Hitting the Town

At some point during the ride, there was a small talk between the four (secretly five, hello Ghost) of them on whether or not they should keep going. This was done after Natani managed to escape her lesson and she managed to escape the brother's questions on how she stole their things.

To be fair, she was planning on returning their belongings if they were humble about their defeat and not all 'we lost so now we kill you', or something. Would've been totally worth it to see the looks on their faces when she comes back for revenge, but then Targen and the funky bunch decided to ruin any of those branching options. But hey, everything worked out, and now they don't have to worry about spending money to replace their supplies.

As for if they're able to go into town at night... It's a mixed bag. On the one hand - from what she was told - it'll look suspicious if there's a mixed species group rolled up in the middle of the night wanting to go in. Especially because she's 'human'. On the other... well, nobody wants to stay outside any longer than necessary. Magpie brought that one up, and everyone else just slowly agreed with her when she curled up tighter at the thought of staying out any more.

The basitin is doing better - mostly thanks to Zen - but being inside some walls would probably do everyone some good.

She clicks her tongue. "Okay, so hear me out."

"I got a bad feeling..." Natani mumbles, which she ignores.

She puts on a face of intense concentration, lightly clapping her hands together. "What if I just... walk in? And not do anything fancy. What's the worst case scenario of me doing that?"

Out of the little window leading to the... driver's seat? Do you drive horses if they're pulling a cart or is it still considered riding them? In the driver's seat, Zen looks off to the side for a moment. "Well, it probably won't be pleasant, but having us with you would probably raise more questions at us than any more at you."

She snickers. "What, afraid I'll cramp your style?"

"Cramp my what?"

"It's... nothing." She bites back a frown. "But I'm more worried that being here is going to be a huge problem for you three. Last thing I need to do is put people in danger because I exist, you know?"

"You tend to do that, already." Ghost snipes from within her.

The wolf brother next to her looks down at her. "You're not from around here, right?" He keeps going at her nod. "What is your impression of humans and wolves, anyhow?"

She takes a moment to measure her words. "I haven't been here long, mind, but from what Klein and you two told me, it's somewhere between unfriendly and 'if I breathe in the wrong direction I'll be hanged by my entrails in the town square', so..." She shrugs, scratching the back of her head. "As long as I stick with someone and not say much, I should be fine? Maybe leave a generous tip for whoever I shop at and leave a few people surprised?"

"Oh no," Magpie drawls out. "You'll be more than fine, really. You went and risked your hide to save us from those slavers, and if I remember wolves right they respect that sorta thing. If these brothers put in a good word where it means something, you'll be right as rain."

"Oh, you guys have a code of honor too? Wait," She looks over the brothers. "...does this mean you two owe me?"

The two brothers share a look that says enough to her. They probably said more between themselves, but it's over before she can think about it. "It's more of a 'you helped us, we help you' sort of thing. But it won't hurt to say you helped out a merchant and a couple of strangers out of a bind..."

Huh. Is it really that easy? She was more expecting to be smuggled in, or something of the sort. Even Ghost was expecting some sort of resistance, but... is this how thing are, when every race that isn't human isn't trying to genocide humanity? If the worse she deals with are tense situations, it'll be miles better than either of them thought. Beats the bars on the Shore, that's for sure.

She bites her lip. "Sounds... almost too easy."

Magpie dares a look back, then lets out an 'oop' when the wagon hits a bump. "Why's that? It's not like there's a war going on, or anythin'."

She blinks. Right. This isn't Earth; hell, this isn't Sol at large with its perpetual fights and struggles with something new happening every week. She manages to deal with one problem and a new one shows up a week later wanting to bomb supplies that the Last City needs, but here...

"Why is not thinking about a fight harder than fighting itself?" She whispers to Ghost.

"It always has been. At least in my experience; I was the one doing the talking for us, and you make fighting look easy. Maybe we're spoiled on conflict." Ghost mutters a few more things, but nothing directed at her.

When she looks back up at everyone - when did she look down? - she sees the brothers looking at her. "What?"

They share another look. Zen speaks first. "Nothing. We're starting to pass farmland, now; we're close to the howling city."

Sure enough, when she pokes her head out the window she spots wooden fencing off to the side of the torch's range. Anything further beyond is swallowed by the darkness of the night, her eyes too adjusted to the light as it is. She tries picturing the fields of wheat she saw on the Farm, and she smiles at the bit of football her fireteam and a few others did some time after Gary bit the dust.

