Remington

Wordless motion awoke Rem. Not just that of his master Alvec, rising out of bed and shuffling towards the door, but of all the others doing the same thing. Rem chirped at Alvec and received no greeting or scritches, the highest offense possible. "Echo," Rem chirped. The wolf, many times Rem's size, reared up next to his owner, Naya. "Are you seeing this?" Rem asked.

The wolf shook himself out and stretched as he did so. "Yeah. What do?" He asked back with his body language and some minor vocalizations.

Speaking with the other animals was hard, but Rem could manage well enough. Friend Alvec joked that he was part cat, part dog, and that was almost true. "I think they are... asleep?" Rem guessed as he quickly sprang and climbed to his usual perch on Alvec's head. He leaned over the crest of his horns and looked at his friend. His eyes were open just a slit, barely enough to let light in. Rem yipped again right in Alvec's face.

No reaction.

Concerned, Rem hopped down and watched his friends wander into the night without lighting anything to guide their path. They moved slowly, staggering and stumbling as they crept towards the woods. It wasn't just their friends; other humans were also beginning to spill from their house, heading as if following an unspoken voice toward the woods. Rem, thoroughly disturbed by this, began trying to devise a plan. Bahzugs, the strange rat dog that had joined them recently, wandered up next to him as if looking for guidance. "Stay with them; get the other two and go with them," He squealed as he gestured toward the humanoids. The strange rat dog made a low hiss of acknowledgment and crept up beside his eccentric goblin owner, tongue lolling out of its mouth. What an odd creature. "Echo, can you pin Naya down?"

The wolf didn't bother responding; he swept between her legs and gently knocked her down before pinning her with his weight. She squirmed, but he held her reasonably still. "Piccora, can I get you to help me for a moment?" The mechanical rabbit silently appeared. "You ever hear of smelling salts?" Rem asked.

The mechanical rabbit nodded its head.

"Well, we don't have any... but maybe a strong taste can wake someone up, too? I can mix up some sort of bitter agent from Alvec's supplies. It might do the trick." The rabbit nodded, "I don't have hands, so I thought you could help me get things out." The two went to Alvec's bag and began pulling out exotic ingredients. With Piccora's help, they uncapped the vials, and Rem sniffed them. He selected the ones that he disliked most, emptied them into a small stone bowl, and used the small stone utensil it came with to smash the items together. When done, he brought the strange mixture to Naya, and the three animals struggled to pour some of it into her mouth. Rem and Echo frowned as it seemed to do nothing. Piccora's lack of facial movements made her disappointment hard to read.

"Worried, no hurt, Naya," Echo said.

"Let her up; we'll just go with them and ensure they don't get into too much trouble," Rem said begrudgingly. The wolf, fox, and clockwork rabbit all followed Naya as she walked into the woods past the farmland. Mel, the girl from the farm, and other humans also started appearing in the woods. Usually, this would have been extremely alarming. However, all of them seemed to be asleep as well. Sensing no malicious intent, Rem relaxed a bit. Eventually, the humans laid themselves down in a clearing in a strange pattern. Rem took the opportunity to run back to the barn. He grabbed a vial of ink and some parchment. Bahzugs and Echo were keeping a lookout. Jinx and Piccora wandered over to Rem to offer support. The three animals laid the paper flat on the ground and held it unfurled. Rem dipped his paws into the black ink and then did his best job to "finger" paint the formation. Having done all they could to gather information, they each took up watch over their friends.

For the most part, the remainder of the night went smoothly. A few animals and bugs approached but were swiftly shooed along by the presence of a wolf and other animals. The only real threat came when a giant brown bear wandered up to the camp. Jinx spotted it first, and her hisses drew Echo and Bahzugs to its face. The size difference made even Echo look small in comparison. It was on all fours, still twice the size of Echo, and nearly quadruple the size of Bahzugs. Their growls and snarls didn't seem to phase the beast at all. Piccora began slowly cackling with electricity as its internal gears spun to generate a nasty shock. Alvec carried a healing wand, but Mavec... Mavec had a wand of some fire spell, so that's where Rem dashed first; he fished the wand out of the young man's pockets. Once fully charged, the clockwork rabbit rushed in and slammed her body into the bear.

