looking towards Arielle and Miyari the little goblin calls out, "Are you well, Arielle?" The girl looks at Glen. "I suppose." She turns her teddy bear in her hands to face her and gives him a critical eye. "I think Bubbles is a bit restless though." Arielle holds the teddy bear out to Glen. "Would you like to give him a hug? I think he would like that."
At that, she approaches Arielle. The catfolk first looks past the girl, to see where she looks to, and she comments quietly to the child: "If you ever wish to talk, I am here for you." Arielle turns her head slightly, her eyes returning to a rich coffee bean brown. The pair look up at Miyari's concerned face inscrutably. "Wish...to talk?" The girl makes a small child frown as if confused. "Corrie always told me to talk little in strange places. She was always worried others would get upset what I talk about." She pauses a moment, and feels in her own pocket to verify that the broken pocketwatch is still present. "Though... tonight I have something to ask you." She pulls the watch out and holds it in her upturned palm, "Is this something you recognize?" Cocking her head to one side, Arielle turns to look at the device. "That looks like the one Corrie used to have. It never told time right though. It always seemed to work backwards."
The young girl approaches an opening that looks out onto the parade grounds. Despite the hour there appears to be activity even now. Both the main army and the Issians have some patrols walking the interior as well as some logistical staff still packing things up or checking inventories. The opening has a wide board propped up by a metal bar. A simple contraption which can be closed with ease though the board is heavy and it would take a little more to lift and prop open once again. Arielle shivers as a chilly breeze begins to blow causing her to clutch the teddy bear in her arms tighter. She does not move from the opening, and her eyes glitter in that strange crystalline way throwing sparks of opalescent color occasionally depending on the angle one sees them. The heat from the large embers ward off most of the cold that seems to cling to Fort Sarenko this evening, but there is a chill in the air which may come from other than weather. The summoner says nothing. She just watches the people in the yard, her eyes glittering as mysteriously as before.
The little girl clutches her teddy bear tightly as Kalica lowers her to the ground. She looks up at Kalica and Miyari with trust in her eyes and uncertainty at the things around them.
Arielle seems to start as if she had been lost in thought. She blinks as she looks around seeming to see the new arrivals for the first time. She emits a small fussy-type sound and presses back into Kalica's torso, her brow drawn together in what can only be considered distress. "I don't like them, Miss Kalica," the girl whispers.
Arielle simply sits on Blossom staring down into the dirt clearly oblivious to the activity around her.
As the soldier reaches for the offered paper, Arielle suddenly asks, "Why are you so nervous, Mister Sirgent?" Sergeant Mercurio starts at the sound and looks at the little girl incredulously. Then he straightens and snatches the thick charter parchment from Miyari's hand. "Gorum's iron balls!" he curses. "I thi-think this is real! We have to take them to Captain Farsi!" Private Jessup spits into the dirt but says nothing.
Arielle eagerly reaches for the cookie. She sets Bubbles down on the table and begins eating the cookie, holding it in both hands. Upon finishing it, the girl opens the bag or box containing the dominoes and upends it so they spill all over the table. A couple fall onto the floor, but the clattering noise is mostly lost due to the loud toasting of those in the lounge. "We're going to play now, Bubbles," Arielle says matter-of-factly pushing some dominoes in front of the bear. Bubbles says nothing in response and merely sits there looking rather pitiful with only one eye.
"We can go talk to the sword lady," Arielle says to Glen. "I don't mind." "What do you want, Miss Kitty?" Then as if the answer to her question doesn't matter, Arielle holds up both hands, one still clutching her teddy bear, waiting to be carried as promised. The glittering of her eyes in the low light fades back to the innocent brown.
Arielle merely returns the catfolk's gaze placidly without blinking. The longer Miyari looks the more glitter begins to form in Arielle's eyes. Miyari: In your mind you hear Corinne's voice as if from a great distance.
Show her kindness, Miyari. Show her kindness...
She looks to Arielle and says, "If you'd like, you can sleep in the bed with me. Or if you'd prefer something else, just let me know, and I'm sure that we can accommodate." "OK...I'd like that," Arielle says her eyes wide and brown in the smoky light of the inn's oil lamps. The catfolk's ears flick lightly and she nods along to the rest of the halfling's words. "We do appreciate your hospitality and cookies sound wonderful." She closes her eyes contentedly for a moment and then says to Arielle, "I wonder what sort of cookies they'll have." She perks up at Miyari's talk of cookies to Arielle. "Maybe they'll have milk, as well. Did you ever have warm cookies and milk, Arielle? There's nothing better!" Though she speaks to try to cheer the silent child, the thought cheers her, as well, and her smile at the orphan is a happy one. The girl also perks up. Nodding her head vigorously and with more animation than usual, she says, "I do like cookies. Very much!" She suddenly looks very embarrassed. "I've only ever had two..." When the new folk approach, Arielle looks at the floor and hugs Bubbles tightly.
The orphan looks back and forth between the adults present. For a brief moment there is a sense of happiness that comes from her, and she strokes Blossom's mane. She nods at Kalica to let her know she did indeed enjoy the time. The feeling fades, and the night and the fog again seem to loom around the town as if enclosing it off from the rest of the world.
The girl looks up, her large brown eyes difficult to discern in the low light. "You're a very nice lady, Miss Razweefa. Bubbles likes you."
Arielle says nothing, her head down, making her face hard to see under the rather worn hood of her little cloak.
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