Karmine guffawed. “Well! If it isn’t my little cousin! How have you been!” a wide happy smile on her face. She then tilted her head. “You know… I completely forgot you wedded into the house of Vran… I guess this makes things a little awkward…” She then smiled good naturally. “But enough about that! How are you doing!” a beaming smile on her face, as if nothing else was going on other than the simple pleasantries between the both of them.

Yesi and the other rangers, alongside the bandits, looked completely flabbergasted by what was going on right now. It didn’t help that a fight broke out near the front of the caravan and the sounds of dying women, both bandits and otherwise could be heard.

Luna’s face became hard. “A lot better ever since I left your fucked up thing you call a family!” she retorted with a little fire in her eyes.

Karmine looked taken aback, but then put her hands to her waist and laughed uproariously, back arched and head held up high, her laughter drowning out some of the fighting. “My oh My! I see you’ve grown a backbone!” she finally said after her laughter subsided. “I still remember when you couldn’t even handle an hour of my light training! You used to complain all the time…” now with a look on her face like she was looking back on fond memories.

“You almost killed me FOUR TIMES!” Luna growled.

Karmine shrugged as if it wasn’t anything important. “How else were you going to get stronger? And you didn’t die now, did you? Besides, it could have been worse, you should thank me for saving you from some of my other sisters!”

“You know… it's funny…” Luna began, looking like she was already sick and tired of this bullshit. “That’s what all your other sisters said too…”

Karmine quirked an eye at that, but her good humor couldn't be contained and her smile returned. “Aww come on… don’t be such a sour puss! Come here and give me a hug!” reaching out and grabbing Luna and pulling her in for a huge bear hug.

“Hey!” Luna exclaimed.

“Luna!” Van said fearfully, still confused about what was going on and what to do.

“AWW you're so CUTE!” Karmine said, smothering Luna in her breasts. “I missed this so much!” she sighed. “I wish you were my real little sister…”

Luna tried to struggle out of the stranglehold that Karmine had put her into. After a while, she remembered a few things she learned from her mother and Ren and began to wiggle her body to and through, moving her legs up.

“Hmm? Luna?” Karmine Looked down confused, loosening her hold to better look at what was going on.

Luna took advantage of that and flipped her body around and gave a powerful kick to Karmine’s face. Like a cat, Luna had wiggled and stretched herself around, then waited to strike.

Karmine let go of Luna in shock surprise, taking a step back, eyes wide.

Luna landed on her feet, then did a backflip, landing back on the wagon near where Van was, his eyes wide from what he just saw. Seeing a new side of his wife.

The bandits and rangers could only look in awe and shock at just what happened, and both sides looked confused, did this mean they were going to fight or…

Karmine began to laugh, her laughter slowly becoming louder and louder to the point it echoed so hard that even those who were fighting near the front of the caravan paused to turn and see what exactly the hells was going on.

“You’ve really become feisty Luna!” Karmine finally said after her laughter died out some. “I can’t say I hate it… if anything… I LOVE IT!” her smile back on her face. “I can’t help but feel a little proud by how much you’ve grown!” looking endearingly at Luna.

“Uhh… Luna… what exactly is going on?” Van finally asked, looking back and forth between the two.

Luna glared at Karmine, but sighed a little and explained. “Van, this is my cousin Karmine… Karmine moonshadow… Karmine, this is my husband, Van.” for some reason introducing the two of them.

“Hello!” Karmine waved at Van.

“Do you remember when I was living with the ‘true’ house of moonshadow?” her voice sounded like she was putting that ‘true’ part into quotation marks. “That was one of Karmila’s daughters that bullied me when I lived there,” Luna said.

Karmine pouted. “Luna dear, I didn’t try to bully you!?” looking a little offended and deeply hurt by the accusation.

“Then I guess that just makes you a natural…” Luna retorted.

Karmine looked like she was struck in the heart by a crossbow bolt by Luna’s words…

“Wait… you're one of Karmila’s daughters? But you look…” Van wasn’t sure how to say it.

Karmine nodded. “I know what you want to ask…” as if reading his mind. “And since you're Luna’s husband I will answer.” she then explained. “I’m actually Karmila’s first daughter. And because of that, Karmila put a lot of money into my birth. I have a little ghoul in me, a little amazon, and a little succubi, mostly because it was necessary to tie all those bloodlines together during my birth. In the end… I ended up as a bit of a chimera…”

“Of course in the end there was no real point to it all. After all, my mother never really planned to relinquish control over her throne. But that didn’t change the fact that she constantly tried to create a new perfect child every time she gave birth if only to have loyal soldiers when we grew up.” Karmine said with a shrug.

