“I don’t think I can eat any more eidgarto for the rest of my life.” admitted Ruby, rubbing her stomach. “How much more do we have left?”

I stared back into the bag made out of fiavus pelt and let out a groan. We’d been eating eidgarto meat for the past four days along with the fiavus and white thorns. My early theory that the deadlier creatures were the better tasting ones, while not applicable to shade wolves, definitely applied to eidgarto.

“About two meal’s worth.” I looked up at the sky through the treeline and could see the sun had started its descent. “Didn’t you say you were rethinking our schedule?”

Ruby nodded and grinned. Talking about maps and cartography certainly brightened her mood.

“We’ve been here for eight days, but I think we can safely get out in only four more days if we continue our detour to the west. The map doesn’t show any of the geography inside the deeper forest, but it looks like doing that should allow us to hit the lake sooner than later. It’ll probably take a day to get to the camp once we hit the lake, but at least we’ll be out.”

“We get to spend less time in the forest,” said Silva dejectedly “and get to take a good swim in the lake after that.”

She paused momentarily, then surveyed the entire group. “Wait, who else here can swim?”

Alex, Sera and Wanderer all raised their hands. Mell seemed ashamed of the fact he couldn’t swim as his shoulders slumped until Ruby came along to give him a caring pat on the back.

“That seems about right. Who knows, maybe we can teach you to swim after we liberate the camp.”

Learning to swim? That wouldn’t hurt.

“I’ll think about that offer. Let’s get moving. Ruby, lead the way.” I stumbled my way to my feet and stretched.

“Gladly.”

***

We’d only been walking for what might have been a few hours before Ruby suddenly stopped in place, causing me to bump into her back.

“Enemies?” I whispered into her ear.

She shook her head, causing some of her red tipped hair to slap me in the face.

“No. Creek.”

Creek?

Ruby trudged forward with a grin on her face before breaking into a sprint. Confused, I began to run after her through the twisting woods until I finally came upon a clearing. It was a little patch of land that the trees seemed to avoid, leaving it open to small shrubbery and high grass. In the center, sitting in a miniature valley of rocks, was the thing Ruby had come running for.

“Oh. A creek.” I stated before laughing. I couldn’t name how long it had been since I’d seen naturally flowing water. The water flow was heading from east to west, cutting directly across our path. Soon, the rest of the group caught up with us, many out of breath.

“Seriously? You made us run for this? I thought we were in danger.” complained Silva in between breaths. I didn’t care about her objections as I noticed Ruby was taking off her shoes and rolling up her already torn up pant legs.

“Ruby, are you actually…” Sera’s protest trailed off as Ruby stepped one foot after another into water. The water only went up to her ankles as it rushed down its soft incline.

“We all smell like shit, and I think all of us need a break. Using Silva’s water isn’t the same as the natural stuff.” She leaned down to splash some of the water onto her face. “We’ve only got a few hours before sunset, so let’s just set up camp here?”

I rubbed my chin thoughtfully. The chance to wash off and relax was tempting, and the fact that my cartographer was suggesting it gave some credibility to the idea.

“Why not? We could all use the break.” I started taking off my shoes and threw them to the side, taking careful steps as I made my way into the water.

Sera still seemed doubtful. “We have no idea if there are any dangers in the water. Haven’t we gotten the lesson at this point that everything here is trying to kill us?”

Ruby gave a casual shrug of indifference before pointing her finger at me. “We’ll be fine if we get hurt. That’s what North is here for.”

“That feels a tad reductive.” I replied as I crouched down to get my face closer to the water.

“I mean, you appear to only find me useful as a cushion.”

“It was one time!”

Ruby’s grin grew wider, and we both began to laugh. Just being in the water seemed to melt the tension away. After splashing my face with water, I once again checked the group to find both Alex and Mell had begun to take off their shoes and walk towards the creek. I stared at the three outliers who looked unwilling to get into the water.

“You coming in or what?”

Sera shook her head and sat on the dirt, placing her pack to the side. “I think I’ll wait to come in. Same for you two?”

“Someone needs to stand guard.” Wanderer said stoically, placing a hand on the hilt of his blade.

I gave in and let them do what they wanted, and began to relax as I messed around in the water, stepping from stone to stone and feeling it race past my feet. It was a wave of nostalgia that almost hurt to experience as I listened to the sounds of the rushing creek and the others moving about in it. I could hear both Ruby and Mell giggling as the two splashed each other with water. Alex was silent, yet one look at his face told me that this experience was liberating.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Ruby paused abruptly in the middle of messing around with Mell to turn to Sera and asked “So, are we going to talk about her hair?”

Everyone paused to look at Sera who seemed entirely caught off guard. Her long brown hair’s blackened tips had appeared earlier and hadn’t gone away.

“It’s not like we have to care much about it. I think it looks fine.”

Everyone’s attention immediately turned right back to Ruby and her red tipped hair. It was an odd feature that stood out from her relatively normal brown hair, and it seemed to look the same no matter how long her hair got.

“Ruby, I know we never asked, but why is your hair like that?” I said tepidly, hoping that I wasn’t going to offend.

Ruby grabbed at her locks and ran her fingers through them until she held one of the red tips in front of her face. “Oh this? It’s just an old curse that runs in the family.”

Everyone went silent as we tried to process the several contradictions that had just been shoved in our face and directly down our throats.

“It’s nothing to worry about.”

“Sure…” The word dribbled out of my mouth, as it was the only possible response I could think of.

