The Lie-Eating Dragon and the Red Spider's Web (LiEat Quest)

Well, first you should do your introducing! You lean forward with a big smile!

"Hi, I'm Efi! What's your name?"

She stares at you a little more. You sit there smiling, quietly hoping she doesn't just leave you hanging…

"My name's...Hilda."

"Hil-da?"

She nods. Your smile grows wider.

"Nice to meet you, Hilda!" you cheer, grabbing her hand to shake it happily.

Hilda freezes up and looks at you really confused when you do that, though. As soon as you let go of her hand she pulls it in close to herself. Does she not like you…? Maybe she just doesn't like people at all. You've met people like that…

"Um. Sorry?" You apologize unsurely, thinking maybe you made her mad.

She shakes her head.

"...I was just surprised. It's nothing."

Surprised? Holding hands isn't anything that surprising, is it? You wonder about it, but Gill clears his throat to cut you off,

"It's nice you're making friends, but we wanted to speak with-

"I…" Hilda cuts him off before he can say whatever he was gonna say. "We are not friends."

Gasp! What's that supposed to mean?!

"You don't want to be my friend?" You ask her quickly.

"No."

Plop!

"Ah?!" Hilda jumps back when a little lie appears in front of her. "What's this...thing?"

You pick up the lie, and Gill sighs loudly. He starts explaining while you start to eat the lie.

"Well…" he scratches his head, only for a second then puts it back in his pocket though, "See, Efi here is a dragon that eats lies. When you lie to her, this happens."

She stares at the lie in your arms, definitely super surprised. You stop eating for a sec and look at the little monster, listening to its squeaks…"NO! Don'T wAnT tO Be fRieNds! dOn't WaNt FrIenDs!"

"..."

Everyone's quiet, staring at the little lie, and Hilda looks shocked. Hearing its squeaky voice, you suddenly want to ask Hilda…

"Hilda...do you really want to be friends?"

Her cheeks turn red, and she shakes her head.

"I didn't- ahem, I mean..."

"Hehe...I'm glad you're not really that mean. It's been a long time since I made friends with a girl that wasn't an adult!"

"I said- ugh, you're annoying! If all you came here to do was harass me, then just leave!" She raises her voice a little, and turns around to open the door.

"Ah, um, actually we came to talk to Mr. Anton, 'cause-"

"He's not here, so go away!"

And with that nice farewell, she retreats behind the door and slams it shut.

You stand there staring at the door in confusion. What's her deal? If she was lying about not wanting to be friends, then she should actually want to, but…

Ah! Gill plants his fist on your head and grinds his knuckles there!

"Ow ow! Cut it out!"

"Good going, dummy. You scared her off."

He pulls his hand away and you rub your poor head…

"I, I didn't do anything!"

He sighs and scratches his head, and just ignores you.

"It's clearer something's going on after asking around, but we've basically got nothing..."

"Nuh-uh, we didn't get nothing. I got a new friend!"

He shakes his head slowly.

"...Right. Come on, need to go to the room for a bit…"

"Oh...well, okay!"

. . .

Back in the room, Gill's just sitting down with his little journal and eating some kind of crackers. You remember you tried them once and they weren't very good, but Gill seems okay eating them...he kinda eats whatever. He said something like, 'nothing tastes better than free', you think…

Oh, but he didn't give you anything to eat...you're still in trouble from yesterday, you guess. Booo.

Anyways, while he's sitting around being boring, you don't really have anything to do. He'll never play with you, and you can't really go out and play right now…

You wonder if Hilda would play with you? If she wants to be your friend - she does, right? Then maybe…

"I'm heading out again." Gill stands up and puts his journal away in his pocket.


"Huh?" Efi looks over as you suddenly get up.

"Plenty of other places to look for answers, and I don't want to waste any time."

Right. What feathers was saying gave you the feeling the longer you stay here, the less safe it'll be. You've already looked around the hotel, and now you've got the rest of the city to look through. Can't look everywhere, obviously, but you've got a few ideas.

'Course, that leaves...what to do with the runt. When she's with you she can occasionally detect a lie, but you're good enough at that on your own. Though, once in awhile she seems to 'sense' things you'd have missed. Doesn't seem to have anything to do with her lie-eating power...more like a sixth-dragon-sense. Regardless of her usefulness, she'd be safer with you anyways.

On the other hand, she's a hyper-active and nosy little brat, so when you leave her on her own, she'll sometimes find or hear something worthwhile. That, or she'll get herself into trouble, like yesterday. She's never put herself in real danger so far, but...well, that's only been so far.

…

[] The runt comes with you.

[] The runt stays here.

---

You'll be the runt, by the way.

"Come on, Efi."

"Oh, I get to go with you this time?!"

"Just don't go wandering off."

"Got it!"


