I looked back down at the ground to think. This was a big question that I had not even considered previously and not something I could decide in a moment...I looked back up towards her. “Why are you suddenly asking about that now?”

“We-well I’ve been meaning to ask you about it for a while but-“

“Does it have anything to do with Shiara not being here?”

“-Wh-what?! No, no, no. You’ve got me all wrong and-“

“Is it because you pity us?”

“No, no, no. I mean yes! But no, that’s not why-“

“So you want my knowledge-“

“VIXEN! WILL YOU JUST LET ME FINISH MY SENTENCE!!!” I grabbed my ears as I winced in pain. I had managed to finish thinking of a good answer during my rapid fire questioning, but I may have accidently riled her up. Maybe I shouldn’t be using negotiation tactics here…*1

“Ok, sorry, but lower your volume please. We don’t want to attract any monsters.”

“…Hah…. you did that on purpose didn’t you, you’re not normally like that.” Sarra took another deep breath. “Sorry for losing my cool there but you were seriously becoming irritating. Now please let me finish talking. Firstly I asked just then because I finally believe that we have a strong chance of getting back to the capital. And I was planning to ask Shiara later as well. Though she may not have as good a head on her shoulders as you do, she is still very talented and I was planning to ask her to join my entourage as a healer. Lastly…well you girls have grown on me and I think I would miss you two…so I was hoping I could keep the three of us together even back at the capital somehow.” I noticed Sarra wringing her hands behind her back, pulling on her fingers nervously. I smiled.

“Are you sure the king would be fine with it? With our unclear identity?”

“He’s a reasonable parent so he should be…mother as well…”

“Then if our feelings haven’t changed and Shiara is fine with it, I would be happy to become your maid. Anyways, that’s all in the future, let’s first get out of the Jungle Of Illusions before we discuss this.” Plenty of things could happen between now and then. It would be best not to be too rigid with our planning. With that we stopped chatting and continued striding back to our meeting place.

…

Arriving back at the edge of the apple orchard, I gave a long yawn. We hadn’t slept properly in a long time and the fatigue was burning me out. Shiara should be somewhere around here…

Stolen story; please report.

“Hey-”

“Hyah?! -Oh it’s just you two.”

“…” I was so tired that I didn’t even notice Shiara and Suticat creeping out of the tall grass until she greeted us. Random pieces of foliage were tangled all over her, and along with her dull clothing, blended her in. In addition, the clouds happened to cover their position from most of the moons’ light.

“…Sorry for startling you Sarra. Well, the apples are over here. I tried to grab the better ones, but most of them are bruised. I’m so tired…yawwwwwnn…. we should find somewhere to nap. Also Vixen, did you not toilet train the fox?”

“…That’s a strange question, why do you ask…hang on a minute, what’s that smell...oh…” Yeah, Shiara stunk; Suticat must have peed on her.

“Wait, don’t tell me- the fox peed on you?!” Sarra pulled away even though the smell was mostly gone, a giant grin on her face.

“Yeah, he did. He just jumped on top of me while I was crawling into the orchard. I thought he was protecting me from the Warnets when he took a piss on me. What the heck Vixen, he can’t be in heat right?”

“No and even if he was, he would have definitely picked me.” To emphasise my point I made a quick gesture behind my back for Suticat to come over. Seeing the hand signal, he quickly ran over and gave my leg a long nudge. ”Anyways, he doesn’t normally pee on people. I can’t say for sure, but he should have been trying to mask your scent with his piss.”

“Oh that makes sense! Still, it must feel pretty uncomfortable in it. Should we go back to the river and-“

“No need. Besides I’m too tiiiiirrreeed to care.”

“-And the river is too far back. Let’s just eat the apples quickly, bring along what we can and find somewhere to sleep soon. I think we are all very tired.” We all sat down in the grass next to the apples. After a quick count, I split the six apples their in half taking three. The apples were all blemished with varying sizes of rotting and bruising on them. I even had one that luckily had no rot at all. Picking the best one up, I took a bite out of it. Mmmm…. The apple was mostly sweet with some sourness and a bit of bitterness. It sadly lacked the normal crunch and was quite mushy, but it was decently juicy past the brown withered surface.

I glanced up to check on the other two. Shiara, seemingly very tired, just sat next to us watching us with a blank unfocused stare. Meanwhile, Sarratina had taken her knife out and begun performing surgical cuts, removing the rotten parts and withered skin of the apple.

“So what did the two of you do while I was crawling around in grass searching for apples?” I finished off my mouthful of food.

“We were searching for some mushrooms to eat as well as some poisonous ones for self defence.”

“I see.” Silence descended again after the brief reply. Two of us were busily eating our food and we were all very tired. It had nearly been a whole day since we last slept. Realising that the sun was soon to rise, I rapidly wolfed down two apples before stowing away the third in the sac. I had proffered the apple to Suticat, but he just shook his head away. He must have eaten with Shiara.

“Well I’m going to sleep first now-“

“Huh? Vixen, don’t we need to find some tree to hide in?”

“Sadly, as you can see, there are no trees around that are strong enough to hold us, or climbable for us. Besides, if we stay on the ground, Suticat can quickly alert us if any monster is coming. Yawwnnnn…I’m going to sleep first, do what you want.” I lied down on the grass, scantly covering myself with some dried leaves and my sack.

“Sarratina?”

“Well she is the expert here. When in Fei, do as the Feis’ do.” *2

“…Hah…this isn’t even a Fei culture. Well, I’m going to sleep as well…” As I gradually fell into a fitful sleep I head Shiara quietly mutter ”She should of said we were sleeping here earlier-“