The kids walked for what felt like forever.

Delilah watched Ralph as he ambled forward up the side road. His laces were once white but now they were a rusty brown with dust and the soles were as worn as her own. Ralph's laces trailed on the ground, over-long as they were and frayed like some old goat-tether. With each step Delilah watched the lace flop in its random pattern, random and predictable at the same time.

The sky had grown an angry purple, mixing with the smeared red and creating an over-cast that brought a shadow over the mountain and the side trail the kids were walking on.

Mr. Clayton bounced up and down as he led the kids up the side road with a buoyancy that made him look like the Pied Piper.

Looming up from behind the curved road up ahead, was a large tree. Even from this distance they could see it provided a large, darker shade. The tree had a sweeping canopy of light yellow leaves that poked out from behind a curve as they got closer.

Shawn didn't like the way Mr. Clayton was moving - it was unnatural, just wrong somehow. He was keeping close watch on Bobby and Ralph, and when he noticed that Ralph shoe had come undone, he quickly took the younger boy off to the side and tied it up real quick. If they had to run, it might save both of their lives.

When they rounded the curve and saw the tree, he squinted at it without breaking strike. It didn't look all that dangerous.

Delilah marched along. She was glad to be with the group. The sky was turning horrible, bruised colors and she was very afraid of what would come out of the dark in a place like this.

She noticed Shawn stop to tie Ralph's shoe, but didn't dwell on it. Shoelaces came untied. He probably wasn't trying anything sneaky by tying it. Probably.

Then she noticed the willow.

"We made it!" She looked to Tiffany, to see if she was still sniffling, and to Penelope. Finding the tree was part one. It gave Delilah a sense of accomplishment and hope. She hoped the other girls felt the same. "What do we do now, Mr. Clayton?" She was all ears.

"Someone has to go first. Someone has to pass through the Willow first." Mr. Clayton said buoyantly, looking around for volunteers. Then, the cords slackened and he collapsed into a heap. One cord tightened, allowing him to lift his head up.

"Uhhhh." He groaned. "The case..." he said weakly. "the case....." a tone of panic in his voice, as the strength of what he was saying faded.

"i...need someone to put me in my..case...."

"Hang on," Delilah said helpfully. She knelt beside the puppet and opened the case.

Clayton's eyes still reminded her of a mean cat, but he was just trying to help.

Delilah's eyes scanned the kids' faces with a question: Who's first? Her gaze fell on Shawn.

Shawn didn't like looking at Mr. Clayton, so he didn't notice Delilah's stares for a moment or two. When he did, he froze for a second, then nodded his head. "I'll go first." He started walking towards the tree. It wasn't bravery, not really. But it looked like it, and maybe if he showed some sort of personal courage, the others would be more likely to listen to him over Delilah.

There was a collective sigh on behalf of Bobby, Ralph and Tiffany. Ralph's shoulder's sank and he slumped to lean against a nearby plant, before recoiling as its spindly leaves began to move.

Tiffany sniffled a bit, but was no longer crying. She rubbed at her eyes and face.

Bobby shook his head put his lips together in relief as if he was about to whistle, but he didn't.

Mr. Clayton slithered into the case, dragging his legs as if he was paralyzed. Once in the case, his arms reached out to collect those limp legs and tuck them into the wooden pile that was now his body.

The wires from the sky suddenly lashed out, as if they were disconnecting. The moved with speed from up high, coming down into the box like some kind of string, wind-up toy. With a 'zip' they retracted. Then the case closed with a 'snap.'

And just like that Mr. Clayton was in there.

That's when Penelope said "I don't like that puppet. He gives me the heeby-jeebiez. He's creepy. I don't trust creepy things."

Then, turning to Shawn "You're first?"

The question was posed in a manner that suggested 'are you sure you want to do this?'
This message was last edited by the player at 00:05, Sat 19 May 2018.

Shawn gave Penelope a slightly relieved look at her comment about Mr. Clayton. "I've seen Pinocchio - he wants to be a real boy, and I just know he's gonna do something bad to Bradford to make it happen."

At her question, though, he nodded seriously and puffed up his chest, trying to seem far braver and more inspiring than he was. "Yeah, I should go first. If anything bad happens to me, take care of Bobby and Ralph, okay?" Then he marched off towards the tree.

