[align=center]?? Folklore ??

One wouldn't believe that they had ended up in a fairy tale.

Once upon a time, you have.

 

There are those in the Netherworld that want to uprise and take over the land of the dead and the land of the living. Led by those from the Overworld, they have grown stronger and stronger.

There are still Messengers and others that can travel to the Netherworld that want to prevent this overrule and restore the balance.

Will both worlds live happily ever after?, or....

 

Rules:

Please, don't:

Eliza looked at Raiden for a moment, yet she had no reason to argue. "Okay," she mumbled as she looked forward and continued walking. During the walk, Eliza had many thoughts over what happened, but the thoughts were easily succumbed to fatigue. When they finally arrived at her house, she was surprised to find Ruru easily passed out on the window sill. Not wanting to disturb the cat, Eliza silently crept into bed.

 

"It's part of my job," Scarecrow remarked, shrugging, even though it wasn't a great excuse.

"So, the pier it is," Evany stated. The lighthouse was on a small, separate island, so it wasn't easily accessible without a boat, which wasn't available. The pier was adjacent to the lighthouse, as well as the closest spot.

Raiden stopped in the doorway, shoving his hands in his pockets. He gave a faint smile, and, even though he knew Eliza was probably asleep already, or close to it, said; "Hey, I've got to head home... Or things'll just get worse the longer I wait. But... sleep well. And if I see you in the Netherworld tomorrow, I'll throw a tantrum. A noisy, embarrassing one."

 

Will shrugged. "Alright, fine. The pier. And then what? I'm not going the whole way there just to stand by the water like an idiot."

By the time she reached the head of the bed, all that she could think of was sleep. As she threw the blanket over her head, Eliza murmured lazily, "Yeah yeah, tantrum, got it. Night." However, getting all comfortable under the blanket, she went into deep thought. She decided that she was going to go to the Netherworld tomorrow, anyways, to find a way to fix it, for her friend. As an afterthought, before falling asleep, she added, "Thanks..."

 

"The Night of Samhain is tomorrow," Evany explained. "The portal will show itself."

"Uweehee, so, this will be the final stage," Scarecrow stated, lightly hopping on one foot, making his lantern swing side-to-side.

By the time he heard her saying thanks, Raiden was nearly out the door. He didn't say anything, but his smile grew as he closed the front door behind him, as quietly as he could. It clunked, but he presumed Eliza would be too sleepy to be woken by such a thing. He trudged his way back to the portal, shivering when he reached the caves- whether with the cold or just a bad feeling, he didn't know. It was confirmed to be the latter, and much to his disappointment, he was right to feel that way, only a few seconds after he emerged in the Netherworld- when something lurched out from the trees, dragging him backwards. He fought for a moment, panicking, but he knew it was pointless.

He only just managed to murmur his father's name before he blacked out.

 

"Only tomorrow, huh..." Will crossed his arms. "And if it all goes well, that's it? Everything... everything'll get fixed?" He couldn'nt help but throw a distrusting look at the other two.

"It hasn't been the first," Scarecrow said. "The situation was different, but it all ended the same way." After a pause, he added, "It'll be a long night..."

Evany recognized the night that Scarecrow had mentioned. It was seventeen years ago, and the fate of the real world had rested on his own mother's shoulders.

"Good thing the stupid shifts have made me practically nocturnal, then," Will added. "But that's weird. I wasn't even born then."

"I was," Evany stated, "that very night."

"Ah yes!" Scarecrow exclaimed. "It is almost your birthday, correct?"

"I guess," Evany answered, "but I guess it doesn't really matter anymore, since I'm dead." After a moment, he added, "What does that have to do with anything?"

"Seventeen years ago," Scarecrow explained, "I, the creation of Cecelia, was determined to grant her own wish, which was for all humans to fear death. Removing the Spear from one of the Trees was my goal. However, that very child put a stop to me. I realized that Cecelia was no more. She no longer desired that wish, and I acknowledged that. Out of thin air, you were born, Evany. You embody all of the energy needed for whenever either worlds were threatened. That was the wish of your mother, and the only reason I'm still in existence."

"Hmph," Will grumbled. "Yet another reason you're bloody perfect. Honestly, Evany, what next, really?" He didn't look or sound angry, his tone teasing; but his eyes were hostile as usual. "As much as I enjoy history lessons."

"We should prepare for tomorrow," Evany stated, but they both knew that he didn't necessarily mean "we".

"Well," Scarecrow began, hopping towards the portal, "I better head over to the pub. It may be my last night, so I best make the most of it."

"So... everyone might only have tonight to...?" Will trailed off, dropping his glare to the floor. "Oh, looks like Eliza won't be leaving. Because I'm not dragging her off the island and leaving you be."

Evany thought for the longest moment. Will had a point there. It had been almost a full minute before he finally said, "Scarecrow, for the next 24 hours, I need you to make sure that Eliza doesn't leave her house." Before Scarecrow could complain about the pub, he added, "She's probably asleep right now, so you can go to the tub."

Giving his creepy chuckle, Scarecrow said, "So, house arrest, eh?"

Will snorted. "I'd love to see how she deals with that. Won't she probably just hurt herself trying to get out? You know what she's like. That or something will get IN. She forgets to lock her house up. A lot."

"Whatever happened to "not caring"?" Evany remarked. "Besides, other than you, what would go into her house, especially now that she'll have her own scarecrow?"

Did he just make a pun out of me? Scarecrow asked himself, laughing at the thought.

