Shawn kept Bobby and Ralph going until they found some sort of cover, just in case the dragon came back. He panted with exertion. "They got...Bradford." For a moment, the mean little part of him thought that he deserved it, but the far more practical rest of him realised that he was the only one who knew how to get out of here!

Delilah pumped her arms and legs, but felt as if she were running through syrup. Being dead must be terrible for the body.

A scream behind her turned her head. Her eyes went wide and her mouth hung open. She skid to a stop and ran back towards the beast. But it was already carrying the boy away.

"BRAAAAAADFOOORRRD! COME BAAAAACK!"

"Holy Hell!" Penelope yelled. Her hands came up to her cheeks and she said in a quiet whisper that everyone could hear.

"he's gone."

Tiffany looked around and started to cry again.

"I...*sniff*..want...*sniff*...to go....HOME!!!!"

Delilah screamed her frustration at Tiffany. "We all wanna go home! But Bradford's the one who knows the way!" Delilah waved her arm at the mountain.

Can we see any other destinations around?

Shawn squinted off in the distant, suppressing panic as he did. Which way was the dragon going? How were they going to find their way anywhere without Bradford? He knew he wasn't brave, but maybe he could act brave? "We can still go home, we just have to figure it out, okay?"

The question of where the kids would go was suddenly pressing upon everyone as the panic spread. There was a moment of collective consciousness, where everyone was looking around to see where they were, and what the possible options they had.

One obvious sight that everyone was already staring at, was the mountain where the dragon had flown to with Bradford. The mountain lay in the distance like a ridiculous green camel hump or perhaps the nose of a slumbering giant turned to rock. Bobby held out his hands to make a 'picture frame.' It fitted right in, a perfect photograph; from here it even looked two dimensional.

"I wonder how high it is." Bobby said absently, turning his head to look to the right.

And off to the right there were open plains. Unlike the previous path that was penned in by the large mountain, here you could see red sky in every direction to the horizon where it met with the golden color of the wheat that grew out of the plains. All those open plains were punctuated by the occasional odd, lonely tree and the long strands of angry clouds being dragged across the sky by the wind.

"I bet you could watch your dog run away for a month" Bobby said, to no  one in particular. There really was no cover, no hills, nothing to block the view on the path to plains.

Finally Bobby fixed his gaze at the final path: a forest.

Looking at the forest at the edge of their current location in the hills brought to mind the smell of damp leaves. Bobby and the rest of the kids could see the splash of water from a stream, cascades over tiny waterfalls and fungus on rotting tree stumps that marked the edge of the dark forest. Delilah could hear the rustle of
birds as wind stirred the tree branches.

"That forest goes on forever." Bobby observed, commenting on the third and final land mark from where the kids stood.
This message was last edited by the player at 12:03, Sun 22 Apr 2018.

Delilah surveyed the terrain. The mountain looked impossible: the distance to reach it, the craggy height of it. Plus, it must be swarming with dragons. The forest was mysterious: all shifting shadows and secret sounds. And the plain looked endless. She shut her eyes tight. Her hands stroked the length of her hair over and over, faster each time. Her mouth moved. She whispered counting down from ten. Once she reached zero she swiped her hand across her nose and straightened up.

"Alright! Listen up! We gotta find that thing Bradford was on about. Then, we gotta find Bradford." She bit her lip and looked again from the mountain to the plain to the forest and back. "He said... he said we gotta go to the great rock. Is that it?" She pointed at the mountain and looked around for some confirmation.

Shawn knows that Delilah's not going to want to listen to him, but the situation's too desperate to stay silent. "Dragons like treasure, right? I bet wherever it took Bradford's close to whatever we're looking for."

"In th..th..th..the stories." Ralph stammered. "Th..th..th..the dragon always has treasure. It could be a mou..mou...moutain of gold. Or a..a..a..a..a..princess."

"A princess" Bobby repeated, letting the word work itself around in his mouth as if the concept was unfamiliar. "A princess. A princess..."

