There was a vicious storm picking in the air at the time, thunderstorms were forming, roaring loud in the sky. A carriage was being pulled by four horses, with a man and his daughter handling them with the reins. Driving the cart down a path within a forest, having no troubles so far, aside from the horrible weather.
The father, wanting to take a breather and wait out the storm, spoke to his daughter. “Tell our passengers that we will be making camp soon, I don’t think riding through this weather will be a good idea.”
The girl agreed with his decision and stuck her head through the curtain of the wagon to inform their passengers. “We’ll be making a rest stop to wait out this storm, so be ready to settle down soon.” She informed.
Inside the carriage were five people, all of them were wearing cloaks to protect them from the harsh weather that was occurring. There was a man and a woman, a couple, sitting close to each other so they could keep warm. “Yes, ma’am! Loud and clear.” The woman replied with a warm smile.
The girl smiled back and returned to her father. The rest of the people in the carriage had their hoods covered over their heads, two of which also sat next to each other and the last one sitting alone across from them.
One of the hooded figures was twiddling with her fingers, unsure of what to do at the moment. She would glance at the person next to her at times, wanting to break the ice between them as they travelled together. It had been a couple of days since they’ve been wandering in the forest alone and were lucky enough to catch their driver riding down a road.
The other woman next to her had taken notice of her hesitant attempts at starting a conversation with her and sighed before being the first to say something. “Yes, Kat? Would you like to say something?”
Kat was surprised to hear her take the initiative and fumbled with her words in response. “H-Huh, oh, y-yeah. I was curious of what your thoughts are about this crazy weather? Some storm, right? It would suck if we were to hold out here for too long.”
The woman she was speaking to just simply gave a slight nod with a short reply, “Yup, it sure would.” Sounding so uninterested.
Kat felt like she was getting nowhere with her, but she wasn’t going to back down yet, she figured what the real reason was for being deflected and tried asking her. “Hey, your sister’s going to be alright, Anna. We’ll make it and find her, so ease up a little, will ya?” She said, giving her a little nudge.
The two had received the main quest objective recently about preventing the destruction of the world they were in now; however, Anna wanted to retrieve her sister, first and foremost, before focusing on the quest.
The distant woman, Anna, paused for a moment before replying to her. “Listen, I appreciate your support Kat, but I’m really fine. I just enjoy my silence when I am alone, so there’s no need to have to talk to me every so often.”
Anna’s words made Kat feel like she had done something wrong, overthinking what she had done, and immediately started apologizing, waving her hands along. “O-oh, I’m so sorry for bothering you. If I had known, I would have respected your space.” She then went back to fidgeting her fingers.
Her act of being sorry of something that seemed so small to herself, made Anna feel guilty. So she decided she would allow Kat to make small talk with her. “Kat, it’s cool. There’s no need to apologize…”
Anna then messaged Kat through the system with her thoughts, since they had added each other as friends when they appeared together in the new world to keep in contact. “I’ve been messaging my sister at times, so far she says she is doing good but says that she misses messing with her big sister.”
“Really! That’s great to hear-” Kat was speaking loudly with enthusiasm that Anna had to kick her foot to keep her quiet, she then realized she was being too loud and finished her sentence in a whisper. “That’s great to hear Anna, she must be thinking of all the ways to tease you, once you get there.”
Anna gave a small smile in response, agreeing that Luna was probably doing just that at the moment while she waited. “I would think that’s what she would be doing to kill time. I’ll have to think about some of my own when we meet again.”
Their conversation, although short, had made the both of them feel happy; especially Kat, whose goal was to make sure that Anna was doing alright and so far figured it was a success.
The hooded man that sat across of them, lifted his head and took a quick glance at them for a moment before putting dropping it back down. Anna would catch this from the corner of her eye, but not think much of it, as she went back to being reserved.
Everyone would stop and make camp at a spot of the driver’s choosing, which was a decently spaced area near a lake where the trees acted like a wind barrier. And after about an hour of working together, they all managed to finish assembling camp.
Kat would approach the campfire looking tiresome, stretching and yawning before plopping down to take a seat. It was getting dark outside, nearing the time to hit the hay. Anna had been helping the driver’s daughter with preparing dinner, making a meat stew in a kettle pot over the fire that made Kat’s mouth water. “Wow, that smells delicious. Let’s dig in for our hard work.”
