Author's Note: HAHA! A new chapter! Well, I know it's kinda short and everything, and I apologise! But I remember sayin' in my profile that I would update every Sunday (Australian time), and that's what I'm gonna do! *strikes determined pose* Anyway, in the last chapter it describes what Elinor saw was a party table. Why is that convenient to THIS chapter, you may ask? Oh, you'll see... you'll see... mwhahaha...

Elinor pondered her thoughts a while longer.

Yes?

No...

Yes?

No.

Yes!

No!

YES!

Ruby cleared her throat. Elinor snapped back to reality, and realised that she'd have to come to a decision within the next few seconds.

'Okay,' thought Elinor, 'Maybe you should just try it out? You never know; you might like it! Besides, the SECOND you smell something fishy, you can just high-tail it outta there!'

...

"Alright," said Elinor, sounding somewhat more defeated than she felt.

Ruby's face seemed to lighten up like a light bulb!

"Great!" she cheered, "I can't wait to introduce you to everyone! They'll be so exited; we hardly ever have guests! You can be the surprise guest, for the surprise party!"

Elinor's face was blank.

"What's a... par-ty?"

Ruby's face went paler than the chalk white it already was.

"You don't know what a party is?!" she shouted at the top of her lungs.

Elinor cringed and covered her sensitive, pointed ears.

"Is that, um, bad?" Elinor said, guessing the obvious answer.

"Yes!" Ruby said with a raised voice, recovering slightly from her outburst, "Party's are what makes life all the brighter!"

'I definitely need one, then.' Elinor thought.

"I know!" Ruby announced, "You can help me set it up! I still have to put up the ribbons around the well! What do you think would look good?"

"Um..."

Elinor wasn't really sure about what her favourite... ANYTHING was (accept chocolate, of course). She'd never really thought about it. Well, it's not like the authorities or the FBI would really care to know your colour preference now, would they?

"I dunno... maybe, purple? Dark purple? Something like that..."

Ruby seemed satisfied with Elinor's answer.

"Nice choice!" she said, cheerily, "We can both go back to the mansion and get them, that way you can meet the gang while you're there!"

Ruby grabbed Elinor's hand and started to skip away from the well. Elinor was a little curious about this 'mansion'; she was still weighing the possibility that this could all be a trap. But seriously, how could you come across someone CHEERFUL, yet part of a government operation?

Elinor was distracted by her internal thoughts by the HUGE shadow of a HUGE house. Or, in a more formal description, a mansion.

First of all, it definitely didn't look out of place. It's towers were ominous, looming over everything in sight. The left tower had a big window shaped like a heart with cross bones through it, while the tower on the right had a window shaped like a spider's web... creepy. In between the towers, there was a bridge-track-thingy connecting them. The bridge-thingy was loopy; so much so that it didn't look crossable – Elinor'd have to find that out later. There were even more dead trees around this mansion; Elinor even spotted a small house in one of them! Now that's just loony.

The front doors were big, which was understandable due to the large-ness of the rest of the house. They creaked as Ruby pushed one of them forward to let Elinor into the massive house. The first thing Elinor saw as she stepped in was a crackling fire at the other end of the room. It had two seats around it; both occupied by a cat and a bat.

"Hey, Scaredy Bat and Doom Kitty!" Ruby said, waving.

The cat opened one eye from his sleeping position on the left seat, while the bat looked up from its—Wait, was it reading a book?

"Oh! Hello Rub—"

"AAAAAAAAHHHHH!"

All heads snapped toward the sudden scream, to see it was coming from Elinor. She had her head thrown back, and she was pointing at a startled Scaredy.

"YOU!" she shrieked, "YOU JUST TALKED!"

Elinor couldn't believe her ears! A. TALKING. Bat! It was just—just—WHAT?!

Elinor continued to shriek with confusion and terror, "AAH! AAH! AAAAHHH!"

"Elinor!" Ruby shouted, trying to calm the 'girl' down.

"I'VE FINALLY GONE NUTS!"

"Elinor, you're scaring Scaredy!"

"Oh, dear!" Scaredy howled, "She has gone nuts?! Oh, what a catastrophe!"*

"AAAHHH! AAAAHHHH!"

"ELINOR!" Ruby yelled.

Silence fell across the room like a sheet. Elinor was breathing heavily, eyes still wide open from her outburst. Scaredy Bat had his eyes wide open in shock too, shivering in fear.

"Okay," said Ruby, breaking the silence with a happy tone, "Elinor, this is Doom Kitty," she gestured to the cat on the left seat, who made a sound resembling a cord from a violin, "and you've already met Scaredy Bat," she added with a giggle.

Elinor just stared, getting over the shock. If this was still some kind of trap, they were pretty dang good at making it believable.

"Ruby!" said Scaredy, still seeming to be panicked, "The girl just said she was going nuts! What does that mean? Is she crazy? Is she dangerous?! What is happening?!" he pulled on his ears in anxiety.

'Wow,' thought Elinor, 'and I thought I was paranoid...'

"Hey, don't worry Scaredy," said Ruby, patting the bat on the head, "She's just new!"

Ruby looked over at Elinor as if to say it was her cue to introduce herself. Hesitantly, Elinor had a go.

"Um... Hi. My name's Elinor... but Ruby kinda gave that away, heh," Elinor was desperately trying to make the matter humorous.

She earned a proud smile from Ruby for being conversational; something that Elinor wasn't very accustomed to.

"You are sure she's not crazy?" Scaredy asked one more time in a whisper.

"Yes, Scaredy, I'm sure," replied Ruby in an amused tone.

* THANK GOODNESS FOR SPELLCHECK!

WOO! Chapter 2 is DONE! I'm sorry again for the short-ness, but next time I'll have a week to write it, so it WILL be longer, I PROMISE! Who will Elinor meet next? Will she like them? Will she loose control and burn the mansion down? Will she bake cookies for everyone?

...

FIND OUT NEXT TIME!

AAAHHH! DISCAIMERS!

Ruby Gloom and all it's participating characters and places all DO NOT BELONG TO MOI!

But Elinor does!