In a quiet corner of Truce, a pumpkinhead in a witch's garb sits alone, reading from a heavy-looking book. Its skeletal fingers drum against the cover as it holds the tome, though it isn't obvious as to whether it is out of habit or stress. The candlelight flicker behind its single eye constantly sways back and forth in what looks to be speedy reading, yet its page-turning is slow and calm.

Occasionally, it stops. Turning its head to look upwards at the occasional passing birds and clouds, it is never long before it resumes reading.

When others come by this spot it has secluded itself in, it noticably tenses. It doens't break its pose, but the light in its eye goes from reading to focused on the visitor as they pass by, going out for a few moments when they leave before relighting and continuing its study.

It seems to not be bothered by company, but alarmed at their unfamiliarity. Though it has a whip and dagger in its possession, it does not once move to draw them even when clearly startled.

And then, after several repeat occurrences of this...

"...I wonder where I am. Not once have they recoiled at the sight of me. Some even smiled. I think I even saw some more of us before...I wonder if it's safe here, after all. Even if that brute did admonish me for such a simple accident..."

Its aloud wonderings sink into indistinct mutterings before going silent again as its study continues.


The sound of hoofbeats are heard coming from a southern avenue leading northward, coincidentally toward this particular corner of the city of Truce. One could be easily forgiven for assuming a mounted patrolman or some other merchant-type flexing their pocketbook by riding a steed through the city streets, but no! It is, in fact, two people: a young male dressed in layered leathers with a loose hooded cloak, a non-descript longsword sheathed at his side, and what appears to be a slightly-younger female centaur, wrapped in a frayed tribal-style leather bandeau and hoisting a longbow over one shoulder with a quiver of ammunition over the other. Both of them stop nearby, and the man issues a sigh, partially-born of mild irritation. "We may have to call it a day soon, Alyss," he says. "Even that village to the far south turned up empty."

The centauress only gives a small nod, seemingly more curious (in an out-of-place sort of way) than he is about their immediate surroundings. Her long hair flows down the back of her neck, lightly pooling across the top of her equine back, behind her.


The pumpkinhead stops going through the repeated motions on hearing the sounds approach, placing its finger at the edge of the page it was on as its eye-light shifts upwards, quickly darting about in search of the sound.

"A horse...is it a knight? From that castle, or from home...
...I can't be conspicuous. I mustn't stand out. Especially if it's one of those lot."

It resumes reading, but the tension in its small frame is clear, the drumming of its skeletal fingers much more rapid. Ever so often, its eye-light glances upwards to see if the approaching sound reveals its origin.


The two continue on their way through the back road, eventually coming into view at some point of the idling Pumpkinhead. They seem to be, perhaps, searching for an inn or other appropriate place of rest, given the tone of their conversation. The centauress, dubbed 'Alyss' stops when she sees the character sitting alone, tipping her head slightly in renewed curiosity. It's quite possible that they may be the first of its kind that she's ever seen, at this point.

The man follows her sudden silence and gaze, but looks less befuddled by the presence. "Have you never seen one of them, Alyss?" he asks, without apparent regard for the Pumpkinhead itself, mere feet away from them.

Alyss looks first at the man, then the Pumpkinhead again, finding the words in a meek and timid voice that is a lot higher in pitch than her age might otherwise-imply. "Pump..kin?"


The pumpkinhead's light focuses on the pair, unmoving. It's hard to say if it's out of caution or fascination, but it clearly hasn't seen a centaur before. It studies them carefully, not moving from its spot, its finger still held on its saved page.

In a quiet, slightly echoing voice, it slowly speaks.

"Am I...being a bother?"


Alyss apparently doesn't know how to respond to that, so she says nothing and looks to the other man for assistance in a proper method of engagement.

"I don't... think so?" he says, sounding confused at why that would be a concern, but then it dawned on him. "Oh, that. No, you'll have to forgive my friend, here. She, uh.. doesn't get out of the woods that often."

Alyss, however, decides to step closer to the gourd-skulled figure, more curious than before. "Pumpkin.. talking. Speak?" Her accent is quite thick and her vocabulary jarred, making it quite evident that the common tongue is not her first language.


While it keeps its light trained on her, the pumpkinhead nonetheless seems to loosen its tension, slightly easing up.

"Ah. Apologies, I am a bit used to strangers being frightened or otherwise distressed by me. It is fine."

It slowly closes the book and stands up, a slightly uneasy sway in its movements as it does.

"I am new here. There are many beings and things I have never seen before; and have been more than a bit disoriented. Yes, I speak and talk. Good evening and good day, my name is Merciviant."


