Time to move on, Fantasia mused to herself, whistling merrily as she packed the few things she had brought with her and the few trinkets she'd picked up along the way here. The last bit of business was taken care of, thanks to the help of the final item she careful strapped to her back and then concealed with illusion. Good thing to have around, she supposed, but it really wasn't her style...

Even if it did settle a few old scores and close out a cycle, she chuckled, checking the straps and then slinging a rucksack over her shoulder before taking a look around. She'd provided service and then some for the use of the tiny room above the bar, and she grinned at the memory of the 'and then some' before setting out. They'd just have to find someone else to liven up the show a bit, shouldn't be too hard.

Besides, the barkeep was starting to get exasperated because of the wife's nagging, Fantasia doubted that either one of them would be sad to see her vanish without a trace. Hehe, always amusing to leave just ahead of a collision. The way out of the bar was easily managed without anyone the wiser, and she headed off in the direction of the gardens she'd visited a week before, hoping the offer was still good.

Off laying in the garden underneath a large drenak tree was the black panther she had seen before, dozing away in the shadows of the garden underneath the eerie light of the Ethereal Plane and Torn Elkandu's "sun", or what passed for one at any rate.

Fantasia smirked, shaking her head as she ducks around a tree. Cats were all alike, whether big or small, even Kitty'd had her moments where the bright allure of the sunbeams had dragged her from more playful pursuits to an unscheduled nap. Silly felines. "Wakey wakey," she said on approach, not particularly wanting to surprise a creature that could seriously inhibit her traveling plans.

"Mrrrr?" said Thorn, lifting her head and blinking her green eyes open sleepily at Fantasia. "Oh, it's you again." She yawned broadly and stretched, showing long fangs and claws.

Now that display was precisely the sort of thing that makes it a good idea not to startle cats, though Thorn definitely wasn't the biggest she'd seen there was still a considerable size and weight advantage there... not to mention they could climb trees!

Fantasia chuckled lightly and nodded. "Yup, just me, was hoping I'd find you still lazing around out here."

Thorn sat up on her haunches and looked over at her. "So, did you take care of what you were going to?"

"That little problem has been cut down to size," Fantasia replied, her grin holding a decidedly unpleasant edge and her eyes gleaming with malicious glee. "Sometimes you're the predator, sometimes the prey, but when it comes down to Ragabash all you can do is pray." She snickered, the wicked amusement dimming in its intensity as she shrugged. "Anyway, yeah, so is that tour offer still open?"

"What's a Ragabash?" Thorn wondered, shaking her head a bit. "You use so many strange words I have to wonder if you aren't speaking another language and why the universal translator isn't catching it."

"Ragabash..." Fantasia responded, grinning as she stalked around the cat, "are the things that go bump in the night, but when you go and look there's nothing there... only to return to bed and find your covers missing. They're the ones that outfitted the Emperor in his new clothes... in short, they keep life interesting by making sure that people don't take themselves too seriously. Hehe."

"Well, okay then, if you say so." Thorn absently washed herself a bit. "So, did you want to head to Daresa then?"

"What, you think I'd head out into the 'dark and dreadful' to borrow a phrase," Fantasia replied. "And not have a reason for doing it? Please! If I wanted black and foreboding I'd hit a Goth club!" She chuckled, shifting the pack at her shoulder. "Besides, I got all dressed and packed up, have to have somewhere to go."

Thorn chuckled softly and said, "Sure thing. The portal's off somewhere around this way..."

Thorn got up and loped off deeper into the trees, meandering among the garden paths and hopping over a small stream. After a bit of walking, they reached a shimmering glassy portal set inside a large tree, showing a forest of a slightly different composition on the other side.

Fantasia remained in the hybrid form, though the fleeter four feet of the fox would have kept up more readily and the things she carried wouldn't have been a problem since they were dedicated anyway. More a matter of preference, not really being in any great hurry and quite content to stretch her legs in a light jog to follow the cat. She stopped as they neared the portal, then approached to circle around and look at it.

"So this is your looking glass, Alice?" Fantasia asked, grinning lightly as she was sure the reference would be missed yet again but finding a bit of amusement in it for herself. "Just beware the Queen of Hearts," she added, tails flitting merrily in varied directions as she looked through. "Well, nothing for it but to do it. I'll just say no to the magic mushrooms, though." She moved to step through.

Thorn chuckled softly and shook her head in confusion and leapt through the portal in the tree. There was no sun or moon on Daresa, but the brightly colored stars made up for the lack, allowing a sort of perpetual twilight over the world. A dim forest stretched out around them, with the sounds of wildlife echoing through the dusky woods.

