The Graves Estate

Kauri felt her knees tremble.

She had been standing outside of the doors to the house that was once home for quite some time. It was much different than she remembered: darker, dirtier, overgrown. It was in a sad state.

Looking to her side, she exchanged glances with Poala, who had woken up on the last day of the sail. "Ready to meet grandma?" she asked unsteadily, trying to smile for the child. Poala shuffled in place, breaking eyesight from Kauri. "Yeah..." the older chimera mumbled. "Me too."

Clopping across the stone veranda, ignoring the stench of the pond just beyond the doorstep, Kauri raised her hand, took a breath, then knocked.

There was no answer.

Frowning, the chimera reached for the doorknob, tarnished and oily, and twisted it. The door opened, but only after she leaned her shoulder against it. Dust flew down from the ceiling, causing both girls to explode in a flurry of sneezes. When the dust cleared, Kauri wiped her eyes and looked down the hall. She pulled Poala into the house, looking to the right, where the kitchen sat, and to the left, the dining room. From the back, before they could venture too far, a racket caught their attention from further inside the house.

A weak "Hello?" reached their ears, causing Poala's to swivel atop her head. Kauri recognized it at once and began to canter down the hallway and up the stairs. Cobwebs clung to her face and she battled them all the way up to the solar.

"My, my, what a racket," said that soft, shaky voice again. Kauri paused at the door, clearing the last bit of cobweb from her eyes. When they were all gone, she was silent, voice caught in her throat.

The solar used to be such a bright, cheery room. She spent much of her childhood inside, books stacked around her as she curled up near the fireplace, lost in the worlds presented to her with every written word. It was her favorite place to be, once upon a time, before she decided she wanted to explore those worlds she saw in the books.

Now, it was as dusty as the rest of her house, no longer sunny for the mold and vines growing on the windows. There were no books. Everything was grey, save for the small embers glowing on the fire. In the middle of the room, there was a lone rocking chair, and on that chair sat an equally grey woman. She was twice Kauri's age and half her height slumped in that chair, swathed in a multitude of moth-eaten blankets. She was working on knitting something Kauri couldn't make out, but it drooped to the floor in a pile. She paused in her craft and looked up, staring at Kauri and Poala.

"... I don't think I was expecting visitors," she fussed. "Who are you?"

Kauri felt her body shudder. Tears spilled from her eyes as she croaked, "Mother?"

The silence in the room was palpable. Barely a breath was taken as the two women gazed into each other's eyes, realization filling the space between them. "Katti?"

The chimera's approach was slow, almost fearful. She was so gentle with her steps that it seemed to take an eon to walk over to the older woman. When she was right in front of her, she knelt at her feet, then reached out to take her hand. "Yes," the chimera whispered. "Yes, mother, it's... it's me."

As Kauri's mother had predicted, it only took a brief walk around the property to find the old man batting stubbornly at the weeds with a dull scythe. He hadn't heard their approach, prompting the ox chimera to call out.

"If you're going to keep swatting away with that posture you're going to throw out your back, old man!"

The farmer reeled back in surprise at first, flinging the scythe away in a powerful tremor. His vision landed on the two girls with a scowl. "Who are you?!" he yelled, pointing at them angrily.

"Oh, don't you dare get cross at us! Is that any way to act when you're meeting your daughter for the first time in years?"

The same silence that occurred between her and her mother happened now, but much shorter this time. "What!" shouted the man. Kauri smiled at him warmly, but there were tears in her eyes.

"What, don't... don't recognize me? I didn't think I changed all that much... shame... shame on you..."

Kauri's father staggered toward her in disbelief the whole time, cupping her shoulders gently. "It's you," he whimpered. "It's really you."

"Coming! Oh, goodness... um, one moment!"

A hollow thump could be heard following the muffled call. There were several quick stomps on the ground, like metal striking wood, right before the door swung open. "Hello! Who's this?"

Standing before the messenger boy was an extremely pale woman who was a fluorescent as a full moon. Upon her head were two long, coppery horns that stuck straight up. Her gaze was sharp and golden, iris slender and thin in the light of the sun. Her fingers ended in short claws, but her legs ended in hooves. She was quite the amalgamation of quite a few things.

She was dressed rather plainly in a white blouse and dark brown, layered skirts that stopped short of her ankles. Well, where a human woman's ankles would have been, anyway.

"Hello. How can I help you?" She smiled, no less lovely than a regular woman, once you looked past all the strangeness.

The woman's eyebrows sprung upward upon hearing the news. "That would be me," she told him. "You said... the Grand Vizer? What in the world would she come to me for?"

