Fairy Forest

[Apollymi]

"You literally watched me fall out of a bed when there was nothing to stop me... it's just part of my process," Miki said in jest. Having reached the proper amount of stretch she was able to shake the rest of sleep from herself, and even allow her mind not to dwell too much on the situation that had happened when she'd woken up first. In response to one of Kou's yawns the lass also yawned such was simply the case, she covered her mouth as she did this but still managed to respond in kind. "I know what you mean... there is a surprising bit of comfort to be had sleeping in a hammock," she said with a firm nod. She was also quite sure of this fact, though she hadn't quite pinpointed why this was the case. She'd slept in hammocks before but never achieved the level of comfort she had the previous night, whatever the case was... "If I go in the bathroom first, I won't come back to find you sleep again right?" she asked the lad mostly in jest. That being said, she was also more than willing to let him have first dibs as she'd taken it over yesterday and thought that to be fair.

[Bloodedge]

"Not the best process to have... but who am I to talk?" Kou asked in rhetoric. He once again stifled a yawn and kept himself awake. Miki abandoned the hammock, and left it all to Kou in doing so. Because of this, he fell back into position as if he actually intended to fall asleep again, though it wasn't a conscious desire of his at all. When asked about his retained consciousness in the event of Miki making use of the restroom first, he released a yawn he couldn't bother to cover. "Uhh... no promises," he answered.

[Apollymi]

Once again Miki entered the bathroom and shut the door behind her, and much like all of the previous places she'd been she found it strangely accommodating. Two of everything to be found here including towels with shower access and a spot for her to hang her discarded clothing items. She went about having a shower in waters warm like rain in the summer. It wasn't the type of shower she was used to, but she felt clean at the end. She even managed to wash her hair and redo it while she was in there, leaving it to air dry in its light dampness. Beyond this by the time she emerged her outfit was as good as new, completely clean and ready to be worn again... 'Hm, Fairies have some weird magic going on...' she mused, but she appreciated it nonetheless. The blonde-haired young woman spent a few minutes slipping back into her attire and once she was dressed again, she stood in front of the mirror brushing her teeth for a few minutes, in doing this her mind began to wander back to how she'd woken this day, and it immediately led to the most serious blush she'd ever presented in her life. 'I really hope he was sleep for that... then I can just pretend like I didn't accidentally grab his junk. Also how am I stupid enough to actually accidentally grab someone's junk?' she went on an entire mental tirade, completely forgetting about brushing her teeth for a moment as she slapped herself in the forehead a few times. Soon though she caught wind of herself in the mirror and calmed down. And with that she rinsed her mouth and stepped out into the world once again. Strangely this entire morning routine had only taken her about 15 minutes to complete. "It's all yours..." she mentioned of the bathroom and she stepped back towards the hammock where she'd be content to have a seat until the lad was done.

[Bloodedge]

Miki departed to take care of her bathroom-related needs for the morning, while Kou failed to move from the hammock. He looked up through the skylight again, watching as the sun's rays penetrated the forest to create vibrant streaks of light between the lush greenery all around. The view was serene, and Kou was put at ease all over again. There was enough silence that he could hear Miki shuffling about in the next room, which was... somehow comforting background noise as well. It took only fifteen minutes for her to complete all of her tasks, but when she returned and spoke, Kou was sprawled out over the hammock with his left arm and right leg hanging off, and not an ounce of consciousness within him.

[Apollymi]

When Miki returned her words fell upon deaf ears. Or to be more specific she came out to see an obviously unconscious Kou, sprawled out across the hammock as if he'd never woken up or shared it in the first place. She witness this sight and had to suppress the giggle she had building. Beyond that initial reaction Miki's heart was softened by such a sight and she found it comforting. Someone else's sleep shouldn't have mattered to her much at all, but finding him there and lost in his unconscious state without a care in the world somehow, made the lass feel warm inside. She approached the hammock cautiously unsure how to go about waking him in the first place. With this in mind she spoke to him while gently nudging his side. "I know you said no promises, but I didn't actually expect to find you sleeping when I got back. Come on now Kou it's time to wake up..." she murmured, though there was a softness to these words which she couldn't have explained if she tried. During all this the lass tried to wake him up and was in the present position to be the first thing he saw when he opened his eyes.

