Welcome to Gaia! ::

"My name is not Birchwood," she said, moving slightly away from his hand - it was extraordinarily warm. Normally, she gravitated towards warmth like a moth towards a flame, but she had been reading that it was not always wise to treat strange boils as solely a source of warmth. "And I highly doubt there are carriages, otherwise surely the driver would have procured one. Why - do you know how to drive one?" She asked with interested, head tilting. The idea of the small imp being in control of a team of horses or whatever equivalent was highly amusing. Hollandaise was used to meeting all manner of creeple taller than her, not one so significantly shorter.

She blinked, breaking herself free from the mental image of a scaled-down carriage. "As for your other questions, I do not know. Perhaps we can ask the villagers?" The hovered at the edges of the fog, cloaked, uninviting. It did not seem like a good idea, but it was the only one she had.

"Why can't you walk," she blurted out abruptly.

Hollandaise visibly recoiled at TG's suggestion, hands flying up to her leaves. "My shoulders," she said frostily, "-are not for sitting upon. Do you want to hurt me? Maybe you should purchase a skateboard." And with one last, quelling look at TG, she walked over to a villager. Perhaps she would have better luck.

"Hello, as you may have noticed, our bus stranded us here. Would you be so kind as to tell us more about your town? And, perhaps, directions back to Amityville?" And then she waited, hopefully.



Hollandaise glanced over her shoulder, and then back at the villager. They continued to wave, but not at her. In fact, the cloaked figure acted like she wasn't there! "I, ah, I can see you are quite busy right now. I apologize for any disturbance." And then, because she didn't have anything better to do, she walked back to TG.

"They are not very forthcoming, are they?"

"A skateboard would help with your leg issues," she pointed out helpfully. The very idea that he could not get around under his power was horrifying to her - Hollandaise lived for summer nights spent running through forests, darting from shadow to shadows and lightning bugs zipped and zapped all around her. She wondered if TG ran. Deciding that, in the end, it did not exactly matter, she returned to the mission at hand. Answers were important. She wasn't miffed at her own previous failure, at least not yet; creeple here were simply wary, surely. perhaps a little too quick to turn up their hoods. But at TG's humorous ire (he, no doubt, did not find it amusing, but Hollandaise did), her eyebrows rose. "Yes, because setting their clothing on fire shall surely endear you to them." She was about to suggest a softer, more gentle approach... Then TG came out with a truly horrible suggestion again.

"NO," she said forcefully, resisting the urge to screech it out. "I am not to be ridden in any way, shape, or form. I am delicate - you would crush my leaves! If you want to ride someone I suggest you find a bridle and someone unsuspecting. Or turn some of your considerable charm onto the villagers." With that, she hmped and walked towards a villager before he could try to clamber on her. Hollandaise's hands stroked her leaves, a small, reassuring gesture. A small stream ran through the town and he looked as though he were fishing. Harmless, right? But, just as she opened her mouth -



She looked curiously at the villager. "What did you catch?" No answer. "May I try?" No answer. Hollandaise blinked. Was everyone here deaf or mute? She kicked a rock rather spitefully into the stream. It splashed and something darted away, its movement as invisible as sunlight. "I am sure there is something far, far more worthwhile my time." she said to TG. And there was, and she would go find it, leaving TG to cool his heels.