When I arrived at the gate, it was in a good mood. The adventurers who were already there stared.

“Umm, Lyte, why...?” Liz asked hesitantly.

I glanced back at the struggling coil of ropes that was Tear, who I had slung over one shoulder. “She tried to run away,” I said ominously.

“…”

“So, is everyone ready?” I asked cheerfully into the silence.

“Mmmm-! Mmm-! Mmmmm-!” Tear complained loudly.

“What was that Tear? I can't hear you through the gag,” I responded callously.

“Mmmmmmm-!”

“Anyway, back to what I was saying, if you're not, you have, er, 3 and a half minutes left. Huh. I guess you just have to be ready now. Talking of being ready for a trek and camp, where's Dranner?”

“He's just coming now,” Lupia said, stepping round a building, then stopping and staring at Tear. “Really Lyte,” she asked, exasperatedly.

“What? I'm going to untie her when we leave.”

“Putting that aside-,”

“Mmmmmmh!”

“-is everyone ready?”

“Aye, I think we be good te go,” Thora replied for the group.

Lupia turned to me. “Lyte, what about you?”

“Yup, I’m ready for anything,” I replied cheerfully, “got my yoyo right here!” I pulled a large green-silver yoyo out of my hotbar and started doing tricks with it (I was cheating, it moved according to my mental directions, not my yoyo skills).

Lupia gave me a strange look, as did everyone else present.

“I like thhhissss man!” Stone hissed with laughter, “he'sss truly inssssane!”

“Um, thank you?” I replied hesitantly.

“I don't think it should be a compliment,” Tear commented, having managed to chew through the gag just enough to be intelligible.

“Shush, you,” I said, and she snorted angrily, but I was saved any further remark by the arrival of Dranner.

“You are late Dranner, hurry up,” Lupia scolded him as soon as he was within earshot.

“Woman, I am of a higher court rank than you, a-,” he began.

“-And I am the adventurers guild official in charge of this test, and you are an examinee, so I outrank you here,” Lupia interrupted.

He ground his teeth and steamed, but didn't say anything; he couldn't refute that. Lupia turned to me.

“Lyte, if you would please untie Tear, then we can be on our way.”

I nodded, and unwound the rope by picking at one end then pulling it up, hand over hand, quickly enough that the rapidly spinning Tear never hit the ground. As I pulled the last of the rope off, I reached down and lifted Tear to her feet while she was still midair, then gave her a light tap on the back. She stumbled forward dizzily and walked into the town wall.

“You asshole!” she shouted angrily, steadying herself on it then walking towards me wonkily, sometimes heading in completely the wrong direction.

I was leaning against a nearby house, wheezing with laughter as she wandered steadily closer and straighter as the vertigo wore off. Tear half fell, half crashed into me, and I let her knock me to the ground, still laughing.

“Be glad I don't want to damage my knife by stabbing your thick skull,” the infuriated catgirl hissed.

My laughter gradually died down to a chuckle, and I rubbed Tears head fondly. “Ah, I'm sorry about that, it was cruel. But hilarious,” I added, standing up and somehow arranging it so that Tear was held in my arms.

“Let me down!” she complained and I shook my head.

“Not until your eyes stop spinning,” I said firmly, and headed out the gate. “You guys coming?” I called back to the adventurers, several of whom were looking at me appraisingly.

Tear fumed as she walked next to me. I had let the catgirl down after about five minutes and had immediately attempted to put some distance between us, but the adventurers had insisted she stay next to Lupia and me so they could protect us all more easily.

I hummed as we walked, a deep, slightly sad and formless tune, the rhythm that of our walking. I stopped when I was grumpily informed by Tear that I had no ear for tone, which was then agreed nigh-simultaneously by over half the party. To add further insult, I was then told that Vyra would have agreed with them had he not been scouting ahead. We continued on in silence after that.

It was shortly afterwards that Tear tripped over a tree root. I caught her, and she muttered “Thanks,” before she realised who it was, then growled angrily at me, pulling herself free with a jerk and continuing on.

Liz chuckled, then asked the thought I felt she had been marinating for a while. “So, Lyte, what's your relationship with Tear?”

I thought for a brief while on how to summarise it. “Even though I’ve only known her for a few days, she’s sorta like the little sister I never had,” I eventually concluded, then smirked. “Emphasis on the 'little'.”

Tear jabbed me in the ribs with her elbow, then clutched at it with tears in the corners of her eyes.

“You should really stop doing that,” I advised.

“You're just too damn hard!” she complained.

Liz chuckled. “You're definitely giving off sibling vibes.”

Tear 'hrumphed' then turned away.

“She looks in a little better mood now,” I thought. “I really shouldn't have done that earlier. She was upset enough to try and stab me after that failed kidnapping incident, I probably brought back bad memories.”

As I was reflecting, Liz turned to Lupia. “So what's your relationship with Lyte? she asked.

“He's a friend I suppose,” she replied after a brief pause to think.

“Really just a friend? You don't 'like', him then?” Liz questioned insinuatingly.

“Uh, no, not in that way, I mean, I've never seen him as more than a friend.” I nodded, that was the impression I had had of our relationship. “I even have a fiancé,” she continued.

“Really? Who's the lucky guy then?”

“His name is Latti,” Lupia replied, and a slight blush spread across her cheeks, her tail whipping from side to side around her heels.

“Oho~ Go on~”

“He's the same age as me, and from the same clan. I've known him for years. And- and- I adore him to bits!” Lupia burst out, burying her rapidly flushing face in her hands and acting more flustered than I'd ever seen her.

I sighed and shook my head as Liz began bombarding Lupia with questions, and ruffled Tear's orange hair while she was looking elsewhere, then acted completely innocent when she looked round.

I had been keeping an eye on my cell phone readouts, so wasn't too surprised when Liz suddenly stopped mid sentence and snapped her head up.

Vyra dropped from a branch to land just in front of the party.

“We got incoming,” he said gravely.