#mina betchstein

[necrida]

[necrida]

Mina: Im an explorer and she's my mummy. Get it? *chuckles* oh! And trick or treaat!

[necrokittytales]

Necrida’s Illustrations from Necrokitty Chronicles! #4

Necrokitty tales: Trouble in Inkwell Isle CHAPTER 19 sketches

[necrokittytales]

Necrokitty Tales: Trouble in Inkwell Isle (Chapter 15)

Authors’ note: Necrida’s writing will be in italics and SPKC’s writing with be regular font.If you have no idea what this roleplaying thing is, you can start from the beginning here.

—

Cagney hadn’t really moved much since his realization that he had to do SOMETHING. The problem was his internal struggle made him temporarily forget where he was even supposed to meet Hilda tomorrow. It was that club. The whatchamacallit club? He was supposed to go get at least some bow tie or something for that earlier this week but he had kinda been preoccupied with everything and had forgotten. He grit his teeth. He had to go into town. Maybe then he could find something.

Cagney knew most of the shopping places were on the third isle which was a long way to travel for a plant. Normally he would have hitched a ride with Hilda (and closed his eyes really tightly because plants were not meant to fly) but that was out. And he couldn’t exactly burrow there due to the fact that at some point the ground turned to cement just before the third isle.

He racked his brain, trying to think where he could take a break on the second isle. Maybe even find someone who would go with him.

Cagney pulled at his petals. There was like a couple people on the second isle he felt like not murdering and of those people, only one had a garden he could plant himself in to talk to them. And that would be Grim. He glanced at the sun. This could be an all nighter trip too, spending the night at Grim so he could go to the shops the next morning before it got too busy. He glanced around his garden. He was pretty much caught up. He doubted anyone was going to try to steal this pot. He started making preparations to go.

—

Cagney finished walking over the bridge to the second isle. Ugh. Walking. Walking SUCKED.  Maybe flying had its perks after all despite the terrifying possibility of dropping and splatting on the ground. He passed by Beppi’s circus and stopped. “Huh. Circus is opening up again tomorrow,” he mused, looking at the large sign by the entrance.

“Hiya there, Cagney!” Cagney stiffened at the goofy voice. “Beppi,” he grumbled, already turning around, thorns out. The clown bounced up and down as he approached the carnation, a humongous smile on his face. “What a surprise to see you here! Put her there, pal!” He extended a hand to shake the leaf of the carnation. “I see the buzzer, I’m not shaking your hand.” Beppi huffed. “You’re no fun!” He sidled up to the flower. “Checking out the flyer huh?” He asked, taking out a marker and drawing a mustache on the picture of himself. “Just was walking by is all.” “Mmhmm. You going to come by tomorrow?” “No, got a date-data thing to do,” he quickly corrected himself. “Well, poop. I was looking forward to see you. I bet you could pop all the balloons in the carnival games!” “Heh, you’re probably right,” Cagney couldn’t help but admit. “So if you’re not coming here to check out this cool flyer,” Beppi asked, now drawing a pair of glasses on his picture, “Then what brings you here?” Cagney jutted a thumb in another direction. “Gonna visit Grim, see if he’ll let me spend the night in his garden so I can go to the third isle tomorrow and buy an outfit.” “For the data?” “Yes…” “You know, I have a spinning bow tie..?” “That shoots water and no.” “Drat. I think Grim’s home by this point, so I’ll let you go! But think about it!” Beppi exclaimed, reaching out a hand. The carnation shook his hand and received a sharp zap. “Son of a bitch!” He swore, having forgotten about the buzzer. He made a grab for the clown but Beppi was already floating back into the circus with a loud guffaw. The carnation grumbled to himself and headed toward Grim’s tower.

Cagney finally reached Grim’s tower after another twenty minutes. They didn’t talk too much, he admitted but their paths crossed enough that this wouldn’t be too weird. He rang the bell.

–

Grim was very anxious that day. The Spring Festival was approaching and he was planning on asking Von Bon Bon to enjoy it with him. He sat on top of his tower, enjoying the fresh air and writing a letter. He was surrounded by hundreds of rejected paper balls. “Dear… No… Beloved Von Bon Bon… comma. The festival is near… and I would… love~ no, it would be… an honor… if you would… come~ nono! accompany …me?… Ugh…. T-t-this is so hard!” He growled, throwing his notebook off of the castle and spitting fire burning all the tiny paper balls around him. “I’m so t-t-terrible with words!.” The giant lizard laid on his tummy, feeling defeated.

Right after ringing the tower’s bell, a notebook fell on Cagney’s head. Grim heard the bell “Visitors!” He said excited and waving his tail happily, he looked down from the top of the tower.

“OW! What the hell?!” Cagney swore, grabbing his head with both hands.

“Oh! Hi, Cagney! I-I-I’ll be right down!” The dragon flew down the stairs of his tower and in a few seconds he opened his giant door with a huge smile. “S-s-so nice to see you!” Grim rarely received any visitors. Even though he was very nice , people still saw him as the great dragon he was. “What b-brings you here?” He made a motion, inviting him to his home.

Cagney bit his tongue. He probably shouldn’t swear any further. Grim might not receive a lot of visitors but he definitely received more than Cagney and could still throw him out. The carnation followed the dragon in. “Hey, Grim. I’m alright. How about yourself?” He asked politely, looking around the tower. Things seemed to be a slight disarray.

“Oh well… y-you know…” The dragon cleared a path from books, old looking objects, shields and many other weapons, surely gathered from the people who still dared to fight him. He carefully unburied a very comfortable looking couch. “B-business is slow, as usual. P-people don’t really want to deal with a d-dragon to get some antiques. I’m starting to t-think I should hire somebody to run the shop for me.” The dragon unburied a huge pillow from a mountain of shields and was about to sit when he realised he hadn’t offered anything to his guest. “S-sorry! W-would you like something to drink? Or eat?” He walked towards the only door in the room next to the stairs.

Cagney shook his head but reconsidered. “A glass of water wouldn’t hurt to be honest. I actually came to ask a favor from you? I was wondering if I could crash in your garden for the night. I have to go the third isle to buy something.”

“Of c-c-course!” Grim said from the kitchen and came back with a glass of water as big as a vase. “You’re always welcome, C-cagney,” he said happy giving him the water. It was nice to have someone to talk to, besides his other heads. “I can even t-t-take you there,” he offered, knowing how tiring walking was for the giant plant. “Where do you need t-to go?” The dragon asked, sitting on his giant pillow.

Cagney drank the water gratefully and sat down carefully between a broken spear and a shield bigger than his head. “Thank you…uh, as far as where I’m going, I don’t actually know,” he admitted. He glanced around surreptitiously. “Hilda and I might have a thing tomorrow and I think I need to dress up for it but I have no idea where to buy clothes from…”

It didn’t surprise the dragon to hear that Cagney was meeting Hilda, he knew how close they were. He sometimes got jealous of it because he didn’t had a  friend like that. He wanted to get closer to Von Bon Bon, but it was really hard with all her royal duties… and his lack of confidence to ask her to hang out. “Hhmm… I t-think I got something” Grim walked to the stairs and flapped his wings really hard, lifting him from the floor and disappearing to the upper floors. Cagney could hear the creepy echo of his terrible wings reverberating from the walls of the old tower.   A few minutes later a loud noise of something falling filled the silence, and a skeleton fell from the stairs. “Oops!” said Grim hurrying to pick up the clothes of the broken remains and clear the dust off of it. “I t-think it might fit you.” The dragon showed the outfit  to the flower: a simple white shirt, an orangy tie, a brown vest decorated with thin white lines and dark brown  pants.

Cagney blinked in surprise at the dragon’s offering and he plucked it carefully from his claws, making sure not to accidentally tear by pulling it too hard out of Grim’s claws. “This is…actually pretty good. I think. Again, not one to wear clothes too much but this looks like it would work. Huh.” Cagney looked out the window. It was already late afternoon. By the time he would make it back to his field, the moon would be out and he’d be tired and sore and…

“Do you think I could still spend the night though? Getting back is gonna suck at this time of day.”

“Of course! But I t-think you should try it  on, it might be too large for you.” Grim said looking at the slim stem of the flower.

Cagney tried it on and to his chagrin, the dragon was right. It was a bit big for him. He walked back to Grim. “Know anyone who can do alterations on this?” He asked hopefully.

Grim couldn’t help but giggle at the now clothed carnation, but he had to admit he did look good. “Hmm…” he sat back on his pillow . “I think I know where t-to find one… I’ll fly you there tomorrow! And maybe I’ll get something m-myself.” He looked down to his toes, blushing slightly thinking what Von Bon Bon’s taste in men fashion could be. “You know, for the festival.”

Cagney raised an eyebrow. “Festival? What festival?” He had been out of the social loop for a while. He didn’t remember a festival, although if he really thought about it, it did sound familiar to him.

