Mouse sat up on the soft white couch, yawning. It seemed to be ages since she'd last slept so soundly.
"Good Morning!" Cougrr called cheerfully from the kitchen, where she was putting food supplies in a new travel pack. Mouse assumed it was for the journey to Kingdom Spawn, where she would sign in as a resident of Sleepcraft Kingdom and be able to settle down and build a house.
Cougrr handed Mouse a breakfast of an apple, two slices of bread, and a small tin cup of milk.
"Eat up, Mouse! I'll be getting you a horse ready for the journey. Hurry, now. King and Erin are due in a few minutes!" The werecat ran outside and down the winding stairs that encircled the hill. Mouse assumed she was going to a horse pen of some sorts.
Mouse finished her breakfast and tried on the green leather armor Cougrr had given her. It fit comfortably, but it would take a day or two to break it in so it wouldn't feel quite so stiff.
Mouse looked around for an item disposal of some sorts to throw out her old armor. She finally decided to toss it into the fireplace, knowing that it would only take seconds to burn into ash. She grabbed her pack and went outside.
Cougrr was saddling a brown-and-white paint horse that was tied to the porch railing. She finished tightening the saddle girth and reached for the new travel pack she had packed earlier. She fastened it onto one side of the saddle and put another pack that was filled with spare leads, an axe, flint and steal, and apples for the horse on the other side.
"Take care of this horse, ok? He was one of the first animals I tamed when I came here." Cougrr untied the animal and handed the reins to Mouse.
"I'll do my best," Mouse said honestly.
Cougrr looked up as two figures on white horses rode into her yard. "Hi King and Erin!" She called out, smiling.
"Good to see you again, Cougrr!" Said King Albsy. Well, Mouse assumed it was King Albsy, judging by the fact that he was a pink panther werecat with a golden crown on his head.
The woman on the horse next to his was what Mouse saw as a leader. She had an air of authority around her, but from the way she greeted Cougrr she seemed to be very a very kind and fun person. Her diamond armor and sword, however, showed that she wasn't afraid to fight if need be. Mouse swollowed a little as the woman fixed her gaze on her.
"And who's this?" Princess Erin asked Cougrr, not unkindly.
"This is EmersedMouse, or just Mouse. She was being chased by mobs last night so I let her stay with me. I was hoping she could travel with you back to Spawn City, if it's not too much trouble." Cougrr glanced up at King, looking for his approval.
King Albsy smiled and stuck out a hand- er- paw- for Mouse to shake. "Welcome to my Kingdom! I hope you'll like it here."
"From what Cougrr's told me, I'm sure I'll love it," Mouse smiled as she shook the proffered hand.
"And she also has an important message that Lord Jeb needs to hear as soon as possible!" Cougrr remembered. She seemed to lose a little of her happiness.
"Oh?" Erin asked.
Mouse explained her tale to the two leaders. King gave an amazed whistle while Erin looked ready to bash some werewolf brains.
"Then the rumors are true! We need to get back and have Dman224 send a message to one of Lord Jeb's priests!" Erin made as if to kick her horse and bolt back to wherever Dman the Preist was.
"Wait, Erin. We still have three more townies to visit besides CougrrTown!" King protested.
"But this is much more important!" Erin almost yelled. "We can send Crystal Rain out to check the other three towns. We've already been to all of the big ones."
King nodded. "All right, I see your point. We'll leave now. Mouse, get your horse." He glanced at the brown and white horse, then at Cougrr. "Are you sure your little mountain pony can keep up with me and Erin's thoroughbreds?" he asked, half-joking. Cougrr norrowed her eyes at the other werecat.
"My "mountain pony" can more than keep up with your magically summoned beasts, thank you very much!" She sniffed disdainfully at the huge white horses that seemed to have a shiny aura around them.
King smirked. "Whatever you say, Cougrr. Do you have your yearly log book, by the way? I'd hate to have traveled all the way out here just to forget it."
"I'll grab it, it's still in the house." Cougrr ran back inside.
"What's a log book?" Mouse asked as she swung up onto the back of Cougrr's horse.
"It's the book that contains all business deals, statistics, and other things that happened in the town over the course of a year. Every towny in Sleepcraft is required to keep one," Erin explained.
Cougrr came back out, clutching a heavy leather-bound book. "There it is. And don't loose it! I'd hate to have to write all that out again." She handed it to King, who put it in his saddle bag.
"Since when have I ever lost a log, Cougrr? Even I couldn't be that careless." He and Erin waved and turned their horses towards the gate.
