Chapter Text
“–frin!” >>
“Glad to see your rested–”>>
“I-I just have something to tell you” >>
“Everything’s fine”
As you live through the novel experience of having your body crushed by a giant rock,
You feel a tug on your stomach and
>START OVER QUIT
what …… what happened…. You were fine. You were in the house. But now your… where are you. You're in a tree? Why are you in a tree and not? …! Oh you remember. you died! you were checking for traps and failed in your one job like the blinding idiot you are. But that's weird right if you died. how are you here, here being in a tree and not with your friends or whatever kind of afterlife awaits you. And if all of that was a dream why did it feel so real, you can still feel your body flattening under that rocky weight, you shutter just thinking about it. and if it wasn’t a dream and you went back in time. How? And why? You're not sure. You're not even sure you're real right now.
You rest for a bit trying to gather your scattered thoughts, you chose a comfortable tree to nap on, might as well use it.
“Isabeau!” A yell! From up the path.
you offer a hand to which he happily takes and to which you flinch a bit.
“Oh yeah that makes sense madame shouted pretty loud just then”
“And I'm glad I did. You should be more careful. Not all of us are as fast as Mirabelle” ...this isn’t a dream is it. your comrades, your friends! are all here. Mirabelle, Isabeau and Odile. Bonnie isn’t here but if this is the past then they should join you all in a month or so. Maybe you can even save your eye. Oh stars! you forgot you have both eyes now. oh…stars that’s going to take some getting used to again
“Isabeau! Are you ok!” ah Mirabelle ‘the savior of vauguard‘ helping where she can again. You’ll always like that about her, her genuine concern and care for the ones she cares about.
You’ll have to earn that care back, now that... That you're all strangers again… It’s fine. It's cool even. you already know the dynamic; you just have to slot into your role as the ‘funny jokes pun person’ you can do it. you barely even remember your material, but it’ll come naturally to you again you're sure
“So, stranger what's your name” Odile, Smart and Perceptive and- Odile is looking right at you ohh nooo she’ll figure you out before long; You might even have to tell her outright uhm right. think she asked you for your name “It’s Siffrin” you didn't think you'd almost fumble your own name but there's a first for a lot of things this day
“Well. Thank you. Siffrin. for your help. We’ll be on our way” she says, already turned away and walking down the path “have a nice day etcetera etcetera” wow cold but you think you remember this. you were going to leave too in your past life but the other two convinced her that you could help against the king. You may as well follow the script and start walking the other way
“WAIT!” yep there it is “madam what if he could help, he took down that sadness really easily and in one hit too. He could be useful against the king, we have to recruit him” you can already imagine the puppy dog eyes and the half tears she always seemed to have that really sold the performance. You once asked how she did that and she just looked at you like she didn’t know what you were talking about.
“Mirrabelle you don’t know anything about him. He's just a traveler who came to our rescue. That sadness could have just been a fluke”
“I'm with Mira on this. He could be useful on our quest and besides, It’d be a little rude to just wave them off right after saving one of us like that” Isa you're the best. Always the anchor and the voice of reason.
“Ugh fine you're not going to let up huh..." she stares at them for a moment before folding "Fine. Siffrin! we would like to talk to you if you could spare the time”
“Well with everything frozen in it, Time's the least I could spare” that gets a small, suppressed chuckle out of Isa, your soon to be comedy partner. Odile just stares at you with regret and anger billowing in her gaze “YesMadamIHaveTimeToTalk" you say stumbling towards her.
She sits down on a nearby trunk and the rest follow on the ground “I don’t know if you noticed but this is Mirabelle the ‘savior of vauguard’ and we’re on a quest to go and kill the King to do exactly that. Seeing your strength, we would like you to join us if you're willing to.”
Yep, pretty much what you remember happening “I would love to. I mean he’s the one keeping us from going home right. So yeah I’d be more than happy to lend a hand, and besides I have nothing better to do.” that seems to get small celebrations out of the two and a smaller sigh out of Odile
“Thank you Siffrin! we're very glad to have you!” Mira comes over to shake your hands. (you're a little light headed)
“Yeah! Welcome to the team!” Isa comes over and lightly smacks your back causing you to take a full step forward
“yippy… wahoo… now can we go? I don't want to waste any more time and have to sleep out in the woods. again.”
You all walk towards the nearest town.
You're glad to be with them again and that death wasn’t the end.