Before the words left her mouth, Kauri had already guessed. It had to be about Paradise. Even the Empress had called her in to speak about the island. Perhaps it was of some interest to the Grand Vizer, what with its pent-up, chaotic magic. "May I see the letter?"

"Oh. Oh, dear," fretted the chimera, fingers rising to drum on her lips. Another invitation from the palace! And so eloquently written, like the last. Never in her life did she ever expect to get so much attention from Isran royalty. She slid out the blank parchment and stared at it with her jaw hanging open. She looked up from the letter at the messenger boy, then to the parchment, then back to the messenger boy.

"Quill?" she squeaked, one hand flying up to grab a mop of silver hair. She spun around to face the hallway. "I need a quill! Mother? Poala! I need you to grab me a quill!" She spun again, skirts splaying as she faced the messenger boy. "I need one moment! Don't go anywhere, alright? Actually, you can come in if you like. If you have time. I'll be right back!"

The chimera clopped inside with anxious haste, looking from door to door as she searched. Another pair of hooves joined to create a small stampede of noise. If the messenger boy peered inside, he'd see a young girl, perhaps no older than two, that was slightly similar to Kauri with her deerlike legs and eyes resembling a cat's. This one was even more confusing than the older chimera, however- she had stripes on her skin and spots in her hair, horns that curled around her head and feline ears that plopped up between them. Not only that, but gems were embedded in her skin, dotting the child's arms and neck. She was a complete mess, no rhyme or reason in her design.

She came forth bearing a quill that Kauri had so desperately been stomping around for, which was accepted with a hasty thank you. She clopped back over to the messenger boy before searching for a surface to write on, choosing the door frame. She looked back at the young man, eyes wide as plates. "I shouldn't bring her here, should I? This place is a mess!"

An answer was scribbled on the parchment swiftly. The heart of Isra. That would be quite nice. When she was done, the chimera handed the paper to the boy. "Do I give this back to you?"

"Oh! Oh, oh, oh dear. That it is. Um. Tomorrow? Perfect. Plenty of time, right? Yes! I can get everything ready by then!" The confirmation was written onto the paper swiftly, but neatly. She watched the ink disappear again. It had been so long since she'd witnessed this kind of magic. Civilized, controlled magic. It was incredible.

Kauri smiled at the boy, though her hands seemed to be shaking nervously. She wasn't nearly as ecstatic as she wanted to appear. "Thank you so much for this delivery! Would you like some gingerbread? My mother made some this morning... oh!"

Before the words were out of her mouth, the smaller chimera had clumsily tromped over with a tray filled with steaming gingerbread cookies. Though she didn't speak, the young girl returned the boy's smile.

"Take as many as you like. It's a bit of a journey back to the city, so maybe we can make it a little nicer!"

"Take care!" called Kauri as the messenger boy rode off. Poala rose up both hands for her farewell, making sure he could see her. When he was well on his way, the two women walked back inside. Kauri heaved a sigh, hands coming up to her hair.

"Nooo! I'm going to need a different dress again!"

The small girl giggled quietly, running off upstairs to let her grandmother hear the news.

The sound of panicked clopping started the moment Grandma's knuckles met the old wooden door. They so swiftly advanced to the entrance that it was almost inhuman!

When the door swung open, the young lady that had stood in front of the messenger the day before answered, though her dress and presentation was much nicer than it had been before. She was always sure to wear a white blouse so that her skin wouldn't become a complete mess of colors. Over it, she wore a high-waisted, forest-green gown that complimented her golden eyes. A headpiece, something between a veil and a whimple, was attached to rings that were slipped over the woman's horns, draping over her shoulders and down her back in elegant folds. This dress did not stop above her ankles, as they often did to help her walk, so she wore a petticoat underneath her skirts, sprawling the gown out enough to give her reasonable legroom.

A smile was given to Grandma, warm, but nervous. The chimera clasped her hands at her waist and straightened her back. "Good morning! I am Kauri Graves, heiress to the Graves Estate and Ambassador for the Villagers of Paradise Island. I presume you are here to take me to the Imperial Vizer?"

As Kauri's eyes widened, her smile vanished, jaw nearly dislocating from gaping so wide. Not even a second went by before she clopped her mouth shut, grabbed her skirts, and dipped down in a deep curtsey. "My Lady, Imperial Vizer!" she squeaked. "I am deeply honored to be in your presence. W-Welcome to the Graves Estate! I apologize that you must witness it in such a state of disrepair."

When she straightened, she kept her gaze with the older woman. "It has been here for nearly a decade, My Lady. We are a family of leatherworkers and bookbinders that appeal to spellcasters."

The woman's hands were shaking from the nerves. She clasped her hands together, attempting to hide it. She climbed into the carriage with the Grand Vizer, feeling her heart race a mile a minute.