Far-Off Horizon [Emi]

[Castle]

July 27, 2010

The land below them was vast and open, a grassland with only a few scattered trees and boulders. After being in that city the day before, the sight was almost dizzying. If the person Emi was looking for was here, he would either be very easy or very hard to find. Easy because there was nowhere to hide, and hard because there was so much space. Finding a place to park the gummi ship certainly wouldn't be that difficult.

Castle managed not to think much about the day before. He just didn't want to, and it was behind him now. He stared out the window as the ship descended onto the savannah, and he was the first one outside once the engines shut off.

Therefore, he was also the first to notice that this world was different. As soon as he was beyond the protection of the ship's interior, his viewpoint of the surface of the world suddenly, and literally, changed. He paused, his mind taking a few moments to register that he had just gotten a lot shorter.

"Oh, great," he grumbled, "This is another mess-with-you world, isn't it?"

Feeling the way his mouth moved as he spoke was the second indication that he was no longer human. After some twisting, he managed to discern that he had taken the form of a 3-foot long savannah monitor lizard. A purple one.

"Yep. I'm a lizard. Well, it could be worse, I guess. At least my head matches my body this time," he said, grimacing at the memory of his day as a shrimp-thing.

He looked around to see what Emi had become.

[Oathkeeper Emi]

Yay. The wilderness. Love it.
--

Emi felt different. No, actually, she felt back to normal. Ever since yesterday. It had been like she was holding her breath and finally could breathe again. She looked out the window and decided that this would be a good world to go to. It looked simple, and she thought that's the kind of break she and Castle needed.

She still hadn't apologized. Castle had come back to the ship obviously distressed about something back at the last world, so she didn't think it was the time. And another opportunity hadn't come up. Emi had come straight in, set the coordinates for the next available world and went to sleep. She'd only woken up about ten minutes before their arrival, and needless to say she was still a little grumpy.

She hadn't been paying much attention when Castle left the ship, instead focusing on the onboard computer. "Pride Lands,[/color]" she said to herself, getting out of the chair lazily. "Just looks like a bunch of grass and rocks and dirt to me.[/color]"

She walked to the door. Where had Castle run off to? The only thing she saw was some kind of giant purple lizard. "Hey, shrimpy, don't run off too far you don't know what kind of wild animals are out here![/color]" she screamed as she hopped out of the ship. As soon as her feet... well, what used to be her feet... hit the ground she realized something had changed. "Dammit... not again![/color]" she growled, looking down.

Hooves. She had hooves. She tried to take a few steps forward and stumbled. Trying to walk like this, on four long legs, was difficult. What followed was she was sure was hilarious to Castle, who she had figured out was the purple lizard she'd seen earlier. She had turned into a black and white gazelle, and she was having problems staying steady. She stumbled around on wobbly legs, a few steps this way before shifting her weight and nearly plowing headlong into the dirt. She saved herself, but ended up losing her footing and falling on her gazelle rear.

"Haha, very funny![/color]" she shouted, stamping her front feet into the ground and getting back up. She shook a tuft of black fur that had taken the place of her bangs out of her face.

[Castle]

Castle hadn't laughed this much since... well, since Emi's jingly-jester form back in Halloweentown. Of course, because he was a lizard, some of the laughter was interspersed with a weird hissing noise that was easy for him to ignore. He finally regained his composure and tried some walking himself. It was bizarre on four legs, but since he was built so close to the ground, it was a lot like crawling. That, and it was almost impossible to trip.

"Ssso..."

With that word, however, he discovered a new obstacle. His long lizard tongue was partial to the letter s. Wonderful. He quickly withdrew it back into his mouth and cleared his throat awkwardly.

"Hm. Yeah. Okay. What now? Do you think we can search this whole place?"

He had less of a problem with the s - sounds that time, so maybe it was only an occasional thing. He would still have to be careful with it, though. Tripping over his legs wouldn't be a problem, but tripping over his tongue was just as embarrassing.

"At least we know two kinds of wild animals that are out here..." he joked quietly.

He tried to look up over the grass, but he could only lift his head up so far. Another drawback to being a lizard.

[Oathkeeper Emi]

Wait, I thought only dude deers got horns...
--

Emi glared down at Castle. It was incredibly stupid of him to be laughing like that when she was so much bigger than he was. She was pretty sure she could run him through with these horns of hers, or stomp him into the ground. Then again, he probably had sharp teeth or some kind of poisonous lizard venom. Best to just keep her emotions under control... wait. She could do that now? Yes, she seemed to have gotten some of her self-control back. Before yesterday, someone laughing at her like that would have earned a butt kicking for sure.

