Midnight comes down the tree and approaches the milky river.  He stretches out his pink tongue to taste it.  At last he pronounces, "It's milk.  It shouldn't be milk.  Why is it milk?"

Mephistopheles cancels his attack.  He once bit a toad, which looks a lot like a frog, and it tasted really bad.  Not something he feels like repeating.

Instead he asks the rather melodramatic creature, "When did this happen?  Was it a gradual change, or did it happen suddenly, quickly, and without warning?  Do you have any enemies who could cause this, that you know of?"

Then, as an afterthought, "Have you done anything that might have upset the Universe?"

"I wonder if there could be a connection to our companion's problem."

Fleabag offered this suggestion quite casually, not yet coming near to the milk to inspect it, but only regarding it at a distance. He was, of course, loathe to trust it.

Sir Percy steps back from the stream, though only after a measured pause and without any undue haste. It wouldn't do for one to allow some silly frog to think that he could order one around, after all.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:48, Fri 02 Oct 2020.

Sunny turns his head to the side to see if the frog makes more sense sideways. Alas, it was not to be. Turning his head the other way proved as fruitless, "Why wouldn't a cat drink milk?" He stepped close to sniff the river but refrained from drinking it. He then stood up and looked up and down the river, "Is it like this all the way up and down? Or just this section?"

Then he sniffed rather suddenly and made an angry sound, "Too many questions. I am not sure the answers will be able to find us." He looked at the others.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:30, Fri 02 Oct 2020.

The frog ignores Sunny's question.  Or, perhaps, assumes that it is intended to be rhetorical... or too dangerous to answer.  Instead he focuses on the facts, as he knows them.  "I don't believe I have done anything to annoy the Universe, though it has treated me most unfairly my whole life.  Nor do I have any enemies, as far as I know.  As for the change... I woke up today, and all was as you see it now, though it wasn't like this before I slept."

"I am a bit lazy, but I can give a flick or two of my tail to try and fix it, if you can help us out a bit, little friend." He trotted forward daintily, slowly, but with some purpose.

Mephistopheles moves aside to give Bones space to work, but not so far from the action that he won't be able to see what happens.

Miss Cuddles sat down on her haunches as several of her friends approached the toad and the river, listening and considering.  As Bones came forth and offered to try and make the milky river back to a proper river, she had a thought which she voiced quietly.

"Perhaps we need to find where the river starts and attempt to change it there - where it is weakest."

"But that could be a long way off, and in the opposite direc - " Mephistopheles trails off as he realises what he's saying.  "Could that be it?  The stream is to distract us, and take us away from our real goal in coming here?"

"Possibly..." Sir Percy says. He yawns. "But at the same time, it's a mystery, and mysteries need investigating. Perhaps two of us should go and examine the spring, while the others press on?"

"I'm not certain splitting up is a good idea, but it may be the best way to take on this dilemma."  Katerina glanced from her four-footed friends to the toad, and then back.  "Perhaps Mr Toad would be useful in helping to investigate the river's origin, as he is well-versed in its normal state."

The thought of working with another creature so different from herself made Miss Cuddles slightly anxious, however, if the toad was truly of the Kingdom of Dreams he may be useful in understanding what was happening.

Sunny still watches the treetops closely. You never knew when a bird might appear. The idea to split their group did not perturb him though. They were out helping a friend solve a problem. It might be big; it might be small. This matter of the river was curious indeed. He sort of wanted to know the answer. Since either path seemed equally interesting, he remained silent and let the others discuss it as he watched the trees and skies.

Il Comandante Midnight saw no problem.  "We're cats.  Splitting up is what we do best.  I shall go with the group going downriver.  We will know when the other group has succeeded and if they haven't, we'll come find them when we have."

"Dividing the group makes sense in this situation.  I will go to the spring." Mephistopheles says, after a brief pause for thought.  "But we should travel there fast so that we can be back together sooner, in case Fleabag's talents are required to deal with the name situation."

He shakes himself, and spreads a pair of colorful wings.

OOC: Today: Mephistopheles rolled 1 evens using 4d6 with the Advantage system ((1, 6, 1, 1)).

"I'll attend to the spring, also," Sir Percy says. "We'll be back in a jiffy."

He flicks his tail. To his embarrassment, nothing happens.

"I have changed my mind," he says with dignity. "I shall go downriver instead."

07:31, Today: Milk-Whiskers rolled 0 evens using 4d6 with the Advantage system ((1, 3, 3, 3)).

Midnight cocked his head on one side and looked at Mephistopheles.  "You know, you might be very helpful in watching for Bogginses.  Can you fly or are your wings for show."

Fluttering his wings, like some kind of giant butterfly, Mephistopheles rises majestically into the air.  "It seems that they are not just for show."

Seeing that The group had decided to split itself and that Mephistopheles had volunteered to go upstream, Sunny purr loudly and nodded, "Downstream it is for me. That way the two tomcats can watch over the smaller folk." Rolling his body as he stood, he stretched his feet out in front of him, spreading his toes and yawning widely, the rolled his body as if shaking off invisible dust.

Sunny then began to amble at a cat's pace, which was exactly as fast as he should go, along the milky river. "It's also quite nice for watching for birds. Beware of birds." Sunny cast suspicious stares at the tree branches.

A ripple seems to spread across the surface of the milk, expanding from where P-P's tail never quite touched the surface, even though, in the Waking World, the stream would be flowing too fast for such a distinct ripple to form.  Briefly the liquid becomes rapidly moving water - a clearly defined patch that is carried away downstream, without breaking up, to be replaced by more milk. 

The frog looks at Mephistopheles curiously, "What name situation?  Is that how my stream changed?  Somebody gave it a new name?"

Mister Pig yowls piteously, staring at the frog with a horrified look on his face,  "What if somebody changes my name and I turn into something else?"

"Who's to say? Names are powerful things, Dreamcatcher. Wonderful wings, dear Dancer." Bones trotted on down to find the source of the spring, giving idle flicks to warm up his tail as he noticed the ripple in the water.

Since it had been her idea, Miss Cuddles joined Bones and Mephistopheles in the search for the source of the river, however, before she turned to trot after her friends, she looked at the toad.

"So, Mr Toad, do you think you might be able to help us save your home?"

Bones took a moment to turn back. "Yes, Mr. Toad. Come help us fix the river. You'll be very glad to see it firsthand."

'We shall endeavor to find out, kind Sir Frog,' says Tickles as she appears to shimmer and grown and suddenly looks as she always seemingly had -- like a large, black panther with fluffy wings and a lick of flames shooting out of her nose.

'I surmise that the tree might be the root of the problem,' she deadpans and blinks at the others before a flap of her mighty fluffy wings lifts her from the ground.  Backpaws briefly dragging on the ground she starts to lazy circle, tilting her head in half a bow to the frog with a river issue.

"Indeed. The more the merrier, mrrrr?"