Garden Party

[Sweetcherrie]

Original "Hide and Seek" thread can be found here. In this thread you can also find the links to the stories and see who were in the different teams.

 

Haven't played but still want to come to the party? You're more than welcome to (as long as you bring a smile and preferably add to the chaos already created )

 

***

 

Sweetcherrie walks home from school with a scrap of paper in her hand looking somewhat sad and bumps into Appy on her skippyball

 

*Bounce* “Heya, why the sad face?” *bounce, stops bouncing for a moment*

 

Sweetcherrie pushes the paper under Appy's nose and sits down on the floor next to her. Appy turns the paper around in her hands a couple of time and then reads it.

 

“My teacher wasn't too happy with me, he said that there were some great stories, but..I haven't returned all the lost phrases,” Sweetcherrie says and sniffs.

 

Appy reads the paper again and pouts at Sweetcherrie, “But..but those that you found were good!”

 

Sweetcherrie sniffs again and looks at Appy, “true,” she replies, now showing a weak smile, “He did say that the ones found were really good.”

 

“Well then, he couldn't have given you that bad a mark!”

 

Sweetcherrie's face brightens a bit "No, it was ok, he's a nice teacher, and maybe next time will be better,”She says and is positively smiling now

 

Appy beams and gives the paper back, “I think you should be proud for finding these, I sure couldn't have,” Appy nods solemnly, “for sure!”

 

“But I didn't do it on my own, I had help from some nice people,” Sweetcherrie nods sagely as she says this.

 

“Yeah, we should thank them somehow, I guess.. they have been very helpful”

 

“Yeah, we could throw them a party!” Sweetcherrie says as she stands up from the floor.

 

“Great idea!” Appy says, points at the sky and bounces off, “To the Keep!” with a Sweetcherrie that’s feeling happier now following her.

 

At the garden of the Keep

 

Sweetcherrie dives in her cupboard, while Appy is shouting at some gnomes who have been drafted into helping to decora, “No no no! Those have to go ON the trees, not in them!”

 

Sweetcherrie re-emerges with some big bags of popcorn in her arms, and shakes her head, “That's what you get from letting gnomes help you.”

 

Sweetcherrie holds up the popcorn, “Do you think they like this?”

 

Appy runs around putting up tables and singing 'garden party garden party garden partay!" under her breath, and looks up when she hears Sweetcherrie asking a question, “For sure, can put them on the tables by the lake.”

 

Sweetcherrie walks of to the tables by the lake and looks back to see what else needs doing. Appy chases one of the gnomes who had gotten his hands on one of the table decoration and was wearing it as a hat now, “Give that back!”

Sweetcherrie keeps walking but shouts over her shoulder, “They also need the shiny stuff we promised-“ *blub*

 

Appy spins in mid-air after hearing the blub, “Sweet?” she looks around, “Where are you?”

 

Sweetcherrie dives up again with her hair full of waterplants and Appy bursts out in laughter at that sight.

 

Sweetcherrie spits out a small fountain of water, “I guess this popcorn will not be edible anymore,” She says and grins.

 

Appy still giggles, “oh, sorry *giggle* but you look funny! *gasp for air*” She grins again, "leave it for the fishies ”

 

Appy gives Sweetcherrie a hand so she can climb out and Sweetcherrie grabs Appy's hand to get back on the side.

 

Sweetcherrie looks at her clothes, “Now these,” picks of some frogspawn, “will certainly make me look more festive” she mumbles.

 

Sweetcherrie looks at the sky, “I think we should also put up something in case it starts raining. Maybe we can find a party tent somewhere?”

 

“Good idea” Appy remembers the gnome now and sees the table decoration lying alone in the middle of the field, “Silly gnomes,”She mumbles and sighs as she picks it up.

 

Sweetcherrie nods and starts counting in her head how many people will attend, after a moment she is looking utterly confused because of the counting and gives up, “Appy? Do you know how many people there will be coming?”

 

“I know! Apaltra can weave the trees into something that'll keep us dry! errr.. lots?”

 

Sweetcherrie nods absentmindedly as Appy searches her pockets and produces a staff with a green gem on top.

 

Sweetcherrie looks at the staff.

 

“See? This is what Apaltra uses! I'm sure I can do that too,” Appy says as she waves the staff towards the trees. A small vine appears with a poof and starts growing rapidly.

