The glares that Mera received from Saida and Lissa were withering. Lissa continued to tap her feet and crossed her arms, “So first off, if you did this while we were back at home, I wouldn’t have a problem. But right now, we are on a mission and ‘testing’ these things,” Lissa held up an inert noisemaker. “Without first letting us know about them isn’t good, and you both should know better.” Mera rolled her eyes, “Isn’t a broken arm punishment enough ‘mom’!” Before she could raise her broken right arm, Mela pinned it down, causing a hiss of pain to escape Mera.

“No, it isn’t since you spooked the horses' something fierce, and right now we still have Tyta and Gusto missing.” Lissa gestured around highlighting the fact Garza, Almios and Micah were still searching and settled on Saida. “You also apparently damaged Saida’s hearing a bit.” Saida had been following Lissa’s gesture, and as it settled on her, she responded, “What!?! I couldn’t hear you!”

“I can fix that after,” Mela said while glaring at her sister, “I start on Mera’s arm.” Mera returned the glare, “Alright, I am sorry that I didn’t tell anyone about this, to be fair…” Lissa cut off Mera’s response, “No, that is not how you apologize.” Lissa pinched the bridge of her nose. “I will accept your apology on one condition.” Mera and Mela looked at one another before turning to look at Lissa, “What?” Lissa turned the noisemaker over in her hand, “I get to keep these until we need them.”

Mera opened her mouth to object, but Mela quickly covered her mouth and glared, “We accept, right, sis.” Mera furrowed her brow but nodded, “Fine, fine, take away our experiments.” Lissa smiled and knelt and softly spoke, “Though, I think these things are wonderful ideas, and we can certainly use them when hunting that beast.” Mera and Mela grinned, “Thanks, now if you don’t mind, I have to take care of my stupider half.” Mela said while looking at Mera.

“What! I always got better marks in class than you. Thank you very much!” Mera retorted, staring at Mela, who used this opportunity to retrieve her Focus and touch the broken arm deftly. Mera began screaming as the Focus glowed.

“How long do you think it will take to set the bone and start the healing?” Lissa asked, tuning out the screams of pain. “From what I can tell, it is a clean break and shouldn’t take me more than an hour to get it back to normal,” Mela responded while slowly moving the Focus in circles around the broken segment of bone. “Good, and Saida’s hearing?” Lissa nodded towards Saida, who seemed to be smiling at hearing the screams. “That is a bit trickier until I can get a sense of what exactly is damaged. I can’t give you a better estimate than tomorrow morning,” Mela responded after a moment of thought.

“Can. You. At. Least. Give. Me. Some. Thing. To bite on!” Mera said through gritted teeth. Mela rolled her eyes and looked at Lissa. “In my smaller pouch hanging from my hammock is a leather-wrapped cord of wood. Can you bring it here?” Lissa nodded and walked over towards the spot Mera and Mela had set up and rifled through their packs. Some things in the bag made her shake her head, plants, pieces of metal, chicken-scratch notes, and a cracked inkpot that had started pooling at the bottom.

“Mera, Mela! You have a cracked inkpot in this pack that is leaking and looks like it soaked the bottom!” Lissa turned her head slightly to shout this at the twins. “Damn it!” Mela shouted while Mera hissed loudly from the pain. A nearby flash of lightning and thunderclap made Lissa jump slightly. “I fucking hate storms!” Lissa heard Saida shout before loudly stomping towards her area.

“Have. You. Found it. Yet!” Mera yelled before screaming again. “Not yet,” Lissa replied. The only place she hadn’t checked was in the pool of ink. She reached her hand into the cold ink and felt something hard. She pulled it out and saw it was the cord of wood, “I found it, though it is soaked with ink.” Lissa turned to Mera and Mela. Mela was engrossed in her work, but Mera glared at her, “I. Don’t care!” Lissa started walking over and swung her arm hard to get most of the ink off.

The ink splattered the ground and hissed as some of it hit the fire and barrier. Lissa looked at the hissing and saw the spot, “I think it’s your Aether ink too.” Mela gripped her sister’s arm tighter in response.

Mera just started screaming louder and with even more profanities. Sighing, Lissa continued forward and got as much of the ink off as she could. Kneeling, she put the soaked cord into Mera’s mouth. She bit down with enough force to cause the wood to creak. “Lis, pin her other arm and both her legs down,” Mela asked after nodding to her sister. Lissa did as she was told, wondering what exactly Mela was doing.

