[Last Time, on El WHAT?!: The group proceeded onward to the south. They were stalked and nearly stripped of all their worldly possessions by a band of elves, but were saved by Shiho's seemingly suicidal actions. It was also revealed that the less than well spoken leader of those elves wore, for some reason, a ring with the same design as the ring Shiho recieved from Alric. Who the hell knows what that means?] [The group rested through the heat of the day, and the denizens of the desert proved that they knew just as well as the group that moving around in the noonday sun is a BAD IDEA by not attacking at all.] [The session opens as the immense red sun is lowering toward the horizon once again, and the heat of the day is just starting to lower towards the freezing chill of night. There is a flash of light, and when it dissipates, Ichi has become a cute little plushie and Daphne has, for the first time in days, reappeared.] [Shiho is currently on watch, as is her wont.] [Session Start] * Daphne looks around blearily. "Uh?" Daphne. Finally back? * Cara murmurs in her sleep. Uhm... I guess. How long was I gone? * Rocky peers at Daphne. * Shiho thinks on that. "I'm not sure. We've been in this blasted desert for so long." * Daphne blinks at Rocky and sticks her tongue out at him. * Daphne stands and looks around. "What happened to the oasis?" Oh, we left there a while ago. * Shiho starts to wake everyone up as she continues: "Not a lot happened. Just more wandering through the desert." * Cara rubs her eyes. "Mor-er, night already?" * Amy yawns, sits up and rubs her eyes. She then looks around and... "Daphne!" * Daphne nods. "Sorry I missed out on that." She rubs her face. "Uhg. I don't suppose you've seen any giant bugs loaded with beer around?" You're back! You missed a lot! Yeah. Hey guys. * Shiho makes a face at that. * Spike is woken by all the noise, and peers out of Amy's backpack. * Cara sits up and looks around. Her eyes find Daphne and she grins widely. "Daphne!" We missed you! * Daphne chuckles. "Good to be missed. Sorry if I woke you guys up." * Rocky peers at Ichi, who's evidently still asleep. * Overhead, the two moons are just beginning to show against the sky. * Rocky tries to wake Ichi up anyhow. Even if he is a plushie. * Daphne stretches. "So. Where are we headed, and does anyone have an idea as to how soon we can expect to be there?" I wonder how far we are from the city... * Shiho gathers her things. "Someone get Ichi. We'd better get moving." Same place as before, Daphne. * Amy grabs the Ichi plushie. "Aww. It's so cute." * Rocky moves over to Shiho. * Cara slips her backpack on and gets up. Figured. * Amy grabs her backpack, with Spike inside and slips it on. * Shiho starts forwards. * Rocky follows Shiho. How long it'll be before he gets tired and decides to sleep in her backpack instead is anyone's guess. * Cara follows after Shiho. * Daphne follows, not commenting on the fact that they're traveling at night instead of in the blistering heat of the day. * Amy follows. * Spike crawls out of Amy's backpack and sits on her shoulder, looking around curiously. * Daphne looks at Spike and raises an eyebrow. "Got yourself a new pet, Amy?" He's my friend. His name is Spike. ^_^ Heh. Cute. ...you guys absolutely *sure* there haven't been any giant bugs carrying loads of booze? None. ^_^ Yeah. Although maybe those elves woulda had some. We could always sing the song again. 'The song'? What song? o/~ 99 bottles of beer on the wall, 99 bottles of beer... o/~ ...no, let's not. ^_^ * Rocky moves in front of Amy and Daphne and hops up and down. Please. It's like singing about food to a starving person... eh? * Amy peers at Rocky. "What's the matter little guy?" * Daphne blinks at Rocky. "What's up?" * Cara turns around. "What's going on?" * Rocky quickly climbs onto Shiho's shoulder. He ruffles around in her backpack a bit, and emerges with three small round balls. He then climbs back down. * Rocky bows a bit, then starts juggling while walking backwards. * Amy looks curiously down at Rocky. "Aw. That's cute. He's doing a trick." Did you teach him that Shiho? * Rocky botches badly and gets knocked on the head by two of the three balls. * Cara giggles at Rocky. Aww. Poor little guy. * Shiho looks back. "Eh? No I..." She winces as he gets hit. "...Didn't do anything." * Rocky kicks the sand, picks up the balls, and puts 'em back in Shiho's backpack. * Daphne snickers. "Cute." * Daphne goes to scritch Rocky behind his ears. * Amy patpats Rocky on his head. "That was a nice try! Keep practicing!" * Cara turns back to looking straight ahead. * Rocky nodnods. * The sun keeps approaching the horizon, getting further into the evening. * Amy looks back ahead, a small smile on her face at Rocky's antics. * Daphne is distracted by the 99 bottles of beer circling her head. * Shiho squints. "Is that a road?" * Daphne blinks, and rubs her eyes. Where? * Indeed, Shiho, it just might be! * Cara looks around. "Where?" * The bottles of beer do not go away. * Daphne sighs. "I think I'm hallucinating." Up ahead. It looks like a road or trail. * The bottles of beer sweat temptingly in the heat. Really? Maybe we should follow it! * Amy eyes Daphne. "Whatcha seeing?" It's still a fair distance away. * Daphne frowns. "I see approximately ninety-nine bottles of beer orbiting my head." She chuckles