"You should really get your memory checked out, then." Sorcha stood up straight, having half a mind to just tell this girl who she was already. But, no, she couldn't. Not yet. It would be more fun this way, wouldn't it? She was sure it would.
"Now," she began again, eyeing the girl "Do you want to see the cottage? Or should I just assume you don't want it? Because, after all, I'm just the suspicious ax murderer in the woods. Obviously."
Sapphire
"My memory is just fine, it just leaves me sometimes. Now, if you'll worry about yourself, I'll worry about me and my memory." Sapphire replied, digging her grave deeper and deeper. Maybe she really was a bit of a dip.
"I don't see an ax on you, so yes, I'd like to see the cottage." Sapphire said, before throwing in a "thank you" for good measure.
The wheels in her head began to turn as she wondered how she could put herself together a weapon of some sort. She had a feeling she'd need a way to stay protected, even if it was minor.
Sorcha let out a small puff of air, a little annoyed, but reminded herself not to go and show it. Instead, she simply nodded at the girl once more, and turned towards the forest, beginning to walk. Slow, of course. She wasn't about to lose the girl because she was going too fast for her little human legs to keep up with.
So, going by such, she wasn't going very fast. At all. The cottage was a little farther in, so it WOULD take a bit. She did hope that the girl, though it was amusing before, could keep her blabbering to a minimum. Sorcha did have to focus on where she was going, so she wouldn't make any wrong turns. That would be quite the disaster.
Sapphire was torn between whether to make conversation as they walked, or to stay quiet. Usually she talked when she was nervous, but right now she kept her mouth shut. Sorcha wasn't going to deal with her blabber much longer, and thankfully Sapphire realized this.
Sapphire kept her eyes focused on the back of Sorcha's head, afraid of what would happen if she lost sight of her. She was thankful Sorcha hadn't took off quickly, but rather went at a slower pace. With this blasted skirt, Sapphire never would have been able to keep up at that rate.
Speaking of the skirt, Sapphire was careful to keep it out of her way. Her left hand held the skirt, and her right hung loosely next to her side. Not the most comfortable position, but it kept her from tripping again. Whatever it took to make her not seem like she didn't know her head from a hole in the ground, she would do at this point.
Sorcha walked up to a cottage, eventually, that looked a bit....old. It would obviously need fixing and cleaning. Cobwebs covered the outside, and one window was shattered. The boat next to it had the paint chipped off, and looked like it would eventually fall apart when placed in water. Overall, not the ideal place to live.
Sorcha knew that. And, to be quite honest, she didn't care one bit. So, she gestured to it briefly, saying "Here we are. The finest in the area. I would give you the grand tour, but it wouldn't take very long."
"It's... nice. Just use a broom or a rag to clean things up, put a sheet over the window, and just don't use the boat." Sapphire said, trying to sound optimistic. It was shelter, and while it was in horrid condition, it would work.
Sapphire turned on her heel to face Sorcha. "Again, thank you. For everything. I do hope I didn't come off like I was trying to cause problems." It wasn't a lie, but it wasn't exactly true either. Problems were fun sometimes, seeing as they weren't deadly. Ax murderers had been mentioned, but not seen. At least, not that Sapphire had noticed.
"Just remember my rules. Oh, and I'd suggest not taking a dip in the lake again, I do have things to do other than fish you out of water. Are we clear?" Sorcha replied, watching Sapphires reaction to the house. At least she remained grateful. She was a bit annoyed at the chance that the girl would be disappointed at the state of the house, due to the fact Sorcha was helping her, and would like to keep her pride intact. After all, she didn't really help people, usually. Usually she ate them, and that was that. She didn't exactly have any remorse over it, but still. A little gratitude for her actions at this time would be splendid.
Sapphire
"Yes ma'am, I'll keep that in mind. I wouldn't want to cause troubles." Sapphire gave a smile, hoping her dimples made her seem innocent.
She was strongly considering playing an act; pretend to be completely sweet and tell a sob story. Sorcha may catch on, but it may be worth a shot.
"Is there something I can do to repay you? You've been such a help." Sapphire was a bit leery about what the woman may respond, but truly did want to do something as a thank you. She had been taught to be thankful, after all.
"Not getting into trouble is enough. I'd rather like knowing you're NOT more trouble than you're worth, as I'm questioning helping you already." Sorcha responded, studying her nails "You know the rules. If you need.....HELP with anything, I suppose you can ask, but don't be too annoying. I'll put you back into the lake myself, understood?"
She did hope the girl understood, or she would let that threat happen. She wasn't afraid to, and it wasn't as if she didn't plan to drown the girl anyway. But, Sapphire didn't know that, so it worked out well. Hopefully it would be incentive not to screw anything up around the area.
