Afraid of the Dark

Chapter 12: The Dark

"And you, girly," Desdemona says without lifting her head as she focuses on adding the ingredients to the various parts of her setup. Alchemy is way above Reela. She thinks there's something called a 'mortar and pestle' involved? Is that what it's called? The one that you grind? She can only remember the 'grind' part because it makes her giggle.

Reela tilts her head at the old woman. "Me?"

"Yes, you. I have some questions for you once I'm done stabilizing your little pony. I'll consider that payment for your inconvenience on my day," she states, and Todo cocks a brow at her.

"You brought us in," he points out. "You didn't have to help us."

The old woman groans. "Yes, but girly over there felt all weird to me so I was curious. So, I want to talk about that later," she says and the frog hops up on the table to croak at her, and she scoffs before aggressively patting him on the head. "Yes, I know why she's weird, but it's rude to call it out, you little toadstool," she snaps. "Ignore my ex-husband, Ganon. Just give him things to do and let him go about his day," she says and Ganon croaks again before hopping off the table to go back to gathering ingredients.

Reela cocks a brow. "The frog is your...?" she stops herself and shakes her head. "Never mind. But what do you mean I 'feel weird'?" she asks and the woman sighs.

"I'll explain later. You know, after I'm done saving your almost dead friend," Desdemona grumbles.

Reela glances over at Todo and he merely shrugs his own confusion before he returns his focus to Corb, whose hand he hasn't let go of since bringing him to the table. With nothing else to do but wait, Reela finds a sticky note to write down what food she wants and gives it to Toya, telling the fox to stick it to the frog when he's least expecting.

So she spends most of her afternoon watching Toya hunt a frog with a sticky note of her food order.

She doesn't know what drugs she ended up consuming between now and this morning, but she's gotta tell her dad about it so he can find her some more. What are dads for if not to be non-profit drug dealers?

After a couple hours, Todo was about ready to pass out on the floor next to Corb so Desdemona told him he could go sleep in one of her guest rooms, assuming he can find it. Apparently even she doesn't know the layout of her own house.

That, or she just never has guests. Maybe both.

Reela is still trying to figure this woman out. She can't tell if she's an Adaliaen or not. Her hair is almost white, but a bit more on the light grey side from what she can tell. She can't see her ears since most of her head is covered by her dark hood, and she hasn't seen what color her eyes are. She's guessing either Half-Adaliaen or human. Or maybe half-dwarf with how short she is. But all of that is secondary to trying to figure out what her magic is. She's still betting on Summoning, but she can't be sure.

Not wanting to scramble her brain, Reela just focuses on eating her spaghetti with Toya on the floor in the corner until eventually, Desdemona approaches her.

Reela slurps up a noodle and lifts her head curiously. "Well?" she asks.

"I gave your buddy the poultice and now we just gotta let it set. He'll be fine, but the brain damage is irreversible I'm afraid," Desdemona explains and Reela sighs.

"Damn. So much for that vain hope," she chuckles and stands up, and Toya instantly places her paws on the plate of spaghetti and pulls it over to herself to start relentlessly consuming every last noodle until she is covered in meat sauce which looks like blood on her light blonde coat.

Desdemona hits her cane on the ground. "Now, are you ready to talk or are you gonna run away like most kids do when their elders speak?" she deadpans and even though Reela can't see her eyes under her hood, she gets the sense that she's getting mean mugged by this old lady.