Convenient Candy

[Ren Caverly]

Rain. The heavy droplets fell onto Ren’s head and she shivered horribly in the cold. It was summer, it should not be this cold. Her shoes were soaked in mud, and her hoodie was weighing her down. She always used to get sick as a child because of her tiny frame and lack of ability to warm herself up. Maybe if she had some fire she would warm up. Everything was too wet though. She whimpered as she stumbled along. Why had she left Reye? She thought she would be so capable of getting back home. This sucked.

Ren noticed some… candy? That was odd. She wandered over. It was on a few leaves, so it wasn’t soaked, but it would be in a moment. She picked it up. She nibbled on it, well at least it was still sweet. Logic told her not to eat candy she found in the middle of a forest, but she hadn’t eaten since yesterday. She was used to going without, but that didn’t make it fun. So Ren nibbled a bit more, and as she looked forward she noticed… another piece of candy. Ren stopped eating, uncomfortable with this being more than a strange coincidence. Maybe someone had dropped them?

207/1000

[Ren Caverly]

The hoodie was keeping Ren soaked to the bone, and she walked slowly because of that and her shoes, but she did pick up the pace. If someone was losing candy, they had been here recently. She couldn’t shake the strange feeling she got when she found each piece. On a leaf. Just… protected. She didn’t pick them up though. Soon she found a clearing. The sun looked liable to shine in that area, but still it was wet. It just felt lighter here. The house was shining against its surroundings. Made entirely of sweets. That looked horrible. Ren made a slightly mortified face. A house of candy? In this weather? It was going to mold, and crumble. For some reason it seemed fine, but Ren was insistent in her head that this was absolutely disgusting. Oh well, it was a house. And there seemed to be lights on inside. Ren walked up to the front door. Normally she was too shy to knock, too awkward to know what to say, but she was going to do it now. Lest she die of the flu if she waited outside. Knocking on what felt like gingerbread also seemed uncomfortable. It didn’t knock with the same volume she had expected. She looked at her hand. No crumbs at least.

424/1000

[Ren Caverly]

The door opened while Ren was looking at her hand. She jumped with a small squeak. Standing in the doorway was an old woman. Ren fidgeted. She wanted to pull her hoodie up, but she couldn’t do that. Her hair was already soaked to her head, and her hoodie must have a giant puddle inside it. It would only make things worse to pull up her hood. Unfortunately that left her feeling uncomfortably exposed.

“Um, h-hello… um…” Ren looked at her feet. She felt bad for barging in here, even if she had just shown up and knocked like a polite person. Maybe this lady didn’t want to be bothered, after all, she did live in the middle of the woods. That probably meant she wanted to be left alone, right? Most likely.

Luckily the old woman stepped aside from her door, “Come inside, dear. You’ll catch your death out there. In, inside.”

Ren blushed and stepped inside. “Th-thanks. I was… I just got caught in the rain… for a while…” She didn’t feel judged, so she was able to get out that almost sentence, but she was still feeling awkward. Anyone could make her feel awkward, it wasn’t this woman’s fault. Ren stepped inside. The house was… candy. She looked down at the gingerbread floor which was now developing a puddle where she stood.

649/1000

[Ren Caverly]

“You simply must get out of those clothes,” the woman said. Ren blinked at her quickly. “I have a bath upstairs. You can wash up, I will dry your clothes for you. You don’t want to catch cold do you?”

Ren heard the logic in this, but now she was trying to imagine a bath tub in this house. Was it made of crystalized sugar? Oh that would be horrible. Was the water also sugary? She fidgeted, tugging at her sleeves. Arguing would be useless, this woman seemed confident in what she thought Ren needed, and Ren was basically incapable of arguing. So within a half hour she found herself in a tub of water. She washed up and toweled off. She felt so awkward up there so once she was dry she cloaked herself in a thick blanket of shadows. She would wait until the woman said her clothing was dry. Except… she didn’t. Ren awkwardly stood in the bathroom for a time, then creaked the door open. Sure she wasn’t comfortable, but she should at least go ask. With the cloak covering her and the towel she felt a bit more safe, but that feeling did not last long.

850/1000

[Ren Caverly]

When the door slowly opened Ren saw a pair of eyes. Not immediately. First she saw nothing, and then… eyes. Standing at the other end of the hall was the woman. Except… by “end of the hall” it was more like about three feet from the door. Ren felt all the nerves in her body, and she quickly closed the door. It was louder than she wanted, and she fidgeted with the lock. Ren was catching her breath, eyes wide in discomfort. On the other end of the door she heard footsteps. And as if the woman were pressed against the door she heard her voice.

