The Children's Section

This thing.  The view of it when another up close aims at the little triangle.  If they aim at it directly the camera glitches on the back of their car, for a third person game.

What's most fascinating is the way child noobs want to crawl on it.  Players I've never seen before hide behind it from the bullies, hanging around it to feel safe.  There's just something about it that imparts trust to those in fear.

Scale ~

At 3-3/4 inch action figure scale, the size is determined by the size of a control room with four seats, set in the middle of the required space of the expansions.

So around three feet wide, tall enough that a 3-3/4 figure could barely stand underneath it.  I want to keep the show and toy scales the same as much as possible.

Unfolding ~

If one were to pull the top back, it would gear the control room forward over the front legs, swinging out the the sides with overlapping floors over the left and right, the top now high over the back legs with the levering gears beneath it.

The control room would sit a bit high, with the cover on there would only be enough room to sit.  This allows room for the flooring, little stairs go down.

As the left and right swung out as geared, there are no outer walls yet, these would have blocked the control room's fore view and the mechanism.  So with that extra room on one side, there can be a kitchen in the floor under a folding hinge.

Little refrigerator with a little door, maybe some toy food inside, countertop and sink.  There could be plates.

Which leaves less floor room to work with on the other side, just bunks on the wall two by two, floor raised, to just below that of the control room (to fit the fridge on the other side when it's folded).  Little stairs go down.

In the center the table and chairs on the floor that pushes up from beneath the space required to fit these as their walls flip up.  The bathroom would be in the back wall that swings down from the top with a ladder for going topside.
________________

Alarm clock goes off, cereal and parents at the table, school bell rings to class.  School bell rings to the schoolbus noise, cartoons, homework, dinner and dolls then out go the lights.

Running through the woods terrified, pursued by the shadows.

A look over her shoulder as they get near to touching her, then a knock into something hard, falling back unconscious.  Waking up suddenly, wide eyed.

Different shots in the same cuts ~

Alarm clock goes off, cereal and parents at the table, school bell rings to class.  School bell rings to the schoolbus noise, cartoons, homework, dinner and dolls then out go the lights.

She sleeps.

While out the window, a bright flash and a growing breeze before it's all taken.

 

~ The Children's Section ~

(credits to be clipped from these opening five parts)

She crouches in the bush before the broad path waiting, a boy pops up over her shoulder.

Boy - "What are we doing ?"

Girl - "Sh.  I'm waiting."  Annoyed, "And who are you anyways why are you in my dream !?"

Boy - "Um.  Excuse me but you are in my dream.  And when I wake up, you'll be gone so you 'sh'.  Jeez.  Now what are we doing ?"

...

Girl - Brow furrowing ... "Waiting."

Boy - "For wha ... "

Girl - "Sh.  Listen."

...

The distant sound of stomping ...

Boy - "What is it ?"

Girl - "I don't know yet.  That's what we ... 'I' wanna find out."

Boy - "It's not your dream, it's my dream."

Girl - "Whatever."

A distant tree crashes over, then another and another approaching the clearing.

Girl - "O my God there it is."

Boy - "Whoa ... what ... is it ?"

Girl - "You ask that a lot.  I don't know.  Sh.  You'll scare it away."

He looks at her ...

Girl - Looks back annoyed, "What he's shy.  All I've ever seen is his foot."

Boy - "Foot ?"

Girl - "Yeah it was metal and it almost killed me."

Boy - "You can't die in dreams."

Girl - "We'll see.  Get down !" 

She pulls him down into the bush as it enters the broad path, turning in circle on its surrounding twelve legs to look around before continuing.  She peeps a look over the bush, wide eyes, it turns to and rushes to directly before her as they both draw back.

It blows a horn like many tubas croaking in differently fluctuating tones as they wince their eyes, before a ladder drops.

...

Another kid peeps over from the edge of its platform, "Come on !  The nightmares are coming."

Boy - "Steps out, hey ... what are you doing in my dream ... "  A distant roar as a dream monster, screams pursuing.  "Oh.  You're here to save me.  That makes sense."

Other kid - "Kinda !  If that means hurry up where you come from."

Another kid peeps a head over.

The boy works his way up the ladder, the girl anxiously behind, he makes the platform as it comes into the clearing.

A massive parental effigy of horror roars into the clearing - "! Why haven't you done your homework !?"

~ The children all scream.

Girl - Sits suddenly up in a bunk, "! But I did my ... "  

 

Looks around the room ... annoyed.  Then realizing she's inside the beast, four bunks wedged between the wall of a command center, the rest of the children there.

Girl - Edges to the core, "Why didn't I wake up ?"

Driver - "We don't anymore."

Passenger - "We don't know why."

Boy - "Do you want to ?"

Looks between each other.

Boy - "I'm Mike."

Girl - "Ari."

Driver - "Sam."

Passenger - "Gabby."

The creature's horn roars ...

Sam - "That's Xenofix."

Ari - "How do you know ?"

He points to the plaque on the wall.  'Xenofix 6-74'

Gabby - "We were wondering about another two ... "

Ari - "What do you mean ?"

Sam - "Four chairs.  Might wanna sit."

Something strikes the walker's side hard.  She grabs the seat as it stops and turns. pulling herself into it while it opens fire as the cockpit view turns to a nightmarish beast in the sky.

A dark horse on torn wings, edges as if ripped into this world with a horn glowing with power as it swoops for another strike.  Rider with sword held high screeches ~

Nightmare - "We will have them beast !  We will take them All."

The walker roars back firing through it, as though shredding its tenuous existence here, pushing it back before the holes are greater than the whole and its gone.

Ari - "That should have ... are we ... "

A loud clanging sound before the roof pulls back and the control center pushed forward, the sides opening up into their home, walking form the opening into the trees, crashing those in the way.

The black horse of the name Alabast and its rider wisp in over a landing before a clearly evil castle.  Itself a massive creature of similar design but beyond massive and black, yet somehow more organic in its form.

An irony set in evil, that this thing would appear to belong in nature more, but be wanted by it less.  It's bitterness, its fate.  While from its view it watches as many of these silvery machines walk through the woods before it.

~ Views of other walkers, one with swing-sets swinging children underneath it as it walks, another with laundry being hung on a line strewn from platform to pole,  yest another still with balloons tied to the back.

Out to the many more, so tiny as seen from the similarly shaped castle's heights, etching their paths through the woods.

The castle as if it had grown too massive to move though with an occasional twist of steel pulling against the overgrowth and crystallization of time dripping at its feet, it does try.

Red trimming beneath the appearance of root grown musculature, gurgling like lava taking it.  The rider disembarks, a lithe thing of evil with a sword sheathed on its side, her red eyes glowing to match the power surging though this place.

Before her the broad doors open between two giant guardians of stone, black like obsidian and sharded at the edges.  Through the doors she walks the great hall to the throne ahead, a gathering of likewise evils mulling in wait.

She kneels before the chair.

Cybal - "My lord.  They are ... unnatural.  And yet somehow encoded to dream."

Bal - The guy on the throne, "Dreams in the valley of Death ... he holds no honor for the oldest of ways ... "

He stands and draws his own sword to examine it. 