She failed to hide a small laugh when she registered the moniker. "Please tell me that's because it's full of wolves."

Magpie laughs, herself. "It's full of wolves, alright! I was disappointed when it wasn't called that because of the wolves, though. It's because of the pass right next to it," She traces her hand through the air, mimicking the peaks of the mountain range. "The wind blows through Pint's often enough that it sounds like a ghastly howl. Spooked me plenty when I was a young lil' bird."

"Aw." Her shoulders slump. "That's less funny."

"You know," Natani leans in a bit closer. "They say that some of the howls sound like a real wolf's howl, because of some traders and caravans being attacked. Their restless souls forever haunting bandits and humans trying to traverse the pass."

She snorts, shoving him away. "Alright, probably not a good time to bring up being attacked in the middle of the night right now. How insensitive."

"Eh, we lived; go cry about it." Natani sticks his tongue out at her.

Wolf stares.

"...you okay, Wolf?" He cocks his head to the side.

She closes her eyes, letting out a heavy sigh. "My life is complete."

If anything, he just looks more confused, when she opens her eyes again. Even Zen chanced a look back. "What's going on in there?"

She holds a hand to her heart. "I... I think all of my life's goals are meaningless now."

"...what." Both of the brothers whisper in sync.

She wipes away an imaginary tear. "I just received a blep. Without prompting. There's nothing else I need, now."

"What are you on about, woman?" Natani hoarsely says. "And... what's a 'bli-ep'?" His accent - or maybe the muzzle? she never thought about how different you'd have to talk to make the same sounds a human would - has a hard time with the non-Mandarin word.

She huffs. "Alas, I still have work that must be done, still. But I thank you, Natani," Her hand lands on his shoulder. "My brother from another wolf mother, for the gift."

Now Magpie snickers, which sounds more like a titter, of all things. "Now that's a phrase that'd turn heads."

Natani brushes her hand off of his shoulder, rolling his eyes. "You're too insane to be my sister, anyhow. That, and..." He waves at her body. "You're sort of missing the look."

"Tch, well fuck you too, I guess."

That sent the brothers and her into a laughing fit, one that Magpie didn't join. She's probably not one for crude jokes, unlike the literal assassins and the secret undead immortal godslayer. Sol has a way of toughening someone up, that's for sure.

It's about another hour of traveling through farmland that she spots the first sight of Llwynderw. There must be a good bit of forest cleared out for her to see the torchlight - actual, fire-based torches, which brings back memories of the Iron Temple - lined up along a perimeter of what must be a wall of sorts. There's also structures between the wall and their current spot, with Magpie flipping off the torch - with some difficulty - with the fire-torchlight lighting the way from here on out. Some part of her expected conditions that aren't as well as Humanity, back in Sol.

She wasn't ready to see her first slums. The buildings - which look close to what might've existed in old, pre-Golden Age... shoot, was it Austrian architecture or Germanic that looks like this? Some part of her wishes she could've read up on older Earth history; she might've seen something worth exploring if it wasn't reduced to a crater, yet. Regardless, the buildings themselves are not very well made. They even pass one that she swears has a roof caved in for some reason. She wasn't expecting to see wear and tear in a civilization that hasn't seen a gun before, much less this.

Wolf frowns, looking around further out the window when she notices something. "Hey, Zen?"

"What?" He turns down to her, then pokes her head. "You should probably tuck your head back in, we're almost to our stop."

She ducks slightly, but keeps an eye out. "Where is everyone?"

He raises a brow ridge. "Probably asleep? It's pretty late, and there's not much reason to be out."

"Not even any peacekeepers?"

"You mean guards?" He shrugs. "Not many out here, either. They don't tend to lurk outside the walls at night, for too long. And when they do, they leave before midnight."

She frowns. "Some guards you guys have..."

"Heh, tell me about it."

Traveling at a much slower pace in the city - or town? Village? - limits meant it took about ten minutes before Magpie got them to their stop. As Wolf and Natani stepped off of the shop-wagon, she walked around to the other side to behold... something. The first thing that comes to mind is some sort of Hunter bar; the little sign showed a carving of a spear and a bottle with a cork capping it, with a clawed hand holding both. There's words underneath it, proudly claiming it as "The Drunken Huntsman's Inn", the sign itself slightly weathered with age. The building itself looks to be the most well put together one so far, compared to its neighbors. There are glass windows that looked to have been cleaned sometime this month, a well-worn door for an entrance, and a vague smell of urine coming from somewhere.

