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Chapter 8

Fall of a King

The next morning, Alice wakes with a dry, itchy throat. Drinking soothes it a bit but only for a while. She's rubbing the fur along her neck, causing a prickly sensation in her esophagus, when Lyca joins her by the shrinking pool.

"That's how it starts," says the wolf girl, getting a drink herself.

It's still very early and only a few of the forest dwellers are up, though the fire has been tended to all night. Keeping her voice low, Alice asks, "What?"

"The sickness, that tingling in the back o' your throat that won't go away. That's how it started for everyone."

"But we drank the tea," Alice reasons, her worry growing.

Lyca shrugs, "Who knows if it'll work."

"Maybe we just need more," Alice suggests, getting another drink of water.

The two take over looking after the fire so the last two attendees can sleep. They break branches into long sticks, setting the smaller pieces into the flames, as the duo before them did. A few of the tougher roots and tubers from yesterday are in the iron pot slowly boiling with a few greens and much of what's left of the snake. Alice feels a little hungry, but the group agreed this would be left for those unable to walk. True, she had a some food stored in her pack, but feels it would be smarter to keep it for more desperate times. After all, they were hunting today.

As more of the group wake, they have a small breakfast of leftovers while going over the plans from last night. Twelve, including Alice, Twinkaleni, and Danahlia, plan to head out into the forest. They have several goals. The first is to test an idea Twinkaleni had for dealing with the floating puffballs. If successful, they will forage and hunt, all the while trying to clear a path back to the forest dweller's abandoned camp. Reclaiming the camp will give Alice and her companions a good staging point to resume their journey through the thick forest while also greatly aiding Lyca and Philip's group. They all know it will be a risky trip, but the forest dwellers are especially eager to get on with it. Success will mean healing their friends and getting back their home.

The twelve prepare, Alice, Twinkaleni, and Danahlia, taking all their belongings, while Lyca, Philip, and the older brother of the Lagomorph girl, place the ends of the long sticks into the fire. Once they're lit, the forest dwellers carry a bundle of them, keeping the tips close together so their collective heat keeps them burning. Others carry sacks and simple wooden spears. Once the party is ready, they set out.

As they walk, Alice sharpens a few of the group's spears, giving them finer points. She has managed a few when they spot their first floating puffball. Philip steps up to take this one and hands his bundle of burning sticks to another, keeping one for the task. The puffball is drifting slowly by, three feet off the ground. Philip blows on the burning end of the stick, the embers there glowing brighter until a small flame appears. He then slowly and carefully extends the stick below the puffball.

"Remember to let only the flame touch it, not the stick," Twinkaleni reminds anxiously, her tiny arms squeezing her book.

Focused on the effort, Philip manages to keep the stick's flame lit while reaching out as far as he can to avoid any spores. He needn't worry. One of the long hairs hanging off the puffball drifts near enough to catch and, like the fuse to a bomb, quickly carries the flame to its host causing it to erupt in a bright ball of fire. It's noisy but by now the group knows what to expect and only cheers their success. Finally, they had a way to fight back.

As planned, from here the twelve split into four groups of three. Twinkaleni advised this to increase the chances of finding immature fungi for the cure, cover more ground for potential forage, and widen the safe route to the forest dwellers' camp. Philip, Twinkaleni, and Danahlia form one group, while Alice goes with Lyca and Nesu. They wish each other well and begin to fan out. As the distance between groups widens, the pops of more detonated puffballs encourages them all on.

Alice spots an older puffball fungal formation on the trunk of a still living tree and accepts one of the burning sticks from Lyca. Twinkaleni had destroyed these with her fire spell, but the sticks were yet untested. Alice blows on the end of the stick until a faint flame ignites at the tip and then pokes the fungus. At the point of contact, sizzling embers bloom and spread in a fine orange wave across the entire splatter leaving it black. Once it's done, Alice scratches the charred fungus with the stick to find it's become little more than ash.

"That was easy," grins Alice.

"Alright," Lyca says approvingly, "I guess your friend knows a thing or two."

The trio venture more boldly into the forest, taking turns popping the floating puffballs and burning away their parent fungi. The echoing pops of floaters elsewhere let them know the other groups are progressing as well. The frequent explosions are no doubt keeping ferals away but the small group does manage to gather a descent bit of forage now that they no longer have to fear the floating puffballs. After a time they come across a tree with a thick round canopy that has fruit Lyca calls deliduss.

