There and Gone [Finished]

[The Jenn]

Donnie accepted her key from the attendant gratefully after a long and unusually eventful wait for the room, glad they hadn't dawdled once the room was ready. That would have just ticked her off, and she didn't really feel like being aggravated just then. All she wanted was a good, long soak in the tub she'd been promised as part of her room, and then some nice, naked air-drying on the promised feather comforter. That sounded absolutely delicious.

A commotion off to the side caught her attention and she turned to see a rather large party entering the hotel. They were bizarre enough to make her look twice.

Femi clung to Kazifel's arm, her pink eyes huge and darting from place to place in the hotel lobby. She did not like this city! It was huge! And smelly! And there were freaky, weird people everywhere! Her little squirrel claws dug into his arm a little bit as she stressed and bits of white fur trailed after her from her tail. She didn't shed often, but this was just one of those times.

Sighing, Thyme reached out to give her Mom's shoulders a half-hug, accepting the clinging death-grip on her waist as an inevitable consequence. She and her sister had the idea to bring them out for a weekend, after all, and they would suffer for it. Rose thought that getting them out of the Wood for a while would be healthy. She agreed for her Dad's sake, but really, Mom was better off cloistered away with her dolls and her paint and her delusional outlook on life. At least they got to see her new biped form. None of them had really expected that.

[Kari Muffin]

Kazifel sighed as he slowly lost feeling in the arm that Femi was clinging to. Honestly it wasn't that horrible being in the city, but he understood her stress. He wasn't one to like people, but it was for their daughters' sake. He kissed Femi lightly on cheek. His eye twitched like it had done so many times before when he was aggravated. Please let everything go smoothly.

Rosemary waved a paw. "Mom! Don't be so stressed. Everything's fine here, anyway! It's a really nice inn, I promise." She said as he shifted the pack she was wearing slung over her shoulders. Her tail was flopping in canine manner as she sat on the floor. A smirk on her face she looked at her mother.

Sage was standing in the corner, looking around. Her back was pressed against the wall along with her wings. The city was a big place, and she much preferred places with far less people. Scanning the room she took notice of the other guests. They were staring....

Parsley simply rolled his eyes at his entire family. Making a scene in a place like this was typical. "Why did I even bother coming?" he muttered to himself eying Thyme's bipedal form. Of course she got it long before him, the overachieving Highlander she was.

[The Jenn]

The kiss helped Femi's nerves a little bit, being 'normal' enough that she could allow some semblance of blood flow in her poor husband's arm. She followed close to his side, practically tucked up against him with her tail wrapped around him and fluffing up by his ears. She turned to look into her tattooed daughter's equally-pink eyes and bit her lip. "Okay, sweetie. Okay. Okay." She took a few deep breaths and tried not to make eye contact with any of these weird people.

Thyme didn't dare disentangle herself from her mother until they'd gotten somewhere with fewer people, not if she didn't want claw marks running up her arm from pulling away. Ouch, Mom. Geez. "Can one of you go and get the key? Rose and I made reservations under my name." Her current 'predicament' went unspoken, but obvious.

For her part, Donnie couldn't help but regard the large, odd group with a mixture of fascination and dismay. They were all beautiful people. She picked out the tall wolf as a male from the get-go, a real shame with that slender build. She didn't think she'd ever seen someone so tall look so skinny.

When she realized the gorgeous, delicate Corvie squirrel-thing was also male, it was enough to tempt her to swear. An adorable little vermin with fairy wings and silky tufts all over him? His gender was practically a crime. The Highland and Tulgey sisters were stunning, though. So much white! The Highlander carried herself tall and proud, and the mane was eye-catching, but the tattoos on the one Tulgey were pretty hard to ignore.

And then that little number in the purple kimono. If she hadn't been surrounded by family who seemed to be having Issues, the wolverine would have been incredibly tempted to see if she could pick her up, at least for a little while. It was the weirdest thing, but just looking at the girl, she had the feeling that she would have a beautiful voice. And she had big, fluffy white wings! And she was pale all over. Damn. That was the most appealing thing she had seen in years. She really had to figure out which room they were staying in. It was too bad she didn't have long in the Capital. Maybe a few days would be enough.