His armor as the giant guardians but formalized.  Sharded to one side and draping down a shoulder over an arm gone wrong like a cloak as a cast to hold and heal it.  The good arm rests the blade in that wronged hand, turning it over in examination.

Bal - "But my war with him is my own."  He looks at her under a helm half shattered, bone stitched with flesh beneath.  A muscle fiber lashes over as it heals. 

"Follow them.  Chart their conjoining paths.  And take that knowledge to the Cartographer.  I will have the power we need to undo these unnatural things soon enough.  Scatter the wood with things children fear, to see to where they run and soon enough, we will know where and go to meet them there ... "

A laugh, he sheathes the sword into the next scene.

Voiced over the walker's entry into a grove, "For if they, would dare, to dream here, then let it be in nightmares."

~ two

As the pass the field tall shadows dart through the trees following.  A tree cracks in half with one's passing, the Xenofix stops and turns in place toward it.

Ari - "Why are we stopped ?"

Sam - "We don't know more than you do."

Ari - "Right.  Because you're in my dream."

Mike - "Am not."

Sam - "I was talking to her."

Gabby - "That's really weird."

...

Ari - "That is weird.  But why did we stop."

Gabby - "No that's weird."  She points out the window.

Three human forms approach but their proportions are all wrong as they get closer, soon looming over the walker at twice its height.  If the average toy is 3-3/4 inches tall these would be four times taller than the average man.

Long robes in the colors of woods and flowers trimmed in dew, silvery in the shadows but golden in the sun.  A light armor beneath, held to the back by shoulder blades over a spine in decoration, as archers with their quivers set between.

The lead flips her bow around, draws the string to the handle to collapse it into a blade with its handle holding it forth, she sheaths it.

Eve - As they circle it in examination of it, itself turning between, "We've heard of these ... of you ... but why are you here ?"

Lilith - "Will there be more of you ?"

Naamah - "We should burn it."

Eve - Gives her a look, "We thought you were a nightmare."  She looks around then back down, then closer, "Oh my god are there people inside of you !?"

Naamah - "Gross."

Lilith - "We're taking you to the invisible king."

They heft it kicking onto their three sets of shoulders and carry it away ...

The general attire of this place is purposeful.  Essentially I want to have badass options that easily clip over standard Barbie and Ken clothes, but sticking in the fantasy end.

A ranging populace from nobility to gothic, alley thieves cloaked in black.  The place itself white pillared with overgrowth of the wood creeping in and through and over time encompassing the architecture, while their advancements adapted.

Their acceptance of the little people (us) over time is accepted as the walkways bet between places shows, if not just to keep them from being underfoot.  With settlements and dwellings branching there off.

The smaller people seem mostly as something between merchants and politicians, their families therein with the occasionally conspiring wizard who still stares at the tall in awe.

Whose movement seems always aware of this, graceful and slow as they loom looking down with a smile at those looking up, a sideways grin to the wizard standing eye to eye on the platform then a wink, full aware of all his plans.

He turns away with a cautious eye returned.

Ahead a tall tower stands over with a four sided top.  From it a lion's faces them as they're on the shoulders of these giants toward it, another side the face of a man, the next an ox and the last an eagle.

The tower's squared top turns to show the face of the man, looking at them.  A courtyard beneath the four pillars it stands on, an empty throne surrounded by court.

They drop it at the throne's feet and the king appears, already leaning forward in amazement.

Naamah - "It has little people in it."

King - "Ew.  Well why did you bring it here then ?"

Lilith - "Because you said we were insane !"

King - "Well it is insane just look at it !  I mean ... you said it was made completely of metal.  This has tiny people inside so it is not a robot.  This is clearly a ... "  He looks to his guard, "What do they call those again ?"

Guard - Cracking his knuckles, "That would be a cyborg sire."

King - "Yes ... a cyborg sire ... open it."

It draws back, they kick it forward.

King - "And take out the little people I want to see it do things without them.  Then it's a robot.  Then I will apologize."

Eve rolls her eyes and bops it on top of the core popping it open, the four children terrified in their seat pushed into his face.  He examines them ... snaps his finger and leans back.

King - "Do not be afraid."  He looks around annoyed and snaps his fingers again."  We love tiny people here."  Looks around still annoyed, then back to reassuringly, "We forgive you."

A maid rushes in with a large platter and holds it out in front of their seats smiling.

King - "Please.  We have a dispute to settle.  We love you here.  Please."

...

Mike - "!? WHAT IS HAPPENING IN MY STUPID DREAM !?"

King - Smiles, "Yes !  Well."  Speaking very clearly, "We think you might be a cyborg sire's brain."

Guard - "Kind of looks like a head."

King - "It does kind of look like a head."

They slowly get out of the seats and step onto the platter, the maid slams the dome lid on and prances away.  "Yay !"

King - "Finally."  Looks to the Xenofix, "Now you ... "  They all lean in as it closes back up drawing back ... "do a little dance ... "

(credits)

The Children's Section

She sits at the table with her family eating breakfast ~

Ari - " ... and there were these really tall people, like giants !  They lived in the woods ... I woke up when their maid was carrying us away on a platter."

~ Strange singing in the background fading in ... "Doo-dee-doo ... doo-dee-doo ... doo-dee-doo-dee-doo-dee-doo ... "

Dad - "Well ... there's an imagination.  I love it.  You should write that down."

Mom - "After you do your homework."

Ari - Suddenly angry, "But I Did do my ... "

She sits up in the darkness in motion, the singing from the maid as she skips with the platter in both hands in front of her gleefully.

Ari - She looks around in the darkness, "Are you still there ?"

Mike - "We're here ... "

Ari - "Dreamed I was in the real world again ... and it's like I woke up back here."

Maid - From outside the dome, "This is the real world.  That's the dream one.  You can tell because it makes no sense."

Mike - "Where are you taking us ?"

Maid - "To the chef of course !  Doo-dee-doo ... doo-dee-doo ... doo-dee-doo-dee-doo-dee-doo ... to the chef !  Doo-dee-doo ... doo-dee-doo-dee-doo-dee-doo ... to the chef !"  

Fading away down the hall with her over-pleased skipping ...

(repeated opening)

In the dark castle's throne room ~

Bal - "And what say you, 'cartographer' ?"

Cartographer - Insect-like with many quills and parchments clutched, "Their paths are divergent.  In the superficial sense, they appear to have no singular destination at all."

Bal - "Do I rule superficially ?"

Cybal looks at the cartographer.

Cartographer - Looking between, "Of ... course not my lord ... to the point.  They take the closest routes to water.  As all lakes and rivers do wash from the Lady Styx into the infinite ocean, it is to the infinite ocean they go."

Bal - "Yes ... then we meet them at river's edge.  There is a fortress there, long abandoned as the dead left Hades' throne and wandered ... the Earth ... "

Cybal - "My Lord ?"

Bal - "The Earth."  He looks at Cy-Bal and smiles, "The Earth."  Spotting the cartographer skulking away ... "Cartographer."

Cartographer - A stop and turn back, "Yes ?  My lord ?"

Bal - "Through whose realms must they pass while crawling those shores ?"

