Chapter 32: Varhi

“Do you think we’re far enough in yet…?” Sairek asked both of his companions as they continued to move up the mountain trail.

“Why are you so insistent on changing out as soon as possible?” Nayleen questioned him. “It will be harder to climb this with those heavy clothes of yours.”

“It can’t be that much further more, we’ve been doing this for nearly two or three hours now.” Sairek argued. “Besides, if there is danger out here then I rather have normal equipment on. I’m basically unarmed like this. Also I could finally ditch this blasted pack. It’s doing a number on my back—”

“Okay, okay… I get the picture. Go and change over there or something, I guess.” Nayleen motioned her hand in a shooing gesture at him and towards a rocky outcrop that was to his right. “Make sure you don’t accidentally trip and slide down or something.”

“Come on, I’m not that hopeless.” Sairek frowned. He moved himself where Nayleen had gestured and began to strip himself down out of his disguised clothes. He stashed the clothes and the pack where he changed and stepped back out of his cover into his regular attire, staff included. “Feels good to be back to normal… and you can stop calling me ‘Sam’ finally.” He added, glaring at Nayleen.

“Guys? I think we’re actually at the spot.” Cyial called out to them, having moved on a little bit ahead.

Sairek and Nayleen were about to quibble at each other as was their usual habit, Cyial’s voice however had disarmed both of them and they quickened their pace to catch up to him. The three of them were greeted with a vast view of a large forest that looked like it was surrounded by a ring of mountains; a couple of streams which ran through them and a few large rocky spires and outcrops dotted the green landscape.

“Wow, it’s beautiful.” Sairek gasped and he looked around more and eventually looked down. “That’s a steep drop though. It looks like somebody had already put a rope down?”

Nayleen knelt down to examine the rope, pulling it back up. “It doesn’t seem to extend down all the way. If we want back up, we’re going to have to use our own. And the ladder here seems to be out of commission Sairek, could you?”

“I got it.” He nodded, then paused. “How much?”

“Each one is twenty feet…" Nayleen began, looking back down, judging the distance. "...so two of them tied together should do the trick. We’ll tie it to the same tree as this one. If it worked for someone else it should work for us.” Nayleen said. "Looks like this rope has been here for a while though. Looks a bit weathered. I don't trust using it."

Cyial knelt down to appraise the rope with Nayleen. "Maybe that's Varhi's? If he's been out here for nearly two weeks, that rope's been through a bit of weather for sure."

"Maybe."

Sairek did just as Nayleen suggested, holding the jewel with his left hand and closing his eyes. Two separate bundles of rope formed in front of him as well as a flask of bottled ethereal. Sairek soon winced and stumbled as the pearly white of the Ceareste jewel began to change color, dimming down slightly to a bright yellow. “I knew that was going to happen soon…” He muttered. "Especially with not wearing the clothes for the past few hours."

“Are you alright?” Nayleen asked him, picking up the flask for him.

“Once I get some of that I will be.” He said, taking the flask into his hands as Nayleen handed it over to him. “Maybe we over packed after all… this thing is heavy and taking its toll on me… Perhaps we should have left some excess gear back where the ship was.”

“Too late now.” Cyial shrugged. “If we went back down now, it’d be night by the time we got back here a second time even if we hurried.”

Sairek tucked his staff under his arm, gripping the jewel out with his left hand and gently poured the flask as lightly as he could over the jewel with his right hand. He used about a quarter of it. Even though it looked like droplets would spill onto his shirt or over onto his clothes in general, the ethereal seemed to just drizzle unnaturally onto the gem as it absorbed whatever was poured onto it like the jewel was the liquid’s center of gravity. Before long, it was back to it’s usual pearly white again and Sairek sighed in visible relief and put the cork back on the flask again and had it vanish from his hand.

While he had been doing that, Nayleen had moved back to the tree and tied the two ropes together and in the meantime, Cyial had also moved to the tree and took one end of the two ropes to tie one to the tree. They tested it to make sure the knots were sturdy and everything was tied together properly before Nayleen tossed the rope over the cliff and watched as it dipped down.

"Since we're here, we should get changed back out of our disguises too, Cyial." Nayleen suggested.

"Oh, alright..."

Sairek glanced as Nayleen dipped away to hide herself to get changed. Cyial sort of dipped; Sairek could still see him. He blushed slightly, and Cyial gave Sairek a reassuring grin. It was a slight but welcome distraction from his nerves. Both Cyial and Nayleen were back with him, dressed in their usual clothes in only a couple of minutes. Sairek stored the clothes back in his gem, just in case, but the packs were otherwise discarded.

“I’ll go first, then Cyial, then Sairek?” Nayleen suggested.

“Alright.” Sairek acknowledged with a nod. “Be careful.”

Nayleen gripped the rope and both Sairek and Cyial looked down as she gently slid herself down it and the face of the cliff. She didn’t take long to reach the bottom. She looked down at her feet then stepped around a little curiously, but then looked back up at them and gave them a thumbs up.

“I guess it’s my turn, then…” Cyial said under his breath. He gripped the rope and slid down just like Nayleen had, though at a little bit of a faster pace. He was lighter, smaller and since Nayleen tested the rope first, he knew it would hold. He took it slower still, but landed on the pile of rocks and fallen tree debris down below with no problems.

“Catch, please!” Sairek yelled down to them, holding his staff sideways and then letting it drop down from his hand with a little bit of a push so it didn’t bonk down against any of the outstretched rocks from the cliff face on the way down. It was Cyial who held out his hands and despite the distance, managed to catch the staff in both of his hands.

“And now, my turn…” Sairek sighed to himself, crawling over to grip the rope tightly in both of his hands. He was concerned about his weight, at least concerning his clothes and the jewel. “No, stop thinking grim stuff like that. Just do it… It’ll be fine.” He scolded himself. "It's a... survivable drop. Yeah..." He gulped.
He crawled his feet off the ledge and began to slide down, though he did it much more slowly than the others at first, but picking up speed by the time he passed the knot Nayleen had tied.

He landed on the rubble like the other two and sighed in relief...

...A relief that was short lived as he felt the ground tremor underneath them and started to give way.

“MOVE!” Nayleen yelled, grabbing both Sairek's right hand and Cyial’s left hand which was free from Sairek's staff, yanking them forwards and she herself gave a few frantic backpedalling steps, soon diving backwards over a fallen tree trunk as she tripped over it, causing both boys to yelp as they were yanked over by her momentum.
The sound of earth and stone caving in from where they had just been standing previously rang in Sairek’s ears as they landed on the dirt path past the fallen tree which soon began to move, falling in with the rest of the caving down rubble. The trio scrambled backwards further as the log Nayleen tripped over soon joined in on the apparently emerging sinkhole, but thankfully it didn't expand larger than that and the shuddering of the earth soon stopped as everything gradually came to a settle
The trio slowly pushed themselves up and looked behind them, inspecting the damage as the dust cleared.


“...What... What in the Flaming Lands just happened!?” Sairek demanded. The pile of rubble they had used to land on was gone, and now an additional twenty-five or so of ditch along with an equally as wide gap now stood between them and their rope, along with a couple of fallen trees that had been bent and collapsed onto the cliff face, pushing a couple of other trees over, including the one they had used for their rope. While the tree still technically 'stood', Sairek wasn't sure the rope would be able to even support their weight anymore even if they could somehow reach it as putting weight on the rope may cause the tipped over and uprooted tree to roll or be pulled down on top of them from where it lay.

“There must have been a cave underneath or something. All of those rocks that fell over on top of it, possibly for years, plus all of our weight combined standing on it, especially Sairek when he plopped down... All of that must have been enough to cause it to collapse.” Nayleen answered.

“Wonderful… So now we’re stuck here...!” Sairek groaned.

“Can’t you use magic to bridge the gap?” Nayleen asked.

“If I wasn’t shit at it." Sairek swore bitterly. "It wouldn’t hold our weight. Those boulders I launch may look big and pack a punch but they’re brittle, and shaping the earth to the point of making a bridge is out of the question. Making a single spike out of rock is about the best I can do... Not exactly the best thing to stand on."

“Damn… Well, so much for plan A.” Nayleen mused.

“Plan A? ...What was plan B then, exactly…?” Cyial asked dryly.

“Push on through and find another exit, I guess.” Nayleen shrugged.

“...We should have tied three ropes.” Sairek sighed.

“Well obviously in hindsight, though even if we did, I don't think we'd want to use that tree anymore anyway” Nayleen rolled her eyes in response. “How should we have known the rocks would collapse? Don’t blame yourself. Come on, we better get moving before it becomes night. We definitely don’t want to still be here by then.”

