The sun had risen itself high enough to be seen over the mountaintops, but as he passed under the twisting groves and tangling thickets, it hid behind the lush orange valley he now found himself in.
The cabin hiding itself neatly in the prolific valley was rustic, coated in moss and vines, and falling apart at the seams. The porch was constructed out of wilted wooden planks, which ran black in some places from sheer age. At the very least, the door was intact, but the same couldn't be said for the roof… It was coated in patches made from leaves, planks, and dead wood, but even those patches didn't cover every hole seeping through it.
As she swung the door open proudly, trace rays of light shone themselves down to the creaky wooden floor from the ceiling, and dust hovered around the two of them.
Arabelle had "cleverly disguised" her base of operations in a remote, unapproachable section of the mountains, but Cobalt saw through that cover-up for what it really was: she just couldn't be bothered to fix anything.
She walked towards a room and did a short spin to face him while opening the bedroom door behind her. She seemed proud, somehow, and added, "Welcome to my humble abode."
"Emphasis on humble," he teased in a low voice, picking at what looked like spider webs on his sleeve.
But when he saw her bedroom, his impression changed.
The room was fairly large, with one medium sized bed, a couple open windows, black curtains, surprisingly no noticeable holes in the ceiling, and maybe 5 or 6 full bookshelves. He had a dying question he needed to ask, so without hesitation, he shot:
"Are those magic books, by chance?"
Cobalt was, for lack of better words, a loser. No—scratch that, there couldn't possibly be a better word to describe them. He had played dozens of games in DIVE with Bismuth, and among them, the ranges for magic systems were endless.
Magic circles, special gifts, magic tomes, urban fantasy, from his eyes, the realm of magic and sorcery was practically endless. If the books she had were magic, although a pretty big stretch, why shouldn't he seize that opportunity to learn some spells? Better protect himself?
She grinned, "Interested, huh? Well, if my dog serves me loyally, it might just get to read some."
He wouldn't let that snobby attitude deter him. If she wasn't just pulling his leg, and those books really were magic, he was going to read virtually every one of them.
"After the night you've had, you probably want some sleep, right?"
He nodded as she put her weight on one foot, leaning to the side slightly.
"Great, you can take the floor."
"We can't share the b—?"
"No we can't."
He frowned. Eyeing the rustic floor, he wondered if a massive spider would come and drag him through the floorboards in his sleep. It was pretty dusty, but in a swift motion, a lot of that dust was kicked up, and then his vision went black.
"You can use that blanket, but it shouldn't be too cold," she said as an afterthought, throwing it over him.
"Is it just me or do you kind of seem like a mom right n—"
"Watch your tongue or you'll wake up in a tree."
If the blanket weren't over his head, she would have made fun of the dumb smile he wore after that remark. But he resigned himself to her surprisingly caring nature, and decided that was enough teasing for one day. Albeit a shock, he wasn't exactly put-off by seeing her nice side.
He took her blanket off from out in front of his face, and eyed the open windows. "Isn't it too bright to sleep?"
"Aha! Glad you asked!" With a look of pride, she pulled some kind of drawstring attached to the suspended curtains, throwing them both casually over the windows, casting the entire room into almost complete darkness. "Black-out curtains! Pretty cool, right?"
He could barely even see Arabelle standing just two meters in front of him.
Under his breath, he added, "You're even more of a hermit than I am…"
"Goodnight weirdo!" she pretended not to hear him. "We'll wake up in the afternoon and go back to the Tomb."
"Wait, really?!" he wasn't sure what to make of that. He was intrigued, yes, but returning so soon? He wasn't sure he was prepared to go back there already.
"Yes, really. Didn't I tell you that you made me botch my last mission? Okay well—not really botch. More like you got me so distracted that I need time to rethink the plan. Also I'm too tired to realistically do what I wanted to do now, so I'd rather blame it on you being too tired to be actually useful."
Ah. so that's what she meant.
"Sooo—Consider this an investment? Maybe you're good for something after all, my little pet?"
He sat onto the ground with a sigh, wrapping himself up in her soft blanket. He ignored her jabs, really just seeking some peaceful sleep for a change. For at least right now, that would be his purpose: finding sleep.
"Oh and by the way - if you crawl in my bed I'll cook you into stew."
He held back a chuckle, and sardonically replied, "Wouldn't dream of it," before tossing over against a corner where the floor met the wall, and prepared to sleep the last couple days away. This whole time, he had gotten little to no sleep in this world. He'd been picked on, cast aside, betrayed, and outright tortured by the freaks of this new world, and having abandoned his own, there wouldn't have been anywhere at all to go if he messed things up badly enough in this one, too. It was a bit slow, and ultimately meaningless. But truthfully, he didn't care what was and wasn't meaningless. Because after all, nothing really had meaning anyway. At least not to Cobalt. He wasn't sure if anything would again, but he decided to not let that bother him. Because in this very moment, there was only one thing in the entire world that was a problem to him—only one thing at all worth worrying about…
I have no idea if I can sleep with the sound of her snoring, he thought cynically, before closing his eyes and wishing for a soon sleep to wash over him.