The three boys were having a better time than they expected downstairs, though the other people in the inn were pretty scary looking, they didn't bother them, and they were telling anecdotes... though Denki started crying over losing his alpaca. They sympathized, but after a few drinks, their spirits lifted. Deku didn't drink though, one taste was enough to put him off the bitter stuff. Ei didn't really seem affected by it the same way, it just made him hyper. Denki didn't go that hard either... mostly because he was a lightweight. (Note: None of the ages have been specified in this tale either, if anyone wants to start griping about it, just picture them as adults. They are by medieval standards, you were an adult at 14, sometimes younger).

While they were still talking, something very strange happened. Ei was sitting next to a barrel that they thought had mead in it, and he bumped it by accident, and it swayed a little, then quite suddenly, the top flew off with deadly force and hit the far wall, making one man duck, but ignore it other than that. Out of the barrel popped easily the strangest person any of them had seen, which was saying something for this trip. It was a girl, but she was pink from head to toe, had small pointy horns coming out of her head, and black eyes with gold pupils. Her clothes were kind of hard to place, something like leaves, moss, spiderwebs, and regular material all sewn together into a motley outfit not unlike a bard's or a rogue's.

[Character Art by Onerose]

But they hardly had time to take this in before she planted one foot on their table and pointed at all of them accusingly.

 "All right, which one of you scoundrels did it! 'Fess up, before I turn you inside out!" 

Denki looked at his mug. "Uh... what's in this stuff? Does everyone else see that too?" "I see it, but I don't know what it is." Deku said. "Oh, a sprite," Ei said, more amiably. "Hello there, what were you doing in a barrel?" "You mean you don't know?" the pink girl frowned, disappointed. "No, that was like that when we got here, honest," Ei held up a hand. "Oh..." the girl sat down on the table, disappointed further. "That's a real bummer, I was practicing that speech in my head for the past five hours." "You were in there for 5 hours?" Denki cried. "No, more like 10," the sprite replied. "I was on my head for a while, though, so I passed out, I have a killer headache... but oh well, it'll pass. Name's Mina, who are you fine gentlemen?"

 They introduced themselves. "But how did you get in there?" Deku asked. 

Mina shrugged. "One minute I was flying around minding my own business, playing tricks on elves, you know the usual, and the next I was caught by this big ugly hand and shoved into a barrel. Someone was laughing the whole time about watching 'the bug thing' flit around and try to get out. Big bullies! But I was all ready to whip them within an inch of their lives once I got out, I did think you looked a little small though." 

"That's terrible," Ei said indignant; "what kind of man picks on an innocent sprite like that! That just makes me want to punch something!" 

"Tell me about it," Mina gestured widely. "Now how will I get revenge?" 

"Well, you could ask the innkeeper if he knows who left that here." Denki suggested. 

"Hey, that's a great idea!" Mina said. She turned and motioned the innkeeper over. He came, looking at her very weirdly. Mina explained her quandary. "Oh, well, the fellow who brought that in is still here, lady," the innkeeper said. "He's asleep in the corner. Probably doesn't even remember he left it there." He pointed. "But, I ask if you intend to have words to take it outside, I don't need another fight in here, I just cleaned up the blood from the last one." "What?" Deku said. "No problem," Mina rolled up her sleeves. "I can do outside." She sprang with surprising lightness over the table to the lout in question and kicked him. "Hey, wake up jerk!" The drunken man startled and looked up at her in utter confusion. "What in the blue blazes do you want? What are you?" "Maybe you recognize me better like this" Mina shrank into a bug sized pink dot, the man frowned. "The sprite--" Mina grew full size enough to sock him in the jaw. "That was for abducting me!" 

"Whoa," Ei grinned "She's awesome. Come on girl! His chin! His chin!" 