“This is going to hurt,” Mela said somewhat soothingly before grabbing a knife and slicing into Mera’s arm at the site of the break. Lissa held on tightly as Mera tried to thrash. The screaming was muffled by the wood. Lissa watched as Mela dug in her sister’s arm and clicked her tongue. “Glad I did this, or bone fragments may have embedded into your muscled permanently,” Mela responded after a moment drawing her Focus again, pulling the fragments of bone back into place.

This went on for several minutes. Mela did not seem to care about the blood that ran from the wound. Lissa wanted to ask her about it, but healing wasn’t her expertise, so she kept her mouth shut. Soon enough, Mela nodded and slowly ran her Focus up the wound, and Lissa watched it slowly close upon itself, leaving only a faint but fading red line along its length. “There we go, the fragments are taken care of, and I can get the rest shortly,” Mela stood and stretched.

Lissa looked at her and then back to Mera and saw she was no longer conscious. “Passed out from the pain probably, don’t worry,” Mela added quickly. “Would you mind carrying her to her hammock? I need to whip something up to help with the blood loss and pain.” Lissa nodded and gently picked up Mera; she was lighter than she remembered. Slowly walking towards the hammock, Lissa took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. She hoped the rest of the night was uneventful, but considering how it started.

Lissa gently set Mera into she highly doubted it her hammock and went to check on Saida. “When I get my hands on Mera I am going to wring her neck!” Lissa turned to her right and saw Garza walking towards the center of the camp with Almios and Micah trailing behind with the horses. All of them were covered head to toe in mud, or at least what looked like mud. “She is resting right now after she got her arm fixed,” Lissa said while walking towards him, stopping about two meters short when a disgusting smell hit her.

“You smell like shit,” Lissa quickly added while covering her nose. Garza’s cheek and an eyebrow twitched, “Yes, I do because I fell into horseshit!” Garza retorted, pointing back at Tyta and Gusto. “Just as we got close to them, something spooked them. I jumped back and fell into mud and shit!” Garza shouted this while Almios and Micah rolled their eyes. “We already told you just walk to the river quickly and take a dip and come back. It will all wash off,” Almios said while pointing to himself and Micah. “That is what we are doing right Micah,” Micah looked at him incredulously before he got an elbow in his side.

“Yes, that is exactly what we are doing,” Micah added quickly while rubbing his side. Lissa raised her eyebrow, “That sounds like a good plan. Just tie the horses off here and go do that.” Lissa saw Almios breathe a sigh of relief and mouth, “Sorry.” She watched them leave and could practically see Garza fuming. “Thanks, by the way,” Mela said, and Lissa turned to look at her. She was biting her lip.

“I know Mera, and I are a hassle some times, well with our experiments and stuff like that.” Mela smiled. “But I am glad that at least you know we don’t mean to be…” Lissa put a finger to Mela’s lips to stop her from continuing. “Don’t worry about it, and I just figured out a way to lighten the mood. I saw some ink-soaked brushes in the pack.” The smile on Lissa’s face was infectious, and an ear to ear grin quickly formed on Mela’s face.

“Oh, this is gonna be so funny!” Mela softly exclaimed with glee. Lissa could already see the gears churning in her mind. “You will need to get creative input from everyone before we fully commit the look to the canvas.” Mela and Lissa both eyed the sleeping frame of Mera. “Though you should fix the hearing damage in Saida’s ears before we continue. Knowing you, it shouldn’t take all that long to fix, and she would be more than happy to contribute,” Lissa remarked after a moment, only to look down at where Mela was and find she was already gone. A surprised scream from where Saida had set herself up told her Mela had already gone to Saida. Smiling, Lissa turned sharply and headed towards the yelling.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Mera woke up groaning. Her arm was a dull ache at this point, and she rolled, almost falling from her hammock. The sudden motion, along with the fading aftereffects of the half-remembered potions, nearly made her vomit. “Well, look who is awake!” Mela’s ever chipper voice grated into the rapidly developing headache Mera had. “How...How long was I asleep for?” Mera asked, laying back in the hammock gripping the sides to try and make the world stop spinning. “Well, it is morning if that is any indication,” Mela replied, hovering over Mera with an ear-to-ear grin on her face. “Can you help me out of the hammock, please?” Mera asked softly, not trusting herself to get her feet on the ground without falling face-first into it. “Sure,” Mela said with a chuckle.

