Hello wonderful guests!

I will be starting this lodge in four days, on May 1st. Originally I was planning to release one part per day until the end of the month, but given the sheer amount of standardized testing and AP exams coming up I'm afraid I'll have to make it one part every other day. 

I'm having so much fun writing this, and I can't wait to share it with you! See you on May 1st.

xoxo Storm (aka Silver Crystal) 

Writing_in_the_dark woke up slowly. The first thing that they noticed with eyes still closed was the movement beneath him, as if the ground itself wasn’t quite solid. The next sense to come back was smell; the heavy scent of salt hung thick in the air. 

Writing snapped rat eyes open, taking in the sight of a dark gray sky, layered with enough clouds that only a few weak rays of sunlight came through. They seemed to be laying down in some sort of small-ish wooden box with no lid, barely wide enough for them to lie down in. They sat up, clutching instinctively at the short walls beside them to keep balance. The wood was old, and he pulled his hands back quickly to avoid getting a splinter. 

It was only when they saw the open ocean painted in shades of blue and gray did Writing understand: they were in a small boat, floating along in the vast expanse of the ocean; a bottle cap dropped into the world’s largest swimming pool. Rat felt a vague sense of unease at the sight of nothing but water for miles and miles around them. Strangely, though, they weren’t scared. 

He concluded that maybe it would be best to lay down again for the time being, to relax and collect their thoughts. Rat stayed like that for a few minutes, and when they gathered the courage to sit back up again, there was another little boat floating along in the distance, almost identical to their own. There was a person also sitting up and looking around, and Writing waved their arms around in the air and called out. The other person saw them and waved back.

As their boats drifted closer together, Writing recognized the other person as Sterling. Eventually, they were close enough to hear each other.

“Hey!” Sterling shouted. “Do you know what’s going on?”

“Nope!” Writing yelled back. “I just woke up like this.”

“Same.” They were both quiet for a second before Sterling said: “Hey, was that island always there?”

Sure enough, the foggy outline of a very familiar small island was quickly approaching the two CBers. ‘It’s the island from my dream!’ they both realized at the same time. ‘The one with the lighthouse!’. The little boats seemed to be pulled along twice as fast by the current. Eventually, the hulls of the two boats bumped into a low, rocky beach. There were nine other identical small-ish boats scattered about the shore. 

Writing jumped out and onto the shore, grateful to have solid ground under their feet again. Sterling followed suit and they both pulled their boats up onto the shore to keep them from floating away. Writing squinted up the cliffs before him, and then up to the towering lighthouse above. 

“Are we supposed to go there?” he asked. 

“I have no idea,” Sterling responded, scanning the beach. “Oh, hey, look! Stairs!”

Not even a second passed after fae spoke before someone with a light blue pixie cut- Writing recognized her as Periwinkle- appeared at the top of the flight of wooden stairs leading from the beach to the main island level.

“Oh, cool, you guys are finally here!” Periwinkle exclaimed. “Come on, we’ve all been waiting for you!” She dashed off in the direction of the lighthouse.

Sterling rushed to follow Periwinkle with Writing right behind them.

The three CBers quickly made it to the base of the lighthouse. Sterling squinted up at it distrustfully; Periwinkle, having caught the look of suspicion, reassured the other two that it was totally safe and everyone else was already inside.

True to her word, when Periwinkle opened up the metal door and headed inside, the eight other guests were all there. They were seated in a loose semicircle, sitting on assorted pieces of furniture in the massive circular room that was the base of the lighthouse. The interior was mostly wood, with little beach themed knick knacks like seashells and sand dollars for decoration. Hand painted scenes of nature lined the walls and a chandelier made of sea glass and rope hung lopsided in the center of the room.

The people inside had all turned at the sound of the door opening, and they greeted the newcomers brightly. 

In the middle of the semicircle, a young woman with dark gray hair and pale skin stood up and smiled warmly. 

“Hello, guests!” she said, waving them over. “Welcome to Wayfarer Island!”

“Oh, are you Storm?” Writing asked. “The one who sent the letter?” Rat also recognized her from the strange dream they had experienced a few days ago, but it felt strange to say out loud. Did the other guests also get the same dream? They must have, right?

“Yes, that’s me!” Storm confirmed as the three found seats of their own. She held up a tray of mugs. “Hot chocolate?” Writing and Sterling gladly accepted.

“Well,” the host continued. “Now that everyone’s here, you can all go up to your rooms!” She whipped out a small wooden carving of a lighthouse with chipped, faded red paint striping the outside. She pointed to the very bottom. “This is where we are now; the common room, with a bathroom attached. It’s where we’ll eat and hang out and such. These-” she slid her finger up the side of the mini-lighthouse “- are your bedrooms. There’s one on each floor, and there’ll be two in a room, except for one group of three. Right here-” now she was pointing to the top portion “- is where the light is. You can go up there if you really want, but just tell me first. The light is fragile, and I don’t want anything happening to it.” 

Amarillis raised her hand. “Where do you sleep?”

“Oh, I dissolve into sea foam each night and then get resurrected every morning,” Storm said seriously. 

“Really?” Amarillis gasped.

“Nope!” she said, grinning. “I have a room, don’t worry. It’s alllll the way at the tippy top. Up here.” She reached over to the lighthouse model and tapped the pointed top of the roof. “Above the light, so I can watch over it. Very important, you know, to make sure that the light never goes out.”

Wildsong squints down at the wooden model. “I’ve always wondered how the lights in lighthouses actually work.”

