The scouting and defense group Ran and her friends were working with did indeed appear distracted. Even as Thea shouted at them to pay attention to avoid a repeat of their last mission, it looked like their minds were someplace else. She was, Ran noticed, very good at shouting in multiple places at once. Somehow the braixen knew how to get the attention of Kent, the ursaring, far in the back of their formation who insisted on dragging his paws. Simultaneously, she shouted at the krokorok, Solun, walking beside her as he nervously passed her by for the seventh time. The two could not stay in formation to save their lives. Grim, but probably fitting, thought Ran.

Behind Thea, and directly beside Ran, was the last squad member - a mawile named Elia - who had crossed her arms across her chest to hold her shoulders the second they stepped into the forest and had not let them go since. Every time Ran had tried to engage her in conversation, Elia had given her a very, very distant reply and then fallen silent once more.

Outrider had been too focused on keeping his eyes on Valor to offer Ran much in the way of conversation, which meant had been alone with her thoughts for the entire walk. It was, fortunately, a very dull one, devoid of any real action - but that meant her thoughts had drifted to the Old Nightmare.

She had been reluctant to focus on it. The worry that the horrid thoughts from last night would come to haunt her again was ever present each time she pushed herself further into her memories of those looming trees and nonsense geography. Each time she pushed, she was glad to see they did not come. But she began to feel something new in her stomach.

Annoyance. She glanced up at the canopy overhead. Something streaked by, but she could not tell what it was. She ignored it.

What was in that nonsense place? What came before it? There had to be more. The idea that there couldn't be wasn't even worth entertaining. After all, surely she had not sprouted from the dirt, fully formed and ready to face the world? She let out an annoyed growl, earning her the attention of everyone.

"Something wrong?" asked Thea, shifting her gaze from the ursaring she was yelling at again to the weavile.

Ran sighed. "Yes, but it's completely unrelated to all of this," she said. "So I wouldn't worry about it. That said - where are we going?"

"In a very long loop," explained Thea. "This sector has to be swept for wildlings regularly."

"Why?" asked Ran.

"They're very numerous here. Not sure why," said Thea. "But we can't just let them mass here. Too close to a trail that leads away from Crag towards different villages out in the wild. Commerce comes along those roads now and again; have to make sure the merchants don't end up as bones and broken carts."

Solun looked - well, he was already nervous, but he looked more nervous now. "Any chance we'll be attacked?" he asked, looking around.

"Oh come on, you just had to ask that," called Kent from the back. "Of course we're going to get attacked now that you've gone and screwed us."

"Nice going," grumbled Elia, though it was directed more at the ground than anywhere else. The mouth that hung from the back of her head was shut so tightly that it was shaking.

"Relax," said Ran, "You're making your other mouth shake."

Outrider went ramrod straight and shouted, "Malice!" He jumped out in front of Thea and drew a fist back, wreathing it in a shining aura of turquoise. It collapsed into a sphere that he threw directly at the now rustling bushes. A murder of murkrow exploded out of the bush in a flurry of squawks and screams, though one merely limped into view, nursing a broken wing and looking furious.

Valor sprinted to the front, evading Ran's attempts to stop him and launched himself forward into a tumble. He picked up speed. Fast.

Ran watched as Valor became a blur of brown and green that barreled straight at the injured murkrow, but while still some distance away, instead turned to hit a large stone. It launched him like a ramp, directly at a tree, which he bounced off of at an oblique angle.

He crashed into the murkrow with a sickening crunch and kept going a few more feet before uncurling, unsteady and clearly dizzy. The murkrow laid on the ground, clearly unconscious.

Thea ran forward as Outrider launched another sphere of concentrated aura energy at the last second before a murkrow impacted him, beak first. She pulled her wand from her tail with a flourish and accented it with a complete side aerial to avoid two murkrow diving at her in a pincer attack. As she landed, she dropped to a knee and aimed at one of them before launching an intense, and incredibly thin stream of fire directly at it.

