Vainglorious blinked, taken aback. He was hardly aware of the breeze that blew through his wavy white hair all thanks to the door being gone. No, instead he stared at the determined look on Luminous' fair face.
"In that case, I pinky promise that I'll help save your friends." Said Vainglorious before unhooking his finger from Luminous'.
"Oh, my finger tingles!" Exclaimed Luminous wiggling his dainty finger around.
"Pff, first time?" Asked Vainglorious, putting his white glove back on his hand. "That always happens when you enter a blood binding contract, that's how you know it worked and that it's now unbreakable. I'll gather my stuff from my room and then meet you down here where we can discuss the details of our contract further."
Luminous watched the back of Vainglorious's navy blue trench coat sway across the wooden floor as he disappeared back upstairs.
"You've made a grave mistake short stuff." Said the Dawn of Fate. "This will only come back to nip you where the sun doesn't shine."
"I don't care if something happens to me because I'm cured." Said Luminous. "I have to get my friends back before something bad happens to them. Chasm would do the same thing, he's so cool and strong there's no doubt he is doing all he can for the prince right now like he would for anyone."
Luminous thought about the time she had wandered outside of the place's gate when she was eight years old. She had just read a book about a man who had found fairies out in the wild and had a wild party with them. She had so wanted to find a fairy party and had convinced the red prince to wander outside the palace gates with her.
But when they had gotten deep into the forest they were cornered by a group of wolf bandits who wanted to keep them as ransom when the lead wolf saw how richly they were dressed. The red prince had picked up a stick and was prepared to distract the wolves while Luminous made a run for it.
But before the lead wolf bandit could attack Chasm jumped in the middle of the prince and the wolf leaving a scar across the wolf's face with one swift movement. Scared all of the wolves ran away.
Chasm's ebony black hair swayed in the wind as he reached his flawless snow-white hand down towards Luminous. But she had instantly gotten lost in his deep blue crescent moon eyes, those beautiful eyes that were shaped like no one else.
"Are you alright?" Asked Concord, reaching his gloved hand out to her.
Luminous blinked, she had been so lost in thought that she didn't notice when the tavern owner came back to check up on her. She grabbed his hand and he pulled her up. He checked her for any new injuries on her and sighed in relief when he couldn't see any. Concord remembered what state she had been in last when he found her.
"It's good to see you're dressed. I mean okay! It's good to see that you're okay..." Concord's fair skin turned tomato red.
"I feel fine, just a little sore." Replied Luminous.
"Oh, but you're all sticky, you even got it all in your..."
Concord paused, for the first time since he had met her, this was the first proper look at Luminous. He noticed that her hair was some bright yellow color reminding him of bananas.
"....hair?" He continued to gawk.
"I feel gross..." Said Luminous snapping Concord out of his train of thought.
He shook his head, his green ponytail wiggling a little out of its hair tie.
"Hold on, I got just the thing. I'll give you a bath. We have the best baths in all of Kingdom Brown, warm water, clean towels, it even comes with soap." Concord smiled proudly, a gleam in his cyan eyes.
"Warm water?" Luminous grinned after remembering her experience in the cold lake water.
"You're going to bathe her?" Asked the Dawn of Fate.
"I...I didn't mean me personally!" Yelled Concord, his pale cheeks turning bright red."I mean uhh...Penny!"
Luminous looked up as a robot with bronze pigtails wearing a bronze waitress dress walked out of the backroom.
"Hi, I'm Penny." Said the robot.
"Oh, a server bot? Nice, I thought only the rich had those." Said the Dawn of Fate. "How fancy."
"Well, it's true that business hasn't been the best lately since people stopped traveling to Kingdom Brown for things. I mean, don't get me wrong I love my regulars, like Barrett, Ursa the bear, and the other hunters. But I thought at least buying a server bot to help around the place would help bring more people in." Said Concord. "At least I hope it brings back boon...Well, Penny should be able to get you cleaned up right away anyway."
"Ya, thanks for the warm bath." Said Luminous following the server bot upstairs.
"Ya, It would nice not to hang on the back of someone sticky." Said the Dawn of Fate.
"Oh, ya it's no problem." Said Concord, smiling and waving to Luminous. Before stopping cold in his tracks. "Wait! Did your sword just talk!?"
But it was too late, Luminous had already disappeared up the stairs with the robot and the Dawn of Fate.
