Fantasy Cursed Island

[Darkling0096]

Adran blinked at the centaur's complaint, while a smile stretched across Jerry's face. "I know, right?"

"Oh, gods, there's two of them," Adran facepalmed.

 

[Fangs9090]

Corona gestured her shield at Jerry. "At least you can turn around without needing extra space. Me?" She tapped her spear on the armor on the equine flank. "Not so much. If I'm in a narrow space and need to go back, I have to either walk backwards or keep going till it opens up, and those are both so annoying."

 

[Darkling0096]

"At least the half of your body weight that's your ass has some support," Jerry held up her tail and dropped it so it thudded on the ground, "I can't even run with this, I can barely fly, and if I turn around too fast I trip on it."

 

[Fangs9090]

Corona looked at the tail before nodding. “That does seem cumbersome. I mainly use my own tail to swat bugs away from my ass.”

 

[Darkling0096]

"Girls," Adran called, "You can argue who's got the most cumbersome derriere when you're not blocking traffic."

Jerry looked tempted to stab Adran again, but for once he was right. "Asta," she went over to the archimaera to shrink him down to kitten size while the party lined up to get through the tunnel, which opened up into a small grove that felt magical. Niudisa and Adran could feel in the air that this was a pocket of the Feywilds.

"Oh, dear." Adran sounded a bit more worried than usual when it came to these groves.

 

[Fangs9090]

Corona glanced over before she proceeded onward.

Niudisa grimaced as they came to the grove. “Ugh... What’s this even doing here...?”

 

[Darkling0096]

"I... don't know...", Adran reached for his dagger and turned so he could look in almost any direction while he kept up with the party. "But I know I'm not supposed to be here."

"Some of the tombs I've investigated told stories," Jerry glanced around, "The True Feywilds, Shadowfell, and Underdark are parallel dimensions to the Prime Material Plane, like the Ethereal plane, but they bleed into it, creating the Feywilds and Shadowfell we're familiar with." She looked confused, "But I didn't think that could happen in small pockets like this."

 

[Fangs9090]

Niudisa shook her head. “As long as there’s no fae here, from either side. I don’t need that on top of this.”

 

[Darkling0096]

"I don't know," Jerry shrugged. "I don't even know if that's true, it's just what I found in six dozen elf lord tombs."

"That does not change the danger presented," Beri tensed up next to Adran.

"Don't look directly at anything, if it moves, don't go towards it, someone grab Shuffle and Fia so they don't run off," Adran turned around again, "If you hear a voice and you can't see who's speaking, don't answer. It's-"

"Adran...." Adran whipped out his bow and shot at the source of that voice. It thunked into a tree and something gave a death squeal, before it's camouflage dropped and the monster hiding was revealed.

"Margays," Adran finished his sentence, and then flipped the Margay the finger. "Don't imitate my mother, asshole."

 

[Fangs9090]

Niudisa sighed. "Fantastic... I'm half tempted to just send Shuffle through on fire, burn the whole place down."

Shuffle flicked her ears. "Can I?"

 

[Darkling0096]

"No," Adran shook his head, "You burn it down, you'll wake the big ones up. You don't want to wake up an owlbear." Even Joanne shuddered when that beast was mentioned.

 

[Fangs9090]

"I don't know what that is..."

Niudisa shook her head. "Just keep moving and don't wander off. The quicker we get through here, the better."

 

[Darkling0096]

"Definitely speed," Adran agreed, walking a little faster than normal as the group made their way through the small grove. The bubble fortunately wasn't very large, but it was winding. Things called out to the group, wisps dodging in and out of trees trying to lure them off of the path.

 

[Fangs9090]

For most of the group, it was simply a matter of paying the voices no mind and pushing on. For Shuffle, it was perhaps the hardest challenge she'd faced and possibly the best excuse to keep her on a leash. She ended up having to walk with Erina holding her hand, since the Arachne could command her back to the group if she managed to slip out of her grip.

 

[Darkling0096]

They eventually successfully found an exit to the fey-bubble. Once out, Adran relaxed significantly. "If there was an emmissary of either court, we'd be dead."

 

[Fangs9090]

Niudisa nodded. “That better be the only little pocket like that.”

Shuffle tilted her head. “That wasn’t so bad. There was so much to look at.” Erina still had a death grip on her hand.

 

[Darkling0096]

"You do not know the dangers of the feywilds," Beri growled.

"It's beautiful," Adran agreed, "But one slip and you're on the dinner table." He glanced at Erina, "You can let her go, now, Margays and Will-o'-Wisps can't survive without Fey magic in the air. Niudisa and I aren't Feymancers, they won't bother us at this point." It was hardly a full moon, after all, so the Feywilds weren't leeching out of the pocket.

"I think from now on," Jerry shook her head, "Someone needs to hang onto Shuffle when we enter new places."

 

[Fangs9090]

Erina let go over her. "Ideally with some kind of line. Trying to just hold her hand is tiring after a while."

Niudisa glanced over. "So, basically, she needs a leash."

 

[Darkling0096]

"We could make one," Jerry shrugged, "The spider sprites can weave really quickly, they made Asta's saddle blanket in half an hour, spidersilk is really strong." Erina's rope probably could have taken a dragon out off the sky if it was secured well enough.

 

[Fangs9090]

Niudisa nodded. "And a collar would keep it from just squeezing her neck. Erina, you learned how to work leather, right?"

Erina gave a nod. "Yes, I did."

"Good. Make a belt for Shuffle's neck when you have the time."

 

[Darkling0096]

"Hang on," Shuffle wasn't a dog, after all. Adran glanced down at the ring around his leopard's neck, "Collars are for dogs and housecats, we'd get more use out of a harness. It doesn't even need to be leather."

 

[Fangs9090]

"Mm. Well, in that case, why not just attatch a ring to the back of her armor and loop the leash through that?"

 

[Darkling0096]

"Do you have a metal ring on hand?", Adran raised an eyebrow, "Beri's doesn't come off, and the rest of the metal rings are all part of saddles and packs."

 

[Fangs9090]

Oh." Shuffle spoke up as she reached into her satchel before pulling out a gold ring, one that was much too large to be worn on an average-sized finger. "I have this."

 

[Darkling0096]

Adran put up a finger like he was going to object, but seeing as his main argument against putting Shuffle on a leash had just been defeated he put it down. "Go on."