The smell of burning feathers and flesh filled the air immediately. Thea stood and twirled her wand behind her as she performed a sidestep that transformed into a sort of combat pirouette to avoid another murkrow speeding past her. She closed one eye and shot another thin, intense flame at it as well. With a horrible squawk, it fell to the ground, smoking.

"What the fuck are you doing? Kill them you idiots!" she shouted at Ran and the others. She let out a scream of fury and fired an enormous fireball at a murkrow that would have otherwise struck Outrider in the back.

Ran stared on, dumbstruck, at the braixen as she screamed in pain when a murkrow got the better of her and found purchase in her shoulder with its talons. It had barely reared its head back to stab directly at her face with its beak when Outrider rushed up and brought a full body punch directly into the crow's head, sending it sailing into the distance. The body still clutched Thea's shoulder, and released her only with great effort from the fox.

Beside her, Elia screamed as three murkrow descended upon her to slash and peck at her. One left a deep set of gashes on Elia's arm and flew back up, screeching and preparing another dive. But instead, it switched targets, shifting focus to Ran and diving after her. As the crow screamed towards her, squawking loudly and bearing down upon her with eyes full of hate, Ran felt an argument erupt in her head.

She at least managed to raise an arm in time to let it take the scratches intended for her face. As the crow rounded back on her, however, one side of the argument was becoming louder. Her tone was confident. There was swagger in it. It sounded so horribly familiar.

You heard the fox. It's time to dance.

Ran backflipped away from the murkrow and rendered its attempt to grab her arm useless. As the world righted itself, she took a step forward and seized the bird out of the air. It craned its head to bite down into the offending arm and started to pull, trying to tear flesh free.

"NO!" screamed Ran, driving her free claws through its eyes and out the back of its skull. "I DON'T THINK YOU WILL." She threw the bird into the ground with a loud crunch, and then launched herself towards another in the middle of a diving attack aimed at Elia.

The world went wine red. Someone was laughing. Indistinct shapes swirled around her that she could only vaguely recognize. The laughter became cruel.

A fist drove itself into Ran's cheek and made the world go white for an instant. As she tried to blink the spots from her eyes, the offending paw brought her roughly to her feet and a voice shouted at her, "ENOUGH."

She focused on Outrider's face. It bore several fresh scratches - like most of his body. "It is dead, you do not have to make certain," he said quietly. He reached down and pulled the destroyed murkrow away from Ran.

To call it a murkrow was a stretch. It was more a bundle of feathers and sinew, stained red. There were several more strewn around her.

Ran felt her stomach churn and ducked into a bush to empty breakfast onto the forest floor. A hand patted her back in a reassuring way. After a low groan of pain, Outrider said, "You… listened to Thea, didn't you?"

The weavile wiped the spittle from her mouth and nodded. "How are the others?"

"Shaken, scratched, bitten and bruised. But they are alive. Valor was impressive. Nomad trained him well. He got off with the fewest injuries - just a bad bite to his foot. He's furious. Walking will be even harder now, he reckons."

Ran nodded and made her way back to the group. Kent and Solun were busy scooping up largely intact murkrow, while Elia and Thea busied themselves with piling the destroyed ones. The braixen caught Ran's eye and nodded. "Impressive work," she said, raising her wand and igniting the pile of bodies. "A bit heavy-handed, but murkrow aren't exactly the most resilient kind."

The acrid smell of burning feathers filled Ran's nostrils and made her turn away in disgust. "That smells terrible," she complained.

"Well, we're getting a move on from here anyway. There's a clearing further up ahead. Or there should be anyway, I've only walked this loop since I was barely of age." She gestured for them to follow her, and took the lead once more.

"Why do we need to go to a clearing?" asked Ran.

"To patch ourselves up and roast lunch," said Thea. She patted the leather satchel at her side.

"Is it all jaw toner or something?"

The braixen laughed. "What? No. We're having murkrow."

