The last krunklet's thick armor made it difficult to harm him at all, but the slash sent him flying into a nearby battalion of his fellow soldiers, knocking them aside and dazing every last one. The Krunklite turned to Eleanor who had gracefully face-planted the stage, somewhat conflicted on how to proceed. "Dr. Krink! Watch out!" The black armored soldier shouted to the golden soldier-doctor. Dr. Krink turned from his podium and fall backwards in fear, rolling onto his feet on the opposite edge of the stage.

"F-F-Forget her! Bring the captured civilians to the Krunk-Mobile! It's time to retreat!" Krink shouted. The Krunklite hesitantly nodded and ran off. If Eleanor were to look down from the stage, she would see a large array of captured civilians shoved into bags, and being pulled out of town.



"No time for question!" One of the mole men shouted, yanking Jenso and Reiley away by the collars of their shirts in an almost comedic fashion. "Need bring you to Lark! He know what do!"

Ainra's struggling was worthwhile, and the mole-man was quick to release he from her bag-prison. But with all her thrashing about, her savior was ultimately harmed, receiving quite the hearty bonk on the head. But before she could aid him, he urged her to follow his friend, Jenso, his fox friend, and Reiley.

"Lark..?" Jenso questioned, as the mole man pulled him away on the collar of his shirt."OH CRAP OH SHIT OKAY!..I'm coming!" Jenso added, doing his best not to lose his balance and avoid falling over. He gazed deeper into the tunnel as they moved, wondering just how far it went.

Eleanor lies groaning on the stage as she watches the Krunklets escaping... She couldnt muster a word and she faints. She had used up all her energy fighting them. She slowly gets to her feet as she tries to figure out which way the Krunklets are heading

The group was brought through the tunnels, until they became wider and wider. Finally, when the tunnels were almost 15 feet wide, they opened into a large underground cavern filled with trees, houses, and small rivers that lead towards an open wall. Through that wall, which was large enough to open about a 3rd of the cavern's walls, the ocean could be seen for miles. The moles lead Ainra, Jenso, and Reily through the little city until they reached the biggest tree in town. But it was hollow! Inside the tree, the four were lead to the highest room, where a large green door carved from a rare type of wood was standing. "Lark inside, you see him now," One mole said, opening the door for them. Inside, a man with long blonde hair turned and smiled at them, waving as he sat in a throne like a child, with his legs wrapped over one armrest, and his back rested against the other.

"Welcome to Thoris, heroes!"



Eleanor followed the Krunk legion to the best of her abilities, eventually finding out that the group of round soldiers had loaded the prisoners into a massive, ball-like vehicle that was nearly 60 feet tall! It looked like they hadn't noticed her yet, being too concerned with preparing to take off.

It seems that the vehicle had two major entrances on either side, one where they loaded the prisoners, and one where they loaded the Krunk soldiers.

"Uh..hello. Could you tell us what the heck is going on?!" Jenso replied to Lark, as he cautiously entered the room. He looked around. The inside of the tree looked surprisingly good. For the inside of a tree, anyways. He knocked on one of the walls for a moment. "Wow! This tree is sturdier then my house!...Or what's left of it." He commented, turning back to Lark as he awaited his response.

"Right! Mole-men, you are dismissed!" Lark called out, waving the moles off. They all bowed and left hastily. "A prophecy, kiddo! My most powerful star reader told me that we would find strong allies in Newjinsland on the day of Krunk's attack! Fortunately, she wasn't wrong about the day this time, ahaha!" Lark explained, waving his hands around joyfully. "My moles were ordered to pick out the toughest looking fellars at that there 'royal jamboree' or whatever the hell they were calling it. You 3 fit the bill perfectly!.. Dunno why you brought a fox though," Lark quipped, pointing at maple with a scowl.

"So that's why you only saved us and didn't try to save any of the villagers, huh?" Jenso replied with an annoyed tone. "...Well, I guess it woulda been impossible to save them all. Not without the Krunk Army interfering." He added. "Well, you can count on me, at least. Tell us what we need to do." He said, as Lark questioned why Maple was there. "Oh, it must have gotten lost or something and been taken by accident...but it can talk! It's crazy!" Jenso shouted. He was unsure if anyone in the room would believe him, but he knew that Reiley was at least close enough at that moment to have heard Maple speak. He looked at the people behind him, hoping that they would also be up to the challenge.

"Okay, hold on, just about everything needs to slow down, Prince Blondie." Ainra stepped forward, looking around and folding her arms, taking a good look at the tree's throne room, as well as Jenso, Reiley, and Maple, before settling her gaze on Lark. "I did not walk all the way to town to miss out on all of the festival crap because of bowling ball men. I also didn't come over to get thrown into a sack and carried around by your subterranean lackeys. And last of all, I didn't come here to listen to some guy on a throne in a tree talk about star prophecies."

Ainra's eyes narrowed a little, her face turning into a scowl. "I'm hungry, my head hurts, and my vacation's ruined. I don't feel like being a hero, I feel like taking a nap. So give me one good reason to listen to your prophecy instead of turning around and going home." She began tapping her fingers against her arm impatiently; she looked just about ready to claw up some more stuff (or innocent bystanders) if she didn't get her way, or at least calmed down somehow.

@Hatman1801

Reiley set her hand on Ainra's sholder and spoke soothingly, "Calm down..." she set her gaze on Lark and said "She has a point though, why should we stay? I didn't want to be put in this mess in the first place."

Lark yawned loudly as two of the individuals questioned his words. "If you don't help us out, the entire world might fall into peril! This Krunk Legion, those little guys, they've been going across the world and doing something very odd to every person they can get their hands on, they're a menace! If you don't help me out, you'll be letting thousands of people fall prey to their evil!" He urged, jumping from his chair and moving about the room erratically. "Or something like that," He added on silently, snickering to himself.

