The Unicorn's Forest

Jenn merely shook her head, she wasn't sure what to respond with. Even as she sifted her focus to picking up Ralph. So many changes had occurred while she was either with the lost or stuck being a slave. She had a feeling that she would more than one of these dream conferences in order to fully catch up with the others as well as getting caught up with them.

When Ralph showed up, Jenn was finally ready to start. She just merely ignored the fact that Ralph was wearing nothing but black. Even his face was darkened, like he was planning on trying to sneak somewhere. Though, with what she saw, she was confident that she didn't need to know any more about why he was dressed like that.

She also did her best to ignore the setting around them. She wasn't sure if it'd give her friends any clues if she did react to the forest it looked like they were in. The Forest of the Lost. Though, she hoped that they'd merely write it off as the fact that she'd been enamored with the forest when they'd first arrived there.

"Looks like we're all here, so let's get started then," Beth announced, a little too enthusiastically for Jenn's tastes. Though, she couldn't help but wonder if it might be because she hadn't been around Beth as much, so had become a little unused to how Beth just was in general.

"So, who should start?" Hannah asked. "I mean, you guys have been gone for a couple months, but Charlie's been gone almost since we got here. What happened to you? When we found your pack, you'd even left your clothing behind."

Jenn couldn't say she was happy to have everyone's focus suddenly turned on her, nor was she pleased to remember what she'd learned about her clothing when she'd been released from the Lost the second time and how she'd pretty much taken it off almost immediately when they had 'taken' her.

"Let's just say that when you get taken by the Lost, you don't know what's happening, okay?" Jenn answered, hoping the others would accept it and leave it at that. "I really don't know how long I was with the Lost, but all I knew was when I woke up, I was already in a caged wagon as a slave."

"You know, the Lost sound like assholes to me," Ralph commented. "Why would they do that to you?"

Jenn shook her head, wishing they could talk about anything other than that. "Uh, can we talk about something else? The Lost didn't mean for that to happen, but there's only so much they can do," Jenn answered, hoping that the others would let that happen. As she really didn't care to deal with talking about all that. Especially since she had a feeling that it would give the others hints as to where she currently was and would likely still be if they came looking for her.

"So, what made you feel confident with using your magic now?" Tim asked, touching on the point that Jenn felt the most anxiety about. Namely the location where she was and what she was essentially doing there.

"Let's just say I'm not a slave anymore," she merely replied. "I'd like to explain what happened, but I don't really think we have much time."

"Why? You left us and we've been worried about you," Hannah complained. "Why can't you just let us in?"

Jenn sighed, wondering if they'd get to the points she'd like to. Such as the name she'd come up with for the people that she was essentially becoming the leader for. Though, as she looked at each of her friends, she could see that they weren't going to let her go on this one. If she wanted to get to anything behind her decision to bring them all up for a dream conference, she recognized that she needed to give them something. Something that would at least let them know that she wasn't in a position that they had to worry about her anymore.

"Fine," Jenn said, feeling like she was having to give more ground on this than she really was comfortable with. However, she didn't want to give away more than she was being made to by her friends, so she chose her words with care. Although, she had a feeling that she still might have to give away more than she'd really like.

"I was saved by individuals and the other slaves with me. I'm now with those slaves in an undisclosed location and I wanted to get some help with helping them out," Jenn finished, uneasy that she might have not given enough detail that her friends would accept her statement while at the same time, avoiding giving them too much detail that they'd be able to figure out where they'd be able to find her.

"'Undisclosed location,' huh?" Ralph drawled. "You've been watching too many movies, Char-"

Jenn wasn't sure what happened. One moment Ralph was voicing his complaints at her and then he was gone. She wasn't sure if she blinked and missed something or if there was something else happened and she just didn't know enough to explain it.

"Where'd Ralph go?" Amelia asked, looking at Beth and Wes. "He would have been the best to get anything out of her."

"It might be Ralph's turn for watch now," Beth said. "I'm not sure, though while I'm at it, I should probably let all of you know, while I'm thinking of it, that when we couldn't save Charlie, we got a few other slaves from the auction. So, we're not just travelling with Hesha and Feon, but a few others as well."

"What made you decide that?" Tim asked, sounding more curious than accusatory. "I mean, how short were you with being able to get Charlie?"

Beth took a deep breath, making Jenn wonder just how much of this Beth didn't want to share herself. Which felt rather weird, since Jenn recalled how she'd been the one with the most that she didn't want to tell the others about.

"In regards to how short we were," Beth said before pausing for a minute. "Let's just say that if I knew she was getting sold then, and for how much, then I'd probably need to have started collecting money since she left us. And even then, we'd probably still have the person who did win Charlie at that auction still outbid us."

