The group had only realized how odorless the wide desert-like terrain was once the strong fragrance of an oriental lily that had just been retched out, still covered in saliva, pierced their noses with it’s pleasant but powerful smell.

“Oh, sorry. Haha..”, Theo laughed nervously, when he got closer to the girl who was barely floating he felt a smell similar to vomit, he couldn’t resist the urge to retch and choke as the smell was horrendous on his nose. To be honest, he couldn’t stand the smell, even in real life when he was sick and vomited, he had to flush it down quickly or get out of there or else he would probably start vomiting again until he flushed his whole body out. He couldn’t really believe that Rosa had been traveling with the girl that smelled that bad.

The smell of the flower somewhat combated over the stench and Theo was determined to get the wound fixed as fast as he could and for the stench to go away. The tore off the petals one by one, holding his breath for as long as he could to preserve the smell of the petals so he didn’t have to feel the stench of stomach acid when he got closer to the girl who was now completely touching the ground, the floating seeming to twitch a bit.

Theo kneeled down to the girl’s level, holding his breath through everything, he felt the girl’s glare at him but he didn’t say a thing as he waited until she removed her arms that were gripping her dried bloody wound. He grabbed the large smooth petals as he attempted to peel the stuck cloth of the green sweater, exposing the wound that seemed to still be bleeding to some extent, but now more weakly as most of the blood had been left on the battlefield. He carefully placed the petals, trying to get the whole large cut covered with the number of petals he was holding in his hand. Once he was done, he was pretty much feeling like he could faint from not breathing that long, even though he knew it was not possible to do in the dream state. He slowly let the breath go and inhaled, feeling relieved when he found out the stench was weakening due to the flower’s fragrance.

“Sorry, I can’t really fix the clothes situation, the flowers seem to only connect skin tissue.”, Theo apologized after standing up and backing away slightly.

Linh squeezed her eyes shut once the flowers were on her abdomen, well this was a bit weaker than the burning the stab caused her but it still felt like tears can well up at her eyes at any moment. She took a sharp breath in, feeling a sudden surge of energy through her, which completely ran over the sluggish and tired feeling that seemed to be because of the blood draining from her body. Her body shot up all of a sudden and she was once again up and floating mid-air.

“Please! Be careful, the wound is deep it might not be fully healed.”, Theo warned, seeing how she jerked herself up.

“Nah, I think I’m just fine!”, Linh said with a laugh as she cracked her knuckles, feeling a rush of excitement and energy. She turned over to Theo as she lowered down slightly and stuck her hand towards him.

“You are Theo, I figured because of the ruckus happening inside and also the fact Rosa has been talking about you the 15-minute trip here.”, Linh guessed the name as Theo shook her hand, “And the blind guy is Emil? I mean- of course, he is Emil you have said his name so many times it’s imprinted in my mind.”, Linh again guessed the name, not really bothering to introduce herself at all as she floated over to Emil, who was a bit confused because he couldn’t make out what was happening, but when Linh waved her hand in front of his face, he was startled back into reality.

“Oh, hello.”, he simply said, not really knowing that Linh had her arm outstretched to him to shake, Linh just pulled her hand back with a silent sigh.

“Anyways-”, Linh was about to have a whole speech but was interrupted by Rosa’s monotone voice.

“Her name is Linh.”, Rosa simply said with her arms crossed, as Linh glared at her for a moment as she kept quiet when Rosa said that.

“Oh, by the way, Linh. Are you okay? Your face seems to be somewhat purple, are you breathing?”, Theo asked with concern in his voice, he had just realized how discolored her face was from her hands and the rest of her body.

“I mean I have been barely able to breathe since I woke up here but I haven’t fainted and am to now full of energy so I will let it pass.”, Linh said, pretty relaxed even though this was obviously a bad sign since she was suffocating in a dream state.

Rosa was about to rant a hundred ways of how wrong what she said was, one of them being the tightness of the cloth that she was wearing around her neck but she was stopped by a voice which seemed to be searching for everyone’s attention.

“Scusami! Scusami!!”, a voice of what seemed to be of a young child yelled out to the group as everyone turned to the source of the sound.

In the distance, floating in the thin air was a young boy, around nine or ten years old. They only guessed this was his age because of his voice and height, as he seemed to be quite small, but the red and white carnival mask he was wearing on his face was hiding his face which was a big factor of his age. His attire could only be described as a joker-kind of wear, striped pants with all the possible shades of the color red, high boots, flannel that seemed like something that was ripped out of the medieval times, a hat that was something like a cross between a party hat and a horse’s mane. His skin was an unnatural orange color for a human and along his side was a small white dog.

“Scusami, my friends! It seems you have found your way even before I have managed to catch up. I apologize for being so worthless!”, the boy bowed in front of them as he hovered closer to the ground now.

Emil had automatically reached into his pocket for the knives, which made the boy slightly worried which was visible in the expression shown on one part of his face that wasn’t covered by the ridiculous mask.

“Please, please! Do not think I’m a threat I can’t do anything even if I wanted to! I’m simply here as a messenger!”, the boy begged for understanding as Linh simply rolled her eyes.

“Yeah, that’s surely why an asshole appeared out of nowhere and stuck a full-on sword into my stomach.”, she groaned, not really trusting the boy as much as he begged for forgiveness.

“What?”, the boy gulped as terror struck his face when Rosa saw the expressions change, she had a completely different view than Linh, something was wrong and the boy was scared of the thing that attacked them earlier too.

“Anyways, please adjust to the terrain since you will be spending some time here- oh my god I apologize I haven’t even told you my name what a bother I am, that’s why they took me as a guide here I can’t even do this right. ”, the boy was sent into a self-loathing fit for a moment before he abruptly stopped when his dog jumped at his feet and rolled around, which seemed to calm him intensely.

“As I was saying, I am ‘The Fool’, but calling me Folle will do the trick as well. You were chosen as a group since you have begun randomly experiencing the dreamworld state, which is a pretty big deal since this only happens to people who are psychic or have such powers in real life, not just in the dream world. People are required to go through trials set by my siblings, who are collectively called the ‘Major Arcana’ to show themselves worthy of their powers. I and my siblings are researching the cause of you right now but since you have been transported here, but for now please relax and try to remember things and learn about your powers, since we have to do the trials as we would with any others who pass into this world.”, the boy, whose name is Folle, explained the basics of the world to the four, who carefully analyzed the words he was saying, well, everyone except Linh.

“And why should we believe you?”, Linh said, pointing a finger at Folle, as she focused on him, trying to grab him, but it seems like he wouldn’t budge.

“Linh please, calm down. He doesn’t seem to be aware of the entity that attacked us either, so I’d believe him for now.”, Rosa defended Folle, not seeing him as a threat since he himself wasn’t aware of the other forces at play in his own world.

“Yeah, he seems innocent just because we think he is a kiddo behind that mask!”, Linh yelled looking at Rosa before she turned her head back to where Folle was supposed to be, only to find him gone.

“For fuck’s sake!”, Linh shouted across the desert as rage washed over her.

“Hey, he left a note.”, Theo said as he looked down at a paper that seemed to be left by the boy before picking it up.

“I apologize for being such a bother to you, Just one last thing I wanted to tell you is that first on the list seems to be big sister Strength. Her name might suggest she is a very strict Arcana but she is good at heart, believe that!”, Theo read off the text, which was written in rather neat handwriting for a mere child.

“Yeah, apologize for being a pain in the ass.”, Linh uttered as she stretched in mid-air, not really minding what was written at all.

“I guess we have to camp out for a few days and see what else we can do power-vise, and then either we will find ‘Strength’ or she will find us.”, Emil spoke up, after processing the mass information that was laid out in those moments.

Theo nodded at the idea Emil proposed as Linh just sighed in defeat, seeing everyone being for fighting the damn things.

“I guess I will have to be with you losers then, but if any of us die in any fucked way we can out there it’s your fault because I didn’t sign up for this at all.”