Varian's Tangled Trials

The Boss

Prometheus sighed happily then ducked down to take a huge bite from an apple currently sitting in a little dish in front of him. As soon as he'd munched through the tasty morsel the dish lifted up, pulling a string attached to a flap high above. Another apple was released from a barrel and it rolled down a long winding chute until it landed in the dish. Pleased at the new offering, the donkey reached down to eat this one too but a flash of black and grey passed by his nose and the apple disappeared.

Ruddiger, satisfied with his ill-gotten gain scurried toward the adjacent house. It was a building that looked like it had originally been quite small, but had been added onto over the years with various additions until it was now a lopsided yet oddly magnificent little mansion. Stranger still, were all the little contraptions tacked onto the house. This included spindly metal devices attached to the roof that turned and whirled in the breeze, various ropes and pulleys holding anything from clothes to shining crystals, and a strange looking water wheel hovering over the river that seemed to use a system of buckets to turn faster than any one might have seen before..

Ruddiger found an open window and wiggled through. Inside, sitting cross legged on a rug were three people. One of them, Yong, watched excitedly as two of Varian's cousins, a lithe fifteen year old boy and full-figured fourteen year old girl stirred together a strange concoction of chemicals.

"I think it's r-ready, Reagan," said the boy, his blue eyes alight with as much excitement as Yong's.

Reagan pushed back a bit of her long auburn hair and poured the creation into a dish that lay between the three of them. Then she looked at her brother. "Do it, Nick!"

Nick pulled out a dropper, filled with another liquid and held it out over the dish. They all watched as a drop squeezed out and into the dish and the contents immediately crystalised.

"Woah!" said all three simultaneously.

Ruddiger jumped from the windowsill to Yong's lap. Yong happily patted the raccoon's head before Ruddiger continued on his way to the next room. He ran past a little eight year old girl with long dark hair, clutching a stuffed goat. The girl took no notice, but instead stared blankly over at Hugo who was sittinging in a chair, leg crossed over his knee and arms crossed over his chest. He stared back with a mixture of annoyance and confusion.

Neither said anything or moved until a spurt of water hit the side of Hugo's face. He jumped and turned to see two gingered haired twins holding hand held devices made of metal and glass that were filled with water. The girl pulled a trigger and another spurt of water hit Hugo, nearly blasting the glasses off his face. "You little brats!" he growled.

"Hey!" said the boy. "If you're gonna call names- my name is Liam."

"And I'm Lira!" the girl giggled as she maneuvered around and cornered Hugo.

"Get it right!" They called together as they sprayed the alchemist again with the ice cold water. Hugo sprang to his feet as the twin shot off like rockets out of his grasp.

"Oh, you're going to get it, alright," he said.

Ruddiger dodged around Hugo and the twins legs and scampered into the next room, which was a bright, yet cluttered kitchen. He plopped onto the floor to enjoy his stolen apple. A few people stood about the room, two over by the counter and two sitting at a long, beat up, wooden table.

At the counter, the twenty four year old woman with long copper hair was mixing batter together in a bowl when a twelve year old girl with dark tight curls came over and held up a metallic contraption with a crank on the side.

"Try this, Alec!" said the younger.

"Who made that, Cate?" asked Alec, taking the little contraption from her.