"You really don't have to come with us, Jack," Petra hurried to assure him, although a large part of her did seem relieved that he'd offered to come in the first place- perhaps they had something they liked talking about together that no one else did.

Either way, Jesse was kind of glad he'd offered as well.

Jack shrugged, not truly seeming to be deterred by Petra's reassurance. "I'm sure you can handle yourselves, but in the meantime I can come along." He picked up a blade and sheathed it on his back for easy reach- Jesse noticed Petra had a similar habit.

They had to wonder if that was just a normal thing; to sheathe it on your back instead of at your waist. They supposed it would be more difficult to accidentally kick.

"It's not like any of us are really busy," Jack added.

Nurm nodded and lifted his hands. "Besides, there's a forest path that's more of a detour, but bandits are less likely to attack us in there. The trip would probably be expedited some, so we'd be able to get to Boom Town before sundown. But I'm rather familiar with it due to doing the cartography for it, so it would be best if I led the way."

Jesse was pondering whether or not they'd interpreted that huge word dump of signing right (what the heck was Boom Town?) when Radar spoke up, furiously polishing his cracked glasses- out of nervousness or just having... dirt on the lens.

"Uh... t-to be honest, it would- it would be nice to get out for a while. Pl-plus, if you're heading to Enchantra to talk to Ivor, it- it must be a big issue, so... um..."

He trailed off, cheeks flushing as he realized everyone was looking at him.

Jesse had to wonder how Radar knew that they were going to Enchantra to help Ivor, until they realized Mevia, Isa, and Harper had probably just told them all. Maybe they recognized Jack.

Aiden's mouth twisted to the side slightly. "... I... I guess... I guess that's true," he finally admitted, though he did seem a little wary anyway.

"So it's settled. We're coming," Jack said, smiling down at Jesse and patting their head, making them grin and try to swat him off.

Well, they could hardly complain.


The forest path was quiet.

Nurm was very careful while leading them through it- something about the forest being alive (well, of course it was alive, it was in full bloom and the trees certainly weren't dead) and being a bit tricky to navigate sometimes.

But Jesse not being in the lead and instead holding onto Gill's hand like a little kid being led along by an older sibling or a parent gave them plenty of time to look around and look at the forest.

Like many of the other trees in Cosmos, these didn't really look normal- the leaves weren't green (they were a dull shade of pink-red), but the trunks were striped brown, like a cat with stripes.

A few were spotted like someone had thrown cinnamon at it, and Jesse couldn't help but listen to the breeze in the trees waft through and send a scent that was reminiscent of cinnamon and vanilla through the air.

Though to be fair, after Aiden's comment about plants being carnivorous and/or poisonous, Jesse was a bit leery about getting too close to them.

"Let's take a break- you need to give Romeo a report," Isa said abruptly, making Jesse run into Gill's back as they all came to a grinding halt.

Aiden gave a long-suffering groan. "Are you kidding?"

"No. He called me- us," Isa amended after a moment, "last night at one in the morning and asked for a report. You should be giving him one at least every time you end up in a new city, young man."

"Yeah, yeah..."

With that, everyone split up and moved to sit and rest. Radar, who was a little reedy and not terribly muscled, seemed like he was having the worst of the time- although even he just plopped down out of breath, sweat beading on his forehead and his cheeks a little flushed as he moved to take off his jacket.

Maya and Gill, who'd been griping quietly at each other, split off to go argue some more, and Petra leaned on Lukas's back, while Lukas leaned on Aiden, as Aiden began to make the call.

Truthfully, Aiden seemed a little annoyed, but he also just grumbled mildly at them to 'please not do that' while making the call- a testament as to how much he liked them.

So it was after a while, after Aiden had managed to open the connection and after the lords moved off to talk to themselves, Harper happily talking with the lords in a voice too low for Jesse to hear, Jesse realized that Reuben wasn't there.

It took a moment to realize, because of course the others were all chattering away and bickering with one another, and they were so used to the little piggy just sitting pressed up against their leg or in their lap and just snuffling against their chest happily, listening to Jesse breathe and giggle and sigh periodically.

But here they were, sitting and listening to Aiden gripe with Romeo through the mirror over the report while Radar muffled laughter as Maya mocked him behind the mirror, moving her hand in such a way that it looked like someone was talking, without the little piggy anywhere in sight.

Gill, despite his constant griping with Maya, looked quite amused about the argument.

Jesse looked over at Aiden, who was in the midst of the conversation, trying to get to the point while Romeo just (playfully?) told Aiden that he had to call him more ("I'm getting a bit tired of getting all the information from the other lords, you know- there's a reason I gave you the mirror"), and Maya mocking Romeo, and Lukas and Petra seemed to be trying to knock Aiden to the floor, and Mevia and Harper and Isa talking with Jack and Radar about something, while Nurm continued to look his map over.

They were all busy enough.

Reuben couldn't have gone far, right? He'd only been there a moment ago.

