Chapter Text
~~ACT ONE~~
~~~~~~~CRIMSON COATED FANTASY~~~~~~~
Wake up.
Wake up.
Wake up.
"Leafy! Wake up!"
I shoot my eyes open with a gasp at the women's words, a bead of sweat sliding from my face. I let out a small groan and hold my head as she helps me sit up. Jesus, that was such an odd dream...
No, not a dream. A nightmare.
"Are you alright, love..?" She asks worriedly.
I turn to look at her, my exhaustion probably visible. I give her a soft smile. "I'll be fine, Pin," I tell her. "I was just having a nightmare... Thanks for waking me."
She smiles back at me, shifting herself to sit more comfortably next to me. She pushes her red skirt to be flat over her legs as they spread out in front of her, before leaning back on her hands. Her long tail flicks gracefully in the air behind her now that her body is facing the same way mine is. Though, her smile falters a bit once she's settled in, and she glances back to me with a once again worried look on her face.
"Was it... Was it one of those nightmares..?" She asks, her brows furrowing anxiously.
"I don't think so..." I answer, glancing away nervously while rubbing the back of my neck with one hand. My other arm pulls my legs in against my upper body, hugging them worrily. "It... It might have been..? I'm not sure, though..."
When I glance back, she's still gazing at me with that same upsetting gaze; before she then lets a grin break through as she sighs a quiet sigh. "I'm sure it wasn't... You haven't had those since we were still just dating," she added with a small chuckle.
A smile tugs at the corner of my lips—she seems to have that effect on me. I close my eyes and lean to the side, resting my head on her shoulder. "...Yeah..." I say, "It probably wasn't..."
But I'm unsure. Because she was there. I've never had a nightmare with her in it that wasn't one of those. Oh, I need to top overthinking this. Even if it was one of those, I'll be fine, anyways; those nightmares never really did much.
I feel her wrap her hand and her tail over my waist and rest her head on mine. I let my eyes flutter open slightly, taking in the sight of the cliff before us. Colourful flowers dot the bright, grassy ground, drinking up the last of the evening's sunlight. I must've dozed off as we were watching the clouds. Observing the lowering, but not quite setting, sun, I open my lips to ask my wife, "...How long was I out?"
"Probably like... twenty minutes?" She answered. "You seemed so peaceful, I didn't want to wake you—well, until you started panicking, of course."
"Mm..." I hum out, lightly grabbing her shoulder as I bury my face in the crook of her neck. That was so weird... Was it really all just a dream? I mean, it must have been, but... all of that? Did I really just go through a whole lifetime in only twenty minutes..? I made so many friends, and then stole... I stole something, and lost all of those friends because of it. And then... I watched them... for years. Exiled. Shunned. Alone.
And then, after all of that, I just... wake up? Really? Well, this life is way better than that one, anyways. The girl I was crushing on, I've been married to for three years; I have a whole group of friends that aren't shunning me; we aren't all weird objects...
Huh, actually, why are we all named after objects? Like, we're all kinds of different bi-pedal bugs and animals, elves, sirens, some of us literal demons, et cetera... And yet, instead of having cool demon names, we're named after objects?
It must just all be tradition, or something. A really weird tradition that every single race follows, for some reason. Maybe something like the species-wide myth of the Crimson..?
Right. "Myth".
I didn't even realize that Pin had started rubbing my back until she stopped, my train of thought suddenly being snapped away from my mind at her voice. "I'm hungry, Leafy. Can we head back? Needle's probably finished dinner by now, or is at least close to it."
I push myself from her chest, passively noticing the way that our bodies sort of shifted into a different position on their own. I had settled myself between her legs, and she had wrapped both her arms around my back. "Sure, Pin," I tell her with a smile. "I'm getting pretty hungry too, anyways."
Gazing at her always makes me hungry, because her sleeves are adorned in patterns of all kinds of different baked treats; cake, muffins, bread, you name it. They all look almost as yummy as they are when she makes them in real life. Her shirt—both having buttons and a loose turtleneck, for some reason—is tucked into her skirt, which is the same bright red as her top. It cuts off with a lace at her knees and poofs out away from her body. A half-apron rests over it, tied around her waist and laced just like her skirt is. She always has a bag (box? Something like that) right atop it, tied around her waist as well with a large bow on the back, to carry her magical desserts in case of emergency. Black gloves sit on her hands, the very tips of them open in case she needs to take out those demonic claws of hers.
