Chapter 16
Night had fallen over the city of Melchor, and the stars shone over a frosty night. Winter was coming, and with it, a biting cold that turned the tips of Marigold’s fingers pink. She was staring up at the stars, wrapped up in her sleeping pack and two layers of clothes. The fire beside her was warm but not enough; the embers were slowly dying. Marigold sat up and pushed another log into it, poking it with a stick.
The party was sheltered in a small forest on the outskirts of the city of Ferncone, just barely in the city limits of Melchor. The rest of the party was asleep, buried under their own piles of clothes, huddled next to the fire. It was Marigold’s night to stay up and make sure the fire didn’t die out or get to large, lest someone see them.
After the misunderstanding at the monastery, the group was now wanted for several crimes, most of which they didn’t commit. And anyway, Marigold thought, if we hadn’t done the stuff we did, everyone would probably be dead right now.
Unfortunately for them, people don’t tend to believe far-fetched stories without proof, so the party had been forced to avoid the streets, people, or inns with proper beds. They were already quite used to this lifestyle, but the turning seasons didn’t make it any easier.
However, if they were able to un-possess Clara, Marigold hoped the authorities would listen to her as the victim, and she could explain that she hadn’t been kidnapped. Or at least not by them.
Marigold sighed and closed her eyes.
Crack.
She opened them again. Was the sound she’d just heard a branch falling or a squirrel? Or something like a person walking through the woods?
She sat up and squinted into the trees closest to her. She tilted her head, but she didn’t see anyone. I’m probably imagining-–
Crack.
Marigold froze. That definitely sounded like someone walking through the woods. But had they seen them yet? Marigold pulled some of the larger logs away from the fire. She stood up and stamped it out as quietly as she could, so no one would see the smoke. Once it was properly put out, Marigold crouched down and poked Colonel.
“Colonel,” she whispered. “I think there’s someone in the woods!”
Colonel opened his eyes and squinted at her. “What?” he whispered, fumbling for his glasses.
“I think there’s someone in the woods!” Marigold said, a little louder.
Colonel’s eyes widened. “Really?!”
“No, I just wanted to wake you up for fun,” Marigold whispered.
Colonel glared. “Y’know, sometimes I think River and Aniko rub off on you more than you realize.”
Marigold quietly roused the rest of the group while Colonel snuck over to the line of trees, peering around for someone lurking in the shadows. Aniko grumbled when Marigold shook her awake and was just about to complain loudly about the ungodly hour it was before Marigold put her hand over her mouth and shushed her loudly.
“No speaking!” she whispered. “We think someone’s here!“
Aniko scrambled to remove Marigold’s hand from her mouth. “Don’t do that!” she hissed.
“Sorry!” Marigold smiled before silently moving over to River and Aziminil.
When Marigold managed to silently wake both River and Aziminil, Colonel crept back over to them.
“I don’t see anyone,” he whispered.
“There was definitely someone there, though!” Marigold said urgently.
“I swear,” Aniko, who was never very pleasant in the morning, glared at Marigold, “if you woke us up for nothing I’m going to kill you.”
Marigold shook her head, “I didn’t wake you up for nothing! Someone’s over there!”
“Yeah, but I couldn’t find anyone!” Colonel shrugged. “Maybe it was a false alarm.”
“Maybe he left to go alert the authorities!” Marigold cried as quietly as she could.
“Uh oh,” Colonel’s face paled. “You’re right, we should probably move out of here, just to be safe.”
Aniko groaned loudly while River sighed. “Colonel, come on,” Aniko sighed. “It was probably just a squirrel or something–“
“SQUIRREL?!” Aziminil sat straight up like a rocket. “WHERE?!”
“Long gone by now!” River grabbed Aziminil’s scarf as she tried to bolt to her feet. “Sit down!”
“I mean, Marigold, you were probably just tired!” Aniko huffed. “I don’t wanna move all over–“
Aniko was cut off as a arrow shot from the line of trees, narrowly missing River, who scrambled quickly out of the way.
“I’m sorry, what were you saying?” Marigold smiled sweetly at Aniko, who hissed at her.
The party wasted no time in gathering their things as Aniko shot a bolt of fire back out into the woods, which caught the nearest tree on fire.
“Why would you do that?!” Colonel moaned, pulling Aniko out of the way of another arrow. “You’re gonna start a forest fire!”