She pushed herself up to stand and pulled the two boys to their feet. She gave them both two pats on their backs and turned around, leading the way. Sairek and Cyial followed after her after a quick glance at each other, and Cyial handed Sairek his staff back. They stayed about fifteen feet back in distance from Nayleen as she had ordered them during their climb up, with Sairek on the right and Cyial on the left. Cyial reached into his robe and pulled out his book, hugging it to himself tightly.

“Are you scared…?” Sairek asked him in a whisper so Nayleen couldn’t listen in.

“A bit… Especially with no way back up.” Cyial admitted with a slow nod and his tail slowly curling around his waist as if hugging himself “...but I’ll be okay. I hope I will be, anyway.”

Nayleen led them forwards, following the path and drawing out both of her daggers into her hands as she did so. All three of them were now ready in case something jumped out at them.

“It... It kind of reminds me of the first time…” Cyial mumbled under his breath.

“First time of what?” Sairek whispered back.

“When I began making runs to that cave… the one I met you two in. I was always afraid the first few times, but it turns out the monsters just ignored me… so I guess that’s kind of why I’m not as scared as I probably should be… I think a part of me believes that any monsters will just ignore me.”

Sairek moved his left hand to grab Cyial’s right hand from gripping his book tightly. He gently pulled it away to cup it into his own hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze.

“Thank you, Sairek...” Cyial smiled. “If you’re not careful though, Nayleen might see…”

“I don’t think she’s the type to care, Cyial.”

“She would tease us both about it, though. We’d never heard the end of it.” He said in a hushed tone, cracking a slightly wider smile.

“...This is true… but she teases me all the time already as it is. So it makes no difference to me. Maybe if she targeted you for once, I’d get a breather.” He teased back.

Sairek cracked a smile of his own as Cyial looked at him with a mock expression of hurt. “Hey now, you both better keep me out of whatever trouble you two cook up together… If it weren’t for me, I would say you two were a match.” Cyial teased back, letting go of Sairek’s hand.

“W-What–?” Sairek exclaimed, blushing.

“What? What is it?!” Nayleen demanded, turning around quickly towards them.

“Ah—Err, n-nothing. Sorry.” Sairek stammered awkwardly.

“Sheesh, don’t make me jump like that…!” Nayleen pouted with a shake of her head, turning back around and continuing her march. When she did, Cyial took back Sairek’s hand into his own again as they resumed walking, giving the Prince a sly wink.

“Oh man…” Sairek breathed out, his face still blushing a little. “I guess you are feeling better after all…” Cyial let out a soft chuckle in response, and Sairek continued. "...There's no way I and her could ever be a couple anyway..." Sairek muttered even more quietly than he had been speaking before.

"In a way, you two always argue like a couple." Cyial commented with a side long glance. "They do say opposites attract. You two definitely fit that description."

Sairek snorted in amusement. "No, it's still not possible."

"If you insist." Cyial began with a wry smirk and then stammered when Sairek leaned in suddenly and kissed him on the cheek and released his hand. “Wh-Wha–?” Cyial stammered aloud.

“What's wrong?!” Nayleen demanded, spinning around.

“No, nevermind, it’s nothing. Sorry Nayleen.” Cyial said in more of a collected tone than Sairek managed to do.

“Ugh… you guys! Come on! You don’t have to freak out about every little thing. You’re both creeping me out now…! My nerves are on edge too, you know.”

“We know. We're sorry, Nayleen.” Cyial apologized again with a frown. She turned back around, grumbling and Sairek moved to grab Cyial’s hand who turned to send a glare at Sairek, who was smirking smugly at him.

“You’re right, teasing someone to see their cute reactions is fun. Maybe I’ll start doing it more, too.” Sairek whispered. "Finally, I get to see you be the one blushing for once."

“Are you sure you want to do that…? That’s a battle you are not going to win. Just like our little rough housing. You do blush at the smallest things.” Cyial cautioned him wryly.

“We’ll see about that when this is over.” Sairek challenged.

“Fine, then.” Cyial smirked, releasing Sairek’s hand to pull him closer and he moved his grip up to more firmly take hold of almost the entirety of Sairek’s left arm.

“H-Hey…!” Sairek protested under his breath when Cyial pulled him closer, which caused him to stagger a little, making a bit more noise than he intended..

“See? You’re blushing already.” Cyial mused, sliding his hold on the Prince to move back down back to just their hands again.

“I, I am not…” Sairek protested, though he could feel the heat rising in his face. "What if Nayleen saw...?"

"I thought she's not the type to care, remember?"

"Th-That's not the point...!"


They both knew why they were giving each other such a hard time. There was nothing mean-spirited at all about their teasing each other. It was because they were both scared. Even through their teasing, they still kept giving each other reassuring squeezes into each other’s gloved hands. However as the minutes passed on and they fell back to being silent between them, they eventually let go of each other to return their hands to themselves, but they still walked incredibly close to one another, side-by-side.

They walked for nearly thirty-five minutes, when Nayleen suddenly hissed intensely. “Guys…! To me, right now.”

Sairek and Cyial glanced at each other and moved to rush up to Nayleen as quietly as they could, following behind her as she moved to press herself against a tree. They pressed themselves against the same tree as her. Nayleen pressed a finger to her lips, then slowly moved her head to peer around from behind it the trunk, Sairek and Cyial again matched her in her movements, peering out from under one another.

All three of them choked on their breaths at nearly the same time. “What in the world is that…?” Nayleen whispered under her breath.

Ahead of them looked to be a giant walking brown mushroom tree… thing. Massive in size, it was probably around a whopping eight feet tall and nearly half that in width. It shambled along slowly, thumping heavily against the dirt path slowly and was currently heading towards their direction, though it did not seem to have spotted them from peeking out beyond the large tree trunk they were all pressed up against.

Fear gripped Sairek. He couldn’t help but just stare at this terrible wonder. However, even though fear was coursing through him, he still forced himself to remain calm. “That—That is not a normal monster Nayleen. What in the Flaming Lands is something like that doing in Masirean? Even monsters in Ceareste don’t get that… grotesque...!”

“Grotesque in more ways than one…” Cyial muttered. “I can sense ethereal from that thing… Most monsters tend to be magical beasts in nature… that thing is… different though…”

“What do you mean…?” Nayleen asked, unable to pull her eyes away to look at him as the creature slowed to a lumbering stop in front of them.

“It’s hard to explain, but to put it in perspective, think of how humans and demons are different from each other…” Cyial tried to explain.

“...So that is from the Underworld?” Sairek questioned, confused.

“No, no. It has ethereal inside of it and needs it to function—I... think. But... try sensing it, and I think you’ll understand… it's like something is 'wrong' with the energy it has.” Cyial whispered.

“I don’t think I could try to sense that right now even if I tried…” Sairek said through gritted teeth, glancing back over to it as it began moving once again. “It’s coming this way… We need to decide what to do... And quickly.”

“Well we can’t let that thing stand, that’s for sure…” Nayleen started, putting her daggers back into their sheathes quietly and reaching for the bow as she finally managed to pry her eyes away from it to look behind her to Sairek. “It looks all plant-like. Fire should do the trick… Can you make a small flame? I’m gonna light up an arrow and hit it with one.”

Sairek didn’t answer her, only staring forward, eyes widened.

“Sairek?—”

“NAYLEEN!!” He shouted.

She turned around and hesitated. That slow lumbering walk this thing had been doing had now turned into a full on charge towards them. It was still slow by all standards, but the sudden aggression had not been something Nayleen had expected considering she only took her eyes off of it not even ten seconds ago.

“Move back! Run!” She hissed. The three of them split off from the tree they'd been using for cover back onto the path and sprinted further towards the way they in came to attempt to regain some distance. Nayleen ran three dozen yards as she reached back into her quiver to notch an arrow into the bow, then she spun around, taking a second to adjust her aim and released it.
Her aim was true, although it didn’t take much skill to hit a thing of such size. The arrow sunk in—and went out the other side of the beast. She aimed right for the stem that looked like the neck, a spot she usually aimed at to incapacitate creatures or to stop them dead, if she was not aiming for the head specifically.
It flinched—maybe, but kept on stomping its way towards them, as if the arrow had done nothing.

“Okay, plain arrows don’t work!” Nayleen shouted back to them and turned back around to keep running with the two boys. She slung her bow back around her shoulders and once more reached for her daggers.

This time it was Sairek who turned around, skidding his feet to a stop within the dirt path as he pivoted around while Nayleen ran past him. He held his staff out, tilted forwards in front of him and holding his other hand near the head of the staff with an opened gloved hand. He took a couple seconds, concentrating through fear to conjure the energy around and within himself into something tangible.

