#betchstein

[necrokittytales]

Necrokitty Tales: Trouble in Inkwell Isle (Chapter 9)

Authors’ note: Remember, Necrida’s writing will be in italics and SPKC’s writing with be regular font.If you have no idea what this roleplaying thing is, you can start from the beginning here.

Harvey entered the door with a slight limp and was immediately immersed in the chaos of his family. He could see his mother in the kitchen and tried to slink past her so she did not pick up the condition he was in.

Unfortunately, he hadn't gone more than a few feet when her ears suddenly went rigid. She turned around quickly and spotted her son, scuffed up, a fresh cut on his ankle, his cheeks still slightly damp

with tears...and his clothes torn.

“HARVEY! WHAT HAPPENED?” His mother shrieked, running over to her son and immediately smothering him.

Harvey sniffled. “I'm okay, mom, really.”

“Your overall button's been torn clean off!”

One of his sisters came by, “Do you have a cut on your leg?”

“Torn. Clean. Off!” His mother exasperatedly repeated, pulling at the fabric. “Tell me what happened!”

“My friend and I were walking home from school and some bullies took her special notebook and threw it into Cagney's field. And when we went to go get it, Cagney attacked us.”

Mrs. Hare ground her incisors together. “Did he now? Who does that weed think he is?! I swear if I ever see him again, I'll give him a piece of my mind, alright!”

“Mom, it's okay.”

“Heather! Go get the weed killer from the garden!”

“You mean the gardening hoe!”

“Don't sass me, girl, and just give it to me.”

“Mom! Really! It's okay. Okay? I'm okay. Please don't try to attack him.” His mom could be a very passionate rabbit when the situation called for it and he was fairly certain she would passionately lose to Cagney very quickly if he allowed the situation to continue.

She huffed and placed the hoe in the kitchen. “He's lucky your father is not home. Your father knows people, you know.”

“Yeah, I know,” Harvey sighed. He thought about the situation. “Do you think we could have carrot cake tonight? I think carrot cake would really make me feel a lot better.” He asked hopefully. This day could still be turned around.

Mrs. Hare softened. “Oh course, my little dust bunny. Now go get washed up, okay?”

Harvey smiled, feeling better. “Thanks, mom.”

---

The bats reached their home. Isabella landed carefully and helped Mina get off her back.

"Now you get your little trouble making tushie to the shower, and you better have your nails clipped when you get out of there!".

"Yes mama...". She noticed she was still angry so she limped her way to the bathroom.

Isabella sat in the kitchen table, still agitated. When she heard the door of the bathroom close she released her pain in the shape of silent tears. She hated Italy, she hated italians, she hated everything that reminded her of that country.

After a few minutes, Isabella calmed herself down and decided to check on her girl.

After the day she had, Mina thought she deserved a bath instead of a shower. While the bathtub was filling up she looked at the clipper, then her nails, then the clipper again. She decided too keep her claws since they have proven to be very useful when in trouble and hid the clipper behind the toilet seat with a smirk.

The little b-cat got inside the bathtub and layed as she relaxed. She started thinking of her notebook. All that research and discoveries lost forever! Her eyes started to fill with tears.

She looked at her big bruise in her leg. The pain was starting to go away but the purple mark was still very noticeable. For once, she was glad her mum couldn't see, or she would have definitely beat up an apology out of the flower.

Isabella walked in after knocking at the door. "How are we doing here?" She said cheerfully.

"Good" Mina replied wiping her eyes and hiding her bruised leg as a reflex. She was glad to hear the lighter tone in her mother's voice.

Isabella sat at the border of the bathtub. "So you were defending your new friend from a bully?" The bat said keeping her friendly tone.

"Yeah" Mina nodded "Spike and his stupid friend Todd! Yesterday he wanted to steal Harvey's money, and today he wanted my adventure journal! And now its lost forever!" She couldn't hold her tears anymore and cried.

Isabella's heart melted again. She tenderly rubbed her daughter's back to try to comfort her. "Oh! Don't cry 'dulceata'. I'll go tomorrow and take it back from Mr Flower" She smiled at her.

"You think he'll give it back?" The little girl wiped her tears and her eyes filled with hope.

"If not I'll have to show him what a BECH I can be!" Isabella lifted a closed fist in the air. Mina chuckled, she understood the play on words, they were the Bechstains and kids at other schools already  pointed out the similarity of pronunciation with the B-word insult. "Nobody steals from my 'înger' and lives to tell it.”

Mina admired her mother's determination, but after seeing what the flower could do she wasn't sure she could take him down. Still, she felt better knowing she might have her journal back. She hugged her mum spilling water everywhere.

"Oh! Mina!... " the mother complained but returned the hug with a smile. Suddenly, the woman remembered the smell that made her nose itch. She had smelled it before in some clubs she used to sing for with her band. "Dandelion!"

Mina cocked her head in surprise "What?".

"What?... nothing.... let me see those claws," The bat said nervously.

---

"Ok, fuck this!" Hilda muttered angry frustrated that no matter how many times she broomed there was still shards of glass coming out. She was tired and in pain. She wondered if Cagney might have busted a rib or something. She still couldn't believe what he did. Where did all that hate came from?

She looked at the now open ceiling and pulled the switch to see if the white sheet was still working.

It was a bad idea.

The second the sheet moved a new rain of sharp shards fell into room covering it again. Hilda sighed and decided to go have a raspberry tea.

She took a few sips of her tea and breathed deeply. Her entire chest was sore. She had pretty big bruises circling her upper body.

'You know, I changed my mind' Taurus spoke 'lets go to this Friday and KILL HIM'.

Hilda hold her head between her hands with a exasperated sigh. She wondered if she overreacted by telling him to leave his own surprise birthday, but... he almost killed her! THAT was overreacting. She just couldn't believe how things escalated so quickly.

This remind it her she had to fill the damn hole he made outside her home, there wasn't much she could do for the tree though.

And what about the dome? She will have to talk with Grimm and Djimmi again to make it as perfect as she wanted it. But who would pay for it? She spent most of her savings keeping this place from crumbling.

'Cagney broke it... shouldn't he be the one to pay for it?'  Sagittarius carefully said in Hilda's mind.

The woman rolled her eyes at the idea. She could almost hear the giant weed laughing at her face. Plus, he probably didn't even had that kind of money. How much can you make selling flowers?

The soreness was driving her mad. She lifted her shirt to check on her bruises again. Her pale skin was covered with all kinds of purple and blue shades, with an occasional red line. Some of the smaller thorns got stuck deep on her skin. She tried to take them off only to hurt herself even more. After a few tries she gave up and looked at the time. She should get moving if she wanted to put up the stars in time... but she really didn't feel like it tonight.

---

Amber was very perceptive. Or at least, she liked to believe she was. Which was she was somewhat irritated to learn that she had just missed a huge brawl earlier that day. Brawls led to distractions. Distractions led to open pockets. And opened pockets led to a happy Amber.

She finished applying her gloves and stretched. She wondered who had been stupid enough to actually trespass in the carnation's field. Even she wasn't stupid enough to do that. Trying to get the sneak on something that just had to stick its hand in the ground and it could kill you? Yeah, no thanks.

It was bad enough she had encountered him at the observatory. What the heck had he been doing there anyway? If she had to have guessed, it might have been a date but there was no way that could have been the case.

She sighed at the missed opportunity and eyed her next target, the Clip Joint Calamity. There was going to be a brawl tonight. And liquor. Between the both of those, she could look forward to a very satisfying night indeed.

--

Harvey felt much better after a shower and a change of clothes. Dinner helped him perk up a bit. And the smell of dessert in the oven did make him feel pretty swell. But he was very worried for Mina. Her mom looked really really mad. He only hoped that he would get to see her tomorrow. And apologize for not being a really brave bunny.

He sat at the dinner table and squared his little furry fists together. Starting today, he was going to be a braver bunny. A bunny who knew how to kick with the best of them. So bullies like Spike and Todd wouldn't pick on kids like Harvey and Mina. He'd be the bravest and most courageous bunny the isle had ever seen.

There was a knock at the door and his mom called out, "Just a minute!"

Harvey stood up, chin up. Why not start being brave now. "Don't worry, mom. I got it," he declared, waltzing over to the front door.

"Thank you, Harvey. Can't imagine who it would be. The sun's just setting at this point. A little late for visitors," Mrs. Hare mused as Harvey reached the door.

Harvey pulled open the door with a, "Good evening can I-?" And stopped dead in his tracks. Staring down at him with a sharp scowl was Cagney Carnation.

"Hey, listen-."

Harvey managed a choked yelp and slammed the door shut. Mrs. Hare looked over irritated. "Harvey Hare, don't you go slamming doors around here! The frames can't take that much force these days!"

The little rabbit swallowed as there was a harder knock on the door. Mrs. Hare washed her paws. "I'll be right there."

"No," Harvey realized, "I got it, sorry! Just, uh, stay there mom. Is the cake burning?"

"I should hope not!" She gasped, turning her attention back to the stove.

Harvey cracked open the door and looked up worriedly at the carnation. "Y-you better leave or I'm gonna-gonna," he struggled.

Cagney realized the boy was probably going to need some encouragement.  "Get out here before I drag you out," he grumbled.

Harvey's eyes widened, not wanting a repeat of this afternoon. He quickly walked outside, leaving the door ajar in case he need a quick escape. Cagney loomed over him, something tucked under his arms.

Harvey pressed his paws. "I'm really, really, really sorry we went into your field."

"Okay, good to hear. Now-"

"Please don't feed me to the piranha plants."

"Oh for God's sake, I'm not gonna feed you to the piranha plants," he rolled his eyes.

"You promise?" Harvey asked.

"Just, shut up a second. And don't cry. I'm here to apologize." The words were like lead coming off his tongue but he managed to spit it out.

Harvey rubbed his ears, confused. "Huh, what did you say?" There was no way he could have heard that correctly.

"Harvey, who's at the door?" Mrs. Hare pushed open the door and her smile froze. She glared up at Cagney. "YOU! You stay right there!" She demanded, dashing back inside.

Cagney blinked and glanced at Harvey. "Uh, what?"

Harvey swallowed, realizing that he was not about to get fed to carnivorous plants. "She's getting weed killer."

The carnation's eyes widened. "Woah, woah, wait, wait a minute there!"

Mrs. Hare busted open the door, brandishing her hoe. "I've got my weed killer, you dirty dandelion!" She snapped.

The flower stared at her. "That's a hoe."

"Don't you sass me! Now why are you here bothering my son?" She demanded.

"I'm trying to apologize!" Cagney spat out.

She stopped brandishing the garden utensil. "Eh, what?"

"I'm apologizing, okay?"

"Really?" She asked.

"Yeah."

Mrs. Hare had a funny expression on her face, as if she didn't quite understand. "I uh, oh. Huh. Okay then. Thank you."

Harvey noted the carnation looking irritated still. "Mom, the timer went off for the cake."

"It did? Huh. Okay, just, hold this just to be safe," she instructed, handing the hoe to Harvey. She shot Cagney a quizzical look. "Well, color me surprised. If you start acting nice like this, I might know a daisy or two looking for a date to the dance coming up."

He stuck out his tongue. "Hell, no."

She laughed and walked back inside, leaving a calmer Harvey. The rabbit still wasn't quite sure. "You're apologizing to me?"

"Yeah. Sorry for nearly killing your friend and banging you up a bit. I thought you were someone else."

Harvey scratched his head with the hoe. "Oh, Uh, well, thanks. I appreciate that. I'll stay out of your field." He brightened up and pointed at the carnation. "But uh, you should say sorry to Mina!" He pointed out, a burst of courage in his chest. The carnation fixed him with a disbelieving look and Harvey faltered. "Please? She was really upset."

The flower sighed. "Yeah, I was going to. Do you know where she lives?" Harvey hesitated and Cagney threw his hands out. "I'm not going to do anything bad. I'm just going to apologize, got it?"

The rabbit nodded slowly. "Okay, she lives by Chip. Near the observatory."

Cagney hissed quietly to himself. That was a bit too close to Hilda than he would have liked. But he had already come this far. And chances were, she was already out and about. "Alright, thanks kid, appreciate that."

Harvey nodded and was about to go back inside when he stopped. "You better be nice to her or I'm gonna hit you with this hoe," he blurted out. Cagney chuckled.

"Well, well, looks like the bunny has a backbone.  I'll keep that in mind. Don't let your mom blab to too many residents, please."

----

It was dark out and Cagney had some difficulty finding his way above ground but he soon came across the home of the bats. It wasn't much to look at, but to be fair, he slept on dirt under a tree three quarters of the year, so a house was a house.

He saw the observatory and his stomach clenched. The dome was broken. There needed to be a new one but the cost alone was for this piece of astronomy equipment was, well, astronomical. Even if he was on speaking terms with Hilda, he barely had anything to his name. Still, that's not why he was here. He was here to see the bats.

He knocked on the door and flexed his feet. It still felt weird to be walking around uprooted. He never quite got used to the feeling. It was a bit unsettling sometimes. He waited for someone to answer the door.

"I'll get it mama" Mina stood up from the table and opened the door. Her eyes widened and immediately closed it back.

" Mina! What are you doing?"

"Run! He's come to finish me off!" Mina hold the door.

Cagney swore under his breath something along the lines of "for fucks sake" before knocking it again.

"Oh c'mon Mina..." Isabella opened the door this time, ignoring her child begging her not to, and crossed her arms. She stood there serious, pointing her ears at Cagney and discretely delighting herself with the scent of carnation.

--

Hilda stared at her empty cup for a while now. She was feeling bad for not putting on any stars. After a few minutes she stood up, packed some stars muttering colorful insults for a plant and went out to cast a cloud.

She started to gain some altitude when she notice a familiar figure on the neighbors house. She immediately casted more clouds to hide herself.

"What the hell he's doing there?" She whispered to herself, and discreetly moved her clouds closer across the sky.

Cagney found himself facing Mina's mother and had to resist the urge to let his thorns out. The woman was blind for fuck's sake, it's not like she could see how uncomfortable he was being there.

He swallowed and began carefully. "So, hi, listen, I'm here to...apologize," he managed. The word still felt like lead in his mouth. It was an awful word. He glanced at Mina who definitely was eyeing with some pretty righteous suspicion.

Isabella smiled enjoying how uncomfortable this was for him.

"Mina" she called her daughter who came out cautiously "Do you accept his apology?".

Mina was uncomfortable with the situation as well. "Eh... y-yeah? Thank you Mr Carnation".

---

Hilda was sorry she couldn't get any closer, but at least she managed to get a good view.

---

"Don't mention it. Seriously, DON'T mention it," he emphasized, "I'm really sorry about this all. But so help you if this gets around that I'm going around apologizing then I'm going to have bigger problems to deal with."

He hesitated. "And, uh, I think this is yours." He held out her notebook to her, "That's a pretty good drawing of Venus," he admitted.

"My adventure journal!" Mina opened her eyes widely holding the need to cry of happiness and took her precious notebook like she was holding a treasure. "Oh!" She hugged his leg "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"

Isabella was pleasantly surprised and smiled sincerely. "That is very nice of you, Mr Carnation. And here I was thinking we were up to a bad start" her smile turning more charming.

Cagney resisted the instinct for his thorns to pop out at the sudden contact and froze briefly before realizing that this was a hug and not an attack at his legs. He carefully brought a hand down, tempted to pry her off but just kind of patted her head. "Yeah, yeah, don't mention it. I'd kinda be upset too if I lost something like that."

He glanced at her mother. "So, uh, are you and I cool, Miss, uh...?"

"Isabella Bechstein" she stretched her arm to offer a handshake. "And... we will be ok after I talk to you for a minute. Mina, please go to your room. I need to talk to Mr Carnation".

Mina nodded "Good night, Mr Carnation!" and she hopped happily to her room. There was a sound of a door closing.

---

Hilda's eyes widened incredulously. Was... a kid hugging Cagney? Why would any kid hug Cagney?

'Because he is charming as hell!?' Gemini replied giggling.

"Oh! Shut up!" Hilda tried to control her emotions even though she agreed. That damn dandelion can be a real gentlemen if he wanted to... like that time at the---she shook her head to prevent any more thoughts to run wild in her head and focus on what was going on.

Hilda was watching even more carefully now.

'What is going on?' Sagitarius slowly spoke.

'Argh! Can't we get closer?' Gemini complained.

"Shhhh!" The woman was starting to lose her patience.

---

Cagney brushed his petals back and shook her hand. "Fair enough. Cagney is fine, by the way. Mr. Carnation was my dad," he explained.

"Wait, shhh" the woman stood in front of him quiet shaking her hears towards the door. After a few seconds the ears stopped abruptly and she turned towards the door.

"I said, to your room, Mina!".

"No way!" Mina's voice sounded from the stop of the stairs "How did you know!? I was super quiet!" This time she slammed the door from the other side.

Isabella smiled proud of herself.

"Sorry about that. What were we... ah! Yeah, I'll call you Cagney then" her tone was really enticing. "So... there is no easy way to say this... so I'll just go ahead" she lowered her voice and got close to him. "Are you a junky?" She asked, back to being angry.

---

'Maybe she's an old friend?' Sagittarius carefully asked.

"What? She just moved in! Plus I've been with Cagney since... forever! I think I would know if he had a bat friend..."

'I guess...'

'They do look awfully friendly though.... ' Taurus stepped in 'look! She's getting closer to him!'

Everybody stared in silence.

---

Cagney's eyes nearly fell out of his head. "WHAT?! Definitely not!  I do not-why are you-?" He stopped talking, realizing what exactly she was referring to. He whistled. "Okay, for being blind, you're pretty perceptive. So, listen."

He got a little bit closer to her, so as not to be overheard by a potential eavesdropper in the form a tiny bat. "I uh, accidentally hit myself with my own dandelions. How familiar are you with dandelions?" He was hoping further instruction wasn't going to be necessary but it probably was judging by her face. Still he waited to see if this was the case, already putting together an explanation in his head.

Isabella had a good idea what dandelions did, but admitting it might not be so good for her reputation if she was planning on staying here a while.

"I know enough to prevent my kid to get close to it... what does it do exactly?" She played dumb.

Hilda was getting livid. Now Cagney was getting close!

"You ever blow on a dandelion and can't help but feel a little bit dizzy afterwards? Yeah, multiply that by a 100 and that's what I can do." He groaned.  "It's a self defense thing. They're not fast, but if someone runs into one, it creates a sense of motion sickness, dysphoria and a lot of confusion."

"I was trying to make some up when Mina's book landed nearby and scared the shit out of me...and I took one right in the kisser." He hung his head low at that. "It's really embarrassing..."

"Got to admit, it probably didn't help the fact that I have got pretty much no sleep last night after my friend's home got broken into while I was over. And your kid really looked like the cat who who did it."

He held out his hands. "I started putting two and two together when she didn't sound the same and she had wings...but then her rabbit friend started throwing stuff and then everything kind of went to shit."

Isabella listened attentively and cocked her head. "Y... you... make those..."

She was a bit confused, but it sure it was good to now that this fella can manufacture them. "And that's terrible, about your friend's house" her voice turning sweet again. "Does she live far from here? It’s not like I have a treasure in there" she pointed at her house "but I wouldn't want my little 'înger' getting hurt."

Hilda's cloud was getting grayer.

Cagney hesitated. "Yeah, she runs the observatory. Well ran it. I'm not sure she's going to be able to open anything more than some exhibits and minor stargazing for a bit. A couple things got a bit wrecked last night. " Like a friendship and possible relationship he wanted to add but kept that to himself.

He realized she called the little bat something else. "Wait, I thought her name was Mina?"

Isabella laughed "Her name is Mina, înger means angel in romanian. I'm romanian. And no. I'm not related to Dracula" she smiled. "It’s really too bad about the observatory... I'll try to pass by tomorrow see if I can help somehow." She open her mouth hesitantly and finally decided to speak. "Say... eh... this is going to be too forward but, if it's not too much trouble, perhaps you could show me around whenever you have free time? I would like to meet new people but it's kinda hard when you can't... well, see them". She hated to admit she had limitations.

Unless she had ability to blow glass with her wings, there probably wasn't much she'd be able to do about the observatory.

Huh. Romanian. Explained the accent. Cagney thought about asking why the heck they'd come to a place like this if they were from some other place like that but decided against it. People had their reasons and as long as it didn't lead to too many weird people showing up, he was fine to leave well enough alone. He was, however, caught off guard by her request.

"I am probably the worst person to ask, but considering you haven't come at me with a gardening hoe, I wouldn't mind showing you around," he agreed. At the very least, he could weed out the individuals that would try to mess with a blind woman. "I've got a free day tomorrow if you've got time? Not sure how settled in you are yet."

"Splendid!" She joined her hands cheerly. "I can make some time in the morning."

The sky was almost covered with dark clouds and sounds of menacing thunders were getting louder.

Cagney nodded, a slightly genuine smile on his face. "Mornings are good for me. I'll come pick you around 9?" He paused, "We may have to take a few breaks just cause I'm not the best at walking long distance without putting my feet in some soil. Will that be alright?"

He didn't know why he would check with her on that. It's not like he wasn't going to do it but there was something a bit attractive about her that made him extend the question. Maybe it was her looks. Or the fact that she was stubborn. Or the fact that he's pretty sure she swore him out earlier and that was always kind of fun.

The woman showed a delightfully charming smile at the flower. She was starting to find him interesting. "There is no problem in stopping now and then, " she said with her enticing voice "I'm not much of a walker either" she spread her wings in a innocently seductive pose to show she was more of a flyer. A huge thunder filled the sky.

Cagney looked at her elegant figure and felt himself swallow a bit harder than he intended. "Ah ha, yeah, wings. Those are nice. Er, flying. Flying must be nice." What was with him and girls that could fly? It was beginning to become a pattern, he realized, catching a glimpse of her curves.

The sound of thunder in the sky brought him back to reality.  He didn't remember there being any storm in the forecast. Then again, he hadn't really consulted the forecast since it was connected to Hilda. And the last thing he wanted was to be caught in the rain trying to find his way back home in the dark. "Well, it was a surprisingly nice to meet you and your daughter. I'll see you tomorrow morning then?"

"Tomorrow morning it is" the bat said with a caramel voice. She was about to turn around "oh! I forgot to thank you for bringing back Mina's notebook" she got close to him but she realised, thanks to her echolocation, that she wouldn't reach  the flower's face. "Hm... would you mind lowering for me?"she smiled and tried to keep that sweet tone.

He raised an eyebrow at her but shrugged and leaned down, figuring she was going to tell him something she didn't want her daughter to overhear. "Sure, what'd you-?"

Isabella softly kissed Cagney's cheek. "Good night" she whispered.

A huge lightning illuminated the scene followed by a terrifying thunder. "Dumnezeule! You be okay walking home under the storm?" She asked, worried.

Cagney felt himself completely heat up at the unexpected kiss and his mind went blank. He stood there a bit slack jawed until her words registered. He quickly shook his head to clear his thoughts.

"I uh storm. Yeah, no I'll be fine. Don't worry. I'll go by underground worst case. You have a good night, Isabella." The carnation backed up only to trip over his own feet. He got back up quickly. "I'm okay!" He assured her before taking off back to his home as his entire plant body still tingled from the small gesture.

He hadn't been kissed by a non flower in uh forever? And her lips had been so soft against his face that he was surprised he kept it together. Maybe that was a Romanian thing. A guy could get in a lot of trouble living with women like that.

Hell, he should apologize more often if that was a possible result. It was handy that Isabella was available tomorrow. Cagney was fairly sure he had something planned for Friday.

He stopped dead in his tracks. "Hilda," he realized out loud. He had actually managed to work up the courage to ask her out. Sorta. He chickened out and didn't specify it was a date persay, but it was definitely different than their normal types of hangouts so she had to have known something was up. He even put a reminder note on the flower he brought for her. Which he was pretty sure she had probably smashed in her anger.

Their date was Friday. "There was no way in hell she'd go. She probably wouldn't even remember and if she did, there's no way she would go," he told himself with an irritated sigh. Would he go? He didn't know. Maybe? Just to prove himself right that she wouldn't show.

He kept walking. Well, just as well Hilda was nowhere around. The last thing he needed was for her to be lurking around, listening in and getting the wrong idea about things. He still wanted to never see her again...right?

Isabella chuckled at Cagney and heard him leaving. She stood there a few more minutes delighting herself with the carnation's aroma that was still in the air and enjoying the noisy rain. She loved the rain. It felt good to hear the thunders over her head filling the emptiness.

---

Finally it started to downpour. Hilda was holding her head trying to keep the constellations in control.

'Let me have him! Let me have him!'

'He doesn't love us anymore!' Gemini started crying.

'I-it's probably not what it looks like...' Sagittarius tried to comfort the others 'maybe they did know each other?'

Hilda went back to her observatory seeing red.

"Unbelievable! That... that damn weed piece of... cutted grass-I can't even think of a good insult!" She went directly to her room and let herself fall on the bed. "...ooh... I know! I'll go this Friday, alright, but... with a 'friend'. I'll give him a reason to not want to see me again!".

Gemini stopped crying abruptly  ´oh! Who we gonna pick?!' They said cheerfully.

'I don't think this is a good idea guys... and may I remind us, we did tried to poke his eyes out' Sagittarius tried to reason with them.

'After he snapped a Goddamn tree in front of us!' Taurus immediately replied getting agitated.

"Aaargh! quiet already!" Hilda silenced them and layed in bed thinking about how was she going to get anyone to go with her in such short notice.

[necrida]

 Necrokitty tales: Trouble in Inkwell Isle CHAPTER 18 sketches

[necrokittytales]

Necrokitty Tales: Trouble in Inkwell Isle (Chapter 7)

Authors’ note: Remember, Necrida’s writing will be in italics and SPKC’s writing with be regular font.If you have no idea what this roleplaying thing is, you can start from the beginning here. Harvey woke up at the sound of his mom banging a pot and blearily looked at the time. “Oh no! I’ve slept in!” He gasped, jumping out of bed and quickly getting dressed. He was about to dash out of his room when he doubled back for Mina’s notebook.

Shoot, he didn’t get to show this to his sister yet. Maybe Mina would come over after school and they could show her together.

That’s what Harvey hoped as he grabbed his lunch box and dashed out the door, not even looking at any of the surroundings.

–

Mina kissed her mother goodbye and took the road to school. At the observatory she saw the broken tree and a strange hole on the floor. This caught her attention! She immediately got close to the tree, mentally analyzing the cracks and shards. Same with the hole. She looked carefully at the way it was digged, there were no claw marks… so she ruled out mole-people. No, this was something else… something… that smelled like flowers. She looked up to the sky, maybe the answer was out there…

She realized she was going to be late if she lingered any longer, so she decided to come back later, maybe with Harvey, and take notes in her adventure journal. And so, she went to school happy and excited for her new discovery.

Mina got in class right when the bell started ringing. She had to run all the way from home and she was out of breath. She took her seat and looked around to see if Harvey was around yet.

Harvey made one last final sprint as the bell rang into the classroom and faceplanted with his desk.

The other school children started to giggle as the teacher shook her head and muttered under her breath. Harvey looked up, rubbing his forehead only to spot Mina and wave excitedly.

Mina got worried for Harvey and was about to go check on him when he waved at her showing he was ok. She smiled and waved back. The lessons of the day begun.

Unbeknownst to Harvey and Mina, Spike was already glaring at them both and plotting his revenge for detention the other day. His dad had tanned him good for showing up late to dinner so he was going to make sure he would return the favor.

–

Cagney did not sleep well. He kept jerking awake, sometimes mid transformation. He didn’t like the dreams he was having. They weren’t pleasant but exhaustion kept forcing him to try to sleep again, even as the sun was already up.

They were dreams of happier times between him and his former friend only for them to be tarnished quickly by his anger. Even a memory of a picnic turned to hearing his friend scream.

He tiredly opened his eyes. “I shoulda just let Tauros gore me,” he grumbled to himself. It probably would have hurt less to have two gaping hole chests in his chest than a big emotional one in his heart.

What was his plan if she did try to stop by? She wouldn’t. But what if? Would he violently throw her out? Or just burrow again. There was nothing the woman could do when he was underground. Not that she would want anything to do with him again.

Cagney decided burrowing was his best option. He was stubborn and if he said he never wanted to see her again and then he went to see her, she’d think she could just walk all over him. That she could accuse him of lying whenever she pleased without listening to him. If she had only give him a few minutes, he might have remembered that he caught the small spyglass and shown her the claw marks on the sheets covering the walls.

He tried to make his heart cold and it wasn’t quite working. Maybe with time. Time didn’t heal all wounds, but it certainly made them hurt a bit less. He wondered how long it would take to completely get over a 20 year friendship.

–

Hilda barely slept a couple of hours. She had spent the entire night turning in her bed, playing the night events over and over in her mind. That stare… She shivered. Since she couldn’t sleep she decided to start her day, there was a lot to be done anyway.

First she took a shower, hoping that might relax her a bit. She dressed up, and got down the stairs to the kitchen that still smelled like burn so she left the windows open. She skipped breakfast and went directly to the projection room. She grabbed a broom and a trash can from a closet and started sweeping lost in her thoughts.

HIlda kept swiping around until she stumble on the pieces of the big pot. She delightet herself remembering Cagney´s face when he saw the smaller pot inside. She really touched a sensitive fiber there. Her vision started to blur. She realised she was crying again. She immediately wiped her tears and she dropped the broom angrily.

“Stupid Cagney! That damn weed almost fucking killed me! ” She tried to change her sadness in anger again, but this time, it only resulted in more tears running through her cheeks. She cover her face weeping silently and slowly crouched hiding her face between her knees.

She hated herself when she succumbed to weakness like this. After a few minutes, she started to pick up the pieces of pot thinking she might be able to glue it.

She remembered Cagney’s comment about a failed art project and a shy smile showed in her sad face. He would definitely made fun of her if she tried to put this together. He would make a witty comment, and she would have a comeback, and they would forget about it with a laugh.

A stronger memory came back to her, terribly aching her heart: the time she got tricked by a certain someone, pretending to be someone else, made her fall for him so he would get her soul contract. She remember how Cagney fought for her, how he held her tight… He prevented her from losing her mind completely…

And last night… the way he looked at her… did he really mean it?

Near one of the pieces she found her old spyglass. She looked at it surprised, did they knocked out something when they storm off? She nearly gathered all the pieces of the pot when she found the statue.

Something was wrong here. She went back to the exposition room where those items belonged, nothing else was missing and everything was in order.

Her heart froze at the view of the purple flower next to the poppy.

Hilda put the things in place and got closer to check the plant. It was really pretty and … it had a note!

Her hand shook a little when she reached for it. It said : ‘Leaving a note to REMIND YOU we got reservations for friday. Also, try not to kill this one’.

“Oh… no… ” she felt the weight of guilt on her shoulders.

‘We’re definitely not going!’ Tauros voice echoed inside the woman’s head.

'What?!’ Gemini joined in. “We’ve planned this like a week ago!”

'Yeah! And it cost us a heated argument just to decide a place we both liked to go’ Sagittarius decided to join.

“C'mon you guys! You really think after what he said to me… after the way he looked at me! He would still go our date?” Hilda talked to herself.

'Oh! So it IS a date’ Gemini giggled.

“W-what? No… I mean… appointment? Rendez-vous-OH! Whatever! Point is, he is NOT gonna go!

And neither am I!” She threw the paper at the projection room.

Hilda stood in place a few minutes until she silenced the voices in her head. She took a deep breath and walked back to the projection room. She got discouraged at the sight of the huge mess and leaned on the wall.

She took some time to analyse the damage. There were shards everywhere! On the blankets, the pillows, the chairs… that dome was gonna cost a lot to rep-why there’s a hole on the wall?

Hilda frown and got coser, it was the vent! Why it was open? Her heart skipped a beat. Cagney was telling the truth? Somebody was stupid enough to break in? And she yelled at him. Her guilt was getting heavier by the second until she remember he almost choked her to death…

She held her head confused and sat on one of the chairs just to stand up right away at the feeling of sharp crystal in her rear. If she ever get her hand on the thief…

–

During lunch time Mina told Harvey about her discovery this morning.

“And, I’m telling you, that is NOT a mole people hole! It was way too big and no claw markings! Plus it smelled very good.”

Harvey scratched his ears. “Huh. I mean I’ve seen a few larger holes than normal but a really big hole? And a nice smelling one at that? Doesn’t ring any bells. The only nice smelling hole I’ve ever seen is the time my mom dropped an open bottle of perfume down a hole by accident.” The rabbit wrinkled his nose. “That wasn’t exactly a nice smelling hole though either. Did you wanna go check it out after school? What did the hole smell like?”

“We are definitely going to check it out! The hole smelled like flowers! And there was a broken tree near that too! My suspicion is…” she whispered to Harvey “Aliens! From Venus! I hope you remembered to bring my adventure journal, because this is a major discovery!”

Todd, the mosquito kid who was in detention yesterday with Spike heard them talking. With a grin he sat on Spike’s table.

“I know how you can get back to them!”

Spike eyed the mosquito classmate. “Lay it on me, bloodsucker. I’m itchin’ for it.”

“I heard them talking about a journal. It seems very precious to that new kid”. Todd smiled “it would be a shame if something happen to it.”

Spike rubbed his hands together. “It would, huh? Let’s say we visit the dorky duo on their way home, huh?”

The mosquito nodded at his friend with a grin.

–

Hannah waited patiently for the chance to talk to her cousin and the opportunity finally presented itself when her mother left the house for a few minutes to get a some things. She hopped over to her cousin and motioned him over. “Hey, Henry. I have a question.”

“Yeah?”

“Did you meet the big flower?” She asked twirling the red ribbon in her hair

“Yeah.”

“Was he as grumpy as Harvey says?”

“He was very grumpy. He yelled at me and threw me out and threw stuff at me.” Hannah’s face fell at that. She was really hoping her older brother had been exaggerating.

“Ah.”

Henry scratched his head. “It was weird though.”

“What?”

“He was really angry and stuff, but he asked me if I was okay.”

“Really?” Hannah asked, her face lighting up again.

“Yeah. And THEN he threw me out.”

Hannah wiggled happily. “Will you go with me to see him?”

“Heck no!”

“Darn.” Hannah thought of something else. “Do you think he needs a quilt?”

Henry thought about it. He didn’t remember seeing any bedding of any kind while in the pile of lost school supplies. “Maybe. I didn’t see if he had any.”

“Yay!” Hannah jumped happily. “I’ll get started.”

Henry shook his head as his cousin ran away to her room. This whole family was weird.  

–

After what it seemed like the longest day of her life, Mina rushed Harvey to go faster. She really wanted to investigate and explore the hole.

Harvey was moving as fast as his floppy feet could carry him. He never had to be rushed before unless someone was chasing him. Usually he was the faster one.

But Mina’s excitement was contagious and even he found himself eager to leave school and go check it out, even as something was gnawing at him inside that the hole was bad news bears.

As they were passing near the flower field Todd and Spike blocked their way.

The little mosquito grinned maliciously and stood behind Spike with his arms crossed. Mina immediately stood in front of Harvey.

“What do you want, Spike?!”

—

It had taken the whole day, but Cagney had finally sorted his thoughts. Or at least enough to lapse into a restless sleep once more. He had not wanted to be gored, sure, but had his reaction really that extreme? He had been exhausted, high off panicked adrenaline (nearly getting crushed by a massive ton of glass could do that to a fellow) and then kicked out and caked and nearly gored.

Maybe he could be slightly justified in a  counterattack and he could have just smacked her into a wall. That wasn’t much better but it was better than choking her. Could he really not have stood to hear her berate him anymore last night that it warranted suffocation? Well, he definitely got exactly that and she didn’t say another word to him.

And most likely she wouldn’t again.

He craved silence at the moment and stirred irritably in his sleep, almost aware of a loud commotion by his fence.

–

Spike grinned and chewed his lip. “I want your notebook, Mina. Now give it to me before I make you both sorry you crossed me yesterday!” He barked.

Mina looked at him surprised. How did he knew about her notebook?

“What notebook, you… you idiot!?” She was brave, but not very good in dealing with conflicts.

The shouting was starting to attract the other students heading home from school. They started to gather round, to see what would happen next. There was a general murmur of “What notebook? Like her homework notebook?’ someone asked.

Harvey winced and his ears drooped. Oh man, he’d normally high tail it out of here, not wanting to get beaten up in front of the entire class. Again.  However, Mina was standing her ground, albeit not that effectively. And he didn’t want to lose a friend this quickly. So he remained frozen, holding onto their backpacks instead.

Spike barked loudly again. “We overheard you at lunch going on and on about your special little notebook. So hand it over!”

Mina noticed the kids gathering around them. Second day and she was already in a fight… normally it takes a week or two… and the notebook, her precious adventure journal… she should have been more careful when she talked about it.

“Go away Spike, before you get hurt! ” she showed her tiny claws hoping it would discourage the little puppy.

Kids around gathered even closer when they realised there might be some blood.

–

Cagney was growing increasingly irritated. He just wanted silence now but there was a buzzing noise now. He opened his tired eyes to see a bee nearby.

Normally, he wouldn’t mind the bees, but today was an exception. “Hey, buzz off will you for a bit. I’m trying to get some sleep,” he complained.

“No can do, bud. We’re way behind schedule as it is.”

“Ugh.” Cagney wasn’t in the mood to argue and throwing out a bee was never a good idea (stingers hurt) But another idea came into his head. He could hit the pest with a dandelion and when he was disoriented, plop him outside and send him on his way. It was a bit harder to cough up dandelions in his regular form but there was no way he was going to transform back into his monstrous form. He had done enough damage with that, thank you very much. So he started hacking and coughing in an attempt to pull them out.

The bee gave Cagney an odd look. “You need a glass of water, bud?”

“No, hchh, hchh, I’ll be done soon,” Cagney couldn’t help but chuckle at the confused bee.

–

Spike smirked. “Ooh, look, this bat’s got claws. Cute. Well I got these,” he opened his mouth, showing off his canine teeth.

When Mina still didn’t back down, he barked. “Todd! Pull Harvey’s ears!”

Harvey squealed at that, drawing everyone’s attention and pulling his ears down. “Leave us alone!”

With the kids distracted, Spike charged Mina.

Mina opened her eyes wide at the look of Spike’s fangs, she didn’t think of that…

Todd obeyed with an evil smile on his face and attacked Harvey.

Mina wanted to go and stop him, but Spike charged on her making her lose her balance and fall on her back facing him. She tried to find a part of his body where she could sink her claws.

Kids around started yelling, encouraging them to keep fighting.

Harvey swatted and tried to desperately kick at the mosquito before seeing Spike push Mina down! He gave one more final swat before running to her aid, trying to push Spike off the B-cat.

Spike winced as Mina scratched at him but with his thick bulldog skin, it wasn’t as effective as she would have liked. He gave her another good shove to the ground before yanking away her backpack from a distracted Harvey.

“Todd! Keep em busy!” He yelled sticking his hand to grab the notebook.

The other children were really cheering and yelling now. This was really exciting now. Most people just gave up to Spike but this was really different even if Mina and Harvey were losing.

–

Cagney was about to chuck a wad of dandelion at the bee when the insect jumped backwards in surprise. “Who’s doing all that yelling?!”

The flower didn’t anticipate that and reared back to avoid the stinger, only for his head to hit the bench of his tree. He coughed and breathed in the dandelion attack instead.

The bee fluttered over to Cagney as the carnation choked and coughed. “Hey, hey bud, you okay there?” The bee asked in concern, reaching out to shake the flower.

He stopped as Cagney unsteadily jerked toward him, revealing his pupils dilating manic under the effect of the dandelions.

–

Todd quickly pushed Mina as she was about to tackle Spike making her fall on a very muddy zone making it difficult for her to get back on her feet.

He turned to Harvey, pointing his stinger at him.

“You better not move, Dumbo! Or this time I’ll drain you!”

Harvey froze at Todd’s threat, not sure if he could actually do it, but not wanting to risk it if he could.  He looked toward Mina worriedly.

Spike gave a triumphant shout and pulled out the notebook. He waved it in front of them both with a sneer. “Awww. So cute!” He laughed. He grabbed one of the pages and started to pull.

“NO!” Mina yelled when he started to pull the pages from her journal.

Harvey thought fast. He pointed behind Spike. “Hi, Mrs. White!” He yelled.

Spike immediately stopped pulling the page and looked around wildly. “Where? Where?”

Todd also looked back to see if Miss White was there.

When Harvey cleverly distracted Spike, she waved her wings with all her strength, release herself from the mud and was about to tackle Spike with her claws fully out.

“Ain’t no teacher here,” Spike realized, turning. He saw very very angry Mina lunging at him and panicked. He looked at the field, look at the notebook, look at the field, one last look at Mina and then chucked the notebook over the fence.

Harvey gasped. “Not the field!”

There were equal gasps and yells from the other kids as the notebook sailed over the fence and deep within the field.

Mina stopped looking with wide eyes at her notebook landing on the other side of the fence spreading some pages on the way.

She gave a furious look at Spike, her eyes filling with tears and her body shaking with anger. Then, she slowly walked towards the fence.

Harvey grabbed Mina’s arm. “Wait, wait, Mina! Don’t go in there, it’s not safe! We-we can go get my mom or something later just-!”

Mina was too angry, she just wanted to get her notebook and go home. When Harvey grabbed her arm she hissed at him. She cleaned a tear from her dirty cheek and climbed the bench with the agility of a cat.

She didn’t even looked around to see if there was somebody watching. She simply let herself down with the help of her wings.

Harvey stood there, every cotton fuzz ball on him standing on end. He swallowed and turned toward another student. “Can you go get an adult please? My mom or uh, someone?” And with that he jumped over the fence as well, trying not to freak as he did.

Two of the other children ran down the road. Looking for an adult.

–

Something landed with a loud flap near the bee and Cagney let a wild swing toward it, hitting a patch of clover instead with a dulled thud. The bee saw how hard he demolished that patch of clover and paled.

“Say, bud, I think I’m going to just head home. I’ll come back later.” The bee buzzed off quickly leaving a very disoriented carnation.

Cagney was really disoriented. This had to have been one of the stupider things he had done to himself. He laid still, seeing if that would make the world stop spinning but not by much. Unaware of the notebook that lay near him.

–

The two kids ran as fast as they could to the observatory and knocked at the door. Hilda was in no mood for visitors today, she had too much in her mind right now, so she decided to ignore it.

After a couple of minutes the kids started to lose patience and run to the next house.

They had more luck here, an adult was already outside the house gathering some berries from the nearby bushes.

“Help! Help please!” The kids yelled.

Isabella turned her hears at the direction of the sound. “Kids? W-what’s wrong?” She answered worried.

The kids were a bit out of breath but they managed to speak.

“Please, lady! Hhh you gotta help!”. Said one of the kids.

“The hhh the field hhh flower!” Continued the other one.

She heard 'help’ and 'flower field’’  and she immediately understood where she was needed. She just hoped Mina wasn’t involved. She dropped her basket with the berries and took flight following the strong smell of Cagney’s flower field.

–

Everybody looked in silence, almost as if they were holding their breath. Suddenly, they heard a thud nearby and they all gasped in surprise taking a step back, but they couldn’t see the carnation.

Todd, feeling that this wasn’t going to end well, got closer to Spike and whisper, “We should get outta’ here” and discreetly stepped away from the fence.

Spike did not move yet. “Nuthin happened yet,” he grumbled, “don’t be a chicken.”

Todd stopped walking away but he still kept his distance.

–

Mina stood still at the sound and tried to scan with her little bat ears the origin of the itm but her little heart was beating so fast it was almost the only thing she could hear.

Harvey tugged on Mina’s arm, drawing her attention and pressed a finger to his lips, giving her a scared, reassuring smile. The little rabbit pointed in the direction of a big tree. “I think I saw it go that way but we have to be really really quiet.”

The fact that the Carnation wasn’t already yelling might be a good thing. Maybe he was asleep. In which case they might be able to grab the notebook and leave. The two crept closer, Harvey still holding Mina’s backpack.

Mina looked at Harvey surprised and she showed a grateful smile. She felt very bad for hissing him before. She looked at the direction he was pointing at and nodded. She got on all fours and walked as discreetly as possible trying to keep her body hidden through the flowers.

Harvey spotted Cagney and prevented Mina from moving any closer. The flower was…asleep? Harvey wouldn’t have believed it, but yet there he was, lying down on the meadowy grass, not moving, facing away from them.

He sighed in relief but his ears drooped worriedly as they spotted the notebook. It was dangerously close to the carnation. He could see the b-cat’s eyes light up at it and he shushed her before she could shout in excitement.

“That’s Cagney. It looks like he is asleep…which is really lucky,” Harvey admitted. He was never asleep this late in the day. If someone was careful, they could probably get the book. He motioned Mina close and looked at his friend. She was awfully scuffed up from her brawl with Spike. Even her wings looked a little battered.

They wouldn’t have been in this mess it hadn’t been for him. He swallowed and pressed her backpack into her hands. “Stay here, I’m going to go get it. It’s my fault that it was even brought to school in the first place,” Harvey explained.

Mina gave Harvey an skeptic look and denied, moving her head. If the flower woke up she new she would be able to avoid it with her cat reflexes, she wasn’t so sure if Harvey would be able to move as fast. She really didn’t want him to get hurt…

She put on the backpack and pointed Harvey towards the bench to indicate him to leave.

Harvey was secretly grateful when Mina declined his offer. The carnation kind of spooked him a lot. He crept away just out of immediate reach of the plant and made a binocular hand gesture with his hands, hoping that would indicate to her that he was going to watch from a safer distance.

Mina nodded and smiled at him. She then turned to the carnation and walked closer very slowly trying to reach her journal with her arm. She realised she was shaking.

Harvey watched his friend creep closer and sighed. They were really lucky he was asleep. A little too lucky, Harvey realized, his attention flickering over to the flower. How could the carnation be asleep when the sun was out? There was no way they would could be this lucky. Unless…

Cagney wasn’t actually asleep.

Harvey’s eyes widened as he realized the carnation had moved slowly and maybe it wasn’t as noticeable if you were up close and could only see a part of him, but from where Harvey was, he could see the whole stem was twitching.

The rabbit suppressed the urge to shout. He had to warn Mina. He waved frantically at the bat who had his back toward him.

The little girl was too focused in not making a sound, she didn’t noticed Harvey trying to get her attention.

Finally she grabbed the notebook and picked it up as delicately as she could to prevent making any noise with the pages. It was really hard with a shaky hand. A few of the pages fell down making very little noise. Mina grinned her teeth and looked at the flower without daring to move.

–

Cagney’s eyes shot open at the small sound. God, he’s not sure if that was a real sound or not. In this state, he could probably hear colors. He should probably start with just standing and if he could manage that then maybe he was actually hearing real things.