"Warm water! Yay!" Said Luminous, after handing her clothes to Penny bot to get washed and getting into the tub. "I forgot how good it is to be in warm water!" She said sinking into the emerald green tub.
"It's only been two days, and we're not even halfway through the journey. How do you suppose you're going to survive the rest of this journey?" Asked the Dawn of Fate hanging on the towel rack. "Also you should clean some of this gunk off my blade before we go, dog breath did it for you last time. But now it's all sticky."
"I don't want to, maybe I'll ask the robot to clean you next." Said Luminous.
Penny began scrubbing the sticky drinks off of Luminous' face and fixing her hair for her. She even removed the already dirty day old bandanas that were peeling off and cleaned the scratches with the same clear liquid Barrett did.
Luminous frowned remembering how Barrett said the stinging meant the germ bugs were dying.
"What's with the long face?" Asked Dawn of Fate.
"I did the right thing didn't I?"
"I've been alive for over a thousand years and trust me short stuff the lines get blurred on that. It's best just to not think of it."
After Penny bot came back with Luminous' pink button-up pajama top with the chicken patterns, and her black shorts. She got dressed and went downstairs to find a small white-haired boy sitting at one of the tables in a sea of tall brown-haired hunters.
"Vainglorious, you were waiting for me?" Luminous smiled as she got closer to the table.
"I said I would be right down, didn't I?" Said Vainglorious, crossing his arms. "Where were you?"
"Oh..uh..you see Concord he-"
"Oh, Luminous you're bleeding!"
Luminous turned around to see Concord coming towards her with a box of bandanas and a handkerchief.
"Worry wort, it's only slight necrosis damage from the Hall Monitor fight it'll go away eventually." Said the Dawn of Fate. Luminous wiped her hand across her cheek and fresh blood showed up in her hand. "uh. . .maybe."
"Here, let me help you." Said Concord, sticking one of the colorful bandanas on Luminous' wound above her nose.
Luminous' eyes landed on the metal box of colorful band-aids sitting on the wooden bench next to Concord.
"Thoughts are Barrett's bandanas." She said as Concord stuck one of the bandanas on her cheek.
"Huh?" Concord looked down at Luminous, his eyes meeting hers. Before instantly looking back up blushing. "Oh, ya, I'm his supplier. He buys a lot of his supplies from me. Grinnin says he likes the more colorful ones, even if they are impractical. He's cute like that sometimes." Laughed the tavern owner before biting his tongue. "Don't tell him I said that though he would kill me."
"Ya, the big palooka is a big brute isn't he?" Asked the Dawn of Fate.
"Oh, I wouldn't say that." Said Concord scratching the back of his head. "I don't know if you noticed but Kingdom Brown has a very...pay for someone to do it, or do it yourself policy. So I didn't really have any help when I moved into the Tavern Den. One day when I was trying to lift heavy boxes by myself, Grinnin noticed me struggling, and with a huff was all like. Give it here you're going to throw your back out lifting like that." He said in a lower octave. "You don't even know what you're doing, do you, foreigner?"
The tavern owner laughed, shaking his head of green hair before continuing.
"Funny thing is that at first, he was so tall and muscular I didn't even know he was also 15 at the time. I definitely thought he was older than me. But it's been three years now and we've been friends ever since, no matter how much he denies that he likes having me around."
"That's so cute." Said Luminous once Concord finished putting the bandanas on her. "Do you think he loves you back?"
"Well, I guess me and Grinnin-" 'Concord stopped mid-sentence when he registered what Luminous said. "What?!"
"Are you going to confess your feelings for him? You two would be so cute together. Please let me be there to see it."
Concords pale cheeks turned bright red.
"HUH?! I..uh..I think you got the wrong idea about me and Grinnin's relationship! He doesn't even think of me that way in the first place. . ."
He waved his gloved hands around as he rambled. But all Luminous could think about was how much his red cheeks and mint green hair that was pulled up into a short ponytail made him look like a tomato.
"Ahem!" Vainglorious coughed loudly next to Luminous' ear. "Sorry to interrupt whatever this is, but what exactly is your plan for saving your friends? Where do we go from here?"
"Uhh. . .plan?" Asked Luminous."Huh, guess I haven't really thought this far ahead." Vainglorious' cold heart dropped to his stomach once he realized he was dealing with a go by the seat of her pants type. "What do we do next Dawn?" She asked, turning to her sword.
