The twosome's travel tales |
[Introduction]
A large dragon & his small mouse friend explore amazing, fantastic realms.
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Gulp DragonDawn, the Golden Dragon (or GD for short) stepped through the portal he summoned. Mousethyme was sitting comfitable on his head. When they were both through they discovered they were on a series of islands floating in the sky. Many had ruins and all were covered in a mossy jungle. Plank bridges criscrossed between the islands. They were to frayed to support the dragon & the planks were too far apart to be traversed by a mouse. There was no land below. |
Mousethyme was determined though. she started down one of the paths jumping from plank to plank toward one of the smaller ruins. She was so hypnotized by the island in front of her she missed seeing the rotting plank. She bounced onto it and it cracked beneath her small weight. She was falling through the air with no bottom in sight. |
His sixth sense screaming that mousethyme was in trouble, GD swooped under her to catch her. Leveling off he landed on a nearby island & sets off toward the ancient ruines. All of a sudden mousethyme was wearing an Indie hat! He rolls his eyes & chuckles good naturedly at his small friend. He was always fond of her silly antics. |
Mousethyme donned a jacket and satchel ensemble to go with the hat, which sent GD into new fits of giggles. She tugged on one of his claws to indicate the smaller island she was headed for when she was taking the plank path. GD veered in that direction and MT almost lost her hat. When they landed there was more than enough room on the island for GD to move around, but the ruins were a small temple that she couldn't enter. Luckily though the breeze from her landing had blown away what was left of the thatch and mud roofing. Obviously someone else had been there and tried to do some repair work. Mousethyme walked inside the temple and started exploring. She had a way of rushing in when she should take caution. she stepped on a floor tile that sunk in even with her little weight. GD snatched her up out of the arrows line of fire but one slightly scratched her leg. She took a cloth and bandaged her leg then huffed and curled into a ball in the dragon's claw. She wasn't quite the adventurer she thought she was. GD gently pet her between her ears with one claw then set her down inside the temple. No matter how much he wanted to protect the small furball he had to give her room to make her own mistakes. |
GD nosed the hurt leg letting his magic completly mend it. He also used his extraordinary senses to detect the area around them as they contiued onward making sure the path was clear of traps. They met with quite a few but it was a simple matter for the Golden Dragon to trigger them & have it break on his impenitrable scaly hide. In one chamber a nest of snakes blocked their path. GD immediatly looked at mousethyme & said, "Don't say it!" |
"Snakes....why did it have to be snakes...." she giggled. MT pulled out her magic whip and with a few cracks all the snakes had disappeared in puffs of smoke. MT ran forward into the next chamber. It was a beautiful spa that the local vegetation had almost taken over. Still there was a large warm pool of bubbling water big enough for MT and GD to soak off the day's dust. The next chamber was large and full of soft leaves to make a nest for the night. After a soak as they were clearing away the leaves, they found two chests filled with fruit and wine and cheese. The Higher Powers had truly chose to bless them this night with a bath, food and a soft bed. |
GD groaned as the inevitable joke hit him. Sneezing violently (he's alegic to bad jokes) he follows MT to the spa, then the supper, then the bed. As evening turned to night and the air became chilly he wrapped his tail around mousethyme to keep her warm. |
Curled up in GD warm tail she stretched and yawned . She cuddled the tail to her like a child with a stuffed toy and settled in. Soon she was fast asleep and snoring quite loudly. |
An hour before dawn & feeling somewhat motherly, GD gently got up so as to not wake mousethyme. Carrying her with his tail he stepped through another portal. This realm was the perfect place for breakfast. There were waffle mountains with rivers of sweet maple surup running down them. There was even a huge lake full of expresso. |
MT sniffed the air and took in all the wonderful smells. It brought her awake and her stomach growled. She stood up on the tail and took a deeperr smell. "Is that Coffee?" Before GD could blink she took a dive off the tail and into the lake of expresso. She took huge gulps before coming up to the surface and laid on her back paddling with her feet amd making a little fountain with her mouth. Then she ran to the waffle mountains and made a tunnel eating her way along. She fell out the other side with her belly bulging and a satisfied grin. She laid on her back and patted her tummy, letting out a huge burp. She ssquinted upwards to see GD looking down at her. She burped again, letting out a few bubbles. She grinnned and waved up at her friend. "Good breakfast but no cheese or fruit. We'll have to find some for lunch." she rocked to her feet and wobbled for a moment, then stood straight and saluted. "Where are we going today?" |
