As the girls moved slightly north of Zere, they came to a large pond that was dark violet, and emitted an odd odor. Alice squealed at the sight, and Marine made a grab for Alice's cape, only to just barely miss.
"Alice, no! That's poison!" Marine groaned as Alice bounded up the edge of the pond, and leaped across it into the middle, where there was a tiny island. She leaned down, and took the plant that was growing there, placing it into a glass bottle. After that, she took out several small vials, and carefully scooped up the poisonous liquid into them. After that, she shoved them back into her bag, which was enchanted by her first 'mentor' to be a vacuous hole for items. It was very handy, and Alice loved putting little gifts in it for her.
Alice smiled gently at the thought of possibly seeing her again soon, before all the Celestrians ascend into the stars, but was pulled out of her reminiscing by the loud voice of her mortal companions.
"ALICE, GET YOUR ASS OVER HERE RIGHT NOW!" Marine stomped her feet, behaving not-at-all like the nineteen year old she is. Sheila was patrolling the edge of the poison pond warily, while Iris just looked at her disapprovingly.
Alice grinned, and started spinning around on one foot, so as not to fall into the pond, for five minutes, before she launched herself right into Marine, who fell over from the impact.
Marine spent the next hour lecturing Alice, and tied a rope she had acquired somewhere to Alice's midsection, so that Alice couldn't keep wandering out of sight.
They went even further north, now, and suddenly a fireball came flying out of nowhere, hitting Alice right smack in the face. Marine and Iris made quick work of the weird cloud-like perpetrator while Sheila gingerly wiped the black soot off of Alice's face with a wet cloth. Alice's lower lip trembled as Sheila rubbed the last of the soot off of Alice's forehead. Iris came back first, and soothingly petted Alice's hair.
After clearing out several mobs of the cloud monsters, Marine wandered back over to the two, "Is she gonna live, 'doc?"
"Alice is amazing!" Sheila squealed, "Not a single scratch, or even burn marks!"
"You're quite lucky, Miss Alice." Iris mused, smiling in relief that the girl was virtually unharmed.
Marine shuddered at the thought of what Erinn might have done if they had returned, and Alice had a huge burn scar smack dab on her face. Oh god, that'd be terrible- for me!
Marine worriedly reached out her hand to make sure that Alice was okay, but instead, Alice jerked her head to the side, ignoring Marine. Alice crossed her arms grumpily, grumbling incoherently about 'stupid mortals'. Luckily, the others didn't hear that part, they were busy staring wide-eyed at the girl.
Alice can get angry too? This thought ran through all of their head's, and Alice suddenly just stopped what she was doing, and started rubbing her face furiously.
"Aargh! My face!" Alice whined, sounding more like her usual kiddy self. As the other two let out an inaudible sigh of relief, Sheila tilted her head, staring holes into Alice's head.
Where have I heard that grumpy voice before...?
Sheila shook her head of these thoughts as the group kept moving, with Marine continuing to keep a firm grip on Alice's rope-leash, and Iris looking around to make sure that no more fireballs would be hitting the group.
Eventually the group came to what they assumed to be the deepest part of the northern woods, since it WAS coated in a deep, dark, mysterious fog. That couldn't be any less suspicious if it tried.
As they approached the entrance of the deepest part of the woods, they were surprised to find a large castle, long since past it's prime; large parts of some towers were crumbling/had already crumbled, and there was a heavy, dark cloud hovering over the site, thunder booming every now and then.
The Wight Knight came galloping up to them, and slowly came to a stop in front of Alice, staring in shock at the sight before them.
Wight Knight let out a weird strangled noise, "No! This... this can't be Brigadoom!"
Sheila let out a gasp, "THIS is Brigadoom?!"
Wight Knight shook his head, ignoring Sheila, "...I don't understand. How could I have been away so long that it's fallen into such a state?" He looked up the the tallest tower, "And what has become of my beloved Mona?"
The Wight Knight took off deeper into the ruins, calling out for his Princess.
After watching Wight Knight take off, Alice tried to speed off after him, only to be choked by Marine's harsh yank of the rope-leash. She sat there in the dirt, moping.
"Alice, I don't know if you noticed, but this castle is falling apart as we speak. I'm NOT returning back to Erinn with your dead, mangled body because you wanted to explore the ruins." Marine hissed at the sullen girl, who was making no attempt to stand back up.
It's not like some fallen debris is going to kill me... Alice whined internally, not able to say that out loud. She really can't blame Marine, since none of them know that Alice is actually an immortal Celestrian.
A dark laugh, that still somehow managed to sound like the tinkling of bells, sounded throughout Alice's head. Alice jumps a little, slightly startled, but tries to pass it off as nothing. It was a pleasant surprise to hear her laughing though, and Alice unknowingly let out a satisfied squeal as she cupped both of her childish cheeks, squeezing her face in excitement while she kicked her feet in the dirt.
Well, that was certainly NOT noticeable AT ALL. It most certainly did NOT catch the attention of her companions. They weren't starting to think Alice had some mental problems; not at all! Perish the thought!
Instead of mentioning it and getting some dodgy response (which Marine was positive they would get), Marine picked Alice up around the waist with one of her arms as they made their way to the lower level of the ruins that they had seen the Wight Knight go through.
The second they walked down the steps into the lower level of the ruins, they were ambushed by some Skeleton Warriors; the first hit being targeted at Alice. Luckily, Alice jumped at just the right time, so her rope-leash was slashed. Alice let out a cheer, and rewarded the Skeleton Warrior by bashing his skull in with her sword, before running off deeper into the ruins.
"Eh... Shouldn't we go after her?" Sheila nervously looked at Marine, who just shrugged with a grunt.
"There's no use, she'll find some way to run off. I doubt Alice is going to go that far without us. She's probably just hanging around somewhere. We'll catch up with her later." Marine trudged forward, slashing through the occasional monster that approached them. There weren't many, since, by the looks of all the dead corpses lying around, Alice had made a game of how many monsters she could slaughter.
Well... at least we'll never have to worry about whether Alice can take care of herself or not. Marine grimaced at the overwhelming stench of monster blood.
Iris pointed to the rather obvious trail the corpses were leading, and soon enough, they found Alice sitting in what looked like a library, reading a stack of books.
Marine snuck up behind her quietly, and brought her fist of anger down upon Alice's skull... only to make her hand throb in pain.
"FUCKING SHIT- WHY IS YOUR HEAD SO HARD?!" Marine cussed, flailing her hand in the air.
Alice tilted her head back to look at Marine, "Shh! I'm trying to read this book!"
Iris crouched down to read the front cover of the book. "...'The Basics of Brigadoomian Nuptial Dancing'. Interesting."
Sheila's eyes widened, "You're interested in dancing, Alice?"
Alice puffed her cheeks, but nodded reluctantly. "I guess. Wedding dances between newlyweds are a big deal..."
A dark smile made its way onto Iris's face as she creeped closer to Alice, her tone taunting. "Ooh, you want to get married? Got anyone... specific in mind, Miss Alice?"
Alice put the book down, (seeming to be) staring at Iris blankly . Just as Marine and Sheila thought the subject was going to be dropped (Alice IS just a child, after all), Alice's face turned a dark scarlet, and a squeak slipped out. "...M-maybe...!"
Before Iris could probe further, Alice took off for the stairs that the three had spotted earlier when they were searching for the kid minstrel.
Iris clicked her tongue, "Tch... So close...!"
Both Marine and Sheila were incredibly embarrassed by their calmer friend's audacity, but they couldn't help but be curious over the question as well.