Cartographer - "Of course all realms belong to you my king.  But the fools who lay claim along that way would be ... Roman leading to Greek, Egyptian to Nubian ... as the tales follow the Nile."

Bal - "Speak clearly .. before I mistake you philosopher and have you poisoned ... "

Cartographer - "After the Twilight, the Roman adaptations of the Sidhe, are the only remaining concern."

Bal looks to Cybal.

Cybal - "Blue elves."

Bal - "Ah ... I remember them now."  A laugh.  "And their Erie kin ?"
____________

Cartographer - Voiced over as the maid sets the tray down in the kitchen, "Extinct."

The chef chops a piece of meat.  Tall and dressed in white robed dangling cooking knives from the sash, a tall straight white hat.  She twirls a blade in her hand and cuts again.

Maid - Pulls the lid, "Surprise !"

Chef - "Oh look at them ... they're perfect.  Donuts I think."

Maid - "Yah donuts."
____

Bal leans back in his throne laughing maniacally ...
____________

In the throne room the court leans forward surround the Xenofix as it does a kick dance crossing two front legs as arms while the all shout "Hey ! Hey ! Hey !"

The maid returns with the platter and a donut in her mouth and removes the lid, the children eating donuts four times the normal size, with more for the rest and Gabby still babbling ~

Gabby - "And so like I was in the lunchroom and my teacher thought I was in with the wrong grade so I went to the principle's office and ... "

Maid - "Uh-huh !  Yeah none of that's real."

The crowd applaud the Xenofix, it takes a bow.

King - "Excellent excellent.  And my apologies dear hunters three.  I believed this to be a cyborg sire !  Imagine that."

Guard - "More than understandable really ... "

King - "Yes ... so.  Now that that's settled, why are you trespassing on our land ?"  He leans back in his throne waiting as the rest all stare ready.

Sam - "We're just dreaming !"

A look ...

King - "Well that's insulting.  So now I'm a figment."

Guard - "They think they've imagined you sire ... "

King - "So now I'm too much candy before bedtime.  That's quite a lot of nerve for such tiny little peasant babies."

Mike - "Hey !"

Guard - "It's almost respectable."

King - "Hm."

Ari - "Excuse me.  But didn't she say you were, 'the invisible king' ?"

Mike - "Yeah ... and you only appeared when we got here !"

King - Draws back in his chair with a flailing jolt, "Whoa.  Hey now ... you just keep all that to yourself.  That's really quite deep."

Guard - "It does have a disturbing sort of ring to it."

King - "It does indeed."

Eve - "I don't think they've got a clue."

Lilith - "Still waiting to wake up."

Sam - Donut half gone, "That's not true."

Naamah - "We'll keep an eye on them."

Both - "What !?"

Naamah - "What.  It's the best way to find out what all these things are up to."

King - "Logical.  So ... ordered."

Both - "What !?"

King - "So ordered !"  He disappears into Naamah's smile and scene's end.
____________

As they leaver the Invisible Kingdom it flickers out into nothing but woods behind them, leaving only the high tower drawing downward until beneath the trees.

As the walk a long series of platforms strewn between oaks and pine, with vines of age and time strung along until they to disappear in their passing, with those following in curiosity along them.

The familiar shadows still follow them, but in unfamiliar tone.  Where before they were followed, now they are stalked by these things which move as nightmares.

Darting here and there, changing what they touch as if to look their way was to be drawn somewhere else, as nightmares conquer one's dreams.  They sense it inside and around in their silence, hands twitching for weapons intuitively.

Sam - "Does it seem darker in here ?"

Ari - "I'm scared ... but there's no reason."

Gabby - "I keep thinking about things the maid said don't matter anymore."

Mike - "Do they ?"

Outside the walker ~

Naamah - "We are stalked."

Eve - "Nightmares."

Lilith - "They should listen to their mother."

Eve - "You know that story isn't true."

Naamah - A laugh, "A demon to whom ?"

Eve - Raises a hand, "Stop."

All and the walker freeze, looking around.

Ari - "I wish we could hide."

Mike - "We are hiding.  They don't know we're in here."

Ari - "How do you know ?"

Sam - "He doesn't."

Gabby - "I like the idea though."

A hissing among the surrounding shadows as one weaves out like a smoke, permeating the walker's hull and passing under Sam's nose.  He stutters an inhalation in unknowing fear.

The trees all around them crash with the charge of a massively sized football team, as large as the giants, knocking into the walker.  The Erie draw on those nearest, too easily thrown off.

Regrouping to the side they see the team flip the walker and start pounding its kicking undercarriage (cliffhanging commercial break).

~ two

One among the false team pulls off his helmet, "You'll never make the team."  He beats the walker's underside with it.

Another one - "Look at you."

Another still - "So soft."

Sam - Inside the upside down walker, comically contorted and face smashed to the windshield.  "But ... I did make the team."

Ari - "Metal's not soft ... !"

The sound of laughter, the nightmares look up up hissing, faces tearing from delusion to beast.

(stand in song)

High above what appears a comet soars toward them, the laughter growing until striking the ground behind them, they shield from his crater.

A man crouched in a singing hooded cloak with a small chest under one arm, the other fist to the ground.  Armored at the shoulders and neck backing the hood betrays his Erie origins, if not his height.  He stands tall examining them, dusts off the box.

Man - Looks around at the suspicious commotion now frozen in stare, "Can I ... help you ?"

They roar into attack, he draws the sword with his free hand, cutting through their charge.  They return to form behind as he spins through a slice in one half dissipated.

He sets down the box and places his foot on it.

Man - "Really ?"  Draws another blade, down spun for underhand.  "Well alright then."

As the three watch him roar cutting through them, the nightmares wisping way then forming another place for attack.

Naamah - "I feel like we should be helping him somehow."

Lilith - "How ?  He's all over the place."

He darts with a slash here, a leaping thrust there, spinning to the other side of their number while the walker kicks away. 

Man - "Ow !"

Eve - She lowers her fresh shot bow, "You're right.  He's got this."

As the spinning of the blade begins to part their substantiation more than its existence, they begin fading one by one until gone as they drink their teas watching, walker still kicking.

When it's done he strains to flip this thing of many flailing legs back over again while they watch in casual judgement ... children rolling around inside ... and done.  He picks up the chest and walks to the three with an arrow in his back.

Adam - "Eve."

Eve - "Adam."

Adam - "And ... Naamah and Lilith.  I see we're all friends now."

Eve - "I see you're still banished."

Adam - "Yes ... just ... out here helping people I don't know."  Pulls the arrow out of his back.

Lilith - "So ... ?"

Adam - "Catapult."  Shakes the chest.

Lilith - "Ah."

Sam - While they all stare from inside the walker ... "This is really weird." 

Mike - "Like getting dropped off at dad's house."

The Xenofix crouches low ...

Above and unseen, Alabaster and Cybal turn in their flight, back to where they came.  While the new friends all walk the woods,

The walker unfolds for some air, the kids clean up the mess of being upside down.

~ Cybal flies over that twisted mountainside, Alabast circling to land. 

The walker crashes rows of trees in it's path, giants sitting on the raised back panel with their tea, Adam following behind.  He gives a suspicious look to an apple hanging near by then at Eve ... keeps going.

