I actually meant to post this on Sunday, since I was recovering from surgery and actually had time to write while I was laid up in bed and got another chapter written! For the record it was very minor surgery I'm fine :)


The trio of girls walked over to the convenience store, their plans for breakfast having not gone to plan. The waitress had come to tell them it seems the diner had an issue with their refrigerator in the night, causing their food to spoil. They paid for their juice, tipped the waitress for her time, and decided they would enjoy the hangover breakfast of champions, energy drinks and chips.

Lunafreya looked around them as they walked, looking for any signs of swirling black snaking into the town. But she could see no evidence of it. She merely felt a tug in her body as though she was made of lead, a throb deep behind her eyes which she dismissed as a caffeine headache from enjoying ebony coffee with Ignis each morning, only to pass on any coffee this day.

The people walking about the town were walking slow. An old man with a limp, several children kicking a ball down the center of the road halfheartedly, talking amongst themselves rather than laughing and running. One woman was clucking at the plants on her windowsill that were half wilted and kicked an empty watercan.

"Hey space cadet." Crowe reached over and knocked on her head. She flinched and stopped walking, realizing she had walked straight past the door to the convenience store. They used their breakfast money to buy an energy drink, prepacked snacks, and a few water bottles. It wouldn't sustain them much further than lunch and they hoped that the boys' hunting adventure wouldn't go too deep into the night or they'd be returning to several extremely hungry women.

"Where do you think the water for this town comes from? Is there a reservoir nearby?" Lunafreya asked. Despite her own hunger, she was saving her snacks for later, instead satisfying her stomach with the carbonated sugar rush that she hoped would chase her headache away. At first she had wanted to stash them for Noctis to convert into curatives, but the store had plenty and once she was sitting on the bed back at the hotel they were able to pour their drinks into clear plastic cups to ensure the Blight hadn't found its way into the cans somehow.

"Ignis has two maps being the smartass he is, one in the Regalia one in his bags." Aranea replied. A bit of rifling through his things, a bit disappointed he wasn't hiding a banana hammock or something else scandalous, and she found the carefully folded map. She opened it, laying it out on the bed. It took a few moments to identify where they were, and only a moment more to find a nearby body of water that the map didn't name. The girls agreed it was a likely reservoir and while not excited about it, decided a six kilometer distance was acceptable.

As they neared the reservoir the ground grew drier and darker. Old withered bushes shivered in the wind, the trio keeping their distance and staring at the bush expecting it to uproot itself in search of food. There was no grass just a dozen meters away from the town, the shriveled yellow giving way to dusty black before leaving only dry dirt. The gnarled trees and shrubs as they grew closer shivered and reached for them as they progressed, causing them to bunch together closer, watching for the smallest tuft of former plantlife.

"Can these trees put out pollen like a normal one? Will we breathe this stuff in?"

"I shall aide you." Lunafreya replied. Crowe frowned, but nodded, and reached for Lunafreya's hand and squeezed it.

"I'll protect you from rogue bushes if you keep us safe from pollen. Sentences I never thought I'd say." She replied. The trees they passed seemed to shiver, and she wasn't sure if it was her imagination that she could see thin grey clouds rising above it. She looked down, a faint dusting of grey and black coated the brown ground and she grimaced. Her hand lit up as she found her magic, trying to maintain a passive light. Aranea reached for her other hand, squeezing it tight, and together they walked side-by-side until they reached a road.

The pavement was cracked in scraggled lines, old tree roots breaking through the pavement in areas that the province simply lacked any money to repair. She couldn't see the roots beneath the cracked surface, though she wasn't going to get much closer to them, old memories blinking behind her eyelids. Any paint that once separated the lanes was long worn, just the occasional dot of yellow appeared here or there. An old dented guardrail that was missing several segments separated the road from the hill that led down to the reservoir.

