Day 1, Part -2

The rain had washed away sometime during the night - at last, it had really been unfair for rain to last for two whole weeks - and, in bright contrast to the previous darkness, the sky was a brilliant aqua. Rigel was on her way somewhere, or so she imagined; where exactly, she had no idea anymore. She'd forgotten since she stepped out of the house. But honestly, who cared? It was possibly enough to be outside, in the clear air, feeling like a whole ocean had doused the world in shimmering light.

"I wish summer could last forever," she said under her breath as she entered one of those little squares that this part of the chatterbox was full of, surrounded by house walls in creamy colors and streets that spilled into it, with carefully carved marble benches set around the edges, crowned by the midmorning dome of sky.

"I know, right?" a voice said behind her. "Eternal summer, just imagine..."

She turned around to see Oreobin or whatever he was called (she could never, never remember his name) coming towards her. "Oh, hey, um, hi!" she called brightly, floundering at the point where she should have included his name. Imagine how mortifying to call someone Oreobin if that wasn't actually the proper adjective. "Eternal summer. Wheee." Ack, she wasn't functioning properly.

O__ looked at her with a slight frown. "Hi. And yeah, it would be nice."

"It would."

"I mean, yeah, totally."

"Eternal summer, so so so nice."

Hmm, how interesting, conversation had just been deprived of all functionality.

Luckily, Hawkstar came along just then, and Rigel's eyes went straight to her clothes. Her Clothes. Rigel knew that Moon Wolf and everyone else would have a heart attack if she dressed like that, but Hawkstar pulled it off effortlessly, stylishly even, flaunting that Huntress look that was in all the latest CB style magazines. Not that Rigel was very into fashion, but somehow it infiltrated her life. "Hi Hawkstar," she chirped, waving. "How are things?"

"Oh, hi," Hawkstar said, almost exactly echoing Rigel's words of a few minutes ago. "Hi, Oro. Um, they're great. Do you have any idea why the square's so crowded?"

Rigel took a few more steps along the street, until she could see the square properly. There were a few other CBers and AEs there, all clustered in little groups and talking animatedly. Or maybe they were all as awkward as her own little group was. "No," she said. "No idea. Maybe... a concert? A magic show??"

There was a splash and a yelp, and the three of them stared at the fountain in the middle of the square as a man materialized in it. "It is a magic show!!" Rigel said after a second, clapping. The other people heard and started clapping too, all of them staring at the man.

"I'm sorry, everyone," the man said, starting to climb out of the fountain. "Carry on." He suddenly changed his mind and clambered quickly onto the stone wall of the fountain, almost losing his balance in the process. (Sigh.) "No, hang on, don't carry on, I mean please do but. Ahem. Hello, everyone, sorry for the abrupt appearance which was most definitely not the plan, but here I am at last. I am, your long-awaited guide!!!!!"

No applause.

Oro(?) stepped forward, looking as if he were starting to suspect something. "Are you from the Palace of the Sun?" he asked. "The Prince, maybe?"

Mr. Mysterious smiled. "Yes and no. Meaning yes, I'm from the Palace of the Sun, and no, I'm not The Prince. Catch him falling into a fountain XD" Actually, he should have been advised that I had fallen into at least eight fountains from the age 5-10, however little my father thought this was becoming to royalty. "It would be far beneath his dignity, I assure you. I'm the second-, or well that would be third-, -in-command at the palace. And I'm here to take you there. All assembled? rainswept, Kauri, oh never mind we're all here aren't we. Ready?"

"Uh, no," said Crescent, who wasn't wearing the right thing, didn't currently have her paper or any of the other things she wanted to take with her, and wasn't even sure she wanted to risk meeting a talking boat by the name of Dr. Seuss. Or no, wasn't it something about a talking mouse who didn't belong in a library?

"Great," Mysterious #1 (aka Lord Third-In-Command) said briskly. "Let's go."