Suddenly a horn could be heard from the busted doorway of the Tavern Den. Everyone turned towards the tall nicely dressed man with slicked-back brown hair.
"It's a royal messenger." Whispered one of the Tavern goers who was near Luminous.
"Ahem." The man cleared his throat, as he unrolled a piece of parchment with his spindly fingers. "The queen of Kingdom Brown is offering a 1000 boon reward to anyone who can rescue the princess, from the vampire known as Nightdread."
"Wait did he just say, vampire? How are there any vampires left?" Asked one of the hunters in the tavern. "I thought they all went extinct long ago."
"How are they able to snatch people out and about with the sun around?"
"There will also be an extra 1000 boon for any wizard who is able to find the spell able to bring back the sun." Continued the royal messenger.
"Bring back the sun?" Asked a tall hunter.
"I'm sorry, in like the sun is missing?" Asked another.
But the royal messenger said no more as he slammed the parchment with the quest on the crooked board and walked away. Everyone in the Tavern began looking around amongst themselves, sometimes peering out the window as if to look for the sun. Luminous bet that if Barrett was here he wouldn't even hesitate to take the mission off the board.
Luminous shook her head, her short blonde hair brushing against the newly placed bandages on her face. Why was she thinking about Barrett now? She grabbed the quest off the board before anyone else could, not that anyone else was in a rush.
"Wait, what do you think you're doing short stuff?" Asked the Dawn of Fate. "We shouldn't take up extra time doing some side quest. Look I know that you want to pay back dog breath, but we could do that at a later time."
"No, I mean, it's not just the boon. The vampire kidnapped the princess of Kingdom Brown."
"So?"
"So, what if he was also the one who kidnapped the red prince?"
"That's not relevant, we need to find the crow king. You know the crow king. The one who invaded your kingdom? We need to defeat him before he takes over the rest of the world."
"But we still need to save my friends." Said Luminous. "Right Dawn?"
There was a pause where he didn't speak, Luminous' stomach dropped.
"We need to save my friends, right Dawn?"
"Top priority is saving the six kingdoms that make up the nation of Grayscale by stopping the crow king from taking it over."
"But my friends are in danger now!"
"Kid I sympathize with that. But the crow king has been raining terror on us in different ways for over thousands of years now. Each time we're able to stop him little by little, he builds his dark kingdom back up stronger than before. We have to end him now for the honor of Grayscale!"
"If I may," Said Vainglorious, taking the quest paper out of Luminous' hand. "Disregarding the princess, didn't that guard say the vampire took the sun? Wouldn't the sun being gone bring a greater threat considering how awful ancient times before the sun were? You know back when night creatures like vampires had free range to roam the world?"
"Why are you taking her side?" Asked the Dawn of Fate. "Don't you want to get this over with quickly since you're spellbound too?"
"Actually, I'm spellbound to save her friends not defeat some long disgraced dark king." Said Vainglorious rolling his gray eyes. "Like it would matter to me who rules over what or who once I get my full powers back. Besides Luminous look at this," he pointed to a spot on the map. "The vampire is from the house Nightblue. That's just a short walk away from here before you get your friends back and I get to meet whoever enchanted your sword like you promised, right?"
"Ya, you're right. . ." Said Luminous kneeling down, presenting her cheek to Vainglorious' to see the paper. ". . .that doesn't look very far."
Vainglorious' snow-white skin turned bright red at how warm and soft Luminous' skin felt pressed against him.
"I said you could look! I did not give you permission to press yourself up against me!" He yelled shoving the palm of his tiny hand to her cheek to peel her off of him.
"Hey wait, are you really going to fight a vampire all by yourself?" Asked Concord.
Luminous turned from the paper to look at the lanky older teen. Who had been so quiet that she had nearly forgotten that he was there.
"I'm not by myself. I'm with Vainglorious." Luminous said pointing towards the little boy with white hair.
"Vainglorious?" Asked Concord crocking an eyebrow at the young wizard.
"What?" Asked Vainglorious, glaring back up at him.
"And I'm also going." Said the Dawn of Fate. "So you know, we're kind of developing a whole traveling party here."
"Well, I can go with you." Said Concord. "I mean, I feel really bad about Grinnin and all. I mean he is really high strung at times. But he can be a nice guy once you get to know him."
