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WARNING: Xanth spoilers ahead! Enter at own risk!

For those of you familiar with my Holt rp thread, this is another like it. If you want to join in, feel free to drop me a PM! mrgreen This one is for my Xanth cosplays who will live and interact in and around New Castle Roogna. You know, once it is built.... sweatdrop

Reserved for a picture of New Castle Roogna once I have it!

No one was quite sure how it happened. They were each going about their own business, then suddenly they were in a new land. But... where? Worse, they were now magical creatures, they were... talking horses! But... how... why? Theories abounded, perhaps they were once again enscorclled in the gourds, perhaps someone had laid a horrible spell over them all. Bink suspected the second could not possibly be the case, but kept his mouth closed. A knowing glance between him and Trent assured that both knew the other had a similar thought on the issue. Good enough. Irene wanted to go find the Good Magician, but would he even be here? Bianca and Roland had appeared with them, despite not having been near them when they all teleported. Moreover, they were all back in their prime, all of them. How had that happened? How had any of this happened.

But first things first. King Trent organized them effectively and they established the basics. Their talents still worked. Having that verified went a long way towards calming everyone's fears. After all, if their magic worked, there was little that they could not do, and little that could threaten them! Then they established that they could in fact use their hooves as hands after a fashion. No fingers, but a magical adherence that did much the same job. With practice, they could rear back for a short while on their rear hooves, but it was hard to maintain. Again Bink and Trent shared a glance, each delivering half to the other. Swordsmanship would be no mean feat.

Trent had a theory of something that might work, but he preferred to save experimenting for later. He could try and transform them all back to humans, and theoretically his grandson could transform himself. However, in case there was something preventing them he preferred to wait until they were secure before testing his theory. And then he would try with Bink before anyone else, so the risk would be minimal. Was deciding to put this off sound logic, or the subtle acting of a devious magical talent? Either way, Trent realized that patience was prudent and held his tongue.

He organized them into a competent traveling party. They needed a safe base of operations, for the magic of this land was plentiful and unfamiliar - a dangerous combination! Trent and Bink took point, as they would be the most effective at nullifying a threat that came at them directly, and would be in the least danger. Irene, with her plant magic covered their rear. Dor stayed near to the front, querying the stones they passed to learn of the local dangers. Ivy stayed in the middle enhancing them all. Roland took one flank, ready to stun anyone who attacked from their side, and Iris took the other, ready to make illusionary dragons to scare off anything that threatened from that direction. Yes, they were most formidable indeed.

At one point, they encountered a... well... it almost looked like a giant purple butterfly, except that it carried no butter. Unfortunately, Chameleon was the first to notice it, ans she was in her Wynne-beauty phase. Somehow she had wandered to one side, and had spotted the thing, nearly as pretty as she was. She drifted towards it, reached out a hoof... suddenly the thing opened massive jaws and bit her. She cried out, drawing everyone's attention as she fell, her energy seeming to be drained from her. Suddenly everyone was where they had been, and Chameleon was reaching for the creature again. Roland tried to stun it, but as he could not find the eyes, nothing happened. Trent lunged, but could not make it in time, and they all watched in horror as once again Chameleon was attacked. Then everyone was back where they had been again, though Bianca looked exhausted. This time Roland stunned Chameleon. The creature had further to travel to meet the woman this time, because she was no longer moving to close the gap (not the chasm, thankfully!) and that gave Trent the time he needed to get to her in time. Sword or sorcery? No time to decide, except that this was the third attempt at this rescue, so he had already thought it out. In this form, he was too unsure of his swordsmanship and balance to strike true. Magic it was. He gestured as he landed beside Chameleon and suddenly the creature was a breadfruit tree. He had acted in haste, and thus it was imperfect. Oh it was completely a breadfruit tree, there was no trace of what it had been, not even the color, but it was an immature breadfruit tree, the loves not quite ripe. Well, there was one way to deal with that.

"GROW!" Irene ordered the tree, perceiving the difficulty at once.

The tree responded well to her magic. No question, their talents certainly worked well here! Soon they could all smell the aroma of fresh bread, which even Trent had to admit, smelled better than the mundane alternative which involved ovens. They all harvested the bread while Dor queried the ground. Apparently the creature was a variant of a butterfly, maybe that was why the breadfruit was so moist, but not one the local stones had recalled ever having seen it before. One of the stones, a real hard head, stubbornly insisted it must have come from Nightmare Valley. Apparently they were in a place called Dream Valley, but they hadn't seem Mare Imbri or had a single daydream since arriving, so they were unsure. Certainly if they were in the gourd though, they would be in Nightmare Valley, wouldn't they?

After they ate bread and drank from a Water-Lilly that Irene grew for them, they moved on, leaving behind the breadfruit tree, Water-Lilly, and the mystery of the odd creature.

Thankfully they found a clearing before night fell. There seemed to be no dangerous creatures here. Maybe that butterfly had been the main predator of the area, clearing out the other monsters. Good enough for now, though before long they were sure that other monsters would become aware that this territory was now fallow. Until then however, it seemed a lovely place to camp. They set up a watch rotation, and all entered a tacit agreement to keep a careful eye on Chameleon!

When the sun finally braved the sky again in the morning, they surveyed the large clearing they had camped in. It would make an excellent base of operation. Trent decided that they should settle here for a time, until they could find answers. And the others. Ivy said nothing, but she was fretting terribly over Grey and the kids. Dolph would never admit to missing Electra, and didn't dare admit to missing Nada! But in truth, all of them had people they were anxious over.

Before Trent could caution him against it, just in case, Dolph transformed himself into a Roc and scouted around, finding quite a few rocks, as Rocs often could. He brought them back, then took the form of a crane to lift the rocks into useable configurations. Irene used a mortar plant, and a cement plant, to grow additional materials, and construction slowly began on New Castle Roogna.

Chameleon was the first one to notice the new pony. Irene was taking a break, which really meant that it was her turn to keep an eye on the lovely but stupid pony she was sitting with.

Chameleon got up, smiling charmingly as she trotted over. "Hello!" she called.

Irene wanted to smack herself, but was not certain that hooves were capable of such things. She trotted along side, paying attention to any potentially defensive plants nearby. Curse these hooves for not being hands, she hated having to choose between carrying her bag and talking. She needed to learn to start carrying the bag in her mouth. At least until they found a better way. Maybe she could rig up a harness. But that was a concern for later. The good thing about this grove they found was that there seemed to be no predatory plants, however, the bad thing was there were no predatory plants. If this stranger turned out to be an enemy...

Bink spying the situation, slowly made his way over.

"Town?" Chameleon asked, her ears perking up. "We didn't see any town."

"We were wandering and found this local, unfortunately we encountered few others," Bink said, coming to stop aside his mate. "We would love to learn more about those who will be our neighbors."

Dor was still in the form of a crane, and chose not to advertise his abilities, just yet. But cranes were good at one thing above all else... moving heavy things from one place to another. Irene concealed her glee as her husband, bless him, set her bag of seeds beside her. She slipped subtly behind Chameleon and Bink, to find and prepare something decently defensive. Just in case.