[RP] The cottage in the woods

[Shamalee]

Not far from the town of Cork, where the forests begin there is a little cottage all but hidden by the bushes and trees that grow around it. A little path just wide enough for a person to walk or perhaps a horse leads up the the house and the closer any visitor comes it becomes clear that all the undergrowth is quite carefully maintained.
There are a few outbuildings and smoke rises from the chimneys, indicating that the house is occupied and just behind it is a clearing with a well kept herb garden and a paddock where a spotted pony is grazing and a field just beyond.

The house itself is carefully limewashed with soil from the local area which gives it an almost golden appearance and the door and shutters for the windows are painted in bright green. Wild wine grows on one side of the house, while a very old rosebush covers the space next to the door.
Inside the cottage has the look and feel of having been lived in for a very long time indeed, it is warm and welcoming and stuffed with collected items, many many books in every corner and well kept but worn furniture made mostly from honey coloured wood.
A wooden staircase leads from the ground floor which contains a large kitchen and living area, a study and a separate sitting room up to the first and topmost floor where the ceilings with their sturdy oaken beams slope and the windows of each room poke through the thatch.

[Shamalee]

The path was covered with freshly fallen snow as Shamalee led her spotted pony towards the cottage and the only sounds around them was their own feet crunching on the virgin snow. Above them the moon stood in the clear sky and cast the entire forest in a silvery-blue light drawing the shadows of the branches above as dark streaks over the snow.
Her breath fogged as clouds in front of her face and she was looking forward to getting home and sitting down in front of the fire. Even though she loved this kind of weather, it also made her trip to Cork alot more difficult and it took a lot longer to get home.

She finally arrived at the house and offloaded the few things she had brought back from the market in the doorway before making sure that Scratch was well settled in for the night with enough hay before she trudged back to the house to get out of the cold herself.
The room were still slightly warm but all the fires needed to be relit from the embers and Shamalee got to work as soon as she unwrapped from the various layers of woolen things that had protected her from the cold on the way back. Although she did not have much affinity to fire itself, it usually lit easily enough and soon there were lively flames flickering in the fireplaces of the rooms she tended to use and a kettle of water hung above the fire in the kitchen ti make some tea once the water had turned hot.

The house felt at once comfortable and strange to her, it seemed to her that the very walls were mourning the passing of her grandmother who had lived in the cottage before her, but at the same time there was a happy feeling at the shared memories and that the house was not going to be empty after Nana had died.
Shamalee placed her hand on the cool wall next to her and watched the kettle above the fire as steam began to rise from the spout and finally it began to whistle it's strangely tone-less noise.
Her parchment and quill lay as she had left them this morning, even though she still planned to pen a note to her friend to tell her she had arrived back in Cork after Nana had left the cottage to her by will and word.

[AuroraKiye]

AuroraKiye had been to her field, and had checked on her sheep, and was returning home when she saw smoke coming from what seemed to a small neat house in a clearing.

It seemed to be a loved home, and a place of loving and family. She was impressed by the tidy and maintained garden and home. Surely anyone who lived here would be as warm and lovely in spirit as this edifice.

However, she dared not approach the house. She looked with longing once more, and turned away, to leave the peace of the inhabitant undisturbed.

[Shamalee]

Smoke curled upwards through the still air but even so there was a whisper in the trees. Leaves rustled quietly, speaking to the owner of the little cottage, telling her of someone who had entered the perimeter of the wards set by Nana.
The visitor was long gone, but finally Shamalee understood what the whisper meant, it had pervaded her thoughts by day and invaded her dreams by night, worrying her to the point of almost wishing to leave for an inn. The one thing that made her stay was that it was not a malevolent whisper, there was no urgency in it.

Their message discharged, the whisper fell now fell silent and Shamalee rested her head on the kitchen table where she sat with her Nana's ancient grimoire. Her own affinities were not as Nana's, but she the wards she had left were powered through the energies of nature, not Nana's own and they had been keyed to Nana's blood, which flowed in her veins, which meant they would obey her as well.
She closed her eyes, luxuriating in the silence.
The wards were unable to tell her if the being entering the perimeter had good or bad intentions, it simply would alerted her to a presence. Nana would have gleaned more information, but Nana had been an earthmage and she had designed the wards. The grimoire itself was useless to her, except for understanding the things that Nana had left her.

