Troubles In Letin

Luna’s ladle snapped. "Say. It. One. More. Time." Luna articulated every syllable, her claws digging into the ground,

“Sato was just joking, Luna.”Prix quavered frantically as Idalec kept eating his soup,

“I wasn-” Sato got defensive, as Sunya shot up to kiss him, shutting him up,

“He was kidding, kidding, kidding, kidding, kidding!” Sunya squealed, pulled back while bobbing her head with every word.

Sato was blushing such a deep crimson that his brain lost too much circulation to form words,

"Captain, Darksama-sama, Prix, don't you think it's time to go to sleep?" Idalec asked in a grandfatherly tone as he stood up,

"That's a great idea, Idalec," Prix repeated automatically,

“Suit yourself.” Luna hissed, licking her paw, slipping away into her tent.

Prix let out a sigh of relief after Luna was gone,

“I’m sorry, master!” Sunya apologized to Sato, who was stuck rooted in place with a blissful expression.

“He’ll be alright.” Prix waved dismissively, looking at the two remaining tents as Idalec walked over to his own and assembled his own tent,

“What are we going to do about the tent situation, Idalec?”

“I have my own tent.”

Prix paused. “I see,” looking as Idalec assembled his tent. “I’m going to be in the far tent.” Prix whispered before turning to the still frozen Sato and Sunya, “You two will be in the tent between Luna and Idalec.” Prix pointed before turning in for the night, shortly followed by Idalec, Sato, and Sunya.

The next morning, Idalec woke up pleased with myself. He got a good night’s sleep, ‘Maybe too good.’ Idalec thought, taking a cautious glance into Sato’s tent just to make sure Luna didn’t murder every night. Luckily, Sato and Sunya were sleeping comfortably.

As Idalec was packing his tent, he heard a periodic tapping. Looking back, he found a sleeping Luna stretched out on a tree branch, her tail tapping the tree. Luna cracked her eyes for a bit before closing them again.

“Tsk,” Prix said, sticking out her head and looking around.

Prix and Luna, eyes locked, asked, “Is Sato up?” Prix asked Idalec as he walked over with his packed tent.

“He’s still sleeping.”

“We have to get moving.” Prix worried, walking over to Sato’s tent. Prix took a couple of short breaths before she pulled the tent flap open. “What is this?” Prix demanded heatedly as some kind of scurrying could be heard inside. “Sato, we have to get moving.” Luna had silently jumped down from the tree branch she was sleeping on, approaching Prix. “Sunya, pull Sato out,” Prix ordered, backing away,

“I think we should bring these tents with us,” Idalec suggested as he nibbled on some of the brown bread he bought yesterday.

“That’s-” Prix said, turning on her heel before screaming in terror to find that Luna was standing right next to her,

"You people are all the same," Luna commented.

“I’M UP!” Sato yelled, scrambling out of the tent, looking sluggish.

“Idalec brought up a good suggestion; we should take these tents with us,” Prix said as Luna walked to the cauldron.

“All you can do is steal from others, Prick.” Luna joked

“That’s a great idea.” Sato clapped before he turned around to try and disassemble his tent. Prix similarly walked over to disassemble hers.

After two hours, Sato and Prix finally managed to pack their own tents until only Luna’s untouched tent remained.

"What have you been doing, Luna? Why didn't you pack your tent?" Prix approached Luna, eating some of her signature boiled meat and water.

"I don't need that tent," Luna said, chewing.

Sato’s ears perked up. "Can I have it then?" Luna lazily turned her head first to Sato, then raised a finger at her tent. “Thank you!” Sato said as Luna finished whispering her chant, shooting a fireball at the tent, causing it to burn with a foul smell of tar and flesh.

“I think we better get moving,” Idalec said, grabbing his suitcase in one hand, food and tent in the other.

“Sure-” Sato said with a comically big smile as he grabbed his tent.

“Come on, Luna,” Idalec called out as they got a move on it.

They made good progress down the road to Letin. “There’s something nice about traveling down the same road,” Idalec commented.

