>>6115540“Say, Sis,” you speak up after tucking the blade away amidst your spacious robes, “shouldn’t we have some food, too?”
“Food?” she scoffs. “We just ate this mornin’!”
“Yeah, but on the road…”
“We’ll hunt,” she huffs. “We brought a fuckin’ ranger, right? Or, well, some fucker with a bow. If he can hunt pheasant half as well as apples, we’ll be set.”
“Well, what about, like treats?”
ZZ stares blankly at you.
“An’… An’ some blankets? To sleep in, if it gets cold? An’ to eat on, you know… When we’re eatin’ the pheasant, an’ the treats?”
“Cara-Zi,” Zith-Zi says slowly, “are you tryin’ ta’ describe a fuckin’ PICNIC?”
You squirm a little, laughing nervously.
“W-well, it’s just, like… That’s sorta’ what we did when we went adventuring with Tips, right?”
“Well DUH, it’s TIPS. I love the guy, but his mom’s some pointy-eared salad-munching elf, an’ he grew up in some ivory-fuckin’-tower. He’s a fuckin’ FAIRY.”
You alight upon this, sensing intuitively an opportunity—a chink in your sister’s emotional armour.
“Aren’t you, too?” you ask, leaning forward hopefully. “Like, as a ‘nilbog’?”
ZZ opens her mouth a few times, unable to formulate a response, She scrunches up her face a little, and you can feel the conflicting emotions rolling around in her pretty, pink noggin. Eventually, her pride in the ‘new Zith-Zi’—a pride you envy oh so much—wins out.
But hey, you get your blankets, and your basket of goodies!
With equipment equipped, baggage bagged up, and your minions ready to march, the four of you—five, with little Hershy snoozing upon ZZ’s shoulder—set out properly.
“Where are we even going?” Yeb-Uit asks pointedly. “Missed that parta’ the briefing.”
“No you didn’t,” An-Yii points out blandly. “They ain’t said shit about that.”
“Well you joined up anyway, didn’t ya’?!” ZZ snaps, flustered.
