“I did sleep,” Narda insisted, rubbing her own face. “I am never this tired so early in the day.” Why was she so tired? As they walked down the street, with the giantess trying to recall through the fog in her mind the layout of the town, they passed by other people, all of them with that same lethargic look on their faces, dragging their feet through their daily routines. 
“I know this is a sleepy town, but this is taking it too far. Something’s odd,” Daryll said, frowning as he blinked slowly. Even more strange was that Ysaryn seemed fine. 
	
They passed town guards who were walking lazily, or at their posts but sitting down, head propped up on their fist. When, finally, life seemed to spark in some of them, they sat up, noticing the newcomers, particularly the weapons they carried, and stood. “[i]Oy, you[/i]!” they cried, clumsily picking up their own weapons to jog over to them. 
“Oy, you, yourself,” Narda growled, “Is my father still paying you to keep the peace or not?” 
The men blinked, looked at each other, then up at Narda, seemingly only just realizing her unnatural tallness and, in particular, the battle axes she carried. Anyone who lived within the Wild Meadows should be able to put two and two together, given those details. “C-Countess!” They bowed as swiftly as they could, jolted awake. “Have you been sent by the crown to help us?”

Narda frowned. “What is going on? Where’s your mayor? Who is leading the town now? Take us to them.” The guards saluted and led the way. Narda looked at her companions and shook her head. 

The mayor’s home was, as expected, more lavish than the rest of the home around it. The guards knocked on the door, prompting an irritated shout from inside. Daryll looked about, then up at the windows in time to see a plump woman peek from behind the curtains. When she saw him looking, she closed them swiftly. 
The door finally opened. The mayor looked like he had only just got out of bed, but upon catching sight of the giantess he swallowed and straightened up. “Ah—[i]contesa[/i]—”
“In common tongue, for my guests, if you please,” Narda said, though the tone of her voice and glower on her face betrayed her impatience. “We’re here to look for somebody, a woman from the Glenn family. But we have just been told by one of your guards here that you are expecting help from the crown. Why has my House not been informed, and why hasn’t word reached the Capital?” 

It seemed as if Narda’s questions were far too early for the mayor’s mind to comprehend. “Er—yes! W-we did send messengers, but perhaps they have been waylaid?” He scratched his head. “It has been a fairly recent, uh, phenomenon, Countessa. As for the Glenn family, perhaps we could help? But I should say, that is a rather sad and disturbing tale—”
“I care not. I just want answers.”
The mayor swallowed again and nodded, glancing briefly at Daryll, who, as usual, was dressed like an ordinary traveller and didn’t look much like a Wyvern, and then at Ysaryn, her eyes, and her blades. “A-ah. Yes. Of course. Please come in.” 

The plump woman, who looked to be the mayor’s wife, set about making tea for them. “Now. Quickly. About the Glenn family.”
“Yes, milady. See, therein lies the root of our problem. You might be experiencing the lethargy yourself right now, yes?” 
Narda raised an eyebrow. “Since stepping into the town? Yes. Save for my companion here,” she said, gesturing towards Ysaryn. “I have with me Ysaryn, a friend of the Empress, and the Lord Daryll—” Daryll hissed, his hopes of not being introduced this way dashed. “—Lord Daryll Wyrmingway, the Empress’s cousin. So. You have help from the Crown, and a representative of the Wyvern family here.”
Realizing who Daryll was, the mayor looked even more flustered, which Narda found odd. If they did want help from Kire, they should be jumping for joy now. “A-ah! I am honored! Yes, of course. Uh. See, there is a family that claims to have Glenn blood living near the, er, most unsavory part of town. But they have been living so poorly, and of such suspect character, that this claim is questionable. And there is the matter of the [i]daughter[/i].” 

“What about the daughter?” Daryll asked. 

“T-there is no real proof, of course, as none of us know a thing about magic and the supernatural and such, but the daughter is quite, ah [i]queer[/i], shall we say. Maybe a witch. With no proof, we cannot do anything, but we have reason to believe this daughter is the source of the malady plaguing us.”

Narda ground her teeth. Something about all this rubbed her the wrong way. “We will be the judge of that. Show us where they live.”

--

Gavin met Ruli’s gaze, feeling like the question was both a genuine inquiry and some sort of test. “I don’t know. If it looks like something that’ll expand and affect more and more land and people, maybe we should. But if the thing is that volatile, it might not be too smart to mess with the whole thing. Didn’t your wards fight with the Gemini ones when Kire destroyed the world gate before? What if something like that happens again?” Myka made a face, remembering that night. 

Kire frowned as she sat back, arms crossed, thinking it over. “We’ll enter another way,” she said. “Closer to those hills I was talking about. At this point, there’s so little known about the forest, the most I could think of is to scout out other areas just to learn more about it. No splitting up,” she said pointedly to Gavin, who frowned at the assumption that he was going to bolt and explore on his own. “I don’t know if it’s just because of the trance or the goddess makes it so that we split up upon encountering the visions while inside. So better not make her work any easier.”

Once everyone was finished with their meals, they left the inn to get ready for the trip. The line of hills Kire was thinking of was similarly engulfed by the forest, directly south from their first entry point yesterday. “I could just go in alone,” Kire said, to which she knew everybody else would react rather strongly. “Alright. Stay close, and be careful.”