–

Harvey hopped up and down now, watching the flower starting to rise up from his base, waving his hands frantically.

Mina bit her lip and quickly started to pick up the pages and putting them back inside the notebook. She turned around towards Harvey and this time she saw him jumping frantically. She thought he was just happy the she recover her journal and smiled at him holding the notebook triumphantly in the air.

–

Cagney’s head swiveled around as he rose to his full height. His eyes locked on a figure in front of him. One that wasn’t there before. He tried to focus on it but he couldn’t exactly see what it was. It was small, kind of dark. It didn’t ring any bells.

Until he spotted the pointed, cat like ears. And a tail. His eyes narrowed as his mind started to put two and two together. This looked just like the cat burglar from last night. Had she really been stupid enough to try to steal from him in his own garden. It even looked like she had a bag or something.

–

Harvey watched Cagney loom over Mina and his eyes nearly bulged out of his skull. He pointed and shook his head frantically back and forth, trying to get her to come to him. He didn’t think her vision was the best but she had to at least see that he was freaking out, right?

The little bat paled. Now she understood what Harvey was trying to say. She repressed the need to look back holding her notebook tightly against her chest.

[necrokittytales]

Necrokitty Tales: Trouble in Inkwell Isle (Chapter 27)

Authors’ note: Necrida’s writing will be in italics and SPKC’s writing with be regular font. If you have no idea what this roleplaying thing is, you can start from the beginning here.

———————————————————————————

The sun was starting to set when the kids sold their last cookie. They celebrated their sales with a cheer and counted their winnings: you could buy two days worth of groceries! That was very good indeed. Pleased with their earnings, they ran to Hilda’s to give her the money.

Once at the observatory, they knocked at the door and Hilda opened seconds later.

“Oh! Hey kids! How did the baking go?” She smiled, leaning on the frame of the door, making sure not to be loud enough to attract the clown’s attention upstairs. She was surprised to see Spike and she frowned a little. She knew the kid and not for a good reason. Every time the school came to visit the observatory, the pup always tried to break something and get into trouble.

Harvey beamed proudly. “We did really well! Everyone really liked our cookies! Mina and I were able to sell them all with Spike’s help!”

Spike grunted. “I made sure nobody tried to nab a free cookie,” he grinned with his crooked smile.

Mina shook the metallic lock box holding their coins, making a clinking sound. “Look how much we made!” She gave the box to Hilda, who took it with a raised eyebrow.

Hilda opened the box and whistled. “Wow! You guys! This is a great help! Thank you so much!” She gave a hug to all of them, including Spike. Well, she had to force him a little, the pup did not take to physical attention as easily other the other two children. “I’m glad to see you’re putting your destructive energy to good use,” she whispered to the pup.

“All this work deserves to be rewarded!” She picked a few coins from the box and split it amongst the kids. “Thanks a lot…seriously.” She didn’t wanted to show it, but she was really touched by the gesture. She had a knot in her throat and she could feel her eyes getting glassy.

“Woah! Thank you! But we didn’t do this for the reward! We did this for the good of humanity…. and, you know… to help you,” little Mina said, referring to the possible arrival of violent extraterrestrials. “Right, guys?”

Harvey nodded. “I really like the observatory and I would be sad if we can’t get it rebuilt!”

Spike sighed. “Plus, where will the teacher take us on field trips? No field trips means more school and that sucks!” He whined.

Hilda smiled sincerely at them. “Aww, thank you! I didn’t realise you liked this place so much.”

‘One more reason to stay,’ Sagittarius pointed out in the woman’s head, making her smile even more.

“I’ll try to hurry up and fix this as soon as possible. And you’re welcome here anytime! You’re now my tiny VIPs.”

“Thank you, Miss Berg,” Harvey thanked, making sure he got the correct title this time. He tapped Mina. “Hey are you coming to sleep over tonight?”

Spike butted his head in. “What? You guys are having a sleepover?”

“Oh! Yeah! That would be so much fun! I just have to ask my mum real quick, but I’m sure she’ll say yes.” The kids said goodbye to the sky witch and headed to Mina’s. “You should come too, Spike. His dad makes fruit come out of ears!” The little bat explained mimicking the gesture of the magician.

“Your dad sounds like a quack!”

Harvey just silently prayed his sister wouldn’t make Spike a quilt.

____

Beppi shooed Hilda away. “I got this, I got this! Just go organize your stars!”

Beppi had not awaken when the children had come to visit earlier that evening, much to Hilda’s relief. Unfortunately, he was still here even after she snuck in to check on him in the hopes that he would have taken off. So she was stuck with him until his obnoxious alarm went off, sending the clown tumbling over himself in a perfect pratfall.

Hilda rolled her eyes but finally obliged, casting her cloud and soaring into the night sky to enjoy the moonlight and the quiet away from the clown. He was pleased with this and set up his equipment. It was his first shift and he was a little groggy after a nap, but otherwise happy to start his shift of being a lookout.

If he had to be completely honest, however, he didn’t expect the dragon to REALLY come back to Hilda’s tower. That was like a criminal coming back to the scene of the crime. And he didn’t know any nostalgic criminals. Still, it was something to do and bugging Hilda had been an absolute delight! Not as good as the Baroness, but she was a close second for sure.

He really hoped Djimmi wasn’t too mad at him. The genie had been under a lot of stress as of late but he didn’t really share unless the clown managed to get him to smoke some of his special pipe. He should do that when he got home. Provided Hilda and he weren’t married by that point and running a bumper car business. These thoughts soon filled his dreams as he promptly fell back asleep.

____

The skies were fully covered in dark clouds, hiding the moonlight, as night finally set upon the Isles.

Grim was not bothered by the darkness. Instead, he was trying to make himself less nervous, but he was not having much luck. He had spent hours thinking of the horrible, embarrassing thing he did earlier that day in Bon Bon’s castle, and tried to gather the courage to go out again. He wanted to recover his letter to Bon Bon that was sent to Hilda by 'fortunate’ mistake.

He kept playing in his head the awkward conversation Hilda and he would inevitably have, over and over again, until finally one of his heads got sick of it and forced him to get out and start flying towards the observatory, ignoring the rumbling of an approaching storm.

As he drew closer to Hilda’s home on top of the hill, he could feel his heart beat even faster. He so hoped the meteorologist hadn’t opened the letter yet. The storm that had been slow to approach was much closer now. A crash of thunder nearby, startled the dragon into a surprised roar, destabilizing his flight somewhat before he realized it was just thunder. He was really just too tense! He needed to hurry and get to her home so he could put this whole mess behind him. ____

Beppi was startled awake by the thunder. He looked at the tea next to him suspiciously. “Hmmmm, I wondered if Hilda drugged me…wouldn’t be the first.” The sound of a loud roar perked him up immensely and he stuck himself out of the window.

Coming toward the tower all shadowy and spooky like was a large dragon. Beppi gaped. “Wow, this IS really lucky!” He gleefully giggled and started to load his glitter cannon.

Grim was flew around the observatory, feeling sorry to see it in such a state. He looked for some lights or indication that the woman was home.

Beppi finished loading his sparkle cannon and took aim. He was still a bit too low so he reinflated his legs and he gave a happy grunt as he was able to aim more effectively. He spotted the dragon and paused.

“Huh, that kinda looks like Grim,” he mused. Then again, the dragon was supposed to look like him a bit. He shrugged and fired.

Grim heard what he thought was a very small thunder, before something painful struck his thigh. He released another, and more terrifying, growl, thankfully managing to keep himself stable in the air as a soft rain started to fall around him.

____

The time away from the observatory was a pleasant change for Hilda. It allowed her to calm down, diminishing, although not destroying, the urge to strangle Beppi. She spread the stars out across the night sky, unfortunately missing a few constellations she had forgotten in her hurry to escape the clown.

When she was done, she took the chance to fully clear her head. Taking a deep breath, she settled comfortably on her cloud and admired her work. The view of the stars on the blackness of the infinite universe helped her put thing in perspective. It wasn’t too bad that her observatory was partially destroyed, she realized. It could have been much worse. Like what had destroyed her house when she was on the bed with-.

'Oh! We should definitely do that again!’ Gemini interrupted all too cheerfully in their recognisable unison. Hilda rolled her eyes. She did agree with them that as much fun as she had with Cagney, it was most certainly a one time thing.

'What are you afraid of?’ Sagittarius tried to figure out.

“I’m not afraid of nothing!” The stubborn woman yelled, “I just…don’t feel the same way.”

'Again, you DO realize we are inside your head right?’ Tauros pointed out, rolling his eyes. 'Of course you have feelings for him. We want to kill him, remember?’ Now it was Hilda’s turn to roll her eyes as the rain started to pitter patter around her.

“Leave me alone for a moment, please! I just want to enjoy-!” She heard some kind of growl in the distance. For a second, the sound confused until her thoughts jumped on the possibility that it could be Cagney, who might have turned into his monstrous form for some reason. Though for the life of her, she couldn’t figure out why at this point.

'Well, seeing the clown in your place in the evening might be a good reason. IF he’s the jealous type,” Tauros suggested with an invisible smile, delighting himself with the idea of a possible scuffle with the carnation.

'Don’t be silly!’ Sagittarius said, “It’s probably the mirror dragon! We better head home fast! Beppi might be in danger! He is still injured, right?!’ Hilda opened her eyes widely at the thought before turning into a blimp and rocketing through the clouds towards her home. ____

Beppi reloaded another canister of glitter, noting that the first case he shot did a really good job of making the dragon really shimmer.

He was a bit surprised the mirror dragon wasn’t already glittery like it was in the circus. He started to chuckle. "Knowing how things go, it’s probably Grim!” He fired again, now smiling even wider at the thought of dousing Grim in glitter and sequins

Grim roared again at the second impact. He spiraled slightly out of control but this time he was able to see where the projectile came from. “Miss B-b-berg! Why are you shooting me!?” He managed to shout, flying closer to the window, not knowing Beppi was the shooter. “It’s m-me! Grim!”

There was a heavy rain now. Lighting and thunder filed the skies, illuminating the shadowy silhouette of the dragon.

____

Beppi scratched his head. He has about 75% sure this was not the dragon they were looking for. Then again, it WAS glittery now - granted it was probably due to him shooting it with glitter but that was beside the point.

He loaded up on canisters and shot it just above the dragon so it would explode, completely drenching it with the glitter. It was even brighter than a disco ball!

Grim growled angrily as the explosion of the glitter and sequins got into his eyes, blinding him. As he struggled to paw the material away from his eyes, Hilda advanced upon him from the skies. She spotted the flailing, shiny dragon near her home and saw red.

“The crystal dragon!” She furiously hollered. The dragon seemed like it was going to crash into her house, so she immediately gathered a small tornado and threw the spiraling wind towards it. “GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM MY HOUSE, YOU BASTARD!”

The tornado reached its target, tossing him away from the house. Grim had to do a great effort to stay in the air, and growled again, confused.

Beppi stopped firing at this point as Hilda swooped in from the sky. He cracked his knuckles. “Whelp! I’ve done my part! Time to grab a snack!”

Grim stabilized his flight, managing to clean his eyes. He looked around, trying to find where the voice came from and what it actually said, for the thunder and heavy rain prevented him from hearing and seeing clearly. He was starting to get really scared. Another thunder boomed near him, making him think it was another of the glitter bombs. He quickly spat a huge flame and turned around frantically, giving him the appearance of whirling fireball in the night sky.

Hilda was too close and didn’t have enough time to doge the attack, forcing her to quickly transform into Gemini. The twin constellation split just in time for the fire to pass between them.

“You’re gonna get it now!” Gemini yelled, creating their golden sphere and shooting projectiles towards the dragon.

Grim felt the hits and growled in pain. He decided it was probably best to flee than to confront whatever was attacking him.

Gemini saw him trying to escape and grinned. “Oh, no you don’t!” Clouds covered their bodies and Tauros thrusted with a snarl towards the scared creature and crashed him against the wall of the cliff, where Hilda’s house stood. Grim released a painful roar and sunk his claws into the rocky surface to prevent him from falling down.

Taurus took the opportunity to strike the dragon a few more times before the dragon could finish scrambling up the wall back up to the house. Grim retaliated with whip-like attacks of his tail and a few fireballs. The heavy water of the rain started to wash the dragon’s scales making him less shiny, but Tauros was too focused in his anger to realize it. ____

Another thundering shake of the observatory finally cajoled Beppi to look outside as he ate his snack. “Looks like Hilda’s taking on the dragon. Neato!” He searched through his bags until he found the long, blonde wig and fluffy pom poms he had packed in anticipation of something like this.

He climbed through the hole, put the wig on and started cheering enthusiastically. “Go, Hilda, go! Go, Hilda, go!”

Tauros was about to thrust again when he heard Beppi’s cheers. He looked up and his eyes shined with anger. “You can walk!?”

Grim saw his chance and hit the bull with his tail, giving him the opportunity to get a better look at what he was dealing with. The hit made Taurus lose his focus and transform back into Hilda, who had to immediately summon her cloud to avoid falling.

“Ok! That’s it! NOW I’M PISSED!” She yelled as the clouds started to cover her body to turn into her final form.

Grim finally recognized the woman. “No! No! Wait! It’s me, Grim!” He shouted to the sky witch. At the sound of his voice, she halted mid transformation.

“Grim!?” She exclaimed, emerging from the clouds, still in her human form. “What the fuck!? You scared the shit out of me!”

“I scared y-you!?” The dragon replied with teary eyes. It was obvious he was terrified.

“Well, yeah! I thought you were that shiny dragon who destroyed my observatory!” The woman flew closer to the dragon and pet him gently. “I’m sorry.” She looked back, frowning at the clown, her eyes still shining with anger. “Come, Grim, let’s get dry before we catch a cold.”

____

Grim and Hilda stared angrily at the clown as all three sat at the kitchen table, a tea set spread out for them. Well as best as Grim could sit considering he didn’t quite fit into the home. Hilda had to rig up a series of tents and sheets to provide a makeshift protection for the rest of Grim’s body that could not fit within the confines of the home. Grim had the suspicion Beppi knew all along it was him. And Hilda was angry to see him walking and cheering like he never got hurt, which meant all the hugging and caring he had asked from her was absolutely unnecessary.

Beppi continued to smile at both of them. “Sooooo…..how are things going?”

The two bosses were still glaring at him and he couldn’t figure out why. “I feel like you’re both upset with me somehow.” He snapped his fingers. “Oh right! One second!” He reached up and pulled off the wig. “There, you know my secret. I’m not a natural blonde,” he sighed, pouting

“You made me hug you….” Hilda said softly but in a very angry tone. “And you were just FAKING IT?!” Grim rolled his eyes and drank a bit of his tea, his body still sore from the glitter cannons and the fight with Hilda.

Beppi’s smile got a bit smaller. "Would you rather I had been seriously injured?”

Hilda felt a bit guilty, maybe she was overreacting. Again. But she didn’t like being played for a fool neither. “No! Of course not! But, c'mon! You emotionally manipulated me. That’s not cool.” She sipped her tea, trying to gulp the guilt building up in her throat.

Grim had no idea what they were talking about, and he thought it would be wise to stay out of it and wait the proper moment to state his business here. He took the chance to discreetly look around for the letter.

“Am I?”

Beppi pulled up one of his legs up to show a hastily patched long hole. It was already starting to open up again. “Comedic timing makes things hurt less,” he explained with a grimace.

The woman swallowed loudly. “I-I-I’ll help you patch that properly. L-later,” she said, lowering her voice until it was almost a whisper. She avoided the clown’s eyes and tried to hide behind her mug.

“Wow! What happened?” Grim asked, worried. “You need to go to the hospital?”

Beppi stretched and slowly got up with a limp. “No, just back to the circus is all! Give me a day or so and I’ll be right as rain. Just like this rain!” He opened the door and gestured to the rain.

They both looked looked at each other, worriedly.

“If you’re leaving, let me at least give you a lift!” she offered, standing up.

“Oh, or, I can take you. It’s on my way, anyhow. I just need to recover something first.” Grim said shyly.

Beppi shook his head. “Oh no thanks! I’ll just float home! I’m sure I’ll see you both later!” The clown inflated his head and slowly floated back toward the second isle.

Hilda couldn’t help but feel a bit relieved. Having the clown around was really starting to get to her nerves, not to mention the guilt! She truly hoped he would recover soon. After watching Beppi float away, the meteorologist turned to the dragon. “So what’s that something you want to recover? I don’t remember you lending me anything lately.”

“Oh… yeah.. uh… it’s… it’s about…a m-misdirected letter….” The dragon blushed.

“A let~oh! Right!” She smirked. “You mean….” She walked to the counter near the door and opened a drawer, pulling out the letter. .“..this very honest letter you wrote to Bon Bon?”

Grim turned a more intense shade of red. “Y-yeah…that one…I see you have read it…d-did you showed it to Bon Bon?” He asked, afraid of the answer.

“Not yet.” She sat back at the table. “Where did you get the courage to write and send this letter? I mean, no offense, but you don’t really strike me as the 'direct approach’ type.” She let the letter settle on the table between them.

“Uh, yeah. I had a little encouragement from a friend…and Cagney.” Grim replied, embarrassed.

“I knew I recognized this handwriting.” She pointed to the envelope. “But I don’t understand the mix up. This was obviously for Bon Bon, so how come Cagney wrote my address?”

“Well… uh… we were v-very drunk, I guess he must have wrote it b-by reflex.” The dragon decided to keep the existence of Cagney’s letter a secret until Bon Bon decided to give the letter to her. “I should g-go now. It’s getting late and I’m still sore from the f-fight.”

“Oh, yeah, I’m really sorry about that,” Hilda apologized nervously.

“It’s alright… uh.. just… one last t-thing.”

“Yeah?”

“P-p-please don’t tell Bon Bon! I d-don’t want her t-to know that I… I….”

“That you want to see how she looks without her dress?” She giggled, making the dragon very uncomfortable and red with embarrassment. “Don’t worry! I won’t say anything. But you should tell her how you feel before it’s too late.”

Grim nodded shyly and thanked the woman for the tea before taking the letter and flying back to his tower. Hilda found herself alone once more. She took a deep breath, trying to take in the peace.

'How come you never take your own advice?’. Sagittarius asked, making the woman cringe.

____

Finally, Grim got back home with the cursed letter and opened it to read its content one last time before turning it into ashes. His eyes opened wide and his jaw fell, his two other heads popped out to the surprise of the content of this envelope.

“Oh… that fucking clown….” They all said in unison. ____

Isabella agreed to let Mina go have a sleepover at Harvey’s. After helping her gather her things together, she kissed her goodnight and sent her off before finally turning on herself. She started to get ready herself, for tonight might be the night King Dice would show up.

It didn’t take long for Isabella to reach the Night Owl Club. She walked in, filled with a confidence that cleverly disguised the fact that was indeed blind. “Good evening, Isabella.” The bartender and the rest of the staff greeted the woman as she walked by.

“There has been some changes for tonight.” Oliver, the rooster who worked as a host, said, a bit worried to the bat. “Our lead singer Patricia Parakeet is back, so you will be her back-up singer for tonight.”

Isabella felt awful about this new information. She didn’t mind being a back-up singer but she was expecting King Dice to show up and get a chance to impress him with her musical talents. She would a harder time doing this if she was in the back.

“Oh! Well, that is great! I’m glad she recovered so quickly,” she lied. “Are you going to introduce us?”

“Of course, of course! She’s in her changing room now. We’ll have to wait 'till she comes out. She, ah, doesn’t like to be disturbed.”

Isabella greeted the band and sat at the bar to wait for the lead singer, drinking water with lemon. ____

Patricia sat in her dressing room, fuming. She had to share the stage. She NEVER had to share the stage before. But all of her squawking and shrieking did nothing to change Marvin’s mind. Apparently the other girl had signed a contract. Which was a bunch of bird seed in her opinion. Who just signed some girl from nowhere up for a gig? Marvin was as dense as he was short sighted.

She applied the blush heavily to her puffed up yellow feathery cheeks. "I’m should be the one who travels the world, recording records and singing for royalty!” She scowled, adjusting the boa around her neck. She practiced a few bars, applied some throat spray before smirking. “We’ll see what Daddy has to say after he gets back from his business trip!”

She finished up dressing and stepped out, her beady eyes immediately scanning the bar for any new faces. Particularly any dumb floozies that were stupid enough to try to steal her gig. There was a peahen that tried one time and, well, one of her feathers made for a wonderful decoration for Patricia’s hat. And let’s just say the beautiful feathery boar around her neck had been a delightful gift from her father after she had him remove that trio of flamingos that tried to force her to be a back-up singer.

Her eyes fell on a mature bat and she paused. This wasn’t the competition she was expecting. But bats weren’t know to be powerful singers so she confidently swayed toward the woman. “Are you the back up singer?” She asked when she got close enough, ruffling her feathers.

Isabella’s ears wiggled at the sound of approaching steps and her nose twitched at the smell of strong perfume. “Hi! Yes I am. And you are Miss Parakeet?” She guessed, judging for the expensive scent she was wearing.

Patricia smiled at the introduction. “Yes, I’m Patricia Parakeet. But you will continue to refer to me as Miss Parakeet. Not Patricia and NEVER Patty. Do you understand?”

“Of course, Miss Parakeet.” Isabella smiled. She wasn’t the first star wannabe she encountered. And she was sure it wouldn’t be the last. It was best to let her think she was in charge. “Your voice is very familiar! Where have you performed before here?” Better gather some intel, she thought.

Patricia smirked. “Ha! I truly doubt you have heard me before. I only sing at places where the patrons are real class acts. Cream of the crop, the like you wish you had a chance to even glimpse at. But you will have the opportunity to hear me tonight.” She leaned in a bit closer. “There’s a chance of a promoter coming tonight and if you screw this up for me or try to upstage me in some way, I will make life in the isles very, VERY uncomfortable for you. Do we understand each other?”

“Oh my! Coming on a bit strong, are we? You feel threatened by my voice, dear?” Isabella used her enticing tone to show how charming she could get.

Patricia snorted at the bat’s attempt. She recognized the change in tone. She couldn’t copy it, but she could recognize it well enough. “Hardly! I can’t have an amateur mucking things up for me! And if you hadn’t signed on with Marvin, you would already be gone.”

The bird started to walk away only to pause. “Don’t think you’re the only one who can win a crowd, sister. I’m not just a pretty parrot.”

“Well, I wouldn’t know about your looks, but you certainly are a smelly one if you need that amount of perfume.” She finished her drink. “Should we practice, Miss Parakeet?” she asked innocently.

Patricia had picked up a very thin champagne flute but at Isabella’s words, she snapped the stem in half. “Smelly? Figures you bats only have a refined sense of hearing, not smell!” She hissed. She patted her feathers down at the sight of patrons starting to walk in.

“I’ve already practiced, but I’m sure you could use a warm up. Perhaps in the alley attached to the kitchen? Where they throw out the dish water.”

The bat stood up and walked towards the band. "You know what? I’ll wing it,” she said, waving her delicate wings, “That way you’ll have a better chance to get noticed by the promoter.” She smirked, but got distracted and stumbled into a table with a thud. “La naiba!” the woman cursed, embarrassed, and walked slowly towards the stage.

The Lounge Lizards had just finished tuning their instrument when Patricia stepped on stage. She started to croon, not putting too much effort in as the night had barely got started. Still it earned a whistle or two from the small amount of patrons and she couldn’t help but shoot the blind bat a dirty look.

Isabella started the evening as a pretty good back singer, adapting her tone to the bird’s voice as the song required it. She didn’t overstep into Patricia’s spotlight and let her continue on, letting her become overconfident. The night just started, and the bat knew she would get her chance to wipe her shoes with Patricia’s feathers.

During the short intermissions between songs, Oliver would stop by to critique them, to say how good they looked out there and how well they complimented each other. And more importantly, if any promoters had arrived. Isabella acted humble in front of the rooster, but whenever the singers were alone, they would get right back to the fighting.

It was during one of those spat breaks where Patricia really found herself getting riled up by the nonchalance of the bat. “What do you hope to get out of this? A free ride to some of the most elite clubs? Money? You wouldn’t know what to do with class if it came and bit you in the ass.”

Marvin tried his best to ignore the women’s squabbling. At least the two could sing well even if they were at each other’s throats. He started to walk toward the bar to reorganize the stash only to freeze as the atmosphere changed.

There was no mistaking the new visitor and he turned quickly toward him, rubbing his hands together. “Aw, King Dice! What an absolute pleasure for you to visit my little club!”

The large casino house boss stepped toward the mole. “Little might be stretching it, Marvin.”

Marvin nodded, glad no debt collection was happening. “Can I get you a whiskey neat, or sour patch on the rocks?”

King Dice shook his head. “Perhaps later, I’m here for business reasons.”

“Business?” He gulped hesitantly. The last time someone from the Casino was here for “business”, a couple of arms were broken and the wall paper had to be replaced. However, none of those things had happened yet so Marvin was cautiously optimistic. King Dice chuckled.

“Well I hear you’ve got two singers that are a choice bit of calico.”

The mole brightened up. “Oh! You mean Isabella and Patricia! Yes, yes. Had you wanted to meet them?”

“I would be most obliged.” The mole lead King Dice to the stage at the sign of a break and winced as he overheard the two women bickering. “Ladies,” he interrupted, “I would like you to meet a friend of the club, King Dice.”

Isabella’s ears perked up, but she kept her cool. Finally, there was his opportunity to meet King Dice. “Pleasure to meet you, Mr Dice,” she said, charmly, taking a lovely pose, with one hand on her hips, that innocently showed her soft curves.

King Dice very subtly took in her figure. “Well hi de ho, ma'am. You must be Isabella?”

“And I’m Patricia!” Patricia interrupted, pushing her way in front of Isabella and batting her eyelashes.

King Dice smirked. “You certainly are. How long have you both been singing?”

The bat smiled at Patricia’s childish way to interrupt, for that proved she was nervous and more prompt to make a mistake.

“Well…”. She played shyly. “My origins are humble, but my hardwork has taken me far. Started singing in the lower districts in Paris when I was eight, and somehow I made my way to Germany, England, Italy…and now here.” She added a subtle sensual inflection into that last sentence, hoping that King Dice would pick up on that, and hopefully, fall for his charms.

King Dice smiled appreciatively at Isabella’s summary. “I like a woman who’s traveled. A gal who knows her onions.” He turned to Patricia. “And how about you?”

Patricia fluffed up her feathers. “Well, I’m a born natural! But daddy made sure I had the best lessons anyway even though he says that you can’t improve perfection,” She tweeted happily.

The casino employee raised an eyebrow and grinned. “Well, you ain’t certainly no canceled stamp, that’s for sure. Do you have family around here?”

Isabella shrugged. She didn’t like to talk about her Mina in the club. You never knew who could be listening, and years of hiding had made the bat paranoid. Still, she was planning on staying here for while, so he would eventually find out regardless.

She cleared her throat and recovered her confidence. “I like to travel light”. She kept smiling. “ I only bring my daughter with me.”

King Dice grinned even wider at that. “Well, that’s just sweet. So you and Miss Parakeet here? How long have you worked together?”

Patricia waved a feather, flopping Isabella in the face. “Oh she hasn’t been here very long at all! She’s a temp is all. Just one of my background singers until my career really takes flight if ya know what I mean,” she winked at the older dice.

Isabella’s nose got tickled by the feather, and the woman decided to not hold it back and sneezed on Patricia. “Oh! Dear! I’m SO sorry!” She fakely apologized. “My nose is very sensitive, you know?” She had to make an effort not to laugh.

“Well hopefully your nose isn’t too sensitive for all the cigar smoke around here. I’m from a place that caters to a certain type of clientele that values their vices, including have a drag or two.” Patricia shrieked and made a motion to strike the bat with her wing.

King Dice took Ms. Parakeet’s wing. “I’m sure you could find it possible in your incredible large heart to allow Isabella here a chance to sing as well. I’d hate to have to leave if I didn’t think things were…fair.”

Patricia was irritated but didn’t want to wreck her chances. “I suppose she could have a turn. But only ONE song. She IS back up, afterall.”

He grinned. “I’m sure that will be enough for me to determine who has the greater stage presence.” The King waved them both off as he turned around. “I look forward to hearing what you girls sing.”

“I will not disappoint you,” Isabella said sweetly as King Dice walked away. Once she was certain he was out of hearing range, she turned to Patricia. "Well, I’ll let you go first dear. I wouldn’t want to put you in the position of following my act.” she said, full of confidence.

Patricia smiled. “Yes, I can only see how appropriate that is. After all, it’s beauty before age.”

“Isn’t the saying 'age before beauty’?” Marvin asked as he walked by the two women.

“Nobody asked you, Marvin!” Patricia tweeted angrily. She strutted back up to the stage and quickly chatted with the band before approaching the microphone with a sensual smile to her lips.

“How many of you boys here want to feel special tonight?” She asked before she started to croon.

____

'She has a strong stage presence, I’ll give her that…’ Isabella thought to herself hearing how the audience cheered and whistled to the bird. 'If she wasn’t such a diva wannabe, I could learn a thing or two from her…’

The sing ended and everybody broke in a applause, including herself.

Patricia blew a couple of sweet birdie kisses to the crowd, already spotting a pile of telephone numbers waiting for her on one of the watier’s trays. She flipped her tail feathers at Isabella. “Hope you fly well because there’s no way you’re reaching the bar that I just set with that”

The bat smiled at the bird, trying to show confidence. Truth was, she was starting to doubt herself.

She talked to the band and Oliver accompanied her to the microphone.

“Evening, ladies and gentlemen. Let’s hear it again for Miss Parakeet!” Isabella spoke into the microphone. Everybody started cheering again. “She’s a wonderful inspiration to us singers all around the world,” she continued talking as the applause started to fade. “And I have to thank her for giving me the chance to prove my worth here tonight. Thank you, Miss Parakeet, for trusting in me”. She sounded sincere and elicited some admiration applause from the crowd.

The music started and Isabella waited for her cue. “Trussst in meeee…” The song began and she accompanied every phrase with subtle sensual movements of her body.

The audience grew mesmerized by her enticing tone and the snake like movements she did with her body.

It was as if a spell has been placed over the crowd - a fact that did not go unnoticed by King Dice. Even he found the bat very mesmerizing indeed. It appeared Chips and Mangosteen had been on to something after all. It would almost make up for the fact that he was going to be assigning them extra shifts for having dragged him out of an important meeting for this.

Yes, a singer like this could do very well at the Casino and he started drafting up the contract in his head already

The song ended and the public broke into an applause and cheered at the new talent. Isabella thanked them and Oliver helped her back down the stage. She hoped King Dice was as pleased as the audience.

Patricia shook her head as if she was waking up from a dream and confusedly looked around. Everyone was cheering enthusiastically and she furrowed her feathered brow in confusion. How did this happen? Was she a witch?! Not a missed note nor an accidental warble. There was no way this could have been happened.

The evening continued as normal, with both singers on stage this time. The public was very pleased and the evening got very animated.

It was time for the singers to take a break and Isabella headed to the bar and ordered a glass of water with lemon. She was starting to get worried. Patricia had a talent to change tones very quickly and it was a bit hard for her to follow sometimes. She wondered if that would hurt her chances to get picked by the casino owner.

She took a sip of her drink and tried to relax. Her thoughts shifted to her deceased lover and sadness rushed in her heart like a wave. If she played her cards right, she might get him back again.

“Tonic water and lemon?” King Dice observed as he took a seat next to her, “I respect that. It’s not professional to get zozzled on the clock.”

They could hear Patricia guffaw as she sat on a table surrounded by some of the males. “Oh you’re so funny, Charlie!” She laughed, gently hitting a bloke and taking another dip of her martini.

Her ears perked at the voice of the man and she quickly recover her charming facade, showing a sweet smile. “Some people need a bit of liquid confidence.” She chuckled. “Enjoying the show so far?”

King Dice motioned for the bartender to bring him a drink. “Quite. Any chance I could borrow some of your time for a private conversation?”

She hid her enthusiasm. “Of course. If you like, we can go to the changing room backstage. To talk. In private”. She felt like she needed to clarify. Although, he did sound like a gentleman, and it had been a while since she was handle by a gentleman. Her cheeks blushed slightly, and her heat rate started to become dormant, as it has been for years.

King Dice smiled. “You sweet bunny, I ain’t no skirt chaser.” He followed her into the dressing room and took a seat. “Miss Isabella, I am the house manager for a little place at the edge of the isles called the Devil’s Casino. I’m responsible for a lot day to day tasks, special events and tournaments, as well as the entertainment. And from what I’ve seen tonight, I think you would make a good addition to our staff. Is something that would tickle your interests?”

The bat widened her smile. “Indeed it does, Mr Dice! When can I start?” She said sweetly, feeling closer to her goals.

The dice smiled and retrieved a piece of paper. “You could start this week if it so pleases you.”

He laid the paper flat on the table in front of the bat, the raised dots on the parchment indicating the braille text. “The casino doesn’t just employ anyone off the street, mind you. That Patricia bird is a very lovely doll, but she doesn’t have the right lifestyle for a position like this. We like to employ those that have more experience, maturity,” King Dice started to explain.

He pulled out a pen and held it out to the eager woman. “An employee who knows to follow the rules because they have something…or someone to lose if they don’t,” he added, still keeping a smile on his face.

Isabella heard the warnings of the casino owner, and she didn’t like what he was implying. Still, she caressed the paper sheet with the tip of her fingers and started reading the dots on it. It seemed like a standard contract.

She held the pen nervously. She was so close to get what she wanted. Not only would she work at the Devil’s Casino, but she would have easier access to the Big Boss himself. It was just a matter of time.

She signed the contract with a lovely, well calligraphed signature, and extended her arm to shake his. “Thank you very much for giving me the chance, Mr Dice. I won’t disappoint” She said sweetly.

King Dice plucked the paper away and stuck it into his breast pocket. “We look forward to having you on board. Swing by this week when you’re ready to start.”

He excused himself and left the room, leaving Isabella alone. He made eye contact with Patricia as he walked through the bar and smiled and nodded at her.

Patricia froze, not needing words to understand what had happened. But that didn’t mean she wasn’t going to use some of her own words to express HER displeasure what happened.

“Are you freakin serious?!” She shrieked, nearly making KD laugh.

Marvin went to assuage her. “Patricia, calm down.”

“She wasn’t even here for a week!”

“Trust me, I’m just as disappointed as you are. I would have loved nothing more than for you to leave as well,” Marvin admitted.

Patricia really fluffed up her feathers and pushed away some of the guys she had attracted. She went to the bar and ordered something heavy. She would make that bat if it was the last thing she did.

———————————————————————————

CHAPTER 01,  CHAPTER 02,  CHAPTER 03,  CHAPTER 04,  CHAPTER 05, CHAPTER 06,  CHAPTER 07,  CHAPTER 08,  CHAPTER 09,  CHAPTER 10; CHAPTER 11; CHAPTER 12 ; CHAPTER 13 ; CHAPTER 14  ; CHAPTER 15; CHAPTER 16 ; (nsfw) CHAPTER 17 ; CHAPTER 18 ; CHAPTER 19 (nsfw) ; CHAPTER 20 ; CHAPTER 21 ; CHAPTER 22 ; CHAPTER 23 ; CHAPTER 24 ; CHAPTER 25 (nsfw) ; CHAPTER 26 (nsfw) ; CHAPTER 27 (you’re here now!)

[necrokittytales]

Necrokitty Tales: Trouble in Inkwell Isle (Chapter 25)

Authors’ note: Necrida’s writing will be in italics and SPKC’s writing with be regular font.If you have no idea what this roleplaying thing is, you can start from the beginning here.

This has some nsfw bits! ———————————————————————————

Hilda was sitting in the projection room, over some blankets and pillows. In front of her was Cagney smiling at her, and between them, a wonderful cake lit with candles.

“Is this what you want?” Cagney said to her, holding her hand. She didn’t understand his question but before she could say anything, everything turned dark and lit up again. This time they were sitting at the club. People around them were blurry. Cagney gently took her to the dance floor and danced slowly with her, keeping her very close to him.

“Is this what you want?” He asked again sweetly. Hilda looked at him confused.

“I… I don’t kn~.” Cagney pinned her down on a soft bed. She gasped in surprise as she felt him rubbing against her body.

“Is this what you want?” He asked again, grinning and with lust in his eyes. Hilda’s back arched as she felt him penetrate her roughly and released a moan of both pain and pleasure.

“Wh- what do YOU want?”  She managed to say between the hard thrusts Cagney was inflicting upon her.

The flower started to pull vines around the bed and started to entangle around Hilda’s body. She felt the vines getting tighter on her chest. She started to suffocate. She couldn’t speak or yell.

Cagney transformed into a terrifying mix of his monstrous self and the crystal dragon. He came face to face to her, and with a deep horrifying voice, he whispered.

“I don’t want to see you again.”

The need for air woke Hilda from her nightmare with a startled shriek. She remained still in her bed, laying on her side for a moment, recovering her breath. She felt something tight in her chest. She look down to see Beppi’s arm wrapped around her - the clown was spooning her.

She looked horrified at him, as he slept sweetly with a teddy bear between them, sucking his thumb. “GET THE FUCK OFF ME!” She yelled, violently pushing the clown off the bed.

“Miss Beeerg!?” She heard a child’s voice calling her. “Mis Beerg! You ok?” She recognized it was Mina. She must have seen the mess at the observatory.

Beppi hit the ground with a thud and a whine. “Honey, not now, I have a headache,” He groaned, sitting up and rubbing his eyes, still hugging the teddy bear in his other hand. He looked to see an irritated, yet distracted Hilda and sidled back up to her. “Looks like you woke up the kids,” he teased. He patted her on head. “Don’t worry, I’ll go get it for you!”

Beppi planted an overdramatic kiss to her cheek before hopping off the bed and running to open the door first before the zeppelin woman could recover.

Hilda stayed on her bed, unbelieving the clown’s boldness to treat her like that. This was already turning out to be a horrible day.  

—

Mina and Harvey knocked a few more times, paying attention to any sound that came from inside the house.

“You think she’s ok?” The little bat asked worried. They had seen the damage from the observatory from a far and she was understandably worried about the woman.

“She’s really tough,” Harvey pointed out, “for all we know she might actually be the one who broke the roof. She’s done it before.”

The door swung open and Beppi stood there, manic grin already on his face. “Hello there, children!!!” He exclaimed grabbing the two kids and dragging them inside. “I’m about to make pancakes!”

The kids yelled, terrified and tried to escape the clown’s grip. Hilda was alarmed by the shouting and ran down stairs. “Beppi! What the hell are you doing!?”

“He’s gonna kill us!” Mina yelled, clawing at the clown.

Beppi plopped the children at the table. “I’m making pancakes!”

Harvey panickedly looked toward the kitchen. “Made with flour and not children, right?”

“Wellllll I do have a special ingredient that I like to put in the batter. It makes the children really scream.” The horrified faces of the kids left him delighted. “It’s chocolate chips,” he added with a wink.

“Sorry about Beppi,” Hilda started to prepare some tea. “He can be a bit… intense.”

The kids exchanged confused looks but remained at the table. “If you’re not here to kill us… what are you doing here? Did you destroy the observatory too?“ The little b-cat asked the clown, still a bit scared.

Beppi had started making pancakes as Hilda apologized. But at the little bat’s question, he started to giggle again.

"No, no. Hilda and I just had a sleepover is all. I’m here dragon hunting!” He explained.

Harvey paled. “You’re not hunting Grim, right?”

“Nah, that would be too easy. I’m hunting the dragon from the other night. The one you blew up with a churro.”

Harvey gasped. “You mean it is still around?”

Beppi finished making the pancakes in the shape of circus animals and plopped them on the table. “Well not now, but Cagn-eh, I’ve got good knowledge that it might be lurking around this isle.”

Hilda’s eyes twitched at the comment of the clown. Harvey would certainly tell his mom all this, and it would be a matter of hours before the whole isles knew about Beppi’s sleepover.  

"Heheh! Yeah! Eh… don’t tell anyone though. It’s a secret mission!” She tried to persuade the kids, serving them more pancakes onto their plates. “If the dragon finds out there’s a hunter hiding in here, he won’t come back at all!”

“Ficrwept mifion!” Mina said with her mouth already full of pancakes. She swallowed with a noisy gulp. “How can we help?!” She said, excited. This would be a great chapter in her adventure journal.

Beppi whistled. “Wellllll, it’d be nice if we could get Hilda’s tower rebuilt so I could have a higher spot for looking out…but I’d also settle for both of you two keeping a lookout if you see something weird.”

Mina looked at the pancakes and an idea popped in her head.

“We can sell cookies! Like the girl scouts.” She said excited, looking at Harvey for his approval.

Harvey’s ears perked up. “Yeah! We can use my mom’s kitchen and we can go set up in places with a lot of people.”

Beppi waved his hand. “Feel free to use the circus. I’m sure they’ve swept up all the glass by this point.”

Mina yelled of happiness and excitement. “We will make money in no time! But we’re going to need help. We should call Spike!”

While the kids talked, Hilda sipped her tea, thinking that it was actually a good idea. Maybe she should talk to the school principal and make a whole event out of it.

Harvey nodded excitedly. “This is a really good idea!” Hopefully Spike wouldn’t try to bully them but it seemed for now there was at least an okay truce between them.

After eating a bunch of pancakes, the kids decided it was time to leave.

“The sooner we start baking, the sooner we’ll get the money! Don’t worry, Miss Berg! We will help you rebuild your observatory!” Mina said, walking towards the door and waving goodbye.

The sky witch’s heart melted at the kids’ enthusiasm to help her out. Maybe she wouldn’t have to leave after all. “Thank you, kids. I’ll take all the help I can get.”

The kids left in a hurry, heading to Spike’s house.

Hilda eyed one of the pancakes and tried one. “Hmm! This is pretty good, Beppi! I didn’t expect you to know how to do anything else but hotdogs and popcorn.”

Beppi nudged her. “My speciality is my hotdog cotton candy pancakes!” He cracked his fingers. “So what’s on the agenda for you today, Miss Berg?”

The woman made a disgusted face at the clown. “For today, I need to call someone to clear the debris, I got to talk to the mayor see if I can get some money for repairs. That baking thing might be a good idea, I may talk to the school see if we can organize something with all the kids.” She served herself a bit more tea. “What about you?”

Beppi slapped her on the back as she attempted to sip more tea. “Say, that’s exactly what I was going to do! Why don’t we go together?” He started to pick up pancakes and shove them in his pockets. “You should definitely wear that ring though. I don’t want to get smushed by an anvil because I’m walking with you!”

Beppi made her spill some of her tea. “What!? Don’t you have a dragon to catch?” She said frowning at him cleaning the spill.

Beppi threw his hands in the air. “Do you really think I’d be able to catch it if I saw one without you? I can’t exactly float very fast, you know.” The clown made sure to be even more overdramatic than necessary. Cagney did not want her out of his sight. And the last thing the clown wanted to deal with was an angry daisy AND an angry genie.

Just one of them was hard enough.

Plus, he thought as he eyed Hilda’s legs as she bent over to clean the tea spill, she wasn’t too hard on the eyes either. Since Bon Bon wasn’t working out, it wouldn’t hurt to try things with Hilda.

He had a thing for deadly women.

Hilda knew it was pointless to argue with him. He always got what he wanted, so she might as well play along. She finished cleaning and went up stairs. “I’m gonna get ready, don’t come up here.” She said, giving him a threatening look.

—-

On their way to Spike’s, Mina took the chance to explain Harvey what happened to her and Spike when they were in front of the magic mirror with the large dog that tried to come out. And how Spike had spoken fearfully that the dog looked just like his dad. “So I hope his dad is not around…”’

Harvey nodded solemnly. “If SPIKE doesn’t like his dad, I can only imagine how scary he is.”

The two children approached a shack with a fire hydrant up front. There wasn’t much to the house, a couple of big bones in the yard, but otherwise it was just a house. Harvey knocked on it hesitantly and waited.

In a few minutes, a sleepy Spike answered the door. “Hey losers,” he yawned, “What’s up?”

Mina smiled at him. “Hey, Spike! We just found out the observatory got destroyed by the crystal dragon from the carnival. We were going to earn some money to repair it by selling cookies. Would you like to help us? We’re going to need all the hands we can get!”

Spike snorted. “That sounds kinda girly but okay. Lemme just get dressed.”

Harvey paused. “Do you have to ask your dad if you can go?” He asked curiously.

Spike shook his head. “Nah. He’s busy right now. Gimmee a sec.” The bull dog pup shut the door and quickly got dressed. He opened the door again, a little wider this time, allowing Mina and Harvey to see a large figure laying on the couch, snoring heavily. There was an empty jug labeled “XXX” nearby.

Spike shut the door as he stepped out. “Alright lead the way”

Mina felt sorry for Spike. Because of her mother’s line of work, she had been around clubs, and so she was familiar of the negative effects the alcohol produced in people. She decided not to address it, though, and focus on their mission.

On their way to Grim’s, Mina and Harvey told Spike about the night they saw Venus and why was important to rebuild the observatory.

“And without it, how are going to see if there’s life in other planets? Or if evil aliens come to conquer us! That’s why we have to save it,” Mina said, hoping Spike would get onboard for the long run, and not just to use them as an excuse to get away from his dad.

Spike considered it. “If any evil aliens come, I would totally kick their butts. But I guess it would nice to see them coming. So I guess I can help fix it.”

Harvey nodded. “Great! As soon as Mina is done with her flying lesson, we will get started!”

The kids reached the dragon’s tower and knocked at the huge door. Seconds later, Grim opened the door with a smile. “I was starting to t-think you forgot about our classes.”

“Hi, Grim! Actually, we have an important mission today, and I was wondering if we could make it a short class?” Mina asked, holding her hands on her back.

“W-why?” The dragon asked, curious.

The kids explained what happened to the observatory and told him about their idea to help Hilda earn money for repairs.

“Aww, kids! T-that is a wonderful idea! I would like to help. You could cook here, I got a huge oven I barely use.” He went inside his tower signaling the kids to follow him to the kitchen.

“What type of cookies should we make?” Harvey asked as they walked in.

“If anyone says oatmeal raisins, I’m going to give you such a bad charlie horse!”

Mina wondered what was a charlie horse, but knowing Spike, it was probably something painful.

Harvey winced. “How about chocolate? Or sugar cookies?”

Grim opened the oven to show the kids, and they were surprised to see they could all three fit in if they wanted to.

They had the oven, now they needed the ingredients. A sudden realisation hit the little girl.

“Uh… guys… I just realized we need money to buy the ingredients….” She said searching in her pockets.

