The first thing Zalia did when their conversation was over was resummon her armour onto her body, activate the intangibility effect it granted and walk confidently face-first into a large root that grew up the wall. She had been meaning to test out the ability that allowed her to step from one plant to another of a similar type but had forgotten that the roots in this room were actually a part of the large magical bulb growing above. No using that ability on overtly magical plants. Got it.

She ignored Boreal’s mocking glance and left the room, allowing Ro to slowly walk back and forth, testing his new body. While he now had gotten back all of the memories from his previous life, adjusting to the new level of power would probably take a little bit.

She went up and left the temple, returning to the forest to try again. This time, when she stepped into a largish withered tree, her perception shifted. For a moment, she was able to see as if from every tree within a hundred metres. A barrage of sensory information assaulted her mind but the newly Bronze attributes that helped it function allowed her to quickly sort through and comprehend the mess. She was seeing out of every possible location for her teleportation. It was just a moment but during that time she chose a nearby tree and stepped out of it.

Her perception shrunk and returned back to normal as she left the tree, now somewhat far from where she had been previously. She could feel that if she did not choose a place to move to during that short moment she would have simply been left where she was, sunk most of the way into a tree with her intangibility.

She turned about and tried stepping back into the tree but found the sensation did not repeat. At least, it didn’t do so immediately. She stepped back out and waited five seconds before trying again, it didn’t work. Another five seconds later and she was finally able to use the ability again, transferring back to the first withered tree she had stepped from.

“See that!” Zalia exclaimed, looking at Boreal who was looking very confusedly at the tree. Like she hadn’t been expecting it to swallow Zalia.

“Mreow?” Boreal said in confusion.

She had forgotten to explain the new ability to Boreal.

“Right, sorry. It lets me step into a plant and come out another one, kind of like what you do with shadows,” Zalia explained.

An understanding seemed to pass through Boreal as she lost her confusion. She jumped up.

“Chase!” she exclaimed.

Zalia waited for her to sprint off into the forest but she just waited, staring intently at Zalia with pupils so large her eyes were almost black. She was in hunting mode.

“Other way around this time hey? Alright, let’s do it,” Zalia said, immediately beginning to cast a few rituals. She applied her stealth and slow fall rituals, forgoing flight to be fair about it. She also managed to cast a movement slowing ritual on Boreal as she sprinted face first through a tree. Even with the slowing, Boreal would still be faster than Zalia, especially so considering the time between her shadow jumps was significantly lower than Zalia’s plant one, though the range was much shorter.

Still, Zalia planned to give her a run for her money as she did everything she could to get a headstart, using her other teleport as well, compliments of Mobility.

She sprinted through the forest, ignoring branches, bushes and other smaller obstacles as she used her intangibility to pass straight through them. Doing so did apply some force on her but it was so little that her strength and momentum allowed her to ignore it. She felt a little like a spirit of the forest, flitting through without a care for where she ran, quick and reactive enough to avoid anything big enough to be an issue to her intangibility.

Despite her speed and various advantages, it wasn’t enough to escape Boreal. She was a natural born hunter, enhanced by her own attributes and abilities. While she wasn’t in what would be considered her natural habitat, it didn’t really seem to bother her as she eventually caught up and bowled Zalia over, again. She was doing that too much lately.

“Ow, you got me, you got me,” Zalia groaned between deep breaths and the laughter escaping her.

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Boreal jumped up and ran about in victory, obviously excited to be big enough and quick enough to catch Zalia like that. She supposed it was the turning point in any kid's life to become better at something than their parent. Was that what Boreal was to her, a child?

Zalia had raised her, so to speak. She supposed she hadn’t been far off from being a parent to Boreal.

She smiled at Boreal running around, bouncing off the trees and sat contentedly in the dirt. That was, before she remembered that she had to be ready for whatever danger was coming their way. Stupid foresight, predicting the future. She much preferred being unaware of what the future held, it was kind of hard to enjoy the moment when you knew the death of you and your loved ones may soon approach.

With a sigh, Zalia picked herself up from the ground.

“Come on Boreal, we’ve got to get back and pick up Delphi. Preparations to be made still,” Zalia called out.

She stepped through a tree and started making her way towards the temple. Boreal would probably get there before she did anyway.

As predicted, Boreal was waiting for her when she left the forest, the cheeky feline sitting innocently on the doorstep of the temple.

“Yeah alright, alright. You’re damn fast. No need to be so smug about it,” Zalia grumbled as she stepped past Boreal.

They picked up Delphi and flew back home together. Ro said that he would be able to join them when he was ready. Zalia wasn’t sure how exactly he would go about it but he did have big wings and a tendency towards mystery and shadow. She was sure he could get here unseen.

When they were back, Delphi went off to tell the collective all about the story and Ro’s awakening. It was certain to be a memory the collective would hold onto for a long time, of that Zalia was sure.

“Right, I’ve run out of ideas for any preparations we can make. Do you have any ideas Boreal?” Zalia asked.

Boreal stared at the ground thoughtfully, like she was trying to discern the nature of the dirt beneath her feet.

“Food,” Boreal said.

Zalia was about to roll her eyes but the idea that came with the thought stopped her. Boreal had sent the idea of… distraction?

“Do you mean we should set up something as a distraction from the cave?” Zalia asked.

Boreal bobbed her head.

Zalia thought about it, weighing the good and bad of the idea. On one hand, having something that brought attention away from the caves was an excellent idea. The issue she had with it was that it would have to be something very… visible. That would definitely drag attention to the island if there wasn’t attention already. It might have been a good idea but what if doing this was what brought the danger in the first place?

She stopped, uncertain. What were the chances that the demon had already told something or someone of what it found before coming to investigate further? Was there some force that already knew of her place here or would she bring that focus by setting up something to distract that very same attention.

Once more, she found herself doubting and overthinking because of the damn foresight of the collective.

“I don't know Boreal. Maybe we can find a way to do it without bringing too much attention to the island. I don’t want to give away our presence if that demon we killed hadn’t gone and told something about us. Maybe we can try to build an escape from these caves so we don’t get trapped in here instead,” Zalia suggested.

She would take the time to consider Boreal’s idea. It wasn’t a terrible one but it might serve to know more about the danger before trying something like that.

So, not waiting for Boreal’s response, she moved over to the wall near to the pool holding the collective. The Grove responded to her thoughts and created a doorway in the wall through which she started using her passives to move the stone. It flowed like water, ever so slowly creating a tunnel that led away from the Grove.

It took some time but with Boreal’s help, as she too had access to the Physical resistance passive from Survivalist, they managed to create a path that led to the other side of the giant pillar their cave was built into. It was a relatively shallow incline, the distance much farther than the normal entrance to the cave system. They left a good few metres of stone there, knowing they would be able to remove it quickly if needed to escape.

The process really gave Zalia a good feel for how big these pillars really were. From the outside and compared to the scale of the island, they seemed somewhat small, yet while digging through them it took her a very long time to reach the other side with her limited stone manipulation skill.

Despite that, it was done. She had still not come to a decision about following through with Boreal’s plan by the time she arrived back in the Grove from the tunnel and when she arrived, discovered that she wouldn’t need to. Before the pool, in the middle of the room, sat a very large gathering of frogs. It must have been the entire collective, out of their little pool home with the jellyfish and now in her Grove.

“It is time,” the collective said.