When Brea had arrived at the meeting point for the tour she was surprised to say the least, to see none other than the very woman whom Brea had returned a jacket to earlier that day.
Miranda was standing there holding onto an old looking lantern, and collecting peoples tickets.
"Ticket please?"
She asked as Brea handed her the piece of paper. Miranda hadn't looked up at her yet and Brea was blushing before she had even seen her.
"Oh! Hi!"
She exclaimed once she had realised who it was.
"Uhm... hi.." Brea shyly replied.
"So ya like ghosties do yer?"
Brea played with her sweater sleeves awkwardly.
"N-not really no. I'm here strictly on Sleuthing business."
The women raised a brow and chuckled.
"Sleuthing? So you're a detective than?"
Brea could feel the blood rushing to her cheeks and up into the tips of her ears again just from being around her.
She shook her head. "No I guess you could say I'm a writer... well I-I mean I like to write... I wouldn't necessarily call myself a writer per say, but-" Miranda smiled at the adorable Woman's ranting, but just as she was about to let her continue, and comment on the newfound knowledge of her interests, someone in the crowd asked her when the tour would begin.
"Alright everyone, follow me." Miranda said as she gave Brea a wink, and began to lead the people along.
The first location the alluring women guided them towards was that of an old castle that was standing mostly in ruins. Miranda stopped there to tell the tale of a banchee (a Scottish type of ghost.) who could be heard still to this day, crying out about the life she had lost.
Brea's hairs stood on end when the wind began to howl. She did try not to allow her imagination to get away from her... but the more the tour went on, the creepier things got.
Because of this it was near impossible to control her writers instincts. It wasn't until they arrived at the last location however, that Brea really got the chills.
At first it seamed ok, the story Miranda told about the two lovers losing their way in the very woods they where standing in and doing everything they could to find one-another again, was sweet, If anything. It even earned Brea a wink from the woman who had continued to flirt with her through-out the entire tour.
But it was the hair-raising end of the story that Brea knew for sure, was going to keep her up that night.
You see it turned out, that the two lovers never did find each other again and instead they died of the cold in the storm that blew the night they got lost. It had even been said that you could still hear and see them, if you listened closely enough, calling out for one-another and screaming in the darkness of the woods. The very woods that they where standing in right now....
Brea felt that she might just faint when the wind suddenly picked up, causing the branch of a tree to snap. In fact, everyone jumped than, even Miranda, but it was Brea's pale face, that Miranda took notice of the most.
"Alright everyone, calm yerselves down. It was just the wind!"
She advised as she began to lead the group back the way they came, and as they all begun the long walk back, Miranda slowed her steps until she had reached the back of the line where Brea was holding onto the sides of her arms, looking determinedly at the grass below her shoes.
"If you keep walking like that, you might bump into a tree."
Brea jumped out of her skin as she looked up at at the Miranda.
"Sorry I didn't mean to scare you, you ok?" She asked.
Brea nodded.
"Here, you look freezing." She said as she once again handed Brea her jacket.
"T-thank you but you don't have to do that."
Miranda smiled. "Please, I insist." She replied.
After that there was silence for a while, before the mysterious boat woman finally broke it with her curiosity.
"So... why did you decide to come along for the tour when you're so scared of ghosts? Unless of course it was my charm that compelled you to join us?"
She gave a mischievous grin and Brea couldn't help but to crack a smile at her antics.
"I actually didn't know that you where going to be the tour guide tonight..."
Brea couldn't help but to marvel at how similar her and her mothers adventures in Skye had been so far. After all, they had both met tour guides at the start of their journey in Skye, and and if Brea was being honest, she wasn't sure if she would be able to keep this particular tour guide off of her mind for the entire rest of her stay.
"I dabble." Miranda replied with a grin and a shrug."
"So you wouldn't have wanted to come if you had known?" She asked with a small pout, and for the first time since Brea had met her, she actually picked up on some nervousness under the amusement in her voice.
"No!"
Brea rushed.
"I-I mean no... not at all."
The other woman's smile returned instantly as Brea began once again to blush up a storm.
"So you would have wanted to come along even more than... if you had known that I would be here?"
She added, hopefully.
Brea could have sworn at that point that her face was on literal fire.
"P-Perhaps." Brea concluded.
"But anyway..."
She quickly tried to change the subject.
"There's another reason why I came here tonight... and I think, well I hope that you might actually be able to help me with it."
Miranda shrugged.
"Ask away."
Brea bit her lip and sighed.
"I came to Skye... specifically to look for someone. He was a tour guide here once but I haven't got much else to go on."
Miranda nodded.
"Well, I've lived around here for a number of years now, so if his still here, I'd probably know him." She replied, waited a beat and than added, "Boyfriend of yours?"
Brea chocked on her own spit as Miranda stopped to look at her with concern.
"N-N-No! Not at all. His... His my father!"
Brea could have sworn that she saw the woman's shoulders drop down in relief at her answer, had she perhaps not wanted Brea to have a boyfriend?
Well... she had made it rather abundantly clear that she was into Brea, what with all of her flirting and all, but the issue was that Brea was a hopeless romantic. She certainly wouldn't be looking for a one-night fling, and she didn't really know yet if this woman was simply toying with her, or if she truly wanted something more.
"I see."
Miranda replied.
"Do you know his name at all?"
Brea sighed as she shook her head. Miranda took note at the sad expression she held and her slightly slumped shoulders.
"Sadly no. But I know that he ran tours around here in the late nineties."
Miranda cringed and sighed.
"Unfortunately I wasn't around here then...But there are a few older guides still running tours in Skye, I'd recommend asking them next."
Brea's ears pricked up at that.
"Do you know where I might be able to find them?"
She asked.
"Easy. I can introduce you, if you'd like?"
Brea couldn't help but to smile as she stopped and looked the Miranda directly in the eyes.
"Thank you Miranda. That would mean a lot to me if you could."
Miranda couldn't bring herself to look away once Brea had stopped, and for a split moment Brea could have sworn that she saw her eyes battle through a range of different emotions before she finally turned away, her usually cheeky grin reappearing almost instantly.
"No problem, like I said before, if you need a guide around these parts, I'm your girl."