Meat. Of course - what else could it have been? Had she seriously believed it would have been jaw toner? Ran looked down at the gently beaten trail beneath her paws. Nomad had only offered up berries and root vegetables during her short stay, and Crag had diversified only by adding tough bread until now. What did she eat before the Old Nightmare?

Was there even a before?

It occurred to Ran that she was starving. After giving her breakfast to a poor bush somewhere several dozen meters back, there was nothing in her belly to stave off the hunger pangs. She took the bundle of branches Elia offered her along with instructions to build a spit with a vague nod. The others had busied themselves with the fire and plucking the murkrow clean of feathers.

She peeled long strips of fresh bark from a nearby tree and tugged it several times to check it's pliability and strength, then set about tying two sets of branches into "Y" shapes. It was crude, and the knot she had tied using strips of bark would not hold up to much weight, but it would be enough. She hoped.

Thea walked over to her, his arms bearing several plucked and partially butchered murkrow and pointed at a long stick she had set down. "Hone the tips of that into a point so we can run it through the meat," she instructed.

Ran nodded. "Right." She bent down and set about driving her claws in sharp movements along the tip of the branch, whittling it down into a point. "How long until they're cooked? I'm starving."

"Uh…" Thea frowned. "I'm not sure. I'm… not the best cook. Anyone here know much about-" The others looked up from their tasks and shook their heads. She sighed. "Great."

As the fire crackled and helped fill the air with the pleasant scent of a campfire and cooking poultry, Outrider did his best to make it clear he was not studying Ran. Though it seemed unnecessary, as the weavile appeared to be genuinely interested in listening to Thea's ongoing discussion of basic defense and scouting procedures. As the subject shifted from that to providing an evaluation of how poorly the veteran squad had performed compared to a 'squad of fresh provisionals', Outrider shifted his gaze long enough to see auras of dull blue bloom in Kent, Solun and Elia.

Thea's own spirit continued to glow a steady white, flickering with red along its edges as she laid into each of them to point out specific mistakes. She pointed at Valor and it flickered yellow and green. Outrider smirked. She was incredulous and even a bit jealous of the chespin. Perhaps she'd been told she was a gifted fennekin and had finally been shown up.

His eyes shifted to Valor, devouring his fourth dried berry, his own aura blazing gold. Flecks of blue rose up and out of him now and again. Outrider frowned. Expected.

He turned his attention back to Ran. To her bizarre white, purple and black aura. He had tried his best not to reduce his friends to something as simple as the energies that danced in their spirits, but after another episode of unbridled violence, Outrider could not stop himself. He had to look for something - any kind of clue that might let him help her. Perhaps it would give him a trail to pick up again about himself.

He cursed Oracle's passing silently. She had deserved a better life - one where she could have seen Valor earn his name. One where she could have seen Ran bloom. No one in Nomad had deserved their ends. He pushed them reluctantly from his mind for the umpteenth time in the last few days. He could not dwell - none of them could.

And so, Outrider focused on Ran once more. Hers was a halo of the same white any other aura shone at rest. It was the purple and black that bothered him. The former crackled through her spirit like lightning, flashing into existence and then out again, quick as it came. It was bizarre, but it did not worry him much.

The abyssal sphere in the center of her aura is what worried him. It was sinister. Primal. And yet, it was nothing like the auras of wildlings. They had no swirling core of pitch - merely spirits that flared with reds and blacks when they engaged them in combat. Ran was no wildling, that was certain. And she was nothing like Stone, whose aura bore a core of shattered glass, reflecting rainbows whenever her spirit rose. Perhaps most unnerving was how perfect that black abyss was. It seemed almost foreign, the division between it and the surrounding spirit was so stark.

He closed his eyes and focused inward, on his own inert aura, and the tiny core within him made of a grey fog. He opened his eyes and was surprised to see Ran holding half a roast fowl out at him, smiling.

"Lunch is ready," she said. "You fall asleep?"

Outrider smiled and took the offering from her. "No, I was simply lost in thought." He tore a chunk of meat from the thigh and chewed. It was unseasoned, a little too charred on the outside and still a touch raw in the center. Thea was right - she did not know how to cook very well.

