Landon never felt happier to see the three-headed dog in his entire life, all of her ears perking up as he walked in with celeste and she eagerly started giving him big kisses with her tongues. He felt himself lean into it, petting her much to her delight. He really hoped he wasn't heading in for a trap himself, cause that was the last thing he needed to deal with today. He just hoped wherever this girl was it wasn't too far away, it couldn't be right? He swore she looked familiar.
It was hard to get a good look at her from where he sat but still.
"So hows this gonna work, we going good cop and bad cop on this random demon girl? Isn't that maybe an abuse of power for you?", he gave what she considered an awkward look that told her well enough he wasn't entirely sure. "We'll just, find her and ask her some questions...that's fair right..? I mean, she's a kid...she can't be too tough". Actually that was a lie, he had no idea what to expect out of this kid, especially when she had hands on papers from the book of spells.
He bit his lip, pulling out his compact to take a pictures of both sides of the paper, just in case he needed it.
"You don't think she's...", celeste drawled out as the dog came him to smooch her as well, forcing her to be wary of her wiped away her makeup on her cheeks. "Her? No, i kinda don't think so...but having a book of spells page, we should at least ask how she got a hold of it...it made it's way to the underworld somehow and we'd do better to see why.". He motioned for the dog to sit, he wasn't used to having her track down things for him, that was usually his parents.
But he knew she could do it, so there had to be a way.
"Yeah...and what if lucy here takes us somewhere else instead? to all the other people who've fingered that paper..".
"Look, i'm trying ok? Could you at least sorta kinda help instead of making it worse on me right now?", she reluctantly held out the paper, frowning as she held it up to lucy, "Uh...hi? Sniff this, we need to find the demon girl who was holding it...can you find her?". Yeah, there was no way this was working at all, though the giant dog was sniffing with all of her heads, looking up at landon as he smiled awkwardly and shrugged. She moved back, panting before sniffing the air, landon taking this as a positive sign.
"C'mon, let's open the door and get on her back...", celeste couldn't even protest as landon flew and pulled her up, but just barely. Riding a dog was not something fairly common to the girl but she didn't have much of a choice as the doors were opened and lucy bounded out of the room and outside of the castle. Her noses high in he hair and smelling around as her companions gripped her collar fiercely. Celeste regretted going as she practically hugged the collar.
This wasn't like riding a unicorn, this animal was much MUCH more unfitting for giving rides.
She was bigger, and had a much higher risk of throwing them off her back, celeste was sure she'd be sick.
Though much to her surprise, the dog soon stopped, scooting to a stop of course, and making Celeste feel more sick. She tried to catch her breath and get herself together as she tried to make light of where lucy had taken them and if it was even where they were supposed to be. Landon seemed to have held himself much better then her, probably because he was used to this to some degree. Thanking lucy before helping celeste off and telling his dog to stay.
"The stables?".
"It's where we keep the dead unicorns, dark horses, all that jazz... they run our carriages and are used by soldiers at times as well, my family doesn't really go down here all that much. The nice thing about skeleton horses though? You don't have to feed them, though the dark ones really enjoy demon fruit.". Celeste hummed in interest as she followed him along, "So...you think she's here? In the stables? I mean, don't tell me you have people living in here...".
"Actually no, i think...I think i get it...", landon headed inside the grand building housing most if not all of their equestrians, it was made of stone more then anything, dark stone, even their stables were covered in dark architecture. Skulls along the walls, and torches for light, as she checked out the snorting and even talking horses in their stables. The place even actually smelled like a stable, well, that and...burned toast? Well, it stuck, that was for sure.
"Is every building in the underworld look gloomy and dead?", celeste asking, kicking some rocks inside that turned out to be alive and moving. Landon seemed to find her question ridiculous, snorting as he walked passed servants taking care of the horses and cleaning up any messes they could find, "Well, i mean, what did you expect down here? It's sorta our thing, have you even been to the underworld that much before you started staying...here?".
"No...things...were complicated...plus i never had a reason to come down here...", he shrugged and kept moving, looking around every corner before stopping, and motioning towards his sister. Celeste stood next to them and looked to where he was staring. He found her alright, a small girl sitting by herself in the stables, going through the brushes used to clean off the skeleton horses and said brushes falling out of her hands half the the time.
This girl seemed clumsy overall, but it was very much the same one they saw.
Now at a better distance, they could make out her features better. She was blue for one, blue skin, dark blue hair with a bit of a light blue streak in it, a tattered dress tied with rope and covered in good luck charms, long orange and black horns that stuck upright, and one big orange eyes that stuck out like a sore thumb thanks to her mostly blue color scheme. She had a lot of luck charms alright, from very dried up 4 leaf clovers, to a rabbit's foot, to even a horseshoe from one of the horses of the stables tied to her.
Guess she was a little superstitious.
No wonder Landon felt she was familiar, she was a servant, he'd probably seen her around the castle a few times even if he usually didn't pay that much mind to most servants considering his terrible social skills.
Though he would admit seeing someone so young be a servant here bothered him just a little bit, his parents would never agree to letting kids as young as mason take on tough tasks so this was an odd revelation. He cleared his throat though, knowing he'd need to speak to the rather gloomy looking girl and ask her question. Though before he could think of what to say, Celeste had already taken the matter into her own hands, bumping past him and over to the girl.
"hi, who are you?".
Well, that was one way to do it.
The girl looked up, and though landon was expecting a confused and maybe innocent reaction, the girl herself seemed rather unenthusiastic about their appearance, in fact she seemed like she didn't really care much at all about being called on. She glared over both of them with her one eye and her eye lingered on landon a bit more, she probably knew he was one of the princes, which would definitely make her one of the few who did notice him.
"Prince lucitor? What are you doing down here?", seems the girl wasn't void of sass, looking him up and down and then Celeste once more. "Just so you know, i'm not the head of the stables so...maybe you want to talk to my superior?". Landon sighed and held out the paper instead, the girl's eye widening, "We saw you drop this...why do you have a page from the book of spells?". So they were just going to come right out with it weren't they?
No prep, no idea what to expect.
Just lay it all out there .
Landon was expecting denial, outrage, even maybe violence, but instead...he was met with relief. "Oh? So that's what that paper was? I wasn't entirely sure about it, plus the writing is in another language entirely, i almost thought it might've been from the lucitor archives since Relicor keeps the weirdest things down there...". Landon blinked at her, shaking his head, "Wait? What? You didn't even know what this paper was?". The small girl shrugged, "When i found it i assumed it was important but I've never seen that book before...well, then again i can't really see most books that aren't from a bookstore of library and don't accidentally burn up.".
