“Hmmm…” Such hmming breaths so hmmed, frost-blue eyes peering closer as if ‘zooming in’ even if not truly; “If you were not enigmatic previously, you certainly are now… I cannot even tell if whether you’re a man or a girl anymore, with your whole face being so concealed now, besides your hair though even that is…harder to notice for some reason… Is it the hood or am I blind?” such a curious voice so remarked; “Also, I have noticed this well before, but you sit strangely… As if perpetually uncomfortable…”

« … » Antica remained silent, peering back at those eyes which peered at her so. Indeed, for her mandated silence had not been explicitly rescinded, thus she could assume that she had to continue adherence until specified otherwise.

“Blue…” Red’s eyes glanced behind… “What did I just say?”

“I don’t know. Something about not fucking the—” Blue began to say.

“I meant today, less than five-minutes ago!” Red immediately interjected.

“Ohhh… You should be more specific, Reddy; lest I become confused, being such a simpleton” Blue’s voice oozed with sarcastic tease. Nevertheless, she withdrew her peering eyes, sitting back at her spot.

At the very least, because of her newly issued mask, Antica could now to see to whom these two voices belonged… Or, at least, see them while they were awake and active and directly facing. Certainly, she had already visually observed them prior during moments of their inattention, specifically during their sleep.

Even so, to directly observe their animations, gestures, movements, body language, and such was certainly a different experience than priorly, contextualizing their voices in ways better than from sound alone. Antica, indeed, was always one who—out of all her senses—preferred her vision the most.

“Hugh…” Blue let out a lamenting sigh, her eyes casting their gaze to that which retreated further and further behind: that city and its walls and aqueducts, the wagon’s wheels turning as that unicorn clopped forth and away… “I am going to miss staying in the city; that was a much needed reprieve…”

“I am not.” Red bluntly stated; “I’m glad we got out of that dump… That city’s a bomb waiting to explode…”

“Well, certainly, Strawberry seems fairly…angrier than before, but they at least have warm baths, actual toilets, nice shops, and fine cuisine” Blue countered.

“Yeah, fine cuisine that ate more of our coin than we ate it! Shit’s a trap for coin-purse heavy merchants and visitors; you spent too much” Red bluntly remarked.

Yet Blue simply gave him quite the certain eye… “Red, I intentionally restrained myself from mentioning the other very nice things of that city, and both of us know what I spent most of our coin on…”

“Gods’ sacred, Blue…” Red immediately sighed.

“Oh, never fret Red, at the very least…”—she sprung forth past all the stuff and things for a gentle wrapping hug—“I am now a very happy girl… And very satisfied for the weeks to come…” Blue withdrew back to her spot, her eyes casting up as if leering at her own memories… “Yeah, that was such a very satiating stay…”

Novea, having been silent, somewhat tightened in her legs upon hearing this despite not necessarily wishing to, understanding what Blue was implying… Indeed, thoughts more intrusive than not entered mind.

Blue herself, ever the attuned socialite, immediately took notice from Novea’s body language; she quickly leaned in… “Hmm?” She had a mischievous grin; “Assassin, you know that when you stumbled upon us that night, you were completely free to join…”

“…” Caught completely off guard, Novea blushed quite brightly from behind her corvid mask.

Yet Blue’s leering eyes then so peered at the other; “Could’ve even brought enigmatic fox over there; double the persons, double the fun…”

“…huh…?” This remark instantly caused Novea’s cognitive processes to short-circuit, her obscured blushing face heating to the point of blowing steam—metaphorically.

Red’s eyes lanced faster than they could glance; “Blue, seriously!”

Blue looked, immediately realizing… “Oh, correctly…” She promptly withdrew to her spot, aheming quite; “I am very sorry… I became…way far too ahead of myself…” she apologized, quite embarrassed. Indeed, she had become far too caught in the moment.

« Hehm… » Antica, meanwhile, had silently observed this exchange, seeing their expressions and animacy. She herself, of course, was naive to the social-cultural frameworks necessary to contextualize this entire exchange into sensibility; she frankly did not know what was truly being implied, only that their behavior was nothing out of ordinary for denizens…

“Anyway” Red’s eyes shifted glare to that Raven seated behind; “We’re back on the road now… So, mind if you start fucking talking now?” he thus asked, hardly polite; “You didn’t tell us shit besides that we’re now going to Grandberry… Why? I know you bugs were avoiding that dump because the Security Office’s been taking over the whole Trinity’s damned Huckleberry Guild branch; that’s also why the Strawberry Guild hall was shut down, the Office’s been in bed with the duke, helping him out…” Indeed, he had not spent these last seven days inattentive.