Harvey huffed. “Darn. I didn’t think about that. We could go ask my mom if we could have some money.”

Spike scratched his ear. “Why don’t we ask the Baroness if she has the dough we can borrow?”

Even though Grim would love to go see Bon Bon again, he knew how busy her agenda was, and he wouldn’t like to bother her for something this small.

“I t-think I have enough ingredients for a first b-batch. No need t-to bother the Baroness.” The dragon searched in his pantry and tooked the ingredients. “Hey! I even have some ch-chocolate left.” He said, happily surprised.

“Oh great! We can make chocolate chip cookies!” Mina said excited.

“And while t-they bake we can start your flying lessons,” Grim added, preparing the tools to make the mix. He also grabbed a few chairs so the kids would reach the counter and help with the preparations.

They all had fun making different shapes for the cookies and finally, it was time to bake.

As Grim said before, they went outside for a quick flying lesson for Mina, who was improving very fast. The dragon thought she was a quick learner, but the truth was he was a very good teacher. He didn’t notice, but he even stuttered less when he focused on his lessons.

Finally, the time for testing the first batch arrived. They all took a cookie and ate at the same time, only to spit it almost immediately. They could only taste the bitterness of the flour and the texture was all dusty. If it wasn’t for the chocolate chips, the cookies wouldn’t have any flavor at all.

After drinking some lemonades to wash up the taste, Grim admitted it was time for professional help, and flew with the kids to Bon Bon’s castle. They landed at the door and Grim asked politely to one of the guards  if it was possible to get an audience with Bon Bon.

The Baroness was in the midst of some paperwork when one of the guards knocked on her door. She glanced up irritably. “What is it?”

“Sorry to disturb you, Baroness, but you have some visitors.”

“I’m rather busy at the moment.”

“It’s Grim Matchstick and some children.”

The Baroness raised an eyebrow. “Oh, well, that’s different.” She excused the guard and checked herself in the mirror subconsciously, patting down her hair and straightening her dress before walking out to the entrance, calm and regal.

“Grim, what a delight to see you and the little ones. What brings you to my castle? Are you having another flight lesson?”

Grim discretely wiggled his tail happy to see the Baroness.  Mina did a knight salutation with her fist on her chest.

“Hello, Bon Bon! We’ve just finished t-the lesson, but we’re here for something else.” Helped by the kids, the dragon explained the situation of the observatory, how they wanted to sell cookies to earn money to rebuild it, and the fiasco their first batch was. “So, c-could you help us out? M-maybe you have an easy recipe we can follow?”

Bon Bon’s eyes lit up at the request. “Of course. But perhaps we could do accomplish this task best in my personal kitchen? I have quite the confectioneries to work with,” she suggested, beckoning the small group to follow her.

When no one immediately declined the invitation, the Baroness led them to the kitchen. It was almost surreal. Cupboards upon cupboards of every topping and sugar and flour and cream known through the isles. There was honey and molasses and cherries and raisins. Almost too much to count.

She knelt down to Mina’s level. “So what type of cookies are you looking to make?”

Mina’s eyes widened at the view of all the ingredients. There was even stuff she never saw before. The Baroness’ question brought her back from her thoughts. “Oh! Uh, we tried to make chocolate chip cookies, but, anything will do! As long as it taste good.” She chuckled looking at her friends for their approval.

Harvey and Spike nodded, equally gobsmacked by the selection of baking supplies. The Baroness nodded and began to pull out ingredients. “Grim, can you hand me the cookie cutters on the shelf up there?”

Harvey brightened up. “Hey, do you have any star shaped ones? Since we’re doing this for Hilda?”

“Oh! Good idea, Harvey!” Mina patted the little bunny.

Spike clapped his paws together. “Oh! Aliens! Got any aliens?”

Bon Bon nodded. “I’m sure I have the stars. Grim, do you see any aliens or other space ones up there?”

Grim looked on the shelves and found cookie cutters in.the shape of stars, half moon, a couple of rockets and a planet with its halo.

“Would t-this suffice?” The dragon showed the shapes to the kids. Mina nodded excited.

“They’re going to look awesome!”

Bon Bon could easily turn out rows upon rows of cookies by herself but she knew that this would defeat the purpose of the children raising the money so she helped instruct them how to put the right amount of flour and sugar ratios.

Spike learned how to beat an egg. He was quite pleased with himself and even Bon Bon was impressed by how naturally he could do it. “I’ve beaten a lot of things,” he chuckled, much to Harvey’s chagrin.

Harvey meanwhile loved to roll out the dough, putting flour on the rolling pin so as not have it be too sticky.

The Baroness had Mina pick and choose ingredients as she saw fit, making a batch of chocolate and then a batch of sugar cookies next.

Grim was delighted to see the Baroness  explaining to the kids how to prepare the cookies. His imagination quickly drifted to a future with her. But that bubble quickly burst, realising the big differences between them. Even if they could, somehow, manage to do it, not to brag, but it would probably destroy her.

Besides, Bon Bon probably didn’t want him romantically. Sure they had fun together, and she often would pet him and stroke his head, but did she see him only as a pet?

He glanced nervously at the Baroness from time to time while helping the children to cut the shapes into the dough.

The Baroness was unaware of Grim’s inner turmoil, helping the children to get the first batch of cookies onto the tray. She went to open the oven only for her brow to furrow.

“The oven’s cold,” she realized, “The pilot light must have gone out.” Someone would pay dearly for that but until then, she would have to think of something else.

“Grim,” she called, breaking the dragon from his thoughts, “would you be a dear and help relight the pilot light?”

Grim nodded. “O-of course!” He got close to the oven and softly blew a small flame to turn it on. Mina was amazed at how easy he made spitting fire look.

“While we wait, we should think of a spot to put our stand. Or should we go door to door?” Mina asked her friends.

Harvey thought about it. “We should choose a spot to sell the cookies and maybe someone can go tell people we are selling cookies?” He suggested.

“Didn’t that dumb clown say we could use his circus?” Spike asked.

“You’re right, Spike! Oh! And we’re going to need a big sign so people can see us from far!” Mina started to get really excited and was imagining a neon sign guiding people to their huge stand.

The Baroness left the kids to work with the oven, catching the sight of a piece of paper to the side of the kitchen counter. She picked it up and read it over, her facing becoming slightly irritated. “It appears we are behind on a cake order,” she realized, “what with the pilot light being out.” She ran her surprisingly clean hands through her hair. “It’s a large cake…and I’ve set the baker home already.” This would take forever on her own, even with knowing the recipe by heart.

Noticing her irritation, Grim shyly approached her. “Em, well, c-can I help?” He said, playing nervously with his cookie dough covered claws.

Bon Bon nodded. “Yes, I suppose. We might get a bit dirty though. Let me change real quick into something a bit more comfortable?”

“Of c-course!” The dragon nodded and washed his hands in the sink. His mind drifted again and wondered what Bon Bon looked like without all those layers on. He shook his head to prevent his imagination to go further. That did remind him however, he had his letter to recover from Hilda! Maybe later tonight he could swing by and ask for it. He hoped Hilda hadn’t opened it yet.

Bon Bon departed to her chambers and quickly changed into a shorter dress and blushed. She almost felt naked with something with only one layer but she knew she would quickly overheat in her regular outfit what’s the oven going and working next to Grim who generally seemed to run hot.

She stepped back into the kitchen, pulling a book from one of the shelves. “How familiar are you with Grand Marnier cake?” She asked, trying to be nonchalant about it, even as she felt highly sensitive in her outfit.

Grim was astonished when he saw the lovely frame of the Baroness in that light dress, and could only mumble his answer. “Uh…um… eh… .”

The Baroness began to pull ingredients as she could hear the excited children making another flying saucer batch of cookies. “It’s a bit of a more difficult cake to bake but I think we could do it. Are you sure you’re okay to help me?”

The dragon managed to snap out of it and nodded. “Yes! I want t-to help. What do you need me t-to do?” He asked nervously, trying to not stare at her.

“I’m going to need you to start mixing with this while I pour ingredients in.” She gestured to a large bowl and whisk. “It gets really tiring to have to do both at once,” she admitted.

“Okay.” The dragon nodded again and started mixing.

After a few minutes Grim started to feel awkward and decided to say something about her dress. “Y-you look delicious, by the way….” He realised how horrible that sounded and quickly tried to correct himself. “I mean! The d-dress looks delicious cause…what is it made of? M-marshmallow? I-I-I didn’t mean as… you are delicious… just… eh…oh b-boy….” He started to rumble, red of embarrassment and whipping the mix way too hard and not daring to look at the Baroness.

The Baroness awkwardly laughed. Her family had been very concerned when Grim first showed up that the dragon would indeed eat her up along with anyone else on the isle.

Obviously by the fact that everyone was still alive and well that this wasn’t the case and Grim ended up being a very nice, innocent dragon. A little too innocent, she lamented to herself.

Sometimes when they were alone, she wanted to do a little more than tea and giggles. But there was no way such a shy dragon such as himself would be up for that. So she took care of things herself, imagining what it would feel like.

Bon Bon especially liked the daydream she’d have where he really would be eating her up…just a little further down is all. She realized she had turned a bet heated at that and tried to respond to what Grim said as she fanned herself. “Yes, it’s marshmallow…probably not the best choice. It’s so warm in here, I would love for you to eat it off.”

She froze. “Uh, take it off. Wait, I mean, I would love to take it off with you. Cause…excuse me one moment,” she calmly walked out of the kitchen, grabbing a glass of water. Only once she was out of sight did she splash it on her face.

“Control yourself, you’re a Baroness,” she ordered herself quietly

Grim was dumbstruck by what he heard, or thought he heard. She wanted him to EAT her dress off? He blushed heavily. He could feel his body heating up at the thought. But she didn’t really say that…did she?

He glanced quickly at the children to make sure they didn’t get any of what just happened. They seemed too focused on making the perfect shape for the cookies and creating slogans to boost their sales.

“If it rhymes, it will bring bigger dimes!” He heard the little bat chant to prove her point to the other two.

“How about, buy our cookies or else?” Spike suggested.

Even Harvey had to giggle a bit, enjoying the sugar high from working with all the baking supplies.

The Baroness cooled off enough to come back in, a smile on her face. “How’s the whisking going?” She asked. She saw how quickly he was stirring and she frowned. “Oh! Slow down a little bit otherwise you may beat the air out of the mixture!”

Mina shook her head. “Oh, Spike. Violence is not the answer for everything. Mind games is.” She smirked. “We need to make people believe they need our cookies, or their lives would be miserable.”

Grim was still very red and he didn’t dare to look at Bon Bon. He did slow down his movements and started to mix more gently. “Like t-this?” He asked shyly. He couldn’t get the idea of devouring her outfit out of his head.

The Baroness smiled at Grimm’s careful whisking. “Yes, that’s it. Not too rough. can’t be too rough with this stuff, otherwise it won’t be so fluffy. Now for the final ingredient.” With the children distracted, the Baroness withdrew a brown bottle from a discrete cupboard.

It was liquor. Grand Marnier to be exact. “We don’t want to accidentally pour too much, otherwise this will become quite a boozy cake.”

Hearing the Baroness explaining him with a gentle tone aroused him even more. He felt the pressure in his crotch and knew he had to get out of sight immediately.

“Uh! I g-g-gotta use the bathroom!” He said pushing the bowl into Bon Bon’s hands and running out of the kitchen to go to the nearest toilet.

Mina kept thinking out loud. “Hm… if your day sucked, take a bite back… hm… if you want to help Berg… buy our cookies, you turd!” She chuckled.

Bon Bon blinked in surprise at Grim’s rapid departure. She placed the bowl down and started to add the liquor. “Huh, maybe he was overheating too?”

Grim locked himself in the bathroom. It was a service bathroom, for the kitchen staff, so it wasn’t as impressive as the ones reserved for the guests, but it was good enough for the heated dragon.

He immediately opened the sink and splashed his face with fresh water and looked at himself in the mirror. “K-k-keep it together, Grim! You’re not an animal!” He scolded himself, feeling embarrassed and ashamed of his natural impulses.

The pressure between his legs started to turn from irritating to painful. He knew he wouldn’t be able to hold it much longer.

He looked around desperately and noticed the bathtub. Maybe a cold shower might calm him down. It would be weird to explain to Bon Bon why he was taking a bath in the service restroom.

He ground his teeth and decided he would worry about that later, and opened the water to fill the bathtub.

“C'mon,c'mon, c'mon!” He whispered while the water painfully filled the tub at a slow rate. He held his crotch to make sure his piece would stay put, but it only made him want to rub himself against his own hands.

“Enough!” One of his extra heads popped out alarmed. “Shame on us! You’re in the Baroness Von Bon Bon’s castle, you perv! And there are kids and everything in here!”

“I knew this was gonna happen!” The last head interrupted. “We should masturbate more often! I keep telling ya! This is not healthy to bottle it all up!”

“Guys! Not the b-best time to argue who’s right.” Grim pointed down at his now erect penis.

“Quick! To the bathtub!” Said the first head, and Grim obeyed.  The tub was too small for the dragon, but he managed to fit his rear in, spilling half of the water all over the bathroom.

“Oh, for Christ sake!” All three heads spoke at the same time. They looked down to see if the cold water was doing its job, but their piece stood there just as hard.

“Okay… let’s get this over with.” The second head broke the awkward silence. “We gotta do it.”

The first head looked at him horrified. “You want us to masturbate? Now!? Are you insane!?”

“Well, it’s either a quick relief or go back out there with a fourth head. You think she won’t notice THAT?” The second head said sarcastically.

Grim sighed. He was starting to think he was right. Since it had been so long since he paid any attention to himself. It was be quicker to just do it and go back like nothing happened.

“You are disgusting! At least let’s fly back home….”

“Yeah… haven’t you noticed the big red flag we’re hoisting?”

Grim shushed them. “K-keep it down!” He whispered and looked again at his crotch. “Maybe if I hurt myself will g-go away.” The other heads looked at each other, worried.

Grim drew his tail to his mouth. “Okay…just a little b-bite would do.” His tail was now between his teeth, but he was too scared to close his jaws.

The third head was tired of waiting and pushed Grim’s jaw roughly down, causing all three heads to growl in pain. They stood silence for a few seconds to hear if somebody was coming.

They didn’t hear anything, and now they were hurting in two parts, not just one.

“Well, that was pointless. Can we, please, just, touch ourselves?” The third head started to get anxious. “We already have the material to work with,” he smirked maliciously.

“Ugh! Fine! I still think this is filthy and we WILL regret it!” The first head said, blushing, thinking of ‘the material’ the other head was referring too. Grim blushed heavily and looked away from his crotch.

—

The Baroness was starting to become concerned when Grim didn’t return within a few minutes. She thought about trying to find him however, she didn’t want to leave the children alone with the high powered furnace. Luckily, she spotted one of the Jelly Bean Bakers walking by and quickly called him to attention.

“Watch the children while I locate Matchstick,” she ordered, keeping her voice stern and authoritative.

“Yes, Baroness, of course. I believe I saw him near one of the service washrooms.”

“Thank you.” She paused as the Jelly Bean approached the children with oven mitts. Why on Earth’s name would he be over there? He knew where the guest restrooms were. Maybe he was looking for a glass of water?

She poured a glass from the bottle next to her and quietly walked out of the kitchen to find him. She didn’t hear anything as she approached the washroom and was about to consider that her servant had been incorrect when she picked up the slightest of groans.

She approached the door, the groaning continuing, now a little bit louder and heavier. That sounded like Grim. Was he having a stomach ache? Perhaps he’d eaten one too many of the ingredients they were using. It sounded like he was trying to talk to himself, maybe to make himself feel better?

“Hmm, what did she say again? She wants you to eat her dress off… yum!” He said, slowly licking his lips with his long pointy tongue.

Grim reached down slowly and twitched at the touch of his hand against his very sensitive part. He delicately wrapped his hand around the tip and started stroking very gently. They all bit their lips at the pleasurable sensation.

“Ohh… this is so wrong,” the first head said nervously. "We better hurry up, they’re right next door.”

“Hey, hey, calm down.” The third head whispered. “Focus on Bon Bon’s delicious marshmallow dress.”

“Probably melting with the heat in the kitchen.” The fist one added innocently. He was just stating the fact, but realised how Grim was stroking a bit more vividly at the thought of the melting dress.

“I would have t-to lick all of it.” A silly smile grew on his face.

Lick all of what? The bowl with the cake mix? Bon Bon was puzzled. 

Licking the bowl would just get him sicker if he was having a tummy ache. She can hear another voice now speaking and realized it was one of his heads. Goodness, he really wasn’t feeling well if those two had popped up.

“Oh yeah! That’s what I’m talking about. And we would help you out! We cover the north… and you go aaall the way south.” The third head smiled widely, feeling the more rhythmic strokes Grim was giving to himself.

That, that didn’t sound like baking. If she didn’t know any better, Bon Bon would have almost thought he was talking about…

The dragon heads all tried their best to moan as little as possible, but it was hard to keep themselves from groaning after a long time of neglect.

“I would….” Grim continued. “I would stick my t-tongue all the way inside her. I wonder if she tastes as sweet as she smells.” Even in cold water the dragon was really hot. He let his tongues hang from their heads, panting softly.

The sound of the dragon moaning made the member of royalty stiffen. Bon Bon turned as red as a tomato as the image of cute little Grim shattered as the dragon managed to purr out such sensual words.

She stifled a gasp with her hand as his words triggered a needy twitch within her abdomen. Her eyes darted around worriedly for any other witnesses but there was none.

“I want to give her so much pleasure,” the first head spoke this time, delirious from the good sensations.

"I want to bite every part of her delicate body.” The other head added breathing heavily.

BonBon sent her fingers on her lips trailing down against her neck and the suddenly very tight feeling of the hem of her dress.

Who was he talking about that had the dragon so worked up? His heavy panting and the lack of other servants emboldened her actions, the free hand having dipped further so it was needing her now very sensitive breasts. She entertained the idea he was lusting after her and a desirous thrill made her body shiver with the thought.

“I want to show her how much I love her….” Grim said stroking his piece more violently.

The Baroness froze at that line.

Grim was in love with someone? Her mind raced with thoughts of who it could be. She had always thought that the dragon had a crush on her, but hearing him like this, learning about a side of him that she had no idea existed, she wondered if she had been completely wrong about that.

Sure, the dragon had asked her out, but perhaps it had been friendship? He never said he liked her or anything. Guilt and shame began to press in, small during the desire that had sparked up at hearing him speak like this. She was the one who pressed little kisses to his cheek, not the other way around. And there were times during summer where he disappear for days, even weeks on end sometimes in the summer… Was he seeing someone else?

Without realising they had an audience, Grim and his heads all started to moan and groan a bit louder. “I want her… only her…. I need her to scream my name!”

Bon Bon felt so foolish. She backed away from the door and took a shaky swig of the water, only to nearly choke as she realized should accident report herself a glass of the Grand Marnier liquor. It burned as it went down her throat, and she quickly hurried down the hallway, stifling a cough and perhaps the beginning of an unhappy sob.

Grim could feel he was pretty close to climaxing. He kept imagining the delicate frame of Bon Bon under his hungry tongues, dipping inside her as deep as they could reach, feeling her twitch and moan his name.

“Oh, Bon Bon!” All three heads growled climaxing releasing a heavy load. He tried to recover his normal breathing, caressing himself slowly while his erection, finally satisfied, softened away.

"I can’t believe we just did that….” The first head said, embarrassed.

“Wow, we REALLY needed that!” The third one added. “Maybe next time I suggest something, maybe you’ll listen to me, huh?” The first head rolled his eyes and Grim was still in the blissful afterglow to pay any attention.

He stood up, emptied the bathtub and washed himself. The fresh water was very welcome. Now that he was relaxed, the other heads returned to the body and he started to get ready to come out again.

—-

As a future explorer, Mina was very observant, she figured out something was wrong between Bon Bon and Grim and now that they both left she dared to ask.

“You think Grim and Bon Bon had a fight? I feel like something is wrong between them….”

Harvey looked around, realizing that Mina was correct. Both the Baroness and Grim were gone. “Maybe we should go look for them?” He suggested.

The kitchen doors opened abruptly and the children jumped up in surprise. The Baroness had walked in, looking slightly just shoveled. Upon realizing she was being watched, the woman straightened herself out, placed an empty glass she had been carrying on the counter, and coolly smiled.

“I apologize,” she began, “I was worried that Grim was having a stomach ache.”

Spike laughed. “Haha, that sucks.”

Harvey’s ears drooped. “Is he okay?”

“Yes, I’m sure he’ll be joining us later. Let me see how your cookies have come out.” She wiped her eyes and approached. Spike sniffed the air, slightly confused. "You kind of smell like my dad right now,“ he noted.

She appeared taken aback. "Does your dad smell of sugar?”

“Not exactly…nevermind. Look at my alien cookies. This one is eating Harvey’s astronaut cookie.”

—

After a few minutes, the dragon got out of the bathroom, still blushing of embarrassment, but much more relaxed. He took a deep breath before entering the kitchen, waving his hand to the kids.

“H-hey! Sorry about that. I had a t-tummy ache. Probably from the first batch of cookies we made.” He smiled awkwardly.

“Oh! You feeling better?” Mina asked, worried.

“Uh, y-yeah, don’t worry! I’ll be fine….” He turned even more red. “Are t-the cookies done baking?” He asked Bon Bon, playing with his fingers nervously and avoiding eye contact.

Bon Bon swallowed, pushing down the last of the bile in her throat and appeared very calm. “Yes, the first few batches are done. I think the kids will be ready to go sell in an hour or so.” She made sure to also not directly look at Grim nor touch him at all, not even a brush with her shoulder.

Harvey hopped up and down. “I forgot, where did we say we’re going to sell these?”

“We could try next to the third isle bridge. A lot of people pass by. Or near the balloon tree,” Mina proposed.

Spike whistled. "I haven’t been to the third isle in a while. Plus, if they don’t buy a cookies, we can throw them over the bridge!”

“I am going to pretend I didn’t hear that last part,” Harvey muttered starting to pack away the cookies for transport.

Grim hadn’t noticed Bon Bon’s cold shoulder for he was still thinking of what he had done minutes ago, and that made him lose focus on what was going on. He did hear the Baroness and he nodded.

“G-good, good….” He wanted to leave but leaving the Baroness alone with the kids would be kind of rude, so he decided to stay until the batch was done. “Eh… what about your cake, Bon Bon? Anything else help with?” He asked looking for the bowl they were working on.

Baroness hardly heard Grim initially. She realized what he had asked and that a response was probably necessary. She looked at the half finished cake batter and shrugged. It had been whipped too harshly, she doubted it would rise. She probably could have saved it, but the idea no longer appealed to her.

“No, that will be all. Thank you, Grim,” she responded politely.

“O-okay.” Grim answered, starting to suspect something was wrong with her, but he shook his thoughts, thinking it was probably him being paranoid. He helped the kids to finish packing up all the cookies and they were soon ready to go.

“Thank you very much, your highness.” The little bat bowed to Bon Bon. “Thanks to you we will save the observatory!” She smiled at her, truly grateful for her help.

“Yeah, t-thank you very much, Bon Bon.” Grim smiled and forced himself to look at her, turning really red, afraid she would see through his eyes to see what he did earlier.

The Baroness politely nodded. “Of course. I’m afraid I don’t have the type of dough that Ms. Berg could really use, but my kingdom would like to help in any way that we can.” She motioned for one of the jelly bean guards to approach.

“I’ll have you escorted safely to the bridge when you are ready. I would hate for somebody else to just steal them away before you get a chance to sell them.”

When they were at the door, Grim said goodbye to the kids who left with the escort Bon Bon had assigned them.

The dragon gathered the strength to talk to the Baroness. “S-say.. uh… t-thank you again for helping…  hmm… I was wondering… if you’re not t-to busy, perhaps … you would like to come by later? I bought this new forest t-tea blend I think you might enjoy….” He said shyly, smiling trying to sound normal.

The Baroness almost instinctively said yes but stopped herself. Knowing that Grim was involved or at least romantically interested in someone else, it would not look good for her to continue her frequent visits to his home. People would talk, especially if any of them had spotted Grim’s beau.

The last thing she needed was to tarnish both her and Grim’s name with people thinking they were engaged in something sordid.

She shook her head. “I’m sorry, but I have some delegations I need to attend to. Perhaps another time?”

Grim dropped his ears sad to hear that. “Y-yeah, whenever you’re free. Uh… I’m gonna g-go now…. t-thanks again… .” And with a couple of powerful flaps, the dragon flew away to his tower.

—-

Amoury sat in front of a wounded and tired Carlos. They were in a simple hotel room, and at the door there was Francis and Connor, the gorilla and toad who were assisting Carlos in recovering the cargo.

The spider was furious, but you could only tell by the deadly look he gave to the cat, for he didn’t spoke a word to him. In his hand, he held a glass of brownish liquor, making a tinkling noise with the ice hitting the glass.

“Amory… I know I… kinda messed up things… but it wasn’t all my fault. The guy wanted to check the cargo! Mc Crabbe didn’t tell him about our… arrangement… and this masked cat, popped out of nowhere!” Amory hold a hand to signal him to stop talking, and took a sip of his glass. Carlos rolled his eyes. He knew Amory had a taste for the dramatic acts, but this ‘silent type’ was starting to get to his nerves.

“You said you were ready for the job, Buenaventura.” Amory said calmly.

“You can just call me Carlos.” The cat smiled. “Buenaventura is kind of a mouthful.”

The spider didn’t find anything amusing in his comment, and glared at him with his five eyes. Carlos gulped. “Buenaventura sounds fine!” The cat quickly added. “And, again! I was ready! just… I miscalculated… I should have listened to my mamá and stayed in school.”

Amory left the glass roughly on the table with a loud thud. “Three quarters of the cargo, Buenaventura. Three quarters, gone….” He kept that disturbingly calm tone.

Carlos dropped his ears. “Well, let’s stay positive! Thanks to Francis and Connor here….” He pointed at the two at his back. “We recover one quarter! That’s better than nothing! … right?” He forced a smile but it erased from his face when he noticed one of the spider’s eye twitch. “Mmmkay… I’m going to shut up now.”

The spider finished his glass with one gulp and left the glass softly on the table this time. “You will keep an eye on Sullivan Wells, and you better pray that this… masked cat won’t interfere with our business, Buenaventura. I can get us out of this one, but we won’t be so lucky next time.” He gestured the cat to leave. “You have two days to recover. Then, come see me here.”

Carlos nodded and, with a bit of difficulty, he stood up from his chair and left the hotel, heading toward Cagney’s garden.

—

Cagney had probably had one of the worst sleeps he had ever had in his life. Grim hadn’t really been up to taking visitors, so he kind of made camp at the edge of his garden. But the city kept him up. All the loud noises and screams from Beppi’s circus kept jostling him awake. And he could have sworn he heard fireworks coming from the third isle.

So, he was irritable, a little more than normal at least. He was tired, sore and maybe just a tad pent-up. He did have quite a few lewd dreams with Miss Hilda that he would have greatly enjoyed except for the fact he was getting woken up every 30 to 45 minutes.

As he crossed the bridge connecting the second and third Isle, he can hear the whistling of the boat coming into harbor and could smell the salty air. Plants weren’t so much a fan of the ocean water, due to its high concentration of salt, but Cagney could appreciate any form of natural thing in this part of the industrialized Isles.

He was close to Rumor so now he was starting to run what he was exactly going to say through his head. If he could even get an audience. The bee was a peculiar one. His mind was so preoccupied, he hardly noticed the orange furry cat darting to and from between nearby shipments on the dock.

—-

Another day, another heist. Hopefully. Although this one was slightly different than Amber’s normal targets. According to Sully’s charts, this was a honey delivery. But not just any honey. Royal jelly honey. The premium stuff, the top shelf stuff, the stuff that they kept locked behind the counter to avoid people like her getting her paws on it.

Oh, not that Amber should probably touch that stuff. She could only imagine how sticky it would get her fur, and how much it she’d have to groom and bathe herself before would finally come out. But, it was worth a lot, and considering what a bust last night had been was losing the rest of the weird magical exploding gems, it was a risk she was willing to take.

Actually, it was probably a slightly greater risk as she was doing this in the afternoon. Trying to steal when the sun was up at any point, was never the best idea. But if at night, people with guns were going to shoot her, she was willing to deal with a possibility of getting spotted rather than getting shot..ted.

She watched the dock workers carefully unload the stuff and noted the absence of bee guards. Amber would have thought the cargo of this quality would result in the Queen Bee’s own guards standing guard but it didn’t appear to be the case.

Amber sidled a little closer to the boxes of honey, holding in her hand a sturdy flask. Even one glass at the stuff could net a hefty sum and would have her rolling in catnip for weeks if she so desired.

—

Sullivan had just started his shift. His coworkers kept asking him questions about last night and he  started to grow tired of the attention. He tried to focus on his schedule for today and he sighed tiredly. Royal Jelly for Rumor Honeybottom. He hated to deal with the bees. They were all very pompous and spoke down to him, even though he was the one making sure their cargo was safe.

The big boat arrived and Sullivan order people around to get the crane’s ready for the unload, while he went to the shack to notify the bees of the arrival of their honey. The corkers did as they were told, and carefully stacked the boxes at the dock, next to many other bigger ones hiding them from simple view.

“We will send our people immediately to pick up the honey.” A male’s voice answered on the other side of the line that Sullivan dialed. “Please, take good care of it! And in the name of her highness Honeybottom, thank you, once again, for your service and we apologize for our delay.”

Sullivan rolled his eyes. “Its ok, Gary, you don’t have to be so formal with me.”

“Actually, I do!” The voice whispered. “ Our beloved queen has ordered to do an inspection in all sectors of the hive. Her majesty wants to do 'adjustments’ on the personnel.”

“Adjustments? What do you mean? Like fire you?” Sullivan couldn’t help but ask.

“No… her graciousness prepared a program to turn every bee who’s not working 100% into a model worker. Robert got busted resting his eyes for a minute after a ten hour shift, and when he came back from the program…it wasn’t the same Robert. If you go tonight at the joint, I’ll tell you more about it.”

“You’re just exaggerating!” Sullivan grumbled, “Robert is a lazy ass, and you’re no better either. You should have been here forty minutes ago! I bet the program is just a friendly reminder of your obligations as workers or something like that,” Sullivan tried to rationalize. “Now hurry up, we’re running out of space and we’re still waiting for more shipments.”

They both said goodbye and Sullivan hung up, picked up some more papers and got out of the shack walking back to the honey cargo.

—

Cagney watched the dock workers unload whatever shipment they were getting in next. It didn’t really concern him too much and he was about to keep walking toward the hive when the flash of brown caught his eye.

He looked again to see a familiar looking feline lurking near one of the isolated boxes. He felt himself tense up, but stopped himself. He had literally attacked two other mammals in the last week in a case of mistaken identity. he shouldn’t just be jumping through violence whenever he thought he found the burglar.

And then he saw her take out a bag and slip on a mask and start to dig a hole in the box and realize that this was her. He grinned, realizing this was her and he was well within is right to beat the ever living shit out of her.

—

Amber had just about punctured the box when she felt something tap her in the shoulder. She froze. She had counted the number of workers, there was no way she missed one. It tapped again and she turned around to find herself looking up at a large carnation.

“Hi there,” he greeted.

“Hey-?” Quick as lightning, he backhanded her hard enough to send her flying over the honey box and crashing into a pile of boxes.

Sullivan’s team just finished unloading the last box when something passed flying the boxes. A couple of workers turned their heads where they thought they flying thing landed.

Amber grunted painfully as she sat up from where she had been slapped. Pieces of wood chunks lay everywhere. She wondered how she wasn’t more seriously harmed, until she realized she had crashed into a box carrying several large bags of flour. It looked like Rumor wasn’t the only Royal resident expecting a shipment of something.

She didn’t have much time to thank her lucky stars as she saw the carnation bearing down on her. Amber’s eyes widen as she realized where she have seen him before. He was the flower from the observatory. And he looked pissed enough to kill her. “Woah, woah, wait,” she started, “listen, I only took one thing, I’ll bring it back!”

“There is nothing you can do to bring back Hilda’s dome!”

“Hilda’s…dome?” Amber was really confused. She hadn’t stolen any domes. “Wait, Mr. Flower…”

“It’s Cagney, dammit!” He snarled, lunging for her.

She struggled to escape, but her foot was stuck under heavy bag of flour. And when flight was off the table, that only left one other option.

Before he could grab her, she grabbed one of the bags of flour and smacked it down on his petaled head.

Cagney saw stars and white powder as he reeled back from the surprise attack. He blinked unsuredly before growling and opting to swing around wildly instead, hoping to make contact with something

The workers around the flour shipment saw the giant flower get hit with one of the precious cargo.

“Hey! What’s going on!?”

“Somebody’s fighting!”

The crew mates started to gather around the carnation.

Amber freed her foot just in time to take an acorn to the gut, sending her rolling backwards in a clumsy somersault. Cagney dizzily pulled out another one, shaking his head to regain his senses. “Next one’s going for the head!”

Amber scowled. “If that’s how it’s gonna be, then fine!” She picked up the acorn, climbed up one of the rafters and chucked it at his face, smacking him hard in the nose.

Cagney drop the other acorn and grabbed his nose. “Argh, you bitch!” He couldn’t stretch up after her but he still had his thorns. He wrapped his thorny stem around the rafters beam and squeezed tightly, sending the pole shaking as he sent cracks up and down the sea soaked wood. It wavered dangerously close to the edge of the water.

Amber hissed, her fur raising. She crouched and pounced on the carnation, latching onto his hand and clawing him with an angry yowl.

Cagney squealed, unwinding himself and tried to shake her off by slamming her into things but the cat had sunk her claws in nice and deep.

Amber went to pull out something from her bag, loosening her claws. Cagney saw his opportunity to yank her off and slammed her in the ground, breaking through the bottom of the deck of the porch. The cat clunk desperately to his green fingers and looks down fearfully at the cold choppy water underneath.

She scrambled up the length of his arm, back on top of the shipyard, before clinging to his petals. the Carnation tried to pull her off, but this time she wasn’t letting go, biting at hands that got too close. “Get off me, pussy!”

He head-butted the rafter once more, hoping it would just dislodge her, but it only made both of them dizzy. Amber hissed and yanked a petal. “Thought you were tougher than this, I’m going to prune you, you dumb daisy.”

He flinched at that comment. Hilda liked calling him a dumb daisy. It is much as he dislike the term, he hated that anyone else would dare to use it other than her. A burst of vindictive rage finally allowed him to pry her off despite her biting and scratching and he held her aloft by the scruff. “I’m a carnation, you flea-ridden rat!” He pitched her at a box and she hit it with a thud.

Amber felt around for something to use, only for her paw to touch something sticky. She looked down to see she had touched honey. Where the hell was the honey coming from? She turned behind her to realize the honey was leaking from a small hole in the box. The force of the carnation’s throw must have led to her accidentally puncturing the box. It was only a small hole though and just one of the boxes… Amber realized at the site of one of the insignias stamped on the box, but this was the royal jelly box. She panicked but tried to remain calm. As long as nothing else hit it, the leak could be fixed and the box could be saved.

At the sight of the carnation approaching, she realized the flower was oblivious to how weak the honey box was, so she held out her paws. “Wait, wait, the honey, hold on!”

Cagney stared at her in disbelief before snapping.  "My name’s not honey, it’s Cagney!“ And with that, he slammed both his fists down toward her.

"No, you stupid-!” She didn’t even finish her sentence as she couldn’t quite move in time, splintering the box open behind her with a loud snap. Honey gushed out, coating the combatants in its sticky yellowness.

Cagney slipped and fell to the ground when he tried to keep his balance and Amber screamed angrily as she looked at herself.

“Do you have any idea how long is going to take to wash out of my fur, you stupid carnation!?” She hissed, leaping on the fallen flower. “It’s going to take weeks! Weeks!”

“Weeks?! Do you even know how long it’s going to take Hilda to rebuild that dome, even if she had the money!?” Cagney snapped back, trying to push the sticky feline off of him. At least her claws were pretty much useless with amount of yellow gunk covering them.

“You broke it!”

“After you broke in her place!

"But you broke it!”

“Shut up, I know!” Cagney angrily admitted, “and I’m ruining everything I had with her trying to fix it, you dumb bitch!”

Amber paused slightly at that. “Wait, you and the meteorologist…?”

“Not anymore!”

“I didn’t know.”

He finally managed to get a scruff on the slippery cat.  "Of course you don’t! You’re a thief! You don’t care at all!“

Amber felt something inside of her that she didn’t normally feel at that. She didn’t know what it was, but she didn’t like it. So she hit Cagney a little less hard. Still hard enough to cause bruises if he was an animal.

"I’m going to fix this,” Cagney continued, “beating the shit out of you is going to make me feel a lot better about it!” He tried to toss only to have her stick to him even more.

Sullivan was on his way to the honey containers when he saw a bunch of working bees and some guards arriving in their trucks. He greeted them and took to their shipment, only stop abruptly at the view.

A few of the priceless royal jelly boxes where cracked and leaking the precious amber product all over the docks and into the sea.

In the middle of the mess, Sullivan recognized the giant flower, struggling to stand up, and somebody else was with him. He got closer and recognized the voice.

.“..Amber?” He said in disbelief.

Amber cocked her head at her name and looked around only to stop in her place as she saw Sullivan staring right at her. “Uh…hi Sully?” She managed, “this looks bad but…”

Cagney managed to catch the cat off guard and smack her into one of the broken boxes. “Didn’t see that coming, didja you bi-hey! Hey! What the hell are you doing?!” His attention turned toward the guard bees who had appropriately swarmed the flower and were in the process of trying to restrain him.

Amber likewise managed to pull herself out of the honey only to get pinned to the ground next to Cagney with an indigent yelp. “Hey! Watch where you’re putting those antennae, you perverts!” She hissed, struggling uselessly against the guard

“What the…! .” Sullivan dropped his clipboard and got closer them. “W-wait! This is a misunderstanding! A-a-an accident! GET YOU HANDS OFF HER!” He wanted to pull one of the guards away from Amber but was violently restrained by another bee.

“This is Royal business now, Mr Wells,” the big bee holding him said in a deep voice. “And you better watch it, or we will take you too.” He threatened him.

The worker bees tried their best to fix the leaking boxes while the guards took Cagney and Amber to their truck. Sullivan struggled to get loose. “No! It’s a misunderstanding! They’re not even supposed to be here! Please! No! AMBER!”

But the guards ignored him and drove their sticky prisoners to the hive.

———————————————————————————

CHAPTER 01,  CHAPTER 02,  CHAPTER 03,  CHAPTER 04,  CHAPTER 05, CHAPTER 06,  CHAPTER 07,  CHAPTER 08,  CHAPTER 09,  CHAPTER 10; CHAPTER 11; CHAPTER 12 ; CHAPTER 13 ; CHAPTER 14  ; CHAPTER 15; CHAPTER 16 ; (nsfw) CHAPTER 17 ; CHAPTER 18 ; CHAPTER 19 (nsfw) ; CHAPTER 20 ; CHAPTER 21 ; CHAPTER 22 ; CHAPTER 23 ; CHAPTER 24 ; CHAPTER 25 (nsfw)(you are here now!)

[necrokittytales]

Necrida’s Illustrations from Necrokitty Chronicles! #5

Necrokitty tales: Trouble in Inkwell Isle CHAPTER 20 sketches

[necrida]

[necrokittytales]

Necrokitty Tales: Trouble in Inkwell Isle (Chapter 23)

Authors’ note: Necrida’s writing will be in italics and SPKC’s writing with be regular font.If you have no idea what this roleplaying thing is, you can start from the beginning here.

———————————————————————————

Grim watched Isabella demonstrate the stretches from the children. He was very hesitant to join and snuck a glance toward Bon Bon. The woman was smiling as she watched the lesson, making the dragon swell up his chest. He realized this class was a good chance to show off a little in front of the Baroness and started to stretch with the bats. He thought about what cool flying acrobatics he knew how to do.

Isabella kept describing different stretching exercises. “And finally, we always end with the sun salutation!”

"Yay!” Mina cheered. She leaned over to her rabbit friend. “It’s my favourite,” she whispered to Harvey.

“Ok, we’re going to bend our backs down, reaching for our ankles. Bend your knees if you need to,” the bat started explaining.d “Then we’re going to put our hands together, as if we were praying, and slowly we’ll get back up, reaching for the sky with our hands as far as we can…aaand we greet the sun: HELLO, SUN!” She yelled and waved to the sky.

“HELLOOO, SUUUUN!” The little bat cheered giggling.

Grim smiled “Hello, s-sun!” He said shyly.

“No, no, no.” Isabella shook her head. “You gotta shout! The sun is very far, he can’t hear you.”

“Oh, eh, ok… ” The dragon took a deep breath. “HELLO, SUN!” He roared so loud that it echoed around his tower.

Mina clapped impressed and Isabella chuckled. “Better.”

—

As the flyers finished their stretches, Hopus moseyed around the Second Isle’s stores, browsing the selection of stuff. It would be really nice if he could find something for his wife. She was a real trooper, managing the home while he had been putting in the overtime.

King Dice had been especially demanding as of late. Something must be going on to get the house manager all worked up but Hopus preferred not to know what it is, preferring to keep his head down and work.

He was aware of residents furtively glancing his way and he realized he was wearing his bow tie. He would have taken it off but the rabbit wanted to stop by the circus real quick, check out the damage.

Maybe have a talk with the clown.

Hopus walked into the carnival and let out a low whistle. “Wow,” he admired. There was broken glass and embers everywhere. He carefully walked around the bits and pieces. Looks like Harvey and Hannah had a very good time last night. He should let them go out more often.

He could hear the familiar voice of Beppi and casually walked over to see the clown sulking, holding a piece of broken mirror.

“Hello, Beppi,” Hopus greeted casually.

Beppi froze for only the briefest of seconds before looking at Hopus with a humongous smile. “Heya Hopus! I haven’t seen you in a while! Not since your buddies dragged your beaten butt back to the casino.”

Yes, their last interaction hadn’t ended on the most pleasant of circumstances. Not that Hopus minded as much. Or at least was not showing that he minded.

Hopus kept the same grin. “I could say the same. Looks like they stitched that arm back on really well. Could hardly tell it had been torn off.”

Beppi gestured elsewhere. “We can thank Djimmi for that. You haven’t seen him, have you?”

“No?”

“Darn. I’ve been trying to call him on day but he’s not picking up.” Beppi held up his “phone” to prove his point.

Hopus looked at it. “That’s a piece of mirror.”

“Magic mirror. That Djimmi made,” Beppi clarified.

“You could always walk to his home?”

“Nah. This is more fun. I’m hoping that if he picks up, his face will be all warped because of the mirror… And he won’t be too mad that a lot of the mirror’s got broken last night.”

“Yeah, I can tell.”

Beppi looked at him more closely. “Ya know, you don’t happen to have mini versions of you running around, do ya?”

“That’s a queer question.”

“Two of the little kids from yesterday were rabbits is all. Looked a lot like you, minus the sharp pointy teeth ya know?”

Hopus played dumb. “Huh. I’ll have to check around and make sure I didn’t conjure up any by accident.”

Beppi tried one more time with the mirror but gave up. He checked with Hopus. “Did you wanna ride the bumper cars with the rest of your buds?”

“Oh nah, just wanted to…rest of my buds?”

“Yeah, Mango and Chips are on them now. Isn’t that why you’re here?”

“Not exactly. Just wanted to check things out. But I’ll head over there and see how the guys are. Good luck with your phone call.”

“Thanks. Hopefully it doesn’t reflect too badly of me if I can’t make it ”

Sure enough, Mango and Chips were at the bumper cars, ramming into each other over and over again. They spotted Hopus and waved. “Hey, Hopus!” Mango yelled, “Care to join us?”

“Not now, just visiting with my family. You two having fun on our days off?”

Chips grinned. “Hell yeah, we just saw the most amazing siren!!”

–

The Baroness stifled a giggle at how enthusiastically the flyers were shouting. Hopefully Grim’s booming voice wouldn’t alarm any townsfolk. It had before but by this point, everyone was quite used to his volume and just carried out with their daily lives.

“So what’s the next step?” She asked curiously.

Grim looked at the tower. “I g-guess we dive? T-that’s how I learned.”

“By jumping off towers?” Mina asked, very worried.

“Actually, it was a m-mountain,” The dragon clarified.

“Ah! Me too!” Isabella chuckled. “I even broke a leg.”

“I broke t-two, and my tail!” Grim replied, strangely proud of it. Isabella whistled in admiration.

Mina looked curiously at her mother. "Who taught you how to fly, mama?”

“Hmmm. It was this friend of Madame Butterfly. I remember he was very nice with kids…until we found out he was a pedop~!” Isabella bit her lip, remembering there were kids present. Grim and Bon Bon looked at each other nervously.

Harvey raised an eyebrow and scratched his head. “A pedo what?”

Knowing her daughter, it was best to give an answer, or she wouldn’t rest until she figured it out herself. The woman cleared her throat. “ A pedooo…dactyl!” She finally said, hopping that would be enough to satisfy their curiosity.

“A pedodactyl? You mean pterodactyl?” Mina asked, confused.

“Ah! Yes yes, that’s it! Haha! Me and my awful English!” The bat laughed nervously.

“Pterodactyl…as in a dinosaur?” Mina insisted.

“Mmmhmm.” Isabella affirmed.

“A 65 million years old dinosaur?”

“Oh yes, he was quite old. Probably dead now.” The woman tried to sound convincing. “But enough questions now! Let’s go diving!” She kneeled in front of her daughter so she could climb on her back.

“Actually, can I go on your back, Grim?” She asked innocently with big puppy eyes “I always wanted to ride on a dragon!”

Grim couldn’t resist her cuteness and nodded. “Sure! Hop on, k-kids!” He said, lying on his belly so they could climb on him. “And leave some r-room for Bon Bon.”

Baroness Von Bon Bon seemed surprised. “Oh! Am I riding too? Will that be too much for you?” She asked as Harvey and Mina were already climbing into the flopped dragon.

“Well, y-you won’t see m-much from down here,” Grim blushed, embarrassed. Truth be told, he really wanted to have her near him again just like this morning.

“Hop on! Hop on!” Mina said trying to encourage Bon Bon.

Isabella listened to their interaction, trying to catch any hint of subtext that would confirm Goopy’s gossip from last night. This was going to be fun for her too.

“Well, if that’s going to be all right by you, let me me board.” The Baroness climbed on top of Grim and made sure to securely hold onto his scales. She didn’t ride Grim that often, but if she treated it like riding a horse bareback, she could manage it.

A large horse that is, she mused, glancing down at the ground.

