Camelot - Town Eerie - Ms. Mallory's Pawn Shop - 4 Years BDC

[Hollywood Heidi]

Ms. Mallory's Pawn Shop

An abandoned shop located in a dark territory within Camelot known as Town of Eerie

Events occurring 4 years before Dark Curse

Town Eerie

Ms. Mallory's Pawn Shop

[Ariel]

*** 4 YEARS BDC ***



"Town Eerie" is what the sign read that they had past as Jane and her father stumbled along the dingy cobblestone road and headed directly into the heart of the dismal looking town. Jane looked around at her surroundings and gazed up at the somber housings and businesses, whose rooftops rested just before the blanket of gloomy mist that covered the rayless sky.


"Are you sure that we haven't wandered far off of where we are supposed to go, father?" Jane had asked, noticing the few townspeople that crept alongside the streets, each staring intensely at the pair as they walked on by. Jane knew that they have stumbled into a dark corner in which they plainly do not belong, but she knew that once her father set his mind to a venture, that there was no turning back.

"Not to worry, my child! The tavern owner in the last town pointed us in this direction, we are precisely where we need to be! I hope you did not expect to find venom of the Harvester Ant in a sunny, tulip meadow!" her father chuckled, as he approached an eccentric looking man that was sweeping outside the front of a shop. "Good day, fine sir!" her father started as he approached the sweeping man, "My daughter and I are world travelling researchers, and are on the hunt for venom of the Harvester Ant. We were told that Town Eerie is the place to come and look for such a rare delicacy!" he excitedly explained.

Jane let her father do the conversing as she wandered not too far off to the side. Pulling out her notebook and pencil, she started to sketch a peculiar looking cat that had perched itself on a dusty old barrel. This place is curious indeed, she thought to herself as she produced the sketch.

The strange man looked up slowly from his sweeping duty at Jane's father, eagerly awaiting his answer. "Aye, that would be over at Ms. Mallory's Pawn shop where she keeps all kinds of poisons, potions and knick knacks. You can find it just down that alleyway there," the man explained, "But be warned - her place was raided by kingsmen  just the other night, resulting in Ms. Mallory's arrest. No one really knows why, I reckon it would have to be something horrible for the kingsmen to come all the way to a dreary little town such as this. Whispers around here say that she was practicing illegal, evil sorcery of some sorts. That is, if you believe in that sort of thing. I don't know what's left of the shop, but visit it at your own risk," the man warned as he slithered back into his shop and proceeded to slam and lock the door, drawing down the blinds shortly after.

"Thank you for your insightful information! We will put it to good use!" Jane's father expressed his gratitude through the closed door as he headed back over to Jane.

"Come along, Jane! The end to our destination is just around the corner!" Her father said excitedly. As Jane was wrapping up the final touch of the sketch, the odd looking cat took her by surprise as it let out a disheartening hiss at her before jumping off of the barrel and scampering away into the night. Her father gently grabbed her arm as he enthusiastically led the way down the gloomy alleyway.

They approached a door with shattered glass all over the ground, and within the broken glass and pieces of door was a broken sign. Jane picked up the sign and with her dainty hands she brushed the debris off of it. "Ms. Mallory's Pawn Shop" the sign read.

"Well my dear, this is it!" Her father bursting with enthusiasm pushed the door of the shop open. As Jane and her father walked inside, they noticed vials, books and knick knacks strewn all over the floor of the place, as well as a few tables were flipped over onto the ground. A few mischievous looking rats became startled by their presence and scattered into the debris.

"Let's start our search! I'll take on one end of the shop, you can take on the other side if you wish!" He said as he quickly dove into the search.

Jane cautiously looked around. She had an uneasy feeling about the shop, the hairs on her head stood up out of slight fright. Jane picked up a tattered book from off of the ground that had got ruined, most likely during the raid.

"What a waste of a book," she muttered, as she tucked the ripped pages into the front of the book. Jane could not help but to look at one of the pages, which bore an illustration of a weirdly coloured man with scaley skin, possessing piercing yellow eyes that you would normally find on a crocodile. She read underneath the picture, as it was captioned with the name "Rumpelstiltskin, The Dark One" she did not dare say the name out loud, as it felt cursed, but stared at the caption and picture. Jane was in awe as she had never heard of this creature before, there was more about him on the back of the page. However, she did not want her father to see her reading such dark literature, so she folded it up and kept it in her hands as she looked around for the vial of venom.

Jane came across skulls, jars of unknown items and substances, more books and oddly shaped trinkets. The whole place gave her the heebie jeebies, the sooner they found what they were looking for, the faster they could get out of the frightening town. Her hands glided over a velvet, onyx box. Curiosity caught her off guard of the mission, Jane could not help but to open it up to see what was inside. Inside the box resided a magnificent candle, one side was black and the other was white, bearing vine like detailing from one end of the candle to the other. A wick protruded on both sides of the candle, with a silver middle and red stone adorning all the way around. Jane felt almost hypnotized by the item, as if it had a mind of it's own. The energy that the candle gave off was incredibly strong, she could not tell if it was good or bad.

"Aha!! I've found a vial of the Ant venom! We did it, daughter!" Jane's father shouted from the other side of the shop. Jane snapped out of her gaze. The folded paper from the book still in her hand, she quickly put it in the small black box with the candle. Jane sharply shut the box and quickly put it in her bag with her notebook.

"That's wonderful, father! Let's get out of here, this place is really starting to take it's toll on my mind," she said as they headed out of the shop. It was a long way back to the docks, so they decided to walk back to the previous town and hitch a ride on a wagon back to the docks of Camelot where they would sail off to their next adventure. On the wagon ride, her father was already talking about their next pursuit as she was secretly peering into her bag at the black box, thinking about how she would put it in a safe place the next chance that she got.

"The last time we were in the Enchanted Forest, I heard talks of a Jungle Island not too far off of the coast. I've always wanted to see the Gorillas, what do you think, Jane?" her father asked.

"That sounds just lovely father," Jane happily expressed, as she felt as if she had enough of dark and dreary for a lifetime.