Queen's Gambit Chapter 03

Previous Chapters
1
https://pastebin.com/TKjKcqVe
2
https://pastebin.com/dDw2ti92

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Love in Plastic

Chapter 03

Christmas Town

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Susie and Noelle spent a long time just sitting in that classroom playing card games. Susie played it cool, but it was fun to her. It felt almost like being in the dark world again, and playing with all those citizens they had met. Probably because even though they were other cards they were playing with, something like that was actually happening here. After the second party of Go Fish, Noelle couldn't help but notice Susie sneaking a glance at the cupboard from time to time.

She just couldn't help but think about what was up with Lancer and all the others and in a way, Noelle caught onto it. Once she gathered the cards to shuffle them at the end of the party, she brought it up. "Is...is something wrong? Is this boring you?"

That was what it took for Susie to snap out of the trance staring at the upper shelf with that incomplete deck. "Oh, what? No, no, it's just..." She got up and headed over to pick up the deck and bring it back to the table. "You said this deck is useless, right?"

Noelle was frozen on her chair, unsure of what she wanted. "Yes...it's incomplete. There's plenty of whole decks right behind it."

The dragon girl opened the 'Bicycle' brand box and spread out the deck in her hand. "That means nobody's going to play with it."

Still frozen in motion otherwise and with both eyebrows raised in confusion, the deer girl nodded. "Yes..."

Susie raised her head. "You know what? I'm stealing this deck then. It's mine now."

This made Noelle more awkward than it should have, and she tried to laugh it off. "All right. I - I suppose it isn't as if someone would miss it. Or notice."

With one hand, Susie pointed right at her. "Exactly." With the other, she continued to slide the cards along so she could give them all a quick glance. "So, bear with me." By now, Noelle was a bit less off-put and shuffled back closer to the table to pay her more attention. "So imagine if these playing card decks were kingdoms. With people. All the cards are people actually."

"Okay..."

"I can't really figure this one out. Imagine every card was a person, and the king..." She pulled out the king of spades and placed him on the table. "...the king had a son. A prince. Who would it be? The ace?"

She pointed an ace of spades at Noelle, who shook her head. From the looks of it, she was back in her comfort zone by now. " 'Der Bube'"

"What?

"It's the Jack. The German word used for 'Knaves' or 'Jacks' translates to 'boy'. Which can mean the King's 'boy'."

"Oh." She shuffled through the cards, kept the Jack in one hand and put the rest of the deck in the box. It depicted a young human man with blond hair, blue eyes and an elegant mustache, smooth skin and wearing some expensive looking clothes with intricate golden patterns on it. She could only grin when looking at it. So gracious, so clean, so well-kept. This didn't look like Lancer in the faintest.

"What's wrong? What's so funny?"

Susie laughed, and it proved contagious. "It's nothing, I was just thinking of someone."

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Wandering through the dark on a pale, sticky floor, Kris and Berdly finally saw something in the distance. A few small, faint lights. It was impossible to tell from here what they were. When they came closer, eventually, their path on this platform ended and made way for a seemingly transparent ground.

It felt like walking on solid, yet smooth glass, but the faint lights, maintained as it appeared by glowing crystals mounted on floating chandeliers, reflected in various glittering patterns beneath them, so there was more beneath the immediate floor under their feet, and it was cut in certain pieces to reflect light from above. The area was surrounded by very tall walls in three directions.

The one they came from was the only one not walled off. What was more, immediately beneath each chandelier was a table, along with a few chairs.

Berdly stayed towards the middle of the hall, while Kris preferred to wander along the walls and explore. There were corridors that led away from the hall they had gotten to, one leading into each side wall. And opposite from the direction they came, there was a double staircase that converged onto a ramp to walk onto the platform above.

He was a bit on edge, because twice while exploring the hall, he thought he saw a shadow somewhere around a corner, only for it to vanish before he could come closer. Then, in the middle of the hall, above one of the tables, Berdly spotted something. A little scrap of paper, dangling off of a string from above. It read 'sit here'. He called his classmate. "Hey! There's something here!"

Still careful, looking around all the corners and over his shoulder all the time, he very slowly followed the bird's suggestion and came closer to the table Berdly stood at. By the time he arrived, the note had disappeared. When he did though, he heard something and was alarmed enough to draw his sword. All around from above, bright lights turned on that revealed the white walls painted over with brightly coloured patterns in red and green, with traces of orange and brown here and there.

From all the corridors, rows of creatures came in. They were similar to the Roserus from before, plant creatures consisting of wound-together vines and stems with leaves and thorns, but this time, they had two legs and two arms, and faces on the buds and blooms they had for heads. They were dressed in extravagant dresses that resembled that of aristocracy in the western renaissance.

And other than the Roserus, they came in red roses for heads, pink roses for heads, tulips, lilies, and a lot of others in bright colours that he didn't recognize by name. They were dancing in sync while they moved inside in a line that never broke formation save for turning and forming a wide circle around the tables. All the while spreading confetti from little boxes they carried with them.