“HALT!” a booming voice from inside the line of trees hailed. “In the name of Lady Quartzite I command you to stop and come forward with your hands up!”
Aziminil began to raise her hands, but Colonel grabbed her arm and pulled her off into the opposite line of trees with the rest of the party. “What’re you doing?!” he cried. “Don’t do what they say!”
“But they asked so nicely!” Aziminil smiled.
“We need to find shelter or cover!” Colonel cried as he fired his own arrow back at the guards.
“Would an abandoning building work?” Aniko called from the front of the group.
“Well, yeah, that would be nice,” Colonel nodded. “But where are we gonna find an abandoned building in the middle of the woods– oh, never mind, you already found one.”
Aniko slammed open the door to the old building that looked like it once used to be a factory, and waved everyone in. Aziminil was the last to rush in, and Aniko slammed the door so quickly she almost caught Aziminil’s scarf in the door. “Help me barricade it!” she called, pushing heavy metal barrels up against the door.
River ran around the other side and began barricading the other door while Marigold and Colonel crouched by the windows on the upper floors to see if the guards were coming.
Once the doors and bottom floor windows had been properly safe-guarded, Aniko, River, and Aziminil stood still in the middle of the floor panting. There was a beat of silence.
“Do you think they saw us go in here?” River eventually whispered into the dark.
“I don’t know,” Aniko shrugged. “Let’s hope not.”
“I don’t see anyone out the windows,” Colonel said. “If they’d seen us go in here, they’d be trying to storm the place. Marigold, can you see anyone?”
Marigold put her hand above her eyebrows, scrunched up her face, and scanned the forest line. “Nope!” she whispered cheerily, turning back to Colonel.
“Good!” Colonel smiled. “We should stay here. This seems as good a place as any to make camp for awhile, anyway.”
“Just don’t be too loud, or they’ll see us,” River said, glaring specifically at Marigold and Aziminil. “And no fires either.”
Colonel and Marigold made their way to the center of the building, trying to quietly make their way down the stairs. The group gathered at the bottom and Aniko began to yawn and stretch.
“Who’s keeping watch this time?” Marigold asked.
“Um, not me,” Aniko huffed. “I did it last time.”
“No, I don’t think you did,” River shook her head. “I pretty sure I did.”
“No cause the last time was the pirate ship and you weren’t actually there for that!”
River shrugged “So it doesn’t count!”
While Aniko and River bickered, Aziminil was fiddling with the stray thread on her scarf when she thought she heard something. Glancing to the side, Aziminil couldn’t sworn someone had sneezed. But no one in the party had, and anyway, it had sounded oddly muffled.
Aziminil wandered to the side, glancing under barrels and skipping over the broken glass. After circling the perimeter, however, she couldn’t find anyone.
“Well I was just lookout so I’m done with my turn,” Marigold was saying.
“But it was cut short,” Aniko said, “so you still have to finish.”
“But that’s not fair!”
Achoo!
Aziminil looked up again suddenly. She had heard it again! Tracing the sound, Aziminil squatted by one of the barrels. She quieted down, and in the silence, she could hear what she thought was muffled voices.
“Guys, I think there’s a–” Aziminil glanced up toward her friends, but she stopped suddenly. From her vantage point by the cluster of barrels, she could see the guards through the window. They were setting up a cannon. The guards had saw them go in the building after all, and they weren’t going to leave them alone. They were going to destroy the warehouse while the party was still in it.
“Canon!” Aziminil screeched, pointing toward the window. “They’re lighting a canon!”
“What?!” Colonel cried, twisting toward her. “Where?!”
“The guards!” Aziminil cried again. “Through the window!
“It’s gonna fire!” River jumped to her feet. “We’ve gotta get out of here!”
An idea occurred to Aziminil and she shouted “Guys, wait, I think–”
But a deafening blast cut her short. The canon had been fired.
The blast hit the wall, and the world around them exploded. River dove toward the door closest to them, yanking someone–she couldn’t tell who– by the arm with her. The blast burned as the wave of debris hit her, and her body was thrown out toward the forest by the blast. Slamming into the ground, she felt the violent vibrations of each metal wall hit the ground.
And just as suddenly as it had happened, the chaos stopped. River pushed herself up on her elbows, twisting around to see what was happening around her. She looked over to see that she had pulled Marigold after her, and she too was slowly sitting up. Scattered metal parts were littered around River, and large metal shrapnel had barely missed her shoulder. Marigold was grunting, pulling her leg out from under a collapsed wall. River hefted the bricks up so Marigold could scoot her leg out quickly.
