"Valorous morning!" Ellen called out as she walked into the room.
Hirune slightly opened her eyes, taking a good minute to fully wake up, just to come to the sudden realization that she was so tired she fell asleep on a complete stranger.
She quickly scooted back while rubbing her eyes, "Sorry Tundra, I didn't mean to fall asleep on you."
Tundra nodded as he stood up and went into the backroom of the minibar, Ellen did the same.
Hirune followed them in, and as she suspected, behind the minibar there was a small kitchen.
"So, we're going South to find the artifact. You don't mind that do you?" Ellen said while putting her hair up in a ponytail and putting on an apron.
Tundra kind of just sat there, unsure as to what he should do.
Hirune nodded at Ellen, then took a glance at Tundra and sighed, "Do you know how to cook an egg?"
Tundra shook his head, Hirune looked at Ellen, Ellen shrugged.
"Take the apron off and give it to me, I'll teach him how to cook an egg," she said as she walked towards her.
"No, it's fine I can-" Hirune cut her off and pointed at a stack of burnt pots and pans. "I'm assuming that was either you or Kala. Why not Clint? Glad you asked, because he would be a hazard in the kitchen and we both know it."
Ellen squinted at her and handed Hirune the apron, unsure as to Hirune got such a good understanding of them in just a couple minutes.
Hirune put on the apron and put her hair up in a bun. "Both of you watch," she said as she grabbed some eggs out of the fridge. The two of them watched closely as she cracked the eggs, grabbed a pinch of salt and seasoned it before grabbing a fork and mixing the yolk with it until it was fully yellow.
She then poured it into the pan carefully to make sure it filled it up evenly, the egg's smell filling the air. Waiting a couple of minutes she took that same fork, scrapped it under the egg and flipped it without tearing a hole in it.
As she did these very simple things, Ellen and Tundra looked as though they were little kids witnessing a magician pull a rabbit out of a hat or cutting someone in half just to put them back together.
When they got to taste it, they felt as though they were in heaven, which safe to say amused Hirune quite a bit. As far as she knew she was just average at cooking, but they seemed to think she was a cook blessed by the gods themselves.
"You're a culinary genius! How did you cook something so good?" Ellen exclaimed as she wolfed down her share. As for Tundra, he kept on praising her cooking in extreme detail with every bite he took.
Hirune smiled slightly as she washed the dishes, "Get Kala and Clint, we're leaving soon, aren't we? It'd be better if they ate now."
Ellen nodded and went to get them, meanwhile Tundra just kept praising her. Which, Hirune, of course wasn't going to shut down as she enjoyed the many praises, he gave her for her culinary "masterpiece."
Once they were all done eating, they left the base, where Clint pulled out a whistle.
When he blew into the whistle a wooden carriage being pulled by two silver horses appeared.
Hirune was about to ask about it, but Ellen was already answering her question, "I should have probably said this yesterday while explaining the whole war thing to you, but it kind of slipped my mind. You see whenever a group of people with artifact powers decide they want to work together they become a Branch. The gods then hand this Branch certain limits and permission to avoid them dying, and each Branch depending on their location gets a vehicle to fit said location. The whistle summons different vehicles as we go from place to place so we can have optimal travel."
***
After a while they'd arrived at the coasty part of Triste, Hirune's hometown. Well, second hometown since she had to move after something happened in Holgi, though it still had the same feeling as if she went back to Holgi.
They all got out of the carriage and stretched as the carriage pooped into a cloud of smoke.
Hirune almost instantly adjusted to this environment as the smell flooded memories back into her mind, a salty, dusty and bloody seaside fragrance filling in the air. The bloody part making the others nearly throw up as they walked around.
"So, where's this Artifact you spoke of?" Hirune asked looking at the nostalgic and decorative cargo crates and brick buildings all around them. Some of the crates rusted, some of the buildings broken down, yet they all served as a home for some individual out there, these vibrant red rusty old boxes marked with various graffiti patterns. Pots and pans audible with every corner they turned by, stray dogs and cats seemingly as abundant as the people around them.
Then a sudden scream and gasp from a nearby crowd. They walked over to check out what the commotion was about and came across a man biting at another person beneath him. Hirune quickly pulled him off, "Para mijo! Tu no ves que te estas comiendo a una persona!" (Translation: "Dude stop! Can't you see you're eating someone!")
She held him for a moment, then reaching into her pockets threw a bunch of random money around, "Vamos sujetenlo que yo ya me tengo que ir, y delen algo pa' comer como, que se yo una ala de pollo o algo." (Translation: "C'mon someone hold him, I got to go, and give him something to eat like, I don't know a chicken wing or something.")
They were hesitant to trust someone of her description at first, until Hirune threw a bunch of money she'd saved up for years now in the air. That's when some old lady offered up a loaf of bread for the man and a pretty buff looking man held him in place as everyone else started to fight for the money.
Hirune thanked the old lady kindly and gave her the little roll of money that remained in her pocket and gave it to her, same for the man, looked at the people crawling all over the floor and fighting each other with pity before walking back to the others.
"Come on, let's go, I don't want to see any more cannibalism attempts nevertheless remember the absurd price of chicken, ugh, and the pay just isn't- NO!" She kept on rambling about how low Triste has fallen as she followed closely behind the four.
