Masked (A Hat In Time)

Lectures and Lore

This chapter is kind of a lore dump! A few questions will be answered here. Here ya go.

Also, I have concept art for this second arc, but it might take me a bit to gather it.

And, uh, sorry this took so long to come out. School started back up for me. I might need to start pre-writing chapters.

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The next day, the girls brought the prince back to Subcon. They figured he'd be most comfortable there, and they didn't want to leave him alone in their ship.

Immediately the girls sought out Snatcher. "Hey," Bow said, peeking over the edge of his book.

The ghost sighed heavily. "What do you want?" he grumbled.

"Can you take us to the Horizon? We wanna talk with Moonjumper."

Slowly, Snatcher lowered his book and narrowed his eyes at the girl. "What, now you have a death wish?"

Hat Kid jumped up and settled next to him on the arm of his chair. "No, we don't," she told him. "But we want to talk about a few things. However, if you are willing to talk about your past-"

Snatcher set the book aside and stood up. "I'll take you to the Horizon," he said quickly.

Hattie grinned and hopped down from the chair. Again, Snatcher took their hands, and again, they were transported to the Horizon.

Moonjumper was sitting in a hammock made of strings about ten feet in front of them. The strings connected to the ceiling. He seemed to be watching something. It was a screen that hung before him, displaying an image as a TV would. But there was no TV. It seemed to be purely made of magic. Bow Kid got a glimpse of ice on the screen before it disappeared abruptly.

"Why are you here?" Moonjumper asked quietly. "Have you come to ridicule me more?"

Snatcher snorted. "No," he said. "I'm here to have the kids ridicule you more."

Moonjumper sighed heavily and turned around in the hammock. He looked exhausted. He studied Snatcher with red, heavy eyes.

Snatcher let go of the kids' hands. "You won't hurt them again, will you?" he asked.

Moonjumper tilted his head. "Are you concerned about these children?"

"No," Snatcher said quickly. His yellow eyes narrowed. "I just want to know if you're going to be a problem."

After a moment of consideration, Moonjumper turned away with a sigh. "No, I won't hurt them," he said quietly.

"Good," Snatcher said. He glanced down at the girls. "Call my name when you want to leave," he told them. "I'll hear you." Then he disappeared.

And then the girls were alone with Moonjumper. The three of them stood there awkwardly.

Moonjumper curled his tail in, studying the children. "So," he said finally. "What do you want?"

"We just want to talk," Bow Kid told him. "We'd have a few questions if you don't mind us asking."

After a pause where Moonjumper considered this, he nodded. "Ask away," he murmured.

"How did you create the prince?" Hattie asked immediately.

He frowned. "I don't know," he answered.

Hat Kid sighed. Bow frowned as well. That didn't make any sense. How did Moonjumper not know how he created the prince?