Peter still looked worried but.. talking to Diana really helped him. Ever since he got bunny-pox he had been really worried. He guessed that whatever was going to happen it was going to be okay. Diana seemed like such a tough and strong girl unlike what he had heard about them. He felt afraid and- Kevin- well- sometimes he could say stupid stuff. It was nice to meet Diana, a real and genuine cat-girl. Since the troubles a long time ago some of the animal folk didn't like them. Still Diana was a kid just like him perhaps there was a bit of a 'first crush' and flutter of feeling in the young boy too. "You um- you wanna see our secret clubhouse?" he suddenly asked. He had to show it to her!
Diana suddenly looked delighted and smiled. She had never been invited to anything like that before. Not even in her own youth. "Yeah! I would love that." she replied getting up quickly.
"Okay but- its a really big secret, you can't tell anyone. You promise?"
"I promise." Diana nodded.
Peter gestured and the two quickly walked together. One cat-girl with a bunny-boy. It was quite possibly the cutest and most surreal scene Robin's Heath in quite some time. "Cause my dad is the harbour master I like to walk down the river a lot. That's where me and Kevin found this thing. You'll love it."
Diana gave a small nod. She noted a few ruins in this stretch of the town. "What happened here?"
"Oh, that was the Riot from fifty years ago when the disease started appearin'. A lot of the important buildings were burned. So things got rebuilt, and made better then ever! So my dad says anyway. You can still see one or two old buildings standing. The grownups are still clearin' this stuff away."
Diana felt a bit sad that this town had such a sad past. Still, it was also inspiring to see that they were not chained by it. There was just this weird illness.. Diana guessed it could only be magic but still- if it was, why punish their descendants so? That in itself seemed heartless On the other hand, it did give this place a new way to see the world. What stories could be here, of people who changed then sought out a new life
Then Diana started to wonder of herself. Was she supposed to do that? Grow up again and seek a new life here being turned into a kid, she had been given a new lease of life. Time.. the most precious thing in the whole world had actually been given to her and- the worst she could do was waste it. she didn't want to be shut in any more. She had always grown up as the indoors type, probably why she ended up doing maintenance on arcade machines. She had seen more of the outside world in a week then she had done in her entire life. This felt so.. good.. so free yet also she was trapped trapped in a body that wasn't her own, taking on the guilt of having this form when it was possible the real Diana was somewhere else maybe she had taken time from someone else no worse then some vampire- 'I almost wish I really was Diana,' she thought as she saw the way Peter wanted to please her by showing her around. Why was he looking at her like that though? It gave her butterflies in her stomach.
They had to get over one large wall, itself crumbling a bit. For Diana it was instinct as she vaulted over, and was surprised to see Peter doing the same thing with perhaps- a little bit more height in his stronger legs.
"You jump good." Both of them said- and blushed.
"Haha.. I guess there are some upsides to being part rabbit."
"Yeah.. um.. and being part cat too. I do like your ears." Diana said quickly.
Peter cringed a bit feeling them in his hands. They were soft and quite.. cute. "When I first got them I couldn't sleep. The ocean was so noisy.. but now I am used to it. My feet got a bit bigger too. My mom spent lots on getting new ones for me- you don't wear shoes?"
"I don't think I need em. So how far to this clubhouse?"
"It's just over here."
Diana gasped. It was just a bit down the river, and something caked in mud. The kids had dug around it, showing the outer hull of some kind of craft. It looked oval in shape, with no sharp lines. The whole thing was buried in the mud, but there was an opening on the side with a soft blue light. The metal on it showed very little rust, and had a strange blue tinge to it. Diana gave it a light scratch with her claws, but it didn't give any sign of wear from it, though she did cut a layer of mud.
"What.. is it?" Diana finally asked not expecting anything like this. She was expecting a fort of wood or maybe a corner in the ruins not this..
"It's an ancient ship!" said Peter giddily. "We was looking where the old docks where, and we found this. Come on inside."
