Laurel

Gaheris bolts up in bed, the world seeming to spin a little from the blood rushing to her head. She gasps and pants hard, trying to catch her bearings, cold sweat pouring down her back. Luckily, it seems like all that was nothing, just a dream. The guy in the dream, though, was so... So, familiar. Just a bit off, as if she were looking into a distorted image on the surface of some water. And... Gareth? What about her twin?  She wipes the sweat from her face, trying not to think too hard about it; after all, it was a dream. Nothing more, just a one-off dream. She stretches and sits up in her bed, feeling fully awake. Everyone else, however, seems to be in various stages of sleeping, so she's a bit before the curve, she guesses. Outside, it seems to just be the very break of dawn. It’s quiet and still, and the taste of the cool morning air invigorates her. 

What a strange dream. Who was that? No reason to think about it now, though. Maybe she should check out the jobs before everyone wakes up? She’ll have to pass through the training grounds… that should be okay. Nobody will be training at this hour, right? She carefully slides out of her bed, quietly dressing herself in her cute new clothes and taking her gear from the cubby under her bed, trying her best not to wake anyone up. Since she’ll be paired with Medusa, she figures that she’ll look for jobs that both of them can do together! She readies herself for the weather outside, which borders on the edge of chilly so early in the morning.

When she leaves the dorm, she’s at first sure she was right— but, not so, after a little more looking. There’s only one person out training right now; that girl that was in front of Jason’s door, the one that scolded Circe. She’s seemingly training her spells. Maybe it’s best to ignore her for now? Don’t want to cause a problem… She tip-toes into the main hall, without alerting Medea of her presence. It is still just as large and imposing as it was yesterday, even in the calm early morning. Her footsteps echo softly as they click on the tile. Gods, the world is so different now. 

Inside, there, predictably, is nobody. When she walks up to the boards, there’s quite a few choices: One page displays a strong-looking outlaw, another shows a frightening drawing of some monster somewhere, and other ones that seem out of their league. Her eyes are drawn to the board with missing people descriptions. There’s a few here. One claims their child was kidnapped by a strange man who appears to be a linked, about 24 years old, and apparently mentally disturbed and violent. She wonders if they could take him on? He might be too tough, but everyone starts somewhere, right? And saving a kid… she feels like she sort of has to. Gawain would have, Bedivere would have, Artura would have! She clenches her first with determination, and pulls the piece of papyrus from the board. After hastily stuffing it under her waistband, she tries to sneak back into the women’s dorms. It take a bit of effort, is that girl still out there? She goes to Medusa’s bedside and shakes her a little. They’ve got some work to do!  

“Hey Medusa. I got a guy from the board! He looks tough, but we can do it!” She whispers to Medusa as she shakes her. Medusa is somewhat slowly roused from her sleep, and looks around. 

“Huh…? Oh… right. Um, show me him…” she takes the paper from Gaheris’ hands and looks over it. She grimaces a little bit at the contents of it.
“Um. He does sound kind of tough.” She mumbles. Then, she shakes her head and gathers herself. “But… I think we. Um, maybe could beat him. And trying is better than not trying.”

“I’m glad you’re on board!” She beams widely and quickly pulls her bag from it's new usual spot, maybe her phone will help! Everyone has started to wake up since she left, it seems, and all are heading to the dining hall. Do they have breakfast here? Damn, they really treat the guild well, she would have rushed out the door by now! Just as they’re about to get up to get going, a familiar voice is heard: 

“Alright, girls! Wake up, get your food, and work hard!” She cheers— it’s Circe again, waking up the stragglers. And it certainly does work. Medusa stands and changes into her normal clothing, and soon after, the two head off to the dining hall. 

“I’m impressed… having a lot of food is good, though. I bet some apprentices gather food, too… that’s probably part of their work. That’s how they have so much… probably…” Medusa theorizes aloud. They enter the dining hall, and each table has been set with a vase of wine. Back where the food was last time is now a lot of bread, fruit and olives. Pretty light— it’s nice! Gaheris grabs some bread and olives, and some strange fruits she’s never had before. Medusa herself loads up her plate a decent amount, though, not with anything too crazy. The pair takes their food and seats themselves at a table, where Gaheris nibbles gingerly at the new foods.  

