[PRP] Unexpected Reunion (Jove/Jordan)

[prolixity]

Jordan left the door behind them open; if he went back to close it, the foxfire might bolt, and he kind of liked having a little company, even if it was only a little ball of fuzz and Fear.

What am I, chopped gizzards?

You know what I mean, Jordan laughed. Aloud, he said, "I think I need to go west to pick up my circuit again. Let's see, headed roughly south - the next corridor to the right should take me back towards the right path. Do you get lost in here? I bet a good sense of smell would be an asset in figuring out where you were going."  

[Grey Dragon]

Jove puffed up. He never really got lost. Sometimes things shifted around, but he always just followed his nose outside, and then... back home. Okay, sometimes he did get lost. But never irrepairably so.

The pup trotted down the hallway ahead of the hunter. What did he mean by 'circuit', was he patrolling? And patrolling for what?

Jove glanced over his shoulder to make sure the hunter was still with him. If he smelled any other students, he would bark and warn them off. Not everyone had such a cleverly fluffy disguise as himself. And even if he wasn't going to attack this hunter, for now he told himself, he would at least keep tabs on him.  

[prolixity]

The little foxfire puffed up and looked grumpy. "No offense intended," Jordan added, amused. "I'm sure you never get lost, right." The corridor he was following branched, and he took the right fork. The hallway became more decrepit as he followed it, and he stopped talking for now, alert to any small noises or changes in the house.

A door slammed open by itself in front of them. Jordan jumped back, reflexively summoning Ferros and falling into a fighting stance; when nothing emerged from the door, he moved forward and cautiously peered around the doorframe. Nothing. He swung the door closed again and looked back to see if the minipet was still with him. "Jump scare," he said.  

[Grey Dragon]

The bang of the door didn't alarm the little pup, but what did was the hunter's reaction. Jove jumped away and growled, baring his sharp teeth as fiercely as possible. That hammer... It had once been a Halloween creature. It was one giant, visible reminder that this hunter was still a hunter, not a friend.

Still growling, Jove backed up to the wall, and then wiggled his way into a rotten hole in the baseboard. His glowing eyes could be seen in the darkness, but that was about it.  

[prolixity]

"Hey, it's okay, I don't think anything's about to jump out at us." Jordan craned his neck to peer into the hole after the foxfire. He didn't get closer, though; the mini had looked about ready to bite.

I think WE'RE scaring it, Ferros said.

"What - oh, right." Jordan desummoned Ferros in a swirl of metallic motes. "Sorry about that, little guy. I'm not going to hurt you."

Bite sized, Ferros said dismissively.

Jordan laughed. "Ferros says you're not big enough to make a good meal anyway."  

[Grey Dragon]

A little growl echoed out from in the hole, and the eyes disappeared. It wasn't entirely clear, but the foxfire had just... turned it's back on the hunter?

After a second or two a munching noise could be heard coming from inside the hole.  

[prolixity]

Yeah, we scared it. It was probably better if Jordan continued his patrol on his own anyway. Chatting to the little foxfire was a good way to distract himself. Still, it had been nice to have it around for a little while.

"Okay. Keep yourself safe," he said to the hole in the wall, and hesitated for only a moment before turning to continue on his way.  

[Grey Dragon]

Hearing the sounds of footsteps receding down the hallway, Jove grabbed another mushroom from the delicious little wood-fed mushroom cluster and stuffed it in his mouth. Three more mushrooms were pulled into his fluff, so only the caps stuck out. Two for eats, one for possible cultivating back in his room.

The little ghost squeezed back out from the hole and trotted after the hunter, happily chewing on the mushroom he held in his mouth.  

[prolixity]

Motion in his peripheral vision as he turned the corner alerted Jordan, and he almost summoned again, but he realized in time that it was just the foxfire. It was chewing on a mushroom - maybe it had found it in the hole it had crawled into. "You like mushrooms, huh?" he remarked.

The hallway ended abruptly around another corner, a large, dusty portrait taking up most of the wall at the end of the hall. Jordan reached behind the frame of the portrait and found a hidden latch. "Thought so," he said with satisfaction, and swung the picture open like a door. "Back on track. I guess I'd better report that the House has formed a new route for this door once I get back."

