Mokley

Whistlehowl Star {always open!}

To hear a reference to the coterie ship in the sky coming from the shiny hollow armor of their newest strange friend was a wonderful moment for Sunny. She raised her bowl in cheers -- this picnic in good company, on the scraped and lopsided floor of a ruined house on broken metal legs. She tilted her bowl to drink the brothy oil at the bottom, and nearly choked on a laugh at Nyte's latest pun.

But it was Nyte's decision to join their coterie that brought a big grin to Sunny's face. "Yes!" she hissed through grinning teeth, a fist pumped. Nyte was so strange and unique, with a power enough to stop a runaway house in its tracks -- but the most important thing was her honesty and her kindness. Someone who seemed to like company so much -- who cared so much -- couldn't be left behind in those lonely woods. Only the best, the most amazing, for Sunny's coterie.

The presentation of the sword cast a breathless spell on the chaos of the house. Sunny's eyes grew wide, and she put down her bowl while she crawled closer on all fours, until the shine of the blade reflected on her mystified face. A choking noise snapped her attention back to Laphi, who -- until he had pulled out his tarot -- looked as if he'd seen a ghost.

After Laphicet's explanation, all three had fallen to staring at the sword and the card and the map of Shambler's Dragon.

"Something profound is at work here," Sunny said quietly, quoting something her mother often said. She released a slow breath, smiled, and climbed steadily to her feet. She looked to Laphicet and to Nyte, having barely met them but so proud to know them.

She extended a hand to Nyte with a confident smile. "Nyte. Welcome to the coterie. Together we're gonna be legends." She then reached down to help Laphi up -- and was suddenly filled with a giddy energy. "Pack all the supplies you can!" she told them both, already rushing to rummage through the piles and to open the cupboards and doors. "Food, clothes, blankets, kindling! It's a long way to Rymoln Wood!"

When, after a long while of sorting and packing and eating their fill, the coterie was ready to go, they would find the old man and the fairies had all gone. All that was left was a curled note, pinned to a tree by a sewing needle. It read, in flowing script:

we may meet again
in the city of smoke

The birds warbled and squeaked all around; a fragrant breeze rustled in the trees, dappling the ground in moving sunlight. The twisted branches arched overhead, while a rainbow of little flowers blossomed at their roots. Sunny rushed ahead with a laugh -- leading the way onward, to the next star in the constellation.

Whistlehowl Star {always open!}

"We're that close to Occurro?!" Sunny hollered, her jaw dropped -- and she burst into a laugh. "This must be it! Laphi! There's something here we need on our way to Whistlehowl! We made it, and we didn't even know it!" She laughed again and leaped up onto the porch, exhilarated by the knowledge that pure fate had brought them where they needed to go, and had the star-map spread out between her hands. They could cross off another point -- if only they could determine what, exactly, they were supposed to collect. She sat down with a flop and frowned at the crinkled map. "Maybe this walking house is supposed to be our new transport. But it's broken, and really too big for the roads, and Nyte said it wasn't even balanced right to begin with. Sounds like more trouble than it's worth, ya think? I dunno anything about making a house walk." Maybe if it was a flying house she'd have a very different opinion, but she wasn't thrilled about running around knocking down trees and other people's houses. She smirked at the thought.

She raised her head and glanced back -- Nyte hadn't returned yet from wherever she'd disappeared to -- then leaned closer to Laphi to whisper: "She obviously likes you 'cause she knows all the cat puns!" She gave him a grin and a wink just as Nyte returned, glinting, with a resounding strike and ring of new armor. The sunlight brightened against her; she looked almost like she was glowing.

"Whoa, Nyte! You're shiny!" Sunny hopped to her feet and jammed the map in her pocket again. "C'mon, let's eat! Either of you good at cooking?"

Together they could rummage through the stores in the ruined house to discover the hidden food supplies. Sunny threw some of the broken pieces of furniture into the stove and set them alight; after a pan was found among the wreckage, and some butter among the food stores, soon a nice meal was frying and sizzling over the fire. A blanket was spread on the tilted floor, two unbroken bowls found, and soon Sunny and Laphi each had a heaping, fresh hot lunch of salted fish and potatoes and carrots.

"I'm after the Whistlehowl Star," Sunny explained to Nyte over lunch. She produced the crumpled star-map and handed it to the knight. "The brightest star in the sky and the biggest legend in history. We're gonna find it, and we're gonna be an even bigger legend than Whistlehowl ever was. But to get there, we have to follow Shambler's Dragon -- the stars in the constellation are points on the map. The first point was where Laphi and I met, and we found that map. The second is right here where we are now. So after this, we're on our way to Rymoln Wood." Her grin turned smug. "You should come with us!"

Disneyland Advice?

Hey thanks for the insight! :D

Fortunately none of us are really into rides/thrills, so no disappointment there -- but we're not much into shopping either. Sounds kinda like we'll spend most of the time walking around and taking in the atmosphere and dodging kids, haha. Which I'm ok with! x3

Disneyland Advice?

A bunch of adults and I will be headed to Disneyland in California soon! I've never been there, I have no clue what I'm getting myself into, so thought I'd ask here for your recommendations! If you've been there, anything you wish you'd known ahead of time? Anything we should prepare for? Any favorite attractions or places? :D

Whistlehowl Star {always open!}

"She's not?" Sunny poked her head over the porch banister and draped her elbows over it. The old man was still below, in an argument with a fairy over who had been driving the runaway house. Sunny had abandoned them to sort out their differences on their own.

