Chapter 7 –
Setting Out
Homura blinked slightly before reaching up and gently pulling the pink ball of happy feathers off of her head. Carefully setting it back on the table near the broken remains of it's shell, doing her best to keep from making the chick uncomfortable.
"So what are you gonna name it Mistress?" Raphtalia asked excitedly, peering over the edge of the table, her tail wagging back and forth quickly under her night dress. Not that Homura could blame the little girl, she'd probably have reacted the same at her age. In response to her question, she almost answered with a reflexive 'Madoka,' but stopped herself. It was going to hurt enough having the Filolial around as a reminder of the girl with its coloring alone, let alone with her name. So Homura gave it a bit of thought.
"How about…Sakura?" she offered. The chick seemed to love the name, waving it's wings and chirping excitedly. Raphtalia tilted her head to the side in slight confusion.
"Mistress, what's a sakura?" she asked. Homura looked at her in slight shock for a moment, before remembering this wasn't her World. Sakura trees may not even exist in this world.
"A sakura is a type of flower that blooms on a breed of cherry tree in my home world. They are famous for the bright pink coloring, especially in the spring, where they turn whole fields of trees pink. It's feathers and eyes are almost the exact shade." She explained to the smaller girl. Homura couldn't help but smile at seeing her eyes grow wide and sparkly at the idea.
"That sounds like a perfect name!" Raphtalia cheered, gently picking up the baby bird and spinning around in circles with it while it seemingly cheered. "Little Sakura! It's so perfect for such a cutie!"
Homura shook her head slightly with a smile, even her battle-hardened heart found the scene endearing. If this is what Raphtalia needed to keep going, she certainly wasn't going to begrudge the girl.
"Raphtalia, come here so you can take your medicine. You are sounding much better, but if we're going to be actually leaving town today, I want to make sure." Homura directed. She couldn't help but roll her eyes at the dramatic sagging the raccoon girl did at hearing her. She knew medicine wasn't enjoyable to take, but it wasn't that bad.
Homura eyed the broken shell on the table. Grabbing the pieces, she deposited them into her shield.
{ Monster User Shield conditions met! }
{ Filolial Egg Shield conditions met! }
{ Monster User Shield
-Abilities Locked- Monster Maturation Adjustment (small) }
{ Filolial Egg Shield
-Abilities Locked- Cooking skill +2 }
Homura looked at the two shields she unlocked, the Monster User shield especially. Did [Maturation Adjustment] mean that Sakura would grow faster? If that was the case, it was definitely the more immediately useful of the two.
P-*-*-*-H
After everyone finished getting ready and had a hearty round of breakfast, especially Raphtalia and surprisingly Sakura, they set out on the road. They tried to keep a steady pace, but Sakura was awfully energetic for a newborn bird and kept running off, chasing, and actually eating a lot of the smaller monsters such as the Loomush. However, her energy seemed to come and go, so as she stopped and collapsed, panting and stomach full, Homura would gently pick up the young Filolial chick and carry her while following Raphtalia.
It was after a while of letting Raphtalia fight and covering her occasionally when she'd leave herself open to other monsters in a group, that Homura noticed it. To her, it looked as if Raphtalia's movements had become more awkward in comparison to the last couple of days. Almost as if she was expecting her knife to be a bit closer to her than it really was.
"Raphtalia, come here for a moment." She directed the raccoon girl after finishing off a small group of bird-like monsters called PikyuPikyu. Gently setting Sakura down as Raphtalia approached, Homura gave her a good look up and down. It took her a moment to realize that the little girl had grown several centimeters and was now about halfway between her old height and Homura's own, and while still having some room for growing, her black and red dress was now filled out significantly with healthy muscle.
It was like Raphtalia was now more along the lines of a 12-year-old than the 10-year-old she was when Homura found her. 'Wait. I think I remember the king mentioning something about that at the summoning feast. It is a large part of why fighting Siltvelt was so difficult. Demi humans age as they level until they are around a young adult.' Homura thought to herself. 'Raphtalia has managed to get to level 8 over the last couple of days. So that is most likely what is going on.'
Turning her gaze down to Sakura, then looking at the Monster User Shield she was currently unlocking. If the bone snapping sounds, she could faintly hear coming from the slightly larger bird were any indication, then the same was applying to Sakura who was now Level 4. And her earlier guess about [Maturation Adjustment] had been correct. Surprisingly, the chick didn't seem at all bothered with pain or discomfort.
