Call to Adventure

[Bob]

April 10th | Closed to Belle and Bob.

"Are you sure you're okay to go alone...like, without us?" Taylor asked, as she tossed saddlebags onto Bob's back, causing him to draw in a sharp breath. He already had a stupid saddle and reins on, the last thing he needed was something heavy thrown onto his back.

"Not so hard! Those things weigh a lot!" Bob yelped, lashing his tail in annoyance as he shot his best friend a glare. He pawed the ground with a hoof, as Sophia gently lowered a small amulet around his neck, the glow around her horn gradually fading as she did so.

"For your safety." Sophia said, with a wink. Bob merely shook his head, as an amused smile spread across his face.

"Y'all are actin' like I can't be off on my own. Tell me, how do y'all think I survived this long in the human world without gettin' caught? I think I can do this just fine, it's just a short mission." Bob said, with a snort.

"You survived because of pure dumb luck." Taylor said with a laugh, as she rested a hand on her hip. Bob rolled his eyes, and then dragged both Sophia and Taylor into his chest with his foreleg, hugging them as tightly as he could.

"I'll be fine. Y'all don't have to worry about me and Belle." Bob reassured them, as he nuzzled the tops of their heads. He then released them, causing both girls to take an awkward step back to catch their balance.

"If you say so." Taylor said, with a huff.

"Where is Belle anyways?" Sophia asked, looking around for the French maiden.

[Belle]

Progressive she might be, but Belle wasn't accustomed to pants. It felt a bit strange, the fabric clinging to her legs in ways that felt both liberating and revealing. It was a necessity that she had insisted upon -- no point in tangling herself up in skirts while riding -- but the novelty of skintight clothing was making the maiden feel a bit self-conscious.

It almost distracted her from the fact that she was going to be riding a unicorn. While searching for a magical artifact.

While riding a unicorn.

Belle had regarded herself in the floor-length mirror for a long moment, expression blank with the sheer befuddlement of her situation. Surely this wasn't the strangest thing to happen. She'd broken a magic curse on a castle full of living furniture, for Heaven's sake! Screwing up her nose Belle stuck her tongue out at the lost girl in her reflection. A last straightening of the navy riding jacket and she turned away from her own visage, seizing a cloak and satchel she'd hung on a nearby chair before taking leave of her quarters.

With a purposeful stride Belle had made her way to the designated meeting place in short time, satchel hung with the strap across her chest. Her cloak she closed around her with the click of a silver clasp shaped into a delicate rose. She didn't have anyone to send her off on the journey. Belle hung back a little all the same, giving the little family their moment as they spoke before piping up herself.

"I'm here and ready when you are, Bob."

[Bob]

The trio turned to face Belle as she approached, wearing riding attire from head to toe. They were surprised to see her in something other than her usual dress.

"Don't expect ridin' lessons from me. It's bad enough that I gotta wear this stupid bridle and saddle." Bob grumbled, pawing the ground with a hoof to make his point. He shook his head, pink mane whipping about as he shook his entire body down to the tip of his tail, much like a dog would. He then winked at his sister and Taylor, before walking over to Belle, and kneeling down next to her.

"Figured this would make it easier for y'all, instead of jumpin' on, cause in case y'all didn't know, it hurts a lot when you humans jump on and miss, and I'm not takin' that chance today." Bob said.

"Sorry Belle, Bob's really particular about who's up on his back. It took me some time to figure out what worked well for the two of us. Just dig your heel into his side a few times, he'll quit complaining soon enough if his whining is getting to be too much." Taylor said, which earned her another glare from the unicorn.

"We're wishing the two of you the best of luck. Come back safe." Sophia said, with a gentle smile. She then ushered Taylor away, leaving just Belle and Bob to their own devices.

(OOC: Roze, you can fast forward to them leaving Paris if you want.)

[Belle]

Belle's smile was in good humor as her riding companion trotted his way over and knelt before her.

"No offense to be taken where none was meant, Taylor. Don't worry though," Her gaze had shifted to her fellow human but now returned to the unicorn before her, "The only way to travel from my town was on horseback, and I'm used to a pretty cantankerous gelding myself." Belle was sure that only a real fright or serious nerves could have turned her into such a horrid rider as to miss the broad white back before her, but why press the point when it was easier to move along? With no fuss the maid eased herself onto Bob's back and settled her seat, searching and wiggling for a moment to adjust into a comfortable position on the worn leather.

"Alright."

---

Travel on a unicorn hadn't yet seemed to be all that different from riding -- albeit a lot faster. Content to watch the unfamiliar scenery Belle and remained silent for a long while before breaking the easy silence with simple curiosity. "Is white the common color for unicorns, or is it a family trait? In tapestries and illustrations it seems to be the norm, but I don't know if the artists had actual unicorns to consult or study before they picked up the brush." There was a slight pause. "Considering that you don't have a beard or lion's tail I thought it might be as good a question as any."

