Spirits of the Earth

Arca wasn't exactly the kind of place that Juliana liked to visit frequently. Sure, it was certainly pleasing to the eye (for the most part, at least), and there was a new or interesting artifact being presented almost everywhere you looked. If you wanted to learn about magic, there were few other places in all of Le'ranna that could better suit that need. Considering that gaining knowledge was one of the woman's primary goals, it was a little surprising that she didn't enjoy being in Arca. Well, while the capital of Serendipity had its positives, it also had a certain quality that made it equally as off-putting as it was intriguing.

There was just so many people.

Yes, being the capital of an entire nation came with the unfortunate side effect of being incredibly busy. Crowds of people constantly scurried about the streets, chatting amongst themselves and checking out whatever exciting new discoveries the city had to offer. It was ridiculously easy to get lost in the massive crowds if you weren't familiar with the surroundings. Fortunately for Juliana, she'd been to the place enough times that getting lost wasn't an issue. No, what bothered her was the constant noise emanating from the crowds. She'd always been sensitive to noise, so getting barraged by it was enough to make her irritable, to say the least.

Yet, here she was, despite the fact that she could barely stand the place. While lots of people meant lots of noise, it also meant lots of idiots getting themselves hurt. Considering that she got paid to heal people, Arca was a pretty good place for Juliana to find work despite its flaws. Right now, though, she wasn't in the mood to be healing anyone. She was giving herself a break; while her magic was rather powerful, it was also very draining when used excessively. As such, she wandered the streets in a similar fashion to the rest of the people. Instead of her robe, she wore rather plain clothes so she wouldn't be bothered by someone looking for a healer. This also meant that she was temporarily without a weapon, but it wouldn't be necessary in a place like this. All things considered, she blended in pretty well with the other people, the only oddities being her seemingly permanent frown and her tendency to stick close to the walls of the buildings.

Cara staggered along the streets, wrapping the end of her coat around her body. There were too many people, having the damn thing drag behind her would lead to her tripping over.

As it had. Multiple times already.

She rubbed at her face, the blood from her nose making it seem as if she'd been violently assaulted. Not so, she had simply fell forwards. She was tough, though. Cara had been through quite a lot for one so young, but that hadn't prevented her from being vulnerable as everyone else was. No, more vulnerable. She was just a child.

Regardless, Cara continued rubbing her face. Why was she in this stupid city again? Needed something. It didn't matter anymore. She'll just leave, patch herself up as best she could, return later. It was no issue. It was no issue.

The look on her face betrayed her. She was miserable. It was an issue, but she didn't expect any help from the stupid city-dwellers.

Continuing to wander through the streets, Juliana did whatever she could to ignore the constant droning of the crowds. She tried to block out the noise, instead focusing on the things she could see. After all, there were a whole bunch of things to look at, including... well... okay, it was just a bunch of people. Surely there was something to see beyond the wall of people, but it wasn't worth the effort of trying to force her way through. Instead, she took to observing the people themselves. They sported a variety of colours, including-

Wait, that colour was unmistakable. Juliana had seen it enough times to recognize it anywhere, which wasn't surprising when one considered what her job was. Yes, it was the colour of blood, and it was dripping down the face of a small child. Something about a young girl with a bloody nose wandering around by herself in a huge city definitely felt off. Had she been attacked by someone? If that was true, then whoever did it might still be around, and Juliana really didn't want to deal with some maniac stirring up havoc... and the crowds, by extension. Maybe if she could get some information, she could put a stop to whatever was going on before all hell broke loose.

Deciding to try and get some answers from the girl, Juliana began to break away from the crowds. She pushed through them, ignoring the dirty looks she got from the townspeople as she did so. Eventually she would catch up to the girl, at which point she started to speak in a stern voice.

"Well? Who is responsible for this?"

She stared down at the girl as she spoke, crossing her arms and sporting her trademark frown. Probably not the greatest way to conduct herself in front of a child, but she didn't pay it much mind. She had very little experience with talking to children, and besides, she might have bigger problems to deal with if she didn't do this.

Cara blinked, looking up at Juliana. "..." Was her first response. She seemed rather nervous, twitching and glancing about, rapidly. It was not in her nature to be in a place like this, and it showed. Cara rubbed her nose, doing nothing more than spreading the blood across her face, unknowingly. She was obviously not in a dire situation, but she did seem so out of place, eyes darting about as she looked for...something. Anything.

Regardless, after a long pause, she simply muttered. "N-nobody." And moved to push past Juliana, to press on and get out of the city.

Juliana narrowed her eyes at Cara's response. She honestly couldn't tell if the girl was telling the truth or not, but she did know that her answer wasn't helpful in the least. Besides, even if she hadn't been attacked, that only made her presence more intriguing. Maybe there wasn't any immediate danger, but that didn't deter Juliana in the slightest from getting the answers she was looking for. As such, she once again turned to face Cara as she attempted to push through.

"Hold up. I wasn't finished yet."

Her voice didn't falter, showing that she wasn't one to give up easily. She was, however, a little disturbed when she caught a glimpse of the wooden orb sitting in place of Cara's eye. Combined with the blood, it actually made for a disturbing sight. Visibly shaken, Juliana gave herself a few seconds to regain her composure before speaking again.

"...What the hell happened to you? Why are you wandering around here by yourself?"

Cara stumbled back, blinking up at Juliana again. "I-I...why...are you b-bothering me?" She asked, nervous. Scared. Cara was far, far more afraid than Juliana was, and there was seemingly no root reason for this. "I-I just...need to...just need to....need to get...things. Th-please. I-It's all I w-want." Cara rubbed at her good eye, carefully.

"I-I'm. Don't. Scyivm fre'n nrtnrn gm."

Cara spat out, rambling, before attempting to stumble away. She was obviously in need of assistance, but really didn't seem to want any. At least, not from Juliana.

Immediately regretting her choice of words, Juliana began to shift around uncomfortably. Apparently, she'd only succeeded in making the girl more afraid than she'd been before. Doing so wasn't her intention, but it was definitely something that could have been avoided. She wished that she hadn't interfered, that she would have just gone about her business as usual. She hadn't, though, and now she found herself trying to fend off the guilt that had started to take root in her mind.

"Uh, wait. Just... just don't leave. Please? ...I'm sorry."

She struggled to get the words out this time around, clearly much less confident then she'd been just moments before. She made no move to stop Cara from leaving, instead remaining rooted to her spot, hoping that her few words would be enough. Her expression softened significantly, and her eyes stared directly towards the ground.

Cara hesitated. It was odd for anyone to pay her heed. Even more so for a...city dweller. She found herself intrigued. Cara glanced at Juliana, prompted to ask a question that children love answering. One that's either incredibly easy, or disgustingly difficult to answer.

"Why?"

She tilted her head. She didn't understand Juliana's shift of mood. Stupid city dwellers. Cara continued to rub at her face, the blood now covering the sleeves of her coat, as well as her face and false eye.

She paused, before repeating. "W-why?" She truly was confused. Then again, Cara was confused most of the time.

Why? That was... not an easy question to answer. It could mean anything, and there was no telling how Cara would react to Juliana's answer. She had no idea what was running through the mind of a child, especially not one who was clearly... different. Mulling over an answer in her head, Juliana started to fiddle with her bell as she spoke.

"Well... it's like this, okay? You can't just let a hurt little kid wander around by themselves in a crowd. It's... against the rules, I guess. I was, uh, just being a little grumpy earlier. Crowds do that to me."

She went quiet for a little bit, watching as Cara spread more and more blood across her body. At this rate, she was going to start looking like a murder victim pretty soon. It made her feel sick, the kind of sickness that couldn't be healed by magic. There was, however, something that could be healed.

"I can, uh, fix that. Y'know. If you want."

Juliana pointed to the girl's nose, the source of the constant stream of blood. Under normal circumstances, she wouldn't usually consider healing something without expecting something in return. Something about this particular situation made her feel differently. Maybe it was because she was talking to a child? Hell if she knew.

"...what rules?" Cara asked, surprisingly. "Th-that's not...a rule." She mumbled, wearily. But as she listened, she heard Juliana offer to heal. Cara blinked, looking up and nodding eagerly. "Y-yes! Pl-please do." She responded, hurrying forwards. "I d-don't...want to..."

She failed to elaborate on what she didn't want to do.

Regardless, Cara seemed quite eager to be healed. It was rather obvious that she wasn't bleeding of her own volition, so, this was likely a predictable response.