"I think for the foreseeable future, we are going to have to drill you through kata until your body and levels equal out." Homura finally said. Raphtalia tilted her head to the side.
"Mistress Homura, what are kata?"
"Kata are a series of stances in martial arts. They serve to build up muscle memory, develop smooth movements and to familiarize a person with the basics of combat. Most importantly in your case, they will help you learn where your reach is. Over and underreaching are both dangerous in combat as they can and will leave you open to an attack." Homura explained.
Raphtalia gave an excited nod. "Anything for your Mistress! Especially if it makes me stronger and able to help you more!"
The magical girl could only give a pained smile and a nod. Looking up at the sky, she noticed it was coming up on noon. Deciding it would be a good time to stop for a small break, she found an open enough area on the side of the road.
"Then follow me. I will walk you through a basic kata for you to repeat while I cook lunch. Afterwards you can play with Sakura for a bit before we continue on the road." Raphtalia followed excitedly, her tail wagging before it through off her balance mid stance and caused her to fall.
Blushing under the gaze of her chuckling Mistress, Raphtalia did her best to keep her excitement under control. She had to make herself look cool for her Mistress after all!
P-*-*-*-H
After guiding Raphtalia through a simple knife kata, Homura made a simple lunch from roasting some previously prepared Usapils and gathered herbs, while occasionally commenting on Raphtalia's form whenever she spotted a mistake. The look of focus the younger girl had as she did her best to not make the same mistake again was kind of adorable.
Looking over the stats of her party while cooking, Homura was glad at the decent progression they were making. She was halfway through Level 9, her collection of unlocked shields and small stockpile of [Energy] steadily growing. Raphtalia was about to hit Level 9 herself with probably a few more kills, and her stats were skewing towards DEX and ATK, with a secondary focus on AGI.
Dredging into her small pool of gamer knowledge, she remembered Sayaka babbling about all these terms. DEX was short for Dexterity and usually used to represent how nimble and flexible a character was, typically with their ability to dodge and accuracy. ATK was for Attack and was self-explanatory. AGI stood for Agility and was normally used to measure speed.
Looking into Sakura's stats, she noticed what appeared to be an early leaning towards AGI and ATK, with a decent STR stat that seemed like an afterthought almost. In fact, the leaning was far steeper than even Raphtalia's, they looked almost like her stat spread of Str and Def. 'A specialist then,' she thought to herself. 'She is probably going to be a klutz if she does not receive any points to DEX.' Was the next part of her idle thoughts.
With a look into her own stats, she gave them a thorough look over to see how they were developing. She was a bit surprised with how video game like the world was, that she wasn't given points for herself to give out how she wanted. From her own guess, it appeared that the stat points from leveling were allocated automatically based off what she was thinking of as [Profession] and actions taken by the person between levels. At early levels, her STR and DEF had gained the largest increases with each level. However, she had noticed that in those levels she spent more time active, the STR and DEF growth had shrunk, and she had received more points to AGI and DEX. So she was going to have to make sure the other girls put in the work they need to keep their stats from getting to heavily skewed.
Pulling the meal off the fire and dishing it out on to some simple wooden plates she had purchased, she called Raphtalia over as she finished another round of kata. The little raccoon girl ran over, lightly panting and sweating, smiling big with her tail wagging excitedly. Shaking her head slightly, she gave her slave a small smile before handing her a plate. As she set the second one in front of Sakura, she hummed softly when she got a notice from her shield.
{ Monster User Shield
-Abilities Unlocked- Monster Maturation Adjustment (small) }
'Well that is nice.' Homura thought to herself. Changing back to her Ribbon Shield, which had become something of her default shield to help remind her of her goal. She had also used the accumulated points to unlock the shield using Ren's method to the first tier.
{ Ribbon Shield C
-Abilities Unlocked- Equip Bonus: Defense +7, skill "Bind" }
Homura had been moderately surprised at the fact that all of the stats connected to the shield had been doubled with a single tier of upgrade. What would happen if she were to upgrade something to the Ultra Rare tier? Especially a high-level shield?