Garlands of pinewood twigs outfitted with bells and red cloth were dangling down from above, apparently along an intricate structure that more flower people from above were steering. As well as regular letter-shaped ones that simply read 'Merry Christmas'. Then, more came down the stairs. Never breaking their dance, but taking a wide step to the outside and dancing pirouettes in place, the dancers made way for the musicians to pass the circle and get inside it.

Three trumpeters, a saxophonist, a few more carrying the parts of an entire drum set and setting it up where the other musicians came to a halt, and one plant creature with a bass. And once further inside, they began playing their instruments to a loud and lively festive tune, together with a pianist who was accompanying their music from above. In fact looking at it now, the upper floor wasn't so much a floor as a set of platforms and catwalks that was merely connected to the staircase.

There even were windows so you could see some of the plant creatures steering the garlands and making adjustments to the entire complicated-looking getup occasionally wave at them.

And finally, one more plant creature came gracefully dancing down the stairs, donning a clean, black suit with a white shirt and a tie as deep red as his rose-shaped head. He had a mustache and another rose in his upper suit jacket. He greeted the two with his arms spread wide and an unbelievably happy smile. "Bienvenue, mes amis! Velcome to Christmas Town!" Both parties, visibly confused, stared at the approaching man.

"I would 'ave never thought that we would receive not one, but three guests in one day! Excusez-moi if our performance is too much of a surprise. Ve have waited for so long!" Gradually, Kris started considering it safe to put down his weapon and sit down. Very excitedly, the man shook one of the two visitors' hands with both his own.

The two of them though, exchanged some very confused looks, until Kris decided to speak up. He was thinking about outright asking them what all of this was, but considering the effort they made to put on a show for the two of them, he stopped himself at the last second. It would have been inconsiderate. "This is a very...impressive reception."

The suited rose gestured all around them with an open hand. "Mais oui! Everyone of our performers 'have been preparing for ze grand performance all zeir lives! For when Christmas is finally 'ere."

"But it isn't Christmas."

This didn't seem to bother him much, he waved that right off. "Christmas is not 'ere. But ve vant to be ready for when Christmas is finally coming." He looked around to ensure none of the other plants were close enough to hear, and then leaned a little closer to speak with a lowered voice. "Zat and ve're desperate, we welcome all guests. Just let us 'ave this."

"Desperate? Christmas is only in a few months."

"By now zis town was built by ze lightners a year ago. To perform when Christmas arrives. Since then, ve 'ave been waiting for generations for Christmas to come, but in all zis time, Christmas never came. Is strange, hein?"

"You've been waiting for Christmas for a whole year?"

"C'est vrai. Ve are happy for every visitor to practise our performance with. And quelle surprise, before you, ve 'ad another visitor!" He turned around to look through one of the glass windows onto the mechanic upper part of the hall. "Is safe to come downstairs now!" And as announced, someone did come down.

A man that must have been over eight foot tall, with proportionally very tall legs, a toned physique you could vaguely estimate even though the costume that was loose here and there, and a very masculine, but not hostile-looking human face. It was easy to see as much through the deep blue skin tone and the red hearts painted over his eyes.

He was dressed in a jester's outfit, coloured in royal blue with a few black square-shaped panels, and bright yellow collar around his neck that extended into drapes that hung off his shoulders, and with oversized boots even for his feet. Overall the outfit including the fool's cap came in a colour scheme that struck the human as strongly resembling that of another jester he recently met. He even had Jevil's black and blue cape hanging off his shoulders right below the collar.

"My smooth and feathered friends, I give you: Jandsome!"

The man bowed to the two of them. "Thank you, thank you!" When he came closer, he put on a wide grin and began raising his legs very far, stepping on one of the table, and circling the two and their euphoric guest host by stepping from table to table. "I am Jandsome, traveling jester. I move about from place to place and bring mischief and entertainment wherever I go. My, my, you two do look so very puzzled." He was speaking with a deliberately heightened pitch, so as to fit his role.

He began circling a little closer around their table, by walking on top of the chairs adjacent to their table rather than the tables themselves. "And so young, too. Are you lost? Are you looking for your mommies?"

Now, Berdly raised a finger and spoke for the first time since the two arrived here. "We're a little too old for that."

At this point, he jumped off the chairs and stood right next to them, while their guest host excused himself and left to stand further in the corner, waiting in case they needed anything. "But far from it. You are lost and look like you want to go home. How is that any different?" The two exchanged glances, but neither of them had much of an answer. "You see? But if you don't, you can prove me wrong. Here, take this."

Jandsome fumbled around in his costume and pulled out a little metal contraption. It was a little box, small enough to fit into one hand and had nothing on it except a red button. "This will take you right home. As soon as you press the button. Although, if you are not a pair of lost children looking for their mommies, you will find your way back home without pressing it. That way you will..."

"Hey!" Jandsome had just handed it over to the very hesitant looking bird, and the human was already ripping it out of Berdly's hand and holding Berdly with his other hand so that both of them would be teleported. He was not going to let an opportunity to get home like this slip just to for some stupid dare. He immediately pressed the button, only to hear a loud cracking noise and shake and let go from the painfully hot device. He stepped back and let it fall on the floor.

