Fire Emblem: Curse of the Goddess [IC / Conditional Acceptance / PG-16]

[Skaia 578]

As the group began making their way closer to the village, it had appeared a trio of the females had went to go check on Licorice instead. Alois, having been mostly caught in his own thoughts of annoyance, had barely registered that the giant fox had actually left their group to begin with. However, as he saw Penelope getting ready to split off from them Alois was not at all convinced that she was going to be fine by herself. All the same, he didn't say anything on the topic and instead looked to the girl  as she gave her parting comment to him. Putting his hand to the back of his neck, rubbing it as he suddenly felt flustered, he simply said, "yeah. Right. Sometime later." Sighing as she left, Alois could only think that this girl was far too dangerous to be around. 

As the group continued to make their way closer to Phar, they eventually stopped by a guard post. While Alois was bracing himself for the inevitable greeting, to put it as positively as one could, they passed by it without a word being spoken from it. As both Cat and Gunther had mentioned that their weren't any guards, Alois furrowed his brow. With Gunther making his comment about a lack of bandits in the area, Alois only muttered, "that's not it..." Alois was on guard as they made their way through, surprised that they even did at that.  As they kept making their way through the village, it was getting weirder and weirder for the boy the further they walked towards it.

As far as the eye could see, there was no one here. No one manning the guard post. No one going about their duties. No one goofing off. No one telling them to leave. No one. To make matters even stranger, there was a plethora of animals that continued to show themselves that continued to stare at them. While the sight alone was enough to make the young fighter uncomfortable, that they were continuously staring at him only felt more off putting to him. There was another thing about these animals, one that he had realized fairly quickly to only make his discomfort even greater.  "What the hell is going on here?" 

As the beavers that they had met before, as apparently there were beavers in town now, the animals around them seemed to start moving excitedly towards them. Staying on guard himself, despite the knight moving to go play with the furry rodents from before Alois simply said, "I wouldn't let your guard down around them just yet." As he said this, he noticed one animal in particular not moving up. Sitting and silently glaring at them, Alois simply felt the urge to return the glare right back at him, a clear annoyance mixed with confusion on his face. 

Moving along with her white haired friend, to help navigate through the forest and because she was curious about the fluffy tailed Licorice as well, Tsetseg had followed Penelope on her search. As they saw signs of a beast ravaging their way through the woods they were in, Tsetseg wondered what really was going on here. Cocking her head to the side, the girl asked, "bottle?" As Penelope had brought it up. The girl was confused by what she was talking about, though given the context she figured it was some kind of poison. While this had at first affirmed that her initial thoughts on Ciela being a "blue haired meanie," having apparently used a poison on one of their friends, that Penelope seemed to be amused by what it was confused her. Maybe it was a funny kind of poison? The girl didn't know if such a thing existed, but given her white haired friend was smarter than her, the girl figured that it must. 

As they had finally made their way to their destination, the group heard a pair of voices speaking with one another. While one of them was familiar, with another being not so the girl couldn't help feel her curiosity rise. Though, as Penelope went to go announce their presence, the young huntress nodded saying, "oh, yeah, yeah." Finding something to hide within, the girl attempted to silently take cover and observe who it was that it was before them. 

[The Last Occultist 16]

Ciela Celestinia

Things went out of control, and much to Ciela's chagrin, the group that ended up looking for Licorice ended up being comprised of three people. Penelope had seemingly figured out what happened to her, which made Ciela feel quite ashamed, and Tsetseg also ended up joining in. How would Ciela even explain things to her? She took a deep breath in exasperation. There really wasn't much else that she was in a position to do at this point, however, so she ended up just taking in in stride and hope for the best as the three of them separated from the group.

Along the way, despite that it was gradually getting dark, Licorice had thankfully left a very noticeable trail behind her. She was clearly very affected by the aphrodisiac with how much destruction she caused in her path. It did remind her of something, thinking about it...

"Well now, that bottle sure did a number on her didn't it? It's a good thing you didn't use it on us, isn't it?"

"You know that I still have several more bottles with me, right?" Seeing this sort of effect on Licorice despite that she didn't ingest the actual liquid itself, the dosage must be very potent. Ten bottles would be enough to drug everyone on the group several times over. Not that she'd ever use it that way. Probably.

"Though it would have been amusing to see how my sister dealt with it, truth be told."

"...Huh. That does sound like an interesting idea."

What Penelope said perked Ciela's interest, although she ultimately kept the rest of her thought to herself. Lately Cat had been somewhat less stiff than usual, as much as what happened back in the fox village was...well, it really was everyone's fault, but still. But at least, Ciela hadn't been in any sort of situation where she felt like she was feeling like she wanted to yell at Cat about her attitude. Hm, no, even if she's being a pain, using such a powerful drug that way would be quite awful, although Ciela realized that so far only Penelope knew that she had those bottles.

Food for thoughts.

"You know Penelope, you said earlier that you know how to deal with this...uh, situation. Do your books really tell you that much? At least I believe I have a hands on experience dealing with something similar with Remy here." Ciela decided to shift back the topic into why Penelope was even there in the first place.

"Well maybe not directly but I think I can figure it out. That was more to ease the others' minds." Penelope's answer came quickly. It was a simple answer, but Ciela couldn't help but to expect more.

"I suppose that is reasonable, but..." Ciela looked at the messy trail that Licorice left behind her. "Looking at the mess she made, just thinking about what we'll see at the end of this trail is really unpleasant.  You sure it's something you'd be fine with?"

Penelope shrugged. "I can't imagine it'll be that bad. Plus she's my friend. I will not just leave her on her own."

"I....well, that makes sense." Ciela still wanted to protest. She saw this as entirely her own responsibility. But at the same time, she couldn't refute Penelope on that note. Unlike Ciela who was distant, Penelope sure would have felt that Licorice was someone close to her. Ciela gritted her teeth, it was frustrating.

"On another note..." Ciela was a little hesitant to touch this topic, but after mulling it over, she forced herself to go forward with it. "Have you...well, told anyone else in the group about the bottles?"

"I have not. There's no reason to make the rest worried over nothing. No need to make them wary of you."

"Ah, that is good..." That was one worry scratched off, at least. Maybe Ciela getting herself too worked up over nothing again. Only Penelope knew what happened, and only she knew that she had those bottles. "Maybe I was just not thinking straight earlier. This mess was my fault and I thought that I should be the one to handle it myself because it's just so embarrassing. But I mean, me going alone probably would end up ugly. So...glad to have you and Tsetseg here, I guess."

Ciela sighed. That was so hard to admit.

"I don't want to dispose the rest of the bottles. There must be a way our group can benefit off them."

"No reason to feel bad, I have a feeling things will work out. Just keep them somewhere safer. And trust me. If I think of a way to use them to protect us I won't hesitate to ask." Penelope looked at Ciela's bag as she said this. Ciela thought about it for a moment, and she ultimately decided to hand Penelope two of her bottles, both which Penelope accepted. With this silent exchange done, silence crept between the two for a moment, before Ciela finally speak again.

"Hmph, you and your books..." Ciela let out a deep breath, but at least she was smiling now. "One of these days maybe you really should tell me more about all such things you learn from those books."

"Maybe once this is over you can come to the castle and read them yourself"

"I'll....consider it, thanks."

Doing that would probably be suicide. Ciela withheld herself for saying her reasoning. It was nice talking with Penelope, but the three of them should return their attention to the road they were on. In the midst of this, Ciela eyed Tsetseg that was walking next to them, who looked like she was still expecting a clarification regarding what the two were talking about earlier. Ciela sighed.

No, she was not going to go the Penelope way of scarring the archer's mind. She wasn't that much of a walking encyclopedia to spew out something that vulgar unprompted. She figured out her wording for a bit before deciding to speak.

"It's a bottle containing a certain liquid I needed to conduct certain personal experiments regarding magic. During the fight earlier, Licorice accidentally broke one and got exposed to it, hence why she was acting weirdly. It's not endangering her life, don't worry about it." Though, it might endanger other things. The mental image of a large horse-sized fox in heat made Ciela shudder. Ciela then shot a glance towards Penelope.

A gaze begging her to not explain to Tsetseg further than what she had said.

And so their search continued.

Following a faint scent of musk wafting on the air, the three of them eventually came across a dimly lit cave in the middle of the forest. Someone with a torch must be inside, but as much as Ciela was eager to enter, Remy was instead hesitant to even go there. Being ever so sensitive to Remy's feelings, Ciela noticed that something was up, and this was followed by what seemingly to be a conversation echoing through the cave.

A conversation which one of its participants was clearly Licorice.

"Ciela, be ready to flee if this goes bad. If I don't announce our presence whoever is there is bound to either sneak off or think we are trying to ambush them. Tsetseg...maybe you should take cover."

"Wait you can't decide that-"

But Ciela didn't continue. Hard to admit, but Penelope was right and their situation in general was generally unpleasant. Announcing their presence like this, what with the unknown nature of who was inside of the cave could be very dangerous, but sneaking in wouldn't win them any favors either. Ciela watched in silence as Penelope went to announce their presence while Tsetseg hid behind. Ciela really had a bad feeling about this, but at this point, she couldn't even find herself to think about the situation at all. What should she even feel?

Ultimately, she ended up just whispering the one thought that was on her mind at the time.

"If this go south, I'll get you out of this even if that means I'll have to drag you or something."

---

Edited July 2, 2019 by Bloom into Banana

[Cheshire Toon 139]

Link thought it was foolish to let Princess Penelope run off with a healer and an archer; if Licorice proved to be agitated enough to attack them, none of them stood a chance at fending her off. But no one asked him what his opinion was. 

