Chapter 12: Daybreak

Sue remembered little of the rest of the day that followed her heart to heart with the village's mayor, her exhausted mind slipping in and out of consciousness throughout, entire hours reduced to a single moment her tired self could recall afterwards. Being held by Solstice in silence for somewhere between minutes and hours, enough for the sky to start taking on a more orange hue, before being half guided, half carried back to the village, her walking left even clumsier than usual. Eventually ending up back at Willow's little clinic, and then in bed immediately afterwards, intermittent images of the pink and cream medic tending to her before she dozed off yet again throughout the evening. The very final recollection of them standing in the doorway, the faint candle light from the night stand only barely illuminating them against the backdrop of an almost moonless night.

And then... she was here again.

For once, the once human decided to take her time before springing head first into yet another scene haunting her dreams, the recollection of the actual campfire this facsimile was based on still fresh on her mind and rawer than ever. Maybe if she just pushed herself hard enough, she could force herself to snap out of this dream here and now and be spared all the imagery that mere weeks ago made her turn her head the other way whenever she by chance spotted it in her daily life. Maybe if she told Duck and Night Father off firmly enough, they'd leave this recollection alone and not defile it any further with their presence. Maybe she was just being repeatedly tested, almost every single night since she'd ended up here, and would be stuck in this world until she cracked some sort of deeper puzzle in her dreams she wasn't even aware of.

As intriguing and amusing as each of these possibilities was in their own metric, some of them appealing to her in the current moment more than others, there was little she could do without knowing just what she was in for this time, or even who she would have to tell off. And so, with a deep breath, Sue turned her gaze skyward and opened her eyes, determined to stare down whichever deity was-

The Moon was not there.

The recollection took its sweet time to fully settle in, the Forest Guardian confusedly looking around the rest of the starry sky in hopes of spotting the usually unmistakable celestial body, or even just a Moon-sized hole in the astral backdrop, but no, nothing. No Moon, be it full or new, no clouds, only an endless canvas of darkness dotted with uncountable pinpricks of light, a couple of them moving across it.

Sue hesitated a bit before lowering her eyeline and taking in the rest of the recollection, having absolutely no idea what she would end up seeing, the sky being simultaneously so familiar yet so deeply wrong chilling her to the core. Still, it wasn't like she could avoid having to face it all sooner or later, taking a deep breath, then another, and then going for it in one swift motion, mind hoping it was ready for whichever horrors would end up lurking just out of sight-

Okay, this is... slightly less unnerving.

Most of the scene appeared to look exactly how she remembered it, with only a couple differences, though they were pretty major ones. To her right, on the next bench over, laid her mom's guitar, the same one she played on that evening, the same cheap wood and even cheaper looking varnish, the same out of tone strings, a couple of them due for a replacement years ago, the same magic-themed stickers that Sue remembered going ham with after her parents grabbed her a pack on the flea market covering most of its sides and front, a few in the process of flaking off. The details rushed into her mind one by one, most of them thought long since faded from memory, the once student forcefully prying her head away from the guitar to look in the other direction, the changes there larger if more disjointed.

There was a closed door standing nonchalantly off to the side, golden frame and ebony wood giving it an otherworldly appearance, even putting aside the absurd fact of its mere presence there. In front of it rested a small, pink jewelry pillow, with a pair of shiny semicircles she was sitting too away from to pick up on any detail on resting on top of it. Their combined appearance was stark and vivid enough that all they needed was a large wobbling "Click Me!" popup to truly complete them, the realization forcefully diffusing the tension by the virtue of Sue giggling quietly at her own humor.

Both of those topics warranted further investigation of course, and as eye catching as one of them was, Sue's heart and mind began to slowly navigate over towards the other one. The once human stretched briefly after getting up, only to sit back down moments later, the instrument now in her hands. Hands that were in all likelihood unfit to even play it, though that was a problem for awake Sue, dreaming Sue instead getting right into the swing of things and starting to quietly pluck away, half remembered chords combining into the most listenable kind of cacophony as she closed her eyes for a moment. Memories kept flowing, slipping out from underneath the vice press of trauma that had threatened to squash them out of existence, memories of all the other, happier times she would spend hours listening to her mom either learn a new song or just practice, a wobbly smile creeping onto present Sue's face at the recollection of little Sue thinking of being a guitarist as the coolest thing in the world.

She was so glad she could still remember.

In not too long, the Forest Guardian finally stopped her impromptu jamming session, taking a deep breath and wiping any moisture out of her eyes before it could threaten to turn into full blown tears before laying the guitar down off to the side- and doing a double take at seeing something, someone, out in the corner of her eye, in the spot where she sat previously-

Huh. Nothing.

Regardless of what it was or wasn't, Sue wasn't in the mood to ponder on that for long, physically shaking off her thread of thought and attempting to stand back up, the constant warmth emanating from the bonfire especially appreciated now, the former college student taking a moment to savor it just a bit more before turning over towards that weird door and the equally weird decoration in front of it. They were downright bizarre in how unnaturally tacky they were compared to everything else she'd seen thus far, as if made by someone with no sense of taste whatsoever-

Hold on.

