After finding Zachary Parsons and the wisps at the bottom of the cave, we found ourselves somewhere else. It was nighttime, we were standing in front of a large house on a hill, there were a bunch of wisps floating around us, and everything except for us was completely drained of colour. I tried calling out to the wisps to ask them where we were, but they rudely ignored us.
Ratyn suggested we scout out the house, so she climbed up to the first floor. Once she made sure it was safe, we jumped up to the balcony and made our way inside. We weren't sure how to get back, so I had an idea: back in the cave the wisps had told us to dance, and immediately after that we appeared in this place - maybe they tried to give us a hint, and if we danced we would be taken back to the cave! I thought it was a pretty clever idea, but no one else seemed to like it, and even a baby started crying in the distance. Aggma suggested I try dancing myself, but I couldn't really dance there without music, so I took out my flute and started playing a nice tune in the hopes that one of the others will change their mind.
Taking the lead down the corridor Ratyn accidentally triggered some sort of trap, and when I asked her if she was okay or needed some help she just snapped at me for stopping the music. And so I went back to playing, though everyone else still refused to dance - even though the wisps floating around the hallway seemed to enjoy the music and were floating and bobbing to the rhythm! Even Aggma said that it was a good idea, yet none of them wanted to even try dancing!
Behind the door at the end of the corridor we saw the crying baby, as well as a woman lying on the floor. The woman looked badly hurt, with blood splashed on her legs and the floor, and Ratyn said she was probably dead. The baby, meanwhile, seemed to enjoy me playing the calssic Waltz of the Winter Queen (far more than everyone else in the room, I must say), and stopped crying, instead turning his head and smiling at me with eerie golden eyes. I reached the end of the waltz and started playing Serenade for the Fruit Fairy, but in all the pressure of having the baby looking like it wanted to eat me I forgot to change my scales, and the first couple of notes came out all wrong. The baby got angry and started crying, and suddenly we were back in the cave.
The three wisps started floating menacingly in our direction, so like mother taught me I dropped a big cloud of fog in the cave and told everyone to run to safety. Instead of doing that, however, Ratyn and Aggma both started dancing! I can't believe that when I suggest we dance they refuse, but as soon as I stop playing music and one of the wisps suggests it, that's when they agree to it! So much for being a team, right?
Anyway, Christopher vanished into the fog and two of the wisps floated out. I enchanted a couple of stones and threw it at one of the wisps, and it crumbled to dust, while the other one came closer and shocked both Ratyn and me with lightning. That thing really burned, and all my fur suddenly pricked up which was rather embarrassing. Ratyn took out the other wisp, and then we took out the third one with arrows, stones, and Aggma's fire. At least when they drag us into a fight we're able to cooperate, even if we would have been safer if we ran away.
With the wisps gone, Aggma healed Ratyn and me, then the two of them went to look at the dead woman's body. Meanwhile, Christopher, Sett, and I went to Zachary. Christopher gave him his water and I gave Zachary a few nuts and my cupcake - it looked like a really good one, too, covered with strawberries and blueberries with small flowers on the trim. He seemed to really like it, which is good, and then we headed out of the cave and back towards Juniper Grove. On the way back we ran into Greg the bat, and I told him about what happened, then he went back to his bat business.
We left Zachary at Julie's inn to rest for a few days, and Ratyn gave each of us 5 gold coins that she said Julie had given us as thanks. She really didn't need to do that, but if me paying for everyone's food is going to become a pattern, I might need the extra coins.
At the entrance to Tilley we heard that Harris' Hunter's Guild is holding a fund eraser on the same day as the orphanage. At first I thought that was a good thing, after all how can more parties be bad? But then Ratyn explained that they're called "fund raisers" and that they aren't actually parties at all, and no drawing or erasing gets done whatsoever! Turns out fund raisers are just events where people ask other people to give them money, and Harris wants people to give him money instead of to the orphanage!
How is it that everything in this world always revolves around money? Why can't people just throw their parties without expecting everyone to give them money in return? To make things even worse, when we got the venison back to the orphanage, Lady Trudgeon insisted on paying us, despite saying that she needed the money that she would get from the fund raiser. If she needs to get money, why is she giving away the money she already has?! Then she also gave me a wand that could make anyone it's pointed at smile, and while I appreciate the gesture, I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do with it. I can already get most people to smile without magic, and most of everyone else is just going to get angry at being forced to smile. Nonetheless I took the wand, because if she didn't allow me to refuse the few coins she gave us, there was no way she would allow me to refuse this.
Heading out of the orphanage we decided to work together to make sure the orphanage's fund raiser was the best fund raiser in town that day, so I concocted a plan to prank Harris. I asked Ratyn and Sett to scout out when and where the event is taking place, Aggma to talk to Alyna about getting the stickiest and stinkiest goo she could find, and I would find a nice nest of bees that wouldn't mind relocating for a couple of days.
Of course, as with the dancing, Aggma said that my idea is good, but then everyone just ignored me and left anyway. I swear to whatever it is people around here swear to, these people are the most confusing and infuriating bunch I have ever met. No on in this world ever says what they think, yet they assume everyone just knows what's going on inside their head - and then they get mad when other people guess wrong! I regret agreeing to team up with these guys, and I think that after the fund raiser I'm going back to Ms. Toolie's inn and taking a nice long break from humans.
For now I'm going to take a short and lunchy break from humans, going back to the inn for lunch. This past day and a half has completely destroyed my eating schedule and I'm starving. I ate the last of my snacks over two hours ago on the ride back from Juniper Grove, and I'm so hungry I could eat a human!
I hope Gina is there, I need someone to talk too.