“T-the spring festival! Where everyone have picnics under the blossomed trees, and there’s a pie eating competition, fireworks and t-the flower dancers come to town.” He paused wondering how come the flower forgot about a festival dedicated to spring. But then he thought he might have been a bit busy with the spring fever going around. He smirked.  "You d-did miss a few, now that I remember.“

Cagney colored darkly at Grim’s indirect implication. “Yeah, uh, might have slipped my mind…” Shit, he wondered how many other bosses knew about what happened with flowers during spring.

Grim understood Cagney’s spring impulses. For a dragon it was just as intense but it happened in summer and most of the isles residents leave the isles to spend their vacations somewhere else so pretty much no-one knew how irritable he got. He cleared his throat, trying not to let Grim see how red he was. “Uh, yeah, sounds like fun. You gonna take anyone?” Now it was time for the dragon to turn red. “Oh uh… well…” He kept looking down “I… I kinda wanted to ask B-baroness Von Bon Bon… but I’m really bad with words…” he said sadly.

Both male bosses realized that they were a bit shy in that department, forcing Cagney to drink the rest of his water to cool down. His mind went blank for a second as he drank before realizing the dragon’s words. “Hold up. The Baroness? As in, ‘off with your head’, the Baroness?” He asked incredulously. And he thought he had a dangerous taste in women.

Grim’s blush turned redder and smiled. “Yeah… she’s not as mean as she looks. She might b-be a little bosy, but I kinda like it. She’s not like any other royalties I have met b-before. She’s bold and ruthless, not afraid t-to speak her mind… She wasn’t even scared of me first time we met!” He started playing with his tail. “ I really want t-to tell her how I feel, but I’m afraid it would ruin our friendship.”

“Maybe write her a note if you have trouble talking?” Cagney suggested. “Ask her out but be really vague if it’s a date or not…”

Grim looked at Cagney curiously. “Be vague about it? Like… how? W-would you help me write it?” He said hoping the carnation would accept.

Cagney chugged the rest of his water. “Yeah, sure. You got some paper and a pen? I ain’t too good at this handwriting stuff but we can figure something out?”

Grim wiggled his tail happy. “Oh great! I’ll get the p-paper!” With a flap of his wings he flew up the stairs again and came back a couple of minutes later with three notepads and pens. He sat on the floor near Cagney and opened a pad. “How s-should we start?” He said, eager to begin writing. Cagney looked at all the paper. “Well, uh, let’s start with the dear part. What do you normally call her? Baroness? Bon Bon? Baroness Von Bon Bon?” The dragon thought of it for a moment. “I kinda use all of them… maybe I should call her Bon Bon? To m-make it sound less formal? … Oh! B-but what if it’s too informal and she feels insulted? M-maybe Von BonBon… or… friend? Or… ugh!” He hid his head beneath a pile of books “So hard!” Cagney didn’t realize how difficult this actually was. “Have you ever called her Bon Bon?”

Grim got out of his hidden place and nodded at the flower. “Yeah, sometimes I d-do.”

“Does she react to it all? Does she correct you?” He asked, “if not, maybe start with dear Bon Bon?“

Grim nodded ,not sure about it, but he still wrote it down. He chewed a bit on the pen thinking about what to write next. “Maybe I c-can continue with… if it’s not t-to much trouble… or it… euh… would be great?.. if… euh..?” He looked at Cagney to see his reaction.

Cagney looked at the paper. “Uhhh, maybe just ask it like ‘would you like to go to the movies’ or something like that?” He groaned. “Man, Hilda knows her better than me, she’d know what to say.”

Grim looked at the carnation confused “But I don’t want to t-take her to the movies… oh! You mean as if it wasn’t a big deal?” He scratched his chin. “But it is a b-big deal… If it goes well I might ask her out… ” he blushed. “Maybe I should ask Hilda tomorrow. You think she would help me out?”

“She probably would,” Cagney agreed. His kind drifted to her briefly, wondering what she was up to now. She’d probably make time for Grim tomorrow if he flew by. He saw Grim’s skepticism and tried to explain his reasoning: “That’s the point, uh, try not to make a big deal because you don’t want them to know that deep down you’re actually really freaking out and you have no idea how they’re going to react and holy shit, I’m actually freaking out,” he realized, his eyes widening.

“You’re f-freaking out?” The dragon asked surprised “I’m freaking out too! Why are you freaking out?” He got closer to Cagney, grabbed a pillow and hugged it looking at the flower with a wide smile. He looked like a teenager on a slumber party.

Cagney grabbed the other pillow and clutched it almost hard enough to tear holes into it. “I’m freaking out because-because I broke the dome the night she was throwing me a birthday party and it was gonna be the night I was gonna try to maybe kiss her or something but I broke the stupid dome because there was a thief AND she didn’t believe me that there was this thief so we got into a huge fight and I nearly killed her by accident!” He shrieked.

“I told her I never wanted to see her again that night because I was so mad!!”

He pulled out the crumpled paper. “And then she puts this in my garden on a big pot,” he continued, handing Grim her note, “and I don’t know if this is going to be a date or a death match but a death match would probably be less stressful!”

Grim’s smile gradually faded. He read the note and kept listening at the flustered flower until it seemed he was done. “Wow…t-that IS something to freak out….“ He scratched his neck looking at the note not sure what to say. “All that on a simple m-misunderstanding….” If something like that happened between him and Von Bon Bon, he would probably be in a worse state that the flower. He would definitely lose it and all his heads would end up turning everything into ashes. He thought about how to calm him down. Hugs always worked for him… He sat next to the flower and hugged him tight. “Don’t worry! Whatever happens t-tomorrow, you will finally clear things up.”

Cagney stiffened considerably, trying to keep his thorns in at the unexpected physical contact. He finally forced himself to relax and accept the hug. “…thanks,” he muttered, “yeah, sure one way or another we’ll either fix it or we are never going to see each other again.” He grabbed the paper Grim had written off which was a bit difficult while being held. “Well, I can at least make sure you don’t go down my path. What would your ideal date be with the Baroness?”

–

Harvey knocked on the door of his warren before opening it up. “Mom! I’m home! And I brought a friend!” He announced, walking in, leading Mina inside. Harvey immediately stopped in his tracks before he could crash into his running sisters. The whole home was a mass of furry chaos. Which would normally be normal, but not today. Everyone was more excited since dad was coming home for the weekend so there was more hustle and bustle than usual. Heather and Haley were in the kitchen, putting dishes in the cupboard and then taking them back out again, wiping them once more and putting them back. Holly and Hazel, whom Harvey had nearly run into, were still darting excitedly about the home, chasing each other. Hellen and Hollie seemed to be the only ones who noticed Harvey coming in and quickly approached. “Hi, Harvey!” Hellen greeted. “Hi, Hellen! Hi, Hollie,” Harvey hailed. He gestured to Mina. “This is my friend, Mina. Mom said she could spend the night!” The two bunnies turned to the b-cat excitedly and simultaneously stuck out both of their hands to shake hers. “Hi! We’re Hellen and Hollie!” They declared. Mina was overwhelmed by all the chaos in the house. She smiled at the little bunnies greeting her “H-hi! I’m Mina,” she said shyly and turned to Harvey. “Is it always this… ” she looked for a word to describe the mess without sounding mean “ …exciting in here?” Harvey looked around. "Sorta. It’s probably a bit more busy since my dad is coming home today! He works all the way on last isle,” Harvey explained, helping Mina navigate around his siblings without tripping over any of them. He spotted his mom. “There’s my mom, we can go say hi real quick and hide in Hannah’s room,” he suggested before tugging on his mom’s apron. Mrs. Hare turned around from where she was mixing flour and sugar. “Oh, hello Harvey! OH!” She exclaimed, smiling widely at Mina, “Is this your little friend, Mina? Oh she is as cute as a button on a blouse! Hello, my dear, I’m Mrs. Hare, Harvey’s mom!” She stuck out a paw covered in flour toward the b-cat.

Mina chickled. This was a mad house and she loved it! So noisy and everyone seemed so happy. She wished she had a sibling too. “Thank you for letting me stay, Mrs Hare,” she said politely and shook her hand. “Can I help you with anything?” Mrs. Hare wiped her hands on her apron again. “Well, I guess you could help Harvey set the table! Let’s see there’s uh…” She started to count on her paw the number of family members. “Eleven, mom. There’s eleven. You, dad, Heather, Haley, Holly, Hazel, Hellen, Hollie, Hannah, Mina and me,” Harvey answered. “Oh. Good. Yes go set out enough plates and forks, please! Afterwards, go wake up Hannah from her nap!” Mina helped Harvey set up the table surprised by the organised chaos around her. Everybody was helping preparing the welcome for their father creating a cheerful ambiance. Her mother wouldn’t last five minutes in here.

