The Battle Majestic (Round 4 - Magpie Skies)

"Stop the carpet"," commanded Violet. "What are- who are you?"

The lizard tilted its head, the space between its eyes and its hat rippling a bit like it was trying to raise an absent eyebrow. "Oh, right. Hang on."

Sen spent an awkward moment trying to fold its legs up into some kind of sitting position. The Carmine Witch patted him on the nose, smirking at Violet and offering the tiniest, sardonic curtsey. Sen blinked, squawked an indignant squawk, and gnashed his teeth at the offending hand.

A Red? But Charcoal had razed the queendom decades-

"Woah hey hey heyhey! Ease off, Limey!"

With a lurch and a chatter, the beast had found its feet and almost impaled the witch on a cactus spine as long as Violet's sword. The Red raised a stern finger, declared "No!" loud enough to give the creature pause, and bopped it on the nose again before it could muster up a protest.

"So, yeah," explained Sen around a mouthful of unaccustomed teeth, shrugging to the best of her morphology. "It's been a while, Vi."

"Wait. Ruby?"

"Scarlet," corrected Sen, teeth bared. "'ent nothing left for me to bother queening over any more, and by the pasty looks of you queens aren't what they used to be anyway."

Violet glared. Sen chittered. "You've got nothing meaningful to do, seeing's old Midnight will come scoop you up again eventually, so would it kill you to hang around and tell me what's going on?"

The request got her to thinking, glancing over at the carpeteer (who couldn't stop staring at what basically amounted to a being lost in the mists of time long enough to get his cigarette properly lit). Steven, and the battle, and the other contestants that man had mentioned. This thing the ex-queen had co-opted was that "plant monster", wasn't it?

"Fly across," she said to the pilot, then to Scarlet: "You - that... thing. It made this whole cloudform?"

"Hell yeah! It started out as this beanstalky kind of thing - oh, right, you skytypes don't have beans, it's like a tall straight tree, anyway - once it reached the Skies a cloud got caught up in it and it just got its roots in there! And look!"

With a stomp of Sen's feet, a swarm of roots snaked out from the side of the cloud, slithering under the approaching carpet into a sparsely-haired landing strip. Ruby- sorry, Scarlet - slumped back down into a sitting-ish position, the monster's weight resting on its elbows. It beamed at Violet over tented fingers. "I don't reckon even Esme knew how to work plants like this."

Violet wasn't really listening. If this was the once-queen, and this was the monster in the fight with Steven, and she/they/it/the two had the power to make something like this... ending the Grey Queen's tyranny might actually be possible. With the monster under Scarlet's control, the other battlers could probably be convinced not to fight. They could gather, with all the time they needed, and Steven and the others could find a way home.

"You're scheeeeeming," said the monster down its nose, distinctly free of reproach. Violet bristled.

"Am not."

"You're figuring out how I could help you kill old Midnight. Which I won't. Down there isn't sticks and mud like you lot like to tell yourselves, and it's more home to me than... all this fluff." Scarlet sighed, noticed the queen was still standing, and uprooted something in the shape of a seat. If it weren't for a curl to the creature's mouth suggesting scorn, it might have almost looked sad.

"I'd take you if I could, Vi. You'd probably enjoy it down there. But, y'know. Midnight'd come looking, and imagine the mess if she found somewhere that could put up a real fight. Naw, I'm just here to pick up a friend. Maybe poke my nose around before anyone catches on it's me, remind myself why I was ok with leaving."

Violet poked the seat with her sword, trying not to think about how she couldn't really describe Ruby's departure as 'leaving'. "If you didn't want any attention drawn to the Surface, why make this thing?"

"Hah! Try asking this guy. Can't make heads or tail of what his deal is. I'll eat my hat if anyone up here, much less a Green, tried breaking the mold this bad."

"Actually," and then she paused, because Scarlet was struggling the creature upright and almost falling over again in her attempts to wave.

"Merlot! Go low and catch me!" The witch crouched, tail lashing, then galloped clean off the cloud's edge. Violet shouted "No!", her immediate thought that the monster would be killed on impact and Steven and the others would be whisked away, but when she scrambled to the edge she heard only laughter.

Dangling there in the air was Sen, suspended by a red balloon with its string around his tail. The rest of him dangled, and Scarlet laughed a good witchy cackle as she clung on his claws. Sen squawked, looked down at the ground (and Scarlet), up at the balloon, squawked again with a note of resignation, before letting his head succumb to gravity. Scarlet, still laughing, patted him on the nose and motioned for the balloon to rise.

Safely back on nubis firma, Sen got his claws in, lay down, and complained to himself for a bit. The balloon, at an 'a-hem' from Scarlet, took on a form more conducive to being hugged. She was short, thin-lipped, and dressed in that traditional Red noble-garb that straddled the line between 'vagrant' and 'post-apocalyptic chic'. Merlot seemed more interested in Sen than the lady around her neck, but unbeknownst to Violet the two were in a rapid mental exchange. She eventually nodded, peeling off the witch and smoothing down her skirt.

"We should head down if we don't want to run into Midnight. Saw her heading for Six for Gold as I was making my way out, but I dunno if she saw me."

"Right, she'll find this cloudform sooner or later. Eurgh." Scarlet pecked Merlot on the cheek a final time, then extricated herself and awkwardly remembered the Purple Queen. "Uh, well, it's been real nice catching up, Vi."

"You're leaving me here," Violet said in disbelief.

"You've got a carpet, and it's not that far to your jurisdictings. Things'll work out." Scarlet avoided the queen's gaze.

"'Ey Scarlet, what's your plan with this thing?" Merlot scritched Sen behind his crests.

"Let's keep it! I've almost gotten the hang of walking with it-"

"No." Violet had had enough. "If you're just going to live life hiding from Midnight, you can take me too."

"Vi, come on-"

"Stop. You have no idea what we're involved in. That-" she jabbed in Sen's direction with her sword "-isn't from here. It's not from this world, even. It's in a fight with a bunch of other people, and one of them risked their life to rescue me and the other queens. You got your friend back thanks to this thing."

"Well, if you care about this new friend of yours so bad, where is she?"

"I was heading to Fuchsia Palace for help, and ran into you. Also, his name is Steven. He's got a magic artifact that could send him home, but it needs more power so I entrusted it to- to some of the people in his fight." Violet couldn't help but notice the glint in Scarlet's eye at 'magic artifact', but more pressing was the sinking feeling that she'd been wrong to trust that duo. She spun around, slashing at branches (Sen honked in protest into his faceful of cloud), waving to the carpeteer. "I don't have time for this. Ride your stupid lizard if you want, but don't come crying to me if it vanishes suddenly and takes you with it."

As she crossed the root-bridge back to the carpet, the carpeteer's expression made her turn around. The monster was a few paces behind her, wearing a bright red witch hat and balloon.

"Yer royal magic's been siphoned off to Midnight since forever, there's nobody in your queendom can help. You found help here, so turn this rug around." Sen grinned, displaying needles. "That carpet'll hold us, right?"