<strong>Alice</strong><br/><br/>Alice discovers a house emptied of its wealth, food and ale.  In the short time since its capture the bandits and deserters had taken their fill leaving an eerily quiet ruin.  But her young voice, after a moment of doubt, was answered by a distant series of shouts calling for help.  In the lounge she would discover a dozen old men and women, individual leaders of the town judging from their age and finery no ordinary villager could afford.  The elder, an elderly widow who called out softly to Alice when she appeared, hushed the others who were crying for her help in a chaotic chorus.<br/><br/>"My dear.  Who are you?  And what has happened to our village?  We've heard some fighting outside - are they safe?  Are the bandits still around?"<br/><br/><br/><strong>Nanami</strong><br/><br/>The smiles on everyone's faces hardly reflected the state of the village around them.  Either the presence of a pegasus lifted everyone's spirits beyond their reality or they had survived such bandit raids before and knew when to be thankful the moment someone finally stood up to them and won.<br/><br/>"Did the king send you, dear?" asked one father who lifted his daughter in his arms so she could reach out and brush the pegasus for herself.  "We've sent so many pleas but you're the first real response we've ever seen!  What part of Alaqant are you all from?"<br/><br/><br/><strong>Maribelle</strong><br/><br/>The door simply fell over the second the lithe dancer knocked any harder than a feather blown against the door.  The bandits had already broken it down apparently and, as a cruel joke, bothered to put it back up as if nothing had happened.  Once it fell apart Maribelle could see inside to find an upended cottage with pots, pans, tables and chairs and a bed all tossed over and a pair of siblings huddled in the corner.  They cringed in fear when light shot inside but Maribelle's small silhouette did get the older sister, a girl no older than 14, to look up and tell her younger brother that it was alright.<br/><br/>Walking up to the dancer, the boy clinging to his sister's dress while she looked wide-eyed and shocked at the nearly naked woman before them.  But once she saw her face she recognized Maribelle as the dancer that had passed by their village not a day earlier.<br/><br/>"It's you!  Lady Maribelle!  Look-" she called out to her brother before stalling, smiling blankly, and decided it was better she didn't when Maribelle had somehow managed to wear even less this time.  Shaking her head, she looked up at her confused.  "H-how did you... how did you drive the bandits off?  Did you and your friend, Lady Miranda, did you two... but how?"