Now for a little Becky piece, to break up the more dramatic Dash co-writes.

It isn't accidental, either. I wanted something lighter here to contrast with what happened in the last piece. Jester King and Paladin get bit parts here, too.

 
(Debut of the Becky Rose line breaks!)

That Becky Joy, why her eyes got as wide as big ole' saucers when she looked out 'n' over them there piers!

Ahh, so beautiful!

The way the water reflected with the overhead sinking sun's reflection sprinkled generously over the water's surface made Becky smile big and childlike. The complete and absolute youthful innocence of Becky Joy was just one of the things that set the twenty-something ice magic specialist apart from so many others.

Becky imagined that poets saw this view and dreamed of it into their elder years. Writers struggled with words in an attempt to even do the scene the slightest bit of justice, Becky realized.

Who knew how many people had looked over the very waters and dreamed about going to see faraway lands? Maybe exploring them, and experiencing a brand new way of living and thinking. Ohh.. maybe they'd have exotic food.. like brand new flavors of ice cream!!

"What're you thinking about, Becky?" Goblina asked, throwing Becky's train of thought off.

"Um.. I forget! I think it was ice cream!" Becky said excitedly.

"Figures," said Goblina.

 
@}-,-`-*--BECKY-!`!*~~ROSE--`--,*

 
Elsewhere, Red and Green were doing their own thing.

"Hey Red?"

"Yeah, Green?"

"When're we headin home?"

Red's eyes lit up. "Maybe after dinner?! Ohh, I can see it now.. pasta.. mostaccioli.. pizza.. pasta.. pizza.. noodles.. pasta.. mmmmm.." Red was virtually, well literally drooling. Just a bit.

"Big brother?"

"Yeah?"

"Do me a favor?"

"What's that, Green?"

"Shadda'ppa yer mouth about your stomach?"

"We'll see," Red said. Then he drifted off, still thinking about lunch before leaving. Literally seeming to float in the air…

 
@}-,-`-*--BECKY-!`!*~~ROSE--`--,*

 
"?!?"

Becky didn't so much speak as make an over-exaggerated expression of surprise. Becky seemed further surprised when no on responded to it. So she repeated herself. "I said.. '?!?'"

Goblina walked up to her and smiled. "Hey Becky.. what'd you say?"

"?!?" Becky replied, looking at her to show her the confused face.

"What's that mean?!" Goblina asked, a bit taken back and confused.

"?!?" This time, Becky looked directly at her with her confused face.

The Goblin nodded. "You're.. confused over something? Or you ate a lemon."

"Ewwwwwwwwww ew ew," Becky said, making a real face this time. "Lemons yucky!"

Goblina had adjusted to Becky's oddities rather quickly. Still, the human mage could be confusing to Goblina sometimes. "What're you confused about?"

"Why do people even like lemons?"! Becky demanded to know, throwing her hands in the air. Before Goblina could comment, Becky got back to her original point, surprisingly enough. "And I was thinking.. 'where'd dem kitties go?!' Did you know Queen Catrina and Cattaras were right here talkin' to our old buddies Dashie and .. and.. um space elf?! And I skipped down and back and.. and, and they were gone!"

Becky made a 'poof-vanish' hand gesture, throwing in a puff of ice for extra effect.

Goblina raised her eyebrow a bit. No small feat for a Knob Goblin, for obvious reasons. "Gone how?"

"ohh hmm... good question." Becky stopped like she was thinking about it. "Like.. not there. Gone."

"They do move rather fast when so inspired," said Darson , approaching both from behind and making Becky and Goblina jump a little. "They could have easily have sped off in the time you were skipping the other way. You're not exactly the quickest skipper."

Becky's expression turned downcast. "I guess.. how come'd Dash and Aleena went with them, I think?"

She meant, she wondered. If you wondered.

"They.. casually strolled off?" Darson proposed. "And you didn't notice because you saw something that caught your attention?"

"I guess that could have happened," Becky admitted. "I wish I paid attention to what I was paying attention to!"

"We all do," Darson said with a sigh, drawing giggles from both Goblina and Becky.

 
@}-,-`-*--BECKY-!`!*~~ROSE--`--,*

 
Jester King of Beasts had mostly kept to himself for fear of getting himself in trouble, er, in more trouble with Catrina and Daisuke. Sure, he could probably handle them easily, and it wasn't exactly a matter of respect or anything. But the dark forces had wanted them in position, which had been the root of the Jester King's actions as he plotted and planned against the idiot Knob Goblin king for those long weeks and months leading up to Catrina's eventual takeover.

Well, he'd not exactly kept to himself. Like now, the Black Paladin had kept him silent company for most of the adventure so far, though even the Paladin most likely tired of the Jester King's ramblings and annoying ego by this point.

The Jester King's pace increased for several seconds until he was virtually a blur moving back and forth. No small feat considering he doesn't actually have the ability to move that fast.

He suddenly came to a complete standstill, finger pointed high in the air for emphasis.

"This will not do!" He insisted, looking directly at the Paladin, who give no response at all and barely any indication that he was, in fact, alive.

"Those children need to learn discipline! Discipline, I tell you! You're always treating them out to ice cream, spoiling them, and letting them play their fancy 'army games,' but does it always have to be me who's the bad guy here?! Does it?!"

No response from the Paladin at all. No response at all. So Jester simply starred at him, arms folded across his chest for several long, silent minutes.

"You're right, of course it is! Come, Holmes, we've many a step before us if we're going to solve this mystery!" With that, a plaid hat appeared on top of his head. An oversized smoking pipe which appeared to be smoking itself appeared in his mouth, held up of its own accord even as he spoke.

"Come, fool! I shall most assuredly get to the root of this mystery, even if it kills you! Oh, and especially if it kills me again!" He then rushed over, wrapping himself like a snake around the Paladin's leg. "Ohh, this will be such fun!"

The Paladin simply growled, and the Jester King released his grip and moved to the door. The Paladin seemed to sigh and moved to follow.

Jester King quickly confronted a lone drunken pirate wandering the ship's many halls. The sight of the bony, corpse skinned, oddly dressed, "Who said what?! Where were you the night of Boris 25th?!"

The pirate stammered. "I.. with your mom! I'm so sorry!"

The Jester King released him, nodding.. "Ahh.. of course."

The pirate tried to sneak away but the Jester King again cornered him. "I demand answers!"

"I don't know where the catpeople went!" The pirate muttered.

"Catpeople? What catpeople?" Jester King asked, utterly confused. Then he had a flashback to that time he phased in on Catrina and Cattaras while they were changing and ended up nearly clawing the dead skin off half his body. "Ohh, right. Silly me."

"But I gotta recon they've gone to the place the dragon arrived," the pirate said, terrified for his life. "I hear it be straight down six blocks, turn, and head outta town on the main road. None of that dirt road for this city, arrrr!"

"Thank you for cooperating with our, oh screw it." Jester King took his head and slammed it into the wall, leaving the poor pirate bleeding and unconscious. "Let us be off!"

 
@}-,-`-*--BECKY-!`!*~~ROSE--`--,*

 
As the two Elite 7 members walked across the pier to the Port Authority and snack bar, Jester King noticed Becky Joy glaring at him.

Becky shot him that familiar inquisitive look of confusion. "!?!"

As Black Paladin caught up with him, Jester King stopped to do some unfriendly, condescending teasing to Becky about his plans, intent on leaving her in tears before he left. As if!

How mean of Jester King, trying to make Becky cry! Anyway, she doesn't know it yet (nor did I know when I was writing it) but Becky has a happy surprise return to look forward to!