"Beth said that Charlie sold for… uh, I think it was about a hundred and fifty or a hundred and eighty ziks or something," Wes added, eliciting a look from Beth mixed with shock and outrage. "The best we had gotten was about maybe three or four ziks altogether."

"Wow, how the hell were you supposed to get that much?" Hannah asked, looking like her mind had been blown.

"Not sure," Wes answered. "Just that we might have done better if we had more time. As it is, while we walked, we didn't collect much because it would have taken too long and Beth was insistent that we make the auction. Otherwise, it wouldn't have mattered how much we made, since we wouldn't have had a chance to even place a bid on Charlie."

While she was happy that she wasn't the focus of her friends anymore, she still felt rather awkward listening to her friends talk about how much she herself had sold for as well as what they could have done to try and buy her.

She knew that her friends didn't really look at her like actual property, but with the way the conversation had turned, if she didn't know her friends, she could get that impression. Especially since they weren't saying anything to her about it. Like she really was another piece of furniture around them.

"Oh, speaking of which," Beth turned to Jenn, making her jump. She had started to feel like they had forgotten all about her. "Who were the two kids with you? When you were being auctioned?"

"Uh…" Jenn hesitated. She hadn't thought about if she would tell her friends about Cithis and Haln, but at the same time, she couldn't see a reason not to. "You see, when I was a slave, I helped them out and, uh, they sorta adopted me?"

Jenn was surprised at how convoluted her emotions about that subject were. When she thought back about it, they merely felt fine and straightforward. Yet, as she told her friends about it, those emotions started twisting and turning, making her unable to stop her statement from coming out a as a question.

"You know, if it was anyone else, I might have thought that they'd have made the whole thing up," Wes remarked with a grin.

Jenn as about to complain when Amelia suddenly disappeared. "What happened to Amelia?" she asked, wondering if all of her friends would get woken up or something before she had a chance to ask about the points she had been wanting to put before her friends.

Hannah shrugged. "Not sure, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was because someone had come down with something," she said dismissively. Then suddenly her face lit up like she either realized something or remembered about something. Though, Jenn wasn't sure she liked how Hannah was smiling at that moment. "You know, there's something you have to know. Something none of us saw coming."

Jenn waited for Hannah to continue, but after a minute, she realized that Hannah was waiting for her to ask.

"Uh, what was it? Uh, that you didn't see coming, I mean."

"Apparently Amelia looks just like the wife of a marquis here," she said, amusement dancing in her eyes. "And that marquis had a daughter with his wife. So, guess what that means for Amelia?"

Jenn wished she said she didn't know and move on, but she could tell from Hannah's expression that she wouldn't accept that sort of response. Plus, Jenn could see that her friends weren't going to help her out any. Not with how amused they looked at this exchange.

"Uh, that Amelia's having to avoid the marquis' wife?"

Hannah blinked, almost like the air had been let out of her excitement. "What? No, the marquis' wife died a while ago," she said, looking at Jenn like she should have known that. "What it means is that they're looking at Amelia like she is the marquis' dead wife."

Maybe it was because she was tired, though Jenn suspected it had more to do with how little actual information she had about what Hannah was talking about, but she was having a hard time following Hannah's train of thought and why she was supposed to have made that connection herself.

"Anyway, aside from all that, was there any particular reason you wanted to get us together for a dream conference?" Tim asked Jenn.

As Jenn turned her head to Tim, she suddenly felt like she'd forgotten what that reason was. Like she couldn't remember what she'd wanted to talk about.

"Charlie, you okay?" Wes asked after a minute when Jenn didn't say anything. "You did have a reason for this, right?"

Jenn looked at each of her friends, her uncertainty making her feel like she might break down in front of her friends, but the comfort at seeing their faces again made that thought more bearable. That they wouldn't judge her based on that.

They might torment her later on about it, like with the 'spore' incident on the fungaloid world, but she knew that they likely wouldn't have any malicious intent behind it. Even if they went too far again with the teasing and jokes about it.

However, somehow the longer he looked at them, the less upset she was. Then as her emotions started to calm down, she felt a calm she couldn't say when the last time she felt that was, but it was enough to let her remember what it was that she'd wanted to talk about. Why she'd taken the time to bring them to a dream conference, regardless of the dangers involved that included them learning things about her current location that she didn't want them to know.

"You're right, I did have some things I wanted to ask you guys about," Jenn said, taking a deep breath, a little afraid that she might to start to cry if she didn't say anything. "Though, I'd rather not tell you guys where I am right now and I'd like it if you didn't ask, okay?"

"Why?" Beth asked. "You should know that you can trust us."

Jenn looked at Beth, wondering if she'd forgotten what the reasons she kept brining up about why she was wanting to leave their expedition party. She had known what it was at that time without Jenn even saying anything about it.