“What is this called, Medusa?” She pops a whole garlic-looking bulb-fruit into her mouth, and feels the unpleasant squish under her teeth. She swallows quickly. Not everything is for her, but it was sweeter than any fruit she’s ever had. This land really is full of mysteries... Medusa laughs a little as she eats the fruit. 

“That’s a fig… they’re good.” She simply states, and rips off a piece of the (in Gaheris’ mind, unusually hard) bread, and after pouring herself a cup of wine, begins dipping the bread in it, which soaks it, making it much softer to chew on. Her plate is simple, a few fruits and the bread, though padded out with a few dried fishes as well.
“This place… makes me feel happy.” She says. At some point, as they eat, they hear Circe again, this time from what seems to be an entry to the kitchen cry out: 

“Anyone who wants their lunch kit, better come get it after they eat! Make sure you come get one!” 

They have lunchboxes? That’s so cute! After the girls finish their food, Gaheris skips over and grabs two, one for herself, and one for Medusa.
“C’mon! We don’t wanna be late for our job! The guy could be everywhere by now, so let’s go!” She’s never felt this well fed and energized before a mission! Maybe she should feed herself better… Medusa nods and tucks the lunches away into Gaheris’ bag. As they head off through the large doors at the guild's entryway, on the way, they’re stopped by Atalante. She is currently armed with her bow and quiver, giving her a much more threatening effect. 

“What job did you pick?” She asks. Medusa looks to Gaheris to respond, and awkwardly checks her sword to avoid being spoken to. Gaheris shows Atalante the poster of the wanted guy, tail flicking back and forth with excitement. 

“We want to save this kid! This guy doesn’t seem too bad. After all, he seems pretty young!” Gaheris explains to her, and Atalante nods approvingly at her choice. 

“Guys like that are usually just like sacks of flour. One stab and he’s down.” She gives a thumbs up. “Oh. By the way, if you go to the edge of town, they have a place you can rent a gryphon to ride to your stop. The guild will cover it if you tell them.” She nods at both of them, and then leaves promptly. As the two make their way out the doors and through the city, Medusa seems a bit more confident. She notices Gaheris’ training sword, and mentions it: 

“That sword… it looks, um, fancier than most training swords. Do they… have better swords in the future…?” She leans over to look at it as she asks, and Gaheris unsheathes it, letting the bright morning sunlight glint off it. 

“It’s a hand-me-down! It was both my sister’s before it was mine. And, probably, my mom used it too, at one point. Nothing magical about it, it's just really sturdy!” Gaheris looks at Medusa’s sword, she doesn’t seem to wield it much. Though, even though it's mostly sheathed in a wrap of tanned leather, its golden hilt glistens in the light, anyway. 

“I like your sword! It’s really... Shiny!” Gaheris comments, grinning. Medusa fully unsheathes her sword, and shows it off. It’s beautiful— Ornate and golden. It really looks like an artifact, not a weapon. Medusa smiles a little and lets the light reflect off it. It’s a nice day out, though, it seems some clouds could be on the horizon.

“Isn’t it? Um. It’s my only important thing I own… I woke up with it next to me in the sea. I get the feeling it’s called Chrysaor, but I don’t know why…” she explains as they walk. 

“Oooooo!” Gaheris coos at the very cool sword, enraptured by how it glimmers and gleams. “One day, you have to let me try it out!” She smiles super wide as they make their way to the edge of town. Gaheris can’t see Medusa hurting a fly, but maybe this mission will prove her strength! Soon, the two get to the edge of town, and come upon a stable. Is this the place Atalante was talking about? There’s an older man standing outside. Naturally, Gaheris tries to hail the man as they approach.  
“Hello! Uh..are you the guy in charge of steeds? We’re from the Argo Guild!” She thinks about her words and whispers over to Medusa. “I hope this is the right guy. I don’t exactly have gryphon money on me...” Medusa silently agrees. 

The man looks up. “Argo guild? Can do. Come over here.” He says, and waves them towards him. He brings them into the stable and shows them a rather large gryphon, which stares at them curiously. Medusa seems a little uneasy.
“This is one of the ones I set aside for you guild kids. Treat him well.” He says as he opens the door, saddles the bird up, and leads it out the door. Well, that was easy. They have a gryphon now, which stands at attention in the middle of the dirt road. Medusa, surprisingly to Gaheris, takes initiative and mounts the gryphon, with it taking it well. Then, she holds out her hand to Gaheris. 