"Thank you again, for everything," Mouse waved as she turned to follow them.
"Remember, give the horse to Lord Hobo the Wise! He can be found in Atlantis!" Cougrr called after her.
"Will do!" Mouse urged her horse after Erin and King. Already she could tell that they had the advantage. Their horses seemed to be much faster and more agile than the small brown and white horse.
"Are we going too fast for your horse, Mouse?" Erin asked a few hours later.
"No, me and this horse are both doing fine!" Mouse called up to where Erin and King were riding. Truth was, while riding a horse was a whole lot easier than walking, it was actually quite energy-consuming. The horse seemed to be having an eaasier time than her. He was slow, but he still had a lot of energy and strength. He still looked pitiful next to Erin and King's horses, though. The shiny white animals were trotting smoothly and quickly, not even having broken a sweat. Mouse didn't see how that was possible, as they had traveled through three biomes already. Cougrr had mentioned something about them being magically summoned. Is that cool or what? Mouse mused. It seems that almost anything is possible in this land of Sleepcraft.
According to King's map and Erin's sense of direction, they still had to pass through eight biomes, some of which were cold and mountianous, in order to reach Spawn City. Erin believed that it would only take two more days if everything went well. Unfortunately, it did not.
The first night, it stormed on them as they tried to light up a cave to spend the night in. The mobs inside didn't like that. After they finally finished beating them off, Erin discovered the back of the cave dropped off into a huge ravine. They blocked it off best they could, but a few zombies had scented them and spent the night moaning and growling in some unkown area. Nobody got much sleep.
The next day they made less progress due to exhaustion. And when Mouse's horse spooked as a spider hissed nearby, she was vaulted into the marsh. They wasted nearly an hour trying to catch the small horse. King and Erin joked it off saying it wasn't her fault, but she could tell they were more than a little impatient to get to Spawn City and get a message to Lord Jeb.
"There it is!" King announced the next morning, sounding relieved. He and Erin kicked their horses to a gallop as Mouse stared in awe at the huge structure made out of quartz and ice. It wasn't a city, like she'd been expecting, but rather one giant building.
Mouse hurriedly urged the horse over to where King and Erin were talking to a man in a light blue shirt and grey trousers. He had a travelers pack slung over his shoulder, and Mouse could see various wands and weapons attatched to it. He basically looked like an adventurer/magician.
"Mouse, this is Dman, one of the best priest magicians Sleepcraft has to offer." King introduced them. "Dman, this is EmersedMouse, the girl that found out about the werewolves."
"Good job on that spying you did," Dman said, busily writing in a thick, old, leather-bound book. "I'll contact one of Lord Jeb's magicians or priests with the message right away.
"Let me know as soon as you get a reply." Erin tightened her grip on her sheathed sword's hilt.
"Will do." Dman wondered off, muttering something about remembering which spell was the messaging one.
I hope he knows what he's doing, Mouse thought as Dman conjured a large bubble by mistake. He fanned it away and went back to paging through his spellbook.
Mouse watched as the bubble floated up into the sky until it disappeared inside a large, thick, light grey cloud. It was probably just her imagination, but Mouse thought she saw the features of a face appear on the cloud. One eye winked at her, and then the image was gone.
"...got that Mouse?" King finished whatever he was saying.
"What? Sorry, what were we talking about?" Mouse had been so busy watching the cloud she hadn't even heard him.
"I was explaining how you can live with Lili1012 until you get your house built. Lili lives nearby, and I'm sure she'd love to have you."
"Oh, yes, of course! Thanks, King!" Mouse said gratefully.
King led her to a small town called AnkasKiss. He knocked on the door of a decently-sized house and waited. A girl with a black, white and grey sweater on stepped out and smiled.
"Hi King! What can I do for you? And who's this?" She gestured at Mouse.
"This is EmersedMouse. She just moved into the kingdom and needs a place to stay until she gets her house built. I was hoping maybe you could-" King never got to finish his sentence.
"Sure King! Hi EmersedMouse! Actually, can I call you Mouse? You can call me Lili..." King heard no more as she pulled Mouse inside and closed the door.
Mouse grew to think of Lili as a best friend/sister over the course of the evening. It was the first time someone had ever been this friendly to her. Lili even had a spare guest room that she spruced up especially for Mouse.
Mouse went to sleep that night feeling satisfied. She had wonderful new friends, and a new life in a new land. It seemed that nothing could go wrong now.
A/N- It seems I made a mistake when I put the server's IP. Hopefully this will work. Just replace the 0 with an o.
IP: .c0m
Website: .c0m