"Delilah is right. We need to go to that mountain and break that dragon. The rock probably is the mountain. I love breaking stuff. And I know that that dragon is scary. So even if we don't get the dragon, we'll at least get Bradford. That's probably the only way we're going to get home is if we have him tell us somehow to get back."

"If this isn't all just a dream." She postulated.

"But even if it is a dream. It seems like getting Bradford at that mountain might be the only real shot that we have to wake up. And also, like you said, or he said, we need to find it."

"That's what Bradford called it. It."

Delilah gawked at Penelope. It was like looking back through time or seeing her own ghost. She shook her head slowly, solemnly.

"It's notta dream."

Shawn glanced back and forth between the forgetful Bobby, the very young Ralph, and the crying Tiffany. "...Maybe we should split up. Tiffany, Bobby, and Ralph can hide near the house to make sure it still safe?"

Delilah's eyes narrowed as Shawn spoke up. "Don't you think you're going to weasel out this time."

"NO!" Tiffany yelled in desperation. She suddenly stood up, brushed her pants off and tried to speak. But the sniffles caught her breath and the best she could manage was a stammer. Then she cleared her throat and rubbed her eyes before managing a single sentence.

"I...*sniff*...I'll be good." she promised, not saying exactly what she meant by 'good' although the gesture seemed to indicate that she didn't want to be left alone and was against the idea of splitting up.

Shawn raised his hands defensively. "I'm not trying to weasel out of anything. But Ralph and Bobby are my responsibility..."

"I..I..i..I know that we're alone." Ralph said, standing up from where he tripped to address everyone.

"..and..and..and..i know I'm the youngest." Ralph affirmed, acknowledging something that everyone knew was true. He could, of course, add fattest and shortest, but he didn't.

"But th..th..th..this is the time for us to stick together. B...b..b..Bradford said that we're dead in the re..re..real world. I've been here before. Th..th..this is the underworld. Th..th..this is the place where bad things...h..h..h..happen."

"I should tell you" He said, now addressing everyone else except Shawn and Bobby. "I..I'm not from here. I'm from somewhere else. N..n..nobody knows where my family is...and n..n..n..nobody knows how to get them back. I l..ll..live with Shawn. B....B..but I'm not from L.A." Ralph confessed, kneading his hands with nervousness as he layed his story out for everyone to hear.

"S..s..so I know I'm the youngest. But I've been here before. I'm lost. I d...d..don't have no family no more. So I know the Underworld when I see it. We..."

"We need to stick together. We d..d...d..don't have much time."

"You know?" Delilah's jaw dropped. It was hard to believe that a baby like Ralph had made it through The Circus.

"Alright, we're all sticking together. So nobody gets snatched. Or double-crosses anyone." She marched along in front of the group, but her eyes were hard on Shawn. "We're gonna go to that Krinner Mountain. And we're gonna get Bradford. And the thing. And go home. So no more crying! And no more lying about an-y-thing! If you're gonna be a crybaby or a turd, then you get left behind, got it? Let's move out!"

She aimed her finger at the mountain.

Shawn mostly ignores Delilah's speech, instead making sure he's close to Ralph and Bobby - they were the two he was really worried about. If anything happened to them...he wasn't sure what he'd do if they found Bradford...

"What's a Krinner?" Bobby asked stupidly.

As Shawn sidled up to both Ralph and Bobby, Delilah found herself close to Penelope. And now Tiffany, who had edged closer to Delilah after the speech.

It was a typical middle-school dance scenario with boys on one side and girls on the other.

"Alright." Tiffany said, sniffing once again and rubbing her face. "So...we should go." She suggested, perhaps as much hoping to get on with things as well as having everyone forget about her epic meltdown.

"It's another name for the place we are, Bobby." Shawn kept his voice reassuring, knowing it wasn't what he said that mattered, but more how he said it. He looked over at the girls, clearly waiting for them to take the lead.

Delilah felt good about standing with the other girls. Even if Tiff was a crybaby. She turned to the distant mountain. She had to psyche herself up.

"Let's go."

OOC: Shawn and Delilah Join Thread

Shawn, Delilah: Heading Towards the Mountain...