Three little lambs went off to play, and Link hoped against hope that a fox wasn’t hunting them. He didn’t have time to dwell on it for long. A village appeared through the foliage of the forest soon after, though it seemed… quiet. Empty. The guard tower was unmanned and there was no one wandering the streets. No children playing, no merchants peddling, not even the smell of the baker’s oven (though it was rather late to be baking). 

His gaze wandered to Alois, whose body language told him everything he needed to know. Something was wrong. Link rested his left hand on the hilt of his sword as they wandered in the village, scanning the area. While he did, he noticed that a certain wolf cub was missing. Rohns… he must have wandered off once they entered the village. Civilization probably bothered him. 

Link made a note to look for him later. For now, they had bigger concerns. Namely… the village was full of animals. Badgers, stag, even the beavers they had fought at the river, who flocked around Gunther like he was an old friend. 

They were harmless… but Link’s instincts told him not to trust what he was seeing, so he inched closer to Catriona, still gripping his sword. “Your Majesty… something’s wrong here.” He didn’t know what, or what could have happened to all the villagers, but he was sure this wasn’t okay.

[Saikazo 241]

Shiro was on edge.

While that in and of itself wasn't unusual, the circumstances of why he was certainly was. He loved animals, he always found them to be calming, and always friendly, unlike humans. However, here... This town... Something was wrong. This was... Unnatural? Was that it? Whatever it was, there were several things that was raising all the alarms in his head.

For example, they had not seen another human this entire time. Sure, maybe that wasn't the biggest deal, but apparently this was the hometown of one of their members, and he was sure none of them were raised by animals.

Well, a case could be made for Link or Edrick he supposed. 

The other thing that confused him was the sheer variety of animals here. Sure, some of them made sense, but there were predators in the mix. There should have been a panic among the animals, but no, they were all calm. 

He really wished his frog form allowed him to communicate with animals, but alas, even as a giant frog, he was still far too human-like to understand the animals.

Link mentioned that something was wrong, and Shiro nodded in agreement. 

"Too many kinds of animals for them be act like this," he added to Link's statement. "Perhaps... It a sort of spell or something, because there's no way the prey and predators can intermingle this peacefully,"

 

[Asriel Dreemurr 38]

Edrick had been looking forward to having a nice, normal, uneventful rest in a village where he could spend a certain amount of time simply processing the events of the past few days. Yet it seemed that Inera was intent on not allowing him to do that. Wait, was he blaming his misfortune on the goddess? That...that should not, could not, be the case! But with everything that had been happening lately... was there any other explanation?

He shook his head to clear the heretical thoughts, and focus instead upon the present situation. Licorice had run off, and Ciela, and Penelope had followed her shortly afterwards. He wasn't really sure what, exactly, was going on with Licorice, something about those bottles Ciela had bought, but apparently it was somewhat serious. Normally he wouldn't mind them running off as they had, but with that strange roaring sound from the village he was feeling a lot less sure about all of that. Their principle healer, and their strategist had left them to what could very well turn into a battle. Not that he had really made sense of the situation being that way until they entered Phar proper.

The lack of guards and generally abandoned state had put him on edge, and as they heard yet another roar he as almost ready to jump at any given sign of motion towards them. In fact he had very nearly done exactly that when something moved into his field of view...until he noticed that it was a horse. He relaxed a little bit...until he saw the rest of them.

"Fir-ar sa fie." He muttered to himself, looking over the assembled animals. The livestock and the like weren't so weird, but the large number of wild animals was. What accursed magic was being worked in this place? Were these more Proteans? Was something else to blame? Had he finally caught that fever his mother had told him he would if he ate too many things in strange lands? Honestly he didn't know anymore, and would prefer for this all to be the result of some great sickness of his.

"What the hell is going on here?" Well, Alois went and put words to what he was abundantly certain all of them were thinking.

"Your majesty, something's wrong here." No awards for pointing out the obvious, Link. All the same, as they were apprising themselves of the situation the rest of the animals began to approach. Gritting his teeth, Edrick resolved to simply walk through them towards the source of the roaring.

"Inera," he began, clutching at his devotional icon with his left hand so hard that he began to bleed, "I may yet come to curse your name, but for now all I ask is a reason to believe." He tried to vent some of his agitation by spinning his spear once in his hand, the tip of it clicking against the cobbles of the road. Without much specific idea of where to go, he trained his eyes upon what seemed to be a chapel and resolved to look there first.

[The Last Occultist 16]

Adelheid Sigdriva

It had just been days that Adel had traveled with the group, and once more it had proven itself that it had a downright supernatural knack of getting itself into various absurd situations. It was certainly not what Adel had in mind when she was told that she should be the one to escort a certain very important individual, that's for sure. Whether this was for the better or worse, well, she couldn't really tell right now.

The village was devoid of any humans. Animals of various breeds and forms wandered around it as if they were the villagers of this place. All of them seemingly were excited to see the group amongst them, and the way the group reacted to these animals made Adel almost laugh. This entire thing was so absurd and she wasn't exactly someone that only saw a little of the world so far either. She was glad that she decided against following those three earlier who went to seek out the protean in heat. She decided that this was more amusing for herself compared to having to track a beast while the sky was getting dark.

"Ahah... quite a village we have here. It sure does remind me of an old fairy tale." With the group being so tense, Adel raised her voice a little. Being wary about the situation was of course very important, but when it was about something this absurd, some levity was well-deserved too. "You know, those ones about how a village angered a local witch, and everyone got cursed leading to various amusing results? These are probably just farm animals left behind after the villagers evacuated somewhere or something, though."

Under her breath though, Adel was still aware of potential sudden hostility coming from these animals, and despite what she said, she did notice that everything was a bit too strangely organized for what was supposed to be a flock of various animals. Everyone had their own concerns with these animals too, so Adel ultimately decided to just wait and see on how this situation would unfold.

[Cheshire Toon 139]

Once the initial shock of seeing a village full of animals wore off, Link took stock of the situation. All signs indicated Phar had been suddenly abandoned. Smoke was still lazily drifting from several chimney stacks, which when coupled with the various bits of equipment scattered across the street (such as the half-filled bucket of water), lead him to believe that the villagers hadn’t left any earlier than sunrise that morning. If a group of bandits had sacked the village that wouldn’t have been hard to believe, but there was nothing that pointed to a struggle. No blood, no bodies, no burnt buildings. 

In fact, the only traces of damage Link could find at all were little holes in a few of the buildings. But they made no sense either; some were no larger than a gold coin, while others were massive gaps that looked like someone had blasted a cannon through the building, and there was no rhyme or reason to which huts were damaged. The only part of the whole mess he could explain were the handful of areas that had tooth marks, which had probably been done by the mob of animals. 

Speaking of which… Link was thoroughly stumped before he even accounted for them. A gathering of such a contrast of animals shouldn’t have been possible. Badgers were aggressive, deer were timid, and he was led to believe that the giant water rats were extremely territorial, yet none of them were fighting. At most a handful looked mildly irritated. And unless he was seeing things, most of them were staring at Alois. 

Link sighed and scratched his cheek. His head hurt. “Your Majesty. Permission to report?” 

Catriona turned to look at him, "Yes, you may." She was curious as to what exactly he could be reporting in the midst of all these animals.

“Wherever the villagers are now, they were still here this morning. The lit fireplaces and the water buckets probably mean they were interrupted sometime just after sunrise.” Link paused when realized that most of the animals were staring at him all the sudden. “Erhm… right. My first guess was some sort of raid, probably bandits, but there’s no signs of a struggle or any fleeing crowds. Not to mention nothing here has been stolen. Which makes it even stranger that some of the houses have been damaged, but the wreckage ranges from coin-sized holes in the windows to entire walls blasted away which…” He trailed off again. The animals seemed to be inching closer to them. “...which couldn’t be done with any normal weapon short of a cannon. Probably magic.” He cleared his throat. “Also, not as important but worth noting: almost all of the animals were staring at Alois when we got here.”

Finished with the report, Link adjusted his sword and glanced at Alois to see the boy’s reaction. He realized that Edrick had stomped away at some point, which he disagreed with, but as the Pontic was still within his immediate sightline he wasn’t alarmed yet. 

Why were they all so insist on splitting the party?
 

Edited July 3, 2019 by Cheshire Toon

[Sethera 290]

Map of Phar

Phar. A village so isolated one wonders how it even made itself onto the map. The people are traditional and wary of outsiders. Indeed, I spent hours at the gate explaining myself to the guards before I was even let through. And as soon as I stepped foot inside, I was met with harsh stares and sullen faces. This is an unfriendly village, and not one I think I will linger long at. I have included a map, however, for any adventurers stubborn enough to explore such an inhospitable place.

--Excerpt from The Travels of Marc Pol

BGM

It seemed as if the group wouldn't be free of their new animal...friends, anytime soon. Glancing to the side, Catriona could see that Gunther seemed just fine with everything that was going on. The knight was currently surrounded by the beavers from earlier. Even the more unfriendly specimens had approached him by now, spurred on by their three companions. Actually going over to where he was would be difficult without accidentally stepping on one of the beasts.

"What the hell is going on here?"

Nearby, Alois looked more uncomfortable with the situation. In fact, he had been looking uncomfortable since they arrived. Normally, the lord would not have taken note of this, but seeing as this was the boy's hometown, she had wondered if he had any insight on their predicament. Alas, it seemed he did not, as he looked just as baffled as she felt. Currently, he appeared to be in a staring contest with the grumpy-looking badger at the back.

