Chapter 5: Predation to Investigation

The Strange Adventure of a Broke Mercenary — LNCrawler · All chapters

Chapter 5:
Predation to Investigation

AT FIRST GLANCE, the thing looked similar to Scena: a palm-sized girl with flaxen shoulder-length hair, a fluttering white dress, and two transparent wings sprouting from her back.

The key difference was the blood covering her from head to toe, which was made all the more uncanny by her cutesy features.

“The hell is this?” Loren murmured as the girl lifted her face.

The girl, who had been biting into the dead elf boy’s body, stared at him. He almost gave in to the urge to force a smile, but that was smothered when she opened her bloodstained maw and leapt at him.

Inadvertently, truly inadvertently, Loren hauled back and smacked the little thing out of the air with his hand. A creature only the size of his palm couldn’t possibly withstand his strength, meant for swinging that large sword around.

There was a small thwap and some meager resistance. That was the whole fight, and its grand conclusion: Loren’s enemy smashed into the ground. She twitched and fell still, the grass and dirt around her splattered with blood.

“That’s a fairy…” Feuille pointed at the girl, his voice quavering. “But why…they’ve never…” he trailed off in disbelief.

Not that Loren understood it either. Even so, they needed information. Loren was about to scoop up the fairy’s body when he noticed the elf boy’s corpse—the one she had been snacking on—convulse again.

“Don’t tell me…”

As if waiting for this cue, patches of the boy’s body began to swell. Loren, catching on quick, shouted at Feuille and at Lapis behind him.

“Get back! There are more of them!”

More palm-sized fairies ripped their way clear of flesh and clothing. Some looked like girls, others like boys; they had different hairstyles and facial features, but they all wore simple clothing; and all were stained red from head to toe in blood.

How had they entered that pitiful elf boy’s body? The question remained, but first there was a more pressing issue for Loren to resolve. The fairies had evidently grown bored of the boy’s taste, and they flapped their small wings to fly straight at the closest alternative—Loren.

Had they been normal monsters, he wouldn’t have hesitated to swing the sword in his hands. Unfortunately, the countless fairies flying at him were too small for his massive blade. He could stir up some winds with his sword to fight off a few of them, but the swarm was larger than he could deal with.

Loren considered dropping his sword for some good old-fashioned unarmed combat, but it didn’t seem like he could ready-up in time, and the more time he spent dithering, the less time he had to choose his means of survival. Before he knew it, those fairy faces with bloodshot eyes and gaping mouths were right in his face.

He resigned himself to suffering a few bites, throwing his arms up to bear the brunt and gritting his teeth. The pain he was expecting, however, never came. All he felt were several thuds against his defending arms.

Closing one’s eyes was suicide on the battlefield. This had long been hammered into his head, and he kept them open the entire time. Past the wall of his arms, he could see something falling out of the air; when he looked down, he saw that the fairies attacking him had fallen like well-sprayed bugs.

Scena sounded cheery, and Loren could piece together what had happened. She must have realized that the fairies were too numerous to defend against through physical means, so she’d swiftly deployed the same energy drain she had used against the bugs. With their bodies being far smaller than humans, the life force these fairies possessed was similarly a good deal lower.

That being the case, no matter how many there were, Scena believed the drain would work against them. She had protected him from the fairies.

Sorry about that. You really saved me there. Loren hadn’t worried he would become fairy food like the elf boy, but he’d braced for some serious injury.

It had happened so suddenly; perhaps Scena had been acted on instinct, unable to restrain her power. The fairy bodies on the ground were almost completely dried out, desiccated husks like mummies. Loren picked up one of them to examine its wrinkled skin and wings.

“The fairy race isn’t supposed to be so bloodthirsty… What happened?” Feuille asked.

“Who knows? All I can tell you is that they weren’t, and now they are.”

“Do you think that’s why there’s no one in my village—” Feuille stopped himself there, his imagination making him shudder as he looked at the empty houses. They’d caused quite a ruckus right on the settlement’s doorstep, yet inside the walls, all was still.

“They don’t seem to have been turned undead.” Loren handed the fairy off to Lapis after giving it a good once-over.

It wasn’t exactly normal to handle a dead body so casually, but Lapis didn’t seem bothered as she took it. She stripped off its clothing to study it from all angles. “There are no traces of drugs, parasites, or magic. Apart from the drying out and the wrinkles, he looks perfectly normal.”