 

“Erm...are you sure that is a good idea?” Sweetcherrie ask as she hears the tree rustle their leaves.

 

“errr,” Appy utters not entirely sure of that now.

 

The vine crawls among the trees and grows even faster now, covering the trunks of three trees already and Sweetcherrie tries to jump on the side to avoid being caught by the vine, but is grabbed already and falls over slowly getting covered by the vine. Appy waves the staff again, only to have another vine appear.

 

“y'know,” Appy says thoughtfully, “maybe this wasn't such a good idea?” and jumps towards Sweet to grab her hand.

 

“I'm pretty sure this is not going to keep us dry,” Sweetcherrie mutters and struggles to get loose from the vine.

 

Appy pulls Sweetcherrie loose, sending her flying into Appy making them roll away.

 

“Riiight...” Appy says, untangles herself from Sweet and steps back.

 

Sweetcherrie jumps on one of the tables, “Were you planning to have the party underground or something?”

 

Appy backs away some more, looking thoughtfully at the ever-growing vines, “Well, not really...”

 

Sweetcherrie feels the table starting to move by the vines, “Any idea how we stop this?”

 

Appy didn't put the staff away, she still holds it, and now pushes the point into the ground, and the vines stop growing with a shiver.

 

“Hey! Did you do that?” she asks exitedly to Sweetcherrie.

 

“Erm..no, but I think it's better if you put that staff away…” Appy nods and starts taking it out

 

“Or wait...maybe..” Sweetcherrie says.

 

“What?” As soon as the staff leaves the ground the vines start growing again, “errr,” and Appy puts the staff back into the ground firmly.

 

“Hmmm....do you think it will hold up this tarpaulin?” Sweetcherrie asks.

 

“Sure! We can use the staff to hold a vine and then put the tarpaulin over it,” Appy claps in her hands for having found the solution to two problems in one.

 

“Oh, I'm not sure if Apaltra will be happy with her staff having to stay here for a while, but I guess it will have to do,” Sweetcherrie replies.

 

Appy pushes the staff in more firmly and grabs the closest vine, tying it to the staff and Sweetcherrie starts helping to tie the vines to the staff.

 

“Well she doesn't even know I have it... so what she doesn't know, she won't mind”

 

Sweetcherrie looks at Appy with big eyes, but Appy beams at her own logic.

 

“You took it without her knowing, oh my, I hope that works out ok,” Sweetcherrie says as she continues with tying vines to the staff and directs the gnomes to work at the same job. Shortly after a sort of dome has appeared.

 

“Sure it will, she likes me, I'm her younger sister afterall,” Appy beams again and starts throwing the tarpaulin over the dome of vines with help of gnomes hanging on the other side. Appy steps back, and looks at the result. It looks like a heap of greenery ready for composting and covered with a plastic tarpaulin, “Tadaa!” She shouts.

 

Sweetcherrie looks at the dome and nods, “Looks pretty good to me”

 

Appy takes out a big jungle knife and starts chopping away those vines that're in the way, no noticing the staff shivering with each chop. Sweetcherrie sees new vines appearing in double numbers where Appy had just chopped of the vines and as Appy is pretty much done when she turns around, “Gah!”

 

“Erm...maybe better stop? We could call it a jungle party.” Sweetcherrie notices.

 

Appy growls a 'yes, better' under her breathe and instead ties those vines that are in the way to each other, so it looks better. She puts some of the overturned tables under the dome and adds some chairs.

 

“Maybe we can serve tea, I've always loved tea” Sweetcherrie notes.

 

“Of course! It's our party after all,” Appy grins

 

“You know what, I think it's time for a break,” Sweetcherrie looks at all the decorating, “and I would actually like a cup of tea now.”

 

“Just ask one of the gnomes to get some from the kitchen then, that's their job after all”

 

Sweetcherrie asks one of the gnomes to bring her some raspberry tea and sits down on one of the chairs and sighs, “Thank you so much Appy, This would have been impossible without you.”

 

Appy beams, “No need to thank me, I love organising parties!” and sits down as well as one of the gnomes approaches with a cup of tea. The gnome carefully puts the tea on the table but stumbles over one a random vine and one of the cups falls of the table.

 

“No, what did you do that for” Sweetcherrie says and sends the gnome back to get a new cup of tea. “You can have this one Appy” She says and shoves the cup that's still in one piece over the table towards Appy.

