Something Pink [Bee]

[Lucca]

Mirriam's eyes widened. The Outer Bazaar was another place she wasn't really supposed to go...but it WAS a lot closer. And she'd be with Nephy, so she wouldn't be alone. Maybe his Mom would even want to help them out, since they were doing this for science! Or was it for revenge? The little Bat wasn't one hundred percent clear on that point. "Oh, yeah, I bet there are Jubjub birds there!" she said, nodding. "Actually the one that attacked me was in the Capital." And it had been owned by someone. But hey, that might be easier, because Jubjubs that had been kept as pets were at least somewhat tamer and less dangerous, right? Maybe there was a feral population of the birds (and THAT was a rather terrifying thought...she shivered a bit) and they could trap one of those. Once they had the method down, if they wanted, they could move onto wild ones in the Woods.

"And we could wear helmets to protect our brains," she said, half to herself. Mirriam turned to give Nephy a large grin. "Okay! Now we just have to ask your Mom if she has some brains and sleeping potions we can borrow, right?" She tugged at Nephy's paw, eager for him to lead the way.

[Bee]

Nephy nodded enthusiastically, pleased that a plan had finally come together--and Mirriam was all ready to go.

"We'll see if Mama has helmets, too!" he said, though for some reason the idea of his mother having safety equipment seemed slightly less likely than the idea of his mother having brains, which he supposed said something strange about his family.

He started forward, new friend in tow, and raced along to his mother's quarters--she was usually in her lab this time of day, and he led Mirriam through the couple of doors that went to the rooms. His mother was injecting a bandersnatch with something, and seemed peripherally to notice them, giving a little tentacle waggle.



"Mama!" said Nephy, with great importance. "We require equipment!"

His mother put the bander back in its cage. "I haven't any windmills lying around, Nephy, ask your father."

"We don't need windmills," Nephy said, a little confusedly. "We need brains, sleeping potions, and helmets."

"Why on earth would I have helmets?" Thalia asked, puzzled. "But! I do have some of the other two..." She wandered over to a cabinet and opened it, and Nephy got a glimpse of an assortment of jars, all of which seemed to be filled with...brains, of varying sizes. "Always sad to see an experiment fail, but I guess if you two can put these to good use...Why do you need brains, anyway?"

"We're hunting Jubjub birds!" Nephy supplied happily.

"Ah, well, have fun." She stuck a couple of jars in a box with some soft padding and rooted around for something else. She wrapped a vial in padding and put it in the box with the brains. "A little of that goes a long way! And make sure you don't accidentally drink it yourselves, you'll sleep for days and probably also get a rash."

She seemed finally to fully process Mirriam's existence. "Keep Nephy out of trouble!" she instructed lightly.

Nephy was uncertain about what counted as "trouble" if she was okay with letting them hunt Jubjub birds, but he didn't ask.

"Thanks, Mama!" he said.

[Lucca]

Mirriam followed along happily as Nephy led them through the palace, and wasn't it convenient that his mother seemed to live here as well? She stared in awe as they walked into the lab, as she'd never been in a Corvie's laboratory before! But the sudden sight of Nephy's mother gave her pause. The bright colors, the hair that seemed to move of its own accord, and even the Bandersnatches in cages brought to mind another experience Mirriam had once had.

Maybe Nephy -was- related to the King she'd met before! She pointed at the hair eagerly. "Hey, hey your Mom has the same hair as..." But that was as far as she got with that before the Bat was distracted by the cabinet opening, and oh wow, she'd never expected anyone would have -that- many brains! They could catch a lot of Jubjub birds with that! And she had the sleeping potion and everything! The lack of helmets didn't worry her, as she was sure they could just pick some up in the Capital. Helmets were a lot easier to just buy than either brains or sleeping potions.

At being addressed, she grinned up at the brightly colored woman. "I will, don't worry!" she said, and then added, "My name's Mirriam ma'am-er, Your Majesty, and thank you very much for your help! Now everyone's gonna be safer from Jubjub birds!" With that, she looked to Nephy for further guidance, since she wasn't sure if she was the best one to carry a heavy box full of glass, no matter how well packaged. And she didn't want to keep his mom from her experiments and plans to take over the world and whatever else she did in this lab.

[Bee]

"Your green is very soothing," Thalia told her, dreamily, already turning her attention back to her work, humming random notes that failed to string themselves together into something melodious. Nephy was certain that in ten minutes she'd forget that they'd even stopped by. Maybe he should leave a note to remind her that they'd left for the capitol.

Nephy gave Mirriam and reassuring grin. "I'll grab my wagon and we can haul this out," he said, wishing he had hands and arms to just carry the thing. He disappeared from the lab and was back a minute later. Usually the wagon only held new books and things he brought back from trips to the city, but it would suit this purpose just fine. Plus, it would hold a cage when they finally trapped a Jubjub! He liked owning items that served multiple functions. "I think we can get whatever else we might need in the city."

[Lucca]

"Thanks!" Mirriam said, though she really wasn't sure what that comment had exactly meant, other than that it was obviously a compliment. She nodded at Nephy, pleased but not surprised that the smart little boy had a plan already for how to carry everything. She bowed to the woman, and fluttered out of the room to wait. She didn't have to wait long before Nephy had returned, and she helped to carefully put the box onto the wagon. "Yeah, that's fine...just let me leave a note to tell His Highness where we're going." Although she'd leave out the part about the Outer Bazaar and the Jubjubs. She didn't think Khusrenada would be -quite- as understanding as Nephy's Mom about their choice of activities, even if it was for the greater good!