She looks down, making sure to avoid any wet dirt.

Other than being one of the only buildings with a faint light shining through two of the windows and... she looks up, noticing a faint trail of smoke lazily drifting upwards. Well, at least it'll be warm inside: being on the windward side of the mountain range isn't the most comfortable way to rough it out in the woods at night, in her street clothes. That, and the prospect of sleeping in a bed for the first time in half a month is more than a little enticing.

"Hey," Zen tosses a pouch to Natani, who catches it and gives it a shake. The sound of coins has him looking back up with an unasked question, which he answers. "Gonna make sure the cart makes it to a stable, its... not the safest out here, at night." The last part seems to be more for her benefit, than Natani, but he nods regardless.

"I'll get us a room, and see if something's good to eat." He pockets the pouch after glancing inside it, shooting another glance at Wolf.

She raises her hand in mock surrender. "Hey, it happened, like, twice."

"Exactly why I checked." He sighs. "You have something to cover yourself with? The less chance for you to be seen, the less attention you'll get."

She looks off to the side in thought, secretly asking Ghost for a cloak. After a few seconds, mostly Ghost giving one long hum, a flash of blue settles into a comforting weight around her shoulders. The cloak itself is familiar, but with a dull brown shader slapped over the outside. The inside is an equally dull green, which weirdly matches her topwear. She lifts a hand to pull her hood up, but struggles a bit at the hood she already had on her top and ultimately just put both on.

She gives a spin for Natani, splaying her arms out. "Whatcha think of my home?"

Natani looks at her weird. "Home?"

She smiles, pulling the hood down farther. "It's a long story, I can tell it later."

"...well," He looks her up and down. "It covers you up well, should be good enough to not draw too much attention this late into autumn." He walks up to the door. "C'mon, there should be someone still up to get a room."

Walking through the threshold shows off an interior a bit better off than the outside, but not by much. It's a lot cleaner inside, but the furniture is about as well worn. There's plenty of scrapes across the wooden floor from chairs being pushed around - and maybe claws, if Natani's own scraping means anything - and while the tables are wiped down and the floors swept, there's a noticeable stench of ale in the air, as if plenty of it ended up on the floor instead of in someone's mug. Piled up in one corner, however, is the shattered remains of a chair, and a few feet away from it is a lit fireplace with wood that, suspiciously, looks like the remains of another chair. Looking at the handful of tables show a few missing, probably meeting the same fate in the past.

Speaking of meeting, not long after walking in, a voice calls out from a sideroom, which is behind a counter doubling as a bar of some sort. "I'll be there in a minute!"

Now that she's listening, she can hear the sound of water sloshing and a faint clinking of objects being set down. After a minute passed, she hears more clawed steps approaching the main room and Wolf gets to see her fourth keidran ever. From the entryway is another keidran, one that reminds her of Klein from the lack of human-like hair on their head. At first, she can process that from the voice and figure they're female, but...

Well, Wolf can't help but stare from under her hood at the lack of clothing.

"Well... that's new." Ghost comments.

"Why do they have to look so human?" Wolf laments.

The lady wolf is wiping off her hands with a rag, a slight dampness still attached to them, and raises her hazel eyes to them. They linger on Wolf for a moment, but only that moment, before sliding over to Natani. "Yeesh, you two are late. Was 'bout to close for the evenin' and-" She interrupts herself to yawn. "-and hit the hay. Whatdya two want, anyhow?"

Wolf takes note of the slightly aged voice of her as Natani speaks for the two of them. "Well, we were going to show up tomorrow, but we ran into some trouble on the roads and decided to rush it here."

"Trouble?" She tosses her rag onto the counter and walks around the counter- and she's not wearing anything still what the- "What was it, bandits? You still have coin to pay with, don't you? I'm not running a charity here."

If she could communicate telepathically like a psion, she would be sending words to Natani right then. Then again, the other part of her mind that isn't Ghost laughing at her secondhand embarrassment is amused at how the lady wolf is more worried at their lack of currency than their safety. Then again, they are in the slums, which is fifty-fifty on caring about people showing up randomly in the middle of the night. Or was it with people who were born here that fit in better?

