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Doomcaliber Knight

The fact that even a vague city setting was still unrecognizable to the shifter was unfortunate but not unexpected. In retrospect, it was kind of a silly question, Melissa thought. Who knew how memories worked anyway? Who was she to try and provoke any sort of response, no matter how well-meaning she might have been? Still, she couldn’t help but feel disappointed as they drifted back towards the rest of the group. If she had wanted to join the others, she wouldn’t have agreed to whatever had just happened, she would have just walked over. And sure, the fight looked like it was over now, but firstly (and again) there was that demon comment still lingering in the air, and secondly, who was to say something similar wouldn’t erupt in the future? Just because the physical fighting had ceased didn’t mean that feelings couldn’t overflow once again. On the other hand, it really was a “devil you know, devil you don’t” sort of situation. At least she had some sort of common ground with the other inhabitants of the park, right? And it was the shifter’s suggestion, too, even if they were insistent that they were dangerous. Meanwhile, the city beyond the park’s border had only a single data point, that of this indescribable pull onwards that didn’t feel hostile, but who was to say? If everyone else agreed, they would have been out of this park already, right? Instead of just wavering? Not that she wasn’t wavering also. “What do you think?” she mumbled to herself, summoning up the voices in her head to give her some sort of sign. A response came back right away. They all know where you are, right? Okay, sure. She didn’t even need to say it out loud, the feeling was enough of a response for the voices to keep going. Staying this far away could not hurt, no? If they are already headed this way too, what is the harm of being a few steps ahead? It was a weird feeling, receiving outside reassurance from within one’s own head. It wasn’t weirder than anything else that had happened so far, but it was still worth a pause to remark upon. Like most positive feedback, she instinctively rejected it out of hand, but the fact that it was internal meant there wasn’t really anywhere to push it away. The clincher, then, was one final line: You have more allies than you realize. Melissa watched the shifter take a few more steps, making sure that they would not stumble on their way, then turned around and crossed the threshold out of the park. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in humans. -Psalm 118:8 (NIV) Oh, she hadn’t missed this! The feeling of actually being in a huge city? With all the hustle and bustle? And the people? Melissa had barely realized how empty the park was in comparison to everywhere else; the fact that nobody else had been around to assist them (or even just gawk) hadn’t even registered but was now readily apparent from the outside of the park. She immediately turned back around -- no reassurance could save her from this -- but paused before falling back entirely. The park looked different. The first difference was that she couldn’t see any of the strangers she was supposed to be leading. The view was blurry, though, so there was a possibility that they were still there, their images just distorted beyond recognition, but that was actually a difference in and of itself; that wasn’t a feature of any parks she’d ever been to, that was for sure. Melissa tentatively reached out and tried to push through the blur with her hand, but it passed right through it with no resistance, feeling almost like pushing into a cold bucket of water even if when she pulled her hand back there was no moisture at all. It was curious, but again, she’d seen a lot of curious things so far, and this one too was not enough to dissuade her from rushing back to the comfort of the most familiar things so far. Or, at least, she tried to. On the other side of the barrier was… the other side of the park, with no park in between. Melissa even tried a few times, just to be sure, going back and forth across the barrier, until all doubt as to the situation was quashed. There was no getting back in at her level of understanding of things. Apologies, Melissa, this did not factor into considerations. “It’s not your fault,” Melissa said. “You couldn’t have known, anyway.” The voice was reassuring in a different way than before, actually. It was a reminder that she wasn’t entirely alone, further letting her internalize the advice from earlier. She had more allies than she realized, she thought, repeating it for emphasis. Even better, she was able to further accept that nobody she had come across yet knew at all what they were doing -- it was all bad guesswork based on even worse assumptions. There were probably wrong decisions still, but now the consequences of such decisions felt out of her hands in a way that was for the better. It let her put all her trust in that intangible feeling beckoning her onwards, a feeling she chased after into the city proper.