Khalil stilled his hands. He had already been nervous, at the entrance of the Mayor, he was far more so. Though he was unsettled, he needed to act as if he was perfectly calm. It would allow for their group to have higher ground to bargain from. Bargaining was what they must be doing, otherwise they would not have been asked to meet like this. The meeting was already strange as the eavesdropping girl and her companion were also with them.

Jenny picked up on his sudden change in demeanor, and her false bravado faded into stoic professionalism. If anyone from the guild were to see the intensity on Jenny’s face, they would be awestruck and terrified. If Jenny was capable of such a transition, how much of her personality was an act?

Sam Colon pulled out the chair on the straight side of the overly-luxurious table. She smoothed out her clothes as if she was used to wearing a suit, before sitting with the five. The Mayor looked at each individual for a brief second, setting the notion that she found each of them either important, or a tool. One never knew with the Mayor.

Khalil found himself following her line of sight, observing their two guests. The eavesdropper, Meagan as she introduced herself, had shoulder length, wavy, aquamarine hair. Whether it was dyed, altered, or natural, Khalil could never guess. He would ask Jenny for her opinion on the subject later. Jenny would no doubt be observing their faces, he needed to get a general feel for their classes, demeanor, and perhaps generalize their personality. Khalil was much better with reading actions than facial features. In this way, he and Jenny made a good team that shored up the other's weaknesses.

Darryn was doing his job perfectly as well. He was weird, and was unskilled at reading the atmosphere, but he brought raw combat talent to their group. Hopefully, the two who were joining them at the table would never need to know of his skill. An unintended yet pleasant side effect of his awkwardness was that he tended to draw attention to himself, allowing the other two to observe with less worries.

Khalil shook his head, remembering that he should be observing the two. Colon flicked her eyes to him at his movement, and he mentally chided himself. He was getting too distracted, already two seconds had passed and he was losing his window to observe their fellow diners. He focused on Meagan again, now that she wasn't the center of Sam’s gaze, she noticed his attention. She unerringly stared back at him.

Khalil was only able to observe a little about her before he had to avert his eyes, afraid of being too… forward. She had a loose shirt on, and if he remembered, she had loose fabric pants as well. It reminded him of Thai pants. Like the apparel from Earth, her clothing also had similar patterns and art, matching the liveliness of her personality in cloth form.

He did notice in his quick scan the few bulges underneath the fabric, and he noticed metal strings around her wrist. He would need to ask a few probing questions during their meal to get a clear picture of her strengths or weaknesses. Currently it looked like she was either a support or ranged class of some sort. The bulges were signs of tools, not armor. She was not a frontline fighter.

The metal strings looked eerily like guitar strings. This was pure guesswork, but she could use music. A bard type build perhaps? No, the look in her eyes as they made contact spoke of a confidence earned from individual strength. Interesting. He turned to observe the other newcomer, but could see nothing but the back of her head as she had put her forehead on the table. He felt it would be unnecessary to worry about this individual, but did note that she had raven black hair that cascaded down her back.

“I am glad you could all make it,” Sam had finished scanning their faces, “I am glad to see you all in good—”

“AH GET ON WITH IT SAM! Ugh, you never change. I have stuff to do, I’m tired as fu—” Justine cut off the Mayor, before she was likewise interrupted.

“Health,” she stared at Justine as if daring her to continue, Justine met her gaze from the surface of the table. A tension had filled the room that caused Khalil to change his opinion of Justine, he would need to worry about her after all.

“You haven’t changed either have you, Justinia.” Justine’s eye twitched at the mention of her real name, “you are as unseemly as I remember.”

“And you’re still a creepy stalker, Chrysanthemum,” Justine retorted, “imagine following the heels of a man for your whole life who thinks of you as nothing more than a sister. You’re even still listening to his request from years ago. You still won't even mention what it was.” Khalil gulped. They had found themselves between the definition of a rock and a hard place. He believed no one else at this point in time would have a more apt example than he. Had he witnessed the struggle of a certain Figment hanging off a rapidly growing mangrove, he would have amended his thoughts.

“That's ironic coming from you.” If sparks could fly, they would have been soaring. Khalil needed to change the topic. Right now they were getting nowhere, and he had a living to make.

“Ladies, we all have important things to attend to, can we discuss business before we sour the mood?” Jenny said before Khalil could do likewise. The two women stared a little longer, before finally breaking eye contact.

“Forgive me, that was rather unlike me. I have been under a lot of pressure with the announcement of two multi-system users on our outskirts. I fear the hubbub has caused me to lose myself. This is why we are meeting currently. I would like the five of you to serve as one of our forward scouting parties.”

d [https://i.imgur.com/VtExBEV.png]

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Had Yuclaus not seen the army waiting in the water below, he would have made the jump. As there was far more danger in the water than in the tree, he was relegated to watch his impending doom. He expected the tongues to shoot out faster than he could track, like a frog catching a fly. Instead, they slowly extended. Slow in regards to the tongue of a frog, fast in the sense that a foot of vine was being made every second.

Yuclaus was underwhelmed by the salamanders. Yes, he was unable to do anything to stop their progression, but he expected more. Instead of being launched by the force of impact, skipping upon the water, and Isencia saving him at the last second, he would just get slowly strangled. It seemed he had about fifteen seconds before the first thorned appendage reached him.

The electricity below was slowly fading, the stored energy all but used up. This meant that Cause’s light source was likewise disappearing. He was still able to see the serpentine fish aimlessly searching in the dim lighting. Why isn't Gourami attacking the salamanders? Gourami, attack all creatures in the water. Nothing changed. The roots moved slightly faster, but they still did not pursue any of the creatures.

