Bartz was currently sitting next to a tree and had resorted to staring up at the clouds in the sky. He didn’t know that soon, the world that he and other people loved would soon collide with another world where demon slayers battle against and slay demons as one of the most dangerous occupations. He continued to stare at the sky for a few minutes until he managed to snap himself out of his trance and then ended up sighing softly.

Cloud was occupying himself by wiping down his blade with a damp cloth. He sighed, as he didnt have much to do.
(So sorry for the one-liner, im usually more creative, guess im a bit rusty XD)

((It’s fine! I do it sometimes as well! I also just kind of assumed that Cloud was somewhere near Bartz.))

“Oh crud… I forgot about the Mandragoras that have been wandering around the area as of late… How could I be so forgetful!” Bartz said before he started to run over to where Mandragoras normally lived. He was a little tired once he reached the area and had also passed by Cloud without saying anything. When he eventually reached the area, he noticed that the surrounding environment had been decimated by something. “What could have happened here…” He muttered softly.

Cloud stood up, holstering his blade and followed bartz at a walking pace. He stopped behind him and crossed his arms, "What happened here?" he said with a slight huff and narrowed eyes.

“I-I don’t know but this place has been decimated by something. I just hope that the remaining mandragoras have gone into hiding because whatever destroyed this place might be stronger than anything we have faced before.” Bartz said before he knelt down to inspect one of the patches of barren land. He carefully noted that some of the soil had been blackened and he could only assume that the likely culprit was some sort of fire.

Cloud shifted his weight ono his other foot and observed the decimated area from where he stood. "Maybe, wouldn't hurt to check the area and surrounding areas for anything suspicious though." He reached for the handle of his sword out of habit.

“That would be for the best. I’m hoping that Tidus caught wind of the case as well. He’s rather fast on foot but he can be a little hardheaded which is why either Vaan or Firion normally go with him. I’ve also ruled out the possibility for it to be Vaan due to the size of the decimated area.” Bartz said. He stood back up and then summoned a dagger just in case he needed to defend himself. It was then that he slowly walked towards a non decimated part of the environment and caught sight of a rustling bush in the otherwise still and silent forest. “Something’s there…” He muttered softly.

Cloud chuckled at the Tidus comment. He turned to the bush, tightening his grip on his blade. He slowly walked forward, narrowing his eyes at the bush. (Ah gtg srry)

Bartz slowly started to approach the bush. He tightly gripped the hilt of his dagger as he inched nearer to the bush every second. Eventually, when he did reach the bush, he patted some of the branches only to find a rather spooked Firion hiding in the bush. “I think I found what was in that bush and it’s not a monster nor is it a wild animal. He said.

Cloud relaxed, dropping his hand to his side with a shake of his head. "That happened." he nodded his head to Firion, "Whats up with you?" He narrowed his eyes, awaiting an answer impatiently.

“I saw what had happened with the mandragoras and it wasn’t any sort of behemoth or dragon nor was it Vaan. The reality was… much more frightening and I don’t wish to talk about it but I decided to hide so that it wouldn’t find me…” Firion said. He looked at both Bartz and Cloud with a look of fear in his eyes.

“I have a few questions. What exactly is it and what is so scary about it?” Bartz asked Firion. He had tilted his head in confusion when it was mentioned.

“Y-you don’t want to know… I only hope that anyone or anything else that survived has gone into hiding.” Firion said. He remained in the bush despite the fact that there was no imminent danger around.

Cloud, confused at Firion's fear and explanation tilted his head. "And, whatever this was, it clearly frightened you.. But you wont speak on it any further?" He narrowed his eyes and placed his hands on his sides, clearly annoyed.

He said nothing further, just stood in place, silently.

“I don’t think that it will leave you alone once you know what it is…” Firion said softly. He continued to remain completely motionless.

“Alright… Time to get out of the bush…” Bartz said before he carefully picked Firion up out of the bush in a way that wouldn’t spook him any farther. “You don’t have to tell us if you’re not ready to do so yet but whatever it is, we will eventually find out about it and how to make sure that what happened to the mandragoras doesn’t happen again.” He said softly.

Cloud sighed, but didn't push further. He dropped his arms down, tilting his head slightly to the right. "Alright, its going to get dark soon. Maybe we should keep one or two people in the area. See if whatever IT is will come back." He emphasized the word it. "And, should probably get him inside, possibly in a bed?" He nodded his head toward the frightened Firion.

“I can have Tidus look into that. Besides, he’s got more energy to burn that a child who had too much sugar so he’d be perfect for the job. I’ll take Firion back to either Fynn or Lix however, we should really settle for a nearby village. There’s one nearby and the residents there are rather friendly.” Bartz said softly. He looked up at a tree for a moment until Tidus came out of seemingly nowhere and roared loudly.