Her hair is a pretty, bright red, very similar to her clothing, but her long ponytail nearly hits the floor in a light gray. Her lone horn is a similar gray, but it's a bit closer to a muted red, and it's darker. What's essentially just a pointy bone sits exposed on her forehead, protruding from the top right next to the long bang on that side that hangs from the side of her head. The flat end of her long, thin tail is the same muted red, but the tail itself is a darker version of the colour.
She shoots me a grin and pushes herself up, taking my hands at the same time to help me stand with her. Once we're on our feet she cups my cheeks and pulls me into a short kiss, and I can feel the ring I had proposed with pressed gently against my chest from it's spot looped through her braided necklace. She giggles at the way my cheeks had immediately turned pink before she takes my hand and we both walk back home from the flowery cliff, fingers intertwined.
We don't speak much during the walk back but, really, it's just nice to know that she's there.
As we cross the hidden, wooded clearing to our fairly large cabin, though, the one we and all of our friends had made together, we both basically jump at a huge boom coming from somewhere to the side. I can hear the animals hurrily scurrying away and the birds cawing as they fly overhead, and smoke begins to rise from the forest to our right. We both glance at eachother worrily, before Pin starts running towards the sound, dragging me for a second before I start running alongside her. The sound of a panicked shout fills the air, and I can hear what sounds like a large splash. As we enter the clearing, I can hear familiar voices yelling at eachother.
"YOU SAID YOU WERE GOING TO SET A SMALL FIRE, NOT BLOW UP A TREE!!"
"WHY ARE YOU YELLING AT ME FOR IT!? I'M PRACTICING FOR A REASON, YOU DUMBASS!!"
SLAP
SLAP
SLAPSLAPSLAPSLAPSLAP-
"OKAY, YOU TWO, BREAK IT UP!" Pin shouts, physically pushing the two boys away from eachother. She'd broken away from me the instant we'd made it to the step-brothers, who had already begun another of their slap battles.
"Well, sorry that this idiot can't control his magic," Coiny spat angrily with a roll of his eyes. He crossed his arms as he shot a glare at the elf.
"Yeah," Firey retorted, "And whose idea was it to work on fire magic in a flammable place? Oh, right, it was yOurs!"
"It's not my fault that we live in a forest!!" The human shouted back at his sibling, jabbing a finger at him, before Pin interrupted again.
"Stop fighting! Seesh!" She shouts. "Why do you two always act like you're still children??"
"I mean, this guy might as well be," Firey muttered under his breath, crossing his own arms and turning away from the other boy with a pout.
I sigh, walking up next to the demon. The area has one, smoldering, tree that sticks out from the rest, standing behind the siblings, a bit of smoke still rising from it, although it's also soaking wet. An empty metal bucket sits sideways on the ground nearby, droplets of water still present within it. The grass and soil beneath the burnt tree, too, is wet with the liquid from the bucket.
Other than the obvious scene in the middle, the rest of the area remains mostly untouched. Bushes with a few purple yoyleberries mingle with the other fruits that grow alongside them. Trees that are in no way taller than average stand above the people that linger, green leaves swaying happily in the gentle breeze.
I open my mouth to speak, before the sounds of a figure pushing their way through the foliage is heard from somewhere to the side, interrupting me before any sound can come from my lips because of the way that it draws everyone's attention.
"I heard an explosion," Gelatin says as he hops over a root. "What did Firey blow up this time?"
"I'm not sure if you've noticed the giant baked tree next to us," I say teasingly, pointing a thumb to the very dead plant as I turn to face my half-brother. "But it sorta sticks out, I think."
"Ah, well," he chuckles slightly as he walks up and leans his elbow on Firey's shoulder, grinning at him teasingly. "At least you managed to put it out this time, it looks like. So, improvement!"
"Aha- N- No, uh..." the elf stammers out, his face turning a bright red at the contact as he glances away nervously, rubbing the back of his neck, "Uh, Coiny, doused it with the water we brought along in case this happened again..." I can always see the smirk that Gelatin gets when Firey is all flustered like that.
Me and my sibling are both a species of insecta—well, more specifically, I'm probably about a sixth insecta, while Gelatin's probably like a fifth. Since we're both mostly human, it's actually kind of impossible to tell which sub-type we're supposed to be. Me and him both have the antennae, but only Gelatin has the thin fur along his body and the sharp teeth. We also both have the leafspell that all insecta have at least a little of, but mine is so weak, and I can barely control it, while his is naturally only a bit stronger; though, his proficiency in it makes it much more threatening than it would be it he wasn't as good at it.