It was definitely setting in what made the [Legendary Armaments] special and unique to the displaced magical girl. 'How powerful does that mean the Waves become?' Homura couldn't help but ponder as she settled down with her own plate of food. An uncomfortable image of Walpurgisnacht, that echoing haunting laugh as she turned Mitakihara into her stage.
The mountain that was Madoka's Witch towering over the newly built stage, ready to deliver it's "Salvation" on the world.
If that was the scale the four heroes were expected to contend with, even with the power she could see in their weapons, the magical girl was not comfortable in their chances. Sighing softly to herself she dug into her meal, trying to wave off her thoughts.
P-*-*-*-H
It was several hours later when Homura looked up towards the sky as it began to slowly change colors with the coming twilight.
"Alright Raphtalia, Sakura, I think it's about time we stopped for the night." Homura directed. The young chick was resting tiredly in her arms. She had done surprisingly well for the day before she had basically just run out of energy an hour ago. While she refused to sleep, she was more than content to rest in her arms and softly be pet. Homura had even accidently unlocked a new shield when she had dislodged an apparently molting feather down infront of her shield's jewel.
{ Filolial Feather Shield
-Abilities Locked- Equip Bonus: Filolial Speed Up (small), Filolial Status Up (small) }
Homura equipped it at once seeing it's two bonuses would no doubt help with Sakura still being a low level. Indeed, Homura was able to finally get an idea of what a [small] bonus consisted of, and it seemed to be a 10% increase. While that meant that the Status Up would only give an additional couple of points per level by itself, it appeared to stack with either the Slave or Companion Series.
Having a sudden thought, Homura pulled up Raphtalia's stats and did some math. What she realized made her frown. If her math was correct, she was only receiving the points from one of the series. Glancing at the slave seal icon that was next to the raccoon girl's name, Homura was filled with intense disgust at the idea of which it most likely was.
Taking a deep breath to steady herself, Homura forced her emotions under control. This was an easy enough situation to remedy. Gently setting Sakura down on the grass, who looked at her with what looked like concern in those pink eyes, she directed the young bird to stay there while Raphtalia and her set up camp.
Getting a nod in response made Homura blink in response. She knew that part of the Beast Tamer Seal was to allow the tamed beast to understand their owner, but to get a response like that? Homura couldn't help but wonder if it had something to do with her shield.
Again.
Shaking the rogue thoughts from her head, Homura got to work. She had several things she needed to do tonight.
It took a bit, but after a while Homura had managed to get the tent setup while Raphtalia gathered some firewood and got a small cooking fire started. Nodding at the girl and sending her off to do her kata, Homura cooked the group's dinner.
Watching the girl and her movements, the experienced magical girl's eyes had begun to catch some quirks that were forming in her style. Small tells like aiming lower on purpose, the positioning her feet kept trying to lead into. Thinks of that sort. Homura had seen it before, many times whenever Sayaka would attract and received her training in the form of fighting familiars.
It wasn't a bad thing per say, but it could lead to some dangerous habits in fights with more...humanoid forms. Homura felt that it would be best to correct that early. Plus nothing trained a person better than actual combat. A few of the earlier timelines when she was able to convince Sayaka to let her train her after Mami had died had proven that fact.
It also proved how capable Sayaka could be. She was just to damn stubborn for her own good.
While the three girls sat peacefully around the fire eating dinner, Homura was diligently looking over all her menus, trying to find out the information she wanted. She found it eventually, buried in the [Slaves] section of her [Help Menu].
{ Slaves may be released in one of three ways. The first and most common is through death. Without the slave's own status magic for the Slave Seal to bind, the magic it contains is released into the atmosphere. The second is for the owner to release the slave. This may be done by channeling mana into the seal and unlocking it as with any lock. A verification message will be presented and must be confirmed by the owner. The third method for it to be forcibly released through a magic ritual. This method is normally used when a Slave Owner is arrested to prevent the slaves from being commanded to help in the release of the owner. }
'Well that is easy enough,' Homura released the small breath she had been holding. 'It also works well with my plan for tonight.'
Homura allowed the young raccoon girl to rest after finishing her meal for a while before she stood and walked a bit away from the fire, but still close enough that she was well enough illuminated.
"Raphtalia, come here." she ordered softly.
While looking confused, the girl knew better than to try and disobey an order. Even if she knew her Mistress wouldn't abuse the seal on purpose, the remembered that her seal had been set to obey orders. So she stood up and walked over towards the older girl.