"It's from the butterfly kingdom", Celeste grumbled, the girl looking towards her, "Oh? Well that explains so much actually...well, you can keep it then...i was hoping to return it to wherever it came from but...seems i continued my streak of losing things...that's 5 times this week". The two royals looked at each other, well, this was the last thing they expected, watching the girl trip and get back to sorting through her items. Landon coughed, "Uh...where'd you find this? It's kinda far from home...".
"The woods...i went to the surface and found it, i think someone lost it out there...probably the princess or someone who really didn't keep track of their items".
"The woods?".
"There's a nice patch out there where i like to pick clovers for my collection...", she motioned to the dead clovers attached to her dress, "It was there, lying around...though i assume you two weren't the ones who lost it?". They shook their heads at her, "I see many things in those woods, not a safe place...full of creeps...i haven't been back since, but that's because knowing my luck, i'd run into the person who lost that paper out there and i probably don't want to know at all.". Landon looked the paper over and handed it to celeste, "Have you ever seen anything...creepy in there?, like a masked lady?".
"Prince, why are you looking for masked ladies?", she was such a young girl and yet she asked rather good questions, "I thought you weren't into ladies?". Celeste snickered at that one and landon sighed, "Ok, who told you that one?". She finished gathering her stuff and started heading over to one of the skeleton horses, clearly prepared to clean him, "My family's been serving yours for years, everyone talks, word gets around...it's common knowledge in the underworld at this point, for the record i don't blame you for going after human boys, they probably smell better then the cold depths of the afterlife". Landon shook off his embarrassment to proceed with questioning as the weird girl started to dust the dead horse.
"Look, she's a wanted criminal, or he, or they or...whatever they are...maybe you've seen where they're camping out...".
"Oh Fae!"
Fae? Odd name.
The girl turned to another demon who bowed at the sight of the prince before acknowledging the small girl again, though she seemed rather anxious around fae, as if the small girl would attack her despite her small size "Please make certain you finish sweeping your part for today before heading out, and tell your family hello for me?", Fae nodded to her and she bowed to the prince before moving away rather quickly. The girl went back to work before looking at her companions, "Describe this masked lady...i'm just assuming you aren't going to leave until i spill the beans on whatever you need.". Did she actually know something or not? Landon wasn't sure of anything around this girl, she seemed rather moody and unhelpful but she was all they got right now.
"Tall, i think? White doll mask with a crack, long flowing black dress, you can't seen any of her skin in her costume...".
"She, they, he,whoever... has good taste...".
"She scares the living daylights out of everyone in mewni because no one can find her, we need to know if you've seen anything peculiar.".
"Nah, i'd remember her...".
"We think she broke into lucitor castle once, like, and kept lucy from even sniffing them out, do you think you have a reason as to how they could figure that out?".
"She sounds fun...well never saw her but...if you're looking for something weird I did receive...a note...ages ago it feels", she glanced to them oddly, "Asking me for information about the lucitor kingdom...in exchange for helping me with...things, but it burned before i could really do anything with it...so if you're looking for something odd, well...yeah...some person was desperate for help with the castle...but then again, there are many demons who'd do anything to enter.". Landon snorted, "Burned? How?", but that seemed to make the girl more embarrassed, "Things tend to get destroyed around me, i was probably the last person they should've asked for help...people who're around me, tend to end up dissapointed".
Landon was already sure he knew where this was going, "Well...you know, we believe this person...broke into the castle...at one point...so...". The girl didn't seem amused, "Prince, i'm sorta obliged to be as truthful to you as possible, I had nothing to do with anything like that...i got a note and it burned...don't even know who sent it, i'm only 13 here.". She was quiet for a moment, pausing in her work, "I rarely go anywhere outside of the stables, truthfully i wouldn't have been any use...".
"But this person thought you'd be useful?".
"If they thought i was useful, then they must've been desperate to find anyone...because they didn't know me..."., she closed her one eye, thinking, "Also probably a bad burglar in the first place considering i might've just went to the king and queen with the note...they really didn't think things through..". Didn't think things through? That didn't sound like the type of villain they were going after? They seemed so much more cunning, and powerful to do something as dumb as that.
Must've been someone else then, right?
False lead, dammit.
"Geez if you were gonna be this helpful why didn't you come to anyone about any of this?", Celeste stepped forward, making the young demon's pointed ears twitch, "I'm 13, if a 13 year old girl went up to you and told you this stuff without any proof how would you think you'd react?" She turned around, leaning against the skeleton horse and sighing, "being a peasant is not the same thing as prince pink over there living in his castle, the crimes that happen, the rumors, The small oddities? We know about them...".
"You're kinda young to be well...a servant?".
"Family's been serving yours for years, we need the money and this was the only job i couldn't screw up...because technically I can't accidentally kill things that are already dead", she shrugged, " Don't worry, your parents never assigned me anything better for adults,they knew we needed the money so they gave me this opportunity, i take care of the horses...even you could do that.". Geez, the last thing landon expected when looking for this demon, was to get so many more questions then answers, such a strange little girl.
"You think i'm weird, don't you?".
"What?".
"i can see it with my one eye...", she pointed to her large orange eye, for emphasis, "It's fine, i know i'm strange...you've only just met me and i'm spouting out nonsense about my family and problems and weird junk, but you asked for it...". The horse behind her laughed, reminding landon that, oh yeah, their horses could speak English. She rolled her eye, "I went out to find a place to read to myself and take a break but...i didn't expect it'd lead me to meet Prince Landon of the lucitor kingdom...".
"Well i didn't think it'd lead me to someone who had so much to talk about...".
"I have...a habit of getting into bad situations...just my luck..".
She looked around, keeping a eye on the other servants, "Well, you can take that paper with you, i don't need it for anything. But whoever had it might come looking for it, and if it's some giant creepy lady thing then maybe you should watch out prince...". They exchanged looks and fae paused, looking between them, "What else do you want? You wanted more info, i told you everything i know!". Celeste coughed into her hand, "I was kinda like..attacked...by something in those woods, and now you're kinda saying you found this paper in these woods...are you sure you've never seen...anything else out there?".
"Those woods have always been creepy, tales of bogbeasts and evil plants that drag you under and mysterious figures, if you're so sure they're out there...you're better off looking, but...yeah wandering in the woods tends to be a bad idea.", she started cleaning her section and the two followed her,"Didn't you admit to going into those woods at your age? You're younger then both of us!". They both did kinda have a point as Fae put her cleaning supplied away.