He wasn't much better, so taking over would have hardly mattered. Besides, it was meat. That was enough.

"Good," said Ran, sniffing her own half of a murkrow she'd been given. "You heard what Thea said, this is a great time to launch an attack." She took a bite out of the breast and chewed, then added thickly, "Oh, thish ish good. Uh, sho don't-" She swallowed and took another bite - a much larger one. Pink dripped out of the flesh, even some red. "Don't uh…" She took an enormous bite. Another. Another. She was hardly chewing before she would swallow and take another.

Outrider looked on in horror as the void in her pulsed and roiled. Tendrils exploded from it, snaking out and enclosing her spirit in a cage. "Ran?" he asked, dumbstruck.

The weavile stripped flesh and sinew from the bones of the murkrow in a gluttonous fury. In thirty seconds, she had reduced her meal to a set of cracked and gnawed bones, picked clean of every last edible morsel. The black cage in her aura pulsed and flashed red, then pink. She turned towards Outrider, her gaze flicking from his eyes to his meal. She reached out, but when he pulled lunch out of her reach, she settled instead on grabbing hold of his wrist. Her claws dug gently into his skin and the pinks soared.

The look in her eyes and her heaving chest. Were it not for the scent of charred poultry…

"Ran," he said firmly. He raised the arm she'd taken hostage and shook it insistently. "Ran."

The cage collapsed back into a sphere at once, and Ran's eyes reflected it. She let go of Outrider's wrist and instead hugged her knees. "I'm sorry," she whispered.

Outrider looked out at the others. Every single one of them was staring at the weavile. Outrider cleared his throat and they immediately busied themselves with lunch once more. Valor walked over to Ran and sat down beside her and brought a tiny arm to her back and patted it.

"You were just really hungry," he said cheerfully. "That's all. Makes sense too, it's meat, you guys love that stuff, don't ya?" He leaned past Ran's knees and looked at Outrider.

Ran let out a very weak chuckle. "I'm not so sure that's what it was," she replied.

Thea stood and walked over to Ran to offer her another skewered half-murkrow. "Good to know you aren't too put off by this," she said, looking at Valor. "Thought I'd have to offer an apology for this. But I guess you're... " She trailed off.

"Nevermind. Ran." She turned her attention back to the weavile. "How long have you been eating grass?" she asked, looking concerned. "You showed a lot of enthusiasm and uh…" She paused, clearly looking for a way to phrase the next part tactfully. "Expertise, let's call it, with dropping those murkrow. I figured you were at full strength and ready to go."

Ran took the skewer from her and bit into the thigh in a very morose way. "I haven't been. At least, I don't think I have."

Thea looked over to Outrider. He shrugged. "I know just as much about what Ran was doing before I found her as you do. And perhaps even as much as she herself knows. Not for lack of trying, but her time at our village was short and we haven't had much time to dig into things." He gestured to the old bandages still wrapped around him in places - what few were left after the attack, anyway. "It has been an eventful last few days."

The braixen sat down beside him and hugged her knees like Ran was, but instead laid her head against her thighs to look at Outrider. "What did happen, anyway? You only really said that you were attacked yesterday. Not really your fault, we had a lot to do, but still."

"Wildlings attacked our village. Either that or an organized raid. I'm still not sure. I keep seeing reasons to believe one and then other when I go over everything in my head. They were organized, appropriately split their attention between our homes, but there were so many." He took another bite from his meal and chewed it before continuing. "I suppose I lean towards wildlings. Though our supplies were raided, killing the entire village is excessive for a proper, organized raid. You'd want us to be able to replenish stocks so you could hit again." Outrider paused and looked thoughtful. "And they weren't there trying to take the buildings for themselves either. Two of them had suffered heavy damage, and even if we assume that our smithy had burned down because it was a smithy, destroying our farmers' home was needless."

