Stampy felt like he'd been walking in circles and checking rooms for Jason for days now. He was starting to grow tired but stayed determined to find him. He was taking a break in a hidden corner when he heard a faint voice.
He poked around the corner cautiously only to spot Penelope coming out of a room, quietly humming to herself before both were caught off guard by a voice screaming out, "PENELOPE!"
It echoed down the halls loud and clear and Penelope quickly ran towards it, leaving the room she was in's door open a crack.
Stampy shuddered at the tone of the voice that had cried out but carefully moved to enter the room she left only to freeze, realizing it was the puppet room. He felt sick to his stomach again with all the eyes staring down at him and his tail tucked between his legs as he shakily moved forward, bringing himself to look at the cases full of what were supposed to be people... some of which he knew.
"Please... Please don't be in here...." He muttered. He brought himself to a stop when he spotted a familiar face and his eyes widened. "Quentin!" He cried out but quickly quieted himself. He hesitated before leaping up and digging his claws into the wood and struggled to climb up to his row where his case was. He gripped onto the sides as he stood on the ledge, looking in at his lifeless appearing friend, his ears drooping. "Kippy..." He muttered softly before looking around and taking a deep breath. "I'm going to get you out of here." He tapped on the glass, unsure if he would or could respond.
But he knew he was going to break him out. He had too.
A pair of painted eyes stared back at him, unmoving as the wooden corpse of the mudkip hung loosely by a set of strings.
Stampy took a deep breath and placed his claws against the glass and pressed, wincing at the noise of the scratches. But finally shattered the glass.
He moved inside the small space and tried to figure out how to get him out. He finally cut the strings holding him, not having any other way to get him out. He caught him when he fell and held onto him before leaping down, landing on his feet, wincing a little as he did. He set Quentin down on the floor, leaned against the wall. "Q-Quentin??"
Stampy swore that he saw a hint of emotion in the puppets face, yet he couldn't be sure it was just part of his imagination.
Stampy heard someone approaching and quietly picked him up again and ran out of the room quickly to find a place to hide.
The puppet was heavy, but luckily not as heavy as Quentin actually was. It stayed unmoving as Stampy moved it about.
Stampy quickly slipped into a room that was empty and closed the door with a sigh. "There..." He sat him down again and sat across from him. "Can... Can you hear me?" He asked. "I... I need to know... that I'm not alone... p-please... I can't do this alone..."
Nothing but silence crossed the two as the puppet limply sat in front of Stampy.
Suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, it blinked.
Stampy quickly jumped backward, withholding a scream of surprise before slowly lowering to the ground again, heart racing as he sat in a crouched position. "Q-Quentin? C-Can... can you hear me? Uh... blink twice if you can?"
Quentin's eyes had a look of surprise and confusion in them. He blinked twice before beginning to look around the room.
Stampy lit up. "Oh thank goodness! I'm not alone!" He quickly settled down before he got too excited. "You can't talk though, can you..." He asked softly. "So I guess it's yes, no, maybe, and don't know questions..." He noted. "Are... Well, obviously not completely but... are you okay?"
Quentin looked upset by the question and looked away.
Stampy's ears laid back. "Y-Yeah... That's what I figured..." He sighed. "Um... Oh! Jason's here too, but he got taken away from me..."
This made Quentin look a bit more upset, and he looked around as if wondering where the other had gone.
"It was a while ago... So he's not here... I've been looking and this place is just like a maze..." Stampy explained with a sigh. "But hey... We did escape! But... We ended up here again..."
Quentin looked a bit confused at first, but then his eyes lit up.
"It was so nice to be home again... but now we got brought back and I just... Why? Why can't we just stay home? Why do they want us?" He vented a little before stopping, realizing. "Oh, right... Sorry... I know you didn't get to come with us...."
Quentin's eyes widened. He looked confused again, as if he wasn't sure about what Stampy was talking about.
Stampy looked at him. "Do... Do you not remember that?" He asked, confused.
He slowly blinked and raised one of his eyebrows, the first time he had done so.
Stampy looked a bit surprised by the movement but sighed softly. "You didn't make it... Kala... he..." He glanced away.
The spark disappeared from Quentin's eyes and he quickly looked away. He closed his eyes and appeared as if he were in pain, vaguely remembering some sort of even along the line's of Stampy's description
Stampy frowned. "I... Sorry for reminding you..."
Quentin looked back at Stampy and gave him a small look of understanding.
Stampy sighed again. "I mean, I'm happy we have a chance to save you but I wish we didn't have to go through all of this..."
Quentin blinked in agreement, the corners of his mouth seemed to twitch a bit in the process.
"Hey! You're starting to move more! That's great!"
Quentin's eyes lit up a bit, the slightest hint of a smile appearing on his face.
"Maybe you'll turn back soon!"
Quentin's mouth opened into a large grin, surprising the mudkip and causing his face to immediately shift back to one of confusion.
Stampy gave a small laugh of that. "See!"
Quentin smiled again and mouthed something to Stampy, but no sound came out.
"Um... that's... not good..."
Quentin frowned before mouthing to Stampy. "Can you read my lips?"
"Uh... sort of. I'm not trained to but I can kind of figure it out."
Quentin looked pleased at this. "I guess it's worth a shot?"
"Fair enough." He agreed.
"So... Where are we?"
"Um... a random room in Penelope's palace. I'm not sure it has a name..." he replied.
"Penelope...?" The name sounded familiar to Quentin, but he couldn't remember where he had heard it.
"Uh, tall pink demon person."
Quentin still looked confused at this. "What now?"
"Uh... Like Kala but taller and pink."
Kala's name sounded even more familiar to Quentin and the mudkip felt some bit of rage build up in him, but he couldn't help himself at silently chuckling at Stampy's description.
"Yeah... She's the one who dragged Jason away."
"We have to find him then!" Quentin replied.
"I've been trying. It's not going well..."
"Oh..."
"But maybe having someone else with me will help!"
Quentin gave a small smile at this. "Should we get going then?"
"Um... Can you walk or do I need to carry you some more?"
Quentin tried to move his body but to no avail. "Carry... sorry..."
"It's fine." He replied before standing up and moving over to him. "I'll carry you on my back, will that work?"
"Yeah, I hope I won't be too heavy though..."
"You weren't earlier." He replied as he picked him up piggyback style. "How's that?"
Quentin's arms and legs hung loosely as his head rested on one of Stampy's shoulders. "That's good." He mouthed, his head slightly nodding.
Stampy nodded. "Alright." He carefully peeked out of the door and didn't see anyone so he quickly went out and started looking.
Quentin firmly sat on Stampy's back. He felt bad that he wasn't able to really do anything, but there was nothing he could do about that.
Stampy peeked in and out of rooms and listened for any sign of Jason as they moved forward.