“Your Majesty… something’s wrong here.”

"Too many kinds of animals for them be act like this," Shiro agreed. "Perhaps... It a sort of spell or something, because there's no way the prey and predators can intermingle this peacefully."

Catriona didn't know much about animals, but she couldn't help but disagree, and she opened her mouth to say so when somebody else spoke up instead.

"Inera," Edrick began, clutching at his devotional icon with his left hand so hard that he began to bleed, "I may yet come to curse your name, but for now all I ask is a reason to believe." Before anybody could say anything to that, he spun his spear in frustration, the tip clicking against the cobbles of the road, and marched off down the street.

Should we go after him? At least the boy was still within sight, but if he ended up moving too far ahead, they would have to move forward as well.

"Ahah... quite a village we have here. It sure does remind me of an old fairy tale." Adel on the other hand, rather than being stymied like the others, seemed more amused than anything else.

I suppose this is a rather fantastical situation.

"You know, those ones about how a village angered a local witch, and everyone got cursed leading to various amusing results? These are probably just farm animals left behind after the villagers evacuated somewhere or something, though."

"Indeed, I doubt they are villagers transformed into animals," the lord replied, shaking her head. "No matter their behavior, beasts are beasts. And while I don't know much about magic, I would think there would be no more than a handful of magic-users capable of something to that degree." However, now that Adelaide mentioned it, it did seem that Catriona had heard something similar, but the details were a little different. Still, the more she tried to remember, the more it slipped from her grasp, so the white-haired woman didn't put any further thought into it.

Right after, Link turned to her and gave a report of what he had noticed so far. It was more thorough of an analysis than Catriona herself had managed. In addition, the mercenary had picked up a couple of things that she had missed. Well, that was no matter. Even back in the Garou, Link had had a knack for scouting. Though from what she remembered, he hadn't always been that way.

Shaking her head, the lord began to mull over the blond's words. "You think it's magic too," the woman replied, a hint of frustration leaking into her tone. She had rather hoped it wasn't magic. Unlike her sister, she had never had a knack for magic, and didn't want anything to do with it besides. "So you're saying that somebody, or multiple people, used magic on the doors. And that the animals seem fascinated with Alois..." she trailed off before glancing over at the fighter. "Do you know these creatures?" she asked him. "Was this village known for raising such an...assortment?"

At that, many of the animals, which had moved closer while they were talking, turned to Alois and jumped up and down. The badger at the back gave a sharp bark, and they quieted before parting like grass in the wind. The mustelid waddled forward, before finally coming to a stop before the boy. Standing up on its haunches, it growled and snuffled at the Histian before letting out what sounded rather like a dismissive snort as it turned away.

What in the seven hells was that?

"Whatever is going on," the lord continued after a pause, "we should keep moving. There will be nothing solved by staying in one place." She took a few steps forward, before stopping when a bloodcurdling screech split the air. Jumping back, hand on her sword hilt, the woman glanced around, only to hear what sounded like...angry meowing from below. Looking down, the lord saw a single black cat glare balefully at her before tucking its tail around its paws. Sniffing, it trotted away in high dudgeon, nose to the air as it showcased disdain about as well as any Galtean court noble.

"We should be careful not to step on any of the animals," the white-haired woman warned belatedly as she took a few more steps. Eventually, with a few accidents, the group would manage to extricate themselves from the crowd of creatures. While many of the animals looked like they wanted to follow, at the badger's stern bark, they stopped. However, one of the beavers, which Gunther would recognize as the angry one from before, ran ahead of them down the street after Edrick.

Following the beaver, Catriona remarked to Shiro, "It seems we must trust in an animal's instincts once more." Currently, he was the only member of the group present who would know what she meant. It hadn't been more than a few days since they had first met Rohns, though at the time it had just been a nameless wolf cub. The beast had brought them part of the way toward the fox village. Quite an intelligent animal. And this beaver seemed to be just as much, if not more so.

The further they went, the more baffled Catriona became. There really is no sign of human beings anywhere. Where could they have gone, and in such a short time too? They continued down the path, and reached a T-intersection, where a side street branched off to the right. There, they could see a familiar blond lancer, standing in front of that building she had seen from outside the village. The one that looked similar to the abandoned shrine they had left behind.

Stopping, the lord gazed up at the structure. "Do you think that the strange sound is coming from in here?" While possible, she wasn't quite sure if that was the case. Also, there was something...forbidden-looking about the place. Unlike the other doors they had passed by, this one was perfectly sound, and large enough to fit two or three people side by side. There were also what looked like historical scenes carved into the very stone of the door arch itself. Catriona recognized a couple as the Twelve Crusaders fighting against the goddess Inera.

Approaching the door, the white-haired woman tried to turn the knob...and jiggled it uselessly. The building was locked. "What is this place?" she asked Alois.

Below, the beaver squealed at their feet before running back down the street. Another roar shook the air, and it became apparent that it was coming from the direction their animal guide was headed. Casting one last glance back at the shrine lookalike, the lord turned to follow the beaver. "Let us depart. It appears that this is not our goal."

The group moved further ahead, past a few more buildings of note. To their left was a large building that looked similar to a barracks. In fact, that could very well be what it is. It even had its own courtyard with some training dummies. While Catriona had never been in a village this small before, there was something about the barracks that marked her as strange, though it took her a while to reason through it. While most of the buildings seemed roughly-made, the church-like structure they had just left, as well as the barracks, had an obvious craftsmanship to them.

"Your village is strange," she remarked to Alois.

Soon enough, the group reached what looked to be a market square with a large stone well in the center. Numerous wooden stalls lined the outside, barrels and boxes piled haphazardly nearby. Oddly enough, many of the wares still remained, though some of the perishables looked a little wilted from being outside all day. Most of the goods were edibles, including bread, fruits and vegetables, meats, and cheeses. Catriona passed by a stall selling grilled meat skewers that still smelled faintly appetizing. There were more stalls than just food, however. There were also ones selling cloths, crockery, cutlery, and more.

However, there was one particular stall that stood out to her, and not just because of the sharp scent of citrus coming from it. Originally having held an assortment of fruit that ranged from cherries, peaches, grapes, and even some early oranges and lemons, it had been knocked over, most of its wares having rolled out onto the cobbles of the square. Now, that by itself wouldn't be unusual, but what lay underneath it was.

A large pinkish lizard-like creature was currently struggling underneath the stall, both of its batlike wings pinned to the ground by not only the stall, but also by various barrels and boxes that had been knocked over. Beside it lay a brunette woman with skin that seemed a cross between brown and olive, splayed out over a basket of overturned mandarins. She looked a little disoriented, though not particularly injured.

Catriona glanced around, seeing what looked like multiple animals slowly creeping out of the shadows and staring at both the group and the downed lizard creature. Their beaver guide ran up to the fallen beast and circled it before turning back to the group with a smug expression.

The woman stared. Was this lizard-like creature the Great Dragon? No...it was much smaller than she had heard the Great Dragon being, plus...there was something familiar about it. She had never seen one in person but she had heard about the wyverns of Isauria. Was that what this was? The possible wyvern opened a toothy maw and let out a pained roar. A familiar roar.

She turned to the others. "It seems that this...wyvern, is the cause of the roaring."

--

BGM

After Penelope finished speaking, there was silence for a while before an audible rustling sound echoed from the cave. Shortly afterward a blond woman bearing a lantern emerged, the latter of which looked to be the source of the glow from earlier. She blinked a couple times, and then, setting down her lantern, smiled gently at the trio. "Why, hello there," her voice was low and melodic. "You must be those...friends that Licorice mentioned." Her smile grew a little mischievous. "Thank you for taking such good care of her. She doesn't like to admit it, but that child can be a bit difficult."

There was a groan of protest from within the cave.

"Oh, hush you," the woman shook her head. "Dearie me, I never introduced myself, did I?" She chuckled. "My name is Dariella. I'm a friend of Licorice's from way back." Her expression grew slightly nostalgic before she focused back on the group. "I never expected to see her here though. She usually stays in her home village. But it sounds like she's enjoying herself," her eyes curved into crescents. "And that's what counts, of course."

Dariella stared at the group for a second before clapping her hands together. "Now, let's play a guessing game. Those are so much fun, don't you think?" Her amber eyes sparkled as she pointed at the tactician. "Now let me guess, hmm...you're Penelope," she pointed at the troubadour, "Ciela," she turned to the archer, "Tsetseg...oops, did I give away your hiding spot? My apologies," she giggled before bending down and smiling at a patch of underbrush behind the trio, "And...Rohns, right? Don't worry, we're all friends here." The woman straightened with a grin, "Did I get that right? I do hope so. I'm a little rusty, but I haven't been wrong yet," she winked.

"And I know you must all be so frightfully worried for dear Licorice, but you can rest assured that she's just fine. The child is just a little...heated, shall we say?" she giggled. "I'd go into more detail, but you're all a little too young for that, aren't you?" The woman glanced around at the group. "She'll be right as rain in an hour or so, but you on the other hand, well," she shook her head, "Little sheep that stray from the flock for too long are liable to get eaten," she tutted. "Not that there are any wolves hereabouts aside from your adorable little cub, but the phrase still applies." She made a shooing gesture. "Now, better head on back, before you really get in trouble."

OOC

Spoiler

So, a lot has happened this round. The main group is continuing to explore the village, led by a beaver. There are a bunch of animals as usual, the big church-like building is locked, and now at the square they have discovered a wyvern trapped underneath a stall and an unconscious woman. I have also included a map of the village as a reference while you navigate the village.

