Naomi rubbed her head as she tried to get a bit more of a hold on things. It was difficult. Really difficult. She knew science and math really well. She was good at those! They made the world make sense! Gravity worked because things fell on eachother. Space was space and ground was ground. Everything normally made so much sense, especially when she was reading her science books. B-but this..this was wrong! It shouldn't work that way! Shadows were shadows and clowns were clowns. He coudln't just become any shadow! Life didn't work that way. Life was supposed to make sense. It was supposed to! Really! She bit her lip a little bit in annoyance. This was...it didn't make any sense! She mumbled to herself a little bit. "I see...but if the book just babbles, how do you get it to do things then?" She said, tilting her head. "Don't you need to say a spell to make it work?" That was how it worked in the stories. The kind of stupid stories that Naomi, a science lady, with a good reading level was too old to read! She didn't comment on it being called the Babble Book...that made sense as far as she understood it.

"Well, it can't actually hurt Cherrywinks. It was made by the Fortune Teller to attract kids to the circus. That's why it knows where they are. But each time, it brings you to a place, to where a kid is, usually Cherrywinks or someone from that Circus is going to be there soon, if they aren't already. Each time we learned a bit about weaknesses."

"She looked at Henri. Yeah, the noses. It took us four kids to find out about that. How did you know?"

"But do you need a spell to make it work?" Bobby asked again, reiterating Naomi's question

"You just have to touch it. And, I don't know, think hard. That's the only way I can describe it. Like  you're pretending, but  you're not."

Ron moved to sit near Dawn, taking a bite of his own sandwich and chewing while the others discussed magic, spells and books.  Still half-listening to the others talk, he speaks quietly to his sister. "Did you sleep okay?"

Listening to the others talk about books reminded Henri of the book that started it all for him.  "It was in the Pet Shop.  A Clown Bird told me about the noses.  But it wasn't a real bird, I think it was a soul-bird.  A victim's soul made to look like a bird maybe."  Henri paused and sipped water.  "But it started with a book."

"Yeah." Dawn said to Ron and she began to yawn a wide, deep yawn. "I'm still a little tired. I had a dream that we were back home on the farm. Then it turned out we weren't, or aren't."

She stretched. "Ron, when are we gonna go home?"

"That's why you've go to get your name off Cherrywink's list. And the other kids too. He can come at any time. But mostly at night. You probably didn't even realize that you were gone until you were."

"Maybe one day I'll get off his list so I can leave this place." she mused, philosophically. And there was a bit of choked-up sadness in her voice.

"The pet store might be a place that he made for the Circus or something. I'm not sure. We made a mistake in not writing this stuff down into the Babble Book. So when kids went out and they got caught or disappeared, a lot of the knowledge went with them." 

"Totally....weird." Bradford said, completely in a state of awe at what was being said. The sandwich, it appeared, would have to wait.

Ron shrugged at Dawn's question.  "I dunno, but it might be a little while.  And you have to stay indoors while we're here.  There are...bad people outside and they might hurt you, but they can't get in here."  Ron turns his attention back to the discussion.  "Bradford and me got a note from someone named Ralph that said that he'd been turned into a goldfish by the bad things and the evil circus.  That was before we ever got here."

"Yeah!" Bradford said, suddenly remembering. "We were fishing, it was a while back, maybe a year ago. I totally forgot about that. It sounds like it might be related. We found the note in a bottle. It was really strange. We didn't think nothin' about it at the time."

"I thought it was just some old bottle. But what was really weird is that it called Ron out by name. Almost like the kid who wrote it, was really writing it to Ron."

"Whoever it was, was also probably on his list." She said to Ron "Maybe even was at the Circus, like you were at the pet store." She motioned to Henri.

"Maybe they got to the Fortune Teller's tent or found some other way to communicate to you. The Evil Circus is filled with artifact like the Babble Book. It's just that the Babble Book is the only one that kids managed to steal and bring back here."

"Or maybe it was just a coincidence." Bobby said, playing a little more than Devil's advocate, taking the opposite position.

Henri frowned, trying to think and process what everyone was saying.  "Perhaps everyone should write down their story and all that they can remember.  Everything that they heard or saw."

"Do you want to write it down in the Babble Book? It will probably make you feel better." April offered.

If that is where you have to write things, then yes.  But if there is somewhere else to write then perhaps it should be written there also," he replied.  "But first I would like to get cleaned up.  This stuff on me makes me feel slimy," he said indicating the slick substance soaking his clothes.  "And something else to wear if you have it."

"I'd give  you some hero clothing." Bobby said to Henri. "Because you did something hero-y. You did it, even though it was scary. That's what Duke would have done, even though Cobra Commander can turn into an actual snake." he observed.

"Where is this Babble Book?" Bradford asked, in a tone that was somewhat annoyed or impatient.

"Can we get him some help first. I mean, the clothes are what he's asking for. Also, I don't think I can possibly survive on these cheese sandwiches much longer.  Sheesh!"

"Alright." April said, getting up and dusting some of the slick, foul-smelling oil that Henri had been in off of her clothes. Or at least she tried to get it off, but only ended up making her own hands wet with oil.

"I'll be right back. I think we have some blankets or something."

"Oh, and don't forget what happened. You'll want to write it down." she told Henri

And with that, she got up and left.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:47, Sun 16 Oct 2016.

A few moments later, Dawn was talking to Ron and that's when the sound happened again.

It was a ruffling sound. The sound of crisp paper. Only this time it was louder and everyone could hear it. There was a dragging, scraping sound on the wooden floor. Henri looked up, and to his surprise he saw a leather-bound book, thick and old.

But it wasn't just lying there on the floor. It was moving. It was waddling. Waddling over to him. It didn't have legs. But it moved as if it did. Each corner on the bottom balanced the book, while the other corner moved forward. It scraped along, it's edges pushing hard against the worn wooden panels of the floor.

As it came closer, Henri could see that the book was leathery and old. Finally, it came to a stop right near him, the book opened to reveal old, blank pages.

It was like something right out of Merlin and the Sword and the Stone.

"Whwhw..th..thh..thh...!" Bradford stammered, pointing at the book.

"It's moving!" He yelled, hopping up from the mess of blankets and pillows the kids had slept in and jumping behind the couch to hide.

Henri stared at the spectacle of the Book moving under it's own power, and looking like it was heading right towards him though at a pace that even a toddler could outrun.  Part of his brain was trying to panic, but he ignored it easily.  This was not even in the top ten of strange things he had seen lately.  He spoke to the Book as if it could understand him, and maybe it could.  "Hey, Book, be patient.  I will write in you when I have gotten cleaned up"

Ron watched in wonder as the book "walked" up to Henri.  He looked over the younger boy's shoulder at the blank pages and laughed at Henri's comment. "Yeah, I guess it's acting a bit like a dog that wants to go for a walk!" 

"What the heck is that!!!?" Bobby yelled in his largest display of emotion of the night.

"It's moving. It's actually moving."

April came back with some rags and didn't even seem to pay attention to the book. She walked right by it and began to clean Henri up. She placed a neatly folded pair of baggy clothes next to him. They smelled like moth balls, as if they hadn't been worn in a while. Brown slacks and a stiff button down shirt.

"Oh. I forgot to mention something about the Babble Book." April said. "From time to time, it wants stuff. And if you don't give it what it wants, and I mean when it wants it, then, it starts to Babble really loud."

"We lost a kid to Cherrywinks clown because of it. The story goes that it was showing him how to save a kid and then it wanted something. It babbled so loud that Cherrywinks was alerted to him."