"Draw your knife."
Still confused, she hesitantly did as instructed, making sure that she kept a firm proper grip on the handle just in case this was some kind of test. Homura gave the younger girl a small nod.
"Now it is time for some combat training. Attack me."
Raphtalia recoiled slightly in shock, unwilling to attack her. Homura frowned when the seal on the little girl's chest began to glow, making her grimace with discomfort that edged into actual pain.
"Your attack stat is still too low to get through my defense, so you do not need to worry." Homura attempted to console the girl. "But it is important that you learn how to fight not only human enemies, but also enemies that are more skilled than you." she began her explanation.
"I am still unsure on the exact nature of the enemies we will have to combat during the Waves. However, I am fairly confident in saying that we may have to fight things from the size and strength of Usapils, probably up to things as large and powerful as a dragon and everything in between. That includes humans. We may even have to fight things unrelated to the Waves. I want you to be as ready as possible to help me whenever the moment comes. Do you understand?"
Homura was unused to speaking so much. She had gotten so used to barely speaking most of her time loops. She was a loner. But now here she was, trying to be a good role model to a young slave girl that she had purchased on a whim because of a spark, and now raising a baby bird that will grow to be at least the size of an ostrich. Watching the girl grip at her chest, she smirked slightly at seeing her steel her expression into one of focus before rushing at Homura.
"Hyah!" Raphtalia exclaimed as she stabbed at the magical girl. Homura couldn't help but think about how slow it appeared. With a casual swing she deflected the blow, not even using her shield, just by pushing the inside of Raphtalia's arm with her own. She swiftly followed the parry with a jab to the chest. Her strength stat made sure that the younger girl felt the blow and all the discomfort it would bring.
Her lack of an attack stat meant the cancellation sound rang out and Raphtalia received no damage.
These three facts made Homura probably the best combat trainer: her experience, strength, and attack stat. Homura watched and waited as the girl gathered herself, holding the spot where she had been struck.
"A straight charge like that may work on low leveled monsters," she began explaining, "and against unsuspecting enemies. However, I am neither. Try to not leave yourself open. You are using a knife, and later you will probably move to using a full-sized sword, it is important that you keep your core protected. You cannot do that if your weapon and hands are away from your body. Now, try again."
Raphtalia frowned, pulling her knife hand closer to her body, and holding her fisted hand out in front of her. 'Better,' Homura thought at seeing the slightly modified stance from the kata she showed the girl this morning. Homura kept her own body loose and didn't assume any stance. She planned to simply only guard and counter for now. Any more than that and she might destroy the girl.
After a moment and not seeing her move, Raphtalia closed in. A few exchanges between the two girls occurred before Homura tripped the girl since she had stopped paying attention to her footwork before kicking her away.
"Footwork is the basis of combat. If your stance is not solid, then your opponent can easily push you around." She broke down her mistake while letting the girl recover.
This continued on for the next hour until it became too dark even with the fire to safely keep going. When Homura made the decision that training was done for the day, she made her move.
Finally moving from the spot she had stood in for the last hour, Homura moved to the side, parried Raphtalia's strike that had now overextended and left the girl open. Knocking her feet out from under her once again, Homura struck with an open palm over the girl's slave seal and shoved her down on to her back firmly.
As the little raccoon girl laid there, gasping, Homura kept her palm open like a knife hand but pointed at the slave seal with the hand that was already on her slave seal. Drawing up her magic, she pushed it into the [Slave Curse] and then like her Help screen had explained, turned her hand and magic 90 degrees to the left.
{ Release slave [Raphtalia] from command?
[Yes] / [No] }
Selecting the 'yes' option, the screen in front of her disappeared and the [Slave Curse] glowed brightly for a moment before vanishing. Seeing the girl's eyes widen in shock in panic, Homura realized what it must have seemed like from the girl's perspective.
That she was being abandoned.
'Stupid. Stupid. Stupid and worthless!' Homura yelled at herself for her mistake.
Seeing the tears beginning to form in her eyes, Homura quickly navigated her menu and sent the girl a party invite. Seeing the girl's eyes widen a bit more, the magical girl gave her a soft, hopefully comforting smile.
"Congratulations Raphtalia. You are free now." The words seemed to stumble out of her mouth. She had no idea what she was saying and hoped that she didn't mess this up.
