Pink Poogle Toy Forum

"Halt there!" A small troop of faerie soldiers stood before the caravan. One of them who was clearly the leader was holding up a hand. Each wagon slowly creaked to a halt.

The wrinkly gypsy driving the foremost wagon puffed on his pipe in a leisurely manner. Two soft, grey smoke rings drifted slowly away before he spoke. "Is something the matter?" he drawled.

"Yes," said the captain, his green-grey eyes flashing. "There was an explosion occuring near your camp last night. Do you know anything of that?"

The old faerie pondered upon this for a moment. "We heard a bang," he commented, "but that was all." He paused and eyed the captain in a thoughtful manner. "Perhaps you have come to the wrong caravan for information," he added helpfully. "We saw smoke from a campfire some distance away from us. In the direction of a lake, I think, but I did not see it myself ... I was reading a good book. That was a mightily good book, really. Yes, I think I'll recommend that the next time someone is looking for a good read ... " His voice trailed off as he lost himself in his own thoughts, apparently forgetting the existance of the soldiers until the captain made an impatient gestures.

"Ah," the old gypsy nodded to the captain. "You reminded me. If you don't mind, we'd like to move on."

The captain scowled. "Well, I do mind and you're not going anywhere. We suspect that you can provide valuable information for who is responsible for the explosion and for the lake drying up," -- "The lake dried up? How odd. What would anyone want to do with all that water?" the gypsy mused -- "as well as the death of many trees, dryads and other faerie folk living in the affected area. You must come back with us to provide any information that you have to give and all your caravan with you. You -- "

"In other words," the gypsy interuppted. "You suspect us." He shrugged his soldiers. "There is no need to go to the palace. You may ask questions here and you will find we have little other information to give. We have nothing to hide, after all."

A triumphant smile began to twitch at the captain's face. "Oh?" he smirked. "In that case -- if you really have nothing to hide -- you will not object to our searching your caravan. Men!" he shouted. "Search each and every wagon and bring out any person you find for interrogation. Confiscate any suspicious items!" The soldiers saluted their captain and began climbing into wagons and terrorizing the gypsy folk.

Nobody ran through a strange hollow filled with trees that seem painted by a madman. He didn't stop running for even a moment, though he recalled last night's activities clearly in the part of his mind that wasn't currently fighting exhaustion.

(Flashback)

"Stay with the caravan. I have eyes that can follow you, but I dare not say any more. Farewell, friend." Nobody ran into the darkness, hoping the girl hadn't seen the tears on his cheeks as he parted. He knew of her pain, and he wouldn't rest until he had done something to help.

(End Flashback)

Nobody skid to a halt, and knocked on a tree's trunk. It opened up into a bar filled with many different faeries, including some Alven. This was it, this was where Nobody's father had learned of the world outside that of the Alvens. It was a place hidden from even many faeries and especially from all humans, rumored to be a place of thieves and cut-throats for the right reasons. This was a hub of information. Just about any question that some one would dare not ask could be answered here. And as Nobody looked around, he even saw a slave human girl or two in the pub, richly dressed and just as depressed. If he couldn't find a lead here, he wouldn't find it anywhere.

((Please do help me along with this, Lilac. If we keep the Nobody/Celeste plot moving fast we can end it and I can get Nobody involved with the main story in the last few posts.))

Of course she was right. He felt like a little foal again, caught red handed when trying to do/doing some mischieve. If Puk could have blushed, he would have.

Of course it wasn't in Puk personality to admit this.

"If I hadn't gone here, we wouldn't have known anything about them," well, that wasn't all true, "nearly anything."

"No one can catch a kelpie with a mere common cord or net. There is something wrong here. I mean, humans aren't supposed to know anything about magic."

"Right?"

"Why are they trying to catch us? I thought only good humans were allowed," he said, a little more quiet.

The rider had backed away. Nearly all the dogs were wounded or dead. A silence descended over the forest.

Artemis glared at Puk, "I'd rather not have known about these humans. The more we know, the more likely it is that if we get seen here we're going to be arrested for commiting the crime."

She sighed loudly, turning back to look at the lone rider, "Then again, it's very likely that we're going to get captured for questioning anyway. So we might as well get ourselves some evidence which proves our innocence."

As she said this, Artemis picked up some of the rope which had bound Puk, tieing the loose ends together she turned it back into a long rope. The rider realised what she was doing and spurred his horse in the opposite direction. Artemis looped the rope to form a lasoo then set off after the rider. Within a few seconds she had caught up to them and trapped the man with the rope. Pulling him harshly off the horse she dragged him back and tied him to a tree next to Puk.

"There we go," she grinned slightly evily, "Our evidence."

Puk heard other voices. His delicate hearing also caught some kelpie whinnying. The other humans were still after the kelpies. Humans or whatever, he heard other things. Things that didn't sound like good faeries.

The rider was still dazed by Artemis dragging him of his horse.

Puk shifted, "we better move out, I hear humans, but other things too. Not good things." A shiver krept over his back.

Puk closed his eyes, concentrating. What he was about to do, he could only do for a short period of time.

His body grew larger, to the size of an arabian horse.