 

“That gnome better bring cookies as well as a new cup of tea” Sweetcherrie mumbles.

 

Appy looks thoughtfully at the cup, “Hey, you know what else we need? Music!”

 

Sweetcherrie’s face brightens, “Yeah we should have a band” She takes the cup of tea from the gnome that has come back and sends it away again for cookies, “But where do we find a band this late? Maybe we should stick with cd's.”

“I think we're almost ready to send out the invitations,”

 

Sweetcherrie nods, "Definitely, we could use my laptop to make some really neat ones”

 

Appy smiles, not knowing what a laptop is, but trusting her friend, “I can bring them around on my skippyball”

 

“Cool, I'll get working on them right now”

 

OOC: Feel free to join the party We will give the phrases on a later occasion.

Edited May 16, 2005 by Sweetcherrie

[Katzaniel]

Inbi enters the cabaret room to apologize to her friends for missing their deadline and is met with the sight of the two of them excitedly writing out invitations inside a miniature but burgeoning forest.

 

"Er, hello," she stumbles, finding her eyes drawn to the laptop which is fairly bouncing with the beat of the music it's playing.

 

"Oh, come on in," exclaims Appy, "We're having a party! You're invited, but..." she glances at Sweetcherrie and the two giggle. The latter finishes the sentence, "Yes, we were just doing your invitation." Leaning over to her computer, she stage-whispers, "I hope you don't mind, I put you through all that work, and I need this one deleted now." The laptop does an obligatory hop (Inbi thinks she sees a little person in there, but when she blinks it is gone) and a blank invitation card comes onto the screen.

 

"You can help us with the next one!" Appy says excitedly, interrupting Inbi who had begun the explanation of her missing story. "Er, uh, what?" she says now, wondering what they want her to do.

 

"Oooh, want to lay out the cookie tray?" asks Sweetcherrie, seemingly unaware that this has nothing to do with invitations.

 

"Um, sure," replies Inbi, continuing in the grand tradition of prefacing all her sentences with confusion.

 

"Excellent!" says Appy, handing Inbi the tray, similarily unaware. "Now who was the next one to?"

 

"Zool," giggles Sweetcherrie, and the two lean over the screen again.

 

Inbi begins to lay out the cookies in a pretty pattern on the tray.

[Wyvern]

The Garden Gnomes huddle together and converse amongst themselves as Sweetcherrie and Appy write out the invitations. Inbi steps back as a Garden Gnome zooms past her. She watches as it prances in the direction of vine-central, and kneels down as she notices that the underling has dropped some seeds... Pollen?

 

"Umm," starts Inbi in her grand tradition. "Sweet?"

 

"Yes Inbi?" Sweetcherrie glances up from a carved cookie of a chicken with rubber frosting. "What's up Inbi?"

 

"Oh, no." Inbi smiles in the direction of Sweetcherrie. "Sorry, I was just observing this pollen. It smells sweet."

 

"Ah, I see." Sweetcherrie lets out a little laugh and gets back to work. Only to pause. "Wait a minute, did you say pollen?"

 

"Uh oh," mutters Appy, suddenly noticing the Garden Gnomes. They zoomed left and right, ricocheting off of each other like bumper cars and spurting heaps of pollen. Appy drops her Akallabeth-shaped cookie. "I knew I shouldn't have hired Flower Garden Gnomes."

 

Sweetcherrie, Appy, and Inbi Infusco all shriek as the vines suddenly come to life again. The large plants toss off their plastic covering and flail about wildly, seemingly allergic to the clouds of pollen. They plummet down and bury themselves in the ground as flowers of all shapes and sizes start blooming everywhere. The three girls stare in awe as what was once a jungle quickly becomes a flower garden.

 

"Well..." whispers Appy. "At least the smells will attract more pennites."

 

Sweetcherrie nods. Her eyes are still wide from the transformation.

 

"I'll get the electric fan."

 

----

 

Later, several Pen members mill about the Garden Party, helping themselves to refreshments and congratulating the "Hide and Seek" participants. Near a large rose bush, a slug wearing a badge speaks with a hippopotomus wearing a bow tie. They both speak in haughty, English accents.

 

"Arcty's the name, my good man." The slug's feelers daintily peck at a small garden hors d'oeuvre. "Saved a few of those foolish humans in my day, I did. I got this award from the King of Sweden, you know."