“Is it broken?” River asked.
“No,” Marigold shook her head, bending her leg. “I don’t think so. Are you okay?”
“I think so,” River nodded. “But where’s everyone else? Do you think they’re hurt?”
Marigold looked worried. “I hope not,” she said as River helped her to her feet.
“Colonel!” River called. “Aziminil!”
“Aniko!” Marigold joined in.
“Look!” River pointed in front of her. “Colonel!”
Marigold and River made their way over to Colonel who was stuck under a fallen support beam.
“Colonel, are you okay?” Marigold cried.
“I’m stuck under this beam,” Colonel grunted, gasping for air. “It won’t budge!”
“Help me lift it off him,” River instructed Marigold. The pair each grabbed hold of an end, and with a mighty heft, threw it the side, where it crashed into the other fallen rubble. Colonel stumbled to his feet coughing.
“Where’re Aniko and Aziminil?” he asked, glancing around fearfully.
“I don’t know,” River shrugged. “We haven’t seem them yet.”
“We’ve gotta find them and get out of here quickly before the Quartzite guards find us in the rubble,” Colonel said, moving forward in the rubble, calling out Aniko and Aziminil’s names.
“Guys!” Aniko waved them down, running over toward them. She looked pale. “Oh thank god I found you.”
“Why?” Colonel turned toward her. “What’s the matter?”
“It’s Aziminil.”
“What?” Colonel looked worried. “What about her? Where is she?”
Aniko looked at the ground. “Colonel, the building collapsed around her, I saw it…”
“Well is she hurt?” Colonel asked, paling too.
“There was no way she could’ve gotten out in time. Colonel… Aziminil’s dead.”
“Do you think she’s alive?”
“Akiko, she’s clearly breathing. Don’t ask stupid questions.”
“Well what if she has brain trauma or something?”
“How are we supposed to know if she has brain trauma? I can’t see into her head!”
“It was more of a hypothetical.”
Aziminil could hear two people talking above her. But there was also a loud ringing in ears, so it was hard to tell exactly what was going on.
Maybe that’s the god squirrel’s herald of angels, come to take me away to join their ranks, Aziminil thought.
“Oh, look Cricket, she’s coming round!”
“Uh, oh. Do you think she’ll recognize me?”
“You’re face is everyone now, so odds are yes… Here! I have an idea. Put this bag over your head.”
“Ugh, Akiko, this bag smells like old potatoes.”
“That’s because it had potatoes, silly! Now put it on, quick!”
Aziminil slowly opened her eyes to see two people standing above her. A tall half-orc with grey skin, a viking helmet, and frizzy black hair was smiling at her. A shorter person similar in height to River with a potato bag over her head and pale skin stood to her left.
“Hello!” the half-orc said. “Are you okay? You seem sort of squished at the moment.”
Aziminil looked at her incomprehensibly, wondering what she meant by squished. It was then that she realized she couldn’t breath very well, and she noticed that she was trapped under a pile of rumble.
“Oh–koff— oppsie-daisy!” Aziminil laughed. She tried to pry herself out from under the pile. It made an ominous groan, and the pile lurched slightly.
“OH MY god!” the woman with the bag over her head cried. “Don’t move! Or the whole pile will come down on our heads! This passage might cave in!”
“Oops. Sorry,” Aziminil smiled apologetically. She glanced up toward the teetering pile above her, pausing a moment to take in her surroundings. She was in an underground tunnel, not unlike the ones she had seen in the monastery, and it was dark save for the lanterns lit by the two women in the tunnel. She was lying on her back, looking up toward the rubble that had fallen onto her.
Right before the canon had hit, Aziminil had thought she heard voices below the floor. She realized there must not only be people down there, but a trapdoor to get there, which is why she could hear them so well from where she was standing. Then the canon crashed into the wall, and Aziminil saw the party scattering, running toward the door. She hoped they were okay. Aziminil had realized that she wouldn’t be able to make it to the door, and had, just in time, dove into the trapdoor she had known was there. The blast above her had propelled her down where she’d hit the floor. Unfortunately, that was also when the building had gone crumpling to the ground, and Aziminil was partly buried under the rubble that had fallen on her.
“Um,” Aziminil looked back toward the pair in front of her. “Do you think you could help me get unstuck?”
