Lucille's Story

Thumbnail stared at Bloop-5 for a moment, examining its structure while still keeping a bit of caution. After a moment, he withdrew his right hand from his black robe collar, holding a purple handkerchief. Thumbnail glanced at Bloop-5 with a bit of hesitation before moving his hand closer to it. He noticed that the machine was somewhat dirty and neglected, its strange small red eyes glowing rather dim, so Mabus used his purple handkerchief to wipe the octopus-like robot's face, polishing its metallic exterior in hopes that it might be able to see him better, and perhaps deem the Darkelf as less of a threat.

That wasn't to say there weren't hidden dangers in the forest. As he put away his handkerchief, Thumbnail's dark vision and elven senses started to kick in. He started to sense a powerful presence in the Dark Woods, one of great size and a familiar scent. "Dragons" he whispered to himself, becoming more aware of his surroundings in the dark. But there was something else closing in on his position. Thumbnail's pointy ears perked up as Peter coughed. Humans were always easy to detect, for even the stealthy ones were loud and smelled funny to elves. Thumbnail was able to detect him coming from a mile away, and could see Peter R. Sheffield approaching even in the dead of night. Thumbnail's golden eyes shimmered again briefly as Bloop-5 scanned over them, and he glanced down at the inventor again before peering into the Dark Woods.

Peter's heavy boots made quite a ruckus to the Darkelf as he approached the scene, greeting them from the darkness. Thumbnail stood there motionlessly as the man approached the clearing before stopping to remove his helmet. "Hello there," Mabus said calmly while looking directly at the man in the heavy armour. It was obvious that Peter couldn't see him very well in the dark, but Thumbnail's voice alone was enough to inform the stranger that he was not this Moon character. Mabus examined Peter's metal suit for a moment, but said nothing as he looked around, still sensing another hidden presence in the immediate area. The Darkelf was very keen and aware of the hidden dangers in the darkness, even if nobody else could feel it.

At that moment, Peter R. Sheffield spoke again. "Howdy, what are y'all doing here?" he asked. It seemed like a legitimate question to most people. "I should be asking you the same," Mabus answered. After all, Mabus was a Darkelf, and the Dark Woods were as natural to him as a fish in water. If anyone was out of their element, it was the strange inventor and the man in the metal suit. What were humans doing this deep in the Dark Woods at this hour of the night? Mabus found that to be quite suspicious and strange. After a moment, Thumbnail reached back into his black robe and pulled out a small glass vile with a cork in it, containing a strange glowing blue liquid which appeared to be some kind of elixir.

A soft wind blew through , barely offering cool for the sweat in the dank of the dark woods.

Peter glances up. He takes a deep breath, savoring the fresh air, before it passes.
He glances around, barely taking in his surroundings as he does an unsteady circle, trying look at all around him.
He was just present in the moment, wasn't he? What was going on? Why didn't anything happen? What did just happen?
His mind races, trying to gather thoughts.
It's... It's like every time something happens, I wake up, but between then...
The thought is lost as he glances down to his hands, aware they are now shaking, and sees that he's holding his pistol in his gloved fingers. He hastily holsters the gun, unsteadily handling the straps on the holster as he does so. He's gasping for breath, and feels suddenly ill.
He falls to his knees, breathing shakily and quickly before falling onto his side and lying there.
I'm just... tired...
His vision dims as he slips into an unsteady sleep, the breeze gracing his face as it picks up again, allowing a ghost of a smile to cross his face before he blinks into the abyss.

Bloop-5 whirred and shifted quickly into the shadows of a higher limb, to continue observing those below. One of the beings, maybe people - Bloop didn't get a true inspection, held a blue vial.

A cool breeze swept through - the other fell to their knees. Something seemed amiss in these parts. Was it the air? Bloop didn't have feelings or thought upon initial programming, but if the little mechanical thing did it would think that it must be something in the air.