“That sounds tasty!” Reysha shouted from the walled off bathing segment, upon hearing the name of the Leaf they were on.

“Why would it sound tasty?” Apexus wondered.

Before she answered, Reysha lowered herself into the bath. The sounds of swishing water and a long, satisfied sigh echoed out. Recken shifted uncomfortably, the sensuousness with which the tiger girl purred causing a wholly natural and, for the situation, inappropriate reaction.

“On some Leaves I was on, they served some kind of flatbread that had a name like it,” Reysha answered.

“I can assure you that our Leaf is not flatbread, this is a planetary world,” Maril said drily, while Recken spread the map out on the table. A couple of rocks were used to weigh down the edges so that they could look at the detailed and coloured map without issue.

“Look at that, there it is,” Maril said and tapped at the Long Way icon on the map. “How did you make it off that remote island?” She leaned over, giving an obvious glance at their wings. “Did you fly?”

“The divine were gracious enough to supply us with a boat, a compass, and directions to the southern coast of Terrostir,” Aclysia explained, drawing a line across the ocean to show their rough path.

“No food though,” Apexus complained. “We almost starved.”

“If you need food, we have plenty,” Maril offered. “Grain grows like grass here, the eternal autumn is a blessing. I hear people like summers,” she shrugged, “sounds awfully hot to me.”

Over in her bathtub, Reysha snickered. People that were so content with their locality that they never experienced another environment, let alone another season, were incredibly odd to her. Although the bath was far from hot, it did enough to relax her into a state where she stayed giggling and kept from snide remarks.

“Terrostir, Elomerstir, Weststir, Maevstir.” Aclysia went over the names of the majority of countries on the map. “I assume ‘stir’ is a word for ‘land’ in the local dialect?”

“Correct,” Maril confirmed.

“Then what kind of country is Terrostir?”

“Recken, you know more about this,” Maril told her fellow villager and gestured for him to explain.

“Terrostir used to be the dominant empire on Tacuitos, some 300 years back,” the man told the group. “Was governed by gnomes, if old records can be trusted. The Golden Fields were a tributary, Maevstir didn’t exist, and when they invaded the small kingdoms where Elomerstir is now, they used up too much of their resources. They destabilized while the rulers kept their decadent lifestyle, then came rebellion, and then disintegration. We still call the island Terrostir, but it's really just a bunch of rubble and bandits, with some warlords claiming the memory of the empire.”

“Usually, they’re too busy dealing with each other, but sometimes a desperate or ambitious bunch makes their way over here,” Maril added.

Aclysia was mildly confused. “And you have received no additional funds or resources from your government to shore up your defences? A warband would strike me as an issue of the entire polity.”

“There’s no government,” Recken told her. “We here in the Golden Fields live as city states. Well, village state, in the case of our little community. Closest you get to a stir around here is Grainport to the north. It was where Terrostir got its grain shipments from. Otherwise we Fielders just live next to each other and help out when it comes to it. No annoying squabbles over who gets what that way.”

“Is there no need to centralize power to fend off foreign invaders?” Aclysia wondered.

“Terrostir only wanted grain, as far as I know, so our ancestors didn’t care,” Recken shrugged.

Maril gestured at the map, “And nowadays there’s no one who would attack us. Terrostir bandits don’t know how to build large boats, so any raiding parties are small, Weststir is too far away to take an interest in us, Elomerstir can’t march through the mountains or the Spilling Swamp and Maevstir isn’t even a real country.”

“What about Wise Shire?” Apexus asked the first of many questions that came to mind.

“Bunch of retired adventurers, no interest in anything really,” Maril shrugged.

While the slime had a number of other questions he wanted answered, he decided that a methodical approach was better to start with. “Can you quickly summarize each of the different countries and unusual areas for us?”

“Sure,” Maril nodded and started from the north. “Elomerstir is the newest of the stirs and…”

“Technically that’s not right,” Recken interrupted. “It’s been around since Terrostir, it was just a small local kingdom.”

“And now it’s a large northern kingdom,” Maril continued unbothered. “Stretches from Stemfield all the way to the border of the Spilling Swamp. As for that swamp, I hear it's overrun by monsters that leave the upper layers of the dungeon in the area.”

“How unusual,” Aclysia noted.

The older woman shrugged, “Not that unusual on Tacuitos. See the Dragonspawn dungeon just west of it? Weak dragons are ousted from it and have to settle elsewhere. Those that fly east or west get killed by adventurers and south they compete with Elektrika, a particularly powerful dragon that’s been there for… ever… Recken, do you know?”

“I have no idea,” the historically literate man replied.

