Tala

With Akame by her side, Tala walked back to the Town of Beginnings. She didn't care if she was out later than she should have been at this point. The walk was going to help her with her thoughts. She failed everyone. Everyone. She probably failed her parents too by even joining this game. That was another painful thought that hurt her soul. She sighed lightly, and just kept walking. She needed to fix things, and she was going to. Perhaps, she should take her brother's advice and talk to Yuki first. That might make things a little easier when going to talk to Koga again? Possibly. She didn't know which one of them she hurt more, Yukiro or Koga. She hurt them both, but it was her brother who was willing to give up on everything just to be hers. That didn't make sense to her. She didn't want her brother for her, she just didn't want to see him hurt, again. Noctua has already hurt him now, and there could be a chance that she would hurt him again. But, at the same time, it wasn't Noctua who had made her disappearance hurt, it had been Tala.

As she crossed into the safe zone of the town, she nodded lightly as she walked to her shop. She knew what she had to do, and she was going to start with Yukiro.

Thread Summary:

She had planned on just walking back to the village, but when she left the woods, she saw that it was already almost sun down. How had she been in there for so long without actually realizing it? How hard did she actually get hit in the head then? These were all questions that she had to shove to the side as she raced time back to the village. As the village seemed to get closer to her, her pace seemed to quicken from a run, to a full on sprint. She didn't want to be the reason that all the NPCs died, that wouldn't sit well with her at all, and she knew that others might be upset that it had happened as well. So, she wanted to complete this, she wanted to be able to say that she didn't fail. She didn't want to fail this village like she had failed her friends and family. She came to a skidding halt as she thought that, she did fail them all, didn't she?

She shook her head and walked into the village and over to the NPC, pulling the Nepent Ovule from her pocket. "This is for you all. I hope you all get better soon." She didn't really wait for any kind of thanks from the NPC, she didn't deserve it right now, and she knew it. Instead, she had new things to think about. She completely ignored the quest completion reward, she didn't care about that really, not right now at least. She'd take care of that later.

She didn't want to give the Nepent Variant a moment to hit her, so she pushed herself back to her feet quickly, and moments later was charging the Nepent Variant. Her katana's blade was already glowing teal by the time that she hit the Nepent Variant. She watched as it quickly dropped to zero health, and vanished in a cloud of red. But, that was what she wanted. She watched as something fell to the ground from the monster, and she picked it up. Reading the information on it, she smiled as she sheathed her katana and pocketing the item. "We found it Akame, let's get this back to the villagers, shall we?" She turned and started to walk out of the wooded area, the game no longer playing jokes with her and letting her leave the area behind her with a triumphant smile on her face. But that smile didn't last long, how much longer did the villagers have? That single thought killed her smile, and made her start running.

It hadn't taken long to find that Nepent Variant. In fact, it was easy to find, all because of the red bulb on it's head. Tala was starting to think that that was where the quest item came from, so she was going to not hit the Nepent Variant there this time. That might be a better option for finding this thing that she needed for the village. Of course, because she was focusing on not hitting that spot, she ended up charging her sword art, and missing, all because she went a little too wide to the left. Funny how things like that happened.

The Nepent Variant though, well, it didn't miss. She tried to move to avoid the attack from the vine, but wasn't fast enough, for once. Now, she wasn't hit in the head this time, but the leg, which ended up tripping her. She stared at the ground, and just sighed. She was starting to get a little fed up with this variant thing, even if it wasn't the same one. Was this how Koga felt each time that she messed with one of his relationships? Talk about an odd time to have a revelation on her wrong doings.

Akame alerted her to the Nepents that had been found. There was a low growl, and Tala looked to see them. Her vision was better now, and she was slightly aggravated that she had to do this again, so here she was, charging a sword art. If she killed these two faster, that meant finding the Nepent Variant faster, which meant a faster chance at finding the Ovule that she needed. She let the attack go, watching as it hit both Nepents. One moment, they were in front of her, and the next moment, they were red dust that were being blown away with the breeze. Tala sheathed her katana once more and looked at Akame, "Let's fine that variant and get this item and get out of here, hopefully." She wasn't fully trusting her luck at this point, and Akame could tell. The wolf just sneezed and walked forward, hunting down the variant that should have been drawn to the death of the regular nepents.

