"How about instead of a shake, I give you permission to pet me, but only a little," Fluffles sincerely offered, leaning forward to be petted.
Chuckles' party became confused, while Fluffles' team tried their best not to laugh. "This means you agree to the alliance?" He asks as Fluffles nods her head. He Stretches out his hand and slowly strokes Fluffles' head.
"Happy?" He asks, with a mixture of confusion and uncertainty.
"That'll do," Fluffles states before nudging Detrix's arm, wanting to be pet more. "The other part of this meeting was you helping with our quest. We have to find something amusing to give the Eldtrich quest giver."
"And you went to those ruins to find something?" Chuckles asked.
"Yea, and since you were there, did you find anything that might work?" Fluffles asked as she purred while Detrix pets her.
"We're doing a quest very similar to that, but for a different NPC in Western Fantasy. If they want something interesting, wouldn't it make sense to look in a different world?" Chuckles explained, watching Fluffles purr and somehow hold a conversation.
"Maybe we should go to the Celestial World. The NPCs in the Eldritch world won't know anything about the Celestial world," Detrix suggested.
"Thanks for the information, Chucky," Fluffles waved as she pulled away from Detrix and smiled.
"You can read the name above my head; it's Chuckles!" He shouted angrily but sighed, sending Fluffles a friend invitation. "So we can keep in touch."
Fluffles nods and accepts the invitation before walking off. "You sure it's a good idea to ally with them?" Shaed asks.
"It'll work out, that much I'm certain of," Chuckles nods.
Fluffles' party followed the path back to the teleporter, noticing how the crescent sun was gone with the strange moon taking its place. It had three holes, two that seemed like eyes and a third that looked like someone screaming.
Arriving at the cave, the group met the squid-headed NPC that put the bugs in their ears. "Are you planning on leaving?" It asked.
"We're going to the celestial world," Fluffles announced as the tentacle creature grinned.
"You remember what I said about leaving and coming back? The parasites in your ear will die, and you'll need to replace them," It reminded them, causing Ashfire to shudder.
"We understand. Please give us five keys to the Celestial world," Ashfire urged, not wanting to be near this horrid thing much longer.
The NPC looked over to Ashfire and smiled, taking out five thick bugs the size of an adult thumb, "crush this in your hand when you walk through the teleporter, and it will take you to your destination.
Ashfire looked horrified at the creature in her hand, shuddering a little. "I'll go first. I want this over with," She ran through the portal, clenching her eyes tight as she crushed the bug in her hand.
The teeth surrounding the portal spun around as the eye sockets started to glow, creating the portal.
"She's a bit jumpy," Doctor0 noticed as the rest of the party walked over to the teleporter, crushing the bugs in their hand, and headed to the Celestial world.
A crystal portal held up by silver chains hummed as the party stepped through it onto a beautiful world. The trees and plants were made of crystal, and the paths sparkled with silver and glass. At first glance, it looked to be evening, but it was magic to simulate the sky with small diamonds acting as the stars.
"Where are we now?" Ashfire asked as she looked around.
"I think this is a cave," Cynthes pointed out as she looked up at the fake sky.
"This cave is our home," A white haired NPC walked toward the group. His skin was fair but had a red and blue forked tail coming out from behind him. "The only safe haven for us half folk."
"Half folk?" Fluffles asked, walking up to the NPC.
"Yea, the entire world is in an endless two faction war, the angels and the demons. Some of us are born from both and live here in peace." The NPC explained.
"Well, that sounds like a tragic backstory with a world that desperately needs help, but we don't care," Ashfire announced, causing the rest of the group to give her a surprised look.
"Well, I....uh," the NPC didn't know how to respond, just staring at Ashfire in shock.
"Why are you all looking at me like that? We were just in a world where a parasite got shoved into our ears. I want to get this stupid questline over with and go do quests that don't involve crazy worlds," Ashfire frantically explained as she quickly walked past the NPC.