"Well, I guess it's not really a rule, but... ugh, I can't really explain it. It's just something that you don't do."

She shrugged, not really wanting to bother with explaining the concept of ethics. At least, not at the moment. Right now, she was focused on healing Cara. Juliana watched as the girl quickly accepted her offer, but also started mumbling about not wanting to do... something. The woman couldn't begin to imagine what it was, but she figured it wasn't important at the moment. If Cara wanted her to know something, then hopefully she would speak up about it.

"Alright. This might hurt a little, but you'll have to stay still, okay?"

Juliana slowly nodded her head before before lowering herself onto one knee, putting her roughly at eye level with Cara. She closed her eyes, trying to block out all of the surrounding sights and sounds so she could focus on the task at hand. Her arms stretched forwards a little, and a soft light began to swirl around her hands. The magical energy would extend towards Cara's face, naturally seeking to mend what had been damaged.

Cara hesitated, for a moment, as the light reached up to her face. She remained still, however. There was no reason for her to move or fear. This was healing. This was light. This was good. The healing would be easy, Cara wasn't exceptionally wounded (aside from missing an eye). It was just a wounded nose. It looked worse than it really is.

So, Cara simply waited. She trusted Juliana, at least for now. She hoped this wouldn't be betrayed.

A few seconds passed before Juliana opened her eyes in order to have more direct control over the magic. She probably could have just waited for it to happen naturally, but she didn't want to waste any energy trying to repair the eye that was clearly a lost cause. Her efforts were focused on the more recent wound, which was thankfully a lot easier to fix. Well, at least doing the healing itself was easy, but doing it delicately was a different story. It took more energy to make the healing more deliberate, but it eventually got the job done. Well, at least she hoped it did.

Having done its job, the light began to dissipate as Juliana's arms dropped to her sides. She looked a little drained, but she was perfectly fine otherwise.

"Well, that should do it. How does it feel?"

Cara rubbed her nose. Now, that didn't help, due to her already being coated in blood, but it was simply to test it.

There was no pain.

Cara nodded. "I-I-I feel better." She mumbled, not really wanting to elaborate from there. "Th-thank you." She said. Cara couldn't leave, now. This woman had given her a favour. It was only polite to wait and see if there was any way that she could assist. So, that is exactly what Cara did. She waited. And, as she waited, she began to rub the blood off of her face, onto her overlong sleeves. At the very least, she should bother with this stupid blood.

Pleased that she'd been successful with completing the healing without any complications, Juliana gave a faint smile. It was subtle, and only visible for a few seconds, but it was definitely there. She didn't do this kind of thing very often, but she couldn't deny that it felt kind of, well, good. Soon enough, though, she returned to her usual expression as she stood back up. That was nice and all, but the woman still had a question that she wanted answered. Perhaps Cara would be more inclined to cooperate, now that she'd calmed down a little.

"Now then. Do you mind telling me what was so important for you to find that you came out here by yourself?"

Cara, hesitated, again. She didn't feel like speaking, but she also felt that she now owed Juliana answers. She wiped away the last bits of blood on her face, making a truly awful mess of her sleeves. It was rather bad. The child looked up, blinking. She still seemed afraid, but that didn't stop her from speaking.

"A-well, I came here...to-to get. Things. That I can't g-get in the forest!" She explained, rather unhelpfully, still blinking up at Juliana.

...Things. That answer gave her very little information, and it definitely wasn't enough for her to fully determine what was going on. Gods, little kids could be so frustrating sometimes. Well, at least Cara had provided one useful piece of information, which was that she apparently came from "the forest". Which forest? Who knew? Juliana wasn't entirely convinced that the kid herself knew.

"Can't you be a little more specific? Do you know what the... things are called, or what they look like?"

The woman once again crossed her arms as she waited for an answer. In the meanwhile, she took to looking the girl over for any more injuries. She seemed fine, which was more than what could be said about her coat. But hey, there wasn't much she could do about that, at least not at the moment. She fixed people, not clothing.

"Uhh...I'm looking for a...looking for a...'droll'. It's like...a little person. That doesn't move. I need one...for. Because. I need one." Cara explained, glossing over why she needed it. She smiled up at Juliana, blankly. Cara reached over to her coat, awkwardly grabbing the part that dragged behind her and wrapping it around herself again. It was the thing that caused her to trip, and she wouldn't be dumb enough to let it trip her again. However, Cara seemed much more receptive of Juliana now. Likely because of the healing and the fact that she was no longer being as demanding, or threatening. That was good, at least.

Judging from Cara's description of the item she was looking for, Juliana was willing to guess that she was in fact talking about a doll. While that might not have been inherently surprising in itself (she was a little girl, after all), the fact that she would go to such lengths to find one was still puzzling. That, and Cara wasn't exactly being forthcoming with any details. Well, at least her most recent answer gave Juliana something to work with.

Slowly, Juliana began to scan her surroundings, once again becoming unfortunately aware of the bustling crowds. She gave a small sigh, then started to thoughtfully run her fingers through her hair.

"...Hmm. You know, you don't really strike me as the type of kid who would be interested in that kind of stuff..."

She briefly paused, apparently coming to a sudden realization.

"Hey, I don't think I ever got your name."

"Um. My name is Cara." The child replied, this time not as hesitantly. "Well-I need one because I need a vessel and I can't make them yet. Father said he'd teach me but he's sleeping." Cara explained, once more not bothering to elaborate and just expecting Juliana to understand it. "Do you know where I can find one?" She asked, glancing about at the crowds.

Cara realised that she'd much rather not be here, sighing. "C-can you tell me soon. Please? I want to go out of here. It's bad."

The girl hesitated, before dropping her coat to the ground, careful to place it in such a way that nobody would get caught in it, or trip over it, or be bothered by it. Or bother her through it.

"Cara, huh... I'm Juliana."

The woman raised her eyebrows as Cara began to explain her actions. What she described sounded like some sort of magic, mostly because of having to use a "vessel". Juliana briefly wondered if she was unknowingly helping a child to perform a dangerous ritual, but she quickly pushed those thoughts to the back of her mind. It was probably just the result of a young child's overactive imagination.

"Well... I know there's a market around here somewhere. You could probably find one there, as long as you're not looking for a specific one."

The girl seemed a little anxious about her surroundings, which Juliana couldn't really fault her for. To be honest, she didn't feel like sticking around for too long, either. Regardless, she didn't want to be responsible for Cara getting lost in the middle of a crowded city.

"Here, I can show you where it is if you follow me. Tell me if anything catches your eye."

Juliana motioned with her hand as she started to navigate through the crowds.

"Ye! I follow!" Cara exclaimed, slightly incoherently. She grabbed at her coat, again, not wanting it to trail behind her, and she quickly took off behind Juliana. "J-just...uh...can it be made of wood? Please? It's very important. Or at least...most of it."

Cara seemed a lot more at ease now that she was, at the very least, moving away from the crowds and from the city. She seemed more upbeat, moving swifter, talking louder. Though she did still seem vaguely afraid, vaguely paranoid.

Cara paused, for a moment. Before grinning. She moved up to rub her eye, calling out. "Uh-e-excuse me. Juliana?" She asked, stifling laughter.

Thankfully, Cara was seemingly becoming more comfortable in her situation, which in turn made her more willing to provide information. Although, it did seem like what she came to look for was... oddly specific. That shouldn't be too much of a problem, considering that wood wasn't exactly a rare material.

Juliana's expression changed very little as she walked, seemingly lost in a permanent state of deep thought. This wasn't entirely inaccurate- she did need to remember which way to go- but part of her just wanted to ignore whatever was going on around her. She was a little tired, so saving some energy here and there wouldn't hurt.

"Hmm?" The woman muttered a simple response as she looked over at Cara. She clearly thought that something was pretty funny, which prompted Juliana to check over herself to make sure she hadn't done anything stupid. When that failed, she began to mentally retrace her steps in an attempt to discover what exactly Cara was giggling about.

"What? What's so... oh. C'mon, you know I didn't mean it literally."

Clever girl.

Cara was in the motion of throwing her blood-spattered wooden orb when Juliana had spoke. She stopped mid throw, of course, after she said she didn't mean it literally. Cara grinned seeing nothing wrong with walking around without an empty eye socket. She moved to socket the false eye back in, still grinning like an idiot. "Well...I'm glad you didn't catch my eye." She said, rather proudly.

