(Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 13)

[DracoOmega]

>"Least of my problems."

>"If there are other matters weighing upon you, please allow me to assist. A knight is honor-bound to help travelers in need. Isn't that right, Thelonious?" The goat bleats on cue once more.

>"Just be nice to lay someplace softer than gravel."

>"Oh, of course." She puts aside the bandage and extends a small hand towards you. "Take my hand."

[Oldmansour]

>This can only end well.
>Take her hand, and while she's aiding us, "Sure, why not. By any happy chance, have you stumbled on a big garden out here?"

[DracoOmega]

>This can only end well.
>Take her hand, and while she's aiding us, "Sure, why not. By any happy chance, have you stumbled on a big garden out here?"

>With no shortage of doubt, you take Grapefruit's hand and let her try to help you up. She strains vocally against your fairly modest weight, but she's much less rough than you'd feared - leaning in beneath your shoulder once you give her enough leverage to do so. The journey into an upright position is still painful in a dozen different locations, but you manage it without making too much noise. A fairly sizable puddle of drying blood has accumulated on the stones where your head was resting and you can see some of it soaked into your capelet. Some relatively superficial cuts criss-cross your legs, aside from the enormous dark welt where you struck the ground.
>"A big garden?" she asks. "What kind of garden?"

[Oldmansour]

>And the enormous other dark colorations that are our real problem? How are those?

[DracoOmega]

>And the enormous other dark colorations that are our real problem? How are those?

>While noticeably worse than when you set out on this trip, they don't seem particularly different than they were immediately before you fell off the cliff.

[Hello Purvis]

>"Flowers, everywhere."

[DracoOmega]

>"Flowers, everywhere."

>"Flowers everywhere...." Graprefruit's voice trails off thoughtfully, then she suddenly flips up the visor of her helmet up with a look of alarm. "Surely you don't mean the demesne of the Verdant Demon?"

[Oldmansour]

>Do we know that verdant is a word for green?
>If 'yes', then crack a grin. "Poetic name."

[DracoOmega]

>Do we know that verdant is a word for green?
>If 'yes', then crack a grin. "Poetic name."

>You could certainly imagine that name being applied to a magical gardener who may or may not have been a war criminal, fanciful as it is.
>"Is that a yes or a no...?" the fairy asks tentatively.

[Oldmansour]

>"That'd be a yes."

[DracoOmega]

>"That'd be a yes."

>There is a pause. "I have not set foot in it myself," she says quietly, "though I know where it lies. Why do you ask this question?"

[Hello Purvis]

>"I need to find it."

[DracoOmega]

>"I need to find it."

>"That is a very dangerous place to seek," she says. Thelonious voices its agreement. You think.

[Oldmansour]

>"So I've been told."

[DracoOmega]

>"So I've been told."

>"Yet you search for it still? Despite-" She pauses and examines you critically, craning her neck forward and peering at you. "What did happen to you, anyway? I've never heard of anyone bleeding from stupidity before. Especially this much."

[Oldmansour]

>Jerk our thumb upward. "I had a fall."

[Hello Purvis]

>"The fall helped."

[DracoOmega]

>Jerk our thumb upward. "I had a fall."

>Grapefruit slowly follows your gesture with her head. It seems to take a few moments for it to click, but when she turns back to you, there is a look of great dismay on her face.
>"You fell from the sky?! How dreadful! How- ...how did you even get up there without wings?" Her own flutter slightly.

>"The fall helped."

>"Helped? Helped what? You don't look very helped." She pauses and frowns at you some more. "Are you sure you don't want a bandage? Your face is really red...."

[Hello Purvis]

>"...Just get me to the damn grass."

[Oldmansour]

>"Tried climbing from here. Didn't go so well."

[DracoOmega]

>"...Just get me to the damn grass."

>"Oh! Oh yes, my apologies!" Grapefruit bends down and tries to get in beneath your arm and hoist you up. This is slightly awkward for both of you, and the fairy doesn't have a lot of muscle power, but it still helps quite a bit to have someone to lean on. You slowly, and with much grimacing, make it back to your feet and the two of you start hobbling towards the trees. Thelonious ambles along behind you.

>"Tried climbing from here. Didn't go so well."

>"Then please accept my humblest apologies that I did not arrive sooner," she says solemnly. "Thelonious would gladly have ferried you over whatever obstacle laid you low. He is the most adept of climbers." The goat's reply sounds almost dubious, somehow. To be quite frank, you don't think the creature could bear your weight very well.

[Hello Purvis]

>Just try to keep balanced and moving.
>"...Well, thanks. Ain't worth worrying about."

[DracoOmega]

>Just try to keep balanced and moving.
>"...Well, thanks. Ain't worth worrying about."

>You do your best to keep steady on your feet and not grimace your way back to another painful reunion with the ground. Slowly, you approach the trees and the softer ground beneath them; all things considered, you've moving fairly well for what just happened to you.
>The fairy shakes your head; unfortunately this jostles you enough to make you have to stifle a wince.
>"Your misfortune is worth my worry," she says. "It is the duty of any questing knight to help those in need. If I was too late before, then I must redouble my efforts in compensation. Whatever you need of me, I shall do. Is here okay," she asks as you reach a bed of moss beneath the branches of a large tree.

[Hello Purvis]

>"Yeah."
>With assistance, collapse on it as gently as possible.

[Oldmansour]

>"Okay, then, Grapefruit. If you think you owe me something, then tell me where I can find that garden I mentioned before, and we'll call it even."

[DracoOmega]

>"Yeah."
>With assistance, collapse on it as gently as possible.

>With Grapefruit's help, you settle down upon the moss with only a small groan. It's definitely softer than your last resting place. And less bloody. Well, you'll probably get it a little bloody again unless you clean yourself up, but it feels like the wound on your head has stopped bleeding, anyway. Grapefruit settles in beside you with a look of dignified concern on her face while her companion decides to start nibbling on the moss.

>"Okay, then, Grapefruit. If you think you owe me something, then tell me where I can find that garden I mentioned before, and we'll call it even."

>"Though I am honor-bound to aid you, in this I must first ask - why do you seek this place? It would be loath of me to save you from one danger only to deliver you into another."

[Oldmansour]

>Check that wound with a free hand. "You're probably gonna think I'm a few rice grains short of an onigiri, but I need Yuuka's help."

[DracoOmega]

>Check that wound with a free hand. "You're probably gonna think I'm a few rice grains short of an onigiri, but I need Yuuka's help."

>You gently feel the wound on your forehead and grimace nonetheless. The sheen of blood is thick and sticky beneath your fingers and the area is swollen and very tender, but you don't think the injury is really that severe in the scheme of things - at least as best as you can guess without a mirror. Grapefruit winces in sympathy as you poke yourself.
>Her response to your question is rather more nonplussed. "Yuuka?"

[Oldmansour]

>Bravado aside, would one of those bandages of hers do us much good?

[DracoOmega]

>Bravado aside, would one of those bandages of hers do us much good?

>You doubt the bandages are enchanted and you're also dubious of Grapefruit's skill in applying them, but you'd certainly benefit from having your wounds tended to and properly dressed.