And as Kat grabbed one of the wooden bowls with a spoon before reaching over for the ladle, Anna slapped her hand away and sprinkled some seasoning into the kettle. “Hold it, Kat; it’s not ready yet. You’ll have to wait a bit longer.” Then stirred the pot some more, making Kat pout.
The driver would appear back, having handled his horses and checking the perimeter one last time. “Everything looks good, we should all be able to get some peasant sleep with all these trees sheltering us from the weather.” He then sat down at the campfire, holding a guitar in hand, planning to play some light tunes over the fire as they wait for dinner.
The couple and hooded man would join in by the fire, getting warm and cozy. Anna and the daughter then agreed that dinner was ready and started handing out bowls of stew to everyone. And when Kat got her bowl, she had to contain herself from taking a bite until it cooled down enough as not to scorch her mouth. The food smelled too good and challenged her self-control.
Music would play from the driver, a soothing melody that would match with the environment and weather that was given to them on this very night. Everyone enjoyed it as they chowed down, giving their compliments to the chefs.
The daughter blushed at the comments given, both being modest with their skills for cooking, especially Anna who was nonchalant about it as she ate in peace, taking some food with her to her own spot close by. Kat impulsively thought about getting up to follow her but remembered how she said that she liked her peace and stopped herself.
The daughter wanted to get to know about the people around the camp and spoke, “What brings you all on your way to Haglethorn, if no one minds me asking?”
It was the couple who responded first, the woman speaking for the both of them, looking happy to talk about it. “Well, we’re on our honeymoon and plan on celebrating it in the city. That’s where we first met, by the beautiful rose fields by the pavilion. Don’t you remember, honey?”
The husband would agree, adding on to the topic and expressing their loving memories until they stopped for someone else to have a turn at explaining their plans for the city.
Kate, having finished eating her food, took a turn at telling everyone why she was traveling. “Me and my friend, Anna here, are going to the city to visit her sister there. We haven't seen her in a while and wanted to check up on her.”
She wasn't technically lying to the group, but Kat and Anna had already discussed hiding their true place of origin and why they appeared in their world. Unsure of how the people would react if they found out the truth of what was going on.
The wife of the couple smiled and asked, “That’s sweet of you to come out and visit her, how old is she?”
Anna would then reply with a weak smile, not really looking to get in on the conversation. “Old enough to be a pain in the ass, that’s for sure. She’s a gremlin.” She was at least honest about that.
The people around laughed at her joke, albeit true, lightening the mood some more as their campfire danced in the center.
It was then the hooded man’s turn to tell their reason for travelling to the city, eyes were laid on him as he pulled back his hood for everyone to get a better look at his face.
Underneath the hood was a middle age grey haired man, with glasses and amber colored eyes that glistened from the burning flames. He spoke in a soft but charismatic tone, sharing his reason. “I plan on going to the city because I too, have someone I wish to visit by surprise. They don’t know I’m coming, but when we meet, we will have a lot to catch up on over some tea and biscuits.”
Suddenly, the couple jumped in on the topic of tea and biscuits, talking about the best places to go to for his surprise visit once they reach the city.
Kat would hesitate, wanting to share her own choice of preference when it came to choosing which tea was good and what sort of biscuits goes well with each kind of tea. Giving in, she threw out her opinions.
“I-I enjoy jasmine green tea a lot with two cubes of sugar, along with some ginger biscuits. Oh! And oolong tea is a sleeper tea, not many people like the taste because some say it’s too rich, but I, for one, think it goes good with some cocoa biscuits made by….”
The people around her would listen in closer with confused looks, wondering what sort of tea and brand of biscuits she was talking about. Anna also realized this too, wanting to stop her from talking because no one else but her would know what those types were and would make them question more about where they were from.
“Kat! Stop talking about stuff from our world! They’re going to get suspicious of us!” Anna warned Kat through a message, via the system.