Mela went to the side of the hammock closer to the smoldering embers of the campfire and stretched out her hands. Mera sat up slowly, grabbed onto them, and slowly hoisted herself up and out of the hammock. As Mera’s feet touched the ground, she quickly found the world was spinning even faster now. Mela anticipated the sudden upturn of Mera’s stomach and sidestepped the vomit. After a minute of continued retching, Mera got back on her feet shakily.

Mela offered a handkerchief to her sister, who used it to wipe her face. “Thank you, is there any food left?” Mera asked, looking around for the remnants of their breakfast. “Yeah, I saved you some. Garza managed to catch some fish earlier,” Mela replied after taking the dirty handkerchief. Mera blanched at the thought of fish on her currently upset stomach. “Do we have anything else to eat?” She asked, looking to Mela.

She watched her sister touch her chin in thought. “I think we may still have some bread left. Why don’t you sit down, and I will get you some,” as Mela spoke, she slowly guided her sister towards a nearby fallen tree. Sitting her down, she left Mera to find some food. Mera wrapped her arms around herself and groaned in discomfort. “Finally awake, I see. How is your arm doing?” Mera heard Saida ask from behind her and to the left. “Hurts still, but that is not surprising. I am guessing your ears are better?” Mera replied as Saida walked in front of her and stooped to her eye level.

“Yeah, Mela did an excellent job with them. They itch like crazy, though,” Saida answered after a moment. Mera watched her face as it twitched a few times before it settled back down. “Are you okay, Saida?” Mera asked out of concern. “Yeah, I’m fine, don’t worry about me. I would be more worried about you right now,” Saida added, poking Mera in the arm. “Why did something happen?” Mera asked slowly, giving herself a once-over. “It is nothing wrong with you. It is just your little stunt that made Garza fall into horse shit last night.”

Mera’s jaw fell slack for a moment before she burst out in laughter. After a moment, Saida joined her but stopped as Mera clutched her stomach. Mera clenched her jaw shut and swallowed the rapidly rising vomit. Feeling a comforting hand touch her shoulder Mera looked up at Saida. “He wasn’t all too happy about that, and it took all of us to calm him down. So he may have some words for you since he already let Mela have it while you were out,” Mera gulped as Saida finished speaking.

She winked at her, “Though with your charm, I think he will come around.” Saida then stood and stretched, “I will let everyone know that you are awake.” Mera watched her leave and tried to think of ways to calm down Garza when he found out she was awake. “Did I miss anything?” Mela asked, surprising Mera enough to cause her to jump a little. “No, Saida just checked in on me. Though I am worried something is wrong with her,” Mela cocked an eyebrow while handing Mera a somewhat stale hunk of bread. “Sorry if it is a bit stale, was some of the only bread not completely soaked. Also, what makes you think something is wrong with her?”

Mera took a tentative bite of the bread and swallowed before replying. “Her face, when I looked at her, it twitched a few times. She said it was nothing, but I don’t believe her.” Mela shrugged, “She is a mystery. I wouldn’t put too much thought into it. Did she say where she was going when she left?” Mera nodded, taking more bites of the bread after finding it wasn’t upsetting her stomach. “Yeah, she said she was going to let everyone know I was up. Why it is such a big deal, I don’t know.”

Mela gave Mera a withering look that took her a few moments to notice, “Really, you don’t know why everyone would want to know when you are up?” Mela poked at the healed arm, making Mera flinch away in pain, “Says the person who fell out of a tree and broke their arm.” Mera grumbled, “Okay, I get why it is a big deal.” Mela quickly smiled, “Glad you understand and look here they come.” Mela pointed to Mera’s right just as everyone came into sight around one of the trees.

Mera looked at them and wondered if they had all just been standing there waiting. As soon as Garza saw her face, he burst out laughing. Mera saw Darvick, Lissa, and Micah try and hold in their laughter, but their resolve failed as they drew closer. “What? Why are you all laughing!?!” Mera asked, looking around in confusion. Mela, who was almost fighting back laughter, pointed at Almios. He was the only one out of the group wearing his armor but covered it with his arms.

“What?” it was the only word that passed Mera’s lips before Almios uncovered his breastplate showing Mera her face. Someone had drawn genitals both male and female all over it. She turned to her sister, anger bubbling up from deep within. Only to realize too late it wasn’t anger that was bubbling up. With her mouth open in preparation to yell, she promptly puked all over Mela’s right side.