“You didn’t hesitate to strip him.”

“He was a boy.”

“That’s not what I was asking.”

Lapis, somewhat disgruntled by Loren’s cold treatment, offhandedly tossed the fairy corpse over her shoulder. It flew through the air in a high arc to disappear behind the trees. The moment it hit the ground, they heard the sounds of animals squabbling over the new meal. Feuille turned pale.

“For now, I’ll place a defensive blessing on Mr. Feuille.” Lapis clapped her hands down on the boy’s shoulders.

“You do that. I don’t want to be suddenly bitten from the side.”

“Are you…all right, Mr. Loren?” Lapis asked. “Well, I guess you have that sword, after all.”

Loren gestured questioningly toward his sword with his free hand. He lifted it up, wondering what could be special about it.

Lapis stroked the blade and proudly stated, “This has a bonus function by which it protects the wielder. It holds back curses and other such malevolent things.”

“Why do you know the functions of something we just happened to find in a weapon store?”

Truth be told, Lapis had procured it from who knew where to replace the last one Loren lost. Could she have arranged with the shop owner to have it sold to Loren specifically? Loren hadn’t checked with her about his sword purchases, of course, and she hadn’t said a word. But looking back on how strange the affair had been, Loren was sure of it.

“I am a priest of the god of knowledge, after all,” she said.

“Quit raising the bar for that poor god’s poor priests.”

He was really starting to pity her fellow members of the cloth. There was no one around to hear besides him and Feuille, sure, but it would be a problem if Feuille began to hold strange expectations for Lapis’s purported peers.

“Putting that aside, do you want to try entering the settlement? We need to investigate.”

“Hell no, I don’t want to. But you’re right, we do need to investigate.”

There could still be survivors. Even if there weren’t, perhaps they would find some clues as to how this had happened. With sword in hand, Loren walked brazenly up to the front entrance.

Behind him followed Lapis, then Feuille, who she led by the hand.

What they saw once they crossed the boundary was far more terrible than Feuille could have imagined, though both Loren and Lapis had expected some version of it.

The village must have been attacked out of nowhere. Houses were broken into and completely ransacked. In one, there were signs that its residents had been preparing a meal; the table still held ruined remnants of food, but most had been messily gobbled up by someone or something.

They managed to find a few bodies as well. From the corpses alone, it was hard to say whether the elves had chosen to fight or run, but the bodies littered the sides of the paths and slouched against the building walls.

The bodies were as badly wrecked as the buildings. It was impossible to say what exactly had killed them.

“This doesn’t look like an attack that fairies could have perpetrated,” Lapis muttered as she inspected a body slouched against the rubble of a once-was house. “This building has been totally smashed in places. This must have been the work of a middling or large-sized monster or wild beast.”

“Then it’s pointless to search this forest for it.”

There were too many likely candidates; they’d never be able to say for sure. Even if they did manage to pin the blame on some specific culprit, it would do little at this point. The settlement had fallen, and there were no survivors to be found.

“They tried to hide their children, I see.” In a basement, they found a child’s body in a large box. The parents had likely hidden the child there, praying they would survive until attack was over. However, their attackers had gotten to the child first. Their prayers had fallen on deaf ears.

“No, there was that one kid.”

“Meaning he must have survived this long… Such a poor soul.” Lapis folded her hands in front of her chest and murmured a short prayer.

It’s almost like she’s a priest or something, Loren thought for a moment. Then he remembered that she really was one.

“What…happened to everyone?” Feuille asked Loren. After taking in all the wanton destruction, his eyes were hollow. Loren could have given the kid a guess or two, but he didn’t have a definitive answer. He glanced at Lapis.

“I think it’s dirty to hand it off to me at a time like this,” she said.

“I get that.”

But he didn’t have Lapis’s way with words. He could try to tell Feuille his idea of what might have happened, but he didn’t know if the boy would withstand the shock of Loren’s delivery.

“Granted, what I’m thinking is probably a little different from what you have in mind, Mr. Loren.” Lapis heaved a sigh, then turned to face Feuille’s pleading eyes. “I don’t know the exact population of your settlement, but there are too few bodies in evidence, given the scale of the village.”

“That’s…”

“Yes, it’s possible that they were eaten, but this doesn’t seem to have been an organized, calculated attack. I’d expect at least a few people to have been able to flee in the chaos.”

