Chisille continued to stare at her mildly glowing tail for a few moments longer. The weird sensations that flowed through her mind brought with it her usual sense of self-preservation that she had been missing for the past few minutes. These instincts told her that she would be better off elsewhere, away from any other humans in case whatever was happening to her wasn't particularly pleasant for her.
The weird sensations not only restored her instinctual desires to keep herself out of harm's way, but the soothing part of it had begun to calm down her wild mood swings. She still felt nervous and anxious about what was going on, however she didn't feel like she had to burst into any sort of wild outbreak of any sort of emotion. Her goal was plain and clear. Find somewhere where she could hide and properly examine what was happening without the constant looming presence of all the others in the hallway.
Unfortunately this would mean having to leave the sights of her friend Betty once again. She knew that part very much. Perhaps the little grey dragon would be calm enough to have Betty follow along to whatever quiet place she would wander off to. It would have to be within the confines of the mansion however. She might've been acting hysterical with a hint of bloodlust, but that didn't mean she was completely deaf to the constant chatter around her. Even with her abilities, wolves were still a threat in large enough numbers.
And so, taking one final glance at each and every person standing around in the hallway, with her final glance directed at Betty, she turned away from the group and walked off without a word. Another fancy two-legged trick with a door and it's handle later, and she was through.
It seemed the lounge room had a certain liking for appearing before her. It must be a sort of safe haven for little drakes or something. Looking around, she could see that her nest was still there along with the scattered bucket of oreos all over the floor. Maybe she could reclaim all of the biscuits later, but for now she had to take care of herself.
Chisille rested herself down on her pile of pillows and cushions and watched her tail again. Yes, the faint red glow was still there, radiating out from underneath her bandage. While it could still be seen by the naked eye, it was definitely dimmer then before. Chisille reached down, with a good tug or two she moved the bandage off of her sword cut. Surprise overcame her from what she saw. What had been a bleeding gash the night before was now a scarred line through her scales. It still had a little bit of work to go, hence the light seeping through the scar, but this was far beyond the speed she was normally capable of.
She patiently watched her tail for another minute, by then the light had stopped and the wound had been healed. Then came another sudden feeling to replace the soothing weirdness. Fatigue. Despite just waking up, a wave of exhaustion flowed through her forcing her to collapse onto the cushions. Turns out she had recovered far too rapidly, even for whatever had activated. A good 5 minute rest felt like it's needed.
So there the little dragon lay, watching the door she had entered from with one eye while patiently waiting for her energy to recover.
Nighty post:
“I am too much man for you.” Vernon winks at Betty, indicating he is merely jesting, yet his persona shifts considerably to add; “Besides, by the aroma you’re giving off, I would suggest you have recently conceived.”
(Pandolen, please note I took a great liberty with this. Therefore, if you do not wish for your character to be with child, then I do not mind at all. Was merely a ploy to create further drama)
Jack watches as Boris shoves Silas against the wall, not bothering to try to stop him. Any attempts to do so, he figured, would be fruitless, given the demigod's raw strength.
Jack shakes his head, responding, "Now, Boris," he places a hand on his shoulder as he continues, "I don't know what women you've met in the past, but I can assure you that not all of them are bad people."
"It would seem so," Jack answers, looking down at Buttons as the cat looks up at him. Making a reasoned guess as to what it meant, he reached into his satchel, removing some more of the dried meat from the shop that he and Boris had raided the day before, offering some to the kitten; Bob had eaten it while he was inhabiting the kitten's body without ill effect, so he figured that unless whatever magic that witch had used to transfer his soul altered the cat's digestive tract as well- something Jack found highly unlikely- then Buttons would most likely accept it as well.
While still holding out the bits of dried meat to Buttons, Jack glanced at Chisille as she lapped up what remained of Herman's, or, rather, Trixie's body. Remains consisting almost entirely of a pool of blood. While a taste for human flesh wouldn't exactly surprise Jack, a taste for blood alone seemed... unusual, to say the least, though this particular dragon had already proven itself unusual compared to the stories and legends Jack had heard and read concerning them.
Whether or not this would be an isolated incident or if she would continue to thirst for human- equine?- blood, only time could tell.
"There'll be no point in bothering to fight against our common foe if we just end up destroying ourselves, old man..." Jack states, a tone of caution in his voice. Making a demigod your enemy tends to be a poor choice in terms of long-term survival, after all.
"I... see..." What Vernon was telling him was a lot to take in. Within the span of two days, Jack had encountered a go, and now... entities from other worlds? It was a concept that was difficult for him to grasp, though short of a better explanation, it was also the only answer that, in a strange way, made sense to him. It would explain the odd sensation that Vernon and the members of the Order had given him- Jack had always had a sense for abberations, unusual flows of energy, and other such things, after all- and their abilites being natural rather than magic in nature easily put to rest the question of why Magebuster was no more effective than any other longsword would've been when he had tried to fight the false Boris.
Thinking of their nature, he recalled something from the day before. A question that had been lingering on his mind, that he had intended to ask a citizen of the town, should he encounter any during his investigation.
Jack nods as Vernon speaks, answering as the otherworldly man finishes. "Wolves, I know I can handle," he states, "But this second wave, and whatever it is accompanying those wolves... well, whatever it takes to survive this ordeal, if it is within my power, I will do it."
The almost always constant and somehow awkward smile of Betty's suddenly droops a little when that big hunk a man tells her she's pregnant. She let's out a itty-bitty squeak like a mouse getting caught eating cheese off the dinner table, then rolls her eyes on up to the ceiling having herself only two things to immediately say about the matter. First, "That'll explain the seedy feeling I've been having." and second, "How the gosh darn hell am I gonna explain this to my daddy...?"
After letting out a good ol long sigh, she turns her eyes over to Jack, even though he seems rather occupied in all manner of conversation at this present time. "How was I supposed to know humans and angels were compatible like that anyway?"
In the face of all this shocking information, she barely even noticed when her cute little dragon friend left their company and went venturing off somewhere else in the mansion. She was just going to have to catch up to Chissy later.
Renard only listens halfheartedly to Ezmond's chatter as they continue to trudge through the hallways. It was always difficult for him to deal with those types of people; most likely because hearing of other people's lives made him lament his wasted childhood.
Renard stops in his tracks, and so does Ezmond presumably. His unblinking gaze fixates on the flintlock pistol (not revolver), and by extension, its long silver barrels that had been pointed at him and his ally. This was a sight he would've never expected to see; his own creation being used against him. He always thought guns were his unique trait, exclusive to him always, but this sets off his imagination and he pictures a future in which guns are the primary weapons of armies, with swords having outlived their usefulness.
This takes all of two seconds, after which Renard decides it is not worth staying in a linear hallway with a man wielding a gun at the other end of it.
He stays extremely still for a few more seconds, continuing to look them in the eyes. The silence between the duo and their enemy was going to be broken, one way or another, and it wasn't going to be pretty. It was just a question of who, and when.
Immediately Renard darts for the nearest door, dragging Ezmond with him before he can react to anything that had been going on for the past few seconds, both ducking to avoid any lead balls heading their way. Once they are safely inside, he breathes a sigh of relief, before cursing the entity.
"Bloody hell... Locked up for a millennium and already knows how to use it. Fast learner."
Renard slumps against the wall and quickly scans the contents of the room for anything interesting.
"I don't suppose you exorcists or whatever your line of work is called are equipped to deal with gun-toting lunatics," he says wryly.
"Actually-- no one ever is, except maybe if they're from the future," adds Renard hastily.
Ezmond sure is a little taken aback, first by that gosh darn gun pointed right at his head, then by the ushering of Renard's when he drags him on into that room. He isn't really rattled none at all though, he'd sure seen more threatening things than that in his long life of wizardry. Adjusting is big ol straw hat after it was knocked askew in all the hubbub, he places his hands quick smart on his hips to reply to Renard -
"Now it's clear to me you haven't had none too many dealings with them demon variety, young man, but in my very own experience it has been proven the spiritual world don't see time as we do. Time as we know it has a lot less to do with this than you might therefore think! It might be hard for you to fathom being a primitive sort of individual, but I do come from a future time when guns be as common as a new episode of a sitcom on the idiot tube, and I don't doubt that there demon understands that about me as well. But just so as you know right now, Demons don't need to be from no future time to know how future times work. Now, I don't at all expect you to understand a whole great deal of what I just told you, but you sure are right about one gosh darn thing; that there demon is certain a lunatic as ever I've seen one - that is to say any man, woman, child - or in this case a hot diggity damn demon, is gonna get a little antsy when threatening their right to survive!"
Ariel's soul remained in the hallway, his sword the only thing seen of him as it swung in the air like pendulum. By this account alone, it could have been perceived that he was feeling a little bored, but that's not really what he was feeling at all; dangling his sword in a swinging manner was just a display of his casual confidence as he prepared to confront the demon inhabiting his body.
With a growing smile on the face of his soul, he started moving down the hallway, out of the line of sight of Renard and Ezmond in the room as he approached the Demon. Even though Renard and Edmond couldn't have heard him, he spoke, knowing the demon most likely could.
"You might wanna hand my body back to me, dumb-bum. In case you haven't noticed, you're inhabiting the body of an angel, and the last time I checked, when a demon inhabits the body of an angel, things start getting unpleasant for said demon. Are you feeling the burn yet?"
"Not so!" The demon screeched with the voice of Ariel's body, "You fail in your understanding, angel - for have you forgotten the sin you committed? This body is no longer a holy vessel! It is mine to do with as I choose!"
The Demon had a point, and Ariel realized that fact to be true, but he had another card up his sleeve -
"Then prepare to have a short life, demon, because I'd rather see my body dead than see it inhabited by filth like you. And don't even think about running, you and I both know flesh can't outrun a soul."
The Demon responded with a hair raising scream and squeezed the trigger of the flintlock pistol. The blast of the gun filled the mansion and the bullet, obviously passing right through Ariel's soul, punched a hole in the door frame of the room Renard and Ezmond had entered.
"Effective!" Ariel scoffed at the Demons attack, as he raised his sword and rushed at the demon, aiming to drive the blade straight through his own heart.
The demon found no other curse of retaliation but to throw the pistol at Ariel's soul in frustration, though this attack was just as ineffective as the gun hit the floor and slid its way down the hallway floor and past the open door of the room, while the demon let out another scream and vacated Ariel's body as the blade penetrated the flesh. Fortunately, Ariel's aim was a little off, since he wasn't yet fully coordinated in soul form, and the blade entered the shoulder of his body instead of his chest. at the same time, the spirit of the Demon fled like a gust of powerful wind down the hallway and into the room where Ezmond and Renard were waiting. In an instant the demon spirit had hold of Renard, lifting him high and pinning him to the ceiling, attempting to reach in and rip Renard's soul from his vessel.
Out in the hallway, now his body was empty, Ariel's own soul was sucked immediately back inside. Straight away he felt the pain of the sword lodged in his shoulder as he yelled out in pain and dropped to the floor, wriggling about in agony while desperately trying to pull the sword free.
Just when Ezmond is finished saying his piece and taking a deep breath to say even more, he's rudely interrupted by the demon calling out from the hall, apparently having a conversation with Ariel's soul. Before too long this conversation gets a little over heated and the gun finally let's loose. The sound of the gun fire makes Ezmond jump just a little, especially when he sees that slug penetrate the timber of the door frame right there in front of him. Following that, a little scuffle ensues and that a big ol gust of wind, not at all doubtful to be the spirit of the demon, rushes into the room and bowls Ezmond right off his feet. He tumbles a few time on the floor then gets to his feet to see young Renard pinned to the ceiling by force of that desperate demon.
"Now you just hold on there, young man!" Ezmond shares his advice with Renard, "You just fight that demons will to take your body now, it can only last so long outside of a body before it needs to return to hell...." Ezmond gives his chin a good thoughtful scratch. "Well, at least that's how I understand the matter anyway. Perhaps you might wanna think about say'n a prayer about now, if you haven't already started doing so already!"
Ezmond starts walking toward Renard now, speaking some unrecognizable language in the form of a chant, and while he's doing this small pockets start opening up in the air around the room, and out of these pockets shine rays of white light in Renard's very direction.
Gwen doesn't visibly react, though her shawl is knocked further askew by the rough treatment. She uses her free hand to lift it to her face.
Suddenly, with a motion one might use to snatch something from an unruly child, and an unreasonable amount of strength for it, she attempts to wrench her arm free, or perhaps free it from her glove.
Upon reaching the animal horde, Aella looks at them, observing their movements to judge where they are coming from, if there is a discernible direction they are coming from she goes there, if not she continues looking around to judge what is going on here.
