Maybe, Gem was starting to think, this was a bad idea.

She spit a leaf out of her mouth and glared back at the bush she'd just pulled herself out of in this ridiculously dense forest she'd found herself in. There had been a path at first, but then it had started to get sketchy, so she'd strayed off of it, forging her own route. Eventually she knew she'd reach something.

It was midday, the sun warming her scalp and a gentle breeze ruffling her coral pink dress. If she didn't reach somewhere by nightfall, she supposed she'd have to hunker down in the woods, preferably somewhere safe from any wild animals.

She'd adventured all this way to find a new life, not to lose the one she had.

At least the adventure had gone fairly well so far, if a bit unsuccessful. The few towns she'd been to already outside her old kingdom hadn't quite fit her vision for a fresh start. Maybe the next one she came across wouldn't be either, but however it went, she got to travel, which was a win in of itself.

Gem's heart had always longed for exploration, for as long as she could remember. It didn't take her until recently to finally give into that urge, pack up her most important belongings, and leave Dawn. She'd been a princess there, but it had really been more of a symbolic role than a political one, so she'd been more than happy to step down and let someone else fill the space. Now she was on the roads, with a huge backpack stocked with traveling necessities and a handheld suitcase of her favorite outfits and objects to accompany her.

Correction, she had been on the roads. Now she was in the middle of a forest. Gem stared at a tree that looked a little too familiar for her liking, before kicking it with the toe of her boot.

She grumbled in frustration, and pain, because now her foot hurt. "I'm going in circles now, aren't I?" She muttered to herself in irritation. Luckily, though, she remembered the key thing she'd been following this whole time: the sun. Rises in the east, sets in the west, clear, cohesive, constant.

Based on the time, the sun was high in the sky, but slowly heading downwards, getting ready to set. Gem turned in the direction of where the sunset would eventually be, and started walking again. She'd been heading west before, away from her kingdom in the east.

With her eyes on the sky above, she continued on. Maybe she was a little roughed up, a little worse for wear compared to when she had started her journey, but her determination hadn't given out. The scenery was enough to keep up her confidence; it was wonderful to be surrounded by the bright greens and soft chirping of birds. Vibrantly colored flowers dotted the ground at her feet, bees and butterflies played in the air, and smoke rose from the treetops in the distance–

Smoke rose in the distance? Clear, controlled smoke- that from a fireplace. That from a building. From people.

Gem's eyes lit up, and a grin warmed her face. She picked up her pace to a swift jog, paying no mind to the branches that brushed past her and left little scratches on her arms and clothes.

The trees started to thin around her, a telltale sign of a town, and she started laughing in happy victory. Gem held her arms out, hands brushing tall grasses. Her jog turned into a run, hooves kicking up dirt. Her breaths became quick and giddy. Her hair whipped around behind her. A squirrel chittered and leaped out of her way as she ran past.

Gem kept running and running until she broke the treeline, where she came to a complete stop with a huge exhale. "WOOO! Civilization!!!" She cheered, eyes laying upon a collection of houses and buildings, each of them quaint and lively.

She took a few steps forward on the hill she'd found herself on, surveying the village as she caught her breath. She'd been traveling a while, and her exhaustion was making itself known in the shake of her knees and the droop of her arms. This village had appeared at the perfect time.

It was quite small, but she was sure they must have some kind of lodging or a place to stay. A bed for her to rest on, and some food for her to eat. And who knows, maybe this was the place. Her place.

She smiled at the thought.

Her eyes caught something between a couple buildings in the village below. Two figures, small from her viewpoint at the top of a hill. They'd frozen, staring, undoubtedly at her. Gem stared too. People, at last! Her heart beat excitedly, and she raised her hand high, giving a wave. She took a cautious step past the crest of the hill.

The two people started towards her in a hurry, looking curious and confused. They looked to be bickering with each other, and as Gem trotted to about halfway down the hill, she overheard their conversation.