Kat took a quick glance at Anna’s message and was immediately embarrassed, realizing that she was probably sounding ludicrous to everyone that seemed to be confused. “A-Ah, I’m sorry. I probably lost a lot of you in my rant about my favorites…”
She then thought of a lie that might save her. “Actually, the type of teas and biscuits I was talking about are from an unknown business far from here, I sampled some of their goods and really enjoyed them. I believe they were called…” She then looked at Anna’s crimson red hair and improvised. “Crimson Phoenixes Teas and Biscuits! Yeah, that’s what they were called. They’re a small business that hopes to make it big and give out charity to the innocent kids at orphanages across the world.”
At first, Anna felt like freaking out internally, expecting for the people to think she was lying. But that wasn’t the case, rather, the people were invested in knowing more about this business, hoping to locate this business in hopes of trying their stuff out. But she would lie, saying that she had tried some of their goods from a travelling salesperson and not from their main place, so she wouldn’t have known.
Anna felt relieved to see that the people were gullible to believe her lies, and calmed down. However, one thing that would catch her attention, was the grey-haired man that still had a type of look on his face, almost like he was studying her. She found this weird the longer he looked at her until he turned away to something else. “Creep…I’ll be watching you then…”
Eventually, everyone was getting exhausted and agreed on going to sleep in their tents. Anna and Kat would share a tent together and sleep in their bedrolls. The trees were still providing great protection against the harsh weather, so tonight was going to be a pleasant sleep for them.
“Good night, Anna, and sorry about my rant. I wasn’t thinking about it at the time, I’ll do better.” Kat said, feeling dumb about almost making things complicated for them.
“It’s fine, Kat. Everyone seemed to enjoy your opinions, even if they didn’t know what they were. Regardless, we’re good and we should get some sleep.” Anna then turned to her side, away from Kat. “Goodnight, Kat.”
Kat had thought Anna would be somewhat mad at her but sighed in relief when she heard Anna say it wasn’t a big deal. Feeling good about her chat with Anna and everyone else, she was pumped to start the next day and snuggled into her bed for some well rested sleep.
A few hours would pass through the night, everyone assumingly fallen asleep. It was then that a melodic tune could be slightly heard through Anna and Kat’s tent.
Anna had been awake almost the entire time since they went to bed, taking short naps here and there. She was cautious of sleeping outside in the forest, especially a world that was unknown to her, no way was she going to sleep without proper shelter. The driver and the husband of the couple had offered to take turns keeping watch, Anna offered to volunteer but was denied and told to get a full night's rest.
The music would get louder the more Anna listened in on the beautiful tune, probably because her senses were enhanced by her Assassin Class passive. About a few more minutes would pass until Anna would decide to take a peek out from the tent, thinking it was probably the driver that was still playing music. ‘Could he be any louder? And at this time of the night? Still?’
When Anna took a peek outside, to her surprise, there was no one near the tents or by the campfire that was put out. Only the moonlight from above shined down on their camp, showing that no one was there keeping watch at the moment. ‘This is why I don’t trust people to be responsible…now where could they have gone?’ She wondered.
Looking back at Kat, who was sleeping undisturbed, she continued to be silent as she exited the tent to go search for whoever was on guard duty shift. It was weird, if the driver wasn’t playing any music, who was making this mysterious sound?
As she looked around for any sightings of where whoever was on shift, while listening to the tune, she spotted in the distance, still near the edge of the lake, both the driver and the husband of the couple mindlessly stumbling towards something shocking.
There was a mesmerizing blue skin colored maiden in a white dress, sitting cross-legged on a boulder, who was the one singing the melodic song that filled the air. The strange being kept motioning for the men to come to her, demanding their presence up front.
Anna had no clue who this weird looking person was, but had a bad feeling about what was going on. And she would be right when a system window would appear, with a sub-quest that read as followed.
“
Sub-Quest
Title: Oh Siren! My Siren!
Description: The Siren of the lake has lured in some unfortunate men along her territory with her majestic singing, taking up the opportunity to add a couple more followers to her collection. Should you choose to slay the Siren of the lake before she converts them into another one of her fans, you shall be rewarded.
Objective: Prevent the Siren from planting a wet kiss upon these entranced men, and slay the wicked fiend of the lake.
Reward: 2,000 Gold and 10,000 experience points.
Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.