Ei sighs at the current... predicament. On one hand, she wanted to fight the Order, if only to make Annie happy and get rid of potential future annoyances.
On the other hand, the Order's offer was tempting, and easy to comply with. Ignoring the Order (whom's existence is something Ei would gladly forget as long as they didn't get in her way anyway) is easy, and in return they'd leave her be.
As Annie goes to peek at her father discussing the current situation with the others, Ei decides to lift the void around the Mansion, allowing those inside to freely leave. She'd decide later on whether or not to help them, for now she could sit back and simply observe the upcoming fight.
After all, every possible outcome would be beneficial to her.
After a short while of wandering, Aella encounters the animal horde.
The advancing wolves respond in a similar fashion to Gwen, sliding to a halt at the unlikely appearance of many… farm animals. When it is clear this very large domesticated herd are directing their charge at the wolves, the wolves release a whimper and retreat quickly. They scatter out of sight down the alleys of nearby building. As these farm animals do or… do not give chase, the dilapidated voice of a presence unseen is heard to yell out as if in frustrated torment. The yelling out is accompanied by the piercing shriek of a Raven high in the sky above. A moment later Gwen is seized roughly by one arm, supposedly grabbed by the hand of the unseen entity - who then proceeds to drag her fast across the ground and away from the cow which was… apparently speaking to her.
All them charging animals don't feel too bothered to continue their pursuit of them hounds once they'd gone off running with their tails between their legs. All them animals eyes turned to the big void up the street as it disappeared to reveal a mansion set in the side of the plateau. Once they had their fill of seeing that particular curios sight, all their eyes then turn to the frightened little bird girl, Gwen, instead. Now, under normal circumstances, them farm animals wouldn't have given a second thought to that girl being dragged off like she was, but being as they were under a spell Ezmond had placed on them, they looked none to kindly on what was happening to her. All but one of them animals now start running after Gwen, intent on stopping whatever invisible person was taking her against her will.
The one animal that didn't follow with the others was a big ol Bull named Ben, who just so happened to notice Aella sneaking around close by. That big ol bully strut on up to the girl carrying a bow in her hand and let out a big ol huff of hot air from his flared nostrils. He then stomped one of his front hooves on the ground real hard to show he meant business, and then asked her his pressing question -
"Whooooo... arrrrrre..... Youuuuuuu?"
As the words came out of his mouth, his big nose came right up close to Aella's face, eyes all cross-eyed and glaring at her for a prompt answer.
Taken aback by the man's strange accent for a second, Renard hesitates before shaking Ezmond's hand.
"Nice to meet you, Mr. 'greatest wizard who ever lived'," he says wryly. "It's decided, then. I'll take lead for now, then, if you're as competent as you say you are, you can go work your magic on the entity."
Renard turns his back on Ezmond quickly, mostly to hide the confusion on his face. He had only heard the man's strange way of speaking at least once in his lifetime, and it was quite recent to boot. Nevertheless, he pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind and pushed on with the man at his back, going through the door that Ariel's body had snuck through.
"I sure do hope my livestock are okay back home." Ezmond tells his new, funny little friend as he follows him through the door with Ariel's sword floating after them. "Coming here, I wasn't none too little worried about how they'd cope if I just so happened to take too long returning to them all. I hot diggity damn as heck didn't want them to commence to starving in my absence - that would be more than terrible! So I just went on ahead and put a spell on all them animals before I left. Nothing too fancy, mind you, but they should be able to take care of themselves without me for a while, at least. Gosh darn it, sure do hope that spell worked, I wouldn't want anything to happen to them while I'm away! Just can't help to worry about them, though, no sir!"
Ezmond kept on to rambling like a real motormouth about his farm and all his fine animals, while Renard, himself and the ghost of Ariel moved on ahead in search of Ariel's body.
Gwen stiffens, her shoulders tensing and her fingers digging into the wood she sits on.
With a sharp crunch, her boots hit the ground. She darts between the wolves with the speed of a bird in flight, arms outstretched as though to catch the air. A high-pitched whistle leaks through her gritted teeth as she runs.
Ace stares blankly at the wolves, letting their arms fall to their sides. Their eyes calmly slide from the wolves to the shadow and back again. "What are you here for?" they ask, flatly.
Bark is scraped from the branch as the invisible entity quickly pursues Gwen. The wolves, for an instant, regard each other with blank expression before also giving chase. Gwen can no doubt hear the patter of paws begin to close in, their formation spanning out in an attempt to encircle her. The hasty sound of human-like footsteps are approaching more directly behind her.
While Gwen is flapping them arms and whistling with those there wolves chasing after her, it just so happens a fine looking cow steps out of thin air about thirty yards ahead! That cow is then followed by another then another, and then some horses and pigs and sheep too! Before she knows it, there's a whole gosh darn huge herd of farm animals stampeding up the street towards her!
Now, this over 200 strong herd of ungulates soon become none too little aware of Gwen and them wolves chasing her down. They all seem mighty concerned about it too and start hollering at the top of their lungs, "Wolf-wolf-wolf!". But they don't turn tail and run, no sir! They keep on running and aiming to trample them wolves into the ground!
Meanwhile! The cow who appeared first, steps in front of Gwen to block her path, giving that bird girl a big ol eyeballing, and speaks - "haaave moooooo seeeen Beeeeeeetttyyyyyyyyyyy? Eeeeeeezmoooooond?" It could be determined that that cow is looking for two people who go by the names of Betty and Ezmond!
Betty's face is all kinda screwed up like someone severely constipated, listening to big ol Boris's rant. Then when Chissy has a breakdown in response to Boris, Betty just kinda backs away and rolls her eyes. She sure as heck feels sorry for both those guys, but it's perfectly obvious that she had better leave the situation well and truly alone for now! Ain't no use in poking at a bee hive with a stick!
Vernon was indifferent for hearing of the Order's recent conduct with Ei. He was well aware of their tendency for deceit, yet he was not ready to explain their intricate nature to Ei. Doing so would take a great deal of time, and time was of the essence at the moment. Perhaps Ei would, in time, learn that the Order do and say nothing unless it serves their cause, even if by doing so lies must be bequeathed. As for humans... Vernon appeared less than bigoted for Ei's personal disdain towards them. He has had his fair share of disagreements with humans, but does not pigeonhole the entire race for the deeds of those relative few who have performed misdeeds towards him.
"Blah blah blah I'm judging you!"
Vernon regards his daughter while giving the matter further thought. He than addressed Ei to conclude:
"Blah blah blah I hope you feel guilty!"
Walking away without granting Ei the room to respond, Vernon enters the hallway and looks kindly upon all present.
"In case you haven't noticed, your lives are in danger. I will help you fight."
Jack watches Chisille as she releases her own rant in response to Boris's. As the fireball she releases explodes on the floor, Jack stands up, walking over to the flames and extinguishing them under the sole of his boot before they can spread enough to do any real damage. As smoke from the smoldering ashes left behind rises from underneath his foot, he glances down at Chisille and considers saying something, but concludes that anything he could say probably wouldn't help the situation.
Jack turns to look at Silas as he enters the hallway once more. "Guess your spell didn't quite turn out the way you had hoped, eh?"
Betty edges her way from the freaky little dragon and Approaches Jack. Just so happens he might be the most stable person around at that time, and not too bad looking in a I'll-kill-you-if-you-look-at-me-wrong kinda way. As soon as he finishes chatting with the old nut job, Silas, she gives Jack a big and somewhat uncomfortable smile.
"So uh... ummmm.... How ya do'n there, stranger? What brings a knight in shining armor to nasty ol place like this?"
But wouldn't you know it! Before or maybe after Jack has time to reply (and I sure am hoping he does) that Vernon fella shows up again, making his big ol tough guy speech about helping everyone fight the threat around town!
Betty gives Jack a little nudge with her elbow. "Is it just me, or is that guy special? He sure is a cutie, I'll give him that much for certain!"
(I'll be back on discord as soon as I can - sorry! Luv ya's to bits!)
Renard felt weak. It was as if his very soul was trying to tear itself out of his body. No way he could start any more fights in his current state. There would be repercussions for having recovered so quickly-- but it was also likely a blessing, because if he had tried stabbing himself while he was still alive, it would instead have fragmented him a second time, thus creating another unwanted copy of him.
Shuddering at the mere thought of this, he turns to look at the sword that had come to rest in front of the man who had barged in a few minutes ago. That was definitely his friend Ariel; he'd seen him briefly while he was dead, after all.
'So wait,' he thinks to himself. 'Who was...'
Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Ariel's body inconspicuously leaving through a door. Blasted.
Renard's mental to-do list becomes larger every second. It seemed to him that every minute he spent in this place, something important would happen and he would make a new enemy. First, that band of murderers, though he'd largely forgotten what they'd done, second, that dragon, though its victim somehow got up and walked away, and third, that beast who had killed him. He would have to take care of them all sooner or later, though the reason for his strange obligation to do so is yet to be known to even himself. There was also the matter of finding both that one little girl and Maras, but he hadn't the faintest clue about where any of them were.
Absent-mindedly patting his back for his triple-barrelled flintlock pistol, he squints at the man in front of him. He was somewhat familiar-- the face, the voice... had he met this person before?
"Nice to meet you," he says, straining his voice as he continues to look for his gun. "The name's Renard, master engineer, etcetera, etcetera..."
He finally comes to a realisation, looking back at the door where Ariel's body had escaped through.
"He's got my damn gun...!" he shouts, wide-eyed. "Look, you," he says, pointing at the man, "I dunno what you did, but you better take responsibility and help me exorcise the whats-it in my friend's body."
Ezmond almost had himself some sort of heart failure when Ariels swords came flying at him and you can imagine his relief when the point of blade came to a stop just a fleas lick from his chest. He swiped that ol straw hat from his head as a matter of respectful thanksgiving and stretched out his hand to greet Renard.
“You can call me Ezmond!” He introduces himself with a mighty fine smile; “The greatest wizard who ever lived – And hot diggity damn, I hereby stand in your debt! If an exorcism is what ya want, then by golly I'm your man!”
Vernon throws a glance down the hallway at Ki, then regards Ei with a look of obvious assurance.
"Call me Vernon. Should I be feeling pleased to see you again at this point?" He was obviously referring to the fact that his mission was not yet complete, but he now looks to Boris who has made no small measure of bringing attention to his presence as he stomps heavily to a close in front of the young and frightened dragon. He waits for Boris to declare his intentions to Chisille before responding.
"Careful there, lad. Try not to spook those you aim to protect." He looks back past Betty, and raises his hand at Chisille in a calming gesture. "Don't worry, he's no threat to you, Darl'n." His voice is smooth and mildly sedative. If Chisille was provoked by Boris' outburst, she would have no doubt been strangely set at ease by Vernon's voice.
While Annie continues to stare at Vernon as though he were a fascinating painting on a wall, Vernon speaks once again with Ei. His tone of voice is now... peculiarly seductive. ...Bewitching. Ei would most likely find his suggestion near impossible to refuse:
"Speaking of chats, I would like to have a private one with you...." His eyes turn to Annie; "...and Anne of the Redferne. Follow me."
As he walks down the hallway toward the entrance to dining room, he raises his voice in an unnaturally spellbinding, persuasive manner to all others present in the hallway. "The rest of you remain here."
Vernon enters the empty dining room and awaits Ei and Annie to join him.
Chisille's pondering over the source of the familiar smell she could detect was suddenly and loudly disrupted by Boris, who upon spotting her marched heavily over towards where she was hiding. Of course, such loud and direct behavior would immediately be thought of as aggressive by little Chisille, so her draconic instincts were to immediately run or fight the man.
Though instead of either of those options, she decided to stay put. Even when scared by Boris' behavior, she remembered that not only was she already behind someone who would be very willing to stop him, but running would mean getting lost once more. However she wasn't perfectly fine with all of this either. Whether she really knew it or not her tail had started quivering, visible to everyone. If Boris were to come even closer and frighten her more, it would be very likely that she would lash out with the bloodied spike on the end of it. The flames heating up within her chest was just in case that didn't work.
Thankfully for Boris, Chisille's defensive stance relaxed once Vernon's calming spell takes effect on her mind. Her tail stopped it's nervous quivering and her dragon fire cooled off in her belly. A light sigh escaped from her mouth. "More mind stuff... why me all the time..." she muttered to herself, looking away from everyone else as she said so.
