“If you’re not going to help me, then fine, don’t. We were trying to bring the kid to you so you could help her, you know, protect her, find a home for her, but I guess none of that matters to you. If you’re not going to do anything then just let me go, I still need to find them.”
Alyssa looked at her cautiously then to Daniel, the boy looking at the shoe in his hand while thinking about his options. After a while he breathed out then looked at Falla with a sharp glance.
“Where?” he asked, with Falla then looking at him curiously. After that got nothing out of her he spoke up again. “Where were they before they vanished?”
Falla looked around at the surrounding landscape then over towards where the group had come from.
“Um, it would be that way. I don’t know how far though, I’ve been going all over The Outerlands in this direction searching for them.”
“In this direction?” Specca asked. “Why in this direction?”
“Because this was the way we were originally going to find you,” Falla reasoned. “If Luna was running scared I figured she would try to meet up with all of you as well, hopefully she would have flown this way.”
Daniel looked back towards where they came from then to Falla with an accusing glare.
“Normally I wouldn’t believe you. I don’t trust you, Falla,” he derided. “But if there’s even a chance a young girl is in danger I will not just walk away. However, if we find out you’re lying, that this is another one of your tricks…”
“No tricks, I swear,” Falla pleaded shaking her head. “We were trying to do the right thing by helping Emily, we knew she would be safe with you. Please, my sister is missing, you have to help me find her.”
Daniel watched her with a glimmer of sympathy for a moment then looked to the shoe again.
“Alyssa, let her go, we’re heading back to look for them,” he said, with Triska slowly sheathing her sword while Alyssa waved her staff to the side, causing the vines to let go of Falla’s legs.
“Hold on,” Kroanette said while raising a hand. The group looked to her as she shook her head at Daniel. “I still have my appointment to keep, and even if this one is telling the truth about a missing child I’m afraid I have a job to do. I have to reach Rystone and deliver the artifact as promised, that is my priority.”
“I know,” Daniel agreed. “You have your duty as their courier, I didn’t expect you to follow us on this search.”
“But, Daniel,” Triska said worriedly. “What about meeting her mother? This would be a great step towards your cause.”
“I know, and I still want to meet her,” Daniel agreed. “But we can’t just leave a young girl and Luna out there, especially if something may have happened to them. I’m not going to take a chance on their safety. Kroanette, your job is to deliver your parcel to Rystone, you don’t need us for that, and you can even reach the village faster without us slowing you down. All the more reason for you to go on ahead without us.”
“But about meeting my mother,” Kroanette mentioned. “I did promise to take you and wish to make good on that.”
“And you can,” Daniel assured her. “Head to Rystone and make your delivery, then we’ll meet you outside of Eston after we’ve found Emily and Luna. By the time we reach the town you would have already finished your job anyway.”
Specca thought about it then nodded with a smile.
“Yes, that would work,” she mused. “She would have to travel past Eston to reach Rystone. By the time she does so and doubles back to Eston we should likely have arrived after we’ve found the young child. We could even try to find a home for her in the town, she would be safe there.”
“Alyssa won’t have to risk going near Rystone at all then,” Triska said looking to Alyssa. “And then we can still go to meet Kroanette’s mother afterwards.”
The witch looked down in thought then to Daniel with a small smile.
“I suppose that does work out for everyone, not like I wanted to go near Rystone at all to begin with.”
Daniel nodded then looked to Kroanette with a calm smile.
“We’ll meet you just outside of Eston, then you can make good on your promise.”
Kroanette smiled curiously at him as she holstered her whip at her side.
“Going through such lengths all for a child you don’t know, how very noble of you. Perhaps my mother will be interested in meeting with someone such as yourself after all.”
Daniel smiled modestly and rubbed the back of his neck in response.
“Here’s hoping I don’t disappoint her, or embarrass myself with what I wish to speak about,” he said half-jokingly. Kroanette smirked a bit and shook her head.
“Well, I wouldn’t worry about the first part at least,” she said before double checking her saddlebag. The artifact was still secure inside after Specca had quickly sewn the hole closed earlier, the strange relic giving off a faint blue glow briefly that made Kroanette feel more uneasy about having it with her. She then looked back to the group with a small smile.
“Very well, I will meet you all at Eston after I make my delivery. I wish you luck in your search for that child,” she said kindly, then glanced to Falla with a raised eyebrow. “You however need to work on your social skills more. They’re quite deplorable.”
“Again, you almost ran into me, I was just taking a nap down here!” Falla barked out at her.
Kroanette shook her head with discontent at the butterfly girl then waved to Daniel with a smile.
“Take care, Daniel. I expect to see you again in my future very soon,” she said before she took off running, the group watching as the centaur galloped across the field of grass with her tail swishing behind her. Daniel and Triska face palmed while Squeak showed a puzzled expression, the ant girl looking back behind them then to Kroanette with a small squeak before Alyssa rolled her eyes then called out to the centaur.
“You’re going the wrong way!” she yelled out. Kroanette skidded to a halt then looked back towards them curiously.
“Eston and Rystone are that way!” Alyssa shouted out while pointing back behind them. Kroanette slowly looked around for a moment then back towards them while scratching her head.