“Hannah is the one interested in my journal right?” She asked Harvey. Harvey nodded. “She’s the youngest of us,” he explained, leading Mina to her room, “So mom has her take nap times.” Harvey knocked on her door before entering. There was Hannah, barely visible among a pile of blankets and pillows. The only indication that there was a bunny in that mess at all was a foot and an ear sticking out of the top. “Hannah, time to get up.” Her ear twitched. “Is dad here yet?” “No, but I brought my friend, Mina, do you remember me telling you about-?” Hannah was up in a flash, eyes wide, ears up. She squealed excitedly, tumbling out of bed and running over to the B-cat. “You’re Mina!? Harvey told me so much about you! Did you really stand up to Spike? Did you actually go into Cagney’s field? Was he as grumpy as Harvey says he is? Do you want a quilt?” Mina took a moment to process. “Uh… yes, yes, yes, yes at first, and… what? A quilt? Harvey sighed, "Oh no,” as Hannah squealed and dove back under the pile of blankets. There was a rustle before the little bunny pulled out a half finished purple quilt. “I made this but I don’t know if you like purple? Do you like purple? Does Mr. Flower like purple if you don’t like purple? What’s your favorite color? Is it purple?” She excitedly asked, hopping up and down. Mina looked at Hannah’s quilt and smile “It’s really pretty! I prefer orange, but purple is very nice too!” She chuckled, “I’m sure Mr Flower would love to have one too… .”

Hannah looked at the quilt. “Orange, huh? Okay! I’ll do orange! It may take me a while since my sewing needles are broken but I’ll get it done! Do you think Mr. Flower likes purple?” Harvey waved his hands. “No, no, Mr. Flower doesn’t need one, Hannah,” he quickly interjected. “But, Harvey-,” the little bunny whined. “No buts,” the older sibling argued, crossing his arms. Hannah pouted silently for a bit before her ears perked. “Dad’s here!” She squeaked, bolting past Harvey. Harvey stared after his sister. “Someone must have given her some candy because she’s never this spastic,” he lamented. He turned to Mina now. “So, uh, listen, about my dad. He looks a bit different than us. Don’t be scared, okay?” Mina raised an eyebrow, what did he mean different? Maybe he wasn’t a rabbit. She followed her friend curious. Harvey gave one last look at Mina before leading her to the living room once more. Sure enough, there was a taller, ganglier looking white rabbit in a light blue suit and a red bow tie, surrounded by a bunch of excited kits and Mrs. Hare. There was lots of excitement as there was plenty of hugging and yelling. The rabbit spotted Harvey and waved. “Heya, Harvey!” he greeted, attempting to navigate through his sisters to get over to his son. “Hi, dad,” Harvey smiled, giving him a hug. The older rabbit looked upon Mina and smiled widely, revealing a mouth of very sharp, fanged teeth. “And is this your friend from school? Hello, I’m Harvey’s dad.” He held out his hand. When Mina didn’t take it right away, he started giggling strangely. “No tricks up my sleeve, little one!” The little b-cat realized now what he meant. Harvey’s dad was really creepy. She hesitated but ended up shaking his hand. “H-hi… I’m Mina,” she said softly. “Hopus! Do you still have that awful bow tie on?!” Mrs. Hare called from behind her husband, “Take that thing off before you really spook her!” Hopus chuckled “Whoopsie.” He held up a hand, removed the bow tie that seemed to slither briefly in his hands before he stuffed it into his pocket. His appearance softened immediately which although was not too different, but there was an overall change and he smiled with buck teeth at Mina. “Nice to meet ya, kiddo!” He greeted, shaking her hand. “Sayyyyy,” he suddenly mused, “what’s that behind your ear?” He reached behind her ear and pulled out a small orange. “Woahhh, you’re a special little kid, huh?” He chuckled, handing her the fruit.

Mina smiled at the trick and took the fruit gladly. “Wow! Thanks! What else is behind my eye?” She said hoping it would be cotton candy.

Hopus checked her ear again and shook his head. “Nothing yet! Looks like you’ll need to grow some more before I pull anything else out!” The rabbit returned to the rest of the family as they gathered around the table.

“Your dad is amazing Harvey!” Mina squealed as she walked to the table. “Is he a wizard?” “Kinda. My dad’s a magician at the casino,” Harvey quickly explained as they took their seats at the table. Mina looked around the table. She loved the ambiance in this house, all the siblings, a mum… a dad. She wondered what her house would look like if her dad was still alive. Probably they wouldn’t have come here, they wouldn’t have traveled so much, and she might have a brother, or a sister…

She looked at her plate a bit sad. “Holly, eat your brussel sprouts,” Mrs. Hare ordered to one of the younger rabbits. “Nu uh.” Hazel leaned over and whispered loudly to her sister. “Dad will turn you into a frog if you don’t.” Holly gasped. “No he wouldn’t…would he?” Hopus scratched his chin. “No, of course not. I was thinking more of a newt.” Holly screamed and flipped her plate. “Hopus!” Mrs. Hare hollered as he laughed maniacally. The plate’s contents went flying, smacking poor Haley in the face. She grabbed a broccoli and chucked it, knocking Heather’s headband off. Heather chucked a broccoli back only for Haley to duck and let it hit Hollie. Hollie jumped up and threw her glass of milk at the rest of her sisters,

Getting Hellen right in the shirt. Harvey buried his head in his dish as Hannah crept under the table. “Oh my gosh,” he muttered embarrassedly as the rabbit den dissolved into a flurry of food and forks, his parents simultaneously yelling to regain order.

The little bat got surprised by how quickly things escalated and dodged some pieces of food using a plate as a shield. “Harvey! Your family is the best!.” She laughed and joined the fight.

Harvey smiled and was about to say something more when he spotted beets flying their way. He pulled her down under the table with Hannah and the three burst into laughter. – Dinner ended as messily as it began, with baths for most of the girls who had been hit in the crossfire. Mrs. Hare had them march themselves to the restroom while Hannah, Harvey and Mina retreated to her room. They still had an extra homework assignment to do thanks to yesterday events so Harvey and Mina were lying on the ground, writing things about each other that they liked. Harvey liked her claws and even drew a little picture of them next to his paragraph. Mina was very patient indeed as Hannah kept bringing over a color thread, putting it on her, shaking her head and walking away. “Your claws are really cool. I wish I had claws.”

Mina wrote her report about Harvey, how sweet he was, what a great adventure companion and investigator he was. He liked his big feet and imagined the things he could kick with them. When she was done with her paper he thought about Spike. Will anyone write good things about him? She showed Hannah how her claws worked and how handy they were. After a while she was starting to get sleepy.

Harvey yawned as well, exhaustion pulling at him. There was a knock on Hannah’s door and Hopus walked in, holding two sleeping bags. “Ya kids gonna sleep in here tonight?” He asked. Harvey nodded. Hannah didn’t snore so it wouldn’t be too bad. “Yeah just let me finish this assignment.” Hopus looked over at the paper. “Huh, do you normally stay up this late with homework?” “No, the teacher gave it to us because of yesterday.” “What happened yesterday?” Harvey bit his lip. “Nuthin.” Hopus gave him a critical look. “Well alright…you two better scamper to bed then.”

–

As promised, Goopy arrived at the Bechstein household ready to accompany lsabella to the club as they planned earlier. He was the perfect gentlemen and gave her the chance talk about Hilda and her possible problems with Cagney. The gossip certainly helped calm the bat’s nerves. At the club, Isabella got to know the band better and they discussed about the songs they would play. She still felt weird that night - leaving her daughter in a stranger’s house made her a bit nervous. But she had work to do and if she wanted to keep the job she had to give it her all. Finally the moment arrived, she adjusted her dress, got on stage and gave another breathtaking performance.

—

As Isabella sang her heart out, other business of a more nefarious nature was happening on another Isle not so far away. The boat of the spider gentleman arrived at Inkwell’s port under the cover of the night. The spider waited patiently next to a bunch of large boxes, one of them marked X with white chalk. It didn’t took long before a man holding a notepad approached the gentleman.

“Oy! I’m the inspector”. He extended his hand to shake the spider’s. “Figgis”. He introduced himself.

“Where’s Mr Crabbe?”. The gentleman asked without shaking his hand.

“ He’s busy”. The man answered offended. “Lest get to it. The sooner we done the sooner I get out to the Clip Joint! Tonight the Brothers are fightin’! “. He said grinning. “Wouldn’t want to miss that!”. He chuckled walking towards the boxes.

“ I had an agreement with Mr Crabbe. I would appreciate if you could go get him”.

“ I said he’s busy! And I’m in a hurry, so… “. He was about to open the box when a voice with an hispanic accent, coming from behind him, got his attention.

“ Do you know the meaning of ‘the cat got your tongue’?”. Standing casually was a cat, dressed with dark pants hold by suspenders, wearing a white shirt, a short black jacket and a simple black flamenco hat. He was smiling pleasantly playing with a butterfly knife.“Because I don’t. But I will HAPPILY apply it in a literal sense if you don’t do what the gentleman says, amigo”.

“Ya think ya scare~Ahg!”. In a swift movement the hispanic cat and he was caught by the back of his neck with a threatening knife on his throat.

“I’m sorry! I interrupted you! You where saying?”. He smirked.

“No! Wait! I’m here!” A rough voice interrupted and a large red crab approached them out of breath. “I…I’m sorry… I got on the wrong boat… .” The spider gentleman gave him a disapproving look and made a sign to the hispanic cat to release the inspector.

