“Muwiew 'ou won’t bewiebe dis!”
[Jack Reeb calling to his wife right after opening his door do discover his Raccoon and wagon miraculously returned]
“Its gud to see ‘ou owd fwend!”
I run up and hug Charles, the feelings of tiredness pushed to the back of my head. Charles speaks, laughing with a wide grim.
“Emiwy, Daw it’s su gud to finawwy see 'ou again! What a bwessed day!”
Charles goes to hug Dar and as he does, I notice Ix finally shuffle her way through the recruits. And once she sees us she let’s out a high pitched squeak and runs over to hug us, speaking as she does.
“I can’t believe it, you two are here! I’m so happy!”
Charles who had looked over at the recruits, spoke a bit assertively but still keeping his happy tone.
"Nothin’ am wwong hewe, go head to sweep."
The recruits begin leaving and as they leave I notice the people behind them, I guess they are the “new” Royal Guards.
Two large confused orange stallions, A neutral looking Griffon and a very old bluish mare who looked so visibly anxious I thought she was going to break down at any moment. The stallion with the light orange coat went up to me and gave me a hug (it was so tight I could barely even breath!) And speaks with the same tone of joy, Charles and Ix showed.
“It’s su gud to finawwy meet ‘ou Emiwy, name’s Dac!
Dac points to the stallion with the darker orange coat and he speaks, his voice low and emotionless.
“Howdy, names Mac.”
Than the griffon came up to me (By that time I had forgotten her name) And she spoke putting her talon around my shoulder, thankfully her name one of the first things she spoke of.
“Name’s WingScratch! Ix and Charles have told me so much about you and Dar. And if it’s all true, hey not half bad.”
Finally the old mare was next to speak, her taking a long sigh beforehoove.
"It’s nice to finawwy see dah Woyaw Guawds su tawked about, name’s Quin. Am pwesence hewe couwdn’t be mowe badwy timed though, wewe wunnin’ wate!”
Late to what? The second Quin speaks the last part, Charles who had been introducing Dar to WingScratch, looks up. Coming over with a smile and eyes that looked as though they had thought of an idea, he speaks.
“Emiwy, Daw why nu ‘ou just come an’ hab dinnah wiff us, we wewe just about to weabe! We can tawk about ouw jouwneys dewe.”
Quin hearing this speaks, sounding a bit concerned.
“Quin doesn’t know Chawwes, fwuffy onwy booked fo’ 7 peopwe!”
Charles speaks.
"Chawwes am suwe dey’ww find 2 extwa seats, two Woyaw Guawds just wetuwned home! "
Dar, hearing this adds on.
“yeah, it’s dah weast dey can do!”
Quin sounding as though she had enough, speaks.
“Fine! Doesn’t mattah much though, wewe gettin’ to be su wate dey maybeh hab cancewed!”
After around 10 minutes of speed walking, we had arrived at the restaurant Quin had talked about. And by the way she talked about it as we walked here, it was very much… “High Society” The building was painted all white with thin golden lines being painted along the wall, what I could see on the inside looked like fine furniture you’d see in a Royal Palace with the placed looking packed and a servant with a list by the door. As we get closer to the place Quin suddenly starts waving her arms and yells out, her seeming a lot more happy now than she ever felt meeting us.
“Ozymandias wook at us, wewe hewe!”
Ozymandias? I didn’t notice it at first but at the far back of the restaurant I could see a black coated unicorn with a silvery mane, waving back. He had some sort of weird outfit on, it being some red robe with a pointy hat, strange… As we go up to the servant with the list, Quin speak with an allure of superiority that I had become accustomed in a short ammount of time.
“Quin, Ozymandias, Chawwes, Ix, Mac, Dac, WingScwatch. Pwus two add on guests.”
The servant was about to speak, but Quin cut him off. Her sounding almost venomous.
“Do not eben stawt! Quin am a impowtant pewson wiff pewsonaw connections to dah ownah himsewf an’ I awso hab connections with-”
The servant speaks, covering his face.
“Just go inside!”
AS we head insdie the building, Quin laughs quetly to herself and speaks.
“Quin wied about knowin’ dah ownah.”
As we found seats with his “Ozymandias” It was obvious that this table wasn’t made for 9 people, as we were all very cramped. With both Mac & Dac sitting on either side of the table seat only making it worse! Ozymandias speaks, looking at me and Dar.
“Name’s Ozymandias, fwuffy wun a house of oddities at Powt Xewxes. Fwuffy actuawwy twabewed wiff am fwiends fwoughout most of theiw jouwney 'ou know.”