The man follows Alyss, who stops a good two or so feet in front of the Pumpkinhead, at what she assumes is a respectable distance. He nods in greeting, as well. "We are both not overly-familiar with the area, ourselves, although on somewhat-different levels." He casts a shorthand glance at Alyss, who is still inspecting Merciviant with all the wonder of a child seeing something amazing for the first time. "I am Jules, and this is Alyss. We've been looking for someone for quite some time now, and have had no luck, unfortunately."

Alyss taps one of her forehooves on the cobbled road. "Alyss not scared," she says. "Pumpkin... not scary." She smiles, a cute little grin that actually fits her demure demeanor pretty well.


Merciviant nods after hearing Jules' words, clearly calmer now.

"I see...I was uncertain if I should do the same. I had few friends before I wound up here, but close and trusted ones, regardless. I do not know if they were taken with me. At the very least, I am glad I am not unwelcome here from what I have seen, and not a fright to you besides."

It continues to look at Alyss, a hint of similar fascination she has for it within that glowing eye carving.

"...This land is indeed a peculiar one. I'm not sure what to make of it.
I wonder, may I ask of the one you're searching for? I do not know many names, but I have seen many faces."


Jules's expression grows a trace more scrutinizing, as if gauging the risks of divulging too much under whatever pretense of secrecy he meant to maintain.

In the meantime, Alyss is growing less reserved by a minute, and goes so far as to reach out with a finger to try and touch the side of Merciviant's pumpkin skull, on the basis of naught more than sheer curiosity.

Jules notices and instinctively would call out to Alyss for being rude, but the pumpkinhead's question still bounced around in his head, simple as the question even was. "We're looking for a boy, or at least, he should be a boy. He might be a bit older now, and that's part of what is throwing us off." Jules scratches the side of his head, and holds up his left hand, where there is a single black glove with a vibrant green leaf embroidered onto the back of it. "He'd be wearing this same kind of glove if you saw him at all."

"I was asked not to be too forthcoming about it so It's difficult to ask about someone's whereabouts when I'm not allowed to give much information about who I'm looking for in the first place." Jules sighs, a bit annoyedly. "Or it's possible I misunderstood the directions. It wouldn't be the first time."


Merciviant seems surprised but largely unbothered by Alyss' curious poke, seeing the innocent curiosity of the centauress. Letting her do as she pleases, it looks closely at the glove.

"...this design looks vaguely familiar? I do not want to get your hopes up, but I seem to recall seeing a number of travelers with gloves of similar make. I cannot be certain if it was this exact design, however. The last one I saw was when I was testing manipulation spells outside of the city gates...that being seemed to be heading here. I did not get a close look at them due to my focus, and they paid me no heed."

Drumming its fingers against its head and making a distinct thumping sound in the process as it thought, it adds:

"I have no intention of prying into affairs that are none of my own, but it does seem to me the secrecy in which you are sworn is a frustration..."


Alyss takes the indication of no reaction to mean that her intent is acceptable, and she promptly goes from touching Merciviant's pumpkin head to poking it and putting her whole hand over it, then both hands, though being careful not to go anywhere near its 'face'. "Real pumpkin? Magic?"

Considering he isn't hearing Alyss get scolded for her action, he also assumes that her inherent curiosity is being abided (for now). He looks encouraged when Merciviant mentions its potential familiarity with the design, but then that hope quickly plummets when the notion of 'a number of travelers' is mentioned, as opposed to just one. "I see. Unfortunately, I'm inclined to doubt the location and individual to be the one I'm looking for. This location seems to be a crossroads of sort for several other locales, and as many times as I've been here already without any luck, the less I'm inclined to believe that he's anywhere even remotely near here. And I have no idea just how big this realm even is." Jules drops the term 'realm' like it was just a regular conversational concept. "It's... more like I'm trying to be careful due to my own lack of knowledge. I'm not familiar with this area or its people and I don't know what kind of intent or demeanor is prevalent here. The person I'm looking for is extremely important and I don't want to imply that importance unto anyone unseeming, out of fear that they may take that importance into their own personal agenda and make my task more difficult as a result."

Jules glances at Alyss briefly, then at Merciviant again. "Call it a case of unprovoked personal paranoia. I don't know any better, so I don't assume any better, either."


Above the fountain of Truce, a strange air current began rocketting on a collision course with said fountain. As it drew close, the citizenry moving around the fountain began to take notice at the spectacle and problem above them. This would not end in disaster, however - just before crashing into the fountain, the air current would tightly turn a hundred and eighty degrees and fly right back up for a while before dissipating. With both relief and whimsy, the people around the fountain focused entirely on the air current, allowing the freakishly large moogle that jumped out of the current as it curved to go unnoticed. Except, of course, by a single guard who was trained to accost newcomers to the realm.