Castle couldn't see over the grass, but Emi could. She looked around. Didn't see much. Grass. Rocks. One really big rock on the horizon. Some other animals. She shifted uncomfortably on her dainty little antelope feet and wondered what a gazelle's natural predator was. Lions? Was it...lions? She really wished she'd paid more attention in school now. She didn't think knowing the gazelle's natural predators and place on the food chain would actually apply to her one day.

"I don't think we can search the whole place unless we want to be here for like a week,[/color]" she finally said. She ground her teeth, leaned down and took a bite of grass just to see how it tasted. It tasted like grass. She sputtered and spit it out. Just because she was a gazelle now did not mean she wanted to eat like one. Despite the fact she was an animal herself now, she still thought a nice cheeseburger would be a good idea. "Blugh, and we can't stay here that long. I'll starve to death if I have to live on grass. Let's look around, maybe one of these other animals have seen Arc around.[/color]"

[Castle]

Castle almost couldn't believe it when Emi tried to eat grass. He stifled more laughter. The glare she gave him was a reminder that she could probably stomp him, so maybe he shouldn't be so blatantly amused. He really wouldn't be surprised if she tried to stomp him, either. If she could tackle him for getting mad at her, she could drive a hoof into the back of his scaly neck for whatever other reason.

"Right. Let's go ask a nice lion if he's seen your friend."

He decided to leave the joke there on account of the aforementioned risk.

"But, seriously, let's be careful who we ask, shall we? I'd hate to learn this place's food chain the hard way," he chuckled. He walked forward a few feet and paused at the base of a small boulder. He managed to claw his way to the top of it, where he had a better vantage point.

"Um... how about over there? It looks like there's water and a lot of animals around it. Or would we call them people here?"

He thought of the fish they met back in Atlantica who had a personality, unlike most other fish someone would encounter. He didn't catch what that fish referred to the other fish in that place as, though.

[Oathkeeper Emi]

Bambi-walkin' time.
--

"No, we don't call them people,[/color]" Emi said, for some reason considering herself some kind of expert on animals-human-turned-into-animal social norms. "They're animals. We call them animals. Except maybe not their... faces? Snouts? Jesus, I don't even know anymore...[/color]"

Meanwhile, she had begun her awkward walk towards the gathering of animals around the watering hole. She was still unsteady and had taken to raising her feet one at a time, causing her to walking a jerky, almost dance like movement. She kept getting tangled in the long grass and cursing, wondering if the other animals could understand her and if they would be offended at her foul language. She didn't care if they were, she just wondered.

All right, how am I going to phrase this question? 'Any of you guys seen a seven foot tall dragonman with silver dreads, carrying some swords? No?' ...yeah, something like that. Wait, what if there is some kind of animal around here that fits that description... oh, god, what if this is his homeworld? I doubt it but still.... arrrgh! Damn grass.

She looked over her shoulder to make sure Castle wasn't being eaten.

[Castle]

"Harsh," Castle muttered.

He followed her toward the watering hole, trying not to chuckle at how much trouble she was having with walking. In her defense, those legs did look bothersome to walk with, and he wondered if any real gazelles had trouble with tall grass. Probably not. As for his own locomotion, he was getting more comfortable with it. He wondered how fast he could run if something decided to chase him.

Of course that thought immediately made him paranoid. He glanced around, but saw mostly grass. Still uncomfortable, he decided to try some of that running. He dashed forward a bit and almost tripped on his own claws. He tried again, more carefully, and had better results. He wasn't extremely fast, but it was something.

He turned around to backtrack to where Emi was. A shape in the grass beyond her made him pause. At first, he thought it was a rock, but then it moved. The movement brought it into sharp focus. If Castle wasn't purple and scaly all over, he might have blanched.

You've got to be kidding me, he moaned inwardly.

"Emi! Lion! Behind you!" he shouted.

He prayed silently that she wouldn't think he was messing with her. Seriously, what were the odds that this would actually happen? They just got here!

[Oathkeeper Emi]

WTF NO.
--

At his shout, Emi turned her head (snout?) over her shoulder. She was going to scream at Castle and tell him he better not be messing with her, but thankfully she saw the lion first and took off running. She was a lot faster as a gazelle, it seemed. She had no idea where to run or what to do so she took off towards the watering hole. Would the lion attack the other animals, would she stay on Emi's tail- literal tail- or would she give up and move on?

