The Stolen Soul Key

Solace Night

Mizzen walked her back to her little home quickly as the sun was already starting to set. It shone over the trees in a dark orange hue that made the leaves look half burned. They passed what must be their water system on the way back, although they might have passed it on the way there and Amaya just didn't notice it. Their system was a bunch of pulley's carrying the water in buckets from home to home. If the water was needed, someone would take a bucket from the rope and then return the empty bucket back by re-hanging it once they were done. It was quite interesting to watch.

Amaya also noticed little children now scurrying from house to house on the tree branches instead of the bridges. They were playing a dangerous game, but none of them seemed to notice. All of the children were giggling happily while swinging around massive tree trunks and hopping from branch to branch.

One of the children swung upside down around the branch just above Amaya's head and stared at her. They were only a couple of feet apart as the boy started to giggle, still hanging upside down.

"Are you coming to solace tonight?" he asked.

Amaya looked at Mizzen briefly before responding, "I think that I am. Why? Are you going to be there, too?"

"Oh, yes." The boy nodded excitedly, "I never miss it. Even this one time when I was really sick, and I had these itchy, red bumps all over my skin, I still went. And there was this one time, where it was raining super hard, and we still all managed to go. We always go." He was talking so fast trying to get the words out that he had to stop and pause every couple of seconds to catch his breath.

"That sounds fun," Amaya says with her eyebrows raised. "I'm looking forward to it."

The boy scrunched up his nose as he peered down at her. "Are you going to wear that?"

"This?" She looks down at her lavender dress and frowns, "Is this not good to wear?"

"Not good at all," the boy says. "My name is Basil. You should find me at the party later! Goodbye." With that, he flung his body back around the branch and started running to catch up with the other children.

Amaya looked at Mizzen in surprise and started laughing, "I thought you said this dress was nice."

Mizzen brushed his nose, trying to hide his smile as he turned around. "Ignore Basil, he's a trouble maker. Besides, shouldn't you trust my opinion over the opinion of a ten year old?"

Amaya shrugs, "I don't know. He seemed to know what he was talking about."

"Well then," Mizzen says thoughtfully. "I know somewhere you might be able to get a different dress, and potentially a shower. Might not be a bad idea," he adds as he openly laughs at her expression.

"You spend a week held captive on a pirate ship and we'll see how you look afterwards." She wasn't really mad, it was kind of hard to be mad at Mizzen. He had such an innocent way about him, it was like nothing he said could ever be taken as mean.

He rubs the back of his neck as he suddenly switches direction, taking her a different way than to the house she had woken up in. Tilting his head towards the house above them, "This is Ivy's house. Tell her Mizzen sent you. She'll help you get ready for tonight."

Amaya gawked at him as he grabbed a ladder from above and pulled it down in front of her. "You want me to invite myself into someone else's home and ask them to get me ready?"

"Well, no." Mizzen stared at her, "I want you to ask if you can go into her house. Then hopefully she offers to get you ready."

"I can't do that," she starts to protest but he is already walking away.