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Shadow

The lithe ginger's hackles rose at the carrion-stench. A dead burden, if it fell to something the true people could protect them from, was a mark of shame and weakness upon them all.

"We need to know the truth, one way or the other. The Burden could be in danger from whatever killed what lies behind that way."

He positioned himself before the odiferous door, and bunched up ready to leap, tensing and flexing his body and angling his line of sight to get a better idea of his target. Then he leapt for the make-door-open-sticky-outy-bit, front paws extended...

Tiger-Lily

She had been looking around the pool to see if she could see anything as she is often aware of things that are not always visible to others.. but she doesn't want to get left behind on her alone. So she nimbly dances after the others, joining the queue to enter the dwelling last.

Once inside she looks around. There is a smell which evokes memories that she would rather not recall. So she looks away from its source and instead looks up the stairs.

Soot


She too entered and looked over at Tiger-Lily and the direction of her gaze. "Not alone in this recently unBurdened place. I will spot your hunt if it is your wish, sister. If some of the males do not."

Her eyes were luminous with unvoiced laughter.

Tiger-Lily

She is not sure of herself yet in this new environment or in this gathering. It is hard to adapt when you have been so much on your own. But she is really warming to Soot who seems to be offering friendship and support, something she welcomes.

"Thank you."

Her whiskers twitch.

"Perhaps for now we should guard the stairs whilst the others investigate the death scent. We do not want to be taken unawares."

And then because she wants to show more friendship, she adds a question of her own.

"How long have you been in this area with your burden Soot?"

Bringer


"It might... I do not know, but it might," he mused.

"Either way, though, we must see it."

But then the other, more athletic cat leaped for the twisty ball open thing and Bringer stepped back to give Shadow room in case he landed awkwardly.

She dipped her head in acknowledgement of the stairs statement.

"Since I was small. We go on many excursions and hikes, so I know many further away areas better than closer ones."

Tiger-Lily

"Your Burden takes you away?"

That is unusual in her experience.

"My previous and current Burdens seem to spend a lot of their time in the dwelling but I only ever go as far as the garden with them."

This chance to learn more from other cats is something she has always yearned for.

Soot (to Tiger-Lily)

Her whiskers went forward and her ears perked in excitement. "I keep watch over him as we climb and hike in many place. We've sat in odd saucers and floated on the water as well, though that is not as much fun and one's fur must be dried and groomed after. Usually each quarter moon or so we go. Sometimes for but naps of time and sometimes for days and what he calls camping."

She quickly smoothed back a piece of errant fur. "The Burden's dwelling has no garden, but I travel as I will to see to the others."

Shadow is able to cause the burden door to open though he swings through the door and off into the dark space beyond. There is clattering as things are knocked about down there.

Tiger-Lily

Her eyes are wide, her nose twitching as she listens to Soot. She has never heard of anything like this before. She is about to respond when the door to the dead smell opens and her gaze swings in that direction. She is distracted and keep her focus on the open door. There is a tension about her now and her neck fur is ridging.

"That must be an exciting life Soot. What do you think is in there?"

Bringer


Bringer followed Shadow into the room of dead smells, nose and stub-tail twitching as he entered the darkness.

Soot

She flicked her tail - one, twice, thrice in a mild sign of agitation. Her voice was steady enough though when she said, "The Burden he reported living here I would think."

Tiger-Lily

She really doesn't want to see another dead Burden, even one she doesn't have any connection to. So she simply nods in agreement with Soot and directs most of her attention up the stairs, letting the bigger cats investigate.

>Seeker-On-High<

Seeker looked around as things clattered. Had he knocked something over? He did, sometimes. Things were so easy to knock this way and that. But no, it was somewhere else, not here. Nothing to see, nothing to read for...

The smell was more powerful with the door open, undeniable now. If the spirit was responsible, it might be very full up and unpleasant now.

And if it was alert, it might've heard the clatter.

