Whoo! Exams are over!
Long chapter for everyone in celebration!
Stella floated over the shoulder of Sheila, who was the only other person who could see her. She had just turned her back for a SECOND, and poof! Alice was nowhere to be seen.
"Well, whatever. She'll come back later. Let's just look around and see what's up. This town is obviously in dire need of assistance." Stella patted Sheila on the head to get her attention, and the two of them walked off. Iris noticed, and tailed them closely.
Where is she going? Iris silently huffed. She is supposed to be Sheila's caretaker, so Iris had no choice but to follow. Marine will be fine by herself, she's a big girl.
". . .So, I think we'll go check out the mayor first, okay guys?" Marine turned around, but found nobody. They had all left her in the dust. Marine smacked her forehead with her palm, and slowly dragged it down her face in irritation. "Well, fuck them. I'll do my own shit."
Turning back to the door in front of her, Marine entered the mayor's residence. Surprisingly, nobody was instantly pissed off that somebody just intruded into the manor. A maid caught sight of Marine immediately, and gave her a bright smile.
"Oh, are you here to see the master? He's upstairs in the library. Just go up those stairs," She gestured to the only staircase in sight, "and it's the door at the end of the hall."
After that, the maid went on her merry way, not even bothering to see if the intruder was going to murder her master in cold blood. Marine scoffed at the naive stupidity of the 'important' people. Who in their right minds lets in a complete stranger, instructs them as to where the leader of the household is, and then just fucks off? What a bunch of idiots.
Shaking her head, Marine makes her way up the stairs, following the instructions of the careless maid. Sure enough, Marine finds a fat old guy clad in red and yellow inside the door at the end of the hallway; the mayor, she presumes. He didn't even look up to see who entered, and it looked like he hadn't even heard her enter.
Are you kidding me?! I could be an assassin here to eliminate him, and NOBODY would stop me! Not that they could, anyway. Freeing herself of these thoughts, Marine steps closer, trying to make herself known. He doesn't budge, just keeps hovering over the weird old papers he has strewn out across the lone table in the library.
". . .So, that's what it says!" He leans back, a smug smile making its way onto his face, but then he just sighs and smacks his head against the table. "...Oh, who am I kidding? I don't understand a damn word of this thing. I guess I'll have to rely on his help after all... I have no choice. I must do something before anymore people suffer needlessly because of my personal matters..."
Marine raises an eyebrow, slightly impressed that the guy made that discovery on his own, before lightly tapping on the table to get his attention. He looks up at her, startled, but calms down when he sees that it's just a young lady/teenage girl. He's almost reminded of his own daughter, and his hand twitches.
A small smile graces his features, "Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't realize I had a guest. My name is Mayor Laria, how may I assist you?"
"Well, I noticed that your town sure has a lot of recently-made graves, so I wanted to see if there was something my companions and I could help you with?" The corner of Marine's mouth twitches uncontrollably; she wants to sneer at him, but Iris and Sheila (and maybe Alice, wherever she went) would be incredibly angry if she pissed off the head honcho before they could even find out what's going on.
"...Very well. As you're surely already aware, Coffinwell has been hit by an incredibly contagious disease." Marine nodded, "Well, the fact is that our town was attacked by this very same disease nearly a century ago. I've been looking through these ancient manuscripts for a solution, but I'm afraid that I cannot understand a single word. Coffinwell is not to be easily beaten down, though! I've passed copies on to Phlegming, our local historian, in hopes that he will be able to make more sense of them. I imagine that he's already discovered something by now, but... I'm rather loath to have to go and ask him in person."
The mayor sighed at the end of his long tirade, making Marine roll her eyes. Of course, the only reason they haven't progressed is because of a personal grudge. Such is the fate of civilization.
"It's okay. I'll go get the details for 'ya. Where's he live?"
"He lives just to the west of my house, you can't miss it."
As Marine exited the mayor's manor, she spotted the unmistakable little stature of Alice as she skipped into the entrance of Coffinwell. She was smiling brightly, but Marine couldn't help but think she looked kind of peeved.
Alice's clothing was entirely different too (except for the bandana); her awesome caped-outfit was replaced by a sleeveless caramel dress that was covered by a fluffy purple poncho, and she was wearing knee-high socks with a single pink stripe at the top. She actually looked like the little kid she appeared to be!
Marine zoomed down the stairs to quickly reach Alice, grabbing her by the wrist before she could take off again. Alice jumped, startled by the sudden appearance of Marine, but then settled down and gave her a grin.
"So, how's it going~?" Marine smacked Alice upside the head as hard as she could; wrong move, because her hand now hurt like hell.
Marine recoiled, and flapped her hand around like it was burning. "First of all, FUCKING HELL THAT HURT!...Secondly, where the hell have you been... and what the hell are you wearing?!"
Alice gave her a sheepish grin as she casually shrugged. "Oh, y'know... just gettin' lost. I got these clothes from a nice traveler who happened to find me, and he brought me back to town. I like this poncho, it's fluffy and warm."
Alice flapped her arms up and down like a bird moves their wings, making her poncho gently flap in the wind created by her movement. Marine had to admit that it was a nice looking poncho, but that wasn't all that important at the moment. She then lectured Alice thoroughly on the dangers of running off from the group, and, afterwards, she re-leashed Alice with an iron leash, dragging her towards the house that Marine was originally going to.
