=-Shiona POV-=

I’m walking next to the fairy and the conspiracy-theory worthy mole person as we’re heading to back wherever these guys came from.

‘Hope they at least have some clothes that fit.’ I think, fearing I may be forced to wear clothing half my size.

“No worries, we’ve got lots of other species living in our towns, we even have dedicated tailors for them where you can order clothing with almost whatever pattern you want.” Responds the one called Charlie to my thoughts.

‘Not more mind readers…’

“Sorry to say, but that’s right, you’ll get used to it eventually.” Says lizz while she’s hovering next to the weird belt and inspecting it.

“Either you can get used to us, or you can do like Lizz here and only think about the same thing constantly, you have any idea what it’s like to have someone constantly listing of delicious dishes directly into your mind? We have to make an active effort to not hear her thoughts if we don’t want to go mad.”

“That’s a pretty novel way of taking care of mind readers though, just annoy them constantly.”

“Please don’t do anything like that, Plush once got some bard’s performance stuck in his head even though he had already half forgotten it, we ended up having to listen to an incomplete tune on repeat for half an hour…”

“... I’ll try, but no promises.”

“That’s better than what Lizz is doing at least.”

*GROWL*

We then hear a loud growling noise coming from Charlie's stomach, Lizz stares at her with a gloating look while Charlie stares back with a hateful one.

‘If this belt really is the same as that tree, then…’ At that I try to pry one of the small orbs out of the belt, and after I succeed I hand it to Charlie.

“Here, try eating thi-” *woosh*

However just as I’m about to give it to her Lizz flies up from the belt and grabs it, she then hovers next to us while taking bites out of the orb which was the same size as her head.

*sigh* I take out another one, this time successfully giving it to Charlie and letting her eat it.

“I’m not sure what this little candy will do, but then again Plush showed me those neat energy cubes, so maybe there’s more to it than meets the eye. Oh well.” *chomp* “Hmm. This is actually pretty good. It’s not the most satisfying since it’s only a bite, but I’m already feeling much more full.”

We then keep walking while discussing some things about Plush.

“So how did you guys know each other? Plush said you were from the same country, but considering us pickits don’t have any knowledge about any country where people like Plush live it mustn’t have many mountains.”

Realizing that Plush probably didn’t tell them everything on purpose I start to weave my own story while trying my best not to think any words indicating that it’s a lie.

“We used to go to the same school together actually, but three years ago my mother decided she didn’t want me to grow up a different way from how she did, so we all ended up moving from there to here.”

“Really?” Asks Lizz. “Then where’s your mother now?”

“She and my siblings left two and a half years ago, they didn’t want to keep taking care of someone who couldn’t fly and hunt by themselves.”

“Oh. Bumme-” *RRRRITCH*

We’re interrupted by what sounds like someone furiously playing with velcro, and we turn around.

“It comes off?!?” x5

We all scream out in shock, me louder than the others, when we see a blue glowing hand coming out of the pouch on Plush’s backpack book.

The reason I screamed louder than the other might have had something to do with me being a harpy, but most of all it was because I was even surer than the others that it couldn’t be removed.

The mask that is.

The blue glowing arm was holding in its hand the mask that Plush always wears.

Lizz seemed calm at first, she later told me that this was due to her already having seen the blue arm before, however when we saw Plush slump down to his knees all five of us bolted off towards him, the others reacting quicker than me.

“Hey! Are you okay!?” “What happened Plush” “Oh come on! Everything was going so well!” Shouted the pickits, Lizz having already arrived next to Plush didn’t say anything, and likewise when the pickits got to him they all just stared.

I couldn’t see what it was that had shocked them all so, the arm was holding the mask in the way of what it was attached to.

Finally snapping out of it I run towards them, and I ran much quicker than what I’d expected to be able to, considering I’ve lived on a mountain top that was too small to practice running this speed surprised me.

Or at least it would have, if it wasn’t for me only being able to think about one thing right now.

‘Not again! Not when we finally met! Not now!’ I scream in my mind, not daring to scream it out loud in fear of forcing me to stop to catch my breath.

When I get to Plush I see that behind where his mask was, amidst all his red hair, there was a large hole, only slightly smaller than the mask itself, and within that hole we couldn’t see anything.

“Plush!” I finally screamed.

And then two yellow lights started to glow.

=-Plush POV-=

As I was standing there, looking at the removed mask in front of my face I felt so overcome by shock that I almost fainted, barely preventing myself from letting my fall to my knees become a facedown nap on the ground.

I mean, you imagine suddenly seeing someone ripping your face off and holding it in front of you? Even though I couldn’t feel the pain it still scared me.

After the mask had been ripped off the blue hand had frozen completely, as though the book was as surprised by its feat as I was.

During the moment that the mask had been pulled off everything had become almost completely white, like I was staring into the end of a flashlight, and I could hear a dull ringing sound.

I could hear someone shouting towards me, though I couldn’t hear what they were shouting, it all sounded like muffled cries, and I could barely make out Lizz’s small stature flying next to me through the gap at the side of the mask.

I then saw three more figures appear, though everything was still too bright for me to see anything other than their height, and the three figures who I think were the ones who were shouting had turned quiet.

I could then hear soft thuds as another person had started running towards me, this one putting a lot more force into their footsteps, and once they appeared before me I could see that their shadowy figure was taller than the others, letting me realize that it was Shiona.

And for the first time I could hear someone say something understandable.

“Plush!”

And then everything became clear again, the ringing stopped and the bright light disappeared.

The blue hand dropped the mask, making it fall to the ground with a *thud* as it retreated back into the pouch like a scared animal.

I looked up towards the five people and saw them staring at me still.

“I…”

They all shook once, as though startled by me.

“I think… I think I’m fine.”

Charlie then held out a hand and helped me back up, Lizz then started floating right in front of me, staring right into my eyes, Baom and Diifan both fell to the ground, and Shiona was still standing still, not having moved since I got up.

“Are you okay Shiona?” I ask.

“Am… Am I okay!? Think about yourself first! You just had your face ripped off for christ’s sake!” Charlie seemed a bit confused by this “Christ” who she hadn’t heard of before, but dropped it when she remembered we were both from abroad.

“Oh yeah…”

“What do you mean ‘Oh yeah…’!? Think a bit about yourself first! I didn’t even know you could take off that mask!”

“Neither did I, especially not after your previous attempt to do just that.”

At this a pair of red lights appear below the two lights which were her eyes and she looks away.

“Speaking of the mask…”

I bend down and pick up the mask which the book had dropped, even though I had been wearing this all the time and seen through it, looking at it now the inside looked as solid and reflective as a sheet of metal, no place for me to see through it.

Looking at the reflective mask I could see myself, within my red hair there was a black shape with two yellow glowing eyes.

The eyes weren’t normal eyes, they were just large solid yellow shapes.

I looked at the sides of the black shape, at my red hair, and saw that it looked very similar to a certain clothing.

A hoodie.

So very slowly, making sure to go be extra careful to be able to stop myself if I ever felt the same feeling of wrongness like when I kicked the tree, and I pulled back the hoodie.