"That... was not what I was expecting" Noah gulped as he took a step back.

Even when faced with a group of armed goblins he didn't feel this way. Yet just facing this strange woman was enough for the hair on his fur to stand still as if a warning for the danger up front.

Noah could feel by instinct that the woman holding Eugene captive was not ordinary by any means.

Seeing how the rest of his colleagues were frozen in place he could surmise that their conclusions were no different from his.

Meanwhile, Angelica got into a defensive stance bearing her sword at the Nero mercenaries. The hallucinogens from the pollen were clouding her mind with extreme visions.

Monsters the size of human beings were surrounding her and Chirpy in a cloud of darkness. And the only things she could see were sharp fangs and fiery eyes in the pale light.

"No. Not this time I won't" She tightened the grip on her sword.

As far as Angelica was concerned she was being attacked by a pack of wild animals.

"I won't let you take my baby!" She exclaimed, narrowing her unsteady eyes at the barely visible animals.

'Baby?'

The Nero mercenaries looked at each other confused. Simultaneously they turned towards the person in question for answers.

But Eugene meekly shook his head in response with a defeated expression.

He was as clueless as they were since the situation in itself was ridiculous to begin with.

A mysterious beautiful woman looking not much older than his own younger sister claimed that he was her 'baby' and was about to slash his friends right in front of him.

"Pfft!" Noah and Oliver started trembling, unable to hold their laughter.

"Stop laughing, you idiots! Can't you see Eugene's in a bit of an existential crisis.... pfft!" The corners of Jade's face began twitching as he too was enthralled.

Raeden was the only one who was thinking of a way to defuse the situation, understanding the seriousness of the... No. Eugene realized belatedly, he too had gone into the dark side.

Raeden turned his face away as his shoulders started trembling. But he soon changed back to his usual serious self.

"Real mature guys" Eugene smirked mockingly.

In the midst of the laughter fest, the Nero mercenaries forgot about the problem at hand.

"I'm gonna tear you apart" Angelica declared as she took a step towards them.

"Hey Mama's boy you better do something" Oliver managed to say a few words between laughs.

The four of them stood at a safe distance from the two in an attempt to not escalate the confusion into a fight.

As he was debating for a way to calm Angelica down, Raeden noticed something interesting on the color of her shirt.

"Look" Raeden pointed towards her.

"Is that?" Jade realized as soon as he saw what Raeden was hinting at. He whispered something into Oliver's ears in an inaudible voice.

"Got it"

And with a thumbs up Oliver disappeared into the trees behind him.

At the same time, Eugene was trying his best to convince the strange woman to not attack his friends.

"Hey! Hey!" He jumped in front of Angelica and put his hands on her shoulders.

"Umm... They are not our enemies. They're my friends"

"Your friends?" Angelica asked, confused.

Her head was starting to throb again.

"Ugh..." Shaking her head, Angelica looked behind him to find that the large monsters have now morphed into smaller animals.

What was happening? Angelica's eyes wavered. Not only was the pain in her head worsening, but she could also feel the world swirl around.

Because for some reason, Chirpy's face was getting overlapped with that of an unfamiliar rabbit.

'Since when did Chirpy have long ears and why is he so thin?'

Even the monsters were looking different from before. They seemed to have tremendously reduced in size.

"A wolf, a cat, and is that a blue puppy?"

Angelica turned back to Eugene with a puzzled face.

Even though there were a million questions that came to her muddled mind. Why are you here? How is everyone at home? Why are you being chased by monsters? Are you hurt?

The words that came out of her mouth were that of a jealous party girl.

"Are you having a party without me, baby?"

"Party?" Eugene paused.

For a second his eyes darted behind Angelica and with a slight nod of his head, he continued to play along.

"Yeah... Sure. A party"

"Why would you have a party with them"

"I... I told you they're my friends"

"But they hurt you... Arghhh" Angelica groaned biting her teeth.

"Are you alrig....."

*thwack*

Just as Eugene was about to enquire about her, Angelica slumped back with her eyes closed into a pair of dark arms.

"She's fine" Raeden said as he moved the hair away from her face.

Raeden had hit her on the back of the neck to make her lose consciousness.

He had sneaked behind Angelica while Eugene kept her distracted and when the moment was right made her unconscious with a blow to the back. This way it would be easier and safer for both her and the people around her.

"So what's wrong with her?" Eugene massaged his throbbing head as he heaved a relieved sigh.

Angelica wasn't the only one with a headache as ever since the beginning of the ordeal he had been battling a migraine as well.

"She's intoxicated by pollens" Oliver came back running with a bag in his hands.

"Look what I found"

Oliver opened the bag and showed its contents to the others.

"It was near the grass field"

Inside the bag was a carefully wrapped up Golden Rosales plant with its structure intact. The petals of the flower shimmered brightly as if it was made of real gold.

"Well, that explains all the crazy talk" Eugene sighed.

"Seems like she was here for the same reason as us. Except didn't run into any goblin trouble" Noah commented.

"So what do we do now?"

The Nero mercenaries turned to their leader who was holding an unconscious woman in his arms.

"Ah..." Raeden dragged.







In her hazy state, Angelica was able to hear a few voices as her eyes blinked open. The faces of unknown people were looking down on her from above.

"She thinks you're her baby, Eugene?"

"You sly rabbit!"

"I'm not her baby, Chief"

A cluster of laughter filled the room. A bubbly female voice, the voice of a stern man, and was that... Chirpy's voice?

'Who are you people? What are you doing to me?' Angelica tried to speak but her voice didn't come out.

No matter how much she tried, she couldn't control her body. Without any control over her limbs, she was lying down like a stringless puppet.

Suddenly a bright light filled her vision before everything cut to black.

"!"

Angelica opened her eyes to find herself under an unfamiliar wooden roof.

In a panicked state, she looked around to find herself on a single bed placed at the center of a closed room. There were bandages and bottles of herbs on the side table, yet not another soul in sight.

All of a sudden, Angelica felt a sting on her head.

"Ssss"

When she touched her head, there was a thick layer of bandage wrapped around the area she had hit from the fall.

Having inhaled a lot of hallucinogenic pollen, Angelica felt the walls closing in on her. That in addition to waking up alone in an unknown place was also triggering a lot of alarm bells inside her head.

'No... this can't be happening again'

The world started spinning again as she started to hyperventilate.

Right then, Angelica noticed a window in the corner of the room. But when she tried to open it, the window was locked.

"Damn it!"

After taking a few steps back she ran towards the window at full speed as she jumped and curled into a ball, using her body as a force to break through the window.

*CLASH*

"What in the world is this?"

When Angelica got to her feet after rolling on the ground on impact, the sight she was greeted with was unlike anything she had ever seen.

Human-sized animals wearing clothes were walking on either side of the street hand-in-hand in a bustling neighborhood.

Bears, lions, tigers, pandas... People were staring at her from a distance as if she was the alien among them.

"I'm in fluff land"