The further into the forest they went, the less light came from the tops of the trees. The wildlife seem to be avoiding the deeper part of the forest as evidence by their numbers growing gradually fewer. Without their presence, there was an eerie silence and a strange feeling like they shouldn’t be here. At least that’s what Kiki said. She believed all of this was a sign their target wasn’t far away.

A few more minutes pass before something falls out of a tree right in front of them, catching them unawares. The group jump back in surprise and observe that the thing that fell out of the tree was a body, the dead body of what they assumed was a deer. Its body was quite mangled.

Star instinctively held Muffler closer, covering her eyes. “Hey!” Muffler protested, wriggling her head to escape Star’s hand. “I wanna see too!”

Kiki was the first brave enough to examine closer but before she could get near the corpse, something larger fell from the tree again.

It was a giant centipede, far larger and different-looking than the others they’d seen before. Its mandibles had grown somewhat longer than normal, which may allow it to grapple larger prey. Its body color was a red so deep it almost looked black, and the many sections of its body each had horns protruding from their tops, gradually getting smaller along its length starting from its head. The entire body was wide and long enough that it could potentially wrap and cover an entire tree trunk very easily if it tightly coiled around.

Without a doubt this was the bug they were looking for, so Kiki believed.

“So, should I bash its head in?” Gomenne asked as she whipped out her trusty steel baseball bat.

“Its exoskeleton seems pretty thick. We should aim for the cracks in between its leg joints and try to disable it first,” Kiki stated. Knives she had been carefully carrying inside her jacket revealed themselves by floating near her. Though Star and Gomenne knew this was only Kiki’s invisible set of eyes and arms, Muffler had no such knowledge and thought Kiki might be some kind of magician. In such a fight, she knew only she could be of help.

“Star!” Muffler spoke up, “I wanna help the others, so please let me go!”

Reluctantly, Star let go of her.

“Don’t worry! I’m stronger than I look!” Muffler flashed a wide smile hoping to reassure Star before dashing off towards Gomenne and Kiki.

Muffler closed her eyes and took a deep breath for a second. A short sword and small shield materialized in her hands, glowing a bright soft purple-ish blue color. When she opened her eyes, they flashed the same color briefly.

“You guys said we need to chop its legs off right?” Muffler spoke, a strange confidence in her voice.

“Yeah,” affirmed Kiki. “Aim for the soft bits in between its legs.”

“There’s a lot, so me and Kiki will try to distract it a distance a part from its front. If it tries to fight you, hang back for a bit,” Gomenne said looking forward before cocking her head towards Muffler. “Got that, kid?”

“Okay!” Muffler smiled confidently.

“Don’t let Little Muffler get hurt, OK girls?” Star shouted from a tree far away enough that she would not be caught in the cross-hairs.

“I ain’t no babysitter!” Gomenne shouted back.

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The battle plan went smoothly for them.

As instructed, Gomenne and Kiki acted as bait for the giant centipede, giving Muffler ample time to sever many of its legs at one time. Though it began was well aware of their plan, there was not much it could do on its own.

Would it have grabbed one of them with its strong mandibles, the others would act quickly to free their friend from its grasp.

Would it have attempted to call for help from the other centipedes, many of them were too far away or unwilling to get into conflict.

The trio made quick work dealing with the giant bug, with Gomenne landing a hefty killing blow on its head and cracking open its exoskeleton in the process.

No matter what growth mutation occurs, a bug is still a bug.

“Phew!” Muffler plopped on the ground after the battle, exhausted. “That was fun, but I’m starving now!”

Star had already joined back with the group seeing as it was safe.

“Same here,” Kiki nodded, “We should probably head back now. I think the locals will figure out clean up for us.”

Gomenne was posing with her phone, snapping a few shots of the dead creature while attempting to get the rest of the party within frame. “Okay, I think this’ll be enough proof for the quest guys.”

She walked over to the others. “Right, so let’s go. With what winnings we get, let’s go clothes shopping for Muffy and get something to eat.”