“Um. Let me help you get on…” She offers. Gaheris is a bit flabbergasted by how such a small girl mounted such an imposing beast, but she takes Medusa's offered hand and attempts to hoist herself up onto the back of the imposing creature. Medusa’s hands are pretty cold, it’s a wonder that she gets any blood flow. Medusa struggles a little to help her up, and smiles when she finally manages to gets on. The gryphon is busily grooming itself, and has some bags attached to its saddle.  
“...Are you ready?” Medusa asks, “you should hold on to me…” She reccomends, and Gaheris gently holds Medusa’s hips... At first. She quickly moves to clutch tightly around her middle, when the Gryphon shakes and bucks a bit. 

“Ah!! This is not like a motorcycle!!” She yelps, instantly frightened. She's already so high up off the ground! Yeek! Medusa laughs. 

“A motorcycle..? Um, well. This is a Lastolan beast. Hehe…” She pulls at it's reins, and it stands to attention once again. It’s so… So... Shaky! Medusa lightly jabs the side of it with her foot, and it begins walking. She sure seems like she knows what she’s doing… do all ancient people know how to ride horses? Uh, gryphons?
“Um. Which direction are we headed…? He was last seen in the mountains, right?” Medusa asks. In response to her questioning, Gaheris shakily goes to grab her paper, wherein the writing seems to describe some mountain that Medusa knows, but she herself can barely pronounce. God, this is so much scarier that when Gawain would take her riding! Medusa looks at the paper thoughtfully, and nods. 

“Ok.. um. Here. Buckle yourself to the bags, here…” She points to some awfully conspicuous-looking belts. “It’ll make sure you don’t. Fall when we’re in the sky…” In the sky?! Gaheris quickly straps herself down to the bags as tightly as possible, and goes to clutch onto Medusa. 

“Don’t you dare drop me!" She wails, "I’m not exactly a bird-linked!! Or a wind god, or anything like that!!” To her overreaction, Medusa laughs. 

“It’s ok. It’s ok…! I’ll catch you, if you need.” She gives a smile that is only sort of reassuring. Then, she leans forward, which makes the gryphon begin to trot, and then gallop, and then run, and run faster, and faster, and faster… it dawns on Gaheris she’s never, ever, ever been on a plane… or flew… or anything!! Gaheris screams a little as they take off, her eyes wide and frantically staring at the world around them slowly become smaller and smaller. They don’t train you for this!! She desperately clings onto her friend, and Medusa giggles at her reaction at the creature taking off. Soon, they’re far, far above the ground, and the Lastolan geography can be seen from above. Medusa takes a hand off the reigns to look at the piece of papyrus, and then confirms the location, stuffing it back in the back.
“Um. We’ll be there soon… but… how does it feel, flying…?” Medusa asks.

Gaheris relaxes a little when she realizes that it’s clear she won’t immediately fall off. She sits up a little straighter and looks down at the scenery.
“It’s... Not so bad. But, you gotta warn a girl! I’ve never been on anything faster than a motorcycle! Or anything that could, y'know, FLY!” She gasps a bit.

“Well… um, in my defence… Flying is pretty common around here…” she remembers what she was going to say. “Oh! Um. Um, is a motorcycle… is it a future thing…?” She asks. The gryphon turns, tilting a bit to one side. Precariously. Eek! Gaheris can't help but shriek a bit, feeling a slight sensation of falling. After Gaheris stops screaming, she breathes deeply, collecting her thoughts. 

“It’s, uhh. It’s like... A really thin horse. With wheels! And, uhhh. Loud. It's loud.” Gaheris fails to adequately explain, and Medusa tries to picture it. How chimeric… 

“Is it… a creature…? Or maybe, um, like a chariot…?” She asks, and Gaheris snaps her fingers.