“Oh, of course, sorry!” the half-orc smiled. “Okay, Cricket, this is what I’m gonna do.” She turned toward the smaller potato-bagged woman who was apparently named Cricket. “I’m gonna lift part of the pile, y’know cause I’m so strong–” the half-orc flexed her muscles, making her friend giggle– “and you help pull this nice lady out.”
Cricket seemed to consider this, then shrugged. “As long as you make sure the pile doesn’t smush us all. I’d rather not die today, Akiko,” she eventually said.
“Great!” Akiko clapped her hands together. She turned toward Aziminil, still gazing up at them. “Ready?” she asked.
“Yup!” Aziminil coughed.
“Great!” Akiko rubbed her hands together, bent down, and hefted the pile up a couple inches.
Aziminil suddenly felt a great weight lifted off her, and she could breath properly again. Gasping for air, Aziminil tried to scoot herself out from under the pile. Cricket bent down, pulling at her arm, trying to help free her. Akiko was making grunting noises, and the pile teetered again ominously.
“Gnn–guys, hurry, up!” Akiko panted.
“I got her, I got her, she’s out!” Cricket called, giving Aziminil one last tug. Akiko slowly lowered the metal to the ground, then let go of it with a huff.
“Whew!” she laughed. “Glad that one worked, I didn’t really think it would!”
Cricket turned toward her, and even though Aziminil couldn’t see her head, she could tell her nostrils flared. “You thought IT WOULDN’T WORK?! THEN WHY WOULD YOU SUGGEST IT? I TOLD YOU I DID NOT WANT TO GET SQUISHED!”
Cricket had such an intimidating and commanding look to her that Aziminil felt Akiko should be cowering in fear. However, Akiko ignored Cricket’s protests and walked over to Aziminil.
“YOU KNOW MAYBE YOU SHOULD BE THE ONE WEARING THE BAG OVER YOUR HEAD SINCE YOU’RE BRAINS ARE APPARENTLY JUST MOLDY POTATOES!”
Akiko continued to ignore Cricket’s rant. “Hi! My name’s Akiko, although you might have already guessed that,” she said. She pointed toward Cricket how angrily stomped over to them. “This is my girlfriend…um…” Akiko trailed off and looked slightly suspicious. “Uh…”
“Cricket,” Cricket said, still glaring out of the corner of her eye at Akiko. “You can call me Cricket.”
“Wow!” Aziminil smiled. “That’s such a cool name! You’re like the cute little bugs!”
From Cricket’s silence, it appeared she didn’t quite like that comparison.
“My name’s Aziminil,” Aziminil stuck out her hand. “Thank you for getting me out from under that pile.”
Akiko shook her hand, then Cricket did. Aziminil took a moment to look over the pair. Cricket had a potato bag over her head, but, besides that, her clothing was quite fancy. She had a silk sleeveless shirt with long purple gloves rolling from just above her elbows down, and long dark blue pants. She carried herself with an air of authority, and she had very enunciated speech.
Akiko had pale grey skin like most half-orcs and a viking helmet with one of the horns broken off. Her hair was tangled and frizzy, and it gathered around her shoulders. Suddenly, to Aziminil’s horror, she realized that Akiko was wearing a monk’s uniform, like the one Clara would wear.
“Um,” Aziminil started nonchalantly, “are… are you a monk, by any chance?”
“What?” Akiko looked slightly panicked. “Um, well see I could be a monk… or rather I’m not not a monk. But really, I don’t know why would even think that I was a monk, because I mean–“
“Yes!” Cricket interrupted Akiko brightly. “She is… or, rather used to be a monk, as you can tell from the uniform,” Cricket elbowed Akiko “that she shouldn’t be wearing.” Cricket glared up at Akiko briefly. “She was one of the orphans there, but she left when she was old enough because she’s a functioning adult who makes good choices.” Cricket said with a false sweetness.
Aziminil titled her head slightly. The pair wasn’t being very subtle, and Aziminil could tell they were hiding something. As long as they don’t recognize me… Aziminil thought. “Why are you wearing a bag over your head?” Aziminil asked Cricket to change the subject.
“Oh, uh, I’m… sick,” Cricket said after a slight pause. “Very sick, and, uh, contagious! Yep. Very contagious. This is for your own safety.”
Aziminil nodded. “Okay,” she said “well, if you get tired of wearing your disguise, you can take it off whenever.”