Fantasia looked around, admiring the natural beauty sure, but her roots being decidedly uncomfortable with the lack of any immediate signs of civilization. Glass Walkers and the kitsune alike were well-acquainted and comfortable with technology, and it hadn't even crossed her mind that they'd arrive in the middle of so much nothing.

"Uhhhh," she remarks unhelpfully, still looking around a bit.

Thorn, on the other hand, did not seem at all uneased, in fact she seemed to relax more as she stepped into the forests of her homeworld. She stretched and let out a contented mrrr sound. "Isn't it wonderful?"

"I suppose," Fantasia replied with a shrug, looking up at the bright starlit sky. "And there's something to be said about the sky above. Must be some of that time difference that Shazmar mentioned, since we left during the day and got here at night."

"Well, it is another planet entirely," Thorn commented. "But it's always night on Daresa. There isn't a sun or a moon."

"No sun or moon?" Fantasia looked over at Thorn, ears perking with curiosity. "Okay, no moon I could see, I'm sure there's tons of planets out there without em, but no sun? How do any of the plants around here live? And what kind of... oh wait..." she trailed off with a smirk, "Shazmar said he'd made this place, that would explain a lot."

"I never really saw what the use is in in a sun, myself... but then I grew up here, so I suppose I'm biased."

"Well unless you're talking about fungus and things like that," Fantasia replied, stepping over to touch a tree. "There's a tendency to need little things like sunlight for photosynthesis, at least usually." She grinned and shrugged. "But imagine the fits it'd give to the ecologists trying to figure it out! Talk about a joke on a planetary scale!"

"Pho...to... synthesis? There you go with weird words I don't know again."

Fantasia giggled and walked over to stand nearby. "Don't worry about it, just one of those weird things that I picked up along the way in the school system. Don't go in for much science or formal education here, do they?"

"Certainly. There's a school in Torn Elkandu that trains in magical theory and use."

"Well sure, magic and Gifts are great and all," Fantasia replied. "But what about things like literature, history, science, and math? Any cub goes through years of that stuff before they even get to the point where they can undertake their Rite of Passage."

"Oh, that's what mensch schools are for," Thorn said. She started loping off into the trees absently, ears flicking as she kept an eye and an ear on the place.

Fantasia gave the moving feline an odd look, then smirked and set off after her. "So anyway, no sun or moon," she shifted topics back toward the original curiosity. "Forget about the plants and other stuff, what about little things like deciding what time it is and what part of the 'day' to head off to bed? Or Elevensies?"

"The star cycles, clearly. Or whenever people feel like it. But 'days' and months and years are determined off the cycles of the stars. See that bright blue one overhead? it may not really be a 'sun', but when it rises and sets is considered a 'day'."

"That makes sense," Fantasia admitted, though snickering quietly at the oddity of the situation... not to mention all the potential fun that could be had in a world that was forever covered in the dark of night. That thought snapped at memory, and she glanced over. "No leeches around here by chance, are there? Well okay, you'd probably call them vampires or something equally bloodsucking nightmarish."

"Leeches? Oh, vampires? Eh, I don't hear much about them around here... the werewolves keep them away. Most of 'em hand out on Mezulbryst."

"Heh no, they've never gotten along particularly well," Fantasia agreed. "Even when there's a cease-fire in place. Must be something about the nature of the beasts... that or leeches are just disgusting, self-important scumbags that are better put out of their misery than left wandering out of their cages." She shrugged with deliberately innocent uncertainty. "Iunno."

"Speaking of which, I do believe we're in werewolf territory here," Thorn commented, ears flicking about.

"Not necessarily a bad thing," Fantasia replied, though watching the woods they were passing through a bit more carefully. "Not necessarily a good thing either, depending on how territorial they are, and how willing to rip any wayward foxes into tiny little bits too small to even be used as pillow stuffing."

As if on cue, they spotted one wolf watching them from beyond some light foliage. But it was no sooner noticed than it ran off into the trees again.

"Welllll," Fantasia muttered, watching in that direction as they passed and nearly slamming into a tree for her distraction, only catching herself against it at the last moment and continuing around. "That could be good or bad, too. How much ya wanna bet that the furball headed off to tell somebody who'll tell someone else, and so on, until either someone decides we're not interesting or they decide to chase us up a tree?"

"Can foxes even climb trees?" Thorn wondered. "Sides, I'm sure they'll remember me. I hope."

"Hehe," Fantasia replied. "You'd be surprised what this fox can do when there's hounds at her heels. Besides, that's what thumbs are for." She wiggled her fingers in demonstration, then sped to catch up to Thorn as a thought crossed her mind. "They know you?"