"You are more than capable of surviving on your own if you would rather leave. But I think Sakura and I would prefer if you stayed with us. So, I want to hear your own answer: would you like to help me save your world?" she asked.
Raphtalia looked past the party invite and looked up at her former Mistress with tear filled and slightly scared eyes. She could hear the words, but they weren't processing completely. She was to busy being drawn deep into those violet eyes, just like the first time they had met. She had looked at them several times since then, but it wasn't until now that she had the same experience she had then.
But this time it was slightly different. The fire in her eyes burned brighter, a bit more madly than previously. This time, instead of the fire being passive, merely part of her existence, they were being directed towards her. Some part of her mind, the part she associated with her raccoon side, deep within her, realized that her Mistress had claimed her. To her Mistress, whether or not she realized it, there was one simple fact.
Raphtalia belonged to Homura.
Not as a slave, but as a companion. A partner. Her Mistress was full of Love. So full of it that she had been hurt by it but still wanted to share it. And Raphtalia had been claimed by that Love. Though Raphtalia couldn't yet admit it, maybe didn't even realize it completely.
She too loved her Mistress.
Then she heard her ask a question similar to a few days ago. Of course, she would stay and help. She had to make sure she stayed in her Mistress heart and life no matter what. Accepting the party invite, she was so comforted at seeing the two now familiar names join her own in her vision.
Raphtalia lunged up and hugged Homura tightly, letting her tears out from both the discomfort of her training and the rapid emotional roller coaster she had just experienced. Homura startled slightly at the sudden action but remembering something similar had happened on their first day together, she held the little raccoon girl closer and let her cry.
As Raphtalia's crying had begun to slow, her tail waved upwards and lightly brushed the jewel of her shield. Homura was surprised when the jewel glowed, and she received a notification.
{ Tanuki Shield conditions met! }
{ Tanuki Shield
-Abilities Locked- Equip Bonuses: Tanuki Status Up(small), Illusion Resistance Up(small) }
Well Homura knew what shield she was going to have unlock next once she finished unlocking the Filolial Feather Shield. Blinking at feeling Raphtalia go completely slack, Homura realized that the young girl must have cried herself to sleep. Sighing softly to herself, she picked her up and carried her into the tent and gently tucked her into her own sleeping bag.
Stepping out she picked up the lightly dozing Sakura and also settled her into the tent next to Raphtalia. Homura couldn't help but smile at the adorable sight of those two sleeping together.
Settling out next to the remains of the fire, Homura carefully got a very small fire stoked back up to serve as a small light and source of warmth as she settled in to keep watch for monsters and bandits. Looking down at the fire, she decided to experiment some more with her magic while the other girls slept. While she could use some of the basic abilities she had from her old world, there was a wall of sorts that stopped her from doing anything to complex. But she could feel that she was making progress on that front.
That didn't mean it wasn't frustrating to her.
P-*-*-*-H
It was a few days later, a week after she had been summoned into this world, that Homura and her small party had arrived at a small village. Homura looked around in interest. This was the first place outside of the woods and the capitol that she had seen in this world.
After the last few days, Raphtalia now stood at about the same height she did and could pass as a 14-year-old. It was easy to see the budding beauty she was going to be once she finished growing with how she was starting to fill out her dress. Homura made a note to see about finding a tailor in the town before they left to see about getting a few larger ones made for the girl.
The real shock however was Sakura. The morning after she had freed Raphtalia, she had been shocked to see that Sakura was roughly halfway towards being full grown. Now, with all of them being around Level 20, Sakura was slightly larger, taller, and fluffier than the few other full grown Filolials Homura had seen. It gave her an uncomfortable feeling that her shield was influencing her growth more than was normal.
And that it wasn't just related to the Beast Tamer Shield.
The only consolation was that with all their hunting, and the shield's automatic preparation feature she had been able to keep the both of them fed through their rapid growth spurts. As it was, the constant stopping for meals is why they had gotten to this village a day later than they would've otherwise.
Homura got the attention of a random passerby.
"Yes, little lady? Can I help you?" the kind stranger asked.
"Yes ma'am. Me and my friend here are passing through and we were wondering if you could point us to a tailor?" Homura asked. Turning to look at Sakura, Homura was a bit surprised to see how earnestly the Filolial was eying a few of her kin who were pulling along carts and wagons of various sizes. It was then that she remembered that the Trader, Beloukas, had told her the birds literally lived to pull carriages and wagons. "And somewhere I may purchase at least a small cart or wagon."