By the time he did, smoke was already coming out of it. The jester immediately burst out into an obnoxious, cackling laughter and Berdly couldn't help but chuckle as well. He winked at the jester. "Okay, that was pretty funny."

"He pressed it! Did you see the look on his face? He couldn't wait to press it for a second. So much for not being children. You're as much of a little mommasboy as I thought, aren'tcha?"

An evil grin crept up the bird's beak and he sat up on one of the tables to better level with the jester, who in turn stepped down onto the glittering floor. "Boy do you even know the start of it. Every day, his mom leads him to school by the hand and..." Kris for one, had heard the start of it and couldn't wait for it to get to the ending. So without a word, he left Berdly behind to keep gossiping with his new friend, while he looked around.

The dancers had since slowed down and broken the ring around the hall in favour of forming couples of male and female-dressed flowers and roses to perform slow ballroom dances instead.

"Hey! M'attends!" While he was about to leave through one of the corridors, the rose man in the suit ran after him. "Where are you going?"

"Nowhere really. I'm just looking around. I can do that, right?"

"Mais bien sur! Be our guest and explore at your hearts content. If you want anything, ve have a whole menu of vegan delicacies to serve guests. Zey are magnifique, I promise."

Vegan, so no milk, so if there even was any chocolate, it wouldn't be worth eating. "Yes. I think I can pass."

The area around the corner led through a door into an empty wardrobe. And from there, there was a door to some kind of makeup room. That one contained another light. He touched it and felt whatever it was that it really did, happen. The makeup room was a bit strange though, in that instead of chairs and sinks, it only had bath tubs filled with dirt. If he hadn't taken Berdly's new friend as a cue to go exploring, he wouldn't have found the light.

Perhaps there really was a usefulness to looking around and talking to everyone he came across. At least doing more talking than he was used to do. Maybe taking a page or two from that book wasn't such a bad idea.

Back in the main hall, he approached the first couple of dancers dancing in the corner and interrupted their dance. "Hello."

The rose in a suit lifted up the lily in a dress, so that she could stand on her own legs instead of hanging in his arms. "Well hello to you too, visitor, did we do well?"

Kris nodded. "Yes. Could I ask you a question?"

The plants gave each other a perplexed look. "Why of course."

"Is there a 'dark fountain' or a 'fountain of darkness' anywhere in the area that you could think of?"

The plants exchanged another glance and answered with newfound confidence. "At the outer peak of Canyon City. Right in the courtyard beyond the mayor's office. You can see it from all over the city, isn't that where you come from?"

"Nope." He went a bit closer to try and whisper to them. "I think we're what you call 'lightners'."

Both plant creatures gasped and covered their mouths. For a moment, he was considering whether this was a mistake and whether he should have drawn his sword right now. Depending on their reaction, he might have. But they quickly realized that he had been whispering for a reason and did so themselves. They were almost glowing from the sheer anticipation. "Does that mean Christmas is finally going to come soon?"

He shrugged. "I'm not sure either. But the sooner we get home, the sooner it might."

This was enough for the two to look each other in the eyes, hold hands and jump in place out of joy. Christmas really seemed to be all these plants cared about. But more importantly, now he had a lead on where to go. Canyon City.

Around the other corner, he only found a dead end. And within the corner within the corner, he found a strange black object. It was a triangle, as if someone had taken a cube and cut it in half. Except that on one of the flat sides, it was carved in a shape he recognized from building block toys, to help it join up and attach to whatever you were building with it. It was too light to be made of concrete or some metal as well.

He put it in his inventory, a small brown bag, the inside of which was always as big as it had to be to hold everything he put in it irrespective of its size. Back in the main hall, he approached and greeted a different couple to pick up where he left off with the other one. "Hello. Would you happen to know how to best get to Canyon City?"

The rose, with his arm wound around the other rose, pointed straight upwards. "Sure. Just get to the airport. I think we have a plane there. It's how people move back and forth."

"Really? It's that easy?"

"Sure. Haven't had anyone come here recently until Jandsome over there arrived though. Ever since those two nervous brawlers appeared, things have gotten a bit awkward up there."

"Awkward?"

Both plants nodded. "Yes. They're always on edge, but they never leave. It's almost as if they were waiting for someone."

"Interesting."

With everything he could be bothered to do done, he went back to Berdly and his new friend. Jandsome was sitting on one of the tables rolled together and slapping the table while laughing with an exaggerated snicker. "...and then, he wouldn't balance on the rope like the rest unless Mrs. Alphys held his hand all the way through."

They were still recounting old school stories. "Berdly, I was ten years old at the time." He had no problem keeping calm in situations like this, Berdly would regularly bring up stories like this at school as well. Only a lot less frequently than on the spree he was on now. He did feel like raining on his parade to try to get him to stop though.

"It's still funny!"