Meanwhile, the side group has met a woman named Dariella claiming to be friends with Licorice.

Edited July 5, 2019 by Sethera

[Asriel Dreemurr 38]

To say that Edrick was disappointed to not have found any answers at the structure, which up close seemed even more like a chapel to The Goddess than it had at a distance, was absolutely correct. He had hoped that at least something in the area around it would have given them something to go off of, but there was nothing. The door was locked, he had tried it a few times before Catriona had arrived and even beating on it had been to no avail, and there were no obvious signs of anything around him.

"The worst part is I'm not even surprised." He muttered aloud some time after the rest of the group had joined him there, his eyes glued to the scene of the crusaders battling the goddess. Even after Catriona had commented on this not being what they were looking for and continuing after one of the beavers from the river, he wasn't going to think about that too hard lest he fall back into madness, and the others had likely followed after her he remained in place. His eyes glued to that depiction, wordlessly begging for answers. Not that he received any. His gaze flitted back and forth between the two faces, aspects, of the Goddess as they were depicted. The Lady of Light and the Mistress of Undeath, as they were sometimes distinguished. His gaze, the blue of his eyes seeming a bit more icy than before, lingered upon the smiling visage of her sunburst clad face for a time, and then he tore it away to follow after the group.

He briefly noted the similarities between the barracks and the apparent church as they passed the former by, and was reminded of towns in Western Pontus that his family had passed on their yearly visits to the Capital therein. They always had a church, and always had a garrison, and both were always better built than the rest of the town. He hadn't ever given much thought to it, but now he was left to wonder as to why. He shook his head to try and chase the questions away, lest he lose what little certainty he had left. Even so, he felt that he was walking across fresh ice after the first Winter's freeze. One wrong step and he would stumble into the river to be swept away.

"It seems this Wyvern is the cause of the roaring." Catriona's voice shook him from his revere, or rather finished shaking him from what the now obviously pained roar had started, and brought his attention to the overturned stall, the woman, and the pinkish lizard. He lived close enough to Isauria to have heard stories of Wyverns from the soldiers that had been sent into and across Locris to skirmish with their neighbors to the South. This...did not look as frightening as the stories had hinted. Hell, it looked positively helpless.

"Well," he began, planting his spear into a gap in the cobbles where it would stick long enough that it would not fall over, "we might as well try and get it out. Someone help me with this." This was not even the strangest thing they had met, and if it was going to try and kill them they outnumbered it. So he crossed to the far side of the stall, and put his strength to work in trying to lift it sufficiently off of the creature that it could at least right itself. Hell, maybe this situation with the animals was some curse it had laid on the town for not helping it. He stopped for a moment to wipe some grime off his face with his left hand, and succeeded in smearing quite a lot of blood across it in the process. It seemed he'd hurt himself quite a bit on that iron icon. Looking back, he'd left a trail of blood drops on the road behind them.

[Tiamat's Circus 116]

It had been a long day finding local fruits to spice up their strange drinks with, but that was likely for the best. After all, it got them out of town — away from those strange animals — and let Peaches stretch her wings; they had gotten ever-so-cramped while her rider was setting up the stand. But they had already been away from their wooden stand for a bit, and with afternoon closing in on evening, they needed to get back. After all, some humans might have returned to the town while they were gone. As they got closer and closer, the wyvern did a small shake as Citron cheered something she couldn’t quite understand, the rider’s hands rubbing against the scales at the base of the wyvern’s neck. Peaches always enjoyed that, and she also knew what it meant: landing soon. Combined with the smell of lemons and oranges, it wasn’t hard for the reptile to tell that their stand was below. Shuddering a bit, she quickly took a dive towards the stands, particularly towards the one that smelled the best. After all, wasn't that their stand? 

Peaches swept downwards in a dive, against the apparent protests of her rider, Citron's strength failing as she pulled against the scales she had used to steer. She must have gotten lost again, since she was steering her away from the stand, the wyvern concluded. But that was okay, she was going to make her rider proud. Air quality was nice, winds wouldn’t interfere with her landing... She readied her talon-like hind-claws as they approached the stand, landing with ease. Or, well,she should have made a routine landing, but as her claws dug into the wood, the wyvern was quick to realize that... Something wasn't right. It cracked under the weight of the wyvern, and crumbled as they fell through. 

Uh-oh.

The next thing Peaches could tell, she was trapped beneath the rubble of that fake-stand. She hated those, fake-stands, always setting themselves up near her landing-spot. To make matters worse, Citron had fallen asleep on impact, as per normal when so-called fake-stands were involved, the lazy bum. Not even the animals were around, causing the wyvern to let out a low rumble. As much as the wyvern shuddered at the thought of encountering those furry creatures again, especially with her wings pinned under wood-containers and fake-supplies, and Citron having fallen asleep, she’d have liked the help. Letting out a quiet roar of pain, the wyvern struggled against the wooden weights, laying her head upon the ground, and in Citron’s lap. Nudging the rider, she tried to wake the rider up from her immediate slumber. 

It didn’t really work.

Letting out another pained roar, the wyvern struggled beneath the rubble yet again, only to cut her roar off - as much as she could - as she heard talking. And footsteps. Humans. Now, as the wyvern had recently learned, there were two ways this could go: the humans might help her. Or, the humans… Might be scared of her and ignore her, forcing her to wait on Citron to actually wake up. The latter of the two, being the experience she’s gone through the most. In fact, it’s the experience she’d gone through every time they messed up a landing anywhere that wasn’t their home, their den. Even if it was a big, open, spacious den, it was a nice den.

It was a den where strange humans and men didn’t approach them. As the humans came into view, about eight… No, eight, one of them simply had a shadow, had come into view. The lizard let out a low growl, especially as one of them, caked in blood as he was, approached her. A low rumble escaped her throat as she fought against the rubble in vain, trying her best to escape and get into a position in front of Citron. She failed at this, of course, as the damned fake-stall held her down. It came to a head as she growled incessantly, eyes locked onto Edrick as he… Lifted the rubble, ever so slightly, allowing her to right herself.

Edited July 4, 2019 by Feral Pistol

[Skaia 578]

Alois continued his stare down with the old looking badger, having a familiar sense of disdain roll through him as he did for reasons that he couldn't quite peg down. It was during this time that he heard the other people start to talk about how fantastical the situation they were in was, and Alois himself couldn't help but feel like there was definitely something magic related going on. Not to mention that had been the case for everywhere else they had been so far. As  the animals finally seemed to move around them and the badger huffed at basically everything that ever dared breathe, the young boy merely said, "tsk. Asshole," before turning away from the badger. 

Looking back to Cat as she asked her first of questions to come, the boy looked at all the animals with the same bewildered expression he had on before. Turning back to the princess, he said, "well, I'll be honest. I've been gone from here for three weeks -" stopping for a moment as he said this, thinking and saying, "wait really, that short?" Shaking his head he continued, "three weeks. And all of these weird animals - not a one of them. Hell, I would be surprised if anything as exotic as that cheerful clump of fur," he pointed to the gruff badger, "even was allowed anywhere close to the village." 

It was then that the group's chatter was cut short by yet another roar and scream in the distance. Feeling on edge once again, Alois followed after the rest of the group, who were now in turn following after the beaver that Alois had been abut 10 seconds away from hitting. Following the group, amusingly being the follower in his own home town, Alois continued  to look at each of the familiar sights with the  same unease he had had this whole time. It was then that they had come across one of the most important looking buildings, one that Alois was sure only boring things happened in. As Cat looked back to him, she simply shrugged saying, "town hall, or at least that's what I've been told. Really, it just seems like a building for old grumps that don't want to talk to anyone." At the end of the day though, Cat had come to the only logical conclusion one could when seeing a village full of animals. That it was strange. 

Alois never really thought anything about his village, and he didn't really know what to compare it to. After all, the only other place he had been to was 3 cities atop mountains and he was fairly certain that they weren't the standard in terms of places to live. This train of thought didn't last long, though, as the group saw a giant pink lizard with wings pinned against one of the villages many self serving stalls. "Whoa." The creature itself was far more unique than any he had yet to meet - the people turning into animals and visa versa still taking the cake for most unique - and the boy couldn't help but marvel at the clearly foreign sight. And, as far as the rest of the village had gone so far, a sight even more unique than the pink lizard thing. Another person. 

Seeing Edrick go to help the wyvern out of its binds, Alois may have been inclined to help. However, there was something about being in the face of an angry, sharp teethed lizard that was snapping at you that didn't seem to appeal to Alois. Instead, he turned to his knight companion and said, "well, you're the animal guy." With that out of the way, Alois moved to go assist the girl instead, though, more out of curiosity than anything else. That there was another person in this otherwise animal run town was surprising in of itself. However, it didn't take a genius to realize that she was not from this town - or this part of the continent for that matter. As such, that she was even in Phar to begin with was something that Alois could barely make sense of. And so, wanting to get answers from the unconscious girl, Alois squatted down next to her and start poking at her face. "Hey. You. Get up. Come on." 

Edited July 4, 2019 by Skaia

[LordCowCow 839]

Gunther knew the others were uncomfortable with the situation. Still for whatever reason he couldn't feel uneasy here. In fact he likely would have been more uncomfortable if it was people instead.

Though he wasn't able to relax for long as the group was on the move soon after. Going after Edrick, who had muttered something about the Goddess. Which made Gunther wonder. If any kind of magic did this then it was safe to assume it was born from the Goddess herself. The thought cast a grim pall over the situation and he reluctantly got to his feet to follow the rest of the group.