And the world as Rigel knew it fell away in shattering shards.

will submit in around 5 hours - i have badminton practice SORRYYY

'Cause we could be immortals, immortals

Just not for long, for long

Live with me forever now

Day 1, Part -1

One moment, Dragonfly was standing in a normal square, watching a man she'd never seen before trying to balance himself on the edge of a fountain. The next, the world had exploded and she was falling through space. Or maybe space was falling through her. All she could see was dizzy, blinding nothing. For some reason, she had always thought nothing would be dark, but it was actually more along the lines of white. Her thoughts flashed through everything she didn't like - broken dreams, forgotten promises, betrayal, fear.

Then the whatever-it-was melted away, and, bright as it had been, she had to focus out of the glare of sunlight that hit her. After a second, the world reappeared around her, except that, of course, it was an entirely different world. Theoretically the one that contained their destination.

Everyone else was clustered around her, wearing different clothes and looking flushed and windblown and confused. "Crescent?" Kauri asked, looking around. "You there?"

"Yeah, I'm here," Crescent said, making her way closer to her partner. Seriously adorable, Dragonfly thought before turning to her surroundings.

To be honest, it was crashingly disappointing. Despite being incredibly beautiful as well. A sparkling sea spread out into infinity in front of them, reflecting the sunlight in a thousand subtly different shades of blue. It was almost too spectacular to be real, like something that could only really be contained in a dream. They were all standing on powdered, soft white sand that they sank into, and that stretched away on either side of them. But there was no palace to be seen.

There were a few seconds of blank silence. Theoretically this was where the talking boats would come in, rainswept thought. But where were talking boats when you wanted them? Nowhere, of course. "I thought we were going to the Palace of the Sun," she said, speaking for everyone and slanting a look at Unnamed Mysterious Personage. He was standing with his back to the sea and his face to the sun, looking animated and happy.

"Well, we're here, aren't we?" he asked. "Gorgeous place, isn't it?"

"Totally, if we want to converse with the mermaids," Oro said.

Number 3 looked at them. "Ugh. I landed you facing the wrong direction. Sorry, I'm not usually like this -" But by now everyone was turning around to look at what was behind them.

Omgoodness, was rainswept's first thought. We have landed in the middle of a fairy tale.

What she had diagnosed as sunlight was actually coming from a tall wall of green, shivering a little in the breeze, with a glimpse of marble balustrades above it and a sweep of deep blue sky above that. Large arches were cut into the wall, or possibly grown into it because it was all a mass of some tangled climbing plant like ivy; at this distance all one could see behind them was a bit of jade-colored lawn.

"This is the East Entrance," Whateverhisnamewas said instructively. "It looks unguarded, but don't worry about safety my very dear people, because absolutely no one can enter the palace unless they're very special. Like yourselves, of course. I thought HH was going to be here."

"Who's HH?" Hawkstar asked.

"Oh, heavens, that would be His Highness. I get informal... too long since any formality was really needed. Come on, let's go on in."

They headed together for one of the arches, and rainswept was unable to stop feeling that she was hovering on the brink of something. An adventure, or a world of possibilities, or a dream. Maybe all three.

As they passed underneath the arch and into the garden, they saw a young man entering from the other end of the garden. A handsome young man, I might add. Very handsome. Extremely handsome. The garden itself was a long stretch of grass, with one or two high fountains and some artistic flower arrangements and a few more hedges. I was entering from a small door set into the unobtrusive stucco wall that edged the far end of the garden.

"You're here, at last," I said, and my various and sundry guests recognized my voice from the video. "Welcome! I'm the Prince, and it's wonderful to have you here. How about letting Lord Finior show you to your rooms?"

"Is that his name?" rainswept inquired, interested.

"You didn't introduce yourself? And, Finior, why are you so wet??" I hadn't expected him to show up in that condition. "Yeah, that's his name. He's one of a couple of lords who live here at the palace with, well... me." I glanced at him, and he nodded. "The others are away at the moment, but they'll be back soon. So, rooms?"

"Absolutely, it would be appreciated," Dragonfly said; the strain of changing worlds was beginning to tell.

"I'll take them up," Finior said competently, which was misleading, since he wasn't always exactly competent. "Oh, and H, while I was in the Chatterbox I took a look around, and you're being advertised in The Ski Lodge Times. And a frightfully decent chap called Agent 59 is promoting you."

"Really? Great," I said, passing over the H. "We could advertise him in return. I hear he's organizing things with Mount Olympus, Makes me want to join his ski lodge myself."

