Wardi and his companions took a moment to recover from the intense fighting. Their cooldowns were still ticking; fatigue had crept in a little. Wardi felt an ache in his sides and tried to stretch and rotate his hip around. Mmm, I've been ragdolled a bit too much lately. I could use some items to help with that. A sharp twinge at his left hip made him wince as he placed a hand over it, gently rubbing for relief.

Lucy closed her eyes. Breathing in slowly with deep inhales and exhales as she leaned against Rhua, who had sat down on the forest floor to try to cool off. Rhua found it refreshing as Lucy blew on her. The thickest of fringes, drenched in sweat, was grossing her out, and anything that relieved that sensation was a welcome bonus.

The travelling nuisance Willieth did his best to earn Rhua's attention any way they possibly could.

"Thy maiden. Thou hast caught thine gaze! We four shall follow ye. From floating isles in the sea to scorching deserts of the east."

If I just keep ignoring your efforts, maybe you will just disappear, you thorn in my ass. Rhua wanted to unleash her thoughts into punches, but the trouble with wandering performers is that they are sensitive souls, wearing masks to hide their relentless petty grudges deep inside if they get wronged in some way.

His travelling idiot cosplayers also tried to support him.

"For the red queen."

"No beauty as fine as she, Sir Willieth!"

Rhua tried not to give them any attention, but they were hired actors and under orders. Give me a frigging break...

Still leaning against her, Rhua, Lucy opened her eyes and began rummaging through her status windows. Hmm. I wonder if anybody is near a town or city... I'll do a send-to-all message!

Raising both hands, Lucy opened up the friend tab and began typing a message; tapping her fingers as she was made her appear to be a concert-level air pianist. Wardi watched her, trying to distract himself from the pain, and commented, "You look absolutely mad, Luce. What are you doing anyway?" as she dinked and frantically pressed invisible keys.

"I had an idea. I think maybe we can figure out where MC and that lot are by getting someone to do a news check of sorts." Lucy was very to the point in her response, Wardi thought to himself, alright, Lucertron. 'I'll try not to pour any water on you.' He chose not to press the question and simply waited for her to respond.

' Hiyooo everyone~ Hope you're doing well. I've a favour to ask ^.^! If anybody is in a town or city. Could they be a dear and reply to this message @.@? Fank uuuuuu~'

Send or delete?

Looking to gain some reassurance, she asked her companions how the message came across after she read it aloud. Wardi simply nodded a yes.

Rhua at least gave her a response: "I forgot that was how you wrote. It's very Lucy-like haha."

Surprised by her response, Lucy asked her, "What do you mean? Is it incorrect?" seemingly unaware of her youthful writing style.

"No, no at all. You write the same way I'd expect those teenagers back at the Gen Republic to write. Lots of emoticons, smiley faces, that sort of thing."

"Are you saying I write like a child does!? I don't want to write like that!" Her face said 'annoyed', but her eyes said, 'No, I don't like that at all!'

"There's nothing wrong with your writing, Lucy. It sounds good; hit send." Wardi interjected before things got out of hand. "We shouldn't linger here too long. I don't want us to get a surprise attack from Mikey," he followed up by saying, earning nods from his companion.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"The dark-cloaked soldier speaks truth, fair maiden,

To prance? Or not to prance? That is the question."

Determined to learn some sanity training, Wardi hurried his companions along, whispering to them, "If we're quick enough, we can probably ditch them not far from here."

Lucy and Rhua slowly stood up, as Willieth held his outstretched hand to Rhua. Willieth's hand held an apple with a drawn-on skull on it, and his travelling twats held out their hands in sync to offer theirs too. Though due to changes in the budget, they weren't afforded their own fruit.

And then they bolted like their life depended on it.

"WAIT! Red hair, please. I need YOU! "Chase them, you gormless idiots. What am I paying you for?" Willieth spat at his paid actors & actresses, who cowered and became living statues in response, posing as if their master was going to harm them. He scoffed and tried to start running after Rhua; they eventually followed behind him. "He is so rude for a boss. "I've never been treated so badly in all my life..." the elder of the two men spoke, and the actress responded, "I could not agree more," as she composed herself, transitioning into a steady jog.

