On our way to Krull we land in front of a large forest, and when I say large I mean large, when we were outside we couldn’t see the end of it whether we looked to the right or the left, and the trees that the forest was made out of were giant misshapen moss covered trees, however both their leaves, moss and bark were a darker green and brown than any oaks I’d seen before, the sky above the forest was filled by dark clouds which covered the forest like a shell, and inside the forest the ground was covered by a layer of mist which couldn’t be seen through with a single raised dirt path which was just a few centimetres above the mist that went further inside,.

(AN): Imagine a foggy forest made of these:

Next to the path there was a wooden sign which confirmed that Krull, as well as some other places, were somewhere inside the forest.

Seeing as the clouds above the forest didn’t seem to be moving we decided to walk through the forest on the ground rather than risk flying where we can’t see anything.

“This place is really eerie, I’m almost expecting a zombie to just climb out of the mist...”

“You’re the half-ghost, you should be feeling right at home here then.”

“Come on, don’t tell me you don’t think this place is at least a little creepy?”

“I never said that, but you have to agree this place is a lot more mellow than scary at least.”

I did agree with her, at first I was expecting this place to feel more like somewhere the grim reaper would have his holiday home, however after having walked around for a bit it honestly isn’t as bad as it looked, it even felt like somewhere you’d want to walk just to think for a bit.

“Shio-”

*zap*

“Gah!”

...Or at least that’s how it felt until small bolts of electricity started to fly at us from within the forest, Shiona was hit in her side by the first one and we both swore we could hear children's laughter coming from coming from all around us when she was.

Now this place wasn’t tranquil anymore.

Now it was just really fucking scary.

After the first bolt had hit Shiona she ate the tiger striped magic fruit to absorb electricity into her feathers, after that we both calmed down since the lightning bolts weren’t doing a whole lot anymore.

But two people who hadn’t calm down were Litly in the bag, as well as whoever was trying to mess with us.

*zap* *zap* *zap* *zap* *zap* *zap* *zap* *zap*

*yawn*

After that we started to hear cries instead of laughter, and as the crying got louder the magic started thinning out before they both suddenly disappeared completely.

Thank god they didn’t realize Litly was with us.

As for me, I didn’t feel any pain from any of it since this was just normal thunder magic, nothing to do with ghosts or anything like that.

A little while later we come across a fork in the road, there’s no signs telling us where to go so we just started following the right side from here on out.

A few minutes and a number of junctions later the forest gets more and more dense, now it looks more like a tunnel made of wood and leaves rather than an actual forest, and now just a short while later we see come across a grey brick wall with a single wooden door and two mounted torches, and as when we get closer to it we see a small hatch in the door.

*knock knock*

“Hello?”

“...”

*knock knock*

“Hello!? Anyone there!?”

Then finally the hatch on the door opens and someone answers.

“...Bloody kids, trying to prank old men by knocking on people’s houses…”

The old voice coming from the other end then continues grumbling about prankster before slamming the hatch shut.

“Wait! Hello!? Are you still there!? We’re a bit short so maybe you didn’t see us!?”

With a *click* the door then opens and we see a grumpy and spindly old man looking out at us through the gap, however when he sees that we’re actually there his eyes widen for a moment.

“Alright, so you are here. Now what do you want? If you’re sellin’ I ain’t buyin’!”

“Err, we were looking for Krull, but there weren’t any signs so I don’t know if this is right, so what I’m asking is if this is Krull?”

“Yeah this is Krull alright.”

“Oh, then can we enter?”

“The only thing you’d enter through this door is my house, and I don’t like strangers so no.”

“What? But didn’t you just say this was Krull?”

“Yeah, I said this was Krull, but I didn’t mean my house.”

“Then-”

“You’re already in Krull, I don’t leave town much but if I remember right you should’ve officially entered our little swamp town a good five or so turns ago, just go back and hold left three times and then take a right, that’ll take you to our adventurers’ guild, save your question ‘til you get there. Now if you’ll excuse me you had interrupted my midday nap.”

The man then angrily slammed his door shut as we started feeling guilty for interrupting his nap, we then turned around and followed his instruction, left, left, left, and then right, which led us to a clearing which lacked both trees, fog on the ground and clouds in the sky, we could even see the sun still shining brightly above us.

In the middle of the clearing there was a building.

The first floor of the building looked like a flattened cylinder, and the floor above looked like a thinner flattened cylinder, so the entire house looked like a giant cake.

And the torches which looked suspiciously like birthday candles only helped strengthen that image.