The deliduss fruit are shaped similarly to apples, but have a subtle bumpy texture to their skin. Some of the fruit are just becoming ripe, turning a bright orange, while many are still yellow and even green. Alice, Lyca, and Nesu, pick one each to try and find it sweet and tangy. The fruit has a crunch to it but still yields easily to Alice's teeth. Like the apple it resembles, the core contains several small seeds. They toss these into the surrounding forest with the hope that they might germinate into more such trees. After their snack, the group begins carefully picking the rest of the ripe fruit. They have to be cautious doing this because the branches of the deliduss tree have long, thin thorns, sparse but well hidden among lush leaves.

Once they get all they can reach, Nesu circling around the lowest branches while Lyca and Alice bag any around the middle, Alice stands on Lyca's back to reach even higher. They trade off who is on all fours and who picks as they ring the tree.

Lyca is on Alice's back when Nesu announces excitedly, "Lyca, I smell aphy juice."

"What?" asks Alice, her arms shaking under the wolf girl's weight.

"Ok, we'll go get it in a sec," says Lyca, her toes nails digging uncomfortably into the Tokala's shoulder.

"It's over here!" squeaks the Murin as he sniffs the air and heads into the trees.

Alice, gritting her teeth, watches him go, "He's runnin' off."

"Nesu! No, wait!" Lyca shouts, her weight shifting on Alice's back.

She makes an annoyed sound and it feels like she hops, nearly planting Alice's face into the earth. The Tokala manages to hold out, hearing the sound of the tree shake as the Lobovan plucks one last fruit before getting off of her.

Alice rolls onto her back in relief and, upside down, watches Lyca run after the little mouse boy calling, "Come on, Red!"

Grumbling, Alice gets to her feet, picks up her sword, and, stretching her back, jogs after them.

She finds the pair only a short distance away, Lyca kneeling before Nesu, admonishing him for leaving without her.

The mouse boy whines, "But it was right here," pointing to a bulbous plant near the ground among large, wide, green leaves.

As Nesu endures a scolding, Alice looks closer at the strange plant. It resembles a melon, oblong in shape, standing on the ground so it's taller than it is wide. It's lime green save for the top where the color changes to a bright red at a wide opening. An interestingly enticing smell is coming from it, something like fresh fruit.

"Is this what he wanted?" Alice asks, seeing the top opening has a hairy lip curving outward along the rim.

"Mm-hm," sniffles Nesu.

"Yeah, it's an amphora plant," says Lyca, the two approaching.

"It smells," Alice takes a deep inhale through her nose, lured closer to the opening, "good."

Lyca grins, "Look inside, but don't touch it."

Alice does, finding the melon thing is filled about halfway with some kind of clear liquid, the delicious fruity scent growing stronger.

"Aphy juice," supplies Nesu.

"You drink it?" Alice asks, tempted to put her hand in to scoop some up.

"Yup, good stuff, but don't touch the lip. Here, let me," Lyca approaches with her spear and seems intent on piercing the plant near its base. Nesu holds out his hands, cupped in eager anticipation just below Lyca's spear point, but then the Lobovan looks back to Alice, "Any o' your waterskins empty?"

One nearly is and they share what's left before letting Nesu hold it open right under where Lyca punctures the melon shaped bulb. She twists the point of her spear into the apparently soft flesh of the plant until the clear liquid comes streaming out. Nesu catches it in the waterskin until the plant is empty, then immediately takes a drink. He lets out a delighted noise when he swallows, offering the skin to Lyca. She takes a drink, grins, and gives the skin back to Alice. She sniffs at it, the tantalizing scent's obvious source, and takes a drink too.

The juice is warm, sweet, thin like water, and delicious. It leaves a tingling sensation on Alice's tongue that makes her stick it out to see the cause though there's nothing there. Lyca laughs taking another drink before passing it to Nesu. In good spirits they continue on, burning away the puffballs and gathering what they can, eyes open for the immature fungi.

By late afternoon, the trio finally arrives in the forest dweller's main camp, the first to do so. Alice figures they must have been here for some time because they'd set up a few makeshift huts from sticks and woven branches. The simple structures are set in an expanding circle in front of a cave.

Excited to be back, Nesu scampers off toward the cave as Lyca sets down her forage sack and bundle of sticks to throw open her arms, "Well, what do ya think? Not too shabby huh?"

Alice sets down her things, relieved they finally made it. She peers around noting rotting bedrolls made of woven grasses, a couple of fire pits with a few battered earthen wares around them, and a fallen tree trunk that might serve as a bench or even a table.

