“Alright *Tagalong Girl*, we’re about to break out of the forest. You lean back all you like, but if she's about to topple over, you catch her, alright?”

Though I wanted to keep him grounded, Clavi was just too clever to leave jammed up in Inventory. After a week of being cramped into the extra-dimensional space, I decided to make use of him. Still, I would not be too lenient—Clavi’s task would be a fairly boring one. Mischief on his part would introduce errors, but I had faith in his fidelity to the task.

Spending half of each night running east before returning west, Clavi acted as a radar and was ordered to turn around early if he encountered anything of note. It was only a simple warning system, but he moved a great deal faster than we did and without rest. This gave me two days to prepare before actually reaching the edge of the forest personally.

So with that warning, I prepared us to exit the forest. Though we would camp inside the edge, it wasn’t unlikely to come across a woodsman. In light of that, I dismounted to walk alongside the horse. Tagalong Girl informed me that she didn’t notice much odd about it until she used her mage sight, but even unaugmented vision seemed to be able to glean something surreal about . I got off in hopes of drawing attention away from it and towards myself.

Taking both bags out of Inventory and applying a paste to alter Ria’s skin tone to one more human, we looked...passable. People might find our situation odd if they thought on it too long, but for the moment I didn’t intend to let us linger about civilization yet. We were only going to dip our toes in to see how well we got by.

“Are we leaving the forest today?” Tagalong Girl complained in the form of a question. Well, as usual, she didn’t mean to complain, but it her reason for asking could be guessed easily enough.

“We’re headed out for real today. Yesterday was just to get accomodate you. Try to keep your scowl down, especially if we come across anyone.”

The fact that she was willing to sit alongside Ria without my interposition was an improvement, but I could always hope for them to get along better than before. At least Tagalong Girl either happened to be getting better at controlling her expressions, or too numb to the experience to raise much of a fuss.

Well even if it wasn’t an enjoyable experience for her, it’s good to begin building up the stoic mindset needed on occasion.

“I guess you can be somewhat dour, your ‘sister’ is sick after all. Just remember the context—alright, let’s just go already, nothing to say I haven’t said already.” Having trouble not reiterating a thousand little rules for Tagalong Girl, I finally stopped my blathering and we set out.

As the forest thinned, the sound of birds and insects resounded many times louder than they had further inside. Not because they were more prevalent, but because the grave shadows now congregated to a point north of us. Traveling across the plains would make an encirclement of specters far more obvious. However my hoarder personality still couldn't bear to be rid of them. Luckily as they were mostly incorporeal, even 50 of them could be compacted into a small area. The resulting mass of shadows looked far more ominous and eye-catching, but being compacted to about disk about seven feet in diameter meant there would be far less opportunity for it to be noticed in the first place.

At least it would be unlikely for someone to associate our group with the distant writhing mass of darkness.

Preparations in order we set out, only a few minutes passing before we found ourselves out on the vast plains of Derriad once more. Scanning the nigh-featureless horizon, a smattering of trees indicated a waterway to the northeast. While becoming too involved with civilization was something to be avoided, we hadn’t quite reached the point of self reliance. A few more items needed to be picked up before we tried leaving the country. After all, since there wasn’t exactly a concrete destination in mind, planning needed to take into consideration the uncertainties of the future.

Though we were on the outskirts of the area that could be considered part of Medean’s territory, by following the river it wasn’t long before a settlement came into view. As one would expect, it was no more than a tiny hamlet on par with Salt Village. On whole though, it was more orderly. Houses were aligned with their walls parallel to one another, and looked to be in a better state of repair.

Well, it’s natural for the second village encountered to be a slight step up from the first one. The inn prices would probably be slightly more expensive as well.

“Hmm, I suppose we can just run through and check their exports before moving on. Is Ria still holding up back there?”

“She is fine...but why are we stopping here? Not showing our faces at all would be much better if we are trying not to be noticed.”

“Tsk tsk.” I wagged my finger back and forth while leading the way to the village. “I’m certain we’ve been over this before. To avoid notice it’s important to follow local customs, or at the very least not stand out too much. However in this case the only way to know if we fit in is by stepping in to the situation. And there’s much less risk in being caught out in the boonies.”

Glancing back, when Tagalong Girl failed to respond, she nodded in tacit acceptance of the reasoning. She likely had more questions in mind, but since they were not voiced I could do nothing about it.

Shifting closer to as we approached, I didn’t expect any trouble, but there was no harm staying a bit closer. Arriving at a time period in the late afternoon, the fields surrounding the hamlet were vacant; it seemed we really would be popping in unannounced.

In fact, I found the duration before we were recognized by the inhabitants slightly odd. One would think on the outskirts of civilized territory that people would be more aware of their surroundings, but we were not even 20 meters away from the closest house when they spotted us.

“Evening to you all!” Proactively speaking a greeting to a mana field as it rounded the corner, the flow of conversation is most easily controlled by those make themselves heard. “Have you any spare materials some travelers might be looking to buy? In particular some canteens or large sheets of canvas would be helpful.”

“Erm, evening to you as well stranger.” A farmer with dirty shins and calloused hands stammered out a response from under the eaves. “I’m not positive on what all we have, but if you can pay I’m sure there will be some willing to part from some goods.”