We walk up to what we assume is the guild and enter it, we’re then greeted by an intense odour of alcohol, meat, the sounds of gambling as well as the sounds of fights which had broken out due to the gambling, and all around there were men and women who sat at tables, drank large amounts of alcohol, some laughed, some sang, and some cried, however maybe they were to occupied, or maybe it was due to us just being small? Either way no one seemed to notice us here until we walked up to someone who looked like a waitress who had just finished delivering large tankards to various tables.

“Excuse me.”

“Yes? I dunno what species you are but you look a bit small for beer don’t you think?”

“Not that, we were trying to get to the adventurer’s guild and we were wondering if we got right?”

“Yup, this is the swamp town Krull’s adventurer’s guild, but we’re in the middle of celebrating an old local tradition so we can’t do much today, but if you go the way you came, take a left and then a right you’ll come to an inn, it’ll probably be just as noisy as this place so I dunno how much sleep you’ll get though.”

“That’s fine, thank you.”

“No problem.”

Yet again we re-enter the foggy forest, and after having followed her advice the dirt road is replaced by a wooden ramp which lead up to house that’s raised a metre above the fog covered ground by wooden stilts, and through the windows we see the shadows of people getting drunk and partying, but we still enter, find another waitress, and ask her if we got the right place when she doesn’t look busy.

“yup, just go through that door and you’ll find a receptionist that you can order a room from, have a good stay!”

We thank her and she goes to deliver more tankards to the customers while we enter the door she told us about.

“Uuuuh….”

And in that room there was a man sitting on a chair while laying his upper body on a desk, he was crying, groaning, complaining, and generally being a sore loser about how he had quite literally drawn the short straw and had to be the designated receptionist for the night and before we could say anything he took a swig of a glass that looked to contain milk.

“Hello?” Asks Shiona timidly.

“What?” Says the man as he looks up.

We now see that apparently just the fumes coming from the neighbouring room was enough to get him drunk as his cheeks and nose were red and his body wobbled with every movement.

“You two here to rub in how I’m not allowed to go and have fun!? Oh I know something else you can ru-” *crack!* “Gah!”

Suddenly the man fell down as a figure with a creepy smile stepped out of the shadow behind him.

“Sorry about that, I’ll be sure to let him have what he’s due once he wakes up, now what would you like?”

It was the waitress from before, and judging by how she had knocked the man out with a jug of beer she was just coming back after having picked up more drinks for the customers and saw the way he was acting.

“N-no worries, but we would like a room please, we don’t know how long we’ll be staying so we’ll pay daily, and we have our own food.”

“Good, I doubt we have any to spare tonight, but one room will be…”

After we pay the money we receive a key and walk up a set of stairs to a long corridor with a lot of doors, we enter the one with a matching number to our key, Litly jumps out of Shiona’s bag and onto the bed while we put down all our stuff and lock the door.

“So, plans?”

“Well this giant swamp/forest town doesn’t really seem that safe to walk around in, what with all those thunderbolts, so there should be some high ranked delivery quests if we’re lucky.”

“And if there aren’t?”

“Err, I dunno? Look for a delivery quest that’d take us to another town I guess? We’re in a town that, as far as I’m aware at least, doesn’t have its guild master out to get us so we have time to think if it doesn’t work.”

“So put it off for tomorrow? Good idea, see you tomorrow.”

And after deciding on the path of procrastination we go lay down in the bed and try to sleep.

*slam*

“Gahaha!”

“You motherfucking-!”

*crash*

...Though it doesn’t really go that well due to all the drinking and brawling going on below.

“Shiona?”

“...Yes…”

“Do you want something to eat?”

“...Can you make hamburgers…?” She responds while looking up from the pillow mountain she had built around her ears.

“It would take a little while, but I should be able to.”

“...Thanks…”

“No worries, I’ll switch places with C-”

Interrupts Cy before I can fully finish the last vowel of her name.

‘What?’

“Okay, Cy says she wants to watch me cook so I’ll switch with Lizz instead”

Screams Lizz in response.

Says Cy triumphantly.

“Plush?” Asks Shiona confusedly.

“... Lizz and Cy are playing rock paper scissors to determine who gets to stay, and if Lizz loses she’ll give half her burger to Cy…”

x2

Says Lizz almost immediately.

Before they can continue any longer I let Lizz out and take her place in the book, turns out she had been sitting on the sofa in the living room, and on the other side of the table there was a three-fingered metallic arm which had all fingers straight in the shape of paper.

[She used rock twice in a row.] Says Cy before I have the time to say hi.