After a short pause, she looked back up at Boris. Even though he was still acting scary, Chisille's current state of mind allowed her to answer his question, however because of what she had already decided upon, she figured it wouldn't be a good idea to tell him. Not only because it would get another human killed because of her, but it would also lead them straight to the one that would tell all about her murdering Fin. She cleared her throat. "None hurt me. Was my fault. Got scratched badly by thing." she lied.
Betty couldn’t do or say all that much about anything at all for the remaining journey to the hallway. She kept her disloyal trap shut and didn’t say a gosh word as the others became acquainted with each other, and she only just found herself mighty dazzled by Vernon's cool intervention in regards to Boris and little Chissy.
As much as Betty hated to admit it, this Vernon character was looking more attractive by the minute, and what with all his charismatic and spellbinding words, she just couldn’t help but feel a little more than enamored by the creepy man. As he walked on off towards dining room, she finally founds the words ‘Yes sir!’ to say as she watched his fine butt strut its stuff down the hall until it disappeared around the corner.
A cows hot diggity damn purpose!
It’s not always easy being a cow! To be totally honest, a cow’s life can be very strenuous. Now that’s not to say the everyday routine of getting milked and all that fatten-me-up grazing out there in the field doesn’t have its calming perks, but the fact of the matter remains that the constant, nagging fear that at any moment they could be taken away to some slaughterhouse tends to get a gosh darn cow a little stressed out. So, let it be known right now, when the nice ol farmers in charge of a cows care, and who are also a cows sole sense of any security they may have to hold into in life suddenly disappear one day, all this stress gets a little too much to handle. It’s enough to make an udder sore and a fine glass of milk real sour.
The trouble all started a few days back when their favorite little farm girl, Betty, vanished without a trace. Now, cows ain’t stupid and after a little moo-moo chatter among themselves it was optimistically decided that Betty must have just gone off to some friends place to sleep over or something like that, but when the big farm boss, Ezmond, went and got himself vanished a day or two after that, well, the cows lost all sense stability! A whole big uproar took place and Daisy May, the most respected of all the gosh darn cows on the entire farm, decided that the best thing to do in this situation was to hold a meeting in the barn. Clearly.
It wasn’t just the cows and sexy stud bulls that turned up for this meeting - every gosh darn sheep, goat, pig and horse turned up for the meeting as well, each and every one of em wanting their own say on the matter heard. After a whole lotta discussion, debate and careful reasoning, a mutual decision among all them ungulate’s was made: If their lives were to return to a less stressful level, they had to find a way to reach Betty and Ezmond and bring em on back to the farm. Pretty hot diggity damn soon a plan of action was set into motion!
Fences were broken and crops were trampled as the 300 odd ungulate members of the committee stampeded their way to the house where they broke down the front door and started their rampaging search for clues as to where Betty and Ezmond might have gone off to. Pretty soon, after the house was almost demolished, Ezmond’s wizard lab was found in the basement, and right smack dab in the center of that room an open portal was discovered. Now, you might be think’n that cow, or even less a cute lil piggy, might not even know what a portal is, but you should never underestimates an animal’s intelligence. It was a widely known fact, after all - if not just hearsay and rumor - that Ezmond dabbled in a bit of magic now and then, so it didn’t take too long for them farm dwelling intellects to surmise that this portal might have just been the clue they’d all been looking for.
After sucking up their courage, most of them feeling kinda anxious to find out what weird-butt adventure awaited them on the side, Daisy May led her committee; all them farm animals filing one by one through the gosh darn portal….
Ezmond sure is glad Bob has his soul back, be he sure ain't none too pleased to see the complications. The appearance of Herman in Trixie's body was more than just a little troubling, and made him wonder what other yet unseen effects the spell had on the people around the place. He kinda feels regret for persisting with the spell when he knew something was hot diggity wrong. While Jack and Annie and the others are being all skeptical about one another, Ezmond just kinda stands around analyzing everyone's behavior to see if he can't pick up on where the previous occupant of Bob's body snuck off to. He had a feeling this occupant was one of a demonic kind, and it wouldn't have gone too far since demons don't like traveling great distances in their search for another body and all that sort of stuff.
He also feels a little gosh darn reluctant to approach Ei when she arrives in all that smoke. He'd had his fair share of dealing with them mysterious magic kind before, and most of them turned out to be bad news in the end. So he just kinda held his tongue and figured she'd come on over and introduce herself if she really wanted to get to know him.
But then he wasn't too happy to see that Annie girl making a mockery of decency either, he wanted to give her a good piece of her mind, but on account of those other matters of importance going round in his head, he held his tongue on that one too.
But then it happened! the big ol crack from the next room, followed by that loud beastly yell, which kinda gave Ezmond some indication of where that Demon went off too. Sounded like whoever was in the next room was encountering a bit of trouble for themselves. Now since he was feeling all responsible for setting the Demon free of its previous spell, he went on ahead and opened the door to the next next room, which just so happened to be the kitchen. Just as the door opened, he saw a great ol beastly creature charging at some poor little man in a golden cape. Didn't seem to Ezmond like that little man had much of chance. Ezmond so too saw some other guy with wings, and judging by the look in that guys eyes, Ezmond knew exactly where that demon soul had gone!
First things first though! Ezmond had to stop that little man from getting hurt by that big beastly thing with a sword stuck in its neck, so without even a gosh darn second to lose, he raised both hands open and yelled out, STOP! -
Instantaneously, the charging beast was frozen in its tracks, and was the only one effected by the spell. He looks at the Demon possessed man and the other golden cloaked man down on his knees and asked them straight up:
"What in gosh darn tarnation is going on around here??"
"Well sure! We could use all the help we can get!" Betty replies as her and little Chissy start following. "Sure a strong handsome son of a gun like yourself will come into use."
Betty then closes her mouth, realizing what the hell she just said to Vernon. WHY YOU GO AND CALL HIM HANDSOME FOR FOR YOU IDIOT! FIRST THE ANGEL AND NOW SOME VERY SUAVE OLD MAN - GOSH DAMN IT! WHY YOU GOTTA BE SO DAMN EASY ANYWAY! YOU HAVE ARIEL NOW, SO STOP LOOK'N AT THIS OLD MANS PERFECT BUTT!
Betty pulls her eyes off Vernon and looks down at Chissy when she asked the question. Her face is all kinda distorted because she's trying not to have all them thoughts about the old man!
"A physician? Oh - bub, We call them doctors back where I come from. Someone who deals with medicine and helps heal people. But I kinda agree with Yumon - I mean Vernon! You should really probably see a doctor or something like that."
Betty then addresses Vernon again, but tries real gosh darn hard not to look at his suave posture strutting its stuff down the hallway.
"So where'd you say we were going, you not so good look'n man? And don't go getting any funny ideas either, buddy - I've already got myself a man!"
Just then they hear some big old beastly voice yell out the word No from somewhere else in the mansion.
"Let me guess, we're headed to where all that 'I'm gonna damn well die right now' noise is coming from. Am I right or am I right?"
"Please don't hurt me..." Buttons tells Ezmond as he allows the man to pick him up. Staring back into Ezmond eyes while he's chanting a bunch unknown words, he feels a little tingle through his body.
Bob, chucking a spasm, reverse head butts Jack in the nose.
(a whole lota gosh darn text and unexpected story!)
An instant later Boris was back in the mansion, still on fire as he runs head on into Silas trying to make his own escape. The two of them crash to the ground and Silas is set on fire as well. Boris rolls around frantically on the floor of the hallway to put out the flames. After the flames were out he sees that Silas is still on fire, so he immediately starts slapping the old man with his giant hands to help him put out his fire as well. Now all the fire was extinguished, Boris stands, says "sorry" to Silas, and takes a good look around. He sighs with relief when he sees Jack getting head butted by Bob.
Boris was safe again, even though his clothes were singed and burnt. Excited, he pays no mind to what other events might be taking place between Jack, Buttons, Bob and Ezmond, and calls out to Jack -
"Mr. Jack! Boris sure does have some exciting news to tell!"
He then realizes he's interrupting something that must be important and holds his tongue, watching at whatever strange thing Ezmond is doing to buttons.
Jack nods as Ezmod begins the ritual. As Bob's body begins to flail around, shaking and kicking, Jack wraps his arms around Bob's upper torso, holding his body securely in place. As Ezmond tells him not to let Bob get away, Jack replies, "Not planning on it," securing his grip on the man.
While Ezmond continues rattling off a whole bunch of unknown words to Buttons the kitten, he kinda got distracted by a burly oaf of a man who magically appeared in the hallway covered in flames and knocked over that weird Silas character! Ezmond, not look'n in the slightest bit happy about another interruption, waits for the brouhaha to settle down before he continues. Naturally, he had to start the ritual all over again, beginning with the words "WOULD YA ALL STOP YOUR HOT DIGGILY DAMN INTERUPTIONS ALREADY - GOSH DAMN IT ALL TO HELL!"
ANYWAY, after starting again, it doesn't take too long before the words Ezmond's say'n to Buttons begin taking effect. Bob starts kicking and jerking around harder than ever, no gosh darn doubt proving to be a handful for poor Jack - especially after being butted in the face! But at this point Buttons might be feeling a little more than just tingly all over, he might even feel like his fury little skin is about to rip open as his soul is being ushered into Bob. But wouldn't ya know it! Another problem seems to be taking place. Ezmond, even though he concentrating on the ritual and all that, looks like he's a little stressed out, like something bad is happening. But he doesn't stop doing his thing. Soon enough, and no doubt to everyone's surprise, a big ol explosion of light happens. The blast is powerful enough throw everyone in the hallway off their feet!
The ritual has ended, but it didn't finish up the Ezmond had planned. Something went wrong!
No longer having Buttons in his hands, Ezmond sits up on the floor after the explosion and looks around to see everyone is ok, but more specifically to check on Bob and Buttons. As one wouldn't at all expect, Bobs body had already been inhabited by something other than a human soul, hence the gosh damn problem. The explosion wasn't meant to happen, and because of all that, Ezmond has no idea how things might have turned out.
Chisille can feel her senses once more going on edge as she sees Ezra and Vernon's fight break up, preparing herself for when Ezra might return and finish off the fight. However until that time comes, she has Vernon himself and Betty to address. With the presence of another unknown humanoid nearby, the shy feeling when it came to talking peaked again, so instead of saying anything in reply to Betty asking if she's seen him before, she simply shakes her head before returning her attention to Vernon.
With Betty's threats to get information out of Vernon, he had responded by warning them that it would be worthless to do so. Chisille didn't exactly want to beat them up for information anyway, so she felt somewhat relieved at what he said. Just like the previous question, she kept her mouth closed and let Betty answer. She figured that letting her speak for the both of them wouldn't have any catastrophic consequences if it was just introductions.
Though Chisille did have a strange thought at the back of her mind that she couldn't get rid of, just lingering for the moment. She sorta wanted to bite Vernon. Not savagely though...
Vernon is still smiling at the sound of his daughters laughter when he turns to the young lady and dragon. He gives them a brief look over, no more deliberation than had he seen two strangers in passing on the street. His mind seems to be elsewhere as he scratches his chin and looks away down the hall, yet nevertheless answers Betty's question, mumbling;
"You'll waste your energy attempting to harm me, unfortunately." He looks back at the dragon, then up to the girl, now apparently present in thought. "Call me Vernon if you want. Uh... you are...?"
Betty keeps her hands smartly on his hips while Vernon gets around to answering her question. When he finally gets around to doing just that, Betty holds out her hand for some unknown god forsaken reason to shake Vernon's. Assuming that Vernon shakes her hand, she goes ahead and introduces herself as well.
"My name is Betty, and this here dear friend of mine is Chissy. Now Chissy here is a little shy and has been through a whole gosh darn lot these last few days and I'm aiming to put a stop to it. Seems to me like you're not one of the creeps causing these problems, but if you have any information that might help us out, any information would be appreciated!"
Just then a big ol explosion is heard in another part of the mansion! Trying to ignore the noise, Betty asks Vernon again;
"In case you haven't noticed, which I gosh darn to heck think you have, there's a whole lot of weird crap going on around this town. Now you're obviously someone tough enough to handle yourself! So are ya gonna go ahead and help us or not?"
Ezmond is quite gosh darn to heck annoyed about this here interruption! Now there ain't no way he can go and stick Buttons' soul back in his human body with all this going on. When he turns on around and sees Annie, he is even more downright annoyed by her presentation -
"Well holy bucket in a dry well, young lady - Now I don't know who you are or just who your lover is by chance, but I don't believe you remembered to put your clothes on before coming on out here. And I also don't at all think your daddy would be none too pleased to find out you're prancing around like that. So why don't you go on back to where you came from and put some gosh darn clothes on. I gotta say right now I have a good mind to put ya over my knee and give you a good hiding! Now, off with you, child, go get yourself all presentable like - I'm assuming you don't live in a barn like a cow and I don't believe you should be acting like an animal!"