He stepped over the high, narrow doorsill that opened onto a half-destroyed ballroom, dank and dusty with disuse. It was a place he knew, one of the landmarks he used to determine how far he'd come.  

[Grey Dragon]

Jove's ears perked as the paintings swung open. That was a new thing as far as he was concerned, while he was good at finding cracks in walls and holes in the rotting floorboards, he had not thought to look for hidden switches. He stared at it curiously as he followed the hunter, but he had to scrabble and scratch a little as he climbed over the edge in the fake wall. It would have taken him less effort to just pull himself over, but he didn't want to give away too much about himself. Any normal minipet his size would have difficulty with that ledge.

He leaped down with hardly a thump, and trotted around the perimeter of the ballroom. Jove had learned to dance in a big room like this. That seemed like ages ago... His caretaker had brought in a lady to show him how to dance the day very day he could walk down the great, grand stairs on his own, with two feet and not four.

The pup snorted in the dust. His caretaker would never let that beautiful ballroom decay like this. Seeming to ignore the hunter, he trotted around on his own and sniffed things here and there, only his turning ears indicating he was still paying any attention whatsoever to his company.  

[prolixity]

Jordan took his own route around the room's perimeter, checking blocked doors and pushing aside a ragged curtain that appeared to drape across a window but in fact hid nothing but empty wall. He hmm'd to himself at that discovery, but let the curtain drop. He passed the grand double doors at one end of the room in favor of opening a narrow door half-hidden behind a column.

He continued his route, keeping up a steady pace through the twisting hallways and varied rooms of the House; now that he was back on track, he seemed to be fairly familiar with the territory, only pausing to check his direction a few times. Finally, he opened a door that led into a small, dusty, empty closet, with just enough room for one person to step in. Nothing was currently inside it, and he looked puzzled for a moment, then pulled out his phone to check it. "Early?" he said, mostly to himself. "I thought that detour would've taken more time, not less."

This place is weird, Ferros said.

"It is weird. Mental note, possible temporal anomaly on new route to the ballroom."

Making a note.

"Thanks." Jordan looked back at the minipet that had accompanied him, giving it a small smile. "Okay, little guy, this is my stop, my portal will be opening in a few minutes. I guess I'll see you around if I see you around. I'll keep some candy in my pocket for when I come here. Just in case. You should go on home, your person's probably wondering where you are."  

[Grey Dragon]

At first Jove wanted to spend more time sniffing around the ballroom, he hadn't circled it in it's entirety before the hunter was vanishing through another door. The little pup darted after him with a mildly grumpy expression. As much fun as it would be to investigate the ballroom further, he had to keep tabs on this hunter!

The pup trailed along behind him as he wound his way through the house, it seemed like the hunter knew where he was going. Did hunters always keep track of where they went? Jove had always just used his nose and natural sense of direction, assuming the house was too fluid to bother memorizing a path. But the way this hunter moved suggested otherwise. The pup would have asked, had he been in a position to speak.

He followed the hunter right up to the closet, and peered inside. Then he gave the hunter a stupid look. Really? A closet? That was what he had been looking for? That dumb look lasted all throughout the hunter's conversation with himself. They were really weird sometimes. This one might have been nice, but.. still weird.

Jove's ears perked when the hunter mentioned portal, and then it made sense. Of course they needed a way to get back to the island! Instead of trotting off like the hunter bid him, he sat down. No, he wanted to see this portal for himself.  

[prolixity]

Jordan shrugged as the foxfire sat down. Was it waiting for him to leave? He leaned against the wall opposite the closet and waited quietly. It wasn't long before the familiar soft thrum of portal energy broke the breathing quiet of the House, and a single point of glowing blue streaked up from the floor, splitting a crack in reality, then blossomed outwards into the round, opaque glow of a portal.

"There it is," Jordan said, and stood up straight. "Bye, fluffball. Go on home, seriously, almost everyone likes minipets but there's always those few people you don't want to run into." He stepped through the rippling energy of the portal and vanished. A few moments later, the portal collapsed back onto itself, leaving behind only the empty closet and a faint smell of ozone.