After this, though, the child went back to her timid nervousness, continuing her trek down the busy streets. She looked, now, for a wooden doll. "C-can you see one? Or...know where we can find one?" Cara asked, effectively repeating herself.

Juliana flinched a little, half expecting Cara to let go of the eye and send it flying at high speed through the air. She'd basically given up trying to predict what the girl was thinking, considering that she didn't have a great track record of being, well, normal. Fortunately, she came to the far more favourable decision of placing the thing back where it belonged, but not before exposing the huge gaping wound that it was held in. Of course, Juliana was no stranger to blood, but she couldn't say the same for any of the other people passing by. She decided to make this clear to Cara, speaking in a more hushed tone.

"Uh, yeah. I'm pretty glad I didn't have to catch it, too. Listen, you shouldn't do... that. It really freaks people out."

She returned to her usual composure afterwards, once again wandering through the streets. It wouldn't be long before she would have to answer another question, though this time she would continue moving while she answered.

"Didn't I just tell you? I'm taking you to the market. Shouldn't be too long, now."

Sure enough, the two would soon find themselves in an area where the streets opened up into a plaza of sorts. Merchants of all sorts energetically peddled their wares throughout the area. If what Cara was looking for could be found anywhere, this would be the place.

"Well, this is the place. Do you see one of 'em anywhere?"

"What's wrong with not having an eye?" Cara asked, apparently not-at-all squeamish about being one-eyed. "How's it freak people out? Doesn't make sense." She quickly moves on from this topic, as they enter market. Cara's eye lights up. "I don't think so..." She commented, as she looks about the area. "I-I'll go look. Y-you can come too, if you want!"

Cara moves through the crowds, looking to the merchants, trying to find something. She didn't really care if Juliana followed her or not, hurriedly searching through the stalls and buildings, eagerly hunting for anything that she could find. It may have taken her a little while, but eventually Cara would wander up to a toymaker, blinking up at him blearily.

Before Juliana could even begin to form a response to the Cara's question, the girl announced her departure and immediately hurried into the market. While this did give Juliana a moment to herself, it also meant that she had to make the decision of whether to follow or not. Cara's situation wasn't really any of her business, but there didn't seem to be anyone else around at the moment to keep the kid out of trouble. She clearly wasn't very experienced when it came to busy cities.

Eventually coming to her conclusion, Juliana started to casually weave through the market. She wasn't in too much of a hurry, figuring that there wasn't that much that could go wrong in the time it took her to catch up. By the time she regained sight of Cara, the girl had already approached one of the merchants and... well, she still looked pretty lost. Admittedly, Juliana was a little curious to see how she would act in this kind of situation. As such, she decided to keep her distance to make sure she wasn't interfering with anything.

"Uhh...toymaker-person!" Cara chirped up, to the toymaker. He stared down at her, raising an eyebrow. "C-can I trade some fruit for a toy?" Cara asked. He tilted his head, confused. "Go' any money, girl?" He replied.

Cara frowned. "What's money?"

"...uh...no. I don' accept...trade."

Cara blinked, surprised. This was unexpected. She thought EVERYONE traded. That's how it worked back at her home. She glanced about the area, now growing rather weary, realising that there was some strange thing called 'money' that was preventing her from obtaining what she required. It caused her some distress. This place grew worse by the second, in her opinion.

Well, it was a good thing that Juliana had decided to follow along. Apparently the concept of money was a foreign idea to Cara, due to her somewhat questionable origins of 'the forest'. Figuring that she should probably clear things up, she beckoned the girl over to where she was standing and knelt down so that they would be at eye level.

"...Look. Using money is... kinda like trading. Instead of trading for objects, you trade for money. You can't really do anything in the city if you don't have any money."

She went silent for a few seconds, before sighing and digging around in her pockets. A few more seconds later, she held out a handful of coins- the amount of money she figured Cara would need.

"Here. I'll, uh, 'trade' you some money for your fruit."

She got the feeling that she was about to grossly overpay for what she would be receiving.

Cara absolutely did not understand this at all. She blinked, wearily. But then Cara nodded. "Al-alright." She said.

Now, this was where things got bizzare.

Cara popped her eye out of her socket, holding it in one hand. She waved her other hand over it. As she did so, it lifted up, floating. It then...twitched. As it did so, rapidly, various foliage began to grow outwards from it, springing into pears, apples, mangoes, grapes, bananas, oranges, and others uch exotic fruits. And they were abundant, and fresh, and ripe. Cara had a look of absolute wonder and excitement, grinning as she practised her magic.

When she was done with this, the food she had made was practically spilling out of her arms. She offered it all to Juliana. It was decidedly not a rip-off of her part, much more the part of Cara being naive and not understanding the value of fresh, out-of-season, difficult to obtain fruit.

Well, apparently this girl did know how to use magic. Seeing the wooden orb start to float and shake erratically, Juliana took a few steps back out of precaution; there was no telling what kind of magic was about to take place, or if Cara was even capable of performing it correctly. However, her concerns were soon proven to be unnecessary, as the girl summoned forth fruits of a wide variation with what appeared to be relative ease. There were fruits in the pile that Juliana had never even seen before, let alone wonder what it tasted like. Dumbfounded, the woman just stared at the pile in disbelief for a little while before finally moving forwards to accept it.

"I...uh...oooookay, then? How about you go and... y'know."

Juliana nodded in the direction of the toymaker before lifting the pile from Cara's hands, stumbling backwards a little bit as she stood up. She was clearly at a loss for words, being rather preoccupied with the fact that the little girl had created an armful of fruit, and... well, what the hell she was supposed to do with it all. She certainly couldn't eat it all herself.

Cara grinned, taking the money and going over to the toymaker. They had a brief discussion, and after handing over the money, Cara was given the wooden doll.

Cara learnt a valuable lesson that day; money can be exchanged for goods and services.

She hopped on over to Juliana, grinning as she held the doll. "Th-thank you!" She said, again, not a hint of nervousness or fear in her voice. She seemed downright happy to be in the presence of Juliana, even. This was a drastic change from her before. "I-I gotta go...now. I need to make a new...eye. And now I need to do the spells on the vessel!" She replied. "W-which way is it...to the nearest forest?" She asked, turning her one-eyed gaze around the area, hunting for any sign of trees. Or bushes. Or foliage of any kind, really.

Thankfully, the girl managed to complete the transaction without any further incident. Juliana watched as Cara returned, beaming, and offered her thanks. The woman responded with a short "No problem" and attempted to give a smile of her own, which awkwardly twisted as she struggled with the weight of the fruit. Yeah, she really needed to get rid of some of it.

The fact that Cara asked for directions to the nearest forest rather than a specific one was a little mystifying, but Juliana knew better than to question the child's actions by this point. She definitely knew more about cities, but she got the feeling that she was severely outmatched when it came to knowledge of nature. Forming a mental image of Arca in her mind, she calculated the shortest route possible then walked over to one of the exits from the market.

"Just keep walking that way, you should come across a forest eventually. Don't take too long, though. Your... father is probably worried sick about you."

There was a short pause, followed by the sound of the sound of Juliana shifting around uncomfortably under the weight of the fruit.

"Hey, you should take some of this fruit with you. There's no way I can eat all of it by myself."

"Oh, no, father doesn't know anything. He's been sleeping for months." She responded. Cara paused. Her demeanour shifted, her happiness being broken, briefly. "...he wont wake up." She stopped, again, before becoming distantly happier again. "O-okay. Th-thank you for the directions!"

She tilted her head, before nodding at the request to take the fruits. She moved forwards, going to attempt to relieve Juliana of a few of the fruit. Not much, but a few. Once she had done so, she chirped out, again. "Th-thank you." Before going to wander away, shoving the doll and a few of the smaller berries into her pockets, following the directions that Juliana had given her.

Juliana frowned as Cara explained her father's condition. The way she spoke about it, it sounded as if her father was put under some sort of sleeping curse, and curses that persisted for so long didn't usually wear off easily. Either that, or he was dead, and the kid hadn't fully grasped what that meant yet. Either way, Juliana didn't have the heart to bring up either option as a possibility. She just did whatever she could to be reassuring, which wasn't much.

"...Oh, I see. Well, I hope he gets better soon."

