The Unicorn's Forest

Jenn could only chuckle to herself at that statement. She'd completed a mask with a hooded tunic to hide the identity of the person wearing it. She just hadn't shown it to anyone just yet. Primarily so no one could complain, since she wasn't sure how good it would be herself. Just that she didn't care to put more effort into it, since there was so much else that needed her time and attention as well.

Jenn smiled at her. "Don't worry. I've got that taken care of already. I'll show it to everyone before I leave."

"Why can't one of us go in your place?" Jianopra begged, making Jenn wonder if she was merely trying whatever she thought might work to get Jenn to change her mind. "You said that we're supposed to be your… uh… stand-ins, right? So, why not have us 'stand-in' for you on this trip?"

Jenn patted Jianopra on her shoulder. "It's because none of you are comfortable doing this just yet. Maybe down the road I can trust any of you to do that in my place, but right now I know what I can offer and what I intend to do here. So, I'm the one who can make the best offer to any band of bandits we encounter."

While Jianopra didn't say anything else, just looked at Jenn miserably, Jenn knew she hadn't been convinced. She'd just run out of arguments for the moment. Just like everyone else that Jenn dealt with on an almost daily basis.

However, she knew what she needed to do in order to make this endeavor work. She knew that she might be taking an unnecessary risk here, but the only thing she was confident about was that she wasn't going to die. At least not yet. If only because she knew that she had to be alive in the scene from her dream. Otherwise it she couldn't witness Beth getting killed like that.

"Oh, by the way, have you decided on what focus to use?" Jenn asked Jianopra.

Since only one of them had any real training with their magic, Jenn had started teaching them how to use their magic, though they were mostly resistant to the idea of using anything other than words as a focus. Even though Jianopra and Roesadra hadn't yet actually made that decision just yet. Which Jenn checked on periodically. Just so she knew that they were at least thinking about it.

Jianopra looked like she'd rather leave than answer, but she also looked like she was frozen where she stood at the same time. At times Jenn found her reactions amusing, but other times, like now, she just felt bad for her. It was clear that Jianopra was very shy, but Jenn hoped that she might be able to help coax her out a little bit. If only around her.

The girl at the moment seemed like she wasn't sure what to say and Jenn really had to hold herself back from prying into the girl's mind. If only because she was feeling rather impatient with dealing with Jianopra at the moment.

"If you haven't, that's fine too," Jenn said, wondering if maybe she should see if maybe Cithis or Haln would be better at getting her to talk. If only to them.

Jianopra shook her head after a minute, glancing at Jenn almost fearfully. Though, when Jenn again patted her shoulder gently she visibly flinched.

"Don't worry about it," Jenn said as soothingly as she could. "Take your time with deciding on a focus. It took my friends several days, and in a couple cases months, to find theirs."

As Jenn thought about it, she suddenly realized that she wasn't even sure if Beth had decided on a final focus. She seemed to have continually switched to a different one every so often to the point Jenn couldn't remember if she had a primary one or if she had yet to settle on a single focus.

"Why do you have to go?" Jianopra asked as Jenn started taking inventory of the gathered supplies for the trip. "Why does it have to be you?"

While Jianopra technically asked the same question before, Jenn felt like there was enough of a difference this time that she should answer it like she hadn't asked the earlier question.

"Because there's some things that I need to do myself. Because I can't just sit here and let others take risks that I'm not willing to take myself," Jenn answered honestly. Though, she wasn't confident that this time she'd get through to anyone, since she was pretty sure she'd given this same answer, or close enough to it, multiple times and no one seemed to understand it then.

"Because if I let everyone else keep me here, then I'm confident it'll come to the point where I'm not able to go anywhere. Because I know what I need to do and I'm not sure I can explain it so anyone would understand." Jenn stopped for a moment to take a deep breath. She felt like if she continued listing the reasons that she might just start going off on Jianopra, which certainly wasn't going to help her open up more. "I guess there's just so many reasons that it's hard to pick which one applies to any situation," Jenn finished, not sure if she'd helped her own case out any.

"Do you know when you'll be back?" Jianopra asked, surprising Jenn.

For a moment Jenn couldn't determine if she was merely accepting that she wasn't in a position to change Jenn's mind or not. Though she quickly pushed that thought away, since the only way to figure that out would be to peer into Jianopra's mind.

"Not really," she freely admitted. "I hope it won't take long, but there's at least a few things that I want to take care of that could be time consuming."

"Like searching for a band of bandits," Jianopra commented, nodding.