"It needs a little fixin' up o' course. It's been a while and we had to leave in kind of a hurry," the wolf girl admits.

Alice takes one of the burning sticks, nearly half the original length now, and pops a floating puffball drifting lazily by, before grinning, "Wags."

Lyca smiles, pointing, "There's a pond just over there. We should probably-"

Nesu lets out a panicked squeak and comes flying out of the cave toward them, the boy crying, "Monster, monster!"

Alice draws her sword and Lyca takes up her spear as he hides behind her legs, all eyes on the dark cave mouth. Alice picks up a subtle taping, rapid and continuous, each individual tap blending in with a score of others to make one long rattling sound that grows louder with each second. The tapping reaches its apex when two long, yellow sticks come waving out from the shadows, rapping at the ground but too slowly, too cautiously, to be the source of the noise. Alice's grip on her sword tightens and her teeth clench as the yellow sticks get longer and thicker, reaching out from the cave to become the antennas of some kind of gigantic multi-legged worm.

Its antennas are easily as big around as Alice's arms at their base and wave around independent of each other from the front of a bright orange head. Shiny and rounded, it's about as wide as Alice's torso. The head is quickly followed by a segmented body of similar color and proportions, though these segments instead have legs the same color as the antennas. The creature seems hesitant to come out of the cave, sticking to the shadows until it can gather more of itself. This takes some time as more and more legged segments appear from the darkness to curl around the previous.

A chill runs through the young Tokala as she sees how absurdly long it is. Her tail tucks, ears fall back, and grip loosens as her nerve crumbles. She looks to Lyca to see if she intends flight or fight. The wolf girl's eyes widen and her mouth opens steadily as she looks on. The head of the goliath creature swings around uncertainly and then freezes, its antennas standing straight out toward the trio. Suddenly, it rushes them with unexpected speed, head low, lengthy body following.

"Oh, ticks," Lyca lets out breathlessly.

Alice, terrified and strangely fascinated, watches as the creature closes on them. Its legs work in a wave to propel the enormous thing. Lyca shifts to her right, pulling her attention away from their attacker.

The Lobovan pushes Nesu away from her and hurriedly tells him, "Run, find the others, GO!"

Startled by Lyca's shout, the Murin freezes for a second before fleeing for the trees the same way they had come.

Alice wonders if they should split up, running in different directions to avoid all being eaten by the monster, but before she can say anything Lyca snarls, "We had to run once, but this is my home and I'm takin' it BACK!"

The Lobovan charges the giant with her wooden spear.

"Lyca!" Alice shouts, torn between fleeing after the mouse and aiding the crazed wolf girl. Her body shifts as if intending to go backward and forward at the same time, but her feet stay still, legs shaking. Knowing she'd hate herself for the rest of her life if she abandoned her new friend, Alice raises Jellybane over her head and charges in too, screaming.

Lyca gets within a few feet of the oncoming monster before using her spear to vault herself over it. The orange giant lifts its head to track her, revealing two thick, curved mandibles spanning wide to take the wolf girl. An opening made, Alice leaps in to deliver a hard vertical chop aimed at splitting the creature down the middle. But it shifts, turning to follow Lyca to its back, causing her blow to only sever several thick legs on its right side before glancing off a hard carapace. The monster jerks in rage as it turns back toward Alice, knocking the fox girl several feet to its side. Alice tumbles to the ground but works it into a roll and catches herself, winded but not injured.

The massive worm can't turn sharply enough to get at her without making a wide arc and Alice uses the precious seconds to look for her sword, having lost it in the fall. She spots the gleaming blade under the bug, almost being trampled by its many legs as it maneuvers around for another attack. Looking back to see the creature's front end nearly upon her, she knows she won't be able to reach Jellybane in time. Then there's Lyca, straddling the monster while futilely stabbing at it with her spear, the wooden point breaking on the durable shell.

"Lyca! My sword!" shouts Alice, pointing for a split second before she needs to run from the oncoming bug's mandibles.

Lyca sees it and as she passes by, she holds onto the monster's thick body with her legs and leans over the side, taking up the enchanted weapon. Alice runs parallel to the long insect toward the cave, forcing it into a U before leaping over its body near the end to get on its opposite side. Meanwhile, Lyca plunges Jellybane down into the giant, the sharp, steel blade penetrating deep.

