(This chapter's a liiittle short, but I really like it and I hope you folks enjoy it, too. I've had this part planned for who-knows-how-long so yes, once again, I will ask for reviews. For some reason, I like getting and reading them. It's probably something unhealthy, but no matter! On with the show!)
Several minutes later, the group had finished hiking down the semi-winding path of Mother's Hill and were now winding the corner to take the other path towards town. Miro looks down another path, northwest, during this turn and notices a rather refreshing-looking hotspring. He, along with his father and a number of other people who noticed the springs, remind themselves to take a long dunk in them after the end of this. For once, even Miro and Jack were in the mood to clean up a bit.
After the corner was wound and the longing sight of the hot spring vanished from view, the group heads north toward a bridge, and after crossing this bridge…
"Welcome, everybody, to my home… my EMPIRE…" The hatted Jack says excitedly, looking around as his hard-kept farming property as they walked in it.
"It's so nice to be home…" Anna says, smiling and suddenly running off ahead of the group, eyes shut and arms outstretched as though to take in all of the air and sound of her old home again. Ann also smiles, observing the old property.
"It looks like everything was taken care of very well…" she comments. "We'll have to give the guys some credit for this…"
"The guys, you say?" Nami says questioningly. "Who do you have taking care of this place?"
"Hey, Jack's back!" a small, excited voice announces. Suddenly, from behind a patch of sweet potatoes, a red-clad little Sprite pops his head up and jumps over, running toward the group. He's followed by a rainbow of other Sprites, running up from the field, the barn, the house, and the chicken coop.
"Jack's back!"
"Jack's back!"
"Jack's back!"
"And he brought Ann and Anna!"
"And he brought friends!"
"He has friends?"
The group stopped as the sprites approached, forming a line in front of their apparent boss, Jack. Each one smiled and hopped about excitedly.
"How did things go, Chef?" He asks, looking to the Sprite in red.
"Great! Super-awesome-great!" Chef states, still smiling. "All the cows are happy and the chickens are happy and the sheep are happy and the horse is happy and we bit all of the trespassers just like you asked!"
"Zack kept showing up every day for some reason, but we showed him every time!" a deep-blue Sprite says proudly.
"Umm… you got your orders mixed up a little, but that's okay…" Jack says, scratching the back of his hat.
"Did you all take care of Anna's favorite like we asked?" Ann inquires. However, her question was answered by a resounding shriek coming from the chicken coop inside.
"Anna!" Matthew says, widening his eyes. "Just a minute, I'll see what this is about…"
Matthew quickly ran off, disappearing behind the door of the coop.
"Yep!" Chef says proudly. The group looks at him strangely.
A moment later, the coop door opens and Anna walks out, Matthew following right after with some concern on his face. Cradled in Anna's hands was a… perfectly, if not overly healthy chicken.
"Chubby!" Anna cries, sniffing once. "…He's not chubby anymore!"
"Yeah, we put him on a special diet regimen!" Chef says proudly, the other Sprites nodding. "Plenty of exercise, and only 2/3 of the feed it usually gets!"
"…What happened to the other third?" Ann asks, keeping an eye on his crying daughter whom Matthew was attempting to calm down.
"We had Hoggy eat it…" a purple Sprite says. A yellow Sprite, presumably Hoggy, nods and accidentally belches out a few seeds.
"Anna, it's okay. He's still Chubby, just not in the physical term…" Matthew is overheard saying, keeping close to Anna but hesitant of doing much else.
"But now there's less of him to love!" Anna replies, sniffing again.
"But… but, he might live longer now! If we ratio it day-to-day it'll probably be the same amount to love by the end, if not more…" Matthew says in return, becoming quite unsure of what else to do.
"Are… are you sure…?" Anna says, looking at him once. "I'm not sure, it's not the same…"
"We could always… buy the Extra-Fattening Pellets from Won, if you'd like…" Matthew suggests. "I'm sure we could get him back out of shape in no time…"
"Yeah…?" Anna says, wiping a small tear from her eye and looking at him.
