Where the hell are we going?
Snowie and I begin to follow Sara. She leads us deeper into the forest. Everything is quiet. Too quiet.
I can’t help but wonder if this is someone I can trust. While Snowie might know her, I don’t. It’s hard for me to trust strangers, even if the people I trust can depend on them. I don’t know why. I wish I knew.
If this is one of the Blades… who are the other three?
Snowie and Sara mentioned someone named Kori. I’d have to guess they’re a Blade. But Snowie also said there are four blades, five if Kaen was there.
We start to approach a small cottage in the forest. Trees surround the little home with flowers growing freely nearby. The cream-colored walls compliment the dark gray structure to the house with little windows. To the side, there’s a field with a small fence and a few boxes, both seemingly closed and open. I look around with curiosity.
Do they live here?
Snowie bounces around Sara.
“Hey! That’s the base, yeah?!”
Sara nods. As we get closer to the front door, Sara stops. She lightly knocks on the door in a pattern. She smiles as we wait there. We then hear movement.
“Coming!”
Within moments, the door opens. I see a girl that’s taller than Sara, but shorter than me, with a serious look on her face. Her long, dirty blonde to blue ombre hair is partially up in two buns while the rest is down. One of the buns has a hairpin with three pale blue circles that shine like jewels. She adjusts her sleeveless sweater before looking at us with her purple eyes. When her eyes land on Sara, she smiles.
“Welcome back, Sara-bear.” She giggles. Her guard seems to go down upon seeing the other Written. She reaches out to hug Sara as she grins. Sara hugs her back. After a moment, she steps back, she looks at Snowie, then me.
“We have guests?”
Sara gives the girl a kiss on the cheek. “Yes. Snowie is an old friend of Soveliss, and this is her companion, Ikimono. They were asking about ‘you know who’.”
The girl, who I can assume is Kori, composes herself. She looks at me in silence for a moment. Our eyes meet. She then nods.
“You want to know about Kaen?”
I cross my arms. “That is why I’m here.” I mutter. “Can I come inside?”
“I’m already beating you in there!”
I look down. Snowie squeezes herself between Sara and Kori. Both ladies giggle as the fox wiggles her way into the cottage. The icy girl rolls her eyes with a smirk.
“Alright, alright.” Kori says. She starts to gesture for us to follow her. “Come on in. The other two Blades are also inside, so you can meet them too.” She says before walking in.
I look at Sara with a frown as she grabs Kori’s hand.
“Does she not like people?”
I see Sara close her eyes.
“It’s not that. She just had her guard up. She usually does, but it’s worse now with everything that’s happened.” Sara responds kindly. “Everyone’s guards are up, so just be prepared.”
As I follow the two inside, I see a brand new room. I assume this is a common room. There’s two couches with a table in the center. Pillows and blankets decorate the seating arrangements, and it just seems cozy.
Just across the way is a small kitchen. I see an individual with short, fluffy golden hair. They hum under their breath as they cook at the stove. They look over to see Kori and Sara. They wave.
“H-hey Sara!” The person says. They start to fiddle with their yellow pendant for a moment. “Glad… glad you’re home! I’m making lunch for us.”
I see Sara let go of Kori’s hand. She walks over to the person, using her hand to fluff the person’s hair. “Hey there, kiddo! What’s on the menu?”
They laugh a little. “Just… just making some potato soup.” They grin. “Maeko wanted that.”
“Who’s Maeko?”
At the sound of my voice, the blonde individual yelps. “Wh-who are you? Why did you let a stranger in here?!”
“Sora,” Kori sighs, “relax. This is Ikimono. She and Snowie came to… visit? I don’t know why the two of them are actually here, other than to ask about Kaen.”
I watch as Sora crosses their arms. They glance at me a few times.
“Ah… That… makes sense. D-do you want to have lunch with us?”
I shrug. “Um… sure. If I’m allowed.”
