It only took a few shambled steps for Sue to realize just how utterly exhausted her training session had left her, her expression turning into a pained grimace as she began attempting to move forward, arms and mind alike feeling raw and sore, with the rest of her not faring all that much better either. Part of her began to worry about even being able to make it back into Willow's little medic hut, the wisps of panic being added to the stirring pot of negative feelings inside her head only making basic movement even harder.
And it wasn't even the only worry on her mind either, most of it occupied by fears that she had somehow caused Solstice's reaction in some way she couldn't place and that the rest of this place would know in not too long. Entirely baseless fears at this point no doubt, ones she rationally ought to know were little more than empty paranoia, but also ones that exhaustion breathed a whole new life into, the awareness of her abject weakness not helping either.
What did she do?
What did I do?
Why does it hurt so much?
A louder noise coming from someplace near, somewhere between a whisper and a crackle of flames, took Sue out of her mental muck momentarily, a sensation of clear worry emanating from a creature whose appearance was so baffling it had briefly derailed the pity wagon on her train of thought. She might've mentally accepted the existence of ghosts by now, the one she had some actual interaction with even turning out to be much sweeter than her prankster facade might've suggested, but with Hazel in mind a bed sheet ghost was the last creature she expected to see here, if it even was one. Whatever it might have actually been, it was covered by a big off-white piece of fabric and could levitate, with no extremities supporting it off the ground that she could see. It had a large point at its top that its bed sheet-like cover draped from and... appeared to be glowing, cold light illuminating the fabric below a certain point while not shining any clues at all as to what the creature actually looked like.
As distracted as she might've gotten by the stranger's appearance, another of those worried sounds coming from it took her out of her pondering while making her realize just how messed up she must've looked at the moment. A painful movement of her free hand to feel out her own face revealed it to be sodden with tears, and a look behind her made it clear that despite only managing to make it a dozen meters or so she couldn't even hold a straight path for that long, the sum total pretty close to looking like misery incarnate.
The briefest of attempts to repeat the freshly practiced telepathy only made a burning outburst of pain join the rest of the unwelcome company under her skullcap, intense enough to make Sue momentarily lose her balance. The Forest Guardian was left leaning on a side of a wooden building to keep herself standing while the pain receded, the bed sheet covered stranger becoming even more alarmed at the sight.
"D-don't whorry, I-I'll be-"
Before she could finish her sentence, a soft woosh coming from where the they stood made it clear that her attempted interlocutor had departed somewhere, and as little as the once human felt capable of pushing forward on her own, she most decidedly did not want to wait here for them to come back with company, not so close to Solstice's outpouring of despair.
Onward, onward, onward.
With a painful wiping of tears from her face and a determined grunt, the Forest Guardian took off again, blindly turning inwards into the village as she clenched her mobility tool even harder, painful winces accompanying her every step growing weaker and weaker with each and every one. She felt an occasional worried glance fall on her every once in a while but ended up not acknowledging them at all beyond pushing on even harder, the last of the tears drying up, leaving her with just burning determination desperately trying to hold her exhaustion at bay. And hold it did- for a while at least, the pain sapping it fast, quickly turning each step wobblier and wobblier as Sue's plan changed on the fly to just finding someplace to sit down now that she was sufficiently far away from the mayor's tent that the rest of village could drown her out.
No matter which deity was behind her ending here, she would have to thank one of them for slipping in a bench into a corner of her vision, just around a nearby corner, a loud grunt leaving her as she beelined straight for it, more so collapsing on the cold, rough wood than anything else. The sensation still ended up being by far the most relieving thing she'd experienced in... today.
Yeah, not much could ever compare to finally being able to talk with Solstice for the first time and having her fears about being found out be squashed, even if the other Forest Guardian's current state was a messy enigma that was draining just to be in the vicinity of.
With her rear finally resting on something, Sue could take a deep breath at last, right arm letting go of the crutch and beginning to tentatively stretch, the relief worth the momentary pain, bad as it might've been. Just gotta recuperate, gather her bearings, and keep on trucking- she could swear she'd seen that one nearby building before, she could probably make it back to the medic's hut from here on her own relatively quickly and then take a nap, goodness she could really use a nap...
But only then, don't get any funny ideas body, the last thing she wanted to do was fall asleep on the bench, fall off mid-nap, and end up making even more of a scene.
Before Sue could even finish getting the equal parts terrifying, embarrassing, and amusing mental image of her somehow breaking her other leg after falling off this bench mid-sleep out of her mind, she heard a loud cry coming from her side, rather low pitched and not particularly alarming. It was much too soft to be either a hiss or a growl, rather ambiguously in the middle, making her wonder what kind of creature could even make noises like that for all of half a second before she finished turning her head.
"H-hi Astra, hi Joy!"
The sight was more than welcome for several reasons, Joy's harsh sounding but still adorable greeting from Astra's arms managing to single handedly break her weary expression into a modest smile, especially when combined with the little maw creature excitedly pointing over at her to the dragon, the latter responding with what could only have been "I know, I know~" before carefully setting Joy down beside her large friend. Unfortunately, the bench was much too small to accommodate her even larger guardian, though Astra didn't look particularly bothered, her line of sight ending up slightly above Sue's after sitting down on the grassy dirt next to the bench.
As excited as Joy might've been to find her out here like this, the lil' girl's happiness wavered a bit at noticing the obviously roughed up state Sue was in, her trembling strong enough to be noticeable while she was being snuggled into. Her face made it clear that she'd been crying only recently, exhaustion still marring her smile as her cheeks glistened with any leftover wetness. It only took Joy pointing her little finger up at her head for Astra to notice too, the orange dragon herself growing more alarmed as she leaned in that bit closer, lightly patting her back with her massive paw. The dragon spoke with concern in her voice and thoughts, both clear to sense even if her message was utterly incomprehensible to its intended recipient.
"I-I'm okay, I'm okay, I c-can't understand you Astra."