"I'm a servant girl, it's much worse if the prince goes missing out there then me...".
There was silence.
"Hey uh...thanks, for being helpful, and uh...talking to us about all this", landon mumbled, hands in his pockets, "Uh...if there's kinda like, anything I can do to help I-". But the girl cut him off, "Don't die, cause if i cause a prince to die...well...yeah...". She was a strange girl, but considering what landon thought she'd be, this was very much an upgrade. "Hey, if that paper is from the butterfly castle, and there's some freak wandering around...uh...does that mean...everyone is in danger?".
To be honest, everyone seemed so concerned about the royals and other kingdoms, he hadn't even considered the citizens were in just as much potential danger. He felt a lump in his throat trying to answer, "Well, yeah...uh...I was unaware...you all knew so little about everything...I'm sorry...". Fae nodded, "Just be careful out there...and um...i wish you luck on your mission Prince Landon, though...here...". She grabbed one of her clovers from her dress and handed it to him, "You might need some luck...we all do..".
He clutched it before looking her over, "hey um...fae...".
"Hm?".
"We need to check out that spot, what if...i paid you to take us there?".
Judas was still on edge.
Still no word from Nora and now he was expected to just...do what with luna? Hang out?
He was unsure about her but he didn't have much of a choice at this point, waiting for her just overall made him nervous and sky's texts weren't entirely helping. They needed luna to be in the best of moods if they ever planned to get something out of her and here sky was, making her more mad. I guess if it did anything it seemed to finally put a crack in her that no one seemed to manage to do before, and even though judas rightfully told sky she went too far as he looked through his texts.
Having Luna mention anyone by name from where she came from was quite impressive.
He waited outside the training room of course, hearing kelly wave out the knights as they finished up and left. Some even bowing to the prince on their way out, and he knew that blonde when he saw her, bun up and still rough looking. She paused at the sight of him, sighing to herself as she looked him over, judging him. "You told me you wanted to talk to me after training, I'm assuming this is meant to be important?". She eyed around them, watching for any listeners peeking around.
"We need to talk, about some of the recent things going on, so...you got some free time?", she huffed but seemed a little more content now that judas was actually seemingly listening to her for once, it'd been awhile since just the two of them spoke, and usually when they did it resulted in slight tension. "Sky with you? Or are you really here alone to talk to me? Knowing her she already told me she had a spat with me earlier i'd rather not speak of.".
"It's just me, i figure that would make you the most comfortable...I was thinking we could talk over a game of ping pong? I believe we haven't finished our match?". She scoffed but she also seemed to actually smile at that, "Cute, but we're here to talk about serious matters, not go out and play...last time it was because we butted heads, i'd rather not be angered any more then I already am from earlier and if you ask a single question about whatever sky told you...I swear..".
"How about this, i tell you the info if you beat me?", he was being so smug about it, even though honestly he was sure luna had other ways at her disposal to get information out of him. And just as he expected, luna tapped on her disguised wand, unimpressed, "I would rather not have to get info from you from more...controversial matters...no more games jude. You should spill the beans on whatever it is you want to talk about, you know full well calling me about info you don't intend to tell me is just asking for trouble...".
"Gee luna, if you were so worried about losing you could've just told me.".
She was competitive, he knew this would make her bend.
Sky told him despite how sweet and caring he usually was, he also could be a major jerk if he wanted to be when he was teasing his friends and family. Something about that smile he had and his tone of voice, Judas described himself usually more of a nerd at heart, but then again he did seem to look almost like a mix between a prep or jock from one of those cliche high school movies he'd seen with sky and his family. The kinda guy you'd want to challenge and beat at his game.
And Luna hated being bested or not seen as the top dog if anything.
"I don't like that you have the ability to both make people love you, but also make people want to punch you in your perfect teeth...", she grabbed his arm, "Very well, let's go to the underworld, we'll talk there...but don't waste my time please...". She seemed rather thankful to find out they weren't going back to the safe room to play this time around, as the underworld had a clear game room, which was where the lucitor family always went to challenge each other to games.
"I'm assuming what you have to say has nothing to do with any word from my mother or...well, the Spiderbites right?".
He picked up a paddle and looked up at her, "No, it's neither of those things, i'm left in the dark for both those things as well at the moment...i hope they're ok though, i'm kinda worried about all of them.". She hummed, picking up a paddle, "Hearing some Intel about the ponyhead kingdom, their son escaping last night...not very reassuring to hear with everything else happening. But honestly the likelyhood a ponyhead can work that costume is very small.".
"Not unless there's several in there working everything...", he mentioned, grabbing a ping pong ball and preparing to serve.
"Well considering they have confirmed hands, I'll take that as a no.".
He served and the ball bounced towards her, the two smacking it back and forth over the spider-weaved net.
"Your Magic high commission seems rather...well...they seem to do very little...", she gave a rather hard smack of the ball back towards him, "Doesn't bode well when even they can't find the things they should be able to find on a whim...if magic is going fuzzy in this reality...sheesh i don't want to imagine that...". The ball flew past her on the next turn and she sighed, going to pick it up, "Mewni is falling apart, do you have any idea what happens when mewmans start panicking?".
"I...got some idea...",he said, swinging back and forth, "You should see some of them around me, snarking about my arm and sometimes terrified about me attacking them...loki claims it's not true, people love me and i'm just not seeing it...but...I dunno, being born or er...created kinda imperfect...and having that constantly beating down your door, telling you everyone secretly hates you...it's a voice that's hard to get entirely rid of, no matter what you do...".
She hit another rough shot, judas almost missing it but managing with a quick save, "You're probably heard all the speeches huh? The ones where you're told to ignore it, to scare them to teach them a lesson, that when you'll be king you won't have to worry about it, that you'll prove them wrong.". Judas said nothing, letting her talk and continue with her train of thought, he was surprised though, she was entirely right about all of those things.
"You both duely want to keep them happy and oppose them instead of taking one direction or the other, it's a hard bargain because you don't know if it's better to be accepted by everyone or stay true to yourself. Is that correct?". Judas looked rather stern, catching the ball with his hands to look up at her, directly in the eyes from his side of the table, "If you're reading my mind, just so you know, it's not really cool to pry into other people's personal issues..".
