The incense did wonders against the forest.

Even after the fire had died, traces of the bitter stench stuck to their clothing and warded the plants off as they trekked through the woodland.

The girl led the way with confidence and skill, she seemed accustomed to the terrain. How she could navigate through the labyrinth of roots and vines without a map or compass, Malt didn’t know.

What he did know was that they hadn’t run into any obstacles even after several hours of hiking. Whatever she was doing, she was obviously doing it well.

Leaving the navigation in her hands, Malt spent his time surveying the land. 

Judging by his lack of breath and sore legs, they were undoubtedly heading uphill now. Aside from that, the canopy overhead was thinning and continued to do so the higher they climbed. After a while, he realized that not just the canopy, but the forest in general was becoming sparser.

There were still small patches of the same dubious green vines that lashed at them earlier, but regular flora was beginning to show itself again.

This all but confirmed the fact that the “forest” was separate from a regular forest. 

Now that he could inspect pieces of both forests in better light, the differences were easy to spot. 

The regular forest that he had encountered when he first dragged himself out of the river was populated with old, gnarled oaks and gave an overall feeling of age; it was obviously a forest that had existed untouched for decades. 

The “forest”, however, consisted mostly of lively green vines and ferns that seemed relatively young in comparison.

To put it simply, it was the difference between a forest and a jungle.

What a jungle was doing in such a moderate climate was anyone’s guess, but considering some of the other more...interesting aspects of the jungle, it most likely didn’t abide by earthly logic.

Speaking of things that don’t abide by earthly logic, the girl’s method of navigation still baffled him.

She used no tools whatsoever and didn’t seem to be familiar with the area, but she somehow knew exactly where to go. He could tell that she wasn’t wandering aimlessly either, there was meaning behind her step and purpose in the way she led him.

Besides, child or not, someone who could survive alone in the forest had to have some degree of credibility.

And so he followed her without doubting.

After a few hours had passed and the sun was directly overhead, he’d finally find out that it had been the right decision to make.

The two of them stood at the peak of the hill, staring down into the open expanse of lush forest before them.

There was an ocean of trees as far as the eye could see, dense in some places and sparse in others. The geography was wild and uneven, full of ridges, crags, and even some small mountains. Even from this far away he could see the occasional river or field of vibrant grass peeking from below the canopy, proof that these were indeed the harmless kind of forest.

There weren’t any signs of civilization to be seen, it was truly an untamed wilderness, more so than anything he’d ever seen before.

There was one exception of course.

The girl tugged on the hem of his gambeson, pointing to a small clearing in the midst of the expanse.

He couldn’t help but allow a smile to cross his face.

“Yeah, I can see it alright.”

There, right in the middle of the sea of trees was a small conglomeration of what were clearly man-made structures. Around ten or so little cottages sat huddled together, surrounded on all sides by forest.

“A sight for sore eyes huh?”

She nodded, eyes still fixated.

He patted her on the back, “Let’s go, we’ll probably make it by sun down if we hurry.”

With that, they began to descend the mountain.

***

The forest was just as beautiful from below as it was from above.

The usual liveliness that he had experienced before entering the jungle had returned. 

He could once again see the flocks of birds, chirping happily as they flitted from branch to branch. The rodents and lizards had returned, scurrying throughout the underbrush as they always do.

The sun had returned in earnest, no longer being blotted out by the canopy. The gentle light made it seem as if the vibrant flora was glowing, making the forest seem almost ethereal.

The eerie silence and claustrophobia had completely disappeared and was replaced by awe and a feeling of relative safety.

All was right again, they had undoubtedly left the jungle.

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But that didn’t mean that it wasn’t still dangerous.

They made their way through the forest with complete ease, it was the last leg of the journey after all. With no vines to be seen, this should’ve been the easiest part of their journey.

But something was off.

Thankfully it wasn’t the forest this time, rather the issue was with the girl. Whereas she could usually keep up with him, her breathing was becoming laboured, her gait uneven.

He scrunched his brows, worried.

“Hey, wanna take a break?”

Without turning back, she quickly shook her head.

His brows remained scrunched, but he asked no farther. She knew her own limits better than he did after all.

Or so he thought.

Her movements became more and more sloppy until eventually, she stumbled on a branch.

Malt’s had shot out, catching her by the arm before she hit the ground.

“Shit, yeah you’re definitely not okay.”

He turned her around to check her condition.

Beads of sweat were rolling down her face and her skin was unhealthily pale except for under her eyes, which were sunken.

“Anemia huh?”

He clicked his tongue, “Should’ve told me earlier if you were feeling tired.”

She flinched at his harsh tone.

“Shi-, shoot sorry about that, wasn’t trying to scold you or anything.”

He’d obviously overestimated that magic of hers, no matter how great of a mage she was, there was no way a kid like that could handle hiking for as long as they did.

