Taking the Initiative [Dark]

[Bee]

Mnem made her way across the bridge slowly and carefully. She didn't want to fall off, after all, and drown or be eaten by the little brown monsters in the stream.

You should slay them, said the Perky Faerie Voice. Those tiny little beasts have offended you by existing, and you need to rip them to shreds and sacrifice their parts to the famed residents of Candy Mountain as a greeting gift.

She really didn't want to fling herself at the beasts, but so much time floating above the ground instead of walking on it had apparently been hell on her coordination, because she hit a very unfortunately located snag in the log and went toppling into the water. She landed with a very small splash and and the painful scraping of the terrible little stream beasts.

You have failed! said the Voice brightly. You're going to be eaten alive.

"Minh! Save me!"

[Dark]

Minh watched Mnem topple off the bridge--log--whatever--with a certain amount of detached curiosity. Why would she go and do a silly thing like that? But the wisps were screeching in alarm, and Dwyn was yelling something about honor and the inseparable bonds of questdom, and she figured it was maybe time to save the thrashing canine, if only to shut them all up.

She jumped in and bashed her knee against a rock--the water wasn't very deep and they were rather large rocks--splashing and flailing to Mnem's rescue.

She hooked an arm under each of Mnem's and gave a heave, making a soggy, shuffling path towards the far shore and their destination. When she finally drug them up onto the bank, she slumped down and let the cheers of the wisps and the Dwyn's warming platitudes wash over her. She was a hero. Tee hee.

[Bee]

Minh had actually jumped in and saved her from the vile brown beasts, which was wonderful, but now she wasn't going to get to sacrifice any of them to the Lords of Candy Mountain, which was unfortunate. She wondered what would happen to them if they did not come bearing some kind of peace offering. Would they be locked in a cave for all eternity? Would they simply be hurled off the top of the mountain to their deaths?

Well, the second one would be silly. Mnem could fly. Most of the time. She felt very comfortable in the air. Even when it was all swirly and was filled with rainbow-colored fish.

Fish?

There hadn't been fish before.

She would like to turn into fish. Rainbow fish. Or rainbow butterflies. Splatter into a million little fish-fragments and float into the sky.

It's a sign, said the Voice. This is what awaits you at Candy Mountain. You shall be gifted with fish and butterfly transfiguration when we complete our glorious quest. You might even get something better if you bring a fresh-blood sacrifice.

Mnem told the Voice to shut up. The Voice huffed, and Mnem pressed on.

[Dark]

Mnem was talking to herself again--this time about fish. In the sky. Which was absurd, really. The sky was purple, and filled with dark, ominous clouds that hadn't been there before.

She looked around rather nervously about the woods, which seemed much darker and frightening than they had before. She shivered at the sudden breeze.

"Don't give up, fair Minh! For the end of your quest is in sight!" Dwyn gave her a gentle smile that promised lots of man-on-man sexing if she could only make the last leg of the journey, and reluctantly she continued.

And then, in the distance...

A sign, similar to color as the green spots on the mushrooms she couldn't remember existed or not, hanging suspended in the sky.

[EXIT]

It was showing them the end of their journey--they were almost to Candy Mountain. Minh let out an ecstatic yowl and pointed out the miracle to Mnem.

[Bee]

Minh was right. There it was, right in the middle of the woods. A giant mountain. She wondered how they didn't see that before. Perhaps they were closer to the Range than she had originally anticipated. Or the mushrooms were messing with their heads much worse than she had originally anticipated. But she felt fine, really. Other than the fish. The fish had been a little strange. They were following her, now.

It's the magic of Candy Mountain, said the Perky Faerie Voice. It stays hidden to everyone who has not been shown the way by the magical Leviscyllaproteus.

That made sense.

They continued their approach, stepping cautiously, reverently up to the mountain. Would they have to climb it? Would the Lords be disappointed that they had made no sacrifice?

There wasn't much time to ponder.

Tiny mutant squirrels jumped out of the bushes, and began to sing.

[Dark]

Minh gave a shriek, and jumped behind Mnem for safety. Squirrels just didn't sing, nor did they have such alarming chipper expressions of emotionless Joy. It wasn't natural.

The song was really catchy, though, in that horrible way songs sometimes are. Like Fergie. Minh shuddered, and couldn't help but listen in horrified rapture.

