Leonard to the rescue. Again. "Hans, stop saying such things. You and your imagination. That's what I get for letting you have sugar," he spouted clichés nervously, pulling Hans back by the collar of his shirt. "Remember what I said," Leonard advised his brother in a low voice through gritted teeth.

"Oh... uh... yeah," Hans said, once again as if his hand had been caught in the cookie jar. "Just... just... playing around," he laughed.

"i knew that you wont eat me in all bones" Kyra smiled so what about dinner i said you could pick what do you want" she asked then looked at Leonard he seemed to have a hold on his brother "some people get hyper and even a little bit umm well crazy when they have sugar but most people tend to tone it down i cant imagine what he was like as an actuall child"

"We weren't allowed sugar as children," Leonard said, letting go of his brother. "It was too expensive to import it and the trade roads had been blocked. As a child he was... quite sullen." He looked over at Hans, who was tight-lipped. He hated it when his brother talked about him. He knew that his brother loved him more than anything, but it always felt as though he spoke of him shamefully.

Instead, he pre-occupied himself with deciding what he wanted for dinner. So many choices, so many choices... "I like pork," he declared after much thought.

"okay then pork it is you like pig dont you" Kyra thought about it "does that mean you want ham sadwitches for lunch and wow a life without shugar i cant imagian that it would be to hard i grew up at the Inn so we always had those things around"

"Pork is really tasty," Hans said, restraining his speech. There was more he wanted to say, but with his brother watching over him, he felt that it was best that he did not.

"We grew up without a lot of things," Leonard said vaguely. "Our village was... secluded. We had to make do with what we had most of the time, and sugar was simply not something that was necessary. If we needed something sweet, we tried our best to grow fruit." He looked off in the distance, recalling a memory. "Though, we never really could... and most of what we grew went to the... uh... market."

"oh okay i never heard of a place like that and i hope i never do it sounds very aweful and unplesant" Kyra grimiced at the thought of living in a place like that "so was pig soething that you boys always had or never had" she asked wondering why Hans was so set on pig produts

"It wasn't all bad," Leonard defended... mostly lying. There was a reason why they didn't stay in Postenmile. No, there were several reasons they didn't stay in Postenmile.

"Pigs are surprisingly resilient creatures," Hans said. "Not as resilient as goats, though. But goat meat is stringy and tough. Not tasty-tasty like little pigs."

"Pigs were one of the things that were traded with us when the roads were still open," Leonard continued for him. "Plants didn't grow well in our soil, but the animals didn't seem to mind, at least for a time." There were, of course, other reasons for Hans preferring pork, but neither of them were going to say why. Down that road lay many regrets.

Mikki rolled her eyes coming up behind Hans butting into the conversation "Oh come on, ghosts are like vampires and werewolves, they make good stories but they aren't real" she put her hands behind her head and closed her eyes "there's nothing before life and nothing after it" she turned her head to the side keeping her eyes closed. She had many issues with the idea of ghosts existing people who believed in ghosts or went looking for them always seemed to annoy her.

"Nuh-uh," Hans defended. "There are so such things." This was, of course, a claim without proof. He could no more easily prove that ghosts existed than prove that his left kidney was made of lollipops. After all, up until recently, he hadn't been entirely sure himself that ghosts existed. He'd been all for the idea of reincarnation: another thing that he could not prove. But somehow, the idea of spirits wandering around long after their time on earth had ended struck a chord of romanticism in Hans. Something about the concept was simply endearing.

"okay then so shall we continue our walk" Kyra started walking into the forest "if you listine you can hear birds" Kyra turned back and smiled "and you can see little animals just make sure you dont get bitten by anything"

Mikki sighed "you know they exist but you've never seen any evidence of it?" she looked at him moving her hands to her hips "you really think if there are ghosts, which there aren't, they would really be liking being stuck here? They're the souls of people who have died but can't rest" when she had been younger she had quite liked the idea of ghosts, now though she did not like that at all. She started to walk a little faster than the others she didn't really want to start an argument or upset herself. She closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths before opening them again and smiling looking up at the tops of the trees again "how far away is this spring thing them?" she wanted to change the subject.