Instead, she stared curiously between Laphicet and the mysterious not-a-forest-guardian, a small grin on her face. "Well, you definitely look like a forest-guardian. You could probably be one if you wanted to. But Laphi!" she suddenly shouted, her grin beaming. She hoisted herself up higher, eager to tell him the story.

"You teleported! We were right down there, then we were up there, in an instant!" she flung her hands in the air for drama, nearly losing her balance in the process. "That's impossible and amazing! And then! You didn't see, we were trapped up here on the porch with no way down, and you," she patted Nyte's hollow armor, "ran right underneath the house, right into all those mechanical legs, I lost sight of you and thought for sure you'd be crushed -- but instead you brought the whole thing down. You didn't get a scratch, did ya?" She held a hand out to Nyte by way of introduction. "Since you're not a forest-guardian, I guess it's okay to introduce myself. I'm Sunny. This is Laphicet. We're vagrants, on our way to Occurro. Know how we can get there?"

Sunny looked from Laphi to Nyte and back again, then leaned close to whisper in Laphi's ear. "I think she likes you."

Whistlehowl Star {always open!}

Hokay, one interruption comin' right up! >:3

Whistlehowl Star {always open!}

@Tenma Tendo@Jade113 Lemme know when you're ready, I don't wanna interrupt! xD

Whistlehowl Star {always open!}

The forest-guardian's arm simply popped off, and Sunny's jaw dropped. "WAAA?! No way!" While Nyte spoke with the old man on the porch, Sunny (with Laphi still balanced, slumped, against her shoulders) rushed over to peer into the armor's arm-socket. "You're empty!' she gasped. Sunny banged her knuckles on the hollow armor, mystified.

The old man, meanwhile, didn't react at all to Nyte's state of dismemberment -- in fact, it was doubtful he could see any more than the blurry shapes of his visitors.

"Heh? My armor? This hunk o' junk?" the old man called feebly. "Are you the ones who stopped my house?"

"Definitely a mad scientist," Sunny agreed confidentially with Nyte.

"I've been tossed and tumbled for four days," the man continued. "I just want off this crazy ride. It's not worth it. I don't care what my son says, I don't care what anyone says, I don't need any fancy tosser of a house. I like my feet on the ground. Can you git me down? Help me down offer this thing, you kin have the whole mess. I'm jess gonna walk home, I'd like ter walk home. My son made this thing and he gave it to me and he says it's some wonderful thing that'll make my life easy, never gotta leave my house, well guess what I'm leavin' and I'm not goin' back in that crazy thing, not if ya paid me, kin ya help me down and I'll gift ya the armor and the full pantry and the whole dang demon-house --"

"Did you say there's food in there?" Sunny piped suddenly, after having tuned out most of what the old man had just said. With renewed interest she rushed over to Nyte. "'Scuse me, forest-guardian? Would you mind holding onto Laphi for a minute?" She hefted Laphicet up for Nyte to take care of him while Sunny rushed and scrambled to assist the old man to the ground.

"If yer hungry," the old man went on while he leaned on Sunny, "there's salted fish and a couple rabbits in the bottom cupboard, and two new loaves of bread, and stacks of potatoes, carrots, plenty of beans -- have at it, you people as much saved my life, I never want to see this thing again, it'll be too soon if I never do..."

Whistlehowl Star {always open!}

A voice shouted dimly over the cacophony of slamming and banging and whirring and smashing, and Sunny opened her eyes wide and leaned over the banister to see the forest-guardian standing, one-legged, waving her arms in the face of destruction. "We're holding on!" she called -- there wasn't much else she could do but hold on -- but she yelped and shouted concern when she saw the forest-guardian run straight under the house, into the chaos of deadly spidery legs.

Sunny stared at the last place she'd seen the forest-guardian, her eyes wide in horror, certain that any moment she would hear the telltale crunch of armor being compacted by the house's merciless legs. The forest-guardian hadn't even been able to move earlier without the assistance of a sword -- how was she going to stop a runaway house?!

And then, the creak and whirr of the house began to slow. Gradually, the tilting stopped, the floor steadied itself, and -- while Sunny breathed raggedly and watched in awe -- the house came to a complete stop.

For a moment there was beautiful silence. A breeze hushed through the trees; a bird warbled. Sunny could hear herself think again, and she loosened her grip on Laphi to check if he was all right -- then yelped when the house suddenly dropped a few inches. She tightened her grip to the sound of creaks, snaps and metallic groans lowered the house in a series of dips and drops -- until a sudden, ferocious thunder of twisted broken metal left the house to the mercy of gravity.

"aaaaaAAAAAAAAHHHH!!"

Sunny was sure she was dead -- but she carefully opened one eye to check. She was curled tightly against the railing, still holding Laphi in a vice-grip, but she was definitely alive and the house was mostly on the ground.

Dumbstruck in awe, Sunny carefully draped Laphi over her back and took a jump down to the grass below, hopping the twisted stump of a spider-leg on her way down. She stared up at the forest-guardian's thumbs-up with a slackened jaw.

"That ... was ..." she hadn't quite gathered her wits after that ordeal. "AMAZING!" A wide grin broke on her face. "How did you do that? You just ran under there and I thought you were a goner but you just destroyed that thing and got us down safe and I couldn't see what you did but it was brilliant and -- you're missing a leg." She blinked uncertainly down at the empty space where the guardian's leg had been.

"H-hello?" A feeble voice called from above; a rickety old man had shuffled to the edge of the porch of the house and stood woozily with a bony hand gripping the banister.

Whistlehowl Star {always open!}

OOOHH hahaha no my mistake, somehow my mind went directly to running on her hands .... for some reason .... carry on! xD