"Berdly, I know where to go now. We need to get going. We still have one physics problem left, remember?" At last, the two calmed down a bit. Jandsome jumped off the chair and adjusted his fool's cap. It had slipped a bit, and when Kris spotted that it did, he spotted an odd coloration where it had slipped off that was promptly covered up by the jester pulling it over the uncovered spot. "Also, don't forget, we still haven't found Scott. This is all stuff that still isn't done when we're back."

To his relief, the bird sighed, gave in and followed him up the stairs. There had to be a way to this airport somewhere along this trail. "Wait!" Now with even more of a pitch, the jester skipped after them and calmed down when he saw them stop. "I will be joining you. You two seem much too interesting for me to miss whatever mayhem you may be causing with that sword you drew before. Besides. I have nothing new to show those fine people here."

He leaped down the few stairs they had already climbed and glided along the floor, a bit into the middle of the hall. He then spun in place, bowing in all directions. "Thank you, ladies and gentlemen for those entertaining hours. I enjoyed most surprising my two new friends, which I will be accompanying on their way further."

Even if only for a short while, the pairs of dancers stopped to wave the three of them goodbye, but by the time the three of them were further ascending the stairs, they already resumed their performance without needing an audience. Even when they were long past the upper platform and far away enough for the music to gradually turn inaudible for them, down in the distance, the band continued to play, the dancers continued to dance.

It felt like the plant creatures just wanted to do what they were there to do, whether it was to play music, or dance, it wasn't so much about them. Then again, they didn't do all this, until Kris and Berdly were in position to be surprised by them. It reminded him of something Ralsei had said on their travels through the card kingdom, about darkners wanting to fulfill their purpose for lightners. Could these roses and flowers have 'felt' that they were lightners?

On the upper platforms, there was another staircase on the other side of the hall. On the way, they asked a few more roses for the way to the airport and got directions. The next staircase led out of this smaller area within this abyss, and onto a very, very long stairway all the way up. And so the three of them ascended from the abyss. Away from the town built for Christmas, to which Christmas never came.

With little else to do but to keep making fun of Kris with Berdly, the oversized jester's giggling and nattering never stopped. While they went further and further up the seemingly endless path, Kris occasionally spotted one of those sticky platforms from before. From the distance, you could see how they they were curved, they sort of 'hung' there like rope bridges.

Eventually, the stairs led to an opening in a giant and proportionally very tall set of metal platforms, that ended in smoothly rounded arcs above and below it. The platforms they went onto looked like they were meant to drive on, but there were no vehicles. There were however, slopes that connected the platforms and allowed them to move up and down between them. Even the platforms above and below them were completely empty.

No people, no vehicles, and for an airport, it was terribly devoid of planes as well. When they wandered from pathway to pathway, the human started noticing the other two giggling behind him. When he stopped and turned around, they stopped as well. Both of them were very tense and trying very hard to keep their mouths shut. They were suppressing laughter. He said nothing, he just raised an eyebrow when looking at them.

Then they burst out in laughter so much, Berdly had to take a step back. With no shame, they pointed right at him and he didn't see what they were on about. His first instinct was to feel if there was something on his head, but there wasn't. He even turned around, nothing. He began feeling up all of his armor. Then, he finally found something.

There was something stuck on his back. He ripped it off and found it to be a little plastic disc that had a pink balloon, shaped like a giraffe attached to it. It was strangely light for what it was, he didn't feel it at all. "Very funny."

"It is! You're just not self-aware at all, are you?" Once he had thrown the balloon away, he touched up all of his back to find several more plastic discs with animal balloons. He looked back at Berdly, who was just keeping his finger pointed at him and kept laughing with this particularly angering smile. But he figured there was no point in doing anything but moving on.

There was something strangely unsettling about the weird, half-kneeling way Jandsome walked, just to level with the two of them a little. There generally was something unfitting about the tall, toned stature and the striking facial features being covered in what must have been makeup. He looked too human for it not to be.

Several stores further up, they finally spotted the plane Kris was looking for. It was a bit larger than your normal passenger's plane, but judging by the entrances and exits and its overall shape, it was one nonetheless. On their way to it, two figures leaned against metal bars and began to push themselves up and come their way when they spotted them.

One was a crocodile, with two 'belts' of golden metal spikes wrapped over his shoulders as if they were suspenders and like his partner, he was wearing a beige trilby and had a matching but too tight suit jacket forcibly wrapped and pulled over himself, so that the spikes had torn through the jacket and its tatters hung there a mere shadow of what they were supposed to be. At least his trousers weren't ripped the same way.

His partner was a shark, gills, overly wide mouth and everything. He was dressed in the same way as the crocodile, except that his hat hung off of the spiky, stuck-up strands of his purple mohawk hairstyle.

When they came closer, the crocodile clapped his hands. "There ye are!" He had a deep, grunty voice. It made sense, seeing as both him and the shark were almost as tall as Jandsome. "Light blue skin, dark blue hair, purple cape. Looks like we got our guy. At least one of 'em."

Both groups stopped with a few metres between them. Kris didn't know what feeling they gave him, but it wasn't good. "Were you expecting me?"