Her own garbled speech was enough for the draconic scout to realize the lack of a translator around, and after a visual scan of the nearly area didn't find any that could help them in the immediate moment, Astra was out of ideas. With one large exception that is, sliding herself even closer to the bench and reaching in all the way to pull the Forest Guardian into a close side hug, Joy doubling up from Sue's other side, both hoping they could make the girl feel better in the moment.
Their hope wasn't in vain even if Sue wouldn't have even thought so herself. A part of her mentally dismissed the gesture as them just being nice before she indeed began to feel that much better, the warm appreciation bathing her from both sides and the gentle emotions doing wonders in driving out all the leftover gloom that Solstice's breakdown had left her with. There was something to be said for the power of positive thinking, but if this was any indication, it seemed like this body of hers took that concept much more literally than she might've thought.
While that was an interesting thing to ponder on though, the once student's attention only lasted on it briefly before focusing back to the pair of vastly different friends bathing her in affection, one arm either wrapping or trying to wrap each, Astra's quieter mumbling appreciated deeply by the Forest Guardian, incoherent as it was.
"Th-thank you both..."
Even if the pair didn't fare any better in comprehending her the other way around, it seemed they got the gist this time, their hugs growing that bit stronger, Joy's especially, her tiny arms trying their best to completely wrap themselves around her midriff as her head nuzzled her side. Quite a few pets were in order as thanks for that, the little toothy child as appreciative of them as she was the last time, but this time Sue wanted to try to go further. She waited until Joy was done nuzzling her head into her palm, then moved the hand over to pet the top of the large maw, carefully avoiding the bandage still wrapping it.
As taken aback and briefly alarmed as the little one was at that, it was clear shortly after that she might have enjoyed having her back face pet even more than the front one, any worry of hers quickly evaporating until there was only calmness and desire for more of that, her little body clinging to her own hard. A quick glance to the other side revealed Astra to be as surprised as Joy herself, mentally jotting the discovery down and growing even happier at the little one under her watch feeling better too.
Still, Sue looked exhausted and that warranted her trying to help her out in its own right.
After catching both Sue's and Joy's attention by cleaning her throat, Astra tried to say something to the latter, the little one clearly understanding the dragon's words only partially, if even that, judging by all the confusion that filled her teeny mind afterwards- though that didn't stop her from slowly nodding in response. The scout was none the wiser about the fact that nobody really understood what she'd just said, taking off into the air above the nearby buildings, the gusts of air making Sue's front lock of hair flap against her face.
Guess worst case they could just sit here for a while longer. Sue was more than down with that, and judging by how closely Joy was cuddled up to her, the Forest Guardian severely doubted the little one would mind either.
With them just sitting off to the side of one of the larger pathways through the village, the two got a pretty good look at all the various creatures passing by, even though Joy was much more focused about her big friend than any assorted strangers she didn't want much to do with. Ironically enough, the passersby attention went mostly in the inverse direction, with Sue being largely overlooked by now and the toothy girl being the recipient of most of the outside attention, be it positive, neutral, or unfortunately negative at more than one occasion- though Joy herself thankfully didn't really notice.
It was truly bizarre how wide of a gamut of similarity to any actual animal species the denizens of this village had. One group in particular that exemplified that in a particularly stark way had settled down on the other side of the path a couple minutes after Astra had left, their panting, happy disposition and a couple fruits being held by one of them making the intent of a pit stop after having had some shared fun together clear enough to make out. One of them was just a donkey, just an actual little brown and cream donkey, looking so ridiculously mundane that Sue had to do a double take at the sight- if not for it being able to communicate with others with what were clearly brays and the weirdly large eyes she would not have spared them a second glance even if they ended up in her own world.
On the other hand, the pink one that was clinging to a nearby lamp post with one of its pincers looked like an actual nightmare come to life, somehow managing to combine the creepiest parts of a bat and a scorpion in a way that made Sue flabbergasted that it was Joy who was the recipient of more unnerved looks and not them. Well granted, their coloration was goofy and the big tongue they liked sticking out made them much less threatening than they would otherwise have been, but that big stinger looked ten times more dangerous than anything the little toothy girl could dish out.
...on a second thought, even brief thoughts in the direction of the potential lethality of anyone living here were a mistake and most likely best avoided, be it to avoid dehum- depersonizing them, and to help Sue preserve some more of her sanity. She might've been apparently capable of hurting others alright, but she had a hard time imagining herself being any more dangerous than that big pink stinger full of god knows what.
Someone between the normalcy of the donkey and the nightmarish-ness of the winged scorpion sat the final member of that impromptu group. They didn't even look particularly weird for a plant bud, a few darker leaves sprouting from the top of their bulbous light green body, but the fact that they had eyes and were apparently capable of moving, even if clumsily, more than made up for that surface level similarity to anything even remotely normal. It was said plant that had eventually drawn the rest of the group's attention over to her and Joy, Sue gulping quietly at feeling the extra pairs of eyes drill into them. She herself seemed to be regarded well enough, the nightmare bat even giving her a wave that she tentatively returned, but that couldn't be said for the little one beside her, the apprehension emanating from the donkey and the plant making the Forest Guardian briefly stop petting the toothy one and hold her that bit closer against her side.
"W-whon't lhet anyone t-touch you a-ash l-lhong ash I'm h-here Jhoy."
She knew that Joy couldn't understand her, but when combined with her looking down at the little one with a soft smile, it didn't matter, the girl was thankfully oblivious to the outside attention as she was held in silence, appreciating her in a way she couldn't really express, but which Sue's new form could understand regardless.
The trio seemed to be evidently confused at that, at least for a moment, before their attention palpably shifted over to something else- though not really their gaze, all of them still looking in their general direction but not directly at them, confusing Sue further. She tried glancing to the sides in hopes she'd see something, maybe Astra having made her way back, even looking up at the edge of the roof of the building right behind her- only to have the startling sensations come from the opposite direction, the sensation of something wriggly and slightly slimy pressing itself into the side of her lap making Sue freeze in a mix of disgust and fear.