Her expression softened as Cara helped to reduce the amount of weight she was carrying, if only slightly. It did make sense that the girl would want to travel lightly, especially if she had a long way to go until she reached home. Afterwards, she nodded as the girl thanked her once again- Juliana had lost track of how many times she'd done so- and tried to think of something more to say as Cara began to walk away. Ultimately, though, she came up short, instead just watching in silence before turning around and heading back into the market. Hopefully, Cara at least had someone to take care of her, even if it wasn't her father. It wasn't as if the girl had survived for months on her own... right?

Cara hurried off, to do her magic, to continue to live in solitude and loneliness, weaving out towards the border of the closest forest. That's all she needed, for now...just to remake her eye, to do with the doll whatever it is she was going to attempt. You know, it'd be really difficult for her to survive if it wasn't for the fact that the forest would help her. It was nice to her. It was the city, and the civilisation that scared her. They were unpredictable. They were anathema to everything she was.

Perhaps, Juliana would come to an epiphany. A child with ragged clothing, that looked as if she salvaged it...her coat was far, far too big for her. The fact she held magic, and not many parents wanted a child who could bend aspects of reality with their mind. The way she described living in 'the forest', implying away from towns, away from people. Perhaps, she would realise that she was, truly alone. For months, if not years.

Or, perhaps not. Cara didn't seem bothered by it.

Either way, Cara continued to hurry through the streets. Chances were very good she'd make it, after a few hours of getting lost, bumping into people, and retracing her steps. She wasn't very good at navigating streets.

Despite her best attempts to forget about the whole ordeal and move on from it, Juliana's thoughts refused to move on from the subject. They plagued her as she made her way into the market, back through the crowded streets, and even as she entered the room that she'd paid to stay in for the night. It was the same feeling that she'd gotten when she first laid eyes on Cara, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. That was, of course, until she realized that the reason she couldn't discern the truth of the matter was because she didn't want to accept the truth. Cara was alone; if she wasn't, then whoever took care of her would have accompanied her into the city. No sane parent would have allowed their child to wander around like that on their own. No matter how much she tried to deny it, that was the only conclusion she could come to.

...Screw it.

Suddenly tossing the rest of the fruit onto the ground, Juliana swiftly left the room and slammed the door shut behind her. She began to sprint through the streets, once again following the path that she'd travelled twice earlier that day. For once, she was glad that she had experience travelling through crowded cities; it certainly made dodging people left and right a hell of a lot easier. She would continue to run at top speed, earning quite a few odd looks from passers by until she finally caught up to Cara. Clearly out of breath, she spoke between coughs in a strained tone.

"Hey... wait up. Lemme take you... to the forest."

Cara blinked, eyes widening as she saw Juliana. It wasn't a look of fear, no, but a look of befuddlement. She nodded, wearily. "I-I-I...o-okay. Okay." She nodded, again. "L-let's go." Cara went to continue on the path that Juliana had told her.

At best, she was taking a liberal approach to where it was. At worst, she had forgotten where it was totally and utterly.

Regardless, Cara seemed determined to find her way out of the city. Now, it would take her a good several hours to do such on her current path, but she was determined to do as such. "I th-think we need to go down...here?" Cara asked, as they approached a new street, pointing in the completely wrong direction.

Juliana said nothing at first, focusing on regaining all the energy she'd just spent getting back to where she started. She did, however, give a nod to indicate that she was prepared to start walking again. After a few minutes passed, it became abundantly clear that Cara had no idea which direction she was supposed to be going. There was no telling how long she would have wandered around for of Juliana hadn't decided to come back.

"Not that way. At least, not if you want to get to the forest sometime today."

She shook her head, starting to head in the correct direction and expecting Cara to follow. The thoughts from before slowly started to resurface in her mind, unwilling to disappear until Juliana had all the answers she was looking for.

"...You don't have a mother, do you?"

The child followed after Juliana, quickly scooping up her coat so that others didn't cause her to trip, again. She knew she'd have to let Juliana guide her, understanding that she knew better in this case. It was something she had resigned herself to. She may not like the 'stupid city-dwellers' but she at least respected that they knew more about the 'stupid city' than she did. However, Cara's ears flicked when she heard Juliana's question. She opened her mouth to speak.

Cara's answer was likely unexpected. It wasn't a 'no' or a 'she is dead' or 'she left father'. No, Cara said...

"A mother? I've heard of those!"

The answer strongly implicated Cara didn't have a mother, but it was truly odd. Every child had HEARD of mother, right? Evidently, not this one.

Juliana stared down at the child quizzically. Not only did she not have a mother, she apparently had no memory of ever having one. Either something had happened to her very early in Cara's lifetime, or... well, she wasn't exactly sure what the alternative was, but so far the kid had been a great big bundle of surprises. If there was anyone who was capable of changing the way Juliana thought about the world, it would be Cara.

Unsure how to proceed with the conversation after receiving such an odd answer, Juliana took to scratching the back of her head in thoughtfulness. Eventually, she settled on transitioning to something more immediately relevant.

"I don't get it, then. How on earth do you survive out there on your own, with nobody to take care of you?"

"The forest helps me..." She explained, as if the forest was a single, uniform entity. "And I can call on father if I need it, he said. But he told me if I did it could hurt him really bad, so I don't." Cara peered around the area, going to rub at her empty socket. "I need to make another eye..." She mumbled.

"Oh, and not just the forest!" She exclaimed, swapping back to the earlier question. "But the animals are nice, and help me too! And I can grow all the food I need! I only have to come to the stupid city for things like..." She flailed the doll in the air, making a point. "...and clothes...and stuff. But this coat's good, and it's been good for a while." She commented, hugging the far-too-big coat.

While Juliana was none too pleased to be referred to as a member of the 'stupid city', she had other issues that she'd much rather focus on. Notably, the child's claim that she was helped out by not only animals, but the forest itself. It sounded like something that came straight out of a children's storybook, not to be taken seriously in the slightest. Yet here she was, having to force herself to consider it as a possibility. How else would Cara have survived for so long without a caretaker?

...This whole situation was incredibly silly.

"You said you needed that thing as a vessel, right?" she asked, gazing at the doll that Cara was shaking around haphazardly.

"...But what for? I'd say that your magic works pretty damn well on its own."

"I wanna make it alive! I can make them alive!" Cara said, grinning. "Father makes alive-ones he calls golems and they're made of wood and screams!" She seemed rather upbeat for something that was made out of an expression of terror or agony. "So I wanna make one out of wood and magic! He said I could, a long time ago, but I never got the stuff to try until now!"

Cara was, indeed, the living embodiment of a fairy tale. Not only did she represent one touched by the forest, guarded by it (a story that one would find in a child's book) , but she also had the underlying horror of one, as well.

"You've got magic too, right Juliana? That's what you did to my nose, isn't it?"

As soon as Cara started to answer the question, Juliana immediately began to regret asking it. She was half tempted to ask what exactly constituted as being 'made of screams', but she wasn't about to press the matter further with so many people around. The child's empty eye socket was disturbing enough on its own without her spouting off horror stories with a wild grin across her face. Hopefully, the screams were a metaphor for something, but she wasn't going to get her hopes up.

"Yeah, it's life magic. Pretty powerful, but I can't say that I use it for free very often."

She hesitated for a moment, a tad concerned about what the answer to her next question would be.

"...Why do you ask?"

"...you sell your magic?" Cara asks, tilting her head. It seemed the very concept of selling magic was foreign to Cara, but then again, money was also foreign to her. "W-why would you do that? My father and his friends always used to kill the evil stuff and push away the blights for free! Why don't you heal people for free? ...you healed me for free."

"That's just the way it works in the city. If you're not getting paid to do what you're good at, then you don't have any money. If you don't have any money, then you can't afford to buy food. And if you can't afford to buy food... then you starve. Not everybody can just... make food appear when they need it, and you can't really trust other people to provide for you."

Her words carried a sense of finality to them, a product of having to repeat the same kind of thing to god-knows-how-many people over the years.

"Besides... If I healed every person I've met who needed it, the strain from using the magic would've killed me a long time ago. Everything comes at a price, and the price for using magic is your own energy."

She didn't provide a reason as to why she would heal Cara, but not other people. Perhaps that was because she couldn't think of a good reason.

"But your energy returns, doesn't it? Mine does. So...so why don't you just heal people when you can? That's the nice thing to do!" Cara didn't understand basic economics, really. She couldn't comprehend that Juliana's job was casting spells, nor that she couldn't just invoke all the fresh fruit and vegetables she required from nothing more than a shard of wood. "Your city sounds stupid. It's better in the forest."