They got up and slipped into the trees, carefully looking around.

Carefully ignoring the eyes on the back of their head.

"Reuben?" they called, looking through sunlight sending spatters of funny-colored beams of light onto the forest floor, a pile of green leaves (according to Aiden the local Cosmos botanist, when it was fall, the leaves were green) up to their ankles as they shuffled through the forest. "You there?"

There was a distant kind of oink.

"Reuben!" Jesse followed the sound of the piggy, being sure to dig their heel into the dirt or to stick a green leaf into a bit of bark on the trees so that they can keep track of where they are- the last thing they need is to get lost and worry everyone else. "Where'd you run off to, buddy?"

They were more amused than anything- had he smelled a potato or something?

Did demons even have potatoes in Cosmos?

The amusement faded as they rounded a corner and found a little patch of grass that was rustling. Reuben's pink face peeked through, the little piggy trembling.

Afraid.

Something gripped Jesse even as they barely managed to process the fearful look on his face, the panicked squeal, the way that he was huddling back against a tree-

And then abruptly a hand was clapping over their mouth and their nose and hauling them back a step or two, hard enough that their skull bashed into a chest.

There was a funny scent- perfume? They try to figure out the scent but it's overpowering and sweet and honestly, it's making them dizzy.

This is familiar.

Why is this perfume familiar?

Reuben squealed in panic as Jesse furiously kicked, lifted their feet off the ground, clawed at whoever was now cutting off all access to air as they squirmed, tried to scream through the hand even as something in their foggy head noticed that Reuben was tied to a tree.

They didn't succeed.

Their lungs started screaming, begging for air as they jerked and kicked.

There was a soft, warm chuckle.

They recognized that voice, something dull clicking into place in the back of their head like a lock clicks shut, but past the fog starting to fill their head they couldn't have pinpointed it in a million years.

"Oh, hush, little one. You'll need your rest."

Lips tickling their ears as black spots began to drown their vision.

"We're going to have quite some fun."

And Jesse went under before they could scream.


A/N: Uh.

Welp.

There IS actually something in the chapter that should tell you who that voice belongs to. I wonder... when has Jesse smelled perfume before?

On a good note I updated really quick xD

RQTC: Any questions about Cosmos that I haven't answered in the story? If it's something I'm answering in a later chapter I'll just tell you so.

Clearly I don't have questions myself, so here's my 'answer': Cosmos is kinda roughly (very roughly) shaped like a diamond.

I'm a donut. Reviews are my frosting. I am a chocolate frosted donut. (Or something. I dunno. xD)

Responses to reviews!

TheAmberShadow: . I'm not sure how to explain that jfk;da / It's about one inch for me and then bluuuur xD / I sappose that's good. You'd better treeat me nicely- I've been doing a lot to prepear, but I guess I could always bee bad at it. / True xD / It's not that. / Hehehehe xD / It does! / It's not ON Earth, but it's also not like Cosmos is a different planet. / Lol, Mevia's like that.

Toni42: Too late xD / Hehehe / Yeah, he does it pretty often in Jupin. Less so in other districts since they've got a lord to keep stuff like that in check. / Big oof xD

bungaMawar001: Welcome to the story! My eyes are EXACTLY that bad. We're tied xD I think one eye is like... infinitesimally better, but that's not that helpful. There is a reason nobody I've met has come close to me in terms of bad eyesight.

Northern Goshawk: No problem! Jesse's nonbinary to let the reader imagine what they are anyway- although I may eventually just flat-out make them nonbinary. / Nope. / Hehe / It's not Fred- it's something that's specific to the October Children and Petra. Not explaining why, though xD / Thank you!

ThinMintE: Haha, yeah. / Lol, people do that with me. I can see shapes, but if you were to hold up a notebook that had big letters written on it that might be a bit much to ask. / Ah, nice!

Idontwritetoomuch: Love your username xD / Oooof, we don't like that. xD / Ahhh thank you! I'm really glad you like them.

Guest: Hehe / I mean, they did save his life. He's still being a little grouch around them though xD / They are! / Um... nope. xD

That's all for now! See ya, so long, and g'bye!

x.X. A.L. X.x


Reuben stayed, huddled down against the tree and feeling Jesse grow farther and farther away. But he was okay. Right? He was a part of Jesse, and so long as he was okay, so were they.

Maybe.

Maybe.

He had to get someone.

With a determined little oink as Reuben clambered onto shaky little legs and snapped the rope keeping him tied to the tree with surprisingly sharp teeth, he galloped back through the trees to the camp.

He had to find someone to save Jesse.

The clearing was empty as the forest shifted its roots and branches to let the sun through again, the whispering in the wind of a breeze slipping through branches sounding like real whispers.

Perhaps of the trees themselves.

Perhaps of spirits like druids and dryads, keeping their voices low and gentle to avoid being overheard.

Perhaps of the trees realizing what a horrible, horrible mistake they had made.