"But if we advertise him, we might lose our own clientele," Finior protested.

"Finior," I groaned, and stepped out of earshot of the AEs. "And... make sure they don't have anything to do with... you know, #1 around here?"

"Got it," Finior said.

But Crescent had heard, and as they passed through the door and under the gold dragon eating a sun that was emblazoned on the wall above, she wondered exactly what was waiting for them.

Day 1, Part 0

Hawkstar's room was the last one, so she was treated to utter quiet as Lord Finior left her at the door to it. Not an unpleasant quiet, though, more a peaceful, living quiet that she sank into gratefully. From what she'd seen of the palace, it was architectually brilliant and a bit too prone to giving her deja vu.

She opened the door and stepped into her bedroom. There was a window opposite her, almost floor-to-ceiling, with a view of a large enclosed courtyard with a terrace at one end of it; there just possibly might be a glimpse of the sea beyond it. White, softly rounded shelves were built into the walls, with some Keeper books already arranged tantalizingly on them (and wait, was that Unraveled???); one of those couch-like, legless chairs was flopped next to the window, and a bed with the fluffiest pillows Hawkstar had ever seen was waiting next to one of the walls.

Something crinkled in her pocket as she turned towards a desk tucked into another corner, and, pausing, she pulled out a sheet of paper. Hmm, evidently the paper that she'd opted to bring. Maybe she could borrow a pencil from someone -

Except apparently, that wouldn't be necessary, because the desk was covered in a rainbow array of pencils, pens, mechanical pencils, erasers, and who knows what else arranged in neat patterns. Hawkstar gave a happy sigh and flopped onto her bed. Maybe this really wouldn't be so bad.

This lasted for exactly two minutes and five seconds, and then everyone else crashed through the doorway. "I thought you'd be here," Kauri said cheerfully, perching on the foot of her bed. "We want to talk."

"We, or you?" Hawkstar asked warily.

"Us," Kauri told her. "All of us. Including you."

"Nice to know," Hawkstar said with a sigh.

"Yeah, but there really is a lot to discuss," Dragonfly said. "Correction, a lot that needs to be discussed. First off, the Prince?? I thought he was going to be this forty-year-old man. I mean, please, look at British royalty."

"I didn't really think this was going to be Buckingham Palace," rainswept countered.

"Still, how old is the guy? Like, fifteen?"

"Hang on," Oro said. "This seems like exaggeration. I'd say he's more in his early twenties."

"Not a chance," Dragonfly said with spirit.

"Um, yeah, I think he could be anywhere around there," Crescent intervened. "It doesn't matter that much. He does seem nice, which I would put higher on the priorities list."

Hawkstar gave up on any possibility of having a quiet afternoon with Keefe and plunged into the conversation. "Yeah, at first glance I'd say he's nice," she said. "And, to be honest, kinda cute?" (I told you so.)

"He is not," Kauri said, with a glance at Crescent.

Crescent had been looking out the window, trying to figure out what it was about the view that made it so appealing, and she turned around. "All right, well, what about Finior?" She hesitated for a second, wondering if she should tell them about what she'd overheard, but she decided against it. Maybe she hadn't heard correctly anyway. "I think he might be super sweet too."

"I'll accept that he is older," Dragonfly said - she seemed to be stuck on everyone's ages, for some reason. "Possibly more like middle-aged."

Hawkstar groaned. "All right, we could discuss everyone here - I saw a cat on the way up, maybe that's about three years old -"

"A CAT???" rainswept shrieked. "Oh my gosh I have got to find it -"

"All right, yeah, but I'd say the real point is, what on earth are we doing here anyway?"

"What on the sun, more like, right?" Oro asked. "Ha, bad joke. Alright, but yes, we should probably figure out some kind of... plan."

Crescent looked around for Kauri. "Kauri...? Where's Kauri? Guys, Kauri's disappeared!!!"

"Wha -" was the helpful remark of about three of the people there.

"Why - how..." Crescent looked around one more time, but her partner simply was not there. "This is awful."

There was the moment of silence before everyone was going to start offering opinions.

Then the door was flung open and Kauri charged in, aiming cupcakes at everyone. "Cupcake war, lizards!!"