Sam passes up a giant donut to him.

They walk as he eats ...

~ A churning twitch of a mountain leg as the castle doors close behind her, their own giants tapping the ground with their pikes.

Bal - "And what did you see ?"

...

Cybal - "Nothing my lord.  They walk in their ways that they do."

Bal - "And this ... cloaked man ?  Tall as the Erie, mighty ... as a ... god ?  The fears of children travel faster than you, 'my servant'.  This ... 'man' ... was accompanied by three witches."

Cybal - "I saw no ... 'cloaked god' or witches my lord, but would be very interested in anything you discover."

Bal - "To hunt and to kill him ... ?"

Cybal - "Of course my lord.  No one will ever come before you, neither man nor god.  It is intrinsic."

...

Bal - A fiber of muscle lashes over beneath his broken mask as he contemplates his mistrust, "You may go."  He calls out, feeling his pained arm,"Cartographer !"
_________

His command echoes over the scene, Adam walking ahead, Xenofix behind, Erie Witches behind that while the children clean the mess of having been upside down ~

Ari - "So now whenever I sleep here I dream there, and whenever I sleep there ... "

Mike - "Yeah.  I don't know which is which anymore."

Sam - "Giant lady was right.  This one does make more sense."

Gabby - "A refrigerator that creates food makes sense ?"

Mike - A look like that's nuts.  "Um.  Yeah !"

Sam - "More sense than farming."

Gabby - "Farming makes perfect sense.  Things grow.  You eat them.  You poop nutrients for more things to grow.  You dream about farming ?"

Sam - "I dream about being inside a metal bug.  And I don't know it just seems like a lot of steps when right there is a refrigerator that makes food."

Ari - "So you're saying this is a dream and it makes more sense ?"

Sam - "Yeah !  I wanna invent that some day."

(credits)

The Children's Section

Bal - As they three look over a map, "And what is this island ... 'Cartographer'."

Cartographer - "A volcanic one sire, and still active."

Cybal - "As the magma pushes from ocean's floor, the mountain rises higher and higher."

Bal - "I wonder if his plans must involve it."

Cybal - "They would at the very least have to incorporate it, looking at the same map we are."

Bal - "Indeed ... "

Cybal - "I'll fly ahead with full scouting party."

Bal - Stares a moment.  "It is wise."  Returns to the map as she turns to leave.  "And bring the Cartographer."

She turns again to him.

Cartographer - "My lord ?"

Bal - Looking up at Cybal, "This map ... seems incomplete to me."  He turns to the Cartographer, stands tall and works his arm as healing is clear.  "And you insect, seem untested."

Cartographer - "Um.  Technically I'm a spi ... "

Bal - A chunk of armor over his face folds back into place with a grind ... "! BEGONE !"

~ The Children's Section ~

(open credits)

But the river, two nightmares on lunch break while building a fort ~

One - "What do fortify this river for ... "

Two - "Well the order came from Bal directly, so it must be some kind of evil ... "

One - "Mmmm ... evil is good."

Two - "And what's good ... "

One - "Is evil ... hahahaaa ... "  They toast their smoking potions and drink. "Still ... I like my evil to be a little ... more hands on that this.  I do not like this ... preemptive evil.  Like evil where ... we have to sit around and wait for them to walk into it ... evil traps."

Two - "Oh !  I know what you mean.  Back in the day we brought our evils to people directly !"

One - "Now it's like ... evil plot this ... horrific fate that ... and what's it all for ?"

Two - "For the strange walky things I suspect."

One - "I've heard of them ... what of them ?"

Two - "Oh.  Well apparently, I heard, they gather heroes ..."

One - "Nawwwww ... "

Two - "So they say, like moss on a rolling stone."

One - "Well that's not right at all then is it ?"

Two - "No it is not."

They slam their potions and get back to work as the view rises over the very long river still waiting to be fortified, out to the ocean and the small volcanic isle as Cybal rides toward it, cartographer following in a strangely invented dirigible, nightmares simply leaping the great distance from behind to before them there.

Cybal - On a well packed Alabast next to the dirigible, to the Cartographer at its wheel, "Continue to circle for your maps, I set up camp directly below.  Miss nothing, and circle thrice."

Cartographer - "I fear for my balloons my lady, this volcano still sputters ... "

Cybal - "And I fear for your stance as a spider if I tear off the two legs you're standing on."  Begins a spiraling descent.

Cartographer - To himself, "Well.  Don't see how that would help me fly in circles all day ... "  The airship veers into its first arc high, to examine the volcano's mouth.  Voiced over, "Sometimes I think I may be working for very bad people."

She lands among the nightmares who already look about for anything which may fear, they turn to her for instruction. 

This land is barren, pale stone of the dust accumulated from the shattered glass of obsidian here and there forming a forgotten wall now set into it all.

Cybal - "You three circle that way and you three that."  She looks around and at the ocean ... "I smell nothing that fears here, this trip is to learn.  Remember everything.  Return and carve it in stone."

They dart bounding their separate ways. 

These nightmares with her are clearly different than those set to such things as construction.  In fact builders and the like are far older, in secret each one was once a god who forgot who who they were.

Which happens sometime.

These hunters however are purely adaptable, with no persona or core of a soul at all.  Simple strands of pure human fear, as it is being ruled by humans.  Formless without the fear to guide it, and completely undifferentiated from any other. 

Here they prowl and leap from stone to stone, up and down the fearless mountainside. 

The volcano itself is broad, its irregular explosions shattering its walls further and further back, the remnants re-cooling in sharp veins.  As the Cartographer circles high he spots a cooled island within.

He pulls a scope to examine it closer.

A few straight lines, here and there, the signs of once a civilization.
____________

Gabby - "I don't even remember what my parents do when I'm here.  And I don't remember all of here when I'm there either.  But I do remember my dad talking about other worlds."

~ Her father - Tucking her in, "The universe is infinite, but there are only so many ways, that matter, can be put together.  So everything that's here, is somewhere else ... "

~ Gabby - Cutting him off with a giggle, "In a different way."

She sits up in her bunk on the walker suddenly.  Lays back and looks at the sky.
____________

Invisible King - Devouring an ice cream cone, "Well we exist right now, so that would mean there's someone here imagining us !"

Maid - Clearly bored already holding two more cones in one hand and one in the other, starting to drip.  "Uh-huh !"

Guard - "Maybe it's me."  Smiles proud.

King - "You !?  Pfffffffffffffffffffff(looks at him and back to the ice cream)fffffffffff."  Shoves it in his face.  "Next."  Looks at the guard.  "Ff."  Takes the next cone.
____________

Mike - Sitting cross-legged with the rest in the center of the opened machine.  "Well we're going in a straight line.  We're not like just ... wandering around dreaming stuff."

Ari - "I used to have a lot more nightmares."

Gabby - "I'm sorry."

Ari - "Yeah ... "

Sam - "Me too.  I ... haven't had a bad dream this whole time.  Well.  Since that one."

Outside, the giants walk.

Adam stops, raising a hand.  They all stop looking around.

Gabby - "You feel that ?"

Ari - "Yeah.  They're coming."

