Post by Aries on Mar 7, 2010 18:18:29 GMT -8
The attic window was left open, as it should be. The driveway was devoid of vehicles and the light wind carried no sounds from the green Victorian-style Gaia Home. From his perch within the branches of a giant spruce, Aries had spied the house and its surrounding area for at least fifteen minutes waiting for somebody to come home. No one. A large clap of thunder sounded overhead which gave Aries a slight start causing a few feathers of the back of his neck to rise. Tap, tip-tap, the rain started to softly fall through the bows of the trees. A faint and very brief flash lit up the sky and Aries thought better of going inside to get out of the coming storm.
A quick down thrust of his wings and the albino red tailed hawk made a break through the rain drops toward the open window. The window, a welcome beacon for shifters of the Kinship, a door never locked and frequented often. If he could smile he would, but a beak doesn't allow for visual human facial expressions. Once inside, he shifted to human before he landed and his feet hit the dusty wooden floor with a quiet thud. Nude, he strode over to the antique white dresser that was shoved up against a wall the best it could. The angled ceiling prevented the dresser from coming anymore than three feet from the bare-stud wall. The dresser placed there for the specific purpose of clothing the bare-skinned shifters. He opened the drawer second from top and grabbed a pair of worn jeans that were slightly too big for him, pulled them on, and headed out the narrow attic door. Two flights of stairs took him to the first level and a turn toward his left took him into the kitchen. It, too, was empty of all living souls.
"Well, this is kind of eerie." He spoke out loud, with slight amusement in his tone, as if he were speaking to someone standing right behind him who was in on some private joke. And indeed it was eerie. The usual sounds of laughter and chatter ghosted through the empty kitchen. The interior sound so silent it was deafening. Outside, the rain continued to grow heavier.
He moved from the wide kitchen doorway to the refrigerator to look inside. Nothing too appetizing, but he grabbed a lonely looking plastic food container that balanced precariously on a jar of mayonnaise and identified it as left over homemade macaroni and cheese. Aries tossed the container into the microwave oven, the container slid and ricocheted off the back before stopping nearly center. He set it for one minute then turned to lean on the counter, his back toward the microwave. He looked around, it was oddly peaceful now that the creepiness wore off. Several books were scattered on the large wooden rectangle of a kitchen table. One left open was on a page explaining the various properties of lavender and how it could be applied to useful calming spells. Only half a beep sounded before he quickly snapped around and pulled the steaming noodles out. After an absent-minded grab of a fork from the silverware drawer, he pulled a chair away from the kitchen table and turned it to face the large window. He sat down to eat, leaning over slightly to rest his left elbow on his thigh, and watched the rain hit the window and run down in miniature rivers.