Cara peered around, instantly going to change conversation topic. "W-when will we reach the forest?" She asked, slightly nervously.

"It might be the nice thing to do, yes, but you can't always afford to do the 'nice' thing without taking a significant toll on yourself. You need to understand that I literally can't survive by healing everyone for free... that being said, I guess it doesn't hurt to help someone out for free every now and then. Having more opportunities to practice can hardly be a bad thing."

To Juliana's relief, Cara decided to abruptly switch topics. Of course, it wasn't her fault that she couldn't wrap her head how things worked in the city- she'd spent nearly her entire life in the forest after all. That didn't really change the fact that explaining the same thing for the millionth time got tiring after a while.

"...Don't worry, it won't be too long now. We're almost there."

"O-okay! Th-that's good! Thank you for taking me back. It's nice." She commented. Cara paused, though, mulling over Juliana's words before nodding. "Practice helps! When I was four, I could only manipulate a few trees at a time, but now I can do a lot!" She said, with a grin. "W-when did you first learn your magic, Juliana?" She asked, legitimately curious.

"...You don't have to thank me so much, y'know. You've already said it more than enough times."

Juliana wasn't entirely sure why, but hearing those two simple words so many times over the course of a few hours made her a little uncomfortable. Maybe it just wasn't something that she was used to hearing.

"Hmm... well, I've known about my magic for as long as I can remember, but I didn't start developing it much until I was around your age. Never received any specific training on how to use it properly, though. Pretty much everything I know about it was self-taught."

"Well, I've been casting ever since I can remember! Father helped teach me how to use it properly and not kill things by accident." She explained, as if this was the normal development of a child. Well, it wasn't as if Cara had acted normally for any of the time Juliana had spent with her. It was not in her nature to act normally, surely Juliana would've realised this by now.

She paused, for a long while. Then, she asked another question. "...why do so many people live in the city? It's stupid. They should live in the forests!"

Cara had no idea about the usefulness of large cities, and the longer she was with someone who was from one, the more evident it became.

By this point, Juliana barely even raised an eyebrow whenever Cara said something disturbing. She honestly couldn't tell how much of what she was hearing was actually the truth, but she could tell that there wasn't going to be any end to it. Cara obviously wasn't going to act like any other children she'd met, so trying to get her to do so was a waste of energy.

"It might not seem like it to you, but there are benefits to living in the city. For one thing, you don't have to learn to do everything by yourself; you only have to do what you're good at. You do your job to earn money, and you pay other people to do their jobs and get what you need. There's that, and there's also the fact that it's not really safe in the wilderness. Most people can't... cooperate with wild animals. Besides, if everyone moved to the forest, they'd just end up building another city. I'm guessing you wouldn't want that."

Cara blinked, processing this.

Then, she nodded. "I...I guess...maybe they should learn to talk with the animals. They're fun to talk to!" Cara responded. She then paused, before going to say. "Except ants. Ants are creepy..." She didn't see a need to elaborate on that, thankfully going to move on to a more sane, reasonable, and non-magical topic of conversation.

"J-Juliana...?" She asked, slightly tentatively, after a pause. "...I might have to return to places...like this...do you know if there's a way for me to...make...money?" She spoke the word as if it tasted bitter, or spiteful. It was alien to her tongue, she didn't fully grasp it or the implications behind it.

Juliana chuckled a little at Cara's moment about talking to animals. The image of people going up to animals and trying to have a meaningful conversation with them was, absurd as it was, actually pretty amusing.

"Heh. Yes, I'm sure they'd make brilliant conversation partners. But, you know, something tells me that they wouldn't have much to say to, er, 'city people'."

When it came to the subject of earning money, Juliana couldn't think of too many ways a child could do so. Children were, of course, usually provided for by their parents, so there weren't many situations where a kid needed to make money. There was one way she knew of, but she also knew that Cara would be none too happy about it.

"Well, you might not like the sound of this, but... you could always do what I do and use your magic to make money. I'm not sure what all of your magical abilities are, but people would definitely be willing to pay a lot for the kind of fruit you conjured up earlier. There was a lot of stuff in there that we rarely get to see here in the city, and certainly not as fresh as you made it."

Cara frowned, as if the idea was distasteful. Not an anathema to her, but just distasteful.

"I-I okay." Her thoughts then drifted away, to other things. She glanced at the other passers-by, still clutching her coat as to prevent being tripped up by them. As she wandered, she found that her fear and her hate for the city had dulled due to Juliana. It was something that she likely wouldn't think of, for now, but would be immensely helpful in times to come.

Cara then decided to ask a question that made her quite weary. Juliana could hear it, this question caused her pain. There was something lurking behind it.

"...M-Miss Juliana...can you help...me?"

The new question posed to Juliana, while being incredibly vague, seemed to have a good amount of weight behind it. It sounded like there was something that Cara was reluctant to say, something that she was deliberately trying to avoid bringing up. It had an aura of uneasiness about it, which made the woman hesitant to respond. There was hardly a better option, though; leaving the question unanswered would just make everyone involved even more uncomfortable.

"...What? Can I help you... with what?"

Despite her unfamiliarity with doing so, she did her best to sound reassuring. It was a drastic change from the stern rigidity that she had displayed earlier that day.

"...my father is sleeping. I-I need to wake him up. Can you help me?" It was clear, the way she refused to meet Juliana's gaze, the way she was twitching during the question, that it wouldn't be as simple as shaking him awake, or throwing a bucket of water on him. It would require something greater.

Cara knew this, in fact, and it really influenced her next statements. "Y-you don't...h-have to. B-but I'd like it if you did. Please?" She seemed to be preparing to be turned down, glancing up at Juliana with wide eyes.

Obviously, whatever ailment had befallen the girl's father wasn't something that could be cured easily. If that was the case, then he would presumably have awoken a long time ago- from what what Juliana could tell through her observations and Cara's statements, it would seem that he had been asleep for months, possibly even years. If Juliana was going to offer her assistance in this matter, she was at least going to need more details than what she had right now.

"That," she began, "would depend on what it would take to wake him up. I hardly know anything about your father, other than the fact that he's been asleep for a while."

Her pace slowed down a little as she looked down at Cara. She wasn't expecting the girl to be very forthcoming with information, so any clues she could get from signs of emotion could prove beneficial.

"...I d-dunno how to get him to wake up." Cara mumbled, wearily, going to fix her gaze onto the ground. A great misery overtook her, this was not a good subject for her. It made her weak. Empty. Frail. Well, frailer than normal, at least.

"Well...he's been sleeping at home...and he's been sleeping for ages...and I left because he wasn't going to wake up...and I needed to...but...but I don't think he's going to wake up. He just lies there...doing nothing. At all." She explained, describing a corpse.

Cara glanced around again, apparently growing afraid, or nervous, at the topic conversation. As if something was going to appear and attack her, or if she was going to be accused of something heinous. She had an indefatigable feeling of guilt.

The description Cara gave of her father didn't exactly inspire a great amount of hope. There was only a small chance that he would ever be able to wake up, and that was only if he was still alive. In fact, if Juliana wasn't already convinced that the child was familiar with the concept of death, she would have assumed that he was dead already. Still, she couldn't bring herself to withhold her help, especially when Cara had... that look on her face.

"...I'll be honest, I don't really know what you expect me to be able to do for your father. I'm a healer, not a miracle worker. If you have any ideas, though, then I'll do what I can to help."

She gave a nod, before looking back up to make sure that she was still going the correct way. As it turned out, doing so wouldn't be very necessary- through the crowds, one could now begin to make out the unmistakable shades of green in the distance.

The forest.

Cara nodded, slowly. It passed through her mind, this information, and eventually she just mumbled. "I-I...okay. Okay...then." She didn't sound hopeful, she sounded as if she had given up on everything, on everyone.

This, of course, changed, as she saw the forest.

"The forest!" She yelled out, a grin crossing her face, her depressed mood melting away as she saw the green. It was as if she was filled with life, again, and seemed to have an unmistakable sense of joy at merely being assured it still existed.

"I-I thought it'd take forever to get back!" She commented.

Thankfully, Cara's mood was lifted when she caught a glimpse of the forest. It was nice to see her in good spirits, even if it was only a momentary distraction from a bigger issue. If it kept her from thinking of her father's condition for a little while, then Juliana saw it as a good thing.

