The next day as promised, Gomenne and Kiki visited a woman by the name Starmaker. She was tall, and wherever she walked her unusually long, blue hair trailed behind her. What most of the world was unaware of is that she was the one and only Creator living in a shell similar to Gomenne and Capryce’s. Her house was just right next door to their apartment. They didn’t live together simply because Star hates watching her two children argue, and Gomenne felt guilty enough to live in another household entirely.

“A guild, you say?” Star sounded surprised. “Hmm, will that really be a good idea though?”

"See? Even Star thinks the same,” Kiki mocking, huffing a soft chuckle.

“What’s wrong with that?” Gomenne furrowed her brow.

While Star hesitated to answer, Kiki answered in her stead, “Well, pup. You’ve not always been the best at sticking to things you wanna do.”

Gomenne did her best to hide her frustration, despite pouting, “I’m really serious about this though! Think about it. Isn’t it weird the distribution of influence is really unequal between the two deities right now?”

“That’s definitely been a problem for a while, you’re right,” Star reassured before continuing, “But will a guild really work for restoring faith? I definitely see where your head’s at, though.”

Kiki nodded in agreement. “Star’s right. You’re gunna need to work real hard to catch up to Cappy.”

“Even with my help, there’s only so much I can do and with Cloudia off helping Miss Kaara’s research at the moment we still need one other person,” added Star.

And then Gomenne stood up quickly, and loudly said, “I know! Still, I’ve never felt so strongly about something before! I think. I can’t really remember. I really mean it though!”

"Well it certainly sounds exciting,” Star giggled, “Even though I’m not much of a fighter, I’m curious so I will have to see this through.”

“Well, there’s three. Now we need a fourth,” Kiki said.

“So!” Gomenne started, “The plan is to take up a few quests from the community center. We’ll need to register everyone as Bravers, and as party every time we do new quests. As annoying as it is to do paper work all the time, we should use this opportunity to scout out our fourth guild member. If people see us out in the field, they’ll get curious and start talking. Won’t take long if we do some of the more advanced quests first.”

“I-is that really okay? I’ll just be in the way, won’t I?” Star said worriedly.

“Me and Kiki are a great tag team, so we’ll be alright. Right?” Gomenne flashed a confident smile Kiki’s way.

“Yeah!” Kiki returned with a nod.

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The capitol city of the Kingdom of Jaune is a place with a history both humans and monsters do their best to preserve. Evidence of this can seen in its downtown area where the kingdom’s famous marble-brick buildings still stand, though the nobles that once lived within them have long since disappeared. Many of them were instead converted into government buildings and headquarters buildings for various companies. The brick roads have been largely replaced for modern asphalt and concrete due to the high cost of upkeep, save for the one leading up to the Monster Lord’s castle in the center of the entire city.

The three set for the downtown area by bus. The registration process was tedious but went smoothly and they went on their way to the site of their quest, a large forest to the east of the capital city.

They were tasked with the investigation and elimination of a particularly large bug. As explained to them, normally this species of arthropod is kept in an environment where they don’t grow large enough to be a problem to those living in that area.

Although, a somewhat rare mutation can occur before the bugs become larvae, causing them to grow and consume more to compensate for their size. This can result in a disruption in the ecosystem and cannibalism, and if they get large enough, may even begin feasting on people.

Such a mutation was reported nearby, and it was their job to exterminate it. This didn’t make Gomenne very happy.

“Well it’s not slaying dragons or anything, but if this thing is big enough to kill people then it’s a start,” Kiki said reassuringly to a disgruntled Gomenne.

“Kiki’s right, Gome!” said Star, “I’m surprised the guilds committee even let you take a quest this dangerous. If we were any other people that man working at the counter probably would’ve lost his job, you know.”

“Now you guys get how frustrating all of this is,” Gomenne grumbled. “I hate it that I can’t just say I’m the Light Deity without having to prove it! Everyone should already know what I’m all about it!”

“And that’s what we’re here to do,” Kiki consoled. “Now, where do you think that big bug could be? There’s a lot of these big bugs around but they all seem pretty docile.”

The girls looked around briefly to study their surroundings. Birds chirping, the rustling of the trees in the gentle breeze, and the previously-mentioned large-but-harmless centipedes. They had no real choice but to venture forward in hopes of seeing anything.