 

The hippo lets out an enormous, jagged-toothed yawn.

 

"Myes, I see your a very distinguished slug indeed." The hippo downs another swamp water cocktail. "Well, old chap, my name is... is... ehhmm, Navelozeus. Myes, that's it."

 

Arcty stares at the hippo oddly for a moment, then turns as a figure clears his throat. Wyvern stands before the two animals in a beggars outfit, a large basket of roses swinging from one claw.

 

"Can I offer either o' you animalsss a boutonniere?"

 

Arcty and "Navelozeus" both stare at the lizards worn roses, then at the blooming rose bush by their side. They politely decline his offer.

 

;-p

[Patrick]

A small, only fifteen centimeter high owl flutters around the almost-dragons head and then tries landing next to Sweetcherrie, but messes up his landing and hits the newly arrived tea cup and knocks it over, spilling the hot tea over Sweetcherrie's lap.

 

Hooting sounds are heard as the owl tries to excuse itself and then he remembers that people can not understand him while he is in owl form. He jumps down, first to a chair and then to the ground then in a flurry of feathers and then gradually human limbs transforms into a human figure. However one of the hands still ends in feather and it takes about 15 seconds of shaking the hand for it to become the human hand.

 

With a shy smile on his face the shapeshifter turns to Sweetcherrie.

 

"I still need to learn this a bit. Still you must admit that I'm getting better. This morning I still had problems shifting my head back from owl form. You can imagine how ridiculous I looked with a partially human body and an owl head..."

 

He broke into a smile and then a puzzled expression appeared on his face. About a minute later it turned into an expression of relief as he remembered what he wanted to say.

 

"Ah yes, let me introduce myself. I am Patham."

 

He looked around to observe the others, then turned back to Sweetcherrie.

 

"Oh and sorry about the tea."

 

 

OOC: the beginnings of who I hope to make my pen character.

[Sweetcherrie]

Sweetcherrie looked at her tea stained clothes, it was nothing the washing machine wouldn’t get out.. “No problem, happens all the time it seems, I’ll just get changed, be back soon,” she stood up, walked towards the penkeep, and almost fell over the huge slug that was talking to a hippopotamus. She stumbled and was trying to find her balance back, when a hand seemed to come out of nothing and gave her just that little bit of extra support needed to stay up straight.

 

“Oh sorry. Hiya Vene,” She said in her usual scatter brained way, and hugged him, “Glad you decided to come. Help yourself to a refreshment, I just need to get some clean clothes.”

 

She walked inside and quickly changed into clean jeans and a clean shirt. Turning around she saw an enormous tiger standing at the window. When it looked at her and growled, she couldn’t help herself and started screaming.

 

Venefyxatu was just about to get himself a drink when he heard a scream coming from the inside. Moving a little faster than usually, he went in to take a look and saw Sweetcherrie staring at a tiger, an action that was mutual.

 

Sweetcherrie had heard Venefyxatu coming in, but didn’t dare look away from the tiger. The cat gave her a look that said “don’t even try to stop me, or else…” and put one paw on the windowsill. Venefyxatu calmly walked a bit forward, making sure not to make any sudden movements and stopped next to Sweetcherrie. He looked at the cat, then at Sweetcherrie and back at the cat.

 

Speaking with his characteristically soft voice he addressed the cat, wondering whether it would be able to understand him. He knew cats were intelligent animals, and loved them as well, but this one looked ... a little bit different, besides a lot bigger of course. "What on earth are you doing there?"

 

The tiger looked back at the necromancer; “How come I understand you?” he said and seemed to frown. “I should have know better than to come to these weird surroundings,” the cat mumbled, and growled at Sweetcherrie who was slowly trying to move away from the room and get behind Venefyxatu. She too liked cats, but this one didn’t seem too friendly to her.

 

"You are in a magical keep in which values such as love, politeness and respect are upheld. And in which many experiments go wrong ... sometimes unexpected things happen here."

 

“Hmpf, well, you’ll probably understand that a tiger like me can’t stay then.” He put his other paw on the windowsill, and got ready to jump.

 

“No!” Both tiger and necromancer looked where this sudden outburst had come from. It had been Sweetcherrie who had found her voice back, “I mean, you’re more than welcome to join the party, people are all very friendly here, and I’m sure that there are some that would love to meet you.” Sweetcherrie was thinking of Mynx or Katzaniel who seemed the perfect people to speak to this cat.

