Three Fairies Quest

[Tapsa]

>"We should probably go get her. She might get lonely or miss out on seeing a neat rock."
>Head homeward.

>"Yeah, we can't just forget about our Luna like that!", Star says.
>You circle around the shrine by its north side, staying in the concealing shade of the trees of the forest bordering the shrine grounds. As you come around the back side of the shrine, you notice Suika reclining on the back porch. It's hard to say from the distance, but she doesn't look so unhappy anymore. To be honest, you were expecting to see her sitting on the edge of the porch with her feet dangling over, looking all down.
>With destination set to home, you plunge deeper into the forest and leave the shrine behind you along with Suika and Reimu.
>"Those sleeves... Don't you think there's something fishy about them?", says Star.

>_

[O4rfish]

>"I don't remember Suika's sleeves. Did she even have sleeves?"

[Tapsa]

>"I don't remember Suika's sleeves. Did she even have sleeves?"

>"Nah, the red-white's. You saw how she pulled and put back those big papers like it was nothing, right? They don't look like they'd even fit in those sleeves without some folding or crumpling. Real fishy!"

>_

[Hanzo K.]

>"Come to think of it, it DOES! I always knew you were the one of us who was on the ball!"
>Beat.
>"...Where'd you hide the ball?! I wanted to play with it too!"

[Tapsa]

>"Come to think of it, it DOES! I always knew you were the one of us who was on the ball!"
>Beat.
>"...Where'd you hide the ball?! I wanted to play with it too!"

>"Well I dunno! Maybe you kicked one off into the woods and got too lazy to get it back?", Star says.
>You emerge out of the forest through some bushes, finding yourself in the open land surrounding the gigantic tree that is your home. This is your lawn. And boy are you proud of it! No humie's got this much tall grass as you've got.

>_

[Hello Purvis]

>Head inside.
>"Hey Luna, let's go!"

[Tapsa]

>Head inside.
>"Hey Luna, let's go!"

>You get to the base of the tree and head inside through the stiff and creaky door.
>You holler for Luna, but hear no response from upstairs.

>_

[Hello Purvis]

>Head upstairs and casually look around for her.

[Tapsa]

>Head upstairs and casually look around for her.

>You start climbing up the stairs. If she's still in here, you shouldn't have any difficulties finding her since the upper floor is effectively an one big room where you all live in. While the tree itself is huge when viewed from outside, the interiors aren't.
>You spot Luna as soon as your eyes peek over the staircase landing. She is currently examining the Lunarian Flag hung on a wall.

>_

[Hello Purvis]

>"You ready to go or what?"

[Tapsa]

>"You ready to go or what?"

>"To where?", Luna asks, shooting a glance at you over her shoulder.
>She then turns around and starts sizing you up. "Oh... She didn't chop you, right? You don't look very chopped up. I think?"

>_

[Hello Purvis]

>"No, she was just fine. It was the other one..."
>Shudder.
>"Don't wanna talk about it. C'mon, we gotta go find a drum youkai, and also Reimu wants us to do a thing because she's sick."

[Tapsa]

>"No, she was just fine. It was the other one..."

>Luna headtilts. "The other one? There's more Reimus?"
>"No, Sunny meant the hornhead.", Star says.
>"Huh? What'd she do?"

>Shudder.
>"Don't wanna talk about it. C'mon, we gotta go find a drum youkai, and also Reimu wants us to do a thing because she's sick."

>Thinking about it still makes you shudder. You didn't know it was even possible to survive the noogies from an oni...
>"Well, I don't get what she did to you since you look fine, but okay, let's not talk about it.", Luna says.
>Luna frowns to the latter part of your sentence.
>"What kind of a thing?", she asks.

>_

[Hello Purvis]

>"We gotta take a think to the Kourinplace, see."

[Tapsa]

>"We gotta take a think to the Kourinplace, see."

>"Kourinplace? That sounds kinda familiar...", says Luna.
>"It's that weird shop in the Forest.", Star says.
>"Oh, that... Well, I guess this all doesn't sound too bad."
>Luna picks up her hat off the dining table and dons it.
>"Okay, I'm ready.", Luna says.

