As the fog begins to rise in the evening, a bird soars overhead of the group of monsters being led by an orb of light with fairy wings. As the bird passes over Delphi, a white substance drops from the sky and lands on Delphi’s boney head with a Thlumping sound.

“What is this?” Delphi asks, fingers covered in white and black viscous ooze

“Um... I think that bird just took a Thlump on your head Delphi.” Swaggle answers

“That sky rat! To the Netherworld with them! I’ll kill them all!” Yells Delphi raising their fist to the sky.

“So, what do you think of our forest?” N.A.V.I. asks.

“The trees have lots of fog. It’s easy to get lost among them. Overall good hunting grounds to not be spotted in. So not bad.” Hooknose replies.

“And the sky rats are evil!” chimes in Delphi.

“I see. Well, it’s interesting that you mention easily getting lost. This forest is famous and used to be nicknamed after that fact,” responds N.A.V.I., completely ignoring Delphi

“Yeah, yeah, how much further?” Swaggle asks while cutting off N.A.V.I., who lets out a harrumph of displeasure.

“It shouldn’t be long now,” N.A.V.I. answers bitterly.

“That’s what you said two hours ago! You do know where we are going, right, little light? Bobbi demands.

“Of course I do.” N.A.V.I. retorts with derision.

Delphi chimes in with an irritated tone while using leaves to clean themself, “Okay, everyone, calm down, enjoy the walk and watch out for sky rats.”

“Easy for you to say you don’t get tired,” Bobbie growls.

“I’m getting hungry,” Swaggle complains as he grabs at his stomach.

“Hey N.A.V.I., where can we find food to eat here? And something to drink.” Hooknose asks, then continuing before N.A.V.I. can respond, he appeases her darkening colour by adding. “Don’t worry about our cook fire. I will only use kindling. Not gonna have a tree woman come out and start yelling at me.”

“You’re fortunate to have me, hehe... Hmm, oh, I know. For starters, search these bushes here. These are Gropple Berries. They are very juicy and not poisonous.”

“Who named them that?” Swaggle asks.

“It’s not important,” N.A.V.I. states. “Along the ground over here, you can find some basic herbs for seasoning and other stuff.” N.A.V.I. continues leaving Swaggle’s question unanswered.

“I will gather those so you idiots don’t use healing herbs or ones good for poison in our meal.” Bobbi declares. “Let’s see what we got here, some sage, sparrow root, and some red eye shrooms, very nice quite a bit here too. Hooknose prep the cookfire while I gather this. Swaggle, you light the fire when it’s ready. Delphi, go hunt the meat.” Bobbi orders.

“Hey, I’m the boss here, so everyone, go do those things while I gather the meat.” Delphi petulantly commands.

” Yes, boss,” Swaggle and Hooknose say while giggling.

Hooknose turns to Swaggle and says, “Go gather the kindling while building the pit.”

“Gotcha! On it.” Swaggle replies dragging out his answer in glee

N.A.V.I. look’s over Bobbi’s should and sees her gathering and green-leafed plant with a dark purple underside. She then comments to Bobbi, “King’s foil is not good for cooking. It may not kill you, but it’s worse than poison ivy when it comes to itching, and it can cause boils almost instantly when you eat it.”

Bobbi cackles evilly, responding, “Good, very good, this will do perfectly.

“I’m back with some bunnies,” Delphi clacks.

” Aww, the poor baby bunnies, did you have to break their necks?” N.A.V.I. whines

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“Just put them over there so I can skin them. My plan is for a nice slow roast with herbs, and berry juice dripped on them through the process.” Hooknose says while playing with his skinning knife.

“That sounds delicious, Delphi. Go kill more bunnies.” N.A.V.I. demands.

“I thought you were sad about the bunnies.” Swaggle comments.

“Yeah, but they sound so tasty, so with you guys here, bunnies are no longer friends. They are now food.” N.A.V.I. responds.

“Wait, you eat? With what mouth?” Delphi asks.

“Of course, I eat. Everything eats! Don’t you?” N.A.V.I. says she is gaining black and red flecks in her colouration

“The world is just unfair to skeletons. I will find a way to eat this. I swear in the name of our creator Kelvin.” Delphi says as he raises his bony hands to the heavens while going to kill more bunnies.