“Yeah, exactly! It’s like a chariot! But, like, with two wheels in front of each other.” Maybe, she can invent the bicycle! That would really push technology forward a few centuries... Uh, maybe. But, she's not really a mechanic, so... Damn it! It's really like people who say that if they went back in time, they'd invent electricity, or kill the original linked, or whatever... Now that she's actually in that situation, she's kind of forced to confront the fact that she probably won't actually be able to change all of the world's history just by herself. She shakes it off.
"It's got, like... Uh, a box on it that makes it work, using magic or... Something?" She tries, and Medusa makes an oohing noise as she nods, seeming to understand the concept better. She then goes back to steering their flight, and soon, when she spots the mountain, and a suspicious dark area, she nudges the gryphon to descend. It begins to smoothly glide to the darkened area. How ominous. Gaheris gathers herself from the altitude difference as they descend, her ears popping uncomfortably, and goes to unbuckle from the gryphon once they land. She helps Medusa down and straps all their gear again. 

The two gather themselves as quickly as they can, and look around, spotting the same dark clearing they saw from above.
“Well, Medusa, it’s pretty obvious something’s in there. I wouldn’t be surprised if our perp is hiding out there, with the kid.” Gaheris comments, making sure she has good access to her sword. 

Medusa nods. “Yes… our ‘perp’.” She agrees, visibly unsure of what that actually refers to. “The grass… um. It looks dark. Oh, there!” She points to the mouth of a cave. It all seems very spooky, plus the fact that over here, the clouds that were on the horizon are now blocking out the sun, giving a dark, smoky and overcast look to the sky. Medusa begins walking towards the mouth of the shadowy cave, gripping Chrysaor's hilt and preparing herself for anything. As they begin to descend into the darkness of the cavern, Gaheris grabs her phone, and puts on the flashlight option. Maybe she should have made a torch, but this is so much easier. Medusa gives her a curious look, and she huffs.

“Hey, not all of us have night vision!” Gaheris teases, and Medusa realizes that she didn't bother bringing anything to light the cave up, and blushes.

"Haha… sorry. Um, they make potions for night vision, I think…” she says. As they walk through the cave, the distant sound of chanting becomes evident, deep within the cave. Medusa grips Chrysaor even tighter, a little nervous.
“Do you hear that…?” She whispers to Gaheris, who frowns at the noise.

“Yeah... Weird. Let’s try and sneak up on them.” Gaheris tells her as quietly as she can manage. She turns her flashlight off as they approach the source of the sound, and walks ahead of Medusa with her blade unsheathed. The two head closer and closer to the source, soon coming upon a wide cavern. Inside, there’s a man in a dark, leathery cloak chanting eerily, with some kind of glowing green sigil on the ground. It also seems that he’s got a few children in cage-like boxes, who all seem uncharacteristically quiet for how freaky the whole situation is. Medusa looks at Gaheris, as if to ask what they’ll do. Gaheris peeks around the entryway and peers at the huge green sigil on the ground, biting at her nail. It looks really bad, but the man seems to be alone, at least. She tries to remember her de-escalation training, but it’s all just filled with memories of crashing into criminal hdie-outs and beating them to a pulp. Well, maybe they can just do that?  

She whispers over to Medusa.  “Any clue on the sigil?” She asks, and Medusa shrugs. 

“Um. It looks. Evil…” she softly sighs. “Maybe we should just run in and beat him up…” 

Gaheris takes a deep breath.  “Okay, yeah, let's just do that." She whispers, "Ready? Three... Two... One!”  She bursts out from behind the rock wall, and lunges towards the evil looking man, her blade raised behind her shoulder and ready to swing. Maybe this isn’t a great idea, but it’s efficient! Medusa follows her, jumping out with Chrysaor in hand. The man turns around, stunned at the intrusion, and ducks below Gaheris’ blade. He flips backwards, unsheathing an ornate-looking knife... Short-sword? Whatever. 

Medusa stands next to Gaheris. “Did the, um, poster say ‘dead’ or ‘alive’..?” She asks, preparing herself as the man charges at them, blade in hand. 