Eventually they reached a cave within a cove.
As they reached it, they slowed down and Ellen handed Hirune a lantern.
"Well, we can't get closer from here on so you're on your own. Let's just hope you don't get lost," Ellen said as she stopped and sat down on a rock. Kala jumped into the ocean and started swimming, Tundra made himself a bed of ice and Clint started making glass from the sand.
Their relaxation brought Hirune tons and tons of relief and totally didn't make her more nervous.
She wasn't even sure why though, seeing them so relaxed should've helped her with her nerves considering that meant they didn't think this was dangerous and they were the professionals. Yet seeing them so relaxed made her more nervous than before.
Hirune rolled her eyes and started walking into the cave, the dampness making itself clear as she slipped and slammed her head hard on the wall giving her a mild concussion, blood running down her forehead.
She kept on going though, eventually seeing a blinding purple light emitting from the darkness up ahead.
As she approached, she started feeling around, the blurriness of her vision making it nearly impossible to locate the actual thing.
Eventually she felt a differently shaped rock on the ground from all the other rocks around her.
She got up quickly with a proud smile on her face. Then she heard movement to her left.
"Who are you? How'd you get in here?" Hirune asked looking around, grasping the glowing rock tightly in her palm.
"I should be the one asking you that," a voice said from the darkness as a hooded figure walked into the patch of violet light.
She backed away a bit, unsure as to if she should make a run for it and crash into the wall again or do something else.
She didn't get the time to think of that as the hooded figure punched her in the face then yanked her head back towards them by the hair before kneeing the back of her head. She stumbled around a bit before falling onto the ground, where she rolled away a bit before slowly getting back up.
Hirune held up the shining rock, "This is what you're after right?"
The hooded person nodded, Hirune followed suit as she recalled what Ellen said about how Artifact consumption is just like swallowing a pill without water. At this time, she also thought about how Ellen said to protect the Artifact with her life from any threat.
So, she stepped closer to the person, then shoved the artifact in her mouth and quickly swallowed.
The person stared at her for a second before disappointedly saying, "You're about to have a wild 5 minutes... Which is why I'll try to cut it short--" They suddenly started chocking her, pushing her onto the ground as they did.
As she lost her breath, she also started hearing a loud ringing in her ears alongside a mystique voice that wouldn't shut up about her surprise and delight, varying figures shifting around her as she lost consciousness.
Suddenly the same mystique voice said, "Imagine a jaw coming out of your hand and hope you do it properly or you're done for kid. I have a feeling you'll be quite the amusing jester if you succeed."
Hirune unsure as to what else she could do listened to the voice, imagining what felt like the jaw of a wolf ripping through her hand.
With this, it felt as though someone had stabbed through her hand as a swift darkness ripped through her palm and bit off her opposers head.
She laid there for a second, catching her breath as she looked around. The warm red liquid trickling from their neck onto her head. She slowly got up and instantly started to run out, tripping constantly, yet always catching herself.
After a solid minute, she felt as though her body and senses were better than ever before. Not just that but she also felt as though someone wouldn't stop speaking gibberish in the back of her head.
She chuckled a bit as she glanced to her side, "Can you shut up?" For a second the voice seemed to listen, then it continued speaking, this time a little clearer. Asking things like, "I wonder how the social economic state of the world is looking right now. Oh~! Do they still have the feudal system? Or did the change it to a democracy? Is my castle still around? If it is, is it well kept?" And so on.
Hirune tried to get it to shut up two more times but failed, so she just sighed and exited the cave.
For a solid moment she was blinded and waited a moment for her vision to clear before she started to walk towards what she could only assume was Ellens voice arguing with Kala's.
Her suspicions being confirmed as she got into their peripherals, which is when they stopped arguing and Ellen rushed towards her.
"Quick question was the artifact you got from in there a decently big rock that looks like a star with four points instead of five that glows slightly purple, or a small little crystal looking thing that glows purple?" Ellen asked with panic in her voice.
Hirune swiftly responded, "I found the small one and had to consume it because someone else was willing to kill me for it."
They stared at each other for a bit, Ellen's eyes slowly tearing up as she suddenly let out a scream in agony. Which Hirune found ironic considering how she was the one that was hurt and not Ellen.
Kala just shook her head, "Told you so."
***In a place surprisingly close to them***
They suddenly fell, rolling on the ground in a small spiral before they finally settled at looking at a headless body, "A little help here..."
They were promptly raised from the ground and secured back onto the headless body as a robe was gently removed from both pieces.
They cracked their neck as they got onto one knee bowing, "Sir, she's consumed the artifact as planned. How should we proceed?"
"You may raise your head," a deep and undisturbed voice responded as he spun to face them in his chair. The dim light from the window just bright enough so that only his strong outline is perceived.
They raised their head as he continued, "As stated in the text "Delectable Dreams", if one piece of Namulenza's artifact is consumed and the holder dies, all of the other pieces will disappear. Meaning we'll send out our best assassins, hunters, and warriors to find her and bring her to me.
"It's about time the plan finally sets into motion," the man said as the other person disappeared in a flash.