It recoiled for a moment and swung down at her. Echo took this moment to bite at one of its other legs. Rem found the wand, a simple brown wooden rod with a burned black tip. He did his best to angle the wand at the bear and activate it. It was difficult; Rem couldn't use magic even though he was magic. Alvec had been practicing with him, teaching him how to pull the magic out of the wood. Alvec called their training "project remedy, or was it project Rem, M.D." The nuance of the wordplay was lost on the poor fox. Burning hot sparks sizzled out of the burnt end of the wand. Rem growled as he felt the magic ebb too low, and the sparks fizzled out. He tried again, desperately calling out to the magic as his companions did their best to threaten this beast away.

Echo was knocked back and yelped. With a clear shot and a sudden burst of anger, Rem pushed his will through the simple wooden wand. A jet of heat blasted out of the wand and struck the bear in the chest as it reared up over Echo and Bahzugs. The scent of searing hair quickly filled the area. The bear howled and backed away from them, a blistering wound on its chest. It turned around and wandered away. Hopefully, it had realized that it would not be the sort of easy meal it might have imagined of several sleeping people in the woods. They were not unprotected.

Rem trotted happily to Mavec and deposited the wand back onto him. Sleepwalking was strange enough; having a wand out simultaneously wasn't any stranger.

Naya

Naya awoke first, gagging and coughing as she rolled onto her side. She desperately held her hands together, cupped as tight as she could, and pushed out a thought to the spirits and nature. They responded; a surge of water flowed into her hands, and she desperately threw it back into her mouth.

Oh, spirits, it was somehow worse with water.

She gagged again, coughing and pounding the ground in agony. She spat the water out and repeated the process, the taste fading with each swig and spit. Her awakening was so miserable that it took her a moment to realize that she wasn't in the barn she had gone to bed in last night. The rest of her party and several other humanoids were lying around this small clearing. The animals were also here, though they were all awake and perched nearby, watching their owners intently. Rem and Echo approached Naya. Both looked entirely too pleased with themselves.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

"Did you do this to me?" Naya asked Rem. She didn't understand what the several yips meant but assumed yes. "Don't... don't do that again. Spirits, what even was that?" She stumbled up onto her feet and moved over to Alvec. He was on his side, horn digging into the soft dirt. Whatever had happened must have occurred after they were asleep. Alvec always cast this fancy spell that gave him a pillow of force to rest his head and horns on. He had claimed that he'd ruined too many pillows and beds over the years with his horns and that it was his first priority to learn how to prevent it. He was sound asleep, just like everyone else. She knelt down beside him and shook him by the shoulder gently. When he didn't respond, she worriedly placed the back of her hand near his lips and nose. Hot breath met the back of her hand, and she sighed in relief. She shook him harder this time. He slowly rose, pulling himself to a half-sitting position on the ground.

"What the hell, Naya? Why is there dirt in my hair?" He looked around, confusion becoming a mild concern. "And why are we in the woods?"

"Not sure yet," she said, lowering a hand to him. He grabbed on, and she helped pull him to his feet.

"Well, at least it's not just us," he said as he took stock of the animals and the other people sleeping on the ground. Rem trotted up to the duo, holding a piece of parchment. Alvec knelt down and retrieved it. "Thanks, Rem." Unfolding it, he was greeted by a confusing image. It was some sort of pattern, alright, but it wasn't one he recognized. He showed it to Naya. "This mean anything to you?"

"No, can't say it does." Alvec frowned at her response.

"I mean, this is some sort of a pattern; this is very much intentional. Someone's trying to tell us something, but I'll be damned if I know what they're trying to tell us... or how they even got us here in the first place." Rem yipped at them, curled up in a ball on the ground for a second, then got up and staggered away from them.

"Is he trying to say we slept-walked?" Naya asked. Alvec smiled and nodded at his familiar.

"Judging by the surge of excitement he just sent through our link, yes. We got up and walked here, I guess," Alvec said as his mouth tensed into a frown.

"Can you ask him why my mouth tastes awful?" Naya asked.

"Huh?"

"Well, you didn't gag when you woke up and try to flush your mouth with water," replied Naya. "So I'm assuming something different happened to me."

"Rem, why am I sensing guilt?" Alvec asked; he raised an eyebrow and glanced at him. The fox yipped repeatedly and tried to convey what had happened by miming it, but the quadrupedal body language did not fully translate. "Is it any consolation that he's sorry?" Alvec asked.

"Plenty; I'm sure he was just trying to help, cute little buddy," She said as she crouched down and scratched him under the chin gently.

"Let's get everyone else in our group up first. We don't know how these other folks will respond to this," Alvec said as he moved over to Mavec. He knelt beside him and gently shook him awake. Naya went to Illaria to do the same.

"If you don't mind me asking, what are we doing outside? I remember going to bed in some nice clean straw in a barn."

