It took a while, minutes or even hours but Tenpao finally snapped out of memory lane - not due to any outside occurence but because a certain black gnoll seemed to be taking a large portion of his mind. Lulu always seemed so free and joyful these two days he interacted with her.
Dwelm took a blunt after losing a friend and Bushy's elven nature worked against her but the gnoll, both at the laboratory and against that weird creature seemed unbothered by the grotesque and bloodshed. Mercenaries' feelings usually became dull when it came to killing people, the same goes for adventurers with monsters and wild creatures.
But Lulu's sword and spell struck true at full potency- "No, she was holding back just enough to mingle with us." Genius ten, the gnoll never trained once a mana-strengthening method in the past two days therefore she was born with that quantity of magila. Tenpao had seen what a full-powered spell cast by a genius ten looks like in the war.
Yet that just raises more questions, what is someone like her even doing as an adventurer? Tenpao thought. With a groan he pushed himself up from the couch in the living room and walked towards the center and then to the door, with a slight push the door opened revealing sunlight unfilthered by the windows warmed his skin, the heat outside tried to slap him again but this time he was fast enough to dodge and further walk towards the garden where a certain gnoll wearing a straw hat above her pumpkin that reflected a soft golden glow, her ears still peeked from the sides of the hat.
Lulu's left paw was perfect for digging the ground as her claws seemed like biological sharp shovels and they were good enough for her to be doing it with one paw while the other held seeds, once the gnoll dug deep enough she slid four sids with her other paw and then filled the hole back before turning around. "Y'ello, Ten!"
"Hi."
Tenpao walked towards Lulu, the soft grass blades making little to no noise with each of his steps, finally, at Lulu's side Tenpao crouched down but his eyes couldn't leave her body. "Do you ever take out that armor of yours?"
Silence ensued as Lulu stared at a weed growing near a tulipa, "Sorry." Lulu mumbled as she pulled the weed from the ground, the gnoll eyes stared at the roots before tossing it away, "Y'know, Pampkin can't quite understand it." Tenpao moved his eyes to the exquisite hat choice of his party member, "Plants are alive and they have feelings too." Lulu started digging another small hole in the ground, "It's just that we can't see or hear them. Pampkin wonders how that pigweed felt being ripped out of the ground."
"It's because we're different," Tenpao said while throwing a glance at the weed.
"..Yes, we are." Lulu stopped, "If a gnoll was incapable of making a sound would it be fine to kill?" Tenpao shook his head, "Sorry if Pampkin is coming a bit off, it's just..."
"Uncomfortable?" Tenpao offered, Lulu nodded and resumed planting the seeds, the human pondered a bit before speaking again, "Think about ants, they feel pain, despair, happiness just like us but nobody ever looks down or feels bad when they step on an ant."
"Hm." Lulu got up, "Wanna go for walkies?" Without anything to do and knees starting to ache Tenpao promptly agreed. The gnoll gently put down her hat on the warm sun and began walking towards the gate, right outside their gate it seemed that the dragon, kobold, and gobbling were pinching their plates to a passerby this time. "Pampkin loves how lively this town is."
"Something always is happening, isn't it?" Tenpao said while staring amusedly at that same ol' cat sith and dragon stuck on the same tree and bickering about whose fault it was this time.
Tenpao and Lulu slowly walked through the streets of Oddtown with little chat among them, the human concocting more and more questions about the gnoll while Lulu stopped at each odd occurrence that she caught sight of, a human man running after his bleeding wallet, pigeons discussing who will be their next target, a kobold playing who blinks first loses with a cowfolk, an imp and his goblin friend being spooked by a changeling turning into an identical copy of the goblin, a very confident husky-gnoll trying to outdrink a dwarf. The list kept growing until both of them arrived at a park where dragons happily chased birds and cat siths played tag with micefolk.
It was peaceful, Lulu found a nice spot on the grass to sit down while Tenpao kept staring at the many being playing around until his eyes settled on a human man swinging his sword repeatedly with Stormclaw cheering him at each swing, eventually the swordsman began to lose patience and shooed the dragon away. Tenpao's eyes followed the dragon as he avoided taking flight and hid behind one of the many trees. "Does he not have any friends?"
"Do you have any friends?" Lulu said, "Pampkin has been trying really, really hard to understand you but... You're so cold." Her left paw ran through the grass, "Not the kind of uncaring cold but the cold that dulls the surroundings."
Tenpao slowly sat down, a gentle breeze passed creating a harmonic sound among all the leaves. "I don't understand," Tenpao said.
"What was the last time you made a friend? One that genuinely cares about you?" Lulu said.
Adventurer parties always become trustworthy friends amongst each other as the bond wasn't forged over a drink or the need to make small talk but over pain and battle that made the rests in between the adventures more memorable. "Why does that matter?" Tenpao said but his eyes were glassy as he made that reply, once Tenpao refocused he was staring straight ahead at a black snout coming out of a pumpkin. Tenpao gently placed a hand on Lulu's forehead and pushed it slightly back, "I guess forty years ago."
"That's too long!" Lulu replied, her ears flattened but quickly raised up again with the hope of an idea, she moved to Tenpao's side touching his shoulders with her own, "Pampkin can be your new friend! But first, you gotta lose that coldness." She tapped her chin, "What caused it?"
Those words were all it took for Tenpao to travel back, the blood rivers tainting forests, the corpses floating in rivers with monsters attacking tents at night and animals trying to get out of the battlefield either dying to magical traps or being caught and then used to disarm traps. The crimson visceral blood of his sword cut down dreams and dreamers, but even through all that Tenpao battalion fought through until they met the archmage.
A single word coming from the strongest mage of the era was capable of boiling seas, overturning earth, and turning land into a river of fire and sulfur. The screams-
"You don't need to tell Pampkin if it's that painful," Lulu said, while wrapping her arms around Tenpao, "Just remember that Pampkin is your friend and Pampkin cares about you." Her arms slowly let go of the Tenpao. The bird sang songs and the dragons flew the skies trying to catch these birds, the role switched with the micefolk chasing the cat siths now. It was peaceful, there was no war to be fought. "Look, it's Bushy and your bestie Dwelm!"