He shook his head and blinked wildly, in a way one does when trying to wake themself from a dream or perhaps a nightmare. “Uh, nothing.” He averted his gaze from her, taking another bite of the jerky.

“Are we on the right mountain?” Tsugi looked up to the mountain towering behind her, but she couldn’t see very far since the fog was still very thick..

“Yeah. With the help of Ruzo, we’re already almost there.”

Tsugi finished her jerky and stood to her feet brushing the dirt off her wet clothes as though it would help. With a little food in her belly, she felt much better as she made her way toward the edge of the cliff. Looking down, they had ascended pretty far up the mountain already. She could still see the marsh below, but it was mostly hidden in the dense fog.

“Are you guys ready to keep moving?” Lugo said, standing to his feet.

Tsugi turned toward Ellie and waved to get her attention. {You okay?}

Ellie nods in response, taking a sip from her waterskin.

{Lugo wants to keep moving. Are you ready to move?}

She nods, standing to her feet. She brushes the dirt off her soaked dress, sounding like flapping clothes in a fierce wind. In fact they were all soaked, sloshing in their boots as they made their way up the mountain.

“How many shirts are you wearing?” Lugo scratched at his temple.

“Why?”

“When I was rubbing your back, it felt like you were wearing several layers of clothes.”

“Well, maybe I get cold.” She said as nonchalantly as she could.

“In that case, you might want to change, or you’ll get sick. Let’s stop over here and change real quick before we move on.” He found a small crevice in the mountain side, big enough to fit one person.

“No, I’m fine, let’s just keep moving.”

“Come on, stop being stubborn and just change real quick. We’re about to go on a raid, I can’t have you getting sick, or Ellie for that matter. She’s soaked too.”

“You act like our clothes are dry inside our bags.”

“Maybe not yours, but mine is dry. I wasn’t the one that plunged into the water. You two can wear my clothes for now.”

“They’re not going to fit us.”

Lugo arched his brows arrogantly. “Seeing the size of clothes you wear, these are definitely your size. Ellie on the other hand, she’ll just have to suck it up for now.” He pulled out two pairs of clothes and handed one to Tsugi. He handed the other to Ellie who just looked at it and back at him in confusion.

She turned to Tsugi. {What does he want?}

Tsugi sighed. {He’s offering you his dry clothes, so you could change before we start the mission. He said it may be big, but you have to wear it. He doesn’t want us to get sick.}

She took a deep breath and thanked him before taking the clothes from him. After she entered the crevice, Ruzo laid down in front of it to block the entrance.

“Are you two seeing each other?” Lugo swung his finger back and forth between Tsugi and Ellie.

“Of course? How else could we communicate?”

“Not like that-”

“I know.” Tsugi laughed, shaking her head. “No, we're just friends.”

“Oh, okay.” Lugo had a look of relief on his face.

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“Why? You still trying to woo her?”

“No.” He snorted. “I was just curious because you were really worried about her back there.” He crossed his arms and nodded his head in the direction of the swamp.

“She’s my friend, why wouldn’t I be worried? I’d be worried if you got hurt too.”

“Awe, you’d actually be worried for me?”

Tsugi rolled her eyes. “Don’t flatter yourself.”

“Bah.” He flung his hand through the air. “You know you love me.” He smiled playfully.

“I don’t know, love is a pretty strong word. I’d say it’s more toward the opposite of that word.” She grinned.

He splays a hand on his chest, gasping in mock offense. “That hurt.” He said in a high pitch tone. They both broke into laughter and the air felt light. For that moment, they had forgotten about the scare they just went through, and laughed wholeheartedly with not a care in the world.

Ruzo shifted and they looked over to see Ellie emerge from the crevice. They both snorted a little chuckle, doing a horrible job at trying to stifle it.. She was shorter than Tsugi so the clothes made her look like a child dressed in their parents clothes.

Tsugi bit her lips to prevent herself from laughing, but she couldn’t hide her amusement so instead she pretended to wipe her mouth in an attempt to cover her grin.

Ellie frowned at her. “Yeah, keep laughing. This is what you look like all the time.” She sneered.