They get up and head for the command chairs.

Sam - "Xenofix, close the roof."

It closes before a nightmare bounces off in hard direct attack, then back to the woods.  Their mist creeps the ground closer to, seeking their fears.  The four gather around it, waiting for the attack.  One just flies between their gap and bounces again.

Inside, another hit felt.

Sam - "What are we afraid of ?"

Ari - "Them !"

Sam - "Yeah !  More than anything !"

Gabby - "So they can't take form as anything ... "

Sam - "But themselves."

The hear the guns wind up and begin firing.

Ari - "Nothing to fear but fear itself !"

Gabby - "Somebody said that once."
________

Cartographer - To Cybal, "Only the nightmares can approach it, too deep into the volcano's core for flesh.  But it is there my lady ... forgotten to time itself."

Cybal - Showing impatience with his verbiage ... "What is there."

Cartographer - "Hephaestus' forge ... my lady.  Abandoned."

Cybal - Smiles, "Ours."

~ two

As they walk the night ~

Ari - Calling up to Eve's height, "Excuse me ?"

Eve - Examines a moment as Adam looks back to them.  "What is it Ariel ?"

Ari - ... "Ari.  Are you a goddess ?"

Eve - A look, "Not precisely ... why ?"

Gabby - "Goddess of suspicion."

~ Adam giggle-snorts.

Sam - "She's Eve."

Ari - "I know who Eve is but there's nothing about her being so ... "

Eve - "Are you asking why humans are so short ?"

Ari - "No ... I'm asking what's happening."

...

Eve - To Sam, "I'm not the Eve you've heard of.  We, are an archetype of three women.  The archetype.  Not the women themselves."

Sam - "Noah's Archetype ?"

Eve - Glances to Naamah who looks away ... "No.  An archetype ... is like a circle.  Every circle you see may be different, but they're all a circle.  And we, are three women."

Mike - "Like the fates."

Gabby - "Or three witches.  There's always three witches."

Eve - "Yes.  Both, and all such things.  But we're also what happens when three people get together.  Two can converse and share secrets, be themselves.  But add a third."

Sam - "And people compete."

Eve - "Yes.  As children, you may know less of the furies, but some day."  To Ari, And what's happening is you are, for some reason, trapping in a world we such things as we three, exist.  Dreaming yourselves here."

...

Eve - "Your connection with this ... " A smile at the walker ... "Thing, is unknown.  That's why we're here.  To answer all these questions."

Mike - "We thought you were here to protect us."

Eve - "Mm.  No.  That's why he's here."

~ He looks back and shakes his head.

Naamah - "But we will."

Eve - "Until we know what we seek to."

Lilith - "Which means seeing it to the end."

The three turn to each other, letting the walker pass then approaching.  Ari pops her head over and sees them drawing their swords before gone in the darkness.

Adam - "Don't worry about it.  It's what they do."

Ari - "Excuse me ... what's in the box ?"

Adam - A smile, he pats the lid.  "Oh ... nothing but another story entirely."
____________

Cybal - Kneeling to Bal who watches from a glowing sphere of light in his hand.  "But it is inaccessible to us who can think and feel."

Bal - "Not to me.  I grow stronger by the minute."  A twist of the castle outside.  "I will extend that power, servant, to you."  

He watches her shriek in agony a moment, bursting into flames before settling into a fiery form, she stands in no pain.

...

Cybal - "Thank you.  My lord." 

She turns and blasts a cave into the mountainside.  Blasts again to dig it deeper, Bal closes his hand satisfied, his armor over flesh nearly completed with another grind of steel, he stands.

Bal - To those gods and nightmares lingering in the throne room, "Prepare the turrets and catapult, trebuchet and crossbow, dip it all in oil and prepare it to launch.  We go to war.  We burn that Erie wood to the ground, they will hide no more."
_________

She walks burning into the core chamber of the volcano, where an iron structure has been fused over by the ages, suspended to the caves wall, as if to catch the inferno beneath it.  

That magma having risen it sets like an isle on top of it.  She closes her eyes with a vision of Bal leaning into his fist on the throne, she begins to glow.  She leaps to a suspending platform. and walks toward this core.  

The size of the mountain itself, she looks up to the belled cave overhead, opened to the air.  Between the gasping smoke she sees the dot of a Cartographer in the sky.

~ Bal looks more closely into nothing before his throne.

Her eyes focus further and further as a hawk, the cartographer seen looking back through his scope, taking notes on the structure.  She keeps walking.
________

Naamah carries Eve over her shoulder covered in band-aids.

Eve - As they pass, "Sorry I was condescending."

Then up to Adam.

Eve - "Sorry I mocked your pain."

Lilith - "And ?"

Eve - A sigh.  Mumbles, "And we are hereby sworn to protect you on your journey through our lands.  ...  But not one second more !"

Lilith fist to black.
________

Voiced over while Cybal walks for a central structure, four pillars with a squarish platform at the top, but all smelted over and rough, barely more obvious than a natural formation.

Sam - "What's condescending ?"

Gabby - "I thing it's like descending ... except con.  Which is like the opposite so she was climbing."

Sam - "She's sorry she went climbing ?"

~ As Cybal does, there seen winding steps smoothed over, winding around a throne at the center of the pillars, going down.  She places a hand on it, her protection immediately begins to fade.  In pain as she falls, "I'm sorry.  My lord." 

Her protection returns.

Mike - "No it's like conning somebody.  So she's sorry she was conning us ... down ... right ?"

Ari - "Wait was everything she said a lie !?"

Adam - A laugh ... "No.  It means she's sorry she was talking down to you."

The stare at him like he's nuts.

Ari - "She's a giant.  How else is she going to talk to us."

~ Cybal descends the steps winding around the pillars, Bal watches through her eyes.

Gabby - "Maybe it's like ... con - de - sending."

Mike - "Like sending us flack ?  I'm not supposed to do that anymore."

Sam - "No it makes more sense like con - descending."

Ari - "Yeah !"

Gabby - So ... she was climbing down the hill, backwards ... which means going up ... "

Mike - "Which makes her even taller ... "

Sam - "So talking like an adult !"

All - "Oh ... "  They call out, "That's okay !"

Eve looks up from Naamah's shoulder, thumbs up, slumps back down.

~ Cybal reaches a chamber, walls smelted but a smooth floor.  She reaches down to touch it, a hesitation.  Then as her finger nears it, a tiny static jolt before her hand across the smoothness.  She looks up from it to a gap between floor and wall.  A smile.

Then his voice in her head, "Return."  A tiny fade in that protection, a look of sadness nearly broken.
________

The old gods who think themselves nightmares on break again from their construction, impossibly halfway there to the river's mouth.

One - "Do you think we will get to keep one ?"

Two - "Keep wot."

One - "A walkey thing."

Two - "Oh no ... I'm sure he'll hoard them all to himself."

One - "Why's that ?"

Two - "Well.  Because it would be evil."

One - "Ah !"  A laugh ... "That it is my friend ... that it is ... "  A toast, they drink.

(credits)
________

Maid - Stomach growls.  "That was weird."

Chef - "What was weird ?"

His stomach growls.

Chef - "Hm."