"Like that," Jenn agreed. Then as Jianopra turned away from Jenn, she nodded, almost imperceptibly. Which made Jenn wonder how smart Jianopra was. With how shy she was, it was difficult to tell, but Jenn had a feeling she might be smarter than others gave her credit for.

Hearing footsteps approaching from outside, Jenn turned to look at the entrance of the building as Roesadra, Saela, and Oleania entered. They were clearly heading for Jenn, so she patiently waited for them, but had to reach out to Jianopra to keep her from leaving. When they were close enough, Jenn decided this would be the best time to reveal what she'd come up with so everyone would know which of them was 'supposed' to be the one in charge.

"Glad you're all here," she said as warmly as she could. "Before I leave, I wanted to show you what I came up with so whoever's turn it is to be in charge will be noticeable for everyone to see, even if they don't know which of you it is."

"What is it?" Saela asked.

"I'll go get it," Jenn said. "Just wait here, I'll be right back."

Jenn turned and left to get the mask and hooded tunic. She'd used her magic to make the material for both, so that she knew it would fit whoever wore it, regardless of how much size difference there was. Since while they all looked similar at the moment, she couldn't be certain that the others might grow a much bigger chest than her, or smaller even. Not to mention how the women from their world seemed to get taller than those on Earth did.

When Jenn brought the mask and tunic down, she received reactions she didn't quite expect. Mostly about the coloring of the mask: gold with an iridescent sheen. Though, that was before any of them spoke. Which she couldn't say she was too surprised about.

Jenn had did what she could to make it to resemble plastic, but didn't want it as flimsy as the plastic masks she'd see in stores around Halloween. She wanted this to last, not matter what happened down the road. So, while it had the same kind of texture as she remembered with most plastics, she gave it more weight, in addition to its durability.

"How did you make this?" Oleania gushed over the mask as she saw it in Jenn's hands. "It's almost like rainbow silver. Just with gold rather than silver."

Saela took the mask from Jenn and tried it on. "Other than its color, how did you know how to get it to fit?"

Jenn didn't know if she should really tell them just yet or if she should save that for down the line in their magic lessons. Which given how quickly they were learning to use their magic, Jenn was confident that it'd be a long ways down the road before they'd learn that.

"Let's just say no matter who puts it on, it'll fit," Jenn merely replied, not sure how else to explain it. While the mask was like the tunic, that it would fit whoever put it on, she wasn't sure if she'd even be able to understand any explanation that she might try to give if pushed into it.

"Will we really need to wear it?" Jianopra asked, looking like she was just realizing what that might mean.

"While wearing it, no one should be able to see who you are. The hood of the tunic will hide your hair and the mask will cover your face. So, you shouldn't feel like others are looking at you while you wear that. Think of it as they're looking at me instead. As these will be symbols of my authority for you, okay?"

Roesadra took the tunic from Jenn and merely shook her head. "What's with that flower on the tunic? Did you really take time to embroider that?" she asked, amusement clear in her voice.

Jenn wasn't sure what Roesadra meant. She'd only added the blue rose on the tunic on a whim. She didn't think that it would create any problems, but now she wasn't quite so sure. Besides, she thought the blue rose on the black color of the tunic went well together.

"I just thought I'd put that there," Jenn said, trying to keep her voice from getting quiet as she suddenly felt rather sheepish. Although, she was pretty sure that she wasn't succeeding very well. "I like blue roses."

The reaction to that statement surprised her even more than anything else. The expressions on the girls was nothing short of shocked. Which made Jenn wonder if she'd said something strange. Not that she could figure out what it might have been if so.

"But blue roses are so common!" Saela exclaimed. "You deserve something better than that!"

"Won't people wonder why our leader would have something like that on her clothing?" Roesadra asked, her tone just short of a demand. Although, her face paled a little a moment the words came out of her mouth.

While Jenn wasn't sure how to settle the worries to the girls in front of her, she suddenly had an idea. She hadn't been able to come up with a name for them, but she thought that she might have inadvertently given herself the perfect name. She just now had to figure out how to sell it. As she didn't think that it'd be as easily done as with everything else that she'd decided already.

"How about we call ourselves the Order of the Blue Rose and whoever is wearing that tunic and mask will be known as The Blue Rose?"

While she had hoped that she wouldn't have people agreeing simply because she'd said it, she also hoped that they wouldn't either complain or disregard it out of hand. It hadn't been easy to come up with a name for the people in the settlement, so she really hoped that what she came up with wouldn't be that difficult to get others to accept.