"Oh when you’re down and you’re looking for some cheering up
Then just head right on up to the candy mountain cave
When you get inside you find yourself a cheery land
Such a happy and joy filled and perky merry land
They’ve got lollipops and gummidrops and candy things
Oh so many things that will brighten up your day
It’s impossible to wear a frown in candy town--"

The strangely compelling song was quickly silenced by bander teeth--it was a little hard to continue singing when one's throat had just been torn out. The squirrels panicked, running and screaming about civil rights as Monty mercilessly eviscerated the choir.

Minh blinked and looked at Mnem, "At least the singing stopped."

((Lyrics stolen from Charlie: Candy Mountain. X3))

[Bee]

(The song? Hell, Dark, the curent plot thread for this thing is stolen from Candy Mountain. XD)

Monty tore through the mass of assembled squirrels like a starving man who had been presented with a particularly obnoxious feast. Or maybe it was the mushrooms, making hir go even crazier than usual. In any event, Mnem was quite happy that Monty had chosen that moment to viciously murder the squirrels, because Mnem had been poised to kill them all herself, and that would be terribly undignified.

Congratulations! said the Voice. You have fulfilled the blood sacrifice. The Lords of Candy Mountain are pleased.

But the squirrels weren't quite through yet. There was one of them, his chest a bloody mess, who was clinging still to life. He was rasping out his last words.

"Such a wonderful--happy--go inside the magical Candy Cave. Go."

"I don't want to," Mnem said.

Go, said the Voice.

"Goooooo," the squirrel whispered fervently.

Mnem stepped down hard on its broken squirrely chest. Pop. There went his little squirrely head.

"The Voice wants us to go in," Mnem said.

[Dark]

Minh made a noise of general consent, eying the bloody mess Monty had left in wake of hir rampage. She almost felt sorry for the damn squirrels. Almost.

She turned around to make comment to Dwyn, only to see him finish melting into a pile of iridescent ectoplasm. Inching forward, she poked his remains with a stick. Not-Dwyn gurgled momentarily, before vaporizing.

"Enter th... cave..."

Well, huh.

The wisps were fading now, too, and she felt a momentarily pain at their lost. They'd been extremely friendly, but she supposed they had more pressing engagements.

"Right, then."

Following the trail of mutilated bodies, she started to climb the mountain, noticing idly the sky was leaning a tint more towards blue the longer and harder she climbed, slipping and sliding on the steep slope.

And, finally, the cave loomed before them--a dark chasm on untold mystery. She turned to Mnem with a delighted grin, "Shall we go in?"

[Bee]

Mnem looked at the dark cave in front of them. She asked the Perky Faerie Voice one more time if she should go in, but the Voice wasn't responding. Perhaps, having issued the final command to enter the cave, the Voice felt she had fulfilled her responsibilities and simply departed, leaving Mnem to carry out the task. But had a nagging suspicion at the back of her mind that this was not the case.

The fish were flying away, too, loosing their brilliant color and fading into the bright blue of the sky. Perhaps that was how they had been born, blue before they became rainbows, and now they were returning to their original state.

But that didn't seem right either. The world was getting confusing again. She looked at the cave.

It was...smaller. More like a doorway now than a gaping chasm. And the longer she looked at it, the more it shrunk.

She had to crawl toward it, now, and look inside. She could no longer possibly fit. It wasn't even a cave, she realized.

A rabbit hole.

Also, they weren't on a mountain.

"Minh," said Mnem, groggily. "I feel strange."

[Dark]

"And Alice went down the rabbit hole..."

Minh flopped onto her back as the world, which had been sort of spinning up until that point, ground to a sudden and disorienting stop. She looked up at the blue, blue sky and contemplated the clouds. If you looked close enough the started to form all sorts of shapes. One of them looked like a squirrel.

"I would have to agree. I feel very...yeah."

She remembered the mushrooms--purple and green menaces that should be eradicated the good of suit-kind--and the frightening green haze of alien spore floating up into her nostrils and down into her lungs, but not overly much else after that. She certainly didn't remember getting wet.

"We were on something seriously psychedelic shit, man. Wonder how many hours we lost."

Rolling over and feeling the grass prickle her belly, she peered over the null they had taken up residence on. No. Fucking. Way.

"Is that the road?"