Roughly ten minutes later, Xiangling finally reached the shore of Cider Lake, south of Mondstadt and north of Springvale. Unlike Annie, she had no convenient teleportation spell, so she'd had to run through the wilderness and the woods, and now her clothes and hair were covered in yellowed grass and leaves.
"Hey!"
"Annie!"
"Why didn't you wait for me?"
With an exasperated shout, a little girl holding a spear parted the branches. Then, with a single leap, she used some kind of nimble, graceful movement to dart out of the woods and onto the open ground by the lake.
"??"
"Huh?"
She immediately spotted another little girl standing beside Annie. The girl had her head bowed, looking so pitiful that she seemed to have just been scolded by Annie and didn't dare argue or fight back.
She looked just a little shorter than Annie. She wore a loose red coat that nearly covered the white skirt beneath it, with a big backpack on her back and a red hat with a black brim on her head. But compared to little Annie, her presence was much weaker. She looked timid, well-behaved, and afraid of trouble.
"Who's this...?"
"Annie!"
"Is she your long-lost little sister?"
Hesitantly stepping closer, Xiangling blinked and stared for a while at the girl, who looked a little curious but also timidly watched her. Then she looked at Annie, who was also wearing a red dress, and suddenly cried out. She put on an exaggerated expression and asked loudly.
"!!"
!(;?o?)o
"Don't make things up!"
o(*｀ー′)o
That was Annie's answer.
First, she looked shocked and surprised. Then, in an instant, her expression turned fierce, as if she wanted to bite someone.
"She..."
"She's not!"
That was the little girl's startled protest.
Her voice sounded just as timid as