Cloud Foot by rose l. (best value ebook reader TXT) 📕

a cup of tea.

They all sat down a an oak table in a farse of a room to drink tea. Decd with decay, slidind wallpaper and collapsed furniture this room was stunningly decorated. Elizita looked down to see that there was nothing but stagnent water in her chiped tea cup. Reluctant to drink it she brocke the silence and said "How did you die?" in a confesional tone. Metoria looked at her with patronisation and said "What do you mean dear?" as though the question was a vulgar one.
"Well, you said that you "lived" here, and yet your still here."
"Yes, that's because we live here." said Birue, yet again patronising Elizita and acidentaly throwing her moldy water out of the tea cup as she spoke with her hands. "But look at your wig." said Elizita pointing at the gaping wound on Birue's head. "My wig is just fine child, and it's rude to point!" She said so defensively. Obiously the notion of this argument was funny to Metoria as she started snigeernig like a little infant as she attempted to drink her "tea"."But you have to be able to notice the massive wound in your head!"
"Don't be so imperdinant child! There is no such thing on my head!" Yet again this seemed very funny to Metoria as she now couldn't deny the fact that she was laughing. "Birue, Elizita is probubaly just tired from being so far away from home. Come on Elizita, I'll take you throught to the living room where you can have a little rest." Said Metoria as she began to calm down from the exitement

"Oh my goodness!" You've found my shoe and mirror!" Proclaimed Metoria as she spotted them on the side table. "Thankyou." Elizita rested on the white chair and Metoria went on. "Where did you come from Elizita?"
"I didn't come from Ebbston, I came from Chimray." "Oh dear, I've never herd of it. It must be quite far away. How did you get all the way out here?"
"I flew." Confessed Elizita. Metoria gave her the wierdest of looks.
"What do you mean?"
"My brother's a wizard and I stole his magical, enchanted flying chair, but then I crashed it out here and it's broken."
"Well then, your too far away from home. You'll have to stay here for a while to rest." Elizita was shocked, but the woman was right. Not only was Elizita tired out from everything that had happened today, but she was also to far from home to go straight away, before figuring something out. "Really, you think I should?" Elizita could see an advantage in this and it put off being told off by her grandmother. "Of corse you should, you can stay in the spare room. It's lovely, with pink wall paper decorated with roses, and a lovely view of the rest of the village."

On their way up stairs Eliziita saw just how Metoria died. On her back There were several stabb wounds, all still ozing blood from little slits in her dress. she found it difficult to climb the stairs as she couldn't stop stairing at the site yet the staircase had almost colapsed and most of the steps were missing. While Elizita was having trouble streaching her legs up 3 steps at a time, Metoria was effortlessly stepping on thin air. This was the only thing that could distract Elizita from her back as she tried to see Metorias little blue shoes manage none existant steps.

At the top of the stairs, Elizita saw the most disturbing thing she had ever seen. The dead bodies of the two women lined the corridorway. Their dresses were replicated on the skellingtons. Metorias lay, face down in a pool of blood stain, her arm craddling the floor, the very same blood stained slits in the dress, while Birue's leaned against the wall, it's head drooping into it's chest. The bones were dirty and coverd in dust. Thier dresses were so beautiful it looked like a painting of their moment of death. Just like everything else in the desert they were dead.

The spare room was dead, with faided wall paper, decorated by spides webs, and a creepy view of the rest of the village.

Later that afternoon, after resting Elizita came down to see Birue and Metoria sat at the dining table, collapsed at on side and rotten everywhere. A spare place was set out for Elizita however they were eating tried bones on rusted plates, and drinking sand in cracked wine glasses. "Oh Elizita, we didn't know when you'd be up, come and join us." said Metoria quite amusted and surprised.
"I'm not really hungry." lied Elizita, although the site of dead corpses hadn't really done much for her appetite. "Well sit, we were just talking about Bartholemue." said Birue. "He hasn't been over in such a long while, has he Metoria."
"Goodness no. I do hope he's well, though if not he's always got his sister to keep him company."
"You know, come to mension it, I haven't seen her in such a long time too. thought she would always be out in the garden tending to her plants. Ever since then, just like the rest of this aweful desert, her garden has perished."
"What do you mean" asked Elizita
"Well, don't you know about the drought."
"What drought"
"You must really live far away." said Metoria. "In this part of Mayren, a few months ago, there was a massive drought, which is why it's a desert and there are no more flowers."
"But where I live, it's always been desert. There have never been plants."
"Well here there were plants. All this desert was fields and fields of flowers. You see the colours of the houses in this village, blue, green, violet, orange, indigo, yellow and pink. Those colours were inspired by the flowers, that bloomed everywhere." Said Birue.
"It was so grand, me, Birue, Bartholemue, Granda, Yirona and Sith would go to the fields, and find our selves a tree to sit under. Last time we went to the fields, it suddenly started raining, and we all ran for cover to the village. That's when I was in such a hurry that I left my shoe and mirror."
"That's also the last time it ever rained." said Birue, disheartened and displeased.