As she slowly moved her gaze downwards to see what was it this time, Joy seemed to have noticed the intruder too, feeling rather strangely unbothered, instead just taking their appearance in with a decent bit of curiosity, mumbling to herself all the while. Appearance that turned out to be much less immediately terrifying than it could easily have been, with the two large white barbs on both ends of the brown caterpillar looking to be secured with a small ball of yellowish wax on their point each, making for a display so amusing it almost made Sue overlook the fact of it even having these barbs to begin with.
Only almost though, the Forest Guardian still gulping loudly at the sight, even if she knew that at least that aspect of the unwelcome guest wouldn't be immediately dangerous to her. As for the caterpillar itself, they seemed to only barely react to suddenly becoming the center of attention, their front perking up once to return Sue's attention, the two locking eyes for split second... before they immediately went back to attempting to crawl forward up onto her lap, Joy finding it rather funny.
"Pleashe get off m-me..."
With her pleading ask not being responded to at all, she knew that she would have to do it herself, bracing herself for whatever terrible thing could happen as she began slowly reaching over to pick the bug up and put them down somewhere else- or at least gathering the mental strength to even attempt that, praying internally for someone to come and take that thing off of her. For once, her prayers would be answered immediately, though not in the way she would've preferred either.
A yellowish blur in the corner of her vision made her perk her head up, only for its source to have already bolted to the side by the time her eyes got there, loud buzzing and even louder worry mixed with confusion emanating from the stranger as Sue's eyes attempted to catch up with them, only succeeding after they had turned to finally look her way.
Why did it have to be bees.
Sue already wasn't the biggest fan of any bug clad in yellow and black, and this one being almost as big as that pink scorpion while wielding massive, glistening spikes for arms did nothing to make that state of things any better. The Forest Guardian felt herself grow even more pale at the sight, eyes growing wide. Thankfully, a second look shortly after managed to abate some of her panic, with the newly arrived bee from hell also seeming to have its big spikes disarmed in much the same way as the caterpillar- or at least the two big front one, with the one in the 'normal' position looking to be fully armed.
They continued to buzz quickly all the while, first to her and then towards the caterpillar, with apology and light scolding in their "voice" respectively. They swept in immediately afterwards to pick the small brown one up into their stinger arms, with what was likely a baby of that same bee species trying to protest by wriggling ineffectually, its own noises clickity and quiet. As thankful as Sue was towards them at that feat, she couldn't deny wanting them to fly over anywhere but here. Their continuing attempts to buzz a conversation with her into existence lead nowhere, which seemed to not have extinguished their enthusiasm at all. She had no idea where did their willingness to chat with her suddenly come from- most likely someplace positive judging from how giddy the bee seemed to be at the mere prospect of talking with her, but the inability to know for sure left her doubting them just a tad.
It only ended up taking them a couple minutes afterwards to finally catch onto the fact that Sue wasn't responding at all, eventually going quiet for a while, giving Sue an opportunity to respond in a way that while not particularly clear, would hopefully convey the crux of the issue-
"I'm shorry, I can't understand you."
Their utmost confusion at hearing that Sue could at least empathize with, chuckling weakly as the bee got to buzzing again, for a moment even turning over to the trio on the other side of the road to evidently ask them a question that got answered predictably- no, they didn't know what she'd just said either.
Unfortunately, this did not do the one thing Sue really, really hoped it would, namely deter them in any way, the bee simply getting another idea instead, their buzzing slowing down greatly as they took to slowly waving at her, trying to communicate that way. As much as a part of her wanted to, she couldn't really pretend she didn't understand that gesture, hesitantly lifting her own hand up to wave back at them, together with Joy, the sight of the toothy one joining in on their attempt at communication coming off to the oversized insect as hilarious, for some reason.
Now that they'd seen her communicate however, the bee wouldn't even think of relenting, continuing to try to chat them up for reasons she had no hopes of figuring out. Eventually they decided to act, outright flying over to carefully grab her hand in between the two wax balls and gently yank it off to the side, Sue using up her entire willpower to resist her impulse to pull it back with a terrified shriek. As much as she wanted though, it seemed that they wouldn't get the clue for their lives, leaving the Forest Guardian to try to get up and follow them lest they would think to demonstrate their impatience in a much more painful way. The once human gulped at the mental image as she shakily got up, Joy squeaking out at her in confusion before following along, huddling as close to her as she could.
To little surprise, they were as jittery and excitable as before, constantly pointing the way for them as Sue ambled on. The respite at the bench helped greatly in making that action not as painful as it was before, even if her utmost confusion at what was going on kinda offset that gain. Thankfully, their destination wasn't too far from where they sat, though it was rather eye-catching, taking the form of a large termite-looking hill with half a wooden shack embedded into it, its door feeling superfluous considering how many holes the hill as a whole had in plain sight.
Pointless as it might have been, it was also where she was eventually led to, the bee opening it right in front of her and leading the way in, the space not exactly large and very sparsely decorated- though hardly boring as a consequence. One of its walls opened up right into the large insect nest proper, the motion inside the barely lit tunnels she occasionally spotted not exactly filling her up with confidence while she was led to their actual destination. Her guide eventually laid down their little caterpillar... ward before diving into one of the tunnels themselves, kinda leaving her to dry in there. Thankfully, the little one didn't think to immediately start trying to climb onto her this time, seeming content to just relax where they laid and close their eyes, exhaustion clear in their thoughts, as muddled and half formed as they were.
Joy even was of half a mind to waddle over and gently pet the impromptu friend to help them sleep better- but before she could do that, their caretaker had made their return from inside the nest, carrying a large egg in their stinger arms, carefully placing it down near one of the tunnel openings closer to Sue's eye level for her to see. Insect eggs were hardly surprising on their own, though she would've thought they would look... well, not like bird eggs at least- this one was the shape and almost the size of an ostrich egg if anything, colored equal parts green and yellow. It even occasionally seemed to jitter on its own, almost if whatever unborn creature lied inside it was kicking once in a while.