"Heh. If you'd kept wandering around by yourself, it very well might have taken forever."

She gave a smile and a small chuckle, before returning to her usual expression. She didn't want to spoil the good mood that Cara was in, but at the same time, there was still some work to be done.

"So... what happens now? I have to say, I'm no expert when it comes to forest, or nature, or any of that kind of stuff."

"Well..." Cara began, glancing about, before fixating herself on the forest. "I-I guess I'll return to wandering about..." She mumbled. "I'll probably try and make the doll alive, though!" She said, grinning. "That'll be fun!"

Cara nodded, reassuring herself. "That'll be fun..."

Cara then frowned. It seemed she had no real plans. 'Make the doll alive' and 'wander about' weren't truly something one could attain.

"...and...and look for a way to wake father." She muttered, quietly.

That was her true plan.

"...I see. So, this whole thing was really about your father, then."

While it certainly wasn't a bad thing to care for and try to help out one's loved ones, Juliana didn't want to get Cara's hopes up too high in the case that there really wasn't anything they could do for her father. That wasn't to say that it was a hopeless scenario, nor that she was unwilling to lend a hand, but she figured that it was for the best to be realistic. Crossing her arms, the woman began to idly drum her fingers as she looked down with an expectant look.

"Well, if you've thought of anything I can do to help, now would be the time to tell me."

"No!" She protested. "It wasn't! I'm out here's because...I need to...kill the...and...I need to...but...but...and then I came here to get this..." She mumbled, taking the doll out of her pocket to show Juliana. "So I-so I...could...have a friend...and now I want to wake...father...but...I...I..." Cara began to tear up. It seemed that all the stress, and hopelessness, and woe, and bad things that could happen had finally caught up to her.

She refused to look up at Juliana, going to cover her eyes with her hands. It didn't sound like she was crying, but it was quite possible.

"Whoa, slow down a little. I can't understand what you're saying when you're muddling all your thoughts together like that."

Juliana wasn't sure what to make of Cara's sudden outburst. There were a few key words thrown in there that were unsettling to hear, but not anything that the girl hadn't already explained in a more cheerful manner. Perhaps this was the result of bottling up emotions for far too long, eventually reaching the point where it became too much to bear. Whatever it was, it wasn't a good thing, especially since Juliana had very little idea how to go about consoling her.

"Oh, sh... shoot. Please, don't cry. Please. It's going to be alright, I... I promise."

Of course, she might very well have been promising the impossible, but all she cared about right now was preventing a complete emotional breakdown. Gently, she lowered herself down so she would be at eye level, hoping to catch a glimpse of Cara's face.

What Juliana could see could be rather concerning. Considering the fact that the girl had demonstrated magical ability, the fact her empty socket was welling up with some form of green power was probably not a good sign. At least they were in the city, where she couldn't cast on much, if anything.

However, Juliana could possibly see that the girl was, indeed, crying. Her empty socket was filling with tears light, and her actual eye was growing red as she rubbed it, trying to contain her tears with no success.

"...n-no it's not..." Cara responded, weeping. It wasn't like that was a proper response, leaving quite a bit to be said.

That... wasn't good, to say the least. It seemed that Cara's magic was being affected somehow by her emotional state, though it wasn't really possible what kind of effect it was having. If Juliana had to guess, it was probably amplifying the power of the magic. If that was the case, then there was a good chance that a spell could be triggered involuntarily if enough energy was built up. Combined with the fact that the girl was currently in possession of an item that was specifically bought to cast spells on, it turned the situation into a magical ticking time bomb. Once again, the mention of 'screams' began to float around sickeningly in the woman's head. She really didn't want to contribute to that aspect of a golem, if it could be helped.

"...What do you expect me to do, then? I can't do anything to help you if you've already decided to give up!"

Panic crept its way into her voice as she desperately tried to prevent... whatever it was from happening.

Now, Juliana could have said many things to comfort Cara. That was not one of them. She continued to wail, moving to begin pushing herself towards the forest, slowly, her steps frail and weak. She seemed like she was going to collapse, keeping her face covered. She didn't want anyone to see her. Nobody must see her.

"Leave me...alone..." She got out, as she staggered onwards.

"...You know what? Fine, then. I will leave you alone. I'm not going to waste my time and energy trying to help someone who clearly doesn't want it."

Her composure was slipping, as a result of a combination of fatigue and the fear of what could happen if Cara completely lost it. Still, a part of her really did mean what she said; it wasn't in her nature to put herself in danger for the sake of others, especially if they made it clear that they didn't want to be helped. Juliana stayed rooted to her spot, both to give Cara some space to herself, but also to keep some distance in case something unexpected happened.

Cara staggered onwards, in the vague and general direction of the forest. She seemed to weak to carry on, her coat dragging behind her pitifully as she made an attempt to get back to her home.

Power could not remain welled up forever. It had to flow somewhere, to something. It was never content with acting upon nothing. The fat ting that Clara's power acted upon was her empty socket, filling it with light. The second thing it acted upon was the doll, that she held.

It slowly gained life, glowing green cracks building up on its body.

She did not notice. Perhaps, someone else would.

The glowing of the doll did indeed catch Juliana's eye, though she had no idea whether that was a good thing or not. She could be witnessing the accidental creation of a golem- that was what the doll had been purchased for, after all- or it could just be a buildup of magical energy, due to the energy having nowhere else to go. If that was true, and there wasn't anything else around to host the energy, then stockpiling it like that could prove to be incredibly dangerous.

"...Cara. I suggest that you settle down and check on your... friend. Before you explode something, preferably."

She was once again becoming more confident, which reflected in her voice. Slowly straightening up to her full height, Juliana kept a watchful eye on the doll but continued to keep her distance.

 The child glanced at the doll, for a moment, before going to toss it aside roughly. After she had done so, she went to stumble forth, again.

The doll remained on the ground, inert and lifeless. For a moment. Then, it slowly pushed itself up. It was alive. It's movements were twitchy, hateful, unnatural. It was angry, and that much was certain.

To throw away the very thing you'd worked so hard to get without a second though was rather childish in Juliana's opinion, but of course that was to be expected from, well, a child. She briefly considered going over to pick the doll up off of the ground, before the abrupt twitching of the figure made her think twice.

"What the hell..."

With the way it was acting, the golem gave the impression that it had some sort of malicious intent. It wasn't at all what one would expect from something that had once been described as a 'friend'. It was downright creepy, something that shouldn't ever exist, yet there it was. There was no way in hell she was going to approach that thing; she just froze where she stood and watched the golem, half hoping that the thing would explode after all.

The thing made an attempt to do...something. It lifted its head into the air, before letting out a large amount of cracking, like wood snapping over and over again. Cara paused, turning to it.

"Ah...you're alive?" She said, wiping away tears with one hand, covering her empty socket with the he other.

The thing stared at Cara blankly, still twitching. It made another series of those sounds.

It seemed like the doll was attempting to communicate with Cara, though there was no telling whether she could actually understand it. Well, whatever the case may be, it didn't even come close to convincing Juliana that the... thing wasn't dangerous.

"For gods' sakes, stay away from that thing. It doesn't look friendly to me, and I really don't want to see you lose your other eye."

She slowly inched her way towards Cara, keeping her movements subtle as to not draw attention towards herself. There wasn't any way of unearthing the golem's intentions as of yet, but as far as Juliana was concerned, it was for the best to assume that they were malicious.

Cara slunk towards the golem, slowly. She seemed fascinated by it, and failed to heed Juliana's warning. "Vf wwrt!" She got out, under her breath, amazed. At the very least, Juliana could see that Cara wasn't crying anymore. In fact, this had caused her mood to improve drastically.

The golem, on the other hand, was still twitching, and letting out that awful cracking noise.

"What's it saying...?" She asked, getting dangerously close. The golem, the doll, moved forwards, shakily. It didn't seem to know how to walk properly.

Juliana noticed the girl say something under her breath- it wasn't anything that she could understand, yet it had some sort of structure to it that set it apart from pure nonsense. It was probably a language that she'd never happened across before, which wasn't something she was expecting.

"I've got not clue. If anything, I would've thought that you would be able to understand it. You're the one who made it, aren't you?"

She had closed the distance by a significant amount by now. The doll seemed less intimidating than it had at first, due to its struggle to move very far. If it couldn't even walk, then the chances of it actually being dangerous had dropped significantly.