After having a debate with the guard on spending government funds to build something over the fountain to both protect it and newcomers, a conversation that was entirely above the guard's paygrade, the freakishly large moogle (by the standards of the Cleft, of course) weaved past him and began wandering around the township of Truce, looking for... something. After a while of wandering, the word "Magic?" caught his ears, grabbing his attention. Looking to the direction of the voice, he found a walking pumpkin conversing with a human and a half-human with a horse underbody. Despite his disdain for the human race, his curiosity got the better of him, driving him to talk up to the small group.

"Excuse me," he asked, making an attempt at courtesy despite the look on his face, which he partly couldn't help due to a birth defect, "can any of you tell me what world I've stumbled upon?"


Jules jumps a little in surprise at the sudden additional presence coming up on them, though it's possible that he might just be skittish in general. He turns partway around, inclining his head in the moogle's direction. It's size didn't seem to weigh on him at all, but then, he wasn't acquainted enough with the moogle race to know this was an abnormality, either. "Ah, are you new, too?" Jules catches himself briefly, but continues, besides. "There's been a lot of names given to this particular place, and I'm not the best guide since I'm not from around here, but to my best knowledge, you're in the city of Truce, which is in the country of Guardia, but, ah.. the world? That one has a few names, or so I've heard. A good majority use the term 'The Cleft,' though I've yet to understand their reasoning. I may just have a foreigner's ignorance."

One of Alyss's fuzzy ears twitches as she hears the secondary conversation behind her, but she's still too enamoured with the talking pumpkin and can't seem to pull herself away.


Merciviant seems surprised by the new visitor, flustered with the upswing in interactions its had. Partly to calm its nerves and partly to not be rude to the one so interested in it, it turns its attention towards Alyss fully.

"My head is indeed that of a real pumpkin, and magic was used to make me like this. It is a bit of a grim story. I am not sure if it would sit well with you.
Though I wonder if there is a similar story behind you...? I've never seen a being quite like you before."


Alyss brightens despite the warning, apparently losing a shade of her timidness from how neat this talking pumpkin is. "Miv sa Alyss, aan miv sa okipinwa lamitokri hokenra!" she suddenly spouts, like it was the most normal thing in the world. Only a second or two after the words come out of her mouth does she remember the company she's keeping, and a fierce blush crosses her cheeks, whereupon she removes her hands from the pumpkinhead's, uh, head. "Mm.." she mm's, apparently meaning to correct herself. "Alyss... me." She points at herself, then points somewhere toward the northwest. "Alyss hide... woods. Live, but hide. Scared, danger." She gives the Merciviant an inquisitive look, then, her blush starting to recede. "Story?"

This outburst catches Jules's attention as well, causing him to turn his head slightly as the language drops, but he doesn't linger on it, still engaged at that particular moment with the other lost traveler.


Merciviant's light shifts downward a moment, following the clear glow of fascination it had with the centauress's language. It speaks clearly and at an even pace, uncertain if it would be confusing otherwise.

"Afraid for your life, then...I very much understand that. I am happy to see you have survived whatever frightened you so.
For myself, I do not know what or who I was before becoming as you see me now. I do not know even if I had friends or family; though my former queen might have. It is irrelevant anyway; I am myself.

The grim bit of the story is that I was, as I have been told, abducted from my former home and then turned into this form via a ritual. It involved the loss of my previous head, in some way. I rather like the one I have, though, so I am not bothered terribly."


Alyss tilts her head the other way, listening, but it is not completely clear how much of that actually registered, given the quasi-blank look on her face. "Queen?" is all she asks.


"Yes, Queen of the Pumpkins, as some called her. Her name was Deneb. There was an attack on the fortress she had taken for herself, which the rest of us served her in, and we scattered. I do not know what became of her."

It absentmindedly runs its bony fingers along the spine of the book it was reading earlier.

"...I took the only thing I could call my own and escaped. Some time later, a band of adventurers came across me and invited me to join them. I found them easy to open up to, and agreed. Then later still there was a torrent of energy and I have found myself here, away from them."


"Yeah. Just arrived in fact," the large moogle spoke up, though. "And don't worry about it. Knowing the name of this town is sufficient enough for now," he assured the young human. His attention was captured a bit by the horse woman speaking seemingly in her native tongue, but stoping herself and getting flustered. He couldn't be sure, but he got the feeling she wasn't entirely fluent in the common tongue.

Then he regarded the pumpkin-headed figure. Given its form, he expected to smell Conjuration magic off of it, but the strength of the smell made it pretty clear it was a spellcaster - a summoner, more than likely. Not that its magic was all that easy to detect given the myriad of different smells coming off the human, likely from some enchanted items given his race. But Alex didn't give that any real attention as he focused instead on the pumpkinhead's story. Being forced to leave its home, then being torn from its friends... its lot was remarkably similar to his, but in reverse. Not wanting to get into that, though, he simply leaned against a wall, waiting for the conversation to switch to something he'd be more willing to discuss.