{I don’t think I look as cute as you.} Tsugi chuckled. {Here let me help.} She walked over and took out an extra binding she had in her bag. She tightened the clothes a little more and fixed them so they weren’t so baggy, before tying it around Ellie’s waist. {There. Now, you look much better.}

{Thanks.}

Tsugi grabbed the clothes and entered the crevice. Ruzo laid down in front of the entrance and she was shrouded in darkness, except for the little light over the top of the entrance which allowed in just enough light for her to see.

Hesitantly, she started to strip off her clothes and unwrap her binding. She gasped in relief when it came off, rubbing at her breasts and ribs, to soothe the pain. She wrung out the binding as best she could so that it wouldn’t leave a wet mark on the dry clothes. Swinging it through the air to dry it, she stretched her arms above her head to stretch the taught skin on her ribs. Grabbing her breasts, she massaged the red marks on the skin and stretched them. Getting the binding off at the end of the day was always the best feeling, or in her case right now would be mid day.

Her finger ran along the scar on her ribs and had a quick flashback of when she was three. Her heart began to race in fear and she quickly shut her eyes.

It’s okay, it’s okay – she’s okay, she’s okay.

She reached down to her pile of clothes on the ground and fished out the ocarina in a hurry. She rubbed her fingers along the smooth texture and over each of the holes, playing an imaginary tune in her head. Her breath began to slow and heart calmed to a bearable state. Sighing in relief, she picked up the binding and got dressed.

“Did you pass out?” Lugo called from outside.

“No!”

“You’re taking a long time, are you okay?”

“Yeah, just kind of hard to see.”

“What’s so hard about taking clothes off and putting it on?”

“Uh – I just didn’t want to put it on backwards.” Tsugi finished tying her boots and tapped Ruzo, notifying him to stand. “Alright, let’s go.” Tsugi adjusted her shirt on her shoulders and patted her trousers.

“Uh – yeah, let’s go.” Lugo cleared his throat, continuing up the path.

The narrow dirt road opened up into a large grassy plain with a group of adventurers chatting in the distance. They all had on different types of armor and held different weapons: broadswords, longswords, axes, hammers.

"Wow, there's quite a few people." Lugo muttered in surprise.

"Were you expecting less?"

"I wasn't expecting this much. Makes me wonder what the reward is." Lugo shrugged.

"Would you look at this! We've got ourselves three more babies!" The man's voice was gruff and he looked domineering with a huge scar across his eye, which was discolored.

"Calm down Pike." A younger gentleman approached. He was lean and tall but not as tall as Lugo. His dark brown hair was short and trimmed nicely along the edges, and his green eyes were alluring.

"More inexperienced newbies will just make me carry out more bodies." Pike said roughly. "Why are they sending babies on a raid?" He sneers, walking away.

"Apologies about him mates – and lady." He turned and bowed to Ellie, his smile was warm and welcoming. "He's a good guy, he's just – a little rough around the edges." He held out his hand. "Names Maximus. You can call me Max."

"Lugo." He replied and took Max's forearm, giving him a nod.

"Tsugi." She replied, following in the same manner. "This is Ellie."

Max placed a hand on his chest and bowed. "My Lady." Standing upright he addressed the three of them. "Now I don't mean to be crude but Pike is right. This is a dangerous raid and I'd prefer to not send in newbies to their death. Now if you don't mind, I would like to see your capabilities and then I will decide from there."

"We don't need to show you anything." Lugo folded his arms on his chest like a petulant teen. "Just know that we know how to handle ourselves."

"My apologies, mate, but I'm the one in charge of the raid and therefore, I must insist. It's not just for your safety but everyone else's too."

"If we can get past the grucain's in the marshlands and we have a warwolf," Tsugi pointed behind her, "why would we need to show you anything else? Just getting here should be proof enough for you."

Max glanced behind them and furrowed his brows. "What warwolf?"

Tsugi turned around but Ruzo wasn't there. Lugo and Ellie kept their eyes locked on Max as if he would stab them should they turn away from him. "He probably went to potty." Tsugi mumbled. "Ruzo!"

The ground shook and the giant warwolf came running up the mountain path behind them. His tongue stuck out and he had a huge branch in his mouth. Sliding to a halt in front of Tsugi, he laid down and dropped the chewed branch with a ground shaking thud.

Tsugi turned around and grinned with pride, watching as the group went silent, staring at the giant warwolf with their jaws on the ground.