As she walked up to the door, she felt something... weird underneath one of her Forest Guardian feet, not sinking into the loose sand surrounding the campfire nowhere nearly as much as the other one, as if it was resting on something large and firm...

The door could wait, this was much more curious- as much as a part of Sue internally dismissed this having any real significance to begin with and tried to suggest the object she felt was just a large rock or something, it too had to shut up and watch as the once human knelt and reached into the grayish sand, immediately locating a buried stone slab which turned out to be large enough for her attempts to move it to accomplish exactly jack. Instead she had to scoot forward, large green hands uncovering its top one swipe at a time, more and more of it coming into view, her determination to reveal it all growing by the moment until one of her movements inadvertently unearthed something else from underneath the sand, a large scrap of paper that had been laying on top of the slab, grabbed with an excited, manic motion and brought in front of herself-

You're welcome.

The writing being a very elegant cursive written in silver ink made up for the briefness of the message, the words making zero sense until she looked up from it, up at what exactly it was she'd managed to dig up in the first place, imaginary blood draining from her imaginary face as she took the engravings in.

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✞

In Loving Memory Of

SUE A. MULLINS

Tragically Died 13th of April

Aged 22 Years

Forever In Our Hearts

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Thirteenth, thirteenth, when was that, when- she could barely recall waking up at the small rundown hostel and checking her phone first thing in the morning, the small 12/04 on the lock screen feeling completely inconsequential up to that point. She had breakfast, strapped her backpack on, and headed out to the nearby forest trail, it was supposed to look particularly stunning this time of the year, the dense woods ending up providing much more varied sights than she could've ever expected. Eventually, as she was making her way through the hiking trail, she began looking around for a place to sit down and eat lunch at, there was a loud bang some distance away-

And now, this.

Trying to reach any further into this, to try to weave this unnerving dreamt up find into everything she knew so far ended up being much more difficult than she wanted on account of a large memory hole smack dab in the middle, its size making even sidestepping it so difficult that eventually she didn't even bother, shambling away from the distressing sight. Maybe it's just to signify that everyone back on her world thinks she's dead and she's subconsciously worried about that- she had no idea, and at that point she really wanted to stop thinking about that, lest the hyperawareness of her memories having been tampered with ended up upsetting her even further.

There's still that door to take a look at, let's just focus her sights there.

Shaking the sight of her own gravestone off, Sue slowly got up and approached the main attraction her dream had in store, the massive door no less dumbfounding than the last time she'd looked at it. Its appearance became even more bizarre when looking from up close, equal parts lavish with its choice of materials yet simultaneously cheap and banal with its absence of any decorations, even the door handle merely looking like an ebony copy of many a cheap plastic one she'd interacted with in the past. She wasn't surprised to see the handle not budge even slightly at her initial attempt at opening it, attention venturing down and towards the couple of shiny trinkets that laid on the pink pillow, the whole display as eye-catching as it was tacky.

The two semicircles appeared to be made out of silver, and judging by their weight, solid silver no less, her dream hands having to hold them firmly as she lifted them up to investigate. They were both engraved, depicting Duck and Night Father respectively, but as detailed as the inscriptions were, they also felt shoddy, as if they were clumsily machine pressed onto the pieces of metal as opposed to crafted with any degree of effort or passion. One of them had a bit sticking out in the middle, dumbfounding for all of half a second before Sue caught on, indeed spotting a fitting hole on the other one, coming to a conclusion that was as dumb as it was inarguable-

It was a puzzle with two elements.

As much as it felt like she was a victim of a practical joke, Sue couldn't resist wanting to see what would happen if she were to stick the two pieces together, keeping a close watch on the door as she brought them closer, the sound of metal clinking against metal rather grating, but eventually she got them to fit. On cue, the dreamed up door in front of her opened, revealing her dorm room on its other side. It was all there, the bed she forgot to make when heading out, her laptop sipping idly at the outlet, the trash bin that was long due to be cleaned, the small pile of notes cluttering most of her desk, a couple dishes from the last morning she'd spent there-

This was her way out of here.

Subconsciously, Sue began walking over towards the gate back into her world, dropping the pathetic excuse for a puzzle down upon the sand as she approached, the dreamed up door feeling like it wasn't getting any closer no matter how much she walked, always remaining just out of each, panic quickly building inside her. Eventually she just broke into a jog, and then a sprint, doing anything she could to chase the elusive escape, the ambient sounds of the building's usual bustle she could make out only pushing her harder and harder, the dream falling apart around her by the moment.

She couldn't keep up, eventually putting everything she had left into one final leap of faith, jumping forward towards her way back home as the scene around her finished dissolving, her fingertips missing the golden doorframe by mere inches, leaving her to fall down, down, down-

And then, Sue felt her hand be grabbed by another much like itself, and woke up.

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The startle that accompanied the end of her most recent dream was thankfully a minor one, only expressed as a small gasp and Sue's eyes shooting wide open as she came to, mind catching up to what eyes were feeding it in not too long, shallow breaths deepening out one by one. Once she'd calmed down enough, the Forest Guardian slowly sat up on her bed, head facing the doorway as she focused on nothing in particular, brain too busy chewing through what in the world she'd just dreamed.