The thing paused, before letting out a sickening crack, lurching forwards and going to jab at Cara with its arms.

It had little effect.

Cara frowned, kicking the thing away. "It attacked me!" She stepped back, glaring at it. "Don't do that!" The golem tilted its head, before pointing its arms in Carla's general direction.

"Y-you were right...it's a bad thing." Cara said, looking to Juliana.

"...Huh. Well, it definitely doesn't look like it wants to be friends, but at the same time I don't think it'll be able to hurt anyone. It's too weak to do any significant damage to people."

She continued to stare down at the doll, squinting her eyes as she carefully scrutinized its features and actions. Considering that Cara was the one who brought it to life, it was strange that it insisted on attacking her, especially when said attack achieved very little.

"I don't get it. Why's it trying to hurt you? You're the one who made it, so shouldn't you have some kind of control over it?"

"Nuh! I didn't make it! It was just alive!" Cara responded, going to move away from the doll.

Juliana could see that the doll was equipped with movable limbs, with points at the end of its limbs instead of arms or legs. The doll had no real features, being a blank slate without a face, hair, or clothing. However, due to Cara's magic, it had large cracks all across its body, that were filled with a vibrant green light that flowed like water.

The golem continued to stare at Cara, twitching all the while.

"What? It can't just 'be alive'. Things don't just magically come to life by themselves. That is your magic, is it not?"

She pointed down at the green light flowing out the cracks lining the doll's body, though it probably wasn't too obvious exactly what part she was looking at. To her, the only possible conclusion was that the golem was created by Cara's magic, whether doing so was intentional or not. She was the one who wanted to create the thing in the first place, after all.

"...Hey, you. What's wrong with you, huh? What makes you think attacking people is okay?"

Juliana spoke again, this time directing her voice at the golem. It might not acknowledge her existence, let alone understand what she was saying, but she figured it was worth a shot.

The thing's head slowly turned around, to face Juliana, letting out the cracking sounds at her. It kept its hands pointed at Cara, and the girl spoke to Juliana.

"Well I didn't cast anything on it! It just got up!" She retorted. "And it tried to hurt me. Maybe I should kill it." She suggested, pointing a finger at the golem. It, in return, pulled its arms towards itself.

Cara frowned, wandering towards it, rubbing her eye.

"Absolutely not. Nobody is going to be killing anybody. And I don't care if that's how it goes in the forest, because that's not how it goes here."

If there was anything that Cara would learn from her trip to the city, Juliana hoped that it would be that death was not something to be taken lightly, and that needless killing was to be avoided. As such, she made sure to drive the point home before turning her attention back towards the doll. It was hard to tell without any facial expressions, but it almost looked scared of Cara now- a stark contrast to the aggression it had displayed just a few moments ago. Letting out a sign, the woman shook her head in disapproval.

"...I think you'd better practice keeping your magic under control if you don't want to end up creating another thing like this."

"If it attacks you it's not needless..." Cara responded, as she wandered towards it. "It's defence." She continued walking towards it, before suddenly halting. The doll glanced at her, letting its arms drop to its sides. "I didn't mean to make it." She implored, looking to Juliana with wide eyes. "W-what should be done with it?"

"I'm well aware that it attacked you, but it's not like it could actually do any harm. There's no need to destroy something that's physically incapable of hurting you. Besides, it's gotta be useful for... something. Probably."

She said that, but in reality it was a lot harder to think of uses for the golem. It clearly wasn't powerful by any means, so acting as a guard was out of the question. It didn't have any hands, either, so performing more dextrous tasks probably wasn't something it was able to accomplish. Shrugging, Juliana decided to pry a little into Cara's knowledge of golems.

"Beats me. What does your father do with them?"

"All sorts of things. Guarding stuff. Making stuff. General tasks. They're all bigger than this one, though...I just didn't think I could make a big one." She explained, moving to wander over towards Juliana.

The doll slowly, carefully, turned to watch Cara, as if her movements represented a deathly force. Or, they represented a valuable asset it could not lose. "This ones small...and I dunno if it follows the rules."

"...Huh. Well, I've gotta be honest, I can't really think of anything you could use it for. It wasn't exactly made to do work, after all. It was made to be a toy."

She crossed her arms, bringing one arm up so that she could rest her head in her palm. It was true that the doll didn't seem to be particularly useful, and keeping it around was likely more trouble than it was worth. That being said, Juliana didn't want to go back on her verdict of letting the golem live. It was a troubling dilemma, indeed.

"I don't know, maybe it has some sort of magical ability or something. If all else fails, I suppose you could just release it into the forest."

"Uhhh...okay! Let's let it out in the forest!" Cara exclaimed. She carefully went to pad over towards the golem. It seemed to be simply twitching, glancing between the two incoherently. After a brief pause she went to go and pick it up.

As she picked it up, the doll squirmed and writhed, letting out sickeningly loud cracks, going to attempt to claw at Cara as she cringed at the noise. "Agh!" Cara dropped the golem, staggering away from it and shaking her hand.

Juliana flinched a little as the doll flailed around and started to make a huge racket, once again lashing out at Cara and becoming even more familiar with the pavement below. She shot it a dirty look before turning her attention to Cara, trying to get a good look at her hand. If it was injured, then she wanted to know about it as soon as possible.

"Oh, god. Okay, that was... admittedly not a good idea. A-are you alright? That looked like it might've hurt."

The golem was proving to be a lot more trouble than she had originally thought. It was apparently intent on causing problems, even at the potential cost of its own life. Why it insisted on acting so strangely, she didn't have the slightest idea.

"...Maybe we should just leave it alone. I think you're the one it's interested in, so it'll probably try to follow along if you go into the forest. It doesn't look like it can go very fast, so it'll have to give up eventually."

Cara winces, moving over to show various scrapes along her hand and arm. They look like they were made by a pin scraping across the flesh. Not very deep wounds, but there were many of them. It looked like it didn't hurt very much. "That's what it did." She mumbled, a low whine coming from her.

The child glanced at her creation, as it stared at the two, quickly looking between Juliana and her. It still twitched, moving unntaturally.

"I don't like it..." she carefully spelled out. "...I need to...I need to...try again..." she said, a faint determination sparking inside of her. It pulsed through her voice, and lit up her working eye. "Y-yeah! I...just gotta try again."

Fortunately, the scratches and cuts didn't look too serious, but it wasn't a good idea to leave open wounds unattended. There was always a chance that they could become infected, and at that point there would be little Juliana could do to help. Once again, she held her hands over Cara's injuries, releasing her magic and allowing it to flow through the wounds. She was a little more forceful this time around, given that she could actually see what she was healing and that she wanted to get it over with quickly. When she was finished, she stumbled backwards a few steps, her face going rather pale. It was strange- it wasn't unusual for her to feel tired after fixing particularly grievous wounds, but she'd done nothing of the sort recently. Maybe she really did need a rest.

"...Wait, what are you going to 'try again'? I hope you're not planning on picking that thing up again."

Cara smiled, as Juliana healed her, the wounds knitting together quite quickly. "Thank you." She said, before glancing  at the golem. "It's not a good thing." Cara stated, as she looked to Juliana. "I'm not gonna bother it. I meant I'll make a new one."

The golem did not seem to take this very well, its twitching stopping it. Now, it was perfectly still, going to slowly turn and look to the duo. Cara was oblivious of this, still facing Juliana, though Juliana may be able to see.

Juliana simply nodded in response to being thanked once again, not paying much attention to the somewhat redundant gratitude she was receiving. She was, however, glad that Cara wasn't intending in approaching the doll again; if the girl ended up getting hurt again, she really didn't want to make herself feel even weaker by using her magic. The doll itself looked none too pleased about the situation, prompting her to give it a stern glare. The thing was testing her patience with its confusing antics.

"Ah... that's good. Trying to make a better one, I mean. You can't always get things perfect on the first try, but you could probably get better results with more practice. Getting some help from your father when he wakes up wouldn't hurt, either."

Cara grinned, nodding voigorously as she went to turn around and stare at the golem. After a brief examination, she decided that it wasn't worth bothering with. "I...I think I'm gonna go to the forest now." She said, going to turn back to Juliana. It was clear that she was waiting for her approval, or response, or for her to at least acknowledge this statement with something.