Sapphire nodded, "There will be no need for violence. I'll stay out of trouble. The rules are ingrained in my head with as often as you've mentioned them. I'll be sure to not need any help; I wouldn't want to bother you."
How much of a dip did Sorcha think she was? She'd be the last person Sapphire would go to for help. She'd have to spend a lifetime making up for one minute of Sorcha's time. Sapphire was pretty sure she could handle taking care of herself. The true test would be if she could handle Sorcha.
"That's adorable. Really. It is. I'll love to see you try and catch fish. It will be a very good form of entertainment. I hardly get anything else amusing around here, so I invite you to try and do things your own way." Sorcha replied, snorting slightly in amusement "I mean, really! You don't have any experience. You'll be floundering before long is my thinking!"
She was really hoping to get the human angry. After all, she was annoyed herself, so she wanted Sapphire to be the same. It would give her a bit of satisfaction, knowing that she wasn't the only one annoyed. She had a feeling she wasn't, but the girl wasn't exactly showing it, other than the snide remarks that Sorcha had been receiving.
Sapphire felt her cheeks grow red as she became flustered. "Why do you dislike me so much? Why do you have to degrade me like this? I'm fully capable of catching any fish I want to! Believe me when I say I will eat like a king tonight, and this house will be pristine. I bet you all the fish I catch that I can have this house fully cleaned and dinner cooked before the time the sun sets. Deal?"
Sapphire didn't even wait for an answer before she set to work. She turned to the nearby tree and broke off several small branches and a couple bigger ones. She looked around for a vine or something, but couldn't locate one. Damn it. The leaves would have to work. Sapphire grabbed a handful off the ground and put them in the pile with the branches.
She looked around for a broom or mop, and sighed in relief when she found an old mop that could be used to clean and then later she could use the fiber strings off the end to tie the sticks together. "There. Already have all my materials collected."
Sorcha raised an eyebrow "Really? Well. Now I'm curious as to how fast you'll die out here. I'm guessing rather quickly, but I don't know whether it'll be from lack of clean water, or inability to catch food. Oh! You may also get a cold and die of that. I really wouldn't be TOO surprised if you did." she said as she watched "Or you'll fall into the lake again and drown. That would be funny."
She never agreed to the deal, or the bet, so there really wasn't anything for her to lose if the girl did succeed. So, she was calm about this, and a bit curious as to how it would play out. Fully cleaned? This place? Hardly likely it would happen in a week, much less half a day. And the fish probably wouldn't be easy to catch, and there would go the food the girl was planning to eat. There was also the fact that she had no BOAT, and that was a VITAL part to fishing. Unless she planned to eat a small, tiny fish with little to no meat on it, she would have to repair the boat.
Sapphire let out a huff as a response, aggravated that Sorcha had to be so discouraging about everything. This couldn't be that hard, could it? Sapphire didn't think so. The hardest part would be fishing, but she could figure something out. Perhaps multiple small fish would be better than one large fish in the long run anyway. Sapphire really didn't require much food intake, since she was used to eating whatever her father had left over as that's all she was allowed.
There was no bucket to be found, so Sapphire would have to walk back and forth a lot to wet the mop. Because of this, Sapphire decided to clear out the spider webs first. She flipped the broom upside down and lifted it as high up as she could, knocking down the spider webs off the outside of the building. It was a slow process; each wall seeming to have more webs than the last. Thankfully there wasn't that many of them on the inside. But this process alone had taken around half an hour.
Sapphire blew the hair out of her face and wished her outfit wasn't so constricting. The thick fabric was causing her to sweat profusely and she was still tripping over the skirt. She sat down on a nearby rock and tried to rip the fabric of the skirt. She knew it wasn't ladylike but she had to at least try. She only wasted five minutes before giving up and getting back to work.
Sapphire walked over to the lake, careful to not get too close to the water. She'd save that fearful process for when she had to fish. She extended the mop and washed the webs off of it, then pulled it back to her and wrung out some of the water. She then went back to the small cabin and started mopping the floor, whispering to herself "this is going to take forever."
Sorcha, at this point, had gone on her merry way. After all, she wasn't going to watch the girl 24/7; that was a bit creepy, and she had no reason to. Sapphire wasn't going to just up and leave, after all; she seemed determined to survive out here, and Sorcha was sure that unless she angered something, the girl would be here for quite a bit. Or, well, until Sorcha ate here.
She wasn't particularly looking forward to that at this point anymore. After confrontation, she was fairly sure the human would be bitter and disgusting to eat. She wouldn't know until she tried, obviously, but she wasn't keen to do it soon. Maybe the mortal would soften with age. THEN, it may taste decent. But, even with that, the kelpie wasn't sure about it.
