@all, thank you so much for all your comments again!!

@Hawkstar, sorry, I am CelineBurning Bright!! Haha, I can never hide long, can I? :) I really thought I'd thrown people off with my enthusiastic comments... I was trying to add stuff to the story using them, if you couldn't tell :)  and now I have a mind to make every dinner food from Asian cultures but that wouldn't be fair... I might do it anyway :)

I'm gonna stop apologizing for all the lengthy pauses because it's probably getting tiresome... :/. But without further ado!

~~~~~~~~~

Day 1, Part 1

The CBers woke in a heap on the floor of the library. Moon Wolf moaned, and rubbed her eyes, looking around. Something didn’t feel quite right. She felt… heavy. As if she’d been drugged. She stared at the bright sunlight coming through the windows… why were they in the library again? Lux had invited them in for a game, right? It was all she could seem to remember. It was all anyone could seem to remember. They knew without speaking, by looking at each others’ faces, each blank as the other. And then, comforted by the lull of silence and the bath of warm sun on their faces, and the freedom of not remembering, the CBers went back to sleep. Perhaps they had always been. Or perhaps they had only just woken up.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“COCO!!!!!!” Celine screamed. “COCO’S GONE!!!!” Except that she wasn’t. Coco, the dragon, the one who had been missing the night before, was sitting in her cave, looking at the rest of them as if nothing was wrong. And that was the scary thing. That nothing was wrong. Celine ran over to the dragon and threw her arms around her bulk, sobbing. “Where WERE you, you big, naughty dragon? You had us all so worried!! What happened?!?” The other CBers looked on in shock. Luxury, Contentment, and Riley stood inside Coco’s cave, looking for any sign of disturbance. But everything looked exactly as it should, and Coco seemed perfectly happy and content as she was. Not at all like the victim of some mysterious kidnapping case. 

Luxury ducked back out of the cave. “We think…. Maybe she was never missing, after all? We just overreacted, most likely. It’s the most reasonable explanation. Coco might have just gotten curious about the world outside the Deck - and the Inn - and gone for a flight to take a quick look. The creatures are free to roam out out here, after all.” But something in their tone said that they didn’t believe what they were saying, either. Coco had never shown any interest in the outside world before. She was not an exactly adventurous dragon. She preferred to stay right where she was, where she had all she could need and more. She was sensible. And she loved attention. But they continued, “At any rate, she’s here now, and safe and happy and home, and that’s what matters. So let’s just continue with the original plan for today. We’ve got a lot scheduled for you lucky CBers!”

“You’re gonna love it!” added Contentment.

“Hey, it’s true!” smiled Riley, though xyr gaze was still on the horizon. “A watermelon eating contest? Pie-throwing? I could get in on that!”
“You have a job in the kitchen,” said Luxury sternly. “You’re not getting paid for nothing, you know? We gotta have watermelons to have a watermelon eating contest and pies to have pie-throwing. So get on it, Chef!”
Riley laughed. “It’s a dangerous idea to have me in the kitchen. I could end up eating all the pies fresh out of the oven before you even get a taste!”
“But we know you won’t do that,” said Contentment, giggling. “Right?”

Riley hesitated.

“Wait, right? Riley, you didn’t actually mean that, did you? We need those pies! The whole pie-throwing depends on it!”

“Um.”
“Riley!”
“Yup! Of course! Wouldn’t even think of having a taste! Nuh-uh, nope, me, never! Yup! Never m-”

“Ok, ok, I think we got it now,” said Luxury. “But if you even have one bite of crust or-”
Riley laughed, walking away. “Well, it’s off to the kitchen for me now! Don’t worry too much, Lux! You’re the one who put me in charge of the kitchen, remember? And you’re a sensible person! You would never make a bad decision!”
Lux sighed. “Xe’s totally gonna eat some of that pie.”

“Come on, have xem have some fun once in a while!” said Contentment. “You’re not always gonna be there to watch over xem anywa-” she trailed off, as if she had said something wrong. “Um, but let’s get to the rest of the schedule!” She turned to the CBers. “First up we have sketching! Go inside and get a pad of paper and pencil each - they’re on the table right by the door - and meet us back here in 5 minutes! We’ll get started!”

The day went by fast, in an assortment of various activities such as painting, hiking, hanging out in (or, rather, by - Gloomy refused to get in, and, besides, the pool could only fit so many people… maybe 1 really small person?) the “pool”, it was time for pies - lunch! Riley served the food with a big smile, and the CBers couldn’t tell if xe’d already had a taste or not. “Well then, dig in!” xe said, handing out forks and spoons. “I put a lot of thought and time into the filing of the pies…”

“I do not want to know what that implies,” said Hawkstar, and chucked a pie at BookGirl.

Warm ooze spilled into her mouth. She sucked on her mouth thoughtfully. “It’s like… slime… and maybe some Elmer’s glue and chocolate mixed in?”

“Hey!” Luxury said, trying to grab the pies. “When we said pie-throwing, we didn’t mean at each other! Let’s go out to the target field and-” but by now the action had already escalated.

Riley clucked xer tongue at Lux. “It was inevitable. Nothing stopping it now. Might as well join in the fun!”

Lux sighed, then smiled. “Alright, fine. But only this once.”

“Yayyy!!!” screamed Contentment. “Let’s do this!!” And the hosts rushed into the fray too.

It was evening by now, and the CBers were exhausted. They laughed and chatted by the campfire, turning their marshmallows, and catching maybe one or two on fire. Pangolin sat cross-legged and watched the stars above them, twisting and turning and twinkling. She felt like something was wrong, but they couldn’t quite put her finger on what. Moth was trying to figure out how many marshmallows she could fit into her mouth, and Silver was fending off a bunch of hungry raccoons who wanted her marshmallow. “It’s mine! Back off!” she cried, swinging a flashlight at them. She mostly succeeded. Hawkstar was still disgruntled by the lack of chocolate and Graham crackers - “you give us marshmallows but not the rest?? What’s wrong with you???” - but had eventually settled down and was now laying happily on the grass. She had kicked her shoes and socks off, and liked the feel of evening dew and dirt on her bare feet.

Moon Wolf was trying furiously to get the marshmallows unstuck from her hair.

Cillian was curled up in the corner, reading a book, though she was having difficulty turning pages due to sticky fingers. BookGirl sat in front of the fire, mesmerized by the flames. Gloomy was experimenting with how close you could get the marshmallows to the flames before it was set alight. And Celine-

Pangolin sat up, realization dawning on her. “Celine! Where’s Celine??”

Everyone looked around frantically. Hawkstar frowned. “I could swear she was just here…”

It was Moon Wolf who found their body. She was laying on the kitchen floor, curled into the feral position.

Instead of going to bed at the scheduled time that night, they held a funeral.

Dead: 1 (CelineBurning Bright)

Alive: 8-11 (3 spots left! :) )

Uncertain: 0

The creatures: 

Coco - dragon

Cozy/ZZ/Z - baku

Critique/Tiki - wngetier

Sunbeam - goldfish - ghost 

Mr. Dersir - Brsider Shdownster - missing/in-hiding