He's actually a different type of bug than I am, because we share the same human mother, but have two different insecta parents. We would both just be half-bug, but the thing with insecta is that they don't really crossbreed. And we would just be completely human or completely bug, but the thing with humans is that they're incredibly good at cross-breeding (it's actually fairly rare to see someone like Coiny, who's entirely human, unless you're in a human-based settlement). So, we ended up as these weird, barely bug hybrid things that make us sort of oddballs and cause a lot of people to think our antennae are fake before further explaination.
He has green hair, like me, although his is a bit darker and is unnatural, the roots an almost pinkish brown colour. He has a sleeveless, dark green top on, that's the same colour as his fingerless glove/sleeve things. He has a strap that hangs from the front and back of his belt, sort of wrapping under his hip, for him to hang the potions he makes from. Another potion, in a tiny, cylindrical bottle, hangs from the short necklace he made by tying a string to it. It's a bright green, and nobody but him knows what it does, but he insists that nobody drink it, and that it's only for the most dire of situations.
He likes to brew a lot. That's why he's always covered in small scratches—because he's out foraging for ingredients half the time so he gets scraped up on all those thorns and branches out here.
Unlike Gelatin's skill with his own magic, the boy he's leaning on has the exact opposite in terms of proficiency and natural power. Firey's, well, fire, magic is too strong for him to handle, and he can never seem to get a grasp at it. Though, I will say that he's already made noticeable improvement since we first met him and his siblings, coming a long way from having almost no control to usually having enough control to stop himself from burning the woods down by accident.
He's a fire elf, and a witch; something that he and, well, her, have—or had, in the late older sister's case—been practicing for as long as he and Coiny can remember. Their powers were gained completely naturally, thanks to their heritage as fae creatures, but he uses his 'wand' to help him control it better—a wooden, almost staff—like wand, that curves into a circle at the end and gains a small flame that floats in the center of said circle when he's using it to focus his magic.
A dark brown, tall witch's hat that flops down in the back and has a tiny flame on the end rests on his head, and his 'robe' is the same colour. That 'robe' is more like a sort of cardigan like piece of clothing, though, with incredibly oversized sleeves but a fairly small body. The front is open slightly to see his darker brown shirt, but is held closed enough, by an orange lace tied in a bow, to stop it from sliding down his arms. Most of his hair is the same colour as that lace is, but the tips are a different colour—yellow. Thanks to his genes, the colouring of his hair is actually completely natural.
Coiny's hair, though, is completely unnatural, instead dyed the coppery colour it is. Although, he doesn't really bother re-dying it that often, and right now it's actually only the bottom half of his short hair that's copper, the rest of it a natural dark brown. Unlike the armour that he rarely wears anymore, the ex-knight simply has an orange 'hoodie' (think of a hoodie, but like, not modern, if that makes sense? ToT) on, the hood down and front un-buttoned. Though, he still has the old longsword hanging, sheathed, from the special belt around his waist, like it always is. Unlike his step-sibling, he has no magic, being a race that has never been born with mana in their blood.
And, of course, there was a third sibling, but...
I'm snapped from my thoughts at the sound of my brother's voice. As I look around, I realize that the other four had been conversing more as I trailed away into the attributes of my friends as if I'd been meeting them for the first time again. "LEEafyyy!!" He had said, waving his hands in my face. "Goiky to Leafy; where'd ya' go?"
With a blink, my eyes raise to his again, finally pulled out of the trance. "Oh, sorry," I say with a nervous chuckle, reaching one gloved hand to rub the other arm. "I guess I zoned out."
"It's fine, babe;" Pin assures, wandering back over to me. I blush slightly when she takes my hand and places a peck on my cheek, Gelatin rolling his eyes at us as a small giggle escapes my lips. She soon turns and addresses the others aswell as me. "Anyways, who else is hungry? Needle has got to be done dinner by now, right?"
"Me!" Coiny suddenly exclaims, overly exited for a split moment. "I'm really hungry. I haven't eaten since we came out here."
"Yeah, me neither;" Firey agrees with a half sigh.
—————
In the kitchen, a gray, bipedal cheetah leans on the counter, tapping a claw on the pale stone. Her other paw holds up her cheek, head resting in the yellowish protective bandage as her elbow supports it on the countertop. Her eyes stare into the empty space before her, mind wandering as her free paw stops tapping the counter and instead begins adjusting the yellow bow that's tied gently around her neck.