The cat nodded “Sorry about that, mi paisano”. he put the knife back in his pocket spinning it with dexterity and wiped some imaginary dust from the inspector’s shoulder. “Let’s pretend we never saw each other, uh?” He passed an arm around his neck and got uncomfortably close to his face.  "I mean, I know is going to be hard for you to forget my beautiful face, but make an effort… or I will get that tongue of yours… “ he chuckled "Mi mamá will make a delightful stew with it. She can make a stew with pretty much anything!” He kept laughing and took the inspector away from the other two.

Crabbe was still recovering his breath when the spider started talking. “As we arranged, you may keep one of the boxes.” He got close to one and pointed at the mark drawn with white chalk “This one. The others will be delivered immediately to King Dice and the paperwork will be taken care of, as discussed.”

Crabbe nodded and got closer to the box. He was about to open it but thought it would be wiser to show some respect and ask first. “Eh… can I..?”

With a smirk in his face the gentleman nodded. He liked to see people cowering to him. Crabbe opened the box with the help of his claw and his eyes widen. The box was half full of money and the other quality alcohol. He closed the box with a smile thinking about his future and that it might be time to retire.

“It’s very nice doing business with you, Don Castelli.”

“Don Castelli is my brother. From now on you will call me by my name.” The gentleman said annoyed.

“Y-yes, Don Amauri.” He corrected immediately.

“Now, you have work to do.” He got down the boat with his cat friend waiting next to a car. He was cleaning his knife.

They both got inside the vehicle and headed to the city.

–

It was late in the evening by the time all the rabbit children and b-cat had fallen asleep. Hopus walked into the kitchen in his pajamas and spotted his wife cleaning the dishes. He loved his wife, for many reasons so he didn’t want to upset her. But it was bugging him about his son.

“Hey, pumpkin,” he started, “did anything happen the other day with Harvey?” He found his wife against him in a second, looking livid. “Oh! OH! You better believe something happened!” “I do believe?” He asked. “Do you know what happened with Harvey the other day?” She repeated. “I was really hoping you would tell me?” “He got attacked by one of the residents!” She hissed angrily. Hopus’ eyes widened before narrowing. “What? Who? How?” It was one of those moments every casino employee feared, that someone angry from losing a bet or a card game would come take revenge on a family member. That’s why his family lived so far away on this isle. He wasn’t even a dealer for Pete’s sake. “That flower. Cagney.” He cocked his head at her. “Wait, what? Why?” Cagney hadn’t gone to the casino in ages. He’s not even sure the carnation knew that Harvey was his son. “He went into his field,” Mrs. Hare admitted begrudgingly. “He seems okay to me then for trespassing. KD would do something a bit more permanent…” Mrs. Hare glowered still. “You’re barely here enough for him. You gonna let him get beaten up willy nilly? You need to get back at that flower and teach Harvey how to defend himself.” Hopus crossed his arms. “I will teach him some simple tricks but I think he’d learn more physically from you…” he admitted with a chuckle. “You’re not going to confront Cagney.” “Did he apologize?” “I don’t see how that has anything to do with it?” Hopus watched her and she sighed. “Yes. He did. But…you should still do something. Teach him a lesson.” “Even if I wanted to, I wouldn’t be able to take him on my own.” “You have co-workers right?” “…I think that this is a bit much.” "You’re no fun,” she sulked, turning back to washing the dishes. Hopus sighed, fingered the bow tie for a few moments before putting his arms around his wife from behind. “Tell you what, if he does anything else to any of our kids, I’ll make sure we take him out. Does that work for you, my little butternut squash?” She squealed happily and turned toward him. “You mean it?” “Yes.” “Oh, Hopus, sweetie you’re the best,” she purred kissing him on the cheek.

 CHAPTER 01,  CHAPTER 02,  CHAPTER 03,  CHAPTER 04,  CHAPTER 05, CHAPTER 06,  CHAPTER 07,  CHAPTER 08,  CHAPTER 09,  CHAPTER 10; CHAPTER 11; CHAPTER 12 ; CHAPTER 13 ; CHAPTER 14  ; CHAPTER 15 (You’re here!)

[necrokittytales]

Necrokitty Tales: Trouble in Inkwell Isle (Chapter 12)

Authors’ note: Remember, Necrida’s writing will be in italics and SPKC’s writing with be regular font.If you have no idea what this roleplaying thing is, you can start from the beginning here.

——–

The morning arrived and it was a shiny new day. Mina woke up happily, got dressed and went down stairs. She stopped abruptly to see her mother sleeping on the table next to a bunch of tissues and an almost empty bottle of vodka.

‘She must have cried herself to sleep again’ Mina thought sadly reaching for the bottle quietly and emptying it in the sink, to replace it with salted water. ‘That will teach her’.

She then covered her mother with a blanket, prepared a small breakfast for both of them and packed her lunch. She was starting to get worried about her, she had been drinking more the past few weeks…

She gave her mum a kiss and went on her way to school wondering if Mr Carnation said something to upset her last night.

–

Harvey Hare woke up with a slight groan. He got up, stretched and started to hop toward the kitchen for breakfast. His mother was already setting aside a piece of extra carrot cake from last night for him. Harvey blinked in surprise at the cake for breakfast and his mom chuckled.

“I know we don’t normally have cake for breakfast but I’ve just heard some of the nightingales chirping away about some very interesting gossip that I’ve just GOT to ask about before they fly on over to the second isle.”

Harvey wasn’t complaining. Cake for breakfast was awesome. He sat down and quickly ate up before his mother changed her mind. He paused mid bite. “Isn’t dad coming home tonight?”

“Yes he is. And I’m sure he’ll want to talk to you about yesterday as well, young man!”

Harvey paused. Oh gee, yesterday was a bit rough, wasn’t it? His eyes widened. He wondered what the class would say? Was Mina still alive? Was Spike going to seek revenge? So many questions! He finished his cake and quickly dressed for school before hopping out the door. He wasn’t sure if he was going to catch Mina on the way to school but he’s sure that if she was still alive, they could talk at lunch.

–

When Mina passed near the carnation’s field, she eyed it quickly to see if it was there but she couldn’t spot him. She wanted to thank him again for giving back her journal. Maybe she could get him a gift at the carnival tomorrow.

She wondered on her way to school what do flowers like, do they even eat?

–

Harvey was worried to see he had beaten Mina to school. Oh no! Did that mean her mom killed her after all?!

His classmates were absolutely abuzz with chatter about yesterday’s fight.

“I heard that Cagney tore her into tiny pieces!”

“Nu uh! She bit him and sucked all the nectar out of him cause she’s a bat!”

He spotted Spike and Todd out of the corner of his eye looking a bit subdued. Did their parents find out about this too? He couldn’t help but hope they got in trouble.

Mina got into class the moment the bell rang. She caught her breath and waved at Harvey, taking her seat. She then pulled her journal out of her backpack to show it to him with a smile.

Mrs. White looked upon the class with a very annoyed look. “Children, it has come to my attention that there was a fight yesterday afternoon. Although the fight happened outside of school grounds, I would have imagined your parents have raised you to avoid altercations.”

All students turned their heads to Mina and Harvey.

Mina slid down a bit from her chair as she tried to hide. Todd frowned and  gave Harvey a threatening look.

There was some silence in the classroom before a kid blurted out: “Did you suck out Cagney’s nectar with your vampire teeth?”

The whole class erupted in uproar of excited yelling and Mrs. White had to bang on the board several times in an attempt to regain control of the situation.

“Children! Children! Enough!” She shouted irritably, finally resorting to slamming a book on the ground. And even then there were a few murmurs. She clapped her hands together. “I don’t care WHO was involved,” she snapped, “But everyone is going to have to do an extra writing assignment!”

There was a collective groan from all the kids as Mrs. White wrote on the board. “Don’t you “aw” me,” the teacher continued, “Maybe if you violent little thugs behaved once in a while,” she muttered under her breath, “I wouldn’t have parents coming in arguing with me over grades.” She cleared her throat and pointed to the board. “Tomorrow I want a paragraph about what you like about one of your classmates. I don’t want any declarations of love! Just, things that you like that make them a good friend! You got it?”

“Yes, Mrs. White.”

“Good, maybe some positive writing will rub off on you and keep you in line. Now open your books to page 36…”

Todd looked at Mina and Harvey and made a gesture with his thumb sliding across his neck. Mina saw him and showed him her unusual long tongue to mock him.

–

Sullivan finally reached shore after sailing through a horrible storm and fighting a terrifying giant octopus. Amber was still there, shining in her beautiful dress and calling his name with an angelical voice. He started walking towards her, he could smell her, he could almost touch her…!

He woke up by the sound of a clock alarm falling from his chair.

Amber’s ears twitched as she heard Sullivan’s alarm go off. She peeked in from the kitchen at the groggy salamander and brought out a plate of fried fish, letting it clatter loudly in front of his face. “Good morning, Sully!” She beamed, “I made breakfast! I caught it myself!” She declared proudly, flashing some sharp canines at the still half asleep salamander. If he looked close enough at the fish, he could see the two puncture wounds where she had sunk her teeth in and dragged it from the water. “Eat up!”

