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"Perfect," she says as she takes it and resumes staring at it.

After a minute or two, she looks up and blinks a few times, before turning to Drake. "All but one of the other shards are within a hundred kilometres," she says, seeming mildly shocked, "And there are three of them in a cluster, and another three only slightly more dispersed..... then the penultimate one is... well.... I think it might be in this building!"

She smiles maliciously. "This might be easier than I thought! We can leave the one here alone for now, I can track that later, but who knows how long those three will stayed clustered for! This will be hilarious!" She exclaims with a laugh.

As the sounds of the inn return, the door seems to go back to normal and she hurtles out of it, laughing like a hyperactive schoolgirl. Her body takes on a more quadrupedal appearance, and she bounds down the stairs, shard between her teeth.

Charlotte and Yuna have finally made it on the road after buying some food from the local market. The beautiful countryside was a nice distraction from the current events they were places in.

Yuna was walking with the map while Charlotte walked beside her admiring the vegetation. From the distance, she could see a large crop field and farmers tending to their future harvest.

"Looks like it's gonna be a few days before we get to the next resting spot." Yuna declared while looking at the map.

"Alright, who is going to do the cooking tonight?" Charlotte asked.

"Hmm... I can make some cabbage stew!" Yuna cheered.

Charlotte shuttered, "cabbage soup?"

Yuna raised an eyebrow at Charlotte's reaction, "what's wrong with my cabbage soup?"

"I-I did not say anything about your cabbage soup!" Charlotte panicked.

The two continued their silly conversation as the walked down the road.

He heard an obnoxious noise moving down the stairs, and couldn't help but to investigate. What the hell could've made that loud noise?

His slowly fading headache prevents him from understanding the specifics of her ramble but Drake gets the gist of it. He turns to her with a forced half-smile.

"Ah, that's sort of con- wait, where the hell are you going!?" He gawks at the swung-open door as the cackling vixen charges down the stairs like a wild animal.

He chases her out of the room and through the inn, ignoring startled gasps and cries of fear. Although not going quadruped, he half-morphs to run faster; no fully-human body will be able to keep up with her.

Lisa studies the outstretched hand the same way she might a brightly-colored insect: interesting, but potentially deadly to touch. Nonetheless, she reaches out to take it and accepts with a timid grip. Her hands tremble, not so much from fear at this point but more from exhaustion. She hadn't realized how tired she is until now. Up close, her pale face, shadowed eyes, and bedraggled hair betray the stress she's been abruptly tossed under. Not only has she accidentally discovered a dangerous magical artifact, but a sorceress from the stars is coming to kill her to take it and, worst of all, she let her loud-mouthed cat go missing.

None of this she explains to Evelyn. The less a stranger knows about her problems, the better. Instead, she forces herself to smile in a cold, professional way she's been practicing for a long time. "Lisa, a pleasure to meet you." She releases the other woman's hand and steps back. The idea of sitting and talking to someone actually is tempting, but she does have a Raven to find and a shard to throw into the ocean, or something along those lines.

Besides, this could all be a trap. Her eyes dart up and down the hillside, desperately searching for any hint that confirms the theory. Finding none, she relaxes just a little more.

This is her favorite hillside, stranger or no. And if Raven is in danger- she looks down at her hands, which still shake -what help can she be in this state? Lisa doubts she could go home and sleep, but this might work almost as well.

"I...I suppose I can stay and talk, for only a few minutes."

Barring any significant interruption, Victi will continue to run in quadruped form out of the inn and off down the street. She'll only stop once she reaches a the stable where she'd convinced someone to keep an eye on her Shriker.

She smiled at her. "Why don't we walk and talk? I want to avoid any potential danger if that's fine with you." Her smile gets a bit more awkward. She awkwardly scratches the back of her head. She touches her hairpiece again. She awkwardly laughed.

Lisa lets out an awkward laugh of her own. "Of course." Of course, potential danger might exist as long as you're near me.

She frowns at her own intrusive thought. If she wanted to or could hurt you, she likely would have tried by now.