"So this village, whats it called?" asked Elizita
"It's Derroth." Said Birue
"Why are all the houses so big and oustentatious?"
"Ah, well we come from very rich families, and they built this village so they could get us out of their hair" said Metoria.
"We were gien everything that we could possibly want, until we had "settled down and matured in sensible, civolized adults."" Said Birue mimiciing a well respected elder. "And that included the newest fations, best cooks and latest news of home." Added Birue with slight enthusiasm.

Then Metoria broke with "Though right now we are at a loss as we can't find our cook, I mean all her belongins are still here but she has just vanished and so have all the other servants. Though I guessed that it must be their hliday. Though I think somethings wrong as Mother and my family have stopped writing to me and my new dress hasn't been brought over yet. I really do thin that something terrible has happened to them. They must be having money troubles and are not able to keep for the servants. And I feel so guilty as I have been Txing them with so many expensive parties." And then she threw her self into a fit of tears, hugging Birues shoulder. "I'm so sorry, though you really shouldn't wory too much. If anything bad had happened they would have told you." Said Elizita trying to comfort her as she knew their reall sitiuation and how diar it was. "Maby, if it would make you feel better you should stop the parties fr a while." Sugested Elizita. " Ohhh, I haven't had a party in ages, for some reason no one esle really feels like amusement after the drought." She wailed

"What about your family Birue, have they been writing lately?"
"Why assume such a thing." Said Birue suspiously and defensively "My family don't write t me anyway, I'm suported by Metoria and her family." She stormed ut the room leaving Metoria to fall on to her empty seat.

For the rest f the evening Elizita and Metoria talked. "I still can't beleive that you pushed Uralo into the water fountain!" cried Elizita. "I know, I know, and right when he was going on about have marvelous his water fountain is!" Then she paused. "Even Birue was laughing hard then, she can be so moody sometimes."
"Why is that? Is it because of her family?"
"A few years ago, her farther and her brother had a disagreement and a duel was declared. She tried all she could to stop it as she knew her brother was a terrible shot and her farther would kill him for shure. She tried to sabotage the duel by tampering with the guns, but she was just told to stay out of their buissness. When her brother died she left the family. Not because of the duel, but because her farther missed and in his anger shot her brother several times."

Elizita looked at her, with her heart breaking for poor Birue. "That must be aweful. It really is kind of you to suport her."
"Don't even talk about her family, it will make her so distrort. Goodness look at the time, Elizita you should go to bed."

And so after the most unusual, exiting and terrifieing day Elizita when to bed. She borrowed a night gown from Metoria, though she could not take off her shoes and this really troubled her as she was not used to it. The nightgown was very old and had yellowed, sitting at the bottom of a dusty wardrobe. Elizita lie on the dusty bed in what was once a marvelous room. Ornate furniture ruined by time, the whole house was full of it, as well as memories that will not rest, and live on in death beyond sanity and reason.

Thirst woke her up. She had not had a drink in so long. Elizita crept down stairs, and to the kitchen. As she approached the state of the house worsened as she was entering the servants workspace. If she was going to find water this was the only place to find it as tea had been served as just water. The kitchen was pitch black but she could still see all the clutter. Actualy it was too clutterd as she found it imesly difficult to not trip over pot and pans. Surly time could not have done this? Pots and pans were drewn every were and it looked like a fight or struggle had taken place. Even a small broken window near the top of the wall, like many f the houses in the village. Elizita was now glad for her absence of bare feet. Then her red shoe nudged something and it made a peculiar soft jingle, like a wooden xilaphone as it fell into a different place and rearanged it'self. It was a skellington. A skellington of an inocent servant, in a gray dress, lied on the floor, with a bney arm still clung around a table leg, held together by the grey dress, rotting in the grey dress. Next to her another one crouched against the wall. And another on in the corner, hands still scratching at the wall.

She ran out of the kitchen screaming and triping over as she had almost forgotten that the ladies were ghosts and that everthing seemed ten times more scary at night.

Her back leaned against the