Where there's a Well...

[Young Grimwold]

[OOC: Continued from Important shopping.]

*Perspicacity the pig, also known as Percy, has made it to a quiet corner of Wolfenden without being recaptured, accosted or generally having his porcine rights violated. He has found his way down a narrow alleyway into a small walled courtyard, scattered with fallen leaves and clumps of moss. In the centre is a round stone well. It looks like it's been abandoned for some time, and there is no longer any wooden frame across the top to enable people to collect water in buckets. Then again, maybe there was no frame, and no water, to start off with...*

[Shadow]

PERCY!

*The chase had taken Shadow and Clarity to Wolfendon. Percy had managed to outrun them.*

Darn it, we lost him. Now what do we do?

[Young Grimwold]

Clarity: Well I'm not giving up! Remember, he likes investigating, so let's look everywhere that a pig wouldn't normally go.

[Shadow]

*Shadow quickly examines the area and at the same quickness gets de-ja-vou. Then suddenly, she spots a small alleyway a few feet away. Without even saying anything, she begins to slowly make her way towards it.*

[Young Grimwold]

Clarity: Oh, I know that alley. I think there's a fountain at the end of it, so maybe he's gone for a nice quiet drink. He doesn't like animal troughs.

[Shadow]

*Shadow snaps out of her odd little daze.*

You think? We might as well check it out then.

[Young Grimwold]

*Clarity hesitates. She is obviously nervous about venturing down the alleyway: it's not quite straight, making it impossible to know who or what may be waiting further down. Clarity gets out a feather and starts fiddling with it.*

[Shadow]

*Shadow turns to see Clarity with the feather.*

What's wrong? You're not scared are you? And why do you have a feather?

[Young Grimwold]

Clarity: I took it from Vee's stall. *Before Shadow can tell her off, she adds:* Well, it is my birthday. Sometime this year. And I just need some ink to go with it, and then Mister Callimpsest says he'll teach me how to write.

*Clarity accidentally drops the feather. To her amazement, it hovers in the air, then falls very slowly and smoothly toward the ground.*

[Shadow]

Wow...that's some feather. Shall we go then?

[Young Grimwold]

*Clarity tucks her quill - or as it was once known, Feather of Falling - back into her pocket and sighs.*

Clarity: Alright. But you go in front. We don't know what's down there and it might not be as nice as Percy.

[Shadow]

*Shadow begins to make her way down the alleyway. The walls around the two looked quite worn down so it must have been standing for a long time. Then suddenly, she heard a noise.*

Stop. What was that?

[Young Grimwold]

*Clarity, who didn't hear anything in particular, frowns in puzzlement.*

Clarity: Probably a noise.

*Clarity looks up and sees an pub sign swinging in the breeze. Its gentle creaking may have been what Shadow heard. Evidently one of the buildings forming the alleyway used to be an alehouse or tavern, but the closed door and boarded-up windows below the sign seem to suggest it is no longer open for business. The chipped paintwork of the sign depicts a dragon gazing into a looking glass that it holds in its tail. No name is written on the sign, perhaps because most of the pub's patrons were illiterate anyway, or simply preferred looking at pictures. The dragon on the sign is green, and many would say it looks very much like the Great Wyrm Smirkenorff.*

[OOC: A pub called The Dragon's Mirror was referred to once before.]

[Shadow]

Well obviously it was a noise.

*Shadow follows Clarity's gaze and sees the sign. The dragon on it looks strangely familiar. Shadow wonders if it could be Smirkenorff.*

[Young Grimwold]

Clarity: Why would a dragon need a mirror? If I was a dragon, I'd fly over a lake to see my reflection, just because I could. Oh, maybe it's one of those spy mirrors.