“Oh… uh… wow…” feeling like there were many other things hidden in such a simple explanation, though it makes sense she won’t go into detail with so many other people around. “So uh… what brings you here?” he asked, hoping they could get out of this with just some small talk.

Karmine’s smile slowly faded, and she rubbed the back of her head looking slightly put on the spot. “Well… this is… a little awkward…” trying to figure out how to best put it into words.

“You see umm… I’m actually here to… kidnap you…” she finally said after a while, being very honest and upfront with this fact.

Van’s face paled a little, he could already tell the more he looked at Karmine that she wasn’t an opponent they could fight. She probably could take on a dozen soldiers or rangers all on her own with ease…

Luna’s eyes narrowed, looking like she was ready to fight at a moment's notice, despite how unlikely victory would be…

“But I'll tell you what!” Karmine said, her smile coming back. “If you two Surrender, I’ll order my girls back and leave the rest of the caravan alone. What do you say? You’ll be treated very well! I promise you!”

“Sure, until we reach Karmilas place, and then we’ll suffer greatly…” Luna retorted.

To which Karmine couldn’t really deny.

“I’m surprised you're doing what your mother wants you to do?” Luna suddenly began. “I thought you were all about freedom and being a disappointment to your mother. Now you're just like every other one of her lap dogs…”

Van couldn’t believe what he heard Luna say. It really wasn’t like her to say such things, and he was afraid how the bandit boss would react.

Karmine’s face went dark for a moment. As if Luna hit a sore spot. But it left quickly and returned to normal. “That’s… true… in the end, I’m just doing what my mother wants me to do… even coming to this forest was just on the suggestion of my mother… Gleam forest is owned by duchess Rosalyn… so bandits infesting the forest would hopefully cut into whatever profits the duchess earns from here. Plus intercepting any valuable intel from the passing courier or two.”

“But that doesn’t mean I’m doing this just because of my mother… you see, karmila, at the least keeps her promises… and she promised me a Visa out of Alcray should I capture you two... Which means if I do this one thing for her… I never have to do what she says ever again… I… Can be free of her…” sounding a little breathless at the end there, almost as if just the thought of freedom from her mother filled her with awe and wonder of a hopeful future…

“You see… no one can leave Alcray without permission, this is because most people from the outside world would try to hunt us down on sight for simply being who we are…” Karmine began to explain as she noticed Van’s confusion. “So as to make it clear we are good little near-undeads to the countries and nations around the world, we need a visa that proves it if we want to be allowed within their borders. Of course, Tethra and her daughter are trying to make the process more streamlined, and easier to obtain credentials for the necessary travel through borders. But that could be decades away…”

“Should you… be explaining all this out loud?” Van asked after a while of silence as everyone nearby was listening in. feeling a little weird that something so personal was being said out loud, as well as the fact that she openly admitted who was the one to blame for all this.

Karmine shrugged. “As if I give a damn if I help point fingers at Karmila. If anything, I would rather everyone know. The sooner the better! While she’s dealing with the aftermath, I’ll be on a boat laughing my head off and enjoying life!”

“And all it would cost is me and my husband's life,” Luna growled.

Karmine looked a little sad. “No offense Luna. I’ve already sacrificed a lot to get to where I am now. I’m not going to slow down when freedom is in reach. Besides… I doubt my mother would actually kill you…” though the way she made it sound, that didn’t mean it was an entirely good thing…

“Now… I’m going to ask one more time… are you two going to surrounder?” she asked, now looking like she was done playing around, her eyes demanding an answer.

Luna looked like she was going to show her answer with her fists, but Van held her back with a gentle hand on her shoulder. He then looked towards Yesi and Yassan, then towards the front where the fighting had resumed before his gaze landed on Karmine.

“We surrender,” Van said.

“Van!” Luna looked at him in surprise.

“We can’t fight them Luna…” Van said sadly, then leaned in close to whisper into her ears, using magic not to be heard by anyone. “Were surrounded… And use your aura sight… Karmine probably could kill a dozen soldiers easily… And we have to think of yesi and the others… they will die if we fight… At least if it's the two of us we can figure something out to escape. And I have an army in my soul realm, remember? And Karmine doesn’t know that… we can always fall back onto that if worse comes to worst…”

Luna looked like she wanted to argue, but hesitated as Van made sense. Even if she fought and died… at least she could come back in a few months so long as Van was alive… but Yesi and Yassan couldn’t… and she didn’t want to risk the lives of her friends…

She glared at Karmine. “We’ll surrender… but you have to promise us that you won’t harm the ranger’s escorting us,” she demanded.

“They already suffered enough, they are to go free,” Van added.

“Luna! Van! Are you two serious!?”