Sara begins to smooth out Sora’s hair. She frowns. “Snowie is an old friend of mine. I met her through Soveliss. Besides, they may be able to help us to find out what might've happened to Kaen.” She says to us telepathically as she returns to Kori.
With that, Kori and Sora nod.
“It makes sense,” Sora says. “Maybe we’ll finally find some clues.” They start to get bowls and more ingredients for the soup. They become quiet.
I lean on the back of the couch. “So… you all knew Kaen? She’s the leader for your group, right?”
“Was.” Kori immediately corrects me. “I’m the leader currently.”
Sara frowned a bit, looking to the ground.
"She took over after Kaen ran off. She was… she was so angry. He used to be so kind and fun! But now they… they just got angry and ran off. We don't know why. Nothing seemed different. Or I probably wasn't looking hard enough or checking in on her enough." She bit her lip grabbing for Kori's hand again. "But I'm happy Kori was able to step up to the plate and lead us. Unfortunately, that's all I know. If anyone else might know something, please feel free to speak up."
Sora shutters. “It was terrifying… Kaen has a temper, and when she shows it, he gets really… vocal about it. We should know…”
Sara nods as Sora speaks. She then nudges Kori. “What about you, darling? Tell them how you felt about Kaen.”
Kori sighs.
“Well… Kaen is like all of us; we’re all misfits in Destiny somehow. So they formed this group to try and find a family. I understand they don’t have a great homelife…” Kori reaches for Sara’s hand. “But that never gave them a right to act the way he did.”
I cross my arms. “So… what do you think happened?”
“I don’t know for sure,” Kori says, “But I know the last time we saw her was on the anniversary of when they were kicked out of his home.” She shakes her head. “I think tensions might have been high but… we haven’t seen Kaen since.”
Sara looks to the table after a nod. “That… would explain some of it.”
“So… what’s the plan then?” I ask with a frown. “Do you have any ideas?”
Kori glares at me. “Are you in a place to ask that? You’re not part of our group.”
“Kori, be nice.”
We all fall silent. I look over to see a taller girl with short red hair. Her deep, royal purple eyes sparkle as she walks over. I see a green, leaf-like hair piece on her head. She puts a hand on her hip with a grin.
“You don’t have to be so harsh.”
“Maeko!” Snowie barks out of nowhere. “She’s here too!”
Sara looks over with a soft smile, waving to Maeko with her free hand. "Hello dear! Sora’s made us lunch!"
“Oh,” Maeko smiles at us. “That’s awesome! I’ll help get things together for us to eat.” She then glances at me. “Who’s the newcomer?”
I glance at the red-head girl. “Ikimono Yoru.”
“She’s looking to help us find Kaen!” Snowie say. “Or, to at least find clues…”
Sara nods again. "I didn’t find any traces when I went out, but I did find them. Did you need help getting things together, Maeko?"
“Possibly,” Maeko says. “I was going to see if I could search after lunch.”
I look at them. “I could help,” I offer. “I mean… I am here anyway.”
Sara nods again, this time with a smile. "Sounds good! Well we'll eat and then strategize a mini search party!"
“Or,” Kori suggests, “We can train a bit. We haven’t done much training lately. It might help us if we warm up before going to search around.”
I tilt my head. “Training?”
“Yeah, we have a small training ground outside.” Maeko says. “It’s really nice. Maybe warming up to keep us ready to search will help us in the long run.”
“I… I might skip out,” Sora says. “I already trained this morning…”
Sara looked to Sora. "I'll train with yooooou." She does a puppy dog pout and leaned over as she pleaded with Sora to train. "Just the three of uuuuuus!"
Sora sighs. “A-Alright, alright. I’ll come to… to train with everyone.” They finish serving the soup. “Bon appetit, everyone.”
As I’m passed a bowl of soup, I can’t help but fall into a train of thought. I stare at my food as I think.
Is this… really going to work?
Are we actually going to search for Kaen?
Or will this be another failure like when we tried to bring Violet home?
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