She had no idea who was behind this dream in particular, lack of their associated celestial body strongly hinting against either of the two Moon-associated deities... but if not them, then who? That tombstone was there for a reason, that door was there for a reason, that guitar was there for a reason... m-maybe, that one might've just been her own subconscious thinking it was being funny or something. Even briefly thinking about the tombstone had Sue feel chills running down her back, chills and not much in terms of actual answers, forcing her to focus instead on the other puzzle, thankfully as trivial in the waking world as it was inside her dream.

Night Mother and Night Father, bring them together again, and the door back home opens.

The explanation being as clear as it was dumbfounded her for a solid moment, Sue thinking back and trying to arrange the facts into some other configuration, briefly thinking she was falling into an intentionally placed dead end and the actual mystery here ran much deeper... but no, nothing like that came up, there was no other way to interpret this. Just had to bring two... gods... back together...

As straightforward as her goal now was, that didn't make it any less gargantuan in scope the moment Sue actually focused on it, quickly realizing she had no idea what that would even look like, or where to even begin. Just... wait until both of them showed up in one of her dreams and make a polite plea for them to get together again? A part of her wanted to swipe the mental image of trying to bring a divorced couple together out into the recesses of her mind, but on the other hand... who knew whether the deities' current relationship wasn't just like that on a second thought.

Oh bother.

It didn't take Sue too long to realize that any further thoughts in that direction would have her grow mad, the once student eventually having to surrender for the time being, deflating with a weak sigh. The task she apparently had in front of herself was one she had absolutely no idea how to even begin approaching, directly interfering into divine quarrels like that sounding like an ordeal much better suited for heroes of Greek legend as opposed to one traumatized compsci student of little ability and even less renown.

'Why her' was a question she quickly realized there was little point in asking as things got dire, because almost always there just was no answer, it was all attributable to the incomprehensible dance of random chance and chaos theory... not here though. Something, someone, got her into all this mess, snatched her from her world and sent her here to calm down a feud between two literal deities, and didn't even deign her with a body she was familiar with, or any memory of her being kidnapped into this world for that matter.

The moment she got her hands on that someone, she was gonna kick their ass all the way over to the Moon.

The newfound determination in order to get revenge didn't help unravel the mystery any, but it certainly gave Sue the motivation to begin snapping herself out of it all and face the new day. She tossed the covers off of her body as she stretched, in the real world this time, finally internally agreeing on how she was gonna tackle it all

Namely, one step at a time.

With her thoughts settled, she could finally start looking towards getting out of bed, a couple distractions stopping her from doing that right away. The first and more immediately noticed one, was the sight of a new cast on her leg, drastically shrunk compared to the previous bulky one. Sufficiently enough so that it just looked like a couple wraps of bandages, the reddish swelling still somewhat visible underneath, but nowhere near as severe as she remembered it being. A tentative attempt to stand up on just her two feet still ended in failure- but only barely, the right leg still hurting a fair bit when any weight was placed on it, but it was only slightly too unbearable now, and if it kept improving, then in a few more days she ought to be right as rain again.

The other distraction was noticed during Sue's little attempted stand up, the ordinarily clean floor of Willow's little clinic now housing a small off-white bundle in the corner, glowing dimly for no clear reason. If not for the light canvas lighting up Sue would've just shrugged it off as a cleanliness slip up, but that addition made it all too curious to be ignored, the help of the crutch helping the Forest Guardian slowly walk all the way over to the heap, wanting to investigate it but realizing she had no clear idea how. That is, until she leaned in further into her sixth sense, left arm starting to subconsciously tune out the noise, leaving just the most clear tugging she could sense- one right in front of her.

"H-h-hello?"

The bundle's reaction was immediate, shuffling around the floor for a moment, making sounds akin to metal scraping on wood before it began to rise up, hovering itself into the air as Sue backed off a couple steps. Once it was in the air, its appearance suddenly became much more familiar, though not their identity, or the reason why they would spend the night in here with her after everything that had happened yesterday. Before any attempts could even begin to be put together, the hidden creature's own stretch had the canvas covering it begin to slide off, something it ended up catching onto too late, small black tentacles trying to reach out from underneath it to keep from falling all the way down but to no effect.

The creature hiding underneath was... a lamp. The similarity was downright farcical, the small black body, arms and "cap" having a texture not unlike wrought iron on a closer look. The central part of the hidden being consisted of a semi transparent sphere with a couple yellow eyes on its outside, housing a stunning blue flame, growing that much livelier once she began to take a closer look, the ethereal fire so eye-catching...

At least, before it was covered up once more, the floating creature hovering a bit further away as Sue blinked away her momentary daze, the emotions emanating from the stranger having turned from a mild startle to a fair bit of anxiety with shame marring it, their presence taking Sue off guard. Their 'words' were similarly apologetic in tone, at least as much as the sound of quiet whispers mixing with fiery cracking can be said to even have a tone to it.