"Well... they should at any rate, I've certainly been by here enough times."

"Ohhhhh," Fantasia nodded sagely. "You just scramble on through their designated territory and this shows that they'll remember and leave you alone. I see." She smirked, ears flicking in amusement. "Let's pick up the pace, I don't mind taking chances but I at least prefer ones that I have some kind of rabbit hole to run to."

"That wasn't quite what I meant," Thorn commented. "I meant... ah, hell with it, there's a village up ahead I think..."

Fantasia grinned and glanced aside to the feline, recognizing the faint hint of exasperation all too well from years of causing just that sort of thing in people around her. It just kinda came with the territory.

"Sounds good to me," Fantasia offered aloud, tongue flicking to wet her nose. "Maybe someone there will have an idea where Shenzel went." Having a long memory made things a lot easier, let you think best when to duck for cover.

As they broke out of the trees and saw the village ahead, it appeared positively medieval. Rough wooden huts gathered around a pool where a stream decided to pause for a moment before continuing on to the ocean. This place appeared to be inhabited by humans.

"How quaint," Fantasia remarked, not really disparaging as she could see the appeal of living out in the boondocks even if it wasn't her preference, and at least they'd chosen a pretty spot to set the village down in. "The natives around here friendly," she asked, grinning lightly, "Or do we get to play fox in the henhouse?"

"Should be," Thorn said. The humans didn't seem to much be overly concerned about their presence, regardless.

Fantasia stuck her tongue out. "Well that's no fun." Snickering lightly, she looked around and observed the people in question, seemed peaceful enough, if a bit overly quiet and dull. "So is the rest of the world like this, or are there real cities lurking about someplace? Bright lights, Broadway shows, skyscrapers..."

"Yeah, I told you about Fesirya Kren didn't I? Millions of people live there."

"Mmm, don't think so," Fantasia responded, tilting her head in thought, then shrugged. "Only makes sense that there'd be someplace like that around here. People have the urge to gather together and escape the wide open spaces."

Thorn casually shifted into wood elf form again, stretched a bit, and headed into the village. "I don't really know where Shenzel got off to myself. I haven't seen her in ages."

Fantasia shrugged, incidentally resettling the pack at her shoulder and the fit of other straps. "No biggie, that's largely a sideline anyway, a point of curiosity since Shazmar said she'd come from the same world I did originally and he asked me to pass along a message."

"He's Shazmar," Thorn replied. "A casual side comment from Shazmar generally means a good deal more than it appears to at first."

"Just like any good Ragabash." Fantasia grinned and nodded. "And he's just so cute!" She giggled, remembering the Look she'd gotten from her former 'employer' upon her telling him where she'd been. "Nothing wrong with a little subtlety," she added. "Beats hell out of being a cranky old thing like Gaia was turning into at one point. Eesh."

A couple young children came to stare at them with great curiosity for a long moment until their mother showed up and shuffled them off again.

"Better watch out," Fantasia remarked offhandedly to Thorn. "I hear them strangers is an awfully scary lot. One of em has pointy ears, and the other'un has fur and tails! Tsk, tsk, wot's this world comin' to?" She grinned, shrugged, and continued onward, not really bothered by that reaction.

Thorn chuckled and headed further into the village. There was an elderly man sitting on a bench beside the well smoking a pipe. "Well, look what the cat dragged in," he said. "If'n my old eyes don't deceive me, I'd think it was Thorn, come back after all these years!"

"Seems someone remembers you at least," Fantasia offered, a faint grin serving the purpose of adding a hint of the facetious to it. She toyed with the idea of smiling brightly and waving cheerfully to the old man, but refrained from doing so... for now anyway.

He looked over to Fantasia and poked his pipe in her direction, "And what's this fair and lovely... fox... that you've brought with you, eh?"

"Kitsune, actually, and the name's Fantasia," emerged the inevitable reply, the bright smile and wave emerging despite the earlier moment of restraint. "Just poking about a bit with Thorn as my guide, looks like this place is a little quiet for me though."

"Heh! You should see it when our cousins decide to come down for a jig, oh things can get awfully wild around here lemme tell you that."

Fantasia's ears perked noticeably at that, "Your cousins?"

He looked at her oddly for a moment. "Oh, certainly. You know, the werewolves?"

"Oh reeeeally now?" Fantasia replied, grinning broadly at that. "And how often do they come down from the mountain to have a good old-fashioned throw-down?"

Wouldn't be quite the same as the kinds of parties the Glass Walkers threw, probably more like a typical moot, but even those were entertaining enough if you put your mind to it.