"No mind reading needed, i can just tell...", she replied simply, "For the record though, if you ask me what to do in your situation...don't let those people win, tradition might make people happy, but...well, it can be old fashioned and...i can't say our ancestors always made the right choices in the long run. I say you exceed expectations, strive to be the best and they'll learn to put up with it. You're being coronated soon right? I suggest whatever party you have, it's both elegant, and fitting for you...".
"Why do you care?".
She hummed, leaning against the table, "I just do, you'll never be a good king if you let everyone push you around like that and feed into what they want...".
"Look, didn't we want to talk about info, the reason you're here?".
She silenced herself before nodding, looking over the boy's face with a certain fascination.
"Ok, spill the beans, why'd you really drag me here...?", Judas was about to answer when luna held out a hand, "I can tell i'm no one's favorite person around here, so the fact you wanted to hang out with me, tells me i'm missing something...". Oh shoot, she was on to them already? He needed to think of something fast to keep her distracted, even if he didn't know why eclipsa wanted him to do this, the last thing he wanted was to be on luna's bad side.
"I don't hate you", he practically blabbed out.
"Hmm?".
"I don't hate you...", he repeated, "You're...not easy to deal with, but...i don't really believe you're a bad person.", he sighed and headed to the far side of the wall, leaning against it. "Look, i have a younger brother, he's difficult to deal with sometimes, but when he's mad with me...i don't believe he really hates me...I don't believe you really think that you think the mind-wiping thing is entirely moral or that you think people who don't make progress are some kind of waste."
"You don't know me judas..."., she smirked, "Things are just different for me...".
"Look, you're kinda hard-edged, not great at making friends, and everyone is kinda intimidated by you...but...you clearly do care about people, i don't think you're so concerned over your mother for no reason. She means something to you back home? You have people back home you're desperate to see again aren't you?", the blonde snorting, shaking her head, "You're really trying to figure me out judas, i give you props, you're way better at it then celeste or sky are...you pay attention to things."
"Do you not open up because you don't want us to know, or don't want anyone to miss you when you're gone?".
"Is there actual info you wanted to tell me or is this an interrogation?", she walked over next to him, leaning against the wall as well, "For the record, i can't say you're very good at it, but it's a solid attempt.". They stood in silence, luna's shoulders sinking and looking around the game room, "Honestly keeping myself mad and stern all the time is tiring...but it's also necessary, between pretending to be a knight and trying my best to find what i need...you just have to keep up apperances..".
"Why?", he mumbled.
"Why?".
"You're not home anymore, maybe you're like this at home...but...you don't have to be this way around everyone here...".
"Says the guy trying to keep up appearances for people who hate him...", she laughed to herself, sending him a look that sent chills, "No wonder I enjoy your company more then the others, we have more in common then I thought...". She moved away from the wall, hand running along the pinpong table, "I have to admit, you're fun to challenge, but if you came out here to find out some secrets, you're going to have to keep guessing it seems.".
"Luna look, i don't wanna pry into whatever is going on back in your universe, but i also don't want us to be enemies...we're clearly not communicating well and we don't seem to really trust each other. We should talk luna, we're going to have better chances if we're on the same team and working together here and if you truly respect me, then i think we both need to work out whatever's the matter so we can get things back on track and get this mission to get you back done...".
She paused for a moment, thinking something over before taking a deep breath and looking judas in the eyes, "I've been doing my own research, but knowing you that was one of your many guesses into my mind, mind you, not very successful research, but still research.". She seemed relaxed, "I've been trying to find celeste all day so she would actually speak to me on everything happening but at this point this mission is falling apart so badly i'm not sure it would've lasted another day...".
Judas's eyes widened.
"Oh don't give me that look, you've been hiding things from me as well, i can tell...".
He closed his gaping mouth, "Has she told you anything...personal?", only to be met with the relief of a shaking head. "Apparently i'm not nearly as good as commanding people as i am back home, your brother and Celeste? they fight back, they don't listen...they go long stretches to ignore and hide from me, they clearly weren't as up to the task as i expected them to be...i supposed that's what i get for hiring random teens rather then experienced solders...".
Wait...landon was working with you?", he sounded surprised, not only that, but also a little dissapointed , luna picked up on that as well, "Purely out of spite for you, though considering how little he's done i'm not sure if he really meant it or it was from a spur of the moment thing to spite you..". Judas froze in place and looked genuinely heartbroken as his shoulders sank and his ears seemed to point downwards, "I...didn't know it was that bad...".
"I wouldn't let it ruin your life, i've seen his type, void of attention for so long that it takes a hold on them, till they reach their breaking point and are so starved for attention they are willing to do anything to get it. You blame yourself too much and it won't make anything any better...", she was right, and judas nodded, "I know, i know it's not my fault...i guess it just...hurts? to know your brother...feels this way...about you. I'm supposed to set a good example after all...".
"Aren't we all? we're royals judas, our job is to be an example for our kingdoms, to be an example to others...it's...a lot of pressure to put siblings on top of that", she had a point, eyes wandering to the door, "I'll be honest, i don't agree with you sometimes and i think you need to take some things more seriously, but...i can't say i enjoy watching you feel miserable.". She picked up one of the paddles again, "Another round? I still haven't beaten you yet...".
"Didn't you say you never had fun, aren't your duties more important to you?".
"Well, yes...they are, however...right now...".
She practically leaped over the table with the grace of a gazelle and got into position, "After you dragged me down here and interrogated me and tried to pry into my inner thoughts, i now consider it my duty to crush you to pieces using my paddle...". Judas snapped out of his sadness to see her slam her hand on the table, scaring him as he grabbed his own paddle, "You're just doing this to make me feel better aren't you? You know you don't reallly-".
"I'm not void of compassion, or do you really think that little of me?".
His brows firmed, clutching his paddle tighter.
"You're on...".
He held back less then before, and luna was pretty good, not as good as him, but sill good. Maybe this was what eclipsa meant, getting luna to trust them again and open up with them, or maybe she just wanted luna to stop looking like a snobby mother, one or the other. Though as they kept playing, their playtime was ended as luna put it to a stop, catching the ball in her hand instead of using the paddle. Making Judas stop, almost worried something had come over her.
and it did.
an idea, in fact.
"Luna...what's wrong?".
"Judas...I have... a proposal for you...".
"Not the best day for a lesson...is it?".
"What gave you that idea?".