A rock began to form, floating in between the head of his staff and the palm of his hand. Pushing the fear further down within himself, his emerald eyes glared at the monstrosity charging towards him. Sairek's willpower burned into a strong determination as he added heat to it, surrounding the rock with the flames, before expanding its mass in size pulling his hand slowly back while he nurtured its growth, creating what was quite literally a fireball with the combination of earth and fire.
He moved his left hand, which held the rock adjacent to his palm almost like he was gripping a levitating bowling ball in his hand. With one last touch of willpower, he coaelesed the energy and shaped it into a sphere around his manifestation He suddenly threw his arm out as if throwing the flaming boulder physically. “Ethirul–!” He shouted out, sending the final force of willpower to launch it from his hand to fling it forwards. While the throw did help project the magic outwards, the force of will he ignited of his intent to inflict harm to this thing was what made it fly incredibly fast, seen as his cape flapped violently in the air briefly as if a large gust of wind had frisked around him.

The fireball sailed through the air, just about to make impact into the abomination before him. It raised a vine-like tendril up into the air and swung, batting at his magic. Sairek was taken aback as his smoldering boulder simply crumpled into pieces mid-air as if what he launched was a watermelon instead. A bit of the tendrils caught on fire from sparks of the flame and bits of flaming rubble landing against it, but the creature shook the limb frantically and the flames more or less petered out in seconds. Sairek took a couple of more steps back, eyes widened in shock. "B-But...?" He stammered in disbelief.
He put a lot of effort into that one... and for what? Just for it to just be swatted away so easily?

“Grr…! What is this thing–?!” Nayleen seethed angrily. She moved back to position herself next to Sairek. “I know you said your rocks were brittle, but I know they aren’t that easy to just break just like that–!”

"No, they're not." Sairek growled through clenched teeth. "More to the point, it knew enough to swat it out of the way. It's cognicant, Nayleen. We're in trouble. It's not going to let us just run away."

“Watch out! It's attacking” Cyial shouted from behind them. Sairek and Nayleen both watched as it raised its left tendril and though the both of them began to move back at Cyial’s exclamation, it still swung, the tendril, which expanded outwards to reach them.
“Shenkalin–!” Cyial shouted, spreading his hands out while he still held his book in his right hand. Both Nayleen and Sairek raised their arms in a pathetic attempt to shield themselves from the incoming impact, but were saved as one of Cyial’s shields he conjured appeared in front of Nayleen before the tendril could impact her, smacking one of the shields instead.

“Ngah–!” Cyial cried out in surprise, stumbling as if he had just been nearly knocked off balance abruptly. He staggered several steps towards his left. The two shields he had summoned between the both of them staggered heavily to the side Cyial was thrown towards and when Sairek and Nayleen both lowered their arms to look, they both were taken aback as the shield that had taken the blow suffered a massive dent into it and was cracked quite considerably.

“How much strength does this thing have–?!” Sairek demanded as he motioned his staff in front of him again, though more centered directly in front of him than before. How his fireball was easily deflected was starting to make sense and the 'how' was a terrifying realization.
This time he placed his palm still outstretched towards the creature instead, wrist against the staff.

If one was too easy to deflect, then it would just have to be many. “Ethirul! Ethirul! ETHIRUL–!!”

Although it smacked one oncoming chunk of rock away, it could not stop a volley of moderately sized boulders constantly barraging it and for once, it finally showed a sign of weakness as the creature stumbled backwards while Sairek constantly pelted it in the upper half, though he could only do a series of eight boulders in total before his concentration was exhausted from him and he stumbled weakly in exertion from pushing himself so much so quickly. However, the force of that many boulders at once caused it to fall backwards flat and it lay still. Sairek leaned forward, using his staff to support his weight with both hands as he allowed himself to breathe out and back in with labored intensity.

It was a short-lived reprieve as the creature twitched, then slowly moved to stand back up.

“What the? Are you kidding me–?” Nayleen demanded through clenched teeth.

“Piercing it doesn’t work, slamming it doesn’t work, guess the only thing we got left is cutting it or setting it on fire entirely…” Sairek puffed, feeling sweat starting to accumulate on his forehead and temples. “Just what the heck are we supposed to do with this thing?”

“I know I've got daggers but I don’t know if it’ll be too effective against that thing… Maybe if I cut it at the stem thing there, but how am I going to climb it to reach it?” Nayleen growled.

"That's suicide." Sairek stated flatly as he pushed himself back up from the support of his staff. "It's not going to let you get that close."

Just like Sairek, the... 'thing' fully stood up now, though its aggression seemed to be momentarily paused as instead of ‘running’ at them, it was taking a slower walk once more. That didn’t stop it from raising one of it’s tendrils up overhead, swinging it downward towards Sairek this time.

Cyial, having recovered his footing and positioning appropriately, moved his left hand to position a shield again to block the tendrils, however, despite being more prepared on what to expect this time, he still cried out on the impact again and this time he was thrown off of his feet altogether and onto his his back. With the movements of both his hands and the shields being literally tied together, his hands were still impacted by the force of whatever the shields took and it still caused him to be thrown down onto the ground, which meant the shields defending Sairek and Nayleen were now woefully out of position to block another blow.

“Cyial–!” Sairek shouted, but he didn’t get much time to react as another tendril swung towards them to his side again and this time towards on his left rather than overhead.

Instinctively, and the only thing he could realistically do was hold out his staff, gripping it tightly with both hands and brace himself as best as he could in a blocking motion. The tendril hit his staff and being made out of a root from Yggdrasil, it took the impact itself no problem... however, the force of the impact was still strong enough that it knocked Sairek to be knocked off of his feet with a painted grunt and he slammed into Nayleen with his back. It caused both of them to yelp out as they flew a few feet sideways off of the path and into the grass, separating as they both rolled a short distance.

They both groaned, momentarily dazed from their tumble. Sairek soon felt something around his leg and suddenly, gripping him tightly and was hauled upwards. He yelled out in frantic surprise, dangling by one leg upside down from one of those vine-like tendrils secured around his ankle and calf. Nayleen was facing similar trouble, having her waist be wrapped around as she kicked and squirmed, though she was still right-side up.
"Ungh...! L-Let us go...!" Sairek demanded, though like this, dangling painfully, there was little he could do. He couldn't even right himself to aim his staff properly like this.

The creature let out a gurgling hiss—a hiss that was soon cut off as some sort of disk of iron that was tossed from the west side of the forest came out from the trees. It aimed for the stem and sliced through a decent section of it. That initial hiss that came from the creature’s body lowered and lowered in pitch as the tendrils suddenly became lax, dropping Sairek and Nayleen back to the ground while the creature crumpled to the floor in a heavy thud.

“Unmph…!” Sairek let out in a pained grunt when he landed squarely on his back from a eight foot drop, wincing and facing upwards toward the sky. Desperately, feeling he was still in danger, he flexed and shifted the weight of his body to the side and rolled sideways along the ground, scrambling back up to his feet. He panted hard from the adrenaline whilst he stared in disbelief for a moment, fearing that this thing would begin moving again.

Cyial immediately ran up to them. “Are you guys okay?!”

“Y-Yeah…” Sairek panted heavily. He slowly pushed himself back up to his feet. “What the Blazes was that thing, though…?”

Nayleen pushed herself up too. “That was close… thanks for the save, Cyial, whatever it was that you threw at it, I guess they cut easily enough after all.”

“Th-That wasn’t me.” Cyial stammered, shaking his head 'no'.

“Huh? Then—" Sairek began, but seeing movement to his side, he immediately spun around and clenched his teeth as the creature began to move once again and work its way upright, a terrible hissing sound coming from it.


“Stay... DOWN!!”


A young boyish voice from up above them caused them to jerk their heads up as from out of the trees, an armored and caped lad emerged from up above, silver greaves emitting a soft ethereal glow as a greatsword was held up above his head.

With a strained and exerted grunt, he swung the sword downwards just as he was about to land and the creature finished standing upright, cleaving the creature from top to bottom all eight feet. Its body let out a shudder as the greatsword made a clanging sound from hitting the dirt path and the lad landed in a crouch.

A loud hissing sound like a deflating balloon was heard as both halves of the creature shuddered, and began to fall over towards the boy. Instead of moving away though, all he did was let out a pained grunt, and collapsed forward more onto the ground onto his left side.

"Hey, look out!" Sairek yelled, adrenaline and instincts taking over as he sprinted to the boy. Thinking fast, he grasped the boy's chainmail around his neck with his left hand, grunted as he pulled the boy up off the ground and wrapped his left arm around him, then right before he they were about to be crushed, Sairek pointed his staff and yelled "Waert!!" He pushed his legs off the ground as he jumped, aiming his staff directly forwards.

