Chapter Text
The wagon rocked slightly as it trailed down the long road to the capital, not that two of the girls in it’s rear minded much, both sat leaning on the third of their party as the fourth sat in front humming a song to herself as she held the reins.
That third member was not having the best time of it though, the tome in her hands being shaken around by the bumps in the road, not to mention the distractions of the two girls to either side chatting over her.
“I really wish we’d had one of these at the start of our journey.” One of them said, stretching out a bit, her hand briefly obscuring the view of her neighbour as she did so. “We’d have been done so much sooner.”
“We’d have had to abandon it pretty quickly though, it’s not like you can travel over mountains or through thick woodland with these things though.” The girl on the other side said, her gaze fixed on a butterfly that had landed on her finger.
“True…” The first girl shrugged. “Honestly I’d have taken any support at all, remember how little they gave us when we set out on this quest?”
“They gave us plenty.” The third girl spoke up with a sigh, putting her book away, resigning herself to getting no reading done after all. “You all just spent the entire advance on equipment before we left.”
The first girl shook her head. “You’re a wizard Kronii, you wouldn’t get it, you don’t need much in the way of equipment. Hunters like me live and die based on our equipment.”
“You stand at the back shooting people with arrows, Mumei.” Kronii retorted. “Maybe Sana can claim that, given that she’s actually a fighter but your armour is almost in the same condition as it was the day you got it.”
“Huh? Did you guys say my name?” Sana asked, turning around from the front of the wagon.
“Don’t worry about it.” Kronii replied.
“Okie dokie!” Sana chuckled, giving a thumbs up before turning her attention back to the road and the made up song she was humming.
“So maybe I didn’t use my armour much,” Mumei admitted. “But if i hadn’t gotten a new bow we would have been totally overrun by those trolls, me being able to dish out the hurt keeps the party safe.”
“You replaced that bow with an enchanted one we got from the second dungeon we went to.”
“What, was I going to turn down an upgrade?”
“Fauna help me out here.” Kronii said, turning to her other side.
“I’d really rather not.” The druid chuckled, letting the butterfly alight from her finger. “It all worked out in the end right, that’s what matters.”
Mumei pulled a face. “You’re only saying that since we spent more on your herbs than on anything else, we never even used most of them before they wilted and you had to chuck them away.”
The back and forth continued like this for some time, until the imperial city’s gates were overhead and the enormity of the conclusion of their decade-long journey left them in stunned silence.
“Feels like forever since we were last here huh?” Sana said, breaking the quiet with her trademark relaxed charm.
“Yeah…” Mumei agreed.
“I mean, not really.” Kroni shrugged.
“Kronii!” Fauna said, exasperatedly.
“What?”
“Let them have their moment.” Fauna chided. “We might not think much of it but ten years is a lot for those two.”
Kronii opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted by the gates to the city opening before them and the roar of the crowd waiting on the other side as they came into view.
From there everything happened in a blur, with the crown princess of the kingdom proclaiming them heroes to be forever immortalised with a festival once every ten years on the anniversary of the day they left to face the queen of chaos.
It was only that night that the four once more had a moment of quiet, as the party thrown in their honour drew to a close and the heroes snuck away to a private balcony to watch the firework display that was to close the festivities.
“So…” Mumei said, leaning on her elbow as she looked out over the city. “I guess the question nobody wants to ask but everyone's thinking is… What do we do now?”
“Oh thank the goddess.” Sana sighed. “I’m glad I wasn’t the only one thinking about it.”
Fauna chuckled. “We probably should have discussed it at some point before now really.”
“I knowww…” Mumei sighed. “But talking about it makes it feel more real right? I just wanted the journey to keep on going.”
“You wish our campaign in at the south pole lasted longer?” Kronii asked.
“Oh goodness no.” Mumei shook her head. “I never want to have to go back there again. I just wanted to keep travelling with you guys.”
“Aw! Mumei!!!” Sana said, putting her arms around her. “Me too! I wanna adventure with you guys forever!”
“It would be nice.” Fauna nodded, putting an arm around her teammates.
An expectant silence filled the balcony as the gazes of the druid, hunter and fighter turned to their wizard.
Kronii sighed. “Sure, it would be nice, but it’s not realistic is it? We all have different goals and duties now it’s peacetime once again.”
The rest of the party deflated slightly, but only because they knew what she was saying was true.
“I do have to return to my grove.” Fauna admitted. “My apprentices are managing it well without me but I have a duty as archdruid.”
“I want to open that bakery I always talked about.” Sana chuckled, a little nervously. “I’m probably a little too old for adventures now.”
“Well, I think I want to keep adventuring.” Mumei nodded, looking a little sad. “There’s so much of the world I still haven’t seen. What about you Kronii?”
“I still have lots to research when it comes to chronomancy.” Kronii shrugged. “I imagine I’ll spend a couple more decades on that at least and I have a promising lead in the north.”
“I figured…” Mumei sighed. “We really are all going our separate ways huh?”
Kronii opened her mouth to speak, but as she did the first firework in the display exploded rendering the words she spoke unheard by her party, whose faces had already turned to ones of wonder at the display.
“Hey,” Sana yelled, grabbing the attention of the others. “How about we meet again like this for the festival every ten years?”
Well, nobody was going to argue with that.