 

The tiger roared and took one step towards her, “So tell me, what’s on the menu?” Sweetcherrie took another step back. “Now now, no need to act this grumpy,” Venefyxatu’s soft voice sounded, “It seems to me that something is bothering you, is there something we can do to help?”

 

The cat calmed down a bit by hearing the soothing voice, seemed to think about this question and finally he sat down, “Now that you mention it, my left paw has been hurting and, well, I guess that’s what makes me so grumpy” He stuck out his large, but fluffy paw to Venefyxatu so the necromancer could investigate it. A big thorn was sticking out of the soft flesh, and it was obvious that the animal must be in pain with every step it took.

 

“Hmm…. Can I?” Venefyxatu took the paw in his hands and with one big pull he removed the torn, the tiger roared of pain and it was a good thing that the necromancer had backed away already, because he would have been seriously hurt otherwise. The grumpy tiger jumped out the window. When Sweetcherrie and Venefyxatu slowly approached the window, they could see it running away in the distance.

 

“Phew, he could have been a bit more grateful to be honest, but I’m glad he’s helped…. and gone,” Sweetcherrie said, “Shall we go back to the party now?” Venefyxatu nodded and together they walked back into the garden.

[Patrick]

When Vene and Sweetcherrie walked back Patham was sitting in a chair next to where Sweetcherrie had been sitting, one of his feet still shaped like the foot of an owl.

 

"I can't seem to get this fully right...just two minutes ago it was perfectly human, and then abruptly changed back." - he said to Sweetcherrie.

 

He had a half-sad expression on his face.

 

"Would you know of any able shapeshifters able to help me out? I only learnt the basics so far and it seems I have problems with even that."

[Wyvern]

"Excussse me," calls out Wyvern. "Can I interest you in some boutonierres? Some bush trimming perhaps? A rose for the lil woman? A Hawaiin Lei? Aww, c'mon, how about a thorn or two? Look, I have the paperwork."

 

Wyvern reaches into his Devil's Advocate folder and pulls out a sheet of paper with a small flower doodled on it. The pursued tiger turns towards him and lets out a low roar, causing him to jump back. The animal then proceeds to continue on its way to the snack counter, its eyes still focussed on the rather delicious-looking hippo it had spotted earlier...

 

"Yeesh," mutters Wyvern under his breath. "Why don't ya go take etiquette from Katzaniel or something, ya lousy Jungle Book reject. Awww, who'm I kidding."

 

Wyvern sighs and drops his basket of boutonierre roses, along with his Almost Dragonic Brand Hedge-Hawg Eradicator Garden Trimming Utensil™. He digs his claws into his pockets and leans back against a soft bush of poison ivy, pondering what activities might work well in such a sweet-smelling garden. He pauses as his claws meet with a ring.

 

"Ahha!" Wyvern digs out the Ring of Hallucinations from his pocket. He stares at it for a long moment. "Might as well try it on now, maybe the smells will-"

 

----

 

Stalks don't stalk but the flowers twirled and W sensed scents like living things. They spoke non-sensical, broken phrase. Flower stem but the tiger stripes floated and roses colored orange-black, a feral swirl. Pretty though, make a good pattern like... pattern-like the flowers danced. Bushes of thrones of flowers of gardens of the sweetest cherries.

 

Owl eye in his direction. It was sluggish, without british accent. Toothy yawn spills magnolia pettles, wisk W away.

 

"I pollen pettle, Appy sit."

 

W smiled at flowers dancing spreading sparkles, sparkling sky. Dark, like the drops that sat and laughed at rain dances, too lazy to leave cloud cushions. Pretty pollen sparks, wild pansy fireworks and the orchids dated the lilys under... The stars of the show were proud hibiscus.

 

Started growling, but stripe roses wouldn't starve. Startled, W went with crowds of blooms in starch. Roofed it until the crowds crowded, pettle flock crowd of flowers starboard bound. No more dances, the flowers stood. They wilted. Stark. Barren, except... except...

 

---

 

Sweetcherrie and Appy turned as a horrific almost dragonic scream pierced the quiet party

[Mynx]

On the other side of the Pen grounds, Mynx lifted her head as she heard a tiger's roar.

I wonder...no...it can't be she thought to herself, shaking her head.