[Bloodedge]

Kou was snoring lightly when Miki approached him. It became louder when he was nudged, but Miki's voice eventually reached him. He stirred into an awake state again. When his eyes opened, Miki was the first and only thing he could see. "Mrmph..." he mumbled as he stared blankly into the girl's face. With another yawn, he managed to pull himself out of the hammock at last. "Haihai..." Without another word thereafter, the ashen-haired Adventurer trudged along to the restroom to freshen himself up for the day ahead.

[Apollymi]

It took a bit longer than the previous days early wakings would have implied. Even so, Kou soon woke enough to drag himself out of the hammock and begin his preparations of the day. This wasn't without a bit of strangeness though, as the lad stared at her quite blankly for a few moments after she woke. She had no real way to quantify this, but his staring made her feel as if she should hide her face, but by the time she had the thought he was already leaving. While Kou had his bathroom time, Miki sat in the hammock rocking after gathering the things she needed and putting her boots back on her feet. The only thing she hadn't grabbed yet was her weapon and she assumed that could wait for Kou's return. 'Hm, I guess we can actually go back to the blacksmith now, I wonder what he'll want to do after we get our next weapons?' the lass wondered in her mind. Strangely looking forward to whatever was next, in spite of the fact that it was likely going to be pretty dangerous.

[Bloodedge]

Roughly twenty or thirty minutes after entering the restroom, Kou emerged with his hair still soaked even though the rest of him had been dried off. He seemed to have woken enough to be alright. Back in the bedroom, he grabbed and reequipped each of his items one piece at a time, beginning with his shoes and ending with his sword. "I hope the blacksmith in Eonis can actually work with these materials well enough. Come to think of it... I think he might have been a player too. I never thought to check, but I thought the same thing about the queen here. Might be worthwhile to check before we head out." With his sword in place, Kou turned toward the exit door. "What do you think?"

[Apollymi]

Thirty minutes after he left, Kou was emerging from the bathroom. Miki had always been told girls take forever to get ready, but she had that sort of thing down to a science, noticing that it took a lad a normal amount of time to get ready gave the lass a bit of solace. Still she rocked herself back and forth in the hammock and when he spoke she listened. A few moments of consideration made her nod. "Well, I assume at the very least, if he asked for the materials he knows what to do with them. If he is a player like us, then helping us out will likely increase his skill level and that can make us friends... And it means we can keep using him, because he should in theory not be locked into a certain tier of skill. Well assuming that bit remains true between the game and here..." she said about the blacksmith, admittedly if he was a player she'd have to commend him on his accent because he was owning that. "Also he needs praise for that accent... it's really convincing," she finished up with no more to say about him.

About the current fairy queen she could also see that sort of thing as well. She seemed to be a bit flighty but the kinds of people who got sucked into alternate worlds and decided to make the best of it had to be a bit strange to start with. "We can probably check the Fairy Queen before we leave. At the very least, it's highly likely considering that Titania said about the last person to complete the maze, being her. Though that's a lot of other players, potentially. Gowther obviously realized it early, but I wonder if a lot of the people wandering around here are players... I mean... it'd make sense of the urban legend at least," Miki said thinking back to her own purchase of Age of Eternity which seemed like it was a life time ago. Whatever the case, Kou now seemed ready to venture out into the world and so she removed herself from the hammock and grabbed her spear and cloak equipping both. After making sure she still had all the things she needed in her pack she was content to go as well. "Let's find out..." she said about Dakini assuming they'd go out looking for the Fairy Queen, if only to make sure they could get out of this place with relative ease.

[Bloodedge]

"Hmm. Yeah. I guess it would be pretty good to have one blacksmith we can rely on all the way to max level. Maybe even past that. Say..." Kou paused upon realizing there was a certain topic they hadn't discussed. In fact, they had hardly talked bout the game Age of Eternity itself at all since meeting one another and confirming each other as players. "Did you ever make it past level 50?" he asked. As he recalled, it was the moment he reached level 50 and unlocked the Alter Ego Special Class that he was transported to this world. He wondered if the situation was no different for Miki. Assuming this discussion would carry on, and since the lass seemed ready to depart, Kou made his way out with the intention of continuing the conversation en route to Dakini's throne. "If Dakini is actually a player, that means a lot. Gowther's a king, but there are multiple Dwarf kingdoms. Dakini being a player means we can actually reach for the stars and grab them while we're here."