Pedro

"But soft! What light through yonder window breaks?
It is the East, and Juliet is the sun!
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
who is already sick and pale with grief
That thou her maid art far more fair than she."
-Romeo and Juliet

((OOC: Hiya, Flo here. I'm sure you recognized the quote immediately. I suppose my entry won't be quite like that, but what's a good story without a little romance, even for a cranky witch?))

Tap...tap...

"Myrtle, I thought I told you to go to sleep."

Tap...tap...tap...

"Myrtle, I swear I'll-"

Tap...CRASH!

"MYRTLE!!" Vera sprang out of bed and grabbed a candle. She had trouble lighting it at first, because there was a breeze coming from the open -- wait. She hadn't opened the window! She squinted at it. Sure enough, it was broken. Shards of glass littered the ground beneath the window sill, and a largish stone lay on the ground beside it.

"Myrtle, once again, you and your clumsiness -- Myrtle?" Myrtle was not in her cot. Come to think of it, Vera realized that she hadn't made a sound all this time. She crept silently over to the window, aware of the apprehension that tinged her annoyance. If Myrtle wasn't standing lurking under the window (and why she would be there, Vera had no idea), well...let's just say it could be anyone.

"Who's there?" she called in her most authoritative voice.

There was a rustling of bushes, a thud and a muffled curse. Then someone cleared their throat and half whispered/half shouted, "Is that -- is that you, Vera?"

Vera frowned. She knew that voice. Where did she know that voice from? Hold on...it couldn't be..."Pedrito?" She stood up and leaned out the window, careful not to cut herself on the broken window pane. Squinting, she could barely make out the scrawny young man from her village. "Pedrito, why have you thrown a rock through my window?"

"Actually, I go by Pedro now. Is that just you up there, or is Myrtle with you?" Pedro asked, ignoring her question.

"That's none of your business, and you didn't answer my question. What are you doing down there, throwing rocks through people's windows?"

He shuffled awkwardly. "I didn't mean to break your window, I'm really sorry about that. The pebbles didn't seem to be working, so I opted for one that was a bit heavier...sorry. Can I talk to you, Vera?"

What?! Myrtle was missing, this idiot had just shattered her window with a rock, and he wanted to talk? She voiced these thoughts aloud.

"Myrtle's gone?" asked Pedro, genuinely surprised.

"Yes, she is. I'd thought you might have had something to do with it. If I remember correctly, you two were practically betrothed."

"Yes, well," Pedro scuffed his foot nervously against the ground, "that's sort of that I wanted to talk to you about. Do you think I could come up there? It's very cold out here."

"So sorry, but I can't, seeing as Myrtle's off and disappeared. Again. If you'd like to come along to help me find her, you're welcome. I'll meet you down there in half a second." And before Pedro could protest, Vera ducked back into her room. She gathered a few essential tracking materials (most significantly, her Myrtle-ometer, a device that was far more efficient than a tracking spell, which her mother had made when she realized how prone Myrtle was to wandering off), donned a traveling cloak and made her way out of the inn.

As she walked, she thought about Pedro. It had been years since she had last seen him. He hadn't grown much. He and Myrtle had played together often as children. They both came from significant, well-to-do families, and everyone sort of assumed that he and Myrtle would end up marrying each other. He still kept in contact with the two sisters, even after they were orphaned and sent off to be raised by the League of Witches. Of course, he didn't know that: he simply thought they were sent away to boarding school.

Vera herself had been betrothed once. (This was when it was just about to go out of fashion. Myrtle had never been traditionally betrothed: it was merely assumed that she'd settle down with Pedro.) It was ironic, she thought, that now, years later, she should be pursuing this man not to marry him, but to kill him. Ahhh, how things had changed.

Wait till Myrtle finds out she has a stalker. Of course, she'll probably be overjoyed that her beau came all this way to see her. They do get a bit ridiculous at that age, what with the raging hormones and whatnot. I'm sure I was never like that, of course.

As Vera approached the clearing, Pedro's face lit up. (No, not just because Vera had a lantern. It was more of an internal thing for him.) "Vera! Excellent! Now can we talk?"

"Yes, talk while we walk, and make it quick. By the way, this had better be very, very important. You're a great nuisance, you know." At this, Pedro looked genuinely hurt, but Vera took no notice. At least, she pretended not to. "Now, be quiet a moment." She pulled her Myrtle-ometer out of her pocket. The instrument comprised of a swiveling triangle mounted on a stand. She held the device firmly in her hand, bent her head over it, and muttered something to it. The triangle began to spin very fast, until it suddenly stopped dead, pointing straight down the street. "Come. This way," she ordered, before taking off at a brisk pace.

"What's that?" Pedro pointed to the strange instrument.

"A Myrtle-ometer."

"Oh. What's it for?"

"Finding Myrtle."

((OOC: Ok, well, that didn't go exactly as planned, but what can ya do? By the way, I tried to avoid just dumping a bunch of back story into this post, so there's still some stuff I'll explained later. Me an' Ruby plotted a bunch of it out, and I'm not sure if I remember it all properly. I hope I got it right. 'Twas very entertaining to come up with it. Mwahahaa.))