Moments later, she heard Wyvern cry out and decided to have a look at the Garden Party...

 

The Tiger was in the process of demolishing the snack counter's contents when he heard a familiar voice.

"I don't believe it! TOM?"

Turning, Tom let out a roar of happy surprise. "Mynx! What are you doing here?!"

"I live here now silly," laughing, Mynx tacklehugged the tiger and the two tumbled over each other in the friendly tiger way of saying hello.

Calming down, Mynx tilted her head at her friend. "But what on earth are you doing here?"

Tom shrugged. "Just travelling, smelled something good, you know how it is..."

Eventually, the pair became aware of Venexyatu staring at them.

"You two...know each other?" he finally asked.

"Yeah," Mynx grinned. "We went hunting together for a little bit when I first got turned into a cat."

"Uhh guys?" Sweet called out from her position by Wyvern. "Little help?"

[Sweetcherrie]

Sweetcherrie hurries over to see if Wyvern is all right, but the wild gestures of the scared almost dragon are enough to keep her at a safe distance. Appy jumps aside to avoid getting swept of her feet by the sweeping tail, and bumps into Sweetcherrie. Together they roll over the floor and almost knock over one of the tables. Sweetcherrie sticks her head out from under Appy and looks at Wyvern.

 

The overgrown lizard is standing there with his nose in the air, wildly sniffing, as if it’s something in the air that’s doing this to him. Suddenly Sweetcherrie’s brain shifts into gear, “Appy we should try to find a way to get him out of this confounding scent, that’s probably what’s wrong.”

 

Appy frowns, but suddenly her face lights up. She sticks her hands in her pockets and produces two corks. Sweetcherrie wonders where she gets them from so suddenly, but doesn’t think it's a good time to go into that. Appy hands her one of the corks, “You take the left?”

 

Sweetcherrie nods, “On three? One …two…..three!” Both girls jump onto Wyvern and manage to plug a cork in each nostril, before he skaes them off. Sweetcherrie screams when something scratches past her face; a red stripe of blood is going from her eyebrow to her cheekbone.

 

She looks what has caused the scratch and sees something blinking on Wyvern’s claw, “Appy does he normally wear rings?” Appy shakes her head in reply, and her eyes grow big when seeing the massive shiny on Wyvern's claw “Maybe we should get that ring of then?” she says, with a greedy look in her eyes, following the ring with every movement the almost dragon makes.

 

“Yeah, but how?” Sweetcherrie says as she watches Wyvern, who still has a frightened look on his face.

 

“Same tactics?” Appy asks, “you hold him while I take the ring?”

 

“Why are you taking the ring? That’s the easy part,” at the same moment Wyvern yelps again, and Sweetcherrie hurries to agree with Appy, “one…two….three.”

 

Sweetcherrie jumps forward and grabs the ring-bearing claw, while Appy fuddles with the ring. “Will you hurry up?” Sweetcherrie asks, panting from effort. The Almost Dragon is stronger than she had expected, and his hallucinated, scared state only seems to add to his strength. Sweetcherrie saw Mynx talking to the tiger she had helped earlier, “Uhh guys?” she called out to them, “little help?” Mynx hurries over and helps holding Wyvern still while Appy slides the ring off.

 

“Got it, you can let go!” Appy, Sweetcherrie, and Mynx jump backward. Appy holds up the golden ring with shining silver stripes for a moment. “Mineminemine,” she mumbles, huddling the ring close to her, and looks as if she tries to find a place to hide her new shiny.

Edited May 23, 2005 by Sweetcherrie

[Patrick]

Patham was absorbed by his own hand, annoyed it did not want to stay in human form. Finally however he managed to stabilize it. Looking up after several long moments, during which his mind only periferally observed what was going on around him, he noticed Appy holding up a ring. Trying to determine what had happened he spotted a thin trail of blood slowly trickling down the side of Sweetcherrie's face, and the almost dragon lying on the ground, with corks in his nose. Mynx and the previously seen tiger were off some distance away.

 

Patham with his keen sight could observe that the cut on Sweetcherrie's face was not deep and would heal on its own pretty fast. He directed his attention to the almost dragon, who seemed to be in some kind of trouble.

 

"What happened to him?" - Patham asked of Sweetcherrie.

 

Sweetcherrie told him of her theory and Patham nodded.

 

"Do you think we should do anything else for him?"

