The weather WAS nicer in the deathtrap they were all heading towards. The hunting lodge turned out to be close to battle quarter, just a five minute walk from Mist's apartment, and once there preparations were simple—the party collected their low-level default gathering gear then went to a small waiting room until the spells were ready, collectively stepped through a wide portal, and after a dazzling moment of time-into-nothing they found themselves in a pale green field atop a cliff, the sun strong, the breeze warm, the drop over the side giving a spectacular view of a deep, lush valley, sparkling rivers winding through, high mountains beyond.

"Is this really an island?" Mist asked, staring out with wide eyes. "I can't even see the ocean anywhere ... this is so different from my home..."

"WideLeafs," Tzugakk said, pointing at a cluster of plants near the cliff edge. The leaves were half a metre long and almost as wide, dark green in colour. "And over there, also"

"Good," Nala said. "You can gather while I scout. Five each."

Without anything further Nala put up the hood of her cloak and started towards the nearby forest, disappearing into the trees and leaving the others behind. Though the forest was thick and old the paths were clear, and Nala noted several gather points as she moved—DarkShrooms, DiceVines and PinkLeafs. None of these were particular valuable, and PinkLeafs could be commonly found at the academy, but she marked their locations in her mind. Soon enough Nala came to a wider area, several land lizards crowded near rocky cliffs, taking advantage of a gap in the foliage to bask in the light. Not too far from the lizards was a shallow pool surrounded by SparkleFlowers, but Nala dismissed the gather point as too dangerous—she had read that land lizards were slow to anger, easy to avoid, and weak in battle, but there were near a dozen of them and potentially more in cracks in the cliff. Even one mistake could destroy this chance, she thought. Find a safer way.

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Further along the path Nala found a wide cave entrance. She swiftly backtracked from this. DarkCaves would be narrow and home to more dangerous creatures, and although the items would be higher quality it wasn't worth the risk. Besides, they didn't have the equipment to take advantage of mining gather points.

Perhaps next time, Nala thought, taking a new path deeper into the forest.

Here the light was dimmer, the trees thicker, the paths marked with evidence of larger creatures—furrows scratched from the dark earth, broken tree branches, a long gnarled claw. Nala spent a moment examining this, then dropped it into her pouch.

Avoiding the narrower paths, and those where she saw movement or heard sounds, Nala eventually reached a clearing, one side dropping abruptly into nothing as if the land had been torn away by an impossibly enormous hand. The edge was jagged and raw, but there appeared to be a way to drop down safely to explore the areas below. Nala ignored this. The other side of the clearing was blocked in by a low cliff from which cascaded a beautiful waterfall. Behind the waterfall there was a small cave that Nala immediately evaluated as suspicious. She looked instead at the pool—and beyond, to a wide flat area, lightly forested, telltale glimmers marking gather points.

"Here," Nala murmured. Without further hesitation she turned and made her way back towards the others, thinking of merits; thinking of escape.