It has been more than a few days since Zeus, Astor, and Sean set out to find their fourth. With little to go on, all the mismatched trio had found so far were potholes and doldrums. For any of them, even the usually jovial Zeus, it would be hard to say which of the two was worse.

Meanwhile, unused to long travel by rickety wagon Sean was starting to develop motion sickness. To calm himself, he sat in silence, as he focused for the life of him on new techniques---any new techniques---that might keep his head running distracted from the sickening sensation that was working its way up from the pit of his stomach.

“Oy, Sean. Catch.” Astor called out as he plucked a glistening yellow grape from its vine and tossed it.

The grape bounced off of Sean’s mask, which was still fixed to his face, with a languid bop and fell to find his palm. The youth looked down at the grape before directing his masked gaze onto the former-king.

“Astor… I’m not your pet dog…” he protested before cracking his mask away from his mouth and tasting the grape anyways. He didn’t want to admit it, but it was a damn good grape.

For the blonde, the wagon ride has been nothing short of bumpy and dull. He couldn’t even waste time over conversation.

The senile lion rambles far too much, and the kid thinks that his mask also hides his tongue... this is it... King Astor the Great, robbed from his paradise, nonetheless dies spectacularly on his final adventure... from BOREDOM...

Glancing down, Astor quickly realized that all that was left for him were a few grapes to remind him of home. He instantly regretted tossing one.

Hours passed...

At one point, Astor managed to singe Ilusa’s face onto one of the grapes with his fire and succeeded. He tried it again with himself, but the face became morphed, and sad. The depiction disgusted him and he cursed himself for wasting another grape.

“Another?” Astor asked with a bit of an edge, eager to rid himself of the cursed totem.

Sean did not respond, but Astor’s astute survival-necessitated court manners spied Sean’s finger twitch in anticipation.

Astor flicked the grape towards him at extremely high velocity. Sean saw the projectile flying at him at a fraction of the speed and was about to intercept it like a soccer goalie when the wagon suddenly stopped, throwing the red-head off track. Sean’s outstretched hand grasped in futility as Grape Astor bounced off his chest and rolled down the bed of the wagon.

“…damn it… another gap in my defense… not again…” Sean muttered and balled his outstretched hand into a fist as he watched what looked like an Edvard Munch painting roll under the back rail, never to be seen again.

Zeus, who was driving the wagon at the time, leaned down and asked an elderly wanderer walking along the road, “YOUNG MISS, have you SEEN a tall and LANKY adventurer with WHITE HAIR and a granny-sweet SMILE?” for what must have been the millionth time.

“O-oh my… You should have told me that in my prime!” the old lady replied with a shaky voice.

“NON~ All WOMEN are BEAUTIFUL and age LIKE FINE WINE, OHO!” Zeus chortled with a wink.

“Your wife is one lucky woman, hehe. So… tall, lanky, and white-haired? Do you mean the Sage? Ah, yes, now that I think about it, he does seem to fit that description, tall, lanky, white-haired. Does he wear a white cloak over his shoulder tied together with a red knot?” she asked.

“JUST SO! Do you KNOW where we can FIND this young man?” Zeus exclaimed as he tightened his grip on the reins in excitement.

“The Sage helps and protects all the villages here. He is quite famous in these parts, you see. My village is just up ahead. You may be able to find him there. I heard he is on an important mission now,” the old woman pointed at the red-clad roof in the distance.

Zeus got out of his seat and helped the old woman onto the wagon where Astor and Sean piled their bedrolls to make her ride more comfortable. They exchanged words, pleasantry, and grapes of gratitude until they arrived at what the old lady referred to as Refia Village.

When they arrived at the village’s center, where beautiful brickwork surrounded a decorated fountain, the four spotted a familiar outline of a tall wizard casting his shadow over some ragtag group of vagabonds whose hands were bound behind their back and forced to kneel in front of the clamoring villagers. From what the party could gather from the quiet whispers of the crowd, these wanderers had been a menace to the villagers by attempting to extort them.

“YOU CAN’T DO THIS! THIS IS AGAINST THE RULES!” one of the vagabonds, a faerin dressed like a ninja, cried out, in a young voice.

“Yeah! You’re no lawman! Let us go beanpole! We can do what we want!” the portly bull-man in the middle followed.

“The King of this country forbids violence between Travelers! Don’t think you’ll get off easy you bastard!!! You think you can play God just because you’re a little stronger than us?! Go to freaking hell!” the female vagabond, a human mage and leader of the group, spat at Haru.

Haru didn’t flinch, even as she continued into a furious near-scream.

