It was 10 am when Hara left, and she needed to get the beasts from class 5A at around 2 pm, so she decided to go hunting with Lyth.

It wasn't a hard or dangerous task, as their targets were the grasshopper beasts from the Sry forest.

Hara didn't announce her presence first before visiting, call it petty revenge, but as the forester of Sry saw no need to inform her if he was coming, she saw no need either.

She parked her bike at the entrance of the forest and went inside, like the Emerald forest she looked after, the Sry forest was lush and green, filled with a colourful mix of trees blooming in different shades of greens.

The woman didn't call her rangers today as there was no need, they'd call if they found anything worth reporting to her.

So, without worries Hara stepped into the forest and followed the small dirt path up the mountain, as per reports, the grasshoppers had settled in a clearing near the top of the mountain in sector 3 of the Sry forest, it would be a good hour hike up and down.

The two of them followed the path up and didn't stray from it, if this was the Emerald forest, then she would have known various shortcuts and little spots, having worked in and around the forest for years, she knew it inside out, but this was foreign territory and she didn't want to get lost.

While walking, the two discussed a few plans and settled on a rather simple one, although her partner had turned into a beast, it was still a mantis, an animal that relied on sneak attacks to hunt its prey.

Lyth would hide among the leaves and flowers and Hara would scare a few beasts her way.

As they talked about the finer details of the plan, not that there was much more to be talked about, Hara stumbled across the question "Why do you want to hunt beasts?", Hara was keen on catching some grasshoppers to take home to feed Lyth and the other flower mantises while also reducing the fast-growing population of grasshopper beasts, but she felt that Lyth wanted them for another reason entirely.

Compliant as always, her partner sent her a detailed wave of emotion that had her questioning her worldview.

"I hunt to get stronger." That was what she could put into words, everything that came after she sent a wave of confusion over, was harder to describe and decipher, but much, much more important, it explained why her partner would get stronger from hunting beasts, and why normal animals seemed unimportant.

She might be unable to explain it in human words, but she understood what her partner was trying to tell her either way.

It also answered some questions that had itched at her for some time.

At the start of this... change, the higher-ups had given an explanation that left more questions than answers, if one looked deeper than surface level.

In essence, they claimed that a type of energy that had always existed, but had been dormant before, had mutated after a nuclear plant exploded in the east, a type of nuclear energy mixed with this formerly dormant energy and awakened it, the animals changed as the energy mixed with them.

The government had also stated that no one needed to worry as the energy wasn't enough to change bigger or more complex animals, and the world was told that only insects and bugs would change.

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But, what her partner told her, shattered that explanation to pieces, and explained what the energy that had always remained unexplained was.

Some of the explanation was lost in translation, as some emotions and sensations her partner sent her, she was unable to explain.

Lyth told her that the animals absorbed the energy and changed as a result, as such, every beast had that energy within them, the only reason bigger animals hadn't changed was that every animal need a different amount of this energy to successfully change into a beast, it was only a matter of time until every animal had turned into a beast or something similar to one.

Lyth wanted to hunt beasts because she could now, because of the contract- and higher thought resulting from said contract, absorb the energy from other beasts, but no beast would give this energy up freely, no matter how stupid it was.

After "something" changed into a beast, it would be in their instincts to protect this energy at all costs, and once the energy became thicker in this world, or smarter animals had turned into beasts later on, they would instinctually know to hunt or absorb more of the energy to strengthen themselves and to transform further.

The only reason why they weren't doing this now was that beasts had a limit as to how much they could transform, some affected by their very blood and flesh, others by their intelligence, while some needed a stimulant to further transform.

The beasts that had transformed up until now, had almost always reached that threshold that they could achieve, weren't smart enough to comprehend the need for more energy, or didn't have the stimulant needed to reach further transformation, once animals higher up in the food chain transformed, the real war between species would start.

Hara felt goosebumps appear on her arms as she deciphered her partners explanation.

In fact, Lyth had transformed after her contract with Hara, although her transformation wasn't physical, but spiritual and mind related, the contract had given her the push needed to want for more energy, as her species wasn't hindered by their bloodline, or the need for a stimulant, for now, but only by their intelligence.

As such, the beast wanted to advance and become stronger now.

After getting this information from her beast, Hara was already itching to call the chief again, because this was bad, bad news for all of them, as it seemed, that humans were excluded from this transformation and couldn't naturally absorb the energy.

Humans, who had stood on top of the food chain would fall to the depths of it after the animals had turned into beasts.

Although humans would be ignored by most beasts until provoked, because they were useless to them, some animals already attacked humans unprovoked, and beasts would likely be even worse.

And that was only on land, the sea would likely soon become the most dangerous place on Veranna, as the smaller fish living in the sea were a lot smarter than small animals on land, Hara shivered, thinking what beasts could be hiding in the depths of the sea, transforming with no hindrance other than the beasts they were trying to kill.

The ranger felt a new sense of urgency wash over her and knew that humans would need to make contracts with beasts in order to ensure their own survival.

The energy that was causing all of this didn't have a name, but Hara decided to call it Miasma, as it was bad as far as humans were concerned and would cause humanity as whole bad luck.

Lyth chirped from her perch on her shoulder, the beast was weak enough to get blown away by the winds caused by riding a bike, but could hold on to her if she was on foot and had, as such, settled on her shoulder as soon as she could.

The chirp came with a feeling of assurance as her beast told her master.

She waved her sickled as if demonstrating her might and Hara smiled.

"I'll need you to do exactly that."

She said, knowing that her survival would depend on her beast one day.

Shaking the grim thoughts away, Hara asked her partner how she would get that energy from the beasts they were going to hunt.

Feeling the emotion that resembled a questioningly raised eyebrow, Hara concluded that this was one of the things lost in translation and told her beast, after another failed attempt at communicating, that she should just show her later.

Her little midnight blue beast nodded.

Their timing was perfect, as they reached their goal not even a minute after ending their conversation with each other.