Emi wasn't sure, but then again, she didn't know what her other options were.

Just great, she thought. We've been here for no more than five minutes and I'm already being chased by hungry predators. Can we go to just one world where something bad doesn't happen!?

She managed to make it to the watering hole without being mowed down and torn into. "Lion![/color]" she shrieked, not knowing if the other animals could understand her or if they even cared. "Lion, lion, lion![/color]"

This, of course, threw all of the other Savannah animals into a frenzy. Things scattered, and Emi found herself in somewhat of a stampede. Thankfully, the chaos was enough to make the lion rethink her lunch plans. Too much trouble when there were other less able-bodied antelopes to go after. The predator stalked away into the grass in search of another meal and the chaos settled down shortly after, like nothing had ever happened.

Emi pranced to the edge of the small lake, feeling quite proud of herself for having outsmarted the mighty lion. She knelt down to take a sip of water. The girl-gazelle thing was a bit parched after that case. Unfortunately, her distinguished palate was not used to dirty watering hole water and so she choked and spit nasty mud water every where.

"Jesus Christ, I can't live like this,[/color]" she groaned, kneeling down and covering her ears with her front ears.

[Castle]

Thankfully, Emi could run a lot better than she could walk. She took off faster than he expected her to, and she and the lion quickly left him in the dust. He wanted to snap at the lion as it passed by, but he was too far away. He cursed and tried to run after it. If it got its dirty paws, or claws, or teeth, on Emi, he would kill it. He really would.

However, Emi started screaming at all the animals, and a stampede broke out. Castle suddenly found himself in a very bad position. The thought of being trampled to death was highly unpleasant. Instinctively, he curled into a ball, even though he wouldn't think that a lizard could do that, and waited it out. The ground rumbled as animals ran by him, but thankfully, he didn't get kicked.

Once everything quieted down, he uncurled and hurried to the watering hole. He spotted Emi by the water's edge and went over to her. She appeared uninjured, though a bit flustered.

"Geez. Good thing you're loud," he said as he settled down beside her. He studied the water, but he wasn't really thirsty. It looked kind of muddy, anyway.

"Does this mean our luck is really good or really bad?" he mused.

He traced a mindless pattern in the dirt with one of his claws. He wondered how much he could have done against the lion if he actually caught up to it. Probably not much. To continue with the "luck" thought, his in battle left a lot to be desired lately.

Well, except for yesterday. He resisted a grimace and stopped drawing.

[Oathkeeper Emi]

Gonna get this over with...
--

Emi flopped down into the dirt next to Castle and grunted. "I don't think luck has anything to do with it,[/color]" she told him. Things just happened, she thought, and whatever happened was what was meant to be. She didn't explain any of this to him though, she was too tired and hot to care.

She lifted her head up from the dirt and looked around. She honestly didn't think Arc was here but she at least needed to make an effort. Being honest again, she was growing tired of this journey. So much had happened already but there didn't seem like an alternative. She knew returning home wouldn't bring much relief. She would just up and leave again.

She got up and said "Let's go snoop around a little and then get out of here,[/color]" she said. "It's hot and I don't appreciate being nearly eaten. I mean, geez, I know I look delicious but still...[/color]"

She said that with a straight face, being completely sarcastic. On the inside, she was wondering the opposite. She hadn't a clue why that lion had chosen her... she was pretty puny looking for a gazelle and didn't think she'd make all that great of a meal.

She walked up to a nearby herd of zebras and said "Hey, sorry to cut in but I'm looking for someone. Really tall, kind of lizardy like this guy...[/color]" she said, jerking her head in Castle's direction. "You know what I mean? Has anyone seen him?[/color]"

[Castle]

There were so many things Castle could have said to Emi's comment about looking delicious, but he didn't voice any of them.

He wondered if Arc would have turned into an animal if he was here. Would that still happen if he was animal-like to begin with? Unless "dragon-man" wasn't literal, though from what Emi just said to the zebras, he guessed it actually was. Man, he was really starting to want to see this guy, or at least a picture of him.

While Emi chatted with the zebras, he left the water's edge to investigate the grass. Maybe there was a smaller species of animal that he could question about Arc. It would make their search faster if they both asked around. He noticed a small bird pecking around in the dirt and approached it.