“Sounds like a plan!” Star said in a cheerful tone, offering to help Muffler up. “Still, I’m surprised that Little Muffler could hold her own so well in a fight.”

“Yeah,” Kiki agreed. “But Gome’s always been pretty perceptive.”

“I guess I’m a lot stronger than I look. Even I’m surprised!” Muffler chuckled.

“Good,” commented Gomenne, “We need more people like that to join up.”

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As the party well expected, the reward money was not very much. Though, it was enough to buy a couple of outfits for Muffler. They decided to stop by a strip mall in the area before heading home. While Gomenne and Kiki went wandering around to the other shops, Star volunteered to help Muffler do clothes shopping at the women's clothing store.

Star stood outside of the changing rooms to wait for Muffler to try out the outfits they picked together.

“Are you sure you don’t need any help, dear? You’ve been in there for a while,” Star said with concern.

“No I’m okay!” Muffler reassured. Then the ruffling of clothes could be heard. After a few minutes of waiting, she walks out in particular printed t-shirt and a green pair of comfortable shorts. “How’s this?”

“Awww, that looks great on you!” Star said with a smile.

Muffler giggled, “I like it too!”

Star paused to look down at the scarf she had been holding for Muffler before handing it over to her. While Muffler wrapped the scarf around her neck, she noticed Star’s difficult expression.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

Star pursed her lips briefly, kneeling down to Muffler’s level before speaking.

“I know Gome said we would wait before talking about this, but I really need to know. Where did you get this scarf again?”

“My friend Cloudia gave it to me, as a memento.”

“Memento? You mean she…”

“Yeah,” Muffler sounded sad, but did her best to hide it. “But it’s okay. Cloudia’s special and can’t actually die, right? I mean, she can, but she’s still around! Somewhere.”

Star looked troubled, unsure what to parse from what Muffler had told her.

“Muffler, do you know what happened to Cloudia? And what about Kaara?”

“I dunno. I remember talking to Cloudia and the others about stuff that made no sense to me, then I went to sleep. When I woke up, I was somewhere else and I met you guys.”

“Others? There were others with you?”

“Uh-huh. There was Cloudia and my four other friends.”

“Kaara’s one of them, right?”

“Nah, she’s a weirdo. Everyone else is nice to her but I don’t think of her as a friend. But she was there, yeah.”

Star heaved a deep sigh before continuing, “Alright. There’s just one other thing I want to know, okay?”

“Okay!”

Star then pointed to Muffler’s chest. “I noticed your old clothes had a hole in the middle, showing off the four marbles that were in your chest. Do you...know what those are?”

“Uhhmm,” Muffler seemed stumped for a moment, but tried to answer anyway. “I think I remember the others calling them—what was it? Something-stones? They seemed pretty important to them.”

“The Keystones?”

“Yeah, yeah! That was the name! Do you know about them, too?”

“I do. I’m the one who made them a long time ago, accidentally.”

“Ooh-ooh! Then you know about the Dreamstone too, right?”

Star’s mouth hung agape. She attempted to form words but nothing came out.

“Hmm? Star, are you okay?” Muffler seemed confused, but Star quickly shook her head and smiled. Star knew better. It was better reassure children that everything was okay.

“Sorry, I’m alright,” she said with a forced laugh. Star finally stood up and gestured to Muffler to follow her.

“C’mon, let’s not keep the girls waiting. Let’s pay for all of this and get a bite to eat, okay?”

“Okay!” Muffler tailed Star towards the cashier.

Even as they were leaving to meet up with the others, what Muffler had said bothered Star immensely.

What in the world did Kaara do? Does she somehow know about the Keystones, and is that why she wanted to borrow Cloudia? I thought everything to deal with them ended a long time ago.

Maybe Gomenne could sense something was wrong and that’s why she’s doing this guild business, Star thought. Either way, it might be time to get the twins involved after all. Something tells me the past may come back to bite me soon.

These thoughts and many others raced through her mind.