Ignoring Sakura whipping her head and long neck around to stare at her, Homura noted down the directions. Giving the woman a small bow and a grateful thank you, the black-haired girl decided to stop and get the wagon first as it would be the pricier purchase, but it was also closer.
Coming up to the small farm, Homura noticed a few Filolial grazing around and playing with each other. Out in front of the house was a man who was busy fitting a harness and small plow on to one of his Filolial. It appeared that it was common in this world that all the jobs normally done by horse or oxen in her world had been replaced with Filolial.
Shaking the stray thoughts from her head, Homura approached the man. After some negotiations, she managed to purchase a small but decent sized covered wagon that could comfortably carry 5 people and some supplies. While it might be a bit large for now, Homura knew her party would grow, and wanted to make sure she had enough room.
She did find it slightly amusing watching the grown man gush in shock at seeing and fitting Sakura. She also blushed slightly at his compliments of raising such a fine bird.
"Oh, one last thing lassie. Where be ya and your friend headin'?" he asked. While Homura was slightly confused, she figured it wouldn't hurt to answer.
"We plan to continue heading north. We have no set destination in mind at the moment. Why do you ask?"
"Ah, if ya be headin' north, would ya mind delivering some supplies for me? There's a small territory owned by the Ivyred's, good folk they be, and they're suffering with a small famine and some bandit troubles from what I be hearin'." The old man asked.
Homura hummed softly in thought before nodding and accepting the task. Helping the man load the supplies into the newly purchased wagon. Pulling out her map, Homura made sure to get directions to the Ivyred Territory and a signed document denoting the purpose for her trip so that the supplies couldn't be seized.
Making a quick stop by the tailor on their way out of the village, Raphtalia just decided to ask for a few sets of a similar dress just a bit larger for her. Apparently, she really liked the dress since Mister Erhard had purchased them for her. Homura just shrugged, it was as good a reason as any. At least the quality of them was nice enough, and Homura was able to sell off some of the pelts and leathers they had gathered to cover the cost of the dresses.
P-*-*-*-H
It was a couple of days later that they had approached the Ivyred Territory as the sun was setting. However, they received quite a shock when they arrived.
Some areas of the crop field had been set ablaze. Probably by the bandits they had been warned about.
Homura rushed Sakura onwards towards the flames. 'What can I do to help? My magic isn't working like it did in my world! She thought to herself. 'Maybe I could cover the crops with magic?' Right after she had that thought, it was almost like something unfolded in her mind.
Just in time, they pulled up to a large section of burning crops. Following an instinct, Homura pointed an open palm at the fire and read the words that both appeared on the screen and front of her and in her mind.
"I, the Hero of the Shield, have deciphered a Law of Nature and so command!
Separate my targets through time!
[Fast Dissonance]!"
A circle appeared in her vision and covered the area of burning crops. Before she could consciously realize what she was doing, a relatively large wave of magic came from her hand and covered all of the crops within the circle.
Once her magic settled over the burning crops, the spell finally took effect. Watching made Homura's head hurt as the crops seemed to almost glitch and flicker for a moment. But to her shock, as they flickered, the flames seemed to peel away and burn out into whisps of smoke in the air.
After the spell ended, Homura collapsed forward gasping for air. She felt so exhausted. On a hunch, she opened her [Status Menu], and sure enough the blue bar labeled MP was down to about 10% remaining. That spell had been very demanding and was probably due to the size of the area she had affected.
Taking several deep breaths, she pulled her focus back to the situation at hand. Disconnecting Sakura from the wagon, she gave directions.
"Sakura, I want you to work on putting out the flames! Stomp them out if you must, but please be careful! Raphtalia, use your sword to cut the burning crops away from the good ones! Cut down some good crops if you have to but do what you can to stop the spreading!"
Getting sounds of affirmation, the two rushed into action. Hearing something like rushing water, Homura whirled around to face the town. She was slightly shocked when she saw several streams of water collide above a building that had been set ablaze. The colliding water streams erupted into a roaring down pour of water drops, quickly putting out the flames.
It looked like help had arrived. Now they just had to get this handled as quickly as possible.