Just as she looked up again the fire crackled and a slender log collapsed in an upwards shower of glimmering sparks. The orange light danced in her own green eyes and with a sigh she got up to tend to the pony before she would make herself some supper.
The letter she had written still lay unsent on the table.

[AuroraKiye]

AuroraKiye trudged tiredly past the small tidy cottage nestled in the brush. She barely looked up to see the clouds, or the birds in the trees. She was exhausted today, and was sure that she would collapse before she made her trip safely home. Her mind numb, she was jerked to a halt by an unseen wall. Looking around to see where she was, she noticed the smoke curling invitingly. Suddenly she could think of nothing except to stand, quietly, at the edge of the clearing. A Knowing urged her to wait, bidding her to pause until the owner gave her permission to enter the clearing and then the cottage.
She stood numbly, waiting, noticing the order and receiving an unheard Invitation. "Wait," a wordless invitation.
Answering with a nod, she took a deep breath. Oddly, her tiredness was being soothed away by just standing, seeing the colors and hearing the quiet of the garden. What a nice place.

[Shamalee]

At first the whisper seemed so quiet that Shamalee did not notice it at all. She stood in her kitchen, both arms white with flour and sticky with dough from trying to make the sweet bread that her Nana used to make when she was a little girl standing in exactly this kitchen watching Nana.
Somehow the dough just didn't seem to want to come together and she flicked a strand of her flame-coloured hair from her face with an annoyed toss of her head.
The leaves whispered louder and Shamalee stilled.. that message from the ward again.
Leaving the dough where it was she walked to the kitchenwindow and peered out, seeing a lone figure standing at the edge of the clearing. The whisper had the same feel to it, but what it meant she couldn't know. So instead she cleaned her hands with a towel and made her way through the house to the front door, neatly sidestepping all the creaky floorboords like she always did ever since those young days at Nana's house. She opened the door and walked out, peering at the figure standing there.
"Ho there, can I help you?", she called out and remembered in the last heartbeat that she should instruct the ward to let the person through.

[AuroraKiye]

She felt a warm homey glow from the small cottage. In the back part of her mind, she decided she had never felt the "spirit" of a place. At least not in her memory, and not as far as she knew. Realizing with a start that someone had come to the door, she waved.

Somehow, though she realized she'd been acknowledged, it seemed most prudent to wait until she'd been welcomed and invited.

She waited.

[Shamalee]

The silence answering her call out to the other person puzzled the young half-elf. She drew her brows together slightly and tilted her head for a better look, yet couldn't see an awful lot owing to the play of shadows.
According to Nana's grimoire, the ward should have told her a visitors intentions but she was no earth-mage and could not read the signs.

So, a friendly smile on her face, Shamalee came closer. "Hello? Can I help you?"

[AuroraKiye]

Seeing the slight figure of a young lady coming out of the cottage, and the pleasant voice with a welcoming question, she waved and answered, "Hello, the house! Just walking by and saw your smoke. Wondered if you want some of these fresh green apples I just picked?"

She walked forward into the clearing with the bag of apples, extending it in front of her. The welcoming feeling grew stronger as she neared the cottage. She found herself smiling at the young lass in front of the door.

"Hello, my name is AuroraKiye, but my friends call me Arkie," she says. "I just pass by here on my way to and from my sheep to check on them. When i see this place though, it seems to be warm, welcoming, peaceful." Offering the bag of apples to the young lass, she says, "I just picked these, from the tree in the field. I hope you like apples."

[Shamalee]

Apples! The smile on Shamalee's face widened. "That is nice of you! Yes, I love apples. Would you like some fresh bread in exchange? I have been baking." She smiled self-consciously at her crusted hands as she took the bag and gestured towards the open door.

She stopped and wiped her hand on her skirt before offering it to Arkie in a belated greeting. "Sorry, where are my manners. I am Shamalee Liriel. I inherited the cottage from my grandmother."