She was walking quietly behind Akame, the hit to her head seeming to have brought forward some of the horrible things that she has done in the past once more. She lightly rubbed the back of her head, just watching her mistakes flash before her eyes as if she were watching a movie. But the biggest mistakes weren't going away. Taking Noctua's note. Not messaging Yuki or Koga. Basically destroying her brother beyond her being able to help him. She really hoped that he was going to take his own advice, and attempt to actually talk to her. But, Koga was just as stubborn as Tala, if not worse, so that probably hasn't happened.

She thought of Yuki, and she knew right then what she had to do. But to be able to do that, she needed to finish this quest. She was going to drag him out to kill something with her, she just had to find the words. Perhaps, if she gets hit in the head again, that might just help her find the words. Hopeless humor, she had to find something to keep herself sane right now. Mainly because she just killed the things that she needed to kill, only to not get the item that she needed. Yeah, that was definitely her luck.

Blurry vision made it hard for her to be able to dodge the next attack that hit Tala. But at least, this one barely took a scratch off of her health. The scratches that were on her arms and the like, well, that was a different story. Those would fade with time probably. The Nepent Variant seemed to be getting ready for Tala's next attack, and that only seemed to serve to piss the girl off a little more. So, she charged her sword art once more, and focused on the Nepent Variant. When she let the attack go, she hit, and she watched as the Nepent Variant died.

Now, she knew that it was pure luck on if the Nepent Variant was going to drop the Nepent's Ovule like she needed for the quest, and her luck proved to hate her still. "Oh you've got to be kidding me!" No, the monster didn't drop the item that she needed, and because of that, it meant that she would have to draw out, yet another, Nepent Variant. She was not liking this quest anymore, and that was agitating her just a little more. She looked at Akame and sighed, "Well, let's go find more things to kill shall we?" The wolf started forward, with Tala not too far behind her.

The only bad thing about her having taken the moment to give Akame a command was getting hit, and hard, by the Nepent Variant. Tala hadn't seen the vine coming straight for her head, and when it hit Tala, she fell back to the ground and watched a good amount of her health fall, then slowly rise a little again. "Ow... so a critical hit means that my mitigation means nothing. Lesson learned." She slowly got back up to her feet, but she was feeling a bit dizzy from that attack, so whatever sword art she just charged in an attempt to hit the Nepent Variant, was just, gone. Tala didn't know if it even got charged, or if it went so far wide that she couldn't see the aftermath of it.

She held her hand up for a moment, almost as if asking the Nepent Variant to give her a moment, but instead, she was judging how fuzzy her vision might have been. She watched as her vision slowly cleared up, and she blinked, lightly shaking her head. That hurt, so she knew what she had now, and it was going to suck. Either way, she squared her shoulders and focused her, still somewhat, blurry vision on the Nepent Variant. The monster wanted a fight, and it just gained one from Tala, as long as she was able to see that is.

This Nepent didn't seem to be as slow as the ones before it, so that might prove to make things a little more fun for her. Of course, she didn't expect to be able to see the attack coming. Even as she saw the attacking coming for her though, she was still only barely able to dodge the vine that came at her. But, she did dodge it, and that meant that she wasn't going to lose any health this time around. Of course, she didn't lose any the first time to be really technical. What she didn't expect though from her dodging the vine, was to end up tripping over Akame as Tala started to charge her sword art. Because of this, her attack ended up going into the ground, much like Tala's face.

Sitting up, Tala looked at the wolf, "Akame, I love you, but please stay out of the way, so I can actually kill this thing." The wolf looked confused at first but did as she was told, moving further away from the Nepent Variant and Tala. Tala wasn't mad at Akame, she knew that the wolf was only trying to help. But by being under Tala's feet, it was just a hindrance at the moment, a hindrance that she really didn't need.

Her attempt at sneaking up on the Nepent Variant went horribly wrong. She didn't know what either, she thought that she had been quiet enough, but apparently not. The moment that she got close enough to the Nepent Variant to attack it, it attacked her first. With one of its vines, it whipped Tala across the chest, which pushed the girl backwards. She stumbled a few steps to correct herself, and she just stared at the Nepent Variant. She lost a singular health point, which made her smirk, and moments later, her health was brought back to full.