A little light returned to Feuille’s eyes. Loren nodded from the sidelines. When the settlement was attacked, those who couldn’t fight would have run or hidden. In that case, it wouldn’t be strange if they found villagers who had tried to get away. Loren couldn’t say for sure that no one could have succeeded.

“We saw a rest town that was specifically, systematically wiped out before we met you. This seems different… And so, Mr. Feuille, do you have any idea where your people may have fled to?”

Perhaps someone had survived. Once that possibility was presented to him, Feuille steeled himself and offered up the sole refuge he could think of.

“The hidden village of the faeries?” Loren parroted.

Feuille looked up at him and nodded. The name was shady as could be, but Loren turned a blind eye to that and asked what sort of place this ‘hidden village’ might be.

“I’m sure you know that fairy-kind dwell in this forest. There is a village where the high-ranking among them live.”

“Why would your people run there?”

Lapis had told Loren that elves and fairies were closely related. There was a bit of a size difference now, but they shared a common ancestor. Loren didn’t know what had led to their split, but he did know that elves and fairies generally chose to establish their settlements in the same sorts of forested places.

“The fairies have a chieftain. We elves are closely linked to the fairies, and they offered to take us in during times of emergency.”

“I see.”

“Do you know the way there?” Lapis asked.

It was called a hidden village, so there probably wasn’t an unhidden road there. Unfortunately, Feuille just cocked his head, troubled. It seemed that, while he knew the circumstances, he didn’t know the details.

Loren sighed and shrugged; there wasn’t anyone else around to cough up an explanation. “Do we investigate the settlement again?” he asked.

“I think I’ve already had a good look at everything.”

Though they were just confirming the situation, not expecting any answers, they had poked around a decent amount. The settlement wasn’t very large, and Lapis didn’t think she’d overlooked anything. However, perhaps their change in objectives would give her a fresh point of view, so she wasn’t too strongly against a second round of investigations.

Hoping to raise their chances of finding something, Loren asked Feuille, “Is there anything you remember about the hidden village? It can be anything.”

“U-umm…”

Feuille understood that his memory was the only thing they had to go on. He desperately racked his brain for any leads, but he wasn’t able to recall anything relevant.

Time passed, moment by moment, as they stood twiddling their thumbs.

There was little to be gained without action. Loren called over to Lapis, “Let’s leave Feuille to think about it. The settlement’s still our best bet, since we don’t have any other leads.”

“You’re right. We might find something worthwhile.”

Loren couldn’t help but feel anxious about Lapis’s sticky fingers, but he forced himself to ignore it. Feuille was still mumbling and thinking, so Loren issued an order.

“Feuille, you wait here. We’re going to check through everything again. Shout for us if anything happens. You got that?”

“O-okay.”

Loren made sure to get a response before setting off with Lapis to reexamine the settlement. He hadn’t been particularly fond of this investigation the first time around, and he grimaced as he once more searched through every nook and cranny. And who could blame him? The vivid remnants of the attack still dotted the entire settlement. Turning the houses upside down, having to inspect every element up close and personal, meant growing acquainted with the corpses and the blood. He took care not to think any unnecessary thoughts as he quietly set to work.

“Elves aren’t usually the sort to decorate themselves with precious metals. They are the kind of people who would say, ‘We’re pretty enough as it is, why fix what isn’t broken?’” said Lapis.

“That sounds really prejudiced… Wait, why are you talking about precious metals?” Loren demanded. “I’d love to hear it.”

They were turning a shelf inside out, and he made his question rather threatening. Either Lapis didn’t hear him, or she pretended she hadn’t.

“They settle in the woods, and live off of hunting and gathering,” she mumbled to herself, ignoring him. “They barely have any money… I’m not feeling too motivated.”

“Oi, wait. What exactly are you looking for?”

“Why, information about this hidden fairy village. Am I not supposed to be?”

She answered as if it were entirely obvious—as if she didn’t understand why he was asking. Loren knew something was off, but she hadn’t given the wrong answer, so he returned to work.

“They conducted trade with human towns, so I’m sure the coins they pay them with must be somewhere… But where?”

“Wait, wait. What’s that got to do with anything?”

Loren hurriedly placed a hand on her shoulder, turning her around to face him, However, once he had extracted her from her investigation, she glared up at him, thoroughly irked. “I’m conducting a proper search. You want a lead to the hidden village, right? What are you so worried about, Mr. Loren?”