You smile happily as you follow Gill out of the hotel room. Now you get to look around with him, and you don't have to worry about getting lost or being alone, probably!

First Gill asks where you went yesterday - you tell him as much as you remember, but you still can't really remember where you went after you got that crepe, and you weren't paying attention to where you ran after you got spooked.

Anyways, he starts leading you the way you told him you went. He asks you as you go if everything looks the same, and you tell him that yeah it does. You follow along with him, seeing all the same sights you saw yesterday. Oh! That means you'll get to the crepe stand again! You hope you can get Gill to buy one for you!

...Maybe you shouldn't get your hopes up, though.

Oh, speaking of the crepe stand, there's the crepe stand! You point it out to Gill and tell him that's the same lady that gave you that crepe yesterday. Before you can even ask if he can get you one, he's already going over there!

"Heya! Delicious crepes, only-"

"Sorry, but I just wanted to ask you something, if that's alright?" Gill says plainly as he approaches the stand. Aw, it doesn't sound like he's getting you a crepe...

"Hm? Well, sure, I guess. What do you need?"

"You gave my sister a crepe yesterday, right?"

"Did I?" she looks at you, a little bit confused. "I don't remember it, but I guess I might have."

Gill looks to you, and you look at the lady with your own confused face! She told you to come back, so you'd think she would remember...

"You gave me one and told me to tell my papa about this stand, remember? Uh, I mean, I don't have a papa, but I told my brother, see...?" you try to cover up your little slip - not only does Gill not like it when you call him papa, but he's supposed to be your big brother in this town. Oops. But you didn't slip that bad...

But, the lady! Even when you tell her that to try and remind her, she just gives you a funny look and rubs her head.

"Like I said, I don't really remember that. I do things like that sometimes, but I don't think I did it yesterday..."

Huhhh...? That's so weird. And there's no lies! How come everyone's not remembering stuff?

"...I see. Well, thanks for your time, then," Gill nods with a smile as you move away from the crepe stand.

...

"Weird..." you mumble after you stop at the side of the road.

"Yep. Now do you remember where you went after this, Efi?"

"Uuuh," you think about it, hard. ...No, you don't remember. "Not really...I think that way, maybe?"

Gill sighs, and decides that we'll just go that way, maybe, then.

So the exploring continues!

...

But after a bit, you haven't really gone to any one place, you've just kept following behind him. Gill says he has a place in mind, so you're just tagging along now. You guess if you can't remember where you went, you can't help that much, so you don't have anything to do. All you usually do anyways is man...manfest a lie when people talk to Gill, every once in a while. Sigh...

Huh?

You stop and look to your right, where there's a little road down a smaller path. What was that? You got a weird feeling, just for a second, and now it's gone. You've been getting weird feelings a lot recently...you're really curious what that was!

[] Try to call and see if someone's there!

[] Go see what it was! What's the worst that could happen?

Maybe someone's over there?

"Hello?" you call out, waiting excitedly to see if someone answers. "Is someone there? Hellooooooooooooo-"

A hand grabs your shoulder and spooks you out of your hello-ing. You look up to see it's Gill, squinting at you.

"What are you doing? I told you to stay by me."

"I got a weird feeling, so I thought maybe...uh, maybe someone was over there, or something?"

"...And how did you figure that?"

"...I dunno?"

He sighs and shuts his eyes, but after a sec he looks down at you again.

"Well? Do you still 'feel' anything?"

"Uuuummm...no." You shake your head.

"Then no use worrying about it right now. Let me know if it happens again."

"Uh, okay." You nod.

"Come on, let's go."

Gill grabs your hand and walks off the way he was going before you stopped. So, you keep on walking to wherever Gill wanted to go.

...

You walk all over the place, going and talking to several different people that Gill asks some questions. He mostly asks stuff like what they remember from yesterday, if they've noticed anything strange...at one point you go and talk to some weird lady with really big hair, but she doesn't really say much. You think it's one of Gill's informer people, but she doesn't really know anything to inform Gill of. When he finishes talking to her and you leave, Gill sighs really hard. He said that's the last person he could think to talk to...

The whole time nobody lied to him, so you couldn't really help that much, but that's not surprising. Still, nobody really said anything that helped you...you don't think you learned anything, and Gill agrees. He stands around at the side of the road, rubbing his forehead.

Hmmm. It really sucks you couldn't find Anton...you bet he'd be able to tell you something.

"What do we do now?" You turn and ask Gill.

"I've got one more place I can check. After that..." he trails off, then just shakes his head. "Come on."

You follow after him again. While you're walking, you quietly yawn, feeling weirdly tired. Maybe you've just been walking too much? You rub your eyes and look forward again.

Uh, where'd Gill go?

You look around, but you don't see him. It's not like you got lost in the crowd or anything, there's not that many people around...and you were right on his heels! Where did...?

