[OOC: Oops, this and the previous crossed in posting. Minor retcon coming... and now accomplished. /OOC:]
"Oh, my," Lillith gasped as she looked at the horse. Its color looked exactly right to be the strange man's horse that they'd seen on the road, but that animal had been well-mannered, well-groomed, and generally, not what they were seeing now. What had happened to the poor thing?
"Let me see what I can do with her," she said, remembering the way she'd been able to calm the horses at
Centoriel -- at least until that never-to-be-forgotten odor of burnt flesh wafted their way. (Well, it wasn't just the horses who'd reacted adversely to that.) Once again, she started by trying to compose her own thoughts and emotions, her own consciousness -- at least as tough a task here as it had been then, but there'd been plenty of violence in that encounter too.
Her calming manner seemed to work, remarkably enough. The wild-eyed mustang of moments before was settling down into a nervous, but no longer vicious, state. Lillith could almost see the transformation, and she could certainly sense it. And it wasn't just the horse. The spirits around the stable were becoming less agitated, more at ease again. Tranquility was slowly returning to this disordered place.
"Have you an apple, or a carrot?" she asked Suriah.
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Sister Rose wished Argus had come with them on their quick upstairs errand, but Maduin had something on his mind.
I bet I know what it is, too. Anyway, she and Drusia had managed to force Kim's door open ... and now they were looking at a room that very definitely was Kim-less.
At first Rose gaped at the emptiness of the room. Not only was the girl not there, nothing else that might have been associated with her was either -- but then, as she thought about it, she realized that the poor thing didn't
have much of anything else to fill an inn room with. She'd moved into the room with literally the clothes on her back and nothing else. Well, except for one thing ...
A quick scan of the room revealed that she'd taken Harker's cat statue with her. Rose found that strangely gratifying.
It also revealed, on her bed, a piece of paper. Rose lifted it, looked it over, found a child-like scrawl, in large block letters, on one side.
I GOT TOO SCARED
I AM GOING HOME
I HOPE I SEE YOU ALL AGAIN
THANK YOU FOR BEING SO NICE TO ME
KIM