"Over here." Crowe said, tugging on Lunafreya's hand. One of the missing segments of guardrail was pushed in, like a car had rammed through it. They approached and peered over. The black brush was crumbled, a clear lane of disturbed mud and dust left a trail down the hill. At the bottom, light shined off a glint of metal between two wraps of thick black roots.

"Holy shit." Aranea cussed. Glass and bits of metal littered the cleared path down to the shifting mass of black, and it pulsed as though it were breathing, making no sound. There were no insects, birds, or frogs. The air sounded perfectly still despite the cool breeze against their skin. "Are there people down there?!" Lunafreya asked, and nearly leapt over the guardrail, but both her friends pulled her back.

"Look!" Crowe pointed. One of the roots unwrapped itself from around the mass, and started to slither back up the hill. With a few more inches visible it was clear that it was a car wrapped up in the pulsing roots.

"Oh gods." Lunafreya whimpered. "We have to help."

"I think they're gonna be beyond help." Crowe replied.

"We were able to free the car from roots back in the thicket!" She nearly shrieked, a crack in her voice keeping it from rising.

"Guys that root is getting close." Aranea warned, starting to back away and tug on Lunafreya's arm, but she was resisting them.

"No! I have to help them! It may not be too late!" Lunafreya pleaded.

"Think! That car is covered in Blight! If they had windows down, or their car wasn't sealed, the Blight got it. The best thing for them is to blow the car to hell!" Crowe tried to insist.

"Let me try first!"

"And how do you plan to get close to that car?" Crowe asked.

"Guys the root." Aranea interrupted again. She finally released Lunafreya's hand, now pulling out her polearm and putting herself between it and the other two. "There's more than one of the things!"

"There must be something!"

"Think what's around water. Lots and lots of plants and right now, the plants are, I don't know, eating? a goddamn car! What do you think it will do to our squishy little bodies!" Crowe tried to argue, throwing her hands in the air.

"Guys!" Aranea snapped, hitting Crowe in the back with her polearm, and Lunafreya on the hip. Both of them finally looked at her just as the first root reached the top of the hill. It curled around the guardrail, the metal groaning as it was pulled, the loud snap of the bolts holding it in place popping away. Others slipped beneath it, working silently, feeling.

"Oh shit!" Crowe cursed. She threw her arm out to push Lunafreya back but she was quicker, throwing out a shield that halted their progress. They prodded against the shield and withdrew, a dull hiss sounding as smoke rose from the burning flesh that came in contact.

Crowe's hands lit on fire, holding the magic in her hands. Lunafreya glanced at her Shield and dropped her magic, the fire surging forth and she once again raised the magic to protect themselves from the intense flash of heat as the roots ignited. Aranea had her polearm impaled into one of the roots, but smaller vines came out from the wound and started to climb up her weapon. She was cursing and pulling, trying to free her weapon, her hands sliding further back to keep them from touching her.

"Crowe! Help Aranea!" Lunafreya commanded, both her hands out trying to keep her shield up as more roots started to prod at her magic, burning and recoiling, the silence finally broken by hissing. Crowe turned her attention, drawing a fireball and throwing it only a second after her warning. Aranea turned, not dropping her polearm in time to protect her hands from the flash and the heat, cursing and drawing back, stumbling and crying out as she drew her hands inward against her stomach.

Lunafreya dropped her magic, rushing to Aranea and placed her hands on her, her voice quivering and high pitched as she nearly sobbed her prayer, stuttering her words, and light poured into the writhing woman. After a few seconds, her pained screams died off into pants for breath, bringing her hands before her eyes and seeing fresh tender pink flesh where there once was black. They both looked at her polearm, the charred remains of roots around it.

Aranea wiggled her arm to get her jacket to cover her hand and she grabbed the edge of the weapon to draw it in. Around them, the trees began to tremble, the shaking of dried branches shaking and rubbing. Thick clouds of grey began to rise and fall.