nervously. "I blame your singing for this, Amy." My singing has magic powers? Wow! * Shiho marches onward! * Amy follows Shiho. * Daphne follows! * As you approach, the discolored area resolves into what definitely appears to be a road. Not a paved road, but a well traveled one. * Cara follows after Shiho. * Little bottles of whiskey with arms appear. They take a bottle down, pass it around, and then repeat. But the 99 bottles never seem to go away. * Rocky yawns. I wonder if this'll go away when I resume my drunken ways. If not, I wonder if there are any competent psychologists where we're going. * The bottles of whiskey begin cavorting drunkenly. Maybe you'll have no choice but to quit. You shouldn't joke about things like that, Shiho. It isn't nice. Maybe the next place we go will have oceans of beer! Wouldn't that be nice Daphne? * Finally, the group approaches the side of the road. * Rocky pokes the road. If the next place has oceans of beer, I'll be perfectly happy living out the rest of my days there. * Cara looks at the road. What if the beer is magic and it tries to eat you? * Amy peers at the road. I think she'd die a happy death Shiho. ^_^ * Daphne blinks. "Hey, a road. I didn't notice, what with the merry whiskey bottles cannibalizing the beer bottles and getting sloshed." * Amy looks worriedly at Daphne. Uh.. maybe she needs some water? And for the record, Shiho, no beer can stand against me. * There are ruts in the road, made by wagons of all sizes. The road itself is easily a hundred yards across, and can barely be called a 'road' at all. It's not paved, and the only delineation of its extent is the color of the ground pounded by feet and wheels of all sizes. * Rocky steps in a footprint. So.. uh.. should we follow it? Why not? Sounds good to me. Uh... * Amy looks one way... then the other. Yup. So... Shiho, you seem to be less lost than the rest of us. Which way do you think we ought to go? I don't know. Oh. Well, that's good. It looks like we should go... west. If you say so. How's our water supply, by the way? * Quite good, now that Amy is non-plushied. * Amy checks. "We're ok!" Sounds good. Can I have some of that? * Amy hands Daphne one. * The water tastes very, very bad. Like crackers without salt. And stale. But wetter. * But only to Daphne. * Shiho heads west down the road. "Off we go." * Amy follows Shiho * The red sun finally begins to sink below the horizon, and the sky quickly begins to darken. * Cara follows Shiho to the west. * The water could also be compared to wet cardboard. Though most cardboard at least has _some_ flavor. * Daphne takes a drink and frowns. * Daphne chugs some down quickly, and then makes a face and twitches when she's done. "Ghuh." Does the water taste bad to anyone else? No. Not really. It's good! It lacks the flavor you can only get from good old fashioned tap water at home, but... no, not really. * Daphne mutters some unhappy things under her breath, and sighs. "That's what I figured." * The sun sinks completely below the horizon and the temperature really starts to drop. * Amy shivers. * Daphne unties her flannel jacket and puts it on. She then resumes muttering. * Amy peers towards the north side of the road. "What was that?!" What was what? * Cara looks in the direction Amy's looking. Something on the north side of the road. It's going the same way we are, but fast. I dunno, but it'd probably going to try to kill us. * Shiho glances thataway. "Hm?" Let's try to find out what it was! Sure. Maybe it'll have booze. It'd better have booze. It was going really fast. @_@ * Amy keeps walking, looking around. You don't suppose it's like one of those things we fought a while back? No.. I don't think so.. Hmm... there's something up ahead. Um. If it's moving so fast, we can't really catch it, can we? No.. I guess not. * Shiho moves towards the whatzit up ahead. Something up ahead? * The rest of you spot something sticking up from the ground, in the middle of the road. * Amy peers at the thing. Huh. Whazzat? * Amy can't quite tell what it is. Uh...maybe it's like that lizard we ran into before. Are you sure we should go closer? Looks like two sticks with something hanging between them. Maybe a sign? Maybe. * As you approach whatever it is, the image resolves a bit more, into a pair of sticks, with something hanging between them. They're maybe a foot tall, and slightly unsteady. I wonder what it is... * Daphne looks around aimlessly. * You approach still closer, and the object between the sticks resolves into something long and ropy, swinging slightly in the desert breeze. * Amy looks curiously. I wonder what it is? * Cara peers at it. If it isn't a way home or a keg tap, I'm not particularly interested. * Shiho approaches. "There's a lot of flowers, too. I bet it's artificial." * You approach still closer, perhaps ten feet away, and you can now see it fairly well in the light of the twin moons. The colors are apparent, though muted in the moonlight, and there appear to be quite a variety of them. It appears to be long and ropelike, and composed mostly of flowers like you've never seen before. It's draped across a stick perched between the two upright sticks. Wow. Huh. Flowers? Out here? I wonder what it is..? Oooh. * Rocky hops onto Shiho's shoulder and peers at it. Rocky thinks it smells good. Well, it IS flowers! * Daphne glances around again.