“----THESE LANDERS OWE US FOR PROTECTING THEM! WHAT HAVE THEY GIVEN FROM THEIR SLEEPY LITTLE VILLAGE WHEN WE LOST EVERYTHING! HUH?! TELL ME! THEY’LL NEVER KNOW WHAT WE’VE REALLY GIVEN. AND NOW YOU’RE TELLING ME THAT I CAN’T JUST ASK FOR A LITTLE HELP? A HAND OUT? WHEN I’M LIVING LIKE THIS?!”

The villagers’ reactions were a mix of anger and apprehensiveness when the vagabonds, a group of remnant Travelers, protested. Some even feared that the sage, one of those now-rare and mysterious Travelers might take their side. Like with like. Though everything they knew about the sage told them that this thought was ridiculous.

Haru slowly shook his head with a smile like flowers that none the less seemed heartbreakingly sad, “...I miss my daughter.” He said, in a soft, gentle, and yet firm tone. A lie, but in his heart Haru was sure there was at least one Traveler remnant who was going through it.

Sorry but I’m going to borrow that anguish for a moment, whoever you are, since I think it can do some good.

At that, the troublemaking travelers quieted. The mage’s face twisted as she gasped, drew in a sharp breath to continue, thought better of it, and bit her tongue.

All present were deep in thought when Haru’s gentle but firm voice continued...

“...Is there anyone you miss...?”

“----I miss my little sister.” The mage responded through gritted teeth. “And I thank God every day that I never let her play this freaking game when she asked...”

A pause.

“I miss my mom and dad...” The faerin continued, “...It sucked that they always made me do my chores and homework and stuff... but... It’s not like... I never wanted to see them again... I just wanted to have a little fun...”

A pause as the faerin choked.

“...I miss... my bitchin’ car...” The bull-man followed, as the mage muttered dumbass, under her breath. “I worked two jobs to save up for it, it had sweet decals and everything and now all that work is gone... forever...”

A final pause, as the bull-man looked down at his bestial form, furthest of the group from being the human he had once been.

Haru nodded at each of them as the word forever pricked their hearts.

“We’ve all lost something, and though we’ve each lost something different, Landers---as you call them---have each lost something too. We’re all people.”

The group was about to protest, but Haru continued in his same rhythmic cadence before they could.

“…You know, your life can be so much more... I know, I know, it’s hard... but we’ve been given a gift... a gift none of us asked for, yes, but a gift that I think we owe it to ourselves to use for good. And if we don’t owe it to ourselves, then what about the people we care about? ”

"Did your parents raise you to hurt innocent people?” He asked the faerin rhetorically,

“Would your sister be proud of what you’re doing?” He asked the mage,

“What these people have built is just like your bitchin’ car, is it cool to wreck that, their dreams?” He asked the bull-man.

Haru continued to beam his sad, million-dollar smile as he brought his Ted talk to its thesis.

“Everyone here toiled to put food on the table the same way your parents did… Everyone here misses someone they can’t meet... I’ve seen them breaking their back to survive. We can all be better, let’s be better together. Cool?”

The Faerin Ninja, his black cloth tattered with holes from wandering burst into tears muttering ‘mom, dad’ in between his sniffling.

The Human Mage, her dress shredded and her spell book torn, bit her lip deep in thought.

The Bull-man, his armor reduced to a mish-mash of what wasn’t too dented to not be worth the weight, looked all around him.

And Haru, none the less, continued to smile.

“You asked these people for help, but you didn’t do it in a very nice way. But even so, you asked. And because you asked, I’m going to say this: ‘I want to help you. Can I help you?’”

With a tap of his staff, the bindings around the three travelers came undone, and they looked up at their peer, the sage, with awe.

“...please... help us...” The mage said, swallowing both pride and shame. “We don’t know how to live in this world...”

“Sure.” The sage warmly smiled.

And with a glance, Haru looked over his shoulder at the wagon, and with a wave that became a gesture, pointed the group to his home. He then left with the other three, and soon enough, their conversation was lost in the distance, but already the three wandering Travelers seemed to hold their heads just a little bit higher.

“That man is more dangerous than any Falderen torturer.” Astor muttered, with a mixture of awe and disgust as he cradled grape Illusa.

“I can RESPECT a man of WORDS such as MYSELF, heroics isn’t ALL punching VILE BEASTS, in their DESERVING FACES.” Zeus nodded, reenergized to find that the man he had selected and searched for all this time reaffirmed his initial judgement.

