In the early hours of the day, Scarlett let out a yawn before moving her head and resting it on Snow's shoulder. Scarlett's head started to slide off Snow's shoulder and she quickly fell forwards, luckily having the bedsheet stopping her body. Her head quickly fell forwards causing her to wake up and abruptly lifted her head back up. The abrupt movement disorientated Scarlett as she meandered her hands to her face and rubbed her eyes. She blinked a few times and looked around the wagon.
Other than Akari, everyone else in the wagon was asleep. she noticed that Zalroth and Lola were missing. She heard footsteps on the roof of the wagon and figured it must be them. She looked to her left and reached her arm out to grab her clothes. She pulled them under the covers and quickly got dressed. She hopped out of the bedsheets, without waking up Snow, and hurried to the front of the wagon, passing Sophia who was sleeping on top of a crate with her limbs hanging off the sides.
Scarlett hurried past Akari who faked coughed causing Scarlett to run back to the blanket. She quickly folded her pyjamas and placed them where her clothes previously were. Akari grinned a little as Scarlett tried her best to straiten out the pyjamas as much as she possibly could. Scarlett inspected the straightness of her pyjamas and nodded, concluding they would pass her mother's standards. Scarlett proudly hurried to the front of the wagon and walked through the drapes. She covered her eyes as they adjusted to the brightness of the outside. She moved her arm, noticing Rokai and some others were setting up a cooking pot.
Scarlett heard the sound of the air wooshing behind her reminding her why she came outside in the first place. She turned around and looked up at the roof of the wagon. She couldn't see anything and decided to climb to see if Zalroth was up there. Scarlett jumped up and tried to grab onto the roof of the wagon. She missed the roof of the wagon and almost stumbled off the wagon when she landed back on the driver's seat. After a few failed attempts to get onto the roof of the wagon, she jumped with a little more oomph and managed to grab the roof of the wagon.
Scarlett struggled to pull herself up, due to there being nothing for her to place her feet on and making them run in the air. She eventually got half her body onto the roof and spotted Zalroth, with a sleeping Lola clinging to his back, doing some training, that consisted of him doing shadow sparring with some metalic yellow cylinders shaped weights on his arms and legs. Scarlett pulled her entire body onto the roof and sat down. She intently watched Zalroth punch and kick the air with great intensity. Zalroth caught a glimpse of Scarlett in his peripheral vision when he heard a loud metal clanging noise nearby.
"What are you up to?". Zalroth backflipped and landed on his hands before doing handstand push-ups.
"Some exercise.". Scarlett followed Zalroth's face as he continued to do push-ups.
"What's with the gold thingies?" Scarlett asked while pointing at the weights on his arms.
"They're weights to increase the efficiency of the exercise.".
"Oh....". Scarlett continued to watch Zalroth exercise before looking at her hands while quickly opening and closing them. She placed her hands on the roof, followed by the top of her head. She kicked her feet off the roof and tried to do a handstand. Scarlett managed to hold the handstand, although her arms were wobbling immensely and seemed like she couldn't keep it up for long. Her hands slipped and her whole body somersaulted. She coverer her eyes and head as her face rapidly approached the roof of the wagon. However, a large silver tail with a faint cyan tip darted underneath Scarlett and she landed on top of the tail, before slightly sinking into it.
"You ok, Scarlett?" Zalroth asked while lifting Scarlett to his face with his tail. Scarlett didn't respond Causing Zalroths to be a little alarmed and slowly move his hand over to her. He shook her shoulder and heard Scarlett make some incoherent, and muffled, muttering. Zalroth let out a relieved sigh and grabbed the hood of Scarlett's hoodie. He lifted her head and realised she had passed out, concluding it was probably due to the somersault she did but found it odd she had a satisfied/smug grin on her face. He quickly checked her head for any injuries. He didn't see any signs of injuries.
"Is everything alright?" Akari asked after popping out from the wagon. Zalroth quickly picked Scarlett up from his tail and made it disappear behind him. He made his way to the front of the roof and jumped down. Akari was startled when Zalroth landed behind her. Akari noticed the sleeping Scarlett, who still had a smug grin, in Zalroth's arms. Akari had a conflicted expression.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
"Ok, what happened?".