Novea’s mind, however, was still…buzzed from Blue’s remarks. She swiftly ahemed, reorienting herself; “We have been subpoenaed by the Security Office in Grandberry, Red.” She took out that official letter from her person, handing it to Red.

Red promptly read it, his grip becoming more annoyed as he did so… “Why the fuck didn’t you tell us this as soon as you nabbed us?!” he swiftly interrogated.

“…” Novea did not reply; frankly, it was perhaps to avoid dealing with precisely this.

“Subpoenaed?” Blue, meanwhile, tilted her head… “What does that…mean? Are…we in trouble?”

“It means that we don’t have a fucking choice but to go…” Red bluntly stated; “Don’t matter who… Adventurer, receptionist, top-egg… Once they hand one of these out, it’s either we go to them or they’ll eventually come to us with chains and whips…”

“Kinky…” Blue seemed unbothered.

Red nevertheless groaned; “Fantastic… Grassberry, huh? Knew those doorknobs were too interested… This about the Pebbleberry shit, then?” he wondered aloud, before lancing his focus to Novea; “There’s more demon-shit to this, ain’t there? The Office doesn’t just subpoena a Bureau-bug directly… What game’s being played here?” His eyes lanced right at the other cloaked figure; “Only the three of us were mentioned, so why is purple foxagons coming with us, huh?”

« Violetta’șom jamja… » Antica muttered silently… She was violet for pity’s sake.

“With all that hold up in Strawberry, something’s changed, hasn’t it?” Red continued.

Novea…took a moment; “She and I have been retasked; we are no longer assigned to the search for Blossom Coastfield-Sunnycloud. The subpoena happened to be in…the same direction.” she stated; “You will know more once we are there.”

“Great…” Red was hardly amused… “So much for that Coastfield bastard being your ‘one and only priority’…” Considering such was par for the course of working with the Bureau, he was not too surprised even if annoyed. “I only agreed to help you bunch with that, not get caught in your web…”

“Well, as you said: we do not really have a choice.” Novea frankly replied.

“Oh, well, I am not particularly bothered…” Blue casually inserted herself, taking out from her belongings a…document; “After all, we have our contractual obligations!” She smiled, dangling the signed contract in front of Novea’s sight… “I need not remind you that this is a Freelancer Association backed contract, so failing to oblige could make hiring any future freelancers…difficult, should I complain…”

“Oh, we are well aware…” Novea sighed… Truly, a mischievous bunch…contemporary freelancers were.

----------------------------------------

-|||-

A fresh new day, or at least it would be were it not already nigh noon. Thus, a not-so-new day, but it was still somewhat fresh. The wagon’s wheels turned and rolled as the unicorn dragged forth that which was affixed to it.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Arms dangled out from the wagon’s edge as a certain pair of eyes gazed out into the world beyond, no longer filled with roses and petals. “Ughhhhhhh………” A voice so ughed away, whining and moaning.

However, being not the first instance, none cared a single mind.

Yet…

“Uggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh….” The bemoaning groans so continued.

“Blue…” Red’s eyes glanced, finally giving that girl the attention she wanted.

“I miss the city…” Blue lamented; “I hate traveling…” She abruptly paused, realizing; “Ach! And I know I am going to miss the festives!”

“…Autumn’s Arrival isn’t until next week…” Red plainly remarked; indeed, there was still plenty of time.

Yet Blue simply gave him an eye; “Yes. Precisely. I am crying ahead of time. At this rate, I know it will take us more time than necessary to reach Grandberry, and that we will become sidetracked as always.”

“Hey, I’m not the one who clogged Riverberry’s asshole up…” Red thus said, his eyes returning to the road ahead.

“Yes, but why was Riverberry so constipated?” Blue loudly asked; “I do not believe it has ever taken that long to cross!”

Indeed, they had to wait until mid-morning this day to be ferried across the Dividing River, despite having arrived early evening yesterday. There was higher than typical traffic, too many boats clogging the waterway and quite the many souls trying to cross into the bulge; they were the amongst the few going out of the bulge, it had seemed.

“Most of them seemed to be urban bourgeois and petty nobles…” Red simply replied; “Probably heading into the bulge for Autumn’s Arrival since the festives there are livelier and the landed elite love inviting other random houses; that river goes into other sovereignties too, so could be extra shit streaming down and up from there”.

