A small fire using Iris’s fire pit kept the fountain's stone platform lit up. It illuminated Bo and Iris who were sitting around the lip of the fountain, across from them and laying on some blankets was the woman they had reduced.

Her entire body was bandaged up while she was peacefully sleeping and her breathing had returned to normal. She seemed to be safe and out of danger thanks to Iris’s quick help.

Bo was impressed with Iris, and not one specific part of her. It surprised him that even though she seemed to always be nervous and afraid, she displayed vast amounts of courage and skill.

He had only helped support her, she took command and he listened.

Thankfully for them, The beasts they had fended off had only lingered for a few minutes and ultimately left after realizing they wouldn't be able to eat them anytime soon.

This gave them time to just sit there.

It had only been an hour since they had rescued the woman, now the two were exhausted and relaxing around a cozy little fire. Bo wasn't so much physically exhausted, more so mentally. His thoughts were no longer constantly running with new ones, but were now taking in the memories of the day and replaying them.

It was a quiet hour, only brief conversations were held throughout this time; the silence in between surprisingly wasn't awkward. It was strangely comforting to just be able to sit in silence with someone else. He didn't know if Iris felt this way, but he did and could only hope that she did as well.

Bo looked around at the dark glade and could barely see a few meters away from him as the glade didn't have much light. The campfire provided most of the light around Bo, there were only a few stars and a dark red moon hanging in the sky that provided any form of natural light.

He couldn't help but wonder how long this Beast Tide would last and asked Iris quietly, “Hey Iris, do you know how long the Beast Tide lasts?”

She took a second to respond. “Could end right now or end in a month. There's no way to be certain except to wait.”

“A month!” Bo exclaimed.

He really didn't want to stay here for a month, he had so much he wanted to do, so much he wanted to see and explore. There were infinite things to experience and he couldn't wait a month to start.

“It's almost impossible to stay here for a month anyways, We don't have much food left and trying to hunt the beasts during a beast tide is way too risky.” She explained.

“Why is it too risky?” He knew part of the answer but he didn't think it would be that risky. The woman had taken down two herself— she was assisted of course and Iris had also defended against another two pretty easily.

“Huh? It's because the beasts are easily thrice as strong, resilient and perceptive as they normally are during a tide. Also once blood is drawn, beasts will start swarming like what happened before.” She explained some more.

“Oh.” He had seen that. Once they had gotten to the fountain, the two dead panther beasts were flocked to by beasts and eaten in seconds.

“But the scariest thing during a Beast Tide is that beasts won't attack each other.”

“What do you mean?”

Iris looked confused and instead of answering asked a question herself.

“I don't mean to be rude but are you new to the Bridge? All Crossers should know this knowledge since the more you know, the less likely you'll die.” Iris asked, trying not to sound preachy.

“Ya, I've only been here for a very short amount of time.” Bo sheepishly smiled.

“You didn't read any guide books before coming?” Iris' eyes started to widen.

“Well to be honest I didn't have much say in ending up here.”

“I'm sorry I didn't mean to pry!” Iris apologized, flustered.

“Dont worry its not a bad story, just a confusing one.” He calmed Iris down who looked a little embarrassed.

“Ehem, as I was saying before, once a Beast Tide happens, they will no longer care about their territories or try to hunt other beats for food but instead only hunt us… humans.” She continued.

“Couldn't you use those… potion things?” Bo asked.

Iris shook her head. “I don't have any useful ones left.”

The conversation continued for a few minutes, it was mainly Iris explaining some of the main details to remember while in the Glades. Bo apologized for not knowing any of this but it seemed like Iris was happy she could talk to someone about something she knew a lot about.

She rambled on a little longer than Bo would've liked— not to say he was annoyed but more so lost, but he made sure to remember any of the important points.

Never hunt a pack by yourself. Makes sense.

Pack extra supplies, some beasts like to corner you and wait till you're exhausted. It's also good to just be more prepared in case you stay longer than you'd initially planned for.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Take advantage of the environment, like taking the high ground so you could see things around you better.