It wasn't the most graceful launch, holding his staff with only one hand while his weight was far heavier on one side, but it at least got them away in time before they were crushed by a giant hulking fungi beast. Sairek would have toppled over backwards upon landing but Cyial and Nayleen moved to catch him as Sairek held their rescuerer around him.

"U...Unnghh..." The boy groaned in obvious agony, his eyes squeezed shut and his teeth clenched and a pained grimace. Sweat and a layer of dirt coated his face and the helmet visor he had on his head did little to hide his dishevelled hair that was caked in dried mud. Abruptly, his eyes opened, violet in hue, as they snapped to Sairek and with another pained grunt in exertion, he pulled away from the Prince, stumbling away, holding his greatsword in both hands as if he was about to lift it, but instead opted to use it to brace himself upright, barely able to stand.

“C-Calm down, please. Are...Are you Varhi?” Sairek asked, lowering his staff back down. The other boy looked so exhausted, there was no way he was a threat even if he wanted to be one, and Sairek wanted to signify he wasn't one either.

“Huh…? Well, yeah, that’s me… Bet I'm not what you were expecting... then again... I wasn't expecting a few kids like yourselves either...” Varhi forced out in pain.

“Yeah, well, we came to get you out of here.” Sairek said.

A look of genuine confusion entered the other boy’s face. “What...? Weren’t you guys sent here by the request of—”

“Jimmy sent us here to come and find you!” Sairek interjected him before he could finish.

“Jimmy… sent you…?” Varhi creased his eyebrows, then chuckled softly, beginning to weakly laugh, the pain making it difficult to do so. “That old bastard… so you’re not them after all…? Well... now I feel silly... for just watching... you handle that thing... at first.” He wheezed and then fell down to one knee weakly, letting go of his sword and clutching his left side with his now free hand.

Cyial immediately ran over, kneeling down next to him, putting his book on the ground. “What happened to you?”

“...Is—Is that a rhetorical question...?” Varhi asked dryly, despite his condition.

“Well I’d like to know what is exactly wrong with you so we can help. I—I specialize in medicine.” Cyial clarified, helping him back up to his feet.

Varhi managed to let out a snort. “What’s wrong with me…? Might be easier to list the things that are right with me, but let’s see…
“I’ve been here for over a week… by myself… fighting those things and other more things which are equally as horrifying or even arguably worse… I ran out of real food days ago… my only diet lately has been worms and a handful of berries of questionable origin… and I’ve been beaten and tossed around to a bloody pulp by those things… and I’m sure that green fog I’ve been breathing in from time to time to keep these bastards back away from my camp hasn’t been exactly healthy for my body, either…”

“...Fog?” Sairek asked.

“...You guys... didn’t see the green fog in the distance when you guys jumped down here…?” Varhi asked through a grimacing expression.

The trio turned to look at each other questionably, gauged each other's looks, then they all shook their heads.

“Oh... That’s... um, not good, then… Maybe it’s starting to spread after all…” Varhi coughed. “It was pretty visible when I came down here…”

Sairek looked up at the sky. He didn’t see anything abnormal, it looked pretty clear to him. He shook his head though and looked back down to Varhi. “Come on, we can discuss about that later. For now, let’s get somewhere a bit more safe to fix you up, okay?”

Varhi weakly moved his hand and pointed with his thumb back northwards. “My camp is just a couple minutes that way, a bit off the path… it’s close enough from here that I heard you guys yelling, in any case…”

“Shouldn’t we get further away from here?” Nayleen questioned him.

“It’s kept me alive so far… and I’m not sure how far you plan to drag me, um... Miss? But as much as I am loath to admit it, I am fragile goods at this point… and I'm... very brittle...” Varhi grunted with a wince. "I... unf... ...ughh..."

Sairek's expression became compassionate and concerned as Varhi couldn't even finish his sentence.

“...It’s uh, Nayleen.” She corrected him, then pointed at Sairek and Cyial. “The one with the white hair and tail is Cyial, and the other one is Sairek.”

“Got... it…” Varhi confirmed..

Cyial stood up beside the Prince. “Sairek, you and I can carry him. Nayleen, can you carry Sairek's staff and Varhi’s sword?”

“Hey... don’t forget... my pot lid…” Varhi interjected through a pained tone.

“Your… Your what?” Sairek asked.

“My pot lid… the thing that I threw... to save you guys?” Varhi frowned.

“...It was a pot lid?” Sairek repeated, studying him carefully.

“Stop giving me... that look…!” Varhi warned in agitation. “Why does everyone... judge me for using a pot lid... as a weapon–?”

“But... But it’s, it’s a pot lid…! It's used for cooking...”

“...When I get better... how about I throw it at your face... and you can tell me first-hand... if it hurts or not?”

“That’s... not necessary.” Sairek replied quietly, backing up a little. Sheesh.

“Good. Glad we understand each other...” Varhi grumbled, lowered himself down to his hands and knees, and surrendered his grip on his sword as he forced a gentle smile through his pained expression. “Now take me... back to my camp... if you'd please... We're... still in possible danger... standing here..."

“Sweet Lands… Jimmy wasn't kidding about you." Sairek muttered.

“Okay fine, I’ll go search for your… pot lid.” Nayleen sighed, shaking her head as she walked to the forest on the side of the path near the corpse. While she did that, Cyial took his book and put it back into his robe. He moved to help Varhi stand back up with one arm and Sairek moved to position himself under the boy's other arm to help him in the same fashion. They began to slowly and carefully walk back in the direction Varhi told them. He was breathing hard, sweat dripping from his face the entire time, practically limp in both boys' holds, though he still did use his legs to walk so the other two did not have to literally drag him, though Sairek and Cyial were still holding up almost all of his weight.

“I have to admit, when Jimmy was talking about a mercenary, I was not expecting someone around our age...” Sairek admitted. He figured Varhi was young based on what little Jimmy said, but Sairek was expecting fifteen or sixteen; not his own age.

“Y-Yeah… I get that a lot... “ Varhi grunted. “There’s… an age restriction law to become a proper knight in Masirean... a...and... it’s not like you can immediately become a knight... just by applying either… but there’s technically no age restriction or any regimen for mercenary work… it’s a pretty dumb, intentional loop hole... but it benefits me I guess, so... whatever.”

“Yeah, you seem to be doing great right now.” Sairek drawled sarcastically.

Despite his condition, Varhi mustered the strength to lift his head and send him a glare. “You saw what I’m up against here… if you think that’s the only one... you’re in for a very... very nasty surprise… those things are the least worrying thing that’s here… at least, in my humble opinion anyway...”

Sairek swallowed. “...There’s worse...?”

“Much worse… not a day has gone by where I’ve slept in peace... imagining the multitude of ways I am probably going to die in... Ironically, I have to admit, starving wasn’t one of them… seems so… mundane now in comparison...” Varhi grumbled, then pointed with his left hand, which was Sairek’s side. “Turn here… yeah, perfect...”

Cyial and Sairek moved to turn, carefully pushing themselves through a small bit of vegetation with the other lad on their shoulders until they came across a clearing where a well-used campfire and a tent were set up. Sairek examined the ground to see the dirt had been dug up—a lot. “What happened here?”

“Didn’t I tell you…? I’ve been starving to death... It happened to have rained fairly recently…” Varhi grumbled.

“...So?”

“...So I’ve been digging up and eating the worms… What else is there to eat here…?” Varhi explained and scrunched his face up in frustration.

“B-But—!” Sairek stammered out, his stomach doing flip-flops as he looked at Varhi in horror. “There’s honestly nothing else you could have foraged around here?” He protested. There were a lot of dug up holes...

“If I could... do you think I would be eating... fucking worms?" Varhi cursed, his tone annoyed. "Who do you take me for...?!"

“...No berries, no animals?”

“There was one berry bush I found a day or two ago that wasn't infected... Didn’t sate me for long… as for animals, haven’t you noticed yet...?” Varhi asked.

Infected...? He'd need to ask later. “...Haven't noticed what?” Sairek asked instead.

“There’s nothing... Not even in the distance... No birds, not even a squirrel… nothing. Literally the only animals I’ve found have been worms... There haven’t even been any fish in the water... everything has turned tail and fled… and justifiably so. There is some serious 'bad shit' happening in this forest…” Varhi sighed as Sairek and Cyial moved to lean him down to sit, causing Varhi to groan out in pain and moving to clutch his left side as the boy's muscles spasmed and he grimaced from the pain of the convulsions, willing his body to get back under his control. “Flaming Lands... Even the worms are few in number… Th-That’s why... there’s so many little burrows... that I’ve made… It’s not because I’ve eaten that many—it’s because I can hardly find any...”

