Renovations

[Dulcie]

The tinkling of the bell throughout the room made Fred groan again, her hands coming up to touch at the side of her head slightly as she took a deep breath, trying in vain to clear her head of the the throbbing ache through slow and steady breathing. At least it had subsided just a little by the time that Drache arrived carrying that odd package with her, a detail that for the most part had gone unnoticed by Fred for the moment.

"I think I'm okay..." She said at Drache's comment about if she was well, her brow furrowing a little as she thought about what happened. "I... " She'd start, realizing then that she was possibly going to sound crazy the briefest of thoughts creeping it's way back into her head from her unfinished dream You mustn't go about touching dead things Winifred, it's not lady like. But then she wasn't a lady was she? And she hadn't touched it.. it had blinked at her.

"I.. fell down the stairs. I got startled by something. It's.. oh it's going to sound crazy." She moaned softly, knowing that the Dragon was surely going to think her as crazy as Catch if she told her, but on the other hand the dragon had to know that there were dead squirrels blinking in the tower.

"I saw a dead squirrel on the second story and it -blinked- at me." She said finally, looking at the Dragon with nervous green eyes, expecting to be laughed at or chastized.

[Drache]

Drache peered down at her impromptu guest curiously, waiting patiently for an explanation. She seemed relieved that Fred didn't appear to have any lasting damage. Fred needn't have worried about appearing ladylike in front of the dragoness, who barely knew the meaning of the word. She could be polite, majestic, regal, but she was still a dragonkin after all.

Her expression remained sober at Fred's words. "Yesss, I thought it might be sssomething like that. Sssomething ssstrange is going on around here."

She flicked the leather-wrapped bundle open in her palm, revealing the charred remains of the very same squirrel. Apparently she had decided to see if the undead thing could withstand her breath.

"At firssst it was jussst creatures far down in the deep. Dead for no apparent reason." Her voice became a low hiss. "But they aren't ssstaying dead!"

It might appear now that the dragoness was truly afraid, the veil of aloofness missing in the relevant safety of her home. She'd seen this kind of thing before.

[Dulcie]

At Drache's statement of agreement Fred just blinked, having expected a much different reaction.

"You mean you saw it too?" She said with a look that appeared to be relief, glad to know that she wasn't entirely crazy after all, though the revelation of what Drache shared next made the girl become absolutely pale. "They.. they arn't staying dead?" That was more than unsettling, the idea of dead things becoming alive was sickening, and more than a little disturbing and she could feel that very idea making her a little bit queasy on top of her headache.

"What are you going to do? I mean.. if things arn't staying dead then there's got to be someone who can make them stay that way right? Maybe you could just put fire on them all, you know, like they do with the bodies in town.. how they do instead of burying them so they don't come back as zombies." An idea occured to her then, her green eyes widening a little. "You don't suppose there'll be zombies do you?" She was utterly frightened now, and she wasn't anywhere near as good as the Drake at hiding her emotions.

[Drache]

The drake nodded in affirmation, glancing from the human to the charred rodent in her claws. Using a trick she rather liked, she made it disappear in a puff of flame.

"I did. It wasn't jussst blinking when I found you." She seemed reluctant to offer more details and snapped her teeth grimly.

"Me? I will have to put more protections around this lair for ssstarters. Flame is usually ussseful againssst the undead, but thisss is too big for jussst me." Her expression twisted with consternation, thinking of her lair first, wondering now if the bloated corpses down below were related to the dreams...and were those in turn related to the squirrel? Was this all an attack on her? Or were the catacombs harbouring something that would soon reach for the town itself?

Despite her usual confidence, she wasn't used to being one of the few truly powerful creatures around. Back home, there was an organization of mages, a strong military presence, and a university for the arcane arts. Dragons lived near people and all of them were adept to some degree. The momentary flare of pride at being looked to for help disappeared as she doubted she was up to the task.

"I do not know what is happening," she said slowly, thoughtfully. "The lassst time I experienccced sssomething like this it took many talented beings to quell the danger. I will do what I can. Thisss is my home now. But I fear not many would work with me."