This could be the trap part.

Shut it! Lisa lets both hands fall to her sides, one resting on her knife's sheath, and turns toward the woods. If they're going to walk and talk, she might as well multitask and look around for Raven. There are a few spots she hadn't managed to check yet. Granted, they're places that Raven never seems to go but she's starting to get desperate.

"Alright." She walked into the woods while watching Lisa behind her back. "So um, what're doing out here?" She felt both paranoid that this could be the sorceress and nervous because it had been a while since she's talked to someone. She sighed and smiled nervously at Lisa.

Neo would look at the note and nodded. He somewhat knew due to the arm glowing brighter, however he paided no mine to this at all."So Beowolf is all about punches and kicks. Lucifer is all about see on how much explosions. Cerberus is all about controlling the elements,so is Agni and Rudra,but their twin swords that talk a lot,but I don't mind. Alastor is basically a electric sword .However,these are the only weapons that chose you.The rest hasn't gotten use to yet"

Lisa falls back to walk next to Evelyn as they cross under the forest canopy, likewise preferring to keep an eye on her companion. She tries to keep the girl on her right-hand side, the side that holds a short, pale blade nestled in an old leather sheath.

She answers the question quickly with as vague but honest an answer she can think of. "I live out here."

"Your excuse?" She laughs and tries to pass her question off as a joke, but her eyes narrow in suspicion and her smile is cold and thin-lipped.

Once outside, Drake lunges forward and runs on all fours, relying on a pair of too-long, fur-covered arms and his digitigrade feet to keep Victi in his sights. The best word with which anyone could describe him in his present shape would be "werebeast." Not quite a man, but not quite the behemoth of a manticore-ish monster who'd fought Victi out in the forest.

Surprisingly, the crowded street doesn't pose much of a problem. People scream and get the heck out of the way as Victi bounds toward the edge of town. And they don't dare return to their routines until the shapeshifter in her wake is also long out of sight.

When Victi finally slows at the stable, Drake nearly barrels into her, but skids to a halt a foot away. He stands, panting, and dusts off his paws. The chimera shoots Victi the coldest glare he dares to muster.

"You crazy spawn of a-" he grits his teeth, cutting the insult before he says something vulgar. "I know we don't have a lot of time, but seriously?"

"But it's fun!" she exclaims, an enthusiastic sparkle in her eye, "And exciting! Not only is this a probably rare opportunity, but it's a guaranteed benefit to me no matter the outcome! Either I take down the holders and acquire the shards, or, if they're remotely interesting, I end up giving them a bit of a freak out when I attack them, they survive, and then they get to run away and I get to chase them again later! I'd need to get the shards eventually, but there's no point without a challenge! It's a bit of a predator thing. I'm sure you've drawn out fights against some opponents you could have just taken down though, right? It's a hard urge to resist!"

It's obvious just how excited she is based on how quickly she's speaking, and the slight sparks dancing across her fur with little fizzing sounds.

Whoever it was, he wanted to investigate. So he went out of the inn to walk around. Maybe he'd see that cute girl again. who knows

She stays silent. She deciding whether to tell Lilly about the real reason or lie. "Well, I live close enough and wanted to get out of my house." She lied in the end but she decided to ask her, "Do you know of any magical items?" She looked over at Lisa. She then reached into her bag for her cloak. She took it out but just held it in her hands.

Lisa stops and looks at the cloak, her suspicion growing; she even takes a step away from Evelyn's side, preparing to run.

"Ah...no. At least, not anything from nearby," she lies. The less a stranger knows about her problems, the better. She can't lie as well as some; her lips curl into a nervous smile and she can't bring herself to look near the other girl.

Evelyn sighs and puts the cloak away. "Well, that makes sense. Do you think Aliens exist?" Evelyn really didn't want to be alone with the sorceress after her. She also secretly hoped that Lisa had a shard as well. She really didn't want to be the only one with a shard. If Lisa didn't have a shard then, she was just putting her in danger. She touched her hairpiece instinctively.

“...What?”