“Gourami! Hurry! I need an escape! They're literally right there!” He pointed, and immediately a swarm of roots converged on the already deceased quadrupedal. What Yuclaus witnessed was quite disturbing. The moment green ichor poured from the amphibious being, the roots dove into it. In just seconds, the dried and torn husk of a salamander floated to the surface. He ignored the fact that it was dry, while submerged in water. Magic, he concluded.

Now typically, having a bunch of vines wanting to reap your life would not allow Yuclaus to act so calmly. However, as everything lit up from the initial shock, he noticed the small green vine quickly retract into Gourami’s canopy. Isencia would make sure nothing happened, he was sure of it. Isencia knew none of his thought process, she was starting to think he was still broken. Seven deadly vines were undulating across the surface of his spore towards him, and he was talking to his tumbleweed.

So for the next few seconds, Yuclaus ignored the thorns that were getting ever closer, and conducted his first symphony. Yuclaus would raise his fingers to the sky, pointing at various visible salamanders that would immediately be devoured by carnivorous roots. He was glad Gourami was on his side. The light had faded to the point where Cause just pointed at the locations he believed they had been. He would have started a methodical check of every square inch of water, when he felt something bite into his ankle. The sensation wasn’t painful, more like, very large shots being simultaneously injected into his ankle. Though he felt no pain, the mental trauma of his childhood reared its head.

“Nope.” Yuclaus stated simply, before jumping off the tree. He mentally directed the roots to surround him as he entered the water, hopefully shielding himself from the onslaught of the submerged plants. In reality, he believed he was, excuse my French, le screwed. He also started to doubt the validity of his trust in Isencia.

His fall, and the doubts he held against his friend, were both brought to an abrupt halt. A green net had caught the falling Cause a few feet below his previous position. He turned onto his back, blinded by the night once more. He grabbed the thorns encircling his ankle, attempting to dismantle it. As he made contact, the previously owned thorny appendage fell through the net to the water below. I knew I shouldn’t have doubted Sen! She had my back the whole time!

The net was gently lowered right above the surface of the water, before moving to the shore a brief distance away. Yuclaus only noticed he was moving sideways, once a small breeze ruffled his hair. A moment later the air resistance abated. Yuclaus sat on the net. He would have jumped off, but he was certain he was fairly high up.

“Are you that fond of my handiwork? Perhaps I should go into the furniture industry.” He heard a voice coming from quite close, right in front of him. If Sen was able to show emotion through tone, Yuclaus would have heard worry. Had he been able to see, he would have noticed she was carefully observing the pink fluid that was dripping from his ankle.

It wasn't until later that he discovered Isencia never meant for them to get close to him. She just wanted to have a little fun, give him experience in tough situations, and perhaps motivate him to get stronger. She had originally planned to keep everything at bay until he could eliminate them. When he had calmly ignored the encroaching enemies, she assumed he had a plan. When he had been grabbed, and then proceeded to jump, Isencia had reacted quite harshly. The next morning Yuclaus would see the body parts scattered in the lake that, if carefully pieced together, would reveal seven salamanders.

Though she knew the enemies were dead in the water, she caught him just in case. It was more on instinct than logic. She was also hesitant to let him in the water. There was still an occasional flicker of electricity, and a toxic fume was slowly rising from the surface. When she had brought Yuclaus to herself, she had wanted to rush to him, overcome with guilt at her oversight. She felt that would be strange. They had still just recently met, so she tamped down her motherly instincts, and thought of another way to break the tension. What would be something funny I could say? She looked back through Yuclaus’ memories and pieced together a comment.

Yuclaus had not laughed at her joke. Instead he looked in the direction her voice came from, and smiled.

“I knew you had my back, Sen! Thank you for the save at the end there.” His words carried no hint of anger at her impractical joke, nor of her forcing him in this situation. Guilt was not unfamiliar to her.

“...We are a team Yu.” Isencia was grasping for things to say, and ended up speaking her thoughts when she was watching him fight off the salamanders, “What you did at the lake was pretty awesome. The blue flickers were incredible. They looked like lightning, but you controlled it.”

“Who are you? Did you just compliment me? Not only that, but rather than a ‘good job’ you used the word ‘awesome’? I must’ve died. My dream of a talkative and an enthusiastic Isencia must’ve followed me to the afterlife.” Yuclaus responded with a tease, finally able to get the verbal upper-hand. He was dropped to the ground below. He was stunned at the sudden change, but found that he reflexively hardened his mind whenever he felt a change in his surroundings. He also noticed that his seat was far more uncomfortable than the previous hammock.

“Sen I think you should go into the furniture industry, this ground truly has a lot to learn.” The two then laughed. Yuclaus thought it was only him chuckling at his own joke, but couldn’t hear the faint twinkling of laughter in the background. Her hair also rustled in their mirth. After they had relaxed, Yuclaus finishing with a magnificent snort, they elapsed in silence once more.

“You said they were plant creatures right?” Yuclaus suddenly said.

“Yeah, they are a weird creature. Kind of like a sentient tree I guess.”

“Are you ok Sen? You've been talking weird for a little.”

“Fine. I'll go back.”

“No, I'm sorry! Come back oh ye of many a thought. Hey, I can still speak a little fancy.” There was a momentary pause.

“So why did you ask about the Encroaching Amphibians?” Isencia asked.

“Have you ever had ‘Meat from Beyond’?”