Wednesday, 5 November 1800. 8:15 p.m.
The yard behind the house
Mika came up from the earth much later than usual that night. While she reprimanded herself for laziness, she knew how badly she had needed the rest. Feeling a little better, she went back to the house.
The first thing she noticed was the blood was being soaked up by the some of the remains of the curtains. Not too bright; what were they going to eat here if that stuff got thrown away? Though they might be planning to squeeze the blood out of the cloths into something more usable. Even if they weren't, she planned to suggest it.
The busted door had been turned on its side and pushed up against the hole on the wall that Mika had discovered the previous night. The broken chairs were piled up in a corner and she could see the whole or mostly whole ones standing in the front hall. Apparently, the others had gotten up early and gotten straight to work.
"Hey, Gangrel!" Mika looked up as she walked into the front hall. Carid was standing at the top of the stairs. "So nice of you to join us. Come up here, I need some help." Mika scampered up the stairs and followed the Tzimisce into her room.
"Hold this." Carid said, indicating the large table she had lifted from the ground. It seemed to be missing part of one of it's legs. Mika crossed the room and held up the table while Carid took what was apparently the missing table leg and slid it into place. She then grabbed a piece of the curtains that was lying on the floor and tied it around the leg and it's broken counterpart.
"There. That'll have to do for now. Thanks." She said as Mika released the table. "I can't believe this. My operating table. All the way from Constantinople, too."
"Um...isn't that part of the world called Istambul these days?"
"I don't care. My sire called it Constantinople and so do I." Carid said resolutely. She suddenly got up and glanced around the room. "Oh...there it is." she pulled a small shiny blade out of the pillow on the other side of the room. "I hope it didn't get any negative Tremere engeriges on it....." she said, wiping it in her shirt sleeve.
"What's that?" Mika craned her neck to get a better look.
Carid held it up proudly. "A scalpel."
"A...what?"
"A state-of-the art operative tool. Designed to cut delicate incisions and cause quite a bit of pain if you push it through the right muscles." she grinned. "I'm glad they only stabbed it through the pillow. It might have broken...."
Mika nodded, now understanding. A torture device. Naturally. "Hey, who was responsible for the cloth on the blood puddle downstairs?"
"Sugar, I think." Carid shrugged. "She was up first."
"You weren't planning to throw it out, were you? What are we supposed to eat?"
Carid put her scalpel down on her writing desk, a piece of furniture too bulky to be badly damaged. "Can we save it?" she asked. "Most of it was clotted up."
"I'm not sure, but I don't know where else we're going to get food. Unless you guys want to come hunting with me and we can all drink animal blood." Mika shrugged as Carid wrinkled her spiked forehead in disgust. "It's not too bad, really. You'd probably be able to take it if you just didn't think about where it came from."
Carid considered for a moment. "Hey! Don't Assamites have some sort of...thing they have with transporting blood?"
"Uh....I guess they must, if they're supposed to take a blood tithe back to their base with them when the complete a contract."
"So let's ask Sharma to go collect animal blood!" Carid grinned triumphantly.
"Maybe she and I could go together." Mika suggested, remembering Sharma walking right in the front door of the house. Such a tactic was workable for battles, but you had to sneak up on animals.
"Alright. Come on, let's go find her." Carid started out of the room, Mika on her heels.
Carid was halfway down the hall when she realized the Gangrel was no longer with her. She looked around, confused, then doubled back to the doorway of her room.
"Michaela?"
The Gangrel had clearly made it to about the edge of Amy's bed. Now, she was crouched down beside the torn mattress, sniffing the surrounding area for all it was worth.
"What are you doing?!" Carid asked incredulously.
Michaela didn't answer.
"Gangrel?"
Still no answer.
"Does the Tremere smell that bad?!"
Carid was about to give up and go find Sharma when...
"It's not her."
"What?"
"It's not the Tremere...something else...."
"Um...what?" Carid stepped a little closer.
"Stay there!" Michaela barked so forcefully the Tzimisce actually obeyed. "Your scent throws me off...."
"Well, excuse ME...." Carid slipped out of the room, more than a little disturbed. But she judged it best to just let the Gangrel do whatever it was she was doing.