The Sleeping Music Box

The wind howled outside while Pyrrha huddled in the inn. She had been cast out of the pegasus knights several months ago and had already burned through all her coin that she’d had on her. However, the innkeepers here had taken pity on her due to the sudden turn in weather. She was beyond thankful, however, as she could tell the snows would come early this year. Being so connected to the sky, she could easily tell when there would be a turn in weather or not. This winter promised to generally be pretty mild, but the snows would hit sooner and had theyeverand with avengeance.The wind had been howling for several days out to the point where the horses and her own mount, Nendia, couldn’t even have turnout. Keeping them in the stable was best to keep them warm. Pyrrha currently sat in the common room with a warm mug of cider, leftover from the fall’s apple harvest. She definitely wouldn’t complain about the warm drink helping chase the chill of the past several days away. She knew this wasn’t a permanent arrangement, though. As soon as the weather turned nicer again, she would have to be back on the road. The sisterhood had exiled her from Illyria entirely and she couldn’t remain within the borders. But she could only travel so far by foot. Borders were quite a long way away in either direction, though she had gone more toward the east than west. She finished up her mug of cider and set about exploring a bit. She knew better than to go into the patrons’ rooms, but it wasn’t like she would go snooping into any personal effects. She found herself in the attic a bit later. This was probably storage for the owners and she probably shouldn’t go in, but she couldn’t entirely hold herself back. She tested the door and it unlocked easily despite there being a keyhole. She really hadn’t expected that…but she wouldn’t complain either. She went inside and looked around. Not much out of the ordinary really… Trunks, boxes, and other things the owners wanted to keep but needed to put into storage. However, a sound soon caught her attention. It was soft and tinkling, not something she would expect in an attic. She followed the sound until she found a box where it emitted from. She shouldn’t be going through people’s things, but the sound drew her in. It sounded buried in the box unfortunately, so all she could do was dig around. It just seemed to be old clothes. She eventually withdrew a small music box that played a pretty little melody. She wondered why a music box would be hidden like this. They were expensive pieces as they required everything to be handmade especially the little keys and the melody wheel. Why would they hide it in such a place? It should’ve been in a place of honor in their bedroom or something like that. Then again…why was it playing? Music boxes required someone to manually wind them up so they would have the energy to play. If it was up here in the attic, shouldn’t it not have been playing? Was there something wrong with it? It definitely shouldn’t have hadanynoise emitting from it. Eerie. But she knew she couldn’t take it downstairs. The box finished playing and Pyrrha looked at it in her hand. It was a tiny little thing, but she knew it would cost something like ten or twenty gold pieces. Even for someone in the Sisterhood, it would beextraordinarilyexpensive. Selling it would get a pretty bit of coin. If they didn’t want it, why not just sell it? It made no sense. She really just had no idea how to handle this situation. She slipped it into her pocket and headed out into the howling storm. The barn wasn’t too far away, at least, so she could handle the short walk there. Once inside, she sought out Nendia’s stall. The pegasus rapped at the stall door with her hoof. Pyrrha frowned and sighed. “I know, girl; I know. You don’t like being kept up for days. But we don’t have any choice right now unless we want to be out in that vicious wind.” Any pegasus should be flying or at leastgrazingin the pasture. This was borderlinetorturefor any pegasus, being stalled like this. The music box started to play by itself again and Nendia stilled, almost as if in a trance. She lowered her head and closed her eyes, seeming to go to sleep. Pyrrha looked around the barn and the other horses did the same. How odd. She really had no idea what this was about. The music stopped a moment later but the horses and Nendia remained asleep. The pegasus normally wouldn’t be able to sleep so easily. It was very strange to see… This music box apparently had some sort of magical properties that she didn’t know about. She probably shouldn’t keep holding into it, though. So she returned inside and put it back in the box where she’d found it. She hoped that the owners wouldn’t realise she had dug through their belongings and found it… If anything, she felt exhausted now too. She yawned and headed back to her room, curling up on her bed. The fire crackling in the hearth warmed her and sent her off into a world filled with constant food, warmth, and comfort.