“Ren? Are you alright in there?”

“Y-yes. I’m f-fine,” Ren said, backing away from the door. She saw the door handle jiggle a bit.

“The door is locked.”

“Uh, y-yeah…

“Your clothes are still drying. Come out.”

Warning bells went off. It wasn’t like the woman was trying to do anything horrible, per se, but she was definitely creeping Ren out. Ren was not an argumentative person, but she knew enough to keep from getting killed. There was a window, but… it looked clearly stuck. She couldn’t even see out it from all the rain. She would probably hurt herself falling from the slick roof. The roof made of candy.

1066/1000

[Ren Caverly]

“Um. I. Um. I…

“Just come out,” Eleanor told her. They had exchanged a small conversation before Ren agreed to the bath, but it certainly wasn’t calming her down now. The door unlocked itself and Ren gulped. She pulled her cloak closer. “Oh, is that magic?”

“Yes.”

“That’s nice dear. Come sit with me?”

“Okay,” Ren squeaked. She nervously followed the old woman down to the living room. Ren sat on a couch made of marshmallows. It didn’t stick to her, so she was pleasantly surprised. At least one surprise today was pleasant. “So… erm… how… uh, long have you… lived here?”

“A while.”

“Okay.”

The silence made Ren uncomfortable. Eleanor just stared at her from her own chair. In fact the silence lasted a good ten minutes, Ren just looking around the room while she felt those old eyes fixed on her. “Think my clothes are ready?”

“Yes, of course. I will go get those,” Eleanor said. She slowly rose from her seat and went to another room. Ren might have run. She could have just taken off with the towel. This was all too much for the poor young woman, but she didn’t. She was getting her hoodie, and nothing was going to change that.

1273/1000

[Ren Caverly]

Eleanor returned in an uncomfortably short amount of time. Was it a minute? She walked so slowly out of the room, but she returned so quickly. Unfortunately she didn’t announce this. Ren felt… everything stand on end. She swallowed, not wanting to move. It felt as if she moved too quickly something would snap. She noticed a mirror against the other wall, lined in chocolate chips. In the mirror she saw Eleanor, standing silently less than a foot behind Ren. Ren jumped up, but before she could say anything, Eleanor simply reached out her hands, holding the now dry clothes. Ren gulped and shakily reached for her items. “Um, th-thanks, I’ll j-just go change…”

Ren was quickly up the stairs, into the bathroom. Door locked. She changed in record time. Her hoodie sleeves pulled as far as she could. She opened the door and… there was Eleanor. “So… um… do… erm… I should…”

“I will make us dinner.”

Ren squirmed, “Okay…”

She felt helpless, but she followed the woman, who cooked them both a meal. It was just too rainy outside. She felt resigned. Maybe the woman would eat her, or kill her, or both. Hopefully kill her if she tried to eat her. Ren sighed and poked at her soup a bit. Soon the meal was done and Ren was laying on the couch to sleep. Yeah, she wanted to be home. She pulled her hood down, refusing to look around. She was sure Eleanor was there again. She quietly cried herself to sleep. So was so pathetic. She couldn’t even run from an old lady.

1540/1000

[Ren Caverly]

In the morning the rain had died down. “So… I should go home,” Ren said nervously. Eleanor looked upset. Ren didn’t say anything else, but Eleanor did. She asked if Ren would stay. “I, uh, I have… guild things…” Eleanor seemed upset, everyone always left. “I’m sorry…” Ren said weakly. The old woman was angry, and yet… while Ren was visibly shaking she seemed a bit calmer than she might have been otherwise. She was not pleased, but when Ren said she would visit, and insisted she wasn’t lying, Eleanor apparently decided that Ren should just leave. Ren was up and out quickly. She would visit. If she could ever find this place again. Except maybe she would bring a friend, to avoid being eaten. Yeah, that sounded wise. She walked quickly away from the building, then sprinted for a while. She nearly fell, but managed to avoid every tree. She made it to a town, finally, and heard about some rumored candy house where people never returned. Ren shivered. She didn’t need to money, but she did confirm that rumor. “She’s nice… though… b-but… yeah…”

With that Ren paid her way onto a caravan and headed back to Lamia Scale. No getting lost again.

1745/1000

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