"Not sure, I think she might have slipped while I wasn't looking but I managed to catch her with one of my tails.". Zalroth noticed a wave of relief wash over Akari's face as she placed her hand on her chest.
"What a relief, I thought she'd knocked herself out, ...again," Akari remarked as she took Scarlett from Zalroth.
"She'll be ok right?". Akari nodded her head.
"Give her an hour and she'll be hassling you again," Akari remarked before taking Scarlett back into the wagon, leaving Zalroth standing there with a perplexed expression.
"I'm starting to think you might be cursed or something.". Zalroth sighed as he looked up at Sophia, who was laying on a tree branch.
"Thanks for that.". Sophia was about to respond but noticed Rokai was approaching; Zalroth noticed Sophia was looking at something behind him and turned around.
"Say Zalroth, can you give us a hand with the cooking pot?" Rokai asked while pointing at the cooking pot behind him. Zalroth glanced behind Rokai at the upside cooking pot and the two individuals, an orange kijin with long red hair and a light-skinned artic demi-fox, struggling to pick it up.
"Sure, just give me a second to take my weights off," Zalroth replied while sitting down.
Meanwhile, Luna took the thermometer out of Star's mouth before putting the futon bedsheet back over her chest. Luna looked at the thermometer as she stood up and walked towards the exit of the tent, with Star weakly watching her leave. Luna stepped outside the tent and looked around for Charlotte. She got a little distracted when she spotted Xero and Ruby staring at a grey rock. She scratched her head and wondered what they were up to. She sensed Charlotte approaching and looked in her direction.
"How's she doing?" Charlotte asked.
"Since she's had her medicine, I can only conclude that she has a fever, so she'll be fine; although, it'll be best if she doesn't move around too much.". Charlotte placed one of her hands on her chin with a slightly agitated expression. Charlotte spotted Ruby and called out to her. Ruby instantly stood up with her ears and red tail going stiff for a second from shock. She apologised to Xero before turning around and hurrying over to Charlotte.
"What's up, cap'in?" Ruby asked while giving a salute. Charlotte was a little weirded out by Ruby suddenly saluting but didn't let it show.
"Riight, Luna said that Star should stay in bed until she recovers from her fever, so I was wondering how far a target can be before you can't track them anymore?".
"Pfft, you don't need to worry about that, as long as a mana shower doesn't happen I'll be able to track anyone slash anything anywhere," Ruby remarked while dismissively waving her left hand.
"That's good to hear... so what were you and Xero doing?". Ruby's hand waving paused, quickly glanced over a Xero to remember what she was doing and looked back at Charlotte.
"Not too sure, I was just watching him scanning rocks," Ruby replied while shrugging.
"And speaking of watching him scan rocks.". Ruby gleefully skipped back to Xero and became completely mesmerized by Zero's scanning lasers. Charlotte leaned over to Luna.
"Why'd she call me, captain?" Charlotte asked while being as quiet as possible.
"Her favourite character in the manga thing she's been reading started to calling her boss that.".
"O-oh..." Charlotte said while blushing a little and rubbing the back of her head. Suddenly a loud yawn caught the two's attention and made them turn around. They spotted a yawning Alex and Charlotte awkwardly looked upwards. Alex stretched her arms and legs causing her dark orange tail, with a heart-shaped end and a smaller orange heart in the middle, to stretch out as well. She stopped stretching and noticed Charlotte was staring up at the sky.
"Something catch your eye, Charlotte?" Alex ask while scratching her left horn, which was dark orange and curved like goat horns, and looking up at the sky. Charlotte sighed while covering her eyes.
"Your clothes, Alex...". Alex stopped scratching her horn and looked down. She realised she was only wearing her underwear.
"Huh, I wondered why I was so cold." Alex slowly walked back into her tent. Luna tapped Charlotte on the shoulder, making Charlotte lower her head and uncover her eyes.
"I swear she does it on purpose," Luna murmured.
"I think it's just a succubus thi-". Charlotte paused when she looked down at Luna, noticing she was angerly looking at her chest while having her hands over her chest.
"Stupid fairy genes." Luna quietly muttered to herself while squeezing her chest slightly.