[Bob]

The unicorn had galloped out of the gates much like a racehorse did on track day, nearly causing Belle to fly off his back as he did so. If it hadn't been for the reins he had been forced to wear, she would've flown off and Clopin would've killed him for sure.

Luckily, she was still intact as they reached the northernmost part of France, somewhere near Calais. His pace had slowed down to a complete walk, in order for him to catch his breath.

His ears perked up as Belle broke the silence with a question.

"Well...for my family at least, we have white pelts. But there's some unicorns around the world that have different colors, like how y'all humans have different colors too." Bob explained.

"Those artists didn't really know what they were goin' off of, because no real unicorn in their right mind would've approached any human durin' that time unless they really trusted them, 'cause that was the time when huntin' a unicorn for their horn was all the rage. But, there are unicorns that evolved a little differently, enough to look more like those unicorns you're talkin' about, with lion's tails and beards. They live deep in the forests of England. All those artists could do was listen to the descriptions given to them by unicorn hunters." Bob said.

"But for most of us, we just look like normal horses with horns." Bob said, pointing up to his horn with a hoof.

[Belle]

The rustle of pencil on paper accompanied Bob as he spoke, the culprit of the noise being a journal propped against the saddlehorn and cradled upright by Belle's left hand. The maid nodded occasionally then, as though realizing that Bob wouldn't see her without completely turning his head, switched instead to soft noises of encouragement.

"I see." Belle tapped the end of her pencil against her lower lip in a brief pause for thought. "Unicorn hunters... Hm. Do you know what it was that started the craze? I know there are tales of a unicorn's horn being used to detect poisons and heal the sick, but every documented case I found was proved to be either a case of mistaken identity or something like a narwhal's horn passed off as magic. It's possible that I simply haven't found the right books yet, but I imagine that if people were successful it would have been more documented."

[Bob]

"Oh they were successful alright. At least, from the stories I heard. See, a long time ago, unicorns who had left Olympus started creatin' their own little colonies around the world, and some of them had even started livin' around humans. That went all good and well until a unicorn somewhere died under mysterious circumstances, and then humans started spreadin' the word that by using that unicorn's horn, they were able to cure the sick." Bob said, pausing to take a deep breath. He then exhaled slowly, before continuing on with his story.

"So that led to us unicorns bein' scared of humans, or not immediately trustin' them like we used to, because these "hunters" started huntin' down unicorns to see if the legend was true. And to their defense, it is true, but the reason why there aren't any documented cases is because the unicorns started gettin' revenge."

He took a few more steps forward, and the salt of the ocean breeze brushed through his mane, as he and his rider looked out towards the vastness of the blue sea ahead of them.

"Well, here's where we cross to get to Ireland, but we're gonna be doin' this a much quicker way. You're gonna have to hold on tight." Bob said, turning his head to look back at the maiden.

[Belle]

Belle listened in relative silence, pencil scribbling a transcript of Bob's words as he spoke. Questions rose to the tip of her tongue the more he spoke. Were all unicorns descended from the same groups? What of creatures across the world that resembled them, like the kirin of the Far East? What was the origin story for those Olympian ancestors?

Belle shut her notebook with a soft thud as they paused, slipping it and her pencil into the bag across her shoulders. At first the maid simply noted assent, but after a breath she cast a wary glance at the water before them.

Oh no.

"When you say 'quicker'..."

[Bob]

Before Belle could finish her sentence, the scenery around them blurred to a point where it was nearly unrecognizable, and by then, Bob's hooves hit solid ground, right in the middle of a deep green valley with small hills of grass that rolled with the wind. A herd of sheep was grazing nearby, and a few of them scattered when Bob appeared out of seemingly nowhere with Belle.

He then began to trot again, leaving Belle barely any time to recover from teleporting. He remembered how it had been when it was Taylor's first time experiencing teleportation, and he couldn't help but smile at the memory of her trying to frantically figure out just how he'd done that. After that, she had just accepted it and stopped questioning just how it worked, and that was much easier for him to handle.

"Y'all okay back there?" Bob eventually asked, as he slowed to a walk. He then took in the surroundings around him, and it was like Michél had always told him: Ireland was gorgeous. The hills rose into mountains, and he could see a dense forest up ahead. He kept his eyes trained on the treeline, almost as if something was pulling him in.

[Belle]

"-- Oh!"

Well. Then they were in Ireland. Belle took the moment it took for Bob to stride forth to swivel her upper body in the saddle, looking this way and that as the scenery resolved itself into lush greens and the cool smoky smudges of the mountains. That was certainly one way to avoid the time-consuming pitfalls of regular travel.

"I take it you know where we're going, Bob?"