"What's wrong?"

Her incomprehensible speech caught their attention even if they had no way to understand it, lack of any anger or other negative emotion within it calming the lamp a fair bit, thankfully. Their words continued, lowering in intensity and matching their growing calmness as they hovered a bit higher into the air, black tentacles reaching out to hold onto their off-white shroud extra hard. Out of everything she'd seen there, this stranger was by far the weirdest looking creature that was nonetheless alive, somehow, at least as far as her psychic sense told her-

rrr-rrrip!

The tearing sound had her stare blankly for a moment as the black metallic looking spike on the top of the being's... head impaled through their cover, the floating lamp calming down even further afterwards as they let go of the canvas afterwards. Guess it won't fall off this way at least- wait, was that the reason-

Before Sue could begin to have any closure on that particular mystery, a soft voice from behind her made her perk up and look around, the sight of Willow one that had grown incredibly reassuring over her stay here, any left tension inside her dissolving quickly afterwards as the elderly medic smiled up at her. As they turned to talk to the hidden lamp, Sue decided to give her telepathy another go, now that she was neither as exhausted nor as panicking as the last time, and with no risk of accidentally mentally assaulting someone. With much calmer surroundings and nowhere near as much anxiety clouding her mind, the action took mere moments to perform in full, the once human growing giddier at the realization that she was now one actual step closer to independence here, Willow blinking in surprise at the sensation as they turned around to look up at her-

"Oh? What. Sue?"

The Forest Guardian beamed as she nodded firmly with a smile, the self awareness that she was only now catching up to what native creatures of this species could do without any difficulty whatsoever getting repelled before it could take any real hold of her mind- she earned this, self consciousness could go and beat it.

"Oh! Good. Very good. How feeling?"

Granted, the most her limited ability could get her now was only very fragmentary sentences, requiring a lot more brain power to process than she could've thought, but it far, far beat nothing, Sue giddy as she replied-

"I'm much better, th-thank you Willow. Is my leg getting better?"

It definitely seemed like imperfect communication went both ways, the bunny-like medic squinting a bit as they worked through the bits of pieces of Sue's words they could actually make out, expression eventually lighting up as they cracked it-

"Welcome. Leg better. Walk again in days. No walk now."

She definitely wasn't about to after her earlier test, but extra clarification was always appreciated.

With their message getting acknowledge, Willow could turn back to the lamp in the room, the attention getting placed away from Sue giving her enough of a room to think and to let some of her bodily sensations begin catching up- and yep, it was certainly high time for breakfast or two, the former student waiting patiently for her moment to butt in to ask about heading out to grab food. Before she got her moment to come through though, Willow turned around with another chopped message, one most certainly appreciated by both other beings in the room-

"This Crackle. He worried you yesterday, asked me help."

The name fit if nothing else, though as much of an emotional mess as yesterday was, she couldn't recall getting scared of him in any way- oh wait, maybe Willow meant 'worried about you'... yeah, that fits better, aww. The news brought a smile to Sue's face as she turned over to wave at the newly identified Crackle with her free hand, the floating lamp responding eagerly in kind, the spirited motions making her giggle.

"Awww, tell him I said 'thank you', that's really sweet of him. Why is he hiding like this?"

Willow looked and felt confused as they turned to pass the words over, the uncertainty now emanating from both the medic and the animated inanimate object making Sue gulp and worry she'd accidentally made some sort of gaffe- thankfully, Crackle eventually seemed to get the gist, whispered sounds growing a bit louder as he offered a potential clarification, the loud 'aaaaahhhhh' that left Willow in response saying everything.

"He say you nice. Glad you not mad. Him fire eat soul."

Sue's mind was thrown in for a loop at hearing that, certain something didn't quite get translated right but at the same time having little idea of where the error could actually lay, a mix of confusion and consternation clear on her face as she asked-

"Umm- could you repeat? I don't think I got that right."

"Repeat? Crackle fire burn spirit. Bad to look at alone."

...nope, she didn't mishear that. Guess if nothing else the lamp wearing a blanket like that made much more sense now, even if it also implied that she had some of her soul eaten at by her earlier exposure. She didn't really feel any different as a result though, realizing that after pushing aside the panic inherent to that idea and actually thinking through how her whole body and mind was feeling, so maybe he only burned a small bit of her soul? Too small to notice? Maybe?

Please?

Worried as she was, inner tugging made it rather clear that the unintentional spiritual arsonist himself felt rather worried at her being rather obviously spooked by the news, slowly hovering away and closer to the floor, the malevolent fire underneath the piece of canvas burning dimmer. Regardless of how much of herself she'd lost from that momentary exposure, if one thing was clear about Crackle's behaviour it was the fact that he wanted to avoid this happening more than anything else, and it really was just an accident anyway.

After taking a moment to compose herself, she walked over towards the floating soullight, putting on the best smile she could manage as she offered him a hand, speaking as calmly as she could-

"It's okay Crackle, it's okay."

The gesture brought the burning one untold relief, internal light glowing that much brighter as he reached over and briefly grasped her hand with both of his own, their metallic texture feeling almost too hot to touch, but only just shy of that, their ephemeral sounding speech much louder and livelier.

