Chapter Text
Lyre wasn't completely sure if going on this mission alone was the best idea.
In hindsight, it probably would have been better if she had asked around the tavern for a temporary party. Then at least she’d have some backup. Maybe some banter to liven the air.
But that would mean actually having to talk to people. And that seemed far too mentally draining. Besides, she liked being alone. Fewer things to worry about.
It did help that the task at hand wasn’t terribly hard; just stop by the outdoor mall in Blackthorn after hours to investigate some paranormal activity. Easy enough. Maybe she would have to kick some ass, but only if the problem was as bad as the owner said it was. Somehow she doubted it would be anything major. But either way, he’d promised her enough money for some new clothes and almost 2 weeks of meals she wouldn’t have to hunt herself.
The first storefront the leopard tabaxi walked into was BearClaw’s Armoury, which, as expected, sold weapons and armour. If there really was something that wanted to kill her, it was going to be here. Which was why she loaded her crossbow before unlocking the door.
The store was cast in the shadows of the crescent moon. This wasn’t remotely a problem for her, but still. The shelves and walls were stocked with weapons of all kinds, crafted from all different cultures. It was quiet. Far too quiet.
She held her crossbow high while checking the first low aisle. By the third, she loosened her grip, and by the seventh and final aisle, she only held it by the back handle. There wasn’t anything here. Now that she thought about it, it was probably just some phasmophobic rich guy who spotted a raccoon and freaked out.
She sighed. Welp, if she was going to wander a mall alone, she might as well make the best of it.
She spotted a few quivers of arrows on the far wall. Or rather, Omar’s Enchanted Arrows, as the label read. Whatever. No one would miss two or three of them if she knew retail employees.
Soon after, she left BearClaw’s, locking the door behind her. Okay. 1 down. 27 more to go. She sighed. Was it really necessary to go through all of them? Maybe she could just skip past the food court. There probably won’t be any ghosts in there, right?
The next store on her right was simply called Stitches. Obviously just a clothes store, nothing too dangerous about that. She might get “bludgeoned” with a hanger, but that was about it. Still had to check it over.
This store was a little bigger than BearClaw’s but other than the fact that clothes stocked the shelves instead of weapons, it was basically the same. She cleared this store a lot quicker, with all of her earlier apprehension dissolved.
She was about to leave when she noticed the back door to storage was cracked open. Huh, that was odd. It was probably nothing, someone just forgot to lock it before they left. But maybe there was something back there that she could claim.
As she slipped in, her eyes took a few seconds to adjust to the thick darkness, one mostly untouched by the moonlight. Some new stuff was splayed on one of the tables. A lone mannequin carved of birchwood stood in the far corner. There was even a decent-sized wand, probably misplaced by one of the staff. But the majority of things back there were just unopened boxes and some racks of clothes that had “survived” clearance. Now that definitely wouldn’t be missed. But, of course, it was clearance stuff, so everything was either ugly or far from her size.
That’s when she spotted the hat.
It was the stereotypical wizard’s hat, except a dull grey with a few exposed seams. There wasn’t much else to say about it, other than the fact that it had probably seen better days.
Did it look tacky as hell? Yes.
Was she still going to try it on? Absolutely.
Was it one of the stupidest things she’d done in her life so far? Oh yeah.
The second she put it on she felt a surge of some strange magic shoot through her body. Her claws sheathed and unsheathed without her input. The stranger in her body took a step back, then another. All the while she silently screeched to get it off get it off get it off get it off---
A stack of boxes behind her threw off her balance.
She fell.
The hat fell.
As soon as she felt the surge vanish, she scrambled to her feet and pulled out her crossbow. She waved it around wildly, desperately trying to find that damn hat.
There it was, resting on top of one of the fallen boxes. Watching. Waiting.
She aimed at it with shaking hands. “What do you want?” she asked, trying her hardest to hide just how much her voice was shaking.
She wasn’t expecting an answer. She wasn’t expecting anything, not even the slightest sign that the thing had heard her.
So, of course, when it spoke, it scared the shit out of her.
Its words weren’t even threatening. Just a simple, “Some privacy, maybe.” But her terror had been building this entire encounter, and now it finally unleashed itself in a shriek and a shot from her crossbow.
The arrow hit dead-on, tearing through the fabric and knocking it to the floor. A pronounced “ow” rang out through the stillness.
What the hell was this thing?
She scrambled to load her crossbow again, not daring to take her eyes off that thing. But, almost predictably, she fumbled and somehow dropped both the new arrow and the crossbow. By now she was far too hopped up on adrenaline to try to reload it again, so she did the only rational thing left; pick up the arrow and hold that hat at knife-- er, arrowhead point.
“What are you?” She snarled, her puffed-up tail lashing.
“I have no idea.”
The sheer deadpan of its delivery almost dissolved her terror on the spot. Almost.
She cleared her throat. “Let me rephrase that, what do you want from me?”
“I dunno man.” If hats could shrug, it probably would have. “A body would be nice.”
“Like for lunch?”
“No! I just-- I want to be able to actually move, you know?”
Now her curiosity was finally starting to overpower her fear. “Wait, you can’t move?”