The effect is immediate, the monster worm writhing, its body trying to turn in onto itself. Lyca tumbles off, rolling to Alice's side and the Tokala helps the Lobovan to her feet, Jellybane still in the creature. They step away to watch as the giant wiggles wildly as if trying to reach the sword in its back. After some struggle, Jellybane begins to glow green but this time the blade brightens far more than usual until the squirming bug simply breaks in two where the sword pierces it, an acrid burning smell permeating the air. The greater portion of the bug stills, but the half with the head continues to move, pulling away from its dead end to target the girls.

Even missing several legs, the monster moves swiftly toward them, antennae pointing accusingly.

"Oh, that is just not fair!" Lyca groans as Alice shouts for them to run. They both turn and take off into the trees, the giant bug in hot pursuit.

As they flee, Lyca huffs, "There should be a rule! If you cut somethin' in half, it should die!"

"Tell_it_ that!" Alice calls back, trying to come up with a plan.

Lyca bares her teeth and shouts over her shoulder, "Hey! You're supposed to be dead!"

Alice gives her a glance, feet pounding the moist earth, and then she has it.

"Split up, circle around, he can only chase one of us, the other gets the sword!" she gasps between rapid breaths.

Lyca nods and veers off to the right while Alice turns left. The monster follows Lyca. Alice dashes back to the camp to search for Jellybane, instead finding Danahlia, Twinkaleni, Philip, and Nesu looking at the dead half of the giant bug.

"Guys!" she rasps and begins to cough, her throat terribly dry.

"Hey," Danahlia grins as they turn to her, "Looks like we missed the party."

Alice shakes her head, trying to breathe between coughs.

Twinkaleni looks puzzled, "Alice? Are you alright?"

Nesu looks about nervously, calling out, "Lyca? Lyca?!"

"Where is she?" asks Philip.

Alice manages to point in the direction she last saw the wolf girl, gasping, "Big. Bug," she then points at the still half, "Coming. Not dead."

This alerts them and Danahlia pokes her spear at the severed half, "This thing is still alive?"

Alice nods and then points more urgently in the direction Lyca was running.

She sees Jellybane and starts toward it when Lyca bursts from the trees, crying, "Get it get it get it get it get it!"

The Lobovan dashes across the camp and then starts weaving around trees and huts, trying desperately to widen the narrowing gap between her and the shockingly fast, bisected monster. The others are taken off guard and simply stare for a few seconds, trying to grasp the situation. Then Philip lifts one side of the log sitting in the middle of the camp and shouts to Lyca, "Over here!"

Lyca turns toward him and is clearly nearing the end of her stamina when she dives by. As the bug nears, the Echanian's muscles flex hard as he throws his side of the log into the bug's path with a grunt. It almost slips under but the weight of the log comes down on the creature's back, pinning it in place with a loud crack of its brittle carapace. Philip has to jump away to avoid its thrashing head when it tries to bite him. Then Danahlia ends the massive worm with a carefully aimed thrust from her spear.

"Ticks, what is this thing?" Danahlia asks, lifting its head with her still embedded spear to see its mandibles.

"Monster," Nesu states as if it should be obvious.

The little mouse is kneeling at Lyca's side, the wolf girl herself on her back, breathing raggedly in between dry coughs. Alice nods, drinking from the waterskin offered to her by Twinkaleni. Philip, after making sure the monster isn't playing opossum, checks on the Lobovan too.

The Murin mage offers the skin to Lyca once Alice is done, then, looking over at the dead, multi legged worm, says, "I believe it is known as a Greater King Centipede. There is an entry of just such a creature in my book, though seeing the illustration provides little preparation for an actual encounter with such a monstrosity."

Alice recovers Jellybane and examines the cut that divided the giant. The great wounds have been cauterized, black and gray ash sealing them with bits of transparent, yolk colored goo seeping out where the bug's insides leak. She looks down at her deceptively simple broadsword wondering what else it might be able to do.

Twinkaleni appears beside her, "Did you do all this?"

"No, it was Jellybane. It cut the monster in half," Alice whispers, still having trouble believing it.

"Remarkable," the little Murin intones, picking at the brittle, burnt edges of the centipede's bisected body.

"Wonder how his majesty tastes," chimes Danahlia, removing her spear for its head.

"As I recall, the text did say it was edible," mentions Twinkaleni.