"You really need to ask?" Jenn inquired after a moment. "You always seemed to know what it was each time the subject of you guys letting me go on ahead and all of you returning to Earth came up."

Beth gave Jenn a wry grin. "Yeah, but that doesn't mean I still accept it."

"Yeah, each of us are willing to take that kind of risk," Tim said. "We came knowing that there was a chance we'd get killed, even if it was from a stupid accident."

Jenn took another deep breath. She wasn't sure how she knew, but she just knew that Beth was the only one who's life was in danger. Yet, she knew that if she said anything about that, that her friends would probably look at her like she was crazy. Or if not that, then that she was merely trying to say whatever it took to get them to let her stay away from them.

"Let's just agree to disagree on that, okay?" Jenn asked. "I know I'm not going to convince you that it really is important, but I'm also not going to convince you guys either, so why don't we just move on?"

"She does have a point," Wes remarked. "She can be rather stubborn about some things. Even before she willingly started to hang out with us."

Jenn wasn't sure if that was supposed to be a compliment, a statement in support of what she'd just said, or an insult. As far as she could tell, it could be any of those, or even all three at once, somehow.

However, she knew that she didn't have time to really discuss that, either. She wasn't sure how much time she had, but she would at least like to get to some of what she'd wanted to talk about.

"Let's just move on, okay?" Jenn asked, not happy with how her question sounded almost like a plea. "I'm not sure how much time I have, okay?"

"Fine," Beth said. "Let's just listen to what she wants to talk about. We can harass her afterwards, right?"

Jenn was less than happy about the general murmur of assent that her friends gave to that question, yet at the same time, she couldn't say that she didn't feel at least a little happy that they would go to so much effort to try and find her. Even when she was making it clear that she didn't want them to find her. Besides, the general 'harassment' was typical from them anyway, nor would she expect it to really last that long.

"Well, I was asked to give a name to the people that I helped, and I came up with one, but I'm not sure how good of a name it is," Jenn said, not seeing any reason to not beat around the bush. "So, I was hoping that you guys might be able to give me some feedback about it."

"Sure, we can give some thoughts on that," Hannah remarked, though Jenn wasn't filled with relief as she saw the skeptical look on Hannah's face.

Still, Jenn couldn't think of a way through this without telling them the name. Regardless of how they reacted. Which she'd already had doubts about based simply on the reaction the others had already given her about it.

"I came up with 'The Order of the Blue Rose.'"

Jenn felt like the seconds ticked by painfully slow as she waited to see how her friends reacted to the name. She hoped that they wouldn't find a problem with it or something, but until she saw their reaction, she couldn't be absolutely certain.

However, what she didn't expect was for them to burst out in laughter a minute after she said the name. It wasn't a mocking laughter, but one of pure entertainment.

"I was afraid you'd come up with something rather cringe-worthy," Hannah commented through her laughter.

"That name is so you, Charlie," Beth remarked next.

"That's the perfect name for your people, Charlie," Tim said, and Jenn wondered if they suspected that she was supposed to be their leader.

"How'd they react to it?" Wes asked. "Or are we the first you've tested the name out on?"

"Uh…" Jenn hesitated. She really didn't want to tell them what the reaction was, but at the same time, she wanted to be sure that they wouldn't find a problem with the name, regardless of what problems 'her people' had with the name.

"When I mentioned it to some of them, they said that blue roses were rather common," Jenn said, wondering if that might be an actual problem or not. She didn't think it was, but she'd also kept herself at arms length from others for most of her life and wasn't that confident about her ability to identify what really worked or not.

"Don't worry about that," Beth said as she started to calm down from laughing. "The name's fine. We all know that your favorite flower is a blue rose, so in a way, it's perfect for you."

Jenn felt a little stunned. She knew she hadn't mentioned that she was being made into the leader of 'her people' and she hadn't reacted in any way when Tim had alluded to it. Yet, Beth's statement indicated that she was more than suspicious about that point.

"Why would it be perfect for me?" Jenn asked, wanting to test the waters first without revealing more than she really wanted to. Especially since she had a feeling that things were about to head downhill if they had somehow figured out why she'd been selected to come up with the name. "I just came up with a name for them. That's all."

"Uh-huh," Hannah said, pretty much confirming to Jenn that they'd somehow learned about what she hadn't wanted them to learn about. "And you being 'The Blue Rose' has nothing to do with that, right?"

"How…?" Jenn started to ask, but trailed off as her mind went dead.

"I'm not sure if it's because we know you so well or if there's something about these dream conferences, but we're able to sometimes see things that I think someone might be thinking about. Like when you mentioned the name, I had a scene that flashed in my mind with three other girls who were hesitant at being your stand-ins while you were gone… uh, I guess you were going to recruit a band of bandits or something?" Beth answered.