The kids huddled in behind Shawn as he made his decision, placing one foot over the other and managing to move towards the Weeping Willow tree's veil of branches that draped across the ground like a curtain. As Shawn got closer, he saw the tree was anywhere between 30 and 40 feet tall, bark a brownish-gray color, with grooves in it. The branches, on the other hand, had soft, even surfaces. The leaves were a deep yellowish-green, light brownish-yellow, and narrow. When he got closer to the tree, he stepped into it's shadow which was long and towering.

Though Shawn was the only one experiencing what was happening, the other children were well aware that he was experiencing something. The began to realize, to the extent that children can, that the shadow cast upon him was one of both space and time by something moving in this twisted dimension below the visible universe that they called their daily lives. Somewhere deep inside they knew this. Perhaps it was in their dreams when they brushed up against the truth, when their defenses were down for maintenance, that’s when pieces of this secret world normally slipped through.

Shawn, who was now clearly heading toward the curtain of the tree's branches, felt an involuntary idea press into it his head.

Delilah watched cautiously. She knew something was in the trees watching them all. She held still, afraid of drawing it's attention.

She crossed her fingers and silently prayed for something terrible to happen to Shawn.

Shawn just tried to keep walking, even as something tried to push its way into his mind.

Shawn passed through the veil of Willow Tree, felt its soft, hanging branches drape over his back and head. And with that touch, came a dawning and sudden realization.


OOC: Shawn Rolls Occult + Wits. Failure results in everyone learning the same knowledge Shawn learned.

"He l...l...l..l..l..looks OK." Ralph said, waving to Shawn, where he stood on the other side of the Willow's veil.

"Oh Brother!" Bobby said, relieved.

"Whose next?" Tiffany asked, taking a step back as if to make sure that it wasn't her. Still, she said in a way in which she was about to dictate. Like a teacher says something like 'if you guys can't decide, then I will.'

OOC: 10:30, Today: Shawn Cramer rolled 1 success using 3d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling 10s with rolls of 3,9,1. Occult + Wits.

Shawn felt that the knowledge was about to leave his brain, but he tightened his stomach and held his breath. Perhaps out of learning what he learned, but also perhaps out of an instinctual reaction or some other reason.

It all happened so fast.

Then suddenly, Penelope stepped forward.

"I'll go. I'll just mosey on down past those branches." She joked, although there was no humor in her voice and it wasn't convincing. She stepped forward cautiously, as if the tree might bite. "Here I come Shawn. You still alive?" She asked through the curtain of branches that separated Shawn from the group.

Shawn called out through the trees. "I'm okay! It just...it feels kinda weird!"

Delilah stared at Shawn as he emerged from the willow's branches. She sat back on her heels, wondering if it was a trick and he'd somehow faked it. Then Penelope went into the tree's shadow. Delilah held her breath.

"Yoddle-Loddle-LAY-HEE-HOO!" Penelope yelled and ran through the branches, punching and kicking them abrasively as she passed through the brush to the other side.

01:00, Today: Penelope rolled 1 success using 3d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling 10s ((8,2,2)).

There was a sudden stirring in each kid's mind, as if the Tree was about to reveal some secret. And then....nothing.

"I made it!" Penelope announced, pumping her fist in the air. "How's that for a little razzle-dazzle!?  I should've broke a branch off, ya know? For like a souvenir."

Shawn breathed out a sigh of relief. "Nice! Did you learn anything cool?"

Delilah was confused. Not only did the Willow of Truth not wallop a liar like Shawn, but Penelope was actually happy about what she'd learned. Maybe this wasn't something scary at all.

"Outta my way. I'm next."

"No." Penelope said shaking her head. "It's a stupid tree. What's there to learn?"


OOC: Shawn Rolls Wits + Empathy

Delilah Rolls Occult + Wits

12:40, Today: Delilah Gray rolled 1 success using 3d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling 10s.  To the Willow of Truth!

Delilah's stride slowed as she approached the tree. She looked up to the height of it, then parted the curtain of leafy reeds to enter the shade.

OOC: 16:17, Today: Shawn Cramer failed (no successes) using 3d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling 10s with rolls of 6,3,1. Wits + Empathy.

"Nope." Penelope shook her head at Shawn. "Nothing at all. I didn't learn a thing from that stupid tree."

Meanwhile both Penelope and Shawn watched as Delilah strode forward towards the tree, ducking under its low-hanging branches and placing herself in the canopy of its drooping embrace.