Sullivan looked at Amber blinking unbelieving. Not only the girl of his dreams was still here, bit she made him breakfast! That she caught herself! This woman was really getting to him… he had to show her how much he wanted to stay with her.

He regained his seat and smile tenderly at Amber “Wow that is a nice catch! Thank you very much, Amber…” He scratched his neck nervously .“Em.. did you sleep well?”.

Amber was pleased that her catch was well received. She was actually beginning to like this dope. She brushed her fur aside. “Oh! Well I took the bed. I felt so bad that you fell asleep here though! I wasn’t quite strong enough to drag you.”

Nor would she have risked waking him up. She eyed the door hopefully. As charming as this was, she really had to get a move on, especially if she was going to double check these shipments and maybe intercept one or two.

“Do you think you could give me a ride back to the mainland? Dog paddling is the worst when you’re a cat.”

‘Im never washing those sheets’ the salamander thought to himself. “Uh, yeah! Of course” he nodded “ And.. um…” he hesitated “Amber… last night… was really fun, and… I was wondering… if… you would like to hang out again sometime? Maybe… go to the carnival or… something”. He stared at his plate.

The carnival, huh? That would certainly be an opportunity. And no one would suspect her if she was walking around with a date. She smiled sweetly. “That sounds like fun. I think it comes in tomorrow if you wanna go?”

“T-that would be great!” Sullivan looked at the woman with a big smile and a red face. He was going on a date with her! He finished his plate and offered to take Amber back with his raft.

–

The lunch bell rang and Mina waited for Harvey so they could go together to the cafeteria, keeping an eye on Todd and Spike.

Harvey hopped over to Mina. “I’m really glad your mom didn’t kill you!” Harvey exclaimed  happily. “How did you get your notebook back?” He gasped.

“My mum was very angry when we got back home but she calmed down and ended up talking” Mina smiled and started walking to the cafeteria. “But later, Mr. Carnation came to my home! I thought he wanted to kill me, but he actually wanted to apologize and brought me my journal!” She took her notebook and laid it on the table. “Some pages are ripped but other than that is all here!”

Harvey smiled. “Well, good, your mom didn’t try to kill him, did she? My mom tried to kill him but he apologized to her too. At least I think he did.” He did not, Harvey realized. But he didn’t need to tell his mom that. He’s sure she would already be busy with whatever gossip had seized her last night.

Mina laughed imagining the scene Harvey described. “He did apologized to me, and later my mum wanted to talk to him in private, so maybe then he apologized?” She scratched her chin thinking about what they might have talked about.

He was grateful that his friend did not lose her notebook. It seems pretty important to her. “How long have you had it?” He asked curiously.

“I had this journal for a year now, but I have three. I should think about buying a new one - this one is almost finished.”

“As far as a new notebook goes, maybe we can find one on the second isle when we go to the carnival. Wait, are we still going to the carnival tomorrow?”

“And yeah! Definitely we are going tomorrow!” She said happily. She looked at Harvey, remembering how he tried to help her yesterday. “Harvey.. thank you for yesterday. That was really brave of you.”

Harvey brightened up but then looked sad. “I couldn’t do much,” he admitted with a sigh, “I don’t have claws or teeth or nails. All I got are these big floppy feet.” He scratched his head. “Although my dad said he might teach me a few magic tricks the next time he’s in town. So maybe he can teach me how to make people disappear.”

“Your dad is a magician?” Mina asked intrigued. 

Harvey nodded. “Yeah, he works on one of the other isles. He does a couple shows a week. He’s a bit weird but he’s nice. But he’s not here too often so I gotta do something else!” Harvey pointed to his feet. 

She looked at his feet. “You know… maybe you just have to learn how to use them, like kangaroos.” She looked through her notebook to show him a drawing of a kangaroo she did long time ago. “They have very big feet and they use them to fight.”

Harvey looked at her book with interest. “A kangaroo? Woah!!! I could do that! Do you know any kangaroos who could teach me?”

Mina thought of it for a few seconds “The only one I known lives on Australia,” she said sadly. “Are there any fighters in here?”

Harvey thought about it. “Well, there’s Ribby and Croaks at the Clip Joint. I know they fight, but we have to find a way to get in to the bar. I think, Goopy Le Grande is also around, but he’s more of a boxer, although now that I think about it, I have seen him try to smash things with a body slam.”

“The only other person I know who does anything with their feet would be Sally stage-play, but she’s an actress and all the way on the third Isle so we probably couldn’t go visit her unless we had a good reason to go that far.”

Harvey tugged one of his ears. “So, what do you wanna do?”

Mina listened attentively. “Wow! That’s a lot of fighters… Hmm.. well I wanted to check out the hole at the observatory. We can go see whoever is the closest. Oh! And after we explored you can borrow my journal and show it to your sister.” She smiled.

Harvey glanced at the time. “We’re almost done with lunch so tell you what, once we get off school, why don’t we try to see the hole first? I don’t know about you, but looking into a hole in the evening sounds pretty scary, so I’d like to do that first. Then we can cross the bridge to meet Goopy and then head down and see if we can get into the Clip Joint. We should probably not try to stay there once the sun goes down. Ribby and Croak are harder to talk to when the sun goes down and they start drinking.”

“After that, we can head to my house and Hannah can look at your journal. Provided she doesn’t make it a quilt first.” He wrinkled his nose at that. “Does that sound good to you?”

Mina nodded “ That sounds good!” She smiled. They spent the rest of the lunch time talking about kangaroos and extraterrestrials and when the bell rang they continued with their classes.

By the time everyone got back from lunch and as class started to end for the day, Mrs. White tapped on the board. “Just a reminder class that you have the extra assignment that’s due tomorrow. Write something nice about one of your classmates.”

Spike snorted. “That’s still the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.”

“And comments like that will get you detention, young man. See you after class. The rest of you are dismissed.”

Harvey perked up significantly. With Spike in detention, he and Mina didn’t have to worry about getting jumped while walking around the Isle. This was a good day indeed. The two children packed up their stuff and headed for the hole first.

–

Cagney woke up slightly more rested than he had yesterday, albeit a bit sore from having to carry Hilda. He was surprised he was waking up at all to be honest. He for sure thought he would have been burnt to a crisp by a bolt of lightning. Then again, Hilda did like to sleep in so maybe he wouldn’t meet his end until that afternoon.

Oh. Right. Hilda. The woman he swore he’d never see again. Well, shit that wasn’t working out too well, huh? He curled into himself briefly at the memory of her poor body covered in his thorns, lying on the bed. God, he really was a monster, huh? His chest hurt at that yet he couldn’t help but smile humorlessly. Seeing her naked was probably the closest he was ever going to get to her again.

He should have left a note. He could have apologized on the note, but he didn’t. He chickened out. And now, it was too late. Then again…had Hilda really brought a guy to his field just to screw with him? He, uh, wasn’t so sure what to think about that. That couldn’t have been true. There was no way Hilda would have even tolerated his presence much less make an attempt to get him jealous. He wondered briefly where he tossed that caterpillar and whether or not he survived. If he was lucky, he probably broke a couple of his arms. It was the least he deserved for touching Hilda like that. If Cagney hadn’t been there…

His eyes caught glimpse of the sun and he quickly uprooted himself. He was supposed to meet Isabella. Show her around the isle or something. He couldn’t help but admit he felt his petals shiver a bit at her figure. Right, right. Probably should plan on where they should go first and not gawk at the bat.

Cagney approached Isabella’s door and knocked politely. It was awfully quiet, he noticed, perhaps she was still asleep?

Isabella woke up startled by the knock on the door. “M-Mina?” She called softly, a bit disoriented, waving her ears to try to listen.

Cagney remembered that Isabella was blind and wouldn’t answer the door unless she knew who it was. “Hey, it’s me, Cagney Carnation!”

Isabella recognized the flower’s voice and remember he was going to show her around. “Just a minute, darling!” She managed to say sweetly and when she stood up from her chair, she spilled the glass of orange juice Mina had laid for her breakfast all over the table. “La naiba! (Damn it).”

She started to clean up only to put her hand inside a bowl of cereal. She swore again in Romanian and decided she needed some assistance. “Eh… Mr. Carn- I mean Cagney, I need some assistance… Door is open.” She said loud looking for a cloth to clean the mess. This morning started well…

Cagney let himself in and glanced around. Well…the house wasn’t certainly much to look at, that’s for sure. But it did not like Mina’s mother had tried to tidy up the place. Then again, she was a bit visually impaired so there was only so much that could be done. He spotted her cleaning up the table with a cloth and he quickly picked up the bowl of cereal before she could knock that over too.

“Hey, do you need another towel or something?” He asked, setting the cereal aside, away from her hands.

Her home was indeed very sparsely decorated. The wood was turning gray, the furniture was old but still standing, some plants lighted up the place, and on the walls there were Mina’s drawings. Those looked like world maps and observation drawings of bugs and plants with tiny notes like 'careful with the stinger, do not touch bad rash’ or 'likes cookies’.

The only thing it didn’t look old was a big gramophone in copper tones and dark wood.  Next to it, a box with some vinyls.

