Tinz and Dolce eventually lead themselves to the other side of the house; They were met with the rest of the crew sitting idly in the bakery at a table. Ferry was, for some reason, craning her head through an open window. Watching… waiting… perhaps for a treat. Tinz wondered if dogs could eat bread.

They all finally sat down at the now crowded table. Rose was humming while shuffling around various loaves and croissants, seemingly deciding which to gift to the party. The silence was peaceful this time around, a stark contrast to the tense air from earlier. Tinz plopped his head down onto the table. He was already exhausted. While he considered traveling to be tiresome in itself, social situations drained him as well. And finding new party members was… Well. Dolce seemed to be a handful with how outgoing he was. Plum was fine though. Yeah.

As Tinz thought to himself, Rose came over with a bundle of various baked goods. Magnolia was already eating a small cupcake, and Plum was feeding some cornbread to the chicken.

“Assuming this won’t be too much to carry?” She asked, setting the bundle on the table. Magnolia cupped a hand over her mouth before swallowing a bite. 

“Of course not! I’m sure it’s all delicious,” she grinned. Dolce looked over the bundle of goods.

“Pretty sure there’s enough space on the dog’s luggage bags, right?” he asked, looking to Tinz. Tinz was still laying facedown on the table, but he gave a shaky thumbs up.

Magnolia gave out a huff. “Her name is Ferry! She’s a valuable part of the team,” she nodded with pride. Dolce leaned his elbows on the table. His eyes behind the shades were barely visible but gave off the vibes of intent listening.

“You’re a summoner, right? Did you summon her?” he asked.

Magnolia paused, seemingly thinking over her answer. “Yeah, she was summoned to be a service dog for Tinz.”

Tinz emitted a huff of agreement before sitting upright to look at the bundle of food. His expression was eerily similar to a cat just waking up from a nap. Whatever it was that piqued Dolce’s interest was quenched, and he leaned back in the chair.

“Well, do we have any plans for where to go next?” he asked the group. They all looked to him and then looked at each other. Tinz, despite essentially being the leader of the party, had no idea. He supposed learning how to heal was the easy part, despite what happened in the mountains. But the trick is continuing to grow and experience the practices… Where would that lead them to?

For the first time in a while Tinz felt lost. Everything had advanced so quickly and semi-according to plan.

Dolce seemed to take note of the silence. “I say we should go to the city!” he beamed. “Not only is there good gear for sale, quite a variety, but there’s a huge library that could surely benefit your, ehh, thirst for knowledge.” 

Tinz thought for a moment before having that train of thought interrupted by Magnolia. 

“Really good idea actually! I wanna see the sights, what do you think Tinz?” she turned to him. He stretched a bit in his seat.

“I guess that’s fine, but what could be at the library that isn’t online? There’s basically nothing about healing that isn’t bare minimum history books.”

Dolce wagged his finger. “The library is managed by Five Star, the hugest company in the city. It sources its books from ancient civilizations, translates them and whatnot, and reproduces them in an effort to keep history alive!” he seemed to be speaking proudly. Tinz rolled his eyes.

“I mean. I guess we can go there then,” he shrugged. He was a little hopeful as the prospect of possible healing reading material, but refused to show it on his face.

“‘Kay, it’s settled then!” Magnolia cheered. “Let’s go get ready, thank you Rose for the food!” she quickly took the bundle and shuffled out towards Ferry. Plum ran after Magnolia with the chicken, and Dolce strolled out behind them. Tinz was left to his devices as Rose was washing dishes in the sink.

Tinz was both giddy and nervous. How much has the city changed since he lived there? Dolce seemed to be implying that a lot has happened since… well. A good decade or so. Can that much change in a decade?

Slowly, without thinking, he brought out his phone and went to his email. Going through sent messages, he saw the messages he sent years ago to an old friend. Who never responded. Scrolling through them, reading them, missing old times… In an effort to quell his fears, he wrote a new email to that friend.

-To Hex, from Tinz

i started a party and have been going out and about for once instead of being inside lol.
its been fun and hectic, sorry if you see this man its been ages. you can just ignore this if you want but i thought id pop in. okay anyways

Quickly he hit send before second thoughts could pile in. He leaned back in his chair with a huff, face staring at the ceiling.

“TINZ! We’re heading out!” Magnolia yelled from the window where Ferry was stationed.

“Alright, hold up,” he yelled back. 

“Have fun,” Rose said simply. Tinz looked back to her before mumbling a “Yeah,” in response and leaving the house.