Cloud nodded in agreement before shaking his head at Tidus's entrance, clearly annoyed.
"Must you always act childish.." He growled.
Cloud turned back too Bartz with crossed arms, "Shouldn't someone else stay close by and take shifts or something? Even with all his energy, Tidus cant stay up all night and still be ready if something or someone attacked him." He asked with narrowed eyes.

“Aw come on… You know that you secretly laughed at that little spook, Cloud and I’ll be fine on my own. Besides, I don’t want to drag Vaan into this after yesterday’s incident with a similar case. He got injured so he’s staying in a nearby town until he heals up.” Tidus said. He was pouting slightly at how Cloud didn’t even smile at his little trick.

“Have you ever been around Tidus for weeks on end on an expedition? He once stayed up for three days before he ended up falling asleep.” Bartz said.

Cloud sighed, "That makes sense, very well." He dropped his arms down, but stopped and turned around on Tidus. "What did you just say?" His brows furrowed, he stared at Tidus as he awaited the answer.

“Vaan got attacked by something yesterday and that incident that you saw happened more than once. Vaan and I were both called to investigate a similar incident however Vaan ended up getting injured. I found him and his wounds were rather severe. I took him to a nearby village where he’s resting.” Tidus said. He had stopped joking around when he mentioned that Vaan had gotten injured during a similar investigation.

Cloud nodded, "And you didn't manage too see what had injured him, did you?" He tilted his head, his mind reeling as he tried to figure out what was going on.
He crossed his arms, leaning slightly to the right as he put his weight on one foot.

“I didn’t see what injured him although there were various cuts on him. I doubt that he would want to speak about it, though…” Tidus said. He really didn’t want to speak about what had happened to Vaan and didn’t go into much detail about the wounds Vaan had.

“You don’t have to speak about it if you don’t want to, Tidus…” Bartz said softly.

Cloud sighed and nodded. "Not much information to go on..." He uncrossed his arms and turned to Bartz, "Guess we should go get Firion to a safe place. Might get more information later on."

“And we’d better hurry so keep up if you can!” Bartz said cheerfully before he started to run towards the nearest village. Even while he was running, he was careful to avoid exposed tree roots and to not drop Firion who was still scared out of his mind from his encounter with IT.

Cloud grunted, surprised at his sudden departure. He raised his hand, sorta giving a "cya later" salute, before turning and running to catch up to Bartz.

Bartz had eventually reached the village after running for what seemed like hours to him. He was rather exhausted and almost dropped Firion although he managed to pull himself together just in time to not drop Firion on the ground. “We… should rest here… for the night…” He said. He felt like he could fall asleep from exhaustion at any moment.

Cloud nodded, he was exhausted as well, but tried not to show it. He had stopped about a foot behind Bartz and he crossed his arms. "Yeah, good idea."

“Then let us rest and I also wonder if V has been brought here…” Bartz muttered softly. He started to drag himself towards a place to stay before he ended up falling asleep. He had tired himself out from all the running and had even dropped Firion who was still rather spooked.

“We need to go inside…” Firion said softly. He had started to shiver uncontrollably out of fear.

Cloud shook his head. He held a hand out to Firion, "Think you can stop shaking and give me a hand, or do I need to carry both of you in?"
Cloud nodded his head toward his hand, though he had no expectations of Firion actually helping as he was still very clearly frightened.

Firion only curled up on the ground. “P-please get us all inside as soon as possible before IT comes… I don’t want to be outside when IT comes…” He muttered softly. He still hadn’t calmed down enough to be of any sort of help and it was quite possible that it would end up taking him a few days to go back to normal after what he had witnessed.

Cloud dropped his hand and sighed, He leaned down and picked up Firion carefully. "Alright." He walked to the door, pushing it open with his foot (I'm going to assume its an Inn, my apologies if I'm incorrect)
After getting a room, Cloud took Firion to one of the beds, putting him down carefully. "I'm sure you can get yourself settled on your own, even in this state, ill be back in a minute." He said as he turned toward the door to go get Bartz.

Firion remained completely still on the bed that he had been placed on for a moment before he quickly hid underneath the blankets. He did this in a way that he would feel secure enough to stop shivering uncontrollably and attempt to calm down which really didn’t work the way he intended it to. He was still rather fearful although he didn’t say anything about it.

((It would have to be an inn because there really isn’t any other place they could go.))

Cloud left the room, walked outside and leaned down to pick up Bartz. He grunted slightly as he himself was exhausted. After managing to get Bartz in his arms, he turned to walk inside.

