Glass or Diamond: Fairy's Wish

Episode 34: What Coco Wants

Dawn is quite often considered the beginning of a day, where beings of all shapes and sizes rise from slumber and begin whatever endeavors they need to pursue, from finding food and water to repairing and maintaining equipment, few can resist the first gentle kiss of the morning sunrise. Of course, in a thick forest of trees rising far into the sky, it's easy to forget how bright the sun actually is. There is a distinct difference between nighttime and daytime within the great forest, but it is nowhere near as bright as the desert.

Regardless, dawn seems to call to everyone -at their own paces of course-, and Maerin exits the shower as she walks towards the back. He, too, has recently cleaned himself and is sorting gear in his bag.

Gyrryth is cleaning his spellbound firearms, ensuring they are still properly intact and useable should he need to. He also will check over his vest's many holsters, ensuring his pistols are present when he needs to draw.

Maerin yawns, asking warmly, "Just you two?"

Mury replies calmly, "Lykha's still asleep, and Coco is on the roof."

Maerin narrows her eyes, asking, "Alone?"

The human warrior nods, not seeming to see a problem with that. Maerin grumbles, "A forest full of crazy kidnapper fairies, monsters, and dangers she's never seen, and you left her out there alone?"

Metallic clunks come from above, indicating whatever work Coco is doing. Mury points, replying innocently, "We can hear her."

"So? What if she falls? What if she gets snatched by that... peace... piss... whatever that giant bug thing was called!?"

"The torpesinect?" asks Gyrryth.

"I think she means the Paestokker," replies Murtoa of Lakia.

"EITHER ONE!" snaps Maerin. She quickly catches herself, remembering they just said Lykha was still asleep. It's been a few days since the adventure, but Lykha is and will likely always be the heaviest sleeper among them. Given that she's a rather novice magic-user, it's understandable, so that she can recover both her physical and spiritual stamina.

Murtoa replies, "Paestokkers are fairly rare. I wouldn't expect to see another one so soon. And, torpesinects are extremely noisy, especially in the forest."

"SO!? Is that any excuse to leave a teen girl outside all by herself?"

Murtoa is silent for a moment. Though, once upon a time, he told everyone that he's not responsible for them, more than once he's proven that he's come to care about the team, from facing the dragon-thing and the paladins, to simply asking Maerin to join them -and then rescuing her from a tribe of wishless fairies just like her-. Maybe Mury has some deep-seated feeling of 'no one left behind' mentality from his youthful days as a soldier, but he's not heartless. He rises to his feet, saying as he walks, "She insisted she wouldn't need help right now."

The fairy walks alongside him, still drying her hair with her towel. "She was probably afraid you'd drag her into a bath again. Speaking of..."

"We'll give her a chance. Maintenance is messy w-..."

"LOOK OUT!" calls out a young teen's voice mere moments before a dark, viscous liquid dumps on both Mury and Maerin from above as they're exiting the vehicle. A bucket clangs on the hull of the trunk winder, but it doesn't fall.

Murtoa and Maerin stand frozen for a long moment as they process what just happened. They've both been soaked in foul-smelling fluid. They slowly glance at each other, and then up at the roof of the vehicle, where a teenage techromancer with cutely-curled horns mostly-hidden by her hair and a broad-brimmed sun-hat-like helmet is staring down at them.