She acted so confidently that, for a moment, Loren wondered if he’d misheard. The thought crossed his mind that Lapis was doing a proper job after all, and he released her shoulder.

He apologized to her as she straightened her clothes. However, before he could even get back to work, she said something that made him grab her again.

“Ah, I found a stack of silver coins.” Lapis sounded exuberant as she pulled out a stack of coins rolled up in some kind of animal skin.

“Hey, hold it. It’s been nothing but money and precious metals with you. You’re not trying to use the confusion to play it off, are you?”

Lapis held up her new silver coins with an incredibly stern look on her face. “The dead have no use for money. Nor do they use the metals for decorative purposes.”

“Sure, you have a point.”

“Either this silver is left here to rot, or it fills the pockets of whoever happens to stop by. In that case, what’s wrong with slipping it in mine?”

“I’m not gonna stop you from taking anything. But promise me you’ll give it to the survivors if we find them.”

Lapis was in the right only if the coins had no owner. In that case, Loren thought it was fine if the money left with her. However, they were searching for this fairy village precisely to find the residents of this one. The coins she held so tightly to her body belonged to those potential survivors.

“Mr. Loren, I’m suddenly losing the will to search on…”

There was no guarantee they would find the actual owners of the coins. However, if there were any survivors at all, they would have more right to the remains of the village than Lapis did. Finding the fairy village meant searching for survivors, and finding survivors meant surrendering the money.

“Take this seriously, Lapis. We might not leave this place alive.”

“Do you really think so?”

She sounded quite optimistic.

Loren didn’t know whether to be relieved by the familiarity of her response or to scold her for her lack of situational awareness. Very possibly, a high-spec demon like Lapis didn’t recognize something like this as a crisis at all. With the nagging feeling that neither of these options were quite right, Loren went back to work without a word.

Then she tapped him on the back.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“Mr. Loren, I’ve forgotten one important thing.”

Overpowered by her suddenly serious tone, he nodded.

She went on, “This village must have been attacked at least once, right?”

“Well, yeah. It was destroyed.”

“Where do you think those attackers disappeared to?”

They hadn’t stuck around, at the very least. Otherwise, their party wouldn’t have been let in so easily, and they never would have been able to investigate this thoroughly.

“You’re saying…”

Hopefully, the monster or wild beast or whatever had taken off for somewhere very far away.

“I don’t know how many attacks it took for the settlement to fall… But I’m sure whatever it is, it remembers the good harvest it had here.”

Loren understood the logic: if the creature had reaped a bounty before, instinct told it that it had a chance to reap well again. “That…might be true.”

“Do you think it will come back?”

Lapis’s nonchalant question cast a shadow over his heart. The animals in the forest had gone mad and were running amok. He wouldn’t have been shocked if the whole lot had been reduced to their most basic instincts. Instincts like the same sort that led predators to return to their old hunting grounds.

It was altogether possible that what had attacked the settlement would imminently return.

“What’s more, we entered without making any efforts to conceal ourselves.”

“We’re returning to Feuille.” Loren moved before Lapis finished speaking. She followed him as if she knew full well what his response would be before he’d even started moving.

New prey had stepped into the hunting grounds. Once that information reached the hunter, there was only one thing left for it to do.

“Dammit! This place was dangerous as all hell!”

“We noticed a little late, didn’t we?!”

They heard Feuille’s scream in the distance.

Instead of conducting such a carefree investigation, they should have left the moment they confirmed the place had been destroyed. But they couldn’t exactly change the past.

“Mr. Loren! The elf corpses!”

Turning to Lapis’s voice, Loren saw little bodies tearing their way out of the dead. They were fairies, as far as he could tell. Loren clicked his tongue and picked up the pace. What hell was this happening?

“Fairies don’t hatch from eggs, so they couldn’t have been laid in advance—so why are fairies emerging from elves? Is it because they’re closely related? But what prompted this transformation?”

Lapis continued muttering to herself as she watched the incomprehensible spectacle unfold.

But now was no time to pay mind to her. Protecting Feuille took priority, and Loren raced through the buildings until he found Feuille running toward them.

“Mr. Loren! The fairies are here…”

“I can see that! We’re getting out of here, hold on!”