Penalty: None
“
The quest told her all she needed to know about the Siren creature, and stormed after her, daggers in hand and ready to end the Siren’s performance. ‘This should be a breeze, her singing only seems to hypnotize men and not women. I should have no issues.”
The two men had stumbled their way to the Siren, reaching her and pausing in front, awaiting her command. The beautiful lady would then slowly drop from the boulder and skip to the driver first, inspecting his appearance for a moment before closing in on his face, lips puckered up for a smooch.
Anna thought she wasn’t going to make it in time and had to expend two uses of her blink skill, far stepping barely in time to interrupt the Siren’s moment of romance, as she tried driving one of her daggers into the skull of the Siren but missing and instead slashing across her scaly chest, ripping away the Siren’s white dress. Had she not been in a rush, she would have landed a direct hit.
Her attack caused the maiden to recoil back, swiftly retracting herself from the men and Anna, as she clutched her wound while locking eyes with Anna.
The Siren was no longer singing anymore, which freed the men that were trapped in a trance. “W-What? Where am I?” The driver wondered, as him and the other man observed their surroundings for a moment.
“You both almost got caught by that thing, now get out of here before-”
Anna tried warning them of the Siren but was cut off mid-sentence when the maiden unleashed a horrific screech at them. They all covered their ears, trying to suppress the noise to a minimum, but they could still feel and hear the booming sound of the screech.
It began to shapeshift into its true form by the lake, unveiling itself to be a hideous humanoid mermaid, it had sharp teeth, fins, gills, wicked claws, milky eyes and a black scaly mermaid tail. The creature had entered the lake and kept shouting at the group, possibly irritated that it wasn't able to convert the men into her followers.
Anna would have to teleport to the Siren, out into the lake, if she were to try and attack her while using her daggers. But, doing so would likely use up a lot of mana her mana if she had to warp multiple times in order to chase the creature down in her domain.
Suddenly, the water would start bubbling, rippling the surface until a couple of figures would emerge from within the lake. Five humanoid amphibious looking creatures with blue scales, gills, blade like fins on their arms and legs that served as weapons, with creepy green eyes. Their mouths were big lips that bared toothpick like teeth.
They all approached Anna and the three men, slow at first, but would occasionally dash forward with swiftness at random moments. Anna prepared herself to defend the two men who started running away from the creatures of the lake but would stop once they had heard the same sound that lured them all into this situation.
The siren would then start its encore again, singing its melodious song and hypnotizing the men once more, causing them to turn their backs on Anna, moving out to the lake towards the Siren.
“No! Not that crap again, snap out of it you two-” Anna was interrupted by one of the Siren’s pawns, it dashed up to her in a flash, slashing at her with its fin like blades and making some gargling noises. She was able to duck in time before it could do any harm to her, then counterattacked with a few slashes of her own at its waist before dipping out of its range. The scales of the creature provided some protection from her daggers, but was still inflicted some damage, bleeding out red blood from its wounds.
The others would jump in, applying more pressure on to Anna with their awkward, yet random, interval of attacks that chained together, keeping Anna on her toes every moment of the engagement. Their timing of attacks was irritating to react to, especially with all of them ganging up on her. Each of them would slow down briefly for a moment before randomly throwing out an attack with quickness, she could handle two of them at a time, but all five of them were overwhelming.
She took a glance at how far the two men were from the Siren, seeing that they were about to touch the lake if she didn’t do anything to stop them fast. ‘Fuck it, I’ll have to knock them out if that’s what it’ll take to stop them.’
Anna weaved her enemies assault, focusing on getting closer to the two as quick as she could, and when she felt she was close enough to teleport to them, she disappeared and reappeared behind them. Then applied enough blunt force with the butt of her daggers to incapacitate the two from the top of their heads. Dropping both of them near the edges of the lake, “Sorry, but it had to be done.”
The Siren was even more enraged, how dare someone stop her from adding a few more additions to her follower base. Another screech was aimed towards Anna again, this time more intense than before, Anna could feel her body vibrate from the sound and believed she would become deaf soon if she stayed with the shout any longer. ‘This bitch loves to scream too much.’