“N-no… its ok,” the bat smiled nervously “I just need to know if I got everything”. She finished cleaning the table and tapped it with her other hand  to make sure she didn’t knock down anything else. “Did I spill anything on the floor?”

Cagney checked the floor. “No, looks like you got it all. You’ve got some cereal. Did you want to eat that?”

Judging by the pictures, it looks like this little family traveled a lot. He let out a quiet whistle at the flower pictures. Look at the pistils and stamens on that pretty one! This was almost like plant pornography of which he was fairly certain Mina had no concept of and was just drawing what she saw. And what Cagney didn’t see was a dad in any of these pictures.

Isabella had a light headache settling in. “Oh no, not really hungry… “ 

He looked at the gramophone. “Hey, you got one of those music doohickey things!” He exclaimed, a slight smile on his face. There hadn’t been any bands recently in the Isles and Cagney was secretly disappointed about it even though he would loudly complain about them. He missed dancing but with everything as crazy as it had been, he hadn’t had the time to steal away and practice.

She laughed “It’s a gramophone. A really good one too,” she said proudly “Do you like music?” she asked while washing her hands.

Cagney was glad she was blind. It made lying a little bit easier. “Every now and then,” he answered,  "I kind of just move to the beat.“ He leafed through the vinyl records. "Although I haven’t heard of some of these folks. You do stuff with music or something?”

Isabella turned to him “Everything I got there is 'la crême de la crême’ ” she pronounced in perfect french. “If you want I can let you borrow some” she said walking towards the vinyls careful not to stumble upon the carnation.

She grabbed one and touched the corners were some tiny holes where poked in specific shapes. She went through a couple of them until she took one carefully out of his case and played it with the gramophone. ’Strut Miss Lizzy’ started to play.

“Have you heard this one? It always makes me want to shake it!” She shook her shoulders at the rhythm.“And to answer your question, I’m actually a singer, and a pretty good dancer, or so I'v been told” she chuckled.

Cagney raised an eyebrow at her dancing. This was a tiny bit slow for him but he could get into it very easily. She danced fairly well too. He wondered if part of it was due to her being blind. It was hard to be self conscious of how you danced when you couldn’t see anyone around you.

He had been really shy when he first started dancing as a young flower, even though the teacher had said he had a natural talent for it. He probably wouldn’t have continued if it hadn’t been for Hilda cheering him on at practice.

Hs gritted his teeth at the thought of Hilda. He had really wanted to take her dancing at some point. She didn’t dance too well as far as he knew but he definitely would have enjoyed it, even if they had to go slow.

He realized Isabella had asked him a question. “Oh! Thank you! I uh, don’t have one of those things. I actually don’t really have a house, heh. Just a field and a shed.”

He watched her dance. “A singer too, huh? You sing with a band or something?”

“Living in the open air, getting high… you’re not a junky, you’re a hippie!” Isabella chuckled. The vinyl kept playing more rhythmic jazz but the woman stopped dancing. “I used to be in a band…” she said with a nostalgic air, “But now I’m looking for a new one.” The bat walked towards the stairs.

Cagney bristled at the comment about getting high. “I didn’t intentionally drug myself with dandelions,” he grumbled, but the bat was already walking toward the stairs, leaving him alone in the living room.

He scratched his head. “A new band, huh?” He racked his brain thinking of anyone he knew looking for a singer.

“I’m going to freshen up a bit, make yourself at home! I’ve got some lemonade if you’re thirsty,” the woman said from upstairs. When she reached her room she took a deep breath. The fragrance of the carnation was intoxicating. In a good way. She changed quickly into a very similar outfit only slightly more clearer and got down the stairs with a flap of her wings. “Ok! I’m ready to go!” She posed spreading her wings showing her lovely figure.

Cagney was really glad she was blind. He stared at her in amazement before clearing his throat. How did a woman like this know how to dress like THAT?

“Right, about time, “ he managed.

–

Morning arrived and the sun hit right to her face. She frowned irritated by the extreme source if light and covered herself with a blanket.Her pain seemed to be more bearable, and she felt very comfortable surrounded by familiar pillows and blankets.

A few seconds later, she realized she was in her house, wearing her night gown backwards and her skin was sticky. She tried very hard to remember what happened last night.

“Caaaarl” Hilda started giggling, she remembered that bit. Did Cagney laughed? If she made him laugh it meant there was still hope for their friendship! But she couldn’t remember. Her head hurt, she just laid there on her bed for a while, playing the night in her head.

“Fucking Carl ruined everything. That grabby, piece of shit… good thing Cagney woke up… ” Her plan didn’t really worked as she expected, but then again she didn’t really had a plan. “Oh my god… did I puke in front of Cagney!?” She covered her face with her hands ashamed.

She checked on her stiky skin, what was that? Did Cagney took her home? … and changed her!? Hilda had been soo tired she barely remembered the carnation changing her clothes. 

And… took out her thorns? She immediately checked her chest, he took those too… what about her boobs? She had one in a very sensitive area… yeah that one was still there. Its gonna hurt like hell to take that one out. She felt better to see that the giant flower didn’t took advantage of her state.

Then why did she felt disappointed?

Hilda’s head hurted like hell.

'What have you done to us… ’ Sagittarius wispered inside Hilda’s head.

'Shhh, you’re too loud’ Gemini answered even more quietly and nit at all in unison.

“Uuugh shut up all of you!” Hilda moaned. “What am I gonna do now?… that was… pathetic… and he fucking changed me! He saw me pretty much naked!”

'And we weren’t conscious! ’ Gemini regretted.

'Just imagine him, applying the sticky goo very gently’ Gem said with a dreamy tone.

'And spreadding it tenderly through aaall our naked-’

“SHUT UP!” Hilda roughly interrupted Ini, feeling herself warm up to the idea of Cagney caressing her.

'How do you know it was Cagney?’ Taurus said after a while. Hilda’s eyes opened wide.

“Oh.My.God.” all the voices in her head spoke at once. She got out of the bet to take a shower. Suddenly the name Carl wasn’t so funny anymore.

“No! It must have been Cagney…I mean… I think… I remember that fucking idiot flying away at some point… ” It was kinda fuzzy in her mind.

Another constellation started to speak out in her mind. It wasn’t one that spoke often, preferring to hang out in the foreground. But every so often, when Hilda would find herself well, physically attracted to someone, it would start to whisper advice. Seductive advice.

“We should invite him back up here to talk.”

“Oh God… not you… ” she rested her head against the wall remaining under the water.

'We definitely should!“ Gemini regained their coordination with the excitement.

'To talk? Ha!’ Tauros interfered.  'If he wanted to talk he would have stayed.’

Hilda was confused. She really wanted to talk to him, or see him again.

'What are going to do tomorrow?’ Sagittarius asked worried.

Scorpio pushed again. "We should get a real outfit,” it finally pushed, “something that shows that this is serious.”. If Scorpio had their way, Hilda would be wearing all sorts of tight flashy outfits, but that wasn’t the sky witch’s style.

“Oh! We should get that cute tight red dress we saw the other day! That would send a clear message!’ Gemini was definitely on board with this idea.

Hilda rolled her eyes "it’s starting to get crowded in there… ” she checked on the thorn stuck very near her nipple and tried to pull it out.

'Look what he did to us! Remember what he said to us! I can’t believe you’re actually considering becoming friends again’ Taurus wasn’t very thrilled.

“He didn’t really mean it-ouch!” She pulled hard, but the damn thorn wouldn’t come out. “Besides, I overreacted too… I mean… I didn’t even listen to him when he tried to explain… and we were going to pull his eyes out for crying out loud! ”

'After he threatened us! After breaking our dome!’ Taurus was too stubborn and was starting to fill Hilda with anger. A cold jet of water calmed her down instantly and she leapt out of the shower with a very high pitch scream.

Scorpio waited for Hilda to stop screaming before choosing their words carefully. “Show him you’re serious, and you’ll have him on his knees begging for forgiveness.”

Oh! Hilda LOVED that thought. Cagney begging on her feet! That image made gave her goosebumps, or maybe was the cold water. She maliciously smiled and looked herself at the mirror.

Gemini giggled excited.

“Oh! That is a lovely vision alright” Sagittarius sigh. Taurus grumble something shyly, he didn’t wanted to admit that the idea Of having the giant weed on their feet pleased him too.

“How are we gonna do it? How are we gonna make him beg?!” The woman paused “How can I be sure he’s coming tomorrow?”.

“How about a note?” Sagittarius suggested.

“Oh! You can get him a new pot and put the note on it!” Gemini spoke. “That way it’s like a peace offer! You give him his present, you leave an enticing note that will make his roots quiver with excitement” their voice started to reach a high tone “and then we go buy a sexy outfit to knock him down!!!”’

Hilda looked herself at the mirror and lifted an eyebrow. Was she really that interested in Cagney to go through all that? She imagined him on his knees, with watery eyes, pulling at his petals in desperation, begging her to stay with him….

Scorpio was pleased with the exuberance of the constellations and now Hilda and fell quietly, waiting until it could encourage even more passionate plans.

'You better hurry up if you want to buy a new pot’ Saguttarius said worried.

