Trouble in Magnolia Gardens (pt 2)

The next morning the girls woke up in the tower by the cry of a rooster and the light of the rising sun. Miho stretched her arms, got up, and walked toward the tower's railing. She looked at the lures, but Silverbell was nowhere in sight.

“Whaaa! She isn’t there, right?” Hanna said while yawning.

Miho shook her head.

“Let’s head downstairs and take a closer look.”

The girls descended the spiral staircase that led them down to the palace's ground floor. There, they left through big wooden doors and made their way around. The dense thorny forest surrounding the palace cast a big shadow, giving the early morning sun no chance to properly illuminate the last remaining strip of barren lawn. The girls circle the perimeter like they did last night, but as they already concluded from the tower, the lures hadn’t attracted the cat like they had hoped for.

“Poor Silverbell, spending all night in that evil forest…” Hanna spoke before they headed back inside. Hanna and Miho helped the palace staff prepare breakfast, taking something for themselves to eat as well. They brought the food to the conference room with the blackboard where they evaluated their plans.

“While inspecting the surroundings at the tower, I noticed a small clearing on the west side of the castle. It caught my attention since it’s the only place not overgrown by thorny forest.”

Hanna smiled.

“Yes, I notice that too! Do you think Silverbell is there?”

“Possibly,” Miho responded with doubt in her voice.

“Sadly, I don’t have any other clues… So I suggest traveling there as soon as our reinforcements arrive.”

The girls heard someone knocking on the door.

“Excuse me, you have a guest,” the maid from earlier said, letting Karen in. The dark-haired girl looked to be in quite a bad mood.

“Miho, I came here to help you,” she said while plopping down on a chair.

“It’s hard to sleep in a carriage on these uneven roads!” she added while yawning.

Hanna looked at Karen with questioning eyes.

“So Hanna, this is Karen, the girl who helped me clean the dungeon the other day.”

Hanna’s face cleared up and she shook Karen’s hard.

"Ouch!" You are squeezing my hand,” Hanna said while rubbing her palm.

“My bad… my bad…” Karen said with a glimpse.

“I told the driver to pick up Lorian too, couldn’t he make it in time?” Miho asked.

Karen shook her head after which she started grinning.

“This is a bit embarrassing…. but I am telling you regardless. Lorian has been lying in bed depressed all day. He asked out the new barmaid working at the guild for a date. He was awkwardly confessing his love in a song… you should have been there.”

“I guess the love wasn’t mutual,” Miho added.

“Of course not, she just came to town last week. They barely spoke a word!”

She shook her head.

“When will he finally learn…” Karen said while staring down at the floor.

“I think we will manage just fine with your sword and Clarice’s new transformation,” Miho responded.

Talking about her sword… where was it? She said while inspecting Karen.

“Anyway, I can’t believe this place, the Magnolia princess’s palace is something every little girl dreams about. If only they allowed you to take your sword with you inside… it would have been perfect,” Karen said while posing her hand against her face.

Miho explained her plan and instructed Karen. Hanna prepared some sandwiches for lunch and they gathered at the edge of the forest.

“Do… Do I really need to come along?” Hanna asked with a shaky voice, looking into the deep depths of the forest.

Miho nodded.

“You have to bring the lure and carry Silverbell back home when we find her.”

Hanna grabbed Miho’s arm and held it tight between hers.

“Y…you stick close to me, right?” she asked with a shaky voice.

“Let’s save Silverbell and return the gardens to their former glory!” Miho encouraged her party.

I'm sounding more and more like an adventurer….

X

Reunited with her oversized broadsword “Chopzilla”, Karen started hacking away branches. Together with Clarice’s new hedge trimmer form they paved a narrow path through the thorny forest. A scared Hanna flowed closely after, carrying the bait inside an airtight container, so they wouldn’t get nauseous themselves from the strong smell. She wore it in a small leather backpack, alongside the party’s supplies. Their goal was to find the clearing in the forest Miho spotted from the palace’s tower.

“Waahh! "W…what is that?” Hanna yelled.

Miho turned around and saw a giant fluffy moth had landed on Hanna’s backpack.