"No, that's not Cleo!" The shorter of the two said. "Look- the antlers, hello? Also they're not green?"

"Okay, Okay," The taller one huffed. "I couldn't tell!"

The two villagers that approached her were curious. One was a lanky, sunburnt vampire, wearing a full suit with a big red and white ascot. He had raven black hair and a fluffy mustache, and was holding a black parasol with white lace along the edges. The other villager was a head or two shorter than the vampire, around the same height as herself. He looked to be some kind of demon, sharp horns at his hairline and a tail whipping around at his feet. He was broad shouldered, had soft yet messy brown hair, and golden eyes.

Gem knew she must look a mess compared to them, but she didn't care. "Hello!" She cheered, waving again.

"Hello there!" The vampire responded with a curious tilt of his head. "Hi!" the demon returned with a shy wave.

"This village is so preeeetty," Gem complimented, taking a few more steps to reach the bottom of the hill to stand in front of the two. Now standing at their level, she could tell she was just ever so slightly shorter than the demon, not taking her antlers into account, while the vampire could've been easily twice her height.

"Thank you," The vampire hummed. He might've been blushing, but it was hard to tell past the sunburn. "This is Hermit Village! Welcome!" He spread his arms wide, gesturing to the buildings behind them.

"Hermit Village..." Gem tested out the name. Cute.

"I'm Impulse, and this is Mumbo," the demon introduced after a pause. "Who- what's your name?" He held out his clawed hand for her to shake. She shook it, it was warm, if a bit calloused and scraped up.

"Gemini, but you can just call me Gem." She smiled.

"Nice to meet you, Gem," The demon, Impulse, smiled back, yellow eyes squinting.

It was starting to become clear how tired she was from her adventure. Her legs felt like they might not be able to handle much more without a break. Gem let out a long sigh. "I'm tireddd... I'm gonna sit for a second." With that, she folded her legs under her and plopped into the cool grass below. She dropped her suitcase thing next to her, and leaned against her backpack.

Mumbo let out a gasp of realization as she sat, turning to Impulse. "We should get Xisuma, I- you stay, I'll get 'im?"

"Who's Xisuma?" Gem asked from the ground before Impulse could answer his friend.

"Oh, he's like the mayor, sort of. He likes to know about these kinds of things," Mumbo explained quickly, waving a hand around. "I can go get him?"

"Yeah, yeah," Impulse agreed. "I'll wait here, you go find him." He gave Mumbo a thumbs up. The vampire nodded, muttering "Be right back!" before turning and hurrying off. Before he left earshot, Gem could've sworn she heard him whisper-shout, "New hermit!"

"So," Impulse lowered himself to sit across from her, his gaze curious. "You're a traveler?" he asked.

"Yep," Gem confirmed. "I've always loved travel, that thrill you get from adventure is just incredible. I left my kingdom recently because I just had to get into exploring. The world is beauuuutiful when you see it from this kind of perspective." she gushed. "But, um, do you guys have someplace I could stay?" she added, almost as an afterthought.

Impulse nodded. "Xisuma's got this big old lodge, it's super nice, and cozy too. You'll like it." The demon fidgeted with the tip of his tail as he spoke. There was something ever so slightly off about him in the way he talked and in the way he held himself. He was nervous, Gem noted, but not noticeably so. It was hidden in the way he folded his unkempt and uncared for wings tightly against his back. It was hidden in the way he couldn't stop his hands from moving.

Gem didn't say anything about it, instead making her tone a little softer than before, as if her excited one would spook him. "I'm sure I will."

After a moment, the demon frowned, looking her up and down. "We should probably get you to Stress too- she runs our infirmary- you uh- you're all scraped up." Impulse pointed to her arm. "Not- not like you're gonna die, just for some bandaids you know," he seemed to clarify, looking simultaneously worried and embarrassed by his own words.

Holding out her arms and glancing down at them, Gem hummed an answer. "Yeah, maybe. Trees do that, haha- oh look, that one's bleeding." Nonchalantly, Gem brushed over a spot of blood that had pricked up from one scrape above her elbow. It didn't do much more than wipe the bead of red across her skin a little.