Mina picked up a mug and bashed the guy in the face with it. That made him mad, he got up and took a swing at her, but she was way too fast, laughing with glee she dashed outside. "I think her alignment is chaotic neutral," Denki ducked down under the table. "Her what?" Deku said. "Moral alignment, geez, don't you know anything Deku?" "I gotta see this," Ei raced after her as the big guy lumbered out the door too. "Come back here you little pest!" A couple men he'd been at the table with ran out too, other than that, no one else in the inn seemed to care what was happening. Shoto and Momo came in just then. "Uh... did we miss something?" Shoto said. "Oh nothing much," Denki eyed his mug, "just a sprite kicking some drunk sluggard's rear end while the dragon boy laughed about it." "I'm going to need that in English," Momo said, confused.

Outside, Ei was thoroughly enjoying watching the sprite beat up the lowlife, but then it got a little unfair because his two jerk friends came to help him. And one had a club. "Whoa!" Mina jumped up over the club as he swung it. "Now come on boys, 3 to one is a little unfair." "Should've thought that before you picked a fight, girlie," said one.

Ei decided to intervene. He grabbed one and slammed him into a wall. "Three men like you ganging up one one girl, that just makes me sick," he said. "At least let your idiot friend fight his own battle.'' The other one tried to hit him with the club, but it just glanced off his head, which he turned more scaly, luckily it was too dark to see that. He punched the guy, Mina did an uppercut on the original thug, and he fell back. She rubbed her first. "There! That'll teach you to stuff innocent sprites into a barrel!"

 "That was so cool!" Ei said, stars in his eyes.

 "Oh it was nothing," Mina waved, "you're not half bad yourself though, dragon boy. Thanks for the help." 

"How did you know...?" Ei was taken aback.

"I can sense your magic, duh," Mina said. She pointed to her horns. "Sprite, remember? All us woodland creatures know each other, nice human form though, I can't pull that off myself, I can just change my size. I'm still pink." She tapped her face. "But it works for me. Why don't you just go around as a dragon? Oh, I get it, the doorways, they're too small." 

"Uh... sure, yeah, that's it." Ei said "Are you going to be okay getting home? I mean, it is the Dark Lands." "The Dark Lands?!" Mina cried. "I'm that far from home! Oh crud," she lifted into the air and looked around. "Uh oh.. I can't even see my forest... How far did that blaggard take me? I have a terrible sense of direction too... say, you wouldn't happen to have a map would you?" "Actually, my friend does, if you want to see," Ei offered. "Maybe if it's on our way, we could even escort you there, I feel bad, one woodland creature to another." "Oh, that's really nice of you," Mina landed again. "I wouldn't want you to go to any trouble... unless I really am far away... Then again, the Dark Lands are pretty scary... lots of sprite-eating monsters... hmm. Hold that thought." 

"Ei?" Momo called, "are you okay? Oh! What happened out here?" 

"Nothing much," Ei said. "Momo meet Mina, our new friend." 

Mina waved. "Your hair is so pretty." 

"Uh...thanks.." Momo looked confused. 

"Have you ever thought about dying it green though?" Mina added.

 Momo blinked. "Wait, are you a sprite?" 

"A human who knows what a sprite is!" Mina creed. "Oh, I definitely like you! We're going to be friends now." 

"Who are you?" Shoto looked out. 

"I'm Mina, of the Ashido forest!" Mina said. "Also known as the Enchanted Forest by your more plebeian geographers, so boring, really.... Why is a prince here?" 

"What... how did you know..." Shoto said. 

"Sprites know what kind of magic you have," Ei explained, just as if he hadn't forgotten that fact himself a few minutes prior.

 "Guys," Deku came running out. "The cleric and Ochaco are finished, she says our friends are okay now!"

 "That's great!" Ei said. "How did Bakugo take it?"

 "Oh... he yelled at them for taking so long," Deku said. 

"Sounds like he's back to normal," Ei said in relief, "he really had me worried there for a while."

"Kyoka!" Camie was sitting up and nudging her, Kyoka's head was pounding. "Shut up," she growled. "Kyoka," Camie persisted, "My foot is all swollen, it's so gross, you have to look." "No..." Kyoka said. "Oh well, it's going down thanks to that weird guy with the bandages, Cero--what's-his-name, and my rival! 'Course I don't know how I feel about her saving me, kind of makes it awkward--
"Camie!" Kyoka sat up. "I know you're a princess, but I swear to the sacred cloth, if you don't shut up, I'm going to kill you in your sleep!" Camie blinked. "All right, sheesh, all you had to do was say something," She got up. "Really, you should put all that energy into raising your stats, I got hit way lighter with that venom because I boost my recovery stamina with my magic, you Southern warriors put way too much into attack power... good bye!" she slammed the door, making Kyoka's head pound almost unbearably, but she lay back down "Finally some peace and quiet..."

