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"I'm not going to lie Serena, you were crying. I am going to ask you once, if you want to talk about it, and if you do not, it will not be mentioned again. Do you wish to speak with me in this private setting, about whatever it is that has you upset to the point of tears?" Heji said, being very firm.

She muttered curses under her breath before she turned around. "Just...ghosts coming back to haunt me...is all." She put her weight against the door, as if assuring that the Skuntank wouldn't be able to get in while they were talking, and with Syrup's mind, she was going to turn it into the most perverse...Serena let the thought drop, even now it was bringing color to her cheeks. She dodged the question a bit, approaching a different topic. "What would you say if I told you I came in here to offer myself to you last night?"

"I would say that that would be rather interesting. Do you plan on doing so before we head out?" Heji asked simply. It was rather hard not to notice how differently Serena acted around him, and coming into his room in the night was one of the additional scenarios in which it made sense that she was possibly infatuated with him.

She ran her hand over her headplates, well, at least Marlow hadn't taken that experience from her. In a way, perhaps she always knew he wouldn't.

"There's not exactly time now...considering I'd probably need a little...guidance." She blushed at the last word. "But before you leave...I would...gladly." She flicked her tongue out. "I just...didn't want to disturb your sleep." When the blush had gone down, and she felt like the admission wasn't going to kill her--unlike some other things that day, she spoke again.

"It seems that we'll have an escort out of town, after we get done shopping as well....and that escort is waiting outside the door..." She could tell Syrup was still there, simply by her smell.

"If you are feeling that when, then I might be willing to oblige you. Now, we're going to the bay, are we not? Or are we selling our catch here in Gambitville?" Heji asked. The whole respect versus fear thing didn't really matter to him.

Kyn and the others made their way towards the room that they believe that Serena currently occupied. When they didn't find her inside, the moved on to the next location, which happened to be Heji's. There was a Skuntank outside, but they didn't make anything of it.

"The pelt and bones should be sold around here-" She had opened the door, and this time Syrup had pulled her into a hug, to which Serena herself sighed and let herself go limp. "Hi 'ma.' Sleep well?" She snorted.

Syrup treated every dragon like her kid, so as a joke, Serena called her 'ma'. of course, it wouldn't be known by the others.

" 'mornin' Serena." She set the little Bagon down on her feet and stepped out of the way. "Ooo a Luxray, kheh."

"Syrup...." She abandoned the Ma, her voice going serious. "Don't assume what you don't know." She clicked her tongue and turned to face the others. "So, did anyone think to grab the bag in the room before they came to check this one?" Nothing had happened, and as such, there was no need for a blush. "We were going to go to the general store before leaving, I had something that I wanted to pick up...and well, drop off." She said to Syrup without looking at her.

"Ahh, well then, Don't mind if'n I join your's party fer a bit, do yas?"

Kyn gave an exaggerated cough, and waited to see if Serena would be able to use him as an escape to hurry up. If not, then he planned to personally give her an excuse.

Serena sighed at Syrup's statement. "Yes, I mind. It's awkward enough traveling in such a big group, adding you to it would only make it worse, and it doesn't help that you think 'anyone who's with you is in good claws'. You intimidate everyone into everything around here, whether you know it or not." She snorted at the lack of answer about her bag, and rather quite jumped over the group towards the room she was 'supposed' to have slept in, grabbing the bag before returning, only to find Syrup -still- talking.

"Kheh. I can see where I'm not needed, Serena, but you still owe me that drink."

"Syrup...you're always drunker than...well, never mind. You're probably still getting over Donahue's latest brew." Serena forced herself not to look up at the Skuntank's eyes, knowing she would see tears that she was willing not to let fall. "I'll....be back in a couple weeks, if the rogues---ACK" She was swooped up into another hug, and tried to pry herself out of the woman's grasp.

"YA JOINED THE ROGUES did ya?!~ I knew you'd be a good rogue."

"Put. Me. Down. Syrup." She was being squeezed and she could have sworn she heard something crack before she was put back on the ground. "Damnit Syrup, Go HOME." She stamped her claws on the floor. "I told you, I'll be back, I'm..." Her tail flicked down. "I'm not like Mike or Maple."

"He actually visited a little while ago, ya only missed 'em by a day or two, he's got 'imself a girlie now by the name of Opal...You remember OPAL, don'tcha?" From the look on her face, Serena remembered Opal quite well. Any retort died on her lips. "I'll let'cha get back to business. See ya round Kiddo." and the Skuntank walked down the steps and out the front door.

"Serena, let us be quick. Time is not exactly on your side. A lot just happened that I have no idea, or context about, so I won't ask yet. Maybe some other time." Kyn said, adjusting his his hair, since it had gotten slightly messed up due to sleep.

The words seemed to shake her from her stupor.