Harvey patted Grimm. “Okay we are all on now!”

Grim shivered slightly feeling Bon Bon on his back and when he was sure everyone was settled in, he spread his wings. With a powerful flap, he lifted from the ground. He started to fly in circles around the tower as he climbed altitude, making sure his back would stay as horizontal as possible. He didn’t want to let anybody fall.

Isabella followed, keeping her distance to avoid getting hit by Grim’s wings. Mina started giggling and yelling out of excitement. She was riding a dragon!

Noticing her enthusiasm, Grim roared to make her experience more authentic. Mina tried to roar as well, only to release the cutest kitten meow. She covered her mouth and lowered her ears, embarrassed.

Minutes later, they reached the top of Grim’s tower. The dragon softly landed and laid on his belly to let everybody down.

“That was amazing!!!” Mina said, lifting her arms in the air. Isabella landed as well and smiled at her daughter’s excitement.

Harvey hopped off. “Holy cow! That was amazing!”

The Baroness slid off, running her hand along Grim’s back affectionately. “Yes it most certainly was. Is it Mina’s turn now to fly?” She asked, winking at the B-cat.

The kids enthusiasm made Grim feel more confident, but it quickly faded when Bon Bon slid off him, sending a delightful shiver all over his spine. He turned his head away pretending he needed to scratch his nose to hide his blushing.

Mina smiled at the Baroness and nodded. “Yes! Today will be the day I conquer the skies!”

Isabella smiled tenderly, sitting on the edge of the railing and crossing her legs. “That’s the spirit, my little îngar!” She cheered.

Grim recovered and cleared his throat before speaking. “Let’s begin!” He got closer to the railing where Isabella was sitting. “The easiest way t-to start flying is by catching a wind. Did your mother t-talk to you about that?”

“Oh yes! I kinda manage to do it when I glide, but I can never use it to lift myself,” The little girl said, a bit sad.

“It’s alright, nobody gets it on the first t-try” The dragon tried to make her feel better and Mina smiled shyly. “It’s very easy, you just have t-to dive in, heads first, and keep your wings closed” the dragon showed with his wings the correct position. Mina tried to imitate him. “That’s good!”

Isabella clapped “Yay, Mina!”

“And then, ” the dragon continued “you open your wings slowly, k-keeping the right angle.” He demonstrated again with his wings. “And then, you k-keep going until you’re horizontal. Questions?”

Mina didn’t seem very sure. “Could you demonstrate, please?”

“S-sure!” The dragon nodded and threw himself from the tower doing the movements he had described until he caught up to a wind. To return, he decided to show off a little, and did an elegant swirl before landing in the tower again. “Tadaaah!”

Harvey clapped enthusiastically. “Mina can totally do that! She’s the best!” He cheered helpfully.

Grim did some small bows with his head in appreciation. The bats clapped in admiration as well. Well, mostly Mina. Isabella clapped when she heard everyone doing so, although felt a bit sad she wouldn’t be able to enjoy the show.

The Baroness winked at Grim. “Maybe float by her if she needs a pointer or two?”

He nodded at Bon Bon and turned to the b-cat. “Ready to d-dive with me?” the dragon asked.

Mina hesitated, looking how far up they where, but she nodded at the dragon. She stood on the railings, spreading her wings.

“On three,” Grim said showing Mina the starting position. “One. Two. Thr~!”

“I can’t do it!” Mina panicked at the last second. “I-i-It’s too far! Too windy! Eh…the sun is on my face!” She tried to made up an excuse.

“Oh! Don’t be afraid, draga mea!” Isabella approached her. "You have to trust your wings. You were built to fly!”

“And I’ll be flying right next t-to you! You’re not getting hurt on m-my watch,” the dragon said, pointing at himself with his thumb.

“You can t-try to close your eyes, it helped me on my first flights.” Grim suggested.

Mina tried to go a second time only with her eyes closed, and even if it was better, she didn’t dare to take the leap. She started to feel nervous and a bit ashamed. All this fuss and excitement just to back down like this. What would Harvey think of her now?

“Mina.” Her mother put a hand on her shoulder. “Every great journey starts with a small step.” She smiled tenderly. “Sure! It can be a very scary step, but think of the wonders that await you after! You will explore the world, you will conquer the skies, and if you put your mind to it, you will discover the wonders of the universe itself! Aaaall that…from a small first step.”

Mina looked at her mother, charmed by the idea of becoming an explorer, and looked back down with renewed determination. She took a deep breath and got into position. Grim prepared himself as well to jump next to her.

The little bat closed her eyes and imagined she was about to jump into a pool full of cotton candy. She slowly let herself get pulled by gravity until it made her fall. Isabella had to fight her motherly instinct to jump to her aid when she heard her small child screaming.

The floor was getting close at an alarming rate, and Mina started panicking and flapping her wings, scared.

“Head first!” Grim said, flying next to her with a smile. Mina looked at him relieved that he was around, and tried to get into position. “That’s right, you got this! Now, you have the speed, time to ride! Change the angle on your wings.” The girl did as she was told but the speed made the air too strong around her tiny wings and she couldn’t get the right angle.

The impact was imminent but Grim softly grabbed the b-cat in the air and with a swirl he flew back up to the tower. Mina clung to the dragon’s skin, breathing heavily and full of adrenaline. “That was…hhh soo…hhhh scary!” She managed with a smile.

“First time always is” Grim chuckled not feeling the feline’s claws. “At least you didn’t break any bones.”

“Oh! My dulceata! I’m so proud of you!” Isabella clapped.

Grim was an excellent teacher; he was very patient with Mina. He didn’t mind repeating himself, and he really had fun correcting Mina’s knowledge about dragons.

Isabella was very grateful for his help. She felt a bit sad she wasn’t able to teach her herself. But the bat was very aware of her limitations, and as the years passed by, she learned to accept it, and take help from others. She was happy to know her little girl was going to fly soon.

The flyers kept diving from the tower and Mina was making progress. At some point she managed to catch a wind that carried her to the limits of the garden.

“That was really g-good, Mina!” Grim said, getting close to the tree she grabbed on to. “A bit more practice and you’ll be flying in no t-time!” The little bat smiled at the dragon, panting exhausted.

Isabella, who was flying next to them, noticed her child’s fatigue. “I think we had enough for today” she chuckled. “We’ll take over again next week.”

“Oh no! Can we continue tomorrow?” The little b-cat asked.

“Dulceata, we can’t be bothering Grim all weekend! He has a life too, you know?”

“It won’t b-be a bother at all” Grim hurried to answer. “I’m really enjoying it, you can come by when ever you want!” This was helping him to be way more confident, and he liked that feeling. If this kept up, he might almost have the courage to ask Bon Bon out. He turned red at the thought.

“Aww! that’s very nice of you, Grim” Isabella used her enticing voice this time, confusing the dragon.

“No p-problem,” he had very little experience in terms of love, and he thought she was actually hitting on him. He got nervous. “I-I-I’m gonna go pick up the others,” he said, flying towards the tower.

Isabella smiled. He was a sensitive dragon, and she found that adorable. The bats flew down to ground and Grim reached the tower, slightly blushing.

“C-classes are over, let me t-take you down.”

–

“You saw her at the club, you say?” Hopus confirmed.

“Yeah, well until that fight broke out and we all had to leave. But KD sounded very interested. Ya know, when he was done yelling at us.”

“Best part is, she’s blind! Mango totally have a shot at her since she can’t see his ugly mug.”

“Buzz off, Chips!”

Hopus scratched his head. “She sounds an awful lot like the mother of Harvey’s friend.”

“Ah, what? She’s a mom?!”

“She’s still hot.”

Hopus jutted a thumb toward Grim’s place. “They’re having a flying lesson right now but maybe we can head on over in a few just to be sure.”

“Sounds like a plan!”

–

The Baroness applauded the way Grim was patient with the little bat girl. As she brought her hands down, she couldn’t help but feel something poking at her from the side. She peeked at it and spotted an envelope.

Oh yes, the strange letter. Normally she wouldn’t be one to open personal mail outside of her castle but it seemed harmless enough and everyone else was enthralled with the lesson. She pulled it out and carefully opened the envelope before removing a bright sheet of glittery paper.

Her eyes glossed over the body of the letter and she turned as red as a cherry. “O-oh!” She couldn’t help but gasp, quickly folding the letter shut.

Harvey heard the gasp and looked over to see a very red faced Baroness. “Baroness, are you okay?” He asked, hopping over to her.

The royal woman swallowed but her throat was dry. “Oh, I uh, I’m fine!” She tried to say.

Harvey pointed out the letter. “Did you get a letter?”

The Baroness had no words.

Grim noticed the Baroness was slightly more red than usual as he landed. “Y-you’re ok, Bon Bon?” He asked, worried.

Harvey bounced up and down as Grim approached. “The Baroness got a letter!” Harvey cheerfully pointed out. He looked up at the dragon with a smile, “How did Mina do? Are you guys going to practice again tomorrow?” He asked, distracting the dragon.

The Baroness took another moment to reread the letter whilst the dragon was distracted. She had been so caught off guard she hadn’t finished reading it:

‘You are one of the most frustrating, stubborn women I have ever met and I cannot imagine a day without hearing your annoying stupid voice because hearing your voice makes me so happy that it drives me insane. And I can only imagine how your voice would sound when it’s screaming my name while I pollinate and dominate you dumb, sexy, amazing, silph. Sincerely, Cagney’- CAGNEY?

She turned even redder. The crass flower from Isle one had sent her a love letter. Oh God, the very thought made her stomach twist. Sure, there could be something very, very, VERY small about him that might be charming (and that was really pushing it) but she in no way reciprocated those feelings.

Bon Bon’s mind swam. How long had he felt this way? What would she do next time she saw him? She realized there was more and quickly read on:

'PS I wish I hadn’t broken that tiny pot because it means so much to us and I love you but i gotta puke because Grim pours heavy absinthe…’

Tiny pot? She never made a pot when she was younger. A trebuche, yes. But not a pot. Now she was even more confused. But Grim was mentioned. Perhaps the dragon would know more. She looked up to see the dragon still around. “Grim, may I speak with you privately?” She asked, trying to keep her tone even.

Grim nodded. “Sure! Just, let me t-take Harvey down real quick.” He helped the little bunny hop on his back and swiftly flew down the tower, leaving the bunny with Isabella and Mina. He quickly flew back to the top of the tower. “Is everything ok, Bon Bon? You f-feeling sick?” The dragon asked worried.

The image of Cagney pinning her down and deflowering her DID make her nearly gag, but Bon Bon swallowed hard instead, trying not to shudder at the thought of that plant getting anywhere near her privates. She presented the letter to Grim. “The post delivered this letter this morning. I, well, perhaps you would know more about this than me? I’m rather disturbed by this.”

The dragon froze. He completely forgot about the letter. That’s why she was weird! She must think he’s a disgusting pervert! This was going to be the last conversation he would ever have with her.

He reached for the letter with a very shaky claw. “Eh! B-b-baroness! I-I-I can explain… I….” He looked at the writing and realised this wasn’t his very exquisitely calligraphy handwriting. It was Cagney’s!

“Oh! Thank God!” He yelled in relief. He noticed Bon Bon’s look and quickly explained himself. “I mean~ t-this isn’t f-for you. It’s for Hilda!” He showed her the scribble at the beginning of the letter. It was actually a bit hard to read. “Cagney came b-by a few days ago and we t-talked and… well, we kinda drank a bit,” the dragon said nervously.

Then it hit him, if Bon Bon had Cagney’s letter, then that meant…

The Baroness immediately let out a huge sigh of relief. "Oh thank God. The thought of doing anything remotely sexual with that plant sounds rather unpleasant.” She looked at the letter. “I, should I deliver it to Hilda? It IS addressed to her, I suppose, but did Cagney even mean to write this?”

The thought of his beloved Baroness doing something remotely sexual with anyone, made his blood boil… even more than what was natural. But at the mention of whether or not the letter should be delivered made his blood turn cold.

“Oh no! Nonononono!” He shook his head and clutch the letter. “C-cagney was really drunk and, let’s face it, t-this is a horrible letter.”

“Oh! We should make a better one!” They both turned their heads at the very pleasant voice. Isabella had managed to fly silently towards them and was now hanging from one of the spires. “I just flew here to tell you we were leaving, but this is so much fun! Let’s do it!” She said excited. “Let’s give a little push to those love birds.” She smiled, holding her hands together. Grim looked at the bat speechless.

The Baroness looked at Isabella a bit confusedly. “This is a fairly adult letter,” she managed to finally admit, “but at the same time, I can’t imagine Cagney otherwise willingly admit any form of romantic feelings unless under duress.”

She crossed her arms, “Then again, tampering with the mail is against the law…it should be delivered to its intended recipient…. what do you think, Grim?”

“I d-don’t know…” Grim hesitated. “It’s still a bad letter…Hilda might kill him for this.”

“Wait a minute!” Isabella flew down to the floor. “Let’s deliver it!”

“B-but-!”

“Wait! Listen, listen… you say the flower has trouble expressing his feelings, but this letter express them pretty well.” She chuckled. “So we deliver it to Hilda, she gets pissed or, who knows, maybe she likes this kind of language… either way, she will go confront him. They will both be forced to talk about their feelings for each other, and they will realise how much they love each other, and they will live happily ever after, if they work on their relationship.” She added quickly extending her arms with open palms. “What do you think? Good plan, right?”

Grim looked at the letter worried. “I d-don’t know. Besides Bon Bon, Cagney is pretty much my only friend, and we’re not even that c-close. If he ever finds out I didn’t take back the letter, he will never speak to me again….”

Bon Bon folded the letter and put it back in the envelope. “I will call an audience and deliver it to Hilda then. If Cagney inquires about this letter or if you had any involvement, you can just deny any knowledge.” The Baroness smiled and patted him on the arm. “It’s not like you wrote a letter or anything,” she reassured him, hoping her words would soothe the large dragon.

Grim gulped. “Hehe, y-y-yeah, ” he laughed nervously, trying to think for a way to recover his own letter.

“Yay!” Isabella clapped excited. “Oh please, you will have to tell me about Hilda’s reaction.” She said to Bon Bon before diving from the tower giggling. 'Goopy is not gonna believe this.’ She thought to herself.

Mina’s mother had nearly landed on the ground as Harvey grabbed Mina’s claws. “How was it? What was it like flying? Did you have fun?”

“It was amazing!” Mina yelled, happy. “It felt so weird to be carried by the wind like that! Oh man! I can’t wait to actually fly! And then I’ll carry you around with me! It’s gonna be so much fun!” She kept rambling about how awesome having wings was until Isabella reached the ground.

“Ok! Great class! Now time to go home and eat! I’m starving! Harvey, would you like to eat with us?”

Mina’s eyes opened wide. “Oh yes! Please! Stay!”

Harvey had just opened his mouth to agree when he heard his name being called. “Harvey!”

He turned to see his dad walking toward him and he wasn’t alone. Two of the other casino employees were alongside him.

Grim was about to fly down with the Baroness when he noticed all the people in his garden. He shrouded nervously. “So m-many people… you want me to take you home directly?” He asked Bon Bon.

The Baroness looked down and her eyes narrowed. “Those are casino debtors, Grim. What are they doing here?” She didn’t realize she had started holding him a little tighter and pressing herself against him worriedly.

It felt really good to have the Baroness so close, but Grim knew her well enough to notice she was concerned. “We don’t have t-to go down right away. We can go inside and have tea?” He dared to ask blushing heavily. “O-or I can t-take you home! T-they won’t see you on my back.” The dragon offered, hoping she would choose to stay.

“Tea sounds like a really good idea,” she decided,  unwilling to admit that even though they had beaten the debtors, their presence still made her uncomfortable.

The dragon wiggled his tail discreetly and opened the floor gate to enter his tower. He was going to let Bon Bon come in first, but he remembered he didn’t had much time to clean after the night with Cagney, so he ran in first, picking up things that were on the way.

“I’m sorry f-for the mess!” He said, sitting on a chest full of weapons to force it to close.

The woman gave the dragon a reassuring smile. “This is just fine. Thank you. Can I help you get ready?”

—

Harvey recognized the two adults with his dad. "Hi, dad! Hi, Mr. Steen. Hi, Mr. Bettigan,” he greeted politely.

“Shucks, boy, Chips is just fine,” Chips called out. He and Mango stopped when they spotted Isabella.

Hopus paid them no mind. “How was the flying lesson, Mina?” He asked of the little girl.

Isabella wiggled her ears paying attention to the people accompanying Hopus.

“It was fantastic! I almost flew on my own, and we even got to ride on Grim!” She explained happily. “And we were going home to have lunch. Can Harvey come, please?” The little b-cat asked sweetly.

“Is that okay?” Harvey hopefully asked.

“Should be okay with your mom and I-,” Hopus started to say.

“IT’S THE DAME FROM THE CLUB!” Mango finally squealed, startling everyone.

“Ah man, you got quite the voice on you!” Chips yelled. “We even called the boss to talk about you!”

Hopus looked startled. “The boss? You mean, the boss, boss?” He asked.

“No, no, God no. KD.”

Hopus hesitated. “That’s not…how are you both still here?”

“Oh my!” Isabella said, startled before releasing this could be an opportunity. “Thank you, darlings, it’s always a pleasure to meet fans,” the bat said with her delightfully enticing tone.

Mina understood her mother was working her magic and she thought it was best to let the adults talk. “Harvey, let’s go climb those trees!” She said running through the garden away from the adults.

Harvey didn’t quite understand what Mina’s mom was up to, but he could see the way his dad was eying his co-workers and thought a tree climb sounded like a really good idea. “Race you to the top of that one!” He yelled, bouncing after her.

Mangosteen and Chips hadn’t realized the children had left, their attention focused solely on Isabella. “Yes, helluva show!” Chips agreed.

“The fight at the end really took the cake!” Mangosteen chortled.

Chips nudged her. “Ya ever think about working in a casino, beautiful?”

Isabella didn’t appreciate their closeness but she was very interested in their proposition.

“A casino? Hm… I don’t know… .” She pretended to have doubts taking the opportunity to pose innocently with one hand on her hips and the other on her chin, very softly touching her lips with her index finger. “Big crowds can be frightening, even for a blind dame.”

“Nah, it’s real classy joint,” Chips chuckled, “we got a great house manager too. Keeps things nice and tidy and neat, ya know?”

“And if someone steps out of line… Well, it ain’t just their money they could lose,” Mangosteen suggestively hinted.

Hopus had to step in. “We all work at the casino on the fourth isle,” he clarified to the bat. “There had been talk about maybe getting some new entertainment, try to draw in new blood.” The rabbit looked at his coworkers. “Is that why you two are here?”

“Sorta. Thought we was gonna be seeing some other dame last night but this one is much better.”

“Aw, you flatter me, boys.” Isabella said shyly. “I’ll be at the Night Owl club again tonight. You think your boss could come see me then?”

“Does anyone hear someone screaming?” Hopus asked glancing behind him.

Mangosteen grinned broadly, ignoring the rabbit. “That’s just the thing, he’s still on the fence, ya know. He might swing by, he might not. That’s KD for you. But I can tell ya he’s interested.”

“So keep singing them lovely tunes! You’ll know him when you see him.” There was a pause. “Uh or not. You’ll know when it’s him.”

The woman chuckled. “Well, if he doesn’t have the time to see me, you can tell him I can always swing by his casino and show him what I got.” Isabella was excited, but she kept her cool. She already knew a bit about King Dice. If she could work for him, her plan would be on track.

Hopus saw the look of absolute delight on his co-workers’ faces at the thought of bringing the woman with them to the casino and stepped in. “Oh, well Isabella has a lot of responsibilities here. But I’m sure King Dice will head this way soon enough, especially if you two keep getting into trouble,” he hinted to the two debtors.

Chips glanced around. “Oh yeah, ya got a kid. Say, where’s your kid, Hopus?”

“He was just here a few minutes ago, wasn’t he?” Mangosteen realized.

Hopus pointed toward the kids. “They’re over there playing.”

“I’ll be waiting impatient for him.” Isabella said sensually before calling the kids to take them home.

Hopus gave a sharp whistle, calling over the children. “Well it was nice to see you boys outside of the casino. I’ll see you back at the grind on Monday, yeah?”

“Sure will.”

Hopus pulled out his own wand. “Now Miss Isabella, if you can hold little Mina tightly and Harvey you go ahead and hold on to me, I’ll get us back to your friend’s house in time for lunch.”

Isabella did as he said not really sure what Hopus was going to do. Little Mina held on to her mother and looked at Hopus, excited.

Hopus made sure to get a good grip on Isabella and Mina before fishing out his wand. With a quiet chant, a wave of his hand and they disappear in a poof, reappearing at the entrance to Mina’s home.

“And we’re here!”

Isabella held tight to her daughter wiggling her ears in every direction. She was very lost but the familiar sounds and smells indicate her they made it home.

Harvey looked at his dad who seemed a bit tired. “Dad, you okay?”

“Yes, yes,” Hopus assured him, “Just a little tired after doing magic like that.”

Mina’s excited shrieks stopped the conversation after a little more chit chat, the kids and the bat said goodbye to Hopus and got inside the house to eat.

———————————————————————————

CHAPTER 01,  CHAPTER 02,  CHAPTER 03,  CHAPTER 04,  CHAPTER 05, CHAPTER 06,  CHAPTER 07,  CHAPTER 08,  CHAPTER 09,  CHAPTER 10; CHAPTER 11; CHAPTER 12 ; CHAPTER 13 ; CHAPTER 14  ; CHAPTER 15; CHAPTER 16 ; (nsfw) CHAPTER 17 ; CHAPTER 18 ; CHAPTER 19 (nsfw) ; CHAPTER 20 ; CHAPTER 21 ; CHAPTER 22 ; CHAPTER 23 (you are here)

[necrida]

Mina: Im an explorer and she's my mummy. Get it? *chuckles* oh! And trick or treaat!

[necrida]

Necrida's Illustrations from Necrokitty Chronicles! #2

CHAPTER 11

CHAPTER 12 

Submit yours! : 3

CHAPTER 13

Submit yours! : 3

CHAPTER 14

CHAPTER 15

CHAPTER 16 (nsfw)

[necrokittytales]

Necrokitty Tales: Trouble in Inkwell Isle (Chapter 20)

Authors’ note: Necrida’s writing will be in italics and SPKC’s writing with be regular font.If you have no idea what this roleplaying thing is, you can start from the beginning here.

Goopy and the children walked down the first path, doing their best to remain optimistic. They were a little bit slow what with Harvey’s sprained ankle.

Mina helped Harvey to walk along the path, trying to think of a silver lining to this. Yet, she couldn’t help but wonder what Spike meant earlier when he said he had other scarier things to worry about. She was starting to feel guilty for dragging them all into this mess.

“Guys, I’m sorry for bringing you here. I didn’t thought it would be THIS scary,” the little bat said softly, looking at the mirrors around them.

Harvey softened at Mina’s apology. “That’s okay, Mina! It’s not your fault. I’m glad we get to hang out together at least.”

Hannah giggled. “If you two could beat up a grumpy flower, a clown isn’t that scary,” she pointed out

Spike roared with laughter. “Beppi’s just a balloon with legs, you babies.” The children and Goopy stopped at another branching path. This time it went two different ways. “Huh, looks like a fork in the road,” Goopy mused. He turned to the kids. “Alright, stay here, kids. I’m going to check one of the paths.” He started toward one of the paths before turning back to look at the children. “Don’t move, got it?” The children nodded and he nodded. The ball hopped down one of the paths and was soon out of sight. The children waited a minute before Spike started heading for the other path. Hannah hopped up. “Mr. Le Grande said we were supposed to stay put!” The little rabbit protested. Spike snorted. “That’s BORING. Come on, Mina! You and me right now go down the other way and see who really is a scaredy-cat here.” Harvey looked at Mina. “Don’t do it, Mina.” Spike laughed again. “Too scared to come huh? I didn’t know those bat wings were chicken wings. Bawk! Bawk! Bawk!” He taunted, flapping his arms.

Mina glowered angrily at Spike. If there was one thing she hated most in the world, besides broccoli, it was being called chicken. “I’ll show YOU chicken wings!” She started walking the path, turning back toward Harvey and Hanna. “You stay here!” she ordered to the bunnies, “if we find the exit, we’ll yell!”

Harvey watched his friend leave with Spike and groaned. “Oh gee, I was really hoping we could go play some games after this.”

Hannah hopped up and down. “Don’t feel too bad. Just think about what you wanna do for my birthday next week!” She suggested with a giggle. Harvey stopped feeling bad for himself. Oh yeah. Hannah’s birthday was coming up. He had just enough money to buy her the sewing needles too! It helped that Mina had stood up to Spike and not let him take his lunch money. He relaxed at that and looked over at his sister. “Oh yeah! You think mom is gonna make you a carrot cake?” “I want a blueberry cake!” “You better tell mom that now because I think she’s making you a carrot cake.” “Ah! No, I want blueberries!” Hannah walked over to the mirrors and started making faces in them. “Hey, I can make my face all squishy in these!” She started giggling. Harvey walked over to his sister and look in the mirror as well. “Hey, you’re right!” The two bunnies started making faces to their reflections together, unaware of the dark figure creeping up behind in the mirrors.

— Sullivan walked next to Amber, looking everywhere, hoping nothing else would try to attack them. The bear was terrifying enough without some other monster trying to get them. He wondered if this was a good moment to ask about her lockpicking abilities. He didn’t wanted to think about it, but maybe Porkrind was right about her… Was she the thief? He cleared his throat, trying to think of a way to casually bring up the topic. “T-thank you for breaking my fall… that was pretty impressive,” he added, watching her hopefully.

Amber realized she might blow her cover if she wasn’t careful. “Oh yeah! When you do interior work for some of those older houses, sometimes the floor just gives out, you know?” She tried with a silly giggle.

She gave him a gentle nudge. “But hey, thanks for trying to not let me hit the ground like a pancake, that was really nice of you. Maybe after this, we could do something more fun,” she suggested with a wink. Even fearful adrenaline was adrenaline and there were quite a few adult ways she’d like to use it up.

Every doubt Sullivan had about Amber banished from his mind as she winked at him. She was so lovely! He couldn’t help but turn really red at the idea she suggested. He felt the butterflies in his tummy again and couldn’t say another word without turning into mumbling nonsense.

Amber continued to walk when she suddenly felt her fur stand on end. She looked around, her face contorted in concern. “I have a really bad feeling about this.” She continued walking but let out a small, scared squeak as she spotted something in the mirror next to her. It was a thick, closed, wet burlap sack. Before she could stop herself, she instinctively hissed at it and clung closer to Sullivan. She didn’t like that sack.  

Sullivan was startled by her change in demeanor and looked to see she was indeed hissing at something. “What! What is-?” He looked at the reflection in the mirror as Amber clutched deeper on his arm. “I-it’s just a sack!” He exclaimed, try to assuage the irritated feline.  

“These magic mirrors are a bit busted if they think a bag can scare us,” he chuckled nervously, trying to lighten up the mood.

“Bags like that are bad news. That’s why I only use nylon bags,” she spat angrily, looking at the bag very distrustfully. She resisted the urge to scratch at the bag and instead continued to growl under her breath.

— Grim waited until the others walked down their respective paths and started walking the last one with Bon Bon.

“I-I hope they’ll be ok,” he sighed, looking at his deformed reflections in the mirrors. “B-beppi really overdid it with t-this ride!”

And that might work in his favor, he thought. Bon Bon might ask him to have a sleepover after all and he would be able to recover that stupid letter he drunkenly wrote.

The Baroness walked alongside the dragon, silently fuming to herself about what she’d do to Beppi if she got her hands on him. First, she’d strap him to a table with licorice and cut off each of his limbs with a candy corn saw. And then she would remove his head and put him in her trophy room with his mouth sewed up so he couldn’t make any more dumb jokes. She realized Grim was speaking. “I’m sure everyone will be okay, a bit spooked probably.” They continued to walk by warped mirrors and the Baroness glanced in a few of them. “I failed to see how my own reflection is supposed to scare me though.” She walked by one mirror, glanced in it, only to stop and look again.

Grim sighed hoping the Baroness was right and they will all be ok. He couldn’t help but look at his reflection in the mirrors around them only to freeze in fear.

Bon Bon stared at the mirror in disbelief. It was another dragon. A rather scary looking one with fire and teeth. It almost looked like it was moving. She scoffed at it, even as she thought she could hear the mirror growl. So that was Beppi’s game? Magic mirrors. It only made sense if he got them from Djimmi. She’d have to pay a personal visit to the genie tomorrow about selling anything to Beppi. She could hear someone childishly giggling and turned to see Beppi hopping up and down in one of the mirrors. “You really think I’m scared of a dragon?” She tsked. “Oh, not YOU!” The clown cackled. “Then who-?” She stopped as she heard some quiet whining. She turned to Grim to see the dragon very worried indeed. “Grim?”

Grim tried to hold himself but the vision of the terrifying dragon was just a painful reminder of what HE was supposed to be…and what he still could become. “N-n-no…” he muttered to himself. “You’re n-not real… I’M NOT LIKE YOU!” He roared fearfully. He broke the mirror with a quick devastating whip of his tail, sending shards of crystal glass everywhere.

– Spike and MIna walked down the empty rows of mirrors. He glanced at the bat. He had to admit. He was slightly impressed that the girl still wanted to do this. But she was a girl. And girls cried just as much as little boy bunnies. He looked over at the mirrors on the side and his hackles raised slightly. With the distorted images on the mirror, he almost looked like his dad. A fact that did not make the bulldog pup very happy at all. His attention was taken away by the appearance of a very large mirror at the end of the hallway. “Last chance to go back,” he teased, pointing to the mirror up ahead.  

The little bat smirked at the pup and passed by him, walking towards the mirror. “Ha! You’re dealing with a bat here! I’m part of the spooky folk!” She said with her head held high. She looked the huge mirror up and down bravely.

Spike looked at the mirror and his smile dropped as something large materialized in front of him. He didn’t quite see it until the image brightened and his jaw dropped open in shock.

—-

Goopy sighed in disappointment as his journey came to a dead end. “Shucks, and I was real hopeful about this one,” he grunted. He was about to turn around but stopped. It looked a bit too suspicious to be just a dead end. He stuck his hand through the walled off way only for the wall to give way like a curtain, revealing the exit. He grinned. “Well, Goops, looks like you did it again. Better go back and collect everyone before someone gets really spooked!” He congratulated himself, turning around. A little girl’s scream made him stop before he barreled down the path. Crud, Hannah must have gotten spooked. He better go check this out.

–

Harvey’s ears perked up and he turned around at the sound of an unfamiliar noise. “Hello, is someone there?” He called out. There was nothing there, just the empty mirrors looking back at him.

He shrugged and turned back to continue making faces with his sister only to see a monstrous looking figure in the mirror in front of them. He squeaked in alarm and pulled Hannah back away from the surface. The figure looked just like Spike. A scary, spooky form of Spike. The deformed dog laughed and laughed as his reflection spread across all the mirrors surrounding the rabbits. “G-Go away!” Harvey yelled at the laughing dog reflection. Hannah clung to him, burying her face into his side. The figure seemed to get even bigger and Harvey shakily reached into his coat, pulling out the training wand. “I’m warning you! I’ll make you go away!” He ordered. A really loud roar sent the rabbit into fumbling and muttering over the chant before dropping the wand, but the spell had been cast. A yellow bunny skull shot forward and connected with the mirrors before sinking into the reflection like a puddle of water. The figure looked really confused before it completely vanished, leaving the rabbits alone. Harvey let out a shaky weak chuckle. “Oh, oh that actually worked.” “Harvey!” A familiar voice yelled “Agh!” The little bunny nearly jumped 10 feet in the air before turning around to see Goopy rapidly approached them. “Mr. Le Grande?” “Is everyone alright? I heard Hannah screaming!” Goopy explained, kneeling down to check on the little rabbit Hannah unhurried her face from her brother’s overalls. “I wasn’t screaming,” she answered the adult. Goopy’s brow furrowed.  “Well, if you weren’t screaming, then who-?” A high pitched scream broke out again and now everyone jumped and ran toward the noise.

– Spike covered his mouth in horror at his second scream. He didn’t dare look at Mina, instead keeping his eyes staring at the figure in the mirror. “This-this looks just like my dad,” he finally managed, looking up at a scary bull dog in the reflection. His eyes remained wide and glassy still. “My aunt says I can come live with her but, my dad, he’s just tough on me to make me strong,” Spike tried to explain, not daring to look away from the reflection. Mina understood now. His father! Spike’s father was the reason he had turned into a bully. 

The bulldog was shaking now. “Please tell me you see it too?”

“Spike! It’s ok! It’s not real!” She tried to calm him down, hugging him with her wings, protecting him from the view of the mirrors.

“Pa is gonna be real mad at me that I screamed,” the bulldog whimpered.

“Look at me! He can’t hurt you!” She looked at his glassy eyes. “We’re gonna go back. Don’t look at the mirrors! Focus on me.”

Spike nodded quickly at the bat’s instructions and swallowed hard, his eyes threatening to tear up again, but he seemed to understand.

Mina slowly uncovered him and holding his hand they walked the path they came from. They had only walked a few feet away before a heavy thump sent Mina’s ears rigid.

Spike blinked and nervously glanced behind them and stopped dead in his tracks. The warped looking dog was stepping out of the mirror with a snarl. The pup couldn’t run - he was frozen to the spot.

“You’ve been a bad dog,” the big dog growled, reaching two gruff paws out towards the terrified children, “And you know what we do with bad dogs…”

– Sullivan paused in his observation of Amber as he could hear the screams of the other group members break out from the other parts of the maze. This was even more of a reason to get going! The faster they found the exit, the sooner they could get out of here and bring help.

“Let’s just keep going,” Sullivan finally stated, determined to keep walking past the mirror. He took a few steps in front of Amber to check the way, hoping to see nothing but their reflections from this point on. Amber looked like she was about to say something to his request only for her voice to die in her throat as the bag fell out of the mirror and slumped to the ground. This was just supposed to be a reflection! She remained rooted to the spot, hoping the bag would just stay there, even though she swore she could feel cold water up to her neck. The bag flopped to the ground before slowly slithering toward the salamander, who hadn’t seen it fall from the mirror. Its hole opened up to as if to eat Sullivan and Amber snapped out of her dark memory. She pulled out her gold claws and viciously attacked the bag, tearing into it with her clearly illegal weapons. It tried to roll away but she wasn’t having it, fur flying everywhere as she continued to attack the snake like bag.

The salamander heard the noise of cloth being torn apart and turned his head to see what the heck was going on. He froze when he saw the snake like movements of the once inanimated sac. Of all the creatures in this world, it had to be a snake, twisting around as his beloved Amber attacked it fiercely with her claws and… were those knives?!

“A-Amber!” He manage to yell and run towards her. He grabbed her paw and pulled her off of the terrifying creature. “We’re going back!!!” He shouted, tugging her in the direction from whence they came.

She was swearing an awful lot. She might not be a sailor but she certainly had the mouth of one. Amber threw one last knife at the ruined bag before allowing Sullivan to drag her toward where they came from.

—-

“I told those two to stay put!”

Goopy was very disappointed, but honestly not that surprised that Mina and Spike had charged off into the unknown. Those two were full of plucky energy, just like he was when he was just a small slime. But still, he was already planning on what he was going to say when he found the two small mammals. He led Harvey and Hannah down the path the other two had taken only to stop short. In front of Spike and Mina was a giant unfamiliar dog he had never seen before. It didn’t look friendly either. “Mina! Spike! Duck!” He hollered, winding up his fist.

Mina fearfully held onto Spike, not sure what to do, until the familiar voice of Goopy brought her back. She pulled her friend down to the ground with her.

And not a moment too soon. The second the children dropped to the ground, Goopy sent a fist flying, colliding with the dog monster, sending it stumbling back and falling into the mirror. Another quick punch shattered the mirror into pieces, leaving the group alone. “Is everyone okay?” Goopy wearily asked, completely forgetting whatever disciplinary speech he had prepared as he surveyed the children.

Hannah punched the glass just for good measure only to draw her little paw back with an “ow.”

“Mina! Are you okay?” Harvey asked, darting to his friend’s side. “What happened?”

The little bat tried to talk but she could only mumble nonsense as she was still scared.

“I’m gonna take this as a yes.” Goopy knelt down. “C'mon, we need to head back. We can catch up later.”

The little bat nodded and helped Spike back to his feet. The two followed Goopy, still shaky from the experience. –

Bon Bon waved her arms. “Grim! Stop!” But the dragon was panicked and continued to smash. He wasn’t listening to her! And there was no way she could, nor would she really want to, take down her much more physically impressive friend.

She saw Beppi laughing within his mirror and reached in to punch the glass…only for her hand to slide through the mirror and actually grab the clown by the shirt. He looked equally surprised by this development. “Uh, wait a second-?” The Baroness grinned darkly. She pulled him out and pinned him to the ground. “Stop the mirrors,” she demanded.

“You’re so forward!” Beppi chuckled, fanning himself.

Only once all but one of the mirrors were destroyed did Grim finally settle down. He panted sharply, trying to recover his wits. He spotted Beppi on the floor with Bon Bon on top of him, and his anger stirred back up again. His eyes started turning black and white and smoke came out from his nostrils. “You…” he growled. Beppi waved at Grim. “Hey buddy, having a good date so far?” He asked pleasantly, either unaware of the danger or entirely dismissive of it. Bon Bon lifted Beppi to his feet and nearly shoved him into the only intact mirror behind him, the nozzle of her candy cane shotgun jammed against his chest. “You think this is really funny, huh, Chuckles?” Beppi shrugged. “I think it’s pretty hysterical to be honest. Plus, you two should be totally thanking me! Can’t get anymore cozy than being trapped in a maze, am I right?” “Thanking you?! Grim is freaked out!” Bon Bon growled. “Imagine how I feel? Totally didn’t see that coming you getting me through the mirror!” He exclaimed. He leaned in toward her. “How’d you do the magic trick? That’s super cool!” Beppi marveled, holding onto her arm. “I have no idea what you’re talking about! But you better put a stop to this right now!”

Grim’s mouth lit up with a spark as he saw nothing but red. He  took a deep breath, about to release a powerful flame.

Bon Bon could feel the heat behind her and quickly turned around, alarmed to see Grim aiming for them. She held out a hand once more. “Grim, wait! We can’t set the place on fire! They’re still kids here!” She yelled at him. Beppi giggled. “Looks like he really has the HOTS for you!” Bon Bon turned on Beppi once more and now the nozzle of her gun was under his chin. “One more joke, Beppi and I’ll-I’ll…” Her eyes widened as she looked behind the clown. Beppi grasped the gun and peeked inside before looking at the pale Baroness. “What’s wrong, sugar? Something on my face?” He started to laugh only to stop when a claw reached out from the mirror behind him and wrapped around his waist. He looked down. “Huh. This wasn’t the plan at ahhhh!” He was yanked into the mirror with a squeal and the Baroness felt herself jerked toward it as well, too surprised to let go of her candy cane gun.

Grim’s flames barely licked the mirror before he could swallow them back in shocked surprise as Beppi and Bon Bon were dragged into the mirror. He charged the shimmering surface angrily. “Bring her back!” He yelled, puffing out his chest. “I will turn your entire carnival into ashes! WITH YOU IN IT!”

He had barely managed a scratch before something massive and reptilian shot from it, knocking down an angry, surprised Grim.

It was the dragon from the mirror, now even more bedazzled and luminous than before! The magic of the mirror must have influenced its appearance. Yet, despite its glittering exterior, the dragon retained its ferocity, spinning and swinging around wildly, growling and snapping at everything. Another spin revealed its two captives, Bon Bon and Beppi, held tightly in its massive paws. “Let us go!” Bon Bon growled, kicking out at the air but the dragon didn’t listen. It continued striking its tail around, smashing the mirrors. “Oh, come on! Those are expensive!” Beppi complained, even as the dragon started to open its wings. Before anyone could say anything else, the mirror dragon gave one flap, before jetting down the hallway, back toward the center of the maze.

Grim finally snapped out of it as he heard Bon Bon’s yelled echo down the hall where the mirror dragon took off. “Bon Bon!” was the only thing he had time to say before the crystallized creature was out of sight, and with it, the Baroness. He frowned and exhaled a huge cloud of smoke before gathering the courage to flap his wings and follow the dragon as fast as his wings could carry him.

–

Goopy hadn’t really wanted to run toward danger, or rather bounce to it. But it sounded like Grim was in trouble and the last thing the goop needed was to have to carry a massive lizard out. He hopped back to the start of the path and motioned everyone down just as Sullivan and Amber hurried onto the clearing. “Hey, old sport! Attacking any reflections lately?” He asked of the salamander with a grin.

Sullivan gaped at him. “You too?” He pointed behind them. “We ran into a crazy snake-sack down that path. How do we get out of here!?” He hold his head in disbelief. “You guys are okay, right?” He asked, turning to the children. Mina was still a bit shocked for what just happened but she managed to nod, still clutching Spike’s hand.

Hannah crept over to Harvey. “Did we do this?” She whispered, worried that Harvey’s spell had done more than they had anticipated… “I-I don’t know!”  Harvey bit his lip. “I didn’t mean to! I just was trying to make it go away!” He whispered back.

The other members of the party were unaware of the quiet exchange. Another loud howl from Grim did get their attention.

“Sounds like Grim is in trouble,” Sullivan shakily spoke, looking worriedly toward the third path that now had smoke practically billowing the entire hallway. A draconian silhouette started push through the smoke.

The salamander sighed in relief. “Oh! Here they come! Grim! What’s going oOAAH!!” He screamed at the sight of an unfamiliar dragon barreling toward them.

The group flattened themselves as the terrifying shiny dragon thundered over them, carrying something yelling within its claws.

Amber was one of this first to lift her head back up from where they all flattened themselves on the ground. “Hey, was it just me, or was that dragon carrying the princess and the clown just now?” “I think so?” Spike finally managed. Goopy looked back toward the smokey path only for his eyes to widen. “Duck!” This time everyone hit the deck once more as now Grim roared over them as he pursued the dragon.  Everyone looked at each other once more and chased after the two. There was a loud crash as the crystal dragon broke through a wall, followed shortly by Grim and the rest of the maze runners.

—-

There was lots of excited shouting and yelling in the carnival. Families and couples still walked and ran around, enjoying the delicious fried goods and circus games. It had been a stellar opening to be sure and there was still some time before the circus ended for the night.

The line for the haunted mansion was still pretty long. As the next group hesitantly started to walk in, they couldn’t help but stop at the sound of loud roaring and banging. The people in line looked at the mansion curiously only to see a large crystal dragon break through the wall and blitzed into the carnival. There was a quiet moment before the line members grew excited. “The haunted mansion looks way scarier this year!” One line goer noted as he watched the dragon charge away. “Definitely better than the bed sheets!” Another one agreed, now even more eager to enter the haunted attraction. The mirror dragon spun and thundered through the crowds, much to the unexpected delight and surprise of the islanders at “one of the most realistic attractions yet!” A massive flap of its wings sent the dragon to the top of the ferris wheel. It dug its back nails into the metal frame, grinding the ride to a shaky halt. The people still on the ride looked up, confused by the new development. Was this part of the ride? They didn’t remember this from last year.

Grim had dashed through the now open hole, followed closely by Goopy, Harvey, Hannah, Mina, Spike, Sullivan and Amber. The group looked around. Mina stood near her friends trying to make sense of what was going on and happy to finally make it out. Amber pointed to the top of the ferris wheel. “Look! Up there! That dragon thing got both of them…uh, that’s them, right?”   “I think so!” Sullivan realized, alarmed that Amber’s observation earlier was correct. “W-what do we do? What CAN we do?” Mina turned to Harvey, remembering that her friend’s father was a magician. “You think your dad can make it disappear?” Harvey squinted his eyes and looked up. “He-he won’t be here for at least another hour or so!” He explained. He pulled his ears worriedly. “Oh man, this is all my fault!” “Don’t say that, Harvey!” Hannah insisted. “You were just trying to be a good brother!” Spike looked over at the rabbits. “Whaddya talking about? Why is it his fault?” Harvey looked abashed. “I-I tried to use my wand to make it disappear and I just made it come out of the mirror instead…” Goopy, Sullivan and Amber were trying to brainstorm, once again oblivious to the children’s’ conversation. “I don’t think Grim is going to be able to listen to anyone while he’s like this!” Goopy pointed out. “We gotta get him to calm down otherwise he might just set fire to the ferris wheel!” Amber noted, watching the green dragon warily who circled around the ride dangerously, “Sully, got any ideas on how to stop Grim?” A high pitched scream broke out from on top of the ferris wheel and Amber bit her lip.“Oh man, I can hear Bon Bon screaming. She must be real scared,” Amber groaned, looking up. Goopy grimaced. “That-that was not the Baroness…” – “Shut up, Beppi!” The Baroness yelled, attempting to kick the shrieking clown but she was too far away to successfully do anything to him. “There’s so much I wanted to do! Drive a real car. Made of rubber and float it across the lake! Have my first kiss with a meringue pie and not just a lemon pie! Blast myself out of the cannon!” Beppi wailed. The Baroness rolled her eyes. “Will you just-?” She let out a startled shriek of her own as the dragon abruptly dropped her. It was only her quick reflexes that led her to grabbing the metal bar next to it attached to the ferris wheel. She tried to pull herself up but she was fatigued and only able to wrap her arms around it tightly. “Shit, shit, shit!” She openly swore now. The mirror dragon stomped up and down, shaking the entire ride and Bon Bon held on for dear life as Beppi continued to lament his missed opportunities.

Grim circled the ferris wheel, his eyes narrowed with anger. Everytime he tried to get closer to rescue Bon Bon, the mirror dragon took a swipe at him jostling and shaking the ferris wheel even more - loosening the Baroness’ precarious grip.

After a third attempt that brought him too close, the dragon managed a snap at his neck. At the frustrated cry of pain, Grim’s other two heads sprouted forth from his shoulders.  "No more games!“ He shouted. All three heads spat fire towards the dragon, avoiding the Baroness, and with any luck, toasting the clown as well.

The mirror dragon rocked the ferris wheel back and forth and with each movement, the attraction became more unsteady. The Baroness was furious when the dragon bit Grim and she landed a good hit on one of its paws. Unfortunately, that only angered the dragon and before she could react, the mirror dragon gave one good stomp on the ferris wheel and she lost her grip. She managed to grab the spoke of the ferris wheel a few feet below the angry dragon with two hands but it was slipping fast between her fingers.

“AH!” She yelled, realizing her situation was quickly looking grim, and not the way she would have liked.

