Saige returns to the town...

“Don’t worry, I can be very convincing! Just let me know who I need to talk to.”

Saige grins mischievously.

“There was this one time that Fennel fussed at me for tracking mud in the house and so I convinced him that Mom and Dad had actually named him Oregano, because Fennel really hates oregano, and that they were just calling him Fennel because they felt bad. I even found his baby clothes and replaced the embroidery of fennel with oregano leaves and showed him. Eventually Clove and Valerian got in on it too and Fennel 100% believed me after that.”

After she finishes her story, she seems to finally catch the last part of Miquella’s words.

“Current issue? Oh! Does it have anything to do with being under this ‘lockdown’ thing? Because I keep looking up to find it but I don’t see anything in the sky.”

Miquella calmly smiles, “lockdown means we are not allowed to leave the city without an escort or prior approval. That is until the threat as passed. Which it hasn’t. There is a lot that happened when you were away. A lot of people have been hurt. Some people have died.” When he mentions the possibility of someone’s death. He begins to space out before snapping back to reality.

Saige’s face drops into a concerned frown before she asks, “What in the world happened? I wasn’t even gone very long.”

She notices the brief change on Miquella’s face, and unsure of what to do, gives him a pat on the shoulder.

“It’s okay though, they’re with the trees now. My mom says that the trees hold the memories of the dead, so if you ever miss them, go talk to the trees and it’s like they never left. I’ll even go with you, if you want.”

Miquella smiles, “I will take you up in that offer once everything calms down. Thank you Saige. But I may need it be excused. I have a few things I need to accomplish. Food is running low here so I am coming up with a plan.” He smiles and nods to both of them. “If you need me please come to the guild. I will be there like always.”

Mari slowly steps out of a tree carrying a large satchel with several flowers and leaves sticking out of it's pockets thrown over her shoulder and her spear strapped to her back. Her bare feet are caked in thick mud and her hands are covered in dirt. She takes a moment to look around and spotting Saige she steps away from the comfort of the tree and makes her way over. "Hey you. Sorry I've been gone. Auntie had me doing stuff. What'd I miss? How'd it go with the orcs?"

Saige waves to Miquella as he leaves, frowning at his words about the food shortage. As she’s about to turn around, Mari steps out of a tree and speaks, causing Saige to jump.

“Oh my gosh! Mari! Hi!” She excitedly gives Mari a hug, barely able to contain her energy.

“Apparently we’ve missed like, so much, because there’s this whole lockdown thing and people died and there’s some kind of threat and the town is low on food now? I don’t really know what’s going on, I had to get escorted back into the city after something started attacking the orcs. But yes! The orcs!”

She claps her hands together to focus on her words.

“They’re so nice! They really liked my stories and my rocks and the candy that I brought, except for one, he was kind of grumpy about the candy but I think he liked the rock, and now we’re all friends and we’re going to have a party soon! We were going to have the party right away but then something was attacking them and they were all like ‘We’re going to protect you and get you back home!’ and then they brought me to a patrol group that brought me back to the city.”

Saige looks deep in thought for a moment before continuing, “Maybe whatever is attacking the city is also attacking the orcs? I don’t know. I should probably go ask someone about it though. Do you know anything about it?”