"Okay ugly, you want to dance, we shall dance." Now, she was starting to sound a little like her old self. Perhaps fighting these things alone was a good thing for her? Either way, she didn't think much on it, and instead charged her sword art. Once her blade was glowing the correct color of teal for her liking, she attacked the Nepent Variant. Normally, this attack would have killed something of this level, but instead, the Nepent Variant's health stopped in the red. "You've got to be kidding me? It has mitigation?!" This just served the anger her more as she watched the Nepent Variant.

She was going to use her speed against the Nepent. It seemed to be trying to turn around to find her, and she took that as an advantage for herself. She ran up to it and quickly slashed it with her katana's blade, and watched as it died. She quietly sheathed her katana and looked at Akame. "Well, that's that Akame. It's time to wait for the variant to come out and attempt to avenge the dead nepents." At least, that was what she thought would happen. That is how it works right? She killed the two normal nepents, and then she'd find the variant one? She honestly hoped so, she also wished that the variant would just show itself and try to attack her right now.

But, that didn't seem to be how it was going to work. At least, not until she heard some rustling and then a wolf's growl. She looked at Akame, the wolf's red eyes fixated on something. Following the wolf's gaze, she saw it, or at least, the defining trait that told her this was the variant. Just beyond a few trees she saw the red bulb on top of the nepent's head. Yeah, that was the one that she needed. She didn't wait too long until she started for the nepent. She wondered if she would be able to surprise it and just kill it right there?

Okay, she was starting to think that this wooded area was the right one to be in. Why? Because she and Akame hadn't ended back up in that clearing again. That had to mean good news for them for the quest. Just as she was thinking that, she saw two Nepents coming towards her. They hadn't seemed to notice her just yet, but she and Akame noticed them. The black wolf growled, which brought the eyes of the Nepents onto Tala. That was alright, she had decided to just save her energy and use basic attacks. Their health was literally less than her damage, so that would be fine.

She decided to attack before they got the chance to though, and ran at the first Nepent, easily cutting through it, causing the Nepent to die under her katana's blade. Awesome, that was one down, one to go, and then possibly a boss. This shouldn't be too bad then. She noticed that the second Nepent was coming at her, but it was way too slow to be able to hit her, for she moved away from its attack. So, they were slow, and she was fast, sometimes it paid off being short.

She looked around the clearing that connected a few different wooded areas in the area. She just needed to figure out which one was going to be the right one for finding out where she needed to be. That really shouldn't be too hard. At least, that was what she thought. She started with the first wooded area, and walked around for a few minutes before she seemed to wind up back in the clearing again. "Alright, so that wasn't the right area. But how did we end up here again?" She was starting to feel like she was in a maze, and she wasn't down with that feeling.

But, that didn't stop her from going into the second wooded area, wanting to find these nepents. But, same as the first area, she was brought right back to that clearing. She was going to get dizzy at this rate, and she knew that full well. But she wasn't going to give up, the village needed her help, even if they were only NPCs. She thought for a moment on how odd that sounded, coming from her, but perhaps that was how she needed to look on things now? She sighed, deciding to go down the fourth area instead of the third. What was it going to change after all?

She was starting to understand why she had liked going on these quests with Koga or Yukiro, going alone was boring and leaving her alone with her own thoughts was dangerous. Of course, it's not as dangerous as it had been before. No, she wasn't thinking of ways to destroy things anymore. Instead, she was trying to find a way to fix things, and there was guilt and self-blame that made it hard. Perhaps, being left alone with her thoughts was more dangerous now than it had been before. That's not a good thought.

The forest seemed to be getting lighter and a little less crowded as they walked, which was a good sign, that meant that they were coming up to the area where the nepents were known to spawn. She thought back to what the NPC had told her before she left. She had to kill at least two regular nepents for the one that held the item that she needed was to spawn. That shouldn't be too bad, right? She should be able to just annihilate all of it with a single basic attack, or use energy needlessly and use a sword art. Perhaps saving the energy would be best, just in case my luck is horrible today.

That was a valid point, and something that she could agree with herself on. Her luck wasn't always the best, and she had a feeling that today was going to prove that.

Alright, she needed to actually do this. She had been sitting on her bed in the shop for the past day or two staring at an empty message that she opened to send to Yukiro. She should talk to him, but she didn't feel like just a normal walk and talk would be the best of ideas. That was when it hit her, she still had one more quest on this floor that she needed to do, perhaps she could convince him to come with her? That was worth a shot, right? She sucked in a deep breath before letting it go slowly, typing out a quick message.

