Rocks crumbled into powder as Hibiscus shot a ray of magic inwards the mountain, opening a tunnel and unearthing some more random magical items, such as a die that always either landed on 3 or 4 for some reason, or a... what was this thing?

Hibiscus stared at it. It was... L-shaped, of sorts, with a switch at the angle that most likely cast the offensive spell that was also inside of it whenever pressed. Curious. She'd have to study this later. Perhaps this could be a new discovery?

No. There's no way that resolution would be done so easily and quickly, right?

Hibiscus floated some other ideas for resolutions in her head.

Invent a new spell - Too easy. Simply make a ridiculous spell such as 'make target eat rocks but only on tuesdays'

Invent a new kind of magic - Such as what? There are too many kinds, and any attempt may simply end up just rehashing a preexisting kind of magic, or be an already practiced subcategory, such as divination, but involving fish.

Take Duskie on more dates - Would need to be expanded upon. What is 'more' here- 5 more a month? A biweekly schedule?

Hibiscus pocketed the strange object. Maybe Duskie's head-brothers would know what it was- being from another world means that they've seen things she hasn't, even if they weren't exactly sure what kinds of things those things were.

Hibiscus squeezed the orb again.

It made a nice stress ball- most likely due to magic. In fact, Hibiscus would be surprised if it wasn't made up mostly of, if not fully of magic. She'd have to study it later.

Lavender licked her cheek, and she smiled at them.

Hibiscus was taking this time to review the magic items that the two of them (but mostly him) found. The die that always rolled up a one was most likely thought up by someone who thought the wordplay would be funny- a fae, maybe, or a con artist who worded their words perfectly... and didn't let the buyer in question even roll the die before buying it, it seemed. Maybe a trick to see if any buyers would have the sense to test a magical object, first, to see if it does what the seller says it does?

The red die that was currently jingling around in his hand as he rolled it around looked more recent that the other two dice- most likely, it was a homemade object that ended up lost, and perhaps even a reference to a story the former owner loved.

The die that always landed on 3 or 4 was a puzzling one. Maybe once she got to Liffside, she could ask around?

The strange object was a magical weapon, that was for sure. The user could 'load' it by focusing magic into it, and when the switch was pressed, the preexisting magic inside magnified the magic loaded in and shot out a blast at whatever it was aimed at. Hibiscus had tested it with different magic types on the rocks nearby the mountaintops, and, as she set down Lavender, picked it back up, and was just about to fire another blast...

She looked up and saw a certain shade of red in the air, alongside certain shades of brown, yellow, and white.

Duskie was flying above her, yelling something. Hibiscus put down the weapon and signed back. "I cannot hear you, Duskie. Use sign."

"HIBBY!" Duskie signed wildly, his arms more 'waving around the place' that Hibiscus' calm and elegant signing. "I COULD HEAR THAT. HOW DO YOU NOT FLINCH"

"It's just firing a blast of magic. You get used to the sound enough- don't you have training as a spellblade?"

"YEAH BUT SPELLBLADES MOSTLY USE SWORDS" Duskie signs. "EVEN MY BROTHERS FLINCHED WHEN YOU USED THE GUN" Duskie spelled out the word 'Gun' with his hands.

"'Gun'? Is that what this is called?"

Duskie nodded wildly, gasped, and then chucked a shiny pink gemstone half at Hibiscus' head, conking her just like the Christmas present incident.

KNIGHT. ODIO. WHAT DO I DO

"SPLIT IT HALF IDIOT"

"AAAAAAAA" Duskie broke the gemstone over his knee, breaking it clean in half with the exception of a small shard of it flying off into the sunset, making it look like some sort of pink glint shooting star whatever to anyone who was just happening to look at the sky at that moment.

He ate the ugliest half and pocketed the pretty one, before flying off to find that shard, diving into another small patch of grass that looked half-alive if even that.

Duskie started grabbing and eating random patches of grass, hoping that he would find the shard, and making 'find the shard' one of his new new year's resolutions-

"What? No, it doesn't work like that, Duskie. You can't just... do that."

Why not?

"...That's not how it works?"

Have you ever made New Year's Resolutions?

"I-"

NO! So-

The fistful of grass Duskie shoved in his mouth just so happened to have the shard in it, meaning that that new resolution was as complete as quickly as it was made.

"..."

I'm gonna tell Hibby I finished a resolution later.

"... Not without context, you aren't."

Duskie was flying about, looking for rocks or fossils to eat, when suddenly...

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

"Is that a gun?"

What's a gun?

"... Ok, so a gun is this piece of... future(?) technology that the leader of the heroes that stopped Odio from blowing up our old universe had and used and it basically just blasts at you. Think of it like a mage blasting at you, but a weapon."

... What. I need to check this out!

Duskie flew towards the sound, until... "HIBBY!"

Hibby was picking up the gun off of the clifftop that she was standing on, having just set down Lavender, when she looked up, saw Duskie, and put the gun back down again. Calmly and elegantly as he always was, he signed. "I cannot hear you, Duskie. Use sign."

The gemstone half hit Hibby in the head with a loud THONK, bouncing off but luckily not injuring her. She steadied her feet and looked up at Duskie.

"Sorry." He signed, as small and close to himself as he possibly could.

"This is just like the Christmas present incident."

DONT EVEN START!

"This is exactly like the Christmas present incident. You had a gift, you were in the air, you didn't think, you threw it at Straybow."

NO

"It conked her in the head and he somehow ended up fine."

KNIGHT THIS IS DIFFERENT I SWEAR

"It hasn't even been a month!"

Duskie let out a choked noise of embarassment and dove down towards Hibby and Lavender.

"Sorry again." Duskie held back tears. "Uh... can I take Lavender with me because they're a dog and probably would love to gnaw on bones with me?"

"You are forgiven." Hibby smiled, signing one-handedly as she held the gemstone half in her other arm. "And of course."

"YAYAYAYAYAYAY!" Duskie cheered. "ALSO! I FINISHED ONE OF MY RESOLUTIONS!"

"What kind?"

Duskie flew off, Lavender in tow, and by 'in tow' we of course meant in the hole in his poncho where his bandana usually laid, now moved off to the side as to not bother Lavender.

"We're gonna eat so many bones!" Duskie smiled.

"I TOLD YOU SO. I TOLD YOU IT DOESN'T WORK LIKE THAT"

HOW DOES IT WORK LIKE THEN????

"... Ask Straybow to explain to you."

Duskie then spotted a nice big fossil alongside some other bones littered around a cliffside, and dove towards them.

"Do you wanna play fetch?" Duskie asked Lavender, patting their head.

"Duskie. This is land. Lavender doesn't have back legs."

HAVE YOU SEEN THEM???

"...Duskie. THIS IS A CLIFF. WE'RE NOT LETTING OUR KID PLAY ON A CLIFF."

POINT TAKEN SORRY KNIGHT ODIO AND HIBBY WHO I GUESS IS LAVENDER'S OTHER DAD SLASH MOM

Duskie settled for instead picking the bones up and putting them in his pockets, to play with when they went back home. (With the exception of one bone, which Duskie instead handed over to Lavender to chew on while they sat in his poncho.)

ALRIGHT! Duskie thought really loudly and hard. NEW YEARS RESOLUTION NUMBER I FORGOT: EAT THIS BONE

"NO. YOU'RE NOT ALLOWED TO MAKE UP RESOLUTIONS ON THE SPOT."

Ok, then it's just part of my first resolution.

Duskie then opened his jaw wide.

CHOMP!