The Children's Section

Bal stands renewed from his throne and flexes a stretch.  He walks down the steps as the court kneels in terror in his passing praying for no admonishment.

Old gods turned to stonish depictions what they once were, thinking that's all they are, will bent and become minions.

A wave of his hand opens the doors as he smiles, the guards hide their startle as he walks through, quickly kneeling.  All around him and across the castle towers, the nightmares prepare for war, more builders reinforcing, arms being armed.

Nightmarish soldiers fan out into the woods, set now universally to become things all children fear instead of focusing on one.  Bullies fade to teachers to doctors, a dentist spins his tool, changing as if each leap through the woods were part of that transition.

Bal looks over it all from the high mountain entrance edge as they file into the paths left by the walkers, the construction sounds dying down behind him in completion.

He takes a deep breath watching down ... a laugh.  "Yes ... "

The opening as though it were his show, his rise from his wounds, nightmares bounding through the woods.  Cybal and the Cartographer shown heroically navigating the volcanic dangers, to the castles reinforced armaments, more avalanches threatening its release from the mountain.

All regularly paced by the leaping nightmares on trail.
____________

The Maid flutters down with a large platter in their path, possibly by the power of her active skirt and frills.

Maid - "I ... have ... foodstuffs !"  Sees Adam, "Oh my God it's you.  Um."  Curtsies, "Hi ... "

~ Elsewhere the chef's eyes go wide, "Oh my.  Lifts a platter lid and throws in another cake.

The maid's platter lid jumps with more food.

Maid - "My god this is so heavy."  Uses a hand to play faint on her forehead.

The three look at Adam with arms crossing in line.

Adam - Smiles at them, turns to the maid.  "Here.  Let me get that for you."  Picks it up with a finger and smiles again at the three with a bow.

Maid - "Oh.  Really I just "  Falls over.

LOOKS OF DOOM ... they turn away.

Mike - Among the rest peering scared over the edge of a wall, "Yep."

Gabby - "Exactly like that."

Ari - "Mm-hm."

Sam - "Wait.  Are all of our parents divorced ?"

They look at each other.
____________

Cybal - Walks out from the castle joining Bal, looking over with him.  "I don't know that they'll disturb your conquest at all my lord.  They appear ... to wisely flee you."

Bal - Watching a trail of mares down a Xenofix path left behind.  "Do you know why they are here, Cybal ?"

 

...

Cybal - "We ... have no ... "

Bal - "I know."  A stare and a nod to the woods as he wants them, then he looks at her.  "I know."  Looking into her ... he turns back to the castle doors with a kneel of the giant guards.

Cybal - Stares after he's gone, "Alabast."  Falls backward off the platform, caught beneath by the horse in flight.  It circles beneath and parts as a layer of cliff face avalanches nearby, the groaning of steel.
________

A flock of nightmares bounds the path behind them leading fast to, on bounds high to strike from above as a dentist with his tools, while the rest leap into attack.

Maid - Turns fast, "I ... knew it !  I never get hungry after eating too much except on Halloween."  Grabs the platter from Adam, "Gimme that."  Points it toward the charge and pulls the lid.

Chef - Cannoning from the platter with butcher knives in hand, the rest of the blades on his belt rising with electricity, "You ... Were Not INVITED !!!"

Dissipates the first and cuts though two more into a spin, turning to them as they reform (you have to remove more than half their mass faster than they can reform it like slow smoke).

The rest circle round.

Lilith and Naamah stare at Eve ... they push her forward.

Eve - "Oh my god."  

 

Draws her bow and shoots, they do the same, the Xenofix closes up with the children in their seats.  The Maid raises the platter lid, the (con) descending nightmare crashes into it. 

Maid - "Eat cake."  Shoves cake in its dentist face and catches it under the lid.  Stands a sec bopping until smoke seeps under and a popcorn sound.  "Hehe."  Removes the lid and eats popcorn.

The chef twirls his blades grinning, then goes to attack against the line of them distracted by new arrows.  Eve slings them a bit lazily while Lilith and Naamah work their way directly to, going to sword and finishing that row with the chef in their confusion.

Adam leaps high and lands on the less touched wall and turns shield to blade as the nightmares circle them in team, now shifting between things warriors fear.

Battles unknown, histories untold but the effects can be seen on them by the insult in their eyes at regrouping. 

The Xenofix opens fire, working one side of their surrounding circle, the rest adapt and try to back them into the fire.

While in another part of the woods, the prior seen Xenofix with the balloons tied to fights nightmares alongside a girl's manga team, another with soldiers and another still for children who watch movies they're too young for nearby.

Where nightmare fights nightmare.

While Bal watches from the castle's landing in that sphere of light in his hand with some frustration.  He turns view to Cybal, redirecting their numbers as needed from above.  

 

He closes his fist and raises it to the sky as lightning strikes.  It connects down his arm and reflects back upward, as he tears a dragon from the sky to the landing.

It rears high and spreads it wings with a roar as though for the first time.  Settles and looks at Bal, head lowering to face directly, smoke from the mouth become steam.

Bal - "Your name is ... Calypso."

It nods hard and snorts in agreement.
____

It roars from the precipice as he rides.
____________

The last nightmare shrinks back in the form of a teacher hiding behind a stack of homework (top says F) as the rest loom over ~

Educational Nightmare - "Do ... your homework ?"

All - "NO !"  Everything opens up.

~ two

As they laugh off that post battle adrenaline through the woods, a team of blue skinned giants abruptly steps forth as if from another world and into their path.

Leader - "A dragon has been torn from the sky."  He looks their number over.  "What do you know of it."

Chef - "It would be Bal, cousin."

Leader - "Bal does not have the power for this."  He looks the machine over, "Nor this."  Looks to the three, "But you I know.  Do you vouch for these vagabonds in our woods ?"

Eve - "Except the big guy yes."

Adam - "I vouch for myself.  We pass through your woods following this machine.  It seems friendly enough and has fought by our side, and by its own will.  But it does not speak to us.  All we know is Bal wants it."

Leader - "And what's inside.  Did you not think I could peer into it to recognize ... life ...?  It appears you would keep this from me."

Adam - "Only because I don't know you.  My name is Adam."

...

Leader - Stifling a laugh ... "Adam."  He looks to the three and back to him.  "This quest must be important indeed."

Adam - "We are sworn to its end, and I think if you join us, you will find your dragon."

Leader - "You say he has the power to take one, from the wind and storm, to name and ride it ?"

Adam - "If you say there is one, I would say so."

Leader - "Then perhaps, he is the true king.  After all."

Adam - "It matters not to me."

Leader - "Yes ... exiled."  He smiles.  "As once were we all.  But we have crossed the veil, into where to exile, is our privilege."

Adam - "The beauty of your kingdom is legendary."

Leader - "You are ... welcome guests for one night.  By morn his soldiers will have recollected themselves.  They seem to believe these walkers head to river, a wall has been built there ... they prepare ...

"Tomorrow you go to war, it is certain.  And so tonight, you shall feast."  He turns and that kingdom is revealed.

The trees begin pulling root and moving into each other, near violently pulling into single structures and cracking to reveal a doorway.  Branches twist to the nearest but where among the Erie these walkways were used by small humans, here it is the Fae and their many variations.