You jog forward a little and keep looking around, but...you can't see him anywhere.

"Gill! Where'd you go!!" You yell. A couple people look at you, but that's it. Nobody answers. Suddenly, you realize you're alone.

...Um...now what do you do?

...

You just stand around in the spot you were before, looking around nervously. If you don't go too far, then wherever Gill went he should be able to find you...you hope.

...

"Hm? Aren't you..."

Someone behind you sounds like they're talking to you, so you turn around -

Wah! It's a giant cat! You jump back a bit with a little shout, but then you suddenly remember...

"You're...the feather-lady's partner!" ...You don't remember his name though. You think she was saying it before, but you forgot already.

"Yes, and you're...the con-man's lie eating dragon, right? Little Efina, if I remember. You've grown."

"Um...yeah. But I'm not supposed to tell people I'm a dragon."

"I see. I'll not mention it anymore. More importantly, why are you by yourself? Don't tell me he abandoned you."

"N-no!" Definitely not, Gill wouldn't do something like that! "I was with him just a second ago, but then he just disappeared when I wasn't looking..."

"...Hm. How odd."

"That's an...understatemen."

"Do you have any idea- ah. Is that him, over there?"

Huh? You look to where the cat-guy is pointing, and...oh, you see Gill down the road! He's hurrying this way with an irritated look. You move to go meet him. "Gill!" You cheer as you get closer, but instead of a hug, you get a flick to the forehead!

"What is wrong with you, runt? Do I need to handcuff you to me to stop you from going off by yourself?"

"Wha? No! I was right behind you like I was supposed to, but then you were gone! It was really weird!" You whine, holding your hands to your injured forehead.

"..." he stares carefully at you, but eventually just gives up and sighs. "Is it because of this town...? How troublesome."

The cat-guy walks up to you and Gill with a short wave, then looks at Gill.

"So then, there is something going on with this city?"

"So it seems. Levin, right?" he asks to confirm the cat-man's name.

Oh, right! It was Levin! Good thing you didn't try, you kinda thought it was Leroy.

"Yes. I was on my way to meet Miss Rosemary, when I came across this one," he nods to you. Gill shifts his hands into his pockets as the two keep talking.

"Right. Feathers said she'd be leaving with you."

"Mhm. Do you have any idea what, exactly, is wrong with the city? She seemed fairly concerned about it."

"I have a few theories...but nothing I can prove. Looking into it right now."

"Hm. Well, I'm going to go on to meet with Miss Rosemary. Feel free to contact us if you learn anything."

"I'll share anything for a price."

"Hmph."

With that, Levin the cat man walks off, probably back toward the hotel where the feather lady was at. Gill grabs your hand and leans down to look you in the eyes.

"Don't let go of my hand. I don't want to have to keep looking for you."

"Um...right."

And again, you start walking off with Gill. That whole thing was weird, but you're glad you found Gill again without any problems. It would've been bad if you got lost like last night...

Gill doesn't let go of your hand the rest of the way, which you guess is back to the train station you arrived here on. You ask him what you're doing here, and he just says he wanted to check something. But he says that what he was checking for isn't here, so...

"We walked all the way here for nothing...?"

"Seems that way. The dates and train times are normal."

"Huh?"

"I just thought...hm. Well, whatever. Let's head back to the hotel."

. . .

Back at the room, you sit on your bed and munch on a cookie while Gill eats some crackers and writes in his journal. When you got back to the hotel, Gill tried to talk to Hilda again, but the door was shut tight and nobody would answer. Nobody else knew if she was in her room or where else she could be, so in the end Gill decided you should just take a break in the room.

You're kinda glad...your feet were getting tired. You wish he'd let you ride on his shoulders or something once in a while...

"Sigh...we're still at square one." Gill grumbles and rubs his eyes.

"Huh? You didn't figure anything out?" Even if you didn't think of anything, you're a dummy, or so Gill says, so he usually solves the confusing stuff when you're still clueless. But if he still didn't figure stuff out...

"So far there's been no answers, just more and more questions. I've got theories, but that's not good enough with something like this. Without proof..." He scratches his head with a light sigh. "It feels like we took every wrong turn..."

He heaves one more big sigh and puts his journal away. But then he just lays down on his bed, saying he's tired and wants a nap. He warns you not to leave the hotel or do anything dumb and then just rolls over to go to sleep.

...Jeez. That was quick. He's usually not so tired this early...right? You look up at the clock. The big hand means...then...woah, it's actually already six o'clock? Wow, you didn't think it was that late. Time must have really flown while you were out walking around...

Buuuut, still, you aren't tired right now. You kinda wanted to play, but Gill already looks like he's asleep...now what?

[] Look around the hotel for something to do!

[] Look around outside the hotel, but only like, right outside!

[] Try to visit Hilda again!

[] Take a nap.