Just really hope that the cover won't fall off again, hah...

With that brief worry out of Sue's mind, she could get to the much more pressing matters on hand, at least as far as her body's opinion of them went-

"So... breakfast?"

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The message was straightforward enough for the entire small group to get mobilized shortly after, Sue spearheading their makeshift band, having grown so used to having to use a crutch that she had a very solid shot at being the most skillful operator of that specific mobility aid out of the entire Forest Guardian kind- at least at this specific moment, while further helped by hunger pangs pushing her on. She didn't have to be told where to go again either, autopiloting her way over to Poppy's stall. Hazel manned (or ghosted?) the counter this time, leaning on it with a bored expression, the more fairy-ier member of their couple very busy in the kitchen behind her.

She didn't have to know the village's weird language to pick up on a mumbled out greeting from Hazel's croaky words, though hoped she would at least use her actual name this time as opposed to the title she'd heard being described as a couple days ago. It's not like she could really claim moral superiority on that front though, not with her own overeager habit of dispensing nicknames before running into Solstice.

"Hey Hazel."

The ghost raised an eyebrow at the newcomer to their village once more suddenly speaking in gibberish, hoping that much would at least be cleared with either of the psychic type's intervention, but guess not, making her just groan and mutter something more instead. Fortunately for Sue's desire to sate her stomach, Willow and Crackle weren't far behind, the medic speaking up shortly afterwards as they finished catching up, their soft spoken words clearly confusing the ghost even further, her red eyes glancing between them and the Forest Guardian. With how used she was to hearing Willow's soft utterances without any meaning to back them up, it took Sue a while to realize that she'd dropped her link with them at some point without having even noticed it. No biggie though, just gotta go through the motions again and-

As she was about to repeat her minor act of mental magic from earlier, a particular sight caught her attention, the yellow and black blur in the distance draining some of her good mood even as it seemed to turn away from her towards some of the other stalls, a part of her wanting to scoot away from sight and hope Basil would just not end up spotting her at all. It likely would work this time of course, but that annoying little rational part of her may have had a bit of a point when it kept drumming about just confronting her fears and walking over to apologize instead of hiding away from it all before it would begin to seriously fester, both in hers and potentially even Basil's mind.

And even on a purely emotional, basal level, as scary as a massive bee with spikes for arms was, a massive bee with spikes for arms and a grudge against her was ten times scarier of a concept.

While Hazel and Willow chatted and bickered on, Sue began to push through her own hesitation, making one step, then another, then another still, slowly walking away from the safety of the medic's presence and towards the large bee she was so irrationally spooked by, crutch arm shaking as it held the tool harder. For once, it wasn't just her that was too concentrated to not notice things going on around her, Willow too captivated by arguing with the ghost that they didn't catch onto Sue's little mission- though Crackle did, torn between the clueless medic and almost as clueless stranger and deciding to stick with the latter, even if just to get to see what was she gonna do.

Her steps felt harder and more forced the closer she got to Basil, knowing full well that his relaxed body language likely wouldn't last once he caught onto her being here, the scaredy student hoping beyond hope that it wouldn't manifest by him freaking out or something. Judging from his loud buzzing stopping at a certain point, he'd just finished making his order, hovering down closer to the ground and trying to rest leaning on the counter- at least until spotting the Forest Guardian in the corner of his vision, both sides ending up about as startled as each other.

Sue focused as hard as she could on trying to feel out how he was gonna react to it all, so focused on Basil that she ended up blind to how much of a scene they were making to everyone else, the changes underneath his antenna occupying her entire attention, especially as the bee's emotional state went from startled to... afraid. W-was he... scared of her?

I'm so sorry...

As bad as the realization made her feel, it also melted through some of her panic, expression softening as she lifted up her free hand to give him a small wave, wanting to establish some semblance of communication. The bee returned the gesture, though not without a fair bit of his own confusion accompanying it, one that Sue had no idea how she could possibly melt through short of repeating the action that got them in all this mess to begin with. The more she thought about this, the more it became clear that this was the only realistic option ultimately, and one that she'd have to act upon sooner or later with the steadily growing tension.

With a deep breath, she went for it, repeating the small ritual she learned with Solstice's help, feeling her mental reach navigate through the air, Basil's spike of anxiety clear to feel even with emotions getting tuned out, its intensity enough to make her stop- but it was too late, their minds getting linked a split second later. Prying her eyes back open revealed Basil to be in the middle of bracing himself for more pain, holding the two massive stingers in front of himself almost like a shield... and not ending up feeling any further torment in the end, shaking a bit as he lowered one arm down just enough to be able to peek out from behind it.

As sorry as the sight made her feel, this was her chance, Sue's expression turning more determined as she walked over the last few steps and spoke, Basil's compound eyes doing the closest thing they were capable of to going wide in response to finally comprehending her uncanny, mystical-sounding speech-

"Hello Basil. I'm... I'm sorry for hurting you yesterday."