Eclipsa laughed into her teacup, "Well, judging by the fact guards are scattered all around my tower like little beetles sure helps, look at this poor boy, he looks as bad as I did when i ate some bad chocolate.". She was pointing to angel, on his usual side from sky, who was a nervous wreck this time around. His hair, thought still tied up, was messy as all heck. He was clearly sweating, and he wasn't even looking at anyone with any of his eyes.
Sky had noticed this when he walked in for today's lesson of course, but she almost didn't even want to ask what was the cause considering everything about angel's background that could contribute. She wasn't good at the whole "Comforting thing" exactly, yeah sure, angel broke down in front of her and sought comfort once before but still...she wasn't used to it. Plus Eclipsa being in front of them, knowing her, only made it kinda worse in general.
If Judas was handling luna, she should handle angel.
Worse case scenario, they swap , though sky's last encounter with the tall and bossy blonde probably would make talking to her again...less favorable. Judas was clearly better with both of them then she was still, but that was probably because the guy was normally a very friendly person and the only reason people didn't like him in her eyes, was that they judged him for his arm. Angel and Luna both seemed to hold some type of respect for him, regardless of how they felt about his opinions on them.
Not to say there was no respect between her and them but...yeah.
"I'm fine...", angel said in a 'not so very fine' voice, in his defense though, everyone seemed a little on edge. Angel's father dropped him off as he usually did, but this time he preferred the boy was on watch by someone, forcing angel to be picked up by eclipsa herself this time around. Much to his embarrassment it seemed, and much to his father's pleasure as it seemed he was still very much a Eclipsa fanboy, Sky may not have witnessed it herself but, judging by eclipsa's reaction and angel's after, it was mortifying.
Though she doubted it was the reason he seemed so sickly.
"Aww dear, I know right now times are stressful and scary, especially with star's plan to enchant the kingdoms...but i promise, you'll be safe here...at least in the meantime. Honestly, we're lucky lessons weren't cancelled, but don't worry, things should hopefully only get easier from here." Angel didn't seem so sure but he silently kept to himself, his four eyes wandering around the room, as if expecting something to pop up and kidnapp him from the corner somewhere.
"What's the lesson for today?", he muttered, still not looking anyone in the face.
"I was thinking more...magic related?".
This got the kid's attentions alright, even angel, who gave the woman a skeptic look.
"I'm weak at magic, you know that...".
"Well so was sky, so i see this as a great learning opportunity!".
The teens exchanged looks before angel went back to ignoring everyone around him, "Sky is not weak...you saw how well she does, with or without her wand. She's kicked me from the kingdom 173 times...whether her wand works or not...". His dark haired companion only raised her eyebrow at him and gaped at his statement, "Wait? Don't tell you you counted every single time that happened? Seriously? Did you make marks in a book or something about this? Please tell me that was a random number you picked out...".
"I have a day planner that has all my visits to the castle for...well that, so...yeah...", he looked embarrassed, but then he shook his head and crossed his arms over his chest, "I don't have a compact, what do you think i do when i'm not at butterfly castle?". She sighed, fair enough, she'd normally guess prince stuff but even that was kinda out of the question since angel's idea of prince stuff was different from actual prince stuff that judas took care of.
"Regardless, I think at a time like this...maybe it's better we move on to spells, don't worry it's going to be perfectly safe and not involve any fighting this time. Especially since there are guards out there who would probably add another mark to my record if i did, on the plus side though, Queen Janna's pranks are hitting more then ever since there are guards everywhere she can mess with, can't deny the one who fell into her bucket trap made me laugh.".
She stood up, heading over to her bookshelf, "Now, sky may own the magic book of spells now, but that never stopped me from making my own collection of spells...sky...any spells you're currently working on for now?". Angel even turned to sky as she felt herself be put on the spot, "I-I uh...I've been a little busy to really come up with any...i mean, Fireskull Frenzy is a fun one, but uh...last time i used that i burned a tower and i'm not trying it anytime soon...".
"Don't you have more...?", Angel popped up yet again, "Your bubble charm? Shard hearts? Of course your licorice rope counts as well...i also believe you made your own cloudy recently as well since you were always conjuring your mother's before...". Alright, now angel was starting to enter weird territory again, and it must've shown clear on her face since it made eclipsa laugh, sitting down with a dark book in her hands. "Oh c'mon sky, he's fought you so much, no doubt he'd know you quite well in that field", she wasn't wrong but it was still odd.
"Uh...do arachmen really even have spells? Did you guys...like...ever...have spells?".
Angel looked personally offended, "All monsters can use your wand sky...which means all monsters can make spells, just because my species could do magic without a wand doesn't mean we never invented spells outside of making silk.". Then his face grew sad, "But, most of those recorded in our history...were burned, by queen solaria...even if we couldn't do magic much after the mewmans took over...losing those records...only made things worse...we stopped magic altogether and only knew the one spell...our weakest...honestly our ultimate is considered so unpredictable because we were never given the magical practice to control it, that war completely destroyed us...".
Eclipsa's sad expression was enough for Sky to realize maybe that question was a bad idea.
"Uh...moving on...".
"Don't worry sky, magic actually can be different depending on species, prince lucitor after all has different magic then you, and so do the ponyheads...it's not a weird assumption to make, i personally...i believe it's more of an in between, correct angel?". He grumbled for a bit before nodding, "Yeah, it's half our own magic, and partially theirs because we can't conjure it without magic that's not personal to us internally. We can do spells you can't...I think..".
"Have you ever...tried using them?".
"There's no point in trying things you can't do, servants do silk and outside of that...it's just the one web spell...that's it for me. Not like i'm in a position to create spells either, not skilled enough, too busy on other matters..." He trailed off, clearly thinking about other things, "Anyways, don't focus on that, you're the family that focuses on magic, you're the one who can go practice your spells.". Geez, he had no trouble at all trying to built trip her about her family history did he?
He was so blunt about, but he also wasn't wrong.
With her mother going out of her way to keep angel out of the castle aside from these lessons, sky really lacked an opportunity to hang out with him and question some of the things she wanted to ask , yeah globgor was out there doing his own investigating but there was something that told her angel was more of the person to put her focus on. Besides. leaving from this point on will no doubt be harder then it used to be, so going to angel's own castle wouldn't work out for her.
She needed a way to keep him here, just a bit longer.
"Sky?", Eclipsa tilted her head and smirked, "How about showing us some of your more innocent spells? You have been using your wand and practicing right?". Well, sky had to admit that she really hadn't been, she'd been falling behind a bit ever since the physical teaching stopped and mostly because she was now surrounded by more competent magic users who could do these things without her. Even as she took out her wand now her expression was enough indication for eclipsa.
