Ough.

I tripped as I fell through the hole. Not sure why. Maybe I placed it too high? Anyways, after a moment, I was on the ground and my face was in the grass.  

Sis peeked over at me from the river. "Morning." She said, looking down at me. To be honest, I think I'd prefer a sarcastic remark. 

"Yeah, morning." I said, picking myself up and hastily wiping the grass off my clothes. 

Sis looked back out at the river. "Got any plans for today?"  She asked.

"Sorta. A couple things, anyways." I began. "Some people I wanna chat with." 

"Cool. Well, I'm ready to head out when you are."

Oh, right, DYN2 did mention that. Kinda flew right over my head amidst all the other information, to be honest.

I guess this is probably like a vacation for her, too. I haven't been there much, but I can't imagine 'Up There' is exactly the most exciting place in the world. I'm quite grateful for that, it's pretty reassuring to go adventuring with a friend. 

Kinda makes me wonder how S is doing...

. . . 

Anyways, at the very least, having a partner should make talking to people a little easier, which I am very grateful for.

I looked out into the river, and oriented myself in reality for a moment. 

It's still pretty early, so there's a possibility Maurice is still sleeping. He strikes me as a heavy sleeper. In that case, I should probably start by talking to the guards. They're probably up by now, I wager. Being up early seems like a guard-ly thing to do. 

Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, when do they sleep? The ones in Basenholm, I mean. Well, probably at night, obviously, but who watches the town when they do? Is the town just, like, unprotected at night? That's a bit unnerving... 

Eh, there's probably some other guards that come out for the night shift. I mean, I guess I've not seen them, but I've only been out in town at night, like, once, and it was pretty brief. 

Anyways, "Guess we should probably head into town first." I said. 

Sis nodded, reeled in her fishing rod, and put it in her sheathe. "What's the plan?" She asked.

"Well, I was talking to DYN2 earlier, gave me some vague premonition about something or other. Figure it'd be wiser to talk about it instead of, like, thinkin' about it."

"Oh yeah, pops did something like that before, right?" She asked as she got up and put her other things away. 

"Yeah. They were telling the truth last time, so I wager it's wise to exercise caution this time." 

"Eh, makes sense." They said I created a hole between here and just behind the inn, and peeked through to make sure nobody was around to see. There wasn't, so we stepped through. Cool.

There actually wasn't much of anyone out at all, actually. Like, anywhere. Man, what time is it? I peeked up towards the sky, to see where the sun is. Okay, so it's... Like... Uh... Somewhere between 6 and 9? Probably? I mean, if I had to guess... I dunno, 8? I'm not very good at this. Oh, I can look at my shadow, right? It's uh, uhm... Yeah, uh... Somewhere around 7 or 8ish? Maybe 9? No, probably not- 

It was at this point that I noticed Sis looking at me rather confusedly. 

"Uh... See, there's no one out, so I figured..." 

. . .

"Never mind." I concluded. No sense fighting a lost battle. 

Anyways, fortunately, those two guards were out. Not standing shoulder to shoulder this time, surprisingly, instead they're just kinda standing on either side of the doors to the church looking building. I say 'church looking' because, I mean, what other building has a pointed top, y'know? Castle pillars? Heh, that kinda sounds like caterpillars. 

"So, what're you gonna say to them? It probably wouldn't be a good idea to mention pops."

I shrugged as we walked towards the guards. Normally I'd think about this for some time, but I'm being impulsive today, so that I don't start agonizing over DYN2's preminition. 

The guards were wearing fairly normal leathers and chain armor, similar to the ones back in Starsford and that other city, though their armor was a bit dirtier than others. Probably because there's more actual dirt around here. Only other peculiarity was the fact that they weren't wearing helmets. Which seems impractical. Though, I shouldn't be talking, as I tend to go into battle with nothing but a sweatshirt and pants. Well, and underwear, obviously, but, y'know.

Even up close, these two looked almost exactly the same. Twins, I'd wager, the only difference that I could see is that the one on the right has slightly longer hair than the one on the left. If they were wearing helmets, I bet they'd be entirely indistinguishable from one another. Maybe that's why they don't wear them. That would make sense.

They seemed to be whispering to each other about something, but as we walked up, they stopped and turned over to us. 

 "What" The one on the left said

"is" The one on the right said

"it" The one on the left said, again.

"citizen?" Said the one on the, well, I'm sure you can figure this one out.

"Uh..." I said, on reflex. The heck?

The four of us just kinda stood there, for a moment, while I tried to recover from that mental flashbang they just hit me with.

"Are"

"you"

"okay"

"citizen?"

"Oh, uh, yeah." I said. Hold on, that's a really cumbersome way to think about their speech pattern. Maybe I should do it like this:

'Are' 'you' 'okay' citizen?'

Well, it's still a little clunky but that works.

Wait, what am I doing? Ah, right, talking to the guards about stuff. 

"Oh, uh, I-I wanted to inform you that something bad... M-might happen... S-sometime. 1 to 3 days from now. P-possibly." I said.

I heard Sis chuckle as I let out that absolute mess of a thought. Rude.

Well. I guess that wasn't the worst thing I could have said. Don't get me wrong, it's probably up there, but I could reasonably have said something worse.  Optimism. 

The guards looked at me skeptically. Which is fair, any reasonable person would probably think I'm nuts at this point. Especially since I'm still a little dirty from tripping earlier, and saying all that with a perfectly straight face.

"What" "are" "you" "talking" "about," "citizen?" 

"I, uh..." I said. I tried to think of something else to say, but I just kinda shrugged instead. Kinda wanna teleport into an active volcano at this point, to be honest. 

They looked even more skeptical, and began whispering something to each other once again.

. . .

"We" "can" "assure" "you," "citizen," "the" "town" "will" "be" "perfectly" "saf-"

They were interrupted by the church door being loudly and quickly slammed open, narrowly missing slamming the guard on the right into the wall like a fly.  

The door was opened by a rather odd looking person. They were decked head to toe in what looked to be shiny, steel plate armor, and they wore a tall, squarish helmet that completely obscured their face and head. Their armor was laden with bits of gold and red, with a few symbols I didn't recognize scattered about. They also had a fancy looking mace at their side and an equally fancy looking shield on their back. Overall, the whole thing felt vaguely crusader-y. Very cool. And very expensive. Where the heck does one even get gear like that?

"BY THE LIGHT, SOMETHING VERY STRANGE IS HAPPENING!" A very old and raspy voice came shouting out of the armor. 

"Oh, hey cap'." Both guards said in unison.