Fantasy Cursed Island

[Deadwood Deer]

Jerry shifted a bit at Asta's movment and voice, nudging a bottle with her foot. The cold feelin of the glass on her foot woke her up in turn. She sat up and yawned, but between the dim light and not being fully awake she didn't spot Shuffle for a moment. When she did, the thief's face turned bright red as she snatched up the blanket to cover herself, "Shuffle, what are you doing here?", she hissed. This was supposed to be hidden! "How long have you been here?"

 

[Fangs9090]

Shuffle flicked her ears as she looked at Jerry. "You weren't at breakfast, so we've been looking for you. I haven't been here long..... I feel weird..."

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"Get out!" Jerry pointed back at the waterfall, "You can feel weird back at camp."

 

[Fangs9090]

Shuffle put her ears down and turned to head back, though she stopped to look back. "Are you coming back?"

Asta spoke up. "Get out, Shuffle!"

Shuffle put her ears back before running the rest of the way, splashing through the waterfall before swimming back to land.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

Jerry sighed and leaned back against Asta's side. "What did those idiots do this time?" They'd come looking, so either they needed Jerry to figure something out, or they needed Asta to kill something, that was why they'd woken them up early every time before.

 

[Fangs9090]

Asta shook his head. "We can only guess until we get there."


Shuffle dried off once on land before heading back to camp. She found she had the strangest urge to rub up against things the whole way there.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

Jerry gave a sad nod and rolled to stand up, and found she had trouble getting her legs to cooperate. "Ah... we might have a problem..."


Back at camp, the group was starting to load up the carts and get ready to move on. Only two tents remained, Jerry and Asta's tent, and Emil and Veo's, and Adran had the cards for everything else sorted in his pocket until the deckboxes and all the cards were organized.

 

[Fangs9090]

Asta looked over at Jerry as he sat up. "Hm? What's wrong?"



Shuffle trotted into camp and looked around for someone to report to. Whoever was closest, she spotted Adran first and ran over. "Adran!" Without really considering why, she rubbed up against his legs.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"I don't, ah!", Jerry tried to stand again and had to use Asta for support, "I don't think full size was a good idea..."


"Shuffle- whoa! Hey, you're heavy!", Adran tried to pry Shuffle off of his leg so she wouldn't knock him over. Shuflle wasn't tiny by any metric.

 

[Fangs9090]

Asta blinked. "Ah. Will you need a lift back to camp?"



Shuffle looked at Adran with a smile. She didn't keep pushing, but neither did she move away. She'd forgotten what she going to say, distracted now by staring at him. She also kept shifting her weight between her back legs, effectively wiggling her backside.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

Jerry looked around at the mess, "I think I'm gonna need one of Veo's potions." She shook her head, "Probably, let me get dressed and see if that fixes it."


Beri sniffed at Shuffle and then sneezed. "I believe sending her to investigate was a mistake," the leopard muttered. He sneezed again, turning to go away. "Nyah!"

 

[Fangs9090]

Asta nodded and took a moment to stretch. "I would help clean this up, but I don't think it's been long enough for me to turn back yet."



Shuffle looked over at Beri. She took a step to follow before remembering what she was doing. "Oh!" She stepped away from Adran and sat in front of him. "I found Jerry and Asta! They were in a funny smelling cave, and they told me to go away. I think that means they're coming back?" She tilted her head.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

Jerry glanced around, "It's not... that big a mess." But Asta's collar definitely wasn't finished cooling down by a longshot, they hadn't been sleeping very long before Shuffle woke them up. "I'll handle it, just give me a minuuute!", Shuffle's kicked over chair caught Jerry by surprise, and the table caught Jerry.


Adran frowned as the blue smoke djinn reappeared. "What is it?" She glanced at Shuffle and raised an eyebrow, "She's not any more hyper than normal."

 

[Fangs9090]

Asta got up and walked over to check and make sure Jerry was alright.



Shuffle looked over at Nyah. "Mmm, the weird smell in the cave made me feel funny though. I still feel all warm inside."

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"I'm fine, I'm fine," Jerry nudged a chair upright with her tail and sat down, wincing again. "Full size was definitely a bad idea." She shook her head as she tried to shake the wrinkles out of her dress, "We should probably hold off on doing that again for a while."


Nyah frowned, "What cave?"

"She went to go see Jerry and Asta."

"WHAT!?" Down in the cave, Jerry and Asta got a vague feeling someone wanted to kill them in that moment.

 

[Fangs9090]

Asta nodded. “Agreed. We won’t always get the privilege of a slow morning down here.”



Shuffle tilted her head. “They missed breakfast, so someone needed to check on them, so I volunteered.” She shifted on her legs as she spoke, getting restless already.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

Once dressed again, Jerry went about starting to clean up the mess. They probably wouldn't be coming this way ever again and no one else would be here ever again, either, so she wasn't worried about leaving a mess for other people so much as collecting the group's belongings, namely the components of the bed, the table and chairs, and Asta's clothes.

------------

Nyah sighed, "Shuffle, I think you should go sit on the cart until we're ready to go."

 

[Fangs9090]

Asta did what he could to help, which wasn’t much. Mostly he stayed out of the way.

—————

Shuffle let out a whine. “What? Why? Can’t I keep helping?”

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"Let's go," Jerry smiled at Asta as she got onto his back with everything folded and packed as good as she could without the magic bag or Asta's saddle.

-----------

"Because you're acting strangely, and until that stops you're a liability," Beri said as he passed by. He kept shaking his head as he passed her by, like he was trying to clear it.

"Gods-dammit," now the cat was acting weird.

 

[Fangs9090]

Asta nodded and headed on, stopping at the mouth of the cave. "Ah... We may have to get wet. I don't think I can squeeze by this time."

----------

"I'm not being strange. I mean, I feel funny but I'm fine! And sitting around is boring."

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"It's fine," Jerry shook her head, "I'm gonna have to do laundry when we get back anyway."

---------

"Yes, you are," Adran interjected, "Shuffle, you were just rubbing all over my leg like an overaffectionate cat."

"You will be fine," Nyah promised, "Sitting still for a while won't hurt you."

 

[Fangs9090]

Asta nodded again before heading on, trying to stay out of the water as much as possible before heading for the camp.

—————

Shuffle pouted. “Fine...” She turned headed to the cart, staying on all fours.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

They were soaked when they got through the waterfall, but that couldn't be avoided. At least Asta's wings didn't rely on feathers to work, or he'd have to wade through deep pools to get back to camp.

When the two got back to camp, almost everything had been loaded up, except for the occupied tent and their own. "Good, you're back," Adran gestured to their tent, "Pack that up, and Nyah is mad at you two."

 

[Fangs9090]

Asta blinked. "At us? Why?"


Shuffle was on the cart as she'd been told, but she was hardly sitting still. Instead she was rolling about, rubbing her face on whatever she on top and frequently going onto her back. She looked like she was having a good time, at least.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

Adran pointed at Shuffle on the cart, "She went to wake you two up, and since she came back she's been acting like that." He looked around for Beri, "And now Beri's acting weird."

"Well, we didn't ask her to come to where we went to be alone." Jerry emphasized the alone in that sentence. "Where's Veo, I need to see her." Adran pointed at the tent Emil and Veo hadn't come out of yet. Jerry sighed, "Fine." She got off of Asta and started towards the tent, pounding on the door to wake up the inhabitants. "Wake up!"

Inside the tent, the pounding on the door, but not the noise outside, was loud enough to wake the inhabitants.