Turning on back to Jack, he says; "Now you just hold that body as still as you can, and I'll go on ahead and start doing my thing!"
Ezmond starts the procedure by picking up Buttons in both hands with arms outstretched, looking deep into them kitty eyes while chanting some strange dialect. As he's doing this, Bob's body starts to seizure and kick violently.
"Now you just hold him still!" Ezmond tell Jack again. "Don't let him get away on ya there!"
Betty and Chissy leave the bedroom, and Betty is about to release all fury on them two monsters fighting in the hallway when they suddenly stop fighting and one of them disappears through a wall and runs away or something. A little while after that Annie girl can be heard laughing. Then, which was really just gosh darn strange, the monster left in the hallway changed into the form of a man. But he wasn't any man Betty had ever seen before.
"You ever seen this gosh darn freak before?" She asks Chissy.
Then turning back to the freaky shape shifting man, she puts her hands smartly on her hips and demands some answers; "Now you hold on just one gosh darn minute there! You better go ahead and tell us just who you are and explain just what the heck is going on around here - or me and my cute little friend here are gonna open up a big ol can of whoop butt on ya!"
When all the combat noise started up from one of the other rooms in the attic, Chisille immediately woke up. This had to have been at least the 5th or 6th time she was interrupted in her sleep on the same night. Sure there had been other nights like this, but not when she had also been forced to do things she didn't want to do by an unknown force while in a building with half a dozen humans that could burst through the door and take her down at any moment.
Chisille shifted herself off of Betty as she got up from the place she was sleeping to go tempt fate by shouting at those making the noise. While she was busy doing that, Chisille spun around the take a look at herself. Something felt strange about her tail. Then she saw what it was, the part that had been cut from before was wrapped up tightly by some sort of cloth now partially stained red to stop the bleeding. It reminded her of some of those snaring vines she once got caught in and had to bite to get free.
However once she gets questioned by Betty she visibly shrinks down, curling her injured tail around herself. Betty can tell that she feels ashamed and guilty about something. She can't even make eye contact with her.
"I... got into fight. Wasn't my fault... they made me do it. Was trying to sleep and... and they make me feel all angry. Made me hunt around for a girl inside this place. Couldn't find them so I kept walking around until I..."
She paused for a moment before continuing. Obviously the next part was hard for her to tell.
"...This human got in the way of me. The voices in my head... they make me attack them. They made me chase them until they fall down and then a kid shows up with sword. They try to keep me from... killing. They stab me to stop me killing... It hurt."
Chisille looks visibly nervous now, as if talking about the next part would end their friendship right there and then.
"I killed them. The first human. They're dead now! I didn't mean to... I was made to be angry! I didn't want any of that! Now the will kid go and tell all the other humans about what I did... and they will all get weapons and they will all go after me to get revenge..."
She starts to sniffle, the scared feeling coming back as she tried to hold back tears.
"And... and... dream make me do something bad. Dream make me feel good about it and I don't want to feel good about it. Don't want to do it to you and not going to ask. Don't care what dream says!"
At the last few words, she stands up and flares her wings as if to emphasize how she feels. She knew this was going to have issues later, but she didn't need to do it right on the spot. She could find someone way less important.
Betty sure is torn apart by Chissy's sad story. She sure ain't non too happy about someone taking control of her lil baby dragon, no sire, not one little bit at all! While Chissy is making an account of the events, Betty's lip if trembling with hurt, maybe a lil tear well up there in her eye as well and all that. After she finishes talking, Betty moves real slow so Chissy doesn't cower away and uses both hands to gently pat her cheeks and give her chin a good soothing scratch.
"Now just you hold on there, little one," Betty tells her in a real soft tone; "don't go pay'n too much attention to dreams, they don't usually mean all the stuff they seem to go on about. One thing I know for certain is that most dreams have alternative meanings, that's if they have any meaning at all to begin with. But it kinda looks like thinking about that is a problem for you, so maybe when you feel like it, you can share with ol Betty more details about that dream."
Betty leans in real slow and gives Chissy an affectionate kiss on her blood stained snout and says; "There ain't no one in this town gonna be ganging up on my Chissy for things outa her control. I'm gonna be making gosh darn certain of that, so let me tell ya that much right now. And just so as you know, my little cutie, I'm assuming it's them same guys controlling your mind like yesterday, right? Well I think you and me have some searching to do. Number one; We gotta go find that boy and set the truth straight before he goes around hollering all kinda bad stuff about you to the others. And don't you go get'n all afraid either, because if anyone tries attacking you, they're gonna have to get through me first."
Betty gets up, puts her hands smartly on her hips and gives Chissy a big ol confident smile. "You're gonna have to clean all that blood off your darling lil face first!
Vengeance may be best served cold, but I ain't no patient farm girl, and God only knows how long it will be before they try something like that on you again. So after setting that boy straight about the truth behind why you did all that stuff, how about you and me go hunting down them guys who did all that bad stuff to your brain, and give em a piece of ol Betty's cranky mind?"
Just then, Buttons is distracted by the loud noise upstairs but, with his kitty hearing, can also pick up on the sound of someone approaching down the hallway behind him. He looks back to see a weird farmer looking dude in overalls and a straw hat, who also just happens to be holding Bob's hand...
"Well, speak of the devil.... Who would have seen that coming?"
Knowing all the bad luck he's had over the last few years, Buttons didn't really expect anything hopeful to take place with this oddly spoken farmer, so, once Ezmond introduces himself, Buttons just released a pessimistic groan and told the farmer straight;
"Yeah, pleased to meet ya, buddy. By the way, that's my body you're holding hands with there."
Meanwhile, Sluggy has stopped his slow crawl up along the wall to listen in on the conversation taking place with growing intrigue, biting his time in wait for the opportunity to set his plan into motion.
Jack turns to Ezmond as he approaches, offering his free hand in a handshake after he introduces himself. "Greetings, Ezmond. Name's Jack. Don't believe I've seen you here in town yet." He moves his hand to introduce the others. "The talking cat here is Buttons... or Bob, rather. Well, I suppose in a way I could say you two have already met. This young lady here goes by the name Trixie- though you'd probably figure that out quickly enough once she starts talking- and this old man with the hole in his foot- and boot- is Silas."
Silas sighs, rolls his eyes, and proceeds to utterly ignore Buttons/Bob, muttering something along the lines of "sassy feline..." He then turns his attention at the newcomers, as they walked in.
He pouts at Jack's remark. "I'm not old, I just haven't got a haircut in years!" he grumbles. "Plus, the foot's already healed!" He gestures to his injured foot, and lo and behold, it's not flowing with blood. However, it was impossible to tell whether it had actually healed or not. After a moment, he continued his remarks. "Anyway, Ezmond, was it? Curious name. As Jack over here has said, I'm..." He pauses, looking as if he had not even memorized a vocabulary term in front of a class. "...Silas. Yes, that's right, Silas."
Ezmond Shakes Jack's hand and is all kinda pleased to meet the others too, except that freaky purple girl who didn't even acknowledge him. Maybe she's stuck up royalty or something like that. But at least Jack had the courtesy of introducing her anyway, for the fat lotta good it did! Ezmond on the other hand thinks Jack is quite the fine gentleman adventurer and well mannered, which goes a long way in Ezmond's book, because he's old school folk, and all that modern day punk disrespectful stuff really gets to him. He'd turned more than one teen into a turnip back in his own time and world. Silas seems like a friggen crazy old man in serious need of a haircut, but Ezmond Kinda likes him anyway. He also kinda smells a lot! Buttons is a different kettle of fish altogether. He sure is a cute kitten, but has a kinda snide mouth on him, but at the same time kinda funny, at least that's what Ezmond supposes.
After the quaint introduction, Ezmond puts his hat back on his head and asks Jack to take hold of Bob's hand so he doesn't go wandering off while he checks on his soul holding up in Buttons. Assuming that Jack don't mind doing that at all, Ezmond then bends on down and looks into the kittens eyes for what seems like an uncomfortably long time, after which he draws his conclusion, standing back up all smart like and shifting his hat a few times.
"Well now there, lil kitten man! No need to worry about a thing now, Ezmond is the best gosh darn Wizard to ever exist on the planet Earth, which is a place you probably haven't heard of! But in any huckering place, I'm ain't gonna have any problem getting that soul there back in your human body, no sir! So how about we get started?"
He looks at Jack and asks if it's ok if he keeps holding Bob's hand through the procedure. He also asks the other two, Trixie and Silas, to step back while the procedure takes place. Last thing Ezmond wants is something unexpected to go wrong - you can never be too careful with soul transference magic!
Betty wakes up from all the gosh darn racket going on in the mansion. She ain't happy cuz she was having a perfectly good beaver's at a picnic dream! Chissy is still asleep for the time being, but that probably ain't gonna last since Betty gets on up and opens the door to the bedroom and yells at them two monstrosities that are now fighting it out in the hallway just outside. The two monsters were pretty gosh darn scary to look at, but Betty didn't really care!
"KEEP THE GOSH DARN MOTHER FRIG'N RACKET DOWN YOU GOOD FOR NOTH'N FREAKS - WE'RE TRYING TO GET SOME SLEEP IN HERE!!!!"
After that she slams the door and looks down at Chissy, who is probably more than likely awake at this point.
"Hey there lil sweetie! Why don't you go and tell your ol friend Betty what's been going on around here and how you got all them injuries. Because I gotta tell ya right this instant, someones gonna pay!"
She sits on down in front of Chissy all casual like and listens to her story.
Meanwhile! Ezmond is still guiding Bob down the hallways of the mansion in search of Bob's soul when the big ol noise starts up in the attic or something.
"This town sure has more than its fair share of the ol ruckus," He tells Bob; "Sure hope to the heavens my darling Betty is okay."
Just when he finishes say'n that, they turn a corner and find some old guy, a kitten, an adventurer and some purple woman standing around in the hallway gasbag'n. Think'n they all seem mostly harmless to look at at, he walks on up with Bob to introduce himself.
"Well, how all you folks do'n?" He asks, removing his big ol straw hat out of courtesy; "My name is Ezmond, and this here is an empty shell of a man I found wandering about in the library!"
Chisille was certainly acting like a big baby the way she had fallen unconscious like that. Truth be told, she would've stayed awake for longer and pushed on had she not seen a friendly face come to her aid. While she slept, she tucked her legs in properly and could barely be heard snoring, even with the distraction happening right in front of them. The soft tunes and gentle movements definitely helped her stay asleep even though she didn't know about it. In fact, she doesn't even remember a time when she was comforted to sleep.
While Betty's soft humming was working, there was still the matter of the quiet dripping noises coming from near the end of the grey dragon. It was only every so often, but there was a small pool of red gathering on the floor under her tail. The wound was probably going to close up sooner or later, but it was nonetheless unsettling to see.
For the third time in a row Chisille finds herself running through a twisted forest. However now without Revel's fearless spell on her she feels the need to keep running, at least until she starts to recognize the place once more and slow down. "What... what is going on?" she asked the mist surrounding her, but go no answer. "Why do you keep doing this?? Why are you doing this to me?!" she shouted, fear flowing through her voice as she desperately searched for the image of herself that was undoubtedly coming.
The trees began to whisper. A great choir of them all telling her secrets that she didn't know, or didn't want to know. Chisille didn't understand what they were doing, and so put her paws over her ears to try and drown out the noise. It was no use though, as the whispers continued to flow into her mind. "Stop... stop it stop... why are you telling me this...?" she wailed.
"Because you are lying to yourself." came a great growl from within the mist. A spot of red shone through, breaking apart the grey until there the larger, red and more sinister version of herself appeared. Chisille gasped at the sight, even though she'd seen it before. "What do you mean? I'm not lying to myself." she replied. This caused the large Chisille to suddenly charge forward, angry. Chisille turned around and started to run again, but the chase lasted mere seconds before she was caught. Instead of a slash of pain, she was suddenly forced down to the ground by the stronger dragon. She was pinned under the might of her angry self.
"Don't you DARE keep lying to me! You know exactly what I talk about and you continue to hide it! You felt something. Something that was satisfying! Something that you enjoyed. But no, you try to hide it away or make excuses, saying that it was not your fault!" Her adult form shouted down to the quivering dragoness. "You know better then that, this had nothing to do with what you were made to do. This was about what YOU wanted to do! This is about what I want to do! I don't want to be locked in here, forgotten when I should be free! You know I was dragged down in here, never to surface again because of what happened! You will NOT deny me of my awakening that we both know I deserve!"
And upon that, the larger Chisille raised her other claw and started shredding at Chisille's scales, causing her to yelp at every cut and bleed all over. She was suddenly released from the ground, but upon looking up she could see that it wasn't because of anything good. Red streams were flowing from all the cuts she had received, being drawn into a similar orb from the previous two times. However it didn't just stop at a small ball. This one kept stealing from her, growing bigger and bigger while Chisille got weaker and weaker until there was nothing left to give.
She couldn't even get up after that. All she could do was lie there with her large form staring down at her, slowly approaching. She could feel the low growl that was constantly going as the large Chisille got closer, right up until her mouth was next to her ear. "You know exactly what to do." The large Chisille whispered before turning around and walking back into the mist, leaving the small dragoness to lie there until her dream was over...
While Chissy is having a not so pleasant dream, Betty rips off one of her sleeves and uses it to wrap around the injury on Chissy's tail to stop all that bleeding. COINCIDENTALLY, this just so happened to take place while that big ol angry Chissy in her dreams was clawing at the baby Chissy, so the sleeping Chissy didn't notice enough to actually wake up or anything.
A little while after that, by ways I can't even describe, Betty falls to sleep as well. So there they are, both of em lay'n on the floor sleep'n, the little dragon all wrapped up in Betty's arms.
Betty has a dream about a cute family of beavers having a picnic in a park.
Unfortunatley, Betty tends to snore real loud and talk in her sleep!
Bob doesn't respond, continuing to try and walk through the wall for a few more seconds before finally he reacts, but maybe just by sheer chance as he pivots about, teeters on the spot for a few seconds as his dazed stare seems to look right through Ezmond. After regaining his balance, kind of, Bob continues his journey, his first step landing his face in Ezmond's chest. Once again, just like the wall, Bob's feet continued to flick about awkwardly as if he was trying to walk right through the man.
This is when Ezmond realizes there must be something really wrong with this really weird fella. Holding the mans head up, he takes a good long look into his eyes and discovers the problem!
"Well, gosh O my, and color me pink on Sunday, it would seem to me you have misplaced that soul of yours, young man! I ain't seen a case of a displaced soul for quite some many years, to be perfectly honest - But don't you go fretting now! Long as good ol Ezmond can find where your soul be hiding, he won't have any big issue sticking it right back in its place for ya there!"
Taking him by the hand, Ezmond leads Bob out of the library in search of his soul, and it sure is a pleasant surprise to see the house isn't all bent out of shape no more!
Chislle had wandered into the room with Betty and Ezmond inside as they were slinging spells and other things that could be called spells but were not. She initially had absolutely no reason to stay inside, being very much still full of rage while on her little mission. Even when she saw Betty move about she felt no reason to go over to her and greet her. However before she could wander over to the next door to continue her endless march through the house, a bolt of magic headed straight for her, having missed it's intended target when they dodged out of the way.
As soon as Chisille was struck, she felt a wave of magic wash through her. The feelings she had been forced to feel or abandon due to both the influence of the order and Revel's fearless spell were gracefully dispelled from her mind. Her true emotions had some trouble filling the void that was left inside her as she stopped still at the entrance to the room. At first, she didn't know what to feel. All she could do was stand there while Betty furiously banished her father from the room.
Then the fatigue of her actions set in. The pain she was feeling finally being felt, both physically and emotionally. Slowly and shakily she rose a front paw and looked down at it, covered in the blood of the people she had attacked. Sure she was used to killing various creatures in the wild to survive, but killing someone in cold blood, even if it wasn't really her fault, filled her with guilt.
The guilt then turned into worry over what all the others would think when Faux returned to them, telling them all about what he had seen her do to poor Fin. The worry turned into fear when she figured they would all be incredibly furious and attempt to get their revenge for what she had done. There was no way she was going to be able to convince them that it wasn't her fault she did what she did.
The feelings piled up in her system, the pain and the tiredness causing her to be unable to continue standing as it overwhelmed her. She collapsed to the floor, groaning when she hit the ground as Betty rushed to her aid after yelling out something that she hadn't listened to. Suddenly she was being grabbed and pulled towards the farm girl, brought into an embrace while being gently rocked about in her arms. She made no objections at all to this, being too consumed by her situation instead.
"What have I... done..." she muttered as she felt the darkness swirl about within her before it finally took her away from the waking world. Betty felt her go limp as she passed out in her arms.
As Chisille succumbs to sleep, Betty only then notices the strange presence in the room. That which had been expelled from Chisille, is now quietly standing nearby.
The entity can be seen as obscurely human; having no eyes, no nose, no fingers, no distinctive features aside that of its hazy humanoid form. Its entire compositions appears to be like that of translucent grey mist, fused with a loose network of thin scarlet veins.
Retaining its silence, it raises one arm in a slighted and dubious endeavor to regard the dragon in Betty’s arms.
Betty thinks poor little Chissy died for a second, but then when she hears her all kinda breathing like a someone just sleeping, she feel an enormous amount of relief. So she keeps on rocking her gently in her lap and humming soft lullabies and other calming tunes that might help her stay asleep. Maybe lil bub would be fortunate enough to have nice dreams or something like that.
But gosh dammit! When Betty notices the dark freakazoid misty man standing there and pointing at her poor little dragon friend, she is filled completely with rage, so much so that she feels like she’s gonna explode! But not wanting to disturb Chissy, she doesn’t get up to face the presence or anything like that. She just lifts one arm and points back at the freak while she whispers really quiet like, being really careful not to wake up Chissy, and say’n;
“Ohhhh…. No… You… Don’t…!”
Now, it must have been all the excitement of what happened over the last hour or so, combined with that anger so big she ain’t never felt anything like it before, that caused all the suppressed power inside Betty to wake up and smell the coffee! Because right there and then, while pointing at that freakazoid fella, a long line of something, kinda like a burning hot length of barbed wire from back on the farm, shot out from Betty’s finger. That baking hot line of barbed wires then spun faster than you can shake a stick as it wrapped itself around that freakazoind and tightened its grip, causing the freak to burst into flames and disappear in a puff of smoke! Luckily enough, the whole thing happened really quiet like as well, so lil Chissy didn’t get woken up.
“So, how do like them apples?!” Betty whispered.
After that, Betty kept rocking her lil baby dragon in her arms while humming sweet melodies to help her keep sleeping.
Bob doesn't seem to acknowledge Ezmond's arrival, he just keeping moving his legs as if trying to walk through the wall.
Back down in the library, Ezmond introduces himself to the strange guy trying to walk through the wall, but not getting any response he walks on over and taps the weirdo on the shoulder.
“Well, excuse me, young man, but I don’t really see the point of what you might be doing there. By the way, your long johns are all burnt and your bum crack is showing. Really might wanna find some new clothes if you don’t mind my humble opinion at all.”
Ariel figured he better take Betty's advice and make a break for it while he could. Using a rhinoceros as a launching pad and his wings for an extra boost, he flew across the room, flipping in a kind of sideways somersault about half way to plant a quick kiss on Betty's cheek while passing by. On the other side of the room he hit the floor running while calling back 'You were great!' and simultaneously opening the door. He then entered the basement where he kept up the pace, ascending the stair on the other side and through the next door into the library. Not bothering to stop for a formal introduction, but said a quick hello to a strange man wandering aimlessly in burnt long johns before exiting the next door to see Chisille ravaging Renard - who was for some reason now dressed in a golden coat - and some other guy laying bleeding on the floor. It was quite a bloody mess to say the least, but Ariel didn't have time to stop and ask questions. Taking another leap, he managed to say 'Hi' to both Chisille and Renard as he flew by overhead, down the stairs, and out the next door.
Without even looking back at what she had done, Chisille slinks through the open door and with a flick of her tail, she was gone from the room Faux was in and back in the lounge room. Momentarily looking over to nest she had previously made, she coughed from the smoke she had inhaled while kept up her heavy breathing from all the activity she had to do in just a short amount of time. At this point, all the things that had been happening to her started to take their toll on her, slowing her down.
Her claws, mouth and tail spike were all stained red with the blood of others. Some parts of her back and sides were dully aching from where she had been hit hard and small red circles dotted the ground behind her as she walked. Her tail was still bleeding.
Unfortunately the drive of rage still forced her to go on anyway, so after a quick sniff of the room, she huffed and walked over to the next door in her way. She reached up to the next door's handle and pulled it, ready to begin her search through the rooms all over again. Sooner or later through many doors, she ended up encountering the bedroom where Ezmond and Betty were, along with whatever other things were there.
After Ariel does his implausible twisty duda thing in the air kissing Betty on his way out the bedroom, a whole lota commotion takes place between Betty and Ezmond - Spells are being cast and all sorts of mumbo jumbo is just being shot out all over the place. The whole thing is just so gosh darn nasty that all the animals start running around scared and hollering and stuff. So at one point Betty casts a spell she ain't never done before, and all the animals end up outside. Now there's a whole bunch of animals from all around the world running free in the streets of Waise.
Like someone might suspect, Ezmond was going pretty easy on Betty because she wasn't as powerful as he was, and because she was his daughter he really didn't want to kill her, even though he really wanted to... IF THAT MAKES ANY SENSE! Anyway, eventually, being that Ezmond had it in his head that Betty had lost her mind because of her love for Ariel, he decides to whip up an old 'Mind Stabilization' spell. Now as you might expect, this spell is designed to snap anyone out whatever crazy frame of mind they are in and make them think normally again. But wouldn't you gosh darn well know it to be truth - when Ezmond cast that spell at Betty, Betty dived out of the way and the spell hit little Chissy when she entered the room right at that moment!
When the spell hit Chissy, it had no choice but to expel whatever was possessing her so that Chissy could get back to her normal way of thinking. And just like that, whatever Order freak influence was inside of her was cast out and Chissy came back to her senses again.
But that isn't all! When Betty picks herself up off the floor and sees her little dragon friend standing their all bruised and bleeding, she almost has a blazing fit! Thinking for a split second that Ezmond caused the injuries, Betty throws another one of them spells at Ezmond, like the one she used on the animals earlier, and just like that Ezmond wasn't in the room anymore! He was standing in the Library instead.
Meanwhile back in the bedroom, Betty is screaming at the top of her lungs because of the mess that her little baby dragon is in.
"WHO IN ALL OF GOSH DARN TARNATIONS HURT MY LITTLE BABY DRAGON! YOU'RE GONNA PAY FOR THIS!"
Right after yelling that, and a bunch of other stuff I'm not allowed to say, Betty runs over to Chissy and gets down on the floor beside her and, whether she likes it or not, she pulls that dragon into her lap and cradles her in her arms like a big ol baby, rocking her back and forth and telling her everything is gonna be ok in a really soothing voice.
Back down in the library, Ezmond sees a very strange man with his face buried in the corner of the room.
When Ezmond enters unannounced, Ariel panics, naturally. But he really can't think of any reasonable or believable excuse to get him out of the trouble he just found himself in. While Ezmond is yelling, Ariel struggles to put on his pants, only managing to get one leg in before Ezmond fired the red pulse at him. Using his wings for a little extra boost, he launches himself across the room and takes cover behind a couple of rhinoceros's.
"I'm sorry!" He yells out and finishes doing up his pants, "I'm a weak, weak angel and just couldn't resist kissing your beautiful daughter!" As he finished talking he realizes his choice of apology probably didn't help his cause at all.
Betty finally finds something say!
"Daddy, stop! Don't hurt Ariel - don't ya know it's bad luck to kill an angel!"
"Well hot diggity dang!" Ezmond yells back at Betty in no polite way whatsoever; "You're in this place for less than a New York minute and already you're gallivanting about with all them boys in town! Now you listen here, young lady, I didn't raise my darling daughter to be some floozy woozy night walker! I'm taking care of this here good for nothing hot rod rejection of our good lord, and them I'm taking you all the way home to spank you till you blister!"
Betty screams! "Gosh dammit all anyway on a perfectly fine Sunday morning, Daddy - I'm not do'n noth'n with all the gosh darn boys in town, it's just this one angel, I swear upon my own grave! Why you always gotta go and do this to all my boyfriends anyhow??"
Then! As Ezmond turns to shoot another blast at the Rhinoceroses sheltering Ariel, Betty launches her own spell at Ezmond. As Ezmond is ducking for cover, not wanting to be turned into a turtle or something like that, Betty yells out for Ariel run!