A thought came to Delilah's mind.

It was two thoughts. And each thought weaved in and out of her mind, like someone who had woken up and was trying to quickly put together pieces of a dream before they vanished. These two thoughts crystallized into two distinct choices of truth, neither of which would be revealed to any of the kids, Delilah was sure.

Delilah felt the intrusion of The Truth in her head. She didn't know where the words were coming from and she couldn't shut them out. But she could only concentrate on one. She shut her eyes and extended her index finger to pin down The Truth with a game of Eenie Meenie Minie Moe.

My mother told me to pick the very best one and you are not it!

Delilah emerged from the curtain of the Willow tree onto the other side. A strange, buzzing sensation tingled the tips of her fingers and settled into the front of her forehead.

"I don't want to go through that." Bobby said, shaking his head.

"I..i...i..i..i..i..think that you..you..you should go." Ralph said to Tiffany.

"Me?" Tiffany asked. "Nuh-uh." She shook her head. "That's very for-duty-ist of you to say that. But I think you should go, not me." and she looked around to see if anyone caught that she had used a big word.

Shawn called out through the tree branches. "We shouldn't argue - just come on through, Ralph. It's not important, it just means you're braver than Tiffany, is all." It was not his most subtle bit of reverse psychology, but he was grappling with weird revelations of him own at the moment.

Ralph took a step forward. "I..i.i..I feel a little b.b..b..b..b..b.bit strange." He announced to the group, moving forward with a waddle that was unbalanced and full of trepidation.

"Oh..ok." He said touching the tree and parting the branched to move past the Weeping Willow's dense structure.


08:03, Today: Evil Circus - Ralph failed (no successes) using 1d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling 10s ((1)).

It was then that the idea crossed everyone's mind. At first it was just a vague possibility. But then it became a clear, undeniable truth that resonated with the firm structure of confidence and belief in every kid's mind:

At one time, Ralph was very, very angry at Shawn and had truly considered betraying Shawn to the Circus.

It was true that Ralph had not, in fact, betrayed Shawn. But that he had come very close to betraying Shawn. And that such betrayal at that time, might have killed Shawn.

When Ralph emerged from the structure to the other side of the tree where Delilah and Penelope and Shawn were waiting, he was crying.

Shawn immediately ran forward and embraced Ralph into a firm hug. "It's okay, it's okay. What's important is that you didn't do it, okay? You were really brave." He wasn't sure how much of that he meant - he didn't have time to sort through his feelings right now. But he had to keep Ralph functional, and...maybe being nice to Ralph despite this would make the other kids like him more. It was a dirty, mercenary thought that Shawn resented he'd even thought of, but it was definitely there.

Delilah crossed her arms and kicked at the dirt.

"I wish you did it," she grumbled. "Then none of us would be here."

"I..i..i..i..i..i..i..i." Ralph said before collapsing into Shawn's arms.

"I'm sorry!" He yelled, tears now flowing down his face.

"Sheesh." Penelope observed.

Shawn squeezed Ralph even tighter, holding him for a moment. Then, when Ralph's sobs had subsided, he gently let the kid go and called over to the other side of the tree. "Okay, Bobby, you should go next!" Shawn didn't think it'd be a good idea to let Bobby be by himself on the other side of the tree.

Bobby headed down towards the solitary Tree that seemed to not be directly connected to the strange land nor any of the strange plants on  either side of the path. The Willow Tree was given ample space to spread out into the surrounding air space spilling over abundantly onto the worn mountain path the kids had traveled.

Bobby now approached the veil of leaves and branches of the Willow Tree with a cautious look on his face.


04:39, Today: Bobby failed (no successes) using 1d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling 10s ((5)).

When Bobby emerged past the veil there was an angry look on his face. The look was directed at Shawn. He took several strides forward, almost breaking out into a run like he was going to hunt Shawn down. It looked like a fight was going to break out, just like any kid had seen at the school yard.

However, as Bobby became to run, his face softened as if he had forgotten what it was that was making him so angry. By the time he approached Shawn, his face grew slack and tired, the fury of his footsteps slowed to a trot and then to a mild walk.

He stopped a few feet in front of Shawn.

"Oh, brother! That was weird." He announced.

No one knew what Bobby had learned. And judging by the confused look on his face, it was possible that Bobby himself had already forgotten.