"Time to go." Crowe decided. "Sorry about your hands." She apologized, helping to pull Aranea to her feet. They ran, gasping for breath, the air feeling too heavy. Lunafreya coughed. Her tongue felt coated in soot, her throat too dry when she swallowed. Her eyes burned and the light above their heads was blocked out as the grey gloud grew thicker. She dared a glance behind her and saw the entirety of the guard rail was wrapped in black roots, others reaching and prodding into the road.

"Run." Lunafreya rasped. But the command was unnecessary, the others were already pushing themselves as hard as they could. Crowe glanced over her shoulder and could see Lunafreya wasn't able to keep up with them, and with a glance saw she was running with heels.

"Shit, Sparkles, why didn't you tell me?" Crowe asked, then immediately started coughing. They looked above their heads, the cloud wasn't as thick once they got some ways from the road, but the wind was blowing in their direction. Lunafreya could already feel hints of Blight in Crowe and a heavy weariness threatened to cause her to simply collapse. She took off her shoes, wincing as she set her feet down on the dry and dusty ground and was better able to run after her friends.

They ran for a full kilometer before the burning in their mouths and throats overrode their adrenaline. They stopped, gasping for breath. Aranea bent over, vomiting black-tinted bile into the ground and gave a distressed scream, scrambling away from her own sick, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand only to immediately rub it hard against her pants cursing repeatedly. Crowe was bent over, trying to catch her breath as well, and Lunafreya had dropped to the ground to rub her abrased and aching feet.

"Aranea?" Lunafreya asked, her voice sounding too unlike herself with how strained and scratched it was.

"Fuck." Was her reply. Despite the pain in her feet Lunafreya righted herself, swatting away a hand that tried to block her and found and eradicated the early blight within in her, then provided the same treatment to Crowe. She felt dizzy again, wishing she hadn't saved her snacks for later. She sat down, dropping back against the sand and tried to catch her breath, and make the world stop spinning.

They reached the town in the early afternoon, all three of them ravenously hungry and wishing for a strong shower. But they settled for bottled water and potato chips, washed down with cream-filled cupcakes that came in individually wrapped bags. The sugar gave Lunafreya some of her strength back but she still wanted to sleep the rest of the day away. She had wept upon returning, for the souls of the people in the car they were forced to abandon. Aranea let Lunafreya drop her head into her lap, brushing her hair with her fingers and trying to assure her it was okay, offering any comfort she could. Crowe too tried to soothe the Oracle, both women unsure what they could possibly say. After some time Crowe asked if a prayer for their souls would help her, to which she nodded.

Crowe was able to find a box of candles at the convenience store, and the closest thing she could find to incense was a small container of dried rosemary. They made a makeshift shrine, letting Lunafreya guide the prayer. Crowe and Aranea gave her the time she needed before suggesting a movie. Lunafreya put on a smile and nodded, blowing out the candle. The rosemary failed as a makeshift incense, but they sprinkled it in the paper coffee cup that held the candle anyway.

"Come on. Let's go lie down for a bit, okay?" Crowe asked. Lunfreya nodded and got to her feet.

"I hope the others are okay." She lamented as she climbed onto the bed, scooting to the middle with the urging of the other two.

"They're tough. They'll be okay." Crowe tried to reassure her.

"And Ignis is smart enough to know when they have to retreat. No matter how stubborn your Prince is."

"Yes." Lunafreya nodded, and tried to soothe the terror inside as they put on a movie on the hotel room television, glad for the presence of Aranea's head on her shoulder on one side, Crowe holding her hand on the other, and she could feel no more trace of Blight within them.

"I gotta take a dump" Crowe announced shamelessly halfway into the movie, scooching to the edge of the bed and going to the bathroom. As soon as she entered she screamed, backing away.

"What? Did Gladio forget to flush?" Aranea asked, both her and Lunafreya sitting bolt upright.

"We need to get the fuck out of here now." Crowe said. The other two got up and glanced into the bathroom, and at the black moss coating it. Thickest at the shower, but it spread across the walls, and reached across the rest of the room.


We shall see the bros next now that the ladies got some attention! I hope you enjoyed this!