“Well I’m sure they don’t mind! We’re here for the kids!”  She says as she matches the man's strike with her sword, causing some sparks to fly at the strong collision of the two metals. She swings her sword, matching him blow for blow.
“Just try to get the kids out! I can take him!” She shouts at Medusa, who nods, and runs towards the crates to begin working at freeing the captives. The man growls. Even in the dark, it can be seen that he has antlers of some kind. Before Gaheris can theorize on what his link might be, he strikes the ground with his hand, which seems to call a sort of… earthquake.  Rocks start tumbling from the ceiling. He continues dealing blow after blow, now with the added danger of being smushed by a rock. Gaheris keeps trying to fight, but yelps a bit at the falling rocks, landing awfully close to her. But, seeing Medusa saving kids out of the corner of her eye, she musters her strength and bravery, and tries her best to kite him away from where Medusa is working. Even though she's trying her best to only incapacitate the man, it seems like he's not holding anything back, and it's all getting pretty dangerous.

The man growls louder at Gaheris' resistance. He suddenly kicks Gaheris away with his foot slamming into her stomach, sending her flying. As she catches herself, coughing and sputtering, he bellows out:
“Stay out of my way! None of you would understand! When I'm through with this; when it finally reaches its conclusion... You'll all understand!” He shrieks at Gaheris, who notices that Medusa finally has all the kids freed, and has started herding them towards the exit. But, the falling stones are just presenting too much danger; They’ll need to incapacitate him to get them all out in one piece. As the man once again beings to run towards Gaheris, she fumbles with her phone. Just as he's upon her, she flicks on the flashlight setting, and shines the horrid bright light directly in his eyes, causing him to flinch away and grab at his face. She then takes that small moment of shock to punch him as hard as she can, in the face.

The man howls with a mix of pain and rage at the hit, and grabs his face as his nose starts to bleed. His eyes seem aflame with fury, and the earth below Gaheris’ feet suddenly starts to crack and crumble. Oh no, is this a magic duel now? She’s never really had to use her magic. He’s obviously an earth elemental. Shadow magic has always seemed kind of gimped to her… She tries to maneuver around the place, trying to get closer to the mouth of the cave. The last thing she wants is to get trapped in!  She doesn’t know where Medusa is, but hopefully she’s made her way out. She coaxes the enraged man this way and that, trying to get him to hurt himself with the stones from above, but he seems to be controlling them, if only vaguely. He swipes at her with his blade, his aggression making him careless. Just as he lunges at Gaheris, suddenly, he stops. And Gaheris sees it— Chrysaor, that golden blade. Its shining tip juts out of his chest, and he coughs up blood. 

Woah! The blade is ripped from his back, and Medusa is revealed to have been standing behind him. She wipes her forehead of some sweat, huffing and panting with extertion. As the man stumbles and slumps to the floor, the tremors cease, and rocks stop falling.
“Um.” She gasps. “Is he… did I hit him…?” Gaheris wipes her forehead and laughs a little.  

“Yeah! I think... I think that counts as a hit!” She gets herself up off the ground, and attempts to pull him to the mouth of the cave, but his heavy body is making it difficult for the comparatively small girl to heave him out.
“Ughhh, he’s so heavy! Why’s he gotta kidnap so many kids, anyways?” She groans, as Medusa herds the children out of the cave after her. Not one of them has made a peep, and they seem oddly entranced. 

“Um. Well. I saw some of his writings. They didn’t make much sense to me. Just a lot of scribbles… And books. And unlit candles.” She sighs, feeling a bit silly. “Maybe he was trying to summon something…” She ventures, and Gaheris hums as she drags the man's body. 

“Well. Hmmmm. Maybe you should fly back and see if anyone can come pick these kids up? Unless, you wanna do a bunch of runs...” She suggests, and goes to ruffle the hair atop one of the kids' head, but he just stares at her blankly… Creepy!

Medusa nods. “I like that idea… I’ll be quick. Um, you should keep them in here. Probably… there’s supposed to be lots of creatures this far from civilization.” She clears her throat. “I’ll, um, go now.”
With that, she exits the mouth of the cave, hails the gryphon, mounts it, and is up and off. With Medusa’s exit, it all just feels awfully quiet. Gaheris figures that she should look around, make sure he doesn’t come back to life, or something. She makes a few attempts to talk to the kids, but they’re happy just looking at her and not saying anything. Then, she walks back into the cavern and peruses those papers that Medusa found, but she can't read a single lick of it. Why didn’t Merlin give her the ability to read in every language? That would have made this so much easier. The only thing that really tells her is that it’s not written in ancient Lastolan. Which is… not helpful. Like, at all. She does find some depictions of some kind of weird creature with an octopus for a head, but it doesn’t seem all that relevant. As she heads deeper, she does hear what sounds like… Whimpering?