The dust rose as Loren hit the brakes. He grabbed Feuille’s hand, pulled him up to tuck him under an arm, and shot off back in the direction he’d come from.

“Umm, oh… Already back, I see.” Lapis was momentarily baffled by Loren’s sudden shift. She turned her back to the massive legion of fairies that had been chasing Feuille, not looking particularly bothered by it. As the beating of wings grew louder and louder, she took off after Loren.

“I’m getting this vague feeling that we’re in a dangerous situation. What shall we do?” Lapis asked as they raced through the forest. Loren didn’t have the time to answer her.

It was already hard enough to run through the trees, and he had to be careful he didn’t smack Feuille against anything. The kid was a lighter burden than carrying Lapis on his back, but the uneven ground fatigued him more quickly than orderly terrain, and his legs felt like they would lock up the moment he faltered.

“Can we do something with Ms. Scena’s abilities?” Lapis asked.

<I’m trying already…>

Though of course, Scena’s reply didn’t reach Lapis. Only Loren could hear it.

Upon her apology, Loren glanced back—he could see fairies here and there dropping to the ground after suddenly losing strength, but the little creatures chasing them were either too spread out or too numerous or both. Scena’s drain wasn’t having much of an effect.

“If we stop, they’ll swarm us and eat us to the bone! What do we do?”

“Do you want me to burn them?”

“You’d rather be incinerated than eaten?”

Lapis’s magic was certainly powerful. She normally wouldn’t have used her power freely while Feuille was watching, but given their predicament, this was no time to worry about witnesses. That being said, they were still running through a forest. If she used the magic she had wielded at the campsite, she would take the trees out along with the fairies. There was no telling how far that fire would spread.

Once that happened, they would be trapped, breathing in thick smoke.

“Can’t you use anything that isn’t fire?”

“Fire’s my specialty… Everything else simply isn’t flashy enough.”

“Don’t pick your magic based on looks!” Loren shouted, but he couldn’t order her to pull new abilities out of thin air. “If we keep running like this, they’ll catch up eventually.”

“They’re having a much easier time of the forest, given how small they are.”

With his large build, Loren had to carefully choose the gaps he could shoulder through at a run, but the fairies could essentially slip through anything and come at him in nearly a straight line.

“Don’t fairies ever get tired of flying?!”

“They’re supposed to, but in that state, I don’t think being tired is going to stop them.”

Loren glanced back, taking note of the fairies’ bloodshot eyes, bloodstained mouths, and clicking teeth as they flapped their wings in a frenzy. Their originally endearing faces made their fearsome expressions and eager chase so terrifying that Loren feared he would see this scene in his dreams. He quickly turned back to look ahead.

“And it doesn’t look like they’re willing to hear us out,” he muttered.

“What shall we do?”

Lapis didn’t sound too concerned, but her expression was starting to show stress. Loren decided not to bicker with her, instead shifting Feuille into a firmer grip and concentrating on running. If he swung his sword and charged at the fairy army, he would suffer heavy wounds in the process. Victory wasn’t completely unimaginable, but he wasn’t in the right mind to think up a plan to fight them all off or escape. Instead, all he could do was focus on running and hope Lapis would think of a good idea.

After a while Lapis addressed a question to Feuille.

“Do you know if there’s a decently sized lake or marsh in the area?”

“There is. That way.” Feuille pointed from Loren’s arms. Confirming the direction, Lapis tapped Loren on the shoulder—quite a skillful maneuver while running—and spoke loud enough that the beating of wings couldn’t drown her out.

“Let’s head that way!”

“That way…”

“I don’t know if it’s a lake or what, but there’s water! You should know what to do.”

It didn’t take much thought before Loren caught her meaning. Come to think of it, perhaps they would be able to escape the fairies like that.

“So we’re treating them like they’re bees?”

“That’s right. Now, pray that the water is clean!”

There were numerous ways to escape when chased by stinging bees, and jumping into water was one of them. Most flying animals despised getting their wings wet and couldn’t continue a chase underwater.

Loren didn’t know what would happen if a fairy wet its wings, but Lapis seemed to think there was a high likelihood they would stop their pursuit. This would require a considerable depth of water, though—enough to submerge Loren from head to toe. If the water was clean, he could put up with getting a little wet. If it was green, muddy, or rotten, he would hesitate even if his life was at risk.

“Feuille! Is it a lake or a swamp?!”