She was used to blood, after all, battle was one of her favorite things after adventure. She sparred with her old friends all the time, so of course she was more than used to injury. As it turns out, the guy in front of her didn't seem to be. Impulse's eyes widened, his eyebrows knitting together while his pupils dilated like a cat's.

...Those eyes, for a brief second they were almost entirely black, with only a tiny slit of yellow left. For a second they were hungry. If Gem flinched back from him, it was subconscious and instinctual. But Impulse blinked a few times, pupils shrinking back a little.

"Oh, oh that's not good!" He fretted, hands hovering over her arms, leaving behind the ghost of a touch. His voice was a pitch higher than before, and his words were hurried. "Trees are mean, we should, uh, clean that up, hold on–"

"It's fine, I got it," Gem interrupted, holding back a laugh. It would be rude to laugh at him when he was staring at the blood like it would kill him if he touched it. But his scared voice did sound pretty funny. Gem pulled down the sleeve of her dress and used it to wipe away the blood, making it look as if it had never been there at all. "There," she murmured.

The demon visibly relaxed once the blood wasn't there. Gem wondered if maybe he had a fear of the stuff, which would be a reasonable explanation. Though she also wondered why he, being a demon, would have that fear- from what she'd heard, the creatures were supposed to be pretty ruthless and bloodthirsty. How funny.

"Oh, good," Impulse hummed happily, eyes lingering on her arms for a moment or two more. "...Gosh, you're probably tired and hungry too- but don't worry! Uhm- there's a bunch of good places, like Bdubs and Keralis' shop, or Scar's bakery..." he said after he looked up. He named the places fondly, and though Gem didn't know the slightest about them, she knew she would love to check them out.

"Honestly, I think I'd like to take a good nap first," She admitted, giggling. Food did sound lovely, but she wasn't all that hungry at the moment. Impulse giggled back, with a murmured "Of course, of course."

As the demon laughed, Gem noticed that his fluffy hair... moved? Strangely? No, surely his hair wouldn't move for no reason. He settled back into a still position and Gem peeped a few more glances at his curls– They were moving, rustling around like tall grasses in a breeze. But Impulse's hair was not grass. And there wasn't a breeze.

Gem and Impulse began some sort of staring contest. Gem wasn't sure if it would be rude to say something about it, while Impulse was probably confused as to why she was looking at him like that. That was, until both were knocked out of their stupor by a creature of some kind literally emerging from Impulse's hair.

Instinctively, Gem flinched and jumped backwards, eyes locked onto the demon's hairline. In response, Impulse merely appeared confused, before snapping back to reality, cupping his hands above his head, and picking the creature up and out of his hair like it was nothing.

"Ah, I see Fuzzy's trying to say hello," he remarked calmly, holding out his hands with the hair creature inside. Gem cautiously leaned in towards it. Upon closer inspection, the hair creature was a small insect, a moth to be precise. It- Fuzzy apparently, had stout wings and round antennae with a body that looked too big for the rest of it. Its eyes were strange to look into, so Gem chose to ignore that feature of it entirely.

"I'm sorry if she scared you, she's nice, promise." Impulse let the moth crawl across his hand, smiling at it. In that moment, Gem had two conflicting thoughts:

Oh my god, I found a crazy-person-village. This man has an insect living on him, or at the very least with him- as a pet. That is unnatural, I should probably run. He is weird and I do not like this. He's also a demon, which should've been a red flag, but if that wasn't, this definitely is. Why is he talking to it that way, is he mentally ill? This probs isn't safe.

And, Holy shit, this guy has a moth for a pet, that's fucking adorable. Give me one.

Gem, being an optimist, an animal lover, and probably 'mentally ill' herself, decided to go with her second opinion. (If this town did turn out to be full of crazy people she could still decide to leave later anyways.)