"You act like raiders can't be stupid," said Thea, smiling. "Not that it's a comfort to hear that, but still." She looked out in the direction of Crag, obscured by the forest around them. "You know that we get attacks on the walls every now and then?"

"Suicide," mumbled Outrider.

"Basically." Thea shrugged. "It's why running into raiders out in the wilderness is such a terrifying thought. They're roughing it and they're succeeding. And it's not like the wildlings make special exemptions just because they share more in lifestyle than we do."

"Are they a problem?" asked Ran, finally letting go of her knees and sitting up properly. "The more dangerous raiders, I mean."

"Not usually," replied Thea. "They have the good sense to not attack Crag and only sometimes strike caravans coming and leaving the city. Too many attacks and we'll know they've got a camp close enough to launch attacks. But they can't turn down a juicy prize. Materials, food, artisan goods, bodies. You'd have to be fucking stupid not to be tempted by it. And even more stupid to attack one without a plan."

"I see." She looked at Outrider. "Sorry."

"You're having episodes outside of your control, I wouldn't apologize," said Outrider, giving her a small smile. "It's unnecessary. Though I would like to know what it was that put a spell on you just now."

Ran shrunk away and stared at the ground, ashamed. "I don't want to say." She gave him a furtive look and added in a whisper, "Around everyone."

Thea frowned. "I'd like to know as well. If you're going to be assigned to a defense or scouting force, I need to know if this is going to be a regular event," said the braixen, straightening up.

"I- I don't know." Ran looked miserable and hung her head. "It probably will be. I've stopped blacking out." She looked at Outrider meaningfully. "But everything just goes red instead. Not really an improvement."

"Sounds like progress," he said gently.

Thea nodded. "I don't know what's up with you, Ran, but I'd have to agree." She sighed. "You've all proven you deserve to have your provisional status removed, at least, so there'll be paperwork to do for that back in Crag. But I might suggest you get assigned to a defensive force, Ran. You're less likely to-"

"No! No, no, please, no! I have to get better, how am I going to do that if I'm stuck waiting around?" she pleaded. Outrider saw her aura blaze blue. "If you and Outrider both-"

"I mean, I'm just giving my input on something I don't know shit about," said Thea, averting her gaze. "But I can't pretend it's not concerning."

"Simply stick the three of us together," said Outrider. "Valor needs supervision as well; he's still a bit young for what he's been, ah, 'assigned' to."

"I don't really get a say in that," said Thea, frowning. "I'm just filling out performance reports and giving go's or no's to provisionals. We're sort of at the very end of what I can do to he-" She paused, struck by something. Her frown shifted into a mischievous grin. "We've got a loop to finish, we can talk more when we're back within the walls."

Outrider deliberately avoided reading her aura. The less he knew about this, the better.

Ran was glad to be home, though it was nearly sundown when they had finally made it back to the walls of Crag. The loop through the woods was enormous, even without the distraction of a murkrow attack. She clutched a box containing a substantial quantity of salt as well as a roll of rough string. Outrider bore a box containing many thin slices of fresh murkrow. Valor, for his part, had walked the many steps of Crag on an injured foot.

Jerky, Thea had said, was easy enough to make. Heavily salt, hang from a string and keep it near the fireplace. Ideally, the fireplace would be on to help dry and cure the meat, but it could be done with it off as well. Ran still worried they'd be making rancid, if very salty, meat.

The lock wasn't on the door, so Ran instead knocked several times. "It's open," called out Stone from inside.

The three entered the room in single file, with Outrider leading. "Not one for locks?" he asked.

Stone waved her paw dismissively. "Someone wants to come in here unannounced they're getting most of this floor through their face. How was your romp in the proving grounds?"

Ran set the box of salt and string down by the fireplace and opened it. There were several nails in it as well, but no hammer. She sighed. "By all accounts, really well," she called over shoulder. "Except for the part where I nearly lost my mind." She pulled the bag of salt out and then set about inspecting the nails. "Twice." She scowled. Yep. Nails. She felt stupid. Now that the event was several hours behind her, the loss of control had mutated from fear to anger.