***

The trio sped through the woods like a whizz-head looking for their next cheeky fix. Rhua's heavy-footedness and carelessness caused some thinner trees, on their last legs of life, to split in two as she crashed through them.

Her companions were impressed and horrified that she could do that to any tree in general. "Huff, shit, Rhu, that was kind of cool." Wardi cheered for her; her response was not so positive, though: "It hurt like fuck. Don't compliment that!"

"Oh. Never mind then, ha!"

The trio were unable to keep an eye on the time as they ducked branches, jumped over logs and rocks dotted about the place, and occasionally a dung slug would try to spit at them from up in a tree.

The trio eventually came to a cabin in the wilderness, after what felt like a day's worth of running filled into an hour. They'd been to the Widdlewans once or twice, and while the place was big, they hadn't seen this cabin before. It was built using a very bright-coloured brown log that was so thick that it would still be bigger than the trio if they stood side by side. It had fumes coming from the chimney and was near the Widdle River.

Wardi thought to himself, 'This is a good place to try and wait things out; we can hide around the back if need be.'

He signalled for the others to stop and pointed over to the house.

A Ba-ding in Lucy's mind signalled to her that someone had sent a message through and quickly made it known, "Hey! Someone's responded to me."

"Let's see if we can get some respite in this place. I wonder who lives here?"

As they wandered closer, they could smell lavan in the air.

Wardi pointed for them to go around, and they did. An allotment was being maintained by an old Felidhan who was on her knees tending to several lavan plants with a pair of shears in her hand.

Lucy, in a bold move, took the lead to speak with the old woman. "Excuse me, miss? "Is this your cabin?" She tried to use her sweet voice, but the woman reacted in a way that surprised all three of them.

Purr "I can tell from your smell (sniff) that you're not young, and those two behind you are a few years older. There's an Ippel-scented man, somewhere south from here, with three others behind him."

"Damn, lady. You really figured all that out by just smelling us? Haha!" Wardi joked, but he was the only one laughing. The old lady slowly stood up to look down at the three. 'Fuck me, she's tall,' Wardi thought, as his mouth fell to the floor in shock. The woman's clothing didn't match her age properly; she was in her 60s, but her clothes screamed 'old grandma that watches the neighbourhood through curtains'.

Rhua whispered to Wardi, "I'm nervous; do you think we should leave?"

"No, I don't think you should." the old woman interjected,

"Oh, cool, you have super hearing too?"

"...Call it years of experience, dear." She cracked a smile, but the trio were starting to sweat.

Lucy, apparently having the biggest balls of the trio, spoke up again, "Can we start again with this? I'm Lucy~."

"I know who you are, Prydwen. You really are as bubbly as I've been told."

Lucy let out a gasp and stepped back. "Oh, relax, you silly mare. If I wanted to kill the three of you, you'd have been killed before you even saw the cabin."

'Well, that's a relief,' Rhua thought, casually feeling like she just stepped into a fire.

"Go inside; I'm sure you're trying to escape the group following you here..."

The trio didn't argue against her suggestion. Wardi tried to scan the woman sneakily with Analyse; she immediately turned and grinned at him as the ability passed over her. Are we going to die here? he thought to himself

***

The cabin had an overwhelming lavender smell to it. Unlike the others, Wardi, scanning around, could see nearly everything the woman had was some sort of lavender.

"So where are the other three in your group?" The woman asked, pointing to a sofa. Despite being in a state of fear that this person seemingly knew more about them than necessary, Rhua spoke up, not happy that Lucy had managed to interact more than she did.

"We don't know where they are. Our last full group was at Trollman's underpass. We went to Castle Générique; they went to the Tusen Atolls."

There was no response. Only a kettle whistling away, filled the silence, as she pottered about her kitchen.

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