The buildings are dark stone and spired, archways over a citizenry dressed for dramatic.  Warriors but noble, relaxed in a world their own and evolved.  Beasts roam here next to any or all, and yet still the same wizards poking, the merchants mongering while trying to keep from underfoot.

Leader - As the walk through one world becoming the next, "The food we prepare for you comes from outside our land, you will not be doomed to stay by the taking of it.  Truth of it told we'd rather you did not."

He nods to a fluttering fairy, who looks them all over and darts off.

Adam - "We appreciate your hospitality, and will leave at your say or dawn, whichever comes first."

Leader - "Dawn it is.  This Bal ... he wishes this land to be his only world.  But you know ... it is only because he fears his own."  He turns as the Xenofix opens.

Ari - "Hey !  What's your name ?"

Leader - "Mother of mermaids and daughter of bliss."  He bows.  "My name is Leun-Drau pa-Drek, prince, of the The-na-Sidhe."

He looks between them, "She who will split worlds into other worlds ... and bring them all back together again, he who will command the green as though one of our own, and he ... "  A smile.  "He who may, one day, actually manage to teach something, to humankind."

"Gabby"

"Sam"

...

"Mike ?"

He looks to the chef ~

"I am Berntoff."  Spins blades between his fingers.  "I am a chef, with an interest ... in foreign cuisine."

Leader - "You are welcome to join our preparation poison tester."

Maid - "Busted."  A curtsy, "My name is Cerillian Vertruvius Pipsicatto Novella Tambourine Orange Slice the Marmalade Maid."

Leader - An incredulous pause and a laugh, "Among the most powerful beings any world has ever known.  And yet chooses to serve, in this one."

Maid - Blushes while digging a foot, "Yeah ... none of that pays bills though."
____

The Invisible king looks around ... sad.  "I have no ice cream."  Consoled by his guard.
______

Bal roars laughing through sky air on Calypso, catching up with Cybal.

Cybal - "My lord.  A dragon forged of the winds."

Bal - "Torn from the sky, by my will alone."

Cybal - "Truly, you have become."

The distance ahead, the walls reinforcing with nightmares and contracted beasts.  Demons for hire and ghosts for summon, elder gods holding their chains.  As they fly over it's noticeable that the walker tracks all end.

Cybal - "They cross the Sidhe lands now."

Bal - "We burn it down in the morn."  Calypso agrees with a snort of fire, "Their twisting trees and ways ... To ashes.  And without them to return, banished once again.  We burn it ALL !"

With a blast of fire the rage into the night.

As they're led into the dining hall, the table stretches far, seating many children unknown, all the other riders with their many heroes snacking behind them at buffets.  The Cook and Maid to the back behind the high chair at table's end, where sits the king. 

Leader - "I present, Lord Utread, King of the Sidhe, ruler, of the Standing Treeline."

As they sit and the meal begins, the view goes out to the many more Xenofix units approaching the castle, and out with the parting of trees into a forest again  Bal flies over it with Cybal and their mounts.  

~ To the credits which close as they opened, as if it were his show alone.

The nightmares complete their reinforcement at the wall, the hunters sniff their walker trails.  He flies over feeling victory and health, to final credits in black.

~ after the credits and at the end of the river ~

Completed construction of a fine heavy wall, they sit in the abandoned fortress at the mouth of the river, drinking smoking brews, feet up on a parapet ~

One - "Do you think he'll let us keep the castle.  I think I rather like it 'ere."

Two - "Well ... he has to I think.  It's abandoned."

One - "Well it may be evil to take it from us I think.  I feel suspicious inside."

Two - "But we are evil.  So if he were to take an abandoned castle from evil people ... what would that make him ?"

One - "Ohooo ... that's good ... "

Two - "And whatever is good ... "

One - "Must be evil."

They clink and drink, the view over the long wall, now gathered with nightmares settled into dark knightly forms, the things that terrified a crusader in the field.

The Children's Section

Sam - Sitting at the breakfast table with his family, "And there was this ... bad man on a dragon ... "

Dad - "Dragon ... well ... that sounds pretty cool."

Sam - Laughs with post dream relief, "It was cool ... but it was really scary when I thought it was real."

Mom - Giving more eggs, "It was real honey.  This is the dream.  You know we're not together anymore."  She and his father turn to the window. 

The flashing light.

Gabby wakes up in her bed at the Standing Treeline, she looks out the slotted open window, the sun rises.  Sam sits up, looks at her confused, returned.  

Mike - Standing at another window nearby, looking out.  "It's time."

All the children gather at the hall with their following heroes before parting to their Xenofix units.

(open credits)

Bal opens his eyes, awakened on the throne.  The sun rise seen through the open doors, Cybal walking toward from the light.

Cybal - "They're leaving the Sidhe woods as we speak." 

He stares at her breathing hard.

...

Cybal - "My lord."

...

Cybal - "Why ... "

Bal - "Why."

...

Cybal - "Why do you care ?"

Bal - "Because.  It is insolence."

Cybal - "But why are they here ?"

Bal - "Because.  They are lost between a dead world, and on which lives waiting for them."

Cybal - "Why ... "

Bal - He stands and walks past her to the morning light, paced by war on the mind and the sound of rising troops.  "Why ... "  A laugh.  "Why Cybal ... why."

Cybal - "They are ... but children."

He stops.  

Stands shaking in a gathering rage, throws up his arms high with a roar, cracking his power through the rooftop and into the sky, the dragon above circles the beam with a celebratory roar as the mountain side shakes its legs loose.

The castle quakes beneath their feet, his shaking hand slowly draws the sword ...

Bal - "I'm not ... afraid of you."

Cybal - "Yes you are." 

She draws fast and strikes hard, blocked by his own and pushed back.  These are heavy blades, broad strokes with full body balance, a shaking floor in motion as the beast tears itself from the earth.
________

The Maid flies upward over the invisible kingdom singing the notes to Flight of the Valkyries as the people below look up.  When over the throne, the invisible king looks up.

The ice cream cones fall like a row of bombs as she sings ... splatting in a row lading to him, directly in the face.

She lands atop the high four faced tower and drops the platter, kicking the lid off for the chef to rise.  He looks to the distant castle still struggling to free itself, the other way to the walkers trailing for the river, the protective wall.
________

Ari - All riding in the Xenofix, "This is it."

They all look at each other.

Mike - "If we don't ... "

Gabby - "I think you're all really cool."

Ari - "Yeah.  Me too."

They turn for the window.
________

Bal - Circling with Cybal, "Why ... why why why Why WHY !  I will Tell you why.  Because this is Not his land.  It is Not his world to march his unnatural things through, and these children, are Not his to save.  Why.  Why Why WHY Do you CARE !?"

"I am a God of Death !  A Lord of Hell ... Pain belongs to Me and Me Alone !  Pain ... is What I AM ... "

Cybal - A tear in her eye, "But that's ... not true."

Bal roars into a hard swing, next scene with the clang of her block ~
________

~ As an echo in the night.

The nightmares gathered at the wall, in the silence before battle, ironically afraid.  Twitching at sounds and twigs, looking to each other for comfort.