She could somewhat see the other lake creatures approaching to attack her at her most vulnerable, and was forced to utilize her teleportation skill to get out of the distorting ranged attack. Reappearing outside of it and sprinting alongside the lake, swapping to a short bow from her inventory. ‘I’m not proficient with using bows yet, but how else am I going to make her shut up from a distance.’
While avoiding the Siren’s crowd control ranged attack and the other creatures, she fired arrow after arrow at the Siren, hoping for one of them to land but kept missing. It was also difficult for Anna to land a hit because the Siren was able to dodge beneath the lake if needed to avoid her projectiles.
As the Siren was evading her attacks, she would then play out a short tune. The other creatures would react to her melody, splitting off into two groups, two of them apparently being ordered to retrieve the men and bring them to the Siren, while the last three continued to chase and apply pressure on Anna. ‘Damn it! I can’t focus on two things at once!’
She had to track back and prevent the men from being snagged away, performing agile movements and footwork to weave through her foes attacks, while also teleporting out of the Siren’s sonic attacks right before she would be caught by in it. Glancing at her mana reserve, she needed to conserve the rest for disparate times only.
The men were about to reach the lake, carried by the two creatures, until Anna hurled two knives at their back ankles, halting them in place before launching herself at them, kicking back off the two from behind and knocking them forward, dropping the men back on the ground.
Given the situation so far, she wasn’t sure how long she would be able to defend the two, let alone complete the sub-quest. Her stamina would eventually run low soon if she didn’t take out the Siren before then, if only she was able to get the damn mermaid out of the water, everything would be easier.
The Siren would then prepare another sound based attack at Anna, forcing her to teleport out of range and returning fire again with her bow. She could also see the approach of the rest of the other creatures coming to handle her. ‘Should I just abandon these guys? This is beginning to seem like a lost cause?’
Then suddenly, she heard the shout of someone she least expected to hear from. “Over here, you ugly looking fish things!” It was Kat, running towards them from out of the woods, armed with a mace and a round shield. The three creatures turned to look in her direction, taking notice of their new guest that arrived to the fight. “Y-Yeah! I’m talking to you three stooges! Come and-”
And just as Kat wanted, the three stooges declared their new target and chased after her. She got stiff for a moment, shocked for a moment at how fast they all agreed on going after her instead of Kat. “Aaaah!” She began drawing them away as she sprinted, leaving only Anna to deal with the Siren and two of her other minions.
Now somewhat relieved that Kat arrived in time to take on some aggro, she had an easier time focusing on the enemies in front of her. The two amphibious boys recovered from their fall and retaliated back at Anna, who was shooting at their maiden.
Aside from keeping the Siren busy with her bow so she couldn’t accurately land her sonic attacks, she wasn’t able to accurately land her arrows at her either. And looking at her current status of mana and stamina, she decided it would be best used if she just tried gunning for the wretched bitch of the lake instead. ‘It’s all or nothing, the quest should be completed once I kill her.’
And with her final decision, she bolted towards the Siren, maneuvering past the two fish guys who tried dicing her up with their blades. Using the momentum that she was gaining, Anna performed a long jump, extending far out almost near the center of the lake, with the addition of one use of teleportation, with her bow charged up for a shot at the Siren.
She could see the fugly looking mermaid ready another ear ringing sound, ‘Please, even if this shot doesn’t strike true…’
Anna released her fingers, delivering her arrow towards the singer, spiraling it somewhat close to the creature’s chest, but enough to cause the maiden to put a pause on her attack and move to evade the projectile. ‘I’ll still chase you down!’
She had forced the Siren to make the first move of evasion, allowing her to predict where she was going to move towards next, and instantly teleported in front of the Siren, swapping to her daggers and driving both into the wicked monster’s shoulders. Resulting in a couple more screams of pain and anger, she began thrashing about as Anna held on, taking her under the lake, whipping around and causing Anna to let go.
The Assassin had lost track of the Siren once she resurfaced, she dunked her head back under the water to try and spot the Siren again with her senses. She could make out a red aura of killing intent from a fast moving figure approaching her underwater, but not only was it the Siren, but she could also see the previous two other creatures that she ignored in order to reach the Siren, moving along with their maiden as well based on their auras. ‘Great, they just won’t give me a break.’