[Wyvern]

Wyvern trembles in one spot, his eyes dilated and his scales slightly pale.

 

"I saw!"

 

The lizard points a shakey claw at a small grass clearing, surrounded by flowers.

 

"I saw- I saw- I saw- I saw-"

 

Wyvern shakes his head and bites his scaly lip. Sweetcherrie and Patham watch the lizard stammer while Appy continues to stare at her new treasure. After a moment, Wyvern begins to calm a bit. His trembling starts to slow, and a bit of colour returns to his scales.

 

"You saw...?"

 

Sweetcherrie takes a cautious step forward. She pauses as the lizard flinches.

 

"Oh. Well, I mean, ummm." Wyvern turns his eyes to the ground and avoids eye contact. "Nothing... in particular."

 

"Nothing?" Sweetcherrie frowns.

 

"N-no, not really anything." Wyvern strikes a half-hearted grin. "Just, I mean... ssssay, is that a cut? You should be careful around that tiger, he's a mean one from what I've seen."

 

Sweetcherrie touches the blood on her cheek.

 

"Well, actually-"

 

"And is that my ring Appy'sss holding?" Wyvern points and lets out a possessive hiss. "Give it back, or I'll call my least expensive lawyer. And hey, hey- No helping yourselves to those boutonierres... I don't care if they're on the ground, they're still ten geld a snap!"

[Mynx]

Tom stood next to Mynx and regarded the rambling Wyvern, head tilted as if a skewed view might add clarification to the situation.

Finally, he murmered to Mynx, "Are all of the people here like this?"

"Mmm?" Mynx responded, watching Wyvern to make sure he didn't get violent in his attempt to regain his ring. "Like Wyvern? Oh no, only Wyvern is like Wyvern. The rest of us...have our own quirks..."

As if confirming this, Appy ran by with the ring clutched in her hands chanting to herself: "Minemineshinymineshinyshinyminemine..."

Tom shook his head and sat down.

"Crazy," was all he would say on the matter, causing Mynx to laugh at him as the situation continued to play around the felines.

[Sweetcherrie]

Appy hugged the ring even tighter when the lizard claimed it back, and when he stuck out a claw, she flashed her eyes and ran. She ran past Mynx and Tom, keeping her eyes tightly on the ring, chanting "Minemineshinymineshinyshinyminemine..." Unfortunately for her, she didn’t look where she was going and bumped straight into Venefyxatu. The two of them rolled over the floor like a multicoloured ball, and stopped when they hit a tree. Sweetcherrie ran over to the two of them and after making sure that the necromancer was ok, she stuck her hands in her pockets and held up two shining marbles.

 

“These are Sweet’s, but I’m sure she wouldn’t mind if I gave them to you Appy……that is I would like to trade them against your other shiny, so what do you say, two for one?”

 

Appy looked from her shiny to the two shining marbles in Sweetcherrie’s hand, and then stuck out the ring, and grabbed the marbles away. With her new treasure she sat down on the floor, and let the two marbles tumble over each other in her hand, as if they had magical powers.

 

Sweetcherrie stepped up to Wyvern, “Here, but please don’t put it on any time soon.” She gave him the ring back, “You were in a right state, when you had it on, and I wouldn’t want anybody to get hurt.” Sweetcherrie walked over to the stereoplayer and put on some happy tunes, “Anybody feel like dancing?”

[Patrick]

"Dancing? Why Not?" - Patham said. He and Sweetcherrie started dancing to the sound of the music.

 

"Let's just hope that all of me stays in human shape while we dance." - he said with a large grin on his face after the first song finished.

[Katzaniel]

Inbi watched in horror as the chaos unfolded. When Wyvern started acting strangely and screamed, she stepped forward hesitantly, but was beaten to the punch by Appy and Sweet, who for all she could tell must be sky-high on a sugar buzz. In this bunch, Patham seemed normal. More than normal: dull. But, Inbi was beginning to think that dull was good, very very good.

 

When there finally five straight minutes where nothing insane happened, Inbi recovered her courage. Stepping up to the dance floor, she introduced herself to the shapechanger. "I'm Inbi Infusco. And you're Patham, right?"

 

"Yes," he said, bowing his head slightly in mock-formal introduction.

 

"Care for a dance?" queried Inbi, speaking to Sweetcherrie as well. So the three of them danced to the next song, and Inbi actually began to calm down, before the next thing happened...