—

“We’re running out of time,” Goopy realized, watching the Baroness slipping.

“How the hell are we going to calm down Grim?” Amber asked.

“Eeeehhh…. ” The salamander looked around, trying to find ideas. The only thing he knew that could calm the dragon was Bon Bon herself. But with her in danger, it was only a matter of time before Grim became frustrated enough to miss and really do some damage. “W-what if…evacuate the carnival? Maybe call the fire department!” He exclaimed as he watched a fireball bounce of one of the rails.

Mina scratched her chin before snapping her fingers. “I know what we can do!!” She yelled to her friends.

She hit the palm of her hand with her fist “If we can distract the bad dragon, we can give a chance to our dragon to rescue the princess and Harvey can send that dragon back to the mirror!” She turned eagerly toward her friends. “Spike, how good are you with a slingshot?”

Spike grinned maliciously. “I’ve hit a couple nerds off a tree before in front of their moms!” He bragged before clearing his throat. “Uh, yeah I’m good with it. You got your magic stick, rabbit?”

Harvey patted down his jacket. “I-I don’t have the wand!” He realized, “I must have dropped it in the maze!” He started to panic but Hannah thrust something else in his hand. He looked to see it was a churro. “Hannah, now is not the time to eat!”

Hannah shook her head. “No! Maybe you can use something that’s like the wand!” She insisted, pushing the churro back to his hand. “It’s sparkly, right?”

“I think that’s just the sugar-?” Harvey tried to explain but Spike give him a push.

“Just go with it.” He turned to Mina. “Alright, whaddya want us to do?”

The little bat couldn’t help but chuckle at the idea of making magic with a churro, but it was worth a try.

Mina dropped to her knees and began to draw on the ground. “Ok! Here’s the plan: Spike and I will go get slingshots and fire crackers and throw them at the bad dragon every time he tries to hurt anyone! While we distract him, Hannah and Harvey, you’ll get up the wheel and use your ‘wand’ to make him freeze or, just get rid of him!”

She heard Grim’s terrifying growl and realized they didn’t had much time. “GO!!!” She yelled, already running with Spike to gather what they needed.

Harvey made one step toward the ferris wheel only to stop. “How are we gonna get close enough? None of us can fly,” Harvey realized.

“And we can’t climb too good!” Hannah added.

Hannah, pointed to the cat. “Can we ask her to climb?”

“Worth a shot.”

–

Another slam of the crystal dragon’s tail against the metal structure sent the Baroness’ grip to just one hand. “Grim! Help” She desperately called out to her friend, knowing she couldn’t hold out much longer.

“Bon Bon!” All Grim’s heads yelled and the green dragon dove towards the baroness. The mirror dragon attempted another strike at Grim, but this time, he was ready for it. Right before the crystal claw could make contact, Grim did a last minute flip and pushed the mirror dragon backwards making him lose its balance, freeing the path towards BonBon.

He passed one of his heads through the metal bars and reached BonBon as she finally lost her grip. She fell onto Grim’s head and wrapped her arms tightly around his neck. The other two heads kept an eye on the mirror dragon who had recovered his stand, ready to keep fighting.

Bon Bon tapped Grim. “The wheel won’t take both of your weights, we need to get down!” She ordered, pointing to the ground. She glanced over at Beppi who was still being rather dramatic about the whole thing. “I’ll deal with Beppi later,” she assured Grim.

Grim nodded, just happy to see the Baroness was safe. He withdrew himself from the wheel and  quickly descended towards the ground. The other heads approached Bon Bon.

“Oh thank God you’re ok!”

“It didn’t hurt you, did it?”

“You’re so strong!”

“Sorry it took me so long…”

– “You want me to what?” Amber stared at the children. “Harvey made him come out of the mirror with magic,” Hannah explained, “So we need to magic him back into the mirror!” Amber groaned. “Fine, fine. But I can’t take both of you. I can only take one.” Hannah was about to step forward but Harvey pushed her back. “I’m going, okay?” “Harvey!” “No buts.” Hannah pouted as Harvey approached Amber. “I’m ready.” Amber eyed Sullivan. “Gimme just a sec.” She strode over to the salamander and pulled him close to her. “Sully, I just wanna say you are the nicest possible serial killer I ever went out with.”

Before Sullivan could say anything, she pulled him into a passionate smooch hard enough to make Harvey shut his eyes before letting go of the amphibian. She pulled the clawed knife out of her pocket and sliced her skirt up to the thigh, allowing her more free movement of her legs. She gave a final wink to Sullivan before Harvey leapt onto her back and she proceeded to climb the ferris wheel. Goopy watched her go. “What did you say she was? An interior designer?” He asked, a bit gobsmacked.

Sullivan’s eyes widen and stood there like a statue with a silly smile for a few moments before her words clicked in. “Wait… did she called me a serial killer?”.

–

Mina and Spike dumped their haul on the ground and started putting it together, They had quickly amassed quite an arsenal: a couple of slingshots, some big firecrackers, some matches she had hidden within the folds her dress…definitely things that children shouldn’t be playing with. Which just made it all the more exciting.

“The princess is safe!” Mina exclaimed happily, “So all we gotta do is distract that bad dragon!”

Spike dumped the firecrackers at Mina’s and his feet. “Aw, I really wanna hit the clown,” he grumbled but notched up his slingshot with a lit firecracker.

Mina chuckled at Spike. “Resist the temptation” and threw firecrackers near the mirror dragon hoping to distract him.

– The cristal dragon hadn’t noticed Amber nor Harvey yet, but that didn’t mean anyone else was safe either. As soon as they realized that, the dragon reached down to paw at a couple in one of the carts to the side only to stop at the sound of some musical humming. It swiveled its head to see the clown humming to himself while applying lipstick. Beppi puckered his lips in his mirrored reflection of himself on the dragon. “If I’m going to play the damsel, I just HAVE to do things correctly, wouldn’t you agree?” He glanced down and squealed. “It seems my knight in shining armor is fast approaching too!” The dragon looked down to see Amber and Harvey closing in and growled. “Oops,” Beppi realized. The dragon reached down with its free hand to swat a struggling Amber when something detonated to the side of it. The dragon jerked up at the noise and looked around wildly only to hear something crackle to its other side. Spike and Mina continued to shoot the firecrackers as Amber and Harvey maintained their climb, successfully distracting the dragon. Spike whistled as Mina nearly landed a shot on its wing. “You’re pretty good at this,” Spike whistled, “maybe we can go toss crabapples at Mrs. White’s house next!” He laughed.

“Yeah, let’s put a pin on that!” Mina said to Spike, throwing another firecracker that nearly hit Beppi. She winced. “Oops, I gotta be careful!” – Amber’s eyes darted back and forth as she leapt side to side, quickly clamoring up the ride. “You got your magic wand ready?” She called as they got close. Harvey nodded and pulled out his churro. “Yeah.” “Is that a churro?!” Amber shrieked. “I couldn’t find the wand!” “Oh my God, we’re going to die…” the cat groaned quietly. “What?!” Harvey shrieked. “I mean, uh concentrate real hard, okay, Harvey? And maybe pray too just to be safe.” Harvey just hoped Goopy was watching Hannah. – Goopy had no idea where Hannah had gone. “Sullivan, did you see the little bunny? Sullivan?” He waved a mitt in front of the salamander’s face. Sullivan snapped out of it and looked at Goopy, a bit confused. “What? The kids? Amber?” He saw the dragon and the Baroness approaching “Oh! The Baroness is safe!” He paused, realizing the dragon only had one passenger. “What about Beppi?” Grim’s heads exhaled heavily toward the salamander, releasing some smoke, a warning that Sullivan quickly understood. Grim knew he shouldn’t leave Beppi but he was sore and tired and the last thing he wanted was for some lizard to tell him he had to go rescue him when he was the one who got them into this mess. He could only painfully flop on his belly and take joy in the fact that the Baroness stroked each of his heads. The sound of firecrackers got their attention and the adults saw Mina and Spike throwing firecrackers at the crystal dragon. “Well that’s a good idea!” Sullivan exclaimed, more than happy to get away from the sore dragon. He hurried towards Mina and Spike and joined them, throwing with much more accuracy at the crystal creature.

–

Beppi was starting to pout. “C'mon! Hurry up and save me already!” He whined to Amber and Harvey.

“I’ll give you something to save,” Amber growled under her breath as she neared the top. Now with more people throwing explosives, the dragon was certainly distracted…but so was Amber. A near crackle made her miss a particular beam and she really had to scramble to prevent her and Harvey from plummeting. Amber turned around as she reached the top. “Hey! Be careful down there, you almost hit us!” “Amber, watch out!” Harvey squeaked. The cat looked too late and had just enough time to push Harvey to the top before she was hit by the dragon. The cat landed with a thud on top of one of the suspended carts, dazed and not moving. The dragon advanced on the fallen cat now as Beppi started to boo the dragon. Harvey jumped in front of Amber, swallowed and held out the churro. “S-stay back! I’m warning you!” Harvey tried to bravely yell.

Beppi peered at the “wand.” “A churro? That’s a sweet way to beat a dragon!” He exclaimed.

The dragon edged closer, the firecrackers detonating harmlessly around it. Harvey planted his feet down and aimed the churro wand at the intimidating dragon. “It’s t-time to go back to your mirror!” The dragon roared and charged and Harvey yelled the magic words. A massive puff of brown and gold sparkles shot toward the charging dragon and hit it square in the chest. The dragon stopped and struggled to fly away, dropping Beppi next to Harvey in the process. It made it only about 30 feet in the air before the mirrored dragon shone a bright light and exploded into a fantastic display of colored sparks and smoke. The occupants on the ferris wheel were quiet for a moment before they burst out into deafening  applause. Harvey swore he could hear them remark on ‘one of the best fireworks displays ever,’ as he looked down at the churro in his paws. “I can’t believe that worked,” he breathlessly gasped. Beppi plopped himself next to Harvey with a manic grin. "Say! That was a lot of fun! How about you come back tomorrow night and explode more mirrors for me? The crowd will love it!” –

“I can’t believe that worked,” Spike gaped as he stood next to Mina, staring up at the night sky as the rainbow sparkles fell down like colorful snow.

Goopy whistled. “This has been one of the best nights I’ve spent at the carnival,” he admitted. He slapped Sullivan on the back. “Good job on those throws, old sport!” “A night like this must cost a fortune,” a gruff voice spoke up behind Goopy and Sullivan. The two turned to see Porkrind standing there, hoofs on his hips. He looked up and his eye narrowed, recognizing the thief as she started to stir.

Sullivan smiled at the view of his pall Porkrind but remembered why he was mad at him and decided to face him so he wouldn’t get to her.

Mina ran toward the ferris wheel and cupped her paws to yell up at her friend. “Harvey! You did it!” She gave him a thumbs up.

Harvey could hear Mina shouting at him and he looked down to see her giving him a thumbs up. He smiled widely at her. He looked toward Amber who was pushing herself back to her feet. “Amber, are you okay?” She groaned and stood up unsteadily. “Yeah, yeah, I’m okay…Just…uh,” She glanced down to see Sullivan…and Porkrind. She swore. “Hey, Harvey, you can get down from here, right?” “What? I don’t-I can’t-!” She smiled and waved. “Great! I’ll catch you later!” She waved once more at Sullivan before dashing across the ferris wheel, leaping onto another attraction and disappearing into the crowd.

Sullivan waved sadly at Amber and watched her run away. He sighed and put his hands on his pockets. “Next time I’ll take her for a simple walk on the park….”

Unfortunately, her fast departure had left poor Harvey and Beppi stranded up on top of the ferris wheel. Beppi walked her go before plucking the churro from the rabbit. “Thanks for the snack, kiddo. Sorry about your ride!” He sympathetically spoke, his mouth full of magical churro.

Harvey looked down and swallowed. “Aww man. I don’t want to climb down.” Beppi patted him on the back. “Here, hold my hand, I’ll get us down.” Harvey reluctantly held the clown’s hand and Beppi…removed his head and inflated it, string and all into a giant balloon. The rabbit just stared weirdly at him as they started to slowly float down. —

Bon Bon was oblivious to the sounds of applause and instead continued to soothe an exhausted Grim. She wasn’t sure how conscious the dragon really was but there was no way she was letting the poor guy try to sleep this off alone in his own tower. He needed to be watched and she was already calling in the arrangements to have the spare bedroom made up so he could rest easy, without some clown knocking on his door.

Grim shook his heads until there was only the main one left. He was really tired but he managed to stand up. He looked at BonBon. “I’m s-s-sorry it took me so long… you could have~"  The words died in his throat as he looked away.

Bon Bon shushed the dragon. "You were very brave, Grim, just rest. Is it alright if I have you stay at my place tonight? I just want to make sure you’re okay?” She quickly added, hoping no one overhearing her would get the wrong idea.’

The dragon smiled at the baroness. “I would love t-to sleep over… thanks” he said shyly turning slightly red. He was glad, after all they’ve been through he would be able to recover the stupid letter. For a moment he wondered how Cagney’s notreallyadate-date was going, only for his mind to go blank as the noble woman led him away, continuing to stroke his ears just the way he liked it.

–

Goopy, Spike and Mina met Harvey and Beppi on the ground. “That was great!” Goopy exclaimed, “A real group effort for sure!” Spike laughed and grabbed Mina and Harvey into a rough smacking hug. “You dorks are lame, but I had fun tonight. We should do this again. Especially the fire crackers!”

Harvey was just glad he wasn’t getting beaten up. He looked around. “Hey, wait, has anyone seen Hannah?” Mina hugged back, happy her plan had worked, although it really got out of hand. She looked around and found Hannah wandering towards them. “There she is!” She pointed “Hannah! Over here!”. “Hannah!” Harvey exclaimed happily as his sister bounded up to him. He swept her into a big hug. Hannah waved at Mina as she was smushed. “Thanks for saving my brother!” She exclaimed happily. He let go of her and she bounced up and down. “You were so cool!! Do you still have that churro?” Harvey shook his head. “No, I lost it too,” he admitted sadly, “Just like I dropped dad’s wand.” Spike gaped at him. “Aw man, I always wanted to eat a magic churro!” Hannah reached into her coat and pulled out the wand. “Don’t worry! I picked it up in the maze!” She reassured proudly, holding it aloft. Harvey broke into a relieved smile. “Really?! You’re the best, Hannah. You should probably give it to me for safety.” “Awww, okay,” Hannah pouted, handing over the wand to her brother. Harvey didn’t remember the wand being this hot before but he put it into his chest, just happy to get it back. Goopy gathered the kids together. “Alright, let’s get all of you monsters home. I’m sure your parents are going to have a lot of questions.”

Harvey didn’t even know how he was going to broach that topic with his parents. No doubt they were already really worried that they hadn’t heard anything from them yet…

—

Mrs. Hare sprawled out on the bed, blissfully exhausted next to her husband. “Whoof!” She exclaimed, “That was amazing, Hopus, amazing!” She pulled the rabbit against her and pressed butterfly kisses along his neck. Hopus hugged his wife. “Yes, sooo good,” he yawned happily. Mrs. Hare ran a paw along his chest. “You know, the kids won’t be home for another 30 minutes. If you want, we have time for one more. You could even wear the bow tie if you wanted.” Hopus chuckled. “Might not be able to handle the bow tie right now. Remember, last time we did it, that’s how we got Harvey.” Mrs. Hare blinked in confusion. “Harvey? That wasn’t Harvey.” “Really? Who was it then?” “It was…”

–

“Hannah!”  

The little rabbit blinked at her name and looked back as she waved goodbye to Sullivan. “Yeah?”

“Come on! I’ll give you a piggyback ride home!” Harvey offered, his ankle feeling a lot better. She jumped on her brother’s back with such a happy squeal that the kids couldn’t help but laugh as they began the trek home.

Hannah went to wrap her arms around her brother’s neck only to realize her fur had all been mussed up from their adventure. She brushed out her fur, pausing only once more to finishing straightening out the bright red bow on her head before burying her head into his back with a happy trill.

———–

CHAPTER 01,  CHAPTER 02,  CHAPTER 03,  CHAPTER 04,  CHAPTER 05, CHAPTER 06,  CHAPTER 07,  CHAPTER 08,  CHAPTER 09,  CHAPTER 10; CHAPTER 11; CHAPTER 12 ; CHAPTER 13 ; CHAPTER 14  ; CHAPTER 15; CHAPTER 16 ; (nsfw) CHAPTER 17 ; CHAPTER 18 ; CHAPTER 19 (nsfw) ; CHAPTER 20 (You are here)

[necrokittytales]

Necrokitty Tales: Trouble in Inkwell Isle (Chapter 18)

Authors’ note: Necrida’s writing will be in italics and SPKC’s writing with be regular font.If you have no idea what this roleplaying thing is, you can start from the beginning here.

——- The carnival was soon upon the residents of the Inkwell Isles.

Hopus made sure to have Harvey practice over and over again. When it was finally time to go, Harvey managed to make a tea cup disappear, only for it to reappear an inch away, usually falling off the table and cracking, much to his mother’s chagrin. But Hopus was proud nevertheless. Mrs. Hare finished putting a sweater on Hanna. “Now, Hanna, I want you to stay with Harvey and not to leave his side,” the rabbit mother ordered, messing with her fur, making the rabbit squeal as the overbearing mother readjusted her daughter’s red bow tie. “What if he has to poop?” Hanna asked. “You’ll wait outside for him,” her mother insisted. “Wait if I have to poop?” “Then he’ll wait for you.”

Harvey tucked the small wand into his jacket as Hopus finished explaining to the young rabbit. “And lastly, don’t use it on anyone unless you’re sure you can bring them back safely,” Hopus advised, “no making someone appear on the edge of the cliff or on top of the ferris wheel or nuthin.” “Got it, thanks dad,” Harvey thanked. “Great! You might see a couple of your sisters there,” Mrs. Hare mentioned, “But no dumping your little sister on them, got it?” “I won’t!” Harvey insisted as Hanna walked over and hugged him. “Alright be safe! Your father will pick you up tonight.” Harvey raised an eyebrow. “Really?” His father did not go to the carnival or really much of anywhere when he came to visit. “Yes, I figure I’ll need to stretch my legs after your mother and I…catch up on some things.” The two adults shared a wink, making Harvey confused but he didn’t question it. “Oh, okay. Well, good bye. We love you,” the two children said before bolting out the door and down the path toward the second Inkwell Isle, looking forward to what would be a night of carnival games and excitement. – Goopy Le Grande hopped up to Isabella’s home and knocked on the door. “Hello, it’s Le Grande,” he called, remembering the woman was still vision limited so the extra audio cue might be nice.

Upon hearing the arrival of the visitor, Mina grew very excited. “Finally!” Mina jumped from her chair and opened the door. “Let’s go, lets go, lets go!” She shouted at the grinning goop. “Mina…” Her mother called. “But I really have to go! They’re waiting for me!” The b-cat insisted. “It doesn’t mean you have to lose all your manners.” The little girl knew her mother was right. She lowered her ears and extended an inviting hand towards her home. “Hello, Mr Le Grande. Would you like something to drink before we go?” She said in a much more calmed tone.

Goopy smiled at the politeness. “No, but thank you. It sounds like we are very eager to go.” He looked toward Isabella. “Is there anything else you remembered you want to tell me before we head out?”

Isabella took a moment to think. “Yes! Whatever you do, under ANY circumstances, don’t let her have cotton candy.” Mina rolled her eyes and crossed her arms as her mother continued. “Also, here are a copy of the house keys,” the mother remembered, leaving a set of keys on the table. "I should be back from work around 3 or 4 in the morning, so make yourself at home.”

“No cotton candy, got it,” Goopy repeated. He looked at the little bat. “Ready to go?”

The little girl smiled at Goopy and nodded “Yeap!” She wiggled her little kitten tail happily and hugged her mother “Break a leg, mama!” Isabella smiled and hugged her back. “Thank you, my little fur ball.” She tenderly kissed her forehead. “Have fun, and listen to Monsieur Le Grande!” “Yes, mama…” the b-cat answered, tired of her mother repeating herself, and walked outside of the house. “Te iubesc foarte mult” She heard her mother call from the house. “I love you too, mama!” Mina called back before following Goopy down the path.

–

Harvey was surprised to see Spike already waiting at the entrance of the carnival when he and his sister arrived. He didn’t think the pup would actually show up, or rather, he was really hoping he wasn’t going to show up. Spike spotted him and gave a curt nod in his direction. “Surprised you decided to show up, dummy,” Spike huffed. He spotted Hanna and raised an eyebrow. “Who’s the shrimp?” Hanna puffed out her chest. “I am a rabbit not a shrimp and my name is Hanna and I am 6 years old and I make quilts and even though you are mean, I will make you a quilt so you better be nice to my brother because he knows magic now too!” Spike rubbed his ears. “I didn’t get any of that. Was that even English?” Harvey sighed. “She says she’s gonna make you a quilt.” “I don’t want a dumb quilt,” Spike grumbled. “She wasn’t asking. She was telling you,” Harvey explained. Spike grumbled and looked away. “So where’s the vampire? She decide to be a chicken and stay home?”

Just as he finished speaking, Mina and Goopy arrived at the carnival. Mina spotted her friend Harvey accompanied by little Hanna and… Spike. “That’s Spike, the little dog,” she whispered to Goopy, “and the bunnies are Harvey and one of his sisters, Hanna.” On their way to the carnival, Mina had taken the chance to explain her brilliant plan to turn Spike from a bully to a buddy.

Goopy rubbed his chin thoughtfully upon seeing the pup that Mina had been talking about. “Well, I think that’s a very noble attempt at keeping the peace. I’m quite the peace mediator myself, but I suppose you kids have got to figure it out. Although nothing settles a disagreement like a good brawl, in my opinion,” Goopy added as they approached the children. Harvey waved at Mina and Goopy. “Hello, Mr. Le Grande,” he greeted pleasantly. “Well, hello Harvey. Is this your little sister? I don’t think I’ve seen her since she was a bunny,” Goopy greeted, tipping his top at the little rabbit. She smiled and curtsied politely. Spike scoffed. “Really? You brought an adult? You guys must be more scared than I thought.” Goopy eyed him. “Hello there, Spike, I’ve been sent to accompany Ms Mina, but by no means am I going to be following her around all the time.” Goopy gave her a nod. “If you run ahead, just make sure to eventually come back, got it?”

Mina smiled and nodded at Goopy. She then turned to Spike, crossing her arms. “So what would you like to start with?” She asked defiantly, grinning at the pup.

“Why don’t you ride the roller coaster ride first?” Goopy suggested when the puppy didn’t speak.

Hanna pouted. “I don’t think I’m big enough for that. How about the merry go round?”

Spike shook his head. “That stuff is for babies.” Harvey bristled at that.

Goopy scoped the park so more. “Did you want to do carnival games?”

Harvey did but he wanted a chance to do it without Hanna in case he could win her something. “Not now, maybe later?”

Spike crossed his arms and pointed at Mina. “If you’re really serious about having this scare off, we should started with the least scary places and keep going to scarier stuff until you give up.”

“You’re right, Spike. Perhaps you’re not as dumb as you look!” Mina smiled at him and looked around. “We can go on the wheel, unless you’re afraid of heights?”  The little bat suggested. She figured they could enjoy a bit of calm with Hanna before they screaming really started.

Spike crossed his arms even tighter. “I’m not scared of heights. Let’s do it!” The dog ran off before any of the kids knew what was up, forcing them to run after him toward the ferris wheel, leaving Goopy to slowly hop from behind.

–

The Baroness’ eyes couldn’t help but pop at all the lights of the carnival. “Goodness, Beppi really has put in a lot of effort to make things look good this time,” the woman noted to Grim. The two had walked from her castle to the carnival entrance and just paid the fare to enter.

“Yes… he d-did a great job…” the dragon agreed, admiring Baroness Von Bon Bon’s outfit. She looked absolutely ravishing tonight.

Bon Bon looked over at the dragon, unaware of the dragon’s interest in her outfit. “Do you see any rides you’d like to try first?” She asked.

The dragon couldn’t stop thinking about how much he enjoyed her company, her sweet smell, her delightful voice…But at the sound of her question, he snapped out of his thoughts.

“Uh… how about the ferris wheel? Or the b-bumper cars?” he considered.

“Let’s do the bumper cars,” Baroness decided, a malicious grin alighting on her face at the suggestion. “I think the cars have Beppi’s face on them and nothing would be more satisfying than to smash them into each other,” she added.

Grim chuckled and followed her to the bumper cars. When it was their turn to ride, the dragon realised he was slightly too big for just one car. But he was determined to ride anyway. Ignoring the technician, he took two cars and used them as if they were roller skates.

“I’m r-ready!” He smiled at the Baroness and give her a daring stare.

The Baroness laughed at the bravado. “Better clench your claws, Grim, I don’t hold back!” At the sound of the buzzer, all the bumper cars started to jerk and move around, fueling Bon Bon’s somewhat macabre desire to hurt things as she gleefully rammed and collided with other cars.

Grim skated towards Bon Bon, but a car bumped him, making him lose his balance and fall. He growled angrily and tried to look who it was but there were so many people he couldn’t be sure who did it.

He was standing up when another car ran over his tail, making him roar in pain. This time he stood up quickly and recognised Cuphead smiling victorious before he got bumped by another car who nearly made him get out of his own.

Grim smiled, showing his fangs as he slipped back into his roller cars. This was going to be fun!

The Baroness was having so much fun, especially crashing into Cuphead that she didn’t notice  a certain clown approaching the controls of the bumper cars.

Beppi eyed Bon Bon and Grim having a wonderful time. “Let’s make this ride a lot more interesting,” he chuckled, pressing a few buttons and raising the speed of the bumper cars.

Bon Bon didn’t realize the speed increase at first. It was only when she was T-boned and actually jostled a bit more did she realize the cars were hitting with more force. Not enough to hurt, but definitely enough to rattle someone. Especially someone balanced on two cars.

Cuphead took advantage of the increasing speed and kept bumping against Grim, laughing out loud as he did. The dragon kept losing his balance and ridiculously wiggled his limbs to keep himself from falling, only to end up falling anyway with a heavy thud.

It was annoying for Grim (and a little painful) but he was still having fun. He loved the crazy look of the Baroness when she fiercely succeeded in bumping someone. Especially when that someone was the little annoying cup.

And speaking of the cup… Grim was near BonBon now, he looked at her with a grin and wanted to bumped her softly. Before he could do this, Cuphead gave a particularly hard charge to one of his feet. The unexpected impact made Grim lose his balance again and sent him spiraling down once more. Only this time, it was toward the Baroness.

The woman saw the shadow over her and realized she was in imminent danger of being squashed. She jumped out of the moving bumper car quickly and rolled to safely just as poor Grim landed right where she had been moments before.

The bumper cars were quickly halted as she stood up and dusted herself off. She swore she could someone loudly giggling, “TIMBER!” and she looked around for the source. That almost sounded like Beppi. She scowled but softened when she saw Grim lying on the ground with a groan. She walked over to him carefully. “Are you okay? Did you get hurt?” She asked carefully, placing a hand on his shoulder.

‘You almost crushed her…’ Grim thought to himself, 'You almost CRUSHED her!’ He felt terrible. He could have hurt Bon Bon so badly. He looked at her full of guilt and sadness, thinking about the horrible thing it could have happened.

Cuphead got out of his car alarmed “Grim! You ok?!” The little cup immediately stepped back when the dragon blew warm smoke at him with an angry growl.

“I could have KILLED her!” he roared standing threarning on all fours.

“I-I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to… ” Cuphead slowly backed up.

The Baroness recognized an angry dragon when she saw one. “Grim Matchstick!” She yelled sharply, hopefully getting the dragon’s attention.

Grim’s ears backed down and he slowly looked at Von Bon Bon. The little cup took the chance to run away from the dragon.

Grim was so ashamed, not only did he almost crush her but he just lost his temper towards a kid. This night was going to be memorable alright, but not the way he hoped it would.

The Baroness saw how distraught the dragon looked and sighed. “Oh, Grim,” she coaxed, taking the dragon’s claw and leading him off the bumper car track, “you can’t just go burning people all willy nilly,” She explained, picking up a wrench and looking toward the individual by the controls. “You got to disable your target first,” she added darkly and fiercely chucked the wrench in that direction.

She smiled sweetly at Grim before leading him toward the ferris wheel. “Do you understand?”

The dragon allowed BonBon to lead him away from the bumper cars but was rather confused by her throwing that tool. He didn’t really understand what she meant by all of this, but he was just glad she didn’t leave him.

“I-I-I’m sorry, baroness… ” he said embarrassed and unaware of the cluster gathered around the control box.

–

A couple of carnival attendees stood over a fallen clown, with a wrench shaped dent in his head. Beppi was rubbing his head. “Ow…clearly I need to up my game a bit,” he groaned.

–

While Grim and Baroness left the bumper cars, another couple was just entering the park.

Amber walked toward the entrance of the carnival apprehensively and was concerned when Sullivan was already there, waiting for her. Her eyes narrowed. Had the salamander already scoped the place out? Did he know all the secret places a girl could get dragged to? Would he try anything? She shifted, feeling the small concealed weapon under her clothes rub against her soft fur and smiled. He would very quickly learn a painful lesson if he tried.

She plastered on an enthusiastic smile and waved at him. "Hello, Sully!” She greeted cheerfully.

Sullivan’s eyes brightened at the sight of Amber. “H-hi! ” he waved,“How have you been?” He smiled shyly, hiding an arm behind his back.

Amber did not like the fact that she could not see Sully’s other arm. Still, she managed to keep a playful smile on. “I’m good. It’s so nice to see you. What happened with your arm? Did you get hurt?” She asked, attempting to peek behind him to see what type of weapon he could have.

'Hurt with Cupid’s love arrows,’ the salamander told himself.

“Hehe… No.. it’s… ” he showed his arm holding a small black box. “I got you a little something…” he blushed and opened the box in front of her. It was a thin silver bracelet with delicate flower and leaves carvings. He looked at her to see her reaction.

Amber’s eyes open wide at the gift. 'Ooh, a shiny,’ her mind thought automatically. She liked shinies. She took it carefully and placed it on her own wrist. “Sully, this is beautiful! Thank you!” She thanked, planting a tiny peck on his cheek.

Psycho killer or not, the salamander had taste. Amber had to make sure she stole something extra nice for him tonight. Or at least stole enough cash to win him something.

Sullivan blushed and caressed the kissed cheek. “I’m so glad you like it!” It took him so long to decide what to get her… He knew Amber was a more sophisticated woman, and that only showing off physical strength wouldn’t suffice to conquer her heart.

He offered his arm to her like a gentleman. “Ready to have some fun, m'lady?” He said, smiling at the feline.

Amber took his arm. “Of course!” Her ears perked up at the sound of an announcer declaring the bumper cars were starting up again after a temporary pause and she grinned.

“Let’s do the bumper cars!!” She squealed, “I wanna hit something!” And with that, she dragged Sullivan into the park with a purr.

Sullivan let her drag him still smiling. The evening looked promising!

There was a lot of people starting to wait in line but thanks to Amber they were one of the firsts.

On the side of the tracks they saw one.of the cars all smashed. “Wow! Somebody had an extrabumpy ride…” the salamander said starting to worry for Amber.

Amber blanched. “Huh. That’s uh… different,” she admitted. Still, she did just pick pocket about 3 people in this line. It would look suspicious if she just left after coming all the way here. “Well I know which car we’re not taking,” she joked.

—

“You call that scary? I was falling asleep on that ride!” Spike laughed, as the children walked away from one of the rides.

The scare contest was still on amongst Mina and Spike. It took them a while to see which ride they would start with, mostly because they needed to find a ride that Hanna could also ride since she was so short. They had finally found a scary ride and although Harvey was a bit spooked, it looked like it hadn’t left much of an impression on Spike.

“That was kind of scary,” Harvey admitted.

Hanna patted his paw. “Don’t worry, the monsters in that one were all fake. They’re not real.”

Spike continue to laugh at poor Harvey who pouted. He turned toward Mina. “You’re going to find a real scary ride now or what?”

Mina was with Spike. So far the rides didn’t made them scream so much but she didn’t want make Harvey feel bad.

“Well, at least they were fun,” she smiled. “And that face you made when we were up high in the air? That was priceless, Spike” She chuckled.

She looked around and saw the perfect ride to go on next.

“I guess it’s time for the real scary stuff.” She pointed at the haunted house, grinning maliciously.

Harvey didn’t like that ride one bit. “That’s the really spooky one,” he mumbled.

Goopy patted him on the back. “Now, now, kiddo, just remember it’s just all smoke and mirrors. No actual monsters and spooks.”

They started to walk over to the ride only for Harvey to catch sight of one of the carnival games. He wondered if he could find sewing needles for Hanna in there. Maybe he could check after the ride if he didn’t run out screaming.

The carnival attraction looked harmless enough at first glance. Just a large dark looking mansion. Yet the closer the children got to it, the more menancing it became. The windows open and shut on their own. The sounds of groans and chains rattling grew louder with each step. And by the time Mina and her friends had reached a certain point in the line, they could hear the screams of the attendees who had gone before them.

Harvey was seriously spooked despite the fact that Hanna was still giggling about the whole thing. “I wonder if I can make the ghosts some quilts.”

“Hanna, there’s no such things as ghosts. Skeletal horses, yes, but not ghosts.”

“Ooh! Actually, there are!” Goopy prompted. “They run a train on the third isle.”

Spike gaped at the blob. “Nu uh. No way.”

“Mmhmm.”

They were waiting in line for a while. It seemed there were a lot of people waiting in line for the attraction. It looked like they were having patrons go in as small groups, rather than by themselves. Mina was disappointed with this information. It probably wouldn’t be as fun if they had to go with some other folks. Especially if these folks weren’t scared easily. So she looked around to check if there were people who looked easily spooked…or someone who looked like a spook.

She spotted a salamander who didn’t look very brave next to… the freelancer! It would be fun to ride with them!

–

Sullivan was delighted they were going to the Haunted Manor. He was tired trying to win prizes for Amber testing his very little strength. But this, didn’t took any skill to walk around holding  and reassuring his beloved lady.

“I was a little kid since the last time I went in there.  I wonder if they changed the ghost sheets,” he chuckled.

Amber had no interest in a spooky haunted mansion. Initially. She hadn’t been too impressed with Sully’s attempts to win her stuff and she had to resist the urge to win her own prizes. So when he suggested the spooky mansion walk, she was about to shoot it down. But when she read the little pamphlet on it claiming that the ghostly spectres haunting the mansion came from a solid gold artifact, she was much more on board.

Even if the gold thing wasn’t true, there were still plenty of incentive to walk through a dark mansion. The darkness could provide cover for her to frisk a few patrons, especially if they were traveling with a group. Sully had been rather talkative up until this point, talking about how this mansion had been up for ages, ever since he was a boy.

Amber was fairly sure by his nonchalance that he didn’t believe in the spooks, especially by the way he almost put his arm around her a couple times. Even if he might be a psycho killer, she did admit it was kind of cute watching him try so hard.

She for sure thought they were going to be part of the group in front of them going in, only to be stopped just before they could step in by a bedraggled looking clown. “That’s it for now, gonna have to wait for the other group to leave before you guys can go in,” he explained.

She felt something approaching her and glanced up to see…holy shit, a dragon. Her eyes widened at his appearance. It was a dragon…in an oversized coat. Huh. That’s new. Probably shouldn’t try to take anything from him. Fur was flammable.

Sullivan noticed Amber getting nervous at the dragon. “Oh, him? Don’t worry! He’s a very nice dragon, his name is Grim Matchstick, he lives in that big tower over there.” He pointed to the silhouette of the old white structure illuminated by the dim lights of the night, giving it a mysterious look.

He also noticed the person next to him. “Oh gosh! The Baroness Von Bon Bon… now THAT one you can fear….”

Amber observed the Baroness and scratched herself dismissively. “I don’t see why she’s scary. She’s just a princess, isn’t she?”

“She’s the Baroness of Sugarland. She had a bit of a temper… you should stay on her good side or she will take your head. Literally!” Sullivan explained to his lovely companion.

–

Mina made a motion to approach the freelancer and the salamander only to stop in her tracks when a giant green lizard stepped between them. She poked at Goopy excitedly.

“Is that what I think it is?” She smiled, not believing her own eyes.

Goopy turned to see what Mina was was pointing at and grinned instead. “Oh, Grim! Why hello there!” He greeted, tipping his tip at the dragon.

–

Grim was a bit nervous. After the fiasco at the bumper cars he didn’t have the courage to get on another ride… but he still had to make the Baroness scared so she would ask him to stay in her castle.

He looked up at the scary facade of the Haunted Manor and gulped. He was probably more scared than Bon Bon. He looked down to her. “T-t-hey say it’s really scary… A-are you going to be ok?”

The Baroness smiled at Grim’s sincere question. “There are very few things that scare me, Grim. But I’d like to see what Beppi has in store for the average patron. Who knows, maybe he’ll get lucky and make me laugh,” she chuckled, gently tapping the dragon on his arm.

Why did she tap him? The Baroness glanced away so he didn’t see the faint trace of red on her cheeks. She didn’t know why, but she really wanted to keep touching Grim tonight. Maybe it was because he was wearing a darling coat? Or had actually worked up the courage to ask her out? She knew deep down he was a very nervous dragon so the fact that he was willing to go to a haunted ride just for her sake was endearing.

Grim blushed at the touch of the Baroness and smiled shyly. He was about to talk when he recognised a voice behind him.

“Oh! G-g-goopy! How have you b-been?” He noticed the bunch of kids around him and smiled, showing a little too much teeth. “W-well you are in good company.”

Mina couldn’t help but stare at the dragon with wide, admiring eyes. That made Grim feel a bit uncomfortable.

“I am doing well, old sport! How about yourself?” Goopy greeted. He spotted the Baroness and his smile widened. He gently nudged the dragon with his elbow. “And I see you have the most lovely Baroness as your companion for the night?”

The Baroness smiled disarmingly at the goop. “Good evening, Le Grande…Flattery will not make me forget that you spilled punch on me the last time we were all out,” she spoke cooly.

Goopy chortled. “Yes, yes, I remember. No need to lose your head about it.”

“And more importantly, yours,” she dangerously reminded him, still smiling, unaware of the cat behind her now watching her much more warily than she had just a few seconds ago. She looked at the small bat like creature next to him. “You have a child?”

Goopy gestured to Mina. “Oh, this here is Mina. She and her mother recently moved to the first isle and she’s working tonight, so I offered to accompany the little rascal and her friends to the carnival,” Goopy explained. He gave Mina a little push toward the couple. “Mina, this is Grim Matchstick and Baroness Von Bon Bon. I believe they are on a date.”

If the woman was phased, she did not show it. She knelt down and extended a hand to the little girl. “Hello, Mina. How are you?”

The dragon blushed even more at the blue goop’s remark but cooled down when Bon Bon talked, full of confidence. She was so lovely when she threatened people. He shyly waved at Mina who kept staring at him weirdly. Kids made him nervous. He couldn’t predict when they were about to start crying, or yelling, or laughing in volumes that would burst anyone’s ear drums.

The little b-cat stopped staring at the dragon and now looked at the woman kneeling in front of her. She smelled like sweet delicious candy! And she was a Baroness? Looked more like a princess to her.

“H-hi! Eh…” she tried to remember the correct way to greet  nobility. She decided to go the 'knight’ way and put a fist on her chest, lowered her head, and bowed as far as she could go. “It’s an honor to meet you, your highness!.” She looked up at her with an eyebrow raised and spoke softly so only Bon Bon could hear. “Are you made out of candy?”

The Barones smirked at Mina. “My dress is,” she explained to the small child. Mina looked at the dress with a mix of admiration and hunger. Bon Bon looked behind her at Harvey, Hanna and Spike. “Are these your friends?”

“Oh! Yes! These are my friends, Harvey, his little sister Hanna and Spike” she introduced them to the odd couple.

“Nice t-t-to meet you all” Grim waved at the children.

“Are you kidding? It’s nice to meet YOU! I mean, you’re a dragon! There is nothing in this world more awesome than a dragon!” She turned to Harvey all excited “Man I love this place!”

Grim couldn’t help but feel a bit proud and chuckled. “Oh, wow. I guess I’m t-the first dragon you’ve ever seen, uh?”

“THERE ARE MORE?” Mina yelled eyes wide open.

–

The salamander noticed Goopy talking to Grim and BonBon. He didn’t wanted to interrupt , so he waited for Goopy to glance at his direction and waved hello at him.

Amber continued to observe her surroundings, unaware that Sullivan was actively trying to draw attention to them. She checked out behind the Baroness to see a large blue slime and some familiar looking kids. Oh, she knew those two. Hopefully…they wouldn’t notice her. Or at the very least, wouldn’t out her to the rest of the group.

Eventually Sullivan was successful at waving at the blue slime ball and the ball took that as an invitation to approach. “Hello, Sullivan! I almost didn’t recognize you out here!” He greeted. He turned to Amber. “And who is your companion?”

“I’m Amber,” Amber greeted, shaking the hand that sprouted from the goop.

“Hello, Amber, I’m Goopy Le Grande. Is Sullivan behaving himself with you? He’s not getting too handsy, is he?” He teased, elbowing Sullivan now.

Amber smiled and almost said, ‘that he wouldn’t last too long if he did,’ but decided against it. Instead, she giggled. “No, he’s been quite the gentleman, actually.”

Sullivan blushed, embarrassed, but kept his smile. He would love to get handsy with Amber, but not before proving his worth and winning her heart.

“W-what about you? What you doing with a bunch of kids?“ He asked curiously, getting a better view of the children in front of the dragon and the Baroness. "You don’t fight today?”

Goopy shook his head. “Not tonight. Later next week. Should be an exciting one if I don’t say so myself. I could score you an extra ticket if this evening goes well?” He offered with a wink. “And as for the children, I’m watching them for the night. Mina and her mother recently moved to the Isle and she’s working tonight at the bar.”

Sulivan laughed nervously “ Eeh… y-yeah, we’ll see about that ticket.” He looked at Amber. “It might not spook us but I’m sure those kids will create the ambiance for us,” he chuckled. “After this we can go have a drink or something… i-if you like.”

Amber perked up at Sullivan’s words. “A drink, eh? Now that would be a great way to end the night. Well, almost the best way to end the night,” she purred, letting herself rub up against him suggestively when he got a bit closer to the dragon.

Goopy chuckled to Amber. “Well, we gotta let the kiddies have their fun first. The kids have a little wager going right now, a scare competition. Whoever is the last one to get scared wins. I really hope they updated the spooks in here otherwise these tykes are going to be a bit disappointed.”

Amber sighed. “Yeah, Sully was mentioning the “spooks”. Do you think we should even bother with going in?” She asked, jutting a thumb at the exit.

–

The Baroness smiled at the enthusiasm the children showed. It was nice to meet young ones who weren’t afraid of Grim. She often felt a mix of rage and sadness when Grim met with fear from the various island inhabitants. He had been here for years and he was still always worried that someone might start screaming when he would go to get groceries.

She gently waited for the dragon to answer the excited little girl.

Grim got startled by the child’s sudden yelling and chuckled when he realised she wasn’t yelling of fear. “Well yeah, there’s a whole Island full of them.”

Mina pulled at her ears “Oh.My.God. Mr Matchstc- Mutchstruc, Mr. Dragon, can we please meet tomorrow after my flying lessons? I want to note EVERYTHING in my adventure journal!.”

A silly smile got stuck in the dragon’s face.  "F-f-flying lessons uh? That s-sounds fun. How about we meet then? I c-c-could show you a trick or two….“ He spread his wings, almost hitting people around him, including Amber, Sullivan and Goopy.

"Hey! Careful, Matchstick,” Sullivan said, protecting Amber with his body.

“Oh! Sorry! I g-g-got a bit carried away…” his confidence fell to the ground and he tried to make himself small retracting his wings.

Mina noticed the change of humor in the dragon and cocked her head wondering why he didn’t eat their heads. She got closer to Grim. “Sir, it would be great to see you tomorrow!” Grim smiled at her and nodded. “Oh and you’re also welcome to join, your majesty,” Mina bowed again to Bon Bon. Grim looked at the baroness with puppy eyes, hoping she would agree to come.

The Baroness nodded. That would be quite amusing to see Grim teaching someone to fly. “I would actually look forward to that very much,” she agreed, trying to mask her excitement at watching Grim flap around like a dragonling again.

—

“Harvey, do you really not wanna go?” Hanna asked her brother as the adults talked, “You can stay outside if you like?”

Harvey shook his head. “No, mom and dad said I’ve got to stay with you. I’ll be fine.”

“Don’t be such a baby,” Spike teased, “If some girly princess can go in there, you can go in there,” he pointed to the Baroness.

Harvey wasn’t feeling like a very brave bunny and his sister gave him a quick hug. “Don’t worry! If any ghosts come by to scare you, I’ll scare them so hard, they will disappear!”

Harvey was about to ask why ghosts would be scared by a baby bunny when he felt something hard press into his ribs during the hug. His sister pulled away to look eagerly ahead and he reached into his jacket. His paws touched a stick and he realized he still had the training wand. His eyes widened and he looked around, but no one spotted him. He smiled a little and took his paw out. If a fake ghost really did spook him, maybe Harvey could make it disappear after all.

Harvey spotted Amber and his ears perked up. “Hi, Amber!” He greeted cheerfully. Seeing the “freelancer” did make him feel a little bit better. He wasn’t sure how much of a fighter she was, but between her, his wand, the baroness and a big dragon, he felt a bit safer going into the spooky mansion.

The cat looked worriedly at who was calling her name and relaxed when she realized it was Harvey and not some disgruntled victim. “Hey, long ears,” she greeted, “You going in here too?”

“Yeah, with Mina, Spike and my sister,” he explained. At the mention of herself, Hanna edged closer to look at the cat. Harvey looked at her. “This is my sister, Hanna.”

Amber extended a paw to shake Hanna’s. “Are you a goody two shoe like your brother?”

“I make quilts,” Hanna proudly exclaimed. She oohed at the feeling of her paw. “Your fur is so soft!!!”

The cat puffed out her chest with pride. “I take a bath everyday,” she winked.

“Can I brush you sometime?”

“…I like you, kid. You ever think about being a freelancer?” She suggested with a wink. Harvey crossed his arms and she laughed. “Kidding, kidding…although-” She was interrupted by a bull dog pup pushing past them and stomping up to the carnival employee managing the line.

“I’m tired of waiting for this dumb ride!” Spike barked at the employee, “everyone has to be gone by now!”

The carnival employee shrugged. “Unexpected delay. One of the guests passed out so we’re having to carry them out the back. Hopefully shouldn’t be too much longer.”

