The Sixteen Dragons

Chapter 4

GWEN

Ball gowns, armor, eagle-feathered head dresses.... but no clothes for an over sized, spoilt, little noble's son. She had found clothes for Claus, Will and Jacob quite easily, but so far she had searched  five wooden chests and could not find a proper atire for their noble friend. All Gwen could find for Raymond was some trousers and leathered hiking shoes. After a good half hour of searching she heard the noise of heavy foot steps coming down the hallway.

"Who's there?" She called out.

"Shhhh.... I think she knows we're here."

"No, now she definitely knows we're here."

The two brothers walked into sight, Will looking quite embarrassed and Jacob just annoyed. Both of them were walking around bare footed and in their robes, curly hair pushed back and faces dripping with water. 

"Was that your pathetic attempt to sneak around?" Gwen said, unamused. Personally, she didn't mind if they looked around, they didn't have anything to hide, really. None of this was truly theirs and the few things each of them held dear were hidden away, safe and sound, where no human brothers could find them. Gwen looked at their faces. They had the same features; brown hair and grey eyes. 

"There are no secrets down here, at least no secrets of ours down here and the secrets we do have, you will never know about."  She answered. As she looked over to them, she saw a glimmer of excitement in each of their eyes, a pursuit of finding out the secrets they hid.

"Here. These are clothes for both of you and I've managed to find some for your friends as well. You can change in Ed and Isaac's parlor."

She led them down the tunnel and turned right and then left into a large room leading to two seperate ones. The room had a fire place, some instruments, books laying on the floor and tables and chests filled with broken things, fixed things, mutated things and who knows what. Ed was very interested in mechanics and took apart and reassembled whatever he could find. There was also a large, oak desk in the corner. It was scattered with amazing drawing and stacked with journals filled up with her brother's thoughts. Gwen was always so amused by her brother, Isaac's mind. He had wax sculptures he made of things he saw in dreams and drew everything down that amused him.

Gwen led the brothers to a seperated part of the parlor. There was a curtain hanging from the wall that allowed privacy and hooks to hold your clothes. They waited for Wes to bring Raymond and Claus down to the parlor. While the guests changes, Gwen worked on sorting out through her brothers' things. She picked up all the books from the carpet and put them into chests. 

After a good deal of time, each of the men walked out in their new attire to be examined.

"There is a mirror over there." She gestured to the wall across from them. Each of them walked upto the mirror to examine themselves. Raymond and Claus looked like misfits in their clothes, they looked like they belonged in silk not cotton, fabric walking shoes not leather hiking ones.

On the other hand, the two brothers only glanced at the mirror and looked away. Who could blame them, there wasn't much to fix. Gwen had seen this often, in Isaac and Ed, even a bit in Liam. They were all carelessly good looking. They didn't have neat, but messy hair. They spent the whole day drenched in rain water or covered with dirt. They didn't wear silk robes but leather jackets and hoods, but still, each of them were very good looking.

Noticing she had gone into a trance, Gwen snapped back up and gave a nodding approval to each of them. "Come on. We best get up and out to the campfire."

JAC

"There's a inn, there's a mill, there's a merry old inn, beneath the great, big oak tree. Five pints of ale, five pints of sugar, five pints of sweet, sweet tea!..."

It seemed like all the nixies across the Gray Wall had come. They all sang and chatted, even danced. Some nixies even started playing fiddles, flutes and singing songs that we taught them. The night was perfect. The moon was bigger than ever and cool breezes were blowing in the heat. A large bon fire was lit and there were logs placed around it to provide as seating. Simon was playing a game of hide and seek with his nixe friends and Wes was gossiping off as usual. Jac hated girls, even though she was one herself. Most girls just talked about dresses and boys, never anything interesting. Her friends were mostly boys and this one girl named Chiris. She was a nixie and a very good sword fighter. Jac and her friends were busy talking about the scariest stories they had ever heard until Edwin called her over.

"What is it?" Jac exclaimed.

"Go get Gwen from inside, will you?" Ed exclaimed distractedly.

Jac growled and stormed in. Gwen had to wear a dress today, it was apparently tradition according to the nixies. The eldest sister must always wear a dress at a gathering. Wes wore dresses too, but that was because she liked to. When Jac reached Gwen's parlor, she peaked in and saw the strange humans loitering around.

"What are you doing here?" She asked. They all looked at her funny.

"Your sister is inside changing, she told us to wait for her." Will answered. A few minutes later, Gwen walked out in a long, green dress that had a golden wrapping above the waist. The dress was crisp at the shoulders and had a beautiful silken quality. The sleeves were fitted till before the wrist and spanned out. The dress was open in the middle but the two pieces crossed and were held together by the weeving. There was golden prints around the edge and down the middle. Gwen's hair was half up, half down and there was no powder or glamour on her face. Just naturally beautiful Gwen. By her face she looked a bit concious. All of the men in the room seemed enchanted, except Jacob, he just smiled.

"Come on. We better go up before dinner is served." Jac remarked and walked out with a smirk on her face. Gwen had an admirer and he was human.