"Aww," She cooed, "She's so little! I didn't know you could keep moths as pets! That's amazing!"

Impulse turned his hand over a couple times with a chuckle in his throat. "I didn't either! That is, until this little one stuck around."

"Can I hold her?" Gem asked impulsively. She was surprised when Impulse gave her a delighted nod, and offered the moth towards her. Gem stuck her hand out excitedly, her fingers brushing Impulse's palm. Fuzzy observed her hand for a moment or two before giving into curiosity and clambering on.

Gem had just begun bringing the moth up to eye level to study when a new voice, neither Impulse's nor Mumbo's, made itself known in the clearing.

"I heard we have a traveler on our hands! Welcome!"

After flicking her head around towards the sound, Gem took in the new person in front of her. He was tall and lanky, yet weighed down by weathered green armour plates decorating most of his body. A large helmet hid his whole head from view, except for his eyes, peeking out through a dark tinted visor. If the rest of the man seemed intimidating, his eyes looked quite the opposite. Beside him stood Mumbo, and behind him hovered a few more unidentified faces.

"You must be Xisuma," Gem presumed. She pulled herself back to her feet, still gently cupping Fuzzy the moth in her palm. Impulse stood up as well, greeting the newcomers with a wave while Fuzzy fluttered up and out of Gem's hands, settling onto his head again.

"The one and only." The armored man dipped into a small, quick bow. He approached and offered a hand to the deer hybrid.

She shook it, introducing herself. "Geminitay, or just Gem is fine."

Some of the other villagers peeking out from behind Xisuma tested out her name, giving little hums of approval. Gem noted the appearances of three of them- a rather excited looking wolf hybrid with a wagging tail, a kind looking woman with a short bob and butterfly wings, and a tall blonde human, her hair pulled into a tight ponytail.

"Well," Xisuma continued, ignoring the light chattering of the people behind him, "I'm the mayor of this place- Hermit Village, as I'm sure you've been told. We're a small, hybrid safe community, pretty isolated too- surrounded by woods on all sides. The Hermits– that's what we call ourselves –we all get pretty interested when there's someone new, especially when they make an entrance like you did. How did you even find this place without the path up front?" He laughed a little under his breath.

"I don't need a road, I forge my own path!" Gem boasted, puffing up her chest. "I saw chimney smoke though," she explained after letting out a short laugh with the others.

"That's clever!" The wolf hybrid exclaimed. His voice was smooth and seemed chill compared to the wild energy that his movements were giving off. Gem sent a grin his way, nodding with pride.

The two girls next to the wolf giggled at her actions, while Xisuma flashed them all a fond glance before turning his attention back to Gem. "Okay, I know we're all pretty excited, but I'd like to give Gem here the good old walk-and-talk, and show her to the lodge so she can put her stuff down and take a break. I imagine you've been doing a lot of travelling to get here." He said the last bit specifically to her.

"Yeah," Gem sighed out in agreement. She was pretty tired. "I think I might need a quick nap too, honestly." she remarked with a giggle.

Xisuma nodded in understanding, briefly addressing his hermits once more. "I'll let you all know when she's ready to have fun!"

With that, the people gathered began to disperse away, chatting and laughing amongst themselves, an air of excitement in the crowd. Xisuma non-verbally indicated a direction for them to walk, and Gem grabbed her backpack from the ground where she'd left it earlier. Before following the mayor, Gem watched as Impulse and Mumbo together walked over to talk with the butterfly woman she'd seen. She couldn't hear their words, but Mumbo seemed to be showing the woman his hands with an embarrassed flush creeping across his face.

Intriguing. But not her main concern right now, it wasn't her business. Gem turned to follow Xisuma, mind delving back into the excitement that this village was starting to bring her. The buildings were pretty, the people were kind, and not to mention they were hybrid friendly too. The more Gem thought about it, the more it felt like it could be her place. The new start she wanted.