"Whenever they feel like, generally, although they tend to show up fairly regularly every Starsdawn." He shrugged.

"Starsdawn?" Fantasia asked, looking from the old man to Thorn and back. "Not familiar with that one, I'm used to the idea of having a sun and moon around to slice the passage of time up into nice, orderly little segments."

"Sun? Moon? Feh, what do you need them for? The stars are more than enough for me."

Fantasia grinned. "When you're on the run as much as I tend to be, it's a lot easier to keep track of something nice and big rather than having to stop and..." She straightened, mimicking a pipe in one hand, the other cupped beneath her elbow as she looked at the sky and pointed the imagined pipe-stem at it. "I say, by George, that might be the one I'm thinking of, or was it the slightly-bluer one over that way?"

He looked at her as if she was mad.

Not missing the look, Fantasia stuck the imaginary pipe between her teeth and took a puff, sucking in a breath and then letting it out. "What's that? Crazy you say? Well stuff and nonsense! I'm sure it was the only slightly more blue one over that way..." She ruined the act by giggling at his dismayed goggle.

"The Blue Star Shazmar is an unmistakable mark in the Daresan sky, dear Kitsune," the old man said, putting the pipe back in his mouth.

"Oh, oh I see," Fantasia replied, nodding in clear and sudden understanding. "Shazmar's star, that blue one, gotcha." She smirked and rolled her eyes. "Anyway, thanks for the astronomy lesson, old-timer, much appreciated."

"I don't see how you could miss it," he said. "It's twice as bright as any other star in the sky."

"Oh for love of the Machine," Fantasia muttered and snorted. "Okay, so it's brighter than any other star, that doesn't mean it's exactly clear as day when you're looking to orient yourself by it, especially when you're not from around these here parts."

"I'm sure if you spent any amount of time around here, though, you'd not have much trouble by it. The sky is painted with constellations any Daresan native can read quite easily."

Fantasia grinned and shrugged. "All depends whether you plan on sticking around a place long enough to keep track of those little details. Personally, I'd rather have a nice little GPS wired into a cell phone for convenience sake."

"Gee... pee... ess?" the man said slowly. "Hmph. Well, I'm sure if you stick'n by Thorn here, she won't steer you wrong."

"That's what a tour guide is for," Fantasia replied brightly, sighing inwardly at all the nifty toys that were gone and out of reach now... though that also meant that she wouldn't have to suffer through the most recent season of the Survivor series, so she supposed it balances out in the end. "Speaking of, better be on our way, sights to see, gotta get the best value out of ticket price. Byeee!" She grinned, nodded, and started to walk off.

"Before we go," Thorn said, "Would you happen to have heard anything about Shenzel lately?"

The man said, "Nope, can't say that I have, sorry. Good luck on your trip."

"Few bricks short of a wall," Fantasia could be heard muttering as she walked away. "Few cans short of a six-pack, light-bulb short of a full string..." she trailed off into inaudibility, though clearly still muttering to herself. Crazy people, crazy place, probably suit her just fine.

Thorn smirked faintly and hopped away, and turned back into a panther again on the edge of the village. "So, did you want to see Fesirya Kren, then? It's a bit of a ways from here, but ..."

Fantasia giggled, holding in any further signs of mirth like rolling around on the ground in uncontrolled laughter to preserve the state of her fur. "Sure," she replied. "Gotta be better than hanging out on a porch in a rocking chair, shotgun across my lap, and peering out suspiciously at all the strange folk walkin' by." She snickers, then shrugs, "Sorry, the backwoods just... aren't me."

Thorn chuckled and said, "Well, hope you're up for a bit of a hike then. But don't worry, I'll maul anything that tries to eat you," she winked.

Thorn loped off into the trees, heading toward the northwest. Not that it was especially easy to tell it was northwest.

"I'd say I was hoping you're joking," Fantasia smirked. "But I have a sneaking suspicion that you're not. Don't worry about it, though, I'm used to running from anything bigger, meaner, and nastier than I am, and when you're a kitsune that means just about every shapeshifter out there!"

She trotted easily along after Thorn, the extra agility of the werefox far preferable in her mind to any extra bit of size any day.

Thorn headed off into the trees. As they left the village behind, a couple more wolves could be seen lurking in the trees, watching them occasionally, but so long as they seemed to be moving out of their territory, they didn't appear to care to bother them overmuch at the moment.

Fantasia couldn't resist waving cheerfully to the wolves in passing, the idea of werewolves not really all that frightening to her since she'd grown up around them and thought she was one for a good part of her life.