'Can you just glue the old one?’ Taurus groaned.

“Yeah right, so he can keep it as an eternal reminder of the time we almost killed each other over nothing?” Hilda paused “ I don’t think so”. She hurried to her room, got dressed, took some headache pills with her breakfast and make her way to the second Isle levitating on her soft cloud. She headed to Dijimmi’s place, where she bought the first one.

In a few minutes Hilda reached Dijimmi’s pyramid in the second Isle and made her cloud disappear. Dijimmi was organizing his merchandise but stopped when he spotted  Hilda.

“Well good morning, Hilda! Did he like the pot?” He showed a big smile.

Hilda cringed “Yeeah… he… he did but uh… I kinda broke it,” she decided to make up a lie than having to explain the mess that night was.

“Seriously?! ” The genie yelled “That was a masterpiece! How-Why-wh… Arg! Did you bring the pieces? I’ll put it back together with a little touch,” he waved his fingers implying the use of his magic to fix it.

Hilda face palmed herself. “I didn’t thought of that… ” she could hear Taurus laugh in  the back of his head. She frowned “I threw it away…”.

Dijimmi frown “Well, that was a waste!” He crossed his arms.

“Yeah… ” Hilda felt horrible “I’m here to get a new one”.

“Not sure I want to sell you more.”

The woman rolled her eyes “oh! C'mon! It was an accident, plus, more business for you!”

Dijimmi hesitated but ended up selling her another big pot. This one had some interesting geometrical decorations carved in it. Hilda knew Cagney wasn’t a big fan of fancy stuff but the other pots seemed so normal, she really wanted this one to be special.

Dijimmi packed it up carefully and gave it to Hilda warning her to be careful and not to throw it away if it breaks.

“Don’t worry! I’ll take care of it like I take care of my stars!” Hilda turned into her zeppelin form, grabbed roughly the pot, and blasted away towards her home.

Dijimmi had the feeling he would see her again soon.

The zeppelin reached her home quickly and turned back into her human self. She didn’t had anymore wrapping paper so she just decorated the pot with a bow. She grabbed a piece of paper and a pen and stared at it for a while.

“… What do I write?” She asked herself.

Gemini started talking 'Love of my life, meet me tomrrow-’

'Oh! Come on! We are not dating yet… ’ Sagittarius said. 'We should go for something like… eh… dear friend.. eh..’

'He is NOT our friend…’ Tauros growled.

Hilda sighed and tried to concentrate.

Scorpio decided to speak up again. “Eager to continue what we started two nights ago. See you tomorrow. Don’t keep me waiting.”

Scorpio’s soft voice made Hilda shiver. This celestial entity had a way to say a lot with a few words. She liked that. Tauros thought she meant they were going to keep fighting and got as excited as the rest of them.

She finished writing the note with a malicious grin and stuck it on the pot. Now she had to be careful to bring it back to his field without that giant weed seeing her.

Hilda cast a cloud big enough to hide her and flew towards Cagney’s field with the pot safely between her arms.

She slowly descended to the carnation’s tree and realized he wasn't there. 'Perfect! He must be working in the field with the Root Pack or something,’ she thought to herself and descended to the ground. She careful left the pot near his spot to make sure he will see it as soon as he gets back. 'Ok, now to choose the perfect outfit!’ She got back to her cloud and levitated high in the sky.

——-

“So I kind of live on the outskirts of the aisle, so we’re going to have a little bit of walking. First place would be the Clip Joint. Have you heard of that place yet?” He asked as they walked outside.

Isabella stopped the music and followed Cagney, out closing the door behind her. “I’ve been there before, yes. I thought it was a dancing bar but I’ve been told its more like a fighting club?”. She walked next to the giant flower.

Cagney scratched his chin. “Oh, okay, that makes it easy then. The place is owned by a couple of amphibians, Ribby and Croaks.  As far as entertainment goes, yeah there might be some singing and dancing for a little bit, but once the drinks start flying, it pretty much becomes a fight club alright. ”

Cagney glanced in that direction as they crossed a bridge. “If you’ve already been, we don’t have to head down there unless you want to. Plenty of other, usually not intoxicated, residents to meet,” he muttered that last part under his breath.

Isabella chuckled “Very well, I guess I can meet them next time I go there to dance.” She kept following Cagney, twitching her ears at every little sound and trying to memorize the path they were taking. “Have you always lived here? ”

Cagney nodded, then realized why that wasn’t going to work, and cleared his throat. “Yeah, ever since I was a seedling. A lot of the folks you’re going to meet today grew up here, actually.”

“Lucky you, it must have been very nice growing up in here” Isabella said sincerely.

The carnation spotted the fence of the Root Pack. “Speaking of which, we’re about to meet some old geezers in a moment. They’re the Root Pack. They sell a lot of produce on this isle. Uh…. Just out of curiosity, are you a fruit bat or a vam-blood bat?” Cagney didn’t want to say vampire. It seemed to have some dark connotations.

She smiled at the flower’s question. “It depends on my mood…” she giggled, “My diet its mostly fruits and greens”. She paused “Say… what do you eat? Do you do that photosynthesis thing?” She asked very curious.

“Now when you say mostly…?” Mostly didn’t necessarily rule out other fluids so blood could still be on the table, but he decided against finishing the question. “Wait, what do I eat?” He repeated.

“Uh, huh. I guess I can do that photosynthesis stuff,” He realized, “But I got kind of used to eating, especially since Hild-my friends do eat. So I’m sorta a vegetarian. Eh, non sentient produce,” he added quickly.

“It kinda sounds like cannibalism coming from a flower,” The bat chuckled. “But then again, who am I to judge?” She said sweetly and instinctively licked her fangs feeling a bit thirsty for a warm glass of extremely 'red wine’. She should had have the cereal for breakfast.

Cagney gave her a sideways glance and gave a tiny shiver at the exposure of fangs. He wondered if she drank nectar. Hopefully from non sentient flowers. “Well, it ain’t. Although,” he admitted, spotting Moe and Weepy, “Speaking of vegetables, we’re going to meet a trio off them that have the intelligence of a squash.”

As they got closer to the field Cagney could see Weepy attending to some tomatoes worriedly while Moe was digging some trenches to guide some extra water away from the plants. He cleared his throat and called out, “Hey, Moe, Weepy!”

He realized they were walking to a fence and remembered Isabella was blind. “Hey, we’re coming up on a fence. They live in a field like me so get ready to stop in a few feet otherwise you’ll hit it. Which as amusing as that would be to me, will make Weepy start crying and it’s a pain in the ass to get him to stop.”

Isabella raised her eyebrow and wondered why would anyone cry to see her bump onto a fence. Maybe feel a bit sad for her, but cry?  Maybe this Weepy fellow had some sort of intense relationship with the fence.

“Thanks for the warning”. The woman rewarded Cagney’s attention with another of her extra charming smiles and spread her wings in front of her until she felt the fence and rested her arms on it. Weepy cleared a few tears that started to fall around his cheek and looked in their direction. “Oh! Hey Cagney!” He noticed he wasn’t alone and took a few steps back shyly.

Moe wiped the sweat of his forehead with his arm and looked at Cagney and his companion. “Hey there, Cagney. Good to see ya survived the storm last night. Say, who’s your friend?” He got closer to the fence. Cagney jutted a thumb at Isabella. “Yeah, wasn’t as bad as I thought.” Hilda hadn’t shot him with lightning so that improved the storm already. “And this is Isabella. She recently moved to the isle and I’m showing her around since she’s not familiar with the place. Plus, I threw her kid out of my garden the other day.” He realized he was lagging a bit and added. “Can I get some of that water actually? Walking ain’t that easy.”

Moe scratched his head in confusion wondering if he heard right. Isabella laughed and waved her hand at the new voice.

“Uh… y-yeah, take all the water you want.” He made a gesture inviting him to come inside the field “It nearly drowned the tomatoes.” The potato pointed toward the plants that Weepy was still standing nearby. The onion felt the eyes on him and waved with a nervous smile. “And, welcome to the neighborhood, lady. Hope ya kid’s ok?” He gave a sideways look to the carnation. “Oh, it’s fine,” Isabella said sweetly “It was just a little misunderstanding. Besides, my little Mina can be very tough,” She said proudly. “I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name?” And there was the sweet enticing tone in her voice again. Moe slightly blushed and smile back. “I-I’m Moe, Moe Tato.” He stretched a hand to shake Isabella’s, but she didn’t react to the gesture. Instead she kept smiling. “Nice to meet you Moe.” Cagney dunked his head in the water and shook vigorously. He spotted Moe standing there awkwardly with his hand still out. “Oh, shit, right, uh, she’s blind so if you want to shake hands, let her know, otherwise you’re going to keep standing there like a moron with your hand out.” The carnation glanced around. “Huh, I would have expected Psy to be galloping over here.” The carrot thought he was the most intelligent and fascinating creature in all of the Isles. He would never turn down seeing a new face…and maybe pulling a scam or two.

“Blind?” Moe looked at the bat’s milky eyes and waved his hand in front of her. “Uh… s-sorry lady. Didn’t realise…”.

