friendly nightmares & bittersweet memories

first things i did after the scary robe people left our cart areas was to go tell Drexla. the poster they had looked silly, but too much like her to be a coincidence. umfortunately, i was right and Drexla explained dat they were after her cuz she made a machine that worked too good. while the zap collar she made did sounds horrifying, an off button is obiously something the guy shoulda asked for in the project plan -- silly billy.
 
once i understood that we gotta help Drexla stay safe from those peoples, focus went back to Bwicky who was still recovering from our battle. Drexla and Mr. V were trying to examine hims condition by the campfire, when he suddenly gets up and runs away! i didnt think i just ran right after him, trying not to lose sight through the festival crowd. he only stops when we get outside the town and into the comfort of darkness. i had a feeling, and asked him what he was running away from. he told me he ran from the fire, cuz thats the one thing that hurts Brickies. i feel so bad remembering that i showed off my fire-hands right near him, but i promised to help keep him away from fire all the times now!
 
i didn't know if Brickyfriend would still wanna walk with me anymore since i had fire-hands.. but yay yayy he said i could come with him still! he said we were following his gut feelings, which i always endorse. they led us back into the festival a different way than we came, which brought so many new smells. i could also smell that Miguel was around, but not very close. then i smelled something familiar -- a group of Tabaxi cats like from the swamp! they seemed veryy different than the swamps cats tho. the first ones we met were some cubs who dropped their ball, and Bricky nicely threw it back to them but then someone sliced the back of his leg! one of the kids named Ella fesses up and says she knows the "Mr.Peepers" (sus) who did it cuz hes her friend. i asked her to fix him then cuz its her fault! she brings Hunzah, their group leader but im getting more and more scared as black ooze keeps leaking out of my friend. when her charm did nothing, and she didnt even know Bwicky was been dead already (duh!), UGh i had enough and i ran back to our friends with leaky Bricky over my shoulder.
 
it was a bumpy ride (sowwyyyy). it wasn't helped that i finally saw the shadow-Bricky some of the others were talkin about, and he tried to hit me! i thought he would chase us but we lost him after that.. back at camp Tobias helped to stop Bricky dying. (while watching Tobycat, i realized that i have some of the same medical stuffs so i coulda helped hahah.. oops. im sure i will 'member it next time). once Bricky is stable again, he takes off his coat to show us the state of his body, and the different metal pieces on it. he says his castle-home had a place where they would "get new" and replace all the black ooze, so that stuffs must be as important as blood to him..
 
when we settled down we noticed that there were other guests at the cart. one of them smelled like a hume, just not the one i need. he did not seem to be shocked seeing a Bogbean for the first time, and offhandedly said he knows what kinda thing i am! he sees them enough that its normal?! i begged him to tell me but instead he told me to ask somethin called a Gwimdletorp. so i gotta look for that now. but it was already late, so that group left and we tried our best to sleep after catching each other up about our day.
 
 
 
in the morning, we all agree that we gotta do something about Mr.Peepers. Bricky remembers the way back to the Tabaxi camp, and leads the way. i start looking for Ella, but every kid i pick up isn't her. i see a pitch-black figure peeking from behind a building, and call to my friends if they see it too and to come with me to chase it. they come with me but even tho its standing right in front of us, they can't see anything. it lunges at me, but i brace and block it with Saturn. i then take a swipe at the thing, but my blade goes right through it like a smoke?! whaat?! Drexla tracks where it went next, and we follow it through a window but what i see is not the same lil guy but a huge monster drenched in blood. Bogbean can't even think of fighting that thing, and my boots are fixed to the ground. all i can does is point at it so Drexla can shoot a magic fire in the right place. the fire lets everyone see its scary shadow, and we even heard a nasty laugh as it disappeared to somewheres else.
 
in the next room is a dead Tabaxi lady, but her heart is missing. Bricky recognizes her pattern is the sames as one of the cubs that Ella plays with, so we realize that when Ella talked about Mr. Peepers "taking care of" her bullies it must mean something gruesome like dis. no one wants to be blamed for a crime done by an invisible thing, but we decide we gotta tell someone and the most understanding would be Hunzah since these is her peoples being hurt.
 
once we arrive to their main building, we find that its an armory with tons of sick-ass swords and weapons on the walls. Hansa is towards the back where she's operating a large grinding wheel. Tobias is brave and tries to explain the situations to her, but she doesn't seem happy with his speech. we urge her to believe us, and i present her my beloved Saturn as proof that this invisible thing fights big. energy shifts a little as Hunzah seems familiar with my sword. i explain that i knew Hebe and when she died i took it upon myself to adventure with it. Hunzah couldn't seem to believe that Hebe would've lived or died like that, and she was so troubled that she had us leave. im glad she decided to believe and help us with Mr. Peepers and Ella, but im afraid i made her sad or said a wrong thing. she obiously knew Hebe before i did, but i don't agree that dying at your own choice is more "cowardly" than wasting away in old age.. i hope i have a chance to tell her that Hebe did good, and also maybe learn more about who Hebe was in her other lives. i knew she was a fighter, but she never told me why she stopped.
 
on our way out of the armory, Bricky was still holding me after the scary happenings in the murder-house. i don't know what i'd do without his comfort, as i continued to see the creature's eyes looking at me from all directions of corners and shadows. i want to kill it so bad but its so scary too..
 
we stopped by the Luxydone caravan with Tobias to see about giving the guys we beat up yesterday some sweets to really rub in the victory, but they weren't there and wise Tobias decided against it in the end. from there we went to the tourney arena for the second round where team V, Luna, and Drexla were up next. there were some rough moments, like Luna being taken out and V accidentally hitting Drexla through the smokescreen, but in the end they pulled through with a win!
 
as our team gets ready to enter the ring, we see our opponents are big ol' minotaurs! i can't say im not excited, but im also worries about Bricky. he was on the edge of death after just a cut yesterday, which isn't like him. he said sumthin about his gut feeling, how it feels wrong in his body without his shadow in there. i have to stay focus so we can survive our next round and then track down shadow-bricky!!