{-Llewel-}

He didn’t know how he felt about sleeping in an actual bed. Since players stayed at the inn for free, they’d let Llewel and Myr stay with them; they were a team now, after all. He still wanted to go back home and collect what little things they had. Reynneak had promised him that before they went to bed, though something told him it was going to take a couple of reminders to see into fruition.

Only Myr bothered to say anything to Idihu before they left. But it wasn’t long before they encountered someone else—the quest they’d previously spent all day looking for.

A priest walked up to them, a worried expression on his face. “Excuse me, but do you have the time to help a poor man out?”

[Quest: Dove Catcher

Duuzlo has lost the doves needed for the upcoming ceremony and needs your help to recover them. Will you look around Nafrius, find the runaways, and return them all to him for a reward?

Rewards: Access to Emmyth’s Sanctuary, Mysterious Scroll, 500 Coins, and +50 EXP]

“You’ve got yourself a deal!” Zetai decided with a smirk after reading it. “We’ll help you find those birds. How hard could it be?”

Reynneak kept his thoughts to himself on the matter.

Duuzlo gave them a grateful smile. “Oh, thank you! Here, I’ll mark your map with where at least one of the doves have been seen recently. And watch out for Mazel—a little one, but she’s got a playful spirit! I bet she’s the one who’s always letting the others loose.” All he had to do was tap Reynneak’s map for more specific spots to appear. “There should be five in total. I’ll be up by the temple when you’ve caught them all, and I promise I’ll have your reward ready when you come.”

He walked away and Reynneak waited for a moment before prompting, “So, what’s our plan going to be?”

“We were going to have a plan?” Zetai questioned almost immediately. “I kinda figured we were just going to go try to chase down some doves.”

“You’ve got to be nice to them,” Myr remarked, “or else they’re not going to want to come with you. If you just try to capture them, they’re going to fly away again.”

“We’ll divide and conquer for the first four,” Llewel announced. This was, in part, why he was here after all; to make the plans and hopefully keep them out of whatever situations they would’ve caused with their stupidity. “Since it sounded like Mazel is the tricky one, we’ll save her for last. We’ll come back together and try to figure out our plans for her when we have all the others.”

Zetai was the only one to show disagreement, though she was quick to show it really had nothing to do with the plan itself. “How old are you, again?”

“Sixteen. Or I could be two, if you’d rather think of it that way, since that’s how long the game’s been out.”

“Yeah, that just kind of makes it worse.” She shrugged. “But you’ve still got a way better plan than what I came up with, so let’s go for it.”

Llewel looked at the map and then gave them all a direction to go in; each dove was marked with its name, so it wasn’t hard to figure out which one was Mazel and make sure everyone knew not to engage. They’d all come back to that spot once they were done. Somewhat subconsciously, he chose the two that were closest to each other for himself and Myr. He didn’t want to be too far from her. On any normal occasion he wouldn’t, but Zuradu’s words stuck with him, and really he didn’t even want her to leave his sight. He just had to tell himself that they’d still be close in case she needed him.

They all split up to catch their respective doves. Llewel found a higher vantage point for his search, which allowed him to see most of this part of the city. It was a good spot for looking for doves and keeping an eye on his sister, seeing her bribing her dove with seeds. Below him, Ruzlue was creeping through the shadows, unable to learn the lesson Fininri had tried to teach him. But he couldn’t see any doves.

Then a slow movement caught Llewel’s attention—a girl pulling down her hood. Her eyes were trained on him, one a familiar brown and the other a shocking blue, and she smiled. He forgot where he was and slipped, his fall broken by a worn couch and the junk that had been piled on top of it.

She wandered over to him, pushing back some of her red hair with one hand and offering the other to him. “You’re looking for one of Duuzlo’s doves, aren’t you?”

Unable to muster words, he simply nodded. He avoided her hand when he got up and didn’t think about it until she’d pulled it away again. “Do you… know where it is?” he finally mumbled. All of this felt familiar; both comforting him and making him incredibly uneasy.

She nodded. She tried to reach for his hand but he jerked away from it instinctively—her hurt expression didn’t last long before she started walking. “Maybe it’s for the best…”

“What did you say?” A kind of guilt was nudging at him now. He was trying to call upon a feeling he knew should be there, yet came up with nothing. He was letting her down but he didn’t know how.

She paused, shook her head, then kept walking. “You’ve lucked out with this one. It’s the sweetest of the bunch.”

When they turned, they were able to see the dove. It had been playing with a bug before and now looked up at both of them, giving a merry chirp. The girl bent down and the dove hopped right into her hands. She slowly moved to present it to Llewel, and it hopped into his hands once he held them out.

“Be careful.” With that solemn warning, the girl left.

He knew she wasn’t talking about the dove.

He stood there for another moment before the bird’s chirp brought him out of his thoughts. Llewel made his way to the meeting spot to find that, surprisingly, everyone else was already there.

“Now all we have to do is find Mazel,” Zetai said. “Which one of us is going to watch the rest of the doves so that we can focus on her?”

“Can I do it?” Myr offered. No one saw any point in objecting to it, each handing them their doves. One dove rested on either shoulder while the other two bickered in tweets about who got to sit on her head. She giggled and gave them each a pat on the head.

“Our plan’s going to be simple,” Llewel began. He gestured for the map to be pulled up, then gestured to where the mark was for Mazel. “Reynneak will draw her into this alley—there’s a lot of clotheslines in the area so it’s going to be difficult for her to try to fly away. Myr will keep her occupied with treats and Zetai will capture her.”

“What are you gonna do?” Zetai questioned. “Teamwork’s supposed to involve all of us.”

“I came up with the plan,” was Llewel’s simple answer. “Now come on, there’s no use in wasting any time here.”

There was no other opposition and he watched as they all got into their positions. He’d taken up a spot that allowed him to watch it all from a distance, though still close enough to step in if he needed to. Reynneak approached the bird and made her fly further into the alley; Myr called her over with a self-taught call and offered her plenty of seeds as treats; Zetai snuck up from behind the dove and… at the last minute, startled her and sent her flying.

“Oh, come on!” Llewel moaned.

“What? Apparently we both don’t like each other!” Zetai quickly defended. “I was being as quiet as I—”

They all watched as Mazel madly darted around before landing on Llewel’s shoulder. She calmed down, nestling closer to his neck with a chirp of contentment. Another familiar feeling crept through him, one that was gone with a shiver.

Myr smiled. “Aw, she likes you!”

But he was distracted by someone else he saw; the girl, right in the distance, showing him her smile one last time before bringing up her hood and walking away.

“Uh, Llewel?”

“Let’s go bring these doves back to Duuzlo,” he decided, shaking his head. Without another word, he led the way to the temple.

All they had to do was stand there for a moment for Duuzlo to come out and greet them. Myr gave him all the doves and he handed a bag of coins and an old scroll to Reynneak. “Take good care of that [Mysterious Scroll], now! That old thing will help you out later, if you know what I mean.” He stepped back and gestured inside the temple. “Feel free to come inside! I’d be happy to tell you about our savior Emmyth, if you’d like!”

Llewel ignored the level ups acquired by his companions to ask, “Duuzlo, can we talk?”