As he moved, slowly, carefully, he had to several times keep some of the animals from curling up against him. "Well, at least they seem friendly...for the most part." Gunther noted. "If they didn't want us here they surely would have done something by now."

As it turned out Edrick had found himself standing before what appeared to be an old shrine. "No surprises there." Gunther remarked, keeping his distance from the building. Though he did tense up as Catriona approached it.

With a sigh of relief as the girl decided there goal was elsewhere he approached her again and kept at her side. "I'm starting to wonder if we want to find any people. Anyone left might be the cause of...whatever happened here."

Soon enough they did stumble upon non-animal life. Though they were beside something distinctly animalistic. A wyvern. Not something Gunther had seen very often. The girl next to it must have been the rider. Which meant they crashed into this stand for some reason. Were they attacked?

He smiled at the beaver and nodded. "Good work." He told the critter.

Edrick moved to get the debris off of the wyvern, while Alois checked on the girl, and was asking for help.

"well, you're the animal guy."

Well, he supposed that he was. That was enough to make him decide to leave it to Link to help out Edrick. Instead he approached the wyvern in the hopes of calming it down. "We'll get you out of there." He told them softly. "Don't move about too much okay? Just need a little more and we'll get you free. No one here is going to hurt you."

---

Penelope wasn't sure what to make of this woman. She acted friendly, but also rather...dismissive. Particularly the quip about her age made the girl have to hide a pout by kneeling to pat at the wolf cub who she hadn't realized followed with them. Though it seemed that Licorice had no issue with this woman, and Penelope felt confident that the fox wouldn't just let a dangerous woman approach them. "Well, I do know what ails Licorice, it's a well documented natural reaction. Nothing to be awkward about." Penelope said, feeling somewhat proud of how matter-of-fact she said that.

"While I would like to go back to my group I don't want to leave Licorice when she's in such a state. Not to mention, if it might be dangerous here, then the two of you would also do well to stay with a larger group."

It was odd. If these woods had any danger to them who was this woman? And why was she so calm being here. Presumably she was alone here before Licorice came around.

The blond woman blinked slowly before a grin drew across her face. "Oh, you're just precious, aren't you," she cooed. "You know, you remind me of another one of my old friends. He was always saying odd things like that with a straight face. But," she sidled closer. "He didn't have much experience, and neither do you, do you?" her amber eyes seemed to glow as she stared intently at Penelope.

"Oh!" she flounced back, "Here I am getting distracted. You're here for Licorice, aren't you?" She wagged a finger at the tactician. "Tsk tsk, naughty children should listen to adults. When I tell you that you should run, you really should," she shook her head. "Don't you realize what I'm saying? I'm saying that it's dangerous for you to be around her right now. Maybe if you were male, it'd be a different story..." she trailed off, thinking.

She officially didn't like this woman. Experience? What did that matter if she knew all about it anyway? "I'm more worried about leaving her than staying." Penelope said adamantly. "I don't abandon my friends."

Penelope did think about what the woman said, though. It was true that the trees had been damaged fairly severely by Licorice in her rather unstable state. However they didn't need to get too close to make sure she was alright. "I can keep my distance until it wears off. And then we all can rejoin the main group."

[The Last Occultist 16]

Ciela Celestinia

Throughout the time that this "Dariella" person spoke, Ciela kept a sour expression. The way she spoke irriated her, and on top of that she was clearly being suspicious. She even was able to notice Tsetseg that was currently hiding. That was an extra suspicious gravy on Dariella's suspicious roast beef.

"On top of that, among us present here, Licorice is the most experienced in direct combat." Ciela added to Penelope's first point, unable to hide some of her irritation. "It would literally be safer for us to stay here and wait out for her to recover instead of returning to our group with just us three."

And then the blond woman began talking about experience. The fuck was she talking about, anyway? Ciela had her own guess on what it was about, but she sure sounded very cryptic, in a bad way. Remy was beginning to look very uneasy, and Ciela stepping down from him didn't help matters. She used her staff to help her stand as Penelope made her answer. It was understandable for her to rather wait outside, but such an option wasn't one that Ciela Celestinia would ever take. Ciela stared straight at Dariella.

She made a step forward.

"And I will be coming in, please and thank you. You are her friend, yes, but I am the one that caused this to happen. What sort of healer causes suffering to their patient, then on top of that can't even deal with that situation?"

This probably was something very foolish to do, but this sort of thing was getting a little thrilling for Ciela. Standing up to this sort of bullshit would've changed her life for the better had she started doing it to her father first of all. What could a cryptic asshole do that the three councilors of Histia couldn't, anyway? The best way to use her legs after a miracle restored it was to use it to walk defiantly forward.

Well, if Licorice was in fox form inside, that would be pretty scary, but right now Ciela was too irritated to even care about that. And if this random blonde decided to attack her over this, Penelope, Tsetseg, and Remy would be there.

"Furthermore, like hell I would just entrust someone from our group to a random asshole appearing out of nowhere, acting suspicious like you're some sort of fairy tale plotmother."

Ciela spoke without slowing her pace. If what she needed was magic, then she'll figure out the way to cleanse Licorice somehow. And if what she needed was experience in something else...well, Ciela had her own experience. Whatever the case, she would only know what to do once she get inside.

[Sethera 290]

"I'm more worried about leaving her than staying." Penelope said adamantly. "I don't abandon my friends." The girl thought for a moment. "I can keep my distance until it wears off. And then we all can rejoin the main group."

Dariella shook her head. "You two really are quite stubborn about sticking around, aren't you?" she asked with a glance at Ciela as well for her earlier comment. And the troubadour didn't seem to be done either.

"And I will be coming in, please and thank you. You are her friend, yes, but I am the one that caused this to happen. What sort of healer causes suffering to their patient, then on top of that can't even deal with that situation?"

"Oh?" The woman turned to the girl with an expression of disbelief. "Really? You? You certainly don't look like a dark magic user, but I suppose appearances can be deceiving."

"Furthermore, like hell I would just entrust someone from our group to a random asshole appearing out of nowhere, acting suspicious like you're some sort of fairy tale plotmother."

"Well, that's just mean," the blonde pouted, though the slight curvature of her eyes belied her words. "Youth these days. No respect at all," she turned her face skyward in exasperation before tilting her head down at the healer. "Still, it seems like you're a little hard of hearing. I did say that it would be dangerous for you if you approached, but you seem to insist on risking your life anyway. Perhaps you should listen to your horse," she smiled at Remy, before turning back to Ciela. By now, the troubadour had finally reached her.

"Now, now, don't be so hasty," Dariella said, refusing to move out of the way. "Little mice that charge ahead have a tendency to fall right into the cat's claws." Try as she might, Ciela would not be able to get around the woman. Even if she attempted to get around her, the woman would edge to the side just enough to completely block her path.

"You know," the blonde commented off-handedly, as if she weren't engaged in a game of "keeper" with the blue-haired girl. "Now that I see you up close, you look a little familiar. Something in the face, or maybe it's the hair." She smiled genially. "What did you say your name was again?"

Edited July 7, 2019 by Sethera

[Skaia 578]

As she was outed, Tsetseg flopped forward in part surprise at the woman's deduction. Coming out from her cover, laying down on the ground, the girl was made very curious by this "Dariela" person. On the one had, she had said she was a friend to Licorice, and naturally that meant Tsetseg was happy to speak to the person, at least under normal circumstances. On the other hand, she wasn't quite sure why but there was something inherently unnerving to the young huntress about the way the woman spoke. That and that she had spotted her almost immediately, Tsetseg hadn't been so impressed with another person since she had met one of newest and greenest friends. While this was confusing enough, she was still not entirely sure what had happened to Licorice in the first place - just that Ciela gave her something weird and now Licorice was acting weird as a result. 

As such, most of what was being talked about seemed to be going over her head. Though, she was able to understand that Dariela kept talking about them needing to leave or they'd be eaten - or something to that extent. And that she was very clearly making Ciela and Penelope mad. Which, in turn, made Tsetseg annoyed by the woman too. "Yeah, yeah!" Tsetseg shouted, still lying on the ground covered in leaves and twigs. "We're going to wait for Licorice to be alllll better!" Nodding to herself, the girl then wondered about something else. As Dariela continued to try and block Ciela's path, Tsetseg herself not interfering in this small game they were playing as she was unsure how she felt about her blue haired companion approaching Licorice when she had been the one to cause this, she asked, "hey Dariela. Are you a uh...sheep? Mouse? Um, uhhh," the girl was confusing herself as she attempted to speak in the same language the enigmatic woman had been using before just asking, "are you fine out here? By yourself an all?"

[Saikazo 241]

"Ahah... quite a village we have here. It sure does remind me of an old fairy tale." One of the other members, Adel, he believed their name was, spoke up.  "You know, those ones about how a village angered a local witch, and everyone got cursed leading to various amusing results?" So they said what Shiro was thinking this whole time, although they didn't seem to really believe it. Shiro did though. They were just acting far too strange... Questions were asked, answers were received, and Edrick ran down the street for a reason that the frog man had missed.  A beaver went down to follow the strange farm boy, causing Cat to comment.

"It seems we must trust in an animal's instincts once more."  The comment gave Shiro the slightest of smiles on his face.

"Well, they haven't lead us astray yet," He replied with an amused tone as they followed the furry aquatic animal of action. They came across some sort of human structure of some sort, although Shiro didn't know the significance of it. There was something more important happening anyways.