Being a ferlandi, she technically doesn't need to wear clothing. Regardless, though, a yellow, cropped shirt rests on her shoulders, the front open but tied together at the bottom and a stripe of blue fabric cutting horizontally around the middle. Blue, somewhat saggy shorts rest low on her hips and all four of her paws are wrapped in bandage to protect them from rocks and rough ground, her knees wrapped similarly. A yellow ribbon is tied snug yet gently around her neck in a bow, the long, leftover strands trailing gracefully behind her whenever she moves. Her wrists and ankles are hidden beneath blue arm and leg warmers and her ears are adorned with pale piercings, two small circular piercings on either corner of her lip and three small hair clips of the same colour keeping some stray fur from her face.
Her aforementioned sleek, gray fur is patterned with spots of a darker gray all along the backside of her torso and limbs, the same spots across her nose and cheeks similarly to the way that freckles would be placed. A small stripe of the same colour falls from the corner of each of her eyes, down to her chin; and the edge of the hair-like tuft of fur on her forehead is outlined similarly. Her stomach and inner limbs are a lighter gray than the rest of her fur, closer to a pure white, along with the bottom of her thin tail.
The room is warmer than usual as, with her tail flicking gently behind her in anticipation, she left the food sitting in their 'oven' with a small, dwindling flame beneath it to keep it warm. Removing her paw from her neck, she gives an impatient sigh and leans further into the table, her cheeks cupped in both paws.
Where are they? She wonders. They all said they'd be back before sunfall, but the sun's already started falling!
Just before she could begin worrying about their safety further, her ear twitched as the front door swung open and our familiar voices filled the building. My gaze snapped up to her as she peeked happily around the corner, greeting us with a look of relief.
"What took you all so long?" She chuckles out with a raised eyebrow, leaning on the doorframe between the hallway and the dining room.
"Firey almost got the whole forest burned down;" the only human says with a lighthearted chuckle, crossing his arms.
Immediately, Firey retorts, "I DID NOT. It was ONE tree!"
"Yeah, one tree that would've gotten all the other trees caught on fire if I didn't put it out."
"Oh, shut up! I could've put it out myself."
"No, you couldn't! You barely even know how to start fires, let alone control them!"
"Okay, and I brought the water for a reason, dumbass."
"I brought the water. Your stupid curse will barely let you drink the stuff without hurting yourself—which is exactly why you need to learn how to use said magic to put out your fires before you accidentally burn down the whole woods!"
"I can splash things with water without touching the water! That's literally what the bucket is for!"
"That is not what the bucket is for-!"
"OHMYBLACKSNAKESTOP. FIGHTING."
Everyone suddenly shut up the instant that Needle spoke, the room eerily silent for a moment. The felidae eventually let out the breath she was holding and let her standing fur fall flat once again, resting a paw on her head.
"C'mon, let's just eat. I managed to get my hands on that one fish that Firey really likes-"
"The one with the blue eyes?" The elf buds in exitedly.
"Yyyyeah;" Needle confirms. "...And the gray body. Heard from someone over at the town, the other day, that a swarm of them comes by the creek every year around this time; so I figured I'd stop by there and see if that was true. Turns out it is!"
"SwEEheeeet~" Firey sings out, bounding exitedly down the hall and taking the first right to the dining room. The rest of us soon follow after him, Needle sliding on the oven mitts to grab the food from the other side of the same room (the kitchen and the dining are just on like other sides of the same room, like in VD). It doesn't take long for the dining table to be flooded with life, the many different races and classes all laughing with eachother over the same stupid things in their shared life.
The cheetah's cooking is delicious, too! Of course, nothing could ever top Pin's unbeatable baking—or, maybe that's just me being biased—but Needle's skills in the kitchen have always been a close second. Although, of course, the demon kind of has to be skilled at her baking, or else her healing powers wouldn't work, but it's not like that's a downside.
Dinner seems to fly by quickly, but it certainly doesn't take any longer than usual for Firey to finish early and leave the room almost without a word. This happens every day, though, so nobody even bats an eye at his sudden exit.
He's probably just going to visit Match again, like every other day before...
As the meal settles to a close, everyone heads back to their respective whatevers, with Pin heading out back to water her plants after helping to clear the table with Needle and I. I soon follow after her, having nothing better to do than spend a few more minutes today with the love of my life.
"Coming with?" She chuckles back at me when she notices me beginning to hop after her to catch up.
"Can I?" I ask with a curious smile on my face.
"Mhm," she says, reaching for my hand, a smile playing on her lips as out fingers interlock. "Sure, why not?"
