Another Way

Chapter 17: Darkness

The tail end of the dream she'd just awoken from played back on repeat in Sue's head as she came to, the vision equally unnerving and aggravating. Not only did neither Night Father or that "Justice" entity convey anything of importance to her, but now she was tangled in even more divine meddling, the sort she knew even less about than the lunar deities' spat.

It infuriated her the more she thought about it, leaving her with a scowl throughout the morning. Thankfully, it didn't take long for Willow to show up and perform a checkup on her leg. It included giving her limb a feel with their ear extension curl, finding the result satisfactory.

And with that done, it was time to move onto her plans for the day, under specified as they might have been.

A quick reassurance that she'd manage to get breakfast on her own got Willow to leave her be, and able to start her search. She looked around the village for either the tall vixen or the equally tall Forest Guardian, arriving nowhere. Duckdammit, she was too late, wasn't she? The realization forced her to stop and reevaluate. A pit stop on a nearby bench let her right arm recharge, preparing for what would likely be a lot of crutch wrangling today.

No way through but to ask someone, the awareness not helping her anxiety any with how few beings she even recognized. In absolute terms, Moonview's headcount paled compared to even her local neighborhood. At the same time, it was much, much denser, complicating matters further. Just gotta find anyone she'd seen and preferably spoken to earlier, someone who wouldn't be surprised at her stunts-

Sigh, not her first choice, but they'd have to do.

A couple of eye-catching antics later, up to and including waving her crutch around, she'd caught the being's attention. The cream and purple... badger was taken aback by her nonsense, but took the bait regardless. They slowly approached before giving her a bow, following it with soft growls and whines. Not unlike Willow's speech, but with much more of a keening aspect to it, unnerving her plenty.

Left hand off to the side, focus on her psychics, maneuver it with her right hand, aaaand-

"Good morning, Root. Do you know where Sundance and Solstice went?"

The elder replied with a couple confused blinks as he paused, thoughts catching up to what had just happened. His brow furrowed, mouth opened as if to speak, a few more moments of thought- finally, a response:

"South and east, believe. Is 'Mister' Root. Name, Moon-chosen? Apology... farmhand intrusion."

Mister Root, sure, whatever- wait, farmhand intrusion? Did he mean Lilly?

"Thank you. Could you point me there? And no, Lilly didn't intrude at all."

His eyes narrowed again, as if she'd misspoken in some critical way. In most other circumstances, she'd be at least a bit unnerved by that. At the moment, though, her 'unnerved' queue was already so full that she had to pass away reservation numbers for different thoughts.

'Mister Flamey Weasel was annoyed at her' was firmly into three digits.

At least he gave her a direction afterward, even if the words that accompanied it were unamused at best-

"Grhhmmmm. Name, Moon-chosen? Can use true name. I Her guidance."

...true name? No matter what it was, it didn't matter. Time to get a move on and hopefully catch the two before they're entirely done in there-

"Sue. Thanks again, but I gotta go."

She wasted no time before hitting the leg & crutch, not paying the elder that threatened to erupt in purple flames behind her any mind. His guidance was understandably vague, but it got her somewhere, even if it was just over to the village's edge. The buildings thinned out with every step until she was left only with an increasingly thickening canopy-