"If this messes up anything in the future, I blame you," Fluffles joked and walked past the NPC, with the rest following behind.
Multiple holes were cut in the cave, acting as the people's home. Many of the rocks were luminescent and lit up the entire cave, "after what Ashfire did, I don't think we should stay here," Detrix suggested.
"They're NPCs; they'll forget pretty quickly, if they haven't already," Ashfire shot back.
"I agree with Detrix; being here just feels awkward now," Cynthes confirmed and followed the path outside the cave.
"Let's find a forest," Detrix suggested.
"I don't know anything about Celestials, so why a forest?" Fluffles asked.
"Celestials are a mixture of mythologies and other pantheons, and every pantheon has a story about a magical fruit. Whether the fruit grants immortality or curses someone for eternity is irrelevant," Detrix explains, but as she looks over to Fluffles, she realizes something, "don't eat the fruit! The characters in the story rarely end well after eating the magical fruit."
"Why are you looking at me when you say that?" Fluffles asked, baffled from being singled out.
"Because you're the only one who would eat it," Detrix sighed, expecting things to go wrong somewhere.
"Well, there is a red canyon with a tower heading up to the sky on our left and a series of mountains, with one mountain being noticeably bigger on our right, with no vegetation or forest around," Fluffles announced.
"Mountains sound Celestial to me. We might find a magical forest on the way," Doctor0 pointed out.
"So, how do we get there?" Fluffles asked, not seeing any way off the mountain.
"Umm, Celestials fly, but the developers must have some way for us to get around," Detrix guessed.
"If the last world has bugs, maybe this world has wings. To bad a certain SOMEONE insulted the NPC," Fluffles stated, looking over to Ashfire.
"Oh, we could also get information about the area from that NPC," Cynthes added, also looking over to Ashfire.
"I'm sorry, alright!" Ashfire was close to tears as everyone was glaring at her awkwardly.
"There there," Fluffles started petting Ashfire's head, "why don't you apologize to that NPC instead."
Ashfire's face when from tears to confusion when Fluffles, a cat, started petting her. "Alright, I'll go. Just, please stop petting me. I'm not sure how I'm supposed to feel when you're the one petting me."
"You want to be pet by someone else?" Fluffles asked as she tilted her head.
"No, that's not what I....Nevermind! I'm going," Ashfire huffs and stomps back into the cave.
Fluffles turned to the others and noticed them giving her awkward looks, "what?"
"What does a cat petting someone means?" Detrix asked as Fluffles tilted her head, confused by the question.
"It's a nice relaxing feeling for me; I thought it would be the same for her since she seemed so stressed. I didn't think it was awkward," Fluffles pointed out, looking back toward the cave.
"Don't worry about it; it was kinda funny seeing you pet her like that," Detrix admitted as she looked towards the cave as well. "We should check up on Ashifre."
Fluffles and the others would walk into the cave, heading back towards the teleporter and finds Ashfire mumbling and stuttering over her apology.
"Look, about what happened when we appeared. Things were troublesome, and I was feeling very stressed and-" Ashfire mumbled, trying to get to the point.
"And she's sorry!" Detrix interrupted, shouting over her friend's mumbling.
"I was getting there," Ashfire huffed.
"Sorry, but when you get flustered, you're not very good at getting your point across," Detrix pointed out as she shook her head.
"It's alright, I understand," the NPC admitted as he nodded his head.
"That was easy," Fluffles whispered.
"Unless scripted, NPCs can't hold grudges. We would never get out of this cave if they did," Doctor0 stated.
"We need a way off the mountain since we need to find magical fruit," Fluffles explained to the NPC.
"If you're headed to a magical fruit, there is one guarded by a giant serpent,. If you kill the serpent, please bring the body and one of the fruits to us. If you promise to do this, I'll gladly help you get off the mountain," The NPC explained.
"Does this serpent have a name?" Detrix asked, wondering which pantheon the serpent is from.
"It's the serpent, Ladon."