There were some other points but they were pretty simple; dispose of any food remains in sealed bags, always have someone on watch during night, basic stuff like that.

She eventually realized she was rambling on and apologized about it but Bo said any knowledge was useful so he appreciated it.

The atmosphere returned to its usual silence.

‘Oh my Ember, I don't even know what it does yet.’ Bo had almost forgotten about his ember. When he got his emblem, it was like an instinctual understanding of how to access anything related to his emblem was installed in his mind, including his ember,

He closed his eyes and focused, reaching his mind into his emblem and words began to appear in his head that only he could see.

[ Badge weapon — Machete ]

That was the first thing he saw. He had almost forgotten because it wasn't as cool as the ember but everyone with an emblem, had a badge weapon. Not only could they materialize their badge, they could turn it into a weapon.

His weapon was a machete which he remembers as a type of small blade.

‘I'll have to look at it after.’

[ Ember | Formless into Form — Access the formless items of living beings and turn them into form. ]

[ Restrictions: Use the souls of beings you've slain to power the ember. ]

This was what he wanted to see, except— what the hell did that even mean? It gave no further explanation, that was it. He instinctively understood how it worked but only to a small, small degree. He'd have to figure out the rest by himself.

As for the restriction, it looked grim. It meant the only way he could even test out his power, he’d have to kill something first.

‘Guess I gotta wait a little longer.’ he sighed.

But he could try out one thing right away. He materialized his badge and then thought about his badge weapon, the badge then burst into dust and reformed itself as a machete.

The hilt was black, slightly longer than a normal machete and was adorned with his emblem in gold. The blade on the other hand was straight with a serrated back and like the emblem on it, it was golden.

‘Wait, pulling a weapon in front of someone is bad.’ Bo realized and turned to see Iris’s reaction.

Instead of suspicion or confusion, her eyes gleamed with wonder. “Beautiful… Is that your badge weapon?”

“It is. Sorry I didn't mean to pull out a weapon right next to you. it's the first time I've seen it myself.” Bo apologized.

“The first time? When did you get your emblem? Did you get it right before I ran into you? That must have been why you were wet…” Iris remarked.

‘Shit’ He was careless.

He didn't mean to give away any details but thankfully, Iris seemed to be nice and probably wouldn't take advantage of him.

Should he lie? Iris might not be able to tell if he lied but he knew that humans could be more clever and perceptive. It also made more sense, if he had gotten it any earlier, why wouldn't he have looked at his badge weapon? Only an idiot would refuse to access more tools and power that could help them immensely.

“That's right I got it right before we met.” He decided not to lie for many reasons, mainly he didn't feel like lying to Iris anymore than he had.

“Oh my! You went through all that after just getting your emblem, wow! You didn't have time to explore your new power.” Iris exclaimed with her hands covering her mouth.

After a moment of silence, Iris asked. “I know this might seem strange, but can I look at your badge weapon?”

“Sure why?” He didn't hesitate and passed the machete over to her.

She gently took it from him with two hands and gently inspected it. “Because it's beautiful, I can't help but want to look at it. It's also one of my hobbies to see all the unique badge weapons out there. Here look.”

She gently put the machete down on the fountain and took out a notebook from her bag. She flipped open the notebook and each page had its own drawing of a weapon, each with a different emblem displayed. Some of the emblems were on the blades, some on the hilt, some were on my unique places for the more unique weapons.

“Now I gotta add yours to the book.” After a minute of inspecting it she handed it back to him, satisfied.

“I've memorized it, now all I gotta do is draw it.” Iris said.

An unfamiliar raspy voice spoke up. “Draw what?”

They snapped their eyes across the fire pit towards the woman they had rescued, who rubbed her head in drowsiness and slowly leaned forward.

“Where's this?” She squinted looking around her.