Amber blinked in surprise and glanced at Sullivan. “I didn’t realize sheets were THAT scary.”

Spike growled. “I wanna go on now!”

“Eager little puppy, ain’t cha?” A giggling voice called out. The pup turned to see a red and white bouncy clown skipping toward them. The clown patted the employee on the back. “I think I’ll take over from here, thank you.”

Spike raised his ears. “You’re that weird clown, Beppi, huh?”

Beppi nodded and smiled at the group. “Oh yes, I’m Beppi! Owner of the circus! And what a ride I have in store for all of you! Especially you, Baroness,” he winked, enjoying the scowl on her face and the nervous expression on the dragon. He leaned forward. “Who here wants to get scared?” he chuckled.

There was an uneasy response from the group. Beppi was smiling but there was a weird vibe about his whole introduction. The clown looked even more pleased. “Wonderful, just WONDERFUL!” He cheered, “Very well! Please, go on ahead. And enjoy yourselves! And remember, the last one who screams wins!” He chortled before opening the door and stepping back.

Spike started to walk toward the door, before glancing at the clown. “How ya know about our competition?” He asked.

Beppi cackled. “I know EVERYTHING that goes on in my park! Now, get along now, little doggies!” He waited for everyone to move forward.

Mina was intrigued by the clown and she marched out in front of the group. Following closely after her was Spike, also eager to see what all the fuss was about..but more importantly, to win the challenge.

Right behind them followed Harvey with Hanna, holding hands to make sure she wouldn’t run off and try to make quilts for spooks. Goopy, Sullivan and Amber were next. Bon Bon and Grim finally followed. Grim was fairly nervous already. Beppi seemed to be very happy they were here. A little too happy.

They all stepped into the manor, and the doors slammed behind them, leaving them in a room with dim light. And maniacal laughter.

–

Another individual was also going through his own sense of foreboding and despair. And although this one wasn’t related to spooks in the slightest, it was still rather terrifying.

It was date night with Hilda.

Cagney looked at the setting sun as he walked toward the club. It was still early but he wanted to make sure he showed up early, especially if he could scope out the spots and escape routes if necessary. Tonight, this was practically terrifying on its own, without the possibility of death by sky witch. And to try to get her to let him spend the night? A week ago, he would have had a chance even as a friendly sleepover, but now, after everything, he thought it was a snowball’s chance in hell.

He finally reached the club doors as the sun finally finished setting and gave a rap on the wood. The doors parted to reveal a tiny mole man. “Good evening, sir, do you have a reservation?” “Yeah, uh, for Cagney,” he explained. “I see. The reservation says it’s for two,” the mole read off his list. “Yeah, she’s not here yet?” “No, sir.” “Good, good. Okay, yeah, her name is Hilda. I guess she’ll be here soon,” he added hopefully, walking past the mole. “Very good, sir. I’ll go ahead and take you to your table.” The carnation was instantly hit with the loud music and chatter of bar patrons. He followed the mole to a table. “Might I suggest a drink sir from the bar?” The mole inquired. Cagney eyed him warily. “What? Why?” “You look very nervous, sir. And you’re tearing a hole in the tablecloth.” He looked down to see that he had actually ripped part of the tablecloth from pulling too hard. “Ah, uh, yeah, maybe,” he admitted. “Excellent, I’ll send over your waiter and he’ll get you started on something.” The waiter stepped up as if right on cue and suggested something that Cagney had no idea what it was, but it sounded harmless enough so he ordered that. As the waiter left, Cagney couldn’t help but eye the front door worriedly. He was all worried about what she would do to him when she showed up, but what would he do if she didn’t show at all. That would truly mean the end of the relationship as he knew it. He found himself tearing another hole in the tablecloth, only stopping when the drink came to him. He tapped his foot anxiously instead, continuing to eye the door.

—

Even though she was ready way before the time, Hilda thought it would be fun to make the flower break a sweat and arrived a few minutes late at the Night Owl club.

The mole greeted her and started to lead her to Cagney’s table, but she froze before she could take another step inside.

'C'mon! You can’t bail now!’ Sagittarius tried to encourage her. 'You already made him wait… he must be in a worst state than you.’ Hilda mentally agreed, the flower wasn’t very good at stress managing.

“Problem, mis? ” the mole asked interrupting her thoughts.

Hilda shook her head “No! I’m good.. I just… thought I forgot something…” she made sure her dress was perfect and followed him inside.

It was crowded tonight but there was a good ambiance. Jazzy tunes filling the air as people relaxed, chatted and danced. Hilda could feel her shoulders untense at the scene. She was glad they both agreed on coming here.

Her heart skipped a beat when she saw Cagney at the table. She was so happy to see him, and he was all dressed and everything. Scorpio’s note had a stronger effect than what she thought.

As they closed in, she tried to stop herself from smiling at her friend and focused on showing a hard look.

—

Cagney was panicking. He kept an eye on the clock behind the bar and when it was a minute after 7, he really did start freaking out. Holy shit she wasn’t coming after all. Had she faked a story about buying a dress and bribed the saleslady into convincing him she was going? How would she have known what store they were going to if she did that? Oh man, was Grim on it too?!

No, that was just him being paranoid, right? No, there’s no way Hilda would do something that cruel…then again he did nearly kill her so maybe this was a possibility after all. He grabbed the tablecloth subconsciously.

It was 3 minutes after. Shit, she wasn’t coming. Maybe she was outside looking in through a window, laughing at him. He looked around quickly. There were no windows in this place. He spotted Hilda briefly, looked away and then realized that that actually was Hilda and holy shit she was absolutely stunning. And she looked pissed.

His arms dropped but too late he forgot to let go of the table cloth. The force of his arms dropping led to him accidentally yanking off the entire table setting with a clatter to the ground. He was absolutely mortified.

Hilda had to cover her mouth to prevent herself from roaring in laughter, her chest hurting when she did. People stared at the flower for a moment, chuckling and whispering, before they returned to their business. A few waiters came quickly to clean the mess.

Hilda got to the table without any trace of that hard look. “Gee Cags, you really now how to get a girl’s attention,” she smirked.

When Hilda’s first words were not a swear at him, Cagney froze and his mind went blank. And then his brain screamed at him to say something because she just said words and that probably warranted a response of some kind.

He swallowed hard and then gave a weak smile. “Well, you’re here, so I guess it worked?” That was the dumbest line he could have said. He tried not to glare at the people around him who were still chuckling at him.

'Yes. Yes it did.’ Gemini intruded, giggling and admiring the carnation’s effort to dress elegantly

Hilda noticed the awkwardness in her friend and realized she had the upper hand. It was lovely to see her giant, intimidating, grumpy friend shivering at her presence.

After the staff set the table again she took a seat like she practiced at the joint, sensually crossing her legs, only this time her shoe stayed in place. She wasn’t sure what to say so she decided to torture him a bit more by remaining silent and just looking at him.

Why wasn’t she yelling at him? Was she messing with him? Should he call her out on it? What if she wasn’t messing with him and she just got madder. Maybe, he could just start with asking how she was doing?

“Soooo….crazy weather huh?”

He could have slapped himself. That was not what he meant to say at all. Holy crap. He just called her crazy.

'Did he just called us crazy?!’ Tauros demanded, making Hilda’s eye twitch.

“Yeah,” she said, her tone angry but still calm,  "Glad to see it didn’t drown you.“

"Yeah, glad about that….I think.” If he had been drowned, he wouldn’t have had this conversation right now. But still, he had to say something.

“You look nice,” he finally managed. She still looked pissed. If he wanted any shot of staying the night, he was gonna have to start by apologizing. “Listen, about the other night…I just wanna say I didn’t mean to break your dome.”

Hilda’s stare softened a little. Finally! A chance to clear things up. “I know… ” she said softly. “And.. I’m sorry I didn’t believe you….” She cleared her throat and hardened her voice again. “Anything ELSE you would like to apologize from that night?” The sky witch asked, crossing her arms roughly against her chest and releasing a soft painful groan.

Cagney heard the groan and remembered that Hilda had been stuck like a pin cushion when he accidentally attempted to crush her.

“I’m sorry I nearly killed you,” he finally managed, “and I’m sorry I couldn’t get all the thorns out,” he added turning a bit red.

“Yeah… ” Hilda couldn’t help but blush as well. “Next time, please wait for me to be conscious.” She showed a small smile.  

“Cags… ” she took a deep breath and leaned in over the table. “I apologize too… I should learn to better manage my anger. But…what happened? I mean, the things you said? The way you looked at me?” she hold her arms and looked at her friend worried. “It sounded like you meant it.”

Cagney buried his head in his leaves. “Ugh, Hilda, no I didn’t mean it. I was just so tired and angry and hurt and when I turn into…well, THAT, I just say a lot of things. A lot of dumb hurtful things.”

The second drink had loosened his tongue significantly and he groaned. “This is so hard for me right now to try to explain but I missed you. Like a bunch.”

Those last words melted the woman’s heart. She looked at him with a sad mile. She wanted to jump up and hug him tight, but she remained in control and stayed in her seat.

'What are you waiting for? Go for it!  For the love of God! Hug him, you crazy witch!’ Gemini was tried to convince Hilda.

'Hell no! You should kick him under the table! And then drag him outside and kick him some more!’ Tauros spoke.

'No! Let him talk! Look at him, he feels terrible… ’ It was starting to get crowded.

The woman shook her head to try to focus. “I don’t know If I want to hug or beat the life out of you.”

"You can do both if you want. I think it would be worth it and I might deserve it.” Cagney helpfully offered. He looked at how beautiful Hilda looked and his mind was starting to swim. She was even more beautiful than she was earlier this week when she showed up at his field, drunk and with…a different guy.

He cleared his throat. “Uh, before you do either, can you tell me something? Who is Carl?”

'CaAAarl’ she couldn’t help repeat in her mind. She had a choice to make here: be childish and pretend this guy was going to be her best friend, OR, be mature about it and tell him that it was just somebody she met with the sole purpose of making Cagney jealous.

“Oh, Carl…He’s a … He’s a friend. We met at the Joint and uh… sorry we woke you up.” She hid her face behind her drink, hoping there wouldn’t be more follow up questions.

The fact that she got fidgety with the question made Cagney’s stomach twist. “Didn’t realize you frequented the Joint.” He managed, trying to keep any spite out of his voice/

He had been on his third drink now and his mind swam with thoughts that hurt his chest. She met a guy at a bar and what, was she planning on bringing him back to her place? Technically, Cagney’s field was on the way if you were walking and with Hilda being unable to fly, it was feasible.

He tried not to pull at the tablecloth. Had there been other guys and he just managed to sleep through her bringing them back? That thought hurt a lot. Had she been living a double life and lovesick Cagney had been too dumb to see it until now?

“A friend, huh? What type of friend?” He asked, keeping his voice calm.

'Of course there was going to be follow up questions! What did you expect!’ Sagittarius scowled.

“Well, I have a life, Cags. You probably hang out with other people I don’t know about… Don’t you?” She asked really curious and kept drinking.

Cagney really didn’t have anyone. At least not anyone that Hilda didn’t already know. Admitting that would have just made him sound more a stupid loser. He tried to think what to say but only could manage a “Not really…” before the he was interrupted.

“Ladies and gentlemen!” A well dressed rooster announced from the stage. “Put your hands together and give a round for our newest, lovely siren, Miss Bella Bechstein!”

Hilda’s eyes widened and choked on her drink and coughed.

At the sound of the familiar name, he turned to see Isabella on stage. She was quite breathtaking to be sure and you could hardly tell she was blind by the way she handled that microphone. “Huh,” he observed, “I didn’t know Isabella worked here.”

Hilda glared at Cagney. “You know her?” She asked, already knowing the answer.

The crowd applauded as Isabella entered the stage, accompanied by one of the lizard musicians, and got to the microphone. “Good evening everybody! I sincerely hope your night is going well,” she charmingly spoke as the rooster and lizard left the stage.

Cagney nodded. “Yeah, I accid-” he stopped mid-speech. He was about to admit to Hilda that he attacked a small child in a drugged stupor. That would probably not go over very well. It’s not like Hilda had strong maternal instincts, but at the same time, kids were kids and attacking them (Cuphead and Mugman being the exception) made you look like a monster.

So he bent the truth. “I acc-actually ran into her and her kid by my field. She’s new to the isle, did you meet her?”

“I-I met her too… she and Goopy helped me clean up the dome mess…”

"They did? Dammit.” Now he really felt bad. He should have been the one helping her clean up. Now if only he knew how to fix it. “She’s got quite the mouth on her,“ Cagney remembered with a chuckle, thinking about she swore him out just a few days ago

'Quite the mouth on her?!’ Gemini bursted in jealousy. 'I knew it! They have something!’. Hilda looked at him alarmed.

“W-wh-what do you mean about the mouth thing?” the sky witch mumbled scared of the answer, trying to sound as if she didn’t really cared.

The music started playing and Isabella talked in her sweet tone.

“You know folks, I like games. And there’s one in particular that used to play with a that special friend…”. And at her cue she started singing “I double dare you’.

Hilda’s next question made him pause. Cagney didn’t have a lot of insight into the female mind but he suddenly had the inkling that maybe he should choose his next words carefully. He pointed a thumb at the bat on stage. "Well, I mean, she’s a pretty good singer, right? She’s keeping with the band pretty well. It’s probably something that could be danced to, ya know, if you felt like dancing at all…” He felt like a kid asking a girl to a school dance.

'OH MY GOD! Forget what I said! Go dance with him!’ Gemini yelled with excitement.

'Yaah! Dance with him!’

'And step on his feet!’

The constellations in her head all yelled, encouraging her to go have some fun with her friend. She wasn’t very good at dancing, but Cagney was. She just had to let him lead and not step on his leaves.  Plus dancing was really fun and she really enjoy it.

She smiled shyly “Sure. I’ll try to step on you as much as I can,” she chuckled, standing up from her seat.

“Fair enough,” and with that, he led her to the dance floor.

Isabella finished her song and people clapped. “Thank you.” She kept smiling sweetly. “And after all this playing, I used to go dancing. I loove dancing, folks, but the music has to be… zazzie”  she shook her shoulders “You know what I mean? It’s gotta have that special thing that makes you want to shake it.” And so, she started singing. 

Cagney had danced since he was a sprout. Actual dancing did not spook him. Dancing in front of a crowd could give him the jitterbugs but that was okay because the jitterbug was still an acceptable dance style. But with Hilda, they had done some casual swing goofing around but this definitely had a different feel to it. Maybe it was because they were in nice clothes. At least that’s what he was telling himself.

There were other couples already on the floor and he blended in as best as a large plant could. Then again, he wasn’t the only non human so it wasn’t that off. He led her into dance as best as he could, and although yes, she did step on his leaves every now and then, for the most part she followed pretty well.

He was starting to feel more confident and soon they were both snorting and breaking out into quiet snorts and laughter.

Being so close to Cagney without the intention of smacking him made Hilda feel a bit awkward. But the more they danced, the more fun she had, and the more she realised this felt really nice, just her and him, shaking their bodies together. She almost forgot why they fought and felt sorry when she accidentally (most of the times) stepped on him.

“I can’t believe how bad you are at walking and how good you are at this.” She said, laughing and trying to keep up with his rhythm and this time avoiding his feet.

Cagney held Hilda tightly and was relieved when she stopped stepping on him. Heels beat stems any day, no matter how thorny the stem was. He was actually surprised his thorns hadn’t popped out already but realized that he wasn’t freaking out anymore. This was his zone, his expertise. Well other than extreme pollination and total domination.

He felt himself heat up at that thought. Shoot, wasn’t he thinking a few days ago that he and Hilda might actually head in that direction? And now he was here, with her slender body rubbing up against his, that dress flattering not just for her sharp personality but her rather attractive body. He swallowed. He still couldn’t believe he wrote that stupid letter.

But if he was telling the truth, it had been something he had daydreamed for a while now. And now he was trying to see if he could spend the night. He wasn’t sure if this made him a bad flower because he was trying to do this, or a good flower to save his friend from seeing the stuff he wrote about her. Or did that make him bad too?

A few minutes later as the song reached its end with an applause from the public, Hilda couldn’t help but feel really sad. She didn’t wanted to go back to talking! She wanted to be near him, laugh with him…maybe step on his toes again.

“Thank you! Thank you again!” Isabella started talking. “And at the end of the night, after all day laughing and having fun with my dear special friend…” she sighed “….there was always this moment where another gal came in and took him away from me,” she said angrily, a sad smile on her lips. She placed a hand on her hips. “And I never could tell him how I really felt…”. And with that, she began to sing a slow song.

Hilda looked at Cagney with a shy smile hoping they would keep dancing.

The song changed to a slow one and he realized he couldn’t keep just salsing to it. No, this one required…focus. Maybe he should sit this one out. He glanced down at Hilda and noticed she was smiling at him shyly. Was she feeling as awkward as he was? Somehow that made him feel better and he slowed his tempo down, trying to enjoy the moment, despite the sad undertones of the song playing.

Hilda danced close to him, appreciating the change in tone. She had been holding on to him tightly without realising it and leaned her head against his chest. The bat lady may rub the woman the wrong way, but Hilda had to admit her music was delightful (and strangely appropriate). It was setting a romantic mood between them, making her remember how she felt a few nights ago, under the stars.

He looked at Hilda. “Listen, Hilda, I want to apologize, ya know, for all the stupid shit I’ve done, that I’ve been doing and will probably do in the the future.”

She chuckled at Cagney. “Well, I will accept your apologies for what have you done, I’m not sure if I accept whatever you have been doing, aaand… I’m keeping my options open for what you may do in the future. Dancing on your leaves is kinda fun.”

He winced “Yeah, I’ve noticed. Think you could not use the heel so much when you stomp on them?” He chided, glad the woman was in a better mood.

He wondered how Hilda was doing. He had been drinking before she showed up and was starting to feel a bit light-headed from the latent effects of those alcoholic beverages. Part of him wanted to sleep, ideally at Hilda’s place.

Shoot, he still had to see about spending the night before the alcohol really hit. But another quick observation of Hilda made him hesitate. She looked like she was having fun. He decided to enjoy the closeness for now. He could ask after this song.

“You know, I only wear high heels when I know I might end up dancing with you,” Hilda smirked, interrupting the flower’s thoughts. They kept dancing, bodies pressing together, moving softly to the rhythm. Hilda’s bruises hurt a little with the closeness, but she felt the pain was worth it. Or maybe the alcohol was starting to numb her a little.

She faced Cagney. looking him straight in his eyes, full of alcoholic confidence. She was about to lean towards his lips, but the sound of applause brought her back from her thoughts.

“Thanks, everybody! We’re going to take a break to freshen up a little, but we’ll be back with more jazzy tunes to accompany your memorable evening!” Isabella called from the stage, blowing a kiss, and the rooster from before accompanied her offstage.

Hilda looked around to hide the fact she was as red as a tomato and cleared her throat. “W-we should go back.”

Hilda’s discomfort immediately jarred him from the spell of the singing and he nodded. “Yeah, I could use the break from being trampled,” he attempted to joke, trying not to show that he was starting to get nervous without the music before heading back to the table.

–

During her time on stage, Isabella caught the memorable scent of the carnation but she wasn’t certain. When the rooster helped her down, she decided ask to be sure.

“Say, is there a giant flower among the public tonight? A carnation?” She asked in her notorious sweet tone.

The rooster took a quick look and it didn’t took him long to spot Cagney. It was rare to see any flowers at the club this time of the evening.

“Well, yes there is. Doesn’t look much of a carnation, but it’s the only flower I see,” the rooster answered. “Want me to take you to him?”.

“Oh, that’s very sweet of you, darling. But I can find my way,” she smiled and walked slowly, avoiding any obstacles as she followed the smell of the giant flower.

–

As the two sat down, Cagney remembered the plan. Right. He had to retrieve that letter. “Hey, Hilda, I was thinking, about the other night…do you think you’d want to still do that, you know, have a sleepover or something?” He tried to suggest. He paused, “Ya know, with like sleeping bags or something,” he added quickly, not wanting her to think he was directly asking to sleep with her…not that he would be totally averse to that, mind you.

The constellation’s inside Hilda’s head were still going wild from the dance!

'Why didn’t you kiss him?’

'It’s alright! Just take your time, we don’t want to rush this!’

'You barely stepped on him!’

'It was perfect!’

'Not quite… it’s full of people in her~ ’

But at the question, all the voices stopped before screeching in unison: 'He wants to stay over?!’

Hilda took a looong sip from her glass and the voices grew silent. That felt good. She really needed to think this through. He made it sound like an innocent sleepover among friends, but after their slow dance, she wasn’t so sure.  She had to ask him and clear the air once and for all.

“Cagney~?”

“Well, hello there, Mr. Flower,” a familiar sweet voice interrupted her. “Didn’t know hippies like to swing,” Isabella chuckled. Hilda glared at the bat and gulped down the rest of her half full glass, turning her cheeks a bit more red.

His petals flared instinctively at the voice. There was only one person who called him a hippie. He turned around to see Isabella standing, looking even better up close. How did someone blind know how to dress up so well? Or maybe she was just good looking in general and everything looked good on her?

He was starting to think it was the latter. He recovered and smirked. “That was some good singing, Isabella. I didn’t know you were working here.”

“Aw! thank you, darling,” the bat blushed. “I started yesterday, actually. Your friend Goopy helped me get the job!” Isabella gushed.

Hilda stared at both of them, trying to hide the fact she was really pissed for being interrupted AND ignored.

“Cool. Cool. Looks like that pompous ball has some talent after all.” Cagney was aware of Hilda being strangely quiet. “Hilda, you’ve met Isabella, right?” He prompted.

“Yeah, we have…” Hilda forced a smile and gestured to a waiter to bring her another drink.

“Dumnezeule! I’m so sorry, I didn’t hear you there!” Isabella said, wiggling her ears towards Hilda. “Am I interrupting?” She asked innocently, assuming from what she talked with Goopy that they were talking about the dome incident.

“We’re just hanging out,” Cagney attempted to explain, still not 100% sure they were on a date. “We might be going soon though?” His statement came out more as question, looking toward Hilda for any affirmation of this.

Hilda looked at Cagney a bit surprised, she was hoping to dance a few more songs, but then again,they were here to talk about their friendship. This wasn’t a date. It might look like one. It certainly felt like one. But it wasn’t.

Was it?

She though it might be better to talk about it on their way to… her place, maybe. “Eh…yeah, I guess we should be go~.”

“Oh no! I was hoping to get to dance with Cagney.” Isabella regrettably admitted. She didn’t get close just to get some juice for her gossip, but also wanted to test her tour guide’s dancing skills.

“Just one! Please?” She begged, using her enticing voice. Even Hilda looked at her a bit saddened for a moment, until she remember why she made a storm the other day and decided to focus on her new drink.

An evil smirked appeared on her face. The bat was blind, that wasn’t a problem for singing, but dancing? She could already see Isabella making a fool of herself, stepping clumsily on Cagney’s already sensitive leaves.

“I know exactly what we can dance to, I just have to tell the band real quick! Please?” The singer insisted, getting closer to him. Hilda didn’t like that gesture, but decided to encourage Cagney anyway.

“Aww… c'mon Cags! Show her what you got!” She couldn’t contain her devilish smile.

Cagney was definitely surprised by Hilda’s change in tone. He could have sworn she was a bit reserved about the bat but by the way she was goading them on, he must have been mistaken. Maybe after this, then they could talk a bit more about where they saw this going.

Now with Hilda’s insistence, he smiled craftily. “Alright, I better hope your dancing is as good as your singing cause I’m not gonna hold back on you.” He offered a bat a leaf to go to the floor so she could tell them her song selection

Seeing Cagney all confident made Hilda grin even more. This was going to be fun to watch!

Isabella held on to the flower’s arm and told the band she wanted to dance to ’Tom Tom Swing Combo’.The musicians waited for the dancers to get in place before they started playing.

Isabella decided to let Cagney lead so she could measure his level.

Cagney heard the boom and bang on the instruments and his eyes lit up. He bumped and grooved to the beat, maneuvering Isabella through sways and turns, expecting any second for the bat to step on his feet like Hilda had.

Hilda kept smiling and enjoyed seeing the giant flower shaking it to the rhythm of the beat. He sure knew what he was doing… and apparently so did the bat!

At first, Isabella was letting herself get dragged by the carnation but soon enough she picked up the pace and started to accompany and accentuate Cagney’s movements to the point where it actually looked like a rehearsed dance.

Isabella was having so much fun. Every time Cagney made her do something, she managed to embellish the pose: if he made her turn, she would do extra turns positioning her free wing in diagonal so it would look like a spiral going up her body; if he toss her on a side, still holding her hand, she would spread her wing at the right moment to make it look more impressive.

Cagney’s cautious attitude had turned to one of bemusement as the bat managed to keep rhythm and time. As the dance continued, he couldn’t help but feel legitimately surprised when she even added her own flair to each move he threw at her.

When they were close, Cagney could hear a very soft chirping coming from his partner. She was using her echolocation to measure the distance between them and, therefore, avoid crashing into him.

Hilda couldn’t believe her eyes. At some point they were so coordinated they even managed a tandem charleston. There was no trace of that evil grin anymore. This plan really backfired.

With they finally finished what was probably one of Cagney’s more demanding performances, the club broke into thunderous applause. He couldn’t help but grin a bit goofily, the alcohol making him somewhat impervious to any weird giddiness from performing in front of an audience of unknowns.

Hilda decided she needed some air and stepped outside the club before the dancers returned to the table.

“Alright, you did good, kid,” he admitted to Isabella, “And that chirping thing you were doing, that was like echolocation or something? That was pretty cool.” Hilda was a fan of science shit and that would probably be pretty cool. “Man, Hilda would get a kick out of that. Let me just…just…” He looked toward the table and froze when he saw it was an empty.

“I haven’t danced like that in years!” Isabella said, recovering her breath.

Hilda was gone. When had she left? Had he done something wrong? Was this whole night a bust? Maybe she had gone to the restroom? No, all her stuff was gone. Why did she leave? He couldn’t figure it out even as he continued holding Isabella’s claws.

Wait.

His eyes apprehensively widened. Here he was, holding another woman’s hand in a bar. Hilda hadn’t thought he was into the bat, did she? Isabella was really pretty and sassy, sure, but Hilda was the ultimate woman he really wanted to put his leaves around.

“Shit,” he quickly swore, giving Isabella’s claw a hurried pat before letting go, “I’ll be right back.” He dropped some coins on the table before darting outside.

Suddenly her partner patted her hand and left in a rush. “Wha~ wait!” She called but it was too late, Cagney had rushed out of the club.

The singer’s ears drooped in disappointment, hoping that he would return to explain. Although, she suspected it might have something to do with her….

Outside, Hilda was sitting on a big branch of a nearby tree. She had her arms crossed and was looking at her stars. She noticed some mistakes in her star placement which only made her feel worse about herself.

Cagney glanced around outside but didn’t see her. “Hilda?” He called.

Cagney’s voice interrupted her thoughts and she looked down. Man, he looked good in that outfit. She cleared her throat (and mind) and waved at him.

“Hey! Up here, Romeo. What happened with Juliet?” The woman said, annoyed by how badly this night was turning.

Shit. It WAS related to Isabella. Which he was probably gonna have to go explain things to after this. But hadn’t Hilda pushed him to go dance with her in the first place?

He crossed his arms, slightly irritated. “We finished our dance and then you took off. Why’d you tell me to go dance with her if you weren’t going to stick around?”

He bristled slightly at a new thought but kept it to himself for now. He waited to hear Hilda’s response

“I saw your dance, you pea brain…. it was pretty impressive,” She hated to admit, “I just needed some air.” She turned to look at the stars again, hiding her guilt. It was her fault they danced and that was eating her up.

Cagney huffed, “Alright, well I gotta go back and explain why I just left Isabella in the middle of the dance floor. Are you gonna disappear or are you going to stay here?”

He watched her carefully, the thought really eating at him now to see how she’d answer. He had a feeling she wasn’t telling the truth but he wasn’t sure about what. His initial thought of it being jealousy had been pushed aside when he remembered she had told him to do it in the first place. Jealous people didn’t do things like that, right? No, they didn’t. He thought.

He was getting deceived in some way though. Had she told Cagney to go dance so she could leave and meet up with someone else, hoping he would remain distracted. Was it Carl? She answered quite evasively about him before.

“Yeah sure, I’ll wait here,” Hilda sighed. “Oh! Shit! I forgot to pay~ no, you know what? You pay. Least you can do for breaking my dome”.

She would have punched herself right in the mouth if she could. She was just mad at herself but, somehow, she wanted to release it all on Cagney. Maybe she wanted Cagney to be mad at her so she had a reason to be mad at him, and therefore justify her being angry at herself?

She had to take a few minutes to understand what she just thought.

“Fine!” Cagney agreed and walked back inside.

—

Isabella decided to wait at the bar and refresh herself with a lemonade when Cagney reentered the club.

He flagged the waiter and paid the rest of the tab. He caught sight of Isabella at the bar. He groaned, and approached her, taking a seat next to her. “Hey, it’s me, Cagney. Sorry about vanishing on you. Hilda up and disappeared, and I, well, she’s doing okay, just cooling off. I guess it’s too warm in here or something. Can I get you something?” He offered

Isabella smiled tenderly and raised her glass “I’m good.” She took a sip “I… I apologize for interrupting your date,” she said sweetly.

At the mention of the date, Cagney rolled his eyes. He looked to the bartender, “Hey, bartender, can you get me a whiskey shooter or something?”

As the bartender made up the drink, the flower sighed. “Yeah, I’m not sure if that is what it is at the moment…”

“Oh, c'mon.” She softly punched his arm “The small fights just makes the making up sweeter,” she smiled, not understanding that they weren’t officially dating. “As Annette Hanshaw used to sing 'happiness comes double, after a little pain… ” Isabella sang sweetly the verses “…If you want the rainbow, you must have the rain”.

“I broke her observatory. So it’s not just the rain, it might as well hail.” He pulled his petals. “That dome cost a fortune to replace. And I definitely don’t have anywhere close to fixing it.”

“Sorry, all we got is honey whiskey, is that gonna work for you?” The bartender asked, setting a glass down.

“Yeah, that’s fine.” Cagney chuckled picking up the glass. “I didn’t know Rumor was branching out into the liquor business. Then again, she got the resources for it. Probably the only one on the Isles who’d have the cash to fix the dome too,” he mused, thinking more about this than he normally would.

He chugged the liquor and coughed, his thoughts interrupted by the fact that this was a lot more powerful than he thought.

Isabella listened to Cagney choke, a bit surprised to hear him being so open to her. The alcohol must have loosened his tongue. She’d have to remember to ask more about that Rumor character…

So much gossip! But no! This wasn’t the time to think about that. This looked more than just a simple fight. “If you can’t afford to pay for it, at least assist her into getting one. You have any contacts? Somebody who might know somebody?”

“Maybe,” he admitted, “Djimmi and Rumor might…” He blinked. “Wait, shit, Hilda’s still outside,” he realized. Oh crap he probably should get going to her before she thought he was ditching her and not the other way around. He got up unsteadily. “It was nice seeing you again,” he said, holding out an unsteady hand.

The bat noticed the flower standing up with some trouble as she heard his stool scrape along the floor. “You need help getting to the door?” She chuckled, not realising he extended his hand to her.

Cagney remembered that Isabella was blind. “I think I’m good, just gotta not lose my feet…” He mumbled, pulling his hand back and pointing down at his feet.

Isabella listened to the carnation walk away, taking his flowery scent with him. She turn to her drink and sighed. Last time she danced like that was with Mina’s father, long time ago. “Waiter, put some of that honey liquor in here, please…”

–

Carl was not having any luck this evening. He was really hoping there’d be one lonely lady here in the club tonight but so far no such luck. He had been hanging near the sides, away from the dance floor, feeling a bit sorry for himself before he finally decided to try the bar again.

This time he was in luck. It was the singer from earlier this evening! Sitting alone and looking rather melancholy. Carl puffed up his chest. That’s because she had never met Carl before. Every lady felt better when they met Carl. He sauntered over to the empty seat next to the bat. “Miss,” he greeted, “I’m sorry to bother you, but I wanted to tell you that you have the voice of an angel!”

The bat turned her head towards his direction. “Aw, thank you, darling. You’re enjoying your evening so far?” She said sweetly taking a sip of her drink.

Carl blushed at being called darling. “I most certainly am now that you’ve shown up. I was worried it was going to be a regular night but you’ve brought some life into this place with your charm,” he sweet talked, motioning the bartender to bring him something.

Isabella chuckled, still sitting at the bar, “Well aren’t you the sweet talker. Your companion must be so happy with you”.

“Oh! You flatter me so! I’m afraid I don’t have a companion with me this evening. I realize that might be quite the shocker for a bug of my type,” he 'humbly’ explained, taking advantage of the fact that she was blind by glancing at her legs.

–

Hilda hopped down from the branch with the help of her cloud and was now leaning against the tree with her arms crossed, waiting for him to return. She managed to calm herself down, only to get pissed again thinking of the reasons why Cagney was taking so long.

–

Cagney got to the door before he stopped. Shit, had he paid the bartender? Last thing he needed was to get banned from a place because he didn’t remember to pay. He started walking back, having to touch the wall to balance himself every now and then.

Cagney approached the bar and blinked. Huh, Isabella was still there. Maybe she was getting another drink? He glanced to the side and did a double take. “What the hell?” He muttered.

It was Carl. The stupid caterpillar he should have beaten the pulp out of a few days ago. His eyes widened. Oh man, those thoughts earlier of Hilda distracting him…were those true?! She must have planned on meeting up with this idiot when he was on the floor with Isabella.

He watched the bug check out the bat lewdly and his eyes narrowed. Yeah, no, this was not going to work for him. He walked toward them, realizing he was about to cause a problem.

Carl was unaware of the danger. He looked up from his incredibly long look. “A lovely woman such as yourself, surely you’re not alone here?”

Isabella realised she was dealing with a narcissistic Casanova, it wasn’t the first and would probably not be the last.

She got the scent of the carnation again and wiggled her ears to try to identify where was he coming from. She smiled at the caterpillar. “I’m not anymore.” And she turned toward Cagney’s direction. “Forgot something, partner?”

Carl blinked in surprise as she looked away. He could have sworn she was blind. He turned to greet her friend only to pale. “Oh…nut berries,” he managed before Cagney slammed a hand down next to the caterpillar.

“Hope you got a good look, Carl, because that might be the last thing you see when I’m through with you,” Cagney snarled, holding back the urge in him to drive his hands through the floor and transform.

“I, oh, just this is all just a misunderstanding,” Carl babbled.

Cagney loomed dangerously over the caterpillar. “So, you and Hilda planning on meeting up here together to make an idiot out of me, is that the misunderstanding?” He growled, slamming his hand next to the bug again.

The bat got startled by the noise and decided it was better to move away from it, so she slid to the seat next to her. Cagney sounded really angry, she thought would be best not to say anything and hear how this plays out.

Oh man! She had so much to tell Goopy tomorrow.

Carl had no idea what the carnation was talking about. “Hilda? Who’s Hilda? You mean the woman from the Clip Joint?”

“Hey!” The rooster approached them. “You got a problem, take it outside,” he pointed toward the door with his feathery thumb.

Isabella wasn’t sure what to do, but she did have similar experiences in the past so she kept her distance. “ Eh.. Cagney, maybe you should go 'talk’ outside…”

–

Hilda was livid “How long does it take to pay a tab! Is he washing the dishes or something?” She yelled and walked towards the club.

–

Cagney stared down at the insect, ignoring the bat. “Really? Cause she said you two were good friends!” He argued.

Carl shook his head. “No, no! I hardly know her!”

Cagney blinked. “What? Why were you with her then?”

“She was just some drunk, dumb girl!”

Cagney leered. “She’s not dumb, say that again and I’ll turn you into fertilizer.”

“She wanted me to come back to her place to make her friend jealous!” He confessed, doing his best to look small.

Cagney snorted. “What friend? All you did was come by my…field…” He stopped. Wait a second. Things were starting to click into place. Had Hilda tried to make him jealous? Why the hell would she be trying to make him jealous unless…she liked him.

Carl took advantage of the hesitation to discreetly use one of his many hands to reach behind him to grab a glass to chuck at the very confused carnation. “Yes, all her idea! Not mine at all! I was just planning on walking her back to her place! I definitely wasn’t going to spend the night!” He stalled, his fingers wrapping around the glass. He would claim self defense even though Cagney hadn’t actually touched him yet.

--

Hilda entered the club and looked around for the giant flower. She frowned to see him at the bar with Isabella and… was that Carl? Looked like Cagney was threatening him, and everybody was starting to stare at them. She rushed towards them. “Cagney!”

Cagney turned at the sound of Hilda’s voice and was about to ask her what the hell was going on between her and Carl when something hard broke against the back of his head and he fell to his knees.

Carl stood behind him triumphantly, dropping the broken bottle at his feet. “Ha! Who’s the idiot now?!” He yelled.

The bartender glanced over the counter. “You…just broke a bottle of 30 year old Scotch,” he mentioned.

The mole owner, who had been watching from the sidelines anxiously, nearly passed out in horror.

Carl froze. “Uh…”

The bat covered her mouth in surprise, not daring to move. Hilda’s jaw dropped and looked at Cagney on the floor starting to bleed, or… the equivalent of bleeding for a plant.

Her eyes lit up and she glared angrily at Carl. “You son of a bitch,” she said softly, covering herself in thick mist and letting Taurus take over. “YOU’RE DEAD!” Her voice sounded like thunder all over the club.

The rooster got to Isabella and quickly guided her to the exit. “No! Wait! I want to know how it ends!” The singer said trying to remain where she was, but the rooster saw the bull was thrusting towards the bar and pulled Isabella away with him.

Carl didn’t think this was how his day was going to go. He woke up this morning, did his morning routine of stretches and yoga with the girls, then went for a stroll around the meadows. He had planned on cocooning soon and wanted to come out to celebrate, and possibly bring back a lucky lady he could boast to. He thought for sure his news would just draw women to him.

Having Hilda charge him as a bull was not what he had in mind and he jumped over the bar with a scream.

Cagney was seeing stars on the ground and could feel something trickling off of him. Was that his blood? Or was that the Scotch? He had no idea but was too dizzy to check. He could hear Hilda yelling and he was really really hoping she wasn’t going for him because there’s not much he could have done about it.

Taurus destroyed half of the bar with one powerful thrust, sending shards of wood and glass everywhere. People screamed and ran towards the exits. “Stop hiding, you worm!” The constellation yelled, “This is how you go! I’ve seen it in the stars! Hahaha!” The bull said with a manic laugh.

Carl was not a fighter. He felt like one when he knocked the flower down but now this was definitely out of hand. He made a dash for the door as Cagney finally recovered, pulling himself back up with a groan and a swear.

Hilda, well, Taurus noticed the caterpillar making a run for the door and saw Cagney standing up. He was afraid he would trample over his friend if he tried to charge again.

“Hey, giant dandelion! He’s getting away!” He said, hoping the flower was still aware of what was going on.

Cagney looked toward Tauros very confusedly. “What?” His words sunk in and the carnation looked to see Carl bolting. He tried to plant his arms but they hit the wood floor and he hissed in pain. “Ow, ow!” He groaned.

Guess he was running it then. He chased after Carl and managed to snag the bug outside of the club, right next to the tree Hilda had been on before.

Carl squeaked. “Wait, wait, don’t hurt me!”

The carnation huffed angrily. “Think just cuz someone can’t see, you can pull those stunts?”

Perfect! They were outside the club. Taurus followed them making the clouds that formed him more dense until it covered his entire body. Once outside, the cloud revealed a handsome centaur already pointing his arrow at the caterpillar. “Goodbye, CaaAAaarl!” he mocked, and with another terrifying laugh, he shot his arrow.

Unfortunately, Hilda was a bit intoxicated, so his arrow missed the target and pinned the caterpillar to the tree by his clothes.

“Oh, shucks… I was aiming for the head!” Sagittarius lamented, not realizing that both men froze at the thudding of the arrow by their heads.

Carl freaked out. “No! My mom is gonna kill me if I wreck this suit!” He lamented.

Cagney, leaned against the tree next to the caterpillar, trying to look both cool and to keep himself standing despite the fact that Sagittarius’ arrow nearly scared the sap out of him too. “You’re worried about your MOM killing you? I’d worry more about your friend here murdering you with arrows,” Cagney spat.

Carl shook his head. “Definitely not my friend! I hardly know her!”

Cagney blinked. Oh yeah. Carl was blabbering about this in the bar. He turned on Sagittarius with a hard look. “So, Carl and I were having a friendly chat in the club-”

“Friendly?! You were slamming the-” Carl protested but a glance at the arrow pinning his suit to the tree kept him quiet.

Cagney continued. “And he says you’re not his friend and that night you guys went by my field was del-delib- on purpose!” He stuttered, alcohol making his word choice difficult.

He pointed to the caterpillar. “But maybe he’s lying. Why don’t you prove me wrong and tell me what his favorite color is? Or how about his last name?”

The centaur rolled his eyes. “Oh! Enough with the charades! Hilda is in loaaAAAh ..” Sagittarius held his head in pain and white smoke started to cover his body again. When the cloud dispersed, Hilda was standing there with her hands on her head, breathing heavily.

“Cagney! He broke a God damn bottle on your head! Why isn’t he dead already?!” She yelled, hoping the carnation would focus on hurting the caterpillar instead of interrogating him.

Cagney pointed at the caterpillar still. “What’s his last name, Hilda?”

Hilda cringed feeling how her cheeks turned redder than usual. “It’s… hmmrrrssss…. Smith. He’s Carl Smith,” she decided to go with what she thought was a very common last name.

Carl gaped at her. “What? Smith?! What type of name is Smith?! You don’t even know my last name and you invited me over to sleep with you?!”

Cagney slammed the tree and the caterpillar squeaked into silence. Shit, he was really hoping the caterpillar was lying. But judging by how red Hilda’s face was, he didn’t think so. His chest ached at the thought. “You were going to sleep with him?” He asked, looking more hurt than upset.

“WHAT?!” She was livid now and got closer until she was facing Carl “The fuck are you saying?!” She yelled angrily “I never said I was going to sleep with you! You filthy worm!”

She poked him hard on his chest. “I just wanted THIS idiot to be jealous!” She pointed at Cagney with her thumb and turned to him still blushing. “There! I said it! I wanted to make YOU jealous! Happy now?! Can we go back being friends again?!” Her eyes were starting to get wet. “Please…” she said softly. This sentimental stuff really wasn’t her thing.

Cagney was taken aback by Hilda’s outburst. Carl might have been talking but he wasn’t listening. So it was true. Hilda was trying to make him jealous. Because maybe she liked him as much as he liked her?

But that last line, that emotional one from the normally smart mouthed woman really nailed him in the chest and his plant heart hurt. “Can I do one thing first before we go back to being friends?” He asked.

“Wha~… yeah?” She raised an eyebrow.

“Okay, thanks,” he mumbled, walking over to her. He swallowed hard and before Hilda could say anything more, he grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her into a rough kiss.

The woman didn’t dare move. Her eyes went wide open and her heart skipped a beat. The constellations in her head were as shocked as her and remained silent.

Cagney finally broke from the kiss and looked deep into her eyes. He opened his mouth to say something only to stop and hold up a finger. “Gimme a sec,” he managed. He stumbled away from her and threw up behind the tree.

Hilda was still paralyzed and just stood there, looking at the carnation emptying his stomach. A shy silly smile drew on her face and she completely forgot about Carl, Isabella, and the whole mess which made them get angry to begin with.

“I’m- I’m not throwing up cause of the kiss!” Cagney protested, climbing back to his feet unsteadily, gesturing to the club. “Alcohol doesn’t go well with being a plant.”

Carl just stared at the scene in front of him. This was how he was going to die, watching a murderous flower getting rejected by a murderous sky witch. There was no way any girl was gonna come back from that (he knows, he tried it before many times with women he just met)

Hilda’s smile grew bigger. She was about to make witty comment but was interrupted by the sound of police sirens getting closer. Reality brought back the woman from her happy cloud and made her realise they had to get out of there if they didn’t want to get in more trouble.

“Shit!” She cast a cloud big enough for the both of them. “Cagney, we gotta go! Hop on!” She extended her hand to help him get up.

“Aw man, not the cloud,” Cagney groaned, but he knew the last thing he needed was to spend a night in jail so he grabbed her hand and climbed onto the cloud.

She got closer to the caterpillar. “And YOU better keep your mouth SHUT!” She grabbed the arrow and waved it in front of him “Or next time I WON’T miss,” her bracelet glowed and the arrow disappeared in a puff.

Carl nodded hurriedly.

“Hold on tight!” Hilda waved her hands and the cloud flew towards the observatory.

Carl waited for the police to come. He glanced at the time. “Ah gee, my mom is gonna be so mad I missed curfew…”

———–

CHAPTER 01,  CHAPTER 02,  CHAPTER 03,  CHAPTER 04,  CHAPTER 05, CHAPTER 06,  CHAPTER 07,  CHAPTER 08,  CHAPTER 09,  CHAPTER 10; CHAPTER 11; CHAPTER 12 ; CHAPTER 13 ; CHAPTER 14  ; CHAPTER 15; CHAPTER 16 ; CHAPTER 17 ; CHAPTER 18 (You are here)

[necrokittytales]

Necrokitty Tales: Trouble in Inkwell Isle (Chapter 19)

Authors’ note: Necrida’s writing will be in italics and SPKC’s writing with be regular font.If you have no idea what this roleplaying thing is, you can start from the beginning here.

This  chapter contains some NSFW!

———–

After the mansion door slammed shut behind them, there was nothing but silence surrounding the group. Goopy was about to open his mouth to speak but was interrupted by Beppi’s familiar voice echoing through the room.

“Welcome, boys and girls to Beppi’s haunted mansion! Putting the spook in spooktacular since 1897!” his voice cackled, bouncing off the walls. “This is one of those ‘go at your own pace’ rides so feel free to stop and marvel at the attractions. But don’t stop too long! Who knows what could be lurking up behind you!”

As if on cue, something growled behind the locked door. The group exchanged concerned glances and started to walk through the room toward the hallway.

Mina couldn’t help but look at her surroundings as they walked. It seemed pretty eerie so far. Every piece of furniture and spooky decoration were covered in dust and spider webs. and a very soft greenish light gave the place a very disturbing feel to it. Maybe this mansion would save this scary contest afterall.

“Please keep all arms and legs to yourself or you might just lose them!” Beppi’s voice called after them. Bon Bon muttered a colorful swear under her breath that nearly made Grim blush.

