Sunbeams filter in through frilly, pink curtains, illuminating the comfortable – but perhaps overly effeminate – furnishings of the guest room at the Duchess' townhouse.

As the streaks of morning light hit a certain black Khatta's eyelids like ballistic missiles, Jynx slowly starts to awaken. Groggily, he rises up from the bed, giving a sharp-toothed feline yawn, being quickly reminded of where he is as he surveys his surroundings. The bed was comfortable though.

*BANGBANGBANG* comes a hammering sound on the door. "Wakey up, kitty! MORNING! Come get food! Before it get cold and the Duchess get upset! Gnarr no like when Duchess get upset!"

Jynx sets his ears back as the Titanian abuses the door. "Okay, okay! Hold your Dromodons!" Getting up from the bed with a stretch, the feline puts on his clothes which he left draped over a chair, making sure his obsidian dagger is still at hand. Dragging his tail tiredly, he opens the door.

No sooner is the door open, than Jynx's arm is grabbed, and he's nearly dragged down the stairs to the dining room, where a breakfast fit for a queen – or at least a duchess – has been set. The Titanian plops Jynx right down into a chair, which is at the far end of a long table, with the young Duchess – her hair already done up in ribbons – across on the other end.

Eve giggles. "Good morning, Jynxie! I hope you had nice dreams?"

"Oof! Hey, watch it, you stupid mutt!" The Khatta rubs his now sore arm, staring daggers at Gnarr. He then regards his little sister, fighting a smirk due to her extravagance. "Actually, I didn't dream, and that's good enough for me!" He eyes the breakfast, his mouth starting to drool. "So Alysin left you all this? How come we didn't know about her sooner?"

Eve giggles and shrugs. "I don't know! I guess it just must be my good luck to inherit so much! I have so much good luck that it rubbed off on you, too!"

Jynx grimaces, "Yeah, sure." He looks again at the food, stomach rumbling. "Mind if I help myself?"

Eve says, "Alysin was our Great Aunt Alysin, who used to live in Sylvania. I guess Daddy never talked about her, because she was stark raving mad." She bats her eyelashes, smiling innocently. "Or maybe he didn't know, either. It's hard to tell with Daddy. Oh! Please! Eat up, eat up!"

The kitten daintily munches on a sugared strawberry, then dips her spoon into her bowl again, coming up with some tiny pala-fruit berries on the next trip.

The black Khatta starts to heap the various kinds of grub onto his plate, keeping an ear pointed at Eve. "She was our great aunt, huh?" He begins to munch on several strips of Bromthen bacon. "And she left me a place too? Wow, we need to find out just how many crazy relatives we have!"

Eve giggles again. "As far as I know, we don't have any rich ones left. Oh! That reminds me." She requests, in a sing-song voice, "Gnarrrrr! Could you pretty pretty please go fetch that nice little boxie for Jynxie-poo?"

Gnarr nods several times. "Gnarr fetch!"

The Titanian stomps out of the room and can be heard banging his way up the stairs. A painting almost falls off of the wall from the shuddering … but not quite.

Jynx slavers syrup all over a stack of pancakes, "Box?" We watches Gnarr warily as the Titanian stomps upstairs.

Eve nods. "It has your inheritance. Well, some of it, anyway! The castle wouldn't fit!" She giggles again.

The ebon Khatta's brow arches as he wolfs down his pancakes, "Shorm or vit?" he asks with a full mouth.

More pounding heralds the return of the Titanian, who is carrying a fair deal more than a "little box". It's a trunk, actually. He slams it down on the floor next to the black Khatta.

Alas, the Khatta's tail was touching that part of the floor.

"YEEEEEEEEEEOOOW!!" Jynx leaps from his seat, hissing a blue streak as he claws at Gnarr. "You stupid canine!! WATCH IT!!" He yanks his poor tail out from under the chest, and blows on it with a whimper. "Well, what's in it?"

Eve covers her face with her dainty little paws. "Oh my!"

Gnarr's ears droop, but at the question of what's in the chest, he eagerly cranks it open. It was probably locked, but … ah well … "Lookee!" says the wolf with a big grin.

The black cat winces as the trunk is ripped open, but peers wide-eyed into the box (tail still in hand).

Inside can be seen lots of rusty bars of metal, something wrapped up in a cloth package, something square and flat wrapped up in paper, and an envelope.

"Iron!" barks Gnarr. "You're RICH!"

Jynx does a double take at the chest, not believing his eyes. "Wow… the old woman really had quite a rainy day fund!" He picks up a few of the bars to test if they're real, and not too rusted as to be worthless.

It's honest-to-goodness iron. While it's a bit rusty, there's still no mistaking the solid weight of the bars.

The dark cat shakes his head in disbelief! "Amazing! I guess that auction house raked in the dough!" Putting the bars back down, the Khatta then notices the cloth package, paper package, and envelope. "What are these?" He picks the three of them up, and starts by opening the envelope.

The envelope is written in a willowy script on perfumed parchment, and begins, "Dearest Grand-Niece Feli… " From that point on, it's a rambling, disjointed discourse from an aunt to her … ah … niece … hoping that Feli will grow up to be a fine woman and give birth to lots of cute little kittens, etc., etc., and that this dress might help her win a suitor, and that she'll live happily ever after in her castle.