She whips her head around to the whimpering sound. What was that? It doesn’t seem like there’s anything nearby. It wasn’t the dead man, anyway. But what’s that? It seems like there’s a crevasse in the wall that she hadn’t noticed, and when she approaches it, the noise becomes just a little bit louder. She quickly runs back to the mouth of the cave, making sure all the kids are safe, and they merely look at her, neither moving nor reacting. She sits them down in a row and runs back inside to investigate the sound. After she reaches it again, Gaheris leans down and tries to peer into the crevasse. It looks really dark… and smells sort of… funny. When she leans forward into it, the scent of must becomes more apparent. The whimpering hasn’t stopped, and has actually gotten louder, almost certainly sources from somewhere inside it... Thinking a bit, she grabs her phone and flips to the camera app. Hopefully she doesn’t have to go in, but a little scouting might just clear it up entirely for her. She turns on the record button, squinting a bit as the flash turns on, and sticks her hand in carefully, trying to take a 360 video of the scene.

The flash lights it up, and she finds that it’s actually bigger on the inside. When she looks at the footage, she’s shocked, and a little grossed out. There’s a kid in there, too. He’s tied up, and facedown in the muck. Since he’s making noises, he’s probably not hypnotized…  Gaheris might just be small enough to fit in the crevasse, but it’s really gross and wet, and she might not be able to get back out if she does go in. Weighing her options, she sighs and breathes deeply, recalling all the laws of chivalry. She cannot allow a citizen to go without help! Even if it’s super gross! Especially if it’s super gross... She takes a deep gulp, crouches down, and attempts to shove herself through the narrow entrance of the crevasse.

After some effort, she’s able to squirm through, but slips on the muck and topples down on top of the kid, who squeals in surprise. Oops. This stuff is really gross. It sticks to her like glue. Or, maybe hot silly putty. It’s black like oil, too. Ewwww. She gags a little as she sits up, and moves to pull up the kid from the muck. He seems to be disoriented, but not hypnotized, which is better at least. 

“Don’t worry, I’ll get you outta here, buddy!” She tries to assure him as she slips around for a bit, though, the kid is definitely much smaller than her, and should be able to make it through the exit more easily than she came in. He squirms uncomfortably, and there’s some kind of rag wrapped around his eyes, which seems to be stuck as if it is glued on by the muck. Gaheris figures that it's probably best to just leave it there, maybe a doctor can get it off. After a lot of slipping and sliding, she reaches the entrance again.
“Hey, hey, hey, it’s gonna be okay bud, just, uh, stick your leg there," She starts, pushing him up a bit. His leg catches on the exit. "And... Yeah! There you go!” With a hard shove from Gaheris, the kid slips out the exit and falls to the stone floor with a hard thud. Oops. But, he should be fine— Now it’s her turn. This is going to be tough. 

It’s a bit of a lift up, and the sticky slime makes it tough to grapple. If she could just get a grip on one of the stones outside… She tries to get her arm out at least, trying to grip any rocks, but the slime makes it hard to catch her hands on anything, since they just slip off. She pushes her hand out to try and grab her sword, maybe she can brunt force the crack until it crumbles further. As she bangs her sword on the entrance, she realizes it keeps catching on it. She uses her upper arm strength to try to pull herself up and out of it using the sword as a grapple, and after cutting herself with it a bit, and after much struggling, she finally pulls herself out of the crevasse, rolling on the floor away from it. Luckily, this time, she doesn't land on top of the kid, which is a plus in her eyes.

That was so gross.

She wipes away as much as she can from her now bloody hands, since she really doesn’t want to know how random cave-muck and open wounds will get along. She makes her way back to the kids, with the slime covered kid following her. She places him next to the kids sitting in a row, and takes a seat on the dead guy, totally exhausted. God, she hopes Medusa comes back soon. The kid covered in slime seems to be crying, but she can’t really do anything about it.
After about half an hour of nothing, Gaheris finally hears a ruckus outside. Oh, thank god! Medusa is outside, pointing towards the cave, and a large tanned man, along with a girl with fox ears enter the cave. Who are these guys?

