<span style="color: Silver"> “Please, don’t… worry…”</span>Lethe hastened to assure Hyuga, only to trail off as he walked off with a kid in his hands.  An awkward silence descended her group as shouts of joy and childish screams of excitement surrounded them.  All the townspeople were rushing towards Gil’s and his squad, neatly parting around the other group of Pristine Knight like water around a rock.<br/><br/>“I feel like if Cricket was here, he’d make a mention of how maybe we were too rash in calling them Team Prissy.”  YunQiao broke the silence with a dry comment, staring at Master Guilford and then his squad.  None of them looked.. particularly dignified.  At least his Captain kept her displays to private settings.  There were some sounds of assent but in general, the entire group continued to stand there awkwardly.<br/><br/>“Ooph!”  There was the sound of something colliding right at their feet and then two dual sounds of surprise.  Everyone turned to look at the unexpected sound.  A young boy had ran into Lethe and was currently rubbing his forehead tearily.  He sniffed threateningly; they’d all been around Valiar’s daughter enough to know that wailing was coming soon.  Lethe immediately stepped back and knelt on the ground to place herself level with the child, her hand glowing with healing.<br/><br/><span style="color: Silver"> “Hey.. there’s no need to cry.”</span>She smiled comfortingly, showing him her glowing hand.<span style="color: Silver"> “If you want, older sister can make your boo boo go away?”</span>The sandy haired boy sniffed loudly and nodded his head.  The tears quickly vanished into an expression of awe as his injury vanished under Lethe’s ministrations.<br/><br/>“Momiji!”  A worried voice suddenly shouted out and then someone else was hurrying to them.  The boy brightened and then his expression turned worried, scuttling behind the still kneeling Lethe.  A young man, late 20s or early 30s maybe, ran up to the group.  “Momiji! Don’t go running off like that!”<br/><br/>“I wanta see Mastah Guilf!”  The young boy responded, still using the Knight who’d healed him as a human wall.<br/><br/>“I didn’t say you couldn’t!  Just that you had to finish cleaning up your toys first!  It’s dangerous to run around underfoot when there are so many people around!”  The man finally looked up and saw five unfamiliar, interested pairs of eyes all staring at him.  They were all wearing armor and had weapons on them.  He immediately paled, looked down at the child and finally noticed the woman his younger brother was crouched behind, and paled even more.  “I-I-I’m so sorry Holy Knights!”  He exclaimed, immediately bowing multiple times in apology.  “I apologize for Momiji’s rudeness!  He was just excited when he heard that Master Gil had arrived and he went running off and--”<br/><br/><span style="color: Silver"> “Please, it’s completely fine.”</span>Lethe finally responded with a smile as she rose to her feet.  Momiji continued to cling to her legs like a human shield.<span style="color: Silver"> “We completely understand your desire to see Gil; he seems very happy here.”</span>A laugh of joy from behind her confirmed her statement, followed by more childish squeals.<br/><br/>The man stared at her dumbly for a few seconds before flushing and nodding.  “Uh Ye-yes!  Our-our town has a lot to thank Master Gil for..”  Suddenly he was looking anywhere but at the woman in front of him.<br/><br/>Lethe felt her smile waver and consciously pasted it back in place.  Even here, in Gil’s ‘escape,’ she had people staring at her like she was a monster.  She felt her enthusiasm for Palaugrim slip but firmly ignored that.  It might get better.. maybe.<br/><br/>“Ah! So… You’re.. together with Master Gil?”  The blushing young man finally asked, sneaking glances at the young white-haired woman in front of him.<br/><br/><span style="color: Silver"> “We’re accompanying him, yes.”</span><br/><br/>“Oh.. but not..<span style="font-style: italic">together</span>together..?”  There was a muffled snort from Valiar and the sound of a cough from Adair.<br/><br/><span style="color: Silver"> “We will be working with him and his squad for the duration of the mission…?”</span><br/><br/>“Ah! Uhm.”  The man glanced at the crowd of townspeople Gil’s squad had been encompassed by and then looked back at her and her squad.  “Do you… have lodgings?”<br/><br/><span style="color: Silver"> “I… believe that Gil would be taking care of that for us..?”