“Nope.”
“Like at all?”
“Uh-uh. I’ve just been sitting here since I woke up.”
“So if I were to pick you up, you wouldn’t be able to do anything about it?”
“Yeah-- wait, I don’t like where this is going.”
“Didn’t think you would.”
Before Lyre had even finished the sentence, she grabbed it by the top to investigate it. It, of course, started loudly complaining the moment she laid a paw on it. “Hey, hey, hey. At least take me to dinner first.”
She didn’t pay it much attention. “What even are you?”
“I already told you, I don’t know!”
“What, do you have amnesia or something?” she asked, as she tentatively poked the inner brim. A jolt of magic coursed through her, not nearly as strong as before, but she still instinctively drew her hand back.
A good ten seconds passed before it answered; “Is that like a dessert?”
Yep. Amnesia. At least it didn’t seem violent. More like a very confused child. Even if it sounded like it could be a young-ish adult.
But that raised the question; what was she going to do with this thing? The first shift employees would freak out if they found it, so she couldn’t just leave it. And she certainly wasn’t about to body-snatch her a second time.
And that’s when she noticed an answer leaning against the far wall.
“Didn’t answer my fucking question,” it muttered to itself.
“So, uh-” she cleared her throat, adjusting her grip to look right at its ‘face.’ “This body that you want… it doesn’t have to be sentient, does it?”
“What do you mean?”
Okay, probably didn’t know what sentient meant either. Wordlessly, she pointed to the birch mannequin in the corner. A few seconds of pause, before-“Oh! That! Uh, I mean I could definitely try it.”
She did have to step over a few fallen boxes, but that was really the only thing in her path. Whoever had to open the next morning was going to be pissed. At least nothing had really fallen out of any of the boxes.
The mannequin looked just about as unnerving from up close as when she first saw it. There were a number of large scratches and dents along its bare body, and it was even missing an arm. But aside from that, it seemed sturdy enough. Even if someone noticed its absence, they wouldn’t truly miss it.
She turned the hat back around to look it in the eye. Before quickly realizing it had no eyes. “So if I give you this, you’re not going to turn around and kill me?”
“Why would I do that?” From its tone, it was impossible to tell if the words were sarcastic or genuine. Somehow, they seemed to be both at the same time.
A beat passed as she seriously considered what she was about to do. Of course, she was still going to do it, she was just prepared to kick the shit out of it if it turned on her. Her heart faltered ever so slightly as she tentatively put the hat on the mannequin, and quickly scurried a few feet away.
At first, nothing happened. Even with that, her stance didn’t loosen up in the slightest. “I, uh, how does it feel?”
“Like, really fucking stiff,” it said. “Wait-- hang on, let me try something.”
That’s when an almost sickening crack echoed around that tiny room, and she just about jumped out of her skin. Several more cracks followed before she realized the remaining arm was moving. Fairly stiffly, perhaps, but it was moving. She drew in a tight breath, before turning behind her to look for her fallen crossbow, wincing at every unnatural snap.
By the time she found it, the cracking stopped, replaced with the much more bearable sound of wooden feet stumbling on the stone floor. It had moved a few steps forward, looking down at its hand. Well, it looked like it was looking at its hand, she really wasn’t the most sure where its line of sight was. It flexed its new fingers with soft clattering, before stretching its legs. But… its movements were so normal, so natural. That almost unnerved her more than the moving mannequin part.
“Oh, this is so much easier!” It said, finally breaking the silence. Now that she was looking closer, it seemed to have completely broken off where the joints would be, with magical tendons and ligaments in their place.
“So, would you have had to do that with me, or—“
“Probably not.” It bent down to pick up its other arm, which apparently was right by its feet the whole time. “I mean, this thing wasn’t exactly built to move—“ Seventeen more deafening snaps sounded at once as it ‘reattached’ the arm, flexing it almost as if it was just putting on a full arm glove. “— so I figured I could take some creative liberties.”
“Right…” Unease sat in her stomach like a well-fed frog. But it wasn’t hostile. That was always good. Then she cleared her throat. “Uh, well, I’ve kinda got a quest to get back to. He said it was ghost hunting, but I’m hoping I find a little more… tangible pest, y’know.” She turned to leave, stepping over one more large box before reaching the door.
“Can I come with you?”
Her grip on the doorframe tightened, then loosed again. She half expected this question, honestly. And even though she wanted to stay alone, she knew that it would just follow her anyway if she said no. “You know what? Sure. But if you get slaughtered by a ghoul or some shit, don’t blame me.”
“I’m not even sure I can die. If that helps.”
“Are you always going to say weird shit like that?” She asked as she walked back into the moonlight.
“Define weird.” Well, she wasn’t a dictionary, but she was sure that the fact that it flinched at the dull light could count as weird. Or just that it was sitting in a storage room for who knows how long. One of the two.
“You know, you really remind me of my old neighbor’s kid.” She dug through her (handmade!) pockets for the key the mall owner gave her.
“Is… that supposed to be a compliment?”
“What the fuck do you think—“
And at that moment, a shriek of white-hot fury split the night.