"Temperamental wench," Camie muttered, turning down the hallway and nearly running into Bakugo headlong. "Yikes!" She jumped, then "Ow." Bakugo jumped too. "The he-- are you sneaking up on me for!?" "My roommate got in a snit so I'm giving her some space." Camie explained, waiving dismissively. "I feel like I missed something important though, my senses are telling me.... Why are you skulking around out here anyway? It's kind of creepy." "I wasn't, I just didn't want to hang around those other losers." Bakugo huffed. "Ah, were you worried about me?" Camie made a smiley face. "That's so cute." "Shut up, I wasn't worried!" Bakugo denied it. "It's okay," Camie held up a hand. "Ochaco already told me you were frantic over it." "That stupid mage? I'll kill her!" Bakugo was as red as a beet. Camie tilted her head. "Oh, I don't know," she put a hand on Bakugo's arm carefully. "Maybe you're just embarrassed huh? Mr. Barbarian-king-explosion-murder-everyone-on-sight can't have a soft spot for anyone, right?" "What are you doing?" Bakugo gave her a weird look. "If you don't know, I'm not doing it right," Camie sighed. "Oh well," she kissed his cheek. "Thanks for the help earlier though." Bakugo froze in place. "Well, that worked better than I thought," Camie muttered. "You finally shut up." "What-what are you trying to pull," Bakugo grabbed her wrist. "After 10 years of being a stubborn witch, you suddenly try something like that! I should kill you." "Hey, I'm a slow burn," Camie said. "Actually, I was just kidding all that time. It's called banter. Geez, you really think I'd keep you around if I was seriously not the least bit intrigued?" "What..." Bakugo gave her a confused look. "Of course it's more fun to mess with you..." Camie added. "So... I don't know, I'm really debating whether to stop doing that or not. It might be more fun to encourage you, but I don't know, I think you're going to have to convince me more of that, or I might just keep rejecting you to get a reaction." "You---" Bakugo sputtered. "What's the matter? Not up to the challenge?" Camie said slyly. Those were the magic words. "You blasted wench! Of course I can handle any stupid challenge you come up with!" Bakugo raged. Got him. Camie thought.

Ei introduced his new friend Mina to everyone after that, and they were not sure what to make of the sprite that got into a bar fight outside, but they were getting used to weird stuff. And they were willing to let her join them. Mina seemed to like them all--she took to Camie right away. So, the next day, they all planned to set out together.

The room was small, and the boys ended up basically just staying in the bar room for the night and letting the girls use it. Mina had it easy, she shrank to tiny size and curled up on a pillow. Still, at least the innkeeper let them. He seemed to feel sorry for the ragtag band of youngsters on their own in the Dark Lands. Deku learned from him that this territory had only been claimed by the blight a few months ago, and that was all the time it took to dry everything up and drive away as many inhabitants as could escape, but the Dark Forces patrolled around, and the monsters made it hard to leave. The town wasn't doing well. The guests at the inn were mostly in league with the Dark Lord, which kept business going, but didn't sit well with its owner. It was nice, he said, to see some normal people come through. By what standard, Deku's party was normal was hard to guess. Deku hoped fervently that finding the holder would make life better for this town also. But really, it hadn't been so bad, for their first experience of a Dark Village. No one had bothered them much, it was more like no one cared anymore.

Shoto felt uneasy about having told Momo as much as he did. He always preferred not to speak of his problems to others. What made it so easy to forget that while talking to her? He didn't get much sleep, thinking about it. And finally, he went out for some air. "Get a grip," he told himself. "This is about finding the 8th, not expecting anyone else to help you. You know what you have to do." His spine tingled suddenly as if someone was watching him, he looked up--something hit him in the head.