Action Plans

The two suns stand over Haste as he takes a seat on the grass, sitting facing Vadana with his legs folded inwards as she starts calmly asking him questions, "Well my first question for you is what were you doing in the forest? I just don't see why somebody unarmed and unfamiliar with common societal jobs would be somewhere so dangerous." Haste thinks about his answer for a bit, "How do I come up with a lie to tell her? I know nothing of this world..." Haste interrupts his thinking as he makes eye contact with her "Right, I just was looking for an artifact I heard was in there, I really was unsure of the dangers!" Vadana looks at Haste with confusion, "An artifact? But there only is and to our knowledge have been societies deep in the forest, there's no way you could've heard of an artifact from them but not about the danger that would accompany it." Haste is unsure of how to respond to this question without falling out of tune with the answer, he nervously rubs the back of his neck as Vadana sighs and speaks again, "Look, you don't have to tell me, Haste. You have every right to keep a secret, I know it probably wasn't a crime based on how you interacted with us, keep your private matters private." Haste sighs with a nod as his arm falls back to his side, "Yeah okay, thanks." Vadana clears her throat as she fires another question, "So Haste, where are you from?" Haste freezes for a second as though an arrow flies through his mind "Another heavy hitter?!" He catches himself before he smiles and speaks, "I'm from the perimeter of a kingdom far south of here, I never really was involved with common society, however, and lived mostly on my own." He smiles as he says this, thinking to himself as Vadana listens, "Hey, that actually sounded authentic! Nice job me!" Vadana's eyes widen once Haste finishes his response, she leans in and adjusts to sit on her knees, "Wait, you mean to tell me you survived in the wild of the Nation of Emperors by yourself!? That's amazing! Usually, I'd call you a liar, but I feel inclined to believe you on this one, I mean your clothing, gestures, the foreign accent, it all seemed exotic after all! I mean even your body structure, it's all subtle but you do look like a different race too! You'll have to tell us all your amazing stories from there on the walk, while we set up camp, and while we're camping!" Vadana catches herself and leans back, sitting straight, but still sitting on her knees as Haste swallows his stomach and thinks to himself "Crap, maybe I am the main character of some book after all because this feels really typical... Though I wonder if calmly lying like this makes me crazy, how exactly does that work?" Vadana's cooled expression returns as she starts asking Haste questions again, "Wait, so if you were in the South how did you end up here?" Haste realizes the second problem with his answer as he quickly thinks of a lie and fires back, "Well I got sick of the harsh life there, so I took the easiest way to get from the Nation of... Emperors to here." Vadana looks at him quizzically, "And what was that? By air or land? Or maybe some unique way?" Haste thinks about how he should answer this one carefully as Vadana awaits the answer, "If I say air she'll probably ask how I took flight without many social connections, if I say by land it might backfire again, accidentally meaning I traveled across some land of magma or something, if I say uniquely she'll ask me to explain, come on Haste, how would you quickly get one place to another in a fantasy world..? Wait-" Haste meets her eyes as he simply says "Um- teleportation." Vadana goes silent as he says this reassuring himself mentally as she does "Fast travel is such a desired thing that I'm sure every world would want it, and these people seem to have the fantasy tech required for it." Vadana leans back in, except too far this time, catching herself on her hands as she crawls a step towards Haste, she speaks with her eyes glistening with amazement "YOU TELEPORTED HERE!?!" Haste regrets his choice of words as he simply nods, Vadana pushes herself up and puts a hand on her head, "I guess that would be the only way due to the other options being full of unreasonable danger, along with that 'by land' part simply being a trap question, but it's just! How did you do it!? Did somebody else teleport you!? Or are you a legendary mage!? Wait... The artifact you were looking for! Was that not a lie!?" She stands over Haste as Haste coolly leans back to add a specific demeanor to himself in order to sell the story she just made for him, "Dang, hit the nail on the head, yeah basically I was wandering one day but suddenly tripped on this weird hexagonal blue crystal