Slowly, the windows began to open, creaking as they slowly moved. Moonlight shone through them and pooled on the sheets above Renata's body as it, too, started to move. Renata was still peacefully asleep, but her body rose above the bed, hovering limply. Color leached from her, turning her almost translucent. As if carried by a gentle current, she floated out the windows and into the night.
Oliver was still in the other bed as Randor watched silently, not moving a muscle as Renatawas carried away by some invisible creature. When Renata cleared the window, Oliver sprung from his bed but Randor sprung up and tackled the young Jinx to the ground. The Dwarf wrestled with the halfling kid managing to put an arm over his mouth as Oliver screamed for his friend.
"Will ya shut the fuck up!?" Randor hissed quietly as the boy struggled from his grasp.
"Fine but let's go after her, now!" Oliver moved quick and vaulted out the window, rolling as he hit the ground.
"Wait for us you bastard!" Randor made another grab for Oliver but suddenly found himself tripping over his untied boot laces.
"What in Morradin's name?"
Kame coughed as he handed the cigar back to James.
"Mata-Nui man, that's not tobacco!"
"Smooth isn't it?" James said as he took another drag off the pipeweed cigar. The obake suddenly tapped his bio-mechanical companion's shoulder pad as he pointed out the faded, floating form of Renata. Followed by their new jinx party member rolling out of the window and taking off after the young halfling girl.
Randor rushed over to the window and channeled raw divine magic into his palm, making a light to signal His party to follow.
Oliver sprinted after Renata. He couldn't let her down, no matter what. They had made a promise, they would see new worlds, she was some of the only family he had left.
"OLIVER! GET BACK HERE YOU LITTLE SHIT!"
Oliver Glanced back to see the three adventurers trail after him, Kame easily catching up to him on a sphere of air.
"Quick-stop for a second-moment!"
Oliver focused forward, only to not see Renata.
"Gods DAMN IT!" The young boy raged as he stopped and whirled around toward the party.
"Gods kid you can move fast…" James said as he coughed and huffed for air.
"WHY THE NINE HELLS DID YOU JUST LET HER GET TAKEN AWAY!? HER, PIP, AND SOPHIE ARE THE ONLY FAMILY I HAVE LEFT AND TWO OF THEM ARE MISSING NOW!"
Oliver found himself brandishing CleaveStriker as he raged, tears streaming down his face.
"I thought you morons were great adventurers and my friend is gone now!"
Randor smacked Oliver across the face hard.
"HEAR ME NOW BOY; YOU ARE HERE TO LEARN NOT TO GIVE ORDERS YER NOT PAYIN' US SO YA DON'T CALL THE FUCKIN' SHOTS!" Randor bellowed into the boy's face as the keyblade fell from Oliver's hand and faded into a shimmer of light.
"Ya can't even get into the feywilds without-" Randor continued to rant until they heard a strange melodic wail.
The four found themselves at a crossroads, across a grassy field bathed in the lavender light of the full moon. The gravel path diverged into two paths, the right seemed to stretch into a plane, hazy with the late night's mist. The left path stretched into a foggy swamp, the chirps and croaks of frogs and crickets echoed through the night, but the sound was dominated by the strange Tiefling, sitting on a wooden box in the field in between the divergent paths.
Sitting in his lap was a strange looking lute, with a small round body and a long neck, akin to a frying pan with a long handle. The tiefling plucked the strings with the long nails on his left hand, and in his right he held a small cylinder made of glowing yellow crystal.
"I went down to the crossroads! I went on down to the Crossroads yes I did." The tiefling belted out in a gruff voice as he plucked out a stumbling tune from his strange lute, sliding the crystal along the strings to change the pitch of the notes.
"I asked the lord below what old Bob could do…" He plucked a rapid series of descending notes as Oliver glanced around, the misty fog had taken on a strange purplish hue.
"I sang my songs, lord it wouldn't do! I asked the lord below what I could do.
He told me how to tune my geetar, he showed me how to play real smooth." The cylinder sparked with lightning magic as the strange notes barked out.
"Told all my friends to follow the path not true… Told all my friends, walk the path out of view."
"Hey old timer, you see a little girl float past here?" James asked as he lit up a cigar. The old tiefling stopped and leaned forward, he squinted, and only now could Oliver see the milky white of the teifling's blind eyes. The teifling's horns had grown into a full circle with the tips curling around each other. His skin was a deep burgundy, and their hair a jet black.
"Ain't seen nothing ever stranger, sorry I didn't hear ya coming I was soundin' out for the spirits." The teifling gestured around with his tail, which jangled with gold rings surrounding his onyx circle tail tip.
"What kind of ghost-spirits?" Kame asked before Oliver suddenly stepped forward.
"Where did the fairies take my friend?"
The old Tiefling suddenly laughed. "Young man I don't reckon you gots the luck to be goin' into the Bog." The Tiefling hooked a boney thumb to the left path.
"So this is literally a crossroads." James said flatly as he took a drag off his cigar.
"You mind if i get a honk off that stranger? Smells mighty fine." The Old tiefling said as James passed the cigar over to him.
"What's the other path lead to?" Randor asked pointing over to the right path.
The old tiefling shrugged.
"Most folks say it leads back to Phandalin, but I ain't never went that way. That's good shit friend."
"Roight, come along then boys. We're gonna go fuck up some faeries." James said as they began making their way along the swampy left path. The Tiefling began to play again as they walked along a dearth path, flanked on both sides by still pools of swamp water.
"One moon lit night!" The tiefling called out as he plucked out a new tune.
"One moonlit night, on the bayou a silhouette. The air was cold and the fog was vi-o-let!"
The sounds of frogs and bugs buzzed around the party as the strangely thick lightly colored fog swirled around them as they walked the swampy dirt path.
"Tuck in close lads, this smells like interplanar travel." Randor said.
"Next stop; Fey Wilds." James said with a drag of his pipeweed cigar.
As they walked along the pathl, there was a moment of disorientation. Oliver couldn't tell up from down, dark from light; his head spun with an intense wave of stimulus.
Then, in an instant, the party was standing in a completely different place than they were before. Gone was the strange bog lit by the full moon, now the sky bathed them in a magenta glow. Cyan clouds moved across it at different speeds, fast and then slow. The brackish water lapping at the shoreline of the island where they stood on was iridescent, like the wings of a dragonfly, and the roots of the trees that grew out of the shallows were like thin stilts, holding massive trees over the waters of the swamp.
"Woah…" Oliver glanced up at the massive purple swamp trees that shimmered in the magenta light. A buzzing noise drew his attention down to the ground.
"Renata!"
The halfing was still floating about five feet above the strange blue dirt island they were on, but her full color was restored. The buzzing noise were strange looking glowing figures. He focused in to see several humanoids with strange butterfly wings. They were insectoid and covered in a strange chitinous armor. Feathery antennae shifted and wavered as they swarmed about Renata.
"Fire!" Oliver shouted as he pointed CleaveStriker at the strange creatures and blasted a mote of fire forth into the world. The fire bolt misses as it whizzes through the swarm not hitting any of the creatures, but the swarm dispersed and caused Renata to fall to a rough wake up.
"Ow! What the hells!?" The girl sprung to her feet as she yelled angrily at Oliver.
"What the Hells?" She asked in confusion as she noticed CleaveStriker and was confused by the strange weapon.
"What the HELLS!?" She stumbled and fell back as she took notice of the strange otherworldly plane she found herself in.
"Easy kid, here let me explain what's went down…" James said as he knelt down to explain their current situation.