The crocodile nodded and gave him a subtle wink. "Can say that again. Ya wanna seal the fountain, right?"

"Yes?"

"Then you're in luck. Ya got friends in high places. We got ya a ride. Come along." He gave them a nod in the plane's direction, and both strangers simultaneously turned around and went right its way. No-one said a word the entire way there. And the first thing Kris noticed upon entering the plane from the set-up staircase, was that it was a lot more roomy inside than expected. The entire back area was open, but also empty.

Save for the few rows in the very front, all seats were removed, there was no machinery in the back, no separate storage area, nothing. It was for the most part hollow inside. "Here, take a seat. Big guy can sit in the back. We take it from here."

They were glad to be able to relax a bit, even though Kris couldn't help but be paranoid around those two. 'Brawlers' as one of the rose people in Christmas Town had called them. They took the seats next to a window on the left, the furthest in the back, so that Jandsome could lean over the seats from behind. They could hear the engines firing up. This really was an actual plane with engines. Though even with the engine running, it was going to take a while until they were ready to take off.

The plane already stood pretty close to the outer edge of the platform, so they were going to have to turn another round on the platform before they had enough room to gather enough momentum to lift off properly. As of yet, you couldn't see anything through the windows but the platforms and the dark. Kris opened up his inventory to look at the plastic piece he had found further down.

Nothing else here followed a pattern it fit into, not the plants, not the walls here, it must have come from somewhere else. Before he could figure what to do next though, he was being tipped on his shoulder. "Hey!" It was Berdly and judging by the look on his face, he was still miffed about Kris not further involving him with what was going on here. "This the point for more 'answers' now?"

What was he supposed to tell him? He had only been to the dark world once, he didn't know what rules applied or how it all worked. He tried just shrugging it off. "Oh come on. Give me something. What did you see other than that stuff you talked about before?"

"Well after we met Ralsei, we got to a big field with purple grass."

Immediately, the bird's eyes narrowed again. "Mmmhm...purple grass..."

"And a field with black and red tiles. And all along our way, we were attacked by jewel people, and women with hearts for faces who like flirting, and Susie made friends with a little blue guy." He tried thinking of more. "Then we went through a red blocky forest, and met a white 'thing' with three heads, a bit like the roserus from before."

"What's a ro - ah I get it."

"She was called clover. And she had three 'leaves' on all three faces." The bird's dismissive expression only grew stronger as he went on. "And in the end, we were captured, got to the top of card castle and beat Lancer's dad the King."

"Susie mentioned that name, right? What does Lancer look like?"

"The little blue guy."

"He wouldn't happen to have something like this somewhere would he?" He began drawing something in the air, with the vague shape of a a stem at the bottom and an upside-down heart attached to it."

"Yes."

"That's a Spade. Those are playing cards, Kris. The 'clover' is a club. Like in the abandoned classroom. It didn't happen. You and Susie just 'wiggled things' in the closet, both got hit on the head and wound up in there somehow." This 'wiggling things' thing was going to haunt him for years, wasn't it?

He could see where Berdly was coming from. He had recognized the pattern himself. But having fallen into the Dark World again made it hard for him to believe it didn't exist. He stared at Berdly for a while thinking about what to answer, but then just turned up to Jandsome, who was grinning down at them from above the leans of their seats. "What do you think? Is the Dark World real?"

The jester's hard-to-read grin grew all the wider. The hearts on his eyes were flawless, as if they weren't painted on, or painted very thoroughly. "Oh don't involve little old me. I find this much too amusing to interrupt."

Thanks for nothing, discount Jevil. But that left open a question to him. "Then how did Susie know about Ralsei?"

"Ralsei?"

"Yeah, I described him and she knew his name."

"Who is Ralsei now?"

Kris sighed. They were going to argue in circles if he tried recounting everything. "It doesn't matter. You wouldn't believe me anyway."

"Don't just try to shut down the conversation like that!" The angry bird grabbed him by the shoulder and shook him. "Hey! I'm talking to you!"

He had an idea. He opened his inventory. "You recognized the playing cards. What about this?" He pulled out the black cornerpiece he found in Christmas Town.

Upon taking it in his hands and feeling the inside opening in the fitting shape to attach it as part of some building block toy vehicle or building, his face began to grow tense. He had a strange look on his face that Kris failed to read. "N-no. Where'd you find that?"

"On the floor, but it was out of place, so it seemed important."

Berdly handed it back, but the moment Kris had it dangling above his bag, Berdly made sure to push it back where he had taken it from. "Don't just pick up other people's stuff."

"I was trying to say is, with Susie, we had all this stuff in the class room. What about you and now? Does anything we've seen strike you as familiar?"

The bird raised an eyebrow. "Like what?"

"I don't know, the roses? The music? Anything? What exactly is in your closet anyway?"

"Personal space, Kris. I lock it for a reason. You need to figure out respecting other people's personal space." This sounded more like a cop-out than anything to Kris. Now he really wanted to know what was in that closet. At least now that the constant threat of further inquiring about the closet hung over both of their heads, Kris at last had some rest from those incessant demands to hear absolutely everything he recalled from the day before.

