Spring had sprung in Imperial Nelpha. Flowers were beginning to bloom, the leaves were returning to the trees, and the clouds had disappeared to reveal a golden sun. Unfortunately, our heroes were unable to enjoy such a perfect day thanks to the latest set of orders from their king: investigate and collect a hero relic believed to be in the area. Ryner and Ferris were obviously working hard; Ryner working on his napping skills and Ferris working on her open backpack of dango, that is. Depending on how you look at it, you could say neither of them was really working at all.
Ferris was perched in a tree, dango in hand. She let the sun warm her face as she imagined the ways she could make that horrible, slave-driving king pay for making her work on such a day. She could break into his office and steal his dango, for example. Or she could break into the throne room and steal his dango. Or break into the country's dango storehouse and steal every last piece of his dango. Breaking things and eating dango were her specialties, after all. She glanced down at her partner sprawled out rather ungracefully at the base of the tree, snoring loudly and drooling unpleasantly. Perhaps he would be willing to go along with her plans? He must want to make the king suffer too, his rage only intensified by the recent cuts he had to make in his sleeping schedule (he must be down to only nineteen hours of sleep a day now). Yes, he certainly would aid her in her dango-thieving…erm…she meant king-torturing… scheme.
"RYNER!" she yelled, eager to recruit him as an accomplice in her evil plan. A sleepy moan was the only response she got. The pervert, what is he dreaming about to be moaning like that? she thought. "RYYYNERRRRRR!" she tried again, this time beginning to draw her sword. Another sleepy moan. The creep was probably dreaming of her in an embarrassing costume or something. Something with rabbit ears and a cotton tail, no doubt. Just the thought made her finish unsheathing the sword and whack him over the head without hesitation.
That got his attention. "OWWWW WHAT WAS THAT FOR?!" her lazy, useless friend screamed. The idiot had probably lost whatever vile thoughts he had been dreaming, so she decided to skip calling him a pervert for once and move straight to her plan. "Listen, Ryner," she began. "How would you like to get revenge on…" she stopped. Something was wrong. "Revenge on…" Ryner encouraged. Ferris was left speechless as a pair of white fluffy ears began to grow from her friend's head. They grew longer and longer until they reached at least two feet tall. "Uhhhh" was the only response she could give as Ryner's feet began to change. His shoes burst open, revealing massive toes covered in more white fur. "Ry…Ryner…" she tried to speak, but was silenced by the short, stubby tail which had emerged from the back of Ryner's pants.
Oh, she thought, a bit worried, Ryner has infected me with his perverted ways! Now I'M picturing HIM in embarrassing costumes!
"Forget it," said Ryner a little impatiently, but still sleepily. "We should probably get going anyway." Ryner pulled a pocket watch out of his Roland military uniform. Ferris wondered just where he had gotten such a fancy watch. "We're late," Ryner announced, beginning to walk away. "We had a very important date at the library three hours ago. We are very, very late."
Ryner, still looking very much like a rabbit, was so entranced by the little pocket watch that he forgot to look where he was walking. "Watch out, idiot!" Ferris yelled a little too late as Ryner tumbled to the ground and down a fairly large hole. In fact, it was so large that Ferris couldn't help but wonder why she hadn't seen it from her tree.
"RYYYYYYNERRRRRRRR!" she yelled yet again, calling to him from the edge of the hole. If he died, who would carry her seventeen backpacks of dango? She began to panic and called his name even louder. She drew her sword. "If you don't come back here and carry my dango I'll…" she didn't have time to finish her threat as the edge she was sitting on began to crumble, sending her flying down the hole after her friend.