thing, I had picked it up and wiped some dirt off it when it suddenly disappeared, putting me in that forest where I woke up, when I did though, the artifact was gone! So instead I headed in one direction hoping to find society?" Haste is unsure how well his craftsmanship of this lie is, after all, he only has info Vadana gave him to work with. "So you really are an interesting person like Rechend guessed? I can't wait to tell the other-!" Haste sits back up as he quickly speaks hoping to dodge a problem "Wait! I'm sorry but please don't! The reason I hadn't said anything earlier is because I was hoping to hide this from people, I don't want it to spread and people to start looking for the artifact, especially because it might endanger them as you said, and it'd simply be pointless looking for something that's gone." Vadana pauses as Haste says this, rubbing her head as he does, with a sigh she responds "Oh, okay, I get it. Don't worry, I can keep a secret Haste, let's just say you're some hermit who woke up in the forest with missing memories of his past, yeah?" Haste agrees and thanks her for helping as he upsettingly thinks to himself, "Would it have just been that simple..?" Vadana sits back down as the rest of the party members finish collecting, "But you can tell me stories about the Nation of Emperors privately, right? that place is where I and those guys hope to work someday, slaying giants and making names for ourselves! I'd love to know more about it before we go though, there just aren't many books about it because how people living there usually don't leave and all." Haste smiles and resp.;p0s,m onds, hiding his worry as he does, "Sure!" Vadana smiles and thanks Haste as he speaks mentally to himself, "Crap! why did I say yes..?" Vadana speaks as Haste sees the rest of the group gathering teeth, claws, and pelts and separating the carry loads amongst themselves, leaving two other piles as they do, "We'll figure something out later than for that, let's head back now and tell our lie" she says this with a giggle as they both stand. Vadana leads as the others single her over, waving a fist as Haste thinks while he follows her over, "Well, I guess it wasn't too bad of a choice, I'll get to have one on one meetings with a pretty girl I guess?" Haste discontentedly sighs as he looks at the two remaining stacks of pelt behind the others that each have hands covered in blood with a red-brown type of color, behind both of these is the beast lacking all of its fur and claws, even its eyes are missing. Three holes in its chin clearly protrude as well, probably the spikes Nimaril fired, visibly having gone deep into it as it lays in a swamp of its own blood, still dripping out from the black meat the pelt was covering. Haste gags a bit at the grotesque sight, but doesn't react as heavily as he figured he would, thinking to himself as he clears his throat, "Maybe that stabbing just took any fear of brutality out of me... Would that make me cool?" only for the smell to hit Haste again as he quickly raises his tattered hoodie over his nose. Hashriko gives Haste a disappointed look as Rechend speaks to Haste and Vadana, "Finally done with your chatting? Well, then we'll need some help carrying these pelts back, hope you don't mind Haste, but think of this as payment for us showing you to town?" He finishes this with a grin towards Haste as Haste thinks on it, "Wait so are smiles still a good thing here? They seem to mean the same thing at least." Vadana nods to Rechend and walks over to the pelts as Haste follows, moving past the others who have already moved to the top of a hill with their shares of the load. Vadana picks up her part first and simply moves past Haste as he goes to pick up his part, seeing a small bundle of its claws lay on top of it, he takes a moment to investigate them, as he touches them he feels the tiniest spark, but his amazement in what they are blocks any reaction accept bewilderment, he shouts inside his own mind, "These are made of metal!" the cold touch of them is too familiar to Haste, they feel like steel to him. "Wait this thing used some sort of electricity right? So then it used these as conductors?! That means some basic laws remain like metals typically being good conductors, right?" Haste queries over the claws as he finishes his thought, "Guess it isn't too important right now..." He puts the bundle back onto the matted wool as a little blood drips out from the applied pressure, Haste takes a moment to cover his nose better from the smell of the body before he picks up the stack. Even more, blood getting on him as he does, "Jeez, I hope red and brown is a good color on me..." as he remarks to himself he realizes the stack is