A forum for the Port Luskan role play

Alyra looks seriously at Steph. "I think we had best be prepared for anything," she says quietly. "That was a warning from Cel. I am not about to assume anything, but least of all will I assume we are safe." She looks around the room, her eyes straying briefly upwards before they focus back on her friend. "I for one am going to look into making my home here more secure than it was on the original island. I mean the second island, actually; on the original, I was living in Cel's tower, and even there I wasn't completely safe. Nowhere is..." She shrugs off the thought, and then smiles.

"Yes, others have come. Keri, Lacy, and Archie have all signed the guestbook over there, and I am certain I heard Glenn's voice when I first arrived, though I haven't seen him since. But I have seen Lacy; she and I found the temple together... but I already told you that, didn't I?

"And someone, I'm not sure who, left a trail of muddy footprints and -- I wish now I hadn't cleaned them up; I am certain, though, that those were bare feet. So that was probably a hobbit. But if it wasn't a hobbit, it was kids, with very cold feet." Alyra nods sagely. "Very cold feet."

Steph laughs at Alyra's comment and thinks to herself that she has missed her old friend and her quirkiness and smiles warmly...."Anyway Alyra, how have you been, and I can't wait to see the others, its been so long since I last saw Lacy, I hope that she is in good health", Steph sits herself down ready to have a deep and meaningful chat with her friend and then laughs to herself as their talks always ended up far from deep and meaningful.

Steph looks around the shop hoping that a hot drink may be offered and looks to her friend to hear all her news.......

Alyra smiles at her friend, then glances at the fire. "You know, what would make this perfect would be some hot tea," she says, half to herself. "Let me see what I can do about that." She rummages around in the side room and comes back with a couple of mugs. "I could almost have made these myself," she muses, setting one down and running her finger around the rim of the other. "Nicely turned, and I do love the glaze on this one." She goes to the fire and ladles hot water from the cauldron into one mug, then the other, and sets them on the hearth to steep. "That will take a minute," she says, settling back down. She glances towards the back of the shop, and seems to notice for the first time the door.

"Well, what do you know? I have a back door again!" she exclaims, and jumps up. "I always missed that... Let me see where it... goes. Hmm." She stops. "Anything could be behind that door," she says, without a hint of ominous foreboding. "Want to come with?"

Steph watches as Alyra prepares a hot drink thinking that maybe she is now able to read minds or can see how thirsty she is and smells the sweet tea and feels her mouth water.

Steph smiles as she watches Alyra and looks slightly concerned that her friend would even consider going into the unknown without her, she stands to ready herself, then raises her hands up and if about to hold something, then seems to zone out for a moment, suddenly two swords form in her raised hands, these are the swords she has always had and with a beaming smile on her face she looks to her friend "Of course I am up for this Alyra, you always brought us into danager of some sort, life would be dull without you"

With that she does to the back door with Alyra ready to face whatever is on the other side.

Alyra grins at her friend. "Might not need those, Steph," she says, but nonetheless, she sings the command that will summon her own sword. She stands for a moment with "Harmony" singing in her hand; then, almost reluctantly, sings the command that returns it. She grins at Steph. "Just wanted to make sure I could," she says. Then, resolutely, she opens the door.

Watching through the window, Budster waits until the door has closed and the vaguely familiar women have left and sneaks in through the front door. With stomach growling he races over and licks the tea cups left behind. Once again rummaging through the bookshelves and cupboards in search of food, he finds some dry old crackers. Greedly munching on the the crackers, he looks around at the mess he has created and "Pffts" after another quick search for food, he wanders to the front door ready to leave. Looking back at the mess he has made......he almost feels guilty, after "pffting" again, he creates fake dragon foot prints all over the floor and into the snow heading away from the bookshop. Giggling madly to himself, he once again runs off into the woods surrounding the bookshop.

Alyra stands with Steph beside her, the door gently falling to behind them, and looks about. She is not really worried, she tells herself, but Steph's drawn swords are nonetheless a comfort.

The air is cold, still.

Well, I was hoping to find a pottery...

What Alyra sees instead is a garden: familiar, and yet not. It is not the garden she once stepped into through her back door. It is truly the garden of her dreams: flowers delicate and bright, yet sturdy enough to withstand the bitter cold; a wooden bench with cushions; wind chimes, silent in the stillness, hanging from the eaves. To the left a willow, gnarled and ancient, bends over the garden and gives it shelter. The high wall before them still blocks passage to the sea, but the open sky beyond the tree's branches allows for swift escape. Alyra nods slightly: ...but this will do.