For once, the bee was silent, lowering his guard down further as he stared dumbfounded. For a few moments, Sue was worried whether she'd even done it right, forming a new sentence in her throat before Basil finally responded, his constant buzzing translating into a whole deluge of words-

"Heavens you mad not really good I scared Moon angry me little one us thank thank you."

The sentence was much less coherent than those of Willow's, forcing the once human to fill in the blanks herself and somehow string the words along, making sense of some of it but far from all- thankfully, she could just ask again at least.

"No, no I'm not mad. I washn't mad yesterday either, it was an accident and I'm sorry."

"You hurt then accident not intent not mad?"

For once she was confident enough in her interpretation to just respond with a firm nod and continue-

"Yes. I didn't know what you were saying and wanted to understand, but I hurt you on accident."

Basil paused for a bit longer this time, body language growing less defensive as he flew over that bit closer, confusion turning into surprise-

"You not hear understand me saying you psychic?"

Well, how do I put it...

"I'm very bad at being psychic, I'm sorry."

Thankfully, the admission melted through the last of Basil's reservation, the bee growing calmer despite of how fast his thoughts kept buzzing, veering towards apology eventually-

"Sorry not understand you not understand me. Thought I you talk sacred Moon like I foolish not understand."

Guess being able to say the F word in abandon without anyone being able to understand or get offended by it did feel a bit sacred, but also far, far from what Sue thought Basil was implying-

"I don't know any sacred words, hah. And it's alright, I forgive you."

The mention in forgiveness in particular made him much giddier, relief filling the highly energetic body as he flew over closer in one swift motion, nodding rapidly to the tune of repeated 'thank you' for a good few moments, emotions shifting over into joy shortly after.

"Wonderful wonderful. Forgive I too, wish I know then you confused scared not understand. Here Birch here good news happy!"

As happy as Sue was to hear his words, she could tell that the last bit wasn't actually aimed at her, subconscious tugging making her glance over behind her to see the intended recipient- and see them she did, together with Willow waddling their way over, though the latter only barely registered in the corner of her vision, the bespoke Birch taking up the vast majority of their attention, carrying the little brown caterpillar she saw yesterday in their little arms.

They weren't particularly unnerving or even weird looking, certainly not by the standards of this world, but what they were instead were familiar- almost all white wings with bits of black only on the edges, purplish body with oddly large legs, red eyes, the images of her encounter with another of their kin immediately emerging from her memories and back into her attention, her own cluelessness from mere days ago making her giggle to think about.

If only you knew that massive butterflies are some of the least weird it gets here, hah.

The memories were amusing enough to briefly distract her from the fact that the recollection went both ways, Birch evidently taken aback as they buzzed towards Basil, the bee's response catching the Forest Guardian's attention again.

"What met her ago? Away village, not hurt? Run scream away panic see you? Hey chosen Moon mate my Birch say he you met ago away, scare you?"

...

Welp.

"Umm... y-yeah, I did. I've never seen another like him before and was very scared by everything, sorry..."

And while she was at it-

"Oh, and my name is Sue."

The sound of her voice got the caterpillar in Birch's arms to try to wriggle themselves over towards her, squirming until they could contort themselves to look straight at her, the two engaged in a brief stare off before the little one broke it by squirming lively, the little well defined that there was of its half-formed emotions feeling very happy at managing to recognize someone.

"Sue then happy hear. Sue never see like you scared scared scared then, apology Birch."

Thankfully, the butterfly didn't mind one bit, emotions upbeat as they laughed the whole matter off, legs kicking briefly in the air while they buzzed. As they did, Sue felt something touch her side from behind, followed very quickly by a sudden burst of joy and one warm nose she was well familiar with by now pressing into her leg, followed by a whole host of other noises from behind, the scene growing much busier all of a sudden.

But, first things first-

"Hey there Spark~"

A glance downward revealed the fiery kit to be looking up at her as she leaned on her good leg with her forelegs, expression and emotions alike beaming, her woofs similarly eager, almost as unceasing as Basil's buzzing from the day prior. Moving her attention just off to the right, she had Willow trying to catch her attention and convey something to her, likely not realizing themselves she couldn't understand them anymore either, and then right behind her was the leafy caretaker closing in on the group with Comet in her arms, the boy's immediate reaction to sensing his friend being one long drawn out squeak combined with reaching his armsies up for uppies.

Before she could even decide on whom to focus first, Splitleaf took the initiative, moving Comet to one arm and catching her attention with a modest wave, the tiny martian liking the gesture enough to repeat it on his own, sending most of the rest of the group into giggling. Once she'd managed to calm herself back down, she got to speaking, rustling vocalizations calm and measured, apologetic intent clear to see.

"Mom Sue you understand not, maybe maybe."

Basil was right but it didn't matter, the gist was understood all the same, Sue bowing as deeply as she could at the apology, and returning some of her own.

"Apology accepted, I'm sorry for all that mess yesterday."