The cavern was almost uncomfortably warm for a human, but it suddenly seemed chill anyways. "Zombies may be jussst the beginning."

The ominousness of the statement wasn't lost on her and she attempted a grin. "But you. You are welcome to ssstay as long as you need to. I wont send my carpenter away with head damage. Though I wonder what the Bard would sssay to know you have been in my bed."

[Dulcie]

"More than just blinking?" She replied in a tone that spoke of horror. And then there was more, another bit of memory from that dream that made her shiver a little, picturing the squirrel moving and coming to life with it's guts missing. She swallowed hard, fighting off that worm of nausea in the back of her throat, trying to push the thought aside.

"You should burn the corpses. That's what they do in town. Everybody says so. They said there had been zombies around here and now no one's allowed to be buried anymore." Indeed it had become chill in the cave and she shuddered a little, the mere thought of it frightening the poor carpenter as she considered the horrors that would wait for the town if indeed the dead did start to walk. "What else could there be that's worse than zombies?"

It was probably for the best that Drache made a joke just then because the poor carpenter seemed so frightened that she couldn't even keep up her usual tough facade.

"I would like to stay for a little while, until my headache goes away at least." She admitted, a smile creeping to her face when Drache mentioned Descant. "He'd probably start some sort of nasty rumour, knowing him anyhow. Least fur's better than hay."

[Drache]

The uneasy dragoness nodded, but refused to describe that the crunchy half-limp oozing body of the squirrel had been doing when she discovered it.

"I'll burn all the ones I find. It'sss been a long time sssinccce I had to bury the remains of my meals. I'll have to make a pyre. When Fred asked what could be worse than zombies she gave the human her grimmest glance yet. "What could be worssse? Consssider that the usual zombie is mindlesss. Much worssse are the ones who can think for themssselves, who can ssstill ssspeak and fight and cassst magic. Consssider the ones who control them all and coax them from death? -That- is what'sss worssse."

She sighed heavily, pacing now across her sea of gold. "If you do not want to work ssso far from the cccity anymore I will underssstand."

Finally she excused herself for a while to get herself some food. When she returned she reclined comfortably on the dark plinth near the pile of furs. She would talk to Fred if she wanted to, and fell silent if she didn't. Food was offered, primarily wild-plucked fruits and nuts and some bread and wine. The Carpenter would be free to leave when she wanted, her horse corralled, much to its chagrin, in an alcove just inside the entrance to Drache's tunnels.

Leaving was not a simple affair. It required being magicked into Drache's waiting room and then lead out.

[Dulcie]

She considered what the Dragon said about zombies that could talk and move and perform magic and she shuddered a little. "That never occured to me that could happen. That'd be awful." Her head ache was beginning to subside and she'd lean forward to wrap her arms around her knees as she considered the very depth of the trouble that seemed to be at work.

"What sort of person would want to raise the dead anyhow? Touching dead things is disgusting, it's not very lady like." She frowned then, realizing how very strange that sentence seemed coming out of her mouth. In fact it didn't really feel like it was her words at all. "I'm sorry.. I didn't mean that. I mean, I wasn't trying to say that you weren't a lady... but that's what the Governess said in my dream and then it just sort of fell out..." It concerned her, this idea that she had said something she hadn't exactly intended to and she frowned again. It was a great deal of worrisome things that surrounded the otherwise usually quite perky carpenter.

"No.. oh no, I'll keep coming back. I'm not going to let some stupid undead squirrel scare me off of a job. If I did I'd never hear the end of it and I'd never get a good job. Everyone would find out and they'd think I was some stupid frilly girl and I'm -not- going to let that happen." She said with determination.

She would stay then, long enough to eat and talk on lighter subject with the dragon until her head ache had passed and it seemed that she had escaped the event with nothing more than those scratches and bruises. When the dawn came and the night had been survived she would politely ask Drache to take her leave, dependent on her for passage out of the cave.