‘...I see.’

I walk into the kitchen while trying not to think about the spider following behind me and enter the storage room through the fridge.

While in there I get a bunch of flour, yeast, ground meat, eggs, garlic, onion and a few spices, however I almost dropped it all when I turned around and was reminded that there are two skeletal dragons (minus a tooth and a horn) in here now.

I take out an oven plate, preheat the oven, turn on the stove and put a frying pan on it.

I mix the flour with yeast and water and started kneading it until it had the right consistency, I had also put in a bit of salt and some herb for the taste and leave it to rise on its own while I start mixing everything else for the meat patties.

Before I was even finished mixing the meat I happened to look over at the dough and saw that within just a minute or so it had already risen fully, so I washed off my hands in the sink and start putting hamburger bun sized bits of dough on the oven plate and put them in the oven before returning to the meat.

After I had mixed all the ingredients sufficiently I shaped them into patties before putting them on the frying pan and flattening them a bit with a spatula for good measure.

And then something happened that made me once again remember that we aren’t just in an apartment, but that we’re in a magic apartment, as the meat patties I was frying all needed to be flipped within just a few seconds, and the bread in the oven had already started getting a charred surface so I had to take it out while flipping the patties and then immediately taking the frying pan off of the stove.

‘Shit, forgot the toppings.’

[Something I can help with?]

‘Err… Think you can get some lettuce? Big green soft things, look like a big bundle of leaves.>

As Cy walked off into the storeroom I started cutting up another onion and filling the frying pan with a thin layer of olive oil, then I dropped the chopped onion into the oil and had to take them off again almost immediately as they’d already been deep-fried to a crispy golden brown colour.

I then poured the contents of the frying pan into a metal strainer and had a bucket beneath.

It may not be the healthiest option but it’s pretty economical to save the oil for later use.

[Is this lettuce?]

I turn around and almost faint as I see Cy a lettuce between her two most front legs.

She was a lot larger than normal.

She was as tall as me, and I looked like a normal human in here mind you.

[Plush?]

As it turns out I did more than just almost faint.

[I know you don’t like spiders but did you really have to scream?]

I was pretty shocked by what she said, keep in mind in the two or so months I’ve been here I’ve not once made any sounds with my mouth (except chewing).

‘S-sorry, but please don’t sneak up on me like that, even people who aren’t arachnophobic would be scared when they see a spider the size of themselves…’

[...I see.]

‘But yes, that’s lettuce, let me chop up a bit of it and you can put the rest back… And for my own sanity please shrink down again before you come back, I don’t know how much I can handle…’

I turn around and start chopping up half the lettuce into thin strips before handing the other half to Cy while trying not to look at her milk carton sized mandibles before she turns around and walks back into the fridge.

Now then, let’s try…

“... A… Ah…”

I began slowly, like I said, I haven’t actually spoken proper in two months so cut me some slack.

“... Ah… I… Speak… Talk…. I… I can… Talk…”

I tried to last through my feelings of embarrassment (If someone saw me speaking like a baby I doubt they’d do anything but laugh) and slowly became better and better at saying the phrase.

“I can talk.”

[Indeed you can.]

“...”

I take a deep breath and try my absolute hardest not to let any of the not so friendly words I’m thinking get loud enough for anyone to hear me as I turn around and see that a still giant Cy has been standing behind me and both listened and watched me rehabilitate myself.

“You...You… Please, don’t, do, that….”

Now the reason I was talking weirdly wasn’t that I was unable to talk, but rather due to my suddenly re-existing heart beating so hard I would’ve thought I’d just ran a marathon.

[Sorry. Are the burgers ready?]

“C-can you shrink again?”

[Fine.]

And as she said that she did indeed start shrinking back down to a manageable size again, however it was now the size of a tarantula instead of the finger thumb sized spider she was before, probably to be able to eat the hamburger better.

“Thank you, I’ll leave two burgers here for you and Lizz as well as some toppings, you put them between the meat patty and the bread and then eat it like a sandwich… Have you ever had a sandwich?”

[Yes, now go back outside, Elizabeth has been having a nervous breakdown ever since I refused another match in r.p.s.]

I follow Cy’s advice and go back outside, I then share a few burgers with Shiona and apologise for them being a bit burnt while trying to ignore Lizz crying and complaining about how the half a burger she was allowed to eat was only enough to make her even hungrier than before as Shiona and I were finally able to sleep due to the people bellowing quieting down.

Some had probably left, some had probably fainted due to the alcohol, and some had probably fainted due to the fights which were caused by the alcohol.