Judging from the excitement, pride, and a bit of ambient concern the large insect was radiating, it was most definitely their actual offspring even if she wasn't sure whether that extended to the teeny brown bug on the floor too. Guess with that in mind their excitement was slightly more understandable, though the key word there was certainly "slightly".
"Umm... con-congratulations?"
Even more confusingly, they seemed to nudge her on beyond just taking the sight of the pretty egg in, making stinger gestures in its direction that Sue had no idea how to interpret at all. Wagering a guess, she attempted to reach over towards it with her good hand- only to have that idea be dashed by the bee flying right into the path her hand would've taken, emotions turning to alarm as they shook their head, thankfully without any anger that she could feel. If that act had ended up pissing them off, she would've likely skipped straight to hitting the legs at that point, instead shaking in place as she kept trying to make sense of it all, left at such an uncomfortable impasse that even her next idea felt less unnerving than the sum total of it all.
An attempt to prod the strained parts of her mind revealed them to not be quite as raw and sore as they were some time ago, making the idea of actually using them to get some clarity on her current situation actually feasible. Sue was equal parts giddy at the prospect of finally being able to communicate with someone here on her own, and worried that it had to be in circumstances like these, putting her on edge. Still, without it it felt like she'd never figure out just what was being asked of her here, the Forest Guardian taking a couple deep breaths and closing her eyes as she focused on her sixth sense, the bee feeling... happier at seeing that for reasons Sue couldn't even begin to guess at.
Hopefully they would explain all that to her in just a moment.
As much easier as using her hands to get a better grip on her psychic faculties made the whole process, it also left her in an awkward situation of her magic ending up much more stilted once she was on her legs and had to commit one arm just to keeping herself upright, which combined with there being many, many more emotions in her vicinity that she'd have to tune out in one way or another, made for a situation much harder than her little idealized training session. She probably should've stopped there at that point- and maybe she would've with less assorted anxiety and exhaustion clouding her mind, but at this point Sue wanted nothing more than to be out of here and back in relative safety and comfort of Astra's presence, assuming the dragon was near, and was willing to do whatever was needed to facilitate that.
Sue ended up having to use her free hand to tune out the overwhelming glare of emotions, their combined presence alone bringing an almost immediate headache to her mind, but she pushed on, gritting her teeth. With the pathway over to the bee's mind clear, her crutch clad hand and the feeble purely mental control she had began veering in the direction of the insect that had dragged her into all this, hoping they'd be out of there in no time-
And maybe they would have, but Fate had different plans. The handfuls of leaves and straw that littered the floor combined with Sue's increasingly awkward hold of her crutch ended up making it slip slightly and throwing her off balance, crutch arm moving wildly to regain it, succeeding at that at the cost of driving her mental tendril straight through the stranger's mind. Their aura immediately erupted with pain, stingers feebly trying to hold their own head as they buzzed loudly and roughly, the Forest Guardian immediately realizing what she'd accidentally done. The fear at the possibility of retribution began consuming her as she slowly backed off, Joy squeaking out from behind her, alarmed at everything that was suddenly going on.
The bee's pain quickly giving way to hurt, annoyance, and even a bit of anger only hastened her retreat, their buzzing becoming pointed towards her, compound eyes narrowing. A part of Sue wanted to run while another wanted to apologize, mind tying itself in panicked knots at the realization she wasn't capable of doing either at the moment, whimpering as she looked for an out-
Seeing the leafy caretaker that had visited her during her first day here suddenly open the door to this structure behind her was just an out like that. The whole of Sue aching as she bounded forward a few more steps to end up behind Splitleaf, hoping beyond hope that she would at least defuse the situation even if she clearly wasn't capable of explaining it any more than the insect that had lead her here was. Joy caught up to her moments later as Sue watched the planty mantis and decidedly non-planty bee exchange buzzes and chitters, both trying to figure out what was going on in here- and once they did, it was Splitleaf that seemed to get a fair bit annoyed at her, turning around to face her with an unamused expression, Sue gulping at the sight.
She so desperately wished she could explain that it was an accident and apologize, but the increasingly tightening bind of panic and exhaustion only left her standing there, not even able to whimper out a single word as the mantis started futilely questioning her. Her lack of reaction simultaneously made Splitleaf more agitated at not even being deigned with a response, and made her mellow out a bit at the growing realization that Sue must've been quite overwhelmed right now judging by her body language. Before one of the two impulses could come up on top, hearing Astra's voice made the Forest Guardian immediately bound over in that direction, almost running into someone else before leaning on the orange dragon, trembling in panic as she looked away from the scene behind her, fearful tears flowing down her cheeks.
The modicum of safety soothing her panicking mind made her completely tune out of any discussion taking place around her, feeling Astra get more so confused than anything else, evidently unsure what to think of the news she'd just heard, but opting on the side of comforting the Forest Guardian first and asking any questions of her own afterwards, one draconic arm wrapping around her and holding her close. It seemed that Splitleaf and their bee friend weren't too satisfied with that, the former a bit offended and the latter still shaking off the last of their pain as Sue heard the door slam shut behind her, heart beating a mile a minute as the dragon held her for a while.
"I'm shorry..."
The mumbled apology came through much too late unfortunately, Astra already busy huddling her over to the side away from everyone else using the road, letting Sue lean on her for as long as she needed as the group waited in a small nook for her to slowly calm down. The zesty fruit roll the dragon had given her once she stopped hyperventilating helped with that greatly, taking the edge off of her tiredness and providing some intense sensations to distract herself with- not to mention just being a very kind act in general, the once human snuggling into the soft scales of Astra's stomach as she finally shook off the grip of panic, fear replaced with guilt and regret.