As they reached the hallway, a poorly disguised fake ghost dropped from above, the sheet not even full covering the plastic dummy. Harvey still stifled a small squeak. Spike scoffed and pushed the ghost out of the way. “He’s gonna have to do better than that if he wants to scare us.”

Mina actually heard the mechanism of the ghost before it got deployed. She sighed, disappointed. “I guess we’ll have to find another challenge… maybe the last one to die from boredom wins?” She smiled at Spike, hoping he would smile back. Goopy had to agree. This might have worked when they were babies, but when even Hannah started giggling, it definitely seemed a little subpar per the clown.

“Hey! What do you know? same sheet!” Sullivan pointed out to Amber. “Aw, brings so many memories….”

The Baroness still seemed skeptical. “Beppi’s a moron, but he’s a clever moron. Be careful, Grim.”

Grim nodded at the Baroness. He drew closer to her, keeping an eye out behind them.

The group moved forward until they came to the beginning of the hallway. They started to walk down the hall only for Harvey and Mina to stop. “Do you hear that?” There was a new noise. Something clunking and banging loudly. The group looked around curiously “Did anyone hear that?” Harvey asked again. Goopy shrugged. “Maybe they’re locking the big door again?” The banging grew louder and now there was a deep guttural groaning to it. They started nervously glancing around. Even the Baroness was on edge. “I’m sure it’s just Beppi shaking a piece of metal outside the window or something.” Hannah turned around and pointed. “Look! Eyes!”

“Eyes? What are you dumb? What do you mean eyes?” Spike laughed, turning around. Levitating in front of them were a pair of large, red, menacing eyes. And teeth. Very sharp teeth.

Amber stared in disbelief. “What the he-?” The teeth opened and the loudest, deepest roar bellowed out, along with a very thick trail of smoke. The Baroness spotted the flicker of flame within the spectral mouth and her eyes widened. “Move, move, move!” She ordered, pushing the group forward through the hall.

Everybody obeyed immediately and started running.

“I don’t remember this part!” Sullivan yelled, holding Amber’s hand. The sight of the ferocious fangs awoke in Grim very vivid memories of his childhood in his homeland.  The other dragons were, most of the time, extremely violent, and he never had the courage to fight back.  He tried to convince himself this was just a ride and that Beppi wouldn’t hurt them… would he? Mina looked around frantically to try to find a door or passage to get out of the hall. “There! A door!” Mina pointed out and ran towards a large wooden door with scratches on it.

Harvey was the quickest and reached the door Mina pointed to. He tried to jiggle the handle but it wouldn’t budge. “It’s locked!” Goopy wound up an arm, “Here, I’ll punch it down!” The Baroness caught his arm. “No! It’ll just keep chasing us!” She argued, “We need to find a key or something.” Amber’s mind raced. She could jimmy open that door in a second but doing so would probably lead to a lot more questions and could just blow her cover. But that weird mechanical monster was getting real close. She glanced toward Sullivan and saw he looked absolutely spooked.  She sighed. She didn’t want the salamander to be squashed. “Move,” she commanded and grabbed the handle. She inserted a claw in and very quickly lock-picked the door. It swung open with a creak. “Door’s open! Let’s go!” The group dashed in and the cat turned and locked the door behind them, just in time to see the fire really shoot out from the ghostly mouth. It was pitch black in the room and everyone panted with exertion. “That was really scary,” Hannah squeaked. She looked around in the darkness and squinted her eyes. “Harvey? Where are you?” Harvey felt around until he found his sister and grabbed her paw. Only to realize he had grabbed Amber’s paw. He reached around and found Hannah this time. He looked hopefully in the direction of the salamander. “I thought you said they were bed sheets?” Spike wasn’t laughing anymore. This was no longer funny. “Bed sheets my butt. Is that clown tryin’ to kill us or something?” He asked, trying to keep the shaking out of his voice. The Baroness cleared her throat. “It seems Beppi has upped his game a bit. Can anyone see anything?”

“I-I can see a bit,” Mina shyly admitted. Her feline eyes allowed her to see some shapes, but nothing really precise. She tried to use the echolocation but she wasn’t very good at it. She managed to find Harvey and hold on to him to be safe. “I c-c-can make a bit of fire.” Grim offered “Won’t last long b-but will help us see a little.” He took a deep breath and bleu very softly to make a small flame come out of his mouth he managed to keep the flame for a minute, enough time for the group to have a glimpse of their surroundings.

They all gasped at what looked like disfigured animal heads all over the walls of the room. Mina understood now what were the big shapes she was able to see in the darkness. “We’re in a trophy room!”

Amber had been stewing in silent relief when no one immediately noticed how quickly she jimmied the lock. She looked around, able to see her surroundings a bit better than most due to being a cat but she was glad when the dragon offered to light the way. She was not, however, glad to see the animal heads and clung to Sullivan instinctively, accidentally digging her claws into him.

Sullivan let out a startled shriek in his throat at the pain of Amber’s claws on his skin. “P-please, tell me that’s you, Amber…” he asked scared not daring to move.

“Sorry,” she apologized, loosening her grip.

Grim turned his head toward the center of the room and gave a frightened squeaked as his light illuminated something large and hairy in the middle room. He shut his claws over his mouth, accidentally snuffing out the flame.

Everyone was quiet again. “Was that a bear?!” Harvey finally asked.

“I’m g-g-gonna light up again. T-try to find a way out.” Everybody answered with a soft ok and the dragon took another deep breath before releasing the small fire.

Sure enough, it was a bear in front of them, posed on its hind legs. Hannah looked up at the bear. “I don’t think he needs a quilt,” she decided, keeping her distance.

Spike scoffed and shook his head. “It’s just a big teddy bear. I bet the rest of the stuff in here are fake too.”

“Spike’s right!” Mina said with renewed confidence, looking around. “If you think of it, these ARE just plushies!” She hoped her little commentary might help keep people calm. She looked closer at the animal heads only to see how disfigured and twisted the heads really were. She bit her lip. “Just, really scary looking plushies.”

Grim didn’t feel very calmed. He looked away from the animal heads, and illuminated the bear again. He blinked in confusion. If he didn’t know any better, it almost looked its head was moving. But that was impossible- 

The bear’s eyes shot open, revealing blood injected eyes. Before the group could react, the creature dislocated his jaw with a fierce throaty growl and charged them, waving its large bear paws. Everyone screamed but before the bear-like creature could reach them, the floor underneath them opened, sending the group falling down a large hole.

The bear stopped growling and looked down the hole. It let out a low whistle and pulled its head off, revealing Beppi. “Huh, maybe I should have made the drop a little bit shorter,” he considered. He shrugged. “Oh well. Learn from our mistakes.” He pulled a lever to the side of him and the trapdoor closed. “Time for the final part.”

….

Grim tried to flap his wings as the guests all plummeted down. However, the hole was too narrow, and his claws kept slipping from the walls, creating some sparks in the darkness. He hoped he wouldn’t crash anybody in his landing. Sullivan held on tightly on Amber and tried to position himself under her so he would hit the floor before her.

Amber grabbed Sullivan tightly and flipped the desperate salamander so she held him on the side. She dug her nails into the wall, slowing their descent long enough to finally allow them to drop, landing on all four of her paws, Sullivan now holding onto her waist.

The Baroness managed to slow her fall somewhat by digging her cane into the wall but even then she could only hold out for so long before she fell down to the ground, hoping something might break her fall.

Harvey grabbed his little sister and tucked her into his arms. He nearly hit the ground but Goopy managed to catch the little rabbits, cushioning their fall with his elastic body. Still the impact led to Harvey crying out in pain, most likely spraining his ankle in the process.

Goopy managed to cushion Spike as well who leaped out of his arms and hit the ground with a tuck and a roll. It didn’t hurt that much. He had worse. Still it definitely rocked him a bit and it took him a few more seconds to recover. He looked over at Harvey. “Hey, you okay, bunny?” He called.

During his fall, Grim saw the shape of BonBon trying to slow her fall with her candy cane without much result. He couldn’t let her get hurt! The dragon maneuvered to grab her with his long tail and helped her get on to his back just in time for impact.

Mina flapped her wings but she was too scared to really control what she was doing, and she only managed to reduce her falling speed. Thankfully, Goopy managed to catch the slower falling Mina and place her down on the ground. She turned to say thanks but looked up to see Grim fast approaching.

“Dragon!!!” Mina shouted to warn everyone to move. The rest of the group leapt out of the way just in time. With a heavy thud, Grim landed painfully on all fours. He winced. He didn’t break or twist anything but the impact still hurt him. The Baroness clung to his neck. “Everyone ok?  Bon Bon?” The dragon worriedly asked. “I’m ok!” Mina answered quickly, followed by Sullivan who was still surprised by Amber’s quick reaction. He had a lot to ask her if get out of here alive.

The Baroness slid off of Grim. “I’m going to kill that inflatable idiot!” She snapped angrily. Goopy smirked. “Guess Bon Bon’s okay. How about you little monsters?” He asked. Harvey and Hannah nodded in the dimness. “Harvey hurt his ankle,” Hannah spoke up. Le Grande quickly squatted down and looked at the bunny’s feet. “I think I wanna go home now,” Harvey gulped as Goopy checked out his foot. “This is nothing,” Spike scoffed, “I have way scarier things to worry about than a bear and a hole!” The room lit up with a flicker and everyone looked around only to blink in surprise. They were in a maze of mirrors. Long, short, straight and warped mirrors of all different types branched out endlessly. Even Grim couldn’t see above them. The Baroness looked at her distorted image in the reflection of one of them and coughed. “This is just getting ridiculous.” She cupped her hands together and called out to the ceiling. “Alright, Beppi, this is officially the stupidest trick you ever pulled!” She yelled. There was a loud giggle that echoed through the room. “Awww, that’s awfully SWEET of you to say, Bon Bon!” Beppi’s voice broke out. “Are you not having fun? I was hoping you wouldn’t reach this room just yet but I didn’t count on one of you being able to lockpick!” He admitted with a laugh. Amber kept her head down as the Baroness responded. “Fun?! You’re a lunatic!” Spike growled. “Just let us go, you dumb balloon!” “Such harsh language! And here I thought you were all having a little competition to see who gets scared last!” Beppi chastised. The Baroness pulled out her cane and cocked it. “Enough games or I start blasting mirrors.” “That’s 7 years bad luck-” the Baroness shot a small mirror, cracking it. She aimed at another one. “Hey! Those weren’t cheap, you know! Had to get them special ordered from Djimmi!” He argued.

“Good. Then I know who to go after next when we’re done here,” the Baroness declared, aiming at another mirror.

“Wait! Wait! Fine! You convinced me!” Beppi called out. There was some silence before he spoke up again. “Okay, I’ll let you out.” “Finally,” Amber muttered. “However! You’ll need to get through my mirrors first!” Beppi continued. The room lit up a bit more revealing three paths. “The last one to scream, wins. But if you all scream, then I win!” Beppi declared, “Tick, tock though! If you take too long, the park will close and you will have to spend the night here, so goooooddddd luck!” His laughter faded away, leaving the group alone again. Harvey’s ears drooped. “I don’t wanna spend the night here. Mom would get pissed. And she might be scarier than the clown.” Goopy patted him. “We’ll all stay together, not to worry.” The Baroness shook her head. “We can’t afford to do that. Beppi’s right, if we can’t find out our way before the park closes, there’s going to be a lot of broken glass to clean next morning.” Amber huffed. “Ya mean, you want us to split up?” “Yes, unfortunately, there’s no other way.” Bon Bon pointed to the paths. “Grim and I will go down this one, Amber and Sullivan will go down the middle one, and Goopy and the children will go down the last one. Does this work for everyone?”

Everyone agreed with the Baroness and started walking their respective paths. –

(Elsewhere on the first isle)

The fresh wind on her face helped Hilda to relax and clear her mind from all that just happened. She hoped the owner of the bar wouldn’t come knocking at her door tomorrow asking for money. She already had a big expense coming up with the glass dome. She focused on Cagney’s presence behind her. Even though there was enough space in the cloud for both of them to sit comfortably, he always pressed right into her and held her tightly, scared of falling. Lost in her thoughts, she almost passed the observatory having to do a last minute maneuver to turn her cloud and descend. The flower groaned uncomfortably at the quick u turn. “Sorry ‘bout that!” She apologized once they reached the ground in front of her door. “And sorry about this!” Without any other warning, she made the cloud disappear, sending Cagney falling to the ground with a thud.

Cagney hit the ground with a swear and a name call. “You awful sky witch,” he groaned, climbing to his feet.

She chuckled while looking for her keys.

“You’re lucky you didn’t tear my shirt, you…you!” The jingle of keys clued him into the fact that they were at Hilda’s observatory and he stopped thinking of other insults he could call her. Holy shit. He had made it to her home. And it sounded like he might be spending the night. How did this even work? And, more importantly, what were they going to do next he wondered, eyeing her figure somewhat lasciviously from behind as she struggled with the door.

She opened the door wide open and headed to the bathroom. “Sit down,” she ordered, pointing at the couch in the living room.

He was a bit caught off by the order, but did as the woman asked. Soon he was sitting on the couch, twiddling his thumbs, and still very drunk.

A couple of minutes later, she came back with a bottle of rubbing alcohol, some cloth and bandages. She stood in front of the flower. “Let’s see the damage,” she said, giving the bottle a little shake. She smiled, knowing this was going to sting him.

Cagney did not like the way that she was smiling at him, especially when he spotted that bottle. “Ah, come on Hilda, it’s not that bad,” he tried to protest, scooting away from her on the couch. “I’ll be fine. See?” He tried to demonstrate his point by rubbing the spot, only to pull his hand away with some sap on it. “Oh…” Maybe he wasn’t as okay as he thought.

“Yeaah…” She gently pulled a petal to make him lower his head and poured some of the disinfectant over the cloth. “I can’t believe he hit you with a bottle… fucking Carl…” She gave him a funny look. “And I can’t believe you didn’t bury him alive.”

That would be just what he needed. Yet another reason for people to call him the Monstrous Carnation. Instead, he cleared his throat and just mumbled, “too many witnesses.” He winced, already expecting the pain of the alcohol any second now.

Hilda smiled and softly cleaned the wound with the cloth. It had a few cuts, not very deep thankfully. She noticed a couple of shards and whistled. “Damn! He hit you pretty hard! You got shards and everything!” She drew closer to better reach the shards and plucked them out carefully. “There!” she left them on the coffee table in front of them and gently kept rubbing the cloth on the wound.

“Thanks, Hilds.” The cloth stung against the wound, but Cagney didn’t mind it as much. He liked having Hilda this close to him, even if it did hurt like hell. He resisted the urge to wrap a hand around her waist. Hilda couldn’t help but admit that she was finding it hard to concentrate. She was pretty tipsy and being so close to the warm carnation didn’t help either.

She was exasperated by the cliché of their situation: the maiden healing the knight’s wound; the nurse and the fallen soldier… the sky witch and the delicate flower… Oh! She did like that. She grinned devilishly as much more graphic situations started to picture in her mind, turning her cheeks redder.

After a minute or so of silence, Cagney finally realized that technically, she was also part of the bar brawl that they had, even though she had been transformed at the time. “What about you? Did you get hit anywhere?”

Cagney’s voice brought her back abruptly.

“What? Hit?” She took a moment to process what he asked. “I don’t think so.” She inspected her arms for splinters. Except for the thorn on her chest, she couldn’t see anything. She turned her back to him. “You see anything?”

Cagney checked her briefly, brushing his leaves over her skin carefully before scoffing. There were a few shallow marks. “How the hell did you get out without so much as a scratch?” He might be drunk but he thought he had seen her injured. “I could have sworn I saw you holding your ribs or something,” he wondered, “turn around.”  

Hilda turned to face him and she irritably crossed her arms. “Yeah, but that’s YOUR fault, actually. Your last ‘hug’ left me with big, colorful bruises!” She waved her hands to indicate the surface of the bruises on her chest. “ And a tiny, little, VERY ANNOYING and PAINFUL thorn in a rather SENSITIVE spot.” This time she pointed at her wounded breast. “So, yeah, want to say anything else, Cags?”

Cagney blanched slightly. She had mentioned something about that at the beginning of their “date.” And he knew from having plucked most of them out that he indeed put some rather nasty ones in her. He could only imagine how irritating it was to have one still in her. “Uh, I can take it out if you want? Where is it exactly? On your shoulder or something?” He offered, gesturing to her shoulder. Shoulders were sensitive right?

“My boob, Cagney. Right on my nipple!” She put her hands on her hips looking at him in defiance. An evil thought came to her mind, probably instigated by Scorpio. There was no way he’d actually try pull out that thorn, but she could have so much fun daring him to do so! She smirked. “Do you still want to get it for me?” She said in a much more seductive tone.

He turned completely red in the face at her question. He nailed her in the breast?! Crap, no wonder she was pissed. Well, other than besides the destroyed dome…and the ruined birthday party…and the near attempt on her life…okay maybe there were a couple of reasons she would be pissed. But this was one he could theoretically fix. Theoretically. He wasn’t sure if she was serious or not. “Yeah, I probably can…do you want me to try?” He readied himself, fairly certain he was going to get slapped for the question.

Oh! There it was! Red really did suit him well. ‘Lets see how far he can go’ , the sky witch thought, grinning at the flower.

“If you dare!”  She was certain he was bluffing. She let her arms drop and rest on her hips, appearing confidently cool despite the fact that she was actually kind of impatient for his next move.

Cagney had dreams where he was touching Hilda, running his leaves along her body in a meadow and just enjoying the feeling of skin against stem…He never had a dream start like this. He pinched himself just to be sure but when he didn’t wake up in his field, realized that this was really happening. Unless…unless Hilda was messing with him. He grinned. There was no way she’d let him ACTUALLY touch her. He crossed his arms, a lot more drunkenly confident now about this situation. “Heh, alright, well, take off your dress then,” he chuckled, “Can’t get a thorn out if I can’t see it.” The room really needed to stop spinning.

Seeing him confident all of the sudden almost made her doubt herself, but years of growing up with him made her realized he was on to her, and they just started another one of their daring games. She was pretty good at those. Cagney would always break at some point and she got to bug him about it for ever after….Although, her last dare backfired and ended with him enjoying a pretty good dance with Isabella. Still, she was confident she would make him crack the second he’d have to touch her. She grabbed the zipper from the side of her dress and slowly unzipped it down to her hips. She slid one arm out of the dress, then the other one, very slowly and sensually, caressing her skin and releasing soft moans whenever it felt appropriate. Her bruised chest was only covered now by her lovely reddish bra, and her hips remained hidden by the dress. She wasn’t going to strip it all off for him. That would be too much…wouldn’t it? Even after he kissed her? Yeah, it probably would. The witch felt like it was getting really hot in her living room and her body was starting to really warm up, coloring her rosy cheeks. She pointed at her bra. “I’m not gonna make this easy for you,” she spoke, indicating that she was not going to completely disrobe. At least, not on her own.

Cagney stared at the sight of Hilda incredulously. “Holy crap, I just thought you were going to just pull the dress out a bit!” Cagney exclaimed, definitely staring at her now half naked body.

Hilda blushed, embarrassed, realizing he had a point. She could have just pulled down her dress a bit and it would have had the same effect on him. But she was a stubborn woman, so she acted as if this was exactly what she wanted to do. “So you won’t take out the thorn then?” She smirked, slowly pulling her dress back on.

“Eh, I didn’t say that!” Cagney quickly spoke up, his leaf reaching out to stop her from further pulling her dress back on. He realized he had nearly yanked her dress down even further and let go. He turned her around to see the clasp on the bra, glad to not have her see how stunned he still was. He fiddled with it for a bit, growing progressively irritated with each unsuccessful attempt.

She resisted the urge to grumpily snap at the clumsy way he was handling her. He couldn’t take off a bra? Seriously? “How much do you like this bra?” He finally asked, his arm quietly sprouting small thorns.

“Ha! Yeah! Go ahead! Tear it off, I’ll just include it on you tab,” she sarcastically answered, waving a hand over her shoulder.

Cagney brightened. “Great!” He sliced it off in one motion before he realized she was being sarcastic. He froze. “Wait, were you being serious or not about that?”

She held her ripped bra on, crossing her arms over her chest. She look  at Cagney in angry bewilderment. “I was being sarcastic!”

“Oh….uh, sorry about that,” Cagney apologized, trying to avoid Hilda’s glare. Her back was awfully slim, he noted. It was rather pretty but he was definitely interested in what she had in the front.

She frowned. “It was brand new too! I just bought it for our dat~ outing…meeting.” She cleared her throat and continued to shoot him a dirty look. This was becoming a slippery slope and Cagney gestured to her, hoping she’d stop looking at him like that. “So, thorn?” He managed, his voice nearly cracking. “How do you want to do this? Are you going to turn around or do you want me to do it from behind?”

Hilda kept holding her bra with her arms. This was starting to get weird. But she really wanted that thorn out. She thought about what he just said, confused. “From behind? And how exactly are you gonna see the thorn, you pea brain?” She tried to recover her usual witty tone, hoping to relax the tension that was building up between them.

She was really not backing down at all. Cagney threw his hands in the air. “Well then I guess you need to just turn around already, air head!” He finally snapped, spinning the woman to face him. She looked somewhat surprised by the action and he tried to keep cool even though she felt very warm to his leaves. He swallowed and looked away, trying not to stare at Hilda’s bare covering. “So, uh which one?”

Facing him made her blush even more and she tightened her arms over her chest. She pressed a little too hard on the wounded breast, making her wince. She sighed. “Ok. It’s the right one,” she started explaining, looking down at her still covered breasts, “the thorn is stuck right on the nipple. It’s a bit hard to see but you’ll be able to…” she cleared her throat again “feel it.” She stood there, not daring to uncover herself, looking as red as a tomato. This wasn’t right, HE was supposed to be the one getting all embarrassed, not her. This was the first time he would see her fully grown body, well, half body. And it was all bruised and wounded. Ugh! What an awful sight it’d be. Her confidence started to turn into doubt and fear. Would this ruin their friendship? Granted, he did kiss her, but seeing her like this now could scare him away.

Cagney had grown up with Hilda. He had seen her in bathing suits and some dresses. He was freaking out internally for nothing. At least that’s what he told himself. He finally turned his head back to her and his thorns sprouted out in surprise. Bathing suits be damned, even in her flustered state, she was very, very attractive and he could feel his chest beat wildly. He opened his mouth to say something, only managing a “You look…” only to realize what he had just done to his own clothes. “Oh shit, shit! These aren’t my clothes!” He exclaimed, retracting his thorns and pulling off the shirt. But the damage had been done. The shirt was covered in lots of holes now. So were the pants. He tried to pull the pants off too but was not too successful. Instead, he fell off the couch and landed on his back. “Help,” he whined, “I’m stuck in the dumb pants.”

He tried unsuccessfully to pull at least the shirt off the rest of the way but that just led to getting his long arms stuck in the sleeves. And with no access to the dirt, there was no way to shrink himself out of this. He had successfully managed to pin back his own arms. A toddler was more adept at dressing than he was.

“Oh my gosh, Cagney!” Hilda couldn’t hold back her laughter.

He glared up at Hilda. “Don’t you dare laugh!” He tried to regain some of that confidence but it was hard to do that when he was feeling like some tied up turtle.

“Hold on a sec,” Hilda giggled turning her back on him and let the bra slide off her as it was now useless. She pulled back her dress without zipping it, just to stay covered before turning back to help her dumb friend. She reached down to his pants. “Stop wiggling, you giant baby! You just gonna make the holes bigger.” Cagney didn’t listen and after hearing another tear, she rolled her eyes. She sat on his lap to prevent him from moving and gently started to remove his belt. “I can’t believe you can buckle a belt but you can’t unhook a bra,” she snorted.

Cagney was forced to stop moving when Hilda actually sat on him. That wasn’t too out of the ordinary - sometimes they could really go at it when they were sparring and once Tauros had managed to physically pin him for nearly an hour. The thought of her turning into Tauros if he actually did stab her again did get him to withdraw his thorns but not his sass.

“Yeah, get all the laughs now because you’re not going to get another chance when I’m up…” He warned her with a smirk as she started unbuckling his belt. He didn’t realize he had to unbuckle his belt to get these pants off and was rather relieved when she started to do it for him, unaware of how red she was looking.

She realized the position she was in: Sitting on him, him blushing under her, her hands so close to his privates (or at least she thought that’s where they were). In her altered state, she couldn’t help but find this was very arousing. Her lingering doubts were disappearing as the thoughts she had earlier at the shower snuck up on her. She looked at him but this time with more confidence. She still felt heated but now it radiated from her thighs and not her face. “To bad for the clothes. They really look good on you,” she mused. She took her time with the belt, every now and then letting her hand “accidentally” brush against his pants covered stem. She was very much enjoying this delightfully empowering position.

Cagney rolled his eyes and went to make another comment about how dumb clothes really were when he realized Hilda looked a lot more of herself. He couldn’t figure it out…. …Until he felt her soft hands brush against his lower stem and he suppressed a squeak as that sent shivers through his entire body. Dammit, she looked so hot like this, just how nonchalantly she was removing his clothes, her fingers accidentally rubbing through the fabric of his wrecked pants, lasting a little bit longer with each accidental stroke. It was accidental, right? She said she wanted to return to being friends. And she hadn’t expressed any desire to do anything physical with him. But the mischievous looks she kept shooting his way as she continued stroking this very sensitive spot made him squirm underneath her. "Ye-yeah. Had to get them fitted first. They were originally Grim’s. I guess they don’t make clothes for plants that much!” He tried to also nonchalantly answer, even as he felt his stem press into her touches. He didn’t know if it was a good or a bad thing his hands weren’t free otherwise who knows what trouble he’d really get into.

She smirked at the shivering flower and finished unbuttoning his pants. “Looks like you’re trapped in that shirt, huh?” She observed, not paying attention to what he said about the clothes.

She slowly slid up his body, sitting right on the sensitive spot of the carnation. She rubbed her crotch softly against his. “I wonder just how you’re gonna get that thorn out now,” she spoke lowly. She ran a finger over her wounded breast, hoping to make him shiver and maybe, even try to kiss her again. In this position, she didn’t feel nearly as shy as before. She felt she had things under control and that reassured her. Also, alcohol seemed to be catching up so that help with her prior inhibitions.

Cagney’s eyes went as wide as dinner plates as she now definitely NOT accidentally rubbed herself against him. Holy cow, holy cow. It was taking everything he had to keep it together and not let his, uh, intimate part slide out. He tried to think of something clever to say only for his words to die in his throat as she ran her fingers along her now covered breasts. He barely registered her question. “Thorn?” He echoed before remembering there was a thorn and that’s why she had taken off her dress and why he even tried to remove his own clothes. He struggled with his hands but damn, that fabric, although torn, was still fairly sturdy. There was no way he was going to be able to remove that thorn like this. Well, technically he had one hand free. But that was a tongue and the thought of running his tongue along her breast nearly drove him over the edge. Wait, didn’t Hilda say at the bar that she wanted to return to being friends? He definitely remembered that line and took that chance to kiss her, knowing that was probably his last opportunity to do so if they were indeed to return to a platonic relationship. He must still be reading the situation wrong, but he was very quickly understanding that might not be the case. No, he needed to get everything together mentally and ask what was going on and then maybe he could, could… His erection finally slipped out and pressed back against Hilda and he died inside at the horror of it.

The woman released a surprised moan at the pressure between her legs. She looked down to find the big phallic silhouette marked against the fabric of his pants.  She bit her lip and looked at Cagney with predatory eyes. “Didn’t you put enough thorns inside me already, Cags?” That was definitely the alcohol talking… or Scorpio. Either way, she chuckled and rubbed herself harder against him, softly caressing his chest to let him know she wanted this.   “So…You want to do another thing before going back to friends?”

———–

CHAPTER 01,  CHAPTER 02,  CHAPTER 03,  CHAPTER 04,  CHAPTER 05, CHAPTER 06,  CHAPTER 07,  CHAPTER 08,  CHAPTER 09,  CHAPTER 10; CHAPTER 11; CHAPTER 12 ; CHAPTER 13 ; CHAPTER 14  ; CHAPTER 15; CHAPTER 16 ; (nsfw) CHAPTER 17 ; CHAPTER 18 ; CHAPTER 19 (nsfw)(You are here)

[necrokittytales]

Necrokitty Tales: Trouble in Inkwell Isle (Chapter 12)

Authors’ note: Remember, Necrida’s writing will be in italics and SPKC’s writing with be regular font.If you have no idea what this roleplaying thing is, you can start from the beginning here.

——–

The morning arrived and it was a shiny new day. Mina woke up happily, got dressed and went down stairs. She stopped abruptly to see her mother sleeping on the table next to a bunch of tissues and an almost empty bottle of vodka.

‘She must have cried herself to sleep again’ Mina thought sadly reaching for the bottle quietly and emptying it in the sink, to replace it with salted water. ‘That will teach her’.

She then covered her mother with a blanket, prepared a small breakfast for both of them and packed her lunch. She was starting to get worried about her, she had been drinking more the past few weeks…

She gave her mum a kiss and went on her way to school wondering if Mr Carnation said something to upset her last night.

–

Harvey Hare woke up with a slight groan. He got up, stretched and started to hop toward the kitchen for breakfast. His mother was already setting aside a piece of extra carrot cake from last night for him. Harvey blinked in surprise at the cake for breakfast and his mom chuckled.

“I know we don’t normally have cake for breakfast but I’ve just heard some of the nightingales chirping away about some very interesting gossip that I’ve just GOT to ask about before they fly on over to the second isle.”

Harvey wasn’t complaining. Cake for breakfast was awesome. He sat down and quickly ate up before his mother changed her mind. He paused mid bite. “Isn’t dad coming home tonight?”

“Yes he is. And I’m sure he’ll want to talk to you about yesterday as well, young man!”

Harvey paused. Oh gee, yesterday was a bit rough, wasn’t it? His eyes widened. He wondered what the class would say? Was Mina still alive? Was Spike going to seek revenge? So many questions! He finished his cake and quickly dressed for school before hopping out the door. He wasn’t sure if he was going to catch Mina on the way to school but he’s sure that if she was still alive, they could talk at lunch.

–

When Mina passed near the carnation’s field, she eyed it quickly to see if it was there but she couldn’t spot him. She wanted to thank him again for giving back her journal. Maybe she could get him a gift at the carnival tomorrow.

She wondered on her way to school what do flowers like, do they even eat?

–

Harvey was worried to see he had beaten Mina to school. Oh no! Did that mean her mom killed her after all?!

His classmates were absolutely abuzz with chatter about yesterday’s fight.

“I heard that Cagney tore her into tiny pieces!”

“Nu uh! She bit him and sucked all the nectar out of him cause she’s a bat!”

He spotted Spike and Todd out of the corner of his eye looking a bit subdued. Did their parents find out about this too? He couldn’t help but hope they got in trouble.

Mina got into class the moment the bell rang. She caught her breath and waved at Harvey, taking her seat. She then pulled her journal out of her backpack to show it to him with a smile.

Mrs. White looked upon the class with a very annoyed look. “Children, it has come to my attention that there was a fight yesterday afternoon. Although the fight happened outside of school grounds, I would have imagined your parents have raised you to avoid altercations.”

All students turned their heads to Mina and Harvey.

Mina slid down a bit from her chair as she tried to hide. Todd frowned and  gave Harvey a threatening look.

There was some silence in the classroom before a kid blurted out: “Did you suck out Cagney’s nectar with your vampire teeth?”

The whole class erupted in uproar of excited yelling and Mrs. White had to bang on the board several times in an attempt to regain control of the situation.

“Children! Children! Enough!” She shouted irritably, finally resorting to slamming a book on the ground. And even then there were a few murmurs. She clapped her hands together. “I don’t care WHO was involved,” she snapped, “But everyone is going to have to do an extra writing assignment!”

There was a collective groan from all the kids as Mrs. White wrote on the board. “Don’t you “aw” me,” the teacher continued, “Maybe if you violent little thugs behaved once in a while,” she muttered under her breath, “I wouldn’t have parents coming in arguing with me over grades.” She cleared her throat and pointed to the board. “Tomorrow I want a paragraph about what you like about one of your classmates. I don’t want any declarations of love! Just, things that you like that make them a good friend! You got it?”

“Yes, Mrs. White.”

“Good, maybe some positive writing will rub off on you and keep you in line. Now open your books to page 36…”

Todd looked at Mina and Harvey and made a gesture with his thumb sliding across his neck. Mina saw him and showed him her unusual long tongue to mock him.

–

Sullivan finally reached shore after sailing through a horrible storm and fighting a terrifying giant octopus. Amber was still there, shining in her beautiful dress and calling his name with an angelical voice. He started walking towards her, he could smell her, he could almost touch her…!

He woke up by the sound of a clock alarm falling from his chair.

Amber’s ears twitched as she heard Sullivan’s alarm go off. She peeked in from the kitchen at the groggy salamander and brought out a plate of fried fish, letting it clatter loudly in front of his face. “Good morning, Sully!” She beamed, “I made breakfast! I caught it myself!” She declared proudly, flashing some sharp canines at the still half asleep salamander. If he looked close enough at the fish, he could see the two puncture wounds where she had sunk her teeth in and dragged it from the water. “Eat up!”

Sullivan looked at Amber blinking unbelieving. Not only the girl of his dreams was still here, bit she made him breakfast! That she caught herself! This woman was really getting to him… he had to show her how much he wanted to stay with her.

He regained his seat and smile tenderly at Amber “Wow that is a nice catch! Thank you very much, Amber…” He scratched his neck nervously .“Em.. did you sleep well?”.

Amber was pleased that her catch was well received. She was actually beginning to like this dope. She brushed her fur aside. “Oh! Well I took the bed. I felt so bad that you fell asleep here though! I wasn’t quite strong enough to drag you.”

Nor would she have risked waking him up. She eyed the door hopefully. As charming as this was, she really had to get a move on, especially if she was going to double check these shipments and maybe intercept one or two.

“Do you think you could give me a ride back to the mainland? Dog paddling is the worst when you’re a cat.”

‘Im never washing those sheets’ the salamander thought to himself. “Uh, yeah! Of course” he nodded “ And.. um…” he hesitated “Amber… last night… was really fun, and… I was wondering… if… you would like to hang out again sometime? Maybe… go to the carnival or… something”. He stared at his plate.

The carnival, huh? That would certainly be an opportunity. And no one would suspect her if she was walking around with a date. She smiled sweetly. “That sounds like fun. I think it comes in tomorrow if you wanna go?”

“T-that would be great!” Sullivan looked at the woman with a big smile and a red face. He was going on a date with her! He finished his plate and offered to take Amber back with his raft.

–

The lunch bell rang and Mina waited for Harvey so they could go together to the cafeteria, keeping an eye on Todd and Spike.

Harvey hopped over to Mina. “I’m really glad your mom didn’t kill you!” Harvey exclaimed  happily. “How did you get your notebook back?” He gasped.

“My mum was very angry when we got back home but she calmed down and ended up talking” Mina smiled and started walking to the cafeteria. “But later, Mr. Carnation came to my home! I thought he wanted to kill me, but he actually wanted to apologize and brought me my journal!” She took her notebook and laid it on the table. “Some pages are ripped but other than that is all here!”

Harvey smiled. “Well, good, your mom didn’t try to kill him, did she? My mom tried to kill him but he apologized to her too. At least I think he did.” He did not, Harvey realized. But he didn’t need to tell his mom that. He’s sure she would already be busy with whatever gossip had seized her last night.

Mina laughed imagining the scene Harvey described. “He did apologized to me, and later my mum wanted to talk to him in private, so maybe then he apologized?” She scratched her chin thinking about what they might have talked about.

He was grateful that his friend did not lose her notebook. It seems pretty important to her. “How long have you had it?” He asked curiously.

“I had this journal for a year now, but I have three. I should think about buying a new one - this one is almost finished.”

“As far as a new notebook goes, maybe we can find one on the second isle when we go to the carnival. Wait, are we still going to the carnival tomorrow?”

“And yeah! Definitely we are going tomorrow!” She said happily. She looked at Harvey, remembering how he tried to help her yesterday. “Harvey.. thank you for yesterday. That was really brave of you.”

Harvey brightened up but then looked sad. “I couldn’t do much,” he admitted with a sigh, “I don’t have claws or teeth or nails. All I got are these big floppy feet.” He scratched his head. “Although my dad said he might teach me a few magic tricks the next time he’s in town. So maybe he can teach me how to make people disappear.”

“Your dad is a magician?” Mina asked intrigued. 

Harvey nodded. “Yeah, he works on one of the other isles. He does a couple shows a week. He’s a bit weird but he’s nice. But he’s not here too often so I gotta do something else!” Harvey pointed to his feet. 

She looked at his feet. “You know… maybe you just have to learn how to use them, like kangaroos.” She looked through her notebook to show him a drawing of a kangaroo she did long time ago. “They have very big feet and they use them to fight.”

Harvey looked at her book with interest. “A kangaroo? Woah!!! I could do that! Do you know any kangaroos who could teach me?”

Mina thought of it for a few seconds “The only one I known lives on Australia,” she said sadly. “Are there any fighters in here?”

Harvey thought about it. “Well, there’s Ribby and Croaks at the Clip Joint. I know they fight, but we have to find a way to get in to the bar. I think, Goopy Le Grande is also around, but he’s more of a boxer, although now that I think about it, I have seen him try to smash things with a body slam.”

“The only other person I know who does anything with their feet would be Sally stage-play, but she’s an actress and all the way on the third Isle so we probably couldn’t go visit her unless we had a good reason to go that far.”

Harvey tugged one of his ears. “So, what do you wanna do?”

Mina listened attentively. “Wow! That’s a lot of fighters… Hmm.. well I wanted to check out the hole at the observatory. We can go see whoever is the closest. Oh! And after we explored you can borrow my journal and show it to your sister.” She smiled.

Harvey glanced at the time. “We’re almost done with lunch so tell you what, once we get off school, why don’t we try to see the hole first? I don’t know about you, but looking into a hole in the evening sounds pretty scary, so I’d like to do that first. Then we can cross the bridge to meet Goopy and then head down and see if we can get into the Clip Joint. We should probably not try to stay there once the sun goes down. Ribby and Croak are harder to talk to when the sun goes down and they start drinking.”

“After that, we can head to my house and Hannah can look at your journal. Provided she doesn’t make it a quilt first.” He wrinkled his nose at that. “Does that sound good to you?”

Mina nodded “ That sounds good!” She smiled. They spent the rest of the lunch time talking about kangaroos and extraterrestrials and when the bell rang they continued with their classes.

By the time everyone got back from lunch and as class started to end for the day, Mrs. White tapped on the board. “Just a reminder class that you have the extra assignment that’s due tomorrow. Write something nice about one of your classmates.”

Spike snorted. “That’s still the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.”

“And comments like that will get you detention, young man. See you after class. The rest of you are dismissed.”

Harvey perked up significantly. With Spike in detention, he and Mina didn’t have to worry about getting jumped while walking around the Isle. This was a good day indeed. The two children packed up their stuff and headed for the hole first.

–

Cagney woke up slightly more rested than he had yesterday, albeit a bit sore from having to carry Hilda. He was surprised he was waking up at all to be honest. He for sure thought he would have been burnt to a crisp by a bolt of lightning. Then again, Hilda did like to sleep in so maybe he wouldn’t meet his end until that afternoon.

Oh. Right. Hilda. The woman he swore he’d never see again. Well, shit that wasn’t working out too well, huh? He curled into himself briefly at the memory of her poor body covered in his thorns, lying on the bed. God, he really was a monster, huh? His chest hurt at that yet he couldn’t help but smile humorlessly. Seeing her naked was probably the closest he was ever going to get to her again.

He should have left a note. He could have apologized on the note, but he didn’t. He chickened out. And now, it was too late. Then again…had Hilda really brought a guy to his field just to screw with him? He, uh, wasn’t so sure what to think about that. That couldn’t have been true. There was no way Hilda would have even tolerated his presence much less make an attempt to get him jealous. He wondered briefly where he tossed that caterpillar and whether or not he survived. If he was lucky, he probably broke a couple of his arms. It was the least he deserved for touching Hilda like that. If Cagney hadn’t been there…

His eyes caught glimpse of the sun and he quickly uprooted himself. He was supposed to meet Isabella. Show her around the isle or something. He couldn’t help but admit he felt his petals shiver a bit at her figure. Right, right. Probably should plan on where they should go first and not gawk at the bat.

Cagney approached Isabella’s door and knocked politely. It was awfully quiet, he noticed, perhaps she was still asleep?

Isabella woke up startled by the knock on the door. “M-Mina?” She called softly, a bit disoriented, waving her ears to try to listen.

Cagney remembered that Isabella was blind and wouldn’t answer the door unless she knew who it was. “Hey, it’s me, Cagney Carnation!”

Isabella recognized the flower’s voice and remember he was going to show her around. “Just a minute, darling!” She managed to say sweetly and when she stood up from her chair, she spilled the glass of orange juice Mina had laid for her breakfast all over the table. “La naiba! (Damn it).”

She started to clean up only to put her hand inside a bowl of cereal. She swore again in Romanian and decided she needed some assistance. “Eh… Mr. Carn- I mean Cagney, I need some assistance… Door is open.” She said loud looking for a cloth to clean the mess. This morning started well…

Cagney let himself in and glanced around. Well…the house wasn’t certainly much to look at, that’s for sure. But it did not like Mina’s mother had tried to tidy up the place. Then again, she was a bit visually impaired so there was only so much that could be done. He spotted her cleaning up the table with a cloth and he quickly picked up the bowl of cereal before she could knock that over too.

“Hey, do you need another towel or something?” He asked, setting the cereal aside, away from her hands.

Her home was indeed very sparsely decorated. The wood was turning gray, the furniture was old but still standing, some plants lighted up the place, and on the walls there were Mina’s drawings. Those looked like world maps and observation drawings of bugs and plants with tiny notes like 'careful with the stinger, do not touch bad rash’ or 'likes cookies’.

The only thing it didn’t look old was a big gramophone in copper tones and dark wood.  Next to it, a box with some vinyls.

“N-no… its ok,” the bat smiled nervously “I just need to know if I got everything”. She finished cleaning the table and tapped it with her other hand  to make sure she didn’t knock down anything else. “Did I spill anything on the floor?”

Cagney checked the floor. “No, looks like you got it all. You’ve got some cereal. Did you want to eat that?”

Judging by the pictures, it looks like this little family traveled a lot. He let out a quiet whistle at the flower pictures. Look at the pistils and stamens on that pretty one! This was almost like plant pornography of which he was fairly certain Mina had no concept of and was just drawing what she saw. And what Cagney didn’t see was a dad in any of these pictures.

Isabella had a light headache settling in. “Oh no, not really hungry… “ 

He looked at the gramophone. “Hey, you got one of those music doohickey things!” He exclaimed, a slight smile on his face. There hadn’t been any bands recently in the Isles and Cagney was secretly disappointed about it even though he would loudly complain about them. He missed dancing but with everything as crazy as it had been, he hadn’t had the time to steal away and practice.

She laughed “It’s a gramophone. A really good one too,” she said proudly “Do you like music?” she asked while washing her hands.

Cagney was glad she was blind. It made lying a little bit easier. “Every now and then,” he answered,  "I kind of just move to the beat.“ He leafed through the vinyl records. "Although I haven’t heard of some of these folks. You do stuff with music or something?”

Isabella turned to him “Everything I got there is 'la crême de la crême’ ” she pronounced in perfect french. “If you want I can let you borrow some” she said walking towards the vinyls careful not to stumble upon the carnation.

She grabbed one and touched the corners were some tiny holes where poked in specific shapes. She went through a couple of them until she took one carefully out of his case and played it with the gramophone. ’Strut Miss Lizzy’ started to play.

“Have you heard this one? It always makes me want to shake it!” She shook her shoulders at the rhythm.“And to answer your question, I’m actually a singer, and a pretty good dancer, or so I'v been told” she chuckled.

Cagney raised an eyebrow at her dancing. This was a tiny bit slow for him but he could get into it very easily. She danced fairly well too. He wondered if part of it was due to her being blind. It was hard to be self conscious of how you danced when you couldn’t see anyone around you.

He had been really shy when he first started dancing as a young flower, even though the teacher had said he had a natural talent for it. He probably wouldn’t have continued if it hadn’t been for Hilda cheering him on at practice.

Hs gritted his teeth at the thought of Hilda. He had really wanted to take her dancing at some point. She didn’t dance too well as far as he knew but he definitely would have enjoyed it, even if they had to go slow.

He realized Isabella had asked him a question. “Oh! Thank you! I uh, don’t have one of those things. I actually don’t really have a house, heh. Just a field and a shed.”

He watched her dance. “A singer too, huh? You sing with a band or something?”

“Living in the open air, getting high… you’re not a junky, you’re a hippie!” Isabella chuckled. The vinyl kept playing more rhythmic jazz but the woman stopped dancing. “I used to be in a band…” she said with a nostalgic air, “But now I’m looking for a new one.” The bat walked towards the stairs.

Cagney bristled at the comment about getting high. “I didn’t intentionally drug myself with dandelions,” he grumbled, but the bat was already walking toward the stairs, leaving him alone in the living room.

He scratched his head. “A new band, huh?” He racked his brain thinking of anyone he knew looking for a singer.

“I’m going to freshen up a bit, make yourself at home! I’ve got some lemonade if you’re thirsty,” the woman said from upstairs. When she reached her room she took a deep breath. The fragrance of the carnation was intoxicating. In a good way. She changed quickly into a very similar outfit only slightly more clearer and got down the stairs with a flap of her wings. “Ok! I’m ready to go!” She posed spreading her wings showing her lovely figure.

Cagney was really glad she was blind. He stared at her in amazement before clearing his throat. How did a woman like this know how to dress like THAT?

“Right, about time, “ he managed.

–

Morning arrived and the sun hit right to her face. She frowned irritated by the extreme source if light and covered herself with a blanket.Her pain seemed to be more bearable, and she felt very comfortable surrounded by familiar pillows and blankets.

A few seconds later, she realized she was in her house, wearing her night gown backwards and her skin was sticky. She tried very hard to remember what happened last night.

“Caaaarl” Hilda started giggling, she remembered that bit. Did Cagney laughed? If she made him laugh it meant there was still hope for their friendship! But she couldn’t remember. Her head hurt, she just laid there on her bed for a while, playing the night in her head.

“Fucking Carl ruined everything. That grabby, piece of shit… good thing Cagney woke up… ” Her plan didn’t really worked as she expected, but then again she didn’t really had a plan. “Oh my god… did I puke in front of Cagney!?” She covered her face with her hands ashamed.

