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"Muimumui!" (East Greenhill Road) After Greenhill, we headed east towards Muse. It was Pico's homeland and not a place he looked forward to returning to. His parents were not as supportive of his career in music as they could have been. I'd never been there before and was eager to see what the city was like. I hoped that Pico's parents had adjusted to the idea of a musician son enough that he wouldn't be uncomfortable the entire time we were there. Alberto, of course, seemed to have visited every part of Jowston and surrounding countries. The East Greenhill Road was beautiful, a dirt and pebble road bordered by grassy plains and wildflowers. The sparse trees became more common as we neared the border. But as we walked, something happened to disturb the peaceful beauty. Half a dozen plant-like creatures fell from one of the trees right in front of us. They were tiny, only a little larger than the size of a clump of leaves, but they had sharp thorns and fierce expressions. I stumbled backwards in surprise and ended up on the ground. Monsters! "Annallee! Stay back!" Pico shouted and moved between the monsters and me. "What do you think you're doing?" I asked panickly, "You don't know any more about fighting than me!" He wasn't listening. He was going to get himself killed! I felt like my throat was closing up from fear and simply breathing became difficult. Alberto had gotten out our sharpest cooking knife and was trying to use it as a weapon. He probably could, too, being from Rockaxe, but we were still outnumbered two to one. I couldn't make myself move to help. They would die and I wasn't able to do anything to save them. And then they'd come after me. Just like - *bong!* A brown and red blur fell from the sky, hitting one of the plant creatures. A second later it landed next to Pico. The surprise of seeing it shook me out of my panic just enough. It was a large, flying squirrel wearing a bright purple cape. No, a chipmunk; the tail was too short to be a squirrel. And it wasn't really large, except compared to the chipmunks I usually see, just around one and a half feet tall. He jumped without warning and landed on another of the monsters. Even though in a minute he had taken out two of the plant men, there were still four, though two injured, to contend with. Pico and Alberto could be hurt badly in the time it took to get rid of the rest. I grabbed for a rock that was sitting in the road and threw it at one of the grass men no one else was attacking, afraid I might hit one of my own allies by accident. It was a lucky shot and I succeeded in hitting it. The plant man wasn't out of action yet, but it seemed to be dazed. I didn't let that stop me from helping get the rest, and I scrambled for another rock. With the better odds, we defeated the plant men shortly. Alberto tried to clean the green goo off of the cooking knife, but in the end decided that maybe buying a new one in Muse would be more agreeable. I have no arguments with that decision; green goo is not nearly the most appetizing thing to see on a cooking utensil, believe me. Pico, though, hadn't faired as well. He hadn't been carrying anything that even resembled a weapon and had attacked the monsters with his bare fists. The prickly leaves were as sharp as they looked. I got out a few pieces of scrap cloth, the kind we keep around to bind wounds with, and began to wrap the injured hands. "Why'd you do a foolish thing like that," I gently chided him. He turned pinkish but didn't answer. "Is that too tight?" I asked as I tied the cloth. "Fine," he mumbled. I guess the battle had shocked him just as much as me, but he had the foresight not to act on it until after the battle. "What in the world was that - ?" He stopped when the chipmunk was still there, peering at him with a concerned expression. "Mui?" I think it was part hysteria and mostly that a larger than average chipmunk was asking him a question (though what it meant, I'm still not sure), but Pico burst out laughing. The chipmunk looked upset. I jabbed Pico in the side. He coughed at the impact and choked out, "sorry." The chipmunk seemed happier with the lame apology. "Mumui mui." Alberto was the one to reply to the sentence I don't think any of us understood. "Thank you for helping us. I'm Alberto. The lady is Annallee and the rude one is Pico." The chipmunk bowed and replied, "Mui Muimumui." We assumed that was it's name. "Pleased to meet you, Muimumui," I smiled and shook it's paw. That name was certainly a mouthfull. Pico didn't look sure of what to think of an intelligent chipmunk, so he mumbled some nothing and turned to Alberto, "We should probably keep going. Those things might have friends that'll come looking for them." "Holies," Alberto filled in the name of the creatures. "Whatever," Pico said. Some impish part of me decided to mess with Pico a bit more. I turned to the chipmunk, "We're headed to Muse. You're welcome to travel with us if you want." Pico blanched. Muimumui, however, chittered something that sounded very happy and climbed up my back and stood on my pack. It really wasn't too heavy to carry, so I let it stay their. Besides, it's sooo adorable!
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