Abigail’s rooms, plural, were each several times the size of the one room he had. Even her bathtub was nearly the same size. It would have fit inside his room, but not through the door to get it in there. On closer inspection, her main bedroom was larger than the entire house he and thirteen other boys had lived in. Not by much, but he was still impressed by the size. Or he would have been had there been much space in the room.
The bedroom was dominated by a four posted canopy bed done in frills, lace, and numerous other things that made no sense to his male mind. Mother Knows Best seemed to croon over the style, leaving him with the impression that it was the dream bed of nearly every female. Certainly the impressive number of enchantments that were focused on creating a multitude of lights, sounds, and imagery around the bed were impressive to him, although he found their content suspect. Fairies, unicorns, and pink baby dragons weren’t his idea of a good time. The bed itself only had a small portion that was available for someone to use, nearly a perfect match to Abigail’s size. The rest was liberally covered in stuffed animals of a wide variety of species, styles, sizes, and shapes. There were more types of creatures on her bed than he had known to exist, and he had no idea how many of them actually did.
Every inch of wall space in the room was covered in shelves holding a variety of trinkets and books. There were more stuffed animals, crystalline figurines, dolls enchanted to dance, crystal balls that showed shimmering seas or verdant forests, and several more things that he couldn’t identify. The books seemed to range from children’s stories to travel journals, bestiaries to research notes, educational encyclopedias to compendiums of folklore, and anything in between. The few gaps left by the shelves had brilliant lighting and lavish seating. There were even a few tables scattered amongst the seating in convenient locations, and a young ladies vanity that eclipsed the bathtub in size.
All in all, it looked like a bedroom fit for a princess.
That had been lived in by a tribe of goblins for decades.
Things he could only call trash covered nearly every square inch of the floor stacked to his waist, with only a narrow path from doorway to doorway along with a spur to the bed. Much of it was packaging of some sort, boxes and brightly colored paper with a smattering of ribbons, but there was also a multitude of plates, glassware, and cutlery. A plethora of knives of varying sizes had been thrown haphazardly around the room. He surmised that they had been aimed at particular treasures amongst the shelves, but most had missed. Many were lying precariously on shelves, or on items on the shelves, while some had fallen amongst the trash pit that used to be a floor. Some had successfully pierced their targets, or another item that was adjacent, and were still contained within, and yet more of them were in the walls. The few clothes carelessly strewn about seemed to have been added as an afterthought.
He could only thank the not so dimly glowing runes strategically placed in a number of places for the lack of vermin and, more importantly, the stench from the rotten food still on some of the plates or the drinks growing mold in the glassware.
The less said about the other rooms the better, except for one he had loosely designated as “the closet.” It too was larger than his old house, but seemed to hold nothing but a pile of clothes. Some portions of it appeared to be moving as though the entire pile was alive, leaving him concerned it had become a laundry elemental.
Adam was torn. One part of him was disgusted by the scene, and concerned at the amount of work it represented. The other part was the system assistance though, and, in the presence of Abigail, it was making the decisions.
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Smiling gently, he scooped the girl up and set her on the one free space on the bed. “Now, you need to find the things you wish to keep. The rest of this we’ll cart off so that there is room to run about in here again.” He quickly darted a hand forward and tickled her ribs, making her giggle again. “I think I may have even seen a desk tucked under the mountain of dresses you have in the other room. You’re going to need that if you plan to catch your brother in your studies.”
After her second giggle of the day, Abigail had frozen in surprise again, but livened right up at the mention of her brother. Adam didn’t particularly like the way her expression changed at the mention though, and neither did his skills; they rustled like leaves in the wind. All of him agreed to closely watching the interaction between the siblings for the foreseeable future. Organization was hard at work tracking the issues he was spotting nearly everywhere in regards to the children, and he had only spent three minutes with one of them. The ten minutes with the duchess had made its own impact as well.
One thing he did appreciate though was how incapable the girl was at hiding her reactions and emotions. They were disguised, but never hidden. It would take much more time than he had had to learn how to decipher what she was truly feeling, but with her tendency to liveliness he expected it could be achieved in short order.
She transitioned from whatever she had been feeling at the mention of her brother back to her adorable head tilt. “Why are you bringing my brother here?”
He tapped her on the nose again, seeing the same slightly startled expression on her face from his action. He was beginning to think she had never been touched in any way. “Well, we’re going to need help with all of this aren’t we? Now that we’ve chased away the dragon, it’s time to pillage its hoard. Who better to assist our search for the greatest of artifacts than your studious brother? Surely he knows which of these items hold the most value? Besides, someone has to help us eat all the cookies. You certainly can’t fit them all in there, now can you?” he asked, quickly poking her belly. He was happy to have filled the role of the dragon with Jana.
When the giggles stopped, he helped her to stand on the clean spot on the bed. He booped her nose again, saying, “OK, I’m off to collect some supplies.” He snagged a nearby book that said “Journal” across its bright pink cover and its attached pencil, handing them to the girl. “You write down anything you can see that you simply must retain.” He said the last few words in a breathy voice, with a hand to his heart, and fluttering lashes, making her giggle once more. On the inside he was trying to shove a finger down his throat, although he no longer knew if it was aimed at his behavior or the girl’s room. “When I return, we’ll have your brother to help us gather them all up, alrighty?”
Seeing her happily smiling and nodding, such a huge change from her initial behavior, made him happy. Both parts of him. In a better mood, he bounced to his feet and carefully navigated his way back to the hallway. When he turned to wave good bye, a knife whizzed by where his head had just been. Thunderstruck, he tried screaming at her, or even throwing a knife of his own, but system assistance held him back. Although, it wasn’t all nice and sweet that time.
Adam felt Mother Knows Best kick in, but it somehow brought along a piece of Mama Bear as well. It even seemed to engage his aspects, although he had no idea how, or that it had even been possible. No matter how the skill, or system assistance did it, he felt himself grow taller, thicker, looming above the tiny girl standing at the other end of the room. His voice boomed, no longer the sweet voice of the kindly mother he had been, but that of a Mama Bear roused. "Abigail DeVille! You will stop that this instant! Get your butt back in that bedroom and find your things! One more action like that, little missy, and I’ll be paddling your behind for the next three days!”
She was trembling at the reaction she had gotten from him, one unlike anything she had ever seen before, but no part of him was finished yet.
One significantly larger and hairier arm rose, pointing at her. Voice dropping another octave, and positively growling, he said, “And no cookies for a week!”