"Hey, have you..."

"Eek! Stay away!"

It took off. Castle watched it go and sighed. If he had to guess, he would say that lizards and small birds did not get along. He caught sight of a rodent darting away and added that to his mental note. Maybe asking around in the grass wouldn't get them very far after all.

He went back to see if Emi was having better luck with the zebras.

[Oathkeeper Emi]

It's sooo hoooot.
--

Meanwhile, Emi's search wasn't going well either. The zebra lead went nowhere and none of the other animals helped either. She even talked to a group of animals, gazelles like her, but they gave her one look and walked away. She looked too different, with her longer than usual legs and darker coloration. "Yeah, thanks a lot,[/color]" she said. She kicked at a rock This was going nowhere, and it was hot out here. With no water to drink, and no shade or breeze, it was quickly becoming miserable. She looked down and saw Castle crawling towards her.

"Any luck?[/color]" she asked, walking over to meet him. She was getting better at this walking thing. It didn't matter; they would be gone soon, anyway. "I got nothing. I think this world is a bust. Unless you got something, I say we skedaddle before we get chased or something again. I don't think these other animals like us very much anyway...[/color]"

She glanced back over to where their gummi ship was still visible. She jerked her head towards it. "Come on, let's go.[/color]"

[Castle]

"Yeah," Castle sighed, "I didn't get anything, either. I think everyone I tried to ask thought I was going to eat them."

Like Emi, he was more than willing to end their search of this world. The heat was starting to bother him, too, even though he usually preferred higher temperatures. That, and he still felt edgy about predators. Being thought of as a predator wasn't too great, either. He thought he would have liked the sense of power, but it just wasn't doing it for him.

He followed her back toward the gummi ship. She was better at walking now, it seemed, and he had to work harder to keep up with her. Between that and being so short that it was hard to see over the grass, he was very ready to stop being a lizard.

Thankfully, it was cooler in the ship. Castle took a moment to regain his balance when he suddenly found himself on two legs again. For once, he felt really tall.

"Well, that was a great waste of time," he commented, stretching his arms a bit to get reacquainted with the feel of them. It didn't take long.

[Oathkeeper Emi]

Back to my roots, then, I guess...
--

After they had made it back to the ship, Emi patted herself down. She blew out a sigh of relief. She was back in her normal skinny, two-legged, non-antlered body. Sighing loudly, she collapsed into a seat and spun around in a circle. She was so happy to be back in the ship (something she never thought she'd say) where it was cool and the sun wasn't beating down on her.

She came to a stop in the chair and faced Castle. "So, I wonder where we should go next,[/color]" she said, running a hand through her hair. She was kind of running out of ideas. So far, every world had been a dead end and Emi wasn't sure if this was even going work. She contemplated just going back to Radiant Garden, but they'd come all this way... She told herself one more world and then they would go home.

She put her face in her hands. But where? She thought about it for a minute and then a thought struck her. Twilight Town. They would go to Twilight Town. Why do I want to go to Twilight Town? she thought, raising her face. It just came to her and she couldn't get it out of her head.

Maybe this would be a good start, though. After Notre Dame, she'd decided it was time to start dealing with stuff. Going back to Twilight Town and closing up some loose ends would be a good way to start. She just had a feeling that this was the place to go. And if Arc wasn't there... well, she'd leave their debt up to fate.

"Castle, do you want to see... where I came from?[/color]" she asked. It was funny, now that she had made it back to her true home that she was saying she was from Twilight Town.

[Castle]

"Huh...?"

Castle had kept stretching just for the heck of it, but now he stopped and turned toward Emi. What she said had him puzzled. Wasn't she from Radiant Garden? Oh, wait. He dimly recalled her saying she lived somewhere else for a while. Maybe that was the place she meant.

"Ah, that's right. You were living somewhere other than Radiant Garden before, weren't you," he said.

However, there was something else that was bothering him now. Something about the way she said those words was... off. Come to think of it, there had been something different about her all day, and even before then. He hesitated for only a moment or two, studying her.

"Hey... have you been okay lately?" he ventured, "You've been acting weird since Traverse Town."

He hoped he wouldn't annoy her by asking that. In fact, he wouldn't be surprised if she got mad at him. He wondered why he bothered to ask her anything at all. Maybe his natural curiosity was just hard to control. That... and he actually wanted to know. She was acting strange in the week after her birthday, but since Notre Dame, she was acting strange in a different way. What changed?