Deku and Ochaco and Fumikage went on their way to the forest. Tsuyu came with them, not to find the hermit, but to look for edible mushrooms that didn't grow around her new village. "Easier than buying them at outrageous prices from the market," she said, hefting a basket.
"You think that the Hermit will be easy to find?" Ochaco asked Deku.
"I don't know. He kind of just showed up before," Deku said.
They looked around for a bit. Tsuyu found her mushrooms, and Dark Shadow found some woodmice, but they didn't find the hermit.
"How do you think he knew where to find you before?" Ochaco asked.
"I don't know," Deku said, a little impatiently.
"I don't mean to make matters worse," Tsuyu said, "but I've been thinking for a while that we're lost."
"Lost?!!!" they cried.
"This is a bad omen," Fumikage said darkly.
* * *
While these events were going on, Denki and Kyoka were going through a village that was actually only about 20 miles away from them. It was nearing the part of the territory where the warrior tribe was most likely to be.
Kyoka was against going into the village at all, but they needed food. And Denki insisted that Tibult would be less likely to get loose in a village. He was a little sensitive after the alpaca had gone missing twice already.
"You know she's too big to be an alpaca, right?" Kyoka said, "I've seen alpacas now. They're small."
"She's just heavy duty," Denki said.
"You sure she's not just a llama after all?" Kyoka said.
"I'm going to pretend you didn't just say that," Denki said indignantly.
Tibult made a sound to match.
Kyoka thought Tibult would be safer if they stayed out in the country. Alpacas were apparently valuable animals, and she must have stopped someone from coming up and stealing one at least 3 times in the last few weeks. She would give them a deadly look and they'd back off. (It might be possible they were not actually thieves. Kyoka tended to assume the worst about village people.)
Denki never had a problem at villages unless he played a song that they didn't like, but it was how he paid for things. Kyoka had not liked bards when they first met, but she tolerated the profession now. She seemed to have accepted he wasn't going to use his charisma to put a spell on her.
Denki took some time to do a little street performance recounting people with old songs. One he seemed to get requested a lot went like this:
Si vis amaris, audeamus (If you want to be loved, we presume)
In veritatis unanimi summus ( The unanimous high-Truth)
Sanat qui facet amoris vulnus (He wound heals to make love)
Quod me nutrit, etiam me destruit (what nourishes me, destroys me)
Tempus fugit, amor manet (Time flies love remains)
Under your spell
This is all I dreamed of