“So only the ones that make it north to the Dragon Isles survive for any length of time. That’s what I hear anyway,” Maril shrugged again. “You’ll have to ask people elsewhere for more information when you get there.”

“That’s fine, we are thankful for whatever you can provide,” Apexus assured. “Please continue, what did you mean by Maevstir isn’t a real country?”

“It’s the only area of Tacuitos that has eternal winter and so nobody sane decides to live there,” Maril answered as asked. “Some people from Wise Shire eventually decided to live out their castle building dreams there or something. It’s essentially just a playground for eccentrics .” Pointing towards the western continent, Maril concluded simply, “Weststir is a republic that shares much of its land with adventurers. We call that area Wise Shire because a lot of seasoned people live there.”

“What about the Church Islands?” Aclysia asked, pointing at the trio of islands in the northeast. “Why does the Church have such a diminished status on this Leaf?”

Recken had the answer for that one, “Terrostir ousted them when it was at its prime. They haven’t been able to really get back into any country since.”

Apexus quizzically tilted his head at the map and considered their options. Because of the Deathhound, they had already decided to seek out the help of mentors and the Church. Taking a gamble on the stance of the Omniverse-spanning organization was in every case more likely to leave them alive than putting themselves at the mercy of Turlesh and his Master.

Over the next twenty minutes, Aclysia asked several more questions. Many of which she only got half-certain or entirely unsure answers to. Recken had read a lot, that much was obvious, but neither of the two had ever gone out of Golden Fields. They knew next to nothing about the Omniverse, not even that much about their own world. How bad that was could be debated. After all, they had a peaceful, local life, while the trio had more questions on their minds than they could consider at any given moment.

One of the questions was about how one would reach either the Church Islands or Wise Shire. The answer for either was by ship, although the villagers had no idea where exactly the common routes were. They pointed at a couple of cities that supposedly had noteworthy ports.

“Alright, I’m done,” Reysha stepped back into the room, clean, and as dry as the wool towels she had been provided with had allowed.

“Then we’ll leave,” Apexus said and got up. The two villagers were surprised by the suddenness of the decision. The humanoid chimera only offered a single question before his departure. “Would you be willing to part with that map?”

Recken shook his head, “I won’t travel up to Grainport to get a new one in years.”

“I understand,” Apexus nodded and headed for the door.

“Thanks for the bath,” Reysha chirped, marching after her man.

“Your hospitality has been greatly appreciated,” Aclysia echoed the sentiment in a more elaborate fashion. The metal fairy was also the last one out and closed the door behind them. The three made their way a fair bit out of the village, before stopping underneath a tree to shelter themselves from the rain as they had a private discussion. “Should we not warn them of what is to come?”, the metal fairy raised the obvious question.

They had resolved to struggle and flee, even if that meant that the Deathhound would, as far as they knew, tear down everything in his path. Even knowing that, they had a moral obligation to try and diminish the impact of their actions. That meant avoiding civilization wherever they could and also to prepare people that they did come across for what was to come.

Understanding that, Apexus shook his head. “If we tell them now, I don’t think they will believe us,” he presented his reasoning. “Even if they did, if our plan worked, it will take the Deathhound months if not years to catch up to us. Eventually they will return home. If we want them to evacuate, we need some people with authority and a plan to deal with the monster first.”

“Much as I detest our lack of options, this does sound like the pragmatic course of events,” Aclysia agreed.

“Speaking of plans,” Reysha kept the discussion on track. “What is ours? Seems like we need to decide whether we go to the Church or the adventurers. I don’t think ya need to guess where I’d rather go.”

“Optimally, we should treat wherever we go as our safe point,” Aclysia thought out loud. “If we can enlist the help of the locally gathered people, that position will be fortified and whatever we do afterwards will cease to matter in the grand scheme of things. Either we will succeed at defeating our pursuer at that point or we will perish and they will not follow our tracks beyond that point.”

“Makes enough sense,” Reysha nodded. “Still though, Church or adventurers – what do ya two think?”

Apexus was quick in his answer. “Adventurers.”

“That’s two to zero, whaddaya say bubble butt?”

Pondering over this issue for a little while, Aclysia voiced her final answer, “Although the Church is more likely to have the resources available, it is difficult to know whether they can move them in place in time. An island filled with seasoned adventurers might just be enough to defeat a Tharnatos class demon…” She let out a very long sigh. “I am unenthused that we will drag so many bystanders into our issues. As it stands, our options are limited, however.”

“Glad that ya understand that without getting bogged down in defeatism again.” Reysha poked Aclysia’s shoulder, just because she could.

“I prefer to maintain doubts.”

Apexus stood up before they could get bogged down in another discussion, “Then we go to the adventurers. It’s not good that we can only hope for the best, but at least we can hope.”