"So," Xisuma started once the other hermits were far enough behind them. "I just want to ask a few questions, this isn't an interrogation or anything. And you can ask whatever you want after, of course." He gave her an expectant look, eyes friendly.

"Makes sense, go ahead!" Gem smiled. It was perfectly reasonable that the mayor would want to do a background check, he wouldn't want someone that would pose a threat to any of his hermits staying in his village, after all.

"First up, where're you from?" The armoured man asked in a relaxed, almost chummy way, clearing trying to seem unthreatening and amicable.

An easy question. "Ah, Dawn! It's a kingdom on the east coast," she explained simply.

"Hmm, that's far," Xisuma seemed thoughtful, and impressed by the distance she'd travelled. "Are you headed anywhere in particular? Or just a wandering traveller?"

"Oh," Gem paused, taking a moment to let her answer brew up. "I guess that's a no, I'm not headed anywhere. I left Dawn to adventure, it's kinda what I've always wanted to do, and I finally got the chance to. But also... I'm sorta on a little bit of a personal quest. I want to find a place to have a fresh start from. Like, so I could still adventure, but have a home to return to, you know? I've been to a couple towns already, none of them were really to my taste, I guess." She waved her hand in a so-so motion at her last sentence.

Xisuma gave an intrigued humm. "A home, huh? Well, you're free to stay here as long as you'd like, whether it turns out to be a home to you or not."

Gem realized that she could probably picture this place being her home, just in seeing all of the gorgeous scenery during their walk. The two hermits she'd already met were friendly enough, and if the others were anything like them, she was sure she'd enjoy their company. She could definitely give this place a try.

"Those were my only questions for now," Xisuma added when she didn't speak up. "If you've got any, go ahead and shoot."

With a nod, Gem thought for a moment or two longer, before realizing something she was very much curious about. "I've just got one— what's with the helmet?" She said, straightforward.

"Oh!" The mayor laughed a little, seemingly familiar with the question. People probably asked him it a lot. "It's mostly for aesthetic, honestly. But, I do have some breathing issues, and it looks a lot cooler than wearing a weird mouthpiece or medical equipment around." he explained.

"Huh, cool," Gem noted, tipping her head to the side for a moment in interest. It was a pretty neat looking helmet, and she would've never guessed it was basically just a fancy inhaler.

For a while, the two of them continued to walk and talk on their way to the lodge, mostly asking each other things. Each question seemed to make Gem a little more tired than before, so she was really looking forward to that nap. Yet, at the same time, she was buzzing with excitement for all of the things this new village had to offer. It already sounded about ten times better than the last couple of towns she'd visited on her adventure.

Eventually, after what seemed like too long, they reached Xisuma's lodge, a tall, thick looking building, made of warm woods and soft detailing. (Later, when Gem knew the village better, she would realize Xisuma had taken a longer route than needed in order to talk for longer. Rude of him)

Gem tiredly swung her stuff down by the door when they entered. Briefly, she noticed Impulse already in the lodge, doing something in the open kitchen, but Xisuma was quick to usher her upstairs into a free room.

"Thank you, Xisuma, you're too kind," she muttered, and when the mayor left the room, she flopped back onto the bed, letting her exhaustion lull her to sleep.

Her last thought before she fell asleep was how much she couldn't wait to explore the rest of this little village and meet all of the people there.

. . .

When she woke late in the afternoon, she found that the other hermits all shared her enthusiasm.

And, as Gem met more and more of the hermits throughout the rest of the day, she decided that no, they were definitely not crazy people. Just exciting, eccentric, and unique people, each one of them.

She also decided that they were wild enough that she would fit right in.

~ end chapter twenty seven ~
[CHAPTER ART ON THE WAY, PLEASE STAND BY]

A/N: I'll do the art soon I swear. Also, what do you mean I lied when I said see you next week in the last chapter? It's not been two, has it?! Honestly though, my posting schedule is really just becoming more of a suggestion than a guideline at this point lol.

But yay!!! Gem is here!!! See you again soon, hopefully a week-ish, we'll see! :)