There's no sign of a dress … unless it's in one of the other bundles. (Probably not the square flat one, which feels like a picture in a frame.)

Jynx grimaces angrily at the envelope. "I think she meant this for you, Eve." He puts the letter back down in the chest, rolling his eyes. Yup, the old bat was a wacko. Oh well, one down, two to go! He next unwraps the cloth package, hoping she got the gender right this time.

Eve takes the envelope. "No, this says Feli. And, besides, she made me a duchess. You'd sound awfully silly if you were – Oh!" She eyes the pretty pink dress that Jynx pulls out of the cloth bundle. Funny … it looks exactly like the one that he ended up in, in that most odd dream back on Morpheus.

Eve mulls through the rambling letter, and flips it over. "Ooo! It says here that it's an enchanted dress, which has been handed down from generation to generation! Ooo! Can I have it? Pleasepleasepleaseplease?"

The black feline flares his nostrils. "Give me a break!" he sighs. "Enchanted?" he snorts, "How so?" With a sigh, he flops the dress over the side of the trunk, and goes on to the paper package.

Eve ponders the letter, then says, "Well, for one thing, it lasts a really long time, and it's really durable … and … oh! It protects the wearer from evil spells! Nifty! Although what I'd really like is a magic wand. Hmm. Maybe I could hire a mage to create one for me!"

Opening the paper package, Jynx rolls his eyes. "Sure, it's yours. Knock yourself out." Good riddance, he thinks.

A piece of parchment slips from the paper package, fluttering to the floor, but the bulk of what was inside is a framed painting of a castle perched upon a foundation of rock, in a rugged-looking, woodland setting. A nameplate at the bottom of the painting identifies the subject as "Blackshire Keep".

Jynx perks his ears forward as he gazes at the picture. "This looks interesting. Must be that castle in Sylvania," he muses to himself. Noticing the parchment on the floor, the Khatta bends down to pick it up. "Wonder what this is."

The parchment has writing on both sides – On one side is what appears to be a map … and by the captions appearing here and there, it would appear to mark the location of Blackshire Keep, within the country of Sylvania. The flip side is a deed.

The deed has already been filled out for "Feli Kurai", though no doubt the Temple will need to put lots of stamps on it, and exact taxes. Or, really, it might be more complicated than that, since Sylvania is a nation apart from Rephidim, and is bound to have some legal hassles of its own. Whatever, at least the deed makes no use of gender-specific pronouns that might repeat the blunder in the letter, and complicate things further.

The black Khatta scratches an ear. "Well, I guess this makes it official at least." He looks at the map side, and tries to make out the writing. "It must be out in the middle of nowhere if you need all this just to get there!"

Eve says, "I wish I had a castle, too … but I like it here!" She squeals happily, clapping her paws. "This is my little castle!"

Jynx grimaces at the white kitten. "Yeah, you're not hurting any… " he goes back to the map.

"Anyway," says Eve, "at least you have a place to live. If you don't want to stay with me, you can move out there, and have your very own castle! But be sure to write!"

The black Khatta scratches his chin, "Well, that's not a bad idea, actually. I wonder how the weather is in Sylvania this time of year… " The cat goes back to his chair, and munches on the rest of his breakfast while still musing over the map. "Since I don't have a place to live anymore, I may just have to go check this out. Couldn't hurt."

According to the deed and map, the ownership of land covers quite a bit of area … including a whole village by the name of Blackshire. Since there's a village there, land ownership must work a bit differently in Sylvania than it does in Rephidim. In any case, the area is within a heavily wooded area … and it's hard to tell from the symbols, but a large part of it might be a swamp as well. The woods nearby are labeled as the "Whispering Wood", and that area extends to the edges of the map. Only two roads lead out from the village, and there's no indication as to where they lead to.

Eve clasps her hands together. "It's springtime up there! It should be beautiful this time of year! The birds singing … the flowers in bloom … just like my little castle!"

"Hmm, quite a score." He polishes off his plate, and goes back over to the trunk, putting things in order. "Mind if I stay for another night, sis? I think I have some traveling to do tomorrow… "

Eve says, "Oh, I don't mind at all! And thank you so much for helping out with my play. It's a smashing hit, I'm told! You are the best actor I could possibly get to play the part of you!" She giggles to the point of her shoulders shaking.

Jynx eyes his little sister with a smirk. "Well, that makes sense, I guess." He closes the trunk, putting the map back inside. "Are Mom and Dad okay with you living alone like this?"

Eve says, "Well … they still drop by a lot and Mama keeps fussing over me. But Papa thinks that it'll teach me responsibility … even if I waste all the money." She tee-hees. "I still have to do my reading, writing and 'rithmetic, though." She sticks out her tongue. "I can't hire someone else to do that for me."

The black Khatta nods. "Well, just be careful." He picks up the dress off the trunk and tosses it to her. "You can make better use of this than me. Oh yeah, about that dream part of the play," he grins, "cut it."

Eve awwwwws! "But everyone loves it!" She catches the dress and carefully places it on a table, smoothing out the creases.

Jynx grabs the handles on either side of the trunk, and, clumsily, tries to pick it up to take back to the guest room for safe keeping. "Oof! This thing is heavy!"