A World, A Part

With a crackling noise a bit like clusters of leaves in the wind, Gnarl made to follow the rest of his...lively group.

He made sure to stay an extra hooflength or two away from the overly-enthusiastic Jingle. In fact, it crossed his mind, everything around him seemed overly enthusiastic. All the brightly exuberant colors and the apparently sweet-tasting compositions...Gnarl wasn't sure how much more he could stomach. Here was to hoping North led to an exit.

Jingle Bell skipped through the air alongside her comrades. "We're off to see the wizard, the Wonderful Wizard of Oz! We hear he is a whiz of a wiz, if ever a wiz there was!" She looked around for a second, mid jump. "We should find a yellow brick road and follow that, instead! If only!"

Dynamo sighs at Jingles sillyness.

Gnarl pauses in his striding, if only for a moment. Then again, being a tree, his moments tend to be a few seconds longer than most. "I do not understand you in the slightest," he murmured to Jingle before lumbering forth once again.

"You aren't alone..." Dynamo adds.

The group traveled north along the road all day until it was dark, at which point they had to decide to either set up camp somewhere or press onwards through the night.

"...I'm tired of this."

"Yeah.... This has been taking WAY too long to talk with the leaders of this realm... I'm starting to think of just trying to take what we can, then move on to the next realm we can get something from." Dynamo mused to herself, feeling a different type of tired. "I mean really this place really moves way to slow for my tastes back in my home realm we'd already be surrounded by Princess Luna's guardsmen..."

"You're part of what I'm tired of!" Gnarl snapped down at Dynamo. "All of ya are!" He stalked off in a random direction, bristling. "Annoyin' bunch of stalks, runnin' round with no regard for a moment's quiet on the road as if walkin' all this way weren't bad enough for my knees, shoulda stayed in my cave, can't a tree suffer in peace round here grumble gmble grml..."

It quite appeared that several days of putting up with what he perceived to be inanity and pandemonium had finally brought Gnarl back into the realm of the old geezer.

"Well you're a grumpy old coot!" Jingle retorted. "I doubt you have any comprehension of what the world 'fun' means, let alone what it entails! I mean, we're in a world made of candy! It's any child's dream! But you just have to whine on and on like a broken motor." She huffed and turned around.

"Actually, I think the plan of setting up at the inn until someone comes knocking while we start trying to figure out what we can do, but apparently this plan was 'too risky' even though I could almost assuredly keep us safe during the resulting fallout. With a little luck I could potentially even use that to get us a meeting with whomever comes to remove us..." Fallen Arches mutters, glumly.

The Reaper just knocked it's scythe up against it's skull, in the manner of a face-palm, and went off to have a look around.
(Roll Perception: Scouting the area)

Roll:

Some woodland(?) creatures scurry away at the Reaper's approach. He does find a spot off of the road a bit that would be a decent place to set up for the night if they decide to stop and rest. Otherwise he doesn't find anything of note.

thematthew wrote:"Actually, I think the plan of setting up at the inn until someone comes knocking while we start trying to figure out what we can do, but apparently this plan was 'too risky' even though I could almost assuredly keep us safe during the resulting fallout. With a little luck I could potentially even use that to get us a meeting with whomever comes to remove us..." Fallen Arches mutters, glumly.

"The sad thing is that I wish we went with your idea... Would be equally boring, but then we'd not have all that long to get back to the portal." Dynamo comments with a sigh.

"Honestly... I'm unsure how this level of magic would work... I only know the basis of this level magics... Only enough to write stories about that wouldn't seem impossible by my realm's knowagle... But really I'm just equally without a clue as you Vinny." Dynamo replied with a hint of worry.

In the woods nearby, Gnarl was grumbling his way throughout his history up to the current time. "Lousy grrmbl rmbl grm fire burning grumble rmmbl grargh wound up here grrr hrrmbl two weeks now grrmb grrmbl errr stuck with these sprouts..."

Finally, the woodsman emerged into a clearing, a nice wide open circle where an old tree could get that bit of peace and quiet he'd been searching for. Not that it helped, really, judging by the sigh that escaped Gnarl's mouth. It wasn't a sigh like a gentle summer breeze, or the whisper of wind through a bunch of leaves, or the softest scraping snow landing on branches. It just sounded like a mournful, slightly strangled sigh.

Gnarl made his way to the center of his clearing...the clearing. Not his. Can't claim this clearing as his own, even temporarily. It wasn't at all like where he came from, wouldn't work. Maybe he could change the ground into the soil of his home again but that didn't mean he belonged here, not really. Not with these rules, not in this world, not with these strange creatures. Not here. Too different.

It wasn't just that he didn't like "too different". He didn't think he could physically stand things being too different. And he'd withstood a lot of things.

A look upwards. The moon was the same, at least. Maybe he was somewhere near home. Maybe he could get back soon. Maybe he could just...

...sit there and sigh again, a bit more strangled this time, and cradle his head in his clumsy, withered old hands, trying not to cry.

Spoiler:

"Well, no use worrying about it now. Either we will make it back or we won't. My mission can be fulfilled here, even if creating a world of our own would be preferable."
Vinnie pauses and looks around for a bit.
"I assume we're staying here for the night? Either way, one or both of us should probably check up on Gnarl. He seemed... rather upset. I'd prefer not to lose an ally if at all possible."

"Not it!" Jingle Bell taps her hoof to her nose.

"I'm not going after him either... The dude seems to come form a point of view that makes it all the harder for him to be willing to do anything in a group." Dynamo said. "Nor do I think Fallie should go... He's staying here with the group... Maybe we should send The Reaper to get him? Or you could go Vinny..."

The Reaper throws the corners of it's cloak, and it's scythe, up in a gesture of futility and floats off after Gnarl, leaving the scythe in a tree branch.

Spoiler:

Meanwhile, in a clearing, Gnarl sat, silent. Waiting for...nothing in particular, really.

A short of rustling...whatever things passed for leaves in this world alerted Gnarl to the presence of somebody behind him. "Hurh?" he spluttered, caught off guard for but a moment before drawing himself to full height and bellowing "Alright, come outta there, whoever ya are!"

Spoiler:

The Reaper threw Itself backwards and fell apart at the same time with the skull landing face up in a bush with the cloak falling over it, kind of giving the effect of someone hiding beneath a security blanket.

Gnarl blinked twice, confused.

Spoiler: