---

Just as Chanyeol's getting to the best part about this one battle that he was in, someone suddenly knocks on Ruby's door. Ruby, her wife Luna, and him all turn to the door, and Ruby glances at them with a lifted eyebrow before getting up to answer it (with Luna following right behind her).

When she opens it, Chanyeol smiles with relief when he sees that it's just his companions at the door. Then, he jumps up from his seat and walks over to them.

"Um, hello?" Luna greets them. "I don't think we've met before...?"

"Hey, hey--it's fine," Chanyeol says as he reaches them. "They're the ones I was talking about...Ruby and Luna, meet my companions. He's Kyungsoo--Jongin--Luhan and Minseok."

Ruby, Luna, and his companions end up exchanging polite Hello's and such with each other, and then with a half-smile, Luna tells them to please come in. So, as the others come inside and take off their shoes, Ruby locks the door behind them before she and Luna go back to their seats and Chanyeol anxiously looks down at his companions.

"So uh..." he starts as the four of them look up at him with mixed expressions. "D-did you guys get to trade and ?"

"Ha, yeah," Minseok replies. "And I ended up haggling for like an hour with that one general goods owner just for a freakin' Destruction tome! Ya know, usually I can get a bargain in like thirty seconds but nope--not with that guy."

"Ahh damn, really--with Belethor? Huh, last I remember, he was really easy to haggle with."

"Ha, well he definitely wasn't earlier--"

"Okay, can we stop this small talk, please?" Kyungsoo interrupts before looking up at Chanyeol. He then pushes his glasses up his nose. "Explain yourself."

Chanyeol starts to sweat as they all look at him again and asks, "C-can we at least like sit down or something first?"

Thankfully, Kyungsoo responds with a Fine. So, after the five of them plop themselves down onto some seats that Ruby and Luna offer (with Jongin sitting on Kyungsoo's lap), Chanyeol asks them what they'd wanna know first.

"...Well, um h-how did you die and...come back to life?" Jongin asks.

Chanyeol's lips stretch into a thin line and he starts scratching at his own arm. "...Well...Like, ya know how I said I'm from Emberashe, right?"

The others nod and Kyungsoo mumbles about how he mentions it like 'every freakin' hour'. Chanyeol instantly refutes that statement and continues. "So like, all of us born there are pretty much related to everything fire, okay. Flame atronachs, fire dragons...phoenixes..."

Understanding seems to dawn on Kyungsoo and Minseok at that while Jongin still looks confused and Luhan looks like he already knew.

"So...you're saying you're related to a phoenix then?" Kyungsoo asks, incredulously. Chanyeol nods and Kyungsoo's and Jongin's eye widen. ", that's new."

"Yeah, I know it sounds crazy so like, that's why I never told you guys about it. And we've only known each other for what--three days?" He looks at Minseok. "And two and a half for us? Like imagine when we first met--imagine if I told you guys I'm the descendant of a ing phoenix so like, I get its powers and but I can't actually turn into a bird. I just like--if I die--I in' turn into--into ash and then whoosh just come right back. Like, there's no way I'd be questing with you guys right now if I said that--I know it."

He goes quiet after that and the others take a good moment to process everything.

Then, Ruby randomly says, "Hey, ya never know though, Yeollie. Not everyone's freaked out so easily by the surreal."

"Wait," Minseok starts, looking at her. "So did you know that he could do this the whole time? 'Cause a few people we met said that you thought he was dead too."

Ruby just lets out an amused snort. "Of course I knew! Though ya know, he did try to hide it from me for a while too but, ha, I've got a pretty good sense on picking up on the surreal so I knew bef--"

"Horse !" Chanyeol interrupts, letting out an incredulous laugh at the end. "You didn't even know until we visited my ma that one time and she showed you our ing family tree!"

"Heh, but what if that's what I wanted ya to think, huh?" she replies with a smirk. Chanyeol moves to playfully punch her arm, and she laughs and turns back to Minseok. "Anyways, uh what was I saying?...So like yeah, technically he did die so I wasn't really like lying to people or anything. And to be honest, the only reason everyone else knew that he died and didn't just 'disappear' was 'cause he was tired of 'carrying my burdens' as my active Housecarl..."

"Wha--I never said that!"

"Ha, don't even try to deny it!"

With a frown, Chanyeol punches her arm again before wincing when she punches back even harder with a grin still on her face.

---

At one point as they all continue chatting and such, a few of their stomachs randomly grumble and Luna smiles and asks if they'd be up for some potato-venison stew for their lunch.

"Oh no, we wouldn't want to impose..." Kyungsoo starts.

"Wha--? Speak for yourself!" Minseok says. He then turns to look at Luna and does a dramatic bow. "Miss, I would love some stew."

Luna giggles at his response and then asks the others if they'd like some stew too. Everyone readily agrees, except for Kyungsoo who instead asks if he could lend a hand in any way. She just waves him away with a smile though and so they all end up chatting some more while Luna moves to cook at the fire pit nearby.

Several minutes later, just as Ruby's telling the others about the time she and Chanyeol met the daedra of mischief, Luna finishes the stew. Then once she's given everyone a serving and they begin eating, Chanyeol suddenly remembers about their main quest and asks Ruby if he can borrow her horse Frost for their journey.

"Hm, Frost? Sure, I don't mind," she responds.

Chanyeol smiles and replies with a Cool, already imagining riding on his favorite horse again.

But then, he also remembers that he and his little group still need some more gold, another horse, and a wagon so that they can get to the eternal flower faster. So with practiced ease, Chanyeol then asks Ruby if she has some gold that she can spare for 'old times sake'.

Ruby just laughs and says Maybe, but I have a favor first, and Chanyeol lets out a sigh as he already knows where this is going. Ever since he was her active Housecarl, she'd love to send him on stupid quests under the guise of 'leveling up his skills'. And this time seems to be no exception as she asks him if he can ride off to Windsur to deliver a message for her.

"Ugh, Windsur? But we just ing came from there!" he replies, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Well, how long did it take to get here from there, hm?"