</span>Lethe trailed off uncertainly.  She certainly hadn’t expected to end up in an unnamed town on the other side of Palaugrim from where she had meant to be.<br/><br/>“Oh!  He and his squad normally stay at the Mayor’s house.  But, uh, I don’t know if there will be space for all of you.. You guys are..”  He trailed off to count the Knights in front of him when Seraphim slipped into place by Lethe’s side with an easy smile and a possessive arm.<br/><br/>“Fourteen of us!  Eight with Master Guilford; Six of us here!”<br/><br/>The man flushed again at the sight of Seraphim and once more was looking down, around, anywhere really but at the two pretty women in front of him.  “I-I don’t think the Mayor will have space for all of you, unless you planned to go 3-4 to a room?”<br/><br/>The collective groan from the group told him that wasn’t happening.  “Uh, no.”  Seraphim said pointedly, “Actually, Lethe and I will need our own room each; you know us girls!  Taking forever to get ready!”  She winked flirtatiously and sent the young man into another stuttering fit.  While the townsman was looking away, Lethe tilted her head in question of Seraphim’s claim there were only six of them.  The older Knight just continued smiling and winked back.<span style="font-style: italic">Trust me.</span><br/><br/>By the time the man was over his stuttering, both Lethe and Seraphim had turned their attention back to him.<br/><br/>“Uhm… I have some space at my house…”  The man shifted his weight self consciously.  “We used to run an inn before the Southwestern docks were abandoned..  The place is still clean!” He hastened to assure, “It’s just we don’t get much people out there anymore.”<br/><br/>Lethe just smiled,<span style="color: Silver"> “Thank you.  Honestly, we’d just be happy with a clearing or a roof over ourselves;”</span>Behind her, Seraphim was shaking her head emphatically while exaggeratedly forming the word “NOOOO.”<span style="color: Silver"> “We’d be happy to accept your generosity.  Please, forgive us for intruding.”</span>The man hastened to copy Lethe’s bow, stammering the entire time that it was no trouble and it was the least he could do after Momiji ran into them and please, please, it was just this way and…<br/><br/>“The pretty Knights are coming with us?!”  The young boy from earlier gasped in awe.  At some point in time, he had wandered off to inspect the rest of the squad as his older brother and the nice lady who healed him were talking.  “I’m going to have real Holy Knights living with me for the night?!  That’s SO COOL!!”  The entire group laughed at the boy’s enthusiasm and followed the two brothers to their house.<br/><br/><div style="text-align: center;">~~~~~~~~</div><br/>“Hey.. Cricket.. Do you see Captain and the others anywhere?”<br/><br/>“Aren’t they in that…?” A hand flapped at the mass of townspeople near the gates.<br/><br/>“Uhm, I don’t think so.  Remember how all the townspeople were sort of running around them?  Then we felt that spike of energy, went off to investigate it, and now.. I don’t see them.”<br/><br/>“Can you feel them?”<br/><br/>“In that group? No.  It only feels like Master Guilford and his squad.  Definitely no one with Captain’s aura.”<br/><br/>Cricket frowned at Leon’s words, eyes roving over the townspeople.  It didn’t look like the rest of Team Blonde was in there.  A visual scan on the perimeter also revealed nothing.  “Can you sense them at all, Leon?”<br/><br/>The golden-blond man was silent for a second before he replied uncertainly.  “I sense… what feels like a small group of holy presences on the fringes of the town..  But they’re all blurring together weirdly and, honestly, they feel way too weak to be our squad.  It feels like Advocates.”<br/><br/>That was very odd.  This town wasn’t even on the maps as a safe spot.  (Cricket had immediately checked the route Master Guilford had proposed when they first got into the forests.)  And yet if Master Guilford had brought them here and said it was safe… But then again, something weird was definitely going between the sudden detour to an abandoned dock, their squad suddenly vanishing, and what felt like a small group of<span style="font-style: italic">Advocates</span>of all people.  Hazel eyes glanced at the happy congregation once more before jumping off.<br/><br/>“Let’s go check out those blurry presences.  The others clearly aren’t here.”