March 13, 1745.
The next chapter! Featuring some new characters heehee (Don't worry, there will be more of them in the future!)
I'm afraid that this chapter suffers from severe TWNFSTS (They Would Not Fucking Say That Syndrome), which I blame purely on the fact that I wanted my little Mr. Fernsby flustered and tworded a little. Is that a crime? But yeah, strangers irl don't act like this unfortunately, I just want everyone to adore my little scientist
Anyways, I hope you all are enjoying these so far! They're very very fun to write. I just hope it's not too anachronistic.
Word Count: 2282 (holy crap i really let that get away from me huh)
Reading Time: ~17.5 minutes
Warnings: Mentions of alcohol, un-proofread ofc
I am most certainly now on the right track. I arrived in the little Welsh town two days ago, and immediately, the quaint charm of this place struck me. Really, calling it a town is a bit of a mischaracterization of the location. It is more of a village. Llandeilo, the village in question, is quite, quite picturesque. The streets are cobbled and flanked by brick buildings which show their age. There is not a library here, to my chagrin - this village’s proximity to Talley Abbey, I had hoped, would grant me access to more documents, some of which might have helped in my search. However, it does have a market square, a tavern, and a coffeehouse, each of which may have some inhabitant willing to share their knowledge on the subject.
Cousin Barnaby's guest house is very fitting for my needs! The brute of a man does not truly understand what I am studying, and in his defense, I don't truly know either. Still, the house he has lent me is small, but with a spacious interior. Cousin Barnaby is the high constable for the village, and the poor man does not find intellectual pursuits in the least fascinating. Nevertheless, he has provided me with ample food and firewood for my little cabin, and if there is anything else I require, he has made it known that he is more than happy to provide for my needs.
By that time, I still did not know what was causing the featherflakes, and I was determined, yesterday, to find out what they were, and if it were possible to become exposed to them again - purely for research purposes of course.
That morning, I had decided to first try my luck at the market square. There were merchants from all over, coming to and fro, shouting their wares. The air was filled with many smells - spices, fish, cheese, and various medicinal herbs (which I had perhaps tarried too long in perusing).
The sounds of the market square were far more foreign than the smells. There were words shouted in Welsh, English, French, Irish - all of which I knew, of course, yet the combination of them all had a powerful effect on me. I believe I even heard singing from far off. There were numerous stalls filled with bartering and haggling townsfolk and merchants eager to swindle. I had walked up to one such tradesman at an empty stall, whose curly blonde hair, broad shoulders, and gap-toothed smile made him… quite appealing to the eyes. He seemed young and spoke in a smooth tone.
I straightened my tie and walked up closer. “Good morning, my good sir!” I had said to him, smiling confidently as I rested my hands on his stall, trying to emulate with every fiber of my being that I knew what I was doing. I did not in the slightest know what I was doing.
The tradesman chuckled softly, and spoke with a silky voice that, I admit, had a significant effect on my heartstrings. “Why, what do I have here! A university boy, come to pay a visit to my stall~!” He rested his chin on his elbow and looked me in the eye, almost smugly. “What can I do for you, stranger~?”
The confident, almost flirtatious, tone with which the man spoke put me at once off guard. Despite my best efforts, a blush found its way onto my face, and I found I could not meet his eye without a giggle. My hands fidgeted with the edges of my coat. “W-well!” I had said, “I’ve come to study a p-particular phemonenon- phenomemom- phenomenon!”
The man chuckled and motioned for me to continue with his eyebrows.
“Ah-! You see, I had encountered what seemed to be- a storm of feathers last year at around this time, and I had read accounts that it may have been an event more common around here- I was wondering if-”
“Heh heh… a storm of feathers, huh~?”
His voice stopped me and I looked back up at him. He was smiling smugly, as if he had known something about me that I did not.
“No, sir! I mean- yes, sir!” I stood up at attention, trying to organize my frazzled mind. How was I failing to speak to this man so wholly?
Another alluring giggle escaped his lips. “Well, I don’t think I know much about feathers, and far less about storms of feathers. I’m a traveler, you see - I don’t stay in one place for long. Perhaps you,” he emphasized that word with a single finger-tap on the tip of my nose, “might find better information at a place where the locals reside, hm~? The tavern, perhaps?”
The blush on my cheeks grew hotter, I knew it for a fact without needing a looking-glass. I nodded, eagerly wanting to escape his eyesight to retain my dignity. “Yes, sir! Thank you very much, sir!” I turned my back and began walking quickly away, pushing past a few others who had stopped to watch the conversation.
I heard a few giggles from the tradesman. “Ohohoh, so formal~! Well, I shall see you again soon! I am in town all this week, dearest~!” At those words, a squeak escaped my lips and I broke into a run, wanting nothing more than to escape from the giggles of that quite handsome and flustering man.
I went to some other shopkeepers, but none of them could provide any more information. The market square was clearly a poor start to this investigation. I just hope that word doesn’t spread around town too much about my… disposition.
I had planned on traveling to the tavern next, with or without that merchant’s advice. As I arrived, the sun had arisen over its peak and began sinking into the afternoon.
The tavern was a small one, but it was crowded when I entered. The room was filled with people larger than myself, a scenario with which I was, by that time in my life, thoroughly familiar. There was an out-of-tune fiddle being played raucously in an adjacent room, and other such sounds of frivolity were abundant.
Walking up to the bar, I noticed that the only two inhabitants were a woman and the bartender himself. The woman had a rough look about her, clearly someone used to hard work, if her muscles showed anything. She had her dark brown hair in a bun over her head, and wore a dark leather overcoat. The bartender was cleaning a wine glass with a rag, smiling at a joke the woman must have just told. He had an easy smile and his suave tuxedo suggested he was brought up in more high-class society than this.