"Yeah, we don't really know yet. Rem says we slept-walked." She brushed her red hair out of her face and carefully swept away a twig tangled in her hair.

"So, you can talk to animals? I didn't know you were a druid." Naya laughed heartily.

"I mean, anyone can talk to them and the spirits... but no, I don't hear their responses."

"If you don't be minding my asking, what exactly are you then? You don't quite seem the part of a Ranger either... and yet, you got that big wolf trained like a regular dog."

"I'm not sure there's a proper name for whatever I am," Naya replied. "I feel like I'm something in between those things. If you've got a suggestion for a title, I'll take them."

"Not right this moment, so what did the fox tell you?" Illaria asked. Naya recanted the brief exchange while the two of them roused Bait. The small goblin immediately leaped up, searching for his gun. When he couldn't find it right away, he pulled the cheese from his clothing and eagerly ate it, muttering something about needing his comfort cheese if he couldn't have his boom-maker.

With everyone awake, it was time to wake Mel and the rest of the group. Naya went about it. The young girl shot up quickly, looking confused. Once more, they recanted what little they knew of the situation.

"Okay, then, what are we waiting for? Let's wake up my neighbors." Mel took the lead, walking up to a man old enough to be her father and shaking him awake. The man came too confused; to his credit, he grabbed the young girl and pushed her behind him as he stood up in a defensive posture.

"Who are you, and what's going on?" he asked, glaring at the group.

"There be no need to be actin' all defensive, good sir; we're just as confused by this as you are," Illaria said, taking front and center. A good thing, too, Illaria mused. Mavec looked a little addled; Alvec's infernal or abyssal heritage made him look scarier than he was, and Bait... Bait was Bait; even if he weren't a goblin, he'd be terrifying to meet alone in the woods. The girl with the wolf wasn't a great first impression either. Illaria, on the other hand, looked as if she'd stepped out of legend. She was beautiful, tall, and graceful, making her every movement feel weightless. Her voice was strong but crisp like a bell.

"They're alright, Norm, I promise. They helped me kill some metal monsters the other day," Mel blurted out.

"Is this true?" He asked.

"Yes, and when she told us her parents wouldn't be back till mid-morning, we asked if we could possibly stay the night. The next thing we knew, we were all sleeping in this field. Strange seeing how we went to sleep in the barn. Do we have any ideas on what happened, my wizard friends?"

"Yes, but also no," Alvec replied.

"What does that mean?" The older gentleman asked, relaxing a bit with Mel's assurances.

"We know what happened, but not a lick of the how or why," Mavec replied.

"And what's that?" Norm asked again.

"We sleepwalked here, all of us, seemingly unbidden. No idea what caused it or influenced it. We all just got up and strolled right on over. Our animals seem to have been unaffected and also came with us. We laid down in a strange pattern, but none of us know what it's for. We'll have to try to look into it. Do you know if anything like this has happened around here before?"

"No, can't say that I have. Well, nothing more than rumors, that is."

"So, uh, not to be a bother, but could we move this discussion out of the woods. Piccora, bring us back to Mell's." Mavec requested. The rabbit hopped slowly in the direction of the house. Mavec was quick to follow behind. Naya rolled her eyes. There were still other people to wake up. Whatever the artificer could handle himself, and Piccora was a construct. She had a perfect memory; it wouldn't be too hard for her to bring him back home, even without the rest of the group. There were still people to wake up, which Naya proceeded to help with. Illaria and Norm shook hands, apparently reaching a decision on something Naya was too busy to overhear. In a few minutes, Rem and Echo lead the way back to the farmhouse and barn. Both were expert trackers by scent, and the distinct aroma of Mavec's cigarettes made him easy to track, especially in the forest.

When everyone arrived back at the house, Norm took a moment to look at the group of strangers in front of him again; this time, his suspicion was replaced with mild awe. "We fought these during the war. Nasty pieces of work." Illaria explained that the group would have breakfast here and wait for Mell's parents to arrive. Then, they would be on their way again. With the late, strange start to the day, it was nearing midday before their breakfast had even been consumed. The group barely needed to wait beyond the washing of pans before a wagon rolled into the yard, and shouting began. Her father, a large man, swept her into his arms as Mell recounted how good she'd been with the crossbow. The whole story was quickly told to her parents. Many thanks were exchanged before the group made ready to hit the road again. Archers Market was just a few hours away by foot.

Perhaps this would be as far as Illaria and Bait would come with them. They were headed there for fine cheese, after all. At least Bait was. Illaria was just following his lead for the moment.