Cyial looked towards the Prince. “...Sairek? Um... Can you get things out to make him more, erm,  comfortable? I’m going to work to remove his armor for him in the meantime." Cyial suggested, side-eyeing the other boy. "Obviously something is wounded underneath it since he keeps gripping his side, and judging from the state of him... we may be here for a while.”

“...Yeah, one second.” Sairek answered, moving his left hand to pinch his jewel again as he closed his eyes.

Varhi eyed the jewel curiously, then widened his eyes a little. “...What? Wait a second, I knew that looked familiar… and ‘Sairek’...?"
Sairek opened his emerald eyes again as he watched Varhi studying him. "...Shit. You are the Prince of Ceareste, aren’t you?” He asked, as Cyial worked to lift Varhi's cape up off of his head and took off his helmet visor.

“I... am.” Sairek answered uneasily.

“I'm sorry... but what the fuck is the Prince doing here—?” Varhi demanded, turning to look at Cyial, demanding an answer. “You said Jimmy asked you guys to come…? Seriously...??”

Sairek and Cyial both blinked at his free use of language. “Um... long story short, I guess that’s what happened. Well... ‘begged us’ would probably be more appropriate. So I... decided to come. We snuck in from the west side and came in through the north on his ship.” Sairek answered.

“You… snuck in…?!”

“Yes... Considering the letter Avotash sent, it's technically not trespassing, I never... 'announced' my arrival, though.”

Varhi began to chuckle, then clutched his side and stomach with both of his hands as he began to full on laugh. “Ow, that hurts…” He giggled through his wincing as his laughter calmed down. “Ain’t this just perfect, then…”

“I must have missed the punchline.” Sairek commented dryly. Through the distractions while talking to Varhi, he finally found the items he was looking for, conjuring a blanket which he lay on the ground and a sleeping bag on top of that to boot. “Look, Jimmy told me already how you hate royalty. I get it. Even I hate royalty and how it functions. I suppose I have my own reasons to be biased, but at least for now I’d rather you look at me as a person first and a Prince second.” Sairek moved to sit down to Varhi’s right side, bringing his knees up to himself and his arms wrapped around them as he sat in front of the unlit fire. “The only part of my position that matters right now is if I get found out that I’ve snuck in here.”

Varhi snorted. “That is so not the case…”

“...What makes you say that?” Sairek asked with a bit of edge in his tone.

“Well for one Prince, if we die here, there is going to be a major shit storm at your death.” Varhi answered.

“I... don’t plan to have anyone die here.”

Varhi let out an exasperated and pained sigh at Sairek's reply. “...Seriously? Is that the best you can do, Prince? I didn’t plan to die either, you know... What, you think your determintation is more powerful than mine, or something? Hey, eyes up and look at me. Stop looking away and answer honestly."
Sairek reluctantly complied, glaring at Varhi with his emerald eyes. "Good. Now Prince, please take a nice, hard, long look at me...” Varhi retorted cynically, raising his arms—barely, as Cyial began to remove the dark blue leather armor off of his upper body.

Sairek watched and then visibly cringed, squirmed and grimaced at what he saw.
The other boy’s body was covered in bruises everywhere. Actually, Sairek wondered how he had even managed to had still been standing, let alone had saved them. It made sense now why he just collapsed after he did what he did...
Still, Sairek was surprised at how muscled a boy who looked to be about his age was. He was clearly fit and trained his body seriously. He wasn’t ripped, but there seemed to be a firm balance to his body all over. Varhi's shoulders were becoming broad, though his body was still that of a tween. None the less, the arm and shoulder strength was probably from swinging that sword of his around often. However, apparently his lack of food was starting to do him in. He was becoming quite thin from usual signs of malnutrition... Sairek could hardly believe that was doing Varhi in before the obvious damage he has sustained just on the surface of his body.

Varhi looked down at himself briefly, before looking back up to Sairek hard. He slowly dropped his arms back down, one gripping his more bruised side carefully as he spoke in a low but concise tone. “Seriously... Do you think I didn’t come here without the same confidence in believing everything should turn out alright...? Illusions are quickly destroyed by reality, and that was more than obvious within my first few hours here and since then, I've accepted the realization that I am probably going to die here... I wonder how long it will take you? Hopefully, you realize quickly how in-over your head you are acting... This isn't a game or pretend, Prince. This is the real world. Reality. If you fuck up, you and your friends are dead."

“D...Do you think I came here not expecting the worst…?” Sairek retorted back through clenched teeth. “I said I don’t plan to have anyone die. That is what is going to happen...” He tried to sound forceful, but it came out much weaker than he intended.

Varhi appraised him for a moment, then he leaned himself forward, lowering his head slightly but still keeping his gaze on Sairek with violet eyes that looked directly into his emerald ones. He spoke, his voice low and tense. “The terrifying truth about reality Sairek, is that a situation can always become more terrible than you can imagine... It's clear to me, that you haven't faced true hardship yet. Spoiled. Pampered. You've got a long way to go.”

Sairek felt his skin become covered in goosebumps at that.

"I know you are not taking it seriously, because if you are expecting the worse, then you would expect you are your friends dying as a very real and probable outcome rather than repeating that nobody will die because you say so." Varhi chastised. “Every job I accept, I believe I will succeed, yes, but I also am prepared with the fact that I might just die, even on the low risk jobs. It’s something you just have to accept in this line of work... The fact you plan for nobody to die; the otherwise 'best outcome'…? It only tells me that you are not ready for this at all. You're 'still green', as we say in this line of work. It's fine to be green, everyone starts somewhere... But you are in way over your head, Prince. You are going to get yourself and all of your friends killed if you aren't dead kids walking already.”

Sairek clenched his teeth and looked away from Varhi’s gaze. He immediately began refuting such an accusation in his mind, but the other boy had also sown seeds of doubt in his head.
...Did he really understand? He knew that the decisions was irrational and impulsive, but he had his reasons to go... but did he truly understand the weight of the decision he made or had he let his impulsiveness sorely cloud his judgement?... ...

"...Well, at least you seem to be earnestly thinking about it now instead of continuing to argue about it, to your own credit." Varhi grunted with a weak shrug. "Too little too late, in my opinion."

Cyial glanced at Sairek and frowned. With his own exhale, he moved to disarm the situation, lest Sairek look even more obviously uncomfortable. “Well, I can help most of these wounds easily, at least…” he began, digging into his robe and pulling out his own full flask of ethereal “Drink this. It’s bitter, but I don’t think it should taste nearly as bad as worms do,” He said, popping the cork off open for him and handing the flask to Varhi

Varhi took the flask into his hands and examined it, shrugged, and began chugging it all at once. He didn’t stop until the whole thing was drained in half a minute, where he coughed weakly once. “...Ew.” was the only exclamation he let out regarding the miserable bitter taste.

“...I, uh... I didn’t expect you to just down the whole thing.” Cyial blinked.

“Why not? Best to just get it over with quickly. Out of most of the shit I’ve had to deal with in the past few days, having to drink medicine that might save my life is far, far down on the list.” Varhi grumbled as he passed the now empty flask back.

Cyial moved to guide Varhi to lay down on the sleeping bag, just as rustling from the bushes came and Nayleen wandered in, carrying the boy’s sword in one hand, pot lid in the other, and Sairek’s staff under her arm. “I’m back. How’s he holding up?”

“Um... Not good, I am afraid. His condition is critical and if I am going to be honest, I have no idea how you even did what you did, let alone are conscious and walking around." Cyial said earnestly as he looked at Varhi, then turned his gaze back to Nayleen. "But the good news is that since he somehow isn't dead, that we can help him. I just gave him ethereal as a temporary stop-gap to prevent his conditioning from getting worse. Right now, I think the most important thing he needs is some proper food first, then a lot of rest. I'll do what I can with my herbs and medicine to encourage natural mending. Think you can do the honors for the first one?” Cyial asked her.

“Hmm... Sure, but... I’ve kind of noticed in my searching for this thing,” she began, waving the pot lid as she set the sword on the ground near Varhi on his right side, then handed Sairek his staff, “...is that there are no animals at all around. Not even birds.”

“She’s a perceptive one. I like her.” Varhi said from the ground, rolling his head to look at her. “You figured that one out by yourself way faster than I did when I came here.” He complimented, lifting his arm up weakly to give her a thumbs up from where he lay.

“Aw thanks.” Nayleen smiled sweetly at him.

Sairek rolled his eyes at the both of them bitterly. “Does it really matter, though? You know we have weeks of emergency food just in case for that. Even between the four of us, we should be fine for weeks if it came down to it.” Sairek commented to her, pinching his left fingers onto the jewel again.

“Of course. Too bad there’s no way back up, though…” Nayleen responded.

“Ah, I figured something happened and there was a reason you guys weren’t so eager to just climb back up after seeing that thing…” Varhi sighed, laying his head back. “Go on, just lay it on me. What happened...?”