Diana was taken through the doorway and into the alcove. It was dimly lit by a few odd stones on the wall, in strange striations of colour. For an ancient ship it was.. remarkably smaller then she imagined it would be. It was more like the size of a tree house. A tiny little fort.. 'A life raft?' the cat-girl thought. Yes.. that would make sense. This looked more like an ejected pod from a larger ship. There were metal boxes strewn about the place, though were surprisingly light given how Peter pushed one to use as a chair. Diana had a glance at the controls of the craft- not that there was much to see. Just a single circular crystal ball, that looked to have a crack in it. This sat on a pedestal with a few strange very dark black panels with an angular look to then.
"I got to tell Sarah-"
"Hey you can't tell anyone you promised!" Peter reminded lowering his voice as it echoed around the darkened interior. "They'll take it away an' we can't play here any more."
Diana gave an awkward look. She did promise but- but-
"Oi! What's the big idea! "A voice suddenly called out entering the enclosure. He was another young boy. He seemed rather broad shouldered, with short blond hair and perhaps a bit pudgy. He was wearing a white T-shirt with a drawn picture of a skull on it. "What did I say? No girls allowed!" he said pointing to Diana. "She's gonna ruin this for us you can't trust her-"
"I found this place, I can invite her." said Peter quickly his rabbit ears flattening a bit.
"We both found it an' you can't invite her cause you're going to -be- a girl!" said the boy back. "We arm wrestled fair an' square and I was made Captain-King, you're Peter the swaber."
Diana's ears flattened. Something about all this felt so -very- familiar. She remembered what kids were like.. as an adult she saw how silly- yet serious this was. Children were trying to be grown-up.. not unlike how she herself felt half the time having one been older. Still if this place had Ancient Technology it could be dangerous. " you must be Kevin," she asked as diplomatically as she could.
"Yeah, 'an here I'm Captain-King Kevin!" He looked to her. "So why don't you go do what girls do an' play with your dollies or somethin'. This is our place!"
Diana almost hissed. "You can't keep this though! We got to tell the adults-"
"Nuh uh." said Kevin. "See? She's gonna tell! I told you girls were lame." Kevin said rolling his eyes.
Peter's ears suddenly stood out taller. "Hey- she's not lame. She's not gonna tell anyone. Please Diana? Please? We've found a lot of neat stuff here, can't we just look around before we go tellin'?"
Diana looked awkward, her tail dropping in conflict. Her ears twitched from side to side. "I- just- well- .. okay..." There was always a possibility she could find something to help herself get home...
Kevin seemed unconvinced. Maybe he could give the little girl a scare. "Here check this out, I figured out how to open and close the door." He then pressed his hand onto one of the dark panels. It suddenly lit up, with the outline of his hand. Suddenly the door just 'popped' into existence. It was surreal to say the least.
"Hey-" Diana gasped in panic. They were sealed inside the ship!
"Ha ha! You scaredy cat. Scaredy girl! Scardey cat-girl!" Kevin grinned. "Relax it opens up again." The young boy pressed his hand on the panel and with another pop, the wall disappeared leading back outside with a rush of air. "See? There's also this thing." Kevin pressed down on a panel near some of the boxes. Instantly the ground beneath them shifted as another box appeared rising out of the floor. It was made of some kind of tough glass displaying its contents. Diana looked at it carefully it looked like a crystal. It gave a strange glow, as it rotated around in perfect harmony. There was a red line around the gem, showing three circles around it with more strange symbols.
"What is that?" asked Peter as he looked anxiously approaching it slowly.
"I think its a battery," thought Diana.
"What's a battery?"
"It's- the power that make things go in a machine" Diana had enough of this. They had to tell an adult! This thing might even help them get home if it had more secrets. "Look- we got to tell someone. You can't keep this a secret-"
"See?" Kevin frowned looking to Peter. "You brought her here an' she's going to tell everyone and you know what will happen then! Girls ruin everything!" He pounded his fist on the glass case which- gave a slight shake.
"Kevin- don't-" Peter winced. "Uh- what's that noise?" His ears turned at a slight angle.
"I don't hear anythin- huh what?" Even Kevin could hear it now with his less sensitive human ears. The crystal was starting to emit an odd hum. The red glow of the three circles started to join together. There was suddenly an odd robotic sound. A voice of a girl that somehow sounded artificial...
"A ghost!" Kevin cried out pointing.
Above the crystal was a strange apparition. It was completely see-through.
"Sarah?" Diana asked.
