Heading outside the school, Alex couldn't help but chuckle finding Thorn leaned back against the wall, snoring heavily.
"He's not your brother," Roselyn stated, quirking an eyebrow up slightly in confusion. Just as Alex knew her family somewhat, she also knew his, and the Skyblade's definitely didn't have any children which looked anything like *that*!
"He's my sworn blood brother," Alex clarified simply, while leaning down to soundly thump Thorn several times across the top of his head.
"Whu?" Yawning heavily, Thorn stretched and looked around sleepily. "I'ze be awake," he grumbled grouchily, frowning as he turned his head to look back and forth between Alex and Roselyn. "Whut'z up wif yah dis morn'n Brudder Boobz? Which one be youz? Is youz da one ah wearing yah normal clothes, or iz yah da one wearing ya normal skin?"
"I'm me," Alex assured him, chuckling lightly, before making certain to clarify with his name as well, "Alex."
"Yah be Brudder Boobz?" Looking puzzled, Thorn stretched heavily again, before easing his massive frame fully upright. Pointing over at Roselyn, he frowned heavily while asking, "Den whoze dat?"
"That's the Lady Roselyn," Alex turned, waving his hands back at her. "You can call her Rose if you want. And Rose," Alex added, almost as an afterthought, "this is my sworn brother Thorn. You can consider his words and orders to carry the same weight as mine. Obey him just like you'd obey me."
"A pleasure," Roselyn said, lifting the hem of her skirt just the minutest amount possible, as she tried to perform a graceful curtsey without revealing all her most private womanly parts to the whole world.
"Yep. Yep." Nodding his head up and down foolishly, Thorn showed he agreed – it was a pleasure for him to meet her as well! "So whut wez be ah do'n today, Brudder Boobz?" Turning to look back at Alex, Thorn scratched his head, not having a single clue what they had planned to do today, or why he had to come and wait to meet so early at the school's entrance.
"We're going treasure hunting!" Laughing merrily, Alex walked up beside Thorn and interlocked his right arm with Thorn's left. "You two just follow me! Today is going to be a busy day!
"Okies," Thorn agreed, amiably nodding his head up and down repeatedly, as he genially let Alex tug him along freely. Roselyn didn't say as word, or ask a single question, as she followed helplessly along several steps behind them.
**************************************************
"So, what are we doing down here? What exactly is this place?" Looking all around curiously, Roselyn honestly had no idea what the heck they were doing. Alex had led them both into the large building which was used to house the school's storage and library, but they'd ended up going down several different winding and twisting passages, and she had no idea where the heck they might be at now. From the way all the various boxes and crates lined up, filling nearly every space available in the tightly packed room they were in, they must be in some sort of storeroom by the best of her calculations.
"Every year," Alex chuckled, "the students are always in a rush to hurry out of the school and be the first to take advantage of the teleporters out of here. Right?"
"Yeah?" Roselyn agreed, wrinkling her nose up cutely in confusion. She didn't see what that had to do with anything, or where they might be right now.
"And every year, there's students who either drop out, graduate, or transfer schools. Right?" Beaming brightly, Alex's eyes were sparking as he watched Roselyn's face to see when she'd make the connection. Thorn, he simply ignored and held firmly onto his arm for now. Thorn probably wouldn't figure it out, even if he drew him a picture and spelled everything out for him.
Alex knew his brother better than anyone – Thorn was strong, brave, loyal, and true to a fault. Unfortunately, he was also as dumb as a brick! When he'd scrambled his meridians and scarred his body from top to bottom, he'd also fried his brain somewhat. Without some serious healing – which Alex had every intention of getting for him in the future – Thorn would always be more than a little slow on the uptake.
"Yeah, people leave every year without coming back," Roselyn agreed, biting her lip lightly as she tried to piece what that had to do with where they were.
"Then last question," Alex promised, chuckling lightly. "How much stuff have those students acquired after being students for several years here, and how much do you think they can take with them when they leave through the teleport array?"
"A lot of crap," Roselyn admitted, "but I doubt they can carry all of it." Blinking twice, her eyes suddenly lit up with a conclusion. "This place must be…"
"Where the school stores all the stuff that the students leave behind," Alex interrupted, as a brilliant smile filled his face. "This room is basically the school's 'Lost and Found' area. All the crap that everyone leaves behind is brought here, basically packed up into storage, and forgotten about."
"And we're just allowed to take it?" Roselyn asked, frowning slightly once again. "What happens if someone comes back and wants to pick up their stuff."
"If it's in this area, it's tough shit," Alex told her confidently, shrugging his shoulders to show he wasn't concerned the slightly about it. "Technically," he explained, patiently waving his hand left to right to showcase the whole room, "this area is what is referred to as the 'Lost and Lost' section. There's another area for the true 'Lost and Found', but the school only stores stuff in it for a single semester. After that semester is over, whatever is in Lost and Found is moved into this room and just packed up and forgotten about."
"And that's why you said this was some form of *treasure hunting* earlier. Correct?" Grinning slightly herself, Roselyn was trying to imagine exactly what the other students might have left behind. After all, who knew what some of the truly wealthy children of the mega rich and the nobility might deign to just discard and leave behind!
"Yep," Alex agreed, nodding his head up and down and grinning stupidly, unconsciously imitating one of Thorn's bad habits. "It's also why we waited until today to come in here. The cleaners would've spent the last couple of days cleaning out all the student dorms first, but they should've had time to move everything that last semester's students left behind in here by now!"
"And," Alex lustfully rubbed his hands together in anticipation, "we should be the first people to pick and look through everything here. From what I know, asking one of the workers I saw down here before, none of them are allowed to take anything from here – it'd look bad if the school's employees were ending up keeping the student's stuff after all.
"This place is *technically* supposed to be open to the public," Alex gleefully told Roselyn and Thorn, "but nobody ever advertises it. Personally," Alex whispered conspiratorially, "I think some of the older teachers sneak down here and collect things for themselves from time to time during the school year, even they aren't supposed to. A sort of bonus to their paychecks if you want to look it at like that."
"But they haven't been down here yet," Roselyn laughed. Her eyes were starting to twinkle just as brightly as Alex's.
"Nope," Alex agreed, laughing happily along with her. "But who knows when one of them might show up down here. We should see what we can find as quickly as possible before someone comes!"
"Then what are we waiting for?" Laughing merrily, Roselyn quickly skipped over and pulled the lid up off one of the closest crates to where she had been standing. Digging contentedly through everything, she was already on the hunt for treasure!