“Alright...let’s get into one of those houses. Lily is cut up and needs attention,” said Gwen.

Lilian grumbled. “You’re just trying to piss me off now,” she replied. “I told you not to call me that. And I’m fine. Besides--”

“--the house may not be abandoned,” cut in Sora. “You hear those bells, right? I’m not sure they are ringing on their own.”

To Sora’s point, the ringing heard couldn’t be from the wind as they currently felt nothing around them.

“I think we should check that out first,” added Sora with insistence.

“Yeah, okay, I guess I do sense something over there, but we’re in Tolkein-land or some garbage,” said Gwen. “I’m not sure to trust.”

“What - you think the bells are ringing aren’t being rung by people?” questioned Sora.

“It’s a world of high fantasy,” said Gwen with a heavy dash of contempt. “The bells may be alive or some shit. Let’s just get some medical supplies.”

“WAIT. A. SECOND.” Lilian stamped her foot on the ground. “I’m not following you anywhere. How did you do all of that with the guitar, Gwendoyln? And what do you mean sensing?”

“Can we worry about this later?” asked Gwen with a shake of the head.

“You said that when we were in the forest - we’re safe now, so spill!” Lilian crossed her arms and waited.

Gwen scratched her head, looking at Lily with a groan since it was clear she wasn’t going to drop this. Her eyes glanced around the area for a while like she was searching for an answer before finally resting back on the frustrated female.

“Fine. I got ESP or some junk. Happy?”

“...what? WHAT!?”

Gwen pocketed her hands and huffed. “I knew you’d make a big deal about it. But since we’re in another world, I had no choice. But it isn’t much - not to say calling myself the Punk Rock Psychic wouldn’t kick ass, but that’s an oversell.”

“So you can sense other people?” asked Sora, genuinely curious. “And was the guitar another psionic trick?”

“Yeah - like I guess it’s their brainwaves or something? And the guitar...well, the most I did was reinforce my guitar so it wouldn’t just shatter immediately. Look, I didn’t want to make a big deal about this. It’s next to nothing as far as I see it.”

Lilian was listening but at the same time, she was slightly fuming on the road to being completely irate. She never mentioned that kind of thing when we were still friends… Did she just gain this? At the same time I had to go through all of that, she became a psychic!? Is that why you started lording over me!?

“Lily? Hey, I was never sure how to tell you about this for so long… Are you mad?”

“WHY DON’T YOU READ MY MIND AND FIND OUT!?” screamed Lilian as she stormed off towards where the bell sound was emanating from.

“What are y-- Lily! But your back--” Gwen called after her, surprised Lily could move that fast after that attack.

“I’m FINE!” And then she was out of sight.

Gwen facepalmed. “Damnit, this isn’t what I wanted.” She then started running after Lily.

“Was she always like that?” asked Sora as he tried to keep pace. “When you two were friends?”

A sigh dragged itself free from Gwen’s lips. “How to put it...before, we were both friends and friendly rivals - encouraging each other to do better in school and other stuff. But one day when we were in high school, she came to class and it...everyone could guess something was off but she wouldn’t talk about it. And our ‘rivalry’ was no longer friendly - she started pushing me away and wouldn’t talk to me at all. I thought going back to encouraging her like we used to would work better than talking since she wasn’t listening...it just seemed to make things worse.”

Gwen then went silent as she raced to catch up to Lily - having noticed she had stopped moving. But as she got closer, Gwen realized she went still because there was much to stop and see.

There was a crowd of beings there surrounding a platform. The area was indented like a miniature valley so it couldn’t be seen from outside the village. The beings were mostly lithe and petite, but their ears were wide almost like the fins of a fish. Gwen couldn’t see all of their hands, but they appeared to be like scale-covered claw-like hands from the wrist up and each had a little bell that was ringing along with the other bells near the center in perfect synchronicity. Their clothing varied, but they all leaned towards greens, browns and blues - and none of them could hide the translucent clear wings.

The heck? Are they elves? Fairies? Dragons? They definitely aren’t human and that’s why I can’t really couldn’t sense them well...

Gwen figured the best person to ask was Lily - the fantasy novel lover since age 10. But the second she tapped her on the shoulder, Lily whirled around to curse out Gwen. She would have...if Gwen hadn’t immediately hushed her.

“Look, I’m sorry, alright?” Gwen said in hushed tones. “You wouldn’t talk to me so I couldn’t explain when this all first started happening. ...I just wanted to help you instead of talking about myself.”

Lilian’s lips remained pursed as she turned away.

“Ugh, will you talk to me? I can’t read your mind even if I had the ability to. What is going on?”

A wary eye looked back. “...it seems like a festival of some kind. I think the only reason we haven’t been heard yet is because they are all in a trance.”

Lilian directed Gwen’s eyes to the middle platform. There were various objects on the platform and most of them were metal and shiny. In the center of it, elevated above the rest, was a statue with four arms. Two arms were out at their sides while the other two were cupped together at the hands. The two beings nearest the platform, placing objects there, stood out for a couple of reasons. For one, they both appeared female and both were wearing white robes that went down to their feet, hiding them. Though this didn’t hide their wings which slightly shimmered with color as they moved. One looked significantly older with black hair; she mostly remained seated as she handed the other being objects from a container, waving a hand over each one. The younger one, also with black hair but much shinier, went through elaborated hand gestures with the objects before placing them down around the platform. It was during the process of doing this that made another unique trait noticeable; the one placing the objects had red claws. None of the others around them could claim such an identifier.

Once the container was nearly empty, the red clawed female placed the last two objects in two of the hands of the sculpture. Then she pulled out something from around her neck. It was a key colored black, purple and dark red; it was the older style of key with large teeth only near one end and heavily detailed at the other. The head of it looked like an eye-like symbol at its center and wings spreading outward from it.

Lily stared unblinking at the key as it was placed in the cupped hands of the statue.

“Yo Lily...you’re shaking a little. What’s wrong?” Gwen asked.

Lilian didn’t look back. Lilian didn’t chew Gwen out for calling her Lily. She only muttered “so that’s what the voice meant…”

The red clawed female turned around to face the crowd, all still ringing the bells. Her eyes were silver with flecks of blue - and they were staring right at the three outsiders without blinking as soon as she noticed them. Beyond a bit of initial surprise, her expression couldn’t be read. The only obvious thing was that she wasn’t looking away.