In this their smoke settles to people like obsidian gods, chiseled and sanded to their forms.  A cold breath exhales ... the crashing sound of a tree, forms in the shadows of the wood.

A row of heroes marching in every archetype imaginable.  Horrors to monsters, heroes to gods, manga dancers and wandering ronin, the tree line crashes over behind with the line of Xenofix.

As the castle grinds from the stone, twisting in protest of it's stature, the dragon lands, swiping the guards away as a nuisance it peers its large head through the doors.  Unable to fit past the nose, it starts working its way in at the loss of brick and mortar.

Inside their blades clang, outside the beast uncaps its volcano in its struggle as the lava flows.  While on the distant isle, a gurgling beneath the platform as the lava there lowers in response.

The dragon works in further, looking for a clear shot on her with its snarling fire. Breathing in ready for one, the sound of a cartoon Boink !  Bangs its head on the doorway top in pain and wriggles it's neck from the door and looks back in a fury.

A flying unicorn stuck by the horn in it's butt like a tack.

It roars with a whip of a tail sending it cartwheeling and takes off flying after in an explosion of really angry.

Guards rush the chamber where Bal and Cybal fight as the castle frees its last limbs.

Bal - "To STATIONS !"  Growling against Cybal's blade, "This one ... is for ME."

Outside the castle roars its own multi-chambered call, freed at last while Calypso chases Alabast in circles around, hopelessly trying to catch it in fire.

~ two

The heroes in a row, children watching eyes wide at their own numbers, all come to a stop. 

Adam - Stepping forth, "Nightmares !  Fear us."

The Xenofix all blow their many horns, filling the clearing before opening fire over the charge.  The nightmares roar back, their towers sending catapult, answering the charge with their own.
________

The dark castle stumbles and kicks through the last falling stones, the volcano in full eruption behind.  The sudden change in the lava's flow heats the sea causing it to rise, if floods the cave made by Cybal, splashing water over the steaming platform.

A crack in the molten stone, a crack beneath in iron with something smooth beneath.
________

Cybal - A traded blade sends her skidding to her knees.  She looks to her sword, her fist clenched over it holding her up.  "You had so many beautiful ideas.  It could have been so much more than this.  You could have been ... "

Bal - "What."  He sends an energy blast throwing her.  "What could I have been."  Again, knocking her hard against a wall.

Cybal - Looks down at her blade again ... "I still believe in you."  It grinds against the stone as she leaps into charge.
____

While on the battlefield blades clash, ignited pult rounds ignite the trees behind, and almost immediately the Sidhe appear.

At the isle water splashes over more steam, cracks stretching across its own blockage, the lava pouring elsewhere from that evil mount, the dragon still chasing the mare over it in great frustration and misplaced breath.
____________

At the tower over the Invisible Kingdom, the Chef and Maid struggle with the controls.  The king is noticed standing behind them with an ice cream cone's remnants.  Clears his throat.

Finishes his cone, inserts the key and turns it.

The distant castle beast approaching, the tower lowers as it's upholding pillars bend at their knees.  If an Ezekiel machine were vaguely modeled after a virus, which a description it (very) vaguely fits.

But also as the toy that would stand tall to hang things from, or low where the knees would be at the same height as the tower square, to hold a small tabletop.

To play with the playsets on or decorate a little girl's room.  Pale with golden accents.  The four faces of the top turn around a center circle where they stand.

0:39 ~ It turns to the human face forward becoming visible and blasts a beam from the mouth through one of the dark castle's many towers. 

The barrage of flaming catapult struggles with its lean and side walking gait, the king at the controls with confidence.  The cook behind his left with arms crossed, behind right, the maid shoves cake into the kings mouth as though it were to fuel this machine itself.

And on the isle not so far away, the lava has (con) descended, bursting instead from the mountain behind the dark castle.  The mold which formed this Xenofix city begins cracking off in large pieces as it breaks from them like an egg, taking the surrounding mountain walls with.

Until it crashes beneath it, falling heavy into the bubbling water.

While in that dark castle, beneath the dragon chasing the unicorn in a rage, Bal and Cybal still fight with their heavy swords swinging hard, circling on quaking floor.

At the front parts of the wall are taken, Xenofix units making the river.  One by one they gently turn in the flow toward the sea, where the Mountain sized city built so much like them starts to peak from the water, immediately firing on the similar castle.

With its catapults launching on its walk, the broad steps already nearing the line.  A Xenofix takes a pult round, stumbling it.  It grinds back up and continues.

A strike to the dark castle direct through the front drops the floor beneath Bal and Cybal, bringing the ceiling down with it, trying to stand the floor breaks again.

The Xenofix XO makes land, walking through trees and stripping them, loading them into the belts for the guns.

Inside the crumbling castle, they stumble to, and with a stare, he roars another swing.  With a scream she takes off his forearm, stumbling him back swordless.  She leaps to the advantage, first hacking, then hilt pounding.

Until she tosses the sword and tears off the armor to the child beneath.  He looks around, the castle crumbling, then up at her.  "Mom ?  What's ... happening ?"

She hold him close and pulls him under her robe, above the dragon is pulled roaring and flailing back into the sky.

Cybal - Crouching and holding tight while the castle starts total collapse, "It's okay.  I'm here.  It's okay.  ...  I'm so sorry."  She looks up, "Alabast."

(3:21)

He descends the rooftop hole as it begins caving in behind.  And now they're flying away fast, through the basement network, as that collapse dominoes the rest.

Outside where nobody knows, the giants finish it.  At the front the Xenofix Heroes take the last of it, the walkers one by one floating off in slow spin, their massive likewise turning from the dark castle's destruction, to meet the walkers in the sea.

The army of gathered heroes watch them float away, joined by this massive thing which could now be called an island.
____________

While in the invisible city, things return to rest.  Its own heroes returning, save one.  The three look up, as does Adam from the woods, watching Alabast land.

She dismounts carefully with Bal wrapped in her cape, apparently sleeping, nd brings him to the king.

Cybal - "Your turn."

King - A laugh, he takes the child and watches her turn to depart.  "It was good to see you."

Cybal - She stops.  Looks back, "Yeah."  Mounts her flying fucking unicorn and she's off.

Closing credits as the Xenofix (plural) drift in slow spin to the sea, one by one colliding with the mother.  They climb its legs from the water, to the island to meet and left off there.

After credits ~

King - Holding the sleeping boy as they're joined by cook and maid all watching Cybal fly away.  Smiles around at them then back to the sky, "I think that went rather well, don't you ?"

All are in very supportive agreement.
________

Out to the river and then it's end, the fort at the mouth looking out onto the infinite oceans, that floating island fading from sight of its tower where the layabout gods from a distance still appear to lay.

The cartographer's craft approaches its high ~

Cartographer - Calling out to them, "Well this is a nice castle then !"

They look up close enough to see clearly.

Prometheus - Wearing old furs and breathing into his fire bundle with a smile as it begins to smoulder again, "That it is."

Atlas - With eyes of joy and sadness that carry the weight of the world, "More than welcome for a spot of tea, your timing was grand."

Prometheus - "We ... were just considering our next adventure."