There was a slight pause.
“I mean,” Aziminil shrugged, “I’m new to Quartzite, so I probably wouldn’t recognize you anyway.”
“Pffff,” Akiko went. “Disguise? W-What disguise? I mean, w-what’s a disguise?!”
“God, we’re really bad at this,” Cricket sighed, pulling the bag off her head. “It’s not worth it! What kind of potatoes smell that bad, anyway?!”
Cricket slung the bag over to the side of the passage. Aziminil looked down at her to see that she had gorgeous glossy brown hair curled around into buns at each side of her head. It also became apparent to Aziminil that Cricket was a kender, which explained why she was so short.
“Yeah, I don’t recognize you,” Aziminil shrugged.
“Oh good!” Cricket clapped. “Now are you gonna tell us why you were hiding in an abandoned warehouse?”
Aziminil froze. “Umm… hiding from… the squirrels.”
Cricket raised her eyebrows. “The squirrels?”
“Yes!” Aziminil nodded. “The killer kind. Very dangerous. I had to escape with the power of friendship.”
“Excuse me?”
“Speaking of friendship, I have to find my friends!” Aziminil said.
“What happened to them?” Akiko asked.
“They were with me when the building collapsed,” Aziminil said, “but I saw some of them get out the door in time. So they should be okay!”
Cricket looked skeptical, but she shrugged. “Whatever. I hope you find them, but, unfortunately, that’s gonna be kind of difficult.”
“Oh no!” Aziminil cried. “Why?!”
Akiko pointed toward the collapsed the trap door. “That was the nearest exit. The other trapdoor out of these tunnels goes miles in the other direction.”
“Nooooo,” Aziminil moaned.
“Don’t worry!” Akiko patted her reassuringly, “I’m sure your friends are looking for you.”
Aziminil sniffed.
“In the meantime, if you’d like, you can stay with us!” Akiko smiled.
“Wait, what?” Cricket started.
“Really?!” Aziminil smiled. “That would be great! Thank you so much!”
“Don’t worry, it’s no big deal!”
“Um, I disagree!” Cricket began. Her voice dropped to a whisper, “What if she figures out who we are?”
“Oh, c’mon, Cricket! She probably won’t, and anyway, it looks like she’s on the run from the Quartzite guards too!”
“Exactly! She could be a murderer!”
“With that attitude?” Akiko laughed. “She’s too sweet!”
Cricket rolled her eyes. “Fine, but if I die, I’m going to kill you.”
“Sure, sure!” Akiko patted Cricket’s head, who huffed.
“So, where are you headed?” Akiko asked Aziminil.
“I gotta find someone named Gillian,” Aziminil said. “Do you know her?”
Akiko looked toward Cricket. Cricket seemed to ponder this. “Mmmm, that name does not sound familiar. I apologize,” Cricket added, looking at Aziminil’s crestfallen face.
“That’s okay!” Aziminil smiled again. “I’m sure she’s not too hard to find. Where are you guys headed?”
“Out of Quartzite,” Akiko said. “F-For perfectly normal reasons?”
“Got it!” Aziminil gave them a thumbs up as Cricket sighed again.
“We’d best get moving,” she said, “if we want to get out of these tunnels soon. Where’s Mancala and Catan?”
“Who?” Aziminil asked.
“MANCALA! CATAN!” Akiko’s voice bellowed down the tunnels. “COME BACK! IT’S SAFE! They must’ve been scared by the tunnel collapsing,” she added.
“There they are!” Cricket clapped as a soft pounding of feet came rumbling toward them. Aziminil looked down the tunnel to see a golden retriever with a calico cat perched atop him running down the tunnel toward them.
“Awww!!” Aziminil squeaked as Mancala ran and sat beside Cricket and Akiko, Catan dismounting him. “They’re the cutest!”
“They are!” Cricket smiled approvingly. “And if you lay a finger on them, I swear to god, you’ll wish you were never born!”
“Oh,” Aziminil said softly. “No need to worry! I wouldn’t dream of it!”
“Good!” Akiko laughed. “Cricket was only joking anyway.”
“I was not.”
“Yeah, she probably actually wasn’t,” Akiko shrugged. “And she’s right anyway, they’re our beloveds.”
“It looks like you got some pets too!” Cricket said brightly, pulling Aziminil’s glass orb with Romeo the fish out of her pocket.