In the time that Kris and Berdly spent talking, the plane had circled around the platform to get into a good position. At last, they were going to leave this pitch-black hole. Then again, it was the 'Dark' world, so it was probably going to be dark wherever they went. "And so it begins!" The jester jumped in place and almost stopped putting this weird squeak into his voice. "If the Dark World is this foreign to you, feast your eyes upon what comes next!"

Through the loudspeaker, a calm voice that was gladly neither of the two shady characters that led them there, announced that they were about to lift off and that passengers should fasten their seat belts.

And with the plane in a good position to do so, it finally accelerated and rolled off the platform at full speed. At last, they got to see the splintery cliffs pass by and see what was on the other side. The dark realm outside of the closet was - as expected, very dark. Through the tiny window, they gazed down the coastal area of what must have been a black sea. It wasn't just that it was dark, the water itself was pitch black and only visible through the contours and silhouettes of its waves.

In the distance, they could see very, very tall cliffs with a faint light shining onto their peak at the top. Bright enough to just spot it, but too faint to actually come from there. When it took a gradual turn to the right, Jandsome pointed out of the window and onto an unimaginably wide set of red-ish cliffs and ravines only just peeking out of the sea. Two rows of them at that. And there it was, at an upper part of the canyon, on the opposite side from where they were, the dark fountain, with its black blurb streaming right up into the sky. "This is it! Canyon City! The city of dreams! Where no day is like another and yet you will find the same places and the same people every day.

The tales of this place were carried far and wide, beyond this dark realm and to others."

"Others?" What the very tall man implied didn't quite fit with Kris' understanding of how the dark world worked. "Are there other dark realms than this one?"

The jester nodded. "Of course, of course. Many. I am not from this one either."

He wasn't sure whether he was misunderstanding him. It startled him enough to make him stutter. "And-and they're active? Now?"

"Of course, why not?" It made no sense to him. He wasn't sure when exactly the pertinent part was told to him, but he could have sworn the understanding he got from Ralsei's explanation made this impossible. More dark realms than two and even more, that wasn't possible, was it?

As if that hadn't been bad enough, he also had a bad feeling about how those two 'hosts' of theirs were moving to the back to open some compartment in a wall, way back. Not to mention that from what the three of them could see through the window, they weren't flying towards the city or making any efforts towards turning around to do so. In fact, Jandsome was very apt in commenting on this. "...and all the stories you hear from there are - aaand we just passed the last airfield and are flying away from it. What is going on?"

The plane was making a turn, but not to the left to circle the airfield, but slightly to the right. Further into the ocean and they were slightly gaining altitude, not losing it.

Then, after rummaging through some side compartment, the brawlers went back to the front and passed the three of them with big backpacks in their hands. Kris only shot Berdly a quick glance, when suddenly, they could feel the pull from the plane slightly changing course once again. "W-we don't have to..." A nervous voice from the cockpit shouted, and two monsters were dragged out of it by force and handed two more backpacks.

Which upon closer inspection, weren't backpacks. They were parachutes.

"Wanna get shot and thrown outta the plane? Get on with it!" The crocodile pushed the two timid dogs further to the left-hand door they opened, leaving the interior of the plane at the mercy of the pressing outside winds. And the moment the trembling pilots had wound their arms through the holdings and not even fastened them yet, the brawlers kicked them out.

At once, Kris undid his safety belt, got up and tried to make out the situation in the front. The two Brawlers had their pistols drawn and with their parachutes were already fastened to their backs and ready for use. "Sorry, fellas!", the shark shouted against the wind. "Ain't personal, Don Gatore sends his regards!" They paid little attention to him and jumped right after the two pilots before he could get to them. Without even regarding the hats they lost to the heavy winds on their way out.

"What are you - hey!" Before the just as agitated bird could rush past him and get anywhere near the brawlers, they were already outside and opening up their chutes by the time the two students made it to the open door. Seeing no point in further risking their lives by keeping it open, Kris ran towards the door hanging on the outside, tried grabbing hold of it and almost lost hold of the floor. He would have, if their tall new friend hadn't come to help and pulled it shut with a surprising routine.

"We're dead!", he heard Berdly shout. He was in panic, and when Kris and Jandsome followed him to the cockpit, they realized that he wasn't exaggerating. With the pilots gone and a belt strapped to hold the steering component and something below together, the passenger flight's nose was slowly pointing further and further down.

To make it worse, the plane was tilting to its right side as well. They were all latching onto door frames and grips to not lose balance and fall over. Then, Jandsome forced his way past Berdly, ripped Kris' sword out of his hand and struggled his way to the pilots' seats. "Let me through! It's a model I recognize! I might know how to fly this thing!"

As quickly as he could given the worsening turbulence, he bent over the seat, cut through the belt and began flipping a few switches and grabbing hold of the yoke. They immediately felt the pressure pull the two of them down when the plane began adjusting its course back to a more even one. "Yes! It's exactly the model I...I can fly it!" They were rocked to the side a bit, when the plane rapidly adjusted its tilt back to being evened out.