"I've got ya covered, baby! Save your hot butt while you still can!"
OOC: Can I wake up soon? Twould be nice to interact again.
Arin wakes up inside some damp and dark place. It smells a lot like rotting fruit and timber. He’s curled up on his side and can’t get up because it’s just too gosh darn cramped in there. Outside of where he is he can hear some familiar laughing, the deranged laughter he had heard coming from the furry little men he had seen before he got shot with a bunch of poisoned needles and passed out. The laughter is all broken up by voices in some other weird language, probably the little furry men making jokes about all the fun they are having right now.
Before too long, Arin hears a loud wack on the outside of the container he’s in. After that he feels himself moving away from the laughing voices as he starts rolling over and over with the container he is in, and that’s when Arin realizes he must be trapped inside a barrel and rolling down a hill or something like that.
The speed of his rolling gets faster and faster with the sound of the wood from the barrel knocking around pretty loud against the ground outside. Pretty soon he’s rolling so fast that he’s feeling kinda sick then, all of a sudden, the barrel feels like it hit a sharp gradient in the ground and the next Arin feels is the sensation of butterflies in his stomach as he must be flying through the air. He must be in the air for a gosh darn good half a minute before the barrel touches down at its destination with mighty hard crash. The Barrel busts open on impact and leaves Arin sprawled out all over the ground next to some building. It looks like a giant house with piggy pink force fields sealing the windows and the doors. In the far away distance he can still hear the lunatic little fury men laughing, but they’re too far away to be seen in the night!
Ezmond keeps on walking through the house looking for his darling little Betty, trying to find the sound of the animal noise he can still hear hollering, but no matter what he does, he just can’t seem to find his way.
Getting all frustrated and stuff, he decides to use a spell that opens up a gateway to the room his little girl is in. When he steps on out of the gate, he finds his little darling girl laying on a bed with (beside) some guy he ain’t even never seen before. The rest of the room is full of very happy animals!
“What in the friggen gosh darn tarnation is going on around here, young lady??” He yells at Betty, and look’n at Ariel right after that, he yells; “And who in all of heck are you, and just what do you think you’ve been doing with my gosh darn darling Betty, Mr. Man??”
He’s sounding pretty angry and even takes off his straw hat to prepare a spell to strike poor Ariel into the next universe over or something. When Betty realises her daddy has just walked in the room, she jump to her feet all flustered and stuff and for the first time in her life, Betty doesn’t even know what to say.
The next thing Ariel knows is Ezmond shooting some big old angry red pulse of light at him!!!
Fin looked groggily at the little furry person, because anything that was asking a question had to at least be slightly sentient. Ignoring the pain, he tried to think on what it was asking. He didn't know the- *OW* -Language, but he was- *OW* -Pretty sure that it may have- *OW* -been some form of- *OW* -Elvish.
Clearing his throat, he tried to give an answer to the little furry person. "Excuse me, but do you happen to speak the King's English? I don't know your language."
The fuzzy little fella just kinda stared all blank like at Fin after he responds, then suddenly he breaks out in laughter. Once again, this little falla’s laugh sounds like the cackle of a deranged psychopath. As he’s laughing he’s holding his belly and jumping all around the room, he even takes a bit of time to roll around on the floor really enjoying himself a lot. After a while he gets up and sighs like might be tired now, then he walks on up the stairs and out of the basement. From up in the main part of the house, Fin can hear him say something to the other furry fella’s that must have been waiting for him up there, then the whole lot of them break out in laughter as well. Fin just can’t do anything but listen to their crazy laugh fading into the distance as they leave the house. A loud slam of the front door is the last he hears of them.
Fin is all on his own, strung up by his feet from the roof in some basement somewhere.
Back at the mansion! Ezmond is pretty gosh darn frustrated because he just can’t navigate his way successfully through the mansion in search of his darling little Betty. At one point he finds himself in the cellar with some weird dazed out guy in panamas who just keeps walking into walls and stuff. Eventually Ezmond decides he has had a gosh darn nough of all this being lost business and needs to come up with a plan to get through this maze.
0
I suppose I'll just trample that very misunderstood Jason to death or something like that.
0
The almost always constant and somehow awkward smile of Betty's suddenly droops a little when that big hunk a man tells her she's pregnant. She let's out a itty-bitty squeak like a mouse getting caught eating cheese off the dinner table, then rolls her eyes on up to the ceiling having herself only two things to immediately say about the matter. First, "That'll explain the seedy feeling I've been having." and second, "How the gosh darn hell am I gonna explain this to my daddy...?"
After letting out a good ol long sigh, she turns her eyes over to Jack, even though he seems rather occupied in all manner of conversation at this present time. "How was I supposed to know humans and angels were compatible like that anyway?"
In the face of all this shocking information, she barely even noticed when her cute little dragon friend left their company and went venturing off somewhere else in the mansion. She was just going to have to catch up to Chissy later.
Ezmond sure is a little taken aback, first by that gosh darn gun pointed right at his head, then by the ushering of Renard's when he drags him on into that room. He isn't really rattled none at all though, he'd sure seen more threatening things than that in his long life of wizardry. Adjusting is big ol straw hat after it was knocked askew in all the hubbub, he places his hands quick smart on his hips to reply to Renard -
"Now it's clear to me you haven't had none too many dealings with them demon variety, young man, but in my very own experience it has been proven the spiritual world don't see time as we do. Time as we know it has a lot less to do with this than you might therefore think! It might be hard for you to fathom being a primitive sort of individual, but I do come from a future time when guns be as common as a new episode of a sitcom on the idiot tube, and I don't doubt that there demon understands that about me as well. But just so as you know right now, Demons don't need to be from no future time to know how future times work. Now, I don't at all expect you to understand a whole great deal of what I just told you, but you sure are right about one gosh darn thing; that there demon is certain a lunatic as ever I've seen one - that is to say any man, woman, child - or in this case a hot diggity damn demon, is gonna get a little antsy when threatening their right to survive!"
Just when Ezmond is finished saying his piece and taking a deep breath to say even more, he's rudely interrupted by the demon calling out from the hall, apparently having a conversation with Ariel's soul. Before too long this conversation gets a little over heated and the gun finally let's loose. The sound of the gun fire makes Ezmond jump just a little, especially when he sees that slug penetrate the timber of the door frame right there in front of him. Following that, a little scuffle ensues and that a big ol gust of wind, not at all doubtful to be the spirit of the demon, rushes into the room and bowls Ezmond right off his feet. He tumbles a few time on the floor then gets to his feet to see young Renard pinned to the ceiling by force of that desperate demon.
"Now you just hold on there, young man!" Ezmond shares his advice with Renard, "You just fight that demons will to take your body now, it can only last so long outside of a body before it needs to return to hell...." Ezmond gives his chin a good thoughtful scratch. "Well, at least that's how I understand the matter anyway. Perhaps you might wanna think about say'n a prayer about now, if you haven't already started doing so already!"
Ezmond starts walking toward Renard now, speaking some unrecognizable language in the form of a chant, and while he's doing this small pockets start opening up in the air around the room, and out of these pockets shine rays of white light in Renard's very direction.
All them charging animals don't feel too bothered to continue their pursuit of them hounds once they'd gone off running with their tails between their legs. All them animals eyes turned to the big void up the street as it disappeared to reveal a mansion set in the side of the plateau. Once they had their fill of seeing that particular curios sight, all their eyes then turn to the frightened little bird girl, Gwen, instead. Now, under normal circumstances, them farm animals wouldn't have given a second thought to that girl being dragged off like she was, but being as they were under a spell Ezmond had placed on them, they looked none to kindly on what was happening to her. All but one of them animals now start running after Gwen, intent on stopping whatever invisible person was taking her against her will.
The one animal that didn't follow with the others was a big ol Bull named Ben, who just so happened to notice Aella sneaking around close by. That big ol bully strut on up to the girl carrying a bow in her hand and let out a big ol huff of hot air from his flared nostrils. He then stomped one of his front hooves on the ground real hard to show he meant business, and then asked her his pressing question -
"Whooooo... arrrrrre..... Youuuuuuu?"
As the words came out of his mouth, his big nose came right up close to Aella's face, eyes all cross-eyed and glaring at her for a prompt answer.
0
"I sure do hope my livestock are okay back home." Ezmond tells his new, funny little friend as he follows him through the door with Ariel's sword floating after them. "Coming here, I wasn't none too little worried about how they'd cope if I just so happened to take too long returning to them all. I hot diggity damn as heck didn't want them to commence to starving in my absence - that would be more than terrible! So I just went on ahead and put a spell on all them animals before I left. Nothing too fancy, mind you, but they should be able to take care of themselves without me for a while, at least. Gosh darn it, sure do hope that spell worked, I wouldn't want anything to happen to them while I'm away! Just can't help to worry about them, though, no sir!"
Ezmond kept on to rambling like a real motormouth about his farm and all his fine animals, while Renard, himself and the ghost of Ariel moved on ahead in search of Ariel's body.
While Gwen is flapping them arms and whistling with those there wolves chasing after her, it just so happens a fine looking cow steps out of thin air about thirty yards ahead! That cow is then followed by another then another, and then some horses and pigs and sheep too! Before she knows it, there's a whole gosh darn huge herd of farm animals stampeding up the street towards her!
Now, this over 200 strong herd of ungulates soon become none too little aware of Gwen and them wolves chasing her down. They all seem mighty concerned about it too and start hollering at the top of their lungs, "Wolf-wolf-wolf!". But they don't turn tail and run, no sir! They keep on running and aiming to trample them wolves into the ground!
Meanwhile! The cow who appeared first, steps in front of Gwen to block her path, giving that bird girl a big ol eyeballing, and speaks - "haaave moooooo seeeen Beeeeeeetttyyyyyyyyyyy? Eeeeeeezmoooooond?" It could be determined that that cow is looking for two people who go by the names of Betty and Ezmond!
Betty's face is all kinda screwed up like someone severely constipated, listening to big ol Boris's rant. Then when Chissy has a breakdown in response to Boris, Betty just kinda backs away and rolls her eyes. She sure as heck feels sorry for both those guys, but it's perfectly obvious that she had better leave the situation well and truly alone for now! Ain't no use in poking at a bee hive with a stick!
Betty edges her way from the freaky little dragon and Approaches Jack. Just so happens he might be the most stable person around at that time, and not too bad looking in a I'll-kill-you-if-you-look-at-me-wrong kinda way. As soon as he finishes chatting with the old nut job, Silas, she gives Jack a big and somewhat uncomfortable smile.
"So uh... ummmm.... How ya do'n there, stranger? What brings a knight in shining armor to nasty ol place like this?"
But wouldn't you know it! Before or maybe after Jack has time to reply (and I sure am hoping he does) that Vernon fella shows up again, making his big ol tough guy speech about helping everyone fight the threat around town!
Betty gives Jack a little nudge with her elbow. "Is it just me, or is that guy special? He sure is a cutie, I'll give him that much for certain!"
(I'll be back on discord as soon as I can - sorry! Luv ya's to bits!)
0
Ezmond almost had himself some sort of heart failure when Ariels swords came flying at him and you can imagine his relief when the point of blade came to a stop just a fleas lick from his chest. He swiped that ol straw hat from his head as a matter of respectful thanksgiving and stretched out his hand to greet Renard.
“You can call me Ezmond!” He introduces himself with a mighty fine smile; “The greatest wizard who ever lived – And hot diggity damn, I hereby stand in your debt! If an exorcism is what ya want, then by golly I'm your man!”
Betty couldn’t do or say all that much about anything at all for the remaining journey to the hallway. She kept her disloyal trap shut and didn’t say a gosh word as the others became acquainted with each other, and she only just found herself mighty dazzled by Vernon's cool intervention in regards to Boris and little Chissy.
As much as Betty hated to admit it, this Vernon character was looking more attractive by the minute, and what with all his charismatic and spellbinding words, she just couldn’t help but feel a little more than enamored by the creepy man. As he walked on off towards dining room, she finally founds the words ‘Yes sir!’ to say as she watched his fine butt strut its stuff down the hall until it disappeared around the corner.
A cows hot diggity damn purpose!
It’s not always easy being a cow! To be totally honest, a cow’s life can be very strenuous. Now that’s not to say the everyday routine of getting milked and all that fatten-me-up grazing out there in the field doesn’t have its calming perks, but the fact of the matter remains that the constant, nagging fear that at any moment they could be taken away to some slaughterhouse tends to get a gosh darn cow a little stressed out. So, let it be known right now, when the nice ol farmers in charge of a cows care, and who are also a cows sole sense of any security they may have to hold into in life suddenly disappear one day, all this stress gets a little too much to handle. It’s enough to make an udder sore and a fine glass of milk real sour.