“Thank you very much! Then who around here do you suggest we go to? I think we might still be able to cover more ground today, so it would be nice to do so quickly. I managed to get quite a bit of coin before we left our home—it’ll definitely be a good deal for you. ”

Truly, nothing drew interest like the sound of coins destined for one’s own pockets. Before even fully recovering from a sudden appearance of visitors, the farmer now seemed securely locked onto the thought of money.

It may be framed in a way that the greed is overemphasized, but there was nothing wrong with a little avarice in the position. Saying the hamlet surpassed Salt Village was only a relative measure, and any coin meant a lot. Besides, a bird in the hand was worth two in the bush—being able to sell what goods on hand was preferable to holding on to them.

With the power of my reverse-sales pitch, the farmer quickly took it upon himself to show us to his house. Tagalong Girl looked over to me with concern, but I simply led the horse alongside me as we went to see what was being offered to us.

“Now why don't you three come inside, I have plenty of things that would make the journey of travelers such as yourselves much easier in the future. Sitting up there the whole time would be tiring; come, take a rest.” Becoming more energetic, he gestured inside. “Oh and why don't we take your horse around back? Quite the fine mount, it’s certainly been blessed by the Patriarch. Why don't I take it to go graze in the fields while you settle in?”

“Ah~” I held up my hands interrupting him. “That's a fine offer, but I'm afraid *Sparky* doesn't take to others well. Lucy, watch over Rea while I take him out to the field. Don’t worry, I’ll be back in a flash.” Willfully misinterpreting Tagalong Girl’s displeasure as resulting from our brief separation, I also noted our host’s behaviour while lifting Ria off the horse, who had spontaneously been named Sparky.

“What’s...hey, going on? Where…?” As I carried her, Ria roused herself slightly. Hopefully if it came to it she could follow along the instructions I gave her during her fits of lucidity. Again Tagalong Girl looked concerned, but Ria was reliably cloaked in several layers of clothing.

Really, that look on your face will only draw more attention to the situation. Everything will turn out just fine, so relax a little more.

“We’re picking up a few supplies before we continue on our journey. Try stretching a bit, but don't over-exert yourself.” Her legs already wobbled slightly, unused to carrying their own weight. Even so, Ria could manage, at least for this brief interaction. “If you wouldn't mind, is there somewhere she can sit? Her constitution has been worsening as of late. Even standing for too long can be too stressful; it's the reason why we're traveling in the first place. There was no one to care for her at home, and after she came down with whatever this is, I couldn't support us all without her help. Rea has always had such a strong and wonderful character, and needless to say I would do anything to help her get better. Unfortunately, no one knew what to make of her waning health, so we've set out to find a cure for her. We sold our homestead, which was a great pain, but it was necessary—”

“You've been through a lot,” The farmer cut off the excessive story. All according to kekaiku(TL note:kekaiku means plan). He would probably no longer be quite so eager to ask questions about us now. “Well, Rea, was it? Please, come in and sit down. As soon as the horse is left elsewhere we can start our business.”

“Right, take care of your sister Lucy. Make use of speed and balance. Oh, and watch our stuff. I’ll be right back.” From the ‘other side’ of Sparky, I pulled out Tagalong Girl’s spear and tossed it to her. At this point it was probably unnecessary, but it never hurt to be prepared.

It would be more dissuasive if she kept the surprise off her face, but such was a skill that came with experience. I shrugged it off and spurred Sparky off to the grassy fields.

oOoO0OoOo0oOoO0OoOo

In the manner of a hummingbird, Alric darted around camp, making preparations. Imira watched as he mixed a strange concoction in his hands while at the same time using some sort of magic to rearrange the contents of their bags and Ria’s clothing.

Sitting on the forest floor, she slightly swayed back and forth, as there was nothing for her to do. Nothing but pondering over why they were going to show themselves when Alric had continually been repeating that he did not want them to be noticed. While he usually seemed to try and make room for Imira to practice certain skills, on occasion he would—not quite forget, but would treat her presence as one similar to Ria.

It was condescending in a way, but not quite in a manner she could take umbrage with. Much like how the wizard would diminish Imira’s autonomy, she found it necessary to abstract him as something not quite human. Calling him mad would be a simple resolution, but it missed the fact that everything seemed to happen in accordance with his whims, not just by chance, but by design as well.

Not that that could possibly settle her nerves when ‘according to plan’ meant anything from a good tasting meal to wrestling a beast to the forest to the ground with one hand before vivisecting it. While her ultimate safety may not be in question, the potential for unpleasantness was limitless.

Waltzing into a foreign village, with Ria in her current state—the very thought of it sent Imira into a perpetual position of anxiety. Whatever happened, she would have almost no control over the situation.

Alric confirmed that they were truly leaving the forest for a village without further elucidation. A thousand question as to why still boiled in her head, but she simply did her best to climb atop the horse. Taking off at a quick canter, she settled in to the jostling of the creature as it tried to follow Alric.

Wind swept unobstructed across the barren grasslands, a featureless field as far as the eye could see. As opposed to the heady loamy scent of the forest, the sharp breeze left clear air with only a hint of pollen.

The vast emptiness of the surroundings shook Imira. While Salt Village may have been situated alongside one of the great plains of Derriad, there was always something in sight. Now with an absence of anything at all left her uneasy.

Scanning the horizon for anything, several hours passed before something other than a vague blur finally appeared in the distance.