Unwanted Attention

Blanche hated this. She hated it so much that her entire body trembled, proving too much for her legs to tolerate. She crouched in the grass next to Pogo, who was clearly confused about her reaction. Still, he did his best to be a comforting figure. He shielded her from the interaction going on just steps away. It would have been funny if she wasn't so upset - a loon with one leg, hardly thicker across than a sapling, trying to be an entire brick wall. She tucked her head against where his other hind leg should have been to let him know that she appreciated the gesture. She closed her eyes tight.

It wasn't so much the news that was being overheard that she hated. It was, rather, that she could almost swear these things were following her. She loved Voidkiss, owed the shadowy outline her life, but if she didn't bring trouble with her, then the sky wasn't blue. And here it was again, that trouble.

There had been a lot of them across the portal today. They were having a sort of grand outing. Not for any particular reason other than the weather was pleasant. Cheese had spent all morning in the kitchen, preparing a picnic lunch frantically and chasing away incompetent help with such a reedy distressed shriek that the loonlings were getting beneath his paws just for the fun of it. 

They had been setting out blankets across the grass when somebody (Blanche wasn't sure who...) came up with the idea of a change of scenery. Apparently, Toothache was feeling nostalgic for the pines through the Fourth Wall, but was too woeful to go alone. And so his simple longing had somehow resulted in everyone being out here, beneath the jagged shadows of the needles.

It was nice. It was cooler here and there was different birdsong than the usual. Those who felt like running after the big meal took up races and games of tag in the massive clearing. Others watched lazily from the sidelines, dozing and talking amongst themselves. It had been a lovely day. The only issue was the travelers passing by. They caught sight of their merry gathering and apparently deemed it inappropriate, so they wandered on over to intervene. They went right up to Void. Like they recognized her. Blanche wondered if they would have simply passed by if she had been absent for a moment.

The strangers had started off with a shocked chiding. Are you sure this is what you should be doing at a time like this? And then, of course, the question was what's wrong with having a picnic? But that made the travelers look amongst themselves with faces of unease and uncertainty that made Blanche's stomach turn. It was a look that said something was no good. Do we really go and ruin their day by telling them?

The answer was yes. Something was happening in Loonia, as things tended to do. As if we don't have our own problems, she thought bitterly to herself before feeling bad and retracting her own inner grumbling. Voidkiss, like the rest of them, really had no alliances with Loonia. They were neutral. They'd sat in each other's sitting rooms and shared stiff, polite conversation like neighbors should. But whenever the question of helping came up, it was like none of them could say no. Things got boring in the valley, Void would say to Blanche with a wink of an eye (or two or a hundred, depending on the day), but she knew there was something else. She felt it too, and hated that as well. Could you all stop being in trouble so much so we can quit having to come to your rescue? Please?

It wasn't like no one else was helping. Plenty of other loons would surely be jumping to do... something about this strange vision Mullo had seen. But it was like watching someone's house catch on fire across the street. Were you really going to just sit there while they got the bucket brigade up and going? No, don't help. By all means, sit and warm your haunches.

The travelers were leaving now, Blanche realized. She could see the fraction of movement from over Pogo's strangely arced back. Already, she could tell the air wasn't the same as it was before. The vast majority of loons at the gathering were too far off to hear what she'd heard, but there was a communal unease where there hadn't been before. Several sets of multicolored eyes were looking down their way, wide and glossy and silently asking what was going on. Where'd this sudden chill come from? their eyes said. Blanche wriggled in the grass so that she could twist her head in another direction. She wasn't going to answer those eyes. And thankfully, no one would ask her to. They couldn't - she didn't have a mouth.

Void took a few striding steps past her and Pogo, hunkered as they were. She would do it, she'd make the announcement. She always stepped up to the plate. She'd probably head some sort of rescue party whenever the fit hit the shan, too. Blanche shuddered amidst her shivering, prompting Pogo to worriedly try and shelter her further. He looked like a snake with too many bones, trying to move in ways it couldn't. Funny, she thought. Funny, funny, at a time like this...

Blanche wouldn't have to go anywhere, of course. Void would never make her go anywhere she didn't want to. But there was this horrible obligation... The weight of the world on her shoulders - on all of their shoulders. She listened dejectedly as Void's clear, booming voice cast the bad news out across the space and wished that this would all just go away somehow. She just wanted to have a picnic in the shade with her dearest friends. And even the strangers from the Home World she hardly knew, they could come too. As long as they could have peace...