[Kari Muffin]

Kazifel refrained from letting a sigh of relief escape his mouth. Having the blood flow to his arm was wonderful thing. The King didn't try to pull away from Femi, he knew that she would just hold on tighter. It was a good thing he was never one for personal space. "I'm sorry," he whispered to his Queen. It really was an awful idea to take her out of the Wood.

Rosemary was half tempted to bound off to get the key, but Sage made the move first. "I-I'll get it," she said quietly as she removed herself from her perch on the wall. Rosemary perked a bit. Apparently her sister was getting over her fear of people? Maybe she would finally get her butt in gear and make it to the wonderful region of Villa?

Parsley watched as his sister hurried over to the front desk, eyebrow raised. It was a bit unusual to see her eager. Normally that was left to bouncy bard Rose.

Sage sighed as she walked over to the front desk. Her eyes caught the brightly colored mix region. She paused for a moment before going back to her mission. "Uh, excuse me, but do you have the room number and key for Thyme e'Devya?" she asked the clerk at the desk.

[The Jenn]

"Love you," Femi whispered in a nervous voice, resting her cheek against his arm while they waited. She was... fine, but she would be even more fine once they were in a room and away from so many freaky, colorful people she didn't know.

Thyme's eyebrows raised slightly in surprise. She'd expected Rose to bound towards the desk, being the most outgoing of the group, but it was their little wallflower who actually volunteered to talk to a stranger. Huh. Maybe it was reassuring to have the lot of them so close? Whatever. So long as she didn't act like Mom, she wasn't a problem.

As the gorgeous young woman moved closer, Donnie couldn't resist throwing her a quick once-over that was less than subtle. Normally she wouldn't be so obvious about it, but damn. Hot stuff. The way she held herself made her look all meek and demure, too. Good thing she wasn't a male, for more reasons than the obvious. Her attraction might have been even more 'obvious'. She really shouldn't say anything to her, not in the middle of a hotel when she was obviously dealing with family matters. Hopefully there'd be time later.

The hotel receptionist smiled at the girl and turned to get the appropriate key. The wolverine made sure to note the '203' on its shiny brass surface.

[Kari Muffin]

"T-thank you!" Sage said as cheerfully as she could muster before hurrying back to the family. The squirrel wolf clutched the key with dear life she came back to her family gathering. She glanced back at the person who she could have swore was looking at her. It must have been her imagination....

"Awesome! Let's go get comfortable in the room before Mom implodes!" Rosemary said happily as she looked at the rest of her family with a psychotic grin.

Kazifel would have rolled his eyes in any other situation. Where in the name of the suits did Rosemary get the utter crazy? It certainly didn't come from him or Femi. "I love you too, let's get to the room quickly." He kissed her on the cheek again. "Just take a few deep breaths." He wasn't being helpful, but he at least had to try.

Parsley peeked at the room number before nodding to himself. "I'll meet you all up there, I want to make a quick run to a shop before we all give Thyme our warm fuzzy wishes."

Rose stuck her tongue out, "Get going and get coming back then!"

[The Jenn]

At least the dust from Thyme's inevitable 'poof' was making Femi feel woozy enough to relax her grips on her family and follow her husband complacently, stress mingling with drowsy. She barely even noticed when Parsley excused himself to slip away, and completely missed Rosemary's comment. That dust was pretty strong in close proximity.

Happily immune to her own 'poison', the wolf helped their father lead the squirrel away and towards the nearest flight of stairs.

Donnie watched them go, half caught by the swing of the girl's tail and the rest of her distracted by the way her feathery white wings rustled as she moved. Pretty, pretty thing. There wasn't a single change she could think of to make the girl more attractive... unless she was solely attracted to men. That would be a horrible shame. Too bad she hadn't caught any names besides "Thyme e'Devya" as the red-haired wolf.

The receptionist gave a slightly amused cough in the background and she turned, giving the man a brief snort before heading off to her own room.