While this wasn’t his first time eating the animals from this world, it really did make him miss the seasonings and spices back on earth. At the very least the girls seemed to be enjoying the chow, so getting up early to catch those fish creatures was worth it in the end. But the incident with Kayla a moment ago was still in his mind. His gaze couldn’t help but fall to her voluptuous features. Marilyn’s still won in terms of size, but even if it was from a distance, he could tell how perky they were.

“Ahem!” Kayla loudly cleared her throat.

Dante quickly moved his lowered eyes up as he heard the noise, only to meet a piercing glare from Kayla.

I knew it! He really was staring! She thought as she lowered her bowl to cover her chest.

“Kayla are you alright?” Marilyn asked.

“O-of course, why wouldn’t I be?!” Kayla became flustered as she tried to respond.

“Well you’ve been fidgeting a lot, “Marilyn glanced at Dante as she spoke, “and you’ve been staring at Dante for a long time.”

“Wh-what I’m not staring, if anything he’s been staring at me!”-she thrust her finger across to him.

Dante spat out his food in surprise- “Wait a second!” he tried to speak.

“Honestly, you’ve both been staring at each other for a while,” Lacey interjected, “you sure nothing happened with you both?”

“You did come back wearing only his shirt Kayla,” Marilyn said.

Both Lacey and Marilyn pried the two for information. Dante and Kayla were overwhelmed by the thoughts of what happened and the sudden interrogation by the two that they struggled to come up with an excuse. Their eyes darted back and forth from each other, which only caused the other two to become even more suspicious.

“I-It’s nothing really!” Dante finally replied to them.

“Yea, so just shut up about it alright!” Kayla told the two ladies. Both Lacey and Marilyn exchanged glances with each other as they heard their response.

“Well, now isn’t the time anyway, we have more important things to discuss,” Lacey said as she decided to let the topic go for now.

Marilyn however, seemed more reluctant as she gazed at the two suspicious individuals. However, Lacey was right now she had something more important to discuss.

“Visions?” Dante said as he looked at Marilyn.

“Yes, though all of the visions I’ve had until now were very vague situations, they’re usually hard to decipher,” Marilyn replied.

“I see, sounds like a useful power though, if all magicians have that then-”

“It’s not something all magicians have,” Kayla interjected.

“Yes, it’s a special power known as a birth charm, it’s rare and there are many different kinds,” Marilyn explained. Birth charms were blessings or curses that the Goddesses placed on children depending on several factors. They ranged from, what sacrifices the mother offered during the maternal rituals to what mood the Goddesses were in during the time. The charms could take on many different forms, such as clairvoyance in the case of Marilyn, to turning people to stone if they look at you.

“Wait, you said usually, what makes this vision different from the others?” Dante asked.

“It felt very explicit…” Marilyn spoke as she recalled the memories, “not only that it wasn’t really as unrealistic as before. All the events were so believable.” Marilyn looked toward Dante as she continued, “I actually had a vision of you before we met.”

“Me?” he said as he raised his brows.

Marilyn nodded as she spoke, “I didn’t know where I was or what was going on. It was just an empty space and my body wouldn’t move,”  Marilyn closed her eyes as she recalled it all, “when I tried to speak it felt like my lungs were filling up and then a mysterious force dragged me into the darkness below,” she opened her eyes and stared at Dante with a troubled smile, “then a large shadow appeared above me and grabbed me up toward the light. I didn’t realize at the time, but that was a vision of how’d you save me. That’s also how they usually manifest themselves as well.”

“Was that what you were talking about when you said you had a bad dream?” Lacey asked as Marilyn nodded back at her.

“This recent one was more vivid though, I was in a village, the small huts were on fire, it seemed like there was no one around until I found Moyra.”

“The person you’re all searching for?’ Dante asked.

Both Lacey and Kayla glanced at each other as they heard Moyra’s name.

“I tried to approach her, but she told me not too, that ‘she’ would ‘kill me too’” Marilyn recalled the heat and suffocation of the flames and smoke, her friend right in front yet still out of reach, “I tried to get closer, but… the flames completely surrounded me. Then she said ‘she’s here’ and that ‘she’s sorry’ suddenly this lady in black dragon-like armor attacked me, she had a strange magic sword, that overpowered me… but I woke up before she could finish me with her sword.”

As Marilyn finished talking, silence remained throughout. What Marilyn described was quite worrying to both Lacey and Kayla. Dante could tell just from their grim expressions.

“Then, we’ll have to be on guard from now on more so than before,” Lacey said.

“Agreed, but even before we go back to searching, we have a problem,” Kayla said, “we have only one horse left and it’s not in the best of shapes.”

“Oh don’t worry, Dante’s got that covered, right!” Marilyn flashed a smile. Hearing her reply, Dante pulled out his keys from his pocket, and with a press of a button, his jeep wrangler beeped as it unlocked. The two ladies, jumped as they heard the vehicles sound and looked at it with eyes filled with confusion and curiosity.

“This baby will get us where we need to be, just give me the directions,” Dante said as he smirked while twirling the keys on his finger.