"its not that far just a few miled north" Kyra explained as she walked ahead of Mikki "you want to go now or later because i think now would be a good time because it seems like veryone needs to unwind"Kyra stated as she pushed a few bushes out of the way"its right over there look you can see the steam"

Hans, not about to let a nice person walk away angry, immediately matched her pace and followed her. He met up with her and walked backwards so that they could speak face-to-face instead of yelling at each other sideways. "I didn't mean to offend you," he said, trying not to stumble over a rock. "I just think there's more to it than facts and evidence." Immediately sounding much more his age, he added, "We're all adults here, aren't we? What's the harm in a little friendly chat?"

She opened her mouth to say something but instead just sighed and stopped walking "I'm sorry, you didn't offend me I just get a bit too meh. I haven't been a ghost person for so long I get a bit over the top, I guess" she started walking next to Hans " I'm very much a facts and evidence person" Mikki never took anything at face value or believed much of anything without doing her own mini-investigation into it. It often caused problems between her and others.

"I see," he said. "Well, I'm a feelings and intuition kind of person." He looked over his shoulder to make sure he didn't trip over a tree root. "Because facts can only explain so much. And if we don't know what happens after we die, who is to say that we don't hang around for awhile before we go off to be reincarnated as a butterfly, or a cow, or a fish.... or a banana."

"a banana well im not sure about that" Kyra laughed "well i think of myself as a combonation of both facts and fellings because facts can be wrong rememmber people once thought the world was flat and we know thats wrong"

He blinked. "But the world is flat," Hans said. "And there's a monster at each corner: a giant squid, a giant snake, a dragon, and a giant whale. And at the center of the world is a volcano powered by mole-people who have built robots to help them dig tunnels. And one day the robots are going to come to the surface and we'll have to help the mole-people power the underground volcano or they'll cause earthquakes."

"okay...then" Kyra said as she looked away thinking about it then looked at Leonard wondering if he thought that to 'i wonder if they went to school' she thought as she continued to walk hoping over tree roots and stumps

Leonard simply shrugged. He had learned a long time ago to let his brother ramble to his content, as long as he didn't reveal anything about either of them that he would rather remain secret. For all he knew, Hans could be right. The world was a big place, with lots of possibilities. Societies around the world had been pushing that the world was flat, despite modern science. For all they knew, they could only be a dream.

And if he was wrong, well... there was no harm in believing that there was a monster at each earthly corner.

Mikki giggled "what do you have to be like to come back as a banana?" she put her hand behind her back "actually the ancient Greeks often wrote about the world being spherical" she looked at Kyra smiling. She looked at Hans "mole people?" Mikki tried not to laugh at him. Shaking her head she turned to Kyra "we should go to the spring now rather than later, that way it won't get too late."

The gap between Hans and Mikki was enough for Michael to fit between them without either of them touching him unless they made a sudden move towards each other. This boy was starting to interest him, he probably would have said something to him about it if he had been alive as it was he didn't have too much interest in philosophy.

"I dunno," Hans said thoughtfully. "Maybe you have to eat a lot of banana fritters... as divine retribution?" He shrugged, smiling. The concept amused him.

He was at a loss as to what he should do at this supposed hot spring... it made him a little nervous. Or perhaps it was that feeling that someone was watching him... thinking about him.

"okay then we can go to the hot springs then eat lunch" Kyra smiled back at Mikki glad someone knew about proper geagraphy "right over there" she walkd through a dense area the she was in a clearing with a large natural hot springs she tossed her bag on a rock then dug through it and found her bathingsuit

"You all are just plain silly." Ikki laughed at their conversation. "I think we just need to soak all of this off in the spring." She just couldn't wait to get to the spring. Ikki never let herself get caught up in philosophy. Though during life she didn't think ghosts were real. She just doesn't doubt anything anymore. Ikki rummaged through her bag for her swimsuit. "Oh this wiill be wonderful"

Kyra found a dens forest area and chaged into her bathingsuit then slipped into the hot springs "i like this apot she sat on a submerged rock as wiggled her toes

Both Hans and Leonard stood at the edge of the hot spring, unsure what to do. Neither of them knew how to swim, and Leonard was apprehensive about submerging himself in a crater of water heated by volcanic activity. Regardless, Hans stuck his feet in the hot water, anxious to at least do... something.