/Time: Chapter 3, after Ouroboros departs Colony 4, but before meeting Valdi/

/Sparres Barr, Ribbi Flats, Fornis Region/

On their trek through Ribbi Flats, a particularly ornery Ardun — Perspicacious Oldar, per the warnings of Meemoo at the Llyn Nyddwr Camp — had prompted Eunie and Taion to resort to their Interlinked form. This is what we get for tryin' to avoid all the snuffing Ignas and Tirkins fighting each other, inwardly grumbled Eunie as her wings fired brilliant bolts of energy at the ornery Ardun. So instead we have to deal with this mudder!

Whinge later, chided Taion's voice in that strange mental space they shared in their Ouroboros form. Focus on reviving the others! A sudden stomping rampage had knocked them all down, delivering a surprising amount of concussive force that had incapacitated their comrades.

Hold on, I'm on it! After finally getting some distance, Eunie's wings flickered with a restorative light; it spread like a wave over the grassy field, settling on the collapsed forms of Noah, Mio, Lanz, and Sena. Sparks, it's getting hot...

Cancel the Interlink, we need to regroup-

"Look out!" cried Riku from beyond the edge of the immediate battlefield.

"Eh?" muttered Eunie, too distracted by how swiftly her Ouroboros form was heating up; with surprising swiftness, the wounded Ardun smacked her sideways with a swing of his horns. "Ack-!" Snarling, she tried to right herself, cancelling the Interlink-

"-Eunie!" cried Taion, his body soaring through the air.

Eunie could only blink with confusion as the world went topsy-turvy; unlike the orderly falls to the ground their prior decouplings had been, there was no time to control for the landing. "Oh, spark this-"

The duo crashed into the ground in a tangle of limbs, skidding through the grass until their heads smacked into each other-

Darkness.

"...nie? Taion...?" came a muffled voice.

"...ugh, wha...?" murmured Eunie, slowly opening her eyes.

"Easy now." The source of the voice eventually solidified into a big lunk with gray skin, reaching down to pull her up.

"Stop shoutin'," she grumbled, impulsively swatting at Lanz's big hands.

Lanz huffed at her. "Oh fine then, I'll just let ya finish your nap. And who's shouting?"

"Nap...?" Eunie felt for the sore spot on her noggin, wincing at the stinging pain. "Queen's eyelashes, what happened...?"

"Your Interlink cancelled out in midair," explained Mio, hands leaning on her knees. "We had to finish dealing with Oldar first; you two had a rather nasty bump."

Eunie glanced over at Taion; sure enough, his glasses were somewhat skewed, courtesy of the giant bruise forming over his eyebrow. "Oof. That looks nasty."

"At least we've confirmed your head is hard enough to qualify as a dangerous weapon," dryly stated Taion.

"Oi, you what?!" she griped. "I ought to-"

"Let's calm down," said Noah, his voice settling all disputes then and there. "We'll heal you both up and continue moving on."

"Here," softly said Sena, watering two spare cloths for each of them. "Gently hold it against the spots where it hurts."

"And I'm on healing duty," remarked Lanz, having been working on mastering Eunie's Class for the time being. As he pressed the tip of the Gunrod into the ground, he let the healing ether flow in a field of emerald light. "You should be nicer to the medic that's patching you up."

Eunie snorted. "Yeah yeah, don't have to tell me twice," she muttered, glaring back at Taion.

"...we'll have to be careful when cancelling the Interlink in the future," he admitted, looking calmly at her with the one eye that wasn't blocked by swollen flesh. "That could've ended a lot worse for us."

"...'spose it could have," she admitted. What if they had been higher...?

"Better to learn now and suffer a little pain along the way," her partner mused. It was a fair sentiment, either way.

So of course, someone had to ruin the moment. "...though, I gotta say, I caught sight of you two crashing," remarked Lanz with a toothy grin. "It was pretty funny."

"Medics are for healing, not talking," complained Eunie.

Lanz scoffed. "Says the medic who's mouth can never shut up!"

"I'll take your Shieldblade and give you something to shut up about!"

(Off in the distance, Manana cried out, "Ardun has much fatty meat! Will make for excellent stew!")

("Meh meh, make haste!" cautioned Riku nervously. "Volffs looking at us with much hunger...")

("Manana will slice and dice and pack into rations with much speediness!")

"...maybe we should go and help out Riku and Manana?" suggested Sena.

It was a perfect segue from Lanz and Eunie's banter, so Noah and Mio took off with Sena — to drive away the Volffs looking for an easy meal — before Oldar's corpse could dissolve into ambient ether particles.

"And besides, if it weren't for our Ouroboros form, you lot would still be in the dirt!" growled Eunie.

"Yeah, still doesn't mean I can't have a chuckle at your fall!" retorted Lanz.

This left Taion to experience the bickering duo by himself; his sigh of pained defeat said plenty about his opinion on the matter.

xxxx

Still, a lesson learned was a lesson learned.

("Ugh, why do you have to be so snuffin' sensible, Noah?" complained Eunie, some time after the battle with Oldar. "Rae-Bel Tableland is just up there.")

Namely: watch for where and when you cancel an Interlink.

(As the cliffside — laced all over with the purple Bunnit's Baneloomed ahead of them, Noah looked dryly in Eunie's direction. "Imagine if your Interlink cancelled in midair. It's a long fall.")

Oh, and keep your feet aimed at the ground.

(Eunie's eyes narrowed. "Queen's wings, you're not going to hold that over me, are you...?")

("...")

("...fine, you win Noah.")

(Noah nodded, accepting Eunie's acquiescence to reason. Speaking audibly to the others, he said, "Let's look for a place we can climb from. I'll take a look around here...")

And so the adventure continued.

xxxx

Author's Note: Something short and simple for a change; but if any party members were going to have an accident when coming out of an Interlink, it'd be the Ouroboros that can fly.

You could imagine the final bit of dialogue being inserted into where it's under discussion in the fourth chapter of this collection (the one where the party learned how to climb Bunnit's Bane from Valdi).

Just pretend Taion was too engrossed in his thoughts to hear Noah bring up his and Eunie's head-on collision. :V