“So you came from this way after all, huh.” Nayleen mused. She sat down, opposite end of Varhi and to Sairek's right. Varhi verified her question with a nod and she continued. “Well, turns out there was a cave under the cliff face. All the rocks and stuff that had fallen over top of it put a lot of pressure on it. With all three of us standing on it together, it was enough weight to cause it collapse. We barely made it to safety. No way to reach the ropes to get back up.”

“For the love of— FIGURES...” Varhi groaned loudly. “This forest seems to be cursed with misery and misfortune. I don’t even believe any of that stuff, but this place has made me reconsider the possibilities...” he sighed and rolled his head, looking as a bunch of items; or items in sacks and bags anyway, appeared beside Nayleen, thanks to Sairek's handiwork.

“Thanks Sairek. Hold tight Varhi, I’m going to cook you up a real tasty meal.” Nayleen said with a wink to the wounded boy, then turned her head. “Sairek and I can go get some more wood for this fire—”

“I’ll do it.” Cyial interjected, standing up. "My senses are better in case something is around... In case something else is lurking in these woods."

Nayleen shrugged uncaringly but nodded in agreement and moved to stand up. Both she and Cyial moved to the edge of the clearing, looking to salvage sticks. Sairek moved his seated position to shimmy himself closer to Varhi while he waited for his friends to return. He thanked Cyial in his head. The demon probably knew he had a lot of questions on his mind to ask Varhi.

“...How bad is this place, really?” Sairek asked, speaking low to him so the others didn’t overhear just yet as they were walking away.

"Oh, curious on how screwed we are now, hmm?" Varhi hummed sarcastically.

Sairek narrowed his eyes. "...I'm not in the mood. Please just answer the question honestly."

“Oh, fine, since you're asking so earnestly... How dangerous is it? I don’t think I’ve even seen the worst this place has to even offer yet and but it's still the most dangerous I've seen. Arguably, we could be in Kior's wasteland or something, that might be worse, subjectively, but I haven’t exactly made it far, either...
"Prince, there’s dozens of those things—possibly hundreds, and I think as time passes, the fog I mentioned is spawning more. I've already killed dozens more... by myself. It's an unnending nightmare.” Varhi answered honestly. “...Unfortunately, they seem to actually be increasing in number faster than I've been able to swat them down... and don't think just because I've been able to slay so many by myself that they are easy. They're far from it. The one you guys battled, you still needed my assistance. Try handling hundreds of those with at least two other variants that are actually more dangerous than that one. The big brutes just have a weakness I can exploit, but as you can see, even with that, I still took a miserable beating..."

Sairek gulped.

“Look, I don’t know what other reasons you have for being here. It couldn’t just be because Jimmy asked you. I’m not stupid—”

“The way Jimmy described how the man who returned to Masirean City died… it has similarities to how my own mother passed away.” Sairek interrupted him.

"...Queen Melina?"

“Y-Yes... I was wondering if there was a possible connection...” He moved his gaze to the sides out from the clearing from the direction they came in from. “...I didn’t think that would involve such monsters, though… not unless what had killed my mother has seriously evolved and adapted over the past decade and a half...”

“Given how fast these things are changing, that might not be an impossibility, but I don’t think this is the same thing...”

“You're probably right, but just in case, what makes you so sure?” Sairek asked, looking back at him.

“...Like I said, you haven’t even seen the worst. I don't think I have either, but what I have seen so far is absolutely horrifying. Believe me when I say I’m not someone who gets easily spooked, too.” Varhi growled through clenched teeth, looking away from Sairek back towards the sky.

“...So you think the King of Masirean did this…?” Sairek asked.

“Honestly, no. Or, at least not intentionally anyway if he did… I don't think many people in the world is insane enough to create such a scenario so vile and twisted intentionally.” Varhi answered, grunting as he moved to sit himself back upright. “...But regardless, I think he is hiding something here, whatever that may be. I'm more of the belief that what's happening here is a complication. It could be he wants to retrieve that ‘whatever it is’ before somebody finds out. I believe he allowed me to go alone and he emphasized on my ‘going alone’, because he figures I’d be dead by now. He was almost correct. Could still be correct in a day or two… and one of the terrifying things about these monsters is that if you fall prey to them, there won’t really be any evidence of ‘you’ that remains…”

“...What do you mean?” Sairek asked, shivering a little. He was quite uncomfortable about what Varhi was telling him, but morbid curiosity drove him to ask anyway.

Varhi sighed, glancing around as Cyial and Nayleen had returned midway through the conversation and were openly watching him, listening. Rather than speaking in a hushed tone like they had been, he spoke up more so they could hear him clearly. “Some of these things are not just walking mushrooms… some of them are walking mushroom trees and some of them are walking mushroom people. People, who from my experience, are still sentient and are very well aware of what is happening to them, yet unable to control themselves...
"And of course, Karvadean just happens to be a village full of people that is smack dab in the middle of a green cloud of fog which according to my experience just happens to be one of the main sources that seems to be spawning these blasted things,” he said, looking back into Sairek’s eyes and inhaling a deep breath from his run-on-sentence.
“...Anyway, call this just an educated guess, but, I am going to assume that the possibility of being forcibly ‘assimilated’ into becoming mushroom monsters yourselves while some other manifestation takes control of your body and morphs it beyond recognition as your soul remains still trapped inside of your body was NOT on your list of possible dangers when you came here, was it? It certainly wasn’t on mine.”

The trio’s faces all fell in horror at the realization as to what Varhi was saying.

“Eeeeexactly. So you better hope we don’t 'die' here, because that is certainly a fate I do not wish to be subject to… No corpse; you just mutate and become one of those things and are conscious and sentient throughout the whole thing. A fucking terrible way to go out. Nobody will realize or recognize that you in particular will have gone missing, either, Prince.” Varhi warned, still glaring at Sairek. “You can try to communicate to people, but anything you manage to cry out just comes out as a gargled wail. I’ve already seen a number of them trying to call out for help to me. It... It doesn’t really sound like the word at all but I can just tell. The eyes even move to look at me with intellect. The only thing I can do to help them though is just... to kill them. Kill the monster that controls them, then kill the actual them still stuck to the monster's corpse to put an end their misery and release their souls to Yggdrasil… They can feel what the monster feels, by the way.
“And sometimes cleaving these things in half isn’t even enough to kill them. Sometimes I have to put the good blade of mine through their horrified faces first...” Varhi finished, moving to look at the unlit campfire, a sudden weariness in his eyes, despite his obvious youth. “...Honestly, in a way, I do wish Jimmy just left me alone to die here, because even with you three, I don’t think we’re going to make it out of this. I will damn well try my best, that’s why I’ve been eating worms to survive. Even when the odds are low, I will not quit because nothing in the world is impossible; but our chances are so incredibly slim... The only way out of here now is forward. So you better start preparing yourselves mentally.”


There was an uncomfortable long silence. Which was broken by Nayleen tossing her sticks into the fire pit and then sitting down on her rear with a flop and an exasperated huff that passed out from her lips before she spoke. “Well—That’s great news to hear before making and eating a meal. Thanks for that,” she said sarcastically.

“Oh, you’re most welcome.” Varhi replied with equal amounts of sarcasm back, breaking his glare from Sairek to roll his eyes at her. “I suppose I should have told you that this place is wonderful, full of unicorns and rainbows. Would have done you much better for preparing you to the reality of the situation we are in.”

Cyial sighed, moving to bend down and more carefully place his sticks into the pit than Nayleen had done tossing them in. “Can we not start this, please?” He begged. “...Also, fire won’t attract these things, will it?” He asked a bit timidly.

“On the contrary, I think fire helps keep them away. Fire was effective on them when I made a torch and used it against one. It also nearly set the entire forest on fire, so I didn’t do it again. However... that was what I was about to do as a last resort in a few hours...” Varhi replied dryly. “I was planning to take this whole forest down with me… certainly wasn’t going to have my corpse become one of those things.”

“Then using ‘balinzer’ it is, then…” Sairek grumbled. Then with a pointed finger at the fire and saying the word with more emphasis, he chanted “Balinzer.” A small jet of flame emerged from his finger, sparking the wood in the pit to life. Slowly, it began to grow in strength. At least he could do that without explicitly needing his staff now where before he struggled to just light a candle to life. He mentally thanked Fuyiki in the back of his mind.

“Ah… I already had forgotten that you are a mage too. A Prince and a magic user. Yeah, we're definitely going to get along real well, aren't we?” Varhi grumbled, then glanced at Sairek's appraising look. "I'm saying I don't like mages as well as nobility, if you can't tell."

“...Why?” Sairek inquired.