“P-pardon?”

“If it’s a swamp, tell me beforehand! I need to prepare myself!”

Loren was capable of diving into sewer water to save his own life, but he didn’t want to do it without a moment to steel himself. He wanted to confirm it with Feuille, but his question had come so suddenly, and Feuille was being rocked around so violently, that no proper response was forthcoming.

While Loren demanded answers, the trees suddenly opened up and the water they were looking for came into sight.

“It looks like a lake, Mr. Loren!”

The water he could see was neither brown nor green. Rather, it looked utterly clear.

“No need to worry then! We’re jumping in! Hold your breath!”

“Just like that?! No, give me a second! Ah, for—Water Breathing!”

Right before Loren leapt from the bank, Lapis cast what was either a spell or a blessing. He sank without knowing if it had worked.

The water was so clear that he could see quite a long way through it. Loren feared that if every animal in the Black Forest had gone insane, perhaps the water was tainted as well. Then even if they did escape the fairies, they would just be pursued by the aquatic life instead.

However, and while this was not unconditionally true, clear water was generally not suited for life. Furthermore, when it was this clear, surely he would see an attack coming. He wouldn’t have to fear some ravenous fish getting the drop on him. As he peered up at the water’s surface, he saw the tightly packed swarm waiting for them to rise again. A chill ran down his spine.

Bees were known to linger for a bit, but they gave up quickly enough. The fairies, however, seemed intent on waiting out their prey.

This ain’t good, Loren thought, holding his breath. He had taken a great gulp of air before jumping, but that wouldn’t last forever. Resurfacing would prove necessary once his lungs started to burn. But there were so many of those fairies up there, he wasn’t quite sure he could get a safe breath.

That left him with the choice of suffocating…or popping his head up out of desperation, just to have his face torn off.

Lapis interrupted these thoughts, tugging on his sleeve. He turned to her to see her mouth was open, her chest rising and falling as if she were breathing. Doing that should have caused her to cough up all the air in her lungs, but Lapis took another breath as if it was nothing, urging him to do the same.

<Mister, the spell she used made it possible to breathe underwater. You’re all right, please breathe normally.>

Even watching Lapis, Loren couldn’t quite believe it was possible, and he hesitated. It took this prompting from a Lifeless King, a master of magic, for him to gingerly open his mouth.

It was as if the water ran into some sort of wall along the way. It couldn’t enter his mouth at all. Instead, his throat was filled with cold air that settled in his chest.

He checked Feuille just to be sure, and found that the kid was also in the midst of confirming that he could breathe. They weren’t going to drown for the time being, and Loren was momentarily relieved.

Lapis took him by the hand and pulled. Given their difference in physique, and the fact they were underwater, her tugging barely moved him, and for a moment he wondered what she wanted to do. However, it seemed she couldn’t speak underwater, so Scena explained instead.

Even though they had momentarily escaped their fate, they would still ultimately drown. That didn’t sound promising at all. Loren swam after Lapis, searching for somewhere to hide from the fairies overhead.

However, no matter how far they went, those black shadows loomed just above the surface. The lake itself wasn’t so large, and the fairies were absurdly numerous—enough to completely cover it.

He wondered what to do as he stared at the shadows of the swarm overhead. In fact, he grew a bit resigned, and returned his eyes to the water to see Lapis swatting something away. He tilted his head.

Was one of the fairies capable of coming down after them? He approached her and his eyes widened at the sight of a fairy underwater with them.

“Wai—please wait a second! Listen to what I’m saying!”

The fairy didn’t try to leave even as Lapis continued swatting at it. It seemed to be a woman.

The fairy’s voice was clearly audible underwater. At her words, Loren stopped moving and Lapis pulled back her hand. Seeing the two of them had heard her, the fairy swam circles around Lapis, pausing in front of her face.

“Human, human? Are you two still normal? Did you run away from them? If that’s the case, I can help you out. We need some help too.”

Every fairy they had met thus far had torn and bit at them without uttering a word. This one, however, seemed to be able to breathe underwater by some magic, and she could speak as well. Most importantly, she was open to a dialogue.

“For now, please follow me. I want you to hear us out.”

Her chestnut hair swaying underwater, the fairy flapped the wings on her back as she took off deeper into the lake. There didn’t seem to be any other way out, so Loren and Lapis followed obediently.