She had to finish this fight fast, Anna would wait and allow the Siren to strike first, slashing her with its nasty claws, grunting in pain but taking the opportunity to latch back onto the maiden with her daggers still intact into her shoulders. And from there, Anna was on another wild ride with the maiden, who tried shaking her off but was too tenacious to let go.
Anna was determined to slay the monster, stabbing the Siren with each dagger, one at a time, while holding onto the other. She could not afford to let this opportunity go, if she were to be shaken off, Anna would have to retreat with her remaining uses of teleportation and abandon the men to their fate, she would also be letting Kat’s efforts to distract the rest, go in vain.
A blood trail was being left behind as Anna rode along from behind the Siren’s back. As she held her breath, her servants had caught up to her and tried to attack Anna with their blades, but instead slashed their maiden once Anna teleported in front of the Siren in time to avoid the hit. The maiden cried once more under the water, Anna could feel that her career of being a singer was nearing its end and kept stabbing away while also tricking her guards into attacking her instead.
There would soon come a time when she noticed the Siren’s aura begin to flicker, possibly her life force fading away, until eventually her swim speed dropped to near zero and let out her last croak of singing. The other creatures that followed would also halt, instead of continuing their attack on Anna, placing their claws on their heads and gargling bubbles from under the lake.
Anna noticed this and resurfaced to gather some fresh air to replenish her lungs, gasping for a moment before calming down. A notification window would appear, telling her that she had completed the sub-quest and would now be rewarded. With the exp earned, she had gained another level, making her level 13 now. ‘Fuck this quest, it was so annoying. I honestly would not have completed this quest if it wasn’t for Kat…WAIT!’
She started scanning her eyes around, trying to find Kat as she floated in the lake, and heard her name being called out. “ANNA! You're alive!” She then turned in the direction of the sound, finding Kat up on top of a tree, hugging for dear life with the bottom of the tree almost hacked away by the three other fish looking guys who were also experiencing something as well.
Slowly the two women began to notice what was going on, they watched as their bodies were shapeshifting, reverting to their original forms once again. Their sounds of gargling would shift to more vocal noises, till they sounded more like cries of agony.
It was then that Anna realized that they were about to witness something embarrassing if they didn’t look away in time, something that made even Anna become as red as her hair from the realization. “KAT! LOOK AWAY!”
Kat was confused at what she meant by her warning, the fish people were no longer trying to kill her, but as soon as the creatures began to look more human like, it was then that she realized exactly what she meant. Her face showing signs of discomfort and embarrassment, instantly looking away and closing her eyes.
Anna had looked away from the group, only to see the two other men that were once creatures floating above the lake. She cried out with frustration, “WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!”
Sometime would pass, Kat and Anna would help move the reverted men back to their camp with complete discomfort, along with the driver and the husband of the couple. Although they may have done a good deed in saving these people from the Siren that trapped them in a life of servitude, they had suffered possible trauma of second hand embarrassment.
“H-Hey Anna, are you-”
“Don’t. Say. A word.” Anna interrupted, sounding very irritated as she continued to drag the last unconscious man back to their camp without looking at their prized jewels. Kat completely understood and the message and kept shut, just wanting the night to get over with and for them to move on.
After bringing the last man back to the camp, lining them all up together, the wife of the couple and daughter of the driver came out of their tent at the worst possible time, wondering what was all the ruckus. It was the wife that was the first to speak, “What is going on at this time- WHAT IN THE WORLD!” She then spun back around into her tent, flustered and waking up the driver’s daughter from her sleep. Anna and Kat could hear her warn the daughter to remain in the tent at the time.
Anna let out a hefty sigh, she just wanted to get some rest and go to bed without having to explain to everyone else what had just happened. “This night has been so stupid, I just want to sleep and figure this out tomorrow.”
Despite still being uncomfortable from the situation, Kat believed Anna had earned a well deserved rest. “Go on, Anna. I’ll tell them what had happened. Get some sleep.”
As much as Anna wanted to get some shut-eye, she wasn’t sure if it was the right thing for her to do, what if there was another possible random event. “Kat, I appreciate it, but-”
“Go, go. Everything will be fine.” Kat insisted, nudging her slightly in the direction of their tent. Anna didn’t bother resisting, she was too tired from the event that happened.