lighter then he expected, he pulls it up a bit as he starts walking over to the other where Vadana had already reached, meaning everybody is waiting for him as he treks over. Reaching the hill they all stand on, Rechend walks to the front of everybody, a bag Haste hadn't seen before slung over his arm, stuffed with objects poking out. Haste falls to the back with Hashriko who's no longer wearing anything over his nose, letting Haste realize the stench is probably gone as he wiggles his head so the hoodie slides off on its own, to reveal the smell is indeed gone. Haste sighs with relief as Rechend yells as Haste adjusts the pelt stack in his arms, "All right, everyone ready to go!?" He looks back to see if anybody isn't, finding no complaints he begins again ''All right, we will get back before Greongone, so don't worry about missing a celebration." Haste takes on a confused expression as Rechend turns around to lead, Hashriko turns to Haste before they start walking, having known he'd need to explain what Rechend just said, "We'll be back by the next day if we go uninterrupted. Oh also, Greongone is an event practiced by the kingdom, but it's not necessarily a big event. Just a day off of your job for most, including this group because Nimaril celebrates it." Haste nods while responding to him, "Oh okay, Thanks! Thought I'd be clueless on when we'd get back for a moment..." Hashriko tells Haste "No problem." As Rechend starts walking, the entire group moves with each other as Haste gets the hang of the formation quickly.

Looking at the arrangement as they walk, Haste sees it's the same order they were in during battle. Thinking to himself as he looks around at the serene scenery. More plants completely alien to him grow in the plains, grass seems really similar to what he's used to so he's at least relieved about that. As he's subconsciously walking behind the others as they seem to walk however they feel like, besides the arrangement, he suddenly sees a small winged creature in the distance, it lands next to a plant that looks about half the size of Haste from afar, the creature reaches about a quarter of the plant's height as Haste squints his eyes to look at it. He sees a furry creature with four wings and two legs that seem like hooves attached to feet, it's a deep brown over its entire body. It starts walking towards the plant's center and chewing on its stem, taking small nibbles with a mundane-looking mouth from distance. "Woah, what is that?" Haste says this aloud as Hashriko peers over, speaking in a questioning tone as he does, "That's a Soonavem Haste, they're all over this continent, how have you never seen one..?" Haste feels his pupils shrink as Hashriko asks this, wondering why he has to be so obviously suspicious. By some miracle though, Vadana turns around to walk backward, facing Hashriko as she does. "I believe Haste actually lost a major amount of memories Hashriko, he answered a lot of my questions unsurely and didn't even know what continent he was on, he may have just forgotten what a Soonavem was..." Hashriko looks back to Haste, as Vadana turns back around while Haste mentally thanks her and Hashriko speaks to him, "Oh- my apologies Haste, I probably should've realized that on my own..." Haste shakes his head as they all trek on, responding to the apology, "Don't worry man, I'm actually having some fun 'rediscovering' all this stuff!" Hashriko gives Haste a simple smile as he turns to face straight again, as he does Haste continues gazing in awe at all of the new life before him, every now and then during the walk Haste will see some new fauna, become amazed, ask about it then resume walking with the group as to not to fall too far behind them with his curiosity, every now and then he also adjusts the pelts and claws in his arms that grow tired with the length of time he's been carrying it, but because he's too worried to ask for a break to rest them he keeps moving, using the aspects of the world to distract himself. After a while of this, the blood from the pelts having dried, making the walk more comfortable lets Haste relax more as he looks to his left he notices a familiar, warm shade of orange light wrap around the border between land and sky, looking at the sunset gave Haste relief, a smirk crawled across his face and he thought about how crazy everything happening right now is while looking at the sight, realizing that maybe this world isn't as alien as he thought, with a sigh, he looks up to see the other sun is behind the setting one, it glows an emerald green, once hidden by the rays of the other sun. "Whoa..." Haste says this quietly in amazement as the group continues walking ahead of him, used to the routine of him