Shawn had felt his stomach drop out of its bottom when he saw the look on Bobby's face, and a surge of relief as it went away, replaced by his usual affable confusion. He gave Bobby
a friendly pat on the back. "Tiffany! You'd better come across now!""

Or had they...?

There was a sudden sense that perhaps Bobby might have known what had made him forget. And this thought crossed everyone else's mind. Just as it was about to materialize into an actual thought that each kid might share, Tiffany ran forward eager not to be left behind. She pushed through the veil and towards the group.


20:43, Today: Shawn's Neighbor - Tiffany Wilson failed (no successes) using 1d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling 10s ((6)).

Tiffany, the kids learned, as the young girl meandered through the Willow Tree's branches, had done something very, very bad once. It was a secret that up until now, only Tiffany knew. But now everyone would know. Tiffany was responsible for someone's death.

Last summer she had been playing around on the driveway before the Wilson's had moved to L.A. It was there that she had opened the car door and disengaged the emergency brake of the vehicle. It was an accident, but one that would cause the car to roll backwards into the middle of the road where another car, driven by a young 17 year old girl would have to swerve to avoid it. Unfortunately, that girl hit a tree, ending her life at a young age.

"I didn't do it!" Tiffany yelled at the group. But her voice was unconvincing. It was a lie. And everyone knew it.

Shawn looked at Tiffany with shock and sadness. But he tried to say something vaguely comforting. "You didn't mean it, though. It wasn't your fault." That was the important bit, right? If you didn't want anybody hurt, it wasn't a bad thing, right?

"Yes you did," Delilah whispered. Shawn was right, it was an accident. But Delilah was stuck on how to respond. She'd never considered a goody-goody like Tiffany could have made such a terrible mistake.

Tiffany kept saying something about how she didn't do it, or didn't mean to do it. But given the sight before them on the other side of the Willow Tree, her justifications faded into background for just a second.

The environment on the other side of the Tree was different. The path itself, which had been dusty, was now lined with cobblestones leading up to large hill. And on top of that hill, the path divided into too.  The sky was a gray-blue, with smears of muddy brown as if it had been dunked in water and was now at the bottom of a pond.

Under previous circumstances, Bradford or Clayton would have been there to guide them. But Bradford was gone and the case that Delilah had next to her was still and at rest.

"Up there." Penelope pointed, signalling that the path divided, something that everyone except the complaining Tiffany had already seen and noted.

"L...l...l...look" Ralph said, squinting uphill. "There's a...a..a..a..a..a..a..a..a..a sign." he said, taking several steps forward.

It was true.

There was an old wooden sign. On the top a wooden arrow pegged to the old post pointed towards the right with the words "Crazy Crazy Town."

Just below, a lopsided wooden arrow pointed to the left and red "The Egg Briar Patch."

"Crazy, Crazy Town." Bobby repeated, a distant tone in his voice. "I wonder what that means."

"And Briar Patch." Tiffany was quick to say, rejoining the conversation and seemingly happy that the focus, at least for the moment, had shifted to something else besides the Willow Tree.

"Egg Briar Patch." Penelope corrected Tiffany and the two girls gave each other dirty looks.

Shawn looked at the two directions, trying to see if there were any obvious differences in what they looked like or where they went. "Briars seem like they'd hurt..."

"It's a Briar Patch," she said simply to quell the argument between the two girls. Delilah had no idea what an egg briar was, but it didn't sound good. She knew what a briar patch was, though. But a crazy town...? "Crazy Crazy Town sounds really creepy."

Creepier than living puppets. Delilah picked up Mr. Clayton's case. "This place has a red sky and flying dragon monsters. That's crazy. Over there might be double crazy."


She looked at the two paths. "We gotta get that instrument thing to stop all of this. But I think we should try the briar patch, you guys.."

“It’s not just a briar patch. It’s an egg briar patch. You know what lays eggs? Dragons.” Shawn pointed at the top of the mountain for emphasis. “If this place is crazy, maybe Crazy Town is normal. ‘Cause what’s crazier in a crazy place? I think we should go through Crazy Town.”

"Ha! You're crazier than crazy if you think that Crazy Crazy town isn't crazy!" Penelope quirked, and she gave a little dance in a circle to demonstrate her point.

"But I wanna break stuff. And eggs are fun to break--SPLAT!" she smacked a fist into an open palm in front of her. "Let's go to the Egg patch." she suggested.