"I think you will like this realm," GD says. He opens a portal & both of them step through. They were in the foyer of a mansion. There was something about the vibe that oozed mystery. "This mansion realm has many hidden passageways, secret rooms, & even a treasure hidden deep within. Many have tried, but failed to map it because the rooms shift around & the legend goes that the mansion itself goes on forever. I thought we could try our luck, just be careful of booby traps & trapdoors. Oh yeah, thd place is also haunted by ghosts & empty suits of armor, but aside from trying to scare you & chasing you they are completly harmless." |
"sounds like my kind of adventure..." MT donned her ghostbusters outfit (minus the pack. Instead she had her glowing wand). 'let's get moving" MT ran down the hall making herself light weight so she wouldn't set off too many traps. She skidded to a stop when she came to the edge of a huge crack in the floor. "A little help here?" |
With a small puff of air from GD's snout MT was able to float over the crack Marry Poppins style using a mouse sized umbrella that he swore came from a punch drink. GD followed by simply stepping over the huge hole in the floor (there were advantages to being big at 20ft in height). Just as they were both over a nearby suit of armor clanked to life. Arms outstretched in walked toward the exploring duo. "Just remember they won't do anything other than walk toward you", GD said. "No need for the ghost catching equipment. In fact I'd wager some of the spirits here are friendly." |
MT hiccuped, remembering the drink that the umbrella came from. The armor clanked to life and walked toward them. MT stepped to one side and put her foot out to trip it. GD scooped her up (before the armor could break her foot) and shook a claw at her. GD put MT down and she started walking behind the armor imitating it's walk. GD giggled and started following suit. |
As they followed the armor they passed through many rooms. Each on was different & while some rooms made sense such as the drawing room & kitchen, others were wildly out of place like the one where they took a break to play the miniature golf course (GD found mousethyme a marble & a key to suit her size to play as well). They also had a nice lunch made by a ghost cook who was extremly ecstatic to have living beings to consume his meals again. Burping (felt like a hurricane to MT) Gulp repeated himself, "See? Some ghosts are friendly." |
MT playfully growled at all the ghosts and held her wand like a shotgun. Every once in a while she would make machine gun and laser noises as well. Then she would fall over in fits of giggles. One little girl ghosts tried to help MT up when she fell over but the girl's hands went straight through MT's body. The girl became upset so to cheer her up MT waved her wand and chanted a spell that gave the little girl a ghost pony. The ghosts seemed to know what the two adventurers needed. They fixed all their favorite foods and plenty of cheese, of course. After eating, MT was sleepy so the ghosts showed them to a bedroom. When GD tried to get in the huge bed it creaked and groaned so the ghosts made him a nest of blankets next to it. MT tunneled around under the blankets on the bed until she found the softest spot she could. She curled up and yawned and soon was fast asleep. |
Gulp prefered a nest to a bed anyways as it felt more natural. A ghost butler came and brought extra blankets as the mansion was extremly drafty. GD also took advantage of a little nip before turning in (one of the advantages of being a dragon is that they can't get drunk). While the mansion had no windows (probably because every wall had another room on the other side, the ceiling did magically mirror a real night sky. A stary sky shown above them with a waxing gibbus moon. |
The evening went well. There were no interruptions and the pair got a good night's sleep. When MT awoke, GD was gone. She scurried through the castle looking for her friend. She went into one room where she had seen a kaleidoscope of lights coming from. When she entered she immediately felt strange. She began to grow. She became human sized before the lights had stopped. and other things had changed as well. She had strange memories of traveling through space and time. MT took out her wand. It didn't work. She couldn't do anything with it. She heard voices in her head. Soon she realized they were the thoughts of the ghosts. She found some clothes in the room and took her knife to them so that they fit her better. She located weapons too and took what she liked. Now she was ready to resume the search for her friend. |
GD awoke with an alarming sense that something was wrong. He looked around & discovered he was no longer in the bedroom. Instead, he saw a massive vault of a room populated with many chanting human ghosts wearing huge cloaks. MT seemed to be missing! However, before he could move, the ghostly chant began to make him feel strange. At first he was a little light headed, then the growth began to happen. As his body became feral, swelling bigger & more muscular, he recalled a crucial detail about the realm he had forgotten. While humans were safe, animals were known to go through unexpected changes. All GD could do was go along with what the spirits did (and it did feel good growing to twice his size). Feeling thirsty he drank from the indoor swimming pool in the next room. He hoped MT was enjoying getting a good change as well. |