"It's ok dear, but honestly...use that wand more often...don't be afraid of doing magic if you need to..".
Sky looked over to angel, who simply blinked at her as she stood up. "I dunno, what if i try and my wand malfunctions and...", then she heard angel shush her and she turned in annoyance, "It only malfunctions because of your conflicting emotions, when your really god for it, it works just fine". She almost felt like rolling her eyes, Like yeah maybe, but that didn't entirely explain how or if she was responsible for bringing her sisters here...did it?
Man that was so long ago, she really had no idea how she felt during that time.
She knew she was still kinda upset, but she also was determined to do something, anything?
It was a thing with her family, they had a problem? Use magic to fix it! Find a spell and make it work! Practice and keep up with said practice so you're ready to be a good queen. She looked at her wand, it's shiny heart shaped gem-stone glistened at her. There was still no telling how that had happened that night and who was entirely responsible, for all they know the masked person was just some rouge causing mayhem that had nothing to do with anything.
But they'd never know unless they caught him, her, it.
And there was a high chance she might be under suspicion or worse if she did nothing.
"Princess Butterfly?"
Angel got her attention, and sky looked at her wand again, thoughts and idea running through her head. With luna not being here, or any of the girls for that matter, she was finally on her own to make these choices when it comes to magic. Do her own thing, do things her sisters couldn't. Sure, Sunny seemed to share a care for Angel because she was rather empathetic and had a sweet spot for monsters in need, but Sky had the history, it was almost bizarre to think just all the memories she had stored about fighting this pest of as prince actually meant something to a degree.
Angel sorta seemed to treat her with some kind of respect, she knew that, but it's not like throughout their childhood they were close with each other or anything, she mainly ignored him and she and judas had rarely hung out with anyone but each other. And yet, Angel seemed to know things she didn't think he'd pay attention to, geez now she almost wished she had paid nearly as much attention to him instead of being annoyed all the time so she had something to use against him.
But regardless, if anyone was gonna get this from him, it'd be her.
It better be.
"Yeah yeah...uh...is this really a good place to be doing magic? If i break anything in here we're so dead...", in which eclipsa snapped her fingers and everything cleared out, including the couches as angel fell down and landed on his back with a small whine. Eclipsa moved off the side of the room, ushering the fallen prince to join her as he lifted himself up with his extended legs and moved away, grumpy about his tea being gone as well until eclipsa magicked it up for him.
"Honestly I've been waiting for you to do magic for a very long time...ever since i heard you were improving, angelus, name one of sky's spells...something that won't severely ruin my room please? I want Globgor to come by later and watch the stars.". Angel sighed and thought for a moment, going through his head, " Lazer Bat Blast?". Sky giving him a look before attempting to do the spell herself, jumping up and airming up before a measly purple bat came out and landed don the floor.
Welp.
"Look, it's a lot easier to do this stuff when i'm not being watched or...under pressure...", well, it wasn't too bad when bernard and melaine had been watching her but bernard was more focused on his card tricks and melaine well...she would like what sky did no matter what, sky kinda wished she was here right now. She'd had so many crazy ideas she was bound to know what to do in this situation, even if it was something from an insane earth movie.
What would melaine do? Or Judas for that matter? Well, if melaine were in the process of thinking about how they'd question angel, well...actually she'd just do it, outright, pad and all without needing to worry about keeping angel here longer. If Judas were doing it he'd pull angel aside, talk to him in private, work a way around to discover what was happening, he was firm but also somewhat gentle. Those options kinda were out of luck considering how little they had in common with sky herself.
"Sky?".
"Look, i'm thinking ok!".
"Dear...don't think so hard about this, it's your wand, you're in control, don't focus so much on us, do it your way...".
Her way?
Duh.
"Ok, well...let's uh...let's try that thing again ok? ", She grumbled at the flopping bat on the wooden floor, flapping about and just barely being able to get off the air. Not her best work, and the looks on her guests faces really weren't helping her already low self esteem. She hadn't used this spell THAT recently so she might be out of practice, but if she was ever going to manage it she needed to focus and do what she did before when fighting angel.
Just get through the class, and then she could focus on what to do about angel later.
"LAZER BAT BLAST!", she went for it again, this time trying to focus her wand a little better, luna talked to her about that didn't she? Wands and how best to grip and position them for her spells? The information was coming back to her again, and in a final blow the spell actually came out almost successfully. Not completely, but the 3 bats that did come out, were flying, and still had lazers that were actually working. A better attempt then her first one alright.
Even eclipsa smiled, impressed, butting angel next to her to clap and lose his usual downer tone. He was reluctant, but still did so, he wasn't exactly heartless. Sky still wasn't fond of them watching there but at the very least she was a little more confident then how she started out , motioning for them to shoot her another spell to try. Not that she expected this to work full time, but as long as she avoided their gaze and kept her focus, she should relatively be fine right?
Right.
Angel asked her to summon her darker cloudy because of course he would, which unfortunately led to a few poofs before a successful first attempt was made. She kinda felt bad this "Lesson" was more for her then Angel though, it wasn't particularly kind of eclipsa to set up a class she could do but angel couldn't, unless...she was expecting sky to do something . She glanced over to angel, "Uh...you wanna come here and I mean...we could at least...".
She was inviting him to join? And do what exactly?
"Uh...at least...what now?".
"I mean, do your web spell! It's the one you know right?".
He blinked at her, "You...want me to use my magic? it doesn't do much! You know that! It's just a simple sticky web spell". But she still motioned for him to join still, and awkwardly and very un-prince like, he shuffled over. Smoothing out his fancy clothes and standing next to sky. His hands glowed only a little bit before sky saw webbing form, she really wasn't used to seeing it like this, well...not being shot at her from far distance and as he played target practice with it. She found he was better at it then she thought, webbing up her bats to the walls.
Guess when you only have one spell the learn, you learn to easily master it.
He wasn't even being smug about it, but then again, it wasn't typical for him, Loki maybe, but not Angel. If this is what he could do with weak magic, sky'd hate to see him at full power, pinches out, eyes glowing, and vemon prepared for attack. Geez, and people thought their butterfly forms were scary, no wonder even solaria was anxious about his species to reduce them to decay and hiding. Angel stopped when he finished his practice, huffing and reaching up to fix his hair, as some had got lose and had blown in his face from it's normally organized ponytail.