Though, the look the girls in front of her shared didn't fill Jenn with much confidence. Though, it was possible that she was misunderstanding something here, but if she was, she didn't have a clue as to what it was.

"How many did you say you wanted to accompany you?" Laer asked, startling Jenn. She hadn't heard the woman approaching.

"All the people that had been part of the hunting trips," Jenn answered simply.

While she knew others wanted them to continue to collect meat so they could dry it for later, especially if winter came to this world sooner than they'd like. However, Jenn was confident that they'd have enough to survive long enough for them to get more before it became a serious problem.

Laer's expression confirmed to Jenn that what she suspected was correct, but she also knew that the people in the hunting party were the only ones that were capable to fighting. Which meant if she found a group of bandits and negotiations broke down, then they'd definitely have to fight their way out. While it was theoretically possible for things to get resolved without that happening, Jenn couldn't say that she expected that to be the case. Or even likely.

"She came up with a name for us," Saela commented. "The Order of the Blue Rose."

Laer looked thoughtful for a moment and nodded. "Not the kind I'd have expected, but it could still work."

Jenn felt like slapping herself. While she personally like the name, it was clear that the others didn't seem to share her same opinion about it. Though, at least Laer sounded like she wasn't going to complain about the name. Which Jenn supposed was at least a good thing.

"So, what would that make you?" Laer asked, pulling Jenn back out of her thoughts.

"Whoever is wearing the mask is the Blue Rose, and while I'm technically The Blue rose, they'd still need to be called that when we get more people in," Jenn answered, wondering if maybe she should have waited to reveal the name until everyone was present. If only to keep from having to repeat it to everyone. Not to mention getting all the questions about it out of the way, in addition to knowing if others would try to talk her out of it. She wouldn't be surprised if that happened, but she at least hoped it wouldn't.

After that brief exchange, Jenn was annoyed when others started coming in to get Jenn to deal with various other smaller matters. Some Jenn was confident really would need to get resolved before she left, but then there were some that she was confident could have waited. Although, she was at least willing to accept that these people were also just learning the ropes themselves. Jenn just wished that she felt the same level of enthusiasm as these people did.

_

Beth couldn't help but feel annoyed. Not only was the last canyon not the one they were looking for, but there was a gate on the other side of that canyon and she was pretty sure that the safest way to reach it would to spend weeks, if not months, trying to navigate either around the mountain range or though passes that they hadn't quite found just yet.

Not that it mattered. If it did, then Beth felt like they'd have some indication of that fact. Though, she wasn't sure if that would actually be really true or not. Though, she didn't worry too much about it. She was confident some of her ramblings thoughts was from being so tired from the constant walking day in and day out.

The only positive for her was that her period started, which meant that she at least knew that she wasn't pregnant. Though, the thought of having gotten pregnant during the expedition didn't sit well with her. So, she had reluctantly spoken to Aerbris and Raeys. About why she felt they should discontinue their nighttime activities. While she told them they were free to continue together if they wanted to, she just needed some time away from those kinds of 'activities.'

Though, she hoped that she didn't let her feelings over the matter show too much, since she knew she'd much rather keep on with what they'd been doing. The only problem with that was that she knew she'd just get pregnant sooner or later. Which also would make it impossible for her to try to pretend that she wasn't getting any.

Still, despite everything else, they had at least taken a look at the three griffin canyons they'd learned about and determined all three of them weren't the one they were looking for. Whether or not they were close to that specific one, Beth couldn't say. Just that it was now time for them to head back to meet up with their friends and figure out what their next step would be.

Although, she suspected that Hannah might want to switch places with her so that she could get out and see more of this world. Or at least in regards to the next trip that any of them go out on.

Which of course could easily be in the planning stages already, since they didn't know what Tim had learned about any other griffin canyons. While Beth hoped that he had, she couldn't be sure since they didn't exactly have any means to communicate with how far apart they were currently.

"Thinking about trying to plan out the route back to the marquis' place?" Wes asked, intruding on Beth's thoughts.

Beth glanced at Wes and merely shrugged. While she suspected that it might be smart to do just that, it wasn't like she knew enough of the geography of this world to accurately know which paths would actually be safer and quicker on their return trip.

"Actually, unless you know which route would be more efficient, I was thinking of retracing our steps to the capital, then to… uh, the city we were in before there, and all the other ways we travelled to get to that city," Beth answered, not feeling particularly 'chatty' at the moment.

"You don't remember the names, do you?" Wes asked, sounding more amused than Beth liked.