• Solo • [Caervalle Town] Setting up House

[Eliza Soule]

The Cold Cycle, The 3rd Trial of Zida, Arc 718

Eliza had never owned a home of her own. When she'd traveled to Rharne from Scalvoris through the portal with Smudge and her hound, with all of her meager, worldly belongings stuffed in an oversized sack, even then she hadn't been planning to buy one. She'd thought that as usual, she'd find a place in Rharne proper to rent. Since she'd recently come into a bit of money left to her by a distant relation, she thought she could even afford to rent a nice bungalow in the Glass Quarter. It would have been a sizeable step up from the plain and drafty little cottage she'd been renting back on Scalvoris.

But when she'd left the offices where she'd spoken to someone about renting a place, she hadn't turned towards the Glass Quarter at all, but towards the outskirts of town instead. She'd been told about a little house for rent in Caervalle Town, and from what she understood, it was a small, pretty and peaceful place, in a beautiful setting besides. The idea had appealed to her, living away from the busy noise, the hustle and bustle of Rharne.

She'd seen the house, and had thought she would rent it. But that was before she'd seen the stone cottage at the edge of the village. It wasn't for rent, but there was a handpainted sign in the yard, declaring the cottage for sale. From the front, the whimsical rock home with its two stories and whimsical stone carvings, looked quite small. It was narrow, side to side but as she was soon to discover, when viewed from one end to the other, it was much longer. Deceptively so, since it was nestled in a small grove of old shade trees.

What really captivated Eliza however was the small moat, or maybe it was only a small pond in the front, with a little island of stone rimmed grass in the center. A place to plant a pretty garden with a bench, there was a sort of free standing weather vane there. A whimsically fashioned one wrought from copper or bronze maybe. Eliza didn't really know her metals. She was enchanted by the miniature moat all the same. It reminded her of the often dry and crumbling moat that surrouded the ruined keep that she and Poppy had lived in together over a century ago now.

She'd been a child with a very big imagination back then, and she'd often daydreamed, imagining the keep during it's glory trials, with bright colored banners all along the walls, snapping merrily in the breeze. She'd been a princess in her dreams then, and Poppy the elderly but still vibrant king. The moat had always been filled to the brim with clear and cool blue water, and there were never fewer than a dozen swans bobbing along on its surface.

The little stone cottage wasn't a castle, the moat was hardly a proper one in the scheme of things, and the lone duck paddling round in circles looking for minnows was hardly a swan. None of it was even very practical. But at that moment, Eliza knew that she wouldn't be renting the perfectly sensible house nearer the middle of the village, and that she'd be spending most of what she'd inherited, to purchase the cottage.

[Eliza Soule]

Two trials later, Eliza was back and ready to move into her new home. But this time, she hadn't come all on her own. She'd brought her old gray cat Smudge and the large hound that had followed her home after a ferry ride from Scalvoris' docks to Immortal's Tongue. But she'd also needed to hire a man with a cart to bring all of her belongings.

When she'd first decided to purchase the stone cottage at the edge of the woods, she'd had very little in the way of possessions. So meager were they, that they could hardly have been remotely considered worldly. But she'd realized very quickly, and certainly she'd been naive not to have known it before hand, that while rented houses often came with furnishings already in place, purchased ones rarely if ever did. She'd made some purchases, spending even more of the money she'd been sent by a distant relation. Though even after spending nearly five hundred extra nels, she'd be a long way from filling the house. She'd made a good start however.

As soon as the driver steered his cart round the corner, Eliza could see that the lone duck that had been paddling round the moat, had been joined by five others. They weren't ordinary ducks either, but possibly the most beautiful birds she'd ever seen. Their feathers, wings, necks and heads, were all arranged in blocks of vibrant color. Purple and gold. Blue, burnt orange, like whichever Immortal or Original Being who'd created them, had a real flare for artistic expression. As a painter herself, she could admire and appreciate that. Her hired driver, whose name was Byron, told her that they were called wood ducks. Eliza hoped that they'd stay.

