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Prompt 11: Strange talismans are hanging, hidden, in the tree branches in the forest. They are easy to miss, but there's something ominous about them; they are small strips of leather and wood and are marked with carvings, ink, and a strange brown stain. It is impossible to read anything on these talismans, but there is something obviously old and unnerving about them. Sometimes, when you pull one from the tree, a strange gust of wind reaches you despite none of the branches in the forest moving. In the distance, sometimes it feels like cold eyes on you. Oddly, the more talismans you recover, the more light seems to filter through the trees--at least, for a moment. There's no indication who put these talismans up, or what their purpose is. Pulling them may do as much harm as good, but there's only one way to find out what they're capable of and what their purpose is.
Ever since arriving in the strange village, Lepus had taken some time to explore the forest, fascinated with it as she was. It went around and around, and no matter how far she went, the village was always within sight, almost like the world map in your average jrpg. She hadn’t managed to figure out where the monster that always seemed to show up at night lived, but she felt that maybe she was getting closer to figuring out. Of course, she wasn’t planning on challenging it head on- Lepus was busy trying to play babysitter to two gradeschooler chibi senshi, twins of which one she had taken on as an apprentice- and as reckless as she was, it wouldn’t do good to look bad in front of them, should she be defeated in combat. Memories from her time spent in the bottle dimension also came to mind, where she had not only witnessed Etoile become dino food, but had been crushed to death by the same creature when she had gone to confront it. Dying wouldn’t really help anyone here, not when she was unsure if there were even respawn chances.
Also, of course, what kind of ‘defender of justice’ would she be, if she were to fall in battle so soon?
It was early morning during another of Lepus’ misadventures in the forest, day ?? of an uncertain number of days since they had all been brought here, that found her exploring again. The twins had seemed alright to leave alone for an hour or to, or at least Lepus figured they wouldn’t burn down the house while she was gone. Well, she’d told them to yell really loudly if they were in any trouble, so the pink-haired teen was pretty confident that if anything happened, at least someone would rush to their aid.
So… there wasn’t anything to worry about, and Lepus could go trapezing through the forest guilt-free, not that she was ever really one to stop and think about any consequences to her actions or words, usually. She didn’t really expect to find anything different from any other day in the forest, but had gone out nonetheless, because it was something to do other than look for food, or watching the twins trip out from supposed weird status effects from said food. Indeed, today’s expedition went as usual, with her journey through the forest providing nothing new or of any interest, but then something caught her attention, that she had missed in all her previous ventures.
Hidden and hanging on some of the tree branches were small talismans, easy enough to miss with their size, not to mention their coloration making it easy for them to blend in with the branches. There seemed to be some kind of writing on them, not that Lepus knew what it all meant, though she certainly was curious to know. Curious enough, even, that she decided that she’d go ahead and pluck one or two from the branches. Surely, they’d have some mystical use that she had yet to discover, right? They looked like they did, anyway.
With that in mind, Lepus went ahead and reached to pull one of the talismans off of the tree branches, so that she could take it back to their shelter and get a closer look at it; if she could access the internet, it would have been nice to maybe look it up online, but she’d been here long enough to know that there were no cell signals or internet service here… and her senshi phone wasn’t of any use here, either. As she did pull a talisman off, though, a strange gust of wind seemed to hit her, despite the trees around her not moving. Huh, weird. Not one to be deterred by such things, and in fact, generally one to be encouraged by such supernatural acts, Lepus decided to pull another talisman off the tree… and then another, and another after that. The feeling of eyes on her followed her as she helped herself to the talismans, something that might normally spook off a less braver person than her, but Lepus was determined, or maybe just stupidly stubborn.
(Or both. Lepus certainly fit the criteria for both.)
It did seem that she was rewarded for her efforts in pilfering the talismans, though, as light seemed to filter through the trees while she did so, the more light with the more she gathered. It didn’t last long, but Lepus took this as a sign that she was doing the right thing- she’d been guided by the hand of fate to this spot, so she may find these mystical charms. What purpose they ultimately would have, she didn’t know, but Lepus was certain they’d prove to be useful later on down the line. For now, it’d probably do good if she headed on back, before it got too dark; she needed to make sure the twins hadn’t wandered off, after all. She could share her findings with the two when she got back, and perhaps even share some of her new treasures with them.
(That was, of course, still assuming they had stayed where she left them, and hadn’t attracted any trouble.)
For now, Lepus strung a few of the trinkets around her wrist, and stored the rest in the subspace pocket for the time being. Once that was done, and everything secured (and she was certain there wasn’t anything else of interest to take back with her), Lepus made her way back to the village, to the home she was staying at with the twins, a spring in her step, and ignoring the feeling that she was being watched. If the monster was trying to intimidate her, to spook her or otherwise do something about her taking these talismans, it’d have to catch her first, and good luck doing that! She wasn’t going to be deterred, and she had already done the act, anyway, so there wasn’t anything it could do about that.