Regardless of her inner turmoil, she steps up to speak. "I'm footing the bill, don't worry."

The wolfess turns her head back to the Hunter, a bit of surprise coloring her face. "Oh? You keep all the money, then? Nice way to hide it, then?"

"Hide it?"

"From the bandits." Her head tilts slightly, and Wolf can barely see her nose moving. "Don't rightly know how you got it past them, heard their 'tolls' tend to give the sharks around here a run for their money. Literally."

The Hunter shrugs. "Oh, no, I just kicked their ass. Nat's brother got a couple of them on the business end of his sword, even."

"What?" Suddenly she seems much more invested in the fight earlier that night. "You fought them off? Are you a couple of mercenaries, or something?"

"Something like that, yeah." She's definitely done enough bounties to be considered one, if she wasn't considered a defender of the Last City. And the brothers are technically mercs, if you twist the story enough. "And they weren't bandits; they were slavers." She casually adds.

"Slavers?" Now the last bits of fatigue in her eyes slide off, the gray fur around her face shifting into something more interested. "As in humans? This far into the forest?"

"Yeah, humans they were indeed." Natani then yawns. "But we did have to stop sleeping to get this far, so if we could get those rooms..." He trails off, looking expectantly at the innkeeper.

"Right!" She holds a hand to her muzzle and shakes it. "Damn it, Gretel, you're a gossip through and through. Alright," She looks up to Wolf, an apologetic look on her face. "Now I don't do discounts, but if you helped put a few humans out of this life then I'll let you get the good rooms. They're no palace, but it'll serve."

"Okay," She approaches the counter, or she tries to, but Natani puts a hand on her shoulder. "What's up?"

He leans down and mutters to her. "Probably not the best idea to show your face, remember?"

"Why? She seems nice."

He sighs. "That's not the point; didn't you want to keep your head down?"

"...that was a thing you proposed, Nat."

"Don't call me that." A frustrated sigh goes out of his nose, making a snuffling sound. "And I'm serious, just let me pay and-"

"I'm still here, ya know."

Both wolf and Wolf look back at the innkeeper, seeing her cross her arms. Wolf immediately makes eye contact to keep her eyes level. "And what's this about you not wanting to show your face, exactly? You're not a criminal, are ya?"

"...no?" Wolf weakly mutters. "I'm just-" A thought crosses her mind. "I have blood on my neck."

"What?"

Wolf shrugs, again. "I got a cut on my neck from the slavers, but it's healed now. It's still bloody, though, so..." She trails off, not knowing what other excuse to say.

Natani does, however. "I know a little bit of healing magic, so it being just a cut is a lifesaver for her." He puts a hand on her shoulder again. "It was a good thing, too, otherwise she wouldn't be here with us."

Wolf scoffs. "Alright, mister 'I had to be saved from being a wolf shish kabob.'"

The hand slides off. "Hey, that's... sort of true, but still!"

"Well, that explains the smell..." 'Gretel' says to herself, then points off to the side. "Least I can do for that is draw up a bath for you; must've been a helluva time."

"Thanks," She finishes walking up to her, feeling her coinpurse transmat into her hand. "How much will that be on top of the rooms?"

"Two silvers a room, but the bath'll be on the house tonight. You sound like you need it."

Counting up the days she might spend here, alongside coin conversion count - which is all metric, thank the Traveler - she palms two golden coins and goes to hand it over. "I think two rooms for five days should-"

Then she stops as she notices a flash of pale colored skin. Skin that belongs to her hand, which is decidedly uncovered because she's in her civilian clothes, also which the two small coins in her hand do nothing to block. She even sees a faint scar from when she pricked herself on that weapon. Took forever to heal. When she looks up, she sees Gretel staring at her hand, too. Slowly, comprehension dawns on her and her eyes widen, looking up at Wolf's face. The hood doesn't help her at this distance, which is probably what Natani was trying to warn her about.

"You're-" Gretel starts.

"...shit-" Wolf breathes.

"Idiot-" Natani sighs.

Then the entrance to the inn swings open, letting in a laughing duo consisting of Zen and Magpie. "-and then I said 'That's not my elbow, that's my...'" The other wolf brother trails off, taking one look at the three faces that turned to see him and reading the tension in the room. "What happened here?"

