Sweat drips from my forehead as my arms wrap around the towering piece of furniture pressing itself against my chest. My breath is short and sharp, my back pressed between my door frame and my chest compressed by over a century old variable wall of varnish hardwood.
With the help of a set of steel-capped boots I had slowly waddled the damn thing out from the street and up four flights of stairs, the process having taken hours after finding this beauty out on the street during my morning walk.
Now, stuck between my bedroom door and the massive wardrobe, I'm forced to wiggle it fraction of an inch by fraction of an inch along with me. My arms and legs beg for relief, my core aching and my body exhausted to the point of nausea.
However, knowing that I wouldn't be able to wriggle back into position if I quit now I slowly and carefully shift the massive piece of furniture into the room. With a loud asp of relief I feel the slat of wood wedged into my back deflect off of a shoulder blade, the legs of the wardrobe crunching into the floorboards slightly as I manage to drag the thing with me into the bedroom proper.
"Why..." I pant, taking a deep breath as I twist the wardrobe around and shove it roughly into a corner. "... Why did I think I could do this by... by myself..." I huff and puff, inhaling and exhaling deeply as I tumble back onto my bed.
While the wardrobe wouldn't exactly live where I left it, the tall and wide deep red-ish brown centerpiece still sitting partially up against the doorway and blocking the entrance, I am still able to take it in.
As tall and it is wide, the wardrobe itself looks more like a built-in piece of furniture. The piece simply must have been a custom commission, the sheer size alone making it impractical to have in most bedrooms.
However, despite this, the wardrobe itself was simply nothing short of a masterpiece. From carrying the damn thing it was easy to tell the wood was old growth, the sheer heft and density to it being beyond what you could likely find available today. With this in mind the carving work seems to have been done with an amazing eye-for-detail.
The whole thing is framed by a set of thick wooden beams, the sides having been etched with practically life-like depictions of songbirds and insects. Nests sit filled with carved in eggs, bugs emerge from cocoons and winged inspects appear as though they are mere moments from escaping the wood itself.
The two massive doors have not been spared the carpenter's touch, with rings running around the wood in layers as though to create a sense of depth to the carving. The staggered layers of art work appear to form the depiction of a path, or really two with one curving off from each door and towards the hinges. Trees line the outer edge, their branches reaching over to form a canopy and to form a frame with their mirror image on the other side.
Two wooden handles sit side by side in the doors of the wardrobe, a simple indent with a curved handle resting inside. Tiny fluttering creatures rest on the ring of runed wood surrounding each of the indents, the small fantastical beings appearing to look directly at me with wide dark eyes and giggling faces.
"Fairies?" I muse, cocking an eyebrow as I look at the inch tall creatures resting and flying around the handles in the carving. "I guess they match the forest theme and... how old is this thing anyway?" I ask no one in particular, falling back onto the bed with a groan as I rest my pained arms and legs.
How could I have known just how old the wardrobe was, a gift from a fair folk for a favor given.
Centuries old, the Wanderer's Wardrobe had been crafted for a noble couple centuries ago. The lord of the land had rights over who could and could not hunt on his lands, and when granting those rights on a section of old growth in exchange for silks and furs the local residents had offered him and his wife something to help clothe them instead.
In exchange for barring entry to the forest, allowing this vestige of the old world to remain alive and thriving beyond the prying eyes of mortals, the lord and his young wife would be gifted the most magnificent wardrobe. Designed by the fae, crafted by master gnomish artisans and made from the fallen tree of a dryad the piece was something beyond what any man or woman alive could hope to replicate.
Inside was clothes for all occasions, the enchanted wardrobe summoning forth a collection of clothes whenever it is opened to give its owner variety.
Upon seeing it the lord had immediately accepted, with no small amount of urging from his wife as she stared enamored with the fine silks and warm furs hanging inside the wardrobe. However, it only took a week before the Lord sold the rights to hunt in that forest once more, the powerful gentlemen not liking the idea of being told how to manage his own property.
It was then the wardrobe's malicious nature finally emerged. For that one week it had given clothes without any issue, the lady of the house prancing about the halls in a new refined and lavish outfit every day. However, on the day the hunting rights were bartered for the young lady was no where to be found.
Searching high and low the Lord returned to his chambers, his gaze turning to the open wardrobe. Shuffling over, exhausted from his search for his lawful wedded wife, he reached out to a rather strange muddy piece of commoner's garb. As he snatched it in his hand the clothes whipped deeper into the wardrobe, dragging him in along with it.
In an instant the Lord was gone, the world changing to be as though he had never existed. On the other side of the country a young homesteader stumbled out of her wardrobe, the aching and exhausted young woman tired from a day in the local lord's field and shivering in the cold as a burly man motioned for her to come to their 'bed'.
By morning the wardrobe was sold, the man of the house not even knowing where the lavish furniture had come from. His 'new' wife hadn't even woken to the noise of the wardrobe's removal, the rough fucking from the night before and the sudden impact of a day's hard labor leaving her exhausted body longing for the pile of rags that gave the dirt floor some semblance of comfort.
From then on the wardrobe had simply traveled the world, coming into people's lives and quickly changing things for the amusement of those who had commissioned it.
After a short break I slowly come to my feet, my arms shaking slightly as I walk up to shift the damn thing across the room. As I reach out to grapple with the massive thing once more time I pause, my head shaking from side to side.
"There has to be something inside this thing" I grumble, trying to justify why I was struggling to move the giant piece of furniture. Reaching down to the handles I pull it open, my eyes going wide as I stare at the racks of well hung outfits.
"I knew it, I..." I cheer, my excitement turning to a low groan as my shoulders slump. "Why didn't I check before I moved this fucking..." I grumble, my head perking up as I look at the clothes dangling inside.