Once in the room, he laid Bartz on the other bed, then backed up with an exhausted sigh.

(Figured, just making sure)

“A-are we safe now?” Firion said softly. He still remained under the covers just to keep himself safe from anything that could possibly frighten him any further.

Bartz started to mutter something in his sleep about chocobos which was rather adorable given what he said. He was slightly prone to talking softly in his sleep.

Cloud nodded, "Yeah, we should be safe." He turned his attention to the muttering Bartz and gave a small, tired chuckle. He un-holstered his sword, leaning it on the wall before sliding down beside it in a sitting position. He then yawned and sat silently for a minute.

“That’s good… We can see if V is here in the morning as well as check on Tidus.” Firion said before he ended up yawning softly. He had started to fall asleep and seemed to no longer be as afraid as he was back outside.

Bartz ended up slightly moving in his sleep until he was comfortable on the bed. He then stopped moving afterwards.

Cloud nodded slightly then leaned his head back against the wall before eventually drifting off to sleep.
(Sorry for the one liner XD a bit braindead at the moment, ill recover shortly ^^)

((That’s fine and I’ll probably go ahead and swap over to Tidus and Vaan for a bit seeing that both Bartz and Firion are asleep.))

Vaan was still unconscious from the aftermath of yesterday’s attack. He had several bandages on his chest, arms and neck that had recently been changed again.

Tidus started to patrol the area he was in and was on the lookout for anything strange. “So far, it doesn’t seem like anything’s come out to get me so far. That’s always a good sign…” He muttered softly.

Cloud woke up a while later. He looked around as he got his bearing remembering where he was. "Right." He grumbled as he stood up, grabbing the large sword as he did so. He holstered the sword and quietly walked toward the door.

Unsure why he woke up, cloud walked outside and sat down, watching the sky for a few rather silent minutes.

Vaan had woken up and remained silent and motionless. He couldn’t stop thinking about how he had gotten attacked by something unknown as several thoughts about whet could have attacked him overwhelmed his mind. He also seemed to be rather troubled as well.

Cloud stood up and waked back inside. He had remembered what Bartz was saying yesterday and had decided that since he couldn't leave the two and chek up on Tidus that he would check with the Inn-keeper and see if Vaan was here.

He walked up to the counter and asked them about him, patiently awaiting an answer

'At least if he is here, maybe Firion will calm down enough to give us some answers' He sighed at the thought.

The innkeeper said that Vaan had been taken to the local hospital and even gave some information about the building. It was a rural hospital that had been built as a response to multiple villagers getting injured from monster attacks. They then gave him directions on where to go and then ended up sighing.

Cloud nodded. 'I cant go all the way where Tidus is, but maybe i can get to the hospital without freaking them out...'
He sighed and walked back upstairs to check if the others were still sleeping.

Bartz had snuggled up underneath the covers during the whole time that he had been asleep. He didn’t move around much aside from the occasional twitch that he would do while he was asleep.

Firion didn’t move from underneath the blankets and was still asleep. He had been sleeping for quite a while.

Cloud turned and left the room before making his way outside. He asked the innkeeper to tell Firion and Bartz where he had gone if they woke up before his return, then left, making his way to the hospital.

Once arrived, he asked if Vaan was here, then for directions to him before beginning his walk to the injured Vaan.

One of the workers at the hospital walked over to the room that Vaan was in and opened the door to reveal that the young Hume had bandages on his chest, neck and arms and had his vest removed for the time being. “You may go in…” They said.

Cloud nodded a thanks and walked into the room, he was quiet as he couldnt see weather Vaan was sleeping or not.

Vaan was now awake although he didn’t sit up from the bed he had been placed on. He only looked over at Cloud before he smiled warmly at the sight of someone familiar. “Hi… Do you need something…” He whispered.

Cloud made a grunt-like sound, being surprised. "Ah, not really.. Just checking in on you, Tidus said you were hurt pretty bad... and Firion and Bartz were worried."
He walked a bit closer, but stayed a few feet away.

“It was horrible back there… I couldn’t see what attacked me but I felt something as sharp as a blade tear into my flesh… I was completely overtaken by this assailant and then I woke up here… Also, if Tidus is out tonight, tell him to stay safe…” Vaan said softly. He tried to move his arm when he spoke although that didn’t amount to anything at the moment in terms of movement.

Cloud crossed his arms over his chest, "Yeah, we found another scene that Tidus said was much like the one where you were attacked. Tidus stayed to keep watch, in case whatever it was came back." He narrowed his eyes, "Firion seems to have seen whatever it was, but he's to frightened to give any information, anytime its brought up, he just shivers like a wet cat.." he sighed.