"Hey, it's not my fault she has no sense of self-preservation. And I really don't give a damn, but I thought YOU might." Will snapped back, then rolled his eyes. "I climbed in her window one time."

Sighing, Evany returned to the tree, saying, "I've decided to have enough faith in her. I won't worry over every little thing that may or will happen to her."

"Is the meeting ajurned?" Scarecrow asked, cocking his head to the side. He seemed to be dying to get through the portal.

"How nice of you." He didn't try and keep his sarcasm down; Will's voice dripped with it most of the time, anyway. He turned, and started to walk away, flicking his fingers in a lazy approximation of a wave. "Yeah, we're done here, Scarecrow. Go have your fun at the pub."

"I tend to, keehee," Scarecrow remarked before going through the portal.

Sitting back down, Evany looked up at the leaves, admiring their perfection. "So," he mumbled, "the end of this will be here soon..."

 

(( Because I have the power to do so, I'm declaring a time skip. B3 ))

 

October 31, Night of Samhain - 8:30 p.m.

 

Due to the cries of the cat, Eliza had woken up. "Mmm, how long did I sleep...?" she muttered. Sitting up, she looked outside to see that daylight was no longer available. "Oh," she said, "guess I overslept." Eliza became cautious when leaving the bed, but she realized that she had no reason to, since no one was on the floor. Oh yeah, he left, she thought. However, she did remember what her schedule was. "Oh yeah," she said, jumping out of bed. "To the Netherworld!" However, when she opened the door, Scarecrow stood in her way.

Will cracked his neck, stifling a yawn, as he slowly made his way to the pier. He'd been up most of the day, searching for his sister, but, as ever, she'd completely eluded him. It seemed she only showed up when he didn't want to see her- so, when he actually had things to say and a score to settle, of course he hadn't been able to find her.

"Uh... Hey, Scarecrow," Eliza greeted, slightly confused as to what the creature was doing at her door.

"Hello," Scarecrow replied. "Can I come in? There's something... er, important I have to talk to you about."

"Um... Sure, I guess," Eliza answered. She felt slightly disappointed with herself for not leaving immediately, but she went ahead and gave Scarecrow some of her time.

 

Between the cave and the pier was the whole village, especially Eliza's house. Getting from point A to point B would be difficult for Evany to accomplish. However, he waited patiently as Scarecrow and Eliza exchanged words. Luckily, just as he hoped, the two went inside. With stealth, Evany made his way to the pier.

As the sun had started to set, Will had given up and started making his way to the pier some hours beforehand. Naturally, for him, getting there meant wandering off the actual route about every ten minutes, and then that meant getting totally lost. He'd found himself at the wrong end of the island entirely after about an hour, which meant that, grumbling the whole way, he just about got to the pier at half eight. Seeing no one else there, he sat down heavily at the edge, sighing and leaning his face against his palm. He was definitely going to need to find a way to wake himself up, or he'd be too doxy to see or do anything helpful that night.

Upon arriving at the pier, Evany looked up at the lighthouse. It functioned normally, rotating its light all around. Looking back down, he spotted Will. "You awake?" he asked.

 

As she sat on the bed, Eliza asked, "So, what's up?"

After a long minute, Scarecrow finally admitted, "I'm not a good liar, so I'll start off by saying "I have to keep you here for awhile"."

Eliza raised an eyebrow. "What? Why?"

Apparently, Scarecrow had his own plan, for he stated, "Evany told me to."

She froze. "W-what?" she asked, but then thought for a moment. Oh, wait, that's right. Everyone that's dead are still... Literally face-palming herself, due to being slightly brain-dead, she mumbled, "Wow, I'm an idiot..." Standing up, she demanded, "Where is he?"

"At the pier. He's going to the Netherworld Core to fix things."

Eliza gagged, "W-what? No fair! I was going to do that first!"

Scarecrow cocked his head to the side, asking, "Why?"

"I have to," she replied, "for a friend."

Will made a dull grunt that sounded somewhat like "urghhhnnyeahhh", rubbing at the sleep still in his eyes with the back of a fist. He cleared his throat. "So, what now? We just sit here and wait for the stupid thing to pop open?"

Evany looked up at the lighthouse again. After a moment, his mind came to a blank. "I... guess," he finally answered. Nothing else came to mind, so waiting around might as well be the primary option.

 

Suddenly, another reason had came to mind. "Annabelle..." Eliza muttered.

"Eh?" Scarecrow asked, leaning his head towards the other shoulder.

"Annabelle and s'Arina," she explained, "they're the ones that caused the Netherworld to be the way that it is."

"Ohh..." Scarecrow replied understandingly. "Well, in that case, you should go."

Eliza raised an eyebrow. "Why? I thought Evany told you to keep me here."

"I didn't appreciate the puns that he made of me," he seemed to mutter to himself before replying, "I'll let you figure that out on your own. Uweehee..."

After a moment, Eliza finally headed for the door, stating with a grin, "You better come with me then. Ev and I's reunion might be a little messy."

Will scowled, blinking hard and stifling another yawn. "You'd think Scarecrow would've bothered to mention what time it would open..." he grumbled. "Then again, asking would probably just mean getting another stupid riddle that makes no sense."

Sitting down on the grass, Evany sighed before replying, "Probably..."

Suddenly, before he could have a chance to relax, somebody came up from behind him and hit him in the head, exclaiming, "You asshole! You were hiding under a rock this whole time?!" Covering his head with one hand, Evany looked up and realized that standing over him, with an angry look, was Eliza. He also noticed that Scarecrow was behind her, so he shot a death glare at him. Scarecrow merely shrugged.