She just... hurt that stranger for no reason, didn't she. They probably just wanted to share the joy of having a little one on the way like that, and that's how she repaid them, and didn't even apologize afterwards.
Made Solstice have a breakdown, hurt that bee... she really couldn't do anything right today, could she?
Before her own train of thought could try dragging her deeper into the quicksand pit of self loathing, it was distracted by Astra's body moving next to her, glance upward revealing the dragon to be waving over at someone down the road, Sue's vantage point not really letting her see who it was. Or at least, not until her ears began to peek out from the crowd, the rest of surprised looking Sundance revealing herself soon afterwards, confusion quickly turning into concern at Sue obviously being unwell.
"Are you alright Sue?"
The question was only partially rhetorical, fox mother just as clueless as everyone else about what had actually happened just now and earlier today, the rest of the group listening in keenly as they could finally understand their friend, Sue catching her breath before responding, her voice cracking in the middle-
"I-I don't th-think sho..."
Both Astra and Joy held her tighter as much as they could both manage in response to that, Sundance chewing through that response and softly nodding.
"Would you want to talk about it? One on one?"
A part of Sue felt bad at leaving the couple friends beside her in the dark like that, but there was little more she wanted right now than being able to figure out just what in the world was going on, with that bee, with Solstice, with Pollux, from the one person that always seemed like she knew everything. She didn't expect neither Astra nor Joy to judge her for agreeing to that, and indeed they didn't, the dragon just cracking a weak smile as she lightly patted her-
"Hope you feel better soon Sue! You didn't mean it, right?"
There weren't many things that could've been potentially referring to, Sue's expression growing more pained as she shakily nodded, Joy's embrace of the one leg she could wrap her tiny arms around becoming that much more firm.
"I knew that wasn't like you to do something like that! Are you gonna say sorry?"
The once human wanted little more than to be able to apologize for that mishap in the current moment, affirming the question as she kept herself from breaking down any more than she already had to the absolute fullest of her willpower. Which... didn't mean particularly much right now, but she held nonetheless.
"Just maybe in a moment once the tension defuses some more and everyone calms down."
"Of course ma'am!"
Sundance chuckled to herself, part of her wanting to correct Astra on that superfluous title, but at the same time, the dragon had her own charm of polite friendliness to herself like that, and Sue's current wellbeing was occupying the vast majority of her attention anyway.
"Let's get going then Sue, hmm?"
Shakily, Sue got back up onto her own leg and crutch from Astra's comfort, Joy thankfully giving her enough space to shamble forward until she could grab Sundance's paw, the vixen looking a bit taken aback at that, but ultimately letting her hold it, offering her a soft smile as the Forest Guardian managed to mutter out-
"Shorry for all this. I-I'll see you both later, you're both great..."
"Awwww, so are you Sue! Feel better soon!"
Joy's stuttered squeak was much less understandable, but its intent was much the same as her draconic guardian's, Sue giving the toothy girl a tired smile before taking off with Sundance, the psychic keeping her pace down as she lead her down the busy road.
"^Do you want me to go fetch Solstice too-^"
"No no no no, not, th-there's no need to."
Sue's forceful rejection in response to her telepathic question took Sundance aback, the mystic looking more surprised than she'd ever seen her up to that point. It didn't last long though, the fiery fox eventually just acknowledging her as she lead her on, her warm aura a soothing presence to be near, providing some further relief in tandem with the once human's recent lunch.
"^Alright.^"
"Wh-where are you t-taking me?"
"^My place. Was initially thinking the clinic and grabbing Spark along the way, but considering how you answered that... it's something really private, right?^"
"More sho just... scary and confusing..."
Sundance's curiosity continued to grow as she lead Sue into a smaller side road, towards the large building in front of it, standing out from the surroundings with the stonework that comprised it, as well by having a second floor. The various intricate patterns chiseled into the stone comprising the lower floor were eye-catching and provided a clue as to the occupation of whoever lived there- but it looked like their destination would be the second floor, its outside looking much more barren, the lighter stone that comprised it forming a dome shape with a circular opening at the top, a large canvas patch flapping in the wind next to it.
She might not have been too afraid of heights, but scaling up the stairs leading to Sundance's part of the buildings without any guardrails to make that task any easier or even safer made her reconsider, vixen suddenly adding a new item onto her to-do list to tackle in the nearby feature as she witnessed that, some of her own embarrassment breaking through.
"Sorry for that."
"It's alright... th-though it wouldn't pass inspection wh-where I live- or lived..."
"Inspection?"
The question lingered in the air for a moment as they made their way into the building at long last, its internal layout turning out to be not too different to Solstice's tent, with a single open space without any designated rooms- though much more welcoming on behalf of the ceiling being much higher up than elsewhere in the village. On a closer look, each corner here had its own role though- a handful of half eaten fruit and a stone slab for a surface above a wood fired stove made for an obvious kitchen, a large plush looking surface covering a corner opposite to it must've been the bedroom, or a bedcorner- the other two turned out to be much less obvious though. Or at least one of them- with the other one's role becoming rather clear on a closer look, just not one Sue had really expected to see from a sage, a handful of saws, picks, clamps, and other tools together with a loose heap of wooden scrap making for a rather clear workshop of some sort.
The remaining corner also got clearer the more she looked at it, especially after realizing the large barrel-shaped objects that took up the bulk of it were clay pots, though what exactly they stored Sue had little idea of. Sundance seemed keen to remedy that though, even if unintentionally, grabbing a large ceramic cup from the kitchen area and filling it with water from one of the pots, before beginning to add whole bunches and pawfuls of contents of some of the other pots, creating a mixture of familiar and completely alien scents tingling the once human's nostrils.
"Take a seat on the yellow one. And- inspection?"
A instruction snapped Sue out of her spaced out state, the girl looking somewhat confusedly around the place before spotting the two recliner chairs facing each other near the center of the room, the yellow and orange covers on the seats and backrests making it clear which one she was supposed to take- as did the fact that the 'orange' chair looked much, much more worn down, looking like it could barely even rock at all anymore.