stopping to look at something, becoming so numb to it that Haste could probably leave and they probably wouldn't notice it for a while. Looking at the setting suns with awe he realizes it might mean a moon is creeping up on him, excitedly turning around to look for it he doesn't actually see it, Haste is confused at the prospect of a habitable planet with no moon, wondering how things like tides would work. "Huh, maybe just another weird quirk in this world?" Haste dismisses it as he turns to catch up to the group, however to his shock as he turns to them he sees a giant red orb in front of them, waves of yellow and black weave across the sphere as small craters cover its face as if it has freckles. All of this serves as eye candy to Haste, only taking him moments to realize this isn't something the others are just walking towards, nor an interstellar planet just close to this one. No, this is the moon he was just looking for. Its gigantism makes Haste question just how far it actually is, either that or how big it is to look like this from far away. He thinks to himself as he runs to the back of the group again, "So the moon doesn't rise on the flip side of the sun, instead it's more like if the moon was on the north to the suns west... This moon also seems to be more relative to the smaller sun too, so will it be fully out during the second sunset?" Haste's mind burns with questions as he walks next to Hashriko who barely even seems to notice. As they all march in line for a bit, the group suddenly halts with the first sun disappearing fully under the planet, leaving the second, larger sun to give the sky a glazed emerald green look, slightly darker than before without the other sun. Rechend speaks as he turns around to face the group from the front of the arrangement, "Well everybody, I think we should get ready to sleep during nightfall, the area here seems like it'd be good to set up camp in, though we did actually get further than anticipated! You all did well today, including you Haste, you really could be a chaser at this rate!" Haste smiles a bit, Rechend has really been a boost in his confidence this far, making him feel really welcome with the group of people much more capable than he is. Rechend steps off the footpath, stepping onto the grassy fields to his right, moving deeper into them as Haste sees Vadana giving Nimaril some shot before Nimaril runs in the opposite direction of Rechend, towards the grassy fields to the left, turning to Hashriko, whom Haste has learned is fairly reliable when he needs something answered quickly, he sees Hashriko is suddenly gone as well, a pelt set down on eh path being all that remains of him. Turning around fully Haste sees him on the right side of the fields, running quickly through them with his bow out, seemingly smaller then the last time Haste saw it. Haste watches Hashriko run off as he feels a hand on his shoulder, turning around he sees Vadana who already has her hand back at her side, and she speaks, explaining the situation to Haste, "Don't worry about those two, we have a plan we follow where Hashriko hunts for us while Nimaril goes to get wood from the closest area with trees, you can just help me and Rechend find a place to set up camp." Haste nods at the quick explanation as Vadana leads onto the right fields to follow Rechend, the moon a bit higher than before in contrast to the second sun, closing in on the skyline. Haste follows her as she speaks facing away from him, "So Haste, are you enjoying yourself here, you haven't seemed to mind being away from you're old home much." Haste looks at Rechend walking in the distance as he responds to her, "Yeah, you guys are a fun group. Besides, I try to be an optimist in situations like mine." Vadana turns around to walk backward, facing Haste with a smile as she speaks again, "That's a nice outlook to have in situations, but remember to not just suppress all of your emotions with optimism, fear and anger are common feelings and I feel if you properly explain a stressful situation, most people will actually let you vent to them. Though I guess that really depends on how much you trust them to openly tell them your worries." Haste nods at her advice, though he wasn't expecting it really, especially because it sounded so similar to something you'd hear back on Earth that it was probably more comforting for him to hear than inspirational. "Yeah, thanks Vadana, but I am genuinely enjoying myself out here, I've seen so many new creatures and plants, everything here is so beautiful!" Vadana gives Haste a smile, still walking backward as the grass crunches under her boots while she speaks, "I bet, coming from a red desert to grassy plains must be quite a