"I mean you don't have to if you don't want to." Luminous bit her lip remembering how she lied to Barrett. "It's not that big of a deal, I'll be okay."
"Of course it's a big deal! A lady should never be treated like that. I'll be happy to help any way I can." Concord smiled.
"What is it you do again?" Asked the Dawn of Fate.
"Oh, I can heal minor injuries with herbs. And I, it's not much but I can also play the pipes." Said Concord holding up his pipes.
"Oh great, short stuff you pissed off our tank and gained a kitchen healer that doubles as a bard. What else can go wrong?"
Luminous walked the moonlit path singing out of tune with Concords otherwise good pipe while Vainglorious hung behind covering his ears. And if the Dawn of Fate had ears he would be covering them too.
"Alright enough dang nabbit, we've been wandering around in the moonlit forest for hours." Snapped the Dawn of Fate. "Can we give ye old tune of the dying cow a break already?"
Concord blushed clutching the pipes in his gloved hands tightly.
"Oh, sorry, it's just something I like to do while I'm on the road. Sometimes the snakes like to listen while I play." Concord bit his lip. "Is it really that bad?" Concord hunched over in embarrassment.
Luminous thought he now looked like a turtle with his green hair and outfit along with the giant yellow shield he had resting on his lanky back.
"I want to say it could improve if you replace that sympathy of screeching cats you have for a lead singer. But I wouldn't quit your day job buddy. Also wouldn't it be better to play without the thick leather gloves on?"
"Uh. . .oh. . .?" Concord shifted his eyes as he pulled his gloves up on his wrist. "They uh, warm my hands because it's cold out." He clutched his long shirt sleeve pulled over his wrist. His green bangs covering his cyan eyes when he looked down.
"Hey, that wasn't very nice Dawn. Also, my singing wasn't that bad." Pouted Luminous. "It might sound like dyeing cows now, but Concord could be a great pied piper someday."
"Thank you Luminous!" Concord grinned. "That means a lot to me. . ." He then realized what she fully said, his grin wavered as he added. "Uh, I think. . ."
"Also, Mr. Jack sass, I thought you said it was only just a few steps away." Said the Dawn of Fate to Vainglorious. "What's happening? Are you lost?"
"I'm not lost." Said Vainglorious glaring at the vermilion sword on Luminous' back with his stone gray eyes. "This road is just longer than the map said it was."
"What do you mean longer than the map said it was? You should be able to tell just by looking at the dang thing! Just give it here!" Said the sword.
"And you're going to hold it with what hands?" Retorted Vainglorious sticking his tongue out.
"Why you little..."
"Maybe we should ask for directions." Said Luminous.
"No!" shouted all the boys in the group.
"Look it's been hours, maybe we should set up camp here and recoup." Said the Dawn of Fate. "Whose got the camp stuff?"
"Uhh..." Luminous looked to Vainglorious who glared back at her.
"What? Don't look at me." Scoffed Vainglorious. "I just do magic stuff, I'm no camping wiz."
"Ok, pied piper, what did you bring?" Asked the Dawn of Fate. "You got any camping gear?"
There was a pause as Concord looked around the small group of a prepubescent boy, a small teen girl, and her gigantic vermilion sword. Then he glanced at the pipes in his hands.
"Oh, am I the pied piper?" Asked Concord, pointing to himself. "I, uh. Just supplies stuff like healing herbs and I can also cook, I play the pipes," He scratched the back of his neck, his hand bumping the yellow shield that sat like a turtle shell on the back of his dark green vest. "Oh, I also brought my giant enchanted shield, but uh,I didn't bring any camping gear."
"Okay, then I guess we have no choice but to continue." Complained the Dawn of Fate. "I mean come on, none of you thought to bring anything for camping?"
Luminous heard some rustling in a bush nearby. Turning towards the sound she saw a pair of eyes staring back at her.
"Hey, short stuff are you even listening to me?" Asked the Dawn of Fate.
"Hi! Is someone there?" Asked Luminous.
A raccoon then popped out of the bush. He stood up on his hind legs. His tiny black button nose smelling the air as his little furry ears twitched.
"Aww, hey little guy," continued Luminous crouching down. "We're a little lost, can you help us?"
"There's something wrong here." Whispered the Dawn of Fate.
