𝑺𝒐𝒏𝒈𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝑾𝒂𝒓: 𝑬𝒄𝒉𝒐𝒆𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑷𝒂𝒔𝒕 (𝑹𝑬𝑾𝑹𝑰𝑻𝑬)

𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 4- "𝑼𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒄𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓"

(Casually adding chapter cover art)

 Naxella decided to start early so she could actually find these Voltaris and succeed. "Uh, chief? I'm going out early. I wanted a jump start on my case." She poked her head into Sorren's office. Is anyone there?" She searched the rest of the building, then decided to go outside. She was met with a crowd of civilians watching something and Sorren trying to stop a fight. She ran over to help him. Three Voltaris. A battle with a human. is going on?!" She managed to break them up."These Voltaris were going to kill everyone!" Someone shouted, throwing a lit torch at the Voltaris, who caught it. "Can you read minds?" She put her hand over the torch flame and it went out. Silence. The human that'd got into a fight had no cuts, just a few bruises. It was Kai.

"Someone explain this, now!" Naxella exclaimed demandingly. "I was trying to save everyone, Nestoris." Kai snapped. "We weren't going to kill anyone, mind you." A male Voltaris muttered. "Agreed, Haviscus. " A shorter female crossed her arms, glaring at Kai. "He attacked us, and I made sure not to hurt him while he struggled." She straightened her posture and leaned on her sword. "Apexis, we should probably-" Another Voltaris stepped forward, only to be interrupted by Kai. "I'm sure you had nasty intent, you vermin!" Kai lunged forwards, only for Apexis to point her sword at him. "We came in unprovoked, and you managed to stereotype us anyways."

She was terrifying. Her eyes were harsh and piercing, staring directly through your soul. "Apexis, we should leave. Now." Haviscus grabbed her wrist. Apexis exhaled, nodding. ..." Kai muttered crossly. spine, glaring down at him. She received an annoying stare from him.

They left, and Naxella felt kind of bad. Sorren grabbed his shoulder, clearly angry. "I'm going to need you to explain your reasoning." He frowned.

Later in the day, Naxella had set off after the three Voltaris. She'd caught up to them, using a cloak and hood to hide her markings. Then she had an idea. She could disguise herself as a Voltaris. Her undereye markings didn't match the Voltaris ones. (So I have a headcanon where Ardoni have markings under their eyes that don't differ from each other if they are in the same clan. So Voltaris have sharp angular ones, and Netoris have swooping and graceful ones.)

Naxella could just follow them, but she wasn't very stealthy. Oh well, she'd have to work with it. She became twisted and turned around in a forest where they had also become lost. Nax followed them by the sounds of their panicked voices. "We've been here several times, Haviscus. The frog hasn't even moved since last time!" The girl, Apexis, seemed to be the most panicked and frustrated one there. "Agreed- Filbert seems to be quite comfortable." Haviscus nodded shortly, smiling. "You named him something as undignified as Filbert?"

Haviscus nodded again, his grin only widening. "Haviscus, take this seriously. If we don't, Apexis will pull a Tygren and commit genocide!" The other guy, Azulis, seemed genuinely concerned, both for themselves as a group and for Apexis' temper. She sighed loudly through her teeth, which were sharper than the average Ardoni's. Nax was up in a tree, concealing most of her markings to stay as stealthy as possible. "Okay, we entered this forest from what I assume to be east of that godforsaken troll-hole. And east is that way-"

"Actually, east is-" Azulis was cut off after cutting her off. "Alright then," She continued after correcting herself, "so we should either head back east or towards the west." Apexis looked up, squinting. in case, Nax didn't move. She hoped that Apexis would think she was seeing things. And she shook it off, strutting westward. Nax sighed through the mask that covered her mouth. confident Voltaris- one carefully picking Frog up off of his rock, the other sighing with an aching worry.

Nax dropped to the floor after they were out of earshot, following just behind them. Filbert ribbited loudly, breaking the apparent stillness that followed the group of Ardoni. After persistence, they made it out of the forest safely. Ever." Apexis muttered as she stepped onto the certainly green grass. Nax crouched down behind a bush to hide, listening to their conversation. "Let's hope that we don't run into any more problematic tourists. And if we do, someone is getting severely injured," Apexis continued walking west, not really paying mind to where she was going.