The carriage slowly trundled up to the Eccos cave, Trundles had been tweaked along the way with a thick layer of beast leathers, and the box springs were oiled enough to let out nary a squeak. The horses considered their new wool padded leather boots to be a nuisance, but whatever, they were rather used to adapting to weird crap by now.

All the tack they were equipped in was scrubbed clean (but NOT squeaky clean) and everybody had been cautioned not to speak a word once they were inside. Even Elvira’s rubber ball had been confiscated (much to her annoyance), as an added layer of insurance hush charms had been cast on every moving part that was supposed to move, and on a carriage there were a lot of those. While the bits that were supposed to stay still theoretically were anchored with an extra layer of kraken tape just in case.

“What the heck are Eccos anyway?” Mibbet asked, anything that made Sir Leeroy this worked up was not something she wished to meet down a dark alley, or in a silent dark cave. Or anywhere if she was completely honest about it.

“I’d tell you if anybody ever saw one Princess,” said Sir Leeroy with a grim chuckle. What we do know is they live in pitch dark places, hate noise, and if you wake one up there are only two possible outcomes, death or......... ah THAT, perfect timing.”

A figure ran out of the cave all alone screaming the roof off, which would have been unsurprising alone. But what was remarkable was that despite screaming loud enough to practically turn purple no sound was coming out. Not even footsteps as he ran off into the woods, the undergrowth around him soundlessly rustling. Frankly it was a little creepy.

“Wait so nobody sees them, nobody hears them, and anybody who makes a noise in their presence gets silenced? What are they school librarians or something? Because if so I’m outta here, that’s too scary.” Elvira chuckled grimly, doing her best to get all her noise out while she still could. She was not looking forward to two or three hours of absolute silence, being still and silent really wasn’t her strong suit. Fortunately they hadn’t had any beans lately or they’d all be doomed from the start.

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In the cave The Eccos were furious, as they silently babbled to each other. Really screaming? Were those humans trying to wake it up? As if they hadn’t made enough noise all by themselves they had even had the nerve to drop an entire crate of nasty noisy clinky things down here. Right underfoot.

____ was LIVID, to an Ecco there was nothing more worthless and contemptible than a noise maker. Why did humans like the bloody things so much? They reflected light and made noise, two of the deadly sins. (If they had woken IT up especially deadly.) Now ____ and **** had to figure out a way to bury the nasty things as quietly as possible. **** picked one up carefully, and it emitted a teeny tiny clink, earning them a glare from the others. It was bad enough people making noise without Eccos doing it too. In all fairness they were remarkably patient with humans passing through, even when they were on the creaky-boxes with the snortyclops pulling them. But there were definitely limits, and now they had a nuisance to deal with.

Robbin goods was torn, on one hand loot, on the other hand it wasn’t going to do him much good if he was dead. Or unable to join in on a song in the bar. But on the other hand HIS LOOT. (He really needed more hands but then again if he had that then odds were pretty good he’d be stuck in this loop forever, he was already over his quota at three.)

He really didn’t want to risk it, but out there in the shadows was a lifetimes work lying around on the floor just waiting for somebody to pick it up. (Admittedly it was a lifetimes worth of somebody elses work, but he had nicked it fair and square, that had to count for something surely.) So Robbin went and did something silly, holding his breath and running as quietly as he could he dashed out and quickly scooped up as many of the coins as he could get his hands on.

This was the moment when he realised he really screwed up. The silence around him grew more and more menacing, and the darkness darker. He opened his mouth to scream but nothing came out. Silence reigned.

A ways away Tom carefully started to tiptoe away from the oppressive nothingness, he knew this cave was a tunnel, so theoretically it had to come out somewhere. Yet again he had reason to be thankful for his stoic nature. Noise here was not his friend.

Then again whether he knew it or not nor was silence for overly long times, he didn’t even notice the changes at first. His ears lengthened, and seeing in the dark became easier than he ever remembered it being. The first time he realised something had gone wrong was when he accidentally scuffed the floor. NOISE, TERRIBLE, UNBEARABLE, SO LOUD. He froze on the spot, if that was the price of moving then he really didn’t want to pay it. His breathing shallowed to below the quietest whisper, and that was good. For the first time he felt truly at peace. Now all he had to do was make sure that it stayed that way, not even a susurrus. Nothing could disturb it..............

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Mibbet considered chasing the weirdo in mauve for a moment, then accepting she would get no answers there she settled back in the cushions. Doing her best to follow the instructions as Trundles rolled as quietly as possible down, down, into the darkness. All they could hope was that they could make it out of the other ens.