A break later, after her furnishings had been moved inside and she'd seen Byron on his way with an extra few nels in his hand, Eliza took a good look around at her new home. It was narrow from front to back, but it was a good distance from one end to the other. The high ceilings both upstairs and down, with their contrasting wood beams, made it seem airier and more spacious than it might otherwise have. Downstairs, there was a parlor, a kitchen, a small bedroom and a powder room. And upstairs, a larger bedroom and bath, and a second floor balcony outside of a small sitting room that she'd already decided she'd use to create her paintings. There was even an open loft that she could use for storage, or for extra living space.

The view from the balcony provided a breathtaking view of the Stormlands, along with the temple off in the distance, in the center of town. She could have spent the rest of the trial looking, even bringing her easel out and painting the landscape laid out in front of her. But there were other more pressing, and practical things she ought to be doing with her brushes and more than just small pots of paint. It had been some time since anyone had lived in the home. It was musty inside, and needed a good coat of paint, top to bottom.

[Eliza Soule]

The first thing that Eliza had realized once she'd begun exploring her new home, was that she should have given more thought to where she wanted her furniture, before she'd sent her hired driver away. For the most part, things were where she wanted them to be. All except for the chaise...or rather the fainting couch as she preferred to call it.

Upholstered in fine fabric, in a deep jewel like teal color, and the wood frame ornately carved, the couch was an impractical thing and she knew it. But she also had loved it from the moment she'd seen it. It wasn't new, but second, or even third or fourth hand. The shopkeeper, having spotted her interest, had told her that the couch had belonged to one of Idalos' past queens, having been custom made for her.

Eliza wasn't gullible. She didn't really believe. But she'd wanted it nonetheless, thinking that it would be the perfect piece to place upstairs in the place where she planned to paint. The light was perfect there. Except that the couch was currently downstairs, and not up where it belonged. It took her a good half break to get it there, if she counted the many breaks that she'd taken along the way. And she'd learned something about strength, or the lack of it. The proper use of leverage was everything.

Then she'd discovered a rat's nest, and the very large rat that went with it. In spite of her squeals and ordered shouts from atop the chair that she'd taken refuge on, her old cat Smudge couldn't seem to be bothered. The much younger wolf hound gave it a good try. But he was so large and ungainly, that most he just collided with furniture, tripped over the rugs and finally took refuge himself, upstairs. Finally Eliza had gathered her courage, relatively speaking, climbed down and collected her pistol crossbow. A quarter break later, and in spite of her nearly non-existent skills with a bow, the rat was dead. Turned out, even a lucky shot, one fired wildly and with one eye cracked open, was still a good one.

Mostly though, she painted, and she'd taken her inspiration from the wood ducks, and brought their color schemes indoors. She'd already put a fresh coat of paint on the iron bench that she'd bought, and placed in on the little island in the middle of the moat, where when spring came she'd plant a flower garden. She painted the walls of the downstairs parlor, the deep color of ripe autumn cranberries. The kitchen, she painted a nice soothing yellow, the color of freshly churned cream butter. The upstairs sitting room; those walls were a more sedate and pale earthy brown, while the walls in her own bedroom reflected the color of the chaise that she liked so much.

By the time she was done and curled up in a chair in front of the fire...three trials later, there wasn't an inch of space on the walls or ceilings that hadn't received a fresh coat of paint, or a bit of the floors that hadn't been cleaned and polished.

[Navyri]

"What if I fall?"

Oh but darling
What if you fly?

Review Completed

• Eliza Soule

  Overview

  Wow, what imagery you used! I always struggle to write settings myself, afraid it sounds awfully dull but you do so with such ease! I could imagine everything perfectly and your writing gave it the ideal "whimsical" tone you were going for. Dare I say I'm jealous of Eliza's new house? Honestly, my favorite detail was about the wood ducks, and the mention of the immortal who made them. Delroth is great, isn't he? ;) My second favorite, was of course hunting the rat and the cat that couldn't be bothered. So true!

  Experience

  10xp

  Knowledge

  Painting: Recognizing art in nature
  Painting: Natural light is Best
  Painting: Painting walls is also an Art
  Painting: Contrasting Complementary Colors
  Strength: Using Leverage to Advantage
  Ranged Combat (Pistol Crossbow): Even a Lucky Shot is a Good One
  

  Other

  10 renown for buying a home. Also, make sure any ledger expenses for the home/furniture/help are deducted if you haven't already. Great read, and I honestly wish I would had a bit of tea to sip while enjoying it.

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