Gaheris stands, and runs towards them, specifically towards Medusa. “Medusa, please please please help me get this slime off it’s so groosss” She wails, she’s been able to scrape a lot of slime off, but it’s not really off that much. She then straightens up a little as the two new people approach them.
“Oh uh. Hello! I’m guild apprentice Gaheris. Nice to meet you! Sorry for the... Mess...” She sighs, rubbing the back of her neck, feeling super gross as she feels a ton of muck stuck to it. Ew.

The man ignores her, but the fox-girl gasps. “Oh! Oh my, oh my, oh my! Is this the very first time we’re meeting?” She gasps. She’s got a decently thick accent of some kind. Maybe Yuwan? “Ah, more apprentices! You apprentices are all so cute!” She clasps her hands together.
“My name is Tamamo-no-Mae, though everyone here simply calls me Tamamo, which is okay, because it does come first, after all!~” She bows. The man, however, has begun picking up children, with Medusa helping him. Tamamo looks over at them and hums.
“And that big man, he is Odysseus. He is…” she tries to find the word. “…not so much a talker!” So chatty. She bounces over to the kids, and then pauses. “Are they entranced? Oh no!”

She turns back to Gaheris as she starts to speak. "Um! Hello, Ms Tamamo! We came here because of this order, and, we found a lot more kids than we were expecting!” She explains as she hands over the flyer, and sees Medusa grabbing the dead man’s papers to give to Odysseus.
“We uh... Killed the guy."

Tamamo claps approvingly. “First go, and you already drew blood! So impressive!” She cheers. Then, she turns to the kids, and Gaheris watches her summon some small, cute purple flames. They surround some of the kids, who begin to float.
“The one with no eyes, can you pick him up?” Tamamo asks Gaheris. Medusa and Odysseus are looking over the papers, both clearly have no idea what they’re looking at. He mumbles something about the library keeper, and Medusa says nothing. 

“Oh! Yes ma’am” Gaheris says, and goes to grab the boy covered in slime before walking back over to Tamamo. Hopefully they won’t be mucked up for much longer...
“I found this one in a little hole full of slime over there, I only barely got out, but maybe there’s more in there. I'm kind of worried.” She explains to tamamo, who sticks her tongue out at the idea of entering such a place, but trots over to it all the same. When she gets there, though, she suddenly transforms into a small black fox (with a loooot of tails) and enters the crevasse. She can do that? Medusa seems surprised too. 

“Do you, um, think she’ll be okay..?” Medusa asks, holding a little girl and leaning towards Gaheris, though careful to not get any of that gunk on herself. 

“Uhhh. Maybe? Hopefully.” Gaheris says as she looks over to the kids and she helps Medusa seat them up on the grypon they flew here on.
“You think she could teach me to do that? That would be so useful.”

“You should, um, ask. I bet she would…” Medusa comments. There’s two new beasts here as well, one is another gryphon with a brown hide, but one is a much larger hippogriff. How cool! The kids are all fitting on nicely. Odysseus begins packing the notes, books and papers from the cave into the bags on the hippogriff. After a few minutes, the little fox returns from the cave, holding something strange in her mouth. She puts it down on the ground and spits out the gunk that got in her mouth. The item appears to be some kind of crystal. Cool, treasure! Tamamo transforms back into her humanoid form, and picks it up with her foxfire, showing it off.

Gaheris looks at the rock briefly, before turning to Medusa. “Wow. Ms Tamamo sure is weird! Let’s get back, before any more sludge appears from this gross cave!” She then struggles to get up onto the gryphon, and holds onto some kids of the kids. Medusa nods, before hopping up onto the Gryphon's back and taking its reins. All at once, the creatures all begin to walk from the cave ounce mounted. Hey, is that...? The man’s body is slung over the back of Odysseus’ mount. The group take flight, with Tamamo emphatically squealing with joy as they fly higher and higher. Gaheris, on the other hand, is sure that she will never, ever, ever get used to this, and clings tightly onto both the kids and Medusa's waist.