After that, he made a whole range of other adjustments on some specific parts of the enormous and confusingly complicated panel, which seemed to even out the flight even more from how it felt. They rigged it to crash but I think I got it under..." The newfound relief didn't last for more than a second though. "Uh oh..."

Now that Kris and Berdly could stand again, they followed the jester into the cockpit to watch what he was doing from up close. "What? What's going on?"

"Well the good news is, this one runs on batteries, so most of the systems didn't give in despite the bad news."

"And the bad news?"

"This!" The jester pointed at one display with its pointer as far to the left as it could be, and then put his hand back onto the yoke, which he never let go unless he had to. "They packed barely enough fuel to pass by the city without landing on it. We're too far out by now, we're going too fast and too low to turn it around and not crash. Tilting it as much as I'd have to without fuel is too dangerous! I can't turn us back to the city!"

So they were left to gliding in the same direction, further and further into the sea. At least as far as it was possible with a model as heavy as this. From the looks of it though, it seemed to suffice for a little while. As long as they maintained a stable forward course, they had a little while to come up with something. "Better get ready for the worst!" When the jester hit another button, compartments above all seats opened up and life jackets dropped down and hung right where the passengers would normally sit. Whenever he didn't have to follow up with something Berdly said, Kris took up the opportunity to grab those life vests and try preparing them to jump off the plane should it hit the water.

He wasn't given much time for that anyhow.

"Over there!" Berdly stretched out his finger to a tiny speck that Kris and Jandsome couldn't see until quite a while later. Those avian eyes must have been handy in seeing things in the distance. Then again what did he need his glasses for? The speck he was pointing at, wound up being land. An island. Not a continent, but it was better than landing in the water. It didn't have any mountains either, it was mostly flat. Good thing it wasn't raining, or else seeing it would have been impossible. "You think you can land on that?"

"I think so..." Jandsome had the plane fly a slight curve, possibly lose some velocity to gain more room for losing altitude until it was low enough for him to have a go at landing it. He reached for something specific the two of them wouldn't have found, and announced that the wheels were now out again. They did get a little too fast for comfort, but by slightly extending the curve, their jester-turned-pilot somehow managed to even it out so that slowly, but surely, they reached the ground.

The entire place rocked under the bumps of Jandsome's desperate attempt at having it roll along the surface enough to lose its momentum. Stumbling over a particularly uneven part rocked the entire plane enough for them to worry about it flipping onto its side and for Berdly to even get launched up and fall over, but from there, they could eventually navigate along a rocky, but mostly even landscape between a beach and green fields.

When finally, it slowly came to a halt, Kris was overcome with relief so much he couldn't resist walking back to the front row seats, sit down on one of them in spite of a big yellow vest hanging in front of his face, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. At least, this crisis had been averted, albeit no thanks to his help.

Not long after him, the two others came back, just as relieved from the sounds of it. "Phew, that was a close one...so...wait..." Berdly couldn't keep himself from asking, now that the immediate danger was averted. "Why do you know how to fly a plane? And a passenger flight no less?" Kris couldn't agree more. Jandsome had no problem operating this panel, with which he and Berdly wouldn't have known where to start. What kind of medieval jester doubled as at least a semi-profiessional pilot?

Jandsome, interrupted in his thoughts, was startled a bit by that question. "Ah, yes. Uhm. Night classes."

"There's night classes for piloting Boeings?"

"Yes. Of course."

"..okay. If you say so. Wouldn't be the weirdest thing I've seen today." When Kris opened his eyes, the other two were already stepping down the extended stairs of the door, out onto the field. The ground was very scratchy if you dragged your shoes along it, but it didn't quite feel like sand or gravel, more like fabric being torn. The insurmountable dark waves surrounded them as far as the eye could see.

Only far, far in the distance, so far away it was barely visible, he could see a faint light shine down a distant set of cliffs similar to the one he had seen on the way here. In fact, upon wandering for a bit through the gloomy landscape that surrounded them, he realized that the 'beach' to their right didn't have any sand on it at all.

Even when removing a glove and grasping a bit of it with his hand, it felt more like rope, or smooth strands of fur woven together, and merely having a more bright texture to it than the 'grass' the other two were on. Not to mention it was so dark, you could barely see the difference unless you went really close.

For the most part, you could only tell the 'texture' of any place from the coloring of their silhouettes against the light that came - yet again - from nowhere as far as he could discern. "Still. Could you explain to me why that choice? What made you go from making jokes to 'I might try my luck piloting passenger flights'? Seems like a pretty big change."

"It was in case I needed to switch careers?" Jandsome didn't sound quite so convinced of his own answer either.

It wasn't as silent as in the pitch black cliffs they were in before, but there wasn't much to hear either. Only the rushing of the waves washing onto the shore and the steps of the other two. They were alone here. Alone in the middle of nowhere. To make it worse, there were a few hills here and there, but no mountains, no caves, no trees, if they found no way out of here, they were pretty much lost.

Berdly's grin widened. "What? There not enough medieval courts to hang around at?"