"Right, right." She muttered, slinging the bag over her shoulders. "To the general store then."

She took the steps two at a time as she hopped down to the ground floor, and returned the keys to Donahue.

{You told me you would tell me about the results from your experiment today.} She reminded Marlow as she rather quite...jogged to the store. She had told the old man to keep the snake safe, and now, now he had let her run off with the incompetent Charmander? She kept her temper in check, but her eyes checked the shadows, and once she could have sworn she had seen Syrup in them, but she didn't get the chance to check, as when she next looked they were empty. She snorted, and pushed the door open, and as expected there was the tinkling of the welcome bell.

{I have not performed my experiment yet. You will be informed when I do.} Marlow said neutrally.

"Serena, when would be a good time to continue our discussion from the previous night?" Kyn said, avoiding the subject of her apparent familiarity with Gambitville.

"When we're on the road." She answered. "However, you are NOT going to carry those bones and pelt all the way back to the bay, let them do the lugging." She snorted again as she picked up some rope from the floor, but made pause at the Chargestones on strings. She pulled them off their pedestal and coiled them up in her hand with the rope, then set them down on the counter and rang the service bell.

The tender came 'round eventually, rubbing a cloth over his glasses "Yes yes, I'm here. How can I help you to--today." He stuttered.

"Got some trading to do. First things first. Tauros pelt." She motioned to Kyn, sliding her items out of the way so that he might place it on the counter, her green eyes still trained on the shopkeeper. She KNEW she was making him nervous, she didn't care.

Kyn took the pelt and laid it out across the counter. "Seems like a few of these could cover this pretty well." he commented, keeping his words few.

The male looked the pelt over, but didn't meet Kyn's eyes, instead he looked at Serena, who was growing impatient, and it showed, if only in her eyes. The pupils had slitted, and he rather pulled money from his till, put it in a bag, and handed it to the disguised Kyn as he pulled the pelt and bones off of the table. The moment that was done, Serena slipped a few coins onto the counter from her own pack, sticking the rope in her pack, and holding the two Chargestones in her claws.

Finally as she slipped out, the keeper unfroze. "A-ah, have a nice day!" he stuttered, Serena very much ignored him.

The sooner she was out of this town...BAM. She was lucky she hadn't taken another step, as an energy ball collided with the wooden floor. Well, her luck couldn't hold out forever, she supposed.

"Alright Serena, what the hell was that? There was no mistaking that shopkeeper's response to you. I am not demanding but I am strongly requesting another explanation." Kyn said, with a sigh at the end. He didn't really figure that Serena revealing more about herself could do any more harm than she already thought she did. As it was pointed out earlier, since he wasn't planning on staying in this world, it shouldn't really matter much.

She rather quite growled at him, or at least, it was very close, if it wasn't. "I'm not LIKED around here Kyn, I thought I made it clear of that last night...In fact, if it wasn't for Syrup, I'd probably have my face on a wanted poster. Several have demanded that there be a bounty on my head for what happened before I knew better." She ignored the Energy ball on the ground. "I told you, I didn't get to this strength by sitting around on my ass." She had already charged the shadow claw and intersected another energy ball while it was out on the road.

"Why don't you guys start heading back to the Oasis, and I'll catch up...hm?" She tried to be nonchalant about it, but come on, really? "Since I've associated myself with you, well...they'll quite let you go if they can have me without too much of a fight...and on the way, you can tell them, Kyn, just exactly WHO I was."

"I've already told you how strong you are. Assuming that you don't get swarmed by fifty Pokémon, then nothing will happen to you. Unless of course you decide to give yourself up. I HOPE that's not another one of the reasons why you asked if I could find my way back to your cave without you. Also that last line sounds like something out of a cowboy play. You're living the real life version of... in essence, that sort of outlaw that isn't really exactly a 'bad guy' per se, just trying to survive." Kyn wasn't sure how Serena would take that last part, but he would clarify if necessary!

She laughed. "I don't plan on walking off into any sunsets any time soon, Kyn...I might come home with some new scars, but no, I'm not going to die. I Promise." She did turn around to hand him the Chargestones she still had on hand. "I -Promise-." She said again.

"Now get going." As she spoke, she stepped out into the sunlight, away from the cover of the roof, addressing her attackers. "I suppose it'd be too much to ask, for you to hold your fire until the travelers are out of the area...or at least for you to come out so that we can settle this...honorably." She muttered the last word, and her answer was what seemed to have been a bullet seed to the headplates, not very effective at all. "Didn't think so. Ah well."

"Well, this is going rather poorly. She better come back." Kyn said, after he was already on the way back to the oasis., He held the Chargestones in his hands looking down at them like he would a gift from a very close friend that had passed way, though he knew that if Serena said she promised, she meant it.