“For mages? Because I use a big sword, duh.” Varhi said with a sidelong glance. “Makes it hard to get close to them when they conjure and throw everything at you from a distance but the kitchen sink. Will be to my benefit here of course, though. As for nobility? Personal bias and stereotype. Most of you lot are fucking assholes, can you really blame me? At least you're not the entitled snobbish type... I think."

“...I suppose I can't blame you." Sairek frowned, not wanting to press the issue. "...So you’ve also had to fight other people?”

“Of course. I do all kinds of work. From delivering messages, to bounty hunting. This may come as a surprise to nobody, but usually people don’t want to go to jail willingly. So a lot of my jobs are to make them, usually by force. Mages are the trickiest for me to subdue.”

“I see. Better not visit Ceareste, then.” Sairek cautioned him.

“Too late. Had to deliver a letter there. Right to your doorstep, probably.”

“So that letter I read with Avotash asking for reinforcements due to Kiorian spies was the one you delivered after all.” Sairek sighed. "Small world."

“Sounds like it. How ironic that it would allow us to meet even though the point of the letter was probably to do the opposite.” Varhi chuckled. “Maybe that’s why Avotash lied in the letter. Your father Aayron would have been more than likely very interested to hear the symptoms of this ‘disease’ just like how Jimmy, hopefully unintentionally, lured you in. Of course, I do not think Avotash realizes exactly what is lurking in this forest. He probably thinks it’s just some kind of ailment or just a single monster or whatever—not because the forest itself and the people living in it are becoming sentient brutes.” Varhi said.
“The guy who made it back to the city had his corpse cremated. He was turned to ashes before he started transforming and moving by himself I guess. How lucky, because if they left his corpse there, I think the entire capital city would be assimilated by those things now. This is ground zero for a walking epidemic. Thank goodness this place is surrounded by mountains already to contain it.”

Sairek flinched at that. “My mother was cremated too, because her body was deteriorating so fast. Might not have been nothing left...”

“Perhaps, but she still survived for a few years after her symptoms began. This guy survived less than three weeks. Not to mention having gone mentally insane before that point. There was no 'accelerated aging' symptom. Plus, you're here, born and still alive and as I can see, not a walking mass of mushroom.” Varhi pointed out the obvious

Nayleen had begun the preparations of starting to peel things in a pot again, but she glanced up as she spoke. “So, technically, Avotash could just set fire to this place and the threat would more or less be gone?”

“Given the unique nature of how this place is surrounded by mountains, I doubt the fire would spread beyond the forest, so I guess. Which is also why I need to hurry up and find whatever secret he’s hiding before he realizes the reality of the situation and burns it all down and can collect whatever it is he’s hiding here. Of course, there’s also the other possibility that he cannot afford burn the forest down for whatever reason. Regardless, I need to find out why… If he can though and the Prince’s guard comes and decides the same thing while we’re still in this forest, then we’re going to be in deep trouble. Would look really bad on Ceareste if the kingdom’s own men find the Prince’s burnt corpse in the aftermath of a forest fire they intentionally set, not to mention the fact he's not even supposed to be here.”

Sairek ignored that comment, though he had to resist a shudder. “I must find out what is going on as well.” He replied, causing the other three to look at him. “If Avotash is lying and hiding something from my father and I, then I must find out what the motive is.”

“How are you going to even respond if you find out what it is that he’s hiding?” Varhi asked him.

“...What do you mean?”

“If you come forth with claiming he’s done wrong, then you are also admitting that you snuck in here in the first place without proper entry.” Varhi said. “Someone of your position sneaking in is grounds for Masir to declare war all on its own, you know. It doesn’t even matter if the claim is true and valid. What you’re doing right now is a very grave crime. Being deceitful in a letter is trivial in comparison, though I’m sure Kior would not be happy if they found out the truth. At the very least, Masir would call off the alliance, whether whatever you claim you find is true or not. Jimmy's word alone based on my account would not be enough. Spread rumors, sure, but nothing useful."

“I—I know all of that...” Sairek mumbled. "I-In regards to coming here, the letter asked for reinforcements, and I am technically now part of Ceareste's military as of just a few days because of me being a Prince and turning twelve. So it does mean I could come here... a-as well as be arrested for trespassing... I suppose..." Sairek admitted with a grumble.

“...And yet you still came here?” Varhi whistled. “That either makes you very determined, or very stupid.”

“...So, like you.” Sairek asked in a tone that was not a question at all.

“I should have known what I was getting into but I went anyway. That means I was stupid. You knew even more, are far less experienced, and yet you came anyway. That makes you stupid, too, but more stupid than me, that's for sure. Happy birthday by the way. Bet this isn't how you expected your first week of twelve years to go, eh?”

Sairek gave him a dry look. “What, is this some sort of competition of 'who messed up the most' or something?"

“No, you dolt, it means that if you want to make it out of here alive with your friends intact and not becoming one of those things, then you better start thinking more rationally and planning to make outcomes happen, rather than hope they will turn out alright. Also, to start thinking a couple of steps ahead and have back up plans in case something goes wrong.” Varhi explained, groaning in discomfort as he moved to lay back on the sleeping bag with a weary sigh, one hand rubbing his left side where it was bruised the worst. “For example… what do you think would have happened if I hadn’t been able to help you against that thing…?”

Sairek stammered, but no words came out and he forced himself to look away from Varhi and towards the fire instead. After a brief pause, he finally found himself again. “How was I supposed to know there would be monsters like that, though…?” He growled. "They are something quite possibly out of this world..."

“I suppose that is a fair argument. You only knew there was something wrong, but not specifically what was wrong.” Varhi agreed, pulling back his aggression from Sairek as he saw he was increasingly becoming more and more uncomfortable with him constantly laying into him with such cold facts and criticism. “I ended up like this simply because I was too lazy to go back down to acquire a little bit more rope… so I suppose in a way, it’s my fault you three are here.” He sighed.

Cyial let out a small little growling sound, causing the other three to look at him. “Can we please stop talking about what we should have done?” He pleaded in a clearly annoyed voice. “It’s easy to lecture in hindsight but that does nothing with what we should be doing right now in the moment.” His tail flicked behind him as he looked towards Varhi. "If you say we need a plan, then let's make one instead of moaning about how we don't have one, alright?"

Sairek blinked. He hadn’t heard Cyial like that before.

“Well, unfortunately, I don’t really know what to do. The only way out of here is forward like I said. I suppose with you three, it will be easier than by myself… hopefully. Even if I will still be doing the brunt of the work. However…” Varhi began, then gestured down at himself, wincing from the movement. “I’m... not exactly in the best shape anymore… Since you seem to be the medical expert, how about we let you decide what to do, doc?”

"...Me?" Cyial’s garnet eyes looked down upon Varhi, almost glaring, but they soon softened up and he let out a sigh, closing his eyes in thought and shifting his position to match Sairek's with his knees pulled up against him. He opened them again, looking at Nayleen who nodded, then at Sairek, who gave him a gentle smile of reassurance.
Permission granted to decide the course of action, Cyial looked back at Varhi as he pulled out his tome and hugged it closely as he examined the boy's condition once more, then spoke with a frown.
“Realistically, you should probably be laying in a bed and resting for a couple weeks… the ethereal I gave you won’t really do much other than make you feel better for a few hours. It’s not going to last long.”

“Oh, so I’m going to go back to feeling even worse? Well that sucks.” Varhi grumbled, rolling his head to look up at the sky one more time. “Why did you give me something as valuable as that if it’s not going to help in the long run?”

Cyial turned to open his eyes and blink at him. “What are you talking about? You looked like you were seriously about to die and in so much pain... Why wouldn’t I give you some? At the very least, this gives you some time for you and your body to rest in some relative peace and, even if it is temporary, it does improve your ability to recover naturally if for a short time, which you seriously need right now as to not be in immediate danger of dying.” Cyial lectured. "I was exaggerating when I expressed that I have no idea how you are not unconscious right now."

“Huh… Well, um, thanks, I guess? That’s probably the best compliment anyone has given me other than Jimmy. Well, from what I can remember, anyway.” Varhi said, his gaze never abandoned to look away from the sky.

“Well, hopefully a proper hot meal will help you feel better before the ethereal levels in your body start to go back down.” Nayleen spoke up, pouring a moderate amount of water into her pot full of chopped and peeled ingredients.