“Certainly, I have eyes and ears…” Blue sighed, having had already garnered such; “But that does not explain the…boats full of crossbows, handcannons, and steel, or how many of the people trying to cross did not seem precisely thrilled…”

“Ah, so that’s it, huh?” Red mumbled in remark… Indeed, he already could tell that Blue was obviously anxious, hence her added…theatrics.

“Not even Riverberry, Red… That column of carriages ferrying armored men from Raspberry—what were they doing in Strawberry’s dominion?” Blue so spoke; “I asked all of these yesterday, but you still haven’t…”

“Blue, you’re just stitching threads that don’t belong; that’s all” Red plainly remarked.

“Or maybe you are not stitching threads that do…” Blue countered…

Red…looked at Blue… “Look, we are deep within loyalist dominion, far from the alliance; we’ll be in Humbleberry soon, so far enough from the bulge” he said; “If anything was happening, we would’ve heard about it before crossing… At most, maybe the alliance made some gain and caused a huge spook; that’s it…”

With a sigh, Blue slumped herself downwards as her arms began to dangle out from the wagon’s edges. “Our lord was the first to flee on us, you know…” she just remarked, voice rather mellow and lowly…

“I know, just… Don’t think too much about it, alright?” Indeed, doing all of the thinking was his job.

“But I am thinking about it…” yet Blue just said.

Red’s attention shifted to Novea; “Birdy, I know you and Miss Foxagons like to be silent, but did the people you suck tails for tell you if any diarrhea was being shat down this way?”

“No… We were not told anything…” Novea replied. Her head turned to Antica who sat next and near as if tacitly asking whether Antica had been told anything… To which Antica faintly shook her head no.

Red was given no added confidence or reassurance from Novea’s reply. Indeed, her voice had equal uncertainty… Novea was seeming to have her own…feelings, indeed.

Antica herself, ever silent as always, had taken note of the sights and sounds during their wait and ferry across… Disbarring the presence of local riverine forces, most of what she had observed was nothing too particular, although there were nevertheless a few many signs that had…marked her notice. Indeed… She knew best than most when she was seeing a calm yet hasty preemptive flight; although, she was without certainty of conclusions or implications thereof…

-||-

Blue’s eyes gazed out from the wagon’s edges, arms dangling out as they had been some few hours before. The sun in the sky up high was trailing closer to evening…

Bite and snap, Blue munched away upon one of those bars of chocolate—which was, admittedly, perhaps her…nth one to be consumed. Taste aside, these chocolate bars seemed to, for whatever reason, soothe her anxieties within.

Novea’s mask-obscured eyes, meanwhile, had been staring at those bars as Blue munched away, fixated and locked. She wanted one; she so very wanted one; yet, bounded by her clandestine code, she had to maintain her ‘form’ and persona; condemned to simply watch as Blue ate these exotic treats and remark of their unparalleled sweetness.

Regardless, it was and had been largely silent… Antica, at least, could observe all that which had been relegated to sound priorly; she stared in the same direction that Blue was so gazing, considering such was what was directly in front of her sight.

A single mountain, a few large hills, a mix of grasses and other associated flora once green now yellowing. Indeed… She felt uncomfortably exposed in this environment, despite the increasing prevalence of forests since leaving the eastern bulge.

Blue sighed, glancing at… “Red… May we move faster?” she requested; “I am certain walking would be faster than this…”

“I’d love to, but…” Red glared at the unicorn pulling the wagon… “Ain’t in my control…”

Indeed, for reasons beyond any feasible mortal comprehension, the unicorn was moving awfully slow—slower than it usually ever had; its attention seemed more to the left than ahead as well.

Blue sighed again, eyes drifting back to the world beyond… “Why have we been hearing more griffons, anyway?”

Indeed… Although none were within sight, the winds carried the far away shrieks of those flying monstrosities, Blue trying her best to remain…unaffected—or, at least, appear as so.

“Fuck if I know… Could be scouting, message delivering, or just making an illusion of readiness—show of force, you know…” Red’s voice replied, yet he remained preoccupied in mind; “The movements in Strawberry and now Riverberry… Bulge’s been up to something…”

“Ah! So there are threads to connect…” Blue promptly remarked, recalling what that man had told her mere hours earlier; “You know what, perhaps I am thrilled not to be there anymore…”

A mellow silence proceeded to resume once again, as the wagon continued slowly forth.

