Another Way

Chapter 39: Homecoming

The sun shone beautifully through the leaves, and Sue couldn't stop watching.

The grinding of recently crushed grass under the wheels of the cart, combined with the gentle ambience echoing through the woods, made for a perfect backdrop to stop thinking for a while. Sue wasn't sure how long she sat there, recovering after the visit to the next village over, just letting herself not ruminate on anything whatsoever. Not knowing was the point; that much she could tell. Along with the fact that, now that she'd consciously thought of her thoughtlessness, its meditative trance was well and truly done for.

Assuming it had been such a trance and not an anxious bind in the first place.

Either way, no matter how little she'd spent thinking in the last few hours, few days, few however long it took for the cart to orient itself in such a way as to have the sun snipe her directly in the eyes, she was awake now. As close as she got to awake, at least. Not full consciousness, not yet, but enough for her to notice her surroundings. And to her relief, these were some comfy surroundings indeed.

The cart almost looked like it had enough space for her to lie down, but only almost. She'd have to contort herself in such a way that just sitting up was the much better option—and that's without even considering everyone else she was sharing it with. Spark lay on her lap, pressing her quietly panting snout into her stomach, trying to keep her aching under control. Her pain was perceptible, but so uniform in its intensity that Sue had unknowingly tuned it out until then.

Thistle sat leaned against her, her massive hat-shaped growth surprisingly soft even as it pressed into her ribs. Beside the little psychic, Pollux was taking a nap. Either that or he was just keeping his eyes closed; he was the sole member of this ragtag group Sue could not know for sure short of poking him to test.

On Sue's other side, Bluegrass was splayed across the length of the cart. Most of his body was hidden under the tarp bunched up in the corner, and his snout rested next to Spark's tail. Whether intentional or an accident, Sue didn't know, but the faint smile the sight brought to her face would've been the same either way. It also would've been just as effective in making Thistle perk up. The girl stretched her mostly hidden body, let out the highest-pitched yawn Sue had ever heard, and... said nothing. Maybe she needed to first link up with Sue; maybe she just had nothing to say yet.

I can at least try to find out one of those things, though.

The Forest Guardian closed her eyes and did her best to tune out everything her sixth sense perceived aside from her invisible connections with others. She wasn't sure whether she saw anything, but after probing the air between herself and Thistle with her mind, she most certainly felt it. More than she'd bargained for, at that. The link reverberated through both of them like a plucked guitar string.

If she'd remembered anything from her grade school music classes, she would've even been able to tell what note it had made. Not anymore, though. Not unless 'pleasant' also somehow qualified, hiding between the stave's lines all along, away from the prying eyes of C's, D's and other G's.

Thistle turned to give Sue a look like she'd been slapped awake with a crossword puzzle, cutting off that thought before it could degenerate further. "Sorry," Sue whispered instead.

The little psychic found the response satisfactory, sitting back down and leaving Sue's wandering mind free once more. Content with examining everyone in the immediate vicinity like the still life they were, her eyes turned elsewhere. Daystar and Snowdrop flanked the cart, having run out of topics to chat about ages ago and now just handholding. Palpable excitement emanated from the icy performer, tangled in so many other ideas that Sue had no hope of telling them apart at a glance—Daystar aside, of course.