"Go again...produce some spells...", Sky's nervousness at being watched by her frienemy and strange sorta grandmother was washed away, it was almost like doing magic alongside judas and her usual friends, where embarrassing herself usually didn't matter. She seemed to do more accurately after that, to the point she was actually enjoying herself, even eclipsa was enjoying the show of the two teens having fun together as more of sky's spells go stuck to the stony walls before eventually retreating into her wand.
"That was kinda fun actually...", she mumbled, "i guess there's less pressure when it's more of a game then my mom asking me to do something over and over again cause I kept failing...or where she got weird about me not being perfect during my presentation in front of literally everyone". The older woman shrugged, "Well with your mother, it was either that, or mostly winging it...though i suppose i'm not one to talk, I had a habit of winging it sometimes as well...probably because me and Star both were looking for trouble most of the time, when trouble normally found you...".
"Is it bad...i'm not..", she waved her hands around, "Winging it?".
"Honestly if you were able to "Wing It" every time you got yourself in a jam, i don't think you'd be nearly as cool. You get through things with ingenuity and support, i say that makes you rather impressive in your own way.".She was probably saying it to make her feel better but Sky accepted it. Man why did the positive reinforcement she received slip away so easily, it was almost like she wanted to look down on herself way too much then keep eclipsa and judas's positive words of encouragement with her.
"Well...", she eyed her monster companion and awkwardly patted his shoulder, much to both their discomfort still. This was still taking some getting used to and neither seemed entirely sure where they were at this point in their strange relationship, "You did...a good job...with the whole...webbing thing, well honestly i shouldn't be surprised considering how good you are with it when we had to fight and stuff but...yeah...there you go". She wasn't good at giving him compliments either, "She might as well be complimenting the drying of paint.".
"Thanks?", he said, eyes looking to her hand as she pulled it away rather fast, "For the record i'm still mad at your mother...don't think...I'm not still mad...". She sighing, rubbing the top of her wand against her cheek, "
Well, that's something we share in common...i'm kinda peeved at her too...". Eclipsa looked around the room, hands on her hips," i'm going to put things back in place, would you two be dears and grab some snacks from the kitchens? there's still time left in our lesson so we might as well eat together and i'm sure the guards can escort you there and back...oh and...watch where you step, you know the queen likes her pranks".
She sent sky a wink as furniture started to reaper back into the room once again.
Angel blinked at her before sky grabbed his arm and moved him out, good, eclipsa actually was giving her an opportunity to talk to him and ask him questions, whether on purpose or not, well...who can tell with eclipsa? Regardless she dragged him to leave, thankful, the guards taking note and one following them along because of course. Sky let go of angel's arm, and made a cough, the boy's pointed ears pricking upwards and he huffed as he lifted himself on a bit with his legs to walk instead, almost giving him the impression of floating next to her .
"Spit it out, what is it this time...? If this is about us hanging out like we talked about...it's become more complicated now...especially in regards to what happened last night ".
"Well yes, we wanna do it...but actually...I kinda wanted to ask you...something".
He looked down at her from his current position, though something told sky he was anxious sky was about to ask him something rather...weird. Though i guess when she thought about it, asking him about breaking into the castle and about the silk thing were not normal questions, it almost took her a minute to figure out how she should even ask him. "Look hey...it's been awhile...like...some time...but...that sleepover...why were you...like...in the caste?", ok, that probably was the worst way to phrase that but now she had to roll with it.
And Angel's bewildered expression fit as he seemed to be wondering if the princess was serious or not, "If you're asking If i was up to anything...I was not, i was in bed and found myself there...in front of prince lucitor...". His ears dropped and he seemed utterly embarrassed, "He believed i was truly responsible...and...i can't entirely blame him either...". He shook his head, "Look, i'm not entirely proud of everything I did in my attempts to help my people who were wronged, but it's fairly embarrassing to be looked down upon by a fellow monster prince..".
"Wait, what? Judas doesn't look down on you. I mean, he doesn't always agree with you and kinda thinks you should sorta know better but then again he acts like a mom to everyone, but yeah, like...he's the guy who kept telling me we should try and get along and stuff for the betterment of the future. I mean, you've seen him...he kinda does his best to not hate anyone, even when he's mad at someone...he doesn't think you're a bad person...I can promise you that."., she was sorta stumbling over her words but it seemed to be working judging by the boy's rising ears.
"He doesn't?", angel seemed surprised, before coughing, "He's...a respectable individual, he's one of the few people who ever understood...well, he treated me like a person more then...an obstacle at least...". He paused and looked to sky, "Tell him i'm sorry...". This got sky's attention as she looked him over, "For what? Is this about stealing his compact or something?". Angel's eyes shifted around and he held his shoulders, "Sure, something along those lines...".
They made it to the kitchens and sky realized angle had never been here before, getting back on his normal feet and awkwardly trying not to hit anything in the kitchens. The staff seemed happy to see Sky, angel seemed more of a mixed bag, no doubt that he had probably made their jobs harder from past protests in the past. He avoided eye contact with all of them as sky asked one of the staff for something they could eat, receiving some fresh rolls, a whole bag of them to bring back.
Sky grabbed one to eat, the smell of fresh baked rolls reminded her of when she and judas were still kids sneaking food from the kitchens to make a fort and hung out in her room together, spending time under a nice pillow fort and fussing about their parents. Usually they'd grab a dozen or so cookies, some rolls, maybe even some fruits, though honestly the reason they probably stopped sneaking food out was judas's arm liked to pop out at inconvenient times and boy did it give them away easily.
Angel it seemed, had never really had food...like this before, since truthfully, he was still a poor prince after all regardless of improvements. Though his reluctance to eat warm buttery rolls seemed to surprise sky, angel had a good sense of smell after all, he almost seemed entranced by the food as sky urged him to try it. He took a bite, chewing before immediately going in for another, considering his diet back home mostly was insects and whatever berries and creatures they managed to grab in those woods, this was brand new to him.
And yet, he called a pizza place with jude's compact.
Huh.
"You seem...to really like these rolls...".
"It's warm and buttery and...reminds me of...spending time with my mom...", his mind wandered and he sounded sad again before wiping away his tears, "It's good, we don't get food as good as this stuff back home, guess we never had the freshest ingredients or anything...this isn't made with magic right?". his eyes seem to bug out with every flavored bite, and the princess watched him finish with extreme delight, "No, mom says food made from magic never tastes as good as food without it, it probably tastes funny to be honest anyway...".
