Pruned Trees Re-Sprout!! ~ Ragazza Volpe Magica ~

Bright blue eyes sparkled as their owner pulled a wrapped sandwich out of the bag. Yes, it was breakfast time, and Taika was beyond excited, her tail wagging within the seat she sat in. The train rolled through town, but it was not nearly as interesting as the breakfast roll with sausage and egg that the vixen was unwrapping.

CHOMP

A hearty bite into the sandwich earned a squeal of delight from the young woman. "Ish sho waam am tayshy," she spoke with her mouth full.

"That's rude," Rebecca pointed out, but was ignored by her lunar counterpart who was practically in love with her cheap, mass-produced meal.

"Let her have her fun Rebby," Pacifica chuckled before taking a bite out of her own sandwich.

With a roll of her eyes, the fire fox decided to ignore Taika, with her gaze drifting to their shared Maestro. Shouri sipped his iced coffee while doing something on one of the three tuners he possessed. "What's up bossman?" Rebecca inquired, noting his intense rumination over the device.

"Trying to see if there's any special rhythm thing that could have been what Colette wanted to tell us," he mumbled, knowing full well Rebecca could hear him despite the lack of volume in his voice.

"Is it really that big of a deal? She said she'd tell us later," Rebecca pointed out.

"It's bugging me now. She's strong-staved knowledge too, she should know this would bug me." Shouri's eyes narrowed, glaring at the lack of results on his tuner.

"If I had her pinned down right, she's weak emotion, so she'd totally miss that," Pacifica chimed in

Shouri snorted in irritation. "Annoying," he decided.

"You don't actually think that." Pacifica reached across and patted his knee.

The Maestro mumbled something unintelligible under his breath and slid the tuner back onto his waist. "Stupid itchy rhythm," came another complaint.

"You should eat your food. Can't subsist solely on coffee," Pacifica advised; her gaze affixed to the still-closed bag sitting on her Maestro's lap.

"Mmmrph. I can damn well try." Despite his protests, he conceded and opened his own bag of food.

Roughly an hour passed in relative peace, with the train stopping in several small towns that dotted the central Unis-Résonne plains.

The ultimate destination the quartet found themselves was a tiny village north of Lyreann. It was so small they were the only ones who got off at the stop, and nobody boarded the train. Checking the board, Shouri took note of the trains returning to Lyreann.

"Gotta be back here by three, so we have plenty of time to catch the 4 PM train back to Lyreann," he told his Resonators.

Pacifica studied the analog clock that hung proudly on the terminal. "It's ten now, so we got five hours to play in the river. Come on!" She eagerly waved her friends towards the exit.

As soon as they left the train station, they could see the river in question. The buildings around were small, what one might call old-fashioned or even rustic. They stood on an old cobblestone road, but despite the apparent age of the infrastructure it was well maintained, looking as solid as when the bricks were laid all those hundreds of years ago.

Even the trees that dotted the town providing shade were well kept, not a dead limb in sight, and vibrantly green. A couple of Resonators milled about, but outside of that it seemed like a ghost town.

"Quiet place," Rebecca noted, taking in the scenery.

Otter ears and tail perked up as the river was in sight, causing Pacifica to take off like a rocket down the road, not letting anyone or anything get in her way.

"She loves the water," Shouri chuckled.

"E noi adoriamo lei," Taika said with a giggle.

"She can have my share." Rebecca rolled her eyes.

Following their overzealous companion, Shouri, Taika, and Rebecca found themselves at the river in question. There wasn't a soul around except for Pacifica, who was already zooming up and down the stream.

Taika turned to and fro, noting the distinct lack of facilities on the river. "Wh-where do I change?" she asked, pulling their backpack in front of her.

"Dunno," Shouri said, pulling his shirt off.

"SH-Sho??!" Taika yelped.

"Hm?" He unbuttoned his pants.

"Public?!" The fox pointed as if accusing him of a crime

Rebecca's sinful eyes were locked squarely on the now shirtless Maestro of theirs, waiting for the curtains to fall for the climax of the performance.

And fall they did, revealing Shouri had simply worn his green swim trunks underneath his pants. "You didn't wear your swimsuit under your clothes?" he questioned, kicking his pants up to his hand.

"Right, that makes sense I guess." Taika frowned, feeling particularly silly at the moment.

"Just go change in the trees over there," the Maestro advised, motioning to the nearby foliage.

The lunar fox eyed the small cluster of trees. After a moment of weighing her options, she sighed and resigned to her fate, made her way into the trees to change.

Shouri next turned his attention to the fire element of their merry band. She quickly averted her immoral gaze, trying and failing to whistle innocently. "What do you want to do?" the Maestro questioned. "Sorry for bringing you out here," he quickly added. "I didn't think about it until we were already on the train."

"It's fine Sho, don't worry about it." The vixen smirked. She shed her blazer and her yellow dress shirt under that, revealing she had a white t-shirt on.

Shouri raised a brow. "I don't recall getting you that shirt."

The fox returned his confusion with a toothy grin. "You didn't, it's your spare."

Upon further inspection, it was a bit loose on her. "Still didn't answer my question." He noted.

"Right!" And then Rebecca whipped her skirt off, revealing the black bike shorts she wore underneath. "Gonna soak up some rays, work on a bit of a tan," she nodded.

"Gotcha." He was grateful Rebecca had already thought of a solution to her impending boredom. "Here." He handed her tuner off to her. "You can listen to some videos while you sunbathe," he offered.

Rebecca eyed her own tuner for a moment before accepting it. A smile rose on her lips. "Yeah, that's a good idea, thanks Sho."

With that taken care of, Shouri could now address the water, which his otter was patrolling like a shark. Taika joined him a moment later.

"Come on! Come on!" Pacifica excitedly waved for her friends to join her.

"Shall we?" Shouri asked the lunar fox.

"Si!"

Red eyes slowly fluttered open. The sun had moved positions significantly from when their owner last had them open, though the sky remained bereft of even a hint of cloud cover. The splashing of the water informed her that her companions hadn't abandoned her

Rebecca yawned and sat up. "Musta fell asleep." Though dangerous for most, her fire element meant the extra heat only served to bolster her condition rather than harm her, leaving the vixen feeling particularly supercharged at the moment.

Her bright red tuner lay in the grass next to her, still playing some videos she had been listening to before her nap. "What time is it?" Grabbing the tuner, she dismissed the noise and found the clock.