Pen and paper in hand, Nico sat down in the opposite seat of her current acquaintance at one of the booths at the Killrush Korner. Abigail came at her request to be asked a series of questions for an important “quest.”
Nico adjusted the square glasses on her face. Despite having perfect vision, she felt ill prepared to perform the task without all the proper material; it was simply unprofessional. She could see through them very well, although they did not provide any purpose aside from aesthetic requirements for “professionalism.”
“You look like a total dork in those things,” Abigail snorted. The words didn’t faze Nico, being in a completely focused state of mind. She straightened the paperwork in her hand out on the table in front of them.
“Tell me when you’re ready,” she said.
“Do you even wear glasses?” asked Abigail.
“Today is a special occasion,” Nico stated, “So I borrowed them.” Far in the back where no one paid any attention, Foster fumbled around blindly searching for the glasses that were just on his face not five minutes ago.
Nico began to write. “Anyways, let’s get started. I called you in today for some information regarding the witch.”
“Aha!” Abigail exclaimed, jumping up and throwing a finger in Nico’s face, “So you finally realized there’s a witch in that forest!”
Nico nonchalantly pushed her finger out of her face. “Well, yes. It’s hard to deny the existence of a witch when Wendigo nearly tear down the entire village. Sit please.”
Abigail furrowed her eyebrows. “What’s gotten into you today? You’re too serious.”
“I take my quests very seriously, Abigail.”
Abigail’s ears perked up. “Quests?” Realization lit up on her face. “You’re not thinking of going back to the forest, are you?”
“Don’t you worry your little head about that, Abby. Just answer the questions.”
“So you’re actually going back to the-wait. Abby?” Her face scrunched into a scowl.
“Question one: Are there any relative patterns that you’ve noticed in the past three witch-related attacks; excluding the most recent of course-”
“Wait a second!” Abigail lifted her foot and kicked Gwen out of the booth seat. “I’ll answer your questions on one condition.”
Nico sighed. “And what’s that?”
“Take me with you.”
Nico had to resist the urge to get up from the table and leave immediately, leaving Abigail with a stone expression for her all to determined eyes. A waitress whose name tag red ‘Bailey’ approached the table with a jug of iced tea and filled their cups. Nico nodded at her, and she smiled with giddy excitement, going over to the corner of the room to murmur to her fellow co-workers about how she was the first to serve the elf at her store.
Nico sipped from her tea. “… And why exactly do you want to risk life and limb to trek the unknown?” Abigail’s eyes widened and immediately broke eye contact with Nico.
“W-Well, I…” Her face went red and she started to sink beneath the table. “Can I ask you a question?”
“By all means.”
She sank low enough for her nose to hide beneath the table, along with the rest of her blush. “A-Are you going out with that eye-patch guy?”
A shock more powerful than a fully ripened electric pineapple coursed through her body and caused her to spit-take like a geyser.
“W-What?” she squeaked, completely flustered.
“The pirate looking guy!” Abigail repeated, “The one you hang out with so much! The one you let sleep in your dorm.”
Nico’s face went pale. “Okay! We’re done here!”
“What? Wait!”
Nico closed her notepad and stepped out of the booth, Abigail shortly following. “Thank you for coming, the exit is right this way, don’t let the door hit you on the way out, because I’ll be closing it really fast.”
Nico took Abigail by the wrist and pulled her towards the exit. She tried dragging her heels, but to her surprise, Nico pulled her along with ease.
“You can’t just avoid the question!” she protested, “You’re manipulating him into going out with you, aren’t you? You harpy!” Nico had to get behind her and start pushing her by the time they got to the door, but she successfully shut her out and locked the door.
The waitress Bailey, who was watching the whole thing with a stunned look on her face, raised a finger to make a point. “Um, you can’t lock-”
“Shhhhhhh,” Nico whispered, “I’m not here.” Abigail still shouted from behind the door. “I’ll figure out a way to save him from your evil clutches, malevolent siren!”
Later on in the day, Blake came over to the Killrush Korner upon Nico’s request. He dressed unexpectedly formal for the appointment with a black button up shirt and combed hair that suited his attire quite nicely.
“You clean up surprisingly well,” Nico complimented.
“Thank you very much,” he said, signaling the waitress. She came over with another jug of iced tea and poured it into both of their cups.
“Anything else, Master Blake?” she asked with a coy smile on her face.
“Yes, could you put the Orchestra on, Bailey? Thank you.”