The trouble all started a few days back when their favorite little farm girl, Betty, vanished without a trace. Now, cows ain’t stupid and after a little moo-moo chatter among themselves it was optimistically decided that Betty must have just gone off to some friends place to sleep over or something like that, but when the big farm boss, Ezmond, went and got himself vanished a day or two after that, well, the cows lost all sense stability! A whole big uproar took place and Daisy May, the most respected of all the gosh darn cows on the entire farm, decided that the best thing to do in this situation was to hold a meeting in the barn. Clearly.
It wasn’t just the cows and sexy stud bulls that turned up for this meeting - every gosh darn sheep, goat, pig and horse turned up for the meeting as well, each and every one of em wanting their own say on the matter heard. After a whole lotta discussion, debate and careful reasoning, a mutual decision among all them ungulate’s was made: If their lives were to return to a less stressful level, they had to find a way to reach Betty and Ezmond and bring em on back to the farm. Pretty hot diggity damn soon a plan of action was set into motion!
Fences were broken and crops were trampled as the 300 odd ungulate members of the committee stampeded their way to the house where they broke down the front door and started their rampaging search for clues as to where Betty and Ezmond might have gone off to. Pretty soon, after the house was almost demolished, Ezmond’s wizard lab was found in the basement, and right smack dab in the center of that room an open portal was discovered. Now, you might be think’n that cow, or even less a cute lil piggy, might not even know what a portal is, but you should never underestimates an animal’s intelligence. It was a widely known fact, after all - if not just hearsay and rumor - that Ezmond dabbled in a bit of magic now and then, so it didn’t take too long for them farm dwelling intellects to surmise that this portal might have just been the clue they’d all been looking for.
After sucking up their courage, most of them feeling kinda anxious to find out what weird-butt adventure awaited them on the side, Daisy May led her committee; all them farm animals filing one by one through the gosh darn portal….
1
Ezmond sure is glad Bob has his soul back, be he sure ain't none too pleased to see the complications. The appearance of Herman in Trixie's body was more than just a little troubling, and made him wonder what other yet unseen effects the spell had on the people around the place. He kinda feels regret for persisting with the spell when he knew something was hot diggity wrong. While Jack and Annie and the others are being all skeptical about one another, Ezmond just kinda stands around analyzing everyone's behavior to see if he can't pick up on where the previous occupant of Bob's body snuck off to. He had a feeling this occupant was one of a demonic kind, and it wouldn't have gone too far since demons don't like traveling great distances in their search for another body and all that sort of stuff.
He also feels a little gosh darn reluctant to approach Ei when she arrives in all that smoke. He'd had his fair share of dealing with them mysterious magic kind before, and most of them turned out to be bad news in the end. So he just kinda held his tongue and figured she'd come on over and introduce herself if she really wanted to get to know him.
But then he wasn't too happy to see that Annie girl making a mockery of decency either, he wanted to give her a good piece of her mind, but on account of those other matters of importance going round in his head, he held his tongue on that one too.
But then it happened! the big ol crack from the next room, followed by that loud beastly yell, which kinda gave Ezmond some indication of where that Demon went off too. Sounded like whoever was in the next room was encountering a bit of trouble for themselves. Now since he was feeling all responsible for setting the Demon free of its previous spell, he went on ahead and opened the door to the next next room, which just so happened to be the kitchen. Just as the door opened, he saw a great ol beastly creature charging at some poor little man in a golden cape. Didn't seem to Ezmond like that little man had much of chance. Ezmond so too saw some other guy with wings, and judging by the look in that guys eyes, Ezmond knew exactly where that demon soul had gone!
First things first though! Ezmond had to stop that little man from getting hurt by that big beastly thing with a sword stuck in its neck, so without even a gosh darn second to lose, he raised both hands open and yelled out, STOP! -
Instantaneously, the charging beast was frozen in its tracks, and was the only one effected by the spell. He looks at the Demon possessed man and the other golden cloaked man down on his knees and asked them straight up:
"What in gosh darn tarnation is going on around here??"
.....................................................................................................................................................................................
"Well sure! We could use all the help we can get!" Betty replies as her and little Chissy start following. "Sure a strong handsome son of a gun like yourself will come into use."
Betty then closes her mouth, realizing what the hell she just said to Vernon. WHY YOU GO AND CALL HIM HANDSOME FOR FOR YOU IDIOT! FIRST THE ANGEL AND NOW SOME VERY SUAVE OLD MAN - GOSH DAMN IT! WHY YOU GOTTA BE SO DAMN EASY ANYWAY! YOU HAVE ARIEL NOW, SO STOP LOOK'N AT THIS OLD MANS PERFECT BUTT!
Betty pulls her eyes off Vernon and looks down at Chissy when she asked the question. Her face is all kinda distorted because she's trying not to have all them thoughts about the old man!
"A physician? Oh - bub, We call them doctors back where I come from. Someone who deals with medicine and helps heal people. But I kinda agree with Yumon - I mean Vernon! You should really probably see a doctor or something like that."
Betty then addresses Vernon again, but tries real gosh darn hard not to look at his suave posture strutting its stuff down the hallway.
"So where'd you say we were going, you not so good look'n man? And don't go getting any funny ideas either, buddy - I've already got myself a man!"
Just then they hear some big old beastly voice yell out the word No from somewhere else in the mansion.
"Let me guess, we're headed to where all that 'I'm gonna damn well die right now' noise is coming from. Am I right or am I right?"
0
While Ezmond continues rattling off a whole bunch of unknown words to Buttons the kitten, he kinda got distracted by a burly oaf of a man who magically appeared in the hallway covered in flames and knocked over that weird Silas character! Ezmond, not look'n in the slightest bit happy about another interruption, waits for the brouhaha to settle down before he continues. Naturally, he had to start the ritual all over again, beginning with the words "WOULD YA ALL STOP YOUR HOT DIGGILY DAMN INTERUPTIONS ALREADY - GOSH DAMN IT ALL TO HELL!"
ANYWAY, after starting again, it doesn't take too long before the words Ezmond's say'n to Buttons begin taking effect. Bob starts kicking and jerking around harder than ever, no gosh darn doubt proving to be a handful for poor Jack - especially after being butted in the face! But at this point Buttons might be feeling a little more than just tingly all over, he might even feel like his fury little skin is about to rip open as his soul is being ushered into Bob. But wouldn't ya know it! Another problem seems to be taking place. Ezmond, even though he concentrating on the ritual and all that, looks like he's a little stressed out, like something bad is happening. But he doesn't stop doing his thing. Soon enough, and no doubt to everyone's surprise, a big ol explosion of light happens. The blast is powerful enough throw everyone in the hallway off their feet!
The ritual has ended, but it didn't finish up the Ezmond had planned. Something went wrong!
No longer having Buttons in his hands, Ezmond sits up on the floor after the explosion and looks around to see everyone is ok, but more specifically to check on Bob and Buttons. As one wouldn't at all expect, Bobs body had already been inhabited by something other than a human soul, hence the gosh damn problem. The explosion wasn't meant to happen, and because of all that, Ezmond has no idea how things might have turned out.
Betty keeps her hands smartly on his hips while Vernon gets around to answering her question. When he finally gets around to doing just that, Betty holds out her hand for some unknown god forsaken reason to shake Vernon's. Assuming that Vernon shakes her hand, she goes ahead and introduces herself as well.
"My name is Betty, and this here dear friend of mine is Chissy. Now Chissy here is a little shy and has been through a whole gosh darn lot these last few days and I'm aiming to put a stop to it. Seems to me like you're not one of the creeps causing these problems, but if you have any information that might help us out, any information would be appreciated!"
Just then a big ol explosion is heard in another part of the mansion! Trying to ignore the noise, Betty asks Vernon again;
"In case you haven't noticed, which I gosh darn to heck think you have, there's a whole lot of weird crap going on around this town. Now you're obviously someone tough enough to handle yourself! So are ya gonna go ahead and help us or not?"
0
Ezmond is quite gosh darn to heck annoyed about this here interruption! Now there ain't no way he can go and stick Buttons' soul back in his human body with all this going on. When he turns on around and sees Annie, he is even more downright annoyed by her presentation -
"Well holy bucket in a dry well, young lady - Now I don't know who you are or just who your lover is by chance, but I don't believe you remembered to put your clothes on before coming on out here. And I also don't at all think your daddy would be none too pleased to find out you're prancing around like that. So why don't you go on back to where you came from and put some gosh darn clothes on. I gotta say right now I have a good mind to put ya over my knee and give you a good hiding! Now, off with you, child, go get yourself all presentable like - I'm assuming you don't live in a barn like a cow and I don't believe you should be acting like an animal!"
Turning on back to Jack, he says; "Now you just hold that body as still as you can, and I'll go on ahead and start doing my thing!"
Ezmond starts the procedure by picking up Buttons in both hands with arms outstretched, looking deep into them kitty eyes while chanting some strange dialect. As he's doing this, Bob's body starts to seizure and kick violently.
"Now you just hold him still!" Ezmond tell Jack again. "Don't let him get away on ya there!"
...........................................................................................................................................................................................
Betty and Chissy leave the bedroom, and Betty is about to release all fury on them two monsters fighting in the hallway when they suddenly stop fighting and one of them disappears through a wall and runs away or something. A little while after that Annie girl can be heard laughing. Then, which was really just gosh darn strange, the monster left in the hallway changed into the form of a man. But he wasn't any man Betty had ever seen before.
"You ever seen this gosh darn freak before?" She asks Chissy.
Then turning back to the freaky shape shifting man, she puts her hands smartly on her hips and demands some answers; "Now you hold on just one gosh darn minute there! You better go ahead and tell us just who you are and explain just what the heck is going on around here - or me and my cute little friend here are gonna open up a big ol can of whoop butt on ya!"
0
Betty sure is torn apart by Chissy's sad story. She sure ain't non too happy about someone taking control of her lil baby dragon, no sire, not one little bit at all! While Chissy is making an account of the events, Betty's lip if trembling with hurt, maybe a lil tear well up there in her eye as well and all that. After she finishes talking, Betty moves real slow so Chissy doesn't cower away and uses both hands to gently pat her cheeks and give her chin a good soothing scratch.
"Now just you hold on there, little one," Betty tells her in a real soft tone; "don't go pay'n too much attention to dreams, they don't usually mean all the stuff they seem to go on about. One thing I know for certain is that most dreams have alternative meanings, that's if they have any meaning at all to begin with. But it kinda looks like thinking about that is a problem for you, so maybe when you feel like it, you can share with ol Betty more details about that dream."
Betty leans in real slow and gives Chissy an affectionate kiss on her blood stained snout and says; "There ain't no one in this town gonna be ganging up on my Chissy for things outa her control. I'm gonna be making gosh darn certain of that, so let me tell ya that much right now. And just so as you know, my little cutie, I'm assuming it's them same guys controlling your mind like yesterday, right? Well I think you and me have some searching to do. Number one; We gotta go find that boy and set the truth straight before he goes around hollering all kinda bad stuff about you to the others. And don't you go get'n all afraid either, because if anyone tries attacking you, they're gonna have to get through me first."
Betty gets up, puts her hands smartly on her hips and gives Chissy a big ol confident smile. "You're gonna have to clean all that blood off your darling lil face first!
Vengeance may be best served cold, but I ain't no patient farm girl, and God only knows how long it will be before they try something like that on you again. So after setting that boy straight about the truth behind why you did all that stuff, how about you and me go hunting down them guys who did all that bad stuff to your brain, and give em a piece of ol Betty's cranky mind?"
Ezmond Shakes Jack's hand and is all kinda pleased to meet the others too, except that freaky purple girl who didn't even acknowledge him. Maybe she's stuck up royalty or something like that. But at least Jack had the courtesy of introducing her anyway, for the fat lotta good it did! Ezmond on the other hand thinks Jack is quite the fine gentleman adventurer and well mannered, which goes a long way in Ezmond's book, because he's old school folk, and all that modern day punk disrespectful stuff really gets to him. He'd turned more than one teen into a turnip back in his own time and world. Silas seems like a friggen crazy old man in serious need of a haircut, but Ezmond Kinda likes him anyway. He also kinda smells a lot! Buttons is a different kettle of fish altogether. He sure is a cute kitten, but has a kinda snide mouth on him, but at the same time kinda funny, at least that's what Ezmond supposes.