“...” Said Sean, as he worked on devising an, admittedly, somewhat niche technique to deflect small spherical projectiles that are fired from a moving platform that is suddenly coming to a stop after long since having forgotten his motion sickness.

Thirty minutes later, Haru could be seen walking up the road to meet them, a young Gandalf, loosely holding his staff aloft in greeting. A shire song may have followed him. That, or the other three were hallucinating from the stress of each other’s company. Nonetheless, Haru the White seemed to glow.

“Why did nobody tell me about the vacay-getaway?”

Haru playfully chuckled with an equally playful pout. The group was a sorry bunch on the eyes that probably would’ve given the previous three he conversed with a run for their money on looking run-down.

“Come inside for a bit, this is just a little guest house the villagers gave me for when I’m passing through, but I don’t think they’ll mind me having company.”

The three did not turn down Haru’s proposal as they headed into the cozy adobe, where they were instructed to sit around a quaint little table.

“It’s been a long trip, yeah? Take a seat, I’ll make you guys some fruity tea… just give me a minute here,” Haru said as he boiled the water in the kitchen while the three doe-eyed adventurers sat on what now seemed to them as alien, comfortably upholstered, plushy chairs. It’d be an understatement to say that this was a much-needed break after traveling on a rickety wagon for an entire week. The three had finally found civilization again after the travails of the road.

“Let’s see, Orange-lemon for me, Multi-fruit for Zeus, White Grape for Astor, and Black Grapefruit for Sean,” the wizard muttered to himself as he measured from a different bag of tea for each cup before steeping it in hot water.

“Don’t tell me… you three are on an adventure. You know how I know? Because I don’t know what else could get you guys all together and chummy, ha ha. How close am I?” Haru chortled as he gave served each person their own cup, including himself, from his personal mug collection.

Astor and Sean immediately looked at Zeus, who sipped on his tea like a refined chap before he turned his excitement level up to an 11.

“JUST what I NEEDED! YOU have MY thanks! AND YOU ARE CORRECT! ADVENTURE CALLS, MY BOY! And it wants YOU on the path to GLORY!” Zeus shouted.

“Oh yeah? It’s kinda really sudden, but oh man… that sounds really freaking exciting! If you would have me then I’m all yours,” Haru ‘s eyes lit up at the thought.

“OHO~! EXCELLENT! Adventure is calling RIGHT NOW! We MUST leave for Stockbon, POSTHASTE!” Zeus replied.

All a buzz, Haru scrambled to throw some of his things together as the three finished their drinks and prepared to leave.

“Haru,” Astor called out to the wizard as Sean and Zeus headed to the wagon where many of the villagers were congregating. Someone must have overheard that the Sage was going on a long journey, so the entire village came to pay their respects and see him off.

When Haru stopped and turned, the blonde almost seemed to be smiling, as his sharp eyes softened at the sight of the villagers crowding around Zeus and Sean. “Thanks,”

“Oh…? For what?” the tall wizard queried with bewilderment.

Astor shook his head and muttered a dismissive, “Nevermind,” as he headed for their wagon with an apathetic wave.

Haru, who was still surprised by the uncharacteristic appreciation chased after the former-king, "Hey! What do you mean…? Hey! Come back here!”

By the time the two got to the wagon, they were greeted by a growing crowd of villagers from both Refia and the surrounding villages, who had come when they heard the news.

Astor used the villagers to get rid of Haru, who was still hunting him down for answers. Picking up a random child, the blonde lightly passed her to the sage as the villagers swarmed him.

“Master Sage! We heard you’re going on an adventure? Please, take these sweet breads for the road.”

“SAGE! Have this nice cushion for your trip!”

“Oh, deary… Mary at home really likes you, do you want to become my son-in-law?”

“Master Sage, thank you for your help with the wolves, I turned one of them into this shoulder mantle for you, please accept it!”

It went on and on until the wagon was filled to the brink with needless tokens of appreciation. Astor sat on a throne of sausages with a chain of dried meat medallions around his neck. Sean on the other hand was wrestling with a goat who was nibbling his mask. Zeus, meanwhile, was shoving an entire pan of sweet bread down his throat to lighten the load.

Haru sat on the back-edge of the wagon, waving at the villagers who were seeing him off. When he looked down, he spotted some of the speedier children chasing after him and decided to conjure spectral animals to lead them back to their parents. The sound of children laughing as the spectral animals jumped on and past them filled him with joy as he realized he had found his ‘next plan’.

A new day, a new goal, a new Haru. He looked toward Falderen with a new hope.

[ Haru has joined the party ]

To be continued...