Magpie, meanwhile, gasps. "Gretel?! Is that you?"

Whatever feeling of shock that's coursing through the innkeeper is further derailed by the basitin. "Magpie? I thought you wouldn't- wait, hold on now-"

She looks between Wolf and Magpie, but whatever energy that was charging the room is completely ignored by the merchant as she practically skips up to the wolfess. "Oh my Masks, it's been a whole season since I've seen you! How's business? Have you stopped any brawls recently?" Her smile turns smug. "Have you perhaps... eloped?"

"Wha-" She shakes her head. "No, I'm still living in this hole, how could I have eloped? And aren't you supposed to be here when winter comes?" She glances back at Wolf, who hasn't moved an inch from her position of handing over her money.

"Yes! But I decided to turn back some when one of my customers gave me an entire wyvern head."

That makes her stop glancing at the Hunter. "A what?"

"I know, right? I see you've met her already, by the way." She points to Wolf. "Not only was she a good customer, but she almost single-handedly fended off seven slavers who could use magic."

"Wait-" Gretel tries to take a step back from Magpie, but at some point the energetic rabbit-goat-thing takes a hold of her hands so she settles for turning her head to the Hunter. "You were traveling with a human?"

"Yup!" She nods. "And boy, am I glad I agreed to, otherwise I would be... well, you know." She mimes rubbing an object around her neck. "Or worse. Those humans didn't strike me as good customers."

"Oh..." She looks down at the counter, then back to Magpie. "Well that's good, at least. Didn't want to lose a seasonal regular."

Magpie then frowns. "'Seasonal regular?' Is that all 'ah am to you?"

Gretel then chuckles, which looks like an act she doesn't do often. "No, you're a good ear to talk into, too. Can lose the one thing that can handle all my talk." She then pries her hand out of the basitin's grip, which looks like it takes some effort. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have a transaction to make?"

Magpie very quickly takes a step back. "I shall not disturb thine business, Gretel." She bows theatrically, which puts a smile on both her and Wolf's face.

"That... could've gone better." Ghost says, setting himself on the rim of the wooden tub.

She slides down it further, soaking in the warm water. "I'm not going to denounce how lucky I am, bud. Warlocks can keep their suaveness and Titans can keep their brute force, luck is something that can't be beat."

"That sounds like an excuse to brute force things, anyways."

"Hush, you." She flicks some water at him, he dodges fluidly. "One does not trash talk luck."

She's still surprised at how everything turned out, however. After Magpie talked a little more about what happened, most of whatever the brothers were terrified about with her being a human in this town mostly melted off of Gretel, although she can still see some untrustworthy glances being pointed towards her. Still, business still went on, and she even decided to give the brothers a treat by paying for a bath for both of them. They said they wanted to get settled into their rooms, which she translated to 'talk in private' so she took the first pick at which bath to take. Personally, she doesn't like them - something about not standing up with no armor on makes her feel vulnerable - but when she took her armor off and caught a whiff of herself she begrudgingly told herself to take one.

Which turned out to be worth it, because despite how long she stays in the bath, it doesn't seem to get any cooler. She doesn't spot a fire, however, so it's up in the air for how it's staying warm. She asks Ghost if he could see what was doing the heating, which made him get up and scan the tub.

He stops at some point on the outside, beams of light focusing on a single part. "Huh."

"'Huh' what?"

"There's a mana crystal embedded into the side of this thing, along with patterns of mana leaking out from it. Apparently it's causing a steady stream of heat energy to flow in from this side. Although the air around it isn't getting colder, so I don't know where the energy is coming from, exactly. Perhaps it's making it from scratch?"

Wolf whistles, eyes closed. "Sounds like a paracausal power to me. I remember sad puppy guy making a ball of fire back there, and nobody shivered or anything. Maybe he had mana crystals stashed somewhere on him?"

"Who knows?" He sets himself back on the rim. "Well, we made it. Got any plans for tomorrow?"

Wolf opens her eyes, looking off to the side to think. "I... think I'll try to double down on figuring out all this magic nonsense. The fact that trace amounts of it is everywhere and screwing with your radio signals is a problem, so we need to fix that. History of this place is... probably going to be scrapped until I hit human territory. As much as I want to raid someone's library in the middle of the night, I'd rather make sure the place I sneak into has what I want to know in it, first."

He chuckles. "It still gets to me that your first instinct when thinking about getting a book is to steal it."