She turns to her right, not sure what to expect. Vines mingle with the wispy tendrils of the willow's trailing branches to form a cascade of green. Alyra feels a shiver; she remembers what lay behind a similar curtain on the old island. Whether this veil hides such a passage is impossible to tell from where they stand. She turns uncertainly to Steph.

"Do you see what I see?" she asks, then chuckles at the absurdity of her question. "I mean - well, you know what I mean. What do you see?"

The lithe young woman watches silently from the entry to the schoolyard across the street as the hobbit emerges from the bookshop. She chuckles quietly to herself as the hobbit makes fake dragon tracks in the snow, and she wonders what else he has been up to.

After the hobbit has safely secluded himself in the thin, snowy trees, the girl walks across the street and into the shop. She looks around, and her gaze rests on the guestbook. She considers for a moment what she might write. Then she steps forward, lifts the quill, and scrawls briefly before slipping silently back out of the shop.

"Steph?" Alyra has had her eyes fixed on the curtain of vines, as if staring at it harder would make it reveal its secrets. She now turns, puzzled by her friend's silence.

Steph is gone.

"Drat," Alyra mutters under her breath. She looks at the ground; Steph's footprints are side by side beside her own, and neither set goes beyond where she stands now. Puzzled, she looks up, wondering if her friend decided to go for a flight.

The air is dead still; surely in the resounding silence she would have heard... something?

She stands, uncertainly, for a moment; then she takes a step forward. She came here to explore; explore she will, Steph or no Steph. It is a matter of security, she tells herself. And curiosity. She has to at least know what lies behind those vines.

But first - she needs to know what happened to Steph.

She goes to open the door to the shop, hoping to find Steph inside, but instead she finds a mess. She is a bit taken aback, and a good deal vexed. "Bad enough about the tea - perfectly good, and neither Steph nor I got to drink a drop! - but the books! Ooooh, if I get my hands on the... pesky... " She stops and examines the tracks which seem to be everywhere, both in and outside the shop. "Looks for all the world like - awwwww. A baby dragon! I wonder if it's Riyalah? I better make sure the type and ink is secure, in case she comes back, or we'll have one sick dragon on our hands! Her mom wouldn't be very happy about that!" Alyra bustles about the shop, straightening and tidying and putting away, using the activity to calm herself; she is hoping Steph will reappear or return from wherever she went off to, but as the minutes pass, that seems less and less likely to happen.

And she is growing more concerned about what might lie beyond those vines in the garden. There could be a passage to the Hollows, or the Underdark, or the Dwarven mines, or some new underground realm - there are many possibilities. She resolves to find out, as soon as possible. At last, she stops straightening just long enough, she tells herself, to check the back door to make certain it is locked, from both sides.

She finds herself instead going through it and walking to the end of the garden. She stands for only a moment before she pulls the vegetation aside. She is absolutely prepared to find nothing but bare, cold rock behind the hanging foliage, and in truth, she tells herself, nothing would make her happier. She does not really need a passage to the Hollows in her back garden.

The rock is bare, and cold, and solid. She feels further back, just to be certain - and her hand brushes emptiness.

I knew it, I knew it, I knew it! She almost says the words aloud, but instinctively she silences herself. If enemies lie beyond, it is probably better not to announce herself. At least, not if she can help it.

Truly wishing Steph were still with her, but determined to learn what she can, Alyra slips through the vines and into the passage beyond, half hoping it will turn out to be a mere hollow - Hah! Nothing "mere" about the Hollows, she thinks wryly to herself - but it is in fact a full-blown cave, narrow, but with an even stone floor and a ceiling high enough that it easily clears her head. It seems only slightly darker than the garden itself, but she cannot determine the source of the dim light. Just like home.

Budster crouches down further into the corner of the cave, watching the strangely familiar woman approach the entrance of the cave and peering in. Squeezing deeper into the corner, he looks around. Too scared to go deeper towards the noise and evilness emanating from the deeps of the cave and too scared to let the stranger see him.
A memory from inside him tries to break the surface of his solitude, but having been on his own since the disappearance of his old home in mysterious circumstances he shrinks away trying to become part of the wall of the cave. Wishing that the stranger would just leave his hideaway before something below is disturbed........