Like a weary sentry, the door protested their efforts with a futile whine--but then it collapsed with a tormented roar, splintered and broken. Barry's ears flattened and the fur rose slightly along his spine. Being the first Luperci to enter an old human building always gave him a weird feeling he could neither place nor shake. It wasn't like coming home to the garage, a warm place meticulously reconstructed and preserved by three generations of his family. It wasn't like the mega-centres frequently ransacked by any and all passer-bys, either. It was more personal--it felt like more of a violation of something. Once upon a time, this had been a family business.
Still, these things resonated only deep within his subconscious; they were a kind of borderline-mystical connection to the sentient beings of the past. As Pixie stepped nonchalantly into the dusty room, the feeling subsided. It was replaced by a combination of excitement and irritation. Specifically to his nasal cavities, on the latter point: the door had launched a cloud of dust airborne, and he sneezed once, twice, thrice! to expel it from his nose. He waved a large black paw in front of his face to clear it, which seemed to help somewhat. The room smelt stale and dry. Hopefully they'd be able to locate suitable instruments quickly, since he didn't want to stay in here much longer than necessary.
Fortunately, Pixie was on the job. While he subdued his sinuses, she singled out the most likely spot to snag one or two of the sought-after stringed instruments. His tail swung behind him as he stepped in behind her. As in the main room, everything here was coated in a layer of lacklustre dust--and in this windowless pocket of the building, it was even harder to see. The teen fished around in his pants and produced a lighter, which cast a weak orange glow around the room. "Woah," he breathed. Something had caught his attention. A guitar with an unlikely checker-board pattern, peculiar because the squares were irregular in size and direction. Still holding the lighter in his right hand, he went to pull it from the wall with his left.
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