“Hey!” Aziminil cried. “You stole my fish! NOT ROMEO!”
“Ah, calm down,” Cricket rolled her eyes. “It’s not like I wasn’t gonna give him back!”
“She can’t help it,” Akiko patted Aziminil’s shoulder after she’d snatched Romeo back. “Kender instinct. Don’t worry, she swipes my stuff all the time! She doesn’t mean anything by it.”
“I’m right here, you know,” Cricket said as the group began to walk down the tunnel. “And it was necessary to make sure she wasn’t harboring anything incriminating. And to make sure she wasn’t part of the Quartzite Kingdom’s guard force.”
“You don’t have to worry about that!” Aziminil laughed heartily to herself. “The squirrels don’t approve of the Quartzite guards, so why would I?!”
Cricket frowned. “Excuse me, what?”
“Oh, don’t tell me you’ve never heard the Legend of the Squirrel Kings?”
“Noooo…? Should I…?” Cricket shrugged.
“Well its a good thing the way to next exit is so far from here because boy do I have a story for you!”
“Oh, goodie,” Cricket sighed.
“Did you just say dead?” River asked quietly.
The party was still standing in the ruins of the warehouse. Smoke from the canon and fire wafted around them. They could hear shouts in the distance, probably the guards trying to find the team in the ruins. Colonel felt as if his stomach had just dropped. There was a high pitched ringing still in his ears.
“When the building collapsed, I saw Aziminil standing over by where the window used to be. She was pushing some barrels aside, not running toward the door. There’s no way she made it out in time,” Aniko said.
“Well, she could just be buried under the rubble then! She could be hurt!” River cried. “Where was she standing?!”
Aniko pointed toward the rubble that was piled highest in the rubble. “Over there,” she said.
“Oh,” River said quietly.
“I’m going to look for her, she could still be alive under there!” Colonel said, making his way over to the pile. Yet as he and the others (who followed behind him) sifted through the rubble, a cry came from a guard standing over by the pile they were walking too.
“Guys! I’ve found them!” he began to call. “They’re over he–“
His sentence was cut short by Marigold who had shot an arrow into his leg. The guard staggered, clutching his leg, crying out in pain.
“Craig!” another guard called, rushing toward the one Marigold had hit, who had toppled over now.
The rest of the Queen’s guard swarmed toward the fallen Craig.
“I think it’s time to make an exit!” Aniko called as more guards pointed toward the clustered party.
“But Aziminil–” Colonel began.
“The guards will hunt for survivors in the rubble, so Aziminil will be found and helped!” River cried, tugging on Colonel’s arm, moving him toward the tree line away from the guards running toward them.
So it was with heavy hearts that Colonel, River, Aniko, and Marigold disappeared into the trees, away from the guards and Aziminil.
“I’m sure she’ll be fine,” River said hesitantly after several moments silence.
“Yeah!” Aniko agreed. “They’ll probably just fix her up then put her in jail where we can break her out!”
Colonel remained silent, staring at his boots. “Don’t worry about it,” River eventually said. “They’ll publicly flaunt her capture soon.”
“And,” Aniko added, “they’d also publicly flaunt her death, so if she really is dead crushed under that pile of rocks, we’ll know!”
River glared at her, shaking her head. “Not helping,” she hissed quietly in her ear.
The group had made their way now to the edges of Melchor, and inhabited buildings now towered around them. They were very close to the center of Quartzite where the palace lay, and if they squinted toward the horizon they could just see the tip of its tallest turret.
Colonel could hear Aniko and River quietly arguing and elbowing each other behind him, but he wasn’t listening. He was instead thinking about Aziminil, buried under rubble, possibly hurt or worse… All of it was too much. He began tapping his fingers against his thigh, and try as he might, he couldn’t stop his breathing from matching the insistent pace of his fingers.
Sensing another panic attack threatening him, Colonel stuttered to a halt, unsure of which direction to go. The party members halted behind him. “Um, I don’t- I don’t know where to go,” he said eventually, glancing down the streets. “I don’t want us to be caught.”
River glanced at Colonel, twisting his fingers together, then strode forward. “Aniko!” she called behind her. “You have a disguise kit, right?”
“Um,” Aniko rummaged around in her bag. “Yes!”
“Great!” River smiled. “Why don’t we use it, then try and get into an actual inn? The guards are probably expecting us to find another abandoned building anyway.”