The groups put what remains of their bundled sticks together in one of the camp's fire pits and, after a little coaxing, have a small fire going. They are soon joined by the other six, who are happy to report that they've found more of the immature fungi for the healing tea. Even though it's getting late, Philip decides to take a group back to their other camp in order to prepare the sick for the journey tomorrow. He and his party are given most of the fungi and a generous portion of the food the groups have gathered today in the hopes it will give the ill forest dwellers the strength to make the trip. Meanwhile, Lyca, Nesu, Alice, Twinkaleni, Danahlia and two others, stay behind to secure the camp and prepare for their arrival.

Danahlia and two forest dwellers hunt for potential fire wood while Lyca takes Alice and Twinkaleni to the cave. The inside is quite dry, if dark, and is where the forest dwellers stored much of their food and supplies. Though the centipede, and no doubt other scavengers, have eaten what was left, Lyca finds her group's cache of utensils relatively intact. Nesu picks out a small pot that should be perfect for brewing tea and hands it to Lyca, earning a pat on the head, while Alice finds a bow and arrows.

"Wow, where'd you get these?" she asks, picking the wooden bow up. It looks well made from a single piece of wood, rather than cobbled together like hers was.

Lyca smirks, "Like that huh? The Cold Blood pair I told you about left it for us before they took off. There's another one around here somewhere..."

"Estraleete," calls Twinkaleni, a small ball of ember light forming between her palms.

The cave now lit, Lyca gives the mage an approving, "Huh, you just got all kinds a tricks don't cha?"

Twinkaleni grins and then shifts away as a mesmerized Nesu reaches for the light. Not much larger than the boy, Twinkaleni can't keep it from him and the moment one of his outstretched fingers touches the little ball, it vanishes.

Nesu lets out a sad, "Oh."

Twinkaleni quickly summons another, chiding, "Now, you must be careful. Light can be a fragile element. It can be bent and even broken by the slightest touch."

Having learned his lesson, Nesu puts his hands around his back and follows Twinkaleni around as the group searches for anything they might need. Now that they can see the whole of it, the main chamber of the cave is not very deep but wide and cluttered with everything from torn sacks, which may have held food, various leaves, more woven beds, sticks, clay or wooden bowls, and even some rudimentary tools.

"What's that?" Alice asks, pointing to an unusual configuration of sticks that have been tied together.

"Oh, that's the bow we were tryin' to make. The Cold Bloods taught us how to build 'em so we were givin' it a go. That one should be about done now," says Lyca, picking up a knife. She places the knife in a large clay pot, picks it up and also takes the sticks before leading them back outside to the fire.

Danahlia has managed to get the flames to a less precarious height and now stands by the remains of the king centipede, scraping away at the ash left by Jellybane with her claws. She recoils when a puffy yellow clump pushes free from where she had been picking as it were under pressure. The lizard girl then sniffs at it before sticking out her fleshy, pink tongue to lick it. Alice and the others watch in a mix of curiosity and disgust.

Danahlia notices them staring at her and grins, "Not bad, might be better if we cook it though."

The others come to investigate as Danahlia tears away the clump and gives it a few squeezes. It seems mushy but retains its shape when released like a sponge. The Liguna tries to skewer it on a stick but it plops off back into her hand. Lyca blows dust from the inside of her clay pot before offering it and Danahlia drops the bug meat inside with a wet little splat. Using her claws, Danahlia removes more of the burnt flesh and scoops out great handfuls of the yellow mush, steadily filling the pot. While she does, Alice and the others take up burning sticks to scour the camp and surrounding woods for any more puffballs as well as to collect more wood before it gets dark.

Alice finds a couple of the older fungal splatters and turns them to ash. Hearing the now familiar pops elsewhere lets her know that there are still some puffballs floating about. She looks around for a time but doesn't see any herself. The sun is setting, causing shadows to deepen. This and unfamiliar sounds are making her more and more eager to return to her friends. The young Tokala picks up the thick end of a large fallen branch and hurriedly drags it back to camp.

When she arrives, Danahlia is stirring the clay pot with a thick stick. As Alice's branch rustles behind her, Danahlia looks up and calls, "Hey, check this out."

The Liguna pulls free the stick to show a clump of steaming centipede meat stuck to the other end, though it looks different. Alice lets go of the branch and steps closer to investigate. The meat now looks more like dough swirled around the end of the stick. It's thick enough that Danahlia only has to turn the stick a little to keep it from dropping off.

"Did you try it?" Alice asks, smelling the warm pleasant scent of cooked food.

"Yeah, it's good. Here," Danahlia replies, holding it out to her.

