By the time Naomi finished healing Marie, night had fallen. The woman was far from completely cured, she was still in a good amount of pain, but Naomi and Siora's ministrations had restored her to conciousness and healed the worst of her injuries. Following that, Jade and the rest of the party decided to remain with Harish and his group in the small hut for the night. It would be cramped and some of them would have to sleep on the floor, but that was preferable to trying to find their way back to their campsite in the dark.

"We'll have to get the rest of our gear in the morning." Luis pointed out as they settled in for the night.

"Do you think it'll be okay out there?" Naomi asked, concerned. They each had their weapons and armor, but had left some of their supplies behind in their rush to investigate the disturbance.

"It'll be fine." Siora reassured them. "It's well hidden."

Jade hoped she was right. She was already dangerously low on changes of clothes. The last thing she needed was to have nothing but her armor to wear, and even that was starting to get worn down by the constant fighting.

The six of them, everyone except Marie, who still needed to rest, worked out a rotation for keeping watch through the night. They had the advantage of a sturdy structure to protect them, but nobody wanted a wandering monster to sneak up on them. After that was decided, the two groups mostly kept to themselves on different sides of the small room.

Harish's group seemed like decent people, but Jade was still wary of untested strangers. That was especially true after hearing the story of what had happened to them when they'd run across another pair of wayfarers. Jade didn't know what their powers were, and none of them volunteered the information. The most she could glean were their classes, but that wasn't much to go on.

For her part, Jade kept her true race concealed, suspecting that nothing good would come of revealing her demonic nature. She took a few moments to examine each of the newcomers' status summaries, grateful that her 'shapechange' ability labeled her as 'human' while she was disguised. Harish was the highest level of all of them at level 3, and the system didn't have anything noteworthy to say about them. Satisfied that she had done her due diligence, Jade found a spot to rest for the night.

Morning came without incident. The stone floor hadn't been the most comfortable of surfaces, but Jade still managed to get a decent amount of sleep. More than anything, she was grateful that the previous night's excitement hadn't repeated.

"You said they crossed the bridge?" She asked Harish while everyone else was getting up.

"Yes, a day and a half ago. I don't know how far they went, though."

"I can track them." Siora offered. "I know my way around woodland."

Harish just stared at the elf. He had been doing that all morning, to the point where Jade could tell it was making her feel uncomfortable.

"How is any of this happening…" He said to no one in particular.

"That's what I said, amigo. But you're gonna have to get used to it."

"Luis is right. We're in this at least until we can complete one hundred quests."

"I have completed none so far, and without our equipment, I don't know how we'll make it."

"After we deal with these vagabonds, we'll bring back anything of yours that we can find." Naomi promised.

Did she really just say 'vagabonds'?

Harish bowed his head.

"Thank you."

"I want to go with you." Erik interjected. "I'm not going to roll over for them again."

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

Jade had been afraid that one of them was going to say something like that. She opened her mouth to explain how they already had a team dynamic in the works, but Marie beat her to the punch.

"Erik…" She said, voice still a little weak. "Please don't leave me."

"Marie." He turned back to her. "I just-"

"We don't know what we're doing." She cut him off. She coughed, and then continued. "And I don't want you to leave."

"We'll get this over with and come right back." Jade promised. She half expected a quest prompt to appear in front of her but, for some reason, none did.

After that, Erik reluctantly agreed to remain behind to watch over Marie while she was recovering, along with Harish. The four of them left the riverside hut, journeying back along the bank to where they'd left their supplies the night before. Everything was still there, and they took a moment to eat a hurried breakfast before trekking back to the bridge.

"Who built this, anyway?" Jade asked as they crossed the somewhat rickety construction that spanned the river.

"Probably no one." Siora said, hopping lightly across a gap in the planks. "The Labyrinth likely copied it from one of the worlds it visited."

"Copied? Or stole?" Naomi asked, bringing up the rear.

Siora shrugged.

"I'm not really sure how it works."

When they reached the other side of the river, they began looking around for traces of anyone passing through the area. It didn't take Siora long to find the trail of footprints, whoever had made them clearly hadn't taken care to disguise their passage.

"A little over a day old." She said, leading the way. The tracks took them away from the river, into a sparser section of jungle. Not having to constantly pick their way around bushes and trees made the journey easier, and Jade was grateful for the change.

The next two hours passed with only a pair of monster encounters, just more of the 'jungle serpents' that were easy to dispatch. Jade caught Naomi looking at her more than once, but the other woman always looked away. She seemed like she wanted to say something, but kept changing her mind. Finally, as the sun shone directly overhead and they day grew hot and muggy, Siora called a halt.

"Do you see that?" she asked, pointing.

Jade followed her gesture, picking out a faint trail of smoke curling up from the trees ahead.

"A campfire?" Luis suggested.

"Who would light a fire?" Naomi asked, wiping sweat from her brow. "It's sweltering."

"Let's go find out." Jade said, striding in that direction. It was roughly the same way they had already been going, following the trail.

The smoke was further away than it had initially looked, and it took them over half an hour to work their way to its source. Jade periodically stopped as they drew closer, placing down a trio of rune traps in their wake. She didn't know if they would be necessary, but being over prepared was better than the alternative.

Eventually, they finally caught sight of the source of the fire. It did turn out to be a campfire, and was set in the middle of a small jungle clearing. A couple of bedrolls were laid out nearby, unoccupied. A man sat on a log near the fire, fiddling with a sheathed sword of some kind that was lying across his lap. His hair was short, almost buzzed, and he was wearing a heavy breastplate similar to Luis's.

Jade didn't see any reason for stealth. They had come here to confront this group, after all. She called out to the man.

"Hello?"

The man looked up, and then stood. He buckled the scabbard to his belt, turning to face them and shading his eyes against the bright sun.

"Welcome!" He called back. "Are you wayfarers too? We've been trying to find others."

He turned around, speaking over his shoulder.

"Hey, Amy! Some people showed up!"

"Yes, we are." Jade had to raise her voice to reply, their group was still a short distance away from the small camp. She slowed her approach, gesturing for the others to do the same. Something about this situation was making her uneasy, besides what Harish and his companions had relayed to them.

A woman, Jade supposed she must be Amy, emerged from the far side of the clearing, walking up to join the man by the fire. Like Jade, she had a belt that held a pair of daggers and a wand.

"Other wayfarers? Good, we could use the help. Want to team up?" She said, greeting them with a smile and beckoning for them to come over.

Alarm bells sounded in Jade's head. She stopped, not getting any closer.

"Is something wrong?"

Amy walked up to the edge of the clearing, speaking at a normal volume now that they were closer. She had a very average appearance: Fair skin, brown hair, and average height. Other than the light armor she wore, she looked like any number of people Jade had passed on the street countless times.

"Did you steal equipment from a group of three people the other day?" Jade asked bluntly. "And threaten them if they didn't give it to you?"

"Very subtle..." Naomi sighed quietly from somewhere behind her.

The woman looked surprised. She took a step back, her smile faltering.

"What? No, you're the first person we've seen since we got here."

"Then why are you trying to get us to walk across that rune hidden in the dirt?"

At the edge of the clearing, just in front of the suspicious woman, was a clear patch of earth with the faint but detectable markings of a magic circle. If Jade hadn't possessed a spell that left similar marks, she might not have noticed it. The woman's smile turned to a frown and, behind her, the man drew his sword.

"Well… You just had to make things difficult, didn't you?"