“I like it!” Aniko nodded. “Come over here, I’m doing you first.”
“Ew, no, do Marigold first for practice!” River cringed away from Aniko who was brandishing her brushes. “I don’t wanna look stupid!”
“No!” Aniko grinned evilly.
Marigold bounded up toward Colonel who was hovering to the side looking nervous. “I’m sure Aziminil’s fine!” Marigold smiled at him, taking his hand and waving it around wildly. “She’s got magic squirrel powers. She told me!”
“Thanks, Marigold,” Colonel smiled at her.
“Come here, Marigold!” Aniko waved her down. “It’s makeup time!”
“It’s not makeup,” River glared, lightly touching her face putty. “It’s a disguise.”
“Whatever,” Aniko rolled her eyes. “Same thing. Marigold, stop fidgeting!”
“Sorry!” Marigold grinned.
“Okay, you’re good. You look very different– no, be careful! Don’t whipe it off!” Aniko swiped Marigold’s hand as she reached up to itch her face and poke at it. ” Now, come here, Colonel! You’re turn!”
“I-Is this really a good idea?” Colonel muttered around Aniko’s hands as she applied various layers of makeup to his face. “What if they do catch us?”
“We’ll leg it through the window,” River shrugged, unconcerned.
Colonel just shook his head, still trying to slow his breathing. He was still shaking when the party wandered nonchalantly up to the front desk of a nearby inn. Aniko handled the transaction (River was too short to reach the top of the counter, much to her chagrin), and Marigold started to hum “pop goes the weasel” loudly. River kicked her to stop her, but it just increased the volume.
The receptionist just looked at them strangely as they walked away.
“What was that for?!” Aniko hissed as the team walked away as quickly as they could without arising suspicious.
“Sorry!” Marigold squeaked. “I hum “pop goes the weasel” when I’m nervous.”
“Why in the world would you do that?!” River cried.
“Well it all began–“
“Nevermind, don’t actually tell me the story,” River sighed. “I’m too tired for a long-winded Marigold story.”
The group collapsed on their respective beds once they’d reached their room. “I love beds,” Aniko said into her pillow, her voice muffled by the fabric. “Good riddance to those terrible sleeping bags.”
“Okay, tomorrow we try and find out what happened to Aziminil,” Colonel said. “And we’ll probably have to break her out of jail, but we’ve done that before.” This was followed by a pointed look at Aniko and River.
“Hey!” River huffed. “We don’t get arrested all that much!”
“I’m too tired for this argument!” Aniko called from her bed, her face still buried in the pillow. “Blow the candles out!”
“But I’m not done proving Colonel wrong and–“
“GO TO BED!”
“God, fine!” and with a final annoyed huff, River blew the candles out, plunging the group into darkness. Stumbling toward her own bed, River flopped onto it with a sigh. She was so tired she slide into semi-unconsciousness before she even knew it.
There was a brief pause.
“Maybe we should just go try and find Aziminil right now–” Colonel’s voice penetrated the silence.
“Uuuggghhh,” Aniko groaned. “Colonel, please, go to sleep!“
Aziminil was trudging down the dark passage way with Akiko and Cricket at her sides. Cricket had cast a light spell to follow along with them after the lantern’s wicks had burned away, but, in the hours it had taken them to move down the tunnel, it had dimmed and faded slowly, mirroring Cricket’s own energy levels. The light waned again, punctuated by another yawn from Cricket.
“Maybe we should stop and get some rest,” Akiko suggested as Aziminil stumbled slightly into the wall.
“But we still have another hour of walking to get to the exit–” Cricket began, annoyance and fatigue filling her voice.
Akiko chuckled slightly, seemingly used to Cricket’s contrarian nature. “Which will go much faster,
she said, “when we’re not dead on our feet.”
Cricket seemed to consider this for a moment before conceding. “Okay, fine.”
“Aziminil, I think we have an extra blanket or two, if you need one,” Akiko said, turning toward the bard.
“Thanks!” Aziminil smiled brightly, “but you can keep them! I have a sleeping pack as well!”
So the small group settled themselves between the narrow stone walls, pulling their blankets up around them, shivering in the draft that ran through the passage. Cricket’s spell flickered away, and a silence fell between them all as they all drifted slowly to sleep.
Aziminil stared up into the pitch black ceiling above her, wondering, just as Colonel was, if her friends were okay.
Written by PotatoCat. Edited by SquirrelHat.