She nodded and left for the back of the bar where their record player was and switched the disks. The wooden speakers around the restaurant began to play soothing violin music, and the mood in the entire room changed, complimenting Blake’s attire further.
“Master Blake?” Nico asked.
“I got to know Bailey pretty well these past six months; it’s a little shtick we play whenever I come here. I did it to fool Phillip once. The way he reacted was hilarious. Hell, it’s hilarious to get people to assume crazy things about you when they have no idea about your origins.”
“Phillip doesn’t know about your past?”
“It’s how we stay close, keeping the past out of our lives. Anything personal that we talk about is stuff that happens between us, that’s it.”
“Anything you’re willing to share?”
“Yeah. There wasn’t a ban on guns before we came here.”
“Oh boy.” Nico flipped her notepad open and clicked her pen in preparation.
“You see, as much of a gun fanatic as I am, we had one little problem. And-just between you and me-that little problem was confused as a witch attack.”
“And that little problem would be?”
All the staff stood as far away from their booth as they possibly could. Lydia’s feet slammed the table top as she crossed her legs on top of them. With the snap of her fingers, Bailey quickly came over with iced tea and filled her mug, leaving just as quickly as she waved her away. Lydia was that last person that Nico expected to have been the ‘problem’ confused for being a witch attack. In fact she was almost in disbelief that this was the same Lydia in front of her that served the professor so astutely. From her flowing brown hair that was normally in a ponytail to the casual way she dressed as opposed to her lab coat uniform.
“So…” Nico started, “Apparently you shot a man in the…?”
“Yep,” she confirmed, taking a large swig from her mug. “Never seen a law passed faster. Took all of ten minutes for the valley congress to walk out to me and shove the handwritten bill in my face.”
“What exactly was the confusion about-or should I ask?”
“Well, the witches symbol showed up at somebodies house again-for the first time since the professor and the rest of us got here-and Blake and I went to investigate. Some guy found us at the scene and started going crazy and blabbing some garbage about a witch. Then he touched me, so I shot his-”
“Thank you, that’s all I need to know. I’m surprised they didn’t throw you in jail, though.”
“I had the gun.”
Nico agreed with that statement herself. Even though this little town was miles from normal civilization, it would behoove them to at least equip themselves with firearms. Not that Nico could complain; lately her pockets had been lined with a multitude of vintage appliances and plenty of copper coin.
“So where else have you seen the symbol?”
“That’s it, really. Just that one time and at the Mcfeener’s. Is that what you’re looking for?”
“It would certainly help.”
Lydia’s interview finished shortly, and to everyone’s relief at the Korner. The next thing on Nico’s mind was the forest itself. Too many mysteries revolved around it for her to leave it alone. And if she was going to journey it, she would need an expert on the area. The only living expert she knew.
“I have no clue about that forest,” Phillip said indignantly. “Not a single tree is the same, every blade of grass is different, there is no fungus-it’s a hiker’s nightmare.”
“But you said that you knew that forest like the back of your hand!”
“I know how to navigate it. I’ve only been here six months, so I don’t know much about that kind of crazy, unnatural forest at all. But I’ve figured out a way to traverse it without getting lost.”
“What’s that?”
“The way the grass bends.”
“The grass?”
“Yeah. The mountain tends to block the wind coming from the west, so it only blows in one direction. That way the grass tends to grow on a slant. And the wind generally comes from the valley, so you just have to go in the opposite direction.”
It impressed her that he could figure such a thing out, and at the same time somewhat disappointed when she realized that, ironically, her profession took her farther away from her natural heritage and his profession brought him closer to it.
“Another thing-you and Blake said you hunted animals. But I’ve been in that forest twice now and there wasn’t an animal in sight.”
“Yeah, I noticed it too. That’s the first time that’s ever happened to me. Although I already knew that forest was strange.”
“Huh. So you can’t tell me what that’s about, can you?”
“Afraid not.”
Nico finished off her iced tea, which she quickly began to get sick of, and finished scribbling down notes in her notepad. To her unfortunate surprise, not a single coin was left in her pocket.
Damn you, iced tea, she cursed internally.
She saw Bailey walking in her direction, no doubt to collect the bill. Thankfully, Phillip didn’t notice Nico’s bad habit of shifting her eyes suspiciously when she was about to do something sneaky.
“Well,” she announced with a stiff chuckle, “I think that’s it, thanks Phillip, you were a great help.”
“Uh, you’re welcome?” But she sped off before he could properly tell her. However, she wasn’t fast enough to leave before hearing Phillip shout, “Nicooooooo!” as Bailey came his way.