"What's wrong with that?"

"Nothing, nothing..." He looks at her. "So, about the whole 'dress code' that keidran have-"

"Eugh, don't remind me." She sinks even further into the tub. "I hope that was a one-off incident, but my luck says otherwise."

Instead of furthering any form of conversation, she tries to escape by holding her breath and dunking herself under the water. Suddenly, the lack of noise turns into the washed-out sound of water in her ears, and she keeps her eyes closed as she just soaks in all the heat. She hopes it will help get rid of all the stress she has with being stuck here in the meantime, but it's probably going to take a lot more than a hot bath to get herself back on track. For one, getting to know any evidence of the Luvial Crux beyond 'there are humans here' would be nice. She's sincerely hoping that humans around here have found a way to use a radio past this mana mist-thing Ghost keeps complaining about.

"I hope so, too." She feels Ghost re-enter their link, a deeper warmth right next to her heart. "I want to find the other, too. They're... strange, but I wouldn't want to abandon them."

"We'll find them." She promises.

"Also, I think someone just entered the room."

"What?" Lifting herself out of the water quietly, she feels a knife transmat into her hand as she takes a look towards the entrance. She's been under for a couple of minutes, so she has to try her best not to breathe too loudly-

-and there's someone in her room, indeed. Someone she recognizes, as they finish folding up the robe they were wearing, alongside a stack of knives and a bow with a handful of arrows next to it. They sigh, look down at themself, then sigh again with more frustration and...

Huh. She really shouldn't be seeing this, should she? Deciding she's gone too far, anyhow, she clears her throat.

They freeze, tail going ramrod straight and fur suddenly standing on end.

"So... why are you in my bathroom?" Wolf asks calmly.

Turning so fast they might give themself whiplash, the wolf stares wide-eyed at the equally under-dressed Hunter in the tub. At least she has a tub wall to hide behind and a knife already in hand. When they do turn around, she gives them the benefit of the doubt and makes sure to maintain eye contact as best as possible.

Said wolf immediately covers themself up with their arms and tail. "You didn't see anything!"

She blinks. "...what?" She shakes her head. "No, I'm asking why you broke into here."

"Broke in- the door was unlocked, Wolf!"

She glances at the door, suddenly noticing the bolt lock at the bottom of the door, which is now set to being locked. She slumps ever so slightly. "Oh. Forgot about that. Uh. Sorry, Nat."

"Don't call me that!" He whisper-shouts.

What follows is probably one of the most awkward silences she's ever had. Normally, in this situation, Natani would probably exit because he was the intruder of her privacy, but given his... current position, now she feels like she wants to melt into the floor and escape through the cracks in the wood. To be honest, with how backwards and old everything is, she didn't exactly expect someone like Natani to persist, but alas.

It stretches on for a moment longer, until she can't take the silence. "Sorry."

His face shifts through a myriad of emotions before settling on confusion. "What?"

"For, uh," She gestures her free hand at him. "Seeing you like this. I don't make a habit of going into people's personal lives and... yeah. Sorry."

Now a snarl starts crawling his way onto his face. "Don't assume you know me, human."

"I'm not, man! Like," She scoffs, trying to think of something to calm the angry wolf down. "I was a mute most of my life."

His face stops increasing its snarling, so she takes that as a win. "Mute?"

"Yeah, I was. It's super embarrassing to think about and every time someone brings it up and thinks it was cool I die a little inside."

Now his ears start folding back. "...why are you telling me this." He doesn't even make it sound like a question.

"Because I... I don't know," She fumbles for a moment. "I feel like I need to stay even with you, or something. I know something personal about you, now you know something personal about me."

Yet another long pause stretches out between them, which was only filled by Ghost taking her knife away when he deemed that there wasn't going to be any blood spilled. At least the water is still warm, coating her lower half in wet heat.

Natani, after the long moment of debating with himself, pins her with a look she can't place. "You called me 'man.'"

She furrows her brow. "I did. And?"

Now it's his turn to squint his eyes at her. "Why?"

"Why?"

He wanted to say more. There was so much more he wanted to say, to yell, to be frustrated about, but he was too afraid to say it.

He walked into this room thinking he was alone, not thinking someone would be just out of sight and forget to lock their door. Getting soft, isn't he? It was sloppy, thinking he would be safe and let down his guard. Twice in one night - thrice, if he counts the skill of one human - he slipped up.