For the first time, Juliana finally diverted her attention completely from the golem, figuring that there was very little it could do to hurt anyone as long as it was left alone. If Cara didn't want anything to do with it, then neither did she. Speaking of Cara, though, the girl seemed to have taken to staring at her with a sort of expectant look in her eyes. Juliana returned the gaze, resulting in a brief moment of silence until she eventually caved and broke it.

"...well? What are you waiting for? I'm certainly not going to stop you, if that's what you're thinking. It's not like you've been silent about wanting to go back to the forest."

Cara nodded, before plucking out her eye again. She suddenly moved to grip the wooden orb, palming it, a sly grin crossing her face. It lit up with the verdant glow, before beginning to form into something. Cara was making something from the wood, something of great magic, and it required all her of her focus.

The look that crossed Cara's face was a bit disconcerting- the last time Juliana saw that look, she nearly got assaulted by a wooden, blood-splattered orb. Granted, it didn't look like the girl was planning on throwing it; it was more like she was moulding it into something else using magic, much like she'd done earlier in order to create fruit. Just in case, Juliana protectively raised her hands a little in case anything went awry.

"Hey, what're you up to now? I've gotta say, I'm really not a fan of surprises."

"It's a gift!" The girl explained, her grin going from sly to simply happy. The orb formed into a flower, with an eerie green glow emanating from the petals. At the bottom of the stem, was a bulbous wooden orb, still forming and growing at the bottom as Cara manipulated. "You're a good person! So I wanna give you a gift!" She said, as she continued her work.

"Hah. Me, a good person? It's been quite a while since I've heard that one. You sure you're not thinking of someone else?"

Juliana was joking, of course, but some part of her really meant what she said. It wasn't as if she was a particularly bad person, but she didn't necessarily set out to do good things, either. Most of the time, she was just doing what she had to in order to make a living. At any rate, she didn't want to turn down a gift that Cara was pouring her focus and energy into. Instead, she watched and waited patiently for the gift to be finished.

After a few more moments, the girl had finished her magic, offering the flower to Juliana. "Take it." She implored her, smiling. Her smile was honest, and nice, she thought she was doing a good thing. And it showed.

She gently took the flower from Cara, returning the girl's smile as she did so. Idly running her fingers through the petals, she silently wondered what she was supposed to do with it. It was certainly pleasant to look at, minus the strange glow that seemed to be emanating from it, but she had no way of preserving it without actually being at home. There weren't any practical uses for it either- at least, not that she could tell- but she definitely wasn't going to tell Cara that.

"Thanks. It's a very... thoughtful gift. Do you make these kinds of things very often?"

As she took the flower, she felt something change. She heard whispers, quiet and distant, and in all ways opposed to each other, coming from all around her. They sounded human, or at least humanoid, and all seemed to be speaking to nobody in particular. Worse, still, was that due to the busy streets around them it would be difficult to discern to where these new voices were coming from.

"Nuh! I don't need them!" She responded, ever slanted towards happiness.

Juliana's movements came to a halt as she suddenly became aware of a multitude of voices coming from... somewhere. What they were saying was completely indiscernible, as were the origins of said voices- even when she looked around her at all the different people, none of them seemed to possess the voices she was looking for. If she hadn't had strange experiences with voices before, she probably would have concluded that she was just imagining things, but she knew this was real. It was downright sickening, the way that her senses refused to cooperate with each other.

"...I don't understand. What's it supposed to do? Is there some kind of special use for it?"

"It lets you talk more! And hear more! Like...you can...hear the...things that. The...other people around you...that are all quiet normally. Well, only if you're..." Cara tried to explain, fumbling with her words. "Like...the plants. It lets you...listen." She got out, nodding. Clearly, she thought that this one was sufficient and that it required no further exolaination, a contented grin crossing her face.

"Hey, don't get so worked up about it. Slow down, breathe, and think about what you want to say before trying to speak. That way, you won't get all your words jumbled up. Now... let me get this straight. The flower lets me hear things that other people can't. Like... plants? Those are what are causing me to hear all of these voices?"

She frowned slightly, looking down at the flower and turning it over in her hand. Cara had previously mentioned that she could communicate with animals and the like, which would explain why she said she 'didn't need' one of these flowers.

"I don't really know what I'm supposed to do with it, though. I mean... the flower's gonna die eventually, right?"

"Yes, but...you could plant it and care for it and grow more. But I don't recommend that. I don't think you'd be good at it and also bad things can happen!" Cara said, with a definitive nod. "The plants will be hard to hear but if you keep listening it'll get easier!

...just don't talk to animals." She warned.

"...Fair enough. I'm not gonna try to make more of them if it could be dangerous to do so. Besides... I don't have anywhere to plant it, anyways."

She wasn't offended in the slightest that Cara had little faith in her ability to cultivate the plant, mostly because her concerns were well justified. Juliana had almost no experience when it came to dealing with plants, and this particular flower probably needed to be cared for in a specific way. That wasn't to say that she couldn't learn to do it, just that she should avoid it for now. That being said, though, she had no clue what benefit being able to listen to plants could possibly provide. She didn't imagine that they had much important to say, but then again, she'd never listened to a plant before.

"...I'm curious, though. What's wrong with talking to animals?"

"Well, if you went to talk to a wolf, it wouldn't understand you! Cause it doesn't know the language! Then it'd eat you, and you'd be dead." Cara explained, in a jovial manner, as always. She then looked around the area, again, before nodding. "But the plants can hear. They can hear and they can speak and they can't hurt you. Unless it's one of the eat-y plants, so if you hear one trying to tell you to go closer you shouldn't." She warned.

"...Uh, yeahhhh. Remind me again why the forest is supposed to be 'better' than the cities? I don't know about you, but personally I'm not too fond of the idea of living in a place where everything wants me dead. I'd rather not spend my whole life being afraid of getting eaten by some random wild animal."

She paused for a moment, sliding her thumb down the stem of the flower and staring into the forest before going on.

"...But I guess it wouldn't hurt to test it out, before the flower ends up dying. I'm not entirely convinced that plants could have anything interesting to say, though. I mean... they're plants."

"They cannot see, or smell or hear but they can sense things. They're different! It's nice to listen to things that are different!" Cara elaborated, nodding to herself as if confirming the statement. "I mean-it's not like a flower's gonna leap up and attack you, is it?"

"...is it?" She asked, slightly befuddled, memories flicking back to that one time...

"Hmm... well, there are ways that they could harm you. A lot of them could poison you or make you very sick if you ate them. There's also quite a few that are protected by thorns, which could result in some nasty cuts. As for actually attacking people, though, I very much doubt that's possible. They can hardly move at all, let alone enough to strike out at someone. Besides, I don't think they would have much reason to attack people."

She held the flower closer to herself, as if to prove her point. As far as she was concerned, plants could only be dangerous when someone mishandled them. Even ones with mysterious powers such as this one shouldn't pose any threat as long as she didn't try to create more of them... probably.

"Right. Plants don't attack people!" Cara replied, with a stupid grin. "Especially when you're not being a...nevermind." Whatever her thoughts were, she seemed to be switching off to some other thing. "I think it's time for me to go..." She prompted, nodding slightly. Cara was apparently preparing to go , unfurling her cloak and letting it drop to the ground, nodding once more as if confirming it to herself. "Yes."

Juliana raised an eyebrow when Cara suddenly decided to change the subject again, curious about how the thought would've ended had it not been interrupted. She wouldn't have particularly cared if it was something derogatory- if it was, chances are that she'd already heard worse from other people. That was just something she'd learn to ignore over the years.

"Like I said, I'm not going to try and stop you if you really want to go back out there. If you need my help with something, though, then you'll have to tell me now."

"Nuh! I don't think so..." She paused, again. Cara nodded. "Goodbye!" The girl turned on her heel, before going to begin to trek off towards the woods, her long coat dragging behind her. However, Cara stopped. She twirled around, giving Juliana a quick but rather enthusiastic wave, before making to continue her journey.

"...Alright. Well, be careful out there, then. Hopefully everything will work out okay with your father, and all that. You should keep yourself out of trouble if you can, though."

Juliana crossed her arms, watching as Cara made her way back into the forest. She gave a wave of her own when the girl turned around, hers being noticeably less energetic. She stood there for a little while afterwards, waiting until Cara had completely disappeared between the trees before finally turning and rejoining the crowds of the city.

As the child faded into the forest, it seemed that the woods twisted and moved as she wandered into them. It was a dull movement, but it was there, though it soon faded as she wandered in, fading away into the green that she was so accustomed to.