Quest 320

[primrosella]

[The Land of the Clouds is as treacherous as it is beautiful.

It's been a long time since Rosella's been home to see it in person, but this is one place she'll never forget, not between the time she spent playing here, and the time she spent here at the mercy of a three-headed dragon, waiting for its flames to consume her. The ground is clouds, of course, and all around is clear blue sky, but the Land of the Clouds has its safe places and its unsafe ones. In some, the footing is obviously solid, with brown earth and green grass underfoot, and even the occasional tree sprouting up high into the surrounding heavens; in others, it's mistier, more wispy cloud than anything else, and it's in those places that it's prudent to watch one's step, lest one discover the hard way a hole in the cloud, and have plenty of time to ruminate on that error the whole way down.

At the far end of the scene, between a cluster of trees, lies the mouth of a cave; there are stairs in there, ones stretching down the inside of a mountain and leading to the ground below, but as tends to be the way with dreams, there's no way of traversing them without Rosella at your side, and at the moment she's a bit...well, preoccupied.

Which is to say, she's lying on her stomach in a clump of clouds (ones that must have something solid underneath, to be holding her up that way, though they look as though they don't), peering down over the edge to see the countryside below. If she were home, there'd be plenty to see down there--the familiar towers and banners of her castle, her climbing tree just a little to the north, the River Fools cutting its laughing course across the countryside, and all the other familiar landmarks of her childhood.

This time, however, they seem to be a bit...different.

If you dare to look over the edge--and do watch your step--you might be surprised to see a second castle joining the first, some distance away, with walls covered in climbing ivy. (A prince lives there, you know. That's the castle with the funny name.) Far off in the distance, there's another odd sight: a little hill with a cottage atop it, and a dusting of sheep all around. To the west, over the tops of the mountains and all the way out to the ocean, there's something glittering rather like a star, right on the edge of the sea (quite a lot of castles in this single kingdom, aren't there?), and to the north, further in, there's a little cluster of landmarks that seem rather out of place: a bridge, a cathedral, and a tower--over which a cluster of ravens are flying.

And of course, it would hardly be the Land of the Clouds without a dragon, wouldn't it?

Oh, there's one here, all right. Small and black, about the size of a housecat, snuffling around and stretching its wings in the clear and open air.

("Oh," she remarks at one point, as he goes soaring by, and her heart skips a beat from fear--and then settles again. "You're much smaller than the one I remember, aren't you?")

Welcome to Daventry, traveler. What will you do first?]

> |


[OOC: This is an open dream post! Everyone is welcome, and things will be pretty freeform in here: like a true text adventure, things will unfold based according to the choices you make! Separate threads will be separate encounters, please, unless specifically requested otherwise. Just let me know! o/]

Comments

[misterblackbird]

[It is a bit jarring, to say the least, to try to step from one room in one's own dream and find that that step lands not on the expected floor but rather on something distinctly softer. (The grass is quite preferable on his bare feet, really.)

How fortunate that that door didn't open anywhere else. No one really likes to dream of falling, surely. Flying, perhaps, but not falling.

But, he thinks as he stands there a moment with the door long gone behind him, he has been here before, hasn't he?]

[primrosella]

[Doors have a funny way of opening in exactly the right place. Sometimes they stand up in the middle of a clearing, all alone with nothing on any side of it, but when one opens it, it leads someplace vastly different.

The little black dragon spots him, of course, and wings his way over, looking a bit gangly and out of place as he tries to beat his wings and hover in front of Cain long enough to examine him, before gravity wins out and he's forced to trim his wings and coast away again.

Well. That makes two things that don't belong here, doesn't it?]

[misterblackbird]

[He startles at the dragon at first--after all, flying black things are quite startling, especially when they fly at one's face. But it's a charming thing, this dragon. It makes him smile.

Whether he belongs here or not, he likes it here. It's far more pleasant than the ruined mansion he has just left.]>

[primrosella]

Oh, don't make trouble, you--

[As the little dragon goes swooping past again, Rosella finally turns over, propping herself up on her hands to see what's gotten into him.

...Oh. Evidently it's--why hello there.]

There you are. I was wondering if you might come by.

[She angles back a little, pointing out over the countryside.]

Look. Did you see?

[misterblackbird]

[Cain looks briefly down at his dirty bare feet. He feels a bit underdressed at the moment. Still, he smiles softly.]

I was rather hoping I might come by.

[He looks out to where she's pointing...]

See what?

[primrosella]

[She gets up, then, and wanders over without ever once looking down. She won't fall here, but he might need her help to find his way. He doesn't know the footing as well as she does.

Also, it's not his dream.]

London. It's the one with the birds flying overhead, see?

[She draws him a little nearer to the edge, and points north.]

A bit far away, I suppose. But not too far.

[misterblackbird]

[Of course he follows her lead--she knows the way--and follows where she points.

He speaks quietly, almost to himself:]

Saint Paul's.

[A bit louder, more certain:]

No, it isn't too far. What are all these other places? Daventry, I know, for some of them at least.

[primrosella]

I can't quite make it out, but it's there, just the same.

[Or at least, the way she knows it in her imagination, rendered down below by her dream. But of course, perhaps that's enough as it is.

Still standing close so scandalously, she points to some of the others.]

That one there, with the ivy, that's Prince's Ton. And the little hill there, that's where I'm meant to go someday, you know. I told Blue I would.

[Her brow furrows a little.]

I suppose I could go right now, but I think it's farther away than it seems from up here. One can see just everything from up here, can't one? It's so very nice.

[misterblackbird]

It very much is there.

[Though it puts him in mind of the tiny figures and toys she's given him...]

But why are you supposed to go to that hill? I don't think you ought to go there now, no, since we are rather high up. But why that hill?

[primrosella]

[That gets a soft smile out of her.]

Because they're one and the same, Blue's world and mine. We always thought so. That's why I promised I'd go find his little house someday.

[But then, again, she frowns a bit.]

It is rather close, for something so far away.

[misterblackbird]

And yet you didn't know it when you met, did you? I shouldn't be surprised. I've met other Londoners, but...those times it's been the same city in different worlds, not the same world and we were unaware of it.

[He peers at the hill.]

It must be the air up here.

[primrosella]

[At this point, the little black dragon comes swooping around again, and Rosella does jump a little at the sight, though considerably less so than perhaps she normally would at being faced with a dragon--of any size.]

I think ours must've one and the same. We knew quite a few of the same people.

[She considers the view again.]

I suppose I might go to any of them, really, couldn't I?

[misterblackbird]

[Cain's rather entranced by the little dragon, truth be told...]

Any of the places here? Yes, I think you could.