Isabella was already used to this awkwardness and chuckled, it amused her to make people uncomfortable with her handicap. “It’s alright, dear.” She stretched her hand and shook his. “Em… he went to pick up some tools. He should be back soon if you would like to wait”. Weepy answered hesitatingly to the flower. Isabella’s ears turned to the other voice. “And to whom does that melodious voice belong to?” She asked sweetly, putting her charms at work. She rested her head on her hand, making her back to lean a little on the fence. Moe was very happy that the woman was blind so he could check her out without any risks of upsetting her.

Weepy blushed and hid behind Cagney.

Now that he wasn’t the sole focus of Isabella’s charms, Cagney was more than happy to sit back and watch the other vegetables squirm. He thought about giving Moe a dirty look as he saw the potato checking out the bat but realized that would kind of make him a hypocrite and lazily allowed Weepy to hang behind him. “That’s Weepy,” Cagney explained, “he’s a bit shy so he may not be shaking your hand, but he’s waving.”

Isabella waved back “Aw, isn’t that precious. Don’t worry, Weepy, I won’t bite… unless you give me a reason,” she smiled maliciously. “I-I’m gonna go find Psy!” he said, red as a tomato, and hopped away. Moe started to like this woman. Sadly, he thought if she had a child it meant she was already taken. “So… Isabella, you and the mister are settling in alright? Anything you need?”. Isabella  quivered slightly. “I’ve been on my own for a while now” she replied with a nostalgic tone “My … ” she hesitated, "husband … died long time ago. So I could use some strong hands to help me from time to time.“ She recovered her sweet tone towards the end of her sentence.

Cagney’s eyes widened. Shit. Well, guess that explained why dad wasn’t in any of Mina’s pictures. Hard to make an appearance when you were 6ft underground pushing up daisies. He watched her recover remarkably well too. He probably wouldn’t be able to keep it together if Hilda died, no matter how many years could have passed. Even thinking about it was hard. He really wanted her back in his life but steadied himself. No need to get all worked up now. He’d think of something he could do when he got back to his field.

"Oh… I’m sorry to hear that” said Moe, admiring the way she recovered. On the other hand, that meant she was available. “Well, if you need anything just ask! Not only we can sell you fresh produce but I’m a handyman myself,” he said flexing the weak muscles of his arms, forgetting she wasn’t capable of admiring them. “That is very nice of you, Moe! Thank you.” Isabella replied with a charming smile. “You have very charming friends, Cagney”.

“Ha! That’s the only charming thing about Cagney, ya know!” Strutting up to the group looking cockier than a rooster was Psycarrot, with Weepy following sheepishly behind. He slid in front of Isabella and smoothed his stem back. “The name’s Psycarrot, little lady. But you can call me Psy. I’m just going to show you a little vegetable welcome here,” he mentioned, taking her hand and planting a cavalier kiss to the fingers before releasing her hand back to her. “Was hoping this airhead wouldn’t show.” “Heh, Cagney, you know I’d never miss a chance to welcome newcomers to the isle! This here’s the best produce farm in all of Inkwell! Now I know that got you all excited but lemme tell it’s not just the veggies I’m good at. I’m fairly good at reading minds and I can just tell that you’re itching to know more about me and, uh well the others too, heheh.”

Isabella pretended to be shy by the confidence of the giant carrot “Oh my! What a gentleman” she said sweetly allowing him to kiss her hand. He wasn’t the first overconfident gentleman that approached her, but she hoped it would be the last. The smell of the vegetables was making her too hungry, so she tried to focus on the fragrance of the carnation. “And you read minds too?” She asked, curious. “What else am I thinking?” She said with a soft sensual tone. Moe was bothered by the presence of the carrot and his gentleman ways. He crossed his arms and waited for Psy’s answer. If he was lucky, his orange friend’s overconfidence might get him to say something offensive to the lady, resulting in a slap in his face.

Psycarrot’s third eyelid opened wide and he grinned. “You’re hoping that I am the last man you ever have to meet - No, no. Don’t deny it, I can see the hunger in your eyes.”

Cagney waved at the carrot. “Ya ever think you’re going to give the pyschic schtick a rest?” “Schtick? Ha! I have the powers of the mind…maybe it’s more of a telekenisis type of ability but I assure you my mental deductions are always spot on.” Psycarrot eyed him now. “I could most certainly reveal your own escapades last night.” Cagney paled slightly before remembering Psy was a charlatan. “You wish. Listen, Moe, how much produce do I gotta buy to make him buzz off?”

The woman lifted her ears surprised of how close he was. “Well now! I’m gonna have to be careful what crosses my mind when you’re around, darling.”

Moe was a bit disappointed for not seing the carrot get slapped. He chuckled at Cagney. “Hell! If only I kew!”. Weepy smiled and felt better since the bat’s attention was directed to someone else. But when he remembered the tomatoes that almost drowned, he started to tear up. “Oh, Cagney! do you think you can drink more water? The poor things are gonna start having rotten roots if we don’t drain soon enough.” He pointed at them begging the giant flower with his wet eyes about to burst.

Cagney might be a grump but he knew the importance of rotten roots and nodded toward Weepy. “I got ya. Listen, Isabella, I’m gonna go take care of that real quick. Let them know if you want anything. I’ll be back in a few minutes.” He walked back over to the water and plunged his hands into the dirt to take care of the moisture.

“Ok, em… is there anyway I can help?” The woman asked, hoping there would be something a blind person could do.

“Oh no! We got this, doll. No need to get your sweet hands dirty,” Moe said as he grabbed his tool and started working the ground. Isabella didn’t appreciate the comment but preferred to keep it to herself. Weepy accompanied Cagney and when they were far enough he gathered the courage to ask. “D-did you really hurt her child?”.

Cagney hummed quietly. “Hurt is a strong word. Probably the right word. I was pretty sleep deprived so I didn’t do that much. Definitely scared the shit out of her and her friend though so I doubt they’ll be sneaking into my field again anytime soon.”

“Oh my!” Weepy covered his mouth in surprise. “Not a good start…You know, if you want, I can give you some Valerian root to help you sleep”. He helped guiding the extra water away from the plants. “Do you know what got Hilda so riled up the other night? Usually she would warn us when a storm like that is coming.” – “So how did you all meet? You grew up here too?” Isabella tried to make some conversation until her guide came back.

Psycarrot beamed at the question. “How did we all meet? Why! That’s one of the most incredible stories you could ever hear! It all started with us growing up on this isle-!” The carrot began to drone on and on and on about magical spells and beautiful damsels and the importance of agriculture…

–

The Carnation eyed the other members of the Root Pack and Isabella. It look like they were all talking about something so it looked like it would be safe to at least mention something to the Onion. Weepy didn’t gossip. Or at least he gossiped less than everyone else. Mostly due to the fact that if it was something sad, he would start blubbering and crying before he could get halfway through it

“I… haven’t really talked to Hilda recently so. She and I had an argument couple nights ago so I’m a bit out of the loop.” The onion looked surprised at the carnation. “Oh no! Really? That’s-T-that’s…” he started to sob “that’s so sad! You’ve been friends since you were a little seedling! What happened? How can I help?”

–

Isabella listened patiently to the carrot’s never ending tale, smiling when ever was appropriate and acting worried or surprised when the tale required her too. She kept twitching her ears from time to time, hoping to hear Cagney approaching and continue with the neighborhood tour.

–

Cagney gritted his teeth. “Just dumb stuff. Nuthin to really do but wait and see if she kills me later today.” He wondered if she’d do it in front of Isabella or would she wait until there were no witnesses. “Shit, Isabella. I gotta keep showing her the isle. Later, Weepy.” Cagney withdrew his hands with a slight “oof”. He probably wasn’t going to need water anytime soon.

Weepy dried his tears, thanked Cagney for helping and got back to the plants.

He left the onion and headed back to the beautiful woman. “Hey! Psy, story time’s over. We gotta get going.”

Psycarrot held out his hands. “But I was just getting to the part where Moe had to disguise himself as a beautiful spud to help me get our lease back.” Cagney made a face. “I…didn’t need to hear that. Ready to go, Isabella?”

Isabella was relieved to hear the flower coming back “Oh! thank goodn–Oooh! We have to leave already?” She pretended to care about the carrot’s tale. “Oh well! I guess we will have to save it for next time.”

She hoped that next time never arrived. “Yeah, or not!” said Moe turning, red from both embarrassment and anger.

And with that, the two left the Root Pack. 

—-

Sorry for the delay! Had some techinical dificulties. Also, since I´ve been partying all weekend celebrating my Bachelorette´s party, I didn´t make any drawing for the chapter.

It´s a bit sad to have a chapter with no pictures in it, so if you feel like it, you can send us your drawings and I will added to the chapter : ) Thank you for your patience and for reading!

CHAPTER 01,  CHAPTER 02,  CHAPTER 03,  CHAPTER 04,  CHAPTER 05, CHAPTER 06,  CHAPTER 07,  CHAPTER 08,  CHAPTER 09,  CHAPTER 10; CHAPTER 11; CHAPTER 12 (You’re here)