>_

[Hello Purvis]

>Depart! In the direction we think Kourindou is.

[Tapsa]

>Depart! In the direction we think Kourindou is.

>Going west from the shrine, towards the Forest of Magic, would probably be a good starting point.
>You leave your house behind and head back shrinewards.
>As you pass by the shrine, you notice that Suika has switched from reclining on the back porch to reclining on the back roof. How she's not on fire for lying on the roof tiles with this kind of weather going on puzzles you slightly.
>You skillfully skip down the stone steps leading down to bottom of the hill. Star walks down the steps without doing anything fancy, while Luna just flies over them to get down to you. She is all too aware of her poor experiences with stairs by now.
>You venture into the forest ahead and begin following the lone trail that goes westwards. Soon enough, you find yourself in a familiar T-junction, from which a new trail shoots off to the north. You're pretty sure there used to be a signpost here that you loved to change around all the time to misdirect travellers, but from the looks of it some chumps have looted it. Or maybe it was that other crossroads? At any rate, you're not going to get misdirected here yourself.
>Continuing on the trail towards west, the surrounding forest is starting to get gradually denser and more overgrown, and the bird calls and insect cries are not as plentiful as they were before. You'd say it's a pretty safe bet to claim that you're within the borders of Forest of Magic by now.
>"Um... Sunny? Star?", Luna says.

>_

[Hello Purvis]

>"Yeah?"

[Tapsa]

>"Yeah?"

>"You're seeing that too, right?", says Luna, pointing forward and slightly down.

>_

[Hello Purvis]

>Look down, to see if there's anything other than increasingly dense undergrowth.

[Tapsa]

>Look down, to see if there's anything other than increasingly dense undergrowth.

>You look down where Luna's pointing.
>...How didn't you notice this until Luna pointed it out? There is a wide path of ice crossing the trail here. Curiously, the undergrowth and plants trapped under the ice path appear to not be only encased in ice, but also withered dead.

>_

[Hello Purvis]

>"...Winter isn't supposed to work that way!"

[O4rfish]

>Avoid touching the ice, but approach and examine.

[Tapsa]

>"...Winter isn't supposed to work that way!"

>"Not by a mile...", Luna says.

>Avoid touching the ice, but approach and examine.

>It probably wouldn't be very healthy for you to touch the ice, if the dead plantlife under it and the fact it hasn't begun melting yet are any sort of indication to you. You draw in as close as you can without coming in contact with the ice and begin examining.
>The ice path crosses the trail, exiting to north and south. It is quite wide, you could stand inside it side-by-side with Star and Luna with your arms spread out and still have some space left around you. The plants trapped under the layer of light blue colored ice covering the ground are still just as withered and dead as you asserted them to be a moment ago, but now on a closer look, you also notice that all the frozen plants seem to be swept towards south. That must be the direction where whatever that caused this was headed.

>"You think Cirno did this?", Luna asks.
>"Maybe...", says Star, staring straight down the trail with empty eyes. "Don't really remember Cirno being this... huge, though. Maybe she's been lifting lately?"

>_

[Hello Purvis]

>Look southward along this icy path, and see what there is to see in that direction.

[Tapsa]

>Look southward along this icy path, and see what there is to see in that direction.

>While all the low-hanging tree branches, bushes and shrubs that were in the way of the ice path are frozen and dead, you can't actually see very far down the path because it curves southwest behind plenty of untouched forest flora which block your line of sight.
>"Uh, where'd that one come from?", Luna says.
>"Oh, just saying. The thing I detected where that path's going to seems kinda big for Cirno. Might just be my thing going haywire, I can barely sense it from here...", says Star.

>_

[Hello Purvis]

>"What if Cirno's in trouble? Star, do you sense anyone nearby?"
>Are we aware of Letty Whiterock?

[Kyo Tanaka]

>Out of pure curiousity, lick the icy ground. See if its all frozen.

[O4rfish]

>Lick the ground? Why?

[Kyo Tanaka]

>Why not? Ice is where ice cream from! It must be delicious, and best way to get trolled tell if its ice!