“Van!?”

Yesi and Yassan exclaimed in surprise. At first, they were ready to fight, bows at the ready, willing to go down so long as they brought a few bandits with them. But their hearts went cold with fear when the two asked to surrender. They had just become friends after all…

Van then brought out his wrists and played with his Vesperia bangle. He then sent a lover’s request to Yesi and a friend's request to Yassan. “I hope you two don’t mind… but I would greatly appreciate it if you two accepted…”

Luna also sent two friend requests herself. And now Yesi and Yassan were feeling a little choked up on what to do.

“Aww… that’s so cuuuute…” Karmine said.

Yesi and Yassan glared at Karmine, but then looked towards the requests. With some hesitation, they both accepted.

Van nodded, thankful. He then moved his hands around and started up a spell. “Since we will be leaving, I want to give you a gift.” he then tied his summons from himself to the rangers. Feeling his connection with his large shadow wolves disappear. “Now my wolves are yours… it may take some time getting used to… but I hope they prove useful to you in the future…”

“Hmm… so that’s how you fled the tree fort so quickly…” Karmine muttered, taking a closer look at the shadow wolves and realizing they were a type of summons.

Van and Luna looked at each other, then nodded. Slowly they stepped off the wagon and onto the ground. Van for the first time having to look up at someone. “We're ready to go…” holding his wife’s hands in his own hands.

Karmine gave a sad smile. “Are you sure you don’t want to bring your other friends along with you? I don’t mind them staying with you until we move you two out.” sounding kind, but also giving a side-eyed look towards the wagon. As if suspicious that there might be others hiding inside…

Van grunted, giving a slight glare towards Karmine alongside Luna. “Your bandits and shriekers killed them all… the only ones left are the four rangers…”

“Ah… hmm…” Karmine looked like she felt a little bad about that and wanted to apologize, rubbing the back of her head with her hand worriedly, but then thought better of it. She then went back to bandit boss mode and started yelling orders. “Alright, you daughters of sluts! We’re moving out! Take what you have and go! Anyone that falls behind gets left behind! MOVE IT!”

With that, the bandits began to move out, Karmine turning and walking away. With some trepidation, Van and Luna soon followed, looking back at Yesi and Yassan one last time before the tree line blocked their sight.

“Boss! Boss! We got some good loot!” one of the bandits said, rushing up to Karmine. “Though we lost about eight of us doing so… Some of those bitches put up a fight, and dragged a few others in with them! Everything got a little confusing, two are badly wounded. But it was all worth it because of the loot!” then as if noticing Luna and Van she smiled. “And a male!”

Karmine stopped in her tracks and turned her gaze to the bandit, two fingers pinching the bridge of her nose. “How many times do I have to remind you, girls, not to get yourselves killed!?”

“S-sorry boss…” the bandit said, looking chastened.

Karmine’s gaze then turned into a glare at the bandit in question. “And the male and his wife are not to be touched without my express permission… got that…” She hissed at her subordinate.

The bandit shrunk and nodded.

After that Karmine began walking again, and the bandits and Van and Luna followed…

As Van and Luna traveled with the bandit group, the women hooped and hollered at their ill-gotten gains. Jostling each other and joking with each other and generally acting like kids having fun. Some noticed Van’s gaze and gave him a wink, others exposed their breasts and teased him. They acted like a bunch of teenagers high on adrenaline and hormones…

“Say boss… where to next? I don’t think we have any camps in this area…” a bandit asked Karmine.

“There should be one abandoned campsite around here. I saw it in one of the old maps we retrieved from the fort we sacked from before. We're heading there to rest for tonight. After that, we’ll head our way out the forest.” Karmine explained.

The bandit blinked. “But… What about our loot back at base camp?”

Karmine rolled her eyes. “We can always get that later. Not like anyone but us knows where it is. Just let me do the thinking, alright?”

“Sure thing boss!” the bandit said happily, fully trusting Karmine.

Van thought it a little odd how Karmine had the trust of her subordinates like she did, even as she dismissed them as being stupid, they seemed to look up to her implicitly. Like an older trusted sister…

The bandit group then traveled for the next eight to nine hours until they got to the abandoned campsite. They then got to work with surprising efficiency in setting up shop, and within two hours the camp was well defended and most of the cabins looked somewhat repaired.

It was actually amazing to watch them work, Karmine’s leadership skills on full display, but looking entirely bored while giving out orders, as if she’s done this hundreds of times before.

After they were mostly done, Van and Luna were given the best cabin, much to the confusion of the bandits. They then tried to figure out a way out of this situation and began to brainstorm. After much thinking, Van had come upon a most unlikely solution…