“Don't move, you'll open your wounds up!” Iris shouted and ran over to the woman but ended up tripping over her robes.

This gave time for the woman to ignore her warning and stand up and start stretching her body. The bandage peeled off her body revealing a perfectly healed body underneath.

“Were you the one who patched me up?” She looked at Iris. Iris stood up embarrassed, patted off her robes and nodded.

The woman smiled. “Thank you!” She bowed then looked over to Bo, “You were there during the fight as well, thank you!” Once again she bowed.

“Stop moving your gonna open your wounds— What? Where are your wounds!?” Iris looked at her body up and down and only saw faint scars where the wounds used to be.

The women laughed. “It's my ember, helps me heal up and also increases my strength. Only thing is, I need a lotta fuel to keep it going. Got any food?”

After a minute of Iris trying to warn her to relax and not succeeding, she reheated some leftover stew and gave it to the women. The stew disappeared down her throat as quick as it came, after seven bowls of stew she finally stopped— only because there was none left.

She patted her belly and laughed. “That was good! What's your name, little lass?”

“Little lass… my name is Iris.” She huffed at being called little but ultimately answered.

“Thank you for the food Iris, you can call me Sera! I'm indebted to you, and the mister here.” She motioned at him waiting for a name.

“Bo.“ He stiffly bowed.

“Ah then thank you Bo, you two saved my life and I'm grateful.” She sincerely said.

She leaned forward. “So what's the plan?”

The two looked at her with a confused expression.

“You guys don't have a plan yet?” Getting no response she took that as a yes. “If the tide lasts for longer than a week then we'll be in trouble, it's better to head out while we still have food and energy left.”

Bo slowly nodded in understanding.

“Don't get me wrong, you could probably wait it out here, but for myself, I'm gonna head back to Gladesdale soon.” She said, “I also think it's best if the three of us work together, it would be safer that way.”

She waited for a response but only got silence in return as the two contemplated the idea.

“Ah, I don't wanna seem forceful just waking up and trying to tell you guys what to do, i'm just suggesting, if anyone has any other ideas and is okay with working together i'm all ears. ”

She was strong and seemed to know what she was doing— were Bo’s initial impressions. A little crazy maybe, a hint of extreme but what she was saying made sense.

He locked eyes with Iris waiting for her response. It seemed like the two had this invisible connection that had built up over the small time they've been together, he didn't quite understand it but it felt nice to have.

Iris answered after a minute, “I… I think what you say makes sense and I'm in, let's work together. What about you Bo?”

Without waiting he said, “If you're in then I'm in.”

Iris smiled and then said. “I also have a safer way to get us to Gladesdale… it just… has a side effect.”

“What is it?” Sera questioned.

Iris hesitated but finally said. “I have a potion that… makes you smell really bad. It's something I've kept in case of a situation like this.”

“How bad?” Sera asked.

“We will probably stink for an entire week after applying it but I've tested it before and 99% of beasts will run away from you after taking one whiff. This should make the trip relatively safe.” Iris finished.

There was no better or safer option that Bo could think of with their current tools. “Sounds okay to me, what about you Sera.” Bo asked.

“Mm… I like it. How about first thing in the morning we head off, this gives us all a chance to rest and recover. ” Sera suggested and everyone else agreed.

Iris had a black sleeping bag which she used to curl up on one side of the fountain's wall and kindly gave Bo a spare blanket since he had nothing on him. Sera on the other hand fell asleep immediately upon laying on the ground, no blankets or anything.

The night was young but Bo was tired. It was an exciting first day, he thought.

He lay on the opposite side of the fountain from Iris and awkwardly lay there on his borrowed blanket. It was his first time trying to go to sleep and surprisingly it came quite easily.

It could've been fatigue, or maybe his mind being exhausted, but once he closed his eyes ready to sleep, his mind went blank even though he had so many questions and fresh memories to deliberate over.

It quickly embraced him, letting him gently drift off into its own realm, one far more abstract than the Bridge, the world of dreaming.