"Not a doubt." Matthew replies. Anna, smiling, gently lowers a beleaguered Chubby, puts her arms around Matthew, and-
"Heads up!" Miro says, he and the rest of the group turning away and putting a hand to the side of their face to screen their eye. For the next moment, they hear certain phrases that drove them to raise and furrow their eyebrows like nothing else, including "Ugh… it's too small, it's not fitting!" and "Hey, don't swallow! It only makes it harder!", finally ended with "Oh… wait, that's good… Yeah, I just have to squeeze and… There, done!".
The rest of the group, quite nervously, removes their hand and looks toward the two. Matthew was now porting a thin chain necklace with a silver egg-shaped medallion hanging from it.
"Thanks, Anna." Matthew says, looking at the necklace with interest.
"No problem." Anna replies. "It's the least I could do, I feel a lot better now…"
"Oh, so you put your arms around him to… put on the necklace…" Miro mutters.
"Well, yeah." Matthew replies, blinking once. "…What were you thinking?"
Ignoring this question completely, the group begins toward the north exit in unison, the Sprites clearing a path for them to keep from being crushed. After passing a rather full Shipping Bin and between the barn and house, they find themselves in a street. The large collective of people proceed down this narrow street until they get to the first division, where they were stopped by a smiling woman with brownish-blonde hair and light blonde bangs. This woman called to them some distance down the northern street, waving to get their attention and then running down said street. She stops in front of them and smiles. A half-full wine bottle was present in her hand, removing all need for further description.
"Oh, you found them!" She exclaims. "This is great! And look, others! Who are these folks, anyway?"
"Umm…" the hatted Jack begins. "Well, this here is my cousin, Jack…"
The other Jack then continues. "This is my wife, Nami."
Nami then proceeds. "This is our son, Miro."
Miro takes his cue. "This is Kate."
"That's Lumina."
"This is Hugh."
"The old lady in red's Muffy- OWW…"
"And this is Celia."
"Wow…" the woman says. "I bet you all have a story to share in the Inn tonight. Ooh, I can't wait! My name's Karen, by the way. I hope you all like it here!"
"…Is she, umm…" Lumina begins, eyeing the half-empty bottle.
"It's hard to tell sometimes…" William says quietly. "Just as long as she stays happy, we kinda leave her alone with it…"
"Oh, but I have a story to share right now!" Karen says excitedly, waving her arms and causing several people to recoil hesitantly. "Guess who's back today?"
"…The voices…?" Jack begins, cut off by a look from Nami.
"No, even better!" Karen replies, laughing a bit. "It's my-"
"Mom, where'd you go?" a feminine voice calls from where Karen had ran from. All eyes moved away from Karen to see where this distant voice had come from. Seeing her mother, a girl within the age of all of the other teens runs up, looking to her and then to the rest of the group. "Oh… who are all of these?"
"Well, they'll introduce themselves. They're good at doing it all in a row. But first, I'll introduce you!" Karen states. "Everyone, this is my daughter."
"…What's your name?" the Valley Jack inquires.
"Karrie." The girl replies with a smile. With that, a sudden realization sweeps over every teenage male in the immediate crowd. Karrie, having benefited from the feminine traits of both of her parents, was an absolutely ravishing thing to behold. She had a very symmetrical quality to her and had a face so angelic that several of the teen guys checked their pulse a moment after seeing her. She had long, flowing, golden-blonde hair which fell behind her shoulders and reached to her lower back. On the trip down to see the length of her hair, one would find a peach-shade, sleeveless shirt with a small heart right in the middle, flanked by a light, raspberry-red vest. If one were to continue downward for no particular reason one would find light blue short-pants tucked up slightly, and finally, a pair of powder-blue sandals. Judging by the blank stares given by the guys and the small trail of drool dripping from some of them, the trip was well worth it.
"…Oh, and welcome back, Matthew and William!" she says, walking to them and giving each a rather welcoming smile. The two nod dumbly, expressions unchanging. Karrie then notices the red hair of the bunch and walks toward him, stopping quite directly in front of said person. "And hey, who is this?"
"That is Miro, our son…" Nami states, ignoring the direction this was going.
"Oh… Hello, Miro." Karrie says with a smile. Miro nods, however his eyes seemed fixated on something quite visibly below Karrie's face. Apparently he had just had a new realization regarding Karrie's personage.