Now she knows. She knows. He was half tempted to blast a spell at her and make a run for it, screw the money, forget the blasted sky stone, and curse ever crossing that human's path. It would probably get him killed; she probably has a knife hidden just out of view, knowing how sneaky she is.

Instead, she... said sorry? Sorry?

(There wasn't a world where he expected to hear someone apologize for seeing his secret. It was wordless with Zen, in which he was already an exception. And a certain princely bastard is the total opposite of it all, setting his expectations.)

Wolf was either absolutely insane or stupid in some way he hadn't expected. He can't trust it to be anything else.

Instead of answering his question, he sees a dawning comprehension grow in her eyes. "Oh. Did... you not want me to?"

What? "No." He grits out from behind his fangs.

She shrugs. "Then you're the man, Natani."

He blinks. Opens his maw, then closes it. Licks his lips when he feels how dry they are, then tries again. "What?"

(He's been saying that a lot lately. He blames Wolf.)

Her shoulders slump, letting out a frustrated sigh. "Alright, you know what-" She grips the side of the tub and hoists herself out of it, flinging water all over the floor and-

...huh, so that's what a human looks like-

And the distraction she inadvertently caused was enough for her to power walk up to him and place both hands on his shoulders. He has to look down at her, being suddenly reminded that Wolf, despite her unnatural skill, is a bit shorter than the average wolfess.

She locks eyes with him, a determined look that's similar to the one she used earlier with her final knife throw. "Natani."

"...yes?"

"What do you think is more important: the action, or the reason?"

"What- what do you mean?"

"A long time ago, someone asked me the same question. When I wanted her to elaborate, she asked me one of the bluntest questions right after it. 'What color is the sky?' What do you think the answer to that question is."

In spite of the... oddly intimate position they're in, he thinks the second question over. The first thing he wants to say is that the sky is blue, but if this was a trick question then he's not including the night sky, either. A black sky, but if he were to think even more the stars wouldn't make it truly black, either. But maybe the question isn't as complicated as it seems, and... no, this is Wolf he's talking about, of course it will be complicated.

"Depends on the time, I guess. Either blue or black." A thought crosses his mind. "Sometimes orange, purple and yellow at sunset."

She nods. "Said the same thing. You know what she told me? Said it was green."

"...no, it isn't."

"That's what I said. Then she took me on a trip to Nessus, back in Sol, and the sky was green there."

She continues while he reels at the thought of a green sky. "Despite the fact of being wrong, I asked why she told me all of this anyways, and she said 'Even when you're right, you're wrong. If the sky can be whatever the fuck it wants to be, then why can't we?' We went and did a patrol after that, but the words stuck with me. She still didn't tell me what was more important, but I think she said that mostly to catch any brainiacs that might give her an answer instead of asking why."

"Oh." He mulls it over. "Then... what did you mean when you called me a man when I'm... like this." He looks down at himself, frowning.

"Take a guess."

He frowns for a different reason, now. "I don't know, maybe you're just humoring me?"

"Nope. Guess."

He sighs. "Look, I'm tired enough to sleep until tomorrow afternoon, can you just be straight with me?"

She looks like, for a moment, she will keep up this weird persona she put up, but it cracks as an embarrassed look crosses her face. "Right, it has been a while..." She looks him back in the eyes. "Well, because you said so."

He waits for a better explanation, but doesn't get one. "...that's it?"

She nods.

"...that can't be it, can it?"

She shrugs. "Not everything in the universe is a complex motive, Nat."

"Then- then what was all that flowery talk about?"

"To get you off-kilter. Part of why I kinda walked up and put my hands on your shoulders. Which..." She looks down at herself. "...huh. I'm a bit too comfortable to do this, aren't I?"

He knocks off her hands from his shoulders, gently. "Humans normally get skittish at the thought of how... natural we can be."

She scoffs. "Like you want to walk out of here in the buff, anyways."

Wolf did make a good point. The last thing he'd probably ever do is not wear something, which... yeah. It defeats the whole 'hiding one's womanliness' thing.

Although... "What about you? You seemed fairly comfortable right now."

Finally, finally, a blush crosses her face, suddenly appearing a lot more self-conscious of herself. "Shut up, you're the one who barged in here, anyways. There's a word for people like you."