“Are you sure?”
“You are the worst cour-” Alyssa started to yell before Daniel quickly held a hand over her mouth and kept her close, the boy shaking his head with a weak smile at the centaur.
“Yes, it’s that way, just stick to the trail and you should be fine.”
Kroanette nodded then ran back towards the group, with everyone watching as she galloped past with her breasts once again bouncing around with great force. Daniel kept looking ahead to avoid eye contact with the jiggling bosom while the other girls watched with dull expressions as the centaur galloped up the hill back towards their caravan before running off along the trail. Daniel then let go of Alyssa while looking back to seeing the centaur racing off into the distance and out of view.
“Seriously, she is the worst courier ever,” Alyssa muttered.
“Do you think she’ll be alright on her own?” Specca wondered.
“She has no navigational skills whatsoever. We’ll never see her again,” Triska said flatly.
Squeak nodded with a squeak while Daniel wondered if his only chance at meeting the centaur empress would indeed become lost in The Outerlands once again. Falla looked around at the group then waved towards the trail behind them.
“Hey, are we going to go find my sister and the kid or not?” she barked out. The group glanced to her with annoyance, the girl then backing up nervously from them.
“I still don’t like the idea of her riding with us,” Triska mentioned.
“If we do not find this Emily you speak of, you are going to be in very serious trouble,” Specca warned, with Squeak nodding in agreement to that.
“I’m telling you the truth,” Falla pleaded. “If we find my sister we’ll find Emily too, you’ll see.”
Alyssa narrowed her eyes and walke
d towards the butterfly girl.
“Put your hands together.”
“What? Why?”
“I said, put your hands together,” Alyssa repeated.
Falla glanced to the others then slowly put her hands together in front of her. Alyssa struck her staff into the ground, sticking it there before she held her hands together as well. The group watched as a small glow came from her sleeves before she parted her hands and formed an intertwined blue and pink ribbon. She then quickly wrapped it around Falla’s wrists and tied the girl’s hands together tightly, with Falla watching her curiously as the witch coiled the ribbons around together before tying them into a knot at the top, leaving two small lengths of the fabrics hanging down.
“Just in case you get any ideas,” Alyssa said as she picked her staff back up.
“For what? Bondage?” Falla asked flatly.
Alyssa twitched at that then growled at her.
“No, in case you thought of doing anything with Daniel!”
Falla glanced to the ribbons holding her hands together, then to Daniel, then to the witch with a raised eyebrow.
“Yeah, this is only giving me ideas about doing things with him, just so you know.”
Alyssa huffed then grabbed the hanging ribbons before walking the butterfly girl towards the caravan.
“Just stop talking,” she muttered.
“Aren’t you going to use a ball gag to make me?” Falla quipped with a smirk.
“Just shut up!” Alyssa shouted out as she led Falla up the hill.
Daniel shook his head then motioned for the others to follow as he started walking towards the caravan too. Squeak quickly walked after him while Triska and Specca looked off to where Kroanette had disappeared from view.
“Well, at least Ms. Boobs-a-lot won’t be around Daniel again for a while,” Triska pointed out with a shrug.
“Yes,” Specca dryly replied. “Instead of her now we have to watch out for a sneaky butterfly trying to get into Daniel’s pants. This is much better.”
The two girls then walked after the others, both intending to keep a close eye on Falla while she traveled with them.
The group boarded their ride once again, with Alyssa and Triska sitting up front while the others went into the cabin. Alyssa snapped the reins and turned Lucky around, the horse then pulling the caravan back along the trail as they set off in search of the missing butterfly sister and lost human child. Triska and Alyssa glanced to each other then looked back into the cabin. Daniel was sitting against the wall with Specca beside him, the boy looking at his monster book along with her as they searched to see if they had the Centaur monster class written down. Across from them Squeak was seated with her abdomen resting along the wall while she leaned against some pillows, the ant girl watching Falla closely who was kneeling down next to her while she merely looked around at the interior with a bored eye. Falla then looked to Squeak as the ant girl kept staring at her.
“I haven’t done anything wrong here, what’s with that look?”
Specca glanced to her then looked back to the monster guide as Daniel turned a page.
“You’re having us spend precious time doubling back on our journey for what may be a fool’s errand searching for your sister and this supposedly lost human child,” she lectured. “After all the times in the past you’ve tried to steal Daniel away from us do you really believe we’re going to be so trusting of you?”
Falla sighed and looked down to the ribbons holding her hands together.
“Great,” she said morbidly. “I try to do the right thing and help an innocent human girl, and I’m treated like a criminal about to be hanged for it.”
“You trying to do the right thing and help an innocent human girl is what makes this so suspicious,” Specca pointed out. “If it were just your sister that had gone missing then we likely wouldn’t be doing this at all.”
“You treat me like I’m some Darker One in this world,” Falla scoffed. “Luna and I saved that young girl; she would have drowned in a river if we hadn’t acted quickly. We’re trying to be good monsters here, whether you can see that or not.”
Specca and Daniel glanced to her then to each other as the butterfly girl looked down to her hands while moving them around slightly. Falla then looked to seeing Squeak just watching her with a dull expression.