“Oh, if he’s not eating, can I have his portion?” N.A.V.I. says

The night air fills with the smell of juicy roasted rabbit, only the scent of monsters keeping the small natural predators away.

“Besides the behemoth of fury and claws, what other animals live here?” Hooknose asks. “Behemoth? There are wolves, but they avoid monsters unless they are of the monstrous variety themselves. But our forest only has Fae and some forest goblins in the north, close to the mountains. They work for the Mountain tribe.” N.A.V.I. informs.

“So what are they?” Swaggle asks.

“Not important,” N.A.V.I. states bruskly. Leaving him bewildered.

“By the way, Hooknose, your cooking is excellent.” N.A.V.I. hums with delight.

“Thanks. You sure can eat a lot for a ball of light.” Hooknose responds.

“Rude! never talk about a lady’s eating habits or weight.” N.A.V.I. Chides.

“Why not?” Swaggle asks.

“Because it’s rude,” Bobbie replies, nodding her head while N.A.V.I. flies next to it, fluttering up and down, matching the motion.

“Okay then... I’ll keep watching it’s sleep time,” Delphi says, breaking the tension.

“Yeah, goodnight, everyone. See you when the Skytorch rises.” Bobbi curls up and begins snoring with her eyes open while Hooknose douses the fire and then lays down holding his sheathed sword, While Swaggle drifts to sleep without a care in the world, laying on top of a rock in a position that looks backbreaking.

“Well, just you and me tonight, N.A.V.I.,” Delphi says with cheer.

“You and me? Nope, I can sleep by entering dreams, and I must know how Swaggle sleeps like that.” N.A.V.I. replies, darting into Swaggles head, leaving Delphi alone staring at the stars.

As the Skytorch rises and begins to burn the morning dew into a low fog, bird calls echo out over the forest and sitting at the edge of the camp, a lone sparrow lands on a boney finger. As it gains confidence and begins to sing, a sickening crunch is followed by a puff of feathers and blood splattering as Delphi closes their fist around the interloper. “Filthy sky rats, Die!” they shout, waking the camp.

“Wha...what was that? And why all this noise.” Swaggle complains.

N.A.V.I. appearing out of Swaggle, cheerfully says. “Ah, the sound of birds singing in the morning, how beautiful.”

“Beautiful, you mean noisy and disgusting. You can’t call this singing.” Bobbie interjects.

“All this noise is going to give me a headache,” Hooknose says while covering his ears.

“One of those filthy things had the nerve to land on me. Can you believe that?” Delphi reports. “Probably thought you were a tree,” N.A.V.I. replies.

“Why would it think that?” Delphi asks incredulously.

“Did you move at all during the night?” N.A.V.I. asks.

“No need, I can remain perfectly still in the darkness to catch my prey off guard, and I can see in the dark,” Delphi replies.

“That’s why you didn’t move at all, so they thought you were a weird tree or maybe a rock.” N.A.V.I. states matter of factly.

“Weird, how am I weird?” Delphi asks petulantly, clacking his jaw to show his displeasure.

“There are not many bone trees that I’ve heard of, silly.” N.A.V.I. retorts.

“Oh, right,” Delphi says, deflating.

“Hmm… I saved us some Bunny for breakfast so we can eat and walk at the same time.” Hooknose says to change the subject.

“Oh good, everyone gather our things, and let’s go,” Delphi exclaims, reinflating with confidence. “Hey, I just realized one of my favourite places is along the way. I have to show you. Also, I have some questions of my own for those flesh-bags.” N.A.V.I. interjects excitedly.

“You do? What kinda questions could you have?” Bobbi Inquires.

“Something personal involving missing fairies.” N.A.V.I. states with a dark tone in her voice.

“That wasn’t mentioned by Poplar at all.” Delphi clacks out.

“She doesn’t know everything like the faun’s secret dance club or the pixie’s magic mushroom den. We Fae are always keeping things a secret, plus she only pays attention to her tree and her kids. She is a doting overprotective mom.” N.A.V.I. Huffs gained a dark green glow around her edges.

“How are these secrets if you know them and you just told us?” Swaggle asks.

“Good point.” Hooknose Agrees.

“Because I gossip, and so do others, and as for you guys, knowing it’s okay because you guys are my new best friends. At the last two words, a foreboding chill runs down the group’s collective spines.