He suddenly feels a lot more satisfied about this whole mess. If, for nothing else, he got one over her by the end of the day. He almost forgets that he's not hiding himself, which... Well, that was what Wolf was trying to do, wasn't it?

He mentally calls off Zen, saying the situation was handled. He asked how, which Natani explained, then... oh, great, he wants to have a talk later.

He sighs to himself, in a corner of his mind that's truly his own. Older siblings...

"I'm still going to tell you that this is a terrible idea."

"What?"

"You- you can't just go off outside my scanning range and just assume I'll go along with whatever idea pops into your mind!"

"But you did."

"Augh, because you'll probably get yourself killed if you do it alone! You have any idea how many dangerous situations you get yourself into?!"

"Yes."

"Wha- so you do know? Why are you like this?!"

The constant bickering would've been hilarious to listen to if she wasn't so confused. First, she was terrified by the magenta-eyed wisp-thing (it's very much not a wisp, which serves to confuse her further on why the two look so much like one) but with how calm it was she was inclined to calm down some and hear it out. Apparently, they're lost and want to find civilization, saying their 'instruments' are severely muffled. She had no idea how an instrument can help someone find their way to a village - or where they even kept it? - but she felt inclined to assist another odd creature and point them in the right direction.

Then the flashing blue-eyed not-wisp came crashing in and started yelling. She couldn't really tell from the speed if she was the target, the first not-wisp (who looked entirely undisturbed by the flashing lights and volume) or just felt like yelling in general. After that, the magenta-eyed creature somehow convinced the flashing blue one to come along, which caused another argument of what she was and why she knew how to speak 'Mandarin' despite being human.

That led to a stumbling conversation of her being confused for many, many reasons, but she settled on saying she's just a keidran with a magical lantern. She then had to come up with a lie she's used a couple of times, saying that the blue flame will never go out and can move outside the lantern, but she much rather not part from it.

Both of them seemed interested in the nature of magic, but... well, being a creature of magic didn't exactly make her an adept in its knowledge. Not that she told them, but still.

After that, she told them the usual for the scant few times she had to travel with someone: she doesn't lead, stating it's just bad luck for her to. Another weird look from the two, but they moved their shells(?) in an odd pattern and agreed.

Then the blue one started bickering with the magenta one about so many things. From the cold wind moving it ever so slightly, to the slow pace she's keeping, all the way to losing track of someone they refer to as 'Boss.' It was about the only time blue didn't sound annoyed, too, which was interesting.

At the lack of answer from magenta, blue makes a scoffing sound - which, now that she has time to listen, sounds incredibly odd, like hearing a distant waterfall every time they speak - and turns around to her.

"Alright, fine! If we're going to be traveling together, we might as well get a name out of you."

She can't help but shrink a little; every time it speaks she feels like she's being scolded. "W-Willow?"

The blue one's eyes flicker for a moment. "As in the tree? You have willows here?"

At the sudden change in tone - and volume - she almost doesn't answer, but dredges up the strength to do so. "Yes? Are they not common where you're from?"

"Other way around. Supposedly." Magenta interjects.

"Confirmed. Huh." They look around. "Now that you mention it, these trees do look like cedar..."

"They're not cedars. Not ours."

Now Willow's brows furrow, around the same time the light in her real body flickers inside the lantern. "They are cedar trees, though..."

"Ours are slightly different. These ones have pine in them, too."

She doesn't know what to say to that, so she keeps quiet. After a while, the two creatures go back to bickering, which gives her enough courage to ask a burning question of hers. "What are you two, if I can ask?"

Blue flashes a couple of times, fixing her with a look. "Why do you want to-"

Magenta interrupts. "Ghosts."

"-know... Nevermind, guess you'll just tell everyone you meet, what does it matter what I want..."

"G-Ghosts?" Willow repeats, mostly out of disbelief.

"Not ghosts as in spirits." Magenta answers her unasked question. "Machines, made by a higher being and set out to find Guardians. Usually."

Yet again, she feels like she won't understand anything if she keeps diving deeper, so she refocuses herself to guiding these... ghosts, to Edinmire. It'll be another day before she can get in by night, then take her temporary stop at Riftwall before moving on again. It's...

It's the best she can do. For her.

Her flame dims, but she keeps walking.

Oh joy, another chapter. This one did not want to happen, but starting another fic helped me get through this one, somehow?