Inspecting the Property

Crossing town, Ava couldn't help but let out a slight frown as she finally entered the property. The building was dusty, and quite a bit of the included furniture had long since rotted. Although she had already had a rough idea of what it might look like, she had to admit it was quite a bit worse than she had expected. Of course, it wasn't really anything to complain about. No matter how she looked at it, even if she only considered the land included, it was a decent deal.

As for the furniture… Well, it could be replaced, and for now, they only had to clear out enough rooms for the four of them. They could take their time on the rest. On the other hand, while Ahri was composed, Haley couldn't help but look a little distressed as she examined the dirty corridors in front of her. "Fuck, that Jake should have his knees broken in. How the hell could he say that this is in livable shape?" As for Lily… she had already run into the back and was playing in the tall grass.

Letting out a sigh, Ava said, "It's alright, the main structure still seems stable, so it is 'livable.' Do you really think he would have sold it for cheap if it was really in decent shape?" Then, turning to the side, she yelled at Lily, "Get back here. Do you want to bite a snake?"

A moment later, Ava heard a small yelp from the tall grass and couldn't help but feel a twitch in her eye as she watched Lily run back with several stands of grass in her hair. Letting out a sigh, she gestured for Lily to come over, and after forcing the girl to crouch down a little, she picked out the worst offenders and tickled Lily's nose with them. "Lily, go with Ahri later, alright?" Then turning slightly, she and Ahri shared a look and nodded in unison before turning away.

"Alright, let's head inside, feel free to wander, but be careful on the stairs, and if anything looks fragile, stay away from it and let me know later, I'll go check it out." Reaching into her pouch, Ava took out three small bolts of cloth and handed them to the three girls around her, "If you see a room that you like, tie the cloth around the doorknob so that everyone else knows. Alright, shoo, go."

After watching the three girls go inside, Ava let out a small sigh and looked at the field in the back. Going to the left, she found a somewhat broken fence that had, for the most part, already collapsed, but nonetheless, it would be enough for what she needed. Reaching her waist, Ava pulled out the small black obsidian dagger that she had gotten from the Rat a few years back. Compared to when she had found it, the knife had quite a few chips in it, as Ava had learned the hard way that the knife was rather fragile.

But, although it was fragile, the knife was also exceptionally sharp. Following the fence, Ava started surveying the length of the property, cutting the grass in her way using the knife whenever the grass got a little bit too tall. Following the path, Ava couldn't help but let out a small nod when she observed a small pond that was situated not too far away from the main house. That seemed rather clean, with the exception of a few pieces of the fence that had fallen in. Circling around the pond, Ava continued forward and continued walking.

The property was rather large, sitting at about a hundred acres, but was much longer than it was wide, resulting in it being a rather long strip, and the only water source wasn't very close to the center of the property, which was somewhat undesirable for farming, which had led to its unpopularity. Of course, while this was a problem for farming, it was perfectly fine for Ava, who simply planned on setting up some training dummies and targets. In essence, it left her with an area that was roughly three hundred meters by a thousand and two hundred meters, which in reality was much longer than she needed for an archery range, especially considering she primarily used a recurve bow.

After walking a little bit further, the tall grass started to recede, revealing a large plain of somewhat dry and yellow soil that was overgrown with dry and prickly-looking weeds. Thinking for a moment, Ava estimated she had already roughly walked around three hundred meters and decided to stop for the time being. Thinking for a moment, she didn't immediately turn around but instead followed along the side of the field, following it until she ran into a broken down fence on the opposite side of the property and then followed it back to the main building.

Heading inside, Ava picked out a couple of pieces of grass from her hair before running around on the first floor and not seeing any pieces of cloth. Of course, that being said, there was only one half-decent bedroom on the first floor, and the floorboards were somewhat roughed up, revealing dirt. Shaking her head, Ava made her way up to the second floor and found Haley, who was currently cleaning up a room that she had selected for herself. Looking around, the room was rather spacious and in decent condition, and it had a nice window that overlooked the back of the property, which at the moment wasn't a great sight.

Waving hello, Ava passed by after looking around for a moment and found a room near Haley's that she thought was fine. Although it was a little smaller, the window was positioned in a nice spot, and there was a large tree nearby that she could reach with a small jump, which meant it was a decent spot to escape. But after inspecting the room a bit further, Ava pursed her lips and decided to leave it as a maybe.

Wandering upstairs, Ava decided to keep looking around.