When Marine knocked on the door, she was, admittedly, shocked to have Iris be the one opening the door. Before she could say anything, Iris clamped her hand over Marine's mouth, motioning towards the bedroom, where Sheila and a green haired female were sleeping peacefully.
Marine freed herself of Iris's hand, and whispered quietly, so as not to wake them. "Where's Phlegming?"
Iris raised an eyebrow at her, "How do you know Professor Phlegming?... Well, whatever. Catarrhina here is Professor Phlegming's wife." She lowers her voice even more, muttering in disgust, "And they're newlyweds! Ugh...!"
"...Putting your romantic issues aside, we need to talk to her husband A.S.A.P." Marine marched into the bedroom, dragging Alice behind her, and shook Catarrhina awake. "Hey! Catarrhina! Wake up!"
"...Wha...? O-oops! I'm so sorry, Iris, I must have dozed off again- oh, you're not Iris. Who are you?"
Iris stepped into the room, and leaned against the door frame. "That there is my rude friend Marine, and the child who is currently foaming at the mouth because she's suffocating is named Alice. They're here to see your husband."
"Ehehe! You're friends are certainly unique, Iris." Catarrhina giggled, and then smiled warmly at Marine, who was impatiently tapping her foot. "You're here to see Phlegmy? He's working in his laboratory right now, so... What do you need, if you don't mind me asking?"
Marine crossed her arms and shrugged, "I was sent by the stupid mayor to check on his progress with those manuscripts."
"O-oh! Dad-I mean, he did? In that case, I'll go along with you and let you into his laboratory. Phlegmy's a bit shy around strangers, you see. I'll go on ahead, okay?" Catarrhina smiled as she rushed out of her own house, leaving a group of (possibly?) strangers in her unguarded home.
Sheila stirred in the other vacant bed, and sat up sleepily, rubbing her eyes free from sleep-dust. "...H-huh...?"
She blinks a few times, and sees Alice's half-conscious form on the ground. Sheila squeals excitedly and pounces on her, freeing Alice from her previous tormentor, only to land into the hands of a new one.
"Ooh, Alice! Stella and I missed you bunches!" Stella popped out from wherever she had previously been staying, blushing and sputtering.
"I wasn't worried! She'd obviously be fine on her flappin' own! Look at her! Stop wording my mouth for me, you flappin' mortal!" Stella slapped Sheila on the head, but her little fairy hands didn't do much damage.
Alice slowly returned to the realm of conscious people, and sat upright. "I'm okay now. Let's go."
The four of them slowly made their way over to the small nook between the two higher elevated walkways, where Catarrhina was waiting for them, coughing profusely, but she managed to stop when they had made it known that they were there.
"Oh! You're here. I'll get him to open up, then." She turned around, and knocked on the door in a weird pattern. Alice assumed that it was a secret knock between the couple, and watched closely. Maybe the secrets of couples would prove useful, someday?
A faint voice came from the inside of the door, "...Catarrhina? Is that you? What are you doing here, at this hour?"
Alice raised an eyebrow confusedly as she looked up at the sky. What is he talking about? It's only like... four?
"Sorry to disturb you, Phlegmy, but you have a visitor. Daddy's sent a messenger to find out how you're getting on with the deciphering of those manuscripts." The door swung open, revealing a weird man, who had long, brown locks tied in a messy braid. Alice stared at him, wondering what could possibly be attractive about this guy.
"Well, come on in. I have a million and one things to do at the moment, but I suppose a messenger from Father-in-law takes precedence." Alice frowned at his attitude, and tuned out from the rest of the conversation; instead, she took an extreme interest in the various old books he had lying around his messy office.
In a short amount of time, Alice had read through over half the books in his office, and she was rather bored by now. She looked up, only to see Phlegming staring at her curiously. Catarrhina and the others were nowhere to be seen.
"What's up?" Alice tilted her head a fraction of a degree, smiling disarmingly.
"...Shouldn't you have gone along with your friends? I mean, you did come with them, right?" Phlegming stared at her, wondering if she was just a kid that had snuck in by assimilating with the group that had previously been in his office. After a detailed chat about the curse, they had returned to the mayor's mansion to get permission to take Phlegming to the ruins.
Alice looked around, confused as to where her companions went. "...Uh, I... didn't notice them leaving..." She paused, and then shrugged nonchalantly, "Oh well, they'll be back. They can't go anywhere without me."
Phlegming was puzzled by the confidence that was given off by Alice. How could a little girl have this much confidence? And even then... "How are you reading those books? They're all in ancient languages."
Alice laughs, "My... friend studied these types of things all the time. She likes these types of old timey things, so it kind of just rubbed off on me, I guess."
The door opened, bringing shit tons of light into the dimly lit laboratory. They looked up, and saw Marine and the other two come in. Marine held out a weird golden key to Phlegming, which seemed to hold a bunch of significance, because Phlegming was incredibly astounded by the appearance of it.
As the group conversed, Sheila couldn't help but blatantly stare at Alice, her face slightly pale. The words she had heard Stella utter earlier resounded in her ears, haunting her.
Stella grinned, and did a little fist-pump, seeming to forget that Sheila could hear her. "Ha! If we help out this lot, these people will feel so grateful to us that Alice's full Celestrian powers will be regained! And then, we can finally flappin' leave this place and head on up to the Observatory!"