Cyial nodded. “Besides that, we do have a lot of ethereal, I'm not against giving you another dose or three if it means improving your condition and keeping the pain at bay. So… I guess if I am the one deciding what to do, it will be evening before too long, so there’s not much reason to go out tonight. We should sit here and allow Varhi to rest until tomorrow morning when it’s daylight out. I can stay up all night to keep watch. With no animals, sensing something approaching will be very easy for me. Especially if they’re that big. We can see how Varhi is feeling tomorrow and sit tight for another day if we need to in order to allow him to recover.” Cyial said, looking back towards Sairek “With the, uh… ‘generous amount of sleep’ I’ve gotten in the past week lately, I should be able to stay up both nights without trouble.” Cyial watched in mild amusement when Sairek shifted where he sat, looking away from his gaze with a faint blush on his cheeks that only the demon noticed.

“That’s pushing the deadline fairly close…” Varhi grumbled. “We only have what, three or four days left before they get here? Maybe five if they’re slow.”

"Who exactly do you keep speaking about?" Sairek questioned.

"You, or, your people, your father's men; whoever Avotash asked to come down here." Varhi grunted.

“That storm the other night would probably have slowed them down. That was a particularly nasty storm.” Sairek said. “It probably won’t be too much, but it is still something to consider, I think. Also, they would probably report in at the capital first. That's just standard Ceareste protocol, which, uh, I clearly don't follow. So that will be an extra day added.”

“Hmm…” Varhi let out thoughtfully, then nodded slowly. “If they were going to Cylvolta on that day, the waters would definitely have been too rough to risk it… they would have temporarily shut down the ferrying to the passengers due to a storm warning and waited until it passed. Possibly stuck on the island for the checkpoint. Or still stuck back on the mainland. From Cylvolta, they would of course go back to the Masirean capital to report to the King, but I bet after that, with haste, they would be making their way over here, probably with horses.”

“Soooo…?” Nayleen pressed him.

“Assuming the Prince here is correct, then I would wager we have indeed six or seven days at most, but probably only six.” Varhi said.

“So probably two days of rest, and the rest to search this entire forest while we fight for our lives to find a way back out…” Sairek sighed. “I still don’t like those odds.”

"Especially because Varhi sould be resting for a few weeks, and not just two days." Cyial pointed out.

“Well, we don’t need to search the entire forest. I have a pretty good idea where we can go to get out, I did have Jimmy show me a map of the area, you know. The problem is just getting there; because screw this place.” Varhi muttered.

Cyial sighed, and moved himself to stand up. “Well for now, let’s get him patched up the best we can. Since those bruises are a few days old, we can use hot compresses to help circulate the blood flow on those bruises. That will help them heal faster through the increased blood flow with the ethereal still in his system. It kind of... pumps the energy there a bit faster.” Cyial explained. “Sairek, do you think you could heat some flasks with magic and then wrap them around in some thin cloth?”

“Sure. I can do the heating part of that within the jewel itself.” Sairek replied.

“As for the newer bruises, cold would be best… heat would only increase the swelling, but I don’t think we have anything to make something cold.” Cyial mused, cupping a hand under his chin in thought.

“...Your Prince here can make fire, but not ice?” Varhi asked.

“...No.” Sairek sighed. “Ice is a bit more difficult than fire… fire is a direct element of ethereal, while ice is not. That belongs to water. Water itself is easy, but chilling the water to that level of cold to where it solidifies itself as ice is a few extra steps that’s beyond my ability to do. I can make it a little more cold, and I can make it hot, but ice cold is a lot tougher than—”

“I… didn’t ask for a lecture. A simple ‘no’ would have sufficed.” Varhi interjected with a sidelong glance. "Most magic stuff will go over my head anyway."

“S-Sorry.” Sairek grumbled.

Varhi soon looked towards Cyial. “And I’m guessing you can’t just make any, either?”

Cyial shook his head.

“You can make shields out of thin air, but not a few cubes of ice?” Varhi frowned. "Damn, magic is so confusing."

"Just because you can swing a big weapon, doesn't mean you know how to swing every weapon efficiently." Cyial tried to relate. "Magic is very much like that."

"Yeah, but if I can lift a one-hundred pound dumbbell, then I can lift a one-hundred pound rock." Varhi countered.

"...And magic doesn't work like that." Cyial shot back.

"...Okay, yup. You've lost me."

Cyial rolled his eyes at Varhi. “Whatever. Magic works much differently for demons in general. And for us born on the Overworld, there are so few of us, that much of how we react to ethereal is still a mystery. I don’t even know why I can do what I can. I just… can. It’s one of the few spells that I just tried out and it worked fine, where many others have failed.” Cyial tried to explain. "Natural talent, or an affinity, or something... I don't know."

“Ah, I wondered why you weren’t being cynical and constantly in pain. Then again, I guess the fact you are small is dead giveaway you're born on the Overworld anyway.” Varhi said with an appraising look. "Unless you did something extremely nasty as a kid in the Underworld, I guess. I like to think they have a bit more class than to banish children, though."

“...You’re one to talk. You’re not much taller than Sairek or I and Nayleen is certainly taller than you.” Cyial replied.

“I’m average for my age. You’re like… what, eight? Nine?” Varhi pressed.

“...I’m twelve or thirteen, thank you very much. Incubi, or most demons in general, just mature slower than humans do and tend to live longer lives.” Cyial replied in a dry tone.

“Oh, you’re an incubus born on the Overworld? Now that is very interesting. I was wondering why you looked so human.” Varhi mused.

“Looks so human? What other kinds of demons are there?” Sairek asked.

“Well, a lot. While the Overworld may be dominated by just humans, in the Underworld, they have things from imps, doppelgangers and wraiths, to the ones that very closely resemble humans such as incubi, succubi and fey.” Varhi answered.

“...This doesn’t really help me ‘compare’, but okay.” Sairek blinked.

“When you are around Kior, while they’re rare, you see all kinds of them. Though the more human ones blend in very well with the crowds, of course.” Varhi commented, then glanced back towards Cyial. “You will probably be getting your horns growing out of your head in a couple of years. Aside from being usually taller than the average human, the horns and tail are usually a dead giveaway, aside from the fact the tail is easy to hide. Although the height thing probably won’t be a problem for you, either.”

“...Yes.” Cyial agreed in a dry tone, moving to sit down next to Sairek on his left side. “When our bodies get to the point where humans would normally begin to start maturing, that’s when the horns generally start growing for those of my kind, or so I hear.” He said, looking towards Sairek and leaned into him even closer, where Sairek hoped the amber glow of the fire was helping hide the blush that had risen to his cheeks due to the close proximity between them. “Flasks, please.” Cyial whispered to him, placing his hand on Sairek’s left upper leg where he sat.

“R-Right…” Sairek stammered, his blush deepening. He moved his left hand and fumbled to pinch the jewel to search inside of it for the flasks, then beginning to heat them up internally as he did. "W-Why is he acting so… ‘seductive’ right now, though…?” Sairek couldn’t help but wonder to himself.

“I’m still probably two to four years away from growing horns, though...” Cyial continued casually, still watching Sairek carefully, until a moment later, Sairek conjured two flasks for him which landed in his lap, each also already wrapped in a thin sheet of cloth. “Thank you, Sairek.” Cyial smiled sweetly, giving his leg one single firm squeeze with his hand, before reaching over to take both flasks in a hand each, standing up and making his way towards Varhi.

“N-No... problem…?” Sairek replied unsure and cleared his throat quietly. He took a moment to readjust himself a little, the sitting position he had been in having now grown moderately uncomfortable. What was with Cyial's sudden attitude shift?

“Okay, please sit up.” Cyial instructed Varhi.

Varhi groaned again, moving to do just that with a bit of effort, then turned his head around when Cyial moved to sit directly behind him, legs spread out on either side of him to be right up against Varhi’s back. “Uhh…? What are you—ahhck...!” Varhi gasped abruptly. Cyial had pressed both hot flasks against his body on two separate bruises.

“Sorry, they’re not too hot for you, are they?” Cyial spoke in a tone that betrayed that he was in fact, not sorry.

“A little warning would have been nice…!” Varhi seethed through clenched teeth.

“Oh, my bad. I just figured a strong and tall boy such as yourself would have been able to handle this fine without any complaint. I guess I was wrong.” Cyial replied dryly. "Regardless, this is needed to help you heal faster, so please try to bare with it." The demon boy continued, his tone cold.

“I-Is this seriously because of me noting how short you are? O-O-Oww-! W-Why are you pressing them in even harder?!”

Sairek slooooowly shimmied himself away from the other two boys and moved himself closer to Nayleen. They both watched past the flame of the campfire as Varhi continued to yelp out when Cyial pressed the two flasks against his open bruises. Sairek quickly realized that Cyial was not being seductive. He was, as some would say; 'pissed off'.

“Um... L-Let’s never judge Cyial by his height…” Nayleen whispered to Sairek. “Especially when we’re in need of medical treatment…”

Sairek quickly nodded his head in agreement. “Y-Yeah… Good advice..."