BXBX NOVEL Chapter 673 - 673 Round And Round
On the other side of the flaming wall was a somewhat small gathering of houses. It was too small to be even called a village. Just ten buildings total. A lumber shed, seven houses, a storeroom for everything that wasn't lumber and the general store attached to it. The Thyme's were all running around in circles, almost literally. They seemed to be repeating the pattern of running out of their houses, around the clearing a little bit before entering another house and waiting a few moments before doing it again. They didn't even have the decency to pick the same house each time.
Which… made a bit of sense really. Each of the houses were basically the same. A small squat two story house that wasn't really large enough to contain more than a few rooms. In fact, they looked more like holiday cabins then real houses. *Hang on… is this a resort? I thought this was a lumber camp… then what's with all the lumber? The small general store? I'm so confused right now… but I guess it isn't overly relevant.*?
Looking at the 'people' closer Green looked for someone that could be classed as a leader or even just someone that looked slightly more impressive. Green quickly found an issue with that idea as well. Every time a Thyme left a house to start the next round of running around scheming their outfit changed and sometimes their entire appearance shifted, gaining or loosing hair, masculine to feminine. Green thought it might have been tied to the house they exited but watching the houses didn't reveal a pattern either.
*Whatever. This is clearly a test of some kind… perhaps I have to help them all escape the fire? I'll have to jump in and see what I can use.*
Green checked her mana and saw it had recovered… a little bit. Frankly, while the observations were nice she was mostly just killing a bit of time to regenerate her mana reserves. The 'people' were clearly just going through the motions and hadn't become more solidified characters just yet, if they ever would. Even the 'people' she saw on her run in were more realistic then these ones.*Maybe I should wait a bit longer? There's no real telling how long Thyme will let this song and dance go on. Hmm… I wonder if we were meant to tackle each fire one at a time and have it not really advance… or maybe it'll tick forward after a certain amount of time has passed. Like… the fire wall will keep burning for twenty minutes, then start on the town? Hmm… that's something I forgot about. Do any of the Thymes look like the caster.*?
Green quickly changed her observation pattern to look for Thyme's that could be the fire mage. She was looking for Thymes that didn't have any metal on them, that looked old enough, for she was assuming this would be realistic, and weren't moving too much. Sadly that last one really messed things up as unless the Thymes were inside the houses they never stopped moving. The metal wasn't really a good indicator either. Most Thymes had something, a wedding ring, a necklace, one even had a pocket watch for a few costume changes.
The other notable thing was that while none of the Thyme's were armed axes were everywhere in town. Their lack of armaments was only a few steps away at any given moment. *Hmm… I don't know if that makes the logging camp idea more or less viable. Real lumberjacks wouldn't just leave their axes out in the open like that… but resort cabins wouldn't have a bunch of axes lying around… unless they're for chopping firewood? Hmm… maybe that's actually a point in the resorts favour.*?
Whatever it really said, Green was now standing up and getting ready to jump. Her mana was still recovering but as much as she'd like to take a short nap, she wasn't particularly reliant on her mana for combat and this seemed more like a puzzle to solve then a combat situation. Worse comes to worst Green knew she had enough mana to climb one of the houses and jump back out. She'd be practically out afterwards, but if the fire dropped so the villagers could follow her… that might actually be a win all things considered.
Sucking in a deep breath Green sprinted down the tree, taking light steps to keep the branch from wobbling too much until right at the end when she kicked down forcing the limb to bend for a moment before flying back up to her waiting feet. Green slammed both boots into the branch as it came up to meet her launching herself safely into the area. She intentionally aimed for a spot between houses, not wanting to risk the roof construction with a landing there.
The ground approached rapidly but Green had practiced this countless times. She packed a bit of air beneath her boots, releasing it just before hitting the ground to slow herself slightly before hitting the grass and rolling forward to bleed off her momentum and springing back up onto her feet in the middle of the chaotic street. She had counted 21 Thymes in total, though with all the outfit swapping it was a guess. Perhaps more waited in the houses.
As soon as she hit the ground Green kept her eyes focused on a nearby Thyme that ran into a house. She waited for them to come out and smiled when they exited without a new wardrobe for once. *Seems things are already progressing now that I'm inside. I think I'll take a quick look around for someone 'important' and try to get them on my side.*?
Green didn't have to wait long, she soon spotted a Thyme with a top hat, long hair with a feminine figure and most importantly a pocket watch. Jogging over Green intercepted them, "Excuse what's going on? Why is everyone panicking?" asked Green calmly but firmly.
Tophat Thyme turned and looked at Green for a few seconds with eyes glazed over before shaking their head. "Wait… what was I…?" mumbled Tophat.? "I… what are we doing? Why is everyone running around with the fire! Who are you miss? Do… what's going on here?"
*Well that's interesting. So it seems like there wasn't just a spell to keep the flames burning but something to keep everyone panicked as well, or at least that seems to be the act that's going on. I'm a little surprised I'm not feeling any fear or panic if that's the case though. Dammit, how did I not think of that? I was too distracted by the fact they're all Thymes. I just assumed they were on a loop that was barely being maintained by the main Thyme conscious not that there was a spell of some kind at work. Shit. That's just sloppy scouting.*?
"Currently you're all surrounded by a wall of flames, that's not really spreading to the forest. Everyone in here seems to not really notice the flames and they keep switching what house? Cabin? Whatever, which building they run into. It keeps changing and…" *Do I mention the clothes swapping thing? Nah let's not just yet,* "I was sent here to check out the fire. This isn't the only place that's currently burning. So… any ideas?" explained Green.
Tophat tapped 'her' foot a few times as 'she' looked around the area, eyes scanning the other 'people' in search of any recognition in their eyes but even when one Thyme that had a cloak and pants on but no shirt ran past and didn't so much as glance at them, Tophat realised they were on their own for the moment. "Ok… first things first we need to decide if the lack of true panic is better for planning things out or if we should get more people in on this. You seemed to be able to snap me out of it just by interacting with me so grabbing others might be helpful… but frankly freeing everyone right now would just be a mess.
"I don't exactly trust that we could all work together as a group without issue while panicking. Even after breaking the spell I don't feel great, a bit like I'm just a slight fright away from going back to mindless panic… which is weird because I don't feel all that much fear right now. The flames don't seem to be doing much and the area is mostly intact, the people are fine… but… just a feeling in my gut that I should be careful I guess," said Tophat in response.
*Hmm… that's a tough choice. Quality over quantity is what we want in that case… but it's not like I know how capable any of these other Thymes are. I'm lucky the first one I picked was so level headed.. They aren't freaking out much at all… hmm… is that suspicious? Nah, if they were putting up an act to pretend not to be the cause I think they'd do better.*?