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As they walked, Isabella couldn't help but to notice Nadia with her mantis. It had been looking at her and so she had adopted the little thing, and somewhere in the scuffle Lucas had lost it....now here was Nadia playing with what had to be the same mantis. A spike of jealousy shot through her as she watched, and her innocent glare may reveal as much even. Still, she was too shy to come out and say anything about it, and so she figured she had simply lost her pet to this fairy. At least she still had Lucas, and inwardly she recalled how no one could steal him from her even if they wanted to desperately.

Leaving the forest was an odd experience for the child, as she had never been out of what her town had named Mori forest. As such she had spent her entire 9 year life within the walls of trees.

Furthermore, however, was Telmarune.....it was huge and Isabella had never seen anything like it. Her own village hosted maybe 100 people, but this....this was a grand and glorious city standing tall and proud.

Her grasp fell almost by mistake, and her eyes widened when she saw it. "Whoaa....that's Telmarune?" she asked without leaving sight of it. A smile took her face as she thought of all that could be held within those walls, and in her excitement she failed to see the anxiety issues ren seemed to be dealing with.

"Come on!" she said with a glance up at the pair, and immediately she set off running towards the city, equipped with a broad smile and light giggles as she went. Lucas made quick pace after her, easily keeping up with Isabella's short legs as they ran down towards the gate.

A young woman, an eager girl, a bounding dog, and a fairy.

The sergeant at the gate was disappointed there wasn't a bar involved.

By the fairy thing he guessed a wizard, her apprentice, and their familiars.

Wait.... something was up with that dog...

As they got closer, he realised what the issue was: the dog was dead. Or, well, undead. Undead made from bodies of animals were... legal, technically, just questionable. Specifically questionable by the inquisition, poor girl. She looked like the poster child of an eager apprentice from here. Well, any necromancy could be bad necromancy pretty easily.

All of this would be a bit of hassal for him, but better than letting Lady Thalia accusing him of sympathy unto evil. Two of the other men were playing cards in the tower next to the gate, off duty for now. The seargent took a couple steps away and peeked through the door.

"I need one of you good-for-nothings to get a wizard, and the other to get an inquisitor. Mage and apprentice coming in, and they've got a dead dog walking with them," he ordered. The two looked at each other, and one shrugged before saying, "yes sir." They got up, and jogged out to go find the people they needed. Only one of each was assigned to the wall at a time, so the boys needed to go find them and bring them here. If they weren't busy.

He sighed and walked back out to the gate, standing to one side, just ahead of the other guard at that side of the gate.

As the two got close, he called, "Oi, you two and your familiars, we'll need you to wait to the side just outside the gate. Just need to ask some questions and make sure there won't be any problems. Don't worry, you aren't in trouble."

Ren shook off her fear as the child went sprinting past her, toward the busy city and the unpleasant looking guards at the gate. She went running to keep up, mostly for fear the child would get herself in trouble.

At the gate, Ren’s fear turned into impatience. Why were they being held up? They were just a woman, who really still looked like a teen, and basically two children. Okay, and a dog. An undead dog. Fine, maybe there was a reason they were held up...

Naida filled with excitement when Isabella took off. She eagerly took off after her, fluttering her wings as fast as she could to overcome the undead dog.

Suddenly, Naida remembered the tiny mantis clinging desperately to her shoulder. She tried to slow down, but, alas, it was too late! Naida’s bug pal went flying off, and Naida went diving after it. She may have... overestimated her current speed, and she went flying into the ground. “Bug pal!” she cried out as searching the grass. She sighed in relief when the little friend crawled back onto her hand. She cupped it in both hands this time and took off again.

When stopped at the gate, Naida hovered in the air beside Ren. She opened up her hands, happy to see the bug still safe. “There, my little bug pal, safe as can be,” she cooed as attempting to stroke the poor insect.

As Isabella ran giddily at the gate, she wasn't exactly sure what to expect. Probably it would just open, right? As she approached, though, she slowed and her expression changed hearing the man above shouting at her.

Don't worry, you're not in trouble though

The words were the saving grace if his statement. Hearing that was a comfort for her that she really hadn't done anything wrong....but still these armed individuals made her nervous. In her home town she hadn't had great experiences with most of them on the rare occasions they passed through.

Still, she knew enough to obey rules, and with a slightly concerned expression, she listened to the instructions. Slowing to a stop she walked over to the spot she was told to wait, staring up at the guard and watching the gate in exchanging looks.

Lucas followed her over, acting oddly alive with his tongue hanging out and the deep breaths a dog normally portrayed. He moved directly in front of Isabella and pushed the length of his body across her, shoving her back a little. There is where he stood, awaiting with Isabella for the impending inquisition. The girl was nervous at the prospect of being questioned, but what we she supposed to do?

The sergeant walked up near the small group and leaned against the wall. He looked pretty relaxed as these things went.

"If it's alright, I'd like to ask a few questions and give some information before our specialists get here," he says with the kind of tone that, while polite, makes it clear that 'no' would not be an acceptable answer, "Normally we wouldn't even bother, but, well, the Inquisitors get jumpy around undead. Well, and everyone else, but the Inquisitions won't take it as a sign to back off."

He spits something he had been chewing onto the groud beside him, away from the wall before continuing. Admittedly, he didn't have all that much to ask, and needed to stall until the people he needed got here.

"You seem like nice enough people: A lady wizard with a fairy companion, and an eager apprentice with a gift for necromancy, so I'm not too worried about you. Now, this dog having half of its guts visible creeps me out as much as anyone else, but I also know a wizard who got got drunk one time, killed a bear, and put a keg in it so he could have a 'bear-le' and take his booze on the road, so it isn't the weirdest thing to happen in this city, either. He's great, by the way, the wizard I mentioned. Professor Marcus if you need an expert in weirder magics, usually in that big pyramid in the fist ring. Anyway, being a necromancer, and even having non-human undead, isn't illegal here in Telmarune, but it isn't exactly appreciated. Might be best to leave this good boy outside the wall."

"Right, questions," he says after a momentary pause, shaking his head as if to clear it. The smell off that dog was getting to him. He pulled out a longish list, and began looking over it, talking to himself. "Seems like two and two.... I see a spellbook there, so that answers that just fine.... so I guess we go straight to... yep. What business do you two have in Telmarune?"

“Well we got this sha-” Naida started, but was immediately interrupted by Ren.

“Well, my... apprentice and I were heading to the library for our studies.” She figured it would be easier to stick with magician and apprentice than explain that they were complete strangers trying to do research on blood magic.