transition, you really are doing a good job powering through." Vadana finishes and turns around as Rechend puts a fist into the air and shouts something too far away for Haste to hear, Vadana nods and speaks as she quickens her pace, "Come on, Rechend found a spot." Haste follows Vadana at her quickened pace, while he does he looks at the night sky darkened sky ahead of himself, the second sun's light no longer covering a chunk of it. He doesn't see any stars yet but finds the large stretch of empty black space oddly daunting, it gives him a feeling of loneliness even though he already has something at least close to friends around him, a chill runs up his spine as she shakes off the thought, after some more jogging him and Vadana both reach Rechend who already has his opened, bulky backpack on the ground and is using a shovel to dig a hole into the earth, its metal pole in segments, giving Haste the assumption it's a completely retractable shovel, as Rechend sees them, he grips the top of the stick the shovel's head is attached to, Haste's belief is soon confirmed though, just not in the way he was expecting, as it retracts the pole into itself, both sides of the shovel head fold over into the center, almost like origami, letting the head slide into the pole as well, by the time it's fully retracted Rechend has a simple metal cylinder in his hand, smaller than it even. He speaks as he pockets the cylinder, "So? How did the master of spot finding do?" He looks at Vadana as he asks this, she's simply looking around at the area, so Haste answers instead after a quick look around, as Rechend turns to him instead, "I think you actually are a master spot finder! This is a great area!" Rechend gives Haste a big smile as he speaks loudly, "Hah! That's right, boy! See Vadana, Haste even has better judgment than you, and that's even with his memory loss!" Rechend slings his way too dense arm around Haste, almost knocking him over as Vadana turns around, a glare in her eyes, this time directed at Haste too. Haste can feel the pressure coming from her stare as the world around him fades into an afterthought, the stare isn't intimidating in the regular sense, Haste knows it's not because of some overwhelming power, no this is a stare Haste never got to experience himself even though he's heard legends of it, and yet it still affects him, a mothers glare, the perfect mix of disappointment and anger that brews fear in anything that sees it. Haste does an awkward laugh as Rechend moves away, leaving Haste to deal with angered Vadana. Instead, she just sighs and giggles as Haste sighs in relief, already realizing she wasn't actually upset. She looks over to Rechend as she continues, "All right then, if you're so good at finding spots for things, how about you just set up the whole camp?" She speaks smugly as her eyelids raise then lower a bit again as she turns to Haste, "Actually you should help him Haste, after all, he can show you how to find all these amazing areas!" Haste weakly smiles, knowing she's trying to get him for agreeing with Rechend he tries to make it backfire, "Yeah, that's a great idea! Of course, you'd come up with an idea to teach me the basics, Rechend!" Haste thinks giving Rechend her credit will get her back, but instead, as Rechend looks at Haste with a smile that pretty much says he likes Haste's idea, Vadana simply replies in the same tone, "Oh you do want to? Well, then you both can actually work together to make more right? I mean, especially since Rechend apparently has such good ideas and Haste seems to be able to bounce off of them well, I'll just tell the other you two will set up things like a massive bonfire and somewhere to keep our weapons safely stored and-" Rechend interjects in a humored tone before she lists more things, "All right, fine, we get it. But for now, I need to dig up an ash pit for the campfire." Vadana smirks as Haste realizes this might be a classic camp he's used to, tents surrounding a centered campfire surrounded by chopped logs to use as chairs. Rechend extends his shovel the same way a sci-fi character would extend a plasma sword as he gets back to digging the ash pit and Vadana walks over to chat with him as he does. Haste turns around to see a spectacle he was waiting for, the green sunset, a deep shade of emerald green fills the sky as the second sun falls beneath the skyline too, the moon however still isn't fully out, though even with that, Haste sees it's scale yet again, it's how he'd imagine Jupiter would look if closer to Earth, an orbiting giant that places both fear and amazement into Haste. He smiles widely at the two amazing sights put together, as he takes a confident, deep breath.

Chapter 5 - Red Moon