Reboot: a Short Story

III

Magnus looked at the wardrobe, it was full of clothes and an assortment of objects, he rifled through them, everything in the wardrobe was as if it was untouched by time itself. Magnus looked at the clothes, they were of no style that Magnus had ever seen. Behind the clothes was a big stick Magnus reached for it and pulled it out to inspect it. It was long and smooth perfect for a walking stick, one end of it was wrapped in strips of leather while the other had a shiny metal cap on it. Magnus stood up and leaned on the stick to check if it could support his weight, it did and quite well surprisingly. He grinned a goofy grin, now he wasn't bound to the walls and could explore as he pleased. 

Magnus limped proudly and as quickly as he could back to the furniture room. The orange creature who was surprised at how fast the giant could move followed him out. Magnus grabbed the jar of blood dipped two fingers in it and eagerly checked off the walking stick. He smiled, he was making progress.He placed the jar back on the table and sealed it with a rusty metal lid before wiping the remaining blood off his fingers on to what remained of his jacket. Magnus paused and thought for a moment before pulling his pocket watch out of his fathers pocket and winding it up. He opened the watch and looked at it. He stared in disbelief, it was nearing noon which would mean that Magnus had already been up for two hours. Normally at noon magnus had lunch. He sighed at the thought of food. He had been so distracted that he had forgotten about food. He picked up the jar again and fumbled with the lid before managing to get it open. He then added something new to the list.

[ ]. FIND FOOD

 First priority at the moment was the light. He needed a light to explore the darker parts of the house. He only had vision in the bedroom, the furniture room, the fireplace room, and the hallway. The most promising place to look for a source of light was the bedroom. Magnus grasped his newfound walking stick and limped towards the the bedroom. Once again the orange creature shadowed him. Magnus paused and looked down at the creature, it looked back up at him. It then occurred to him that he had a new friend, this made him smile.  Magnus continued on into the room.

Now that Magnus had something to move around with he decided to let himself get distracted, perhaps that even being the best way to find things. First thing Magnus did was make his way for the bookshelves. He sorted through them, a good amount of them were in a language he couldn't read but he eventually found one labeled Beastia which he recognized from his father's study back home. He took it out and opened it to a page in the middle of the book. To his surprise the book was in a readable condition despite the pages being yellowed and folded. The page he opened it up to showed an anatomical diagram of a dwarf. He fingered through a few pages to find a page labeled Elf,  he kept going forwards, elephant, elk, so many different species of animals he couldn't count. This interested Magnus immensely. He eventually came upon a page with an animal similar to the orange creature. He looked down at the page then at the creature, they were one in the same. The page was titled "Fox".

"So you're a fox?" Magnus said curiously and reached down to pet the foxes head. "Interesting" Magnus looked back at the page, there were notes written all over it in scrawling curvy letters. 

Subtitles:( Likes : Any type of pastry more fruity the better. Friendly, smart, FUR)

Magnus looked down at the creature. "Fur.." The foxes ears perked up, it liked that word, Fur. Magnus noticed the reaction of the fox, "would you like to be named fur?" The creature swooshed its tail around and looked up at Magnus. "I'll take that as a yes." Magnus closed the book and placed it back on the shelf. He then looked around the room some more. Perhaps there was something under the bed, Magnus approached the bed and knelt on the floor. Low and behold under the bed was a wooden box. Magnus reached under the bed and fished it out. He then picked up the box and sat on the chair in front of the wardrobe. He opened the lid carefully, the same smell that came from the wardrobe assaulted his nose. Inside the box was an animal fur, Magnus recognized it. It was fox fur, he had always assumed that the orange furs were from a small orange bear, perhaps not. He quickly closed the lid, this unsettled him. He placed the box on the floor dismissing it from his mind. 

All that was really left in the room were the desk and the rest of the wardrobe. Magnus looked up at the wardrobe. He had really only explored the main part of it, there were a lot of small Cubbyholes in it. Magnus opened the bottom one, inside of it were small alchemist gas canisters. Magnus took one and looked at it, it was labeled "LANTERN" in big bold letters. He placed it under the clothes. It would be useful if he found a lantern. Magnus checked the next cabinet, on top of the big one, inside of it was a fat  candle and a metal tin. Magnus took out the candle and placed it next to the canister. He was only finding parts of what he needed.

Magnus took out the tin and placed it on his lap. He crossed his fingers for useful supplies, possibly a source of light. He popped open the lid. Inside of the tin was something quite familiar to Magnus. A flint and steel. Mael had showed me how this worked... Magnus grimaced, then concentrated on flint and tinder. I can light the candle with this.. Though..Magnus looked at the burn marks on his hands. I need a holder. Magnus looked back at the desk, perhaps a piece of the equipment there would work as a candle holder. Magnus closed the tinder box and took the candle with him as he limped towards the desk. 

On top of the desk was an arrangement of glass bottles and old alchemy equipment. Alchemy equipment was a thing that could only be seen in a museum since it was banned around at the beginning of the reign of the Rakov bloodline. Magnus sat down and placed the tinderbox and candle on the desk. Alchemy fascinated Magnus as he had got a small taste of it down in Mael's lair. Alchemy was the science of what was known as Chemicals, they had weird properties such as sudden explosions or making light out of nothing but a few liquids. However this was no time for messing around with alchemy. Magnus looked around the desk. Under a glass bottle was a candle holder, Perfect Magnus thought as he reached for it, there was the stub of  a candle in it, its wick burnt out. Lucky for Magnus he knew how to work with wax. He took the tinder box and opened it up. He then continued to take the flint and tinder and light the candle, it took a few strikes but it eventually burst into a beautiful orange flame. He then took the candle and held the flame above the candle stub to melt the wax. After it melted he took the candle and stuck it on. Now he had a working light. Perfect.