At last, some annoyed grumbling revealed that the jester was beginning to lose patience with the bird as well. "Yes. I assume you could say so."

With little direction, mostly in wait to see if they found something or came up with a way forward, the three, wandered along a landscape that only just peeked out of the endless expanses of a pitch-black ocean. Kris followed the other two, but every few metres, he checked the ground again. These interruptions took up so much time, the other two had to slow down for him to keep up. Eventually, the bird turned around to tip on his shoulder. "Hey! What are you doing anyway?"

He raised his head, but as he often did, didn't look Berdly in the eyes. "It's the carpet. There was a carpet in the middle of your room, right?"

Berdly didn't think of it much, except that Kris was acting strange - again. He raised one eyebrow at the human's peculiar antics. "Yeah, why?"

"Then the pattern is holding up. It's like in the abandoned classroom." He looked up at the void that surrounded the air above the sea. You could barely see through it at all, and you couldn't see the places they were at previously. "Hey." He ignored the bird and went over to slightly pull on the absent-minded jester's silky costume. "Could you tell me, where roughly everything was? The cliffs, the city?"

Although he was standing straight before, Jandsome quickly crouched down to level with the younger human and slipped back into his more hunched-together pose. "Why of course. The cliffs were that way." With the other arm, he pointed slightly to the right of that. "And that would be where the city is."

"Hm..." Kris stood next to him, pointed one arm between the two directions Jandsome was pointing in and pointing the other at first in the exact opposite one, then a little further to the right of it. Straight towards the distant cliffs, the only ones visible from here, as well as the only light source visible from here, however faint it was. "...a little less than a hundred and eighty degrees."

"What in blazes are you on about?" Considering they had no idea where they were or where to go, Berdly was sure easy to upset if you didn't pay attention to his implicit plan of 'just moving forward'. "I'm talking to you, look at me!" He grabbed Kris by the shoulder and made him turn his way. "And get the hair out of the way, for crying out loud."

Kris frowned, but he did as he was told. This time. Then he pointed at Berdly. "We're in your room."

"What?"

He ripped himself free of the feathered hand that held him in place and headed a few steps towards where the coast used to lie until they had marched quite a bit further inland and pointed at the cliffs in the distance. "It's like in the abandoned classroom. Everything is here. That over there." He pointed at the faint light in the distance and then looked back at the two. "It's the table lamp. That whole thing over there..."

He drew an arch in the air with his hand, covering from his point of view, the entire set of cliffs they could barely see if it weren't for the light. "... that's the table. And all this..." He hopped up and down where he stood. "...you know why it feels like strings and cloth? because it is. It's the carpet."

And then he went back to Jandsome to point in the directions the jester had frozen in place pointing at. "And then the cliffs would be the closet, that's why they're so much darker than the ocean. It's around the corner from the table lamp, the light doesn't get there."

"And the city?"

"You had these big red boxes, right? And what colour would you say a canyon has, like the one we passed?"

He did startle the disbelieving bird for a little at least. "...red..." But mere moments after that, he shook his head at what Kris was implying. "Even then, that's all nonsense!"

"You mean nonsense the same way as being trapped in a 'dark world', with suits of armour, swords, guns, different colours, us having these bright colours when there's no light, giant rose attack dogs, dancing flower people, court jesters who can fly airplanes..."

"Yes, yes, yes I get the point, geez. Where are you going with this anyway?"

"Any darkners we meet are going to be objects from your room. And the city is going to be those boxes. What is in those boxes?" They proceeded to walk further towards where the city presumably was. Berdly stayed silent for quite some time while doing so. "The fountain is in there, we're going to see it in some way anyway."

The bird mumbled some probably not very nice things, but he did give in eventually. "Old toys. They're toy boxes from when I was younger." The human's eyes widened. Toy boxes? Those things were trunks. How many toys did he have? What kinds of toys did he have? Actually, now Berdly's reaction to seeing the plastic corner piece Kris now fumbled out of his bag again made more sense. And upon seeing it, the annoyed bird nodded.

"Yes, building blocks. I used to play a lot with building blocks. You happy now?" Well, at least that was something for when Berdly would go back to asking him about all things Dark World. Speaking of which. "Can you explain the part with the fountain?"

"When me and Susie were in the Dark World, we escaped by sealing the dark fountain. Ralsei explained it with this prophecy about a human, a monster and a prince from the dark. If the same prophecy works here like last time, all we need is a prince."

"...a prince?"

"Like Lancer or Ralsei."

Berdly sighed. "Again with those two. What if we don't meet them?"

"We'll just have to find a different prince. Or maybe it doesn't even work that way. Ralsei wasn't there when me and Susie sealed it. Maybe we don't need a prince and all it takes is a monster and a human.."

"I would have liked those answers to be a bit more definitive."

"Well I don't have definitive answers to everything, that's why I don't like it if you keep asking questions." He didn't notice until afterwards that he was raising his voice.

"All right, I get it, no need to get worked up over this." But it was too late, he already was. At least the extended silence that followed this exchange helped a little to amend that.