"What could be wrong? They're so cute." Said Luminous reaching her hand out towards the raccoon.
She leaned forward to touch the raccoon when the glass vermillion blade that peard out of the sheath gleamed in the white moonlight.
"Grr!" The raccoon growled.
"The raccoon is corrupted!" Shouted the Dawn of Fate.
"What's a-"
But before Concord could ask what a corrupt was, the corrupted raccoon jumped towards Luminous. Luminous' blue eyes widened as claws drew nearer to her already scratched up bandaged face.
Concord grabbed Luminous' sheath pulling her to the red and yellow leaf-covered ground.
"I have careless feelings when you're around, but I'm afraid that they'll drag me to the ground!" Chanted Concord.
The big yellow shield that was perched on the back of his dark green vest like a turtle shell spun around to the front in between him and the raccoon.
"Concord your shield, it flew so smoothly." Said Luminous as the raccoon pounded on the big yellow shield that sat between her, Concord, and the corrupted raccoon. "Where did you get something like that?"
"Oh, ya. Barrett enchanted it for me, he said I was such a lanky pushover that my best survival in a fight would be having something to shield myself with." He laughed at the memory. "He said that after he pushed me and I fell down."
"Ahh!" Shouted Vainglorious swatting at the raccoon that was behind him. "There's another one and he grabbed my butt!"
"Oh no, snobs you didn't have anything important in your back pockets did you?" Asked the Dawn of Fate.
Vainglorious patted the back pockets of his blue jeans. That's when he noticed that the paper with the map and quest instructions were gone.
"They took the map!"
"Don't let them get close to you!" Yelled the Dawn of Fate. "Corrupt raccoons attack in groups and they steal!"
But before the Dawn of Fate could finish his sentence thousands of corrupted raccoons popped out of the red and yellow leafed bushes. Swarming the group in an instant.
"Too much heartbreak so you put up a wall, not even summer will make the ice thaw!" Chanted Vainglorious, a small ice shield appearing in front of him out of his birch wand.
Vainglorious and Concord backed with their shields up until they were inches from Luminous who was in the middle. Hordes of corrupted raccoons swarmed them.
"What's the plan, Dawn?" Luminous asked her sword as she unsheathed him from her back.
"Well with snobs and pipes having shields our best chance would be for pipes to charge at them with his big shield with snobs defending with his little ice shield and you with the sword."
"Ya, I can do that." Said Concord.
"Okay, whenever I say go mow over as many corrupt as you can." Said the Dawn of Fate as corrupt clawed at their shields. "Go!"
Concord pushed forward his shield mowing over corrupted raccoons as they disappeared into black dust falling to the ground. Some tried to attack from behind but Vainglorious would block with his ice shield and Luminous would slash them with the Dawn of Fate.
Concord then stopped when the swarms of raccoons became too thick to breach.
"Go!" Shouted Dawn of Fate.
Concord pushed his shield forward with all the strength of his long skinny arms, but it wouldn't budge.
"What's wrong?" Asked the Dawn of Fate.
"It won't," Grunted Concord now leaning into the shield. "There are too many of them!"
"I'll help!" Said Luminous now pressing her small body against the shield.
But it still wouldn't budge over the swarms of raccoons.
"Uh, guys can we hurry it up?" Exclaimed Vainglorious, his own ice shield began getting cracks all over it as the corrupt attacked it relentlessly. "I'm not going to last much longer!"
Right when Vainglorious said that the ice shield broke. One of the raccoons grabbed Vainglorious' wand out of his hands, not short after the rest grabbed hold of him by his loose cloths dragging him down.
"Vainglorious!" Luminous exclaimed charging towards the corrupt with her sword drawn.
"Careful not to hit him he's being swarmed!" Exclaimed the Dawn of Fate.
"Ahh! Bittersweet is the feeling of an Icicle spear, When you get a feeling of death but without any fear!" Chated Vainglorious.
An ice spear shot out of his hands shooting up past Luminous' bangs. She dropped the Dawn of Fate as she fell backward to avoid being speared in the face.
"Dawn!" Luminous laying on the ground reaching her hand out as her sword got carried off by five different corrupt raccoons.
"Luminous!" Exclaimed Concord turning towards her.
However, that split second was enough for the corrupt to start swarming him. They took the shield and knocked Concord to the ground carrying him off and he tried to kick them off of him but to no avail.