"Well, i wish we had more back home...".
Sky had to take the basket away from him just to make sure he didn't eat the rest, "Nope, don't...we're bringing this back...c'mon.". She pulled him along she she found him actually smiling, a rare thing for him in her presence. But she needed to continue with her line of questions, even if globgor would look into the silk thing himself, hearing it from angel might at least help with her role on this wired team and make her seem more capable instead of putting her things aside.
"Hey...so...the silk thing...you said you can do that again right?".
"Not me exactly but-".
"How'd your people get the magic for it?'.
His eyes widened, "Oh? Um...it was a rather kind gesture from a family member of yours...we didn't exactly need to "Get" magic, we're only so weak magically because of our lack of practice on much magic and exposure to the stuff is rare to come by. But, we were given a scroll on that spell again...and with some practice...the spell had finally been revised after so long. Our people stopped doing it and passing it along because they were afraid of solaria, who burned away everything, my people thought it best to avoid magic to avoid her gaze...but this act of kindness, might mean we can profit once again...".
"Wait wait wait...who did this? Describe them?".
Angel avoided her question though, moving forward and on his way back to eclipsa's only to find a bucket falling from above the doors as soon as they were opened in his quick attempt to get away from the princess. Sky moved faster to catch up with him, wondering if there was a reason he refused to actually answer that question and noticed the bucket as soon as the double doors were forced open. One of her mother's pranks no doubt, typical they'd run into one now of all time.
And what happened next was in seconds as sky cast a spell, her licorice spell to rope around the boy and pull him out of harms way, only for him to be pulled back into her. He caught the rolls rather well surprisingly enough, but it seemed the impact of him hitting sky didn't leave her without injury. Sky rubbing her forehead and mumbling as angel panicked, the guard who was protecting them ran over in worry as sky felt herself close her eyes and pass out.
"Sky? Princess? Skyler!?".
Angel's panicked voice was the last thing she heard when she blacked out.
Sky saw only green, doors and voices, some calling out her names, she seemed to have no idea what was happening or where to go, though what she did know was that she was alone, and kinda terrified. Whoever was chasing her seemed to come from anywhere and everywhere and she both wanted to move and not move at the same time. She wanted to call out but couldn't speak, she wanted to hide but had nowhere to go, the light was getting brighter and her heart was beating faster.
Where was she? Where was everyone else? Who was out there?
She was panicking, the voices were getting louder, chanting her name over and over and-
"Sky?!".
Her eyes opened, making out the blurry images in front of her, she knew she was on something soft at the very least, and after a few minutes of readjustment she could fully comprehend that she was in eclipsa's tower, on the couch. Judas was here, with Luna, Eclipsa, and Angel, and surpisingly...both her moms were here as well, looking over her and making sure she wasn't too injured. Sky tried to recall what happened and realized she must've passed out during the whole thing.
"Oh thank goodness...", Star sighed, scolding Janna for her bucket pranks as Sky's other mom laughed and simultaneously showed an expression of guilt, a rarity for her. Judas smiled, typical for him, and luna seemed thankful but unamused, typical for her. Angel on the other hand looked more sickly then when he arrived earlier that day, awkwardly handing her one of the rolls they received from the kitchen. Sky took it awkwardly from him as the adults talked among themselves.
Star seemed to thank angel, if you counted a nod as a way of saying "Thank you". Clearly star wasn't still sure about the boy but was in no position to really act scoffy about him, especially since he presumably was the one who had brought sky here. Star then started talking to eclipsa, pulling on her hair, "I'm glad sky's ok but...please, keep a closer eye on her next time...I REALLY don't wanna find out she drank something dangerous or got burned or anything...".
Geez, did her mom think she was stupid or something?
Thankfully classes were still going, but Janna's pranks were going to be reduced from now on, at least, if that were even possible.
Star was still unfortunately incredibly busy, only checking on sky carefully before being forced to head out, janna on her heels and sending sky a jokey apology smile. Everyone else though, remained, Eclipsa making Sky some tea to help comfort her as Judas and Luna took their seats. "Don't worry about your mothers, they'll be ok, but you should thank personal angel over there for immediately bringing you here to get you help, bless his soul, he didn't know where your infirmary was..".
Angel blushed in embarrassment, crossing his arms and tuning away as sky mumbled out a "Thanks towards him", he took another roll from their basket, eating it to help comfort him a little more as Judas grabbed his teacup. "You feeling ok? We were coming to find you and talk but this...really wasn't how we expected to find you in the slightest...", judas, being too sweet as ever, as per usual. Sky rubbed her forehead and adjusted her hat, " Apparently Angel slamming into you hurts more then I thought it would...".
"You imagined angel slamming into you?", luna asked, "What kinda fights do you two normally get into?".
Now angel looked like he wanted to hide in his clothes, embarrassed and probably guilty for being the reason sky got hurt in the first place, ears folding against his skull and curdling up into a little ball on his seat. And Sky gave luna a look, actually kinda annoyed at luna for probably making him feel worse about the situation. Yeah she got injured, but she'd been injured plenty of times before and she kinda saved angel from a much worse fate, thankfully.
"Look, what are you here for...either of you?", honestly the sooner they moved the conversation along to something else the better at this point. She knew Judas had plans to talk to luna in private, to get her to speak, but wow he worked fast, she was at least expecting him to do something later tonight. But him and luna very much seemed on the same page, well if luna looking more determined then annoyed was some kind of giveaway since she rarely would go off to something like this unless it was important.
"We're here for you...we...", he looked to angel, "Me and Luna need to speak with you, we've talked and we're on better terms...but...there's something more we need to speak about.". He stood up and coughed, getting Eclipsa's attention, "Eclipsa? May me and luna go get some ice for sky from the infirmary? She might need some just to be safe...". Eclipsa looked over from her teapot to nod, "Of course, Angel, here...come help me till they get back, I want you to try some of this new tea i got from the monster village...".
Angel walked over to her, his eyes briefly looking at the three other teens in curiosity as he headed over, sky getting off the comfy couch to be dragged away and out the door. Sky didn't have much time after to react as they headed to the courtyard and pulled her behind a rose bush to move away from the guards around the place. Sky brushed some leaves from her nice hat as she looked over the two in front of her with their stern faces, like parents ready to scold their child.
Sky didn't like the look of this already.
"Guys? What's going on?".
They exchanged a look, and spit the news out fast.
"We're going to the spiderbite kingdom, the three of us...we're going to find nora and miss Jackie...".