As we head down the hall, a certain table passes my line of sight. Adorned with candles and flowers, a lone picture frame rests in the center, Firey's and Coiny's sister clear as day in the middle of the photo. The fire elf—the one that's still living—can be seen with his arms around her neck, holding onto her and laughing as she attempts to shove him off. It's a playful attempt, though, and you can see the light in her own eyes and that bright grin that she could never wipe from her face when she and Firey were playing like that.
Although he was her step-sibling, Coiny had never been as close with Match as Firey had been. I still remember that day when Firey had nearly burned down a building in the town next door, and probably would have if it wasn't for his sister's intervention—she had always been much more skilled with her own magic than Firey had been. The two fire elves would always playfight and roughhouse, while Coiny would be off to the side, chatting with Needle, or something.
Now that I think of it, Coiny has always been kind of distant with everyone, hasn't he? He's still like that with all of us, even after Match...
...
Well, I suppose he isn't like that with Needle, but, still...
I step into my bedroom, a slight yawn escaping me before I wince at a sudden sharp pain in my side. Reaching down to feel my right waist, the texture of something other than skin makes its way through the fabric of my shirt. A slight groan erupts from my lips as I realize with a dread that the flowers have come back.
Sure enough, when I look into the mirror and lift the green shirt, I can see the many, assorted colours of those damned plants growing from that same stupid spot again. I sigh, glancing up to see that they're growing in on my forehead again, too, on the opposite side of the ones on my torso. The others must have noticed it, but not wanted to say anything? Or maybe they really are just that unnoticable.
Well, their return is to be expected, since she had even appeared in that dream I had last night. She hadn't shown up in forever, but... it seems like she's coming back now, unfortunately.
I sigh, taking off my brown utility belt and that long black cloak. My boots, too, since I'm hopping into my bed. I can feel the discomfort growing slightly in my waist, and I just know that more are growing in already. Whatever, I think, at least they never did any more than be a bit painful...
It still sucks that they're back, though.
A quiet sigh escapes me as I fall backwards, my short green hair sprawling out on my pillow beneath my head as the mattress lets out a subtle creak. It takes almost no time for my eyes to grow too heavy to hold open, and I drift off to dreamland again quickly, barely even bothering to change out of my day-clothes or pull up my blanket.
—————
Open your eyes, my dear Leaflet...
We need to have a chat..~
A slight gasp escapes my lips as I shoot up from the hard black ground, but I don't have to look to know that I'm back here. Well, isn't this just peachy?
She stands infront of me, back turned; but I can see her long, crimson red ponytail swaying to the side as she turns to greet me.
"Good- ...well, I suppose it's night now, isn't it..?" She hums out to me. "Good night, Leaflet!"
"What do you want?" I spit out from my place on the ground, glaring away from her.
She hops up from the ground and flies over to me, her hands always resting in that smug position behind her back, like she's hiding something she's about to stab me with.
I suppose dying would be better than talking to her agian, anyways.
"I simply want to chat, dear~" she answers, in that damning, singing voice of hers.
"Chat about what?" I gingerly ask, pushing myself up to stand on the void-like floor and squinting in annoyance at her.
A light chuckle breaks from her lips, and she pulls a hand forward to cover them for a short moment. Her whole body shakes slightly as she laughs, glancing away from me as if she knows something I don't—which, honestly, she probably does.
Her ponytail falls past her feet—technically not to the floor right now, since she's hovering above it teasingly—and one long group of crimson coloured hair falls over her eye, down to her chest. That short, almost black-ish red cloak sits on her shoulders, the fabric barely reaching her elbows before cutting off with a pink-ish lace that's the same colour as that long stripe that drags down her hair like the vein of a leaf, similarly to the lime green stripe in my own hair. The hood of her cloak has the same lace tracing the large rim of it, but right now that hood sits on her shoulders and behind her back.
The whites of her eyes have a slighty yellow-ish tinge to them, the same colour of those teeth that never move with her mouth, as if taunting everyone she talks to; but her irises are a bright, blood red, almost scarlet, with a slight glow to them. And that smug grin, like always, rests on her lips. I sometimes wonder if her face is frozen that way but, then again, I have seen her frown before; just rarely.
"Oh, just about that dear human you have with your party, dear~" she giggles out, floating almost above me so that I have to look up. Those two, curly antennae of hers hang down with gravity, even though that law has never seemed to apply to her in the past.
"What about him..?" I demand, almost hesitantly. Another laugh from her fills the air of this void she's dragged me into, piercing my eardrums despite their longing to rid of her annoyingly confident voice.