"Umm, when you b-build a new building where I'm from it has to fit certain requirements, especially about shafety. So someone qualified comes in and ch-checks the plans before you can even start building it."
"I see... a dedicated person checking construction safety like that? That sounds like an... exceptionally narrow of a role."
"Oh it's not, there are sho many buildings going up all the time th-they have their hands full no doubt."
Sundance was now thoroughly dumbfounded at that- they were going through putting up a new building approximately twice a moon at their current rate, and said buildings couldn't possibly take more than a few minutes each to "inspect" like that. Just how ridiculously many buildings must Sue's people build to have even one person occupied with that full time?
"That's... hard to imagine."
"Hehehe, helps th-that human cities are much, much bigger than thish village."
A large part of the fiery vixen really, really wanted to question their inter-universal guest about just how big exactly was her world supposed to be and all the implications of that, and she doubted she'd be able to keep herself from asking sometime- but in the present, her own questions and concerns played a distant second fiddle to Sue's, Sundance just making a mental note to come back to this subject later.
"Remind me to ask you more about your world sometime. I... had not realized it would be as different as your words here are implying it to be."
Sue's kneejerk reaction was to deny that idea- her world wasn't all that different really, not on the natural level, it was just the difference of the species that inhabited them- though the moment she began thinking about the implications of that difference, through all the ways humanity's presence had impacted the world for better and worse... yeah, Sundance had a point.
"I will."
Even if she couldn't lean back and rock on it on behalf of a large sensitive spike sprouting from between her shoulder blades, the chair was still blissfully relaxing to sit on, her exhaustion waning some as she observed what her host was doing, Sundance catching onto that soon after and clarifying-
"Oh, I'm just getting you something to drink to get you back on your feet. A... complex brew if nothing else, but remarkably good at giving people a second wind when needed. In the meantime, could you tell me what happened back there- did you hurt someone on accident?"
A pang of guilt shot through Sue's body at having to admit that, the girl nodding slowly and taking a deep breath before clarifying-
"Yeah. Th-the... I don't know their name, the black and yellow one with all the stingersh. Their kid or someone else, the brown caterpillar with a couple spikes on its own had somehow waddled itself onto my lap when I was resting with Joy, then they showed up to pick them up and began talking to me- I tried to make it clear I couldn't understand them, but they wouldn't take the hint and e-ended up dragging me with them to their nest, I-I think. They showed me an egg and exphected me to do something, I tried following Solstice's practice and linking with them, and accidentally pushed much too hard and got them hurt, th-they felt very pained, and then I... panicked becaushe of them getting angry with all the stingers..."
Having to go over it all like that made her feel even more self conscious about the fact that she ended up panicking in the first place- everyone here was a freak of nature, why would she end up scared of any of them for reasons that are so arbitrary in the end, at least by the standards of this world?
Sundance just slowly nodded along as she worked on wrapping the concoction up, eventually moving the cup to the kitchen corner and settling it down on a small stand with enough space for a small source of heat underneath it- a source Sue didn't expect to end up being the vixen's ablaze paw, the steady stream of flames emanating from it and quickly warming the water inside of the cup up, the casual display of fire magic mesmerizing.
"That all sounds... unfortunate really. From what I've heard of Basil that would track, he can be hot headed like that. He probably didn't even consider you just being straight-up unable to talk like that and thought you were being mystical or something."
"Wh-what did he want from me though?"
"I can't know for sure obviously, but it's most likely that he wanted you to bless his unhatched kid."
Sue had no idea how to respond to that, or why in the world would she be capable of blessing anything at all all of a sudden- the only time she'd ever seen anything be blessed was when she was four and a local bishop came to tour their newly renovated preschool, and she sure as hell didn't get any holier since then. Sundance was on hand to help explain though, briefly chuckling at the extent of her guest's confusion as she spoke up-
"Well... Forest Guardians are commonly seen as emissaries of the Pale Lady and as having a special bond with her across all other kin... not that's a universally held position either, Solstice especially has been trying to work against that idea that there's any sort of chosen people like that, but alas, the superstition holds. And I can't blame him too much either, not with the Moon being such a big deal around these parts, might as well get whatever blessings you can."
Oh Sue sure felt chosen, but if the Night Father's visit in her dreams was any indication, it wasn't by Duck, and if anything it had left her cursed and not blessed.
"I- I see. That's... that feelsh so weird to me."
"Likewise."
"Is he gonna be alright though? H-he felt really hurt afterwards..."
"If he was still standing or flying afterwards then it couldn't have been that bad- it hurt, no doubt about that, but he'll be alright soon if he isn't already. If you want I can come over and help in apologizing sometime if you want me to, it's unfortunate but it is what it is- I'd guess if anything he'd be more upset about you freaking out afterwards."
"Why?"
"His kin are rather territorial outside of the village, often thought of as savage, and the best we have managed to negotiate with them is a hard border between our territories. Splitleaf found his egg on our territory a few years ago so she raised him as her son, and while the stigma isn't anywhere near as recent or monstrous as with Joy, I'd imagine he wouldn't be too happy about being thought of as dangerous like that."
Ouch...
"Th-that's... I'm s-so sorry."
"It's unfortunate, but it is what it is. I would hope he can empathize enough to put himself in your situation there, especially with how obviously feeble and tired you were, but sometimes all we can do is apologize and not be forgiven, and... that's alright. The world keeps turning, even if made that bit heavier by someone's resentment."
Sue chewed through these words as Sundance's hut went quiet, the only remaining sound for a good while being the vixen continuing to smother the ceramic cup in bright orange flame, its contents beginning to steam and fill the whole space with its aroma. An aroma that included several stronger scents, but the most prominent of them had to be coffee, its appearance made even more nose-catching in light of Sue's nose having been spared from it over the past few days, after having been subjected to it on a constant basis for months on end during the preceding semester.