"Quickly, put him on my back. He can't get off once he is on, unless I say so. And disarm him. Then we'll find Kimil and Espoir."

((Slight chance in Puks powers. I did read some stories of kelpies taking on any horse form, though. But I do not intend to make this a habit.))

Artemis grabbed the man and quickly untied him. She forcefully dumped him on Puk's back.

Collecting the rope which was left over, she began to head towards the lake. "This was the way I told Kimil to go. Hopefully she's found Espoir and is waiting near the lake for us."

"Right," Puk said, he felt nervous and a little guilty for leaving his clan mates behind. But deep inside, he felt he couldn't do anything right now. Not without some serious help from outside.

A strange shriek resounded through the forest, when Puk started to follow Artemis. He had the human tightly 'glued' to his back, luckily, because he reared up, startled by the sound.

"There is something evil there! I don't like this."

Then he quickly ran after Artemis, in the direction of Espoirs hiding place.

"Where is she?" Suddenly he only wanted to get back by Espoir and Kimil, and get away from here. The place that once was his home, wasn't anymore.

[We've got ten more days before it's all over. Stick with me, people. You're all doing great so far.

Also, I made a technical error in writing that the lake is dried up, when it is only partially gone. Let us say that the soldiers are exaggerating and that the devas were bluffing their way through. (How would they know?) The gypsy admitted he didn't know the lake had dried up, so there's no problem there. I've left an explanation in my second last post before this one.

Glass is having a difficult time accessing PPT at the moment so this is her post in dark blue.]

Espoir casted yet another nervous glance around her surroundings. The lake was no longer existant, well, most of it, anyway. All that remained were little streams of water that hardly constituted even a pond. There were lots of mud and soggy weeds, where most of the lake had been. But apart from that, the area was vastly empty.

Espoir herself felt rather foolish standing in the middle of a huge opening, with a nervous wind bird and a young Kelpie. She wondered how much longer she would have to endure waiting before Artemis and Puk showed up. However long they took, they had better not be taking their own sweet time. For one, she couldn't imagine how she was going to defend herself and the small group should they be attacked. The deafening explosion, the human encounters -- all those suggested something was frighteningly wrong, and danger was close.

She could summon a creature or two to aid her, but she doubt she could do anything else. The Kelpie didn't look like it was raised to fight, and the wind bird, well, apart from singing and looking beautifully marvelous, there wasn't anything else it was good at doing.

[Back to me and Senya.]

"No," the more dominating voice mused. "Not so right to know all truth." A sound erupted from the voice that could only be called a laugh, but it sounded more like an excruciating howl. "That man be a fool."

"Yes," the reporter of events agreed. "He knows not he is blind."

"No," the dominating voice, presumably a leader of sorts, continued. "He sees but strength and wealth in man-world. He sees not strength and wealth in fae-world. Blind man thinks we help him when he helps us."

"He wants to meet with you," the follower cackled. There was a pause as the leader considered this for a moment.

"Bring him," it -- he, she or it? Senya could not tell -- decided at last. "I meet him now."

"What of the seal-girl?" the follower queried. Senya trembled, knowing they were talking about her.

"She stay here," the leader said carelessly. Then it stopped itself. The selkie could suddenly feel something bore into her skin with icy daggers; was it looking at her? She dared not open her eyes to see, but she could feel that it was thinking about her. The ominious feeling of dread increased when the icy dagger feeling went away and the thing said, in a voice boding no good for her, "I want man to see her."

((ahoy, sorry I was stuck in the middle of nowhere in tennessee with no cell reception much less ANY computers or internet connection. anyway, i'm back in action, somewhat, have a rehearsal dinner tomorrow and a wedding the next day that I'm involved in - uncle getting married - but i'll post sometime later today, and be around (thank God for HIGH SPEED hotel internet and my dad getting here yesterday so I have a comp...no more dial-up, HUZZAH)

lionheartwitty: feel free to merge the celeste/nobody plot with the main plot, that's fine, it's meant to be more of a side plot. what you've done so far is spectacular, i really have nothing too specific in mind, i love to RP in terms of seeing where everyone else takes me with just the barest bones of a plot in mind myself. consider Adelaide to be a NPC =) thanks for your concern, your posts are great, and I'll certainly help you out when I get a chance to actually POST))

Artemis lead Puk swiftly through the trees. They soon emerged near the lake only to discover that it had run almost completely dry. "What in the name of....?" Artemis trailed off, her eyes were wide in shock. How could the lake have just dried up like this? Something was definitely not right.

A tiny whinny alerted her to the presence of Kimil and Espoir. Artemis smiled and walked over to them slowly, "Thank goodness you two are still alright!"

Espoir mentally heaved a huge sigh of relief. Artemis and Puk were finally here. She smiled and nodded.

'We made it out alive and safe,' she said, glancing at little Kimil.

'What now?' she asked.

Puk moved through the bushes with some effort. One or twice, he was sure he accidently hit the mans head with a branche (he wasn't very used to being that big).

He glanced aside, the man still seemed unconscious.

This isn't how I imagined my next human...

