This however, concerned Pearl because they might not reach their predetermined destination before sunset, and will have to stop by some village or town for rest, with that in mind, the mage immediately spawned out a map to inspect.
"Did we tell Marc she tried to robbed us earlier?" Mei whispered to the other two girls in the group; Esmeralda and Rina Wenswood.
"At this point, don't." Rina hugged Esmeralda while walking over to check on Pearl.
"Eik." Which translated to "Agree."
Pearl was hyper focused on the map when he felt a warm reptile appearing on his shoulder, quickly crawling on the other side; the mage fixed his glasses and did not react, being aware of it already.
"Veldrielynth, Rina, where do you guys think we should stop?"
Being called by her original full name that Marc named her and being included in the planning. Esmeralda widened her eyes and let out a loud happiness "kek!" noises near Pearl's ears, before jumping down to the carriage where Pearl laid out the map and started looking.
"This town is called… Lariak, the first town in Alcray contiguous to Sulkos's border, we are heading East, if we move right now we might reach the big city here." Pearl pointed at a small dot on the map, which is the town they are at, then moved his index to the right a bit to a symbol of a four walls structure; a city, under it is a symbol name of "Chalk City"
"And if we delay our departure a bit…" Rina leaned down to look and gave her view, using her wind magic to push Esmeralda a bit so the kid wouldn't obstruct her view. "If we started moving in the afternoon, we might reach this birch forest, or a village' bit further Southeast."
"Eik! Eik Eek!" This time, Esmeralda noticed something and rapidly pointed at the map, almost poking her sharp nail into it; the dragon was pointing a bit North, to a symbol of a cave; a dungeon it seems, named Avora.
"...Why so?" Pearl simply asked Esmeralda. In return he received multiple weird poses when the lizard tried to stand on her two legs and do obscure body language, did she forget she had a human form too?
"Truly, the wisest you've ever been." Rina, who didn't understand a thing either, giggled with one hand on her cheek. "We'll discuss later if we wanna visit that dungeon or not."
By then, Marc had finished talking with Gona. The leader told everyone to gather around when Pearl picked Esmeralda up with one hand by her nape, the other to touch the map and sucking it into his palm, storing it.
As expected of Marc; the sentimental guy he is, agreed to help Gona. Her story stated that his father was obsessed with his work again, putting her, himself and many others in great danger. She'd do anything to get out of this town away from him, but she does not have any skills necessary to survive on her own in regards to shelter or food, stealing small times and saving up won't ever help since she lived here and could get caught, she tried to get a bounty off of the team's head earlier on. And now she would need them to help her get out of town and into another town where she could start her new life, in exchange for not ratting them out.
But Marc got another idea, trying to convince the father that his daughter's feelings matter too.
"That's a lot of trouble." Pearl said, crossing his arms while Esmeralda had found a new spot on his shoulder. "You sure you do not want to just take her along for a part, leader?"
In response, Marc shook his head at Pearl.
"No, we can not guarantee her safety, and I myself, do not want to separate a family."
The rest stared at Gona. Knowing Marc, a man who works on emotions alone, and often contradicts Pearl on their beliefs is offering help so randomly. Also often makes choices that affect the whole team, irritates Rina to a degree.
"You guys can go help, I'm going to rent an inn to rest for the day." The elf turned around first and walked.
Mei, feeling uneasy to make decisions, a part of her that can not offer to help someone with such ridiculous reasoning, another part not wanting to leave Marc alone, waited for the other two.
"Pearl, Es, what do you think?" She asked.
"Eik…" Esmeralda jumped over to Marc's chestplate, crawling up to his face then onto his hair, making her decision.
Pearl kept his silence for a while, behind those classes are judgement, disbelief and fatigue. The young mage got his hands inside his cloak and simply nodded.
"I trust your instincts."
With that said, Mei let out a deep breath of relief, she bowed down to apologize to Marc, but she decided to be with Rina for this occasion, quickly turning around and ran towards her last seen location.
"This should not take too long." Marc anticipated as he followed Gona's instruction, on her way, she was very frustrated at the young man too, for having her return home and talk to her dad.
"I don't want to see him, you go in first." Gona said, standing on the opposite side of the fence.
It was a fairly normal house in their eyes — in a residential area, the wooden house was built side by side with many others, with a stone path in front and more residential houses across the street. One thing that separated Gona's house from the rest is… Her windows are boarded by planks, completely shut from any light emitting in or out of.
"Knock knock…"
With Esmeralda on the shoulder and Pearl behind adjusting his glasses, Marc knuckled the door twice, immediately afterwards, a loud explosion went off, just enough to blast the door from the inside out, sending the whole group backwards to the path.