She checked on her stiky skin, what was that? Did Cagney took her home? … and changed her!? Hilda had been soo tired she barely remembered the carnation changing her clothes. 

And… took out her thorns? She immediately checked her chest, he took those too… what about her boobs? She had one in a very sensitive area… yeah that one was still there. Its gonna hurt like hell to take that one out. She felt better to see that the giant flower didn’t took advantage of her state.

Then why did she felt disappointed?

Hilda’s head hurted like hell.

'What have you done to us… ’ Sagittarius wispered inside Hilda’s head.

'Shhh, you’re too loud’ Gemini answered even more quietly and nit at all in unison.

“Uuugh shut up all of you!” Hilda moaned. “What am I gonna do now?… that was… pathetic… and he fucking changed me! He saw me pretty much naked!”

'And we weren’t conscious! ’ Gemini regretted.

'Just imagine him, applying the sticky goo very gently’ Gem said with a dreamy tone.

'And spreadding it tenderly through aaall our naked-’

“SHUT UP!” Hilda roughly interrupted Ini, feeling herself warm up to the idea of Cagney caressing her.

'How do you know it was Cagney?’ Taurus said after a while. Hilda’s eyes opened wide.

“Oh.My.God.” all the voices in her head spoke at once. She got out of the bet to take a shower. Suddenly the name Carl wasn’t so funny anymore.

“No! It must have been Cagney…I mean… I think… I remember that fucking idiot flying away at some point… ” It was kinda fuzzy in her mind.

Another constellation started to speak out in her mind. It wasn’t one that spoke often, preferring to hang out in the foreground. But every so often, when Hilda would find herself well, physically attracted to someone, it would start to whisper advice. Seductive advice.

“We should invite him back up here to talk.”

“Oh God… not you… ” she rested her head against the wall remaining under the water.

'We definitely should!“ Gemini regained their coordination with the excitement.

'To talk? Ha!’ Tauros interfered.  'If he wanted to talk he would have stayed.’

Hilda was confused. She really wanted to talk to him, or see him again.

'What are going to do tomorrow?’ Sagittarius asked worried.

Scorpio pushed again. "We should get a real outfit,” it finally pushed, “something that shows that this is serious.”. If Scorpio had their way, Hilda would be wearing all sorts of tight flashy outfits, but that wasn’t the sky witch’s style.

“Oh! We should get that cute tight red dress we saw the other day! That would send a clear message!’ Gemini was definitely on board with this idea.

Hilda rolled her eyes "it’s starting to get crowded in there… ” she checked on the thorn stuck very near her nipple and tried to pull it out.

'Look what he did to us! Remember what he said to us! I can’t believe you’re actually considering becoming friends again’ Taurus wasn’t very thrilled.

“He didn’t really mean it-ouch!” She pulled hard, but the damn thorn wouldn’t come out. “Besides, I overreacted too… I mean… I didn’t even listen to him when he tried to explain… and we were going to pull his eyes out for crying out loud! ”

'After he threatened us! After breaking our dome!’ Taurus was too stubborn and was starting to fill Hilda with anger. A cold jet of water calmed her down instantly and she leapt out of the shower with a very high pitch scream.

Scorpio waited for Hilda to stop screaming before choosing their words carefully. “Show him you’re serious, and you’ll have him on his knees begging for forgiveness.”

Oh! Hilda LOVED that thought. Cagney begging on her feet! That image made gave her goosebumps, or maybe was the cold water. She maliciously smiled and looked herself at the mirror.

Gemini giggled excited.

“Oh! That is a lovely vision alright” Sagittarius sigh. Taurus grumble something shyly, he didn’t wanted to admit that the idea Of having the giant weed on their feet pleased him too.

“How are we gonna do it? How are we gonna make him beg?!” The woman paused “How can I be sure he’s coming tomorrow?”.

“How about a note?” Sagittarius suggested.

“Oh! You can get him a new pot and put the note on it!” Gemini spoke. “That way it’s like a peace offer! You give him his present, you leave an enticing note that will make his roots quiver with excitement” their voice started to reach a high tone “and then we go buy a sexy outfit to knock him down!!!”’

Hilda looked herself at the mirror and lifted an eyebrow. Was she really that interested in Cagney to go through all that? She imagined him on his knees, with watery eyes, pulling at his petals in desperation, begging her to stay with him….

Scorpio was pleased with the exuberance of the constellations and now Hilda and fell quietly, waiting until it could encourage even more passionate plans.

'You better hurry up if you want to buy a new pot’ Saguttarius said worried.

'Can you just glue the old one?’ Taurus groaned.

“Yeah right, so he can keep it as an eternal reminder of the time we almost killed each other over nothing?” Hilda paused “ I don’t think so”. She hurried to her room, got dressed, took some headache pills with her breakfast and make her way to the second Isle levitating on her soft cloud. She headed to Dijimmi’s place, where she bought the first one.

In a few minutes Hilda reached Dijimmi’s pyramid in the second Isle and made her cloud disappear. Dijimmi was organizing his merchandise but stopped when he spotted  Hilda.

“Well good morning, Hilda! Did he like the pot?” He showed a big smile.

Hilda cringed “Yeeah… he… he did but uh… I kinda broke it,” she decided to make up a lie than having to explain the mess that night was.

“Seriously?! ” The genie yelled “That was a masterpiece! How-Why-wh… Arg! Did you bring the pieces? I’ll put it back together with a little touch,” he waved his fingers implying the use of his magic to fix it.

Hilda face palmed herself. “I didn’t thought of that… ” she could hear Taurus laugh in  the back of his head. She frowned “I threw it away…”.

Dijimmi frown “Well, that was a waste!” He crossed his arms.

“Yeah… ” Hilda felt horrible “I’m here to get a new one”.

“Not sure I want to sell you more.”

The woman rolled her eyes “oh! C'mon! It was an accident, plus, more business for you!”

Dijimmi hesitated but ended up selling her another big pot. This one had some interesting geometrical decorations carved in it. Hilda knew Cagney wasn’t a big fan of fancy stuff but the other pots seemed so normal, she really wanted this one to be special.

Dijimmi packed it up carefully and gave it to Hilda warning her to be careful and not to throw it away if it breaks.

“Don’t worry! I’ll take care of it like I take care of my stars!” Hilda turned into her zeppelin form, grabbed roughly the pot, and blasted away towards her home.

Dijimmi had the feeling he would see her again soon.

The zeppelin reached her home quickly and turned back into her human self. She didn’t had anymore wrapping paper so she just decorated the pot with a bow. She grabbed a piece of paper and a pen and stared at it for a while.

“… What do I write?” She asked herself.

Gemini started talking 'Love of my life, meet me tomrrow-’

'Oh! Come on! We are not dating yet… ’ Sagittarius said. 'We should go for something like… eh… dear friend.. eh..’

'He is NOT our friend…’ Tauros growled.

Hilda sighed and tried to concentrate.

Scorpio decided to speak up again. “Eager to continue what we started two nights ago. See you tomorrow. Don’t keep me waiting.”

Scorpio’s soft voice made Hilda shiver. This celestial entity had a way to say a lot with a few words. She liked that. Tauros thought she meant they were going to keep fighting and got as excited as the rest of them.

She finished writing the note with a malicious grin and stuck it on the pot. Now she had to be careful to bring it back to his field without that giant weed seeing her.

Hilda cast a cloud big enough to hide her and flew towards Cagney’s field with the pot safely between her arms.

She slowly descended to the carnation’s tree and realized he wasn't there. 'Perfect! He must be working in the field with the Root Pack or something,’ she thought to herself and descended to the ground. She careful left the pot near his spot to make sure he will see it as soon as he gets back. 'Ok, now to choose the perfect outfit!’ She got back to her cloud and levitated high in the sky.

——-

“So I kind of live on the outskirts of the aisle, so we’re going to have a little bit of walking. First place would be the Clip Joint. Have you heard of that place yet?” He asked as they walked outside.

Isabella stopped the music and followed Cagney, out closing the door behind her. “I’ve been there before, yes. I thought it was a dancing bar but I’ve been told its more like a fighting club?”. She walked next to the giant flower.

Cagney scratched his chin. “Oh, okay, that makes it easy then. The place is owned by a couple of amphibians, Ribby and Croaks.  As far as entertainment goes, yeah there might be some singing and dancing for a little bit, but once the drinks start flying, it pretty much becomes a fight club alright. ”

Cagney glanced in that direction as they crossed a bridge. “If you’ve already been, we don’t have to head down there unless you want to. Plenty of other, usually not intoxicated, residents to meet,” he muttered that last part under his breath.

Isabella chuckled “Very well, I guess I can meet them next time I go there to dance.” She kept following Cagney, twitching her ears at every little sound and trying to memorize the path they were taking. “Have you always lived here? ”

Cagney nodded, then realized why that wasn’t going to work, and cleared his throat. “Yeah, ever since I was a seedling. A lot of the folks you’re going to meet today grew up here, actually.”

“Lucky you, it must have been very nice growing up in here” Isabella said sincerely.

The carnation spotted the fence of the Root Pack. “Speaking of which, we’re about to meet some old geezers in a moment. They’re the Root Pack. They sell a lot of produce on this isle. Uh…. Just out of curiosity, are you a fruit bat or a vam-blood bat?” Cagney didn’t want to say vampire. It seemed to have some dark connotations.

She smiled at the flower’s question. “It depends on my mood…” she giggled, “My diet its mostly fruits and greens”. She paused “Say… what do you eat? Do you do that photosynthesis thing?” She asked very curious.

“Now when you say mostly…?” Mostly didn’t necessarily rule out other fluids so blood could still be on the table, but he decided against finishing the question. “Wait, what do I eat?” He repeated.

“Uh, huh. I guess I can do that photosynthesis stuff,” He realized, “But I got kind of used to eating, especially since Hild-my friends do eat. So I’m sorta a vegetarian. Eh, non sentient produce,” he added quickly.

“It kinda sounds like cannibalism coming from a flower,” The bat chuckled. “But then again, who am I to judge?” She said sweetly and instinctively licked her fangs feeling a bit thirsty for a warm glass of extremely 'red wine’. She should had have the cereal for breakfast.

Cagney gave her a sideways glance and gave a tiny shiver at the exposure of fangs. He wondered if she drank nectar. Hopefully from non sentient flowers. “Well, it ain’t. Although,” he admitted, spotting Moe and Weepy, “Speaking of vegetables, we’re going to meet a trio off them that have the intelligence of a squash.”

As they got closer to the field Cagney could see Weepy attending to some tomatoes worriedly while Moe was digging some trenches to guide some extra water away from the plants. He cleared his throat and called out, “Hey, Moe, Weepy!”

He realized they were walking to a fence and remembered Isabella was blind. “Hey, we’re coming up on a fence. They live in a field like me so get ready to stop in a few feet otherwise you’ll hit it. Which as amusing as that would be to me, will make Weepy start crying and it’s a pain in the ass to get him to stop.”

Isabella raised her eyebrow and wondered why would anyone cry to see her bump onto a fence. Maybe feel a bit sad for her, but cry?  Maybe this Weepy fellow had some sort of intense relationship with the fence.

“Thanks for the warning”. The woman rewarded Cagney’s attention with another of her extra charming smiles and spread her wings in front of her until she felt the fence and rested her arms on it. Weepy cleared a few tears that started to fall around his cheek and looked in their direction. “Oh! Hey Cagney!” He noticed he wasn’t alone and took a few steps back shyly.

Moe wiped the sweat of his forehead with his arm and looked at Cagney and his companion. “Hey there, Cagney. Good to see ya survived the storm last night. Say, who’s your friend?” He got closer to the fence. Cagney jutted a thumb at Isabella. “Yeah, wasn’t as bad as I thought.” Hilda hadn’t shot him with lightning so that improved the storm already. “And this is Isabella. She recently moved to the isle and I’m showing her around since she’s not familiar with the place. Plus, I threw her kid out of my garden the other day.” He realized he was lagging a bit and added. “Can I get some of that water actually? Walking ain’t that easy.”

Moe scratched his head in confusion wondering if he heard right. Isabella laughed and waved her hand at the new voice.

“Uh… y-yeah, take all the water you want.” He made a gesture inviting him to come inside the field “It nearly drowned the tomatoes.” The potato pointed toward the plants that Weepy was still standing nearby. The onion felt the eyes on him and waved with a nervous smile. “And, welcome to the neighborhood, lady. Hope ya kid’s ok?” He gave a sideways look to the carnation. “Oh, it’s fine,” Isabella said sweetly “It was just a little misunderstanding. Besides, my little Mina can be very tough,” She said proudly. “I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name?” And there was the sweet enticing tone in her voice again. Moe slightly blushed and smile back. “I-I’m Moe, Moe Tato.” He stretched a hand to shake Isabella’s, but she didn’t react to the gesture. Instead she kept smiling. “Nice to meet you Moe.” Cagney dunked his head in the water and shook vigorously. He spotted Moe standing there awkwardly with his hand still out. “Oh, shit, right, uh, she’s blind so if you want to shake hands, let her know, otherwise you’re going to keep standing there like a moron with your hand out.” The carnation glanced around. “Huh, I would have expected Psy to be galloping over here.” The carrot thought he was the most intelligent and fascinating creature in all of the Isles. He would never turn down seeing a new face…and maybe pulling a scam or two.

“Blind?” Moe looked at the bat’s milky eyes and waved his hand in front of her. “Uh… s-sorry lady. Didn’t realise…”.

Isabella was already used to this awkwardness and chuckled, it amused her to make people uncomfortable with her handicap. “It’s alright, dear.” She stretched her hand and shook his. “Em… he went to pick up some tools. He should be back soon if you would like to wait”. Weepy answered hesitatingly to the flower. Isabella’s ears turned to the other voice. “And to whom does that melodious voice belong to?” She asked sweetly, putting her charms at work. She rested her head on her hand, making her back to lean a little on the fence. Moe was very happy that the woman was blind so he could check her out without any risks of upsetting her.

Weepy blushed and hid behind Cagney.

Now that he wasn’t the sole focus of Isabella’s charms, Cagney was more than happy to sit back and watch the other vegetables squirm. He thought about giving Moe a dirty look as he saw the potato checking out the bat but realized that would kind of make him a hypocrite and lazily allowed Weepy to hang behind him. “That’s Weepy,” Cagney explained, “he’s a bit shy so he may not be shaking your hand, but he’s waving.”

Isabella waved back “Aw, isn’t that precious. Don’t worry, Weepy, I won’t bite… unless you give me a reason,” she smiled maliciously. “I-I’m gonna go find Psy!” he said, red as a tomato, and hopped away. Moe started to like this woman. Sadly, he thought if she had a child it meant she was already taken. “So… Isabella, you and the mister are settling in alright? Anything you need?”. Isabella  quivered slightly. “I’ve been on my own for a while now” she replied with a nostalgic tone “My … ” she hesitated, "husband … died long time ago. So I could use some strong hands to help me from time to time.“ She recovered her sweet tone towards the end of her sentence.

Cagney’s eyes widened. Shit. Well, guess that explained why dad wasn’t in any of Mina’s pictures. Hard to make an appearance when you were 6ft underground pushing up daisies. He watched her recover remarkably well too. He probably wouldn’t be able to keep it together if Hilda died, no matter how many years could have passed. Even thinking about it was hard. He really wanted her back in his life but steadied himself. No need to get all worked up now. He’d think of something he could do when he got back to his field.

"Oh… I’m sorry to hear that” said Moe, admiring the way she recovered. On the other hand, that meant she was available. “Well, if you need anything just ask! Not only we can sell you fresh produce but I’m a handyman myself,” he said flexing the weak muscles of his arms, forgetting she wasn’t capable of admiring them. “That is very nice of you, Moe! Thank you.” Isabella replied with a charming smile. “You have very charming friends, Cagney”.

“Ha! That’s the only charming thing about Cagney, ya know!” Strutting up to the group looking cockier than a rooster was Psycarrot, with Weepy following sheepishly behind. He slid in front of Isabella and smoothed his stem back. “The name’s Psycarrot, little lady. But you can call me Psy. I’m just going to show you a little vegetable welcome here,” he mentioned, taking her hand and planting a cavalier kiss to the fingers before releasing her hand back to her. “Was hoping this airhead wouldn’t show.” “Heh, Cagney, you know I’d never miss a chance to welcome newcomers to the isle! This here’s the best produce farm in all of Inkwell! Now I know that got you all excited but lemme tell it’s not just the veggies I’m good at. I’m fairly good at reading minds and I can just tell that you’re itching to know more about me and, uh well the others too, heheh.”

Isabella pretended to be shy by the confidence of the giant carrot “Oh my! What a gentleman” she said sweetly allowing him to kiss her hand. He wasn’t the first overconfident gentleman that approached her, but she hoped it would be the last. The smell of the vegetables was making her too hungry, so she tried to focus on the fragrance of the carnation. “And you read minds too?” She asked, curious. “What else am I thinking?” She said with a soft sensual tone. Moe was bothered by the presence of the carrot and his gentleman ways. He crossed his arms and waited for Psy’s answer. If he was lucky, his orange friend’s overconfidence might get him to say something offensive to the lady, resulting in a slap in his face.

Psycarrot’s third eyelid opened wide and he grinned. “You’re hoping that I am the last man you ever have to meet - No, no. Don’t deny it, I can see the hunger in your eyes.”

Cagney waved at the carrot. “Ya ever think you’re going to give the pyschic schtick a rest?” “Schtick? Ha! I have the powers of the mind…maybe it’s more of a telekenisis type of ability but I assure you my mental deductions are always spot on.” Psycarrot eyed him now. “I could most certainly reveal your own escapades last night.” Cagney paled slightly before remembering Psy was a charlatan. “You wish. Listen, Moe, how much produce do I gotta buy to make him buzz off?”

The woman lifted her ears surprised of how close he was. “Well now! I’m gonna have to be careful what crosses my mind when you’re around, darling.”

Moe was a bit disappointed for not seing the carrot get slapped. He chuckled at Cagney. “Hell! If only I kew!”. Weepy smiled and felt better since the bat’s attention was directed to someone else. But when he remembered the tomatoes that almost drowned, he started to tear up. “Oh, Cagney! do you think you can drink more water? The poor things are gonna start having rotten roots if we don’t drain soon enough.” He pointed at them begging the giant flower with his wet eyes about to burst.

Cagney might be a grump but he knew the importance of rotten roots and nodded toward Weepy. “I got ya. Listen, Isabella, I’m gonna go take care of that real quick. Let them know if you want anything. I’ll be back in a few minutes.” He walked back over to the water and plunged his hands into the dirt to take care of the moisture.

“Ok, em… is there anyway I can help?” The woman asked, hoping there would be something a blind person could do.

“Oh no! We got this, doll. No need to get your sweet hands dirty,” Moe said as he grabbed his tool and started working the ground. Isabella didn’t appreciate the comment but preferred to keep it to herself. Weepy accompanied Cagney and when they were far enough he gathered the courage to ask. “D-did you really hurt her child?”.

Cagney hummed quietly. “Hurt is a strong word. Probably the right word. I was pretty sleep deprived so I didn’t do that much. Definitely scared the shit out of her and her friend though so I doubt they’ll be sneaking into my field again anytime soon.”

“Oh my!” Weepy covered his mouth in surprise. “Not a good start…You know, if you want, I can give you some Valerian root to help you sleep”. He helped guiding the extra water away from the plants. “Do you know what got Hilda so riled up the other night? Usually she would warn us when a storm like that is coming.” – “So how did you all meet? You grew up here too?” Isabella tried to make some conversation until her guide came back.

Psycarrot beamed at the question. “How did we all meet? Why! That’s one of the most incredible stories you could ever hear! It all started with us growing up on this isle-!” The carrot began to drone on and on and on about magical spells and beautiful damsels and the importance of agriculture…

–

The Carnation eyed the other members of the Root Pack and Isabella. It look like they were all talking about something so it looked like it would be safe to at least mention something to the Onion. Weepy didn’t gossip. Or at least he gossiped less than everyone else. Mostly due to the fact that if it was something sad, he would start blubbering and crying before he could get halfway through it

“I… haven’t really talked to Hilda recently so. She and I had an argument couple nights ago so I’m a bit out of the loop.” The onion looked surprised at the carnation. “Oh no! Really? That’s-T-that’s…” he started to sob “that’s so sad! You’ve been friends since you were a little seedling! What happened? How can I help?”

–

Isabella listened patiently to the carrot’s never ending tale, smiling when ever was appropriate and acting worried or surprised when the tale required her too. She kept twitching her ears from time to time, hoping to hear Cagney approaching and continue with the neighborhood tour.

–

Cagney gritted his teeth. “Just dumb stuff. Nuthin to really do but wait and see if she kills me later today.” He wondered if she’d do it in front of Isabella or would she wait until there were no witnesses. “Shit, Isabella. I gotta keep showing her the isle. Later, Weepy.” Cagney withdrew his hands with a slight “oof”. He probably wasn’t going to need water anytime soon.

Weepy dried his tears, thanked Cagney for helping and got back to the plants.

He left the onion and headed back to the beautiful woman. “Hey! Psy, story time’s over. We gotta get going.”

Psycarrot held out his hands. “But I was just getting to the part where Moe had to disguise himself as a beautiful spud to help me get our lease back.” Cagney made a face. “I…didn’t need to hear that. Ready to go, Isabella?”

Isabella was relieved to hear the flower coming back “Oh! thank goodn–Oooh! We have to leave already?” She pretended to care about the carrot’s tale. “Oh well! I guess we will have to save it for next time.”

She hoped that next time never arrived. “Yeah, or not!” said Moe turning, red from both embarrassment and anger.

And with that, the two left the Root Pack. 

—-

Sorry for the delay! Had some techinical dificulties. Also, since I´ve been partying all weekend celebrating my Bachelorette´s party, I didn´t make any drawing for the chapter.

It´s a bit sad to have a chapter with no pictures in it, so if you feel like it, you can send us your drawings and I will added to the chapter : ) Thank you for your patience and for reading!

CHAPTER 01,  CHAPTER 02,  CHAPTER 03,  CHAPTER 04,  CHAPTER 05, CHAPTER 06,  CHAPTER 07,  CHAPTER 08,  CHAPTER 09,  CHAPTER 10; CHAPTER 11; CHAPTER 12 (You’re here)

[necrokittytales]

Necrokitty Tales: Trouble in Inkwell Isle (Chapter 13)

Authors’ note: Remember, Necrida’s writing will be in italics and SPKC’s writing with be regular font.If you have no idea what this roleplaying thing is, you can start from the beginning here.

——

Cagney led Isabella away from the Root Pack. “Psy has a habit of talking anyone’s ears off. Makes you wish you were deaf instead of blind.”

Isabella chuckled “No kidding! I mean, he seems nice and all… but… wow!” She remained close to Cagney.

The carnation eyed the stand coming up. “Looks like we’re coming up on Porkrind’s stand. He’s an…interesting character. If you need it he’s probably got it. Wanna stop by?” “A guy who can get whatever I need? Yeah! I would like to meet him.” She smiled.    “Great, he’s just up ahead.” The two walked until they reached the stand. Cagney approached to see Porkrind…and a shotgun on the counter. The carnation blinked. That, uh, wasn’t normal. He cleared his throat. “Hey, Porkrind, how’s things going?” “Going alright.” “Cool…cool. Can’t help but notice you have a gun “ “Always had a gun.” “True, but not on the counter.” “Got robbed a couple days ago by some cat ferret thing,” Porkrind gruffly explained, pointing to a crude drawing of a stick figure with ears. Cagney felt himself tense up. “Really? Any chance you recognized them?” “If I had recognized them, then they would already be dealt with it.” “Fair enough.” Cagney gestured toward Isabella. “Uh, this is Isabella, she recently moved here actually. Showing her around is all.” Porkrind grunted. “Pleasure to meet ya, miss. If you’re looking for something, I can probably get it for you. Within reason, of course.” Isabella listened carefully and noted to herself not to get on the bad side of this guy. “Nice meeting you, Mr… Porkrind? Was it? Em.. this cat ferret thing… did you noticed if it had wings, by any chance?” She was wondering if something in the store got Mina’s attention and her annoying feline curiosity might have made her steal it.

Porkrind gave her a cursory glance before shaking his head and saying, “No, I didn’t see any wings on it, ma'am. It ain’t a friend of yours, is it?”

“If it doesn’t have wings I have no idea who you’re talking about, darling.” She recovered her confidence. “But I’ll keep my ears alert.” She cutely wiggled her long ears. At that moment, a salamander enter the shop. “Good morning Mr.Porkr-oh!” He blushed a little when he saw Isabella. “Hello again, sweetheart!” He looked at Cagney getting a bit nervous “And hello Mr.Car- I mean, Cagney!” He remember he didn’t liked being called Mr.Carnation. “Seems you got a busy day today, Mr.Porkrind.” He got closer to the counter and notices the gun. “Uh, guess better safe than sorry?” He pointed at it. Porkrind nodded at Sulivan. “Yeah, I won’t miss next time.” Cagney glanced at the gun. “Doesn’t only have one eye mess with your depth perception or something?” Porkrind grunted. “Doesn’t mean I can’t shoot. Bet your girlfriend here holds herself just fine for being blind.” Isabella chuckled sweetly. “Well, if the target is noisy, I might have my chances.” “Say, did you had the chance to talk to Ribby and Croaks yet?” Sulivan asked Isabella while making some signs with his hands indicating to Porkrind that she was the lady he talked about the other day. “Not yet but it’s on my to-do-list! And thank you for helping me the other day; that was really sweet” She used her extra charming tone, making Sulivan turn red. “Oh gosh… it was nuthin’.” He played with his beret. then remembered the carnation was standing right there “Em.. are you two…?” He asked pointing at them, implying if they were dating. Porkrind chuckled quietly but kept to himself, not really wanting to get too involved in his customers’ lives unless it could lead to some return business. Which left Cagney quickly shaking his head, realizing what the salamander was implying. “What? No, no, no,” he ascertained, “Just showing her around is all. Trying to make sure no one is going to give her any trouble,” he added, flashing the salamander a not so nice grin. Sulivan gulped taking the message of the giant flower. “H-how nice of ya! Hehe.. well I won’t take anymore of your time. Nice seeing ya again!” He quickly walked out of the shop without buying what he needed. “What a strange fellow,” Isabella pointed out to the remaining people.

–

Unbeknownst to Sulivan, two eyes watched the salamander’s interactions with the flower and bat woman. They followed him as he finally walked away from Porkrind’s shop, empty handed. Amber’s eyes narrowed and she quietly hissed.

Sweetheart? So THAT was his game. Pretending to be this homely little salamander down on his luck while in actuality, he was a sneak! He didn’t even buy anything, just confirming her suspicion that he only visited these places to hit on beautiful women. For some reason, this made her furious and her fur stood on end. Nevermind that Amber flirted all the time. That didn’t count. She quietly plotted as she crept away, definitely planning on bringing a weapon tomorrow.

–

Isabella got close to Cagney and gently placed a hand on his arm. “Shall we continue the tour?”

Cagney heated up at the contact and swallowed. “Yeah, yeah, uh next fellow is a bit…different,” he chose his words carefully as they walked toward the direction of Goopy Le Grande’s home.

The carnation thought about the salamander’s words. “When are you looking for work exactly, if you don’t mind me asking?” “Whenever I find a babysitter for Mina.” The bat said with a sigh. “Night time is the best time to meet the owners of clubs, but I don’t want to leave my little înger alone. I was hoping this tour will help me meet someone that might have what it takes to watch over her while I go hunting for a job.” “A babysitter, huh? Why don’t you get that crazy rabbit lady to watch your kid? Her kid is your daughter’s friend I think. Or at least, wasn’t dumb enough to run away when she trespassed. That probably counts as a friend.” Cagney looked ahead and groaned. “Speaking of friends, the moron coming towards us right now insists we are friends. We are not friends. I repeat, we are not-” “Hello, my friend!” Goopy Le Grande hopped toward them, all a beam with smiles. “I was just thinking of you the other day, old spot! Especially after that storm we had. What did you and Hilda get into a spat about this time?” The slime noticed Isabella and beamed. “Why, Cagney, who’s this lovely companion here?”

Isabella thought about Cagney’s suggestion and chuckled when Goopy got close to meet them. She did listened carefully what he said about a fight with someone called Hilda. A girlfriend perhaps?

“I’m Isabella Bechstein” she spread her arm to handshake the new voice. “I just moved in” she said sweetly.

“Well, it’s a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Bechstein. I am Goopy Le Grande, world renowned and loved by all creatures fair and small.” He tipped his “cap” to the woman. “Lovely name. Romanian, isn’t it? Beautiful country. Am încercat o dată un tip acolo,” he added with a wink.

Isabella chuckled wondering if he really knew what he was saying “You’re quite charming, Monsieur Le Grande. Parlez vous français?”

Goopy laughed boisterously. “Bien sûr. Mon nom est le grand après tout!”

Cagney stared at the two of them in confusion. “I have….no idea what either of you are saying.”

“Oh! Sorry, darling” She apologized to Cagney. “We should stick to English, Monsieur Le Grand. I wouldn’t want to upset my dear guide.” She used her enticing voice and softly caressed the giant flower´s arm. She was actually really grateful that he accepted to take her for a tour after the rough start they had.

Cagney thought bats were supposed to be hairy and leathery but Isabella’s paws were rather soft and it was difficult to suppress the shiver her touch sent through his stem. He caught Goopy giving him a bemused expression and scowled at the goop.

“Right, thanks. I just wanted to show her around. Maybe find her some people who are kid friendly.” “I am one the friendliest goops this side of the isle!” Goopy announced, “I’m a great role model to the little ones!” He leaned in, sneakily. “But if you really want someone who deals with kids, you should really take her to see Hilda. She is pretty good with kids. Have you heard about her?” Cagney bared his teeth at him. “Goopy,” he warned, trying to keep his tone even. “Well, you sound like a great babysitter, but not sure you could handle my little Mina�� she’s quite a handful,” she said, proud of her daughter’s ability to get in crazy situations, like fighting a giant flower. “And I have heard of Hilda, but I haven’t got the chance to meet her yet.”

Goopy ignored the death glare Cagney was giving him. “Oh she’s fantastic! She runs space projects for the school kids and can hold her own pretty well against even the most barbed opponent,” Goopy continued, noticing the thorns starting to pop out of Cagney’s stem.

“She sounds really great!” The bat turned her head towards the carnation, not noticing his change of mood. “Will we see her in our tour?”

Cagney froze at the question. “No.” He smiled evilly at Goopy. “But I’m sure Mister Le Grande here would love to take you since he’s running his mouth so much about her.” Goopy winked back at the carnation. “Now, now, I know you’re much more familiar with Ms Hilda Berg than I am, ya old rascal. I’m sure she would love to show you both the exhibits and the dome and-” “The dome is broken,” Cagney snapped. Goopy’s brow furrowed. “The dome is broken? What do you mean it’s broken…?” He looked at the carnation’s pained expression and his eyes widened. “Oh.” Cagney sighed. It was gonna come out eventually. Goopy cleared his throat. “Mademoiselle Bechstein, may I have private word with Cagney for just a minute or two?”

Isabella’s gossip sensors skyrocketed but she managed to stay cool and not show her interest in other’s lives. “Sure! I’ll just go…” She wiggled her ears making a soft chirping noise to get some idea of her surroundings …“over there” she finally said, walking away from them. She stopped far enough to give them privacy, but not out of her exceptional ear range. She sat on the grass and enjoyed the sun, humming a happy tune, pretending not to pay attention to them.

Cagney watched her go and was immediately suspicious. He racked his brain for a way to convey the information and then groaned when he realized he had only one option. “Iway inkthay eshay ancay earhay usway. Eshay eardhay erhay aughterday ethay otherway ightnay idinghay.”

Goopy looked confused before grinning. “Really? We haven’t used that since we were kids.” Cagney gave him a look and Goopy repeated, “Iway aven'thay usedway isthay incesay eway ereway idskay.” “Iway okebray Ilda'shay omeday.” “YOU WHAT?” Cagney cringed at Goopy’s outburst.  “Atwhay appenedhay? Owhay areway ouyay illstay aliveway?” Goopy asked, realizing the carnation looked relatively intact. “Iway asway overway andway erethay asway away urgularbay andway Iway iedtray otay ithay emthay onlyway otay eakbray ethay omeday insteadway. Andway Iway amway aliveway ecausebay…Iway oday otnay owknay. Utbay Ildahay andway Iway aidsay ingsthay otay  eachway otherway atthay Iway oday otnay inkthay eshay illway everway antway otay eesay emay againway. Ornay Iway erhay.” Cagney stuck his tongue out at the words. “This is hard,” he admitted. Goopy nodded. “What are you going to do now?” “I don’t know. I’m supposed to…uh…Iway amway upposedsay otay eesay omorrowtay orfay away ateday….Iway inkthay”

“Ugh… clever hippie…” Isabella grumbled. She still managed to figure out some words but she couldn’t make up much of what they were talking about.

Goopy smiled. “You should go.” “What? Why?!” “It’s for the best! You’ll be happy in no time. C'mon, don’t you trust me?’ “Not at all.” “That’s the spirit!” Goopy looked toward Isabella. “We’re all done now! Cagney has graciously allowed me to escort you to Hilda’s later today as he has some planning to do.” Her ears perked up at the voice of Goopy calling for her. “Oh! That is great!” She stood up, cleaned some of the dirt off her clothes and got closer to them. “We will have the chance to get to know each other,” she said sweetly, secretly hoping he would blabber more about the neighbors than the carnation.

Cagney pulled at a petal. “Actually now that I think about it, she is the last one on this isle you haven’t met. If you want to go with Goopy at this point, I’ll just head back to my field and talk to you later?”

“Aww, you going to leave me?” She said with her enticing voice “Oh well…I guess you must be tired with all this walking.” She leaned towards Cagney.  "Thank you very much for introducing me to everybody. Besides my expectations,“ She chuckled remembering all the horrible things she said to him the day before, "I really enjoyed your company.”  She said sincerely, stretching out a hand so they could shake.

Cagney chuckled. “And you ain’t too bad yourself, when you’re not going all momma bear on people,” he admitted, shaking her hand. lsabella smiled back and turned to Goopy, “Shall we go then, Monsieur Le Grande?” Goopy Le Grande offered an elbow to Isabella. “Of course, Mademoiselle Bechstein.” He waved to Cagney. “I’m sure Isabella and I have will have plenty to talk about!” “Goopy, I will put you in your grave,” Cagney warned. Goopy giggled. “I’ll just come back. I always do.”

She felt Goopy’s elbow and held on to it. She waved goodbye to Cagney and discreetly took a last breath of the delicate fragrance of the carnation before walking away.

Goopy led the bat away from the carnation, loudly asking her, “Soooo, what brings you to the isles?”

“What brings me to the isles?” she repeated, “I wanted to find a place for my Mina to grow up happy.” And to hide, but she decided to keep that detail to herself. “The cities are too noisy and crowded… What about you?” “Me? Well I grew up here, did some traveling but back here to run the family business- gravestones. With my boxing on the side, of course.” He continued to speak loudly, glancing at the ground. She raised an eyebrow when Goopy mentioned the family business. “Well, you’re very cheerful to be working in that line of business,” she chuckled. “And you do boxing too?” She caressed his arm to try to feel the muscles. She didn’t feel much but she pretended to be impressed.

If Isabella could see, she would have spotted the ripples Goopy gave up when he laughed. “Have to be cheerful in my line of work. And don’t be shy about feeling these arms of mine. I’m quite the specimen of a goop if I do say so myself. Now what do you do for a living?”

“Interesting…” she said with a sensual tone. “Me, I’m a singer, currently looking for a job. You don’t happen to know any bands, do you?" 

"A singer, eh? Hmm, I got a little owner at a speakeasy who owes me a favor or two! I think there’s a jazz band or so coming in tomorrow evening. If you’ve got time, we could head over there and see if they need a singer? Before we see Miss Berg, if you like?” “Seriously?” She said excited, “I would very much like that! Oh! Mulţumesc!” She gave the goop a loud kiss on his cheek and held on tightly to his arm.

Goopy accepted the kiss graciously. “Yes, yes of course. We’ll head over there now…And now that we’ve gotten some distance away from our mutual friend,” Goopy gestured behind them even though she was blind, “Is there anything you would like to know? I haven’t had a good gossip buddy in ages!”

—

Sulivan walked halfway home when he remembered he didn’t bought what he went there for. When he was closer to the shop he made sure Cagney wasn’t there anymore and entered. “Uf… who would thought a flower could be that scary….”

Porkrind spotted Sulivan returning. “Ya remember what you went to buy, Sulivan?” “Yes yes, eh… you see I’ve met this gal last night… and we really hit it off! We spent the night together… but not like that!” The salamander corrected seeing a smirk starting to show on Porkrind’s face and turned even more red “ we just talked, that’s all! But… we going to a date and… I wanted to get her something nice….” Porkrind smirked at the salamander. “You’re either a very lucky man or a very unlucky man indeed, Sulivan. A woman like that either really likes you or wants something that you have. And hate to say it but 9 times out 10, it’s the latter.” Porkrind began to display some of his merchandise. “What’s the little lady like? And was she there in the morning?” Sulivan looked at his friend worried. “Oh… what could she want from me? And yes! She stayed, she even fished breakfast” He took a look at the merchandise “Well, she has a beautiful and bright, chestnut fur, her eyes as big as the moon!” He leaned on the counter sighing. “Her delicate silhouette would make swans jealous! And she’s interested in what I do, and she knows how to fish!” Chestnut fur? Porkrind grit his tusks. That sounded very similar to the thief from a few days ago. “She ain’t a cat or a ferret, is she?”

The salamander looked at Porkrind in surprise. “Why, yes she is! How do you…?”

Porkrind put a hand on the salamander’s shoulder with a heavy sigh. “Kid, it pains me to tell you this, but I’m 90% sure your dame is a thief. A cat burglar to be precise.”

“What?!” Sulivan stepped back to shake off Porkrind´s hand. “Y-You haven’t even met her yet! She’s sweet, and charming! She would never steal!” He put on his beret, angry. “You know, I changed my mind! I´ll go get her some flowers or somettin´. Good day!” He stormed out of the store.

Porkrind shook his head. “Poor, lovesick bastard, he has no idea.” He pulled out his shotgun and began to clean it. “Shouldn’t have missed the first time. He’ll figure it out soon enough.”

Sulivan walked without a direction for a while, angry at the shopkeeper and mumbling to himself. “How can he say that! A delicate angel like her… ”

–

Amber repeatedly stabbed at a picture of Sulivan she sketched with her claws before ripping it up into tiny shreds with a tiny growl. 

“Right, stealing. Gotta go steal something,” she reminded herself, walking away…before running back and violently stomping on the pieces of paper.

—

“My dear Amber wouldn’t do such thing!” Sulivan stopped and sat on a rock nearby. He put his elbows on his knees and rested his head on both hands.

He tried to forget about Porkrind and  wondered what kind of present he could get for Amber. Maybe he could ask somebody for suggestions… Psy? Goopy? Maybe even Elder Kettle? After a few minutes he decided to visit Psycarrot first and walked to the Root Pack field.

–

Cagney unburrowed himself once he was in his field and stretched. Well, that was more walking than he had intended to do for a while. He had left Isabella in the somewhat more capable hands of Goopy (which he begrudgingly admitted, was probably one of the more trustworthy residents). Still, he had shown her around enough and if she was lucky, word got around that she knew him and that would be enough to keep too many islanders from messing with her. At least on this isle.

He looked toward his tree and stopped in his tracks. Sitting near his spot was a giant pot. With a bow on it. He was immediately on guard. “This was not here when I left.” He approached it warily and when he was sure nothing was going to pop out did he inspect it. It kinda looked like the pot Hilda had tried to give him. A bit fancier that’s for sure, but it was similar. The fact that there was a bow on it clued him in to the fact that it could be a present? Or a trap. He peeked inside. Nope. No hiding Hilda or trained assassin. He circled it once more until he saw a piece of paper stuck to the pot. He plucked it and opened it. “Eager to continue what we started two nights ago. See you tomorrow. Don’t keep me waiting?” He read outloud. He stared at it, looked around, and then read it again. This was Hilda’s writing alright. His mind immediately went into overdrive. “Continue what we started…” he repeated and he felt his hands shake. Before Hilda had left, they had been lying down on the bed and they were going to…to…He turned bright red before realizing something else.   “Wait, no, we tried to kill each other!” He remembered. Cagney really racked his brain now. Did Hilda really want to fight him in the jazz bar they had planned on going to? That seemed a bit excessive, but then again, he had nearly crushed her. Maybe she would turn into the moon and crush him in kind. And this don’t keep her waiting business? Was this so she could set up a trap and make sure he would be there on time to fall for it? “I probably should show up before her just in case she…” He nearly slapped himself in the forehead. “Hold up, I just said I never wanted to see her again and here I am planning on getting there first to meet up with her for a potential bar brawl?! Am I insane?” He rested his head against the pot and scrunched his eyes shut. “Ughhh, I HAVE to go,” he realized. If he didn’t, and there was even a slight chance of reconciliation, he really would lose her forever.

–

Psycarrot let out a low whistle after the carnation and the bat left. “Did you see how impressed she was with my story? It’s the natural charm for sure!” The carrot looked to see if Moe and Weepy were listening.

He found a very angry potato staring at him. “We said we would never talk about it!” Moe said, referring to the embarrassing story he revealed to a newcomer and crossed his arms.

Weepy smiled at the carrot. It was a fun and courageous story he thought.

“Hey there, gang!” Sulivan called, getting closer to the fence. Moe turned to see the salamander getting closer. “Hey! Hi, Sulivan. Your order is not ready yet, we got some trouble with the storm.” “Oh! No, don’t worry, I’m here for something else.” He reached the fence. “ I need help…” He turned a bit red. Psycarrot knew that red face goofy look anywhere. “Sayyyyy, this wouldn’t be about a girl now would it?” Sulivan hid behind his beret giggling “Well… yes it is! A real angel!” He described her again for the vegetables, playing nervously with his beret between his hands. “And now I want to find the perfect gift. Something to show her how much she means to me… without being creepy,” he added knowing that sometimes the produce got carried away in their ideas. Like that time when Psycarrot dressed Moe Tato as a woman to seduce someone for who knows what. Psycarrot rubbed his hands together. “Well! A lady such as this does indeed sound special! How long have you been together? I can think of a couple of real nice things if this is a year anniversary!”

The salamander chuckled “Oh! I just met her last night…at the Joint. We really hit it off! She spent the night at my place… but we only talked! It was very nice….”

Psycarrot began to elbow his companions. “She SPENT the night?! Oh Sulivan, you dog you! Ha! I think you already have the cat in the bag!”

“Attaboy! Didn’t think you had it in ya!” Moe patted Sulivan’s back.

“Oh! No! Guys! C'mon! Nuthin’ happened… we… we just had a good time talking about ourselves…although…” He blushed. “I-I think she might be the one. She’s so… soo… so unique! Not like any other woman I’ve ever met… I really want her to like me. What can I do?” “Aww!” Weepy squealed happy “That is so sweet! I’ve never seen you so happy, Sullivan.” His eyes started to tear up. “I’m… I’m so glad for you!”

Psycarrot scratched his chin. “Well, you could impress her with your great intellect and romantic witty banter…or is that just me?”

They all frowned at the carrot.

“Listen, Sull. Ladies like it when you spend money on them,” Moe made a gesture with his fingers rubbing together, "But they will hate you if you buy something they don’t like. What you should do is take her shopping! That way you’ll pay for what she really wants to have! No risks of making her mad.” He concluded leaning on the fence. “What? I thought they liked romantic stuff… like romantic dinners at fancy clubs,” Weepy said, scratching his head. Sulivan looked at both of them, not sure which advice was the best. “I don’t know…” He looked at Psycarrot, hoping he will come up with something better. Psycarrot rubbed his hands together. “You say you’re taking her to carnival, right? How good are you at the games? Ladies love it when guys can win them stuff.”

Moe snapped his fingers “Oh! Yeah! Show her your skills! Shoot the ducks, test your strength, and win her stuff she wants!” “A night in the carnival does sound romantic! With all the lights… the merry-go-round…” the onion said, holding his hands together. “Hm… I am good at throwing darts.” Sulivan said, scratching his forehead .

“Darts?! Ha!” Psycarrot shook his head. “No, women like a man who demonstrates great feats of strength and intelligence - a Renaissance man, if you will! It’s evolution! Women are always attracted more to men who can take the lead! So go for the hammer prizes!”

“The hammer prizes?” The salamander repeated, “but… I’m not very strong…”.

“Psy is right!” Moe crossed his arms. “You gotta show off a little! Any idiot with an eye can throw a dart! You just have to train a bit.” Weepy looked at them, raising an eyebrow. The salamander was very slim, he might have been a great sailor once, but now he was all bones.

Psycarrot slammed the salamander on the back. "And that is why we’re going to help beef you up! I’ve got some beet juice here that’ll put some muscle on those scales! You could even start by pushing that wheelbarrow of gardening supplies for us to start flexing those muscles!” He added slyly.

“W-w-what?” Sulivan started to say when Moe interrupted him by grabbing the back of his shirt and putting him down on the other side of the fence.

“Go on now! You don’t have much time ‘till tomorrow!”. “Oh dear… ” Weepy lamented, leaving them to carry their crazy plan and took care of their plants. —

Meanwhile, over the sea ,a serious looking spider gentleman, dressed elegantly in dark green suit, was looking to the distant isles of Inkwell aboard a big ship carrying cargo for Mr King Dice.

A crab sailor approached him. “We’ll be arriving tonight, sir.” The gentleman didn’t bother to look at the crab. “Thank you Mr. Porto. I’ll inform my men.” The sailor nodded but he didn’t leave. The spider looked at him with his six eyes, well, five. There was one closed, but judging by the tiny marks around it, it seemed it has been scratched out. “Anything else?” He said very calmly but there was still something disturbing in his tone. The sailor hesitated. “W-when we reach port, I’m going to have to declare the cargo I carry, and there will be an inspection….” “And I will take care of it. No one opens the cargo but me.” “Y-yes, sir.” Mr. Porto left the gentleman knowing he was being watched by those preying eyes. When the sailor was out of view, the spider looked at one of the big cargo boxes and allowed a small smile creep into his face. “Questo sarà l'inizio di una bella e proficua amicizia.”

——–

CHAPTER 01,  CHAPTER 02,  CHAPTER 03,  CHAPTER 04,  CHAPTER 05, CHAPTER 06,  CHAPTER 07,  CHAPTER 08,  CHAPTER 09,  CHAPTER 10; CHAPTER 11; CHAPTER 12 ; CHAPTER 13 (You’re here!)