"NICE… LUNGS…" he points out, seeming to struggle with both the volume and the pitch of his voice.
Karrie simply smiles yet again, nodding slightly once. "Thanks. I get that a lot." she says.
"I… Indeed, very nice lungs." Matthew adds, quickly trying to regain a somewhat normal voice. "Not- Not overly large or very small, just… in the perfect… range…"
The girls weren't stupid. They weren't even vain, with some exceptions. Regardless, they weren't stupid. They could see the deer-in-headlights look that their beclaimed guys were giving this thing of unparalleled perfection, and were getting very… very… annoyed.
"Oh, and who is this fellow?" Karrie says, walking away from Miro and toward Hugh, stopping directly in front of him like she had previously and giving his abs an interested stroke with her finger. "My, aren't you the stud…"
"He will be studded if he keeps this up…" Lumina hisses to herself, looking genuinely more angry than her shy, innocent self usually suggested.
"What's your name?" Karrie inquires, tilting her head a bit to look up at Hugh's face.
"HOT-" Hugh begins out of pure instinct. However, he has his mouth clamped over by Matthew's hand, who seemed to be the only guy not completely in a state of entrancement.
"-out, yes, it is quite warm for an Autumn day…" he says, helping Hugh finish his sentence for him. "Now, tell the bod- the lady your name…"
Hugh nods slightly, Matthew retrieving his hand from his mouth. "Hugh-" he begins. Then noticing the high pitch of his voice he clears his throat and lets out a much deeper-toned "Hugh."
"You guys… never told us about Karrie living here…" Miro points out, having recovered at least enough to say complete sentences with some effort.
"She's not exactly in our inner circle…" Ricca says, glancing once at William and sighing at his obliviousness.
Karen speaks up at this point. "Karrie moved away seven… eight…?"
"Five." Karrie corrects her.
"Five years ago," Karen says with a nod. "to pursue a career as a professional flower girl, doing weddings all over the place."
"Then when I was twelve, they found out I could sing and made me a professional wedding singer." Karrie continues. "I get my voice from Mom."
Karen nods happily to this.
"And now an agent's going to hire me as a model for the Skimp-3 combination wedding dress and one-piece bathing suit! But before I go for my 2-year contract I wanted to spend a couple of months back here in Town, to see all of my old friends!" Karrie concludes.
"Hm… I think we'll leave you kids to your own doings for now." Cliff says.
"There are some things we need to check up on." Gray adds.
"Oh, that's right, I have to make sure the coop's okay…" Popuri says, her and the rest of the adults splitting off in their own directions. The shuffle was so quick Miro wasn't exactly sure which direction his parents had gone. Within moments, all adults were out of sight.
"…Hmm, now where should we go…?" Karrie begins, glancing around at the three possible paths.
"You… ahem, you must have made a good profit doing all of those things at such a young age." Miro begins, deciding that this would be a good moment for small talk. Karrie looks at him once and nods.
"Yes, I did." she says. "But I gave most of it away to charity… Those poor, starving children in random other countries need it more than I do…"
"That is so nice of you." William comments, walking up next to her and looking at her with soft eyes. "You use your wealth and overwhelming hotness- err, singing to bring happiness to other nations."
"To share your gift so selflessly, it takes such… selfless… selflessness…" Matthew adds, walking to the other side of her the same way as William.
"Uhh… yeah." Hugh says, nodding and cramming himself somewhere among the three other guys crowding her.
"…Oh, I know where to go!" Karrie says, apparently ignoring their approaches completely. "We should walk to the Town Square and then head for the beach!"
"Yes!"
"Great!"
"Perfect idea!"
"Absolutely!"
With that, the clump that was Karrie and the guys walked off, leaving Anna, Ricca, Kate, and Lumina standing there very silently. A breeze passed by them, followed by some Autumn leaves and a tumbleweed heading down the street.
"So…" Kate says, blinking once but otherwise not moving. "…what should we do?"
"Simple. Veeeery simple…" Ricca states, nodding to herself slightly. "We take the most logical, honest, forgiving route…"
The girls all look toward her, and in unison, get the idea that she had in mind. They all nod in silent agreement to it and chorus out the plan.
"Kill her."