Still, it'd be nice to be able to convey her desire for reconciliation some more, her free arm lifting and reaching off to the sides in a gesture for an embrace, a gesture that was clearly understood, if not necessarily by its intended recipient. For what it was worth, Basil's blistering speed made her not even realize anything was afoot until the bee was already embracing her torso, staggering her ever so slightly as her mind played catchup, Birch's aura radiating intense amusement at their partner's emotional reaction. As unnerving as a realization that there were three very sharp, very large stingers next to and wrapped around her was, the fact that two of them were disarmed and that the person they were attached to was almost adorable in how giddy they became at the opportunity to give her a hug like this did make up for that greatly.

"Aaa aaa nice nice this nice thank you Sue."

Thankfully, Splitleaf wouldn't skip out on the opportunity just because of her son also taking it, hugging her other side with one arm as Comet got brought over closer with the other one, the little one overjoyed at his big friend being in reach and letting everyone know with loud gurgly noises as he splatted into the side of Sue's stomach.

Guess even bugs here could feel nice.

Slowly, Sue got over the initial shock of Basil joining in on the hug and wrapped her arm around his lower back, low enough for his wings to not swat into her while keeping a hearty distance away from that stinger, the buzzing combining with radiant warmth from everywhere around her just pleasant to experience, and sorely needed after the mess of yesterday.

Speaking of.

As everyone began to detach themselves from her, Comet much more so begrudgingly than others, Sue took the opportunity to take a look around the scene to see whether either Solstice or Sundance were anywhere around, the answer turning out to be negative. Possible they had just departed for somewhere again, like they had when she first ended up here, but... worth asking instead.

While Basil's stream of consciousness was entertaining enough to decipher, she had a hunch that Willow would be much more helpful here instead, thanking the buzzing conversation around her for being self contained and not speaking at her directly, letting her focus deeply enough to reach over to the chubby medic again, the sensation snapping them out from their own uncertain confusion at how to proceed.

"Willow?"

They nodded at her, Spark's excited question that followed getting answered affirmatively right away, the already happy fox turning even brighter in her excitement, the reason behind it not exactly difficult to make out, the Forest Guardian just giggling in response. Sure, sure, you'll have your speaking time sweetie, just not now.

"Where's Sundance and Solstice?"

Willow took a moment to try to parse the words, though the realization hit them in not too long afterwards, their own look around the place indeed revealing the absence of either psychic, making them forward the question over to Splitleaf. From there, both Spark and the leafy mantis responded, occasionally talking over each other, Comet interjecting an occasional baby noise or two, squeaking loudly at said action getting rewarded with some further pets. Eventually, Willow had enough of a hold at the situation to be able to pass it back over to their patient, trying to keep it clear enough-

"Sundance Solstice need alone meditate. Yesterday very hard both. Be back today hope. Yesterday hard you too, true not true?"

Meditation time, eh. Honestly, she could probably use some too, if she knew how to do it that is.

"I see, thank you. Yeah, yesterday was... very hard, for me too. Feel better now."

Sue could feel a brief conflict arise inside the medic as she muttered her response, part of them about to reach over and try to comfort her before the reassurance that she was alright followed shortly afterwards, a fair bit of concern still lingering inside them, though they tried not to show it.

"Glad hear better you. What happen?"

While a part of her did want to have someone else to talk about it all with, she could probably go a good few weeks if not months without having to claw at these old scars again, especially with the deep uncertainty her ultimate conclusion brought her, many of the emotions intertwined within it ones she was still yet to fully process. A firm shake of her head was clear enough of a response, though she followed it up with some words anyway-

"A lot. So, so, so much, and it was all overwhelming, and I'd rather not talk about it, not now at least."

Disappointment joined the partially renewed concern, though Willow once more held themselves composed, simply just nodding in response and not pressing the issue further.

"Is good all. Now, we need food take, then-"

They paused at the thought, turning over towards Splitleaf once more-

"Splitleaf Spark Comet take you where? Oh- good. Easy calm. Sue take you too? Good good. Sue! Splitleaf take you. Little play where. Calm there. After breakfast."

As good as Sue was getting at the game of stringing barely coherent words into one concrete throughline, she didn't quite manage to accomplish that fully with this one, though the gist of Splitleaf taking her somewhere calm was as clear as it was appreciated, Sue's weary smile inspiring a much larger one in the medic.

But first, breakfast.

__________________________________________

A few more minutes of half blind picking, the task only made barely any easier with Willow there to act as her translator, and a few more still of waiting for her dish to be made later, the breakfast was there, taking the look of what looked like a well grilled burrito, warm to the touch and crunchy to the bite. Its filling was much more monotone than something she'd find even in a terrible franchise restaurant, though having an advantage of actually being tasty, the little bits inside combining a crispy texture of seared meat with a sweeter, more gravy-like flavor. Not her favourite meal she'd had here so far, not by a long shot, though still much better than anything she'd ever figure out how to cook for herself.

The meal the bug family went for was rather tricky to make heads and tails of, especially as they all kept nibbling on their portions, though she could tell it consisted of approximately equal parts berries and leaves, the latter eaten with as much gusto as the former. The little ones of the band, Comet and Spark included, each got a singular blue fruit instead, though they where no less happy at that fact, juice getting smeared on their cheeks as they nibbled through, Splitleaf groaning loudly as she feebly tried to keep them all clean and non-sticky.