Ainra's gaze shifted sharply towards Reiley as she hand touched her, and she almost snapped about it. However, she calmed down upon Reiley actually agreeing with her. The other one in the room with the spiky hair seemed like he was already ready to save the people. Whether that was ignorant or heroic is a debatable point.

Even after explaining, Lark was being vague about what exactly the Krunk Legion's evil was. That, alongside just about everything else Lark did, was grating on Ainra's short temper. She didn't have anything to do with any of this, and she didn't want to have anything to do with this. Still...

The girl sighed, and cracked her neck once. "Alright Snark, since I am kind of pissed at the ball-guys for ruining my vacation and whacking me in the back of the head, I'll play along and help break them to bits. I'm doing it for me though, and not your stupid star prophecy whatever."

"That's the spirit, lady! Whatever you need to tell yourself- It's fine by me! How about you there? Are you willing to stick around for the purpose of something greater? I bet you are!" Lark shouted happily. He sounded like a giddy father, it was kind of cute, but also outright weird.

Jenso smiled as Ainra agreed to fight the Krunk Legion. "Cool! I know we can kick their asses if we work together!" Jenso shouted, walking over to Ainra, Reiley and Maple. "Well, since both of us and maybe the others will be a part of this, I might as well introduce myself. My name is Jenso." He said. He wondered what all of them were capable of, but he believed that he would soon find out. He hoped that Reiley and maybe Maple would also join. Maple didn't seem any different from a regular fox, but the fact he could talk meant there was probably even more to him then one would see at first glance.

Eleanor noticed both the entrances and she made the decision to rescue the prisoners. She didnt know how to get herself onto it, but she figure she can try something. She looks around to find a wire lying on the ground. She turns it into a rope and throws it towards the prisoner side. She hopes for it to hook onto something

The Krunk-mobile began whirring up as Eleanor successfully hooked onto the prisoner's door as it was closing. Without warning though, the giant ball began moving, picking up speed quite quickly as wheels popped out of its underside.

Reiley rubbed her temples and sighed, "Sure. Whatever. I'm probably not gonna be that strong or helpful anyway."

She face plants as the Krunk-mobile starts to move. She was dragged along the ground for a bit till she could regain her body from the extreme speed. She starts to use the rope to pull herself towards the prisoner side

"I can't tell if you're just enthusiastic or patronizing me, Lark...but whatever, it works out. It's been a bit too long since I've had a chance to cut loose and break some bones." Ainra stretched her arms and back once, before spinning around on a heel to face her two accomplices in heroism.

And how stark the contrast was. This Jenso guy seemed just a tad overenthusiastic about helping some stranger with an unknown threat, alongside some other strangers he had known for less than a day. Still, he seemed like the type who really enjoyed some roughhousing. She could get behind that, and cracked a toothy grin. "Alright then big man, my name's Ainra. Ainra Maeti. Good to see a fellow patron of vio--erm, I mean justified violence."

On the other hand though, was the other 'gal in the gang. Reiley, who didn't seem pleased about this. The more reasonable type. Didn't seem to want to have a part in any of this, but Ainra was still skeptical herself, so it made sense. However, Reiley mentioned something else that bothered her more. "Hey, what's this now, bookworm? Look, ignore what the treehugger over there says, you don't have to join in on this, but... Ainra have a strange mix of putting one hand on Reiley's shoulder, and the other of jabbing her gently on the other arm, perhaps not quite as gently as intended. "Don't go putting yourself down, Reiley. You won't know how strong or helpful you're gonna be if you don't give yourself a chance!"

With that, there was only one last thing to take care of. The strange little flying fox fluttering about. Ainra turned from the others once her little introduction was done, waited for a moment, then leapt at it, snatching it out of the air. A quick twist of the wrist broke the thing's neck, a quick spit of flame from her mouth charred its flesh, and a satisfied sigh escaped her as she began chewing on the still-burning meal.

So much for a cute animal companion.

Jenso smiled as Reiley decided to join the group as well. "Cool!! Looks like we have our team then." Jenso said in a cheerful tone. "No way! I bet you'll do great!" He added shortly afterwards. He turned to Ainra and blinked as she ate the fox. "Well...um. I don't think he'll be talking any more..?" He said, and turned back to Lark. "So uh, what's the plan dude?" He said, eager to set out on this new adventure.

Lark rolled his eyes at Reiley's woe, but was happy to see Ainra ready to console her at a moments notice. He wasn't as happy to see her go to town on the little fox-thing, promptly feasting on its corpse after snapping its neck. Poor little fox. Ah whatever, don't worry about it Lark thought. It was just a stupid fox, after all.

Suddenly Lark's joy came crashing down when Jenso prompted him for a plan. "Oh, uh.. See, here's the thing friends! I uh... I don't have one!" He admitted, shrugging his shoulders innocently. "Our prophet told us about heroes! She didn't say anything about how they would manage to get anywhere near the Krunk fortress! Hell, if I had a good plan, I'd go there myself! But yea, I uh... I don't!"

Lark then proceeded to run across the throne room, over to a small chest on the left side, pulling out a large roll of paper. "I do have this, though!" He screamed excitedly. Running back over to Jenso, he handed the man his large roll of paper with a smile. "This is the map of fates! It's a rare parchment that can guide the owner towards where their fate would already lead them, but like, faster! I'm not really sure how it works though, so uh... You may want to ask ole' Gorgonzola about it. She lives near the ocean shore here in Thoris!"



As Eleanor pulled herself towards the side entrance, she would find that it was sealed shut. But the area where she'd hooked onto with the wire was slightly open, allowing her to see inside the contraption. It looked like a storage area from where she could see into the krunk-mobile, but nobody was in view.