Once is Happenstance [Team Walkabout] [The Silver Apples of the Moon, the Golden Apples o]

[Laundreu]

Grinning Magpie


"There's a big hole here, grumpy-guts! You know what happens when there's a hole underneath water - it falls in!" Magpie made a cheerfully rude gesture at the Lunar. "And so does anything in the water! They might be down here. Hells, the shouty fellow might have seen them in the water or something."

 

[Arynne]

Worthy to Be Beloved


"I suggest you let me do the talking."


Worthy lands beside them, shaking water from her wings. "Just give me a moment to change back first -- swans don't talk!"

 

[trowizilla]

As Worthy sprays the surrounding area with droplets, the wizened head of an old man pops up from the hole just in time to get a mouth full of fowl water.


"Pfah!" he spits, sweeping back his scraggly, muddy hair and blinking in the bright sunlight. Unlike most ordinary mortals, he doesn't seem too surprised at meeting a ninja, a half-lizard monster, and a talking swan right on his proverbial doorstep. He cackles, stamping his feet on the bamboo ladder propped on the lip of the hole. "Jeremiah! Get up here, ya lily-livered excuse for a mudhopper's rear end, we've got visitors!"


Pulling a set of exceedingly complicated jade goggles from his beltpouch, he peers at the three with eyes magnified to the size of apples. "Now, what can we do for yeh? Goin' to see the Bitty, are yeh now?"

 

[Laundreu]

Grinning Magpie


"Jeremiah?" asked Grinning Magpie. "That's...kind of a weird name. Also, what's the Bitty?"

 

[trowizilla]

The old man guffaws, clambering out of the hole with a whistle at the blooming ravine walls. "Sure done herself right this time, whoo-ee! And sure you're right, young lady, I don't 'spect you'll hear a name like it in this part, unless it's mine, that is. Obadiah Bearskaldi, pleased to meet yeh."


Finally revealed, he's a curious sight, dressed in the belted deerskin tunic and wrapped boots of the North, with yellow hair topped by a round steel helmet. With a final bellow down to Jeremiah, he wavesto the three Exalts, steering them away from what proves to be his tent and over to a set of flat rocks.


"I ain't meaning to disrespect the Bitty by callin' her that, yeh know. We just see each other so often, what with Jeremiah growin' so fast and all, so's we got a little familiar, and Minueneneu-whatsit is cursed hard to remember." Gesturing toward the seat rocks, he begins to lay a fire in the circle of sones. "You takin' the tunnel? Ain't seen no sky-carriage, so she can't be expectin' the lot of yeh."

 

[Laundreu]

Grinning Magpie


"I guess that makes sense. They're weird, up in the North, all sorts of funny names come with the territory." Magpie nodded; everything was obviously settled, then. "Now, um, we were actually trying to find some friend of ours, who got caught up in a flash flood, and we think they may have come this way. Have you seen anybody else, before us?"

 

[trowizilla]

"Naw, just the dollyphant skin and the two weirdo kids ridin' the wave a while back... Waitaminute, were those yer pals? Then you ain't here to get yer strings tightened?" His open, friendly face shuts in suspicion, and he begins to back away.


"Jeremiah, stay down there!" An audible gulp comes from the hole, followed by the sound of someone dragging the ladder away. Obadiah stoops awkwardly, casting around for a weapon; he finally comes up with a broken branch, which he holds like an ax.

 

[Arynne]

Worthy to Be Beloved


Worthy has been busy during the conversation, changing herself back into human form; now she extends her hands, palm outward, and speaks in a reassuring tone:


"Look, we don't want any trouble, all right? We're not looking for a fight. We just want to find our friends -- about whom we're worried -- and make sure they're not hurt. Please help us?"

 

[trowizilla]

Obadiah stares for a few moments at the swan's transformation into a woman, and visibly has to shake himself in order to talk to her. "Beggin' yer pardon, ma'am, but yer friends sure as sh-, er, shootin ain't hurt. The Bitty don't keep no prisoners that I ever heard, and she's a sweet girl so long as yeh mind yer manners. And if yer not Dragonbloods, 'cause she hates 'em worse'n anything."


Relaxing a bit, he lowers the tree branch and points at the direct path to the Cradle. "You can't get in that way, not if yeh want to be live men on the way out. No point sneakin' in the side door if yeh can... tarnation, Jeremiah, I told yeh to stay down there!"


The last part is directed to the very odd-looking young man hauling an ancient broadsword out of the hole. Although he's dressed like a typical Yellow River peasant, breechclout and straw sandals and all, his hair is a fiery red, and his skin shows marks of sunburn despite the monsoon season. His well-muscled arms, however, are even odder, as they connect to his bare shoulders with neat stitches of multicolored thread.

 

[Vanman]

Midnight's Fury


The Full Moon nods his head to Grinning Magpie. "Your wisdom was greater than mine, this time. You were right." Fury turns to Obadiah. "You said we shouldn't use the side door. Can you point us to where we can enter? We want to find our friends."

 

[Arynne]

Worthy to Be Beloved


"And..." Worthy's curiousity is obvious, "who is 'the Bitty'? Is she Jeremiah's, er, mother?"