"Cr...cr...cr...crazy town." Ralph said, in response to Shawn's statement that Briar's might hurt. And he stepped closer to Shawn, giving Shawn a look that said 'I'm with you on this' and then looking towards the others with a look that said 'I'm with Shawn, whatever he decides'
This message was last edited by the player at 00:02, Fri 01 June 2018.

"Crazy Crazy Town." Bobby said again, as if trying to work the words in his mouth, trying to make sense of them. It didn't sound like he was voting, but more trying to make sense of something crazy.

"I wanna go home!" Tiffany complained and kicked the cobble stone in front of her with one foot. "OW!" She yelped, pulling the foot back and then sitting down to rub the pain out of it.

"So that's three votes for Crazy Town, and two for Egg Briar Patch." Shawn took a few steps down the Crazy Town path, and then turned around to see if any of the others had followed.

"Come on!" Delilah looked frantically between the two girls. She struggled to build a case to rival Shawn's. "We don't know if there's gonna be dragon eggs. We don't even know what kinda eggs. But towns have people. And I don't think these are gonna be good people."

“If there’s people, I bet they’d know about the dragon! They could tell us about the dragon’s weakness, or secret passageways into its cave. What could we learn from eggs?” Shawn tried to sound like he knew what he was talking about, and not cribbing from old fantasy novels.

"Nuh-uh." Penelope retorted. "The Egg Briar Patch is probably where it's at. We could smash 'em and then probably get into a gooey egg fight!"

When Shawn said something about Dragons, Penelope' energy quieted down. "I don't want anything to do with what happened. If we have to go up that mountain, I'm staying outside while you guys get Bradford."

Ralph followed Shawn two steps down the path of Crazy Crazy Town. "Crazy..cray..cray...cray..cray...cray..Crazy Town." he affirmed.

Tiffany reached into her pocket and took out a Hostess cupcake. It was the yellow kind with the squiggly white-frosted line down the center. She gently unpacked and removed the plastic covering and then frowned when she saw it had been smushed from all the commotion.

"I don't want to go to Crazy Crazy Town." She said, taking a bite. "I'm afraid that people might live there. There isn't anything in this place that we've seen that's worth seeing. Everything is already crazy. What if there are monsters that live there? Or worse, what if it's a town of zombies or something?"

"Zombies aren't crazy, they just shuffle around and say 'brains'. And what if there's people at the briar patch too? Eggs don't just grow out of the ground, you know." Shawn saw that Penelope had some hesitation, and tried to zero in. "There might even be more dragons there. I think we shouldn't go there."

Delilah stamped the ground.

"Look. Everybody votes right now! Briar Patch? Or that other place."

"Crazy Crazy...tow..tow...tow..tow..tow... Town!" Ralph voted.

"Briar Egg Patch." Penelope voted. "So I can break stuff."

"Um....hold on, let me think about it." Bobby said, delaying. Ralph waddled over and whispered something in his ear.

"Crazy Town." Bobby voted.

That left just Tiffany, who was eating the last few bites of the Cup cake.

"I'm not voting until you and Shawn say that what the Tree told you was a lie. I didn't do what the Tree made everyone think that I did." She folded her arms in defiance.

Shawn gave her his best reassuring look. "Why would I believe a weird magic tree that puts stuff in people's heads. It coulda told me you were a three-headed purple dinosaur. I'm not going to believe a tree over you. If you say it's lying, I believe you." He was lying, of course, but it was a lie that hopefully would keep them moving.

Delilah shook her head and threw up her hands in frustration.

"The tree didn't tell me about you! It told me that we gotta find that instrument to get outta here."

She raised one hand. "So I'm voting for the briar patch."

"I don't know.." Tiffany doubted. She had moved from being worried about what people thought, to suddenly enjoying the spotlight and her newfound role as king-maker in the vote.

"The Briar Patch is probably fore-mipp-puh-pull." She analyzed, using a big word.

"But Crazy Crazy Town sounds psy-choloric-igal." She scratched her chin as if in deep thought.

"Tell you what. Why don't each of you present a case like you're in a court or on trial or something. And I'll pretend to be the judge. Who ever does the best job of convincing me, I'll go with." She suggested, drawing out the vote and savoring the moment. It was clear that Tiffany really didn't care about the argument itself but was more interested in her own role as judge and how good a person might 'look' when making their case.