Once Anna was inside their tent, she looked back at Kat and gave a slight smile. “Thanks Kat, I appreciate it…and good work out there. I wouldn’t have done it without you.”
Kat returned her thanks with a smile of her own, “Of course Kat, I’m here for you. Now get some rest.” She then closed the tent shut and went to explain the news to the others.
Anna took her suggestion and submitted to her exhaustion, dressing down into her comfort clothes before snuggling into her bedroll. ‘Such a hectic night, can’t wait to hit the road again…’ She would soon fall asleep after a few more minutes.
Kat rushed to the carriage to retrieve some extra blankets for the lying men that were still snoozing, placing the blankets on top of all of them to hide their pride and jewels from the world around them. Kat did so as best she could without looking at them, successfully managing to cover them up and let out a sigh of relief. “There, crisis has been averted. At least for now, I don’t think we have many clothes for all of them, though…”
She then heard a noise coming from the middle-aged man’s tent and noticed his head and arms sticking out, possibly falling down on the ground. “A-Are you okay, sir? I’m so sorry if I woke you up from your sleep, here, let me help you.”
Kat rushed over to try and help the man back up, but was waved back. “No, no, I’m quite alright young lady. Really I am, thank you.” The man quickly got back up before Kat could get a chance to assist. He then looked at the random men that were sleeping on the ground next to the husband of the couple and the driver. He had a surprised look on his face when he looked, “What happened here?” He questioned.
Kat knew she was going to be questioned about this scenario eventually, and began fumbling her words, unsure of how to give the news. “U-Uh, w-well, you see, me and A-Anna went strolling a-along the lake and f-fought something terrifying. T-These poor men just suddenly-”
The middle-aged put his hand out, telling her to stop, and smiled. “No need to explain anymore, Kat, you can tell us all in the morning. Why don’t you get some rest while I take things from here, I might have some spare clothes for them to put on. I worked at a crematorium before at my last job, so I should be used to handling this sort of thing.”
Kat smiled so brightly, she was so glad to hear someone else wanting to take over, especially one that was already used to this sort of thing. “Really! Thank you, thank you so much! You just saved me from scarring myself mentally.” She then let out a slight laugh of embarrassment.
The man then reached his hand out, wearing a glove, offering a handshake. “Of course, and by the way, you may call me Judas. I forgot to include my name earlier from the campfire.”
“I’ll remember this, Judas.” She said, happily shaking his hand.
Kat then felt some mushy dirt on her hand as she looked down, it had to have come from Judas’s glove. The man noticed this and instantly apologized, “I am so sorry Kat, I must have forgotten to remove my gloves before bed. I had to have been so tired before then…”
She happened to look down to see one of his shoes sticking out of the tent, spotting dirt around the rims of his shoes, seeming as if he must have left his tent recently. “Here, wipe your hands off with these. I apologize again.” He said, handing her a handkerchief.
Unconsciously taking the handkerchief, she replied with a soft, “Yeah, no big deal…” She was curious if Judas had left his tent recently, for some reason she was nervous to question him. But quickly decided not to, it could be that he also must have forgotten to remove his shoes before bed as well, but still, it was awkward to her.
“Well then, good night, Kat. I’ll take care of things for now.” Judas then closed the tent, going to retrieve the clothes that he promised for the men.
Kat, still thinking about what she saw, turned back to her tent. ‘Am I thinking too much into this? Either Judas is forgetful of taking off his shoes and gloves or…no, I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. There’s no way he could have been there, watching everything go on.’ She thought, deciding that it had been an uneventful night and shove the possibility aside, heading inside her tent and getting back into bed next to Anna, who was sound asleep already.
An eye was peeking from within Judas’s tent, the man had been waiting for Kat to return back to her tent before stepping out, wondering if she thought that he might have left his tent prior to her and Anna’s return back from fighting off the Siren and the previous fish men that were dragged back into their camp. ‘I hope she doesn’t think too much about where I was tonight, but even if she does…oh well. Besides, it seems that me, her, and Anna are from Earth, but they are trying to hide it from everyone else, hmm…things are getting interesting here. What shall I do?’