Just treat it as small talk. That’s what it is. Odd question to ask a total stranger but it works as small talk, right?

Yet combined with the question about magical items, the girl’s prodding becomes much more suspect. Lisa’s heart thuds in her chest. This is a trap this is a trap this has to be a trap.

Lisa laughs nervously. “Aliens? I-I don’t know...maybe? Probably not?” She starts walking again, trying to look calm, but one clammy hand curls around her knife hilt.

"Dang." She awkwardly chuckled. "You probably think I'm weird. I just wanted to know something." She frowned. "Got any questions you wanna ask me? I've been the only one asking anything so I want you to be given a chance." She felt awkward and again touched her hairpiece. She knew that Lisa thought she was probably super suspicious but she wanted to know.

Their pace slowed as the fatigue of fleeing slowly began reach a high enough rate to sneak up on the fear they felt after seeing the creature driving up behind them, followed by the sounds of the compound most likely being crushed in its wake. As they slowed, Kae once again tripped, collapsing face first into the ground breathing heavily, weary from the ling period of running.

Vee quickly turned around and slowly walked back to their friend, fallingonto their knees next to Kae's upper body. They reached out to Kae while they lay there, placing their hands on their back and caressing across it. Kae lay there reflecting on the excitment, and several moments passed as they took in the events.

"Not like the barelands," Kae said pitifully. Vee, in response, grabbed at Kae's body and pulled upwards to suggest they should sit up. Reluctantly they did, using Vee's help to hoist themselves onto their knees, and sitting back on their legs across from them in a similar manner.

"Came from forest...." Vee said confused.

"No," Kae responded pointedly, refusing to believe their home could spawn such a creature, "Was barelands magic," they said matter of factly. Vee couldn't argue, the perception of the area outside of the forest suggested such creatures could exist, and seeing it with their own eyes made it hard to believe it couldn't now be true. "What now?" Kae asked with a defeated tone.

Vee stared back as Kae timidly met their eyes. Vee wasn't really sure. The thought the shard didn't have a previous owner was concerning. Their hope was to return it to capable hands and go back to the forest with some fun and interesting stories to tell, confident that whatever warrior they gave this shard to would conquer the sorceress with great ease. That didn't seem to be what was going to happen anymore, and if Vee simply abandoned the shard and went home, which was what they desperately wanted to do now, it would be only a matter of time before this magic user arrived and wiped out the Vynym.

"University.....we find," Vee said softly, extending their arms to take Kae's hands in their own.

"How?" Kae argued with a sorrowful desperation in their tone, "Almost lost forest already. How find university? Where is??"

Vee stood up, dragging Kae upwards to their feet which they reluctantly followed. The truth was they had no idea. The university could be anywhere and they didn't even know the right direction to begin a search, much less what it would even look like when they arrived.

"We find," Vee said simply, trying to out on their most comforting tone. Simultaneously they drug Kae into a hug, reaching past them and burying their face into Kae's cheek looking for an earlobe to bite. Kae stood their letting it happen, reveling in the comfort Vee offered them. This was not at all the way they imagined their adventure going, and it had only just begun.

After releasing each other, Vee's vae slowly descended to them, dropping the shard they carried onto Vee's now open palm before finding the pod the little thing belonged to. Vee reached into their leafy body, storing the shard under the strap to the ancient dagger their mother had given them. Then they took Kae and drug them into a kind of side hug, arm around their back with the opposite one outstretched to take Kae's opposite hand.

"We go," Vee said simply, and started off in the nearest direction they faced, mind you, a direction opposite of the compound they had just fled.

It was hard to say what they might encounter on their travels, what they might run into even. Perhaps a couple of performing girls out for a walk, a child and a talking cat, or even this sorceress herself flirting with hiring employees who would thus destroy themselves at her whim? Whatever it might be, Vee decided right then they had to try and take care of Kae. At least help to mentally prepare them for what was ahead. They were only 30 or 40 years younger, but still, the giant blob attack had rattled poor Kae a lot more than it did Vee, and Vee had been quite frightened enough themselves.