Jules nods to the moogle. "Apologies, then, that I couldn't be of more aid," he says. "I'm looking for someone, myself, and it's a bit daunting of a task when you're not familiar with the haystack you're trying to find the needle in." Jules had thought maybe to ask about the possibility they might have seen their target, but the 'just arrived' fact made this unlikely enough that he didn't feel the need. Unfortunately, he didn't have much of a capacity for small talk, either, given that he was merely a scout in a foreign land.

Alyss, on the other hand, seems fully enamoured by the Pumpkinhead and its story, seeming to at least understand enough of it to grasp the idea that it is, indeed, a grim tale. Without prelude, she actually reaches out and wraps her arms around Merciviant's pumpkin cranium, in a gentle but intent-driven hug. "Sad pumpkin..." she says. "Alyss lost before. Know feel."

Jules shifts his stance slightly. "We probably shouldn't loiter for too long," he says, glancing back at Alyss. "That kid's not going to find himself for us."


"Yeah, tell me about it," Alex said when the whole "looking for a needle in an unfamiliar haystack" analogy came up. Given how many worlds he's trespassed on looking for his exiled older siblings, he was very familiar with that idea, not that he spoke on it at all. They didn't ask, and he wasn't going to waste their time with his problems.


Merciviant seems surprised by the sudden hug, but the tension drops fairly quickly. It's become clear that Alyss is not one to hold such a guard up against, despite what it is used to. It simply allows her in response, though isn't quite sure how to properly react.

"...I appreciate your sympathies. I genuinely do.
I am still getting used to being treated this way, or even nonviolently."

Thinking for a moment on the situation and what it has heard, the light in its eye shifts in Jules's direction once more before it speaks up.

"I wonder if you have room for a guest, if not a companion. I have nowhere else to go and no goal that requires me to be on my own, at least at this time. My studies and research may benefit from seeing this world at large, and doing so in the process of a search seems practical. Furthermore, I find you both easy to speak to in general.
I do not mean to impose, of course, but if I may be of assistance then I shall gladly join you."


This request seems to make Jules nervous, and it becomes readily apparent that he doesn't want to be rude in however he chooses to respond. "That.. I wouldn't normally have a problem with that, but..." Before he can stammer his way further, the air near the side of Jules' head ripples softly, before a tiny, tree-shaped woman suddenly pops into existence in an equally-tiny burst of green light. For what her small features can offer, she seems pretty pissed off about something, failing her tiny wooden arms emphatically at Jules, the palm-tree-like leaves that compose her hair swaying wildly along with her gestures, but no words can be heard coming from her in any way. Jules, however, looks taken aback as his attention is suddenly pulled from both the pumpkinhead and the moogle behind them, and he furrows his brow. "I'm not wasting time! Some of these people might be able to help!" he spits out, frustratedly.

Alyss looks back from the pumpkinhead, still hugging his gourd because pumpkins are nice to hug, apparently. Her face grows into a smile as she sees the exchange between Jules and the small mana spirit. "Sylvan here!" she says gleefully.

The floating tree spirit ignores Alyss and continues to voicelessly berate Jules, before spontaneously disappearing again in another splash of green light. Jules looks annoyed, and offers a sigh. "I'm sorry," he says. "I think we should probably be on our way. The company would be nice, but.. right now, I don't think it's a good idea. Maybe another time."


"Ah. I wish you well, then."

If Merciviant had any sort of reaction other than that, it was not clear. It simply acknowledged it and sat back down, delicately opening up the book from before.

"As there is no other path before me, I shall instead continue my studies. They are likely to take me far across this land, in time. Until the day comes...there is naught to do but learn."


Jules looks a bit conflicted, but determines that this is the best course at the moment. "Alyss," he says. "We're going. I have a few other ideas, but if we don't find him soon, I'll need to face facts that he's gone and that the Oracle needs to realize that she was mistaken." The man grumbles under his breath as he turns. "Someone as a big a deal as her son should be giving off huge mana signatures anyway, and the fact that he isn't means that this is all probably a waste of time." He turns to leave, heading back down the road, the way he came.

Alyss looks a little flustered at the suddenness of this, but reaches out to pay the Pumpkinhead on its head one last time. "Alyss go, but hope safe for pumpkin!" she says, before turning to hurry on after Jules, departing with him.


"Hang on a second," Alex said, taking a paper card from inside his vest and handing it to Jules. The writing on it was illegible, but that wouldn't matter. "I usually operate as a merc to support myself when I wind up in a world I haven't been to before. If you need help fighting something, or got a problem only magic can solve, hold this up to your face and say my name, and it'll let you know where to find me." This was a risky play on Alex's part, but he had a good feeling about Jules, and he considered himself a decent judge of character, even though his history in that regard was spotty.

"it was nice meeting you lot," he added with a wave before walking away, determined to explore the rest of the town so he knew what his future work environment would be like.