"Yeah. Th-that just shounds so... dreadful though."
"It does, it absolutely does. But it's just a part of life that we all have to learn- you can do everything right and some people won't like you, some won't forgive you, some won't accept you, and trying to force them to is a pathway to suffering. They sure won't be losing sleep over it, neither should you. How do you like your drinks, hot or cold?"
That final question snapped the once human out of the philosophical mulling, her gaze snapping over to watch the vixen pour the contents of the black, complex brew through a sieve into another cup, steaming all the while.
"...what do you mean by cold?"
Sundance glanced over at her at the question with a quiet chuckle, raising an eyebrow as she picked the hot cupful of something up.
"The same as everyone else. Even if I do think they're missing out by skipping on freshly boiled tea."
Sue looked away from her with a small embarrassed blush, mumbling out afterwards-
"Sorry. I-I'll have it shlightly warm if-if that's alright."
"Oh it absolutely is, worry not."
The mystery of how Sundance was even going to chill the drink turned out to be much less exciting than the Forest Guardian thought it would, the cup simply getting halfway submerged in the pot of room temperature water, the firefox waiting patiently for their temperatures to begin equalizing. In the meantime, Sue had a moment to take in the rest of this quaint place's design some more, the nearly soon sun shining bright on the middle of the chamber right between their seats, lighting up a circular patch of the stone floor. As she looked back up to investigate the rudimentary sunroof, the decorations around it finally caught her attention, overlooked until then as just bits of paint on the ceiling, turning out to be anything but.
A handful of dolls were suspended from the ceiling around the circular hole in the roof, hanging from short pieces of thread each, their designs mere curiosity until they suddenly weren't. They might've just been bundles of twigs, leafs, strings, scraps of wood and a smattering of natural paints, but the sight of of what were clearly rudimentary depictions of Night Father and Duck on the opposing ends caught her attention and would not let go for the life of her, Sue eventually asking-
"Wh-what are those?"
The vixen didn't even have to look to know what her guest was referring to, chuckling quietly to herself as she walked over to Sue's seat with the freshly cooled drink, a couple drops of water dripping from the outside of the cup as it was set down on a small stool next to the once human's chair.
"Crafts projects. It's... easy to get lost completely in my mind's realm for me at times, especially when things in the physical realm get rough. I found that just making myself put these together with my bare paws every once in a while keeps me... honest, sane even. Just something entertaining I can put my attention on and weather the storm without sinking ever deeper into my thoughts. Plus- gotta maintain manual agility somehow lest I get too dependent on telekinesis for everything."
"And... deities?"
"Well, gotta make what I know~. Been also making the depictions of others in the village though I tend to keep these to myself or disassemble them afterwards- even if someone doesn't really believe that a depiction of them gives its wielder control over them, they're still gonna be a bit weirded out, and I'd rather avoid that. Don't have that issue with celestial beings, lest someone thinks I can make the Moon dance to my whims with a couple of sticks and leaves."
"Know... how?"
"Oh- not by any sort of heavenly visions or anything. Various peoples make depictions of their deities constantly, and I just happen to have a good memory when that's concerned. Even here I can just take a look at Night Mother and Ni- well, just Night Mother's altar now and copy that design competently enough."
Sundance could immediately tell that Sue's focus narrowed further there at her correction, though she wouldn't act on it right away, instead walking over to the storage corner of her dwelling and digging through one of the smaller pots for something, the resulting silence weighing that bit heavier. Sue most definitely intended to ask about that, just not yet, attention still on the circle of deities dancing underneath the sun roof, a couple in particular catching the once human's attention-
"What's that one?"
The vixen glanced over her shoulder a moment as she kept digging in her supplies, answer as simple as it was haunting-
"Death."
The serpentine form was mostly grey and red, culminating in a yellow head and with a multitude of smaller tentacles sprouting from its back, shorter yellow ones and longer black ones with red tips. Judging by the sheer amount of extra threads holding it up and attached to the ceiling, the design wasn't any easier to keep assembled than it was to put together in the first place.
"D-does it kill or-"
"Does whatever you think it does with the souls of the dead. Be it rebirthing them, ferrying them to the world beyond this one, passing judgment on their deeds, or just devouring them whole and leaving nothing behind- I've heard all of those expressed with fear and reverence alike. More so the former than the latter."
"That's flexible..."
"Does your world have a death deity like that?"
Sue wasn't sure how to answer that earnestly- did the top dog of Christianity count for one?
"I-it's complicated."
"As most things are."
"Nothing that does all of those I-I think."
"Well, it's not like that's the case here either- most agree on what Death is, but not on what it does."
"There ishn't even that agreement where I'm from. B-but there's shomething kinda like a similar symbol of death where I grew up, a skeleton in a b-black robe with a scythe."
The mental image of that evidently got Sundance thinking as she walked over to her own seat, holding something close to an old timey pipe Sue mostly associated with victorian era detectives than anything else, the item alone knocking the once human out of her current pondering.
"Is it a... specific skeleton or...?"
"A- a human skeleton mostly, bu-but I've also seen skeletons of other species..."
Only ever as a joke, but still.
"I think I like that actually. Can't say I've ever tried to make a skeleton, or even really know what mine looks like, but that sounds like an interesting project next time I have some spare time on my paws."
"Yeah. Umm, wh-what are you smoking?"
The words came right as Sundance leaned back in her chair, a small Ember popping out from the tip of one of her claws to light the contents of the small pipe, the vixen's attention shifting over at it as she took in a deep breath and exhaled, the smell answering for her a split second before she spoke-
"Oh, it's just hemp. Considering your question, 'smoking' like that is a thing in your world too?"
"Yeah, it's- it's a plague."
"Oh. Well, I can stop if you'd want-"
"No no no, it's mostly tobacco th-that's the worst one there."
The vixen had to think way back to the last time she ever did that herself, the recollection not exactly painting the experience in the most positive light.