Sapphire had finished mopping the floor was and waiting for it to dry. It needed a good waxing, but she no wax or the material needed. She realized she'd made a silly mistake; the walls should have been cleaned before the floor. Now she had to wait for them to dry or she'd make a mess of things. To occupy the time it was going to take, Sapphire was cleaning the windows from the outside. She'd ripped off part of the mop and was using that as a rag. The girl sneezed as dust flew off the windows and surrounded her. When it settled down, she looked like she'd rolled her upper half in the small gray particles. Thankfully no more had gotten in her nose or her eyes.
Sapphire looked up to the sky; sunset would be soon. Unfortunately, this meant she had to fish now. She grabbed the branches and leaves from earlier and tied them together with pieces from the mop to form some sort of net, with the mop handle attached as well. Her face crinkled in disgust as she added a few worms into the net as bait. Her bare feet ached as she walked to the lake once again.
Sapphire inspected the boat, wondering if there was any way she could make it usable. She didn't have any tools or wood, and the thing was more so the framing of a boat than an actual boat from where it had rotted. So small fish it was, unless she decided to be dangerous and walk out into the water. Thinking it through, she decided to start with attempting to catch a few small fish. She lowered the net end of the makeshift fishing rod into the water, and bent down so she's be able to see if anything took the bait.
The air was growing cold, and Sapphire pulled her clothes around her tighter. It would've been smart to have made a fire before she started fishing. But she couldn't move now, as she didn't want to scare any possible food away. She probably would have had better luck making a spear and killing a squirrel or something. She'd have to keep that in mind for tomorrow. Her head jerked towards the net as she felt it move. A small fish was nibbling on one of the worms. Sapphire carefully lifted the net holding the fish and sat it down beside her on the ground. She didn't have the heart to kill it herself, so she just kept it from flopping back into the water.
One more small fish later, the sun was setting. It wasn't much, but the two fish would have to work. Maybe there was some berries or something she could find as well. Sapphire walked back to the cabin, which was cleaner than it had been, but not spotless like she had promised. She'd failed this whole thing pretty pathetically, if it hurt her to admit it.
Sorcha was already at the cabin, inspecting it. Or, well, she had been an hour ago. She was currently patching it up and cleaning it herself. She already had seen the proof that the girl had failed the bet, so she wasn't helping her win. No, it was already sun down, and the girl had failed the task. Sorcha, of course, had felt a bit bad at the state of the lodgings, and had decided to do at least one act of good will. But, other than this, she wasn't planning to do much else. Maybe she would get fish and other such foods, but everything else was up to Sapphire to do. She wasn't a maid or a servant; hardly! She was just a sort of good person. Besides, the girl wouldn't taste very good if she was skinny and sick. She couldn't be having that, no siree. She needed a healthy meal, for once. Something with actual MEAT on it. Rabbits were way too lean for her tastes, if she were to be completely honest.
Sapphire arrived back at the cabin to see that Sorcha had been helping to fix the place up. Her initial reaction was to raise an eyebrow in suspicion; it didn't seem like Sorcha to do something helpful like this. Then again she had saved Sapphire's life, offered her a place to stay, and was now helping clean said place. Maybe Sapphire had the wrong impression of Sorcha. She was a bit of a rude person, but she had helped Sapphire. She wasn't a saint and she couldn't expect Sorcha to be one either. So her raised eyebrow turned into a smile and as she set down her net and two tiny fish she let out a "thank you. I really do appreciate the help." Sapphire looked down at her 'meal' and her smile turned into a frown. "I failed at this pretty badly..." She was slightly embarrassed that after all those hours of work she only had this to show.
Sorcha glanced over, before shrugging a little, nonchalant about the whole thing "I have extra fish you can use, as well as some things from my garden." She replied "Of course, this is only to get you started off. After a few days of this, you'll be on your own. Alright?"
She just wanted a healthy meal, that wasn't much to ask for. And after seeing those fish the girl brought back? She didn't seem to be getting her wish. If that kept up, the meal would be skinny, and not have actual MEAT on any of the bones. Worse than that, possibly, it could be dead. That wasn't exactly good for Sorcha's purposes. She sighed to herself, running her free hand through her hair in slight frustration.
"Really? Thank you!" Sapphire could hug Sorcha, she was so thankful to be able to cook a decent meal instead of these lousy fish. "Yes, of course. I wouldn't want to take advantage of you. You've done so much to help already. You're welcome to whatever I cook, it'd only be right that way." Sapphire wasn't one to take and not give, so sharing what she made would be the least she could do. Someday she would have to repay Sorcha with something more proper though.
When Sorcha ran her hand through her hair, Sapphire couldn't help but notice the seaweed in it again. She racked her brain for what it meant but couldn't remember for the life of her. Her whole childhood she had heard stories of dangerous creatures, but not one could she recall now. Her brain was failing her, but her instincts weren't. Sapphire still had an odd feeling about all this, she just pushed it aside for now.