OOC: Any player may roll Presence + Socialize

OOC: 22:06, Today: Shawn Cramer rolled 3 successes using 3d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling 10s with rolls of 8,10(+8),7. Presence + Socialize (Striking Looks rolled separately).
22:06, Today: Shawn Cramer failed (no successes) using 2d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling 10s with rolls of 7,5.  Striking Looks for Presence + Socialize.

Sorry! I thought I clicked post!

Delilah's eyes bugged out at Tiffany's suggestion. Her mouth opened and closed twice before she started shouting.

"We don't have tiiime! We gotta get back home before we're dead! For-ev-er! Let's just go!"

Delilah swept her arms towards the path leading to the briar patch.

Tiffany scratched her chin in mock thought as she considered Shawn's argument. But then when Delilah started talking about 'not having time' and refusing to play Tiffany's game, a frown appeared on her face.

"Crazy Crazy Town!" she shouted at Delilah's back. "Crazy Crazy Town! That's my vote. That's my vote unless you come back!" She said to Delilah.

However Tiffany was acting the kids knew that what Delilah said, had in fact been true to Bradford's words: Time was limited.

Regardless of how Tiffany made her decision, Shawn was going to run with it. "We voted, so let's go! We don't have much time - who knows what's happening to Bradford!" He grabbed Bobby's hand and started pulling him along the path, catching up with Ralph quickly.

Penelope stuck her tongue out at Shawn and Bobby before joining the other part of the road towards Delilah.

"Wait? We're not going to stick together?" Bobby asked, confused as he went with Shawn.

It was a question that suddenly descended upon everyone. Like a warning of sorts. A last ditch effort to see if the kids were really going to go their own way.

"We have to stick together, guys! Otherwise we'll never get out of here!" Shawn wasn't sure if he liked Penny, and Delilah was mean, but they needed all the help they could get in this situation!

"Then come on!" Delilah marched ahead. "If we don't find it in the patch, we can go back to Crazy Crazy Town!"

Bobby stopped. He looked at Delilah. Then he looked at Shawn. Then back to Delilah. Then back at Shawn. He waited to see what Shawn might say.

Shawn looked back and forth as well, then sighed as he conceded defeat. Ralph was too little and Bobby was too easily distracted, and Tiffany seemed to fall apart a lot. He couldn't just venture off without the two braver girls. Besides, they were the risk-takers, so hopefully whatever happened would happen to Delilah and Penny instead of the rest of them. "C'mon, I guess we're following Delilah. Though make sure you stay behind her, in case there's traps."

"Ugh.." Tiffany pouted and kicked the earth in defeat. Nevertheless, she followed heading up behind Shawn as they made their way forward.

The kids headed in the direction of the Briar Patch just as the sign had directed. This  road was made with cobblestones as opposed to the windy, dirt path they had previously followed.

The stones fit together like an over-sized jigsaw puzzle. They were cold and smooth underneath the kids' feet. Each little stone had a place among the others. It started to drizzle a little. Water from the light drizzle ran in between the cracks and crevices, forming tiny rushing rivers. The cobblestone made the kid's footfalls sound like clip-clopping hooves of a horse's echo through an alley.

But the sound wasn't the only thing that was out of place on this new road.

The landscape became every vivid color, every one of them as fresh as a new painting. The brilliant greens were lush and the sky lifted the eye in a way that drew attention to the strands of drifting white cloud. The sky was no longer an angry orange, but gave way to bright, vibrant blue. The few trees on the side of the road were deep with late spring foliage and the outgrown of fresh tulips could be seen in pink and yellow variety on the side of the cobblestone path.

Shawn was immediately suspicious of how nice the path now looked. He talked quietly to Bobby and Ralph. "Whatever you do, don't stray off the path, okay? And be ready to run." And, because he knew Bobby would immediately forget his warning, he grabbed Bobby's hand and held on tight.

Delilah beat the vote her own way, but she couldn't enjoy the victory. The drizzle forced her to squint as she walked. And once her hands got damp, it was harder to hold on to Mr. Clayton's case.

The path began to brighten and the sky became blue again. Delilah looked up to be sure of what she was seeing. The Egg Briar Patch wasn't going to be scary at all. It looked like Easter. She looked back to the rest of the kids and gave them a reassuring smile. Things were going to be alright. They would find the instrument and go home.

OOC: Shawn and Delilah Join Thread

Shawn, Delilah: The Egg Briar Patch...