I walked up and sat down at the bar next to the woman, motioning for the bartender to come over. “A glass of sherry, if you’d please, my friend!” I smiled at him, nodding when he looked at me with an arched eyebrow.
The woman next to me chuckled and turned to me in her seat. “You new here? I think I would have remembered you if I’d seen you here before.”
The bartender brought me my glass and I set down a shilling for his troubles. He took it happily and put it in the pocket of his waistcoat, smoothing his pomaded black hair. “He certainly seems new. That sherry had been collecting dust.”
“Yes, well, you see, I have a particular quandary, and I was hoping one of you fine people could help!”
The two of them looked at each other, smiled with their eyes, then turned back to me. The woman said, “Why, we’d be happy to help!”
I happily took a sip of my drink, finding it very delicious to taste. “Oh, splendid! All right, it goes like this. Last year, I had an encounter with a flurry of feathers. They had blown in and covered the house I was living in. They were a nuisance, but they caught my interest and held it.”
The gentleman behind the counter hummed, tapping his fingers on the counter as he listened and nodded. The woman, however, seemed uninterested.
“So, you came here trying to find out more? You came all this way to find a bunch of feathers?” She grinned at me and did the same as the bartender, tapping her fingers on the counter.
Trying my best to ignore the finger-tapping and simply focus on the question, I said in reply, “Well, these were no ordinary feathers! They clumped up and invaded my home, and there was an uncountable supply of them!” My speech was stopped by a quick poke to my side. I squeaked and looked down, but saw nobody’s hand.
“Of feathers~?” That was the gentleman behind the bar, now sharing the smile the woman had. They looked at me like two hungry dogs would look at a lambchop. Their finger tapping had increased in speed.
At this point, my face was beginning to heat up again, and I nervously drank the rest of my glass to avoid thinking about it. “Yes, do you… know where I might find these?” I felt a quick poke to my side again and jumped, gripping onto the counter to keep from falling, but when I looked back, there wasn’t a hand there.
The woman smiled and put her hand on my shoulder. “Oh, I think I know where we may find some!”
I smiled eagerly at her, ignoring the hand on my shoulder giving a gentle squeeze. “Where? I’d be delighted to know!”
“Why, outside! There’s a tree right next to here. There’s a rook’s nest up there, it should have some feathers.” With that, she gave me a quick poke to my side, which, with a rather embarrassing yelp, sent me off my stool and onto the floor. I flew to my feet in a huff, looking at her indignantly to hide the blush that had reached my ears.
“Madam! Never before in my life-”
The bartender interrupted my sentence with a chuckle, ruffling my hair. “Why don’t you run along, university boy? …Or else we’ll have to keep you here a while longer~.” His eyes narrowed as his smile grew wider. His finger-tapping on the counter had reached an almost scribbling-speed, making my blush grow wider as I looked at the woman a final time, then fled out of the tavern.
The woman and bartender laughed, the woman bringing her mug to her lips. “What an adorable little morsel. Hope he’s not leaving town soon.”
The market square was unhelpful, as was the tavern, but I was determined not to give up. In a last-ditch effort, I walked over to the coffeehouse. It was evening by then, and I hoped, perhaps naively, that I could still find some information on the featherflakes.
The coffeehouse had a warm glow, and a piano was being softly played in a corner. The landlord was stoking the fire from his seat next to it. I walked in, but upon seeing that there weren’t many people there, I sighed, and was about to leave. Then, however, I spotted a figure slumped over in a booth. Their head face-down on the table seemed… familiar.
I approached and sat down next to them, tilting my head in curiosity. Finally, with a gentle tap on the shoulder, I mumbled, “Hullo?”
The figure shot up with a start, mumbling about Suffolk in delirium before looking at me, and her eyes adjusted in recognition. I gasped softly.
“Clara?” I whispered. Her face erupted into a happy smile and she threw her arms around my shoulders.
“EREN! How have you been, my dear, dear friend!”
With a squeak, I pushed on her shoulders as much as I could. “Uh-! Mr. Fernsby, if you please-!”
“Nonsense! You are and forever shall be my little Eren!”
I growled a little and heaved her off, straightening my coat. “Mr. Fernsby, Clara.”
My old university roommate smiled her easy smile and pinched my cheek. “Whatever you say, Eren~!”
“Why does nobody in this accursed town take me seriously! I am on an investigation!”
“I believe it may be because you’re one of the cutest people ever born?”
“No, do not be ridiculous, Clara.”
She giggled and leaned back in the booth. “You just caught me on my mid-evening nap!”
I hummed an affirmative. “Tell me, which one is that? The fifth nap of the day of the sixth?”
She giggled and winked. “The sixth! You have a good memory, Eren!”
“Mr. Fernsby. Now, you wouldn’t perhaps know of any feathers around here?”
Clara put a finger to her chin and thought. “Well, there are those feather things that look like snowflakes. You mean those?”
I jumped and turned, wide-eyed, and exclaimed, “Yes! Yes, those! What do you know of them?”
She sighed, smiling, and pressed me back down into the seat. “I’ve been researching them for a bit. I could tell you what I know, if you’d like?” She yawned and wrapped her arm around me, pulling me close to her. “On second thought, maybe tomorrow.”
“No, no you-” I tried to protest, but the soft lighting and music, along with that glass of sherry were having a profound effect on my mind. I yawned after she did, and I nestled close to her - for warmth, though, and nothing else. She told me afterward that I was “a good cuddler,” despite the fact that it absolutely was not cuddling.
I fell asleep next to her rather swiftly, unfortunately, leaving the conversation about the featherflakes for the following day. I must admit… it wasn’t the most unpleasant end to the day.
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