They found a wyvern pinned under a stall, and its rider knocked out. Now, while most would assume a country bumpkin such as Shiro wouldn't know what a wyvern was, the truth was that he had seen them before, back in his time in the hell that was Palaea. They had always fascinated him, but they never seemed to see him as anything but as a large meal. He was pretty sure that this wyvern might think the same, but he figured the others wouldn't let the wyvern eat him. He hoped.

"Well, we might as well try and get it out. Someone help me with this." Edrick walked over and began to valiantly lift the stall, although it wasn't enough to exactly help the wyvern. Gunther went to speak to it, in an attempt to keep it calm. Shiro himself quietly walked over to the other side of the stall, using all the power in his tiny human form to help Edrick lift the rubble. It may have been easier to do this in frog form, but he didn't want to risk spooking the wyvern.

Edited July 9, 2019 by Saikazo May Cry

[The Last Occultist 16]

Ciela Celestinia

"Get the hell out of my way, will you?!" 

No matter how hard Ciela tried to get past Dariella, she was unable to really move forward as the cave's narrow entrance allowed the blonde to always block where Ciela was going to push herself though. And try as she might to push Dariella away, even if she had been healed back to be able to stand, her physical strength didn't change a bit, and pushing Dariella felt more like she was trying to push a large stone wall or something like that.

"hey Dariela. Are you a uh...sheep? Mouse? Um, uhhh...are you fine out here? By yourself an all?"

Ciela looked back to see that Tsetseg had made herself appear from her hiding spot. Ciela tried to made gestures, asking Tsetseg to help her distract Dariella so that she could sneak inside and deal with Licorice, but Tsetseg seemed to be more content in watching what happened and asking Dariella questions instead. Ciela's gesturing became wilder for moments, but eventually she gave up trying to get Tsetseg to help her, and just returned to try pushing out a way past Dariella.

"You know," Dariella began to talk as Ciela continued to be engaged in this little game of keeper the blonde had forced her into. "Now that I see you up close, you look a little familiar. Something in the face, or maybe it's the hair." She smiled genially. "What did you say your name was again?"

"Ciela Celestinia. Mark that in your mind, asshole."

Ciela's answer came out fast, but it only clicked to her mind moments later just what Dariella actually meant with her words. She was talking about her face. She was talking about her hair. As much as her hair color was something unusual in Mysia and all, putting a specific interest on it would mean that...

Ciela loosened her hold on Dariella for a moment as she pieced what might Dariella meant with her prompt, but in reflex, she followed it by doing one thing that came across her mind when Dariella compared her to a mice earlier.

Ciela bit into Dariella's arm as hard as she could.

---

Adelheid Sigdrfa

Adel listened closely to what the others were talking about in regard to their observation on the village while trying her best to pretend that she wasn't actually paying attention. Link's detailed report was very interesting, for one. It pretty much led her to feel that there certainly was an element of unnaturalness going on in this village, which was also something that further got confirmed by Alois's words.

None of these animals really had any business being here.

When the group eventually reached where the roaring came from though, Adel was disappointed that it was clear just from a glance that the wyvern and her rider probably had nothing to do with whatever happened in this village. What with them needing help and clearly looking out of place from this area and all. Of course, it could be a trap and these two could be very related to the mystery, but Adel felt a little disappointed, regardless.

Nevertheless she moved to help Edrick remove the debris from both the girl and her wyvern as Alois went to get the girl to stand up and Gunther went to check on the wyvern itself. Adel looked at the girl for a moment, decided that she was a stranger at least, and decided to talk a little as she continued to help with the others in getting her out of this predicament.

"What's a wyvern rider like you doing in this part of Mysia? This sure is an unexpected sight." Adel gave the girl some sort of a reassuring smile after, an attempt to show that she wasn't meant to interrogate her or anything. "If you allow me to, I can check for you and your partner's wounds. Our healer's off somewhere else, but I do happen to have good experience in treating wounds and injuries."

 

[Cheshire Toon 139]

Female. Isaurian. No older than eighteen.  Unconscious, buried beneath the wreckage of a stall. A couple yards away, a wyvern, the source of the roaring. Smaller than he had expected the children of dragons to be, if he was being honest. It resembled a bird more than it did a lizard. 

Edrick rushed over to free the wyvern; Adel and Shiro went with him, while Gunther struggled to calm the beast. Alois went over to the woman and tried to poke into consciousness. 

Too coincidental. A village full of animals that were supposedly once humans, all leading to an ‘injured’ girl with a wyvern that had called them to the very spot. Link glanced from side-to-side looking for any sign of someone watching them. If a spy was being placed… The Night Wolves kept an extraction patrol close by, just in case they were somehow seen through. He imagined most information agencies did things similarly.

Edrick and company seemingly freed the wyvern. Adel offered to check up on the Isaurian. Link caught the princess eyes’ and coughed. “Your Majesty…” he said quietly enough only she would hear him. “You asked me to get you answers, back at the Fox Village. I did. I think it’s important that I share what I learned, if… if your Majesty would… grant me an audience before making any decisions on this situation.” He gestured to one of the huts nearby with a nod, hoping that the memo was clear; meet him there when she was able to reasonably break away without arousing suspicion. 

Though easy to miss, his face was flushed slightly red. His delivery of his request had been embarrassing, but he had no idea how to speak to a princess. Formality wasn’t his speciality. Regardless...

Princess Catriona needed to know they had a leak. She needed to know that their location and movements were being fed to someone in real time, to the point of being able to plan events like this. She had to plan accordingly. 
~~
Two-leg dens scared him. Not even Green Wolf could prevent that, which was why Rohns had broken off to chase after the pack that had headed away from the den. Plus the Fox Lady and her weird smell… he didn’t know why, but Rohns felt compelled to follow them. 

So he did. None of them noticed. Two-Legs were mostly blind and deaf, with some exceptions, or almost all of them acted that way. They went to a cave, where he was sure the Fox Lady was in, but it wasn’t the Fox Lady that came out. It was a different Two-Leg. One that gave him a bad feeling. 

She saw through where he was hiding effortlessly. Just like Green Wolf did. Rohns bared his teeth and gave his best snarl; no one flinched. 

One of the Two-Legs crouched beside him and tried to touch him. Rohns growled louder, hoping she would remove her hand. If she didn’t he would bite it. Two-Legs weren’t allowed to touch him. Not even his Green Wolf. None of them. 
 

[Sethera 290]

Catriona was not sure what to think of the situation before her. The stories she had heard of wyverns and their behavior were...not the most pleasant. The woman could only be thankful that they had not had to go up against them in the Garou, though Pontus had their own share of...difficult soldiers. However, this creature did not look nearly so ferocious, struggling helplessly beneath the rubble of the stand. The lord was not one for sympathy, especially to strange beasts, however she did not feel as if this creature were in any position to do them any harm. So long as they stayed well away, that is.

The woman opened her mouth to suggest that when Edrick stepped forward. "Well," he began, planting his spear into a gap in the cobbles, "we might as well try and get it out. Someone help me with this."

The lord blinked. And then blinked again when he was joined by Alois, though the fighter veered off to help the dazed girl...woman? It was honestly difficult to discern from this angle. And then the slow trickle became a flood as everybody moved to help either the wyvern or what Catriona would assume to be its rider. The likelihood of it being a wild wyvern was rather low, considering wild wyverns didn't usually venture this far north.

It seemed the decision was taken out of her hands.

The white-haired woman made to step forward as well. While she did not approve of freeing a potentially dangerous creature, she could only hope that it would not turn on them as soon as it was free. If so, then she had a blade for a reason.

And then Link caught her eyes and coughed. “Your Majesty…” he began in his usual toneless whisper. “You asked me to get you answers, back at the Fox Village. I did. I think it’s important that I share what I learned, if… if your Majesty would… grant me an audience before making any decisions on this situation.” He gestured to one of the huts nearby with a nod, face slightly flushed.

Catriona frowned. The nights were getting colder, and they had just been walking in the rain the day before. There was a good chance that the green-clothed man had gotten sick from their earlier trek. In fact, had he not gotten sick while in Ithome as well? Then she remembered what he had said. Answers...with everything that had happened, that had slipped her mind. Giving the man a brisk nod, she waited for a few beats to make sure that the group was suitably distracted and unharmed before slipping off to the hut he had mentioned, though were any to look back, she would make a dismissive gesture to ease their minds.

While the woman did not particularly care to leave the others alone in a strange place, Alois was a native, and had proved himself trustworthy. Gunther was obviously reliable, Edrick had proven to be a doughty fighter, Sienna could take care of herself, as could Shiro, and Adelaide was a former squad leader for the Pelinna Patrol. No, these people would be fine for the short while it would take to have a private conversation.

Neither Link nor Catriona would have to try very hard to leave quietly, however, as most of the barrels were rolled off, crates were lifted away, and the stand itself lifted just enough that the wyvern's wings were unpinned. All any of the group--including the wyvern--needed to do was give one last heave and the creature would be freed.

At that moment, the beaver came forward to sniff cautiously at the wyvern, before backing away and running over to the downed brunette. It gave her a sniff as well before turning up to look at Alois, emitting an annoyed chitter, tail slapping at the ground. It paused soon after, straightening and glancing at the stranger again. Turning around, the critter lifted its paddle-like tail and slapped the girl over the face with it.

Meanwhile, the hut that Link had pointed out stood at the edge of the market square. The door, like many of the others, had a small hole in it. Still, it swung open easily enough. The interior, while certainly not fit to receive royalty, was good enough for their purposes. However, it looked as if it were occupied already. Curled up on a patch of straw was a human male with tawny hair, naked as the day he was born. His pose was a little odd, head tilted toward his curled-up knees. He whimpered slightly in his sleep, stretching out one of his legs, foot thumping against the ground. Strangely enough, there was a perfectly good sleeping pallet beside him.