She was becoming familiar with her disability. "And one of them was over raw meat." She tossed the nails back into the box and stood up to turn to face Stone. She crossed her arms, her lips set in a thin frown.

"Raw meat is kinda gross when you're not expecting it," reasoned Stone.

"No, no, you don't understand," said Ran.

Stone picked up a piece of hay and dropped it over her face to blow it back into the air. "You're absolutely right, Ran. I do not understand." She chuckled and sat up. "What's the problem?"

Outrider sat down beside Stone and watched Ran intently. The lycanroc immediately began playing with one of his ears. He rolled his eyes and said, "She was about to explain that, I believe. And just as well, you said out there to wait until we were home." Valor sat himself in front of Stone's crossed legs and joined them in listening.

"Didn't really expect an audience," said Ran, feeling embarrassed. "Especially for what happened…"

"Well, are you gonna explain it or not?" asked Stone. "From the top - what happened the first time?"

"That was just caused by the…" Ran stopped. "The sight of blood? The threat of danger?" The annoyance rose in her again. She'd had time to mull it over for the entire back half of their patrol, and it was the triggers behind her sudden bouts of psychosis that bothered her most. Given the kind of work she'd be expected to do in Crag, going to pieces over something as mundane as blood or a kill was ruinous. Well, perhaps a kill was not mundane, but it was certainly going to be common if the skirmish with the murkrow was any indicator.

She sighed. "I suppose both as much as one or the other. That wildling back when Outrider first found me was a clear danger. The mamoswine was both a danger and something I drew blood from. The murkrow were a danger and I really made the first one bleed…" She frowned. "But the attack on Nomad. I didn't lose control at all. No blood, which makes me think… No. No, I scratched up a wildling pretty bad in that fight. What is it? This is frustrating." She clutched the sides of her head and shook it. "And the thing with the meat. It was raw, so the second I tasted raw flesh and traces of blood still in it…"

Ran closed her eyes and swallowed hard. The memory alone stirred uncomfortable feelings in her. "I can't remember anything from before the forest you found me in, Outrider." She looked at the lucario. "If blood tastes good, nevermind familiar-"

"Blood doesn't taste that bad," reasoned Outrider. "Some find it a bit vulgar to make such a comment in polite company, but you are with us. And Valor is no stranger to our realities." He took a finger and pulled back his upper lip, revealing sharp canines. "He used to make fun of me for them."

"Yeah because you'd never do anything! Stone would always have something to say or would chase me around threatening to tickle me!" said Valor, pointing accusingly at Outrider. "You'd always be like, 'Yes, yes, but I don't use them until I'm out of Nomad, you know that.' Or something dumb like that." He crossed his arms and pouted. "Never even called me quillhead or nothin'. You're all books and scouting reports, and we didn't even have those!"

"Judging from the look on Ran's face, I'd say this is a lot more troublesome for her than it is for you, Outrider," said Stone, frowning and focused on Ran's face. "What's the issue? I don't think it's the taste of blood that caused the problem."

"It is the taste, but it's - it's what the taste did to me," said Ran, clasping paws together, her claws interlocked. "You saw, Outrider. You saw what I did. How I acted."

The lucario dropped his gaze for a moment before he said, "Stone?" He looked meaningfully at Valor and then put a paw up to one of his ears to cover it.

The lycanroc rolled her eyes. "He's gonna get an earful from me one of these days, do I really-"

"Stone."

"Fine, fine. Sorry buddy, you're in the dark until you're a fat, pointy ball." She covered the chespin's ears.

"Hey! I went on the mission today too! I should know!" shouted Valor, wriggling in her grip.

"Outrider?" asked Stone. Upon seeing him shake his head, she sighed and let go of one of Valor's ears long enough to finish her sentence: "It'll only be for a minute, Valor, just wait."

"Fine." He crossed his arms and pouted once again. Stone nodded at Ran to continue.