Seeker looked around the room quickly, trying to spot someplace up and off the ground that could hold a cat, to be ready if the spirit poured itself down the stairs. And, if not, to at least have a better view from which to see what was out here in the hallway. Perhaps the railing beside the stairs had a well-placed post? Those were conveniently cat-sized much of the time, so long as the cat had good balance, like most.

The stairs down into the dark offered a post near the bottom that might suit Seeker's needs. Not terribly high, but certainly higher than the stairs.

The basement was darker than the house, but not a problem for cats. The smell was almost over whelming its fetid aroma assaulting their tender noses.

A small amount of moonlight spilled in through the high windows. Noting those though, Seeker could have a ceiling high vantage of the segmented room. He would just be silhouetted.

The room was bordered by one leap high shelving units. About waist level for a burden. Off on the back wall there were the cold boxes that burdens kept around to offer milk a place to stay fresh.

In the center of the room was a large table that stank of death. It was dripping a bit of blood, though it wasn't a burden. Unless of course a burden had four legs and antlers. It looked like those things that come in and eat the tender flowers in burden's yards late at night. This one was cut open and something had been done to it, but not finished, unless it was so form of display to ward off something.

Bringer


"It is a deer-thing, not a dead burden," he told the others.

"Stinks interesting, but not the kind of smell I'd like to experience all the time."

Bringer paid no more attention to the deer carcass but did move around the room, looking for other sights and smells.

Shadow

Having neatly circumvented the stairs, Shadow sat cleaning a forepaw in front of the raised surface with the dead nonburden lesser being on it. He looked unperturbed by the noisy burden-scale things he had encountered on the way in, at least now that he was back in sight of the others.

"As this is not the Burden. The Burden could still be in danger. This thing doesn't look eaten. I don't think there's any magic fuelled by it, anyone sense otherwise?"

Soot

Tilting her ears to better hear the words spoken by their brethren downstairs, she turns to Tiger-Lily.

"Shall we join them and look? If it is a deer-thing, it makes little sense to be indoors unless brought."

Bringer


He turned and frowned at Shadow, the frown meaning little since Bringer usually frowned.

"It could mean an interruption occurred. Burdens usually do fiddling things to lesser beings before putting them into cold boxes."

>Seeker-On-High<

"I can keep watch from here," Seeker says, eying the window with envy. So much higher. But so visible... Though there was no clear sign the spirit *saw* at all. And it was so very much higher. He too another leap up onto the ledge, moonlight casting his shadow down to the floor.

"I'll call out if it tries to come downstairs while you're looking below. Or anything else."

The basement has interesting smells in almost every corner. Lots of little rats and mice have been wandering around this burden's place without his cat protector.

The cold boxes are giving off smells even though they are clearly running and keeping their insides cold. Things have not been taken care of as much as they might.

The basement also smells of old dead. In one corner there is a bit of turned earth, it has been undisturbed for a long time. But their sensitive noses can detect something under that soil.

Tiger-Lily

She is very relieved to find it is not a Burden and readily nods to Soot about her suggestion to go downstairs. She might be able to help with any investigation.

Crossing the hall and heading for the open cellar door, she pauses just to check that Sot is following as she doesn't want to leave her on her own. Then she heads daintily down the cellar steps to have a good look around.

Carefully stepping around on the floor, she sniffs around to see what there might be of interest.

Bringer


Bringer paused at the turned earth and dug a bit to see what other smells he might unearth.

Soot

She followed and flirted her tail when Tiger-Lily looked back at her. If there was a dead creature downstairs, Soot wondered if a warding had been made from it. And if so - what.

Hopefully she or one of the others would be able to tell.

The grave in the corner is that of a dead cat. The cat that used to be in charge of this burden. It has been in the ground a couple of weeks and is particularly hard on sensitive feline noses.

As Soot comes down she looks around and is sure that there is no working here that involved either of the dead creatures.

The only thing clear in the cellar is that burdens do strange things with dead creatures.