“It’s just a moth,” Miho said while continuing cutting.

“That’s quite the behemoth! I’ve never seen such a creature…” Karen joked, looking at the insect with admiration.

“My dearest friend, will you become my pet?” she said while trying to lift the moth from Hanna’s backpack. Her attempt failed. The moth flew away in the forest where it came from…

Karen sank to her knees.

“My love… Why did we have to part… why???” she yelled dramatically.

I guess these siblings aren’t too different after all…

“Please continue Karen, we have a lot of ground to cover,” Miho responded.

After about an hour of cutting, the girls arrived at the clearing. Miho and her party looked around, but couldn’t find anything out of the ordinary.

“It’s just a field with purple flowers,” Miho mumbled. It seemed like this part of the gardens wasn’t affected by the magical growth for some unclear reason. Karen sat down in the grass, exhausted from all the chopping. After taking a deep breath, she started polishing her sword with a cloth. Meanwhile, Hanna unpacked her backpack and handed a sandwich to each of her friends.

“So what do we do now?” Karen asked with her mouth full of bread.

“Let me think for a bit,” Miho responded while staring in the air.

“I have an idea,” Hanna added. The other girls looked at her.

“What if I make a trap out of this container, we put the lure in it and wait behind that bush?” she said while waving the big metal container.

Miho inspected the clearing again, there was a big bush sitting a bit uphill. If they were to make up camp behind it, they could watch the other side of the clearing without disturbing the trap. She turned her head to Karen.

“Do you have any other ideas to consider? Otherwise, I think we will try Hanna’s plan.”

Karen shook her head.

“I am all empty-headed,” the girl said while continuously polishing her sword.

Hanna searched the clearing for a little branch, opened the container, and laid the bait beneath it on the ground. She balanced the container on the branch so that every small movement would knock it over and trap the cat underneath it.

“Yuck, I can definitely smell that,” Karen said while pinching her nose.

Hanna tested the trap by lightly tapping the container. With a loud bang, it fell to the ground, almost on top of her finger.

“I hope Silverbell won’t get hurt by this… luckily she has bushy fur to protect herself,” Hanna reasoned. After she had finished setting up the trap, she and the others moved behind the bush. Miho and Hanna watched closely, while Karen sat backward facing the edge of the forest. She had to make sure the others couldn’t be ambushed from the back.

Let the long wait begin.

After about an hour of waiting, Hanna had fallen asleep. Her head was resting on Miho’s lap, who felt a bit uncomfortable by it.

She didn’t sleep much in the tower last night, Miho said while yawning.

“Have you seen anything Karen?” she whispered.

“I am trying to concentrate.”

Miho turned around and saw that Karen was trying to land a big moth like she had seen on her hand before.

“Make sure you are ready in case of an atta-”

Before Miho could finish her sentence, she was shaken by a clunking sound. She turned around and saw the trap had caught something. Something green… definitely not the princess’s cat…

Karen turned around and whispered.

“That looks like a goblin. You never see these above ground in these lands.”

“Hanna! Hanna! Wake up,” Miho said while lifting the girl from her lap.

“Huh? I w…want some warm choco cookies,” she whispered while rubbing her eyes.

“We caught something, come look!” Hanna got up and the trio moved toward the goblin and took a closer look.

“Silverbell… turned green?”

“No silly, it’s a goblin, a little monster created from dirt. They usually burrow underground in dungeons or dwell in the badlands, not here,” Karen responded. She took her sword from her back, preparing to kill the creature in one powerful swoop.

“Wait!” Miho yelled.

“I have a plan, we should set it free and continue in the direction it came from. There might be more where he came from.”

“Disappointing,” the bloody-thirsty Karen whispered as she put her sword back.

Miho removed the container and noticed the goblin had eaten the bait. It looked at her with black empty eyes, before it ran away in the direction opposite of where the girls came from.

So we need to go even further from the palace.

“Let’s pack up and continue that way,” Miho said while pointing in the direction the goblin went. She transformed Clarice into its hedge trimmer form and started cutting the thorny branches again. The other girls followed after her.