Quote

Yuki,
I was hoping that you'd be willing to talk with me and fight a dragon at the same time on the first floor? If yes, I'll meet you at the entrance to the town, but if you don't show, I understand.
Tala

After quickly sending the 'send' button, she didn't want to chance changing her mind, she grabbed her things and looked at Akame. "Come on, let's go." Now, she didn't know exactly where this castle was that had the dragon in it, but, that might give her and Yuki the time that they needed to talk, possibly. She sighed lightly as she walked out of her shop and started to walk to the town's entrance, and well, exit. She stopped at the entrance and leaned against a wall.

"What do you think Akame, will he show?" The wolf looked up at her and yawned before laying down by Tala's feet. Akame's eyes closed, and Tala sighed, if that was to be her sign, then things weren't going to go well today, were they?

@Yukiro

Lost. She was completely and utterly lost. How was she supposed to correct this? She didn't know really. So, she just kept walking in the same direction as she attempted to figure out where exactly she was on her map. Of course, with the map open in front of her face, she wasn't able to completely see where she was headed. Because of this, she had to stop walking, or else she'd walk into something again.

"Okay, I am here," she pointed at her marker on the map, "and they said that the nepents should be about here...." Yeah, she was completely lost, and this made her sigh as she closed her map. That was when she noticed the giant rock that was in front of her. "Y'know, I'm starting to think that this forest is trying to kill me." Akame whined lightly before turning into the right direction for finding their targets.

So, Tala was starting to figure out that she was just plain horrible with directions or figuring out where she is supposed to go. How does she know this? Because, once again, she is lost in a forest. She stopped and looked around, she knew that this monster was supposed to be in a wooded area, but she honestly didn't think that by wooded they meant this kind of forest. But then, anything could happen in this game apparently.

"Akame, have you gotten the scent or anything of one of these things yet? This walk in the forest is starting to get kind of boring." Boring and hard to navigate. Plus, it was dark, and the only way that she was able to find Akame was by the wolf's red eyes. That made it so that Tala knew that she had named the wolf correctly, now if only this quest could progress just a little.

With the headache that she has now gained from running into yet another tree within a twenty-four-hour timeframe, she was starting to get annoyed. It was almost as if the game itself was recreating things just so she'd run into the damned things. It made her curse under her breath as she walked, keeping an eye out on things now. She wasn't about to end up with a concussion or something because another tree decided to pop up in front of her face.

She rubbed her forehead for a moment as she walked, and she sighed. "Y'know, I'm so happy that you can't talk Akame, and that no one else has been here for my incidents with the trees." The wolf seemed to snicker under a bark, and Tala was starting to feel like she was about to just be made fun of by her wolf all the time. Guess that was okay.

With Akame moving ahead once more, Tala quietly followed being deep in her own thoughts at the moment. She was trying to figure things out once more. Yuki just said to make amends, and to mean them. Was the conversation she had with her brother enough for that? She honestly didn't know, and that was bothering her just a bit. She sighed and just kept walking.

Akame had stopped moving and was just staring at Tala. The wolf could tell that the girl was too stuck in her thoughts to notice the very obvious tree in front of her face. At least, not until, "Ooph!" Tala fell back on her ass and just stared at the tree, before glaring at the wolf who was barking laughter. "Oh very funny Akame." The wolf didn't stop with her barking laughter, even when Tala slowly stood back up on her feet. "That hurt...."

She was so deep in her thoughts and how to fix things by this point, that she hadn't noticed that she entered a dark forest. Well, that was odd because she didn't even know that this was here. But, that was alright, she wasn't truly alone in this dark and... kind of claustrophobic looking forest. Why did the trees need to be this darned close? She paused for a moment, placing her hand over her chest. She was fine, she will be fine. This was going perfectly fine.

Perfectly fine. She sighed as she caught her breath and her will to move again. She hadn't even noticed that Akame was beside her, until the wolf growled. That just caused Tala to jump a foot in the air as she looked at the wolf. "Akame!" The wolf just kept growling as she stared at something, only for that something to turn into a fox running away from them. "It's alright Akame, we don't need that one." The wolf calmed down and shook her body for a moment before trotting on ahead.