After the quaint introduction, Ezmond puts his hat back on his head and asks Jack to take hold of Bob's hand so he doesn't go wandering off while he checks on his soul holding up in Buttons. Assuming that Jack don't mind doing that at all, Ezmond then bends on down and looks into the kittens eyes for what seems like an uncomfortably long time, after which he draws his conclusion, standing back up all smart like and shifting his hat a few times.
"Well now there, lil kitten man! No need to worry about a thing now, Ezmond is the best gosh darn Wizard to ever exist on the planet Earth, which is a place you probably haven't heard of! But in any huckering place, I'm ain't gonna have any problem getting that soul there back in your human body, no sir! So how about we get started?"
He looks at Jack and asks if it's ok if he keeps holding Bob's hand through the procedure. He also asks the other two, Trixie and Silas, to step back while the procedure takes place. Last thing Ezmond wants is something unexpected to go wrong - you can never be too careful with soul transference magic!
0
Betty wakes up from all the gosh darn racket going on in the mansion. She ain't happy cuz she was having a perfectly good beaver's at a picnic dream! Chissy is still asleep for the time being, but that probably ain't gonna last since Betty gets on up and opens the door to the bedroom and yells at them two monstrosities that are now fighting it out in the hallway just outside. The two monsters were pretty gosh darn scary to look at, but Betty didn't really care!
"KEEP THE GOSH DARN MOTHER FRIG'N RACKET DOWN YOU GOOD FOR NOTH'N FREAKS - WE'RE TRYING TO GET SOME SLEEP IN HERE!!!!"
After that she slams the door and looks down at Chissy, who is probably more than likely awake at this point.
"Hey there lil sweetie! Why don't you go and tell your ol friend Betty what's been going on around here and how you got all them injuries. Because I gotta tell ya right this instant, someones gonna pay!"
She sits on down in front of Chissy all casual like and listens to her story.
Meanwhile! Ezmond is still guiding Bob down the hallways of the mansion in search of Bob's soul when the big ol noise starts up in the attic or something.
"This town sure has more than its fair share of the ol ruckus," He tells Bob; "Sure hope to the heavens my darling Betty is okay."
Just when he finishes say'n that, they turn a corner and find some old guy, a kitten, an adventurer and some purple woman standing around in the hallway gasbag'n. Think'n they all seem mostly harmless to look at at, he walks on up with Bob to introduce himself.
"Well, how all you folks do'n?" He asks, removing his big ol straw hat out of courtesy; "My name is Ezmond, and this here is an empty shell of a man I found wandering about in the library!"
0
While Chissy is having a not so pleasant dream, Betty rips off one of her sleeves and uses it to wrap around the injury on Chissy's tail to stop all that bleeding. COINCIDENTALLY, this just so happened to take place while that big ol angry Chissy in her dreams was clawing at the baby Chissy, so the sleeping Chissy didn't notice enough to actually wake up or anything.
A little while after that, by ways I can't even describe, Betty falls to sleep as well. So there they are, both of em lay'n on the floor sleep'n, the little dragon all wrapped up in Betty's arms.
Betty has a dream about a cute family of beavers having a picnic in a park.
Unfortunatley, Betty tends to snore real loud and talk in her sleep!
This is when Ezmond realizes there must be something really wrong with this really weird fella. Holding the mans head up, he takes a good long look into his eyes and discovers the problem!
"Well, gosh O my, and color me pink on Sunday, it would seem to me you have misplaced that soul of yours, young man! I ain't seen a case of a displaced soul for quite some many years, to be perfectly honest - But don't you go fretting now! Long as good ol Ezmond can find where your soul be hiding, he won't have any big issue sticking it right back in its place for ya there!"
Taking him by the hand, Ezmond leads Bob out of the library in search of his soul, and it sure is a pleasant surprise to see the house isn't all bent out of shape no more!
0
Betty thinks poor little Chissy died for a second, but then when she hears her all kinda breathing like a someone just sleeping, she feel an enormous amount of relief. So she keeps on rocking her gently in her lap and humming soft lullabies and other calming tunes that might help her stay asleep. Maybe lil bub would be fortunate enough to have nice dreams or something like that.
But gosh dammit! When Betty notices the dark freakazoid misty man standing there and pointing at her poor little dragon friend, she is filled completely with rage, so much so that she feels like she’s gonna explode! But not wanting to disturb Chissy, she doesn’t get up to face the presence or anything like that. She just lifts one arm and points back at the freak while she whispers really quiet like, being really careful not to wake up Chissy, and say’n;
“Ohhhh…. No… You… Don’t…!”
Now, it must have been all the excitement of what happened over the last hour or so, combined with that anger so big she ain’t never felt anything like it before, that caused all the suppressed power inside Betty to wake up and smell the coffee! Because right there and then, while pointing at that freakazoid fella, a long line of something, kinda like a burning hot length of barbed wire from back on the farm, shot out from Betty’s finger. That baking hot line of barbed wires then spun faster than you can shake a stick as it wrapped itself around that freakazoind and tightened its grip, causing the freak to burst into flames and disappear in a puff of smoke! Luckily enough, the whole thing happened really quiet like as well, so lil Chissy didn’t get woken up.
“So, how do like them apples?!” Betty whispered.
After that, Betty kept rocking her lil baby dragon in her arms while humming sweet melodies to help her keep sleeping.
Back down in the library, Ezmond introduces himself to the strange guy trying to walk through the wall, but not getting any response he walks on over and taps the weirdo on the shoulder.
“Well, excuse me, young man, but I don’t really see the point of what you might be doing there. By the way, your long johns are all burnt and your bum crack is showing. Really might wanna find some new clothes if you don’t mind my humble opinion at all.”
2
After Ariel does his implausible twisty duda thing in the air kissing Betty on his way out the bedroom, a whole lota commotion takes place between Betty and Ezmond - Spells are being cast and all sorts of mumbo jumbo is just being shot out all over the place. The whole thing is just so gosh darn nasty that all the animals start running around scared and hollering and stuff. So at one point Betty casts a spell she ain't never done before, and all the animals end up outside. Now there's a whole bunch of animals from all around the world running free in the streets of Waise.
Like someone might suspect, Ezmond was going pretty easy on Betty because she wasn't as powerful as he was, and because she was his daughter he really didn't want to kill her, even though he really wanted to... IF THAT MAKES ANY SENSE! Anyway, eventually, being that Ezmond had it in his head that Betty had lost her mind because of her love for Ariel, he decides to whip up an old 'Mind Stabilization' spell. Now as you might expect, this spell is designed to snap anyone out whatever crazy frame of mind they are in and make them think normally again. But wouldn't you gosh darn well know it to be truth - when Ezmond cast that spell at Betty, Betty dived out of the way and the spell hit little Chissy when she entered the room right at that moment!
When the spell hit Chissy, it had no choice but to expel whatever was possessing her so that Chissy could get back to her normal way of thinking. And just like that, whatever Order freak influence was inside of her was cast out and Chissy came back to her senses again.
But that isn't all! When Betty picks herself up off the floor and sees her little dragon friend standing their all bruised and bleeding, she almost has a blazing fit! Thinking for a split second that Ezmond caused the injuries, Betty throws another one of them spells at Ezmond, like the one she used on the animals earlier, and just like that Ezmond wasn't in the room anymore! He was standing in the Library instead.
Meanwhile back in the bedroom, Betty is screaming at the top of her lungs because of the mess that her little baby dragon is in.
"WHO IN ALL OF GOSH DARN TARNATIONS HURT MY LITTLE BABY DRAGON! YOU'RE GONNA PAY FOR THIS!"
Right after yelling that, and a bunch of other stuff I'm not allowed to say, Betty runs over to Chissy and gets down on the floor beside her and, whether she likes it or not, she pulls that dragon into her lap and cradles her in her arms like a big ol baby, rocking her back and forth and telling her everything is gonna be ok in a really soothing voice.
Back down in the library, Ezmond sees a very strange man with his face buried in the corner of the room.
1
Betty finally finds something say!
"Daddy, stop! Don't hurt Ariel - don't ya know it's bad luck to kill an angel!"
"Well hot diggity dang!" Ezmond yells back at Betty in no polite way whatsoever; "You're in this place for less than a New York minute and already you're gallivanting about with all them boys in town! Now you listen here, young lady, I didn't raise my darling daughter to be some floozy woozy night walker! I'm taking care of this here good for nothing hot rod rejection of our good lord, and them I'm taking you all the way home to spank you till you blister!"
Betty screams! "Gosh dammit all anyway on a perfectly fine Sunday morning, Daddy - I'm not do'n noth'n with all the gosh darn boys in town, it's just this one angel, I swear upon my own grave! Why you always gotta go and do this to all my boyfriends anyhow??"
Then! As Ezmond turns to shoot another blast at the Rhinoceroses sheltering Ariel, Betty launches her own spell at Ezmond. As Ezmond is ducking for cover, not wanting to be turned into a turtle or something like that, Betty yells out for Ariel run!
"I've got ya covered, baby! Save your hot butt while you still can!"
0
Arin wakes up inside some damp and dark place. It smells a lot like rotting fruit and timber. He’s curled up on his side and can’t get up because it’s just too gosh darn cramped in there. Outside of where he is he can hear some familiar laughing, the deranged laughter he had heard coming from the furry little men he had seen before he got shot with a bunch of poisoned needles and passed out. The laughter is all broken up by voices in some other weird language, probably the little furry men making jokes about all the fun they are having right now.
Before too long, Arin hears a loud wack on the outside of the container he’s in. After that he feels himself moving away from the laughing voices as he starts rolling over and over with the container he is in, and that’s when Arin realizes he must be trapped inside a barrel and rolling down a hill or something like that.
The speed of his rolling gets faster and faster with the sound of the wood from the barrel knocking around pretty loud against the ground outside. Pretty soon he’s rolling so fast that he’s feeling kinda sick then, all of a sudden, the barrel feels like it hit a sharp gradient in the ground and the next Arin feels is the sensation of butterflies in his stomach as he must be flying through the air. He must be in the air for a gosh darn good half a minute before the barrel touches down at its destination with mighty hard crash. The Barrel busts open on impact and leaves Arin sprawled out all over the ground next to some building. It looks like a giant house with piggy pink force fields sealing the windows and the doors. In the far away distance he can still hear the lunatic little fury men laughing, but they’re too far away to be seen in the night!
.................................................................................................................................................................................................
Ezmond keeps on walking through the house looking for his darling little Betty, trying to find the sound of the animal noise he can still hear hollering, but no matter what he does, he just can’t seem to find his way.
Getting all frustrated and stuff, he decides to use a spell that opens up a gateway to the room his little girl is in. When he steps on out of the gate, he finds his little darling girl laying on a bed with (beside) some guy he ain’t even never seen before. The rest of the room is full of very happy animals!
“What in the friggen gosh darn tarnation is going on around here, young lady??” He yells at Betty, and look’n at Ariel right after that, he yells; “And who in all of heck are you, and just what do you think you’ve been doing with my gosh darn darling Betty, Mr. Man??”
He’s sounding pretty angry and even takes off his straw hat to prepare a spell to strike poor Ariel into the next universe over or something. When Betty realises her daddy has just walked in the room, she jump to her feet all flustered and stuff and for the first time in her life, Betty doesn’t even know what to say.
The next thing Ariel knows is Ezmond shooting some big old angry red pulse of light at him!!!
0
Yeeeeaaaah. Be sure to leave your deposit in the charity box on your way out!
The fuzzy little fella just kinda stared all blank like at Fin after he responds, then suddenly he breaks out in laughter. Once again, this little falla’s laugh sounds like the cackle of a deranged psychopath. As he’s laughing he’s holding his belly and jumping all around the room, he even takes a bit of time to roll around on the floor really enjoying himself a lot. After a while he gets up and sighs like might be tired now, then he walks on up the stairs and out of the basement. From up in the main part of the house, Fin can hear him say something to the other furry fella’s that must have been waiting for him up there, then the whole lot of them break out in laughter as well. Fin just can’t do anything but listen to their crazy laugh fading into the distance as they leave the house. A loud slam of the front door is the last he hears of them.
Fin is all on his own, strung up by his feet from the roof in some basement somewhere.
.................................................................................................................................................................................................
Back at the mansion! Ezmond is pretty gosh darn frustrated because he just can’t navigate his way successfully through the mansion in search of his darling little Betty. At one point he finds himself in the cellar with some weird dazed out guy in panamas who just keeps walking into walls and stuff. Eventually Ezmond decides he has had a gosh darn nough of all this being lost business and needs to come up with a plan to get through this maze.
More about Ezmond’s plans later!