“What? What’s your problem?”
Squeak pointed to her and squeaked sternly a few times, with Falla just watching her with a raised eyebrow.
“Yeah, squeak squeak squeak squeak. That’s interesting and all, but in case you didn’t know, I don’t speak squeak,” Falla said dryly. Squeak showed annoyance and squeaked some more at the girl, with Falla just shaking her head at her. “Do you not understand me? I said I don’t speak squeak.”
“She’s an ant girl,” Specca said with discontent. “She only knows how to squeak, that’s how she talks. She understands us just fine, it’s we that cannot understand her.”
Falla just watched as Squeak crossed her arms with narrowed eyes at her then glanced to Specca.
“So none of you understand her either, huh?”
Daniel and Specca shook their heads as Squeak looked down and away with a troubled expression. Falla nodded slowly then looked at Squeak curiously.
“Hm, interesting. She can understand us, but cannot speak in our tongue.”
Squeak glanced to her with a curious eye as the butterfly girl leaned closer to her, seeming to examine her head carefully from different angles.
“What are you doing? Leave her alone,” Specca scolded.
Falla looked at Squeak’s antennae curiously then smiled slyly.
“I bet I could figure out what she’s saying.”
Squeak looked at her puzzled as the butterfly girl sat back and glanced down to her hands casually, just eyeing her fingernails without a care while Triska and Alyssa glanced back to her again.
“What?” Specca asked dryly. “And just how could you do that? I’ve tried to figure out any sort of pattern or order to her squeaking, and there isn’t any. Tone and pitch don’t reveal what she’s trying to say exactly, only other ant girls could communicate with her properly.”
She and Daniel watched Falla just sitting there with a calm smile on her face. Falla chuckled then glanced to her with a smirk.
“I wouldn’t say that, it’s possible that other monsters such as myself could understand her just fine.”
“You couldn’t understand her when she was squeaking at you a moment ago though,” Daniel mentioned shaking his head.
“Of course I couldn’t,” Falla said with a shrug. “She was just squeaking with her mouth. That’s just gibberish to us. But there are other ways she can talk.”
“Other ways?” Specca asked. “You mean sign language? Because that’s what she’s had to resort to doing to try to speak to us.”
Falla shook her head and looked to Squeak with a sly smile, the ant girl then watching her worriedly as she didn’t like the way Falla was eyeing her.
“I’ll make you a deal,” Falla offered. “You untie my hands, and I’ll tell you what she’s saying.”
“No, I don’t think we’ll be doing that,” Specca said flatly.
Falla laughed and glanced to her while at this point Alyssa and Triska were looking back at the butterfly with dull expressions.
“What’s wrong?” Falla asked. “Don’t trust me to stay put? In case you’ve forgotten, I wanted you all to come with me to find my sister and Emily, it’s not like I want to fly away from you. And even if I did, how am I going to do that? The only way out of here is past all of you, I wouldn’t make it even if I tried.”
Daniel and Specca looked to each other then to the others as Alyssa was just shaking her head at Falla.
“I tied your hands together so you wouldn’t get handsy with Daniel,” Alyssa pointed out. “Not because I was worried you would try to leave.”
“Hey, you want to understand her or not?” Falla asked looking to Squeak.
“You can’t help us with that,” Triska argued shaking her head.
“You don’t know that,” Falla reasoned. “And are you really going to just pass up your chance to know what she’s saying? What if I’m telling the truth? This could be your only chance to really talk to her.”
Triska and Alyssa glanced to each other then at Squeak, the ant girl looking down with concern while her antennae twitched a bit.
“Prove that you can understand her,” Specca stated. “And then we’ll consider untying you.”
She and Daniel leaned back against the wall while watching Falla, not believing what she was saying in the least. Falla rolled her eyes then turned to face Squeak with a slight smile.
“Fine, we’ll do it your way,” she reluctantly agreed. Squeak looked to her curiously as the butterfly girl scooted closer to her on her knees.
“Face me,” Falla said politely. Squeak just shook her head.
“Now now, face me,” Falla repeated while trying to force a smile. Again Squeak just shook her head. Falla gave her a dull stare for a moment then glanced to Daniel.
“So you don’t want to talk to Daniel?” she asked curiously. “Now’s your chance for your words to really reach him, for him to understand you.”
Squeak glanced to Daniel worriedly then to Falla as she squeaked quietly. After a moment she slowly turned to face Falla on her knees, with the group watching carefully as Falla leaned closer to the ant girl. Squeak watched her with an uneasy frown as Falla got really close to her face.
“Calm down,” Falla said. “I’m not going to kiss you or anything. Just lower your head slightly.”
Squeak hesitated then slowly lowered her head, with Falla doing the same. Their antennae touched each other and twitched a bit, with Squeak flinching then squeaking while blinking a few times.
“Relax, this should work even though we’re not the same type of monster,” Falla said while glancing up at their antennae, the extensions twitching slightly while rubbing against each other.
“What is it that you’re doing?” Specca asked.
“I’m going to talk to her, or at least try to,” Falla explained.
Chronicles of Eden - Act III Page 26