Her feet guided her toward the village that she needed to get to, and once it came into view, she looked around. It was a barren looking village. Normally there were more people out trading or talking, but there was none of that. Just a singular person standing outside, waving her down. Tala pushed her thoughts to the side as she walked over to the NPC. "Oh, please, you need to help us! There is a medicinal ingredient on a monster that I need you to get."

Tala listened as she was told what monster had the ingredient as well as how rare it might be even on the targeted monster. This sounded like fun. Either way, she turned around and watched as Akame dashed off, wanting to run. Lucky. The wolf could just ignore most of this, all while Tala had to walk her happy ass around trying to find the monsters that she needed to find. That wasn't the fun part of it all, no, the fun part was being left alone with her thoughts.

This quest seemed pretty basic, and she was certain that she could get it done quickly. While the fights might be easy, it was the thinking that wasn't. She needed to figure out how to fix things with, well, everyone. She sighed lightly as she walked the fields of the first floor. She didn't even notice any kind of terrain change, mainly because she was trying to figure out what to do. She's done all that she could do for Koga right now. The rest, well that mainly laid with him now on if he wanted to be near her.

Noctua, well, there was going to be no fixing what happened there. Tala had probably made it to where the woman wasn't going to want to be near her at all anymore. She felt horrible about that, but, there was nothing that she could truly do now. Then, there was Yukiro. She let him behind and forgot to message him. That wasn't the best of things that she could have ever done. He yelled at her, and he stated the truth. In reality, he was the reason why she felt so horrible right now, and she completely deserved it.

She needed something to do. Something that was easy, and was going to help her think. She knew that she still had some low level quests to do on the first floor, so she went to do that. Well, maybe, she had to find the NPC who was handing out that quest. Why did she want to do a low level quest to think? Because she knew that her brother was right in telling her that she needed to talk to Yukiro. But it was the fact that she was honestly scared to talk to Yuki that was holding her back.

Perhaps by doing a quest this low and being able to think would be able to help her? That was what she wanted to think really. Akame was walking beside her, and growled lowly for a moment before Tala placed a hand on the wolf's head. "Do you see something girl?" The wolf sneezed as an NPC walked over to Tala. "You, girl, I have a quest for you." Joy, a jerk NPC. "What is it?" She listened to what the NPC told her, and she smirked a little before it was soon gone.

She pressed accept on the quest that was in front of her. "Time to go and find a village in need Akame." The wolf shook her body out before standing up and starting to trot out of the town with Tala by her side.

She ignored the part about her having to believe that she wasn't the villain, that might take a bit in her mind after all. But, she did raise an eyebrow and just gave him this disbelieving look. "You're telling me that I'm running away, and yet, here you are? No Noctua behind you, which tells me that you pushed her away." Ouch Tala, that's a bit low, isn't it? But she had a feeling that she had a point, and she was going to leave that there.

"I can guarantee that Noctua isn't going to want me around her at all. You, I'll let you tell me when you want me around. Yukiro, I... I'll see what I can do to not feel horrible while being around him." She didn't know how to make herself better, which was the bad part about all of this. She just wanted things to right themselves, but no, she had to do the righting herself. But, she gave him a nod, "I'll work on that Mas. I'm going to go and train Akame and do some thinking."

The black wolf walked over to Tala when she heard her name, and, while Tala wanted to hug her brother good-bye, she didn't want to press his current mood. So instead, she walked away with Akame, already hating where her mind had taken her.

@Koga

Thread Summary:

She rubbed the back of her head and nodded, "Yeah, and I guess...." She didn't exactly believe him on the whole 'feeling bad deserves forgiveness'. But, that was just her, if he wanted to forgive her now, then he could. That doesn't mean that she was going to forgive herself as easily. She thought about Yuki though, and she sighed, shaking her head.

"I want to talk to him, I just don't know how or what to say." She paused for a moment and looked at Koga, a small smile cracking on her face, "Look, I sound like you." The smile was soon gone though as she just sighed lightly. "I just feel like I've messed up everyone's lives enough, it'd be better for him if I don't try to talk to him. Be better for you and Noctua if I just stay away." Alright, now she might be cracking a bit in her facade, but she was holding that back still.

@Koga