It was not Sarah but the resemblance was uncanny. A strange doll-like creature staring blankly. It spoke words- that carried a sense of urgency in them, despite their clipped robotic nature. However it was in a language the children could not understand. "Condu, cri, Condu elavia, Condu destra..."
The red light continued to glow brighter. The words of the ghost seemed to get more urgent.
"What's it sayin? Is it some sorta trapped spirit?" Asked Peter curious, and still the glow of red started to go from the pedestal, running now down the floor of the craft almost like strange lava. Still the ghost spoke its words as if it were a chant while the crystal began to emit strange sparks of light.
"...run." whispered Diana.
Peter didn't need anything more said as he hoped towards the exit. The vibrations of the crystal were starting to get more intense.
Kevin glanced back to the crystal. He didn't know what was going on, but he was sure this could be fixed. He didn't want to lose their special clubhouse! "I can make it go back inside- that will fix it." he pushed at the crystal casing. "Come on go back in there-" the glow continued and Kevin was zapped. "Ah! I'm stuck!" He couldn't move his hand away from the crystal!
Diana and Peter frowned glancing back. There was a strange shudder, as the opening started to appear- and disappear, the whole system looked like it was.. glitching. "Help!" Cried out Kevin. The two ran towards the young boy and started to pull at him tugging at where he was stuck.
"I can't move my hand!" Kevin shouted in despair.
Diana and Peter pulled with everything they had. Diana noticed the problem.. Kevin had some kind of ring on his finger. They crystal must be magnetic. "Take off your ring! Slide your hand out of it!"
Kevin pulled and yes- that did work. Suddenly he was free, the three ran out of the exit.
"Run Run!" Diana shouted as they escaped the odd machine.
There was a strange sound in the alcove as they rushed away. A ripple of colour taking form within a curtain of air, as suddenly the entire ship just.. decompressed itself from existence with an odd cloaking effect. There was nothing left but a crater.
"No!!!" Kevin wailed. He looked back at the area that held so much promise but was now only mud. "Our clubhouse- See Peter? Urgh! I told you girls were trouble! I could have fixed it!" He huffed a bit in annoyance. He then simply ran back to town upset.
Diana looked slightly guilty. "I'm sorry," she said to Peter guiltily.
"Don't be. You saved us. If it had just been me and Kevin he would have been inside that thing when it disappeared."
"I wonder where it went..."
The girl had watched Sarah for some time, her heart skipping a beat. She had never encountered anything like her. She blushed a but realising she was staring. "I-"
"Iron my original clothes." The clockwork girl said as she walked off.
Mary stiffened her back a little. "Yes m'lady.." she spoke, not that Sarah could hear her. She sighed a bit getting on with her work. "What strange guests we have..." she hummed to herself, idly wondering what she was.
She idly listened to the ticking from afar, finding it oddly soothing.
"So, you can give us a bit of a discount right?" Tom asked the Innkeeper.
The elder man nodded. "Well, you got a kid, and one of you don't need a bed really.. I suppose I can be generous and give you the single double room for a third of the price. Sounds reasonable?"
"Very.. thank you my friend." Tom shook the man's hand. "So, what's it like living here?"
"I rather enjoy it.. good people, pretty women-" he gave a light wink. "Of course after my wife died, I don't think I'll be findin' any more girls in my life. Still it's nice to look at em."
"You're not worried about the sickness here?"
"Heaven's no. That only affects the original decendants. We moved here recently, from the City of Smoke. Believe me it earned its name. They refuse to accept the price of the sun-stones so they burn trees and anything else they can. Horrible place." He grumbles. "Sure its dirt cheap to live in but.. there's more to life then just money. Here we got the waters, and because of this places history.. well, they are always keen to bring in new money and people."
"I'm sorry to hear about your wife."
"Yeah.. me too. She was wonderful, I miss her every day. Still she survives through my daughter and son. I know I'll be meeting her again one day and she wouldn't have wanted me to be sad. We shared many good days."
Tom sighed again. "Well, thank you for your generosity today. I'll pay for it-" he stopped as he saw a young boy rush past him. He looked really ticked off with something.
"That be my son, Kevin." The innkeeper said with a shrug. "I guess he's done playin'. Anyway let's finalise the contract.."