Turning his head back, he nearly bumped into the Artemis, who had stopped.

Glancing over her back, he saw Espoir and a few tufs of manes sticking out of the nearby grasses. Probably Kimil.

"We.. em," glancing at Artemis, Puk corrected himself, "Artemis caught some human." Puk moved forward, then turning his side to the others, so that they could see.

"Some human that was hunting kelpies!"

While he was talking, the human moved. It seemed he was waking up.

Nobody ran between columns of stone covered in moss and ivy. He was chasing a young bard of a faerie with green hair that had played the exact same tune he was hunting for in the hidden inn. He ran directly into an arena and looked around, panting. He hadn't slept in a long time and things were humid in this section of the Otherworld, but his magical body kept carrying him as he explored the arena, up until he heard the gates crash closed behind him. Hundreds of faeries of different shapes and sizes poured into the arena. "This is why few faeries venture to this place!" a voice roared from a side of the arena. The crowd yelled back, their words jumbling into a disgusting mess of noise pollution. "Now you must face the Jabberwocky! What do you say?!"

"How original! Toss a chap in a huge stone arena and watch him grapple with something bigger than him! I'd say we've gone primitive since we left the humans to themselves!" Nobody roared back.

Another gate opened and something much bigger than Nobody did indeed come out. "Whaz yore name, ickle faerie?" it asked. "Otterbrand," Nobody replied, revealing his name. "Its Prince Otterbrand!" a few voices in the crowd murmured, as if frightened of watching him die. "We will spare you if you stay with us!" the voice at the side of the arena croaked. "I'm afraid that's no good, you're going to have to kill me like my father," Otterbrand said as he pulled a strange glass bottle with a sword handle for a cork from his clothing. He suddenly threw it onto the ground. The glass seemed to shatter in slow motion, the bare handle coming up with a spray of water pushing it. Otterbrand caught the handle and pulled it up. He was now holding a sword made of pure water. Half the crowd gasped, but the other half, being disbanded Alven, began talking in serious tones.

"If any Alven wants to go back home today, start avenging my father!" Otterbrand shouted, glad to have his identity revealed. "I will restore the kingdom of the Alven! I will bring us back to the humans where we belong!" he shouted as loudly as he could. The entire stadium suddenly rang out with yells, screams, grunts, clangings of spears and shields, and the occasional scream. "Kill the Prince, Jabberwocky!" the voice at the side of the stadium shouted before it screamed with pain. Nobody stood in a knight's guarding stance, ready to face the creature he spent his whole childhood hating for killing his father. Once he had killed it, he knew where Adelaide was. The song Celeste had hummed for him was an Alven song.

Celeste huddled next to Ilmena in the wagon, the notebook still on her lap. "I'm Celeste," she offered plainly, the sound of soldiers searching wagons and roughly pushing around disgruntled fairies grating on her ears. Yells and cries and shouts echoed and the Otherworld night seemed to dim darker, more like the night on earth.

Nobody's final words and instructions repeated themselves in her mind. Stay with the caravan, she thought to herself, pushing back urges to burst out of the wagon and run far away. Perhaps the soldiers would pass her wagon by....

But no luck, for before Ilmena would even had had a moment to reply to Celeste's straightforward introduction, a rattling sound burst through the air like daggers and soldiers pounded on the back doors of wagon.

"Open up!" one of them shouted gruffly. "Come on, we haven't got all day. "

He (for the voice was clearly male) pounded harder with renewed energy. "Lousy gypsies. Open up!"

Evidently, then he lost patience, for horrible sound of splintering wood confronted the two human girls, and a bright lantern light reflected in Celeste's wide eyes. As the soldiers bashed through the back of the wagon, she noticed that the notebook was shrinking and had already shrunk to about half its original size.

Thoroughly amazed, she did not lose a moment to astonishment, taking the split second before the wood bits cleared to tuck the now-small book down the front of her gown. It was an almost mindless action, as if someone was directing her from afar, or instinct was taking over. She had no idea why she'd done it. No idea why she'd been so attracted to the notebook in the first place.

A boot and hand reached through the gap soon to be followed by a weather-worn soldier's figure. Celeste wondered if she should hide, as more of an afterthought. It wouldn't do her much good now.

The soldier opened his mouth to speak, but before he could say a word the whole wagon shook and the ground rumbled ominously.

"What in tarnation was that?" he yelled.

The dark haired human shook his head. Puk had one eye on him. The human grunted, trying to lift one leg to get of Puk. Which didn't work, as was a kelpie's power.

Looking around quickly, the man saw the partly dried up lake. Realizing his compagnions wouldn't be that far, he opened his mouth and started to yell,

"heelp, over her.."

Puk quickly ran to a low hanging branche, causing the man to duck. And to silence for a moment.

"I say we head for the main road," Puk said, running around under low-hanging branches. The main road was a dirt road, large enough for two horses to pull a carriage and was often used by travellers.

But sounds where now emanating from the direction of the road. Puk snorted again. Were they there?

"Or maybe not. Let's head for the sea. Maybe the other faerie we met is back, and can show us a hiding place."

((Changed a little in favor of Lillie's post. :p))