Alice accepts it and looks to see Twinkaleni sitting with Nesu on one of the old woven bedrolls, already enjoying her own centipede on a stick. Alice blows on the steaming pale yellow clump and watches the lizard girl scoop up some more from the centipede to plop it into the pot before she sets it back over the fire. Alice moves to join Twinkaleni and sees her take a bite. It's amusing to see the little Murin try to blow and chew at the same time, little puffs of steam drifting from her mouth. Grumbling stomach uninterested in waiting anymore, Alice tries it too.

Aside from being very hot, the bug meat is soft and moist, having the sticky texture of the dough it resembles. Alice doesn't get a chance to taste it, instead letting the chunk drop from her mouth before it can scorch her tongue anymore.

"It's hot," Nesu informs her, looking up from Twinkaleni's book.

"Thankth," says Alice, her tongue hanging out.

Nesu looks at her, wide eyed, for a moment before being drawn back to the book. While the mage eats, he flips through a few pages until he finds something he likes and then points, "What's that?"

Twinkaleni swallows a mouthful before reading, "Carbuncle, an elusive creature seen only once in all my travels, and then, only for an instant, but its beauty will stay with me to the end of my days. Spotted in the mountains of Abaharran near some old mines, it was roughly the size of a coney but with features more akin to a feral... cat," she reads, angling her book toward the flames to see the page better. Something occurs to her and she sets the book in Nesu's lap before making her way to her pack, rummaging around in it.

"You let him hold your book but you won't even let metouch it? I thought we were better than that, Twinkie," Danahlia calls, as she makes another bug pop for a young Houdain.

"Indeed," Twinkaleni replies without looking at her, "Nesu has an appreciation for the acquisition of knowledge that you seem to lack."

Danahlia sticks her tongue out at the mage.

"Ah, here it is," Twinkaleni chimes as she pulls free the enchanted core stone, its green light bright in the surrounding darkness. As she makes her way back to sit beside Nesu, he dutifully places his hands around his back, watching the core stone with undisguised interest. Twinkaleni tries to slide the book back into her lap but unable to handle her food, the book, and stone, she offers the glowing orb to Nesu. He immediately reaches for it but stops himself and looks curiously to Twinkaleni.

"It's alright, you can hold this one," she says, "Just don't drop it."

The younger Murin takes the core, looking deep into the mysterious light. It's bright enough that Twinkaleni can read, so she continues, "It had great ears that made me think it could fly if it chose and a marvelous coat of aqua marine. From what I could gather, the folk around say it takes gems from the mines. Some say catching a Carbuncle will bring you good luck, others say bad. Never bought into superstition myself."

Nesu asks what superstition is and Twinkaleni explains as Alice looks at the image beside the entry. It does look like a cat, though with longer limbs and massive wing like ears. Its tail too is thick and bushy, not so dissimilar from her own. Its eyes are almond shaped with a squat muzzle like a feline.

"What's the next one?" the young Houdain asks.

Surprised, Alice looks around to see almost everyone, including Lyca, has gathered around, perhaps drawn by the core stone or Twinkaleni's reading, though probably a little of both. It makes her smile and she tries the bug meat again.

It's cool enough now and the outside has gotten slightly tougher, though the inside is still plenty warm and soft. She finds it has a nutty fishy flavor to it with perhaps a slight bite of citrus. It's quite good and swallowing helps sooth the persistent little itch in her throat. She finishes quickly and returns to Danahlia for seconds. The King Centipede is so large the group can eat there fill and still have much of the bug left over. Someone has started to brew some fungus tea as well and once it cools, Lyca, Alice, and Nesu share it.

As they settle down for the night around the fire, Danahlia nudges Alice with her elbow. Grinning, the Liguna nods her head to Twinkaleni, who is drinking from a waterskin, and then casually says, "So, Philip's pretty cute, huh?"

The Murin mage's cheeks suddenly bulge just before water sprays from her nose. They share a laugh at the little mouse's expense, Twinkaleni sputtering and coughing while being roughly patted on the back by Danahlia.

The nine of them fall asleep around the fire as much for comfort as safety, though Alice is awoken by something tickling her nose. She finds Lyca's tail wagging in her sleep, the long fur of it making slight gusts. Alice groans and stills it with a hand. It's very soft and wiggles under her palm for a minute before stopping. Then Lyca rolls over to look at her. She is smiling, Nesu sleeping soundly in her arms still gripping the core stone. Alice grins back and under the soft light of the low fire, drifts off once more.