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Further in, they reach the bottom of a low cliff covered almost completely by vines and shrubbery. There they spotted the figure of a young monster child with dark fur and wearing ragged robes resting up against it. They could not tell if they were alive or dead. Without a second thought, the group rushed over to the child.

“She’s still breathing. Maybe she’s asleep?” Kiki was the first to check her vital signs.

“Who in the world would leave a child in such a place?” Star spoke with utter disbelief, “And those clothes. They’re very similar to Kaara’s, don’t you think? Plus that scarf looks a lot like the one I made for Cloudia a while ago.”

“Maybe they wanted to get rid of her. I swear, this Kaara chick gets more and more suspicious the more I know about her,” Gomenne spat.

"I dunno. It feels more like someone wanted someone to find her,” stated Kiki, “Think about it. If she were abandoned, I think the person who left her here wouldn’t care what state was in. Feels like someone carefully put her here.”

“So you’re saying it’s a trap then?” Gomenne replied.

“Probably.”

“Okay then. Let’s just go get our bug and get the heck out of here, ASAP.”

“Wait!” cried Star, “You can’t just leave her all alone like this! What if that giant centipede comes by and eats her?”

“So what? Use her as bait then.”

“No! We should get her to a hospital at the very least.”

Gomenne groaned before responding, “Ok I GUESS we could do that.” Before the power of Star’s motherly aura, Gomenne was completely helpless.

Just then, the kid began to stir. She looked up to see the three hovering over her.

“Who...who are you?” the child spoke, “Where is this…?”

Letting out a small gasp before speaking up to the young one was Star. “Oh thank goodness! Gome, please give her some of your water.”

Gomenne dug into her bag and handed Star one of the water bottles she was carrying. Star opened it quickly and handed it to the young girl. “Here, drink this.”

The girl looked at the water bottle in a daze before pressing it to her lips, her slow sips gradually turning into large gulps. “Phew!” she exclaimed, “Thanks a lot, Miss...uh.”

“Starmaker. But everyone just calls me Star.” Star gestured to Kiki and Gomenne behind her. “This is Gomenne and Kiki! What about you? What’s your name?”

The child thought for a little before replying, “Muffler. My name’s Muffler!”

“Like your scarf?”

“Uh-huh! It’s one of my friends’ prized possession.”

“Who’s your friend?”

“Her name’s Cloudia. But I haven’t seen her in a while.”

The group looked to each other in shared bewilderment.

“I don’t even know how I got here or where here even is.” Muffler then stretched before standing up.

“It’s pretty dangerous to be around these parts all alone, kid,” Gomenne spoke up. “If you want we can escort you out of the forest.”

Muffler shook her head. “That’s okay, you don’t need to do that. Besides even if you did that where would I go? I have no idea where my friends are and I don’t have any money or a house.”

“Smart kid,” commented Kiki.

Gomenne scratched her chin. “Say, kid. Can you fight?”

“Uh-huh,” Muffler nodded.

“Wanna join our guild?”

“A guild...you guys have a guild?”

“Uh, not yet. But we need one more member before we can make it official. It’d really help us out.”

“Okay sure!”

“Maaaybe you should think a bit more about this first,” Star said with concern, “We don’t even know for sure what little Muffler can even do.”

“Don’t care,” Gomenne remarked in a snarky manner. “We just need a fourth member. If she can fight well then that’s good. If not then it’s fine too. No one is ever completely useless anyway.”

Then she turned to Muffler and added, “We’re here ‘cause we’re hunting a giant centipede, bigger than the nice ones you might see if you look around. Wanna help us out?”

“Okay!” Muffler nodded, “But why a bug?”

“Pest control,” Kiki said with a smarmy grin.

"We are NOT pest control!” Gomenne barked.

Star, being the doting mother that she is, still felt a sense of responsibility over the situation. She gestured to Muffler’s torn outfit. “Well we should at the least get you some new clothes, sweetie. We can’t have you running around looking like that.”

Muffler looked down and tugged at her clothes, muttering a very unconcerned-sounding “Oh”.

“We can deal with that afterwards,” Gomenne butted in. “You’re good for now, right kid?”

“Uh-huh!” Muffler nodded with a confident smile. “I have pretty thick fur so I’ll be okay.”

And so, Gomenne and company venture further into the forest with their mysterious new friend in tow.

Finding out young Muffler knew their friend Cloudia was a shocker and although they had many questions, they seemed in agreement without a word that it was best to wait for now.