Cor was ambling through the forest on his way to Elly's, having seen a flier for her store and coming to the conclusion that just *maybe* she might be able to do something about his hair. Conventional methods had proved fruitless in getting rid of the perma-pink and now it was time to try the big guns. Or at least the cute and diminutive ones.

It was during his trip that he came across what appeared to be some kind of pumpkin-headed scarecrow stuck in some tree branches and bushes. Arms were struggling helplessly and it's voice was a constant string of... "ba~! Baboba~! ba~a~a~a~!" Cor stopped and stared at it for a moment. It..looked harmless enough. Certainly if it was dangerous, it wouldn't have been stuck in the shrubbery, so Cor walked over and helped it get free. The pumpkin-head followed him back to the path with a hearty round of Ba~'s and Bo~'s and was pointing down the path. "That the way to go?". Cor couldn't understand it, but the direction seemed obvious enough. And off Cor and the pumpkin-head went.

The next encounter came as they were rounding a bend and Cor spotted a woodsman..or perhaps a lumberjack of some sort, standing in the middle of the path. Upon spotting the unlikely duo, the figure lumbered towards them. His voice was wooden, but his arms were gesturing well enough. "Pardon.....me.. A...fau..fau..foul..beast..has...stolen...my..axe. Wi..Wi..Will..you...help..me...find......it?". Cor glanced at the pumpkin-head, who simply gave Cor the kind of shrug that only a being with no bones could give. Cor nodded at it, then glanced at the woodcutter. "Yeah, sure. Why not. But I'm just helping until I get to the Witch's shop!" Cor nodded and the two that was now three set off once again.

The party was moving back through the forest with Cor in the lead, and the strange lumberjack and pumpkin-head behind him. Both were engaged in a weird conversation with each other. The words consisting of the pumpkin-head's ba's and bo's and the lumberjack's slow and stilted speech. Cor wasn't really listening, intent upon keeping his concentration on the path ahead, which is why when the sudden pink blur shot out from the trees above him, smacking him in the head and knocking him to the ground and setting him flat on his back...it was a complete surprise. Once the stars quit spinning around Cor's head, he peered a the small creature sitting on his chest. It was a kitten. He stared at it. It stared back at him. Mew? it said. ". . . ." Cor replied. The kitten crawled into the hollow of his neck and promptly curled up and started purring. Cor gave a slight sigh and reached his hands up, lifting the kitten gently as he first kneeled, then rose to his feet. The kitten was set atop his head, the pink fur of the kitten blending nicely with Cor's current choice of hair color. And then once again, the party started off in the direction of the pumpkin-head's pointing.

And so it was that the party finally reached Elly's Atelier! Cor moved up to the door with the strange woodsman and pumpkin-head behind him, kitten sleeping and purring contentedly on his head, and raised a fist to knock at Elly's door.

When the door opened and Elly herself appeared, Cor's green eyes blinked for a few moments in slight surprise. He'd never actually had the chance to speak with Elly before this, though he'd seen her around the Inn before, and thusly, was unprepared for the reality of the situation. Caught like a deer in terribly cute headlights, Cor could only stand still and listen as she rambled on and on, even Cor's companions were struck silent by the nearly babbling witch.

All but one of them, at least. The kitten, woken up by the constant string of conversation stood up on Cor's head and stretched, her back arching and tail going straight out until she final settled in the kind of regal pose that most queens would kill to achieve. Then the kitten looked at Elly and said "Mew?"

And while the kitten had been stretching, her claws were digging in to Cor's scalp, which while quite painful, had the side-effect of clearing his head from the witch's hypnotic rambling and both of his hands went up - palms out, in an attempt to put a barrier between them so Cor could get a word in edgewise.

"Ma'am! No..no I'm not Franco, ma'am. Though..funny story there." Brief chuckle. "No, see I'm actually here to see if you can change my hair color back to normal?" Cor looked hopeful as he said that. And while he was definitely there to change his hair color, there was another reason. But he'd bring that up later.

The kitten stayed planted firmly on Cor's head as Elly wriggled her fingers. But, while the kitten didn't move, it did tilt it's little pink head and lift a paw up and bat at the air, in an attempt to somehow get at those wiggling fingers. And as Elly was soon leaning up and close to him to peer at his hair, Cor shifted his gaze to the side, only to discover that Elly was still filling up his immediate vision. He finally settled for closing his eyes until she pulled back. When she went inside to dig through the box, Cor followed in after. The Pumpkinhead then followed in after Cor, baa'ing and boo'ing in happiness that he was back home, though he appeared to be staring around suspiciously for Ickybod. Cor turned back for a moment and nodded at the woodcutter.

"Stay out here and keep an eye out for anything weird. We shouldn't be too long."

The peculiar woodcutter nodded once at Cor and took up a boxer's stance, his limbs creaking as they raised and flexed. He shadow boxed the air a couple of times with surprising speed, given his unique make-up and Cor had to give an impressed nod before turning back and head further inside after Elly. When Cor came to a stop, the kitten flew off Cor's head in a pink flash to the floor and was immediately wandering over to the pumpkinheads, rubbing up variously against the legs of the table, and the legs of the pumpkinheads, before growing tired of that and finding her way to the sweeping broom. The kitten's head tilted back and she began taking playful swipes at the broom's bristles.

Cor watched Elly root around in the box and now that he was inside, he was feeling confident enough to reveal the secondary purpose of his visit to her Atelier.

"Ma'am. Being a witch, you're probably pretty familiar with magical wards, aren't you?"