Crackle was... somewhere, she supposed, Sue having not realized the floating lamp had actually left at some point until she was already wrapping her meal up, the realization more dumbfounding than anything else. Hopefully he was alright.

Once everyone was done, they could all get a move and split up, with Comet getting handed off into Sue's free arm much to their shared joy, the caterpillar ending up in Splitleaf's arms, and Spark scrambling along off to the side, the other adults all departing not long after, which, considering her apology to the leafy caretaker, Sue was entirely alright with.

Though, there was still one unknown she wanted to clarify.

The mantis looked up at her in confusion as she stopped all of a sudden and began to concentrate, the movement of her mind's reach making Comet all the more squirmish and eager to join in, though his own psychics went just kinda all over the place, feeling tingly against Sue's skin as she linked up with Splitleaf, one question tickling her mind in particular.

"Hi! What's the little brown one's name? The one in your arms?"

She didn't expect the bushbug to get as confused as she did at that, looking down at the little one in her arms and holding them a bit closer, mind growing more somber as she proceeded along, Sue catching up right away.

"No name."

The Forest Guardian was taken aback a fair bit at that, especially with how much of a tone shift her question had inspired, Comet acknowledging the mood shift with a quiet mumble and by hugging his friend that much closer in response.

"Why none?"

Splitleaf sighed deeply, her embrace tightening still as her leafy arm pet along the caterpillar's head and back.

"No until two moon. Then know they live. Then they name."

The rationale made much more sense when said out loud like that, but at the same time, the mere fact that a rule like that was needed felt like it stabbed Sue in the heart, the arm currently holding Comet emulating Splitleaf in holding him that much tighter.

"I-I see. Thank you."

"Is good. They healthy. Have hope hope."

The rest of the walk towards their destination went rather uneventfully, Spark trying to get in as much affection with her as she could, getting just a teeny bit frustrated that it was Comet currently being held in her saviour's arms and not her. Comet, oblivious to everything else going on in the world, continued to experience it one exciting thing at a time, waving clumsily at almost every creature the group passed by. Most of them even waved back, those without the limbs to do so using their entire bodies as a substitute.

The village playground was less of a structured thing and much more of a large sandbox, with most of the tykes she'd seen the other day already busy playing there, the cloud bird carefully watching over them all, only passing Sue's group a single whistled greeting and a timid wave before focusing back on their duty. Joy was seemingly absent, more than understandable with how badly the kids had treated her last time, but still, Sue really wished the toothy one could feel more safe and welcome in her new home.

Spark ran right into the fray, immediately splashing some sand on a couple other kids and starting to chat with them, giggling at her antics mixing in with not appreciating having the sand be splashed right at her, the quickly escalating sand battle thankfully quickly getting called off with one stern whistle from the cloud bird, forcing the fiery kit and her playmate to call a truce. Splitleaf took a seat off to the side, letting the little one wander around freely but only in her immediate vicinity, Basil's panic the other day making much more sense in hindsight.

As Sue looked around for someplace to sit down herself, she felt a stronger emotion emanate from nearby, the fact in itself not particularly surprising, but with how sad and lonely it felt, combined with it coming very distinctively from behind the tree line, it made her stop and focus her attention there. It was probably just nothing, but in case it was another little one in distress, she felt compelled to take a closer look, especially after the sobering exchange with Splitleaf. As she got closer, the feeling began to get laced with a couple others- trepidation, worry, a bit of excitement even, Comet clearly feeling it all too judging by him going that much quiet all of a sudden, all the longing beginning to burn even brighter, the sheer intensity of it all made that much more confusing by the fact that she couldn't even spot the actual being whose emotions she was feeling-

At least, until she did- kinda, to the best extent her eyes even could spot that. The pitch black spot in the middle of the forest floor felt... wrong, it wasn't sized right, it was simultaneously too small and too large to be real, the couple white pinpricks she could make out inside the incoherent darkness wobbling all over the place as her vision grew blurry, whole body starting to shake as its grip on its own balance grew weaker and weaker. As disconcerting as the sight was, she couldn't stop looking, the aberration feeling like it stared back for a few moments-

And then, it took off into the woods, away from the village, Sue's mind managing to stabilize itself shortly afterwards to the sound of rustling underbrush, a quiet confused mumble leaving her as she tried to process what had just happened. The unnatural sight she was subjected to was so deeply wrong her memory rejected it whole, making past few moments little more than a blur in her recollection, a sensation she was familiar with by now and didn't like one bit. Comet similarly just let out a brief, stunned squeak, the baby-ese helping Sue in shaking off any funk before it could grow any larger as she hoped that whatever in the world she'd just witnessed wasn't gonna be harmful, be it to her or to whoever else it would... do whatever it just did to, especially the little ones.

Before she could worry about that any more though, one well familiar mental presence began to quickly approach, the rough sounding cry now accompanied by a quiet clinking of metal on metal before she reached her destination, namely wrapping her arms around Sue's good leg.

"Hey Joy!"

squeak!