Blue, again, was gazing out with dangling arms… “Hey, Red, if we ever have a daughter, I want to name her ‘Purple’ ” she abruptly began to speak, just trying to distract her mind; “Red, Blue, so behold our child: Purple!”

“Aren’t you forward imagining a bit too strongly there…” Red merely remarked.

“Although, wait… Purple is too boyish…” Yet Blue merely continued, eyeing Antica—her cloak specifically; “ ‘Violet’… Yes, much better name!”

« … » Ah… So, at least one person seemed to get the color correct.

“Eh…” Red seemed disinterested; “I already know another Violet a bit too well…”

“Discoursed or intercoursed?” Blue abruptly asked, eyeing…

“Seriously?” Red blankly glanced before returning his eyes to the front… “Honestly, I am surprised you haven’t already popped out a spawn…”

“I mean… You do not know that I haven’t…” Blue, however, replied.

“…” Red immediately turned; “Wait, what? Have you?”

“Considering my life’s story, it is perfectly possible…” Blue spoke.

“…you didn’t answer the question…” Red noted.

Yet Blue merely shrugged with a smirk, keeping such ambiguous; she found his reaction to be awfully cute.

Abruptly, however, the wagon came to a sharp jerking halt as the unicorn’s head so snapped to the left in full, locked and focused. Antica concurrently seemed more alerted, as if her sensitive ears were beginning to pick up…such prominent sounds… Emerging, waving…

Blue herself…froze, affect shifting, as her ears began to hear…as her spine began to feel… Such unmistakable sounds… “G… G-g-griffons??” Her voice trembled in realization.

For these wheezing shrieks were no mere echoes being carried from far off and away, but thunder approaching closer and fast that pierced her mind, freezing her muscles still. Wincing breaths flaring, Blue immediately clenched herself down, her ears ringing and ringing as the world became mute…

Yet Red, seemingly unaffected, stared in the same direction of the unicorn’s locked fixation… “Relax.” he simply said; “They’re not passing us. They’re turning off the other way.”

“Huh…?” Blue, nearly in tears, somewhat relaxed; “Really?” The shrieks were now becoming more distant.

“Yeah.” There was something in his voice Blue did not like; “Gods’ sacred shit-bucket…” he nearly snarled.

“…what?” Novea, pretending she herself was not perturbed, flipped herself around and began to gaze out… “Oh… Oh no…”

« … » Antica had done the same, though remained deafly silent.

Trembling, terrified within, Blue finally brought herself up and…slowly…turned her head, looking in the same direction that everyone else had so flipped their own… Seeing in the distance afar… “Sm… smoke?”

Indeed, emanating quite distant away, through the plains of yellowing grass, past the trees and hills sprinkled about and afar, was smoke…rising into the sky… So much smoke, intense and fresh. Although the source was obscure, what was burning so ferociously was obvious to them all.

“I knew those specific fucking shrieks even at this far… They had bellies full of blood…” Red’s gritting scowl only intensified.

Blue lightly nodded away in rising dread, her head drifting…only to sharpen focus as she saw… More smoke, newly made, rising in another direction even farther away.

“We need to leave, and fast.” Novea immediately said, head snapping to Red.

“Yeah, no… No… No… We ain’t leaving, lady, sorry—not until I see this shit for myself” Red so replied, his head shaking, breaths becoming fiery…

Novea glared, bewildered; “You can’t be serious??”

Blue’s neck slowly turned to him, eyes widening… She knew that voice… “R-Red…” Her breaths trembled…

“No, no… I need to check this fucking shit out… I will check this fucking shit out—that’s decided, no way out, sorry” Red so stated.

“Red, I think you need to leave, for your own—for our own…” Blue was urging, imploring practically.

“I am not just gonna fucking leave and pretend I didn’t see shit; not after I’ve seen it; not after I’ve said it.” Red thus replied.

“I know, but—” Blue was trying to say…

“This is not our priority, Red.” Novea immediately overrode; “We need to—”

However…

“Neigh…” the unicorn, fixation still locked in place, so uttered almost as if in direct reply, the sound abhorrent and almost malevolent. Tapping its hooves as it shook its head, puffing in almost snarls, it immediately jolted itself off-road, galloping speedily.

Ultimately, that chimera had final say as to where its allowed and tolerated passengers so went. Thus, it headed way in the direction of that fiery smoke, faster and faster, dragging everyone along with it; attracted, indeed, the creature was…to the potent stench of innocents’ spilled blood.