“I’d be happy to show you later,” Storm offered. “But you should all probably get settled into your rooms first.” She stood up, turning towards a curved wooden staircase in the back of the common room. “This way, everyone!"

~~~

Dead: 0

Alive: 11 (Reuby Moonnight, Tenebrous, Darkvine, Periwinkle, Pangolin, Echo, Wildsong, Sterling, Hawkstar, Writing_in_the_dark, Amarillis)

Here's a visual of what I imagine Storm to look like! Next part out tomm~

(also with the recent anti-ski lodge sentiment I'm kinda worried that my lodge is too dark and mystery focused and less 'fun' like other lodges typically are :/ idk I tend to write sadder stuff. but I already have a lot of it written so oh well)

The CB is for young writers to write what you feel is fun! --admin

@Everyone who commented so far, thank you so much!!

~~~ 

The CBers busied themselves with unpacking and getting used to their new rooms. They weren’t anything particularly fancy, just a sturdy wooden bunk bed with comfortable bedding, a tall dresser, a smallish desk and chair, and a thin but colorful woven rug in the middle. Two semi-opaque windows looked out onto the beach and water, a few more seashells sitting on the windowsill for decoration. The rooms were round, stacked one right on top of the other.

Pangolin thought it was strange, living in a room with no corners. But it was strange in a nice way, as the whole experience thus far had been.

In the end the rooming arrangements were as follows: Periwinkle and Reuby Moonnight on the first bedroom floor, Sterling and Tenebrous on the second, Hawkstar and Pangolin on the third, Echo and Writing_in_the_dark on the fourth, and Wildsong, Darkvine, and Amarillis on the top, right beneath the light. 

Peri offered for Reuby to choose whether to get the top or bottom bunk- Reuby found that there was more headspace in the top bunk, although she was tall enough to need to duck when she sat all the way up. They made a stack of their sketchbooks in one corner and Reuby leaned her dagger against it. Nevermore, Reuby’s raven, screeched and settled into a corner of her bed. 

On the second floor, Tenney and Sterling were setting up their things. Today, Tenney was dressed in a 1950’s style black and white polka-dot sundress, black belt with a tulle flower on the side, and shiny black heels. Her hair was in a curly updo covered partially with a wide brimmed straw sun hat. As she set up her textbook and knife near the bottom bunk, Sterling perched faeself on the windowsill and peered outside through their pair of binoculars. 

Hawkstar and Pangolin bonded right away over their blades and bows and arrows. Hawkstar was especially curious about what kind of poison Pangolin tipped their arrows with and how to do so. They lined their blades (three in all) against the wall opposite to the beds, where Pangolin had quickly claimed the bottom bunk, to the relief of Hawkstar, who would much rather be on the top.

Writing and Echo were the last to reach their room, as they both had to haul his tomato plant from the common room to the fourth floor, but the pop of greenery and accessible source of fresh vegetables (fruits? Are tomatoes fruits?) was worth it. Donnatello rested on the windowsill, enjoying the view; you see, even emotional support radishes need a vacation sometimes. Jerbo claimed a spot near the dresser, dragging blankets to create a little nest for himself. Over the next few days, he would sneakily snatch a few tomatoes (shhh, don’t tell anyone), but not enough for anyone else to notice.

Since there were three people residing on the fifth floor, Darkvine took the extra bed while Amarillis and Wildsong claimed the top and bottom bunks respectively. Amarillis broke out the candy from her bag and shared some with the other two while she and Darkvine animatedly told Wildsong about the Keeper of the Lost Cities books. 

When the sun started to dip into the horizon, they all gathered back in the common room to eat a meal of beef stew (vegetables for Writing) and bread.

“A little simple, but it was all that I could whip up in such a short amount of time!” Storm apologized. 

Hawkstar privately wondered how she was able to whip up anything at all with no kitchen in the building. Nevertheless, she and the rest of the guests enjoyed the meal and played a (very chaotic) game of charades afterwards.

That night they went to sleep full and happy under a navy blue sky riddled with stars.

Well, most of them. Reuby Moonnight lay awake, curled into a ball on the top bunk under a dark gray comforter. It had started to rain at some point in the night; she could tell from the rhythmic tap-tap-tap sound on the weathered glass and the rattle-rattle of the window frame. Nevermore, who hated being cooped up for too long, had flown out of the room at some point during the evening. She didn’t know exactly why she was finding it so hard to fall asleep here, by all accounts everything was perfectly comfortable. There was a small yet nagging feeling sitting in her stomach, like she usually got before she had to do something she was nervous about. Perhaps it was simple homesickness.

In a bout of sudden energy and without really knowing why, Reuby sat up (narrowly avoiding hitting her head on the low ceiling), and saw a person illuminated by the low light filtering in through the storm outside. There was a person standing at the foot of the bed, staring up at Reuby. Reuby stared down at the person.

Very slowly, the other person raised one finger and held it against their lips. Shhh.

It was stupid of Reuby to actually stay silent when she should have done literally anything else, but out of fight, flight, and freeze, she had always tended towards freeze. 

So, she froze. The person moved their hand from their mouth to their pocket, drawing out a short, chipped dagger that gleamed in an unsettling dim way. 

They smiled, and struck.

~~~

Dead: 1 (Reuby Moonnight)

Alive: 10 (Tenebrous, Darkvine, Periwinkle, Pangolin, Echo, Wildsong, Sterling, Hawkstar, Writing_in_the_dark, Amarillis)