I speak.
“Weawwy!? Wish Kwi an’ Aubwey wewe hewe, dey jouwneyed wiff us fwoughout ouw twabews.”
Ix speaks, looking at me the second I mentioned Kri’s name.
“Where is she anyway? I almost forgot!”
Dar speaks.
“She weft fo’ dah Dwagon Camp, hew mission was obah just wike ouws.”
Charles speaks.
“Su ‘ou feew wike goin’ fiwst? Teww us, what happened when 'ou wewe gone?”
With all eyes pointed at me, I decided just to go with it and speak. Starting at the top, with us leaving for my former house.
When I spoke about the house fire and the whole DarkWing thing a dark silence filled the room, every one of the fluffy Guards looked at me speechless. Until finally, a very confused WingScratch spoke.
“I still don’t get why those shitbags destroyed you’re house? Things like be related to a horrible person and sometimes get news, but I never heard of folks going that far…”
Ix quickly chimes in.
“Imagine if someone who had been related to Chrysalis was living right in the center of Inner Chicago, you think that wouldn’t cause an reaction.”
The gravity of what Ix had said made me feel worse than I already felt. and Charles speaks sounding like he could barely muster a sentence.
“Heww, if dis was to weak… We nu can wet anyone know abou-”
I interrupt Charles, quickly speaking.
“Emiwy intends to teww Enoch, dis am somethin’ fwuffy nee’ to do pewsonawwy.”
It looked as though Charles was about to speak in protest, but Quin patted his back and spoke, sounding weirdly happy.
“Oh come on Chawwes, it’s supposed to be a night of wewaxation, Quin wouwdnt wet Emiwy’s, ugh… “Famiwy Histowy” Get in dah way of a gud time.”
Charles sighs and quin turns to look at me, speaking.
“Continue on wiff am stowy deaw.”
Dar explained most of the Madanak stuff, with Ix saying that Enoch had to be informed of this meeting very soon. And when I talked about actually getting to Chicago (I left our the part about Three Eyes) And meeting with it’s leadership, WingScratch would chime in every time I spoke (It being mostly unnecessary…) Than came time for the United Hives and us meeting Mukar, I asked Ix if she had ever heard of Abbertu and all she said was that she didn’t grow up near the river and only had about the same knowledge I had when it came to the Zebras. When it came to talking about Viltra, Ix and even WingScratch were in shock. She spoke as I finished telling everyone about my conversation with her.
“I never thought she’d still be alive! And to meet the Grand Queen herself. Must have been quite the experience!”
After a short while of explaining our journey back here, I turned to look at Charles and spoke.
“Su what was am adbentuwe wike?”
Charles originally spoke of Port Xerxes and meeting Ozymandias, with the highlight being a “Autograph from Anu” Than he talked about making it to Outer Glow and having to fight some insane cult with Mac & Dac, with me speaking as he finished.
“Sounds absowutewy howwibwe, an’ gwoss to.”
Ix chimes in.
“Looked even worse in person!”
After that came meeting WingScratch, with Charles and Ix talking about making it to Bomber Bay and heading into the forest and meeting the same mercenaries we met. Ix than explained her idea to turn into that giant Nuuk monster and scare the living daylights out of them! Dar speaks, almost about to laugh.
“'Ou know dey put sign up wight! aww of Bombah Bay am afwaid of some fawse wumow hah!”
After the joy of explaining the last story, I was caught by complete surprise when it came time to discuss Quin. Almost instantly Charles’s and Ix’s voice fell to a cold tone and when it get to the house I couldn’t blame them. A giant floating monster chasing them, it destroying everything in it’s path. I guess me and Dar weren’t the only ones to deal with an unexplainable bump in the road. As they finished telling this story, with them meeting a enraged Quin and traveling back to Stablelot we were interrupted by a servant him sounding beyond tired.
“Cwosin’ in 5 minutes…”
Quin looking panicked tried to speak to him but it was to late, he had left. She looks at us and speaks.
“How wong wewe we tawkin’ fo’!”
Dac speaks, him probably being the only one keeping time.
“About 1 houw an’ 45 minutes.”
Quin not a second later, shouts out so loud that everyone who was left could here.
“FUCK!” Fin
1 year of Last Hope! With about 100 written parts combined, I am so proud of this project being my first ever and everything that I learned from it. Thank you for reading this story and of course constructive criticism is appreciated. May you have a good day!