“And life is like a road you can only walk once.” Prix chirped,

“If only,” Idalec whispered so faintly nobody heard it,

“Ah, so you're telling me it’s going to be easy for me?” Sato asked

“No.” Idalec huffed as they kept walking; the road ebbed as the forest thinned out,

“So are you like a merchant NPC?”

“What?” Idalec asked, ‘Should I know what an NPC is?’

“Like what kind of discount modifiers do you think I can stack on you, little bro?”

“He’s sometimes like this,” Prix whispered.

“I see.” Idalec nodded, ignoring Sato’s comment. “What are we going to do in Letin?”

“Well, we’ll stock up on supplies and then-” Prix started listing off as a boy came into view. His shirt was soaked in sweat, out of breath, and his hands were shaking as he held onto a tree.

Luna’s eyes narrowed as Prix ran over to help, holding up her dress. “Are you alright?”

“I-” the boy took a deep breath,

“How’s it going, bro?” Sato asked, walking over, his shorts below his knees and shirt sleeves drenched in dried blood from yesterday.

“Please-don’t- kill me, sir,” the boy said in shallow breaths.

“Why would he think that?” Sato asked,

“You should wash up, Sato,” Prix said pointedly before turning to the boy. “Do you need help?” her voice kind,

“The demons attacked my town yesterday; we need help!” The boy panted,

“Which town? Because we can help.”

“I’m from- Letin.”

Prix steered; she had that same expression of dread from yesterday. “We will save your town.”

“How far is Letin?” Sato asked the boy, who just looked back,

“I left in the morning. I’m sorry, I should get going.” The boy said as he started jogging again down the road.

“This is what happens when we’re slow!” Prix said with renewed vigor, charging ahead.

They kept walking on and on. Noon passed, and yet the sun kept going lower and lower.

“That kid must have been a god damn usain bolt reincarnated.” Sato nearly collapsed as Letin came into view, a village on the larger side.

“I think you're the problem.” Luna said, “Everyone else is fine.” The other four had to slow down to accommodate Sato.

“Come on.” Prix motioned everyone into the forest. The distance was deceptively long, but they managed to get nearly to Letin just before dusk. “Ok everyone, we’ll need a plan if we want to win.” Prix dictated,

“Why don’t we just rush in?” Sato raised his hand,

“We can’t rush in because we’ll be outnumbered.” Prix explained patiently, “Look, I think we’ve seen at least ten different demons patrolling the town's perimeter.” Everyone instinctively looked out from the tree line to see a pair of demons keenly patrolling around the perimeter. “Now, Sunya, how good are you at fighting?”

“Me-” Sunya said, worried,

“She’s good at it,” Sato answered for her confidently,

“Sunya, don’t let Sato interrupt you.” Prix reiterated,

“I’m good at it,” Sunya said in a downer voice.

“Ok-” Prix said as she looked at everyone, “Idalec?”

“I’m a devout pacifist.”

“Tsk.” Prix tapped a fist against her mouth, deep in thought,

“What if we rush them?” Luna ribbed,

“That’s what I’m saying!” Sato agreed,

“We can’t just rush in,” Prix said, exasperated; you could hear the anger rising in her,

“What if we can?” Luna goaded Prix,

“Just let me think,” Prix said, turning her back to the group to look at the passing patrols,

‘She is in a bit of a bind.’ Idalec stood up to also watch the demons moving on patrol. ‘What’s strange is that I feel magic flowing through that town… Which reasonable army wouldn’t suppress all magic in and around a captured town? It wouldn’t even be good bait since I could wipe all of them out from Roux.’ Idalec glanced at Prix, who was still trying to make some kind of plan. ‘You can’t make a plan if you don’t know what you have.’ “If you had anything you wanted at your disposal, how would you win?” Idalec asked Prix,

“If I could do anything?” Prix repeated, “... I would probably just knock out all the demons and send in a big army to round them up so that there wouldn’t be any casualties.”

Idalec looked back at the village. ‘It seemed so logical, so clean, so disfunctional. But then again they don’t have any magic suppression around the town so it could…’ a memory suddenly danced through Idalec’s mind, “I know a spell for that.”

“What’s the spell?” Prix faced Idalec, her clothes whipping around her from the speed.