"Daw- Guh!" Luminous tried to scream out before the corrupted raccoons stuck their paws in her mouth.
Luminous could hardly turn her head as the raccoons, but she saw nothing of Concord, only glints of the Dawn of Fates orange blade, and icicles here and there from whenever Vainglorious attacked the little monsters.
Luminous shut her eyes tight, what to do? What to do? That's when she heard the Dawn of Fate's voice in the distance.
"Armor! Use your armor button!"
Luminous peeled her arm away from the millions of raccoons biting and scratching her hand and pulling at her short blonde hair to reach for the armor button on the shoulder of her pink button-up chicken pajama shirt. But the armor button was gone!
Luminous raised her hand up to the sky as best she could as if to ask the bright white moon in the sky for help. Then out of the corner of her eye, she saw one of the raccoons run around with a little green ball in his paws.
Barrett's grenade? She then remembered a couple of the grenades that he threw at her didn't go off and had the pin in them still.
The raccoon was turning over the green ball in his hand before biting down on it. Scrunching his face in disgust he threw it aside. It definitely would have exploded in that corrupted raccoon's hands if it didn't have the pin in it.
The pin in it! Luminous' eyes opened and she discreetly dug into her shorts pockets. She still had a few of Barrett's grenades left. She knocked the metal pins in the grenades askew, a dangerous task that could literally blow up in her face. But she was desperate and had no other choice; it was either chance this and possibly get out alive, or definitely be squashed to death.
Luminous held her breath waiting for the moment of truth. Off in the distance, she saw a flash of bright light with the rumble she felt benether her on the leafy ground.
Not long after more explosions went off one after the other. Black dust that indicated that a corrupt had died fell all over the place blanketed the area like snow.
The groups of raccoons that were on top of Luminous, Vainglorious, and Concord stopped what they were doing and scattered disappearing into bushes and up trees.
"Clever thinking." Said a honey sweet voice.
Luminous turned around to see a nun around her age sitting on a tree. The moonlight shining down on her beautiful fair skin.
"Abyss!" Exclaimed Luminous. "You're alive! I'm so glad you're still alive."
Luminous gave the sweetest smile Abyss had ever seen. It almost caught her off guard.
"Well, I did say you would see me again." Abyss put simply as she jumped out of the tree. Her black nun smock and habit flowing in the wind around her. She seemingly floated to the ground. "It's not like it's that big of a deal."
"You really don't know how happy it makes me though."
"Well, In that case, I'm glad I was able to return this to you." Said Abyss turning the Dawn of Fate's hilt towards her.
"Dawn! You found him!"
"Abyss thank you!" Luminous wrapped her arms around the slightly taller slender girl giving her a big hug.
Abyss stood there for a few minutes blinking before patting the smaller girl on the back.
"Just grab me back dang nabbit!" Yelled the Dawn of Fate.
"Okay, okay." Said Luminous.
The moment Luminous let go of her, Abyss felt like the air around her had somehow gotten even colder.
Luminous grab the Dawn of Fates hilt. But before she could hook him back on her back she couldn't help but stare at Abysses deep blue crescent moon eyes. She couldn't help but feel like she had seen thoughts eyes somewhere before.
"Oh, hello there. You a friend of Luminous'?" Asked Concord, interrupting Luminous' train of thought.
"It's that random nun chick that saved us from Fe Fi Fo and all those corrupt." Said Vainglorious. "How are you even still alive?"
"That light spell she used was really cool. Maybe that's how she got away. Oh, Concord you should have been there to see it." gushed Luminous. "I haven't seen anyone do a light spell like that since Master Mouse."
"Well then. Any friend Luminous is a friend of mine. The name is Concord." Said the lanky teen reaching his gloved hand out towards Abyss.
Instead of taking the merchants' hand the nun bowed and continued on.
"I hear that you need to find a way into the vampires' tower, as you lose the sun hour by hour. But little do people know of a better course, taking the garden path the flowers of remorse. Don't worry because easily they fright, bluest meadows, bluest eyes, bluest of the night."
Abyss walked towards a dead-end before opening up the curtain of vines in front of her to reveal a garden. The garden had a couple of old stone statues with cracks covered in vines, and an old garden swing set that was hanging off the chain, and most of all, blue forget me not flowers.
"Bluest of the night..."