We continued cleaning our bodies with the creek water until I heard more steps enter the water and saw that Sera had finally given in. A nostalgic smile came across her lips as what must have been dozens of memories dashed through her head.

“Took you long enough.” I said as I stood up from my crouching position. “What made you come in?”

“Peer pressure. Ruby’s suggestion helped a bit as well.” She took careful steps from rock to rock, avoiding the occasional sharp edges which jutted out. “The ire feels a bit weaker here.”

Out of curiosity, I closed my eyes and attempted to attune to the mana in the air. Just as Sera had said, the ire the forest had been constantly emanating at us felt dampened. When I opened them, Sera appeared extremely contemplative.

“You can share your thoughts if you want to. Because you’ve been like this whenever we’ve started talking about the forest and how weird it is.” I stated as I gave my hair one more slick over with the creek water. Ever since Silva had broken a rule, she’d seemed more reserved about discussing it. Any time I had asked her, she said she was trying to figure it out.

“I know. I’m sorry. At dinner, I can share my thoughts, but they’re not complete.” She rubbed at her chin with her dry hand. “It’s not something we’ve really been focused on, but we need to start planning for the camp raid.”

Ah yeah. The thing we were here for in the first place.

“It’s been kind of hard to think about. We had to hide from a pack of cassobans yesterday. Still surprised they didn’t see us in our weird group huddle.” I shuddered thinking about the people sandwich that was made as we tried to hide from another cassoban pack. Being crushed by six people while trying to cover them all from sight had given me a headache that lasted until nightfall. “Still wish we could have at least hunted one of them. It would have solved our current food situation.”

“Food…” Sera stared down at the creek as an idea visibly flashed across her face. “Cocerna!”

Cocerna?

“Didn’t you say those tasted bad?”

“Yeah, but they’re easy to kill and they live near water! I saw so many of them at the lake, so there has to be some near the creek.”

It wasn’t purely sound logic, but I could trust that Sera would be smarter than me in most situations.

“Come on North. I don’t think we can act picky in our current situation.” She admitted with a frown. She was right, like usual.

“Fine. Hopefully Wanderer’s cooking skills are able to make them edible.” I turned my attention away from Sera to the rest of the group. “Who’s up for some frog hunting?”

***

“Yup. They taste like crap.” I stated, the taste of mud hanging in the back of my throat.

Better than starving, I guess.

The hunting was surprisingly easy, which should have been our first warning. Kocerna were medium sized frogs, about the size of my fist. They were fast, but lightning moved faster. One quick zap from Sera was enough for them to stop moving and for one of us to rush in and grab it. After grabbing ten of the things, we walked back to our camp and left Wanderer with the job of cooking.

“It’s probably a defense mechanism of sorts,” Ruby said as she rubbed at her chin thoughtfully. “If I were a predator, I’d never want to eat this.”

“Is it wrong that I’m wishing for a cassoban to show up so we can cook that instead?” I said after taking another reluctant bite. Both Alex and Silva responded to me with a quick “no”.

Oh yeah, the thing we were supposed to talk about.

“Sera, could you share that theory you were holding out on?”

The group paused as all eyes turned to Sera, flustered by the sudden attention. She ran her hands through her hair to calm herself down and took a deep breath.

“I think I’ve figured out a few things about Corith, and maybe how we can use it to our advantage,” She shifted her seating to look directly at Silva. “Silva proved something about the forest for me. From what you described, the ire of the forest is directed at individuals rather than everyone in the vicinity. The eidgarto did attack the other members of the hunting party, but only after they realized that Silva was out of reach. That means that whoever breaks the rule, in some way, can control it.”

The experience had been horrifying, but Silva’s brush with death had its uses.

“I think the other thing that I’ve figured out was the way that the ire works. It’s only a theory, but I think all of it is dependent on the trees. North noted that the ire felt a lot weaker around here. The areas outside of the forest also don’t experience ire, since they’re in open land without the trees. That’s why the lake is safe, and presumably why the camp is safe. There’s only one exception though.” Her voice trailed off, and I immediately knew what was on her mind.

“Burning down the forest. The greatest sin.” I said, feeling a lump forming in the back of my throat. If the punishments for breaking rules were this bad already, one could only imagine the terrors that starting a fire would cause.

Silva shook her head furiously, her face stone cold. “That’s suicide. I know that you’ve all faced the ire of the forest, but breaking a rule is different. It feels like the entire world is crashing down on you, trying to turn your essence into paste.”

“But what if we get one of the guards to do it?” I mused aloud.

“What?” the group said in unison.

“I helped Silva with the kill on the fiavus, right? Yet I wasn’t targeted. If that theory is right, that means that only the person who commits the sin is targeted, not those who helped. All we need is for one guard to set in motion a forest fire, and none of us will end up as central targets. With my attunement, I could probably run in and steal some lamp oil. Coat some trees with it and create a trail. Doesn’t matter how, but as long as one of them lights that match, they’ll be the target and have the entire forest descend upon them,” I took a deep breath, and the faces of all of my deceased comrades flashed through my mind. “We don’t have the numbers to win a head on fight. If we want to defeat them, we need to take risks.”

Alex scoffed. “Like we haven’t been doing that already.”

“You know what I mean.”

Silva put her hand on Alex’s shoulder, and immediately stopped his open mouth from ejecting any more words.

“There’s only one problem with that. What’s the way we protect the slaves?”

I smirked, knowing just how insane I was about to sound. “We won’t need to, because the fire is going to start while they’re inside the mine.”