After a bit of contemplation, he finally decided on a course of action.

“Please don’t hit me for this.”

He scooped her small frame up, inciting a yelp of surprise. After some shifting, she was finally in an optimal position.

Abdomen curled over the back of his neck, the crook of his arm curled around the back of her knees, it was the fireman carry.

“It’s kind of uncomfortable, but bear with it for now.”

“...”

“...”

“...”

“...somehow I feel like you’re silently insulting me.”

He continued his trek, stopping occasionally to ask her for instructions.

Along the way, a flash of pink caught his eye from among the forestscape. When he zeroed in on it, sure enough, it was a patch of the incense herb.

“Hey, should I grab some of that?”

She initially hesitated, tensing up on his shoulders. But after some time, she eventually nodded yes.

He walked over to the patch of herb and shifted the girl into a more stable position, “Hold on tight.”

He crouched down and began picking the grass with both hands, stuffing the stuff into his belt pouch. The grass was vastly different from its dried form. The raw version was bright pink and didn’t let off such a strong scent, but was much more pleasant to handle as a result.

A subtle hiss sounded near him. 

He abruptly looked up to see a strange lizard barely a foot from his face. It was thin and roughly the size of a cat, and despite it’s gaudy pink skin, didn’t look all that dangerous.

As he sized up the creature, it began hissing violently. Giant frills, several times larger than its own body, flapped out in an impressive display of intimidation.

Before he could react, a foul pink mist spewed out from within its throat, blinding him.

He recoiled back, nearly dropping the girl doing so.

“Shit! The fuck was that?”

He stumbled backward and blinked multiple times to clear his eyes. However after the initial shock had passed, it was made apparent that besides the unbearably bitter scent, the mist was otherwise harmless.

By the time he’d regained his senses, the lizard was long gone.

“...what the hell just happened?”

Suddenly, he could feel the girl spasming. He quickly propped her off his shoulder and laid her onto the floor.

She erupted into a violent fit of coughing, barely able to breathe. She was now far beyond what could be called anemia. Her skin was deathly pale, almost to the point of being white and her eyes were flitting around feverishly.

“Shit shit shit, okay, uh,”

He shook her in his arms, “Can you hear me?”

There was no response, just more coughing.

He grimaced, placing a cloth over her mouth he picked her up under his arm and began making his way back in the direction of the village.

Whatever was happening to her, it was definitely being caused by the pink mist. Strangely, he himself couldn’t feel any of the same symptoms, but maybe that was just because he had a higher resistance to the stuff.

The silver lining was that they were extremely close to the village. He couldn’t treat her, but there was bound to be someone there that could.

As he rushed forward, he could suddenly pick up peculiar smells that he couldn’t catch before. The smell of roasting meat and cooking spices, of drying leather and sawdust. The smells of civilization.

Finally, he could see it.

Well built houses and paved roads, tame and neat compared to the unruly forest. Walking, breathing people, going about their business as usual. Some were chatting, others, cooking. A sight for sore eyes indeed.

After what seemed like an eternity, he finally broke the treeline.

He bursted from the edge of the forest, nearly falling over as he did.

Eyes from all over the village jerked to him as all went quiet.

He quickly caught his breath before speaking in a ragged tone, “Oi! This girl needs trea-”

“Put her down!”

A furious voice boomed from someone in the crowd. He pushed past the other villagers and made his way to confront him.

Shit, what a fuckin pain.

It was a boy roughly his age, with messy dark brown hair and fierce looking features. In one hand he clutched a primitive looking spear. Whoever he was, he was definitely out for blood.

Malt quickly placed the girl, who was still coughing and unresponsive,  onto the ground and raised his arms into the air.

“Hey, I’m not here to hur-”

The boy was suddenly right in front of him.

He thrusted his spear at his chest with blinding speed.

Malt dove to the side, the spear missing him by less than an inch. It was an inhumanly quick move, he shouldn’t have been within range even with a spear of that length. The guy had to have lunged more than ten feet.

Before Malt could recover from his shock, the guy suddenly slung the spear to the side and into his arm.

The force alone was crushing, overwhelming. With only an inch or two of distance to gain momentum, the spear’s shaft crashed into his arm with enough force to knock him onto the ground, most likely fracturing his arm.

The crowd began cheering as he hit the ground, cursing and insulting him as he writhed in the dirt. Their eyes were filled with animosity.

He coughed and groaned, clenching his arm in agony. He opened his mouth in an attempt to speak but the lack of air in his lungs meant he just incomprehensibly gasped, dribble leaking from his mouth.

Remembering he was in a fight (if it can really be considered one at that point), he pushed himself onto his feet again, struggling to maintain his balance.

A second too late, he noticed a traveling spear butt inches from his temple.

A moment later he was out cold.