A small fireplace was nearby, though it seemed as if a fire had not been lit in it for at least several hours if the lord judged correctly. There was no glow of embers, no heat emanating from it at all. "We can talk here," Catriona said, with a glance at the sleeping male. "However, I do not believe that to be the wisest course of action."

--

Dariella blinked, looking a little baffled at Tsetseg's question, ignoring Rohns's warning snarl in the process. "Am I a sheep? Or mouse?" she chuckled suddenly. "Oh, no no," she shook her head. "I do not believe that I am." She smiled even more gently, continuing to play keeper with Ciela. "I do appreciate the concern, though. You really are a sweetheart, aren't you? Reminds me of--" The woman cut herself off with a yelp, drawing her arm back as if stung and tearing it free of the blue-haired girl's jaws. The blonde stood frozen, staring down at the pair of bloody bite marks that had torn a hole in her sleeve.

"Interesting," she observed, face eerily expressionless. "You're the first person to make me bleed in...a long time." Her face turned thoughtful. "I suppose that's what I get for letting my guard down around you though," She lifted her head up to stare straight at Ciela. "However, don't you think that that was a bit rash, Miss Celestinia?" The air around the two seemed to grow heavy. "If you keep acting without thinking like that, then you'll only be a burden to your friends." The blonde shook her head. "I'm not so sure that my darling would appreciate you getting the group into trouble that could've been avoided. In fact..." Dariella clapped her hands together, beaming as the pressure around both herself and Ciela became almost unbearable. "Why don't I just go ahead and--"

"Stop!" a voice echoed from within the cave.

Just as suddenly as it came, the pressure disappeared, and the woman pouted. "Aww, you're no fun."

"Let...inside."

"Are you sure?" the blonde questioned.

"Better...alternative."

"Oh, you! Have a little faith," Dariella giggled, before smiling at the group as if nothing had happened. "I suppose you can come in, since Licorice says so. But remember to be careful. She's not in the best condition to be receiving visitors." The blonde picked up her lantern before turning around and leading everybody into the cave.

The cave entrance, while large enough for them to walk in, was still small enough that Remy would have to duck his head. However, the ceiling grew taller and the walls wider as soon as they entered. The cave itself was shallow, and the group would be able to see the far end from where they stood. There, partially lit by the warm glow of the lantern, lay a familiar, bedraggled-looking giant fox resting on a patch of moss. Her sides heaved as she stared at them with bloodshot eyes.

"You," Licorice rasped. "Why did you follow me?"

Edited July 10, 2019 by Sethera

[Tiamat's Circus 116]

The events that followed unfolded almost faster than the wyvern had time to react to them; in other words, everything was happening much too fast for the reptile’s sake. Even though she had managed to right herself, she was still mostly stuck under the rubble, though that blood-covered human was helping a bit. It had taken at least a bit of the pain away, even if it didn’t allow her free movement. However, no sooner had she righted herself, than another human had made off with her human! In response, Peaches movements grew much more sporadic; a growl, followed by a roar escaping her throat as they carried Citron away from her, while she was stuck beneath the rubble, unable to close the distance, and defend her rider. Even worse, they quickly began poking and prodding at the sleeping woman’s face, failing to show even the barest sense of respect to her.

It wasn’t until a quiet voice rang out, that she was able to calm down, though she wasn’t completely sure why. Turning her gaze to meet his, the wyvern stared curiously at the soft-spoken man in heavy armor, who the voice had come from. More words followed, and… Though they meant nothing to her, the wyvern still felt compelled to relax; quieting down. Lowering her head, the wyvern let out a heavy breath; resigned to wait for something to happen, and change her mind. She barely even paid the next human who approached her mind, as he attempted to help the blood-caked one free her from her binds. In fact, they had even done a fine job of achieving just that, the weight on her wings giving way. She could finally move, though, with the armored human talking, she didn’t really feel like it was necessary.

That was, until she heard a deafening SMACK from the direction of Citron.
--
“Hey. You. Get up. Come on.” A voice commanded; Citron’s head buzzing as a finger jammed against her face, skull pounding as she tried to open her eyes. Everything was… So, so bright, nearly blinding, as she came to. What was blinding, however, was the aching pain, pulsating from behind her eyes. The pain was at a point where she could have slipped back into unconsciousness if she had so chosen… Were it not for the finger poking her face, that is. Still, in an effort to save herself the effort, she allowed her eyes to flutter back closed… After all, it was just people, right? After that landing, she could…

Her eyes shot open as she attempted to sit up, only failing to do so due to the deafening pain from her crash landing. “Sorry, sorry! I-I’ll pay for it all! I’ll payback the wood and any money for the supplies damaged in my crash landing, I sw-” Citron only stopped herself, as the approximate costs began to run in her head, prompting her to raise a hand up over her eyes — in part just to block a bit of the light, dim as it was, as it only made her headache worse — and began counting ever so quietly. 

Her counting was then further interrupted, as yet another voice rang out. “What’s a Wyvern Rider like you doing in this part of Mysia? This sure is an unexpected sight.” They asked, their voice kind, and offered with a gentle smile. "If you allow me to, I can check for you and your partner's wounds. Our healer's off somewhere else, but I do happen to have good experience in treating wounds and injuries." They added, before she could really form a reply in her mind.

“Huh? O-oh, right,” Citron rubbed her head, the ache failing to leave her skull, even as she continued to lie on the ground. “Um…” She tried to glance towards the person, focusing on them, hard as it was in her current condition. “We travel from town to town, buying and selling fruits. In my hometown, we have this stuff called Lemonade, so I make and sell that stuff a lot. It’s actually kinda cool and there’s a lot more I could say on  that topic,” she winced, bringing her hand back to cover one of her eyes. “But, uh… I might have to take you up on that offer, first,” she gave a quiet laugh. “My head is… Killing me, and… Oh, right!” She exclaimed, propping herself up on her free arm as she began to glance around. “Where’s Peaches?! Is she okay?” She asked, voice startled.

As she did so, she failed to notice the Beaver that had approached… Though, it was rather hard for her to not notice the tail that slammed into her face with a loud smack moments after.

Citron reeled back in reaction to getting slapped across the face, practically rolling as she did so. The ache in her skull seemed to multiply with every movement as she moved her hands up to protect her face, and instinctively curled herself up on the ground. As she did so, however, she realized she no longer had to ask herself just where Peaches had gotten off to. She could vaguely recall hearing wood shift and a flurry of short growls, before she felt the familiar feeling of rugged scales brushing up against her back.

Having burst upwards and away from the rubble, Peaches now stood over the practically cowering Citron, standing on her hind legs as she stretched her wings out to their maximum length. Lowering her head to stare at the beaver, a low rumble escaped her throat; a growl, leading into a roar. The wyvern had quickly turned her attention away from the Beaver though - nasty animal it was - and towards the rest of the group. After all, there was no way for her to be sure that they hadn’t conspired with the Beaver.

“Easy,” Citron let out as she slowly took a hand away from her head, and began to slowly pet one of the large, talon-like claws that had planted itself in the ground beside her. “Easy… They… I don’t think they mean any harm, or, uh…  I mean, I don’t think… The non, animal-ly ones, mean us any harm, that is.” Citron tried to explain, even as she fumbled through her words. In response, if only because the wyvern could feel the sincerity in her rider's voice, the wyvern slowly lowered herself to merely be in a protective lay, or coil… On top of the still downed rider. “That’s… I guess better.” Citron sighed, as the wyvern took to using her back as a pillow.

“So, um…” Citron trailed off, trying to get her words — and head — in order as she glanced around, between the group. “Assuming, you’re all villagers or natives here,” she started off, trying to reason through things in her head. “Where were all of you earlier this morning, when I set up my stall?” She asked, her voice equal parts curious, equal parts confused. “And… What’s with all the creepy animals?”
 

[LordCowCow 839]

The young princess hesitated as Rohn's let out a growl. It reminded her of the dogs that once upon a time had chased her through the marketplace as a child. All she had wanted to do was examine their ears, figure out why they were different from the dogs she had read about up to that point, but they had taken offense to that. This was similar. Though she suspected it was a distrust of people in general. Only Gunther to her knowledge had been able to handle wild animals well. She nodded and kept her hand from the animal. Refocusing on the conversation in time to catch what Ciela was saying.

Penelope stopped herself from letting out a frustrated sigh. She had probably barely managed to negotiate sticking around and waiting for Licorice and then Ciela just went ahead and tried to go farther by going inside the cave itself? That would make things more difficult.

Whoever this was she was either not alone or strong to be so calm about being out here, alone, taking care of Licorice in her state.

Then to add onto that she insulted the woman. Which Penelope found just plain rude. Even if the woman had been condescending there was no reason to put out such an aggressive front.

But all of that was not so important as the odd thing that Dariella said. "Now that I see you up close, you look a little familiar. Something in the face, or maybe it's the hair."

Familiar? Ciela wasn't from around these parts as far as Penelope knew. And what was that about hair? Now that she thought about it that color of hair wasn't entirely common. Penelope was silent as she examined Ciela. Blue hair...why did that tickle her brain so? Something....something was coming to her but she wasn't entirely sure what. She hadn't given it much thought, she had no reason to, but this strange woman's statement brought it to the forefront of the tactician's mind. Why was her hair important?