"Your Mom is awesome!" she commented happily when she returned from writing her note. She had actually secretly been relieved that her guardian hadn't been in their rooms when she stopped by...she didn't really want him sending an escort with them to the Capital. She felt a little bad for sneaking off like this...but only a little. Some things were just more important! "Ready to go?" They had to leave soon if they wanted to get to the Capital before dark to set the trap! And she was sure feral Jubjubs must come out at night...all the evil things did! Although...so did Fruit Bats, and she was a Fruit Bat, and they weren't evil.

[Bee]

"Ready," Nephy confirmed, pleased that everything seemed to be in order and going according to plan. Ah ha! From his sister's homework, to his schedule of chores, Nephy was ace at keeping things running. Now all they needed to do was acquire a couple more things in the city--to that aim, Nephy had grabbed some of his allowance--and that Jubjub bird, if it existed, was as good as theirs!

Hauling their goods and wagon into a carriage to expedite their journey was a bit of a challenge, but Nephy had managed to keep the brains (how lucky they were wrapped!) out of sight of the driver, who might have given them some weird looks and/or reported them to someone for what might have looked to be bizarre and suspicious behavior.

(Though with Mama around the Court, he supposed people might be used to that sort of thing by now).

They reached the capital before sundown. Now all they had to do was make it to the Outer Bazaar. "All right!" Nephy said, excitedly. "First, the rest of our equipment! Then: the hunt begins!"

[Lucca]

Mirriam chattered happily all the way to the Capital with Nephy, or the driver, or both, whoever would listen to her at the time. Strangely enough, she didn't talk about their plans (she had more sense than that and she didn't need the driver deciding their choice of activities was too dangerous and sending them back to the palace empty handed) but she seemed to be eager to discuss just about anything else.

Waving to the nice driver, Mirriam's ears perked up as she eagerly turned back to Nephy. "Yes! I'll take care of the helmets, and you get something to bind the bird with once we catch it, okay? And then we can meet right back here and continue to the Outer Bazaar!" The little bat only suggested this because she knew exactly where to find helmets (or, at least, she thought she did). And it might have also been because if she went looking for cages or harnesses, she might be tempted to also look for a pet of some sort. She'd always wanted a Bandersnatch, for example! And she'd love to get one, except today wasn't a good day for that because today they were trying to do something else and do it in a timely manner.

Already the sun was getting lower. So as soon as she and the Skunk worked out who was to buy what, Mirriam would be off, fluttering towards the sports store (which she'd been to once before, but didn't have a chance to buy anything) with a satchel of money slung over her shoulder.

[Bee]

With the division of labor agreed upon, the children set out to purchase their items. Nephy wasn't certain that ordinary rope would hold a beast as fearsome as a Jubjub bird, so he purchased the highest-caliber binding agent he could get his hands on, and also a couple of large and cumbersome cages. He told the pet supplies man he needed to contain an exceptionally vicious dog. He also invested in a couple of burlap sacks, just in case they needed an alternative method to catching a bird without exposing themselves to the teeth.

So they had a couple of varieties of trap. Cage plus brains, then sleepytime potion. Brains plus injection of sleepytime serum plus burlap sack. Brains plus rope plus sleepytime potion. All of them equaled captured Jubjub bird.

That was a curious amount of mental math that did not even involve numbers.

"Okay," Nephy said, when they had reunited. "Let's strap on some helmets and lay out some brains."

[Lucca]

Mirriam, a brown paper bag eagerly clutched in her claws, scanned the street for that flash of pink and yellow and--ah! No, wait, that figure was far too tall to be her friend...oh! There! Squeaking excitedly, the little Bat fluttered in her erratic but graceful way over to her friend, and hovered beside him, dropping the bag with a small -smack- on the cobblestones.

"Let's do it!" she agreed, and landed to nose through the bag, though not before curiously looking at what the Skunk had bought and nodding with approval. "You got a bunch of stuff, Nephy! Now even if it's a super big or super mean Jubjub, we can handle it! Here's what I got." She pulled out a yellow helmet, all plastic but with an inner lining of something soft, and pushed it to Nephy. "Lemme know if you need help getting it on, since you just have paws and paws are a bit hard to work with sometimes. Then again, wings aren't the easiest either." She wiggled her wing claws and made a face at them, but then she giggled and pulled out her own helmet. It was a lovely blue to match her tree, and though it was a bit of a struggle to get it on over her antlers and flower (which she refused to take off, ever!) she managed eventually, and fastened it under her jaw with a satisfying -snap-.

She looked around, then, at the buildings, looking golden in the last few rays of the sun. "So where d'ya think might be a good spot for an evil crazy monster bird to make its nest?"

[Bee]

"Maybe in dark little places where it can hop out and attack people for brains?" Nephy suggested, frowning. His book had been pretty vague--read: void of valuable information--about where Jubjubs would hide in a city environment. If he were a brain-eating beast, he would like a dank little nook where he could hide during the day and then attack people at night when they least expected it! It would be easier to think like a Jubjub if they knew how Jubjubs thought.

He looked around. Perhaps near some little alley, or vacancy between houses...That sounded like a good idea. He offered it to Mirriam. There were plenty of such places in the Outer Bazaar; staking one out shouldn't be hard work.

Then he slipped his yellow helmet on thoughtfully. The little buckle was bothersome in his paws. He fiddled with it pathetically. "Please help!" he asked, plaintively. He scanned around again. In the distance...there seemed like a good place. "Then...that way I think, we can set something up..."