=-Shiona POV-=

“I… “

We all snap out of it.

“I think I’m fine…”

As we’re looking at Plush he gets back up again and asks:

“Are you okay Shiona?”

“Am… Am I okay!? Think about yourself first! You just had your face ripped off for christ’s sake!”

“Oh yeah…”

“What do you mean ‘Oh yeah…’!? Think a bit about yourself first! I didn’t even know you could take off that mask!”

“Neither did I, especially not after your previous attempt to do just that.” Being reminded of what I did when I first met Plush again my face feels hot and I turn around, not certain whether my mask could hide my blush.

“Speaking of the mask…” He says and picks up the mask which the blue arm had dropped and looks at his reflection in it.

After having stared at himself for a while he puts down the mask, grabs his hair, and pulls it off.

“God damnit! Stop trying to fucking make us think you’re going to die you cunt!” Screams Lizz, mirroring my thoughts pretty closely, albeit a bit more rudely.

Looking at Plush we could see that behind where his mask was and below where his hair was there was a black orb with two yellow lights.

=-Plush POV-=

“So, how do I look?” I ask.

“What do you mean ‘How do I look?’, you just ripped your hair off! How did you know nothing bad was going to happen!?” Shouts Lizz.

“Because I didn’t feel any pain while doing it?” I say, cutting a few corners in my explanation to hurry it along.

I pick back up the mask which I’d dropped and look at myself again.

After taking off the odd I look like I’m wearing a purple onesie, the hood having the red fur which I had previously thought was my hair on it.

My newly revealed head was a black sphere, touching it I could feel that it was made of a different cloth than the rest of my body, and through the black sphere two yellow lights were glowing, most likely my eyes.

Satisfied with my head I look back up, only to see a yellow shape closing in on me.

“Don’t ever do something like that without telling me first!” Screams Shiona, tears dripping from her chin yet again.

“I... Wo...n’t…” try telling her, however it’s hard to concentrate on using the bangle when she’s saking me by my head with her talon like this.

“Ple...ase le...t go…”

“Ah!”

She lets me go, however…

*woosh*

She let me go before she had stopped shaking her leg, making me go flying straight upwards again.

Due to the way I was thrown I had started spinning in the air, not being able to tell how close I was to the ground, but I phase my whole body to prepare to land.

Once I finally hit the ground, or rather once I’m finally submerged in it, I realize that I’m actually able to see now, even though I’m inside the ground I can see through it just fine, as though the ground had become invisible.

Feeling another wave of mischievousness I first have the book grab the mask and put it in its inventory, I then move over to below the others, grab one of them by their feet and drag them a few centimeters below the ground, and let go, causing them shoot out a meter or so into the air.

Once they’ve all landed and they’re laying on their back I come out of the ground again, and the moment my eyes go above the earth I can no longer see through it.

“Enjoy the flight?” At this Shiona screams “NO!” At me, Lizz is looking smug due to having avoided my prank by flying, Charlie looks to be in deep thought, and Diifan and Baom happened to fall on top of each other, so they’re blushing to much to be able to do anything.

I pick up the mask and hold on to it.

“Hey Charlie!” I say, snapping her out of her thoughts.

“Yeah?”

“Turns out I was actually wearing clothes all along, guess that means I don’t need any new ones right?” I say while tugging on the hood.

*sigh* “But we still need to get something for Shiona, she seemed very interested.”

“Yeah, I guess I agree with you on that. Should we get going now then?”

“Sure. Oi! You two lovebirds! We’re going to start heading back to the town, or would you rather be left her alone to your own devices?” She says while performing the gesture with her hands again.

Baom and Diifan immediately get up from each other, faces as red as though some had thrown paint on them.

“Alright, let’s go. And this time Plush, you’re going in the front of the group so that we can keep an eye on you. I won’t make you explain what that blue hand was to use since we’re strangers, but you should probably take it with Shiona on your way back to the eastern lake.”

“Eastern lake?” Asks Shiona.

“it’s the lake next to the city I’m staying in, there’s this really nice inn which is even letting me stay there for free. Speaking of that, which way is it even?”

“I’m not telling until we’re done shopping, but once we are I’ll give you a proper map so you don’t get lost.”

We then start making our way back to the cave which lead to the pickit city, and once we arrive at the small pickit sized tunnel I start wondering whether Shiona is going to have to crawl through it, until Charlie makes it larger using earth magic, and when we get inside of the city another earth cloud floats up to use to let Shiona get down since she can’t roll like the pickits.

Once we get down we then follow Charlie as she leads the way to the person who would tailor Shiona’s clothes.

“Okay, here we are.” Says Charlie.

“Hey Charlie.” Says Diifan. “D’you mind if me and Baom go shopping in a more reasonably priced place?”

“Go for it.”

“Hey, how much is the cost here exactly?”

“Oh it’ll be cheaper for her, since this is one of the few places that deal in non-standard sized clothing it’s the only place where our non-pickit sized inhabitants can get theirs, so the leader of the city pays a part of every purchase made by other species here.”

“Hey, can I also get some new clothes?” Asks Lizz.

“I don’t see why not, in fact I they’d appreciate getting to make some small clothing again rather than wrestle with the huge cloths needed to make the normal things they need to create.”

“Yes!” Says Lizz while doing a guts pose which she hasn’t done in a very long time.

“But then I have to come along too, and I was planning on exploring the cit-” A small bit of leather then shoots off from the book towards Lizz, covering one of her arms and forming small Lizz-sized armband.

“This is…?”

“You’re the one who’s been stuck to the book for years, of all people you’re the one who should know what it means to have a piece of the book on your wrist right?”

“!” She then flies up into the sky, going all the way to the roof, then to one of the walls, and then to one of the corners, and then-

“Well she doesn’t seem like she’s going to be done any time soon.”

“Yeah, in that case we should probably go and order the clothes, if we wait for her it will take too long time. Later.”

They both wave at me and enter the house and I walk away.

While I’m walking I can feel something tugging at me, and when I look down I can see that the book is pulling one of its straps towards an alley, so I enter it, wondering whats going on.

After walking through the alley and taking several turns into even smaller alleys, eventually the book stops tugging me, and a blue note stretches out from the pouch on it.

Notes

We need to talk.