Tsetseg had her own question for the woman. One that caused the younger princess to smile at the girl. She was such a delightful companion. Penelope was happy the girl had come along with them for this. Though she for sure didn't want the girl trying to figure out what was wrong with Licorice...

Which was when the unexpected happened. Ciela bit the woman.

Penelope stared, dumbfounded, at the girl. Such a desperate action was reminiscent of a cornered animal. Which only meant that Dariella had struck some sort of nerve. What was Ciela hiding?

"What in the world are you doing?" Penelope said, approaching. "You don't just....bite people, what good will that do?" She tried to apologize to the woman but there was something about her that shook Penelope up. The woman was upset. But not the usual fire-like rage. Something much colder.

The tension only slightly left as Licorice called out from inside the cave.

Then the woman, seemingly reluctantly, responded "I suppose you can come in, since Licorice says so. But remember to be careful. She's not in the best condition to be receiving visitors."

As Penelope followed she told her, "I apologize. We've been through plenty of rather unusual events lately. I can only imagine some of us are....rattled."

When she saw Licorice a chill ran down Penelope's spine. For a moment she was reminded of when the girl had attacked her, kidnapped her, and brought her to the fox's village. The moment passed as Licorice called out to them with a voice clearly in pain.

Penelope didn't approach farther, knowing better, and simply knelt down on the cave floor. "I wanted to wait outside for you to get better. It seems some of us were impatient to see you." She gave a crooked smile to the fox. "I can't just abandon those I care about you know. Even if this isn't a typical injury I want to make sure you come out of this okay." She laughed lightly. "Plus I can't imagine the chieftain would be happy to find out we lost his best warrior."

---

Gunther had thought Link, or Catriona, would help free the wyvern. But it seemed the two of them had gone off on their own. Unusual, to say the least, but he was certain they knew best. Though he did realize that meant while they were away he'd be in charge of their group. Not the most pleasant thought.

Though it seemed that they were able to get the wyvern free without too much trouble. How the beast would act once free was something he would have to deal with himself.

At first all seemed well. The wyvern was calmed and they were removing the debris bit by bit. Slowly but successfully. He could hear the group talking with the girl but his focus was on the wyvern. He was able to pick up what he imagined was a name, Peaches, before he had to quickly back away. The animal had grown agitated quickly and he stepped back to avoid getting knocked over as the beast moved to protect his rider.

Gunther slowly made his way over by her, and the others, as she assured the wyvern that she was fine.

He couldn't help but smile at seeing how protective he was of her. Something he could relate to that was certain.

It probably wasn't a good thing that he was comparing himself to a giant flying lizard.

“Assuming, you’re all villagers or natives here, where were all of you earlier this morning, when I set up my stall? And… What’s with all the creepy animals?”

The beaver seemed to take offense to that, chittering away at the strange girl and almost looking like it was shaking their little furry fist at her. Gunther gave a soft laugh. "I don't think she meant any offense, friend." He said, kneeling down and attempting to pat the beaver on the head.

Towards Citron he continued. "We're actually not from here...well, Alois there is, but the rest of us are just travelers. Similar to you. As for what is going on we have no idea. We only just arrived. I was actually hoping you might have some idea yourself. I'm guessing that's not the case, however, given your circumstances."

With a sigh he stood up, considered stepping closer, then stopped himself. Even if Peaches hadn't attacked it would be bad to approach too rashly. "You have quite the companion there. He must care for you very much." Gunther's smile was small, but genuine, as he was glad to be talking to someone not of their group who wasn't absolutely unnatural. Lately it had all been spirits, or time travelers, or a pack of transforming people. This was rather refreshing.

[Wind Rider 10]

Sienna let out a deep sigh, as much as she wanted to go look for Licorice too, it would not be wise to split up the group any further. She could only hope that the others would bring back her fellow fox safe and sound. In the meantime, the village itself was an enigma all on its own. It appeared to be a ghost town, besides the unusually large amount of animals that were wandering around it. Even some of the beavers from earlier were here, one of which decided to lead the group towards where the large roaring sound was coming from.

It quickly became apparent as to what caused the roaring sound, a giant lizard was stuck under the rubble of a structure, with a human under it. Sienna was stunned at the creature, a wyvern from what she could tell judging by the wings, trapped with a human, all the way out here. It obviously didn't like its situation, and as the human girl under it was pulled out to safety it got even more sporadic and aggressive. That is until Gunther seemingly calmed it for the most part.

Moments later, after helping the wyvern out of the rubble, and ensuring that the human was ok, they had introduced themselves. Citron and Peaches... Interesting names, but Sienna at this point was starting to show more interest towards the animals. The fact that so many different kinds were together without much fuss, it was odd to say the least.

[Saikazo 241]

It took a bit of effort, but Edrick and Shiro managed to get enough rubble off the wyvern so that it could move again. The frog man was cautious, watching the pseudo-dragon, making sure it wouldn't make a move to eat him. Thankfully, it didn't seem as if he was on the menu, as the wyvern went over to its human. Speaking of the human, it was awake, and it seemed it had some interesting info to share.

“We travel from town to town, buying and selling fruits. In my hometown, we have this stuff called Lemonade, so I make and sell that stuff a lot. It’s actually kinda cool and there’s a lot more I could say on  that topic,” she winced, bringing her hand back to cover one of her eyes. “But, uh… I might have to take you up on that offer, first,” she gave a quiet laugh. “My head is… Killing me, and… Oh, right!” She exclaimed, propping herself up on her free arm as she began to glance around. “Where’s Peaches?! Is she okay?” She asked, voice startled.

That was all Shiro needed to know. Even as the wyvern went to protect its rider, Shiro headed off, as quiet as a frog's footsteps as he made his way yo the edge of the marketplace, to where Catriona and Link were last seen going. They seemed to have gone into a hut of some sort, for what reason, the frog man wouldn't even dare to guess. However, he wasn't one to pry into the leader's personal business without an order, so he stood a few feet away from the door, folding his arms and staring at it straight ahead, unblinkingly. He would not miss these two, and he would give the report he needed to. It would be best if Catriona was informed about the salesperson before she went out to meet them herself.

[The Last Occultist 16]

Ciela Celestinia

Ciela felt the pressure building up from Dariela's threat, but even she was surprised that Licorice's voice put a stop to all that, and allowed her and the others to enter in peace. And thus they entered, however Remy had chosen to stay outside, seemingly feeling something off coming from the cavern. As much as him being alone there worried Ciela, she felt that it's best to not force him too hard to enter somewhere he didn't want to.

With Dariela's guidance, they would soon meet to where Licorice were. She was in her wolf form, laying on a bed of moss. Her side heaved as she stared at the group with bloodshot eyes.  Licorice was clearly in pain. As much as the sight intimidated her, Ciela held her ground and waited until Penelope made her answer to Licorice.

"I... came here to find a way to help you. No matter what it is, it's my fault that you're like this. This aphrodisiac... I'm sure that it contains some magic in it. There must be a way for me to heal you.

As much as Dariela said you'd be a danger to me, what use would a healer like me be if I ran away from my responsibility as one?"

---

Adelheid Sigrdvia

"I see. Please do not much much for the time being, I will be checking on your injuries. Being buried in rubble for so long can cause a lot of unpleasant internal injuries."

So she and her wyvern had been here since morning. Something was clearly off. At least, that morning the village was empty, without all the animals. Would that rule out them being transfigured villagers? Adel shrugged, as she brought out her ointments as she went closer towards Citron, ready to examine her for potential injuries.

"Head aside, do you feel any pain anywhere specific?"

Link was clearly noticing something, what with him leaving with the princess with him. That misfortune followed this group was suspicious in itself, but Adel couldn't help but wonder... what if it wasn't just misfortune? Something was clearly up. But for now, she's going to focus on the stranger and her wyvern. Trusting a kingdom dog like Link to deal with this sort of thing should be adequate enough. It's not Adel's style to overexert herself in trying to look that competent, anyway.

"How did you two even get buried by your stall?"

[Cheshire Toon 139]

Perched on the chimney of the building, Link recalled that he very much enjoyed heights. Being this high in the air reminded him of the trees he would climb as a child. The wind on your face, the view (speaking of which, from here, he could look down on the group), it all brought a certain freedom with it he wasn’t able to find anywhere else. Ilia hated it; she was always scared he was going to fall, but he used to joke that his parents must have been monkeys, because he had never met anyone who could climb as well as he could. 

Which is what made it all the more strange when, as he slid into the chimney, he lost his grip. Without a perch to hold onto he plummeted the remaining eight feet and crashed into the ground, hard, unable to prevent the groan of pain that escaped. 

He was black from head-to-toe thanks to the soot. Strangely enough, he didn’t feel any pain. He wiggled his left leg; not broken. Right leg? Still good. Right arm? Functional but stiff. Left arm? There it was. Link silently cursed. His left arm was bent at an unnatural angle, to such a degree that he could have waved at someone standing behind him. Fantastic.

In front of him, Catriona pivoted on her heel and grabbed for the hilt of her sword, but she froze as soon as she saw it was him. Great.

Link pulled himself to a standing position with his good arm before the shock could wear off. His left arm dangled at his side awkwardly. “...” he coughed. A cloud of black erupted from his hand, apparently soot that had gotten into his mouth. “Present, your Majesty,” he said, bowing low and resting his right fist on top of his heart. He would have started his report after that… except for the fact that there was a boy in the room, asleep. 

Maybe there wasn’t a spy. Maybe it wasn’t all planned. Maybe the universe was just out to get him.
 

Edited July 15, 2019 by Cheshire Toon