"You wouldn't get me to give tobacco another shot on my own volition, hah. Can't imagine it being particularly pleasant to experience often."
"You've n-no idea."
The two women went quiet as Sundance took another deep breath through the pipe, though something caught her attention before she could relax fully-
"Oh, you can toss the cover on the back aside and rest your back on it, I know Solstice loves that whenever she comes over."
The prospect of actually being able to lay her back on something after several days of inhabiting this body caught Sue's utmost attention, the reveal of the wooden splats with more than enough space to fit her back spike between them underneath the yellowish fabric making her feel ecstatic on the spot, much to the vixen's amusement. Not even that came close to the sheer relief that leaning all the way back provided her though, the Forest Guardian feeling like the entirety of her body could finally relax for once for the first time since she ended up here, a quiet, involuntary moan leaving her lips at the sensations.
"And I thought Solstice's reaction was drastic."
"You've no idea h-how good thish feels after not being able t-to rest my back..."
"I clearly don't indeed. Make sure you remember to have your drink before it gets too cold."
As the once human reached over to grab the ceramic cup, her attention once more drifted upwards, a very convoluted doll in particular catching her attention- before she squinted least, realizing they were two separate ones, just bundled together and leaning on each other.
"Wh-what are thoshe?"
Sundance followed Sue's line of sight as the human took a sip of the concoction, the sheer intensity of the flavor impacting her tongue giving her a pause while she tried to work out all its constituent parts. It was definitely coffee alright, just one with an absurd amount of other ingredients adding to it, its bitterness mixing with a zesty sourness of juices of a couple fruits she remembered having earlier, on top of what felt like several subtler bitter herbs and at least four teaspoons of sugar. The end result probably had enough caffeine in it to down an Indian elephant in a single sip and enough calories to keep her running for three days straight, but good Duck if it wasn't an effective pick me up, Sue's eyes shooting wide open as her host explained the sight hovering above them-
"Ah, those. I don't think they have one single name, though the titles I remember hearing about are The Capricious and The Judicious, the twin gods of fate and destiny. Or just Fate and Destiny."
The actual dolls hovering next to each other both took a form of a head with three points coming off of it, two to the sides and one straight up, with a small torso and arms underneath, only one of them having legs. One of them had a mostly yellow head with a white body and a handful of greenish rectangles hanging off of it, while the other had a more mixed pink and gray coloration, the branches contorted in circles and painted yellow that had been attached to a couple spots around its body giving the impression of large rings or hoops.
"Fate and Destiny? Is there... a-a difference?"
Sundance chuckled loudly at the question, taking Sue aback as the guest took another sip of the concoction, the source of her amusement revealing itself soon after-
"Well, you just stumbled on a topic of one of the bigger theological debates I ever had the... 'honor' of witnessing in person. It was amusing enough before it went from from words to hands being thrown at least, then it became a matter of getting out of there in one piece. But, from what I ended up gathering, "destiny" is preordained, oftentimes by some sort of divine will, and "fate" simply happens to you, thanks to nothing more than chance and unintended consequences of what came before. Granted, having any control on the latter ends up turning it into the former by definition, but that's what I managed to get out of all the shouting."
Sue slowly nodded- if anything the mess underneath Sundance's ceiling conveyed that confusion rather clearly, the similar size, body shape and the two dolls being pressed right against each other made it hard to tell where one ended and the other began at times.
"Sometimes they're just one deity that puts on one of two masks, sometimes they're opposing forces, sometimes there's only one and not the other. I don't think this wider area in particular has a particularly strong worship of either though, beyond them both manifesting as comets on the night sky- remember to make a wish the next time you see one and who knows, maybe someone will hear it. Won't hurt in any case."
Sundance leaned back in her chair, taking a larger hit of her pipe as both her and Sue calmed down, their respective indulgences soothing their minds even if Sue's drink began to fill her body with more and more short lived energy. Not that she minded that much in the heat of the moment though- weirdly intense as the sum total of the flavor was, she couldn't really say she disliked it either.
As relaxed as they both got though, they knew full well that Sue didn't just come here to chill and down a five moon energy, antsiness soon beginning to steadily grow in the air until the vixen finally acted on it-
"So. The incident with Basil... wasn't the only reason you wanted to talk with me, right?"
The once human slowly shook her head as she put the cup down on the nearby stool, arms jittering from the mixture of nervousness and caffeine.
"No. Earlier t-today I was practicing with Solstice and it was going s-so well before she mentioned someone called Aurora and broke down in front of me and forced me out of her tent. And yesterday Shpark took me to see her friend th-that was a black fox that I couldn't sense and they hid from people here and ran away when spotted a-and I don't know why and-"
Sue only barely managed to catch herself before she'd continue rambling more and more, the firefox's expression flat and concentrated as her guest looked her dead in the eyes-
"What's going on, Sundance?"
The Forest Guardian tried to keep close attention on her host's emotions, trying to piece the puzzle further with their help, a tiny part of her worried that her bringing it up would make the vixen furious because of her uncovering a secret that wasn't meant to be known- but fortunately, none of that happened. For a few moments there was nothing, just a neutral flatness, before it began shifting towards a resigned somberness, Sundance sighing deeply as she closed her eyes, mulling through her mind for the right words.
"In hindsight, I don't know why I even hoped you wouldn't end up running headfirst into all this on your own. Maybe if you had awoken in this realm in any other form, but... no, not this one. Of course it would all eventually come crumbling down. And to answer your question... nothing now. Nothing anymore. But to recount what led to this, what happened all those years ago, I have to tell you a story. A story of a wayward soul that came here from afar, that saw the harm and evil zealotry and prejudice could inflict, and vowed to help make something better, someplace better, safer, one whom all could call their home."
Despite the comfort of her seat, Sue found herself involuntarily leaning forward, nodding along as the sum total of her attention was occupied by Sundance's tale, her own breathing growing shallower as she saw the vixen speak up again-
"Her name... was Solstice."