"He went to the village earlier, and found out something terrible about us..." she says, now falling behind me and forcing me to turn around. "Well, not something terrible, but... something he's chosen to misinterpret..~"
"What did he find out? What are you talking about??" I questioin, panic now pricking at the corners of my skin. She simply giggles, and reaches up to flick one of my antennae teasingly, despite my swatting her arm away.
"Oh, it's truly no big deal but.. he really doesn't trust you anymore... I suggest you go check up on him, hm~?"
—————
And with that, my eyes shoot open, her laughter echoing in the back of my mind, I instantly push myself to a sit and scramble out of my bedroom, not even bothering to slip into my shoes before running down the hall. His room greets me with a wide open door, and no Coiny in sight. His boots are missing, too, so he must have gone at least somewhat on his own, right?
But as I frantically search around, even his still-closed window shows no sign of him running away. It's as if he's simply poofed out of existence.
I suppose my desperate searching must have woken the others, because the other part-insecta suddenly throws open the door to his own room, calling to me as I run down the hall to our den, "Leafy, what's going on!??"
I ignore him, looking around wildly for some sign of him, a piece of paper on the couch soon grabbing my attention. I lift it into my hands quickly, and notice the human's rushed writing on the off-white material along with a couple of messy ink stains. But my eyes only widen as I read the short sentence, and shove the thing into my pocket before anyone else can see as I hear my brother follow me down the stairs, other people awaking from their slumber while the moon sets outside.
"Leafy! Leafy, what is it!??" Gelatin demands, grabbing at my shoulder and turning me to face him. "What's wrong!? Why are you up so early!??"
"Coiny's gone!!" I immediately answer, gripping both of his shoulders in return. I can tell he's already noticed the terror in my eyes, and the way that my breathing is coming out in desperate pants. I can tell that he's noticed those stupid flowers, too, an antenna of his twitching in concern.
"Well then, we need to go find him!" I hear a high voice say from behind the younger bug, and we both look to see Needle with her arms crossed, leaning against the doorframe. "No matter what's happened to him, he can't have gone far. Worst-case-scenario, he's lost in the woods somewhere."
I watch as Firey walks up behind the cat, a trauma resurfacing in the back of his mind. "Coiny's gone..?" Is all that he mutters out, and I can tell what's going through his mind right now.
He can't lose another sibling.
"No, he's not;" we hear a familiar woman say, resting her hand on the elf's shoulder. "Not for long, anyways—because we're going to find him, alright?"
"Y...Yeah... Needle's right..." Firey mumbles to himself, giving Pin a nervous smile. "He... can't be far. We'll get him back..."
And with that, Needle pushes herself from her spot in the doorway, stepping into the middle of the den to address all of us. "Then it's settled; we're going out and finding Coiny, and we're bringing him back home—"
"Whether he wants us to, or not..." I add under my breath, although it's too quiet for anyone to hear.
"—But we can't go out right now;" the gray felidae says suddenly. "He cannot be far yet, so we need to take all the time we can to prepare. We could be out there for a couple days, so we'll just take an hour or so now to gather everything we need—Get some breakfest, get dressed properly in our day-clothes, and grab anything that we think we might require to head out and search. —Firey, make sure you remember your wand this time, alright?"
"Wh- THAT WAS ONE TIME." The elf in question shouts back defensively.
"Yeah, one time, that you almost got eaten by a siren during."
"I DID NOT ALMOST GET EATEN. AND YOU GUYS WEREN'T EVEN THERE!"
"But I was," Gelatin laughs out, strolling over and leaning on Firey's shoulder teasingly. "And I can confirm that you would have, in fact, gotten eaten by a hungry siren; had it not been for that weird mute one coming to our rescue."
"OHMYOXYGENSHUTUP." Firey yells angrily, before crossing his arms with a pout. "Let's just go find Coiny, alright? I don't want him to get eaten by a siren, either!"
"Alright, alright, let's just go and get everything we need, first;" Needle says, pushing past the two to head back upstairs and get properly dressed. "C'mon guys, we have no time to waste, now."
It feels like no time at all before we're all standing outside our cabin, going through our supplies and rations to make sure we aren't forgetting anything. And, after only one or two trips back inside the building, we're soon on our way, heading out towards the neighbouring town—our first pit stop.
We're coming to find you, Coiny.
"I'm leaving. Don't trust her. Its full name is the Crimson /Leaf./"
Whether you want us to, or not.