It might have defeated the point behind covering Valor's ears, but Ran nevertheless took a few steps forward to avoid having to speak too loudly. "You saw how I was acting, Outrider." She looked embarrassed and rubbed her shoulder guiltily. "I was consumed by desire. For- for anything in front of me. I was going to devour something." She turned away. "One way or another."

"Did I really need to cover his ears for that?" asked Stone.

"Yes. We're not done," replied Outrider. "Ran." The weavile looked at him. "Are you looking to lay with me?"

Ran gave a start. "What? No. The blood did that. I don't-" She remembered the crackles of electricity that ran across her body when she had been looking him over for wounds after the mamoswine attack near Nomad. "That's not what's going on here. I didn't have control over this. That's the problem. Not having control. I can't even eat meat without risking an episode?" She threw her hands up. "Can you not see how much of a problem that is?"

"Yes, but I'm working with knowledge as limited as yours. I'm chasing anything that might work," said Outrider.

Stone let go of Valor's ears and rummaged in one of the belts crossed at her waist. Ran had given her the one she'd been issued upon arriving in Crag. The way the weavile saw it, Stone would need more storage space than she would - besides, Ran already had the one from Nomad. After a few moments of checking pockets and cursing quietly, Stone pulled a piece of jerky from one of the pockets and tossed it at Ran.

"Chew on that. I'll keep you off Outrider if you lose control. No guarantees if you pounce on me though." She winked and then laughed at the look on Ran's face. "Just eat it!"

Ran took an apprehensive bite. The salty piece of jerky sat in her mouth for a moment before she braved chewing it.

It was good. Very good. Very salty, yes, but good. A bit dry, but it filled the belly just the same. She had turned down the extra helping of murkrow at lunch out of fear, and it had left her a bit hungrier than she would have liked. Perhaps those fears were unfounded. She swallowed the jerky and waited a few seconds.

"Well, you're not trying to throw us on our backs, so I'd say you're fine," said Stone, snickering. "Damn shame, honestly."

"Stone," said Outrider sternly.

"Oh, come on, Outrider. You gotta make light of these things. Can't be all gloom."

"It is a very real problem, even if jerky seemingly solves it. And perhaps properly cooked meat."

Ran sat down, miserable. "I just wish I knew why. Am I stuck like this?" She seized the sides of her and let out a frustrated groan. "I bet anything the answers are locked up in my fucking head."

"Language," said Stone, straight-faced. Ran looked at her, incredulous, but the lycanroc broke into laughter the moment she did. Ran smiled weakly.

"At least you're trying to keep things light," said Ran.

"I wouldn't worry too much about the memory thing. I have the same problem. Eventually you live enough you stop thinking about it," said Stone.

"Wait - what?" asked Ran, alarmed.

Outrider looked at the lycanroc too, his eyes wide. "Are you serious, Stone?"

"Yeah," said the lycanroc, nodding.

"And you never bothered to tell us?" asked Outrider, dumbfounded. "You were living at Nomad for-"

"You never told me you put a case of amnesia to bed either, Outrider. Got it out of Oracle one day. She was so mad at herself for letting it slip. Figured if you weren't gonna bring it up, there was no reason to go digging, but I mean, hey, we're all friends here right?" reasoned Stone, leaning back on her arms and stretching her legs. She looked between them and frowned, looking genuinely concerned. "Right?"

"Yes, of course, Stone but-" began Outrider.

"Am I the only one that doesn't have a big ol' memory hole in their head?" asked Valor aloud.

"Yeah, and where would you be without the memories of you pissing yourself in the woods after I scared you?" asked Stone, laughing.

"That was only one time!"

"Hold on, hold on," said Ran. "Stone, you can't-"

The door burst open to their home and produced the form of a braixen holding a stack of forms aloft. "Great news you three!" shouted Thea. "I've secured myself some assistant security details. And you might recognize them."

Stone laid flat on her back and yawned. "She said three, which means I'm skipping the boring form shit and callin' it a night."

Ran looked between Stone and Thea and bit her lip. Why now? She glanced at Outrider. His face said the exact same thing.