Descendre scouted ahead as the group traveled. Mrs. Strawberry and Devourer walked side by side. While Onion lagged behind like a puppy that had discovered a new location. He’d stop to sniff at a flower or nibble on a random leaf, oohing at the different experiences.

Mrs. Strawberry was reading from the research book given by the king “They look an awful lot like a fox with crystals floating around them.” She slowed to a halt and read a section aloud “Realm Rippers can open a gate between one realm and another as easily as we open and shut a door.” She raised a querying eyebrow “Is that what your teleport rock did to bring us here?”

Devourer ducked beneath a low hanging branch, holding it out of the way for the woman to pass “Nope,” he patted the stone within his jacker “My rock has a mind of its own, it randomly hears me say something and then decides to help me (or not), sometimes the ‘or not’ part sucks, that is why I avoid depending on it too much.”

The cook nodded her head “That would be difficult to deal with. Are there many of your teleport stone?”

“Mine is the only one in existence (that I know of), creatures use normal gateways to travel from realm to realm usually, they just gotta have a valid passport to use em, like this bauble.” The three-eared Auris tapped his lip ring, the black stone in the center sparkled with a deep purple light.

Mrs. Strawberry looked at it closer “That’s your passport?”

“Absolutely, easy way to not lose it. Passports are incredibly expensive to replace. My teleport rock is highly illegal, merely possessing it breaks multiple realm treaties and all that.” He looked back to check on the Silken and ensure that no trouble was occurring, his attention redirected at her next question. “Granted those treaties were written in response to the Realm Rippers.”

“Are Realm Rippers as horrible as the research book says?”

Devourer adjusted his bowler hat atop his armored ears “Nah, usually they are pretty decent four-legged folk. Their brewers make the most amazing drinks, one of my favorites tastes like campfire and apple pie. And as a nice after effect it turns your hair snow white.” He hopped over a fallen log before continuing “This Realm Ripper however is another thing, loose cannon with a destructive focus.”

“The book was vague on how their magic works.” The cook noted. “Can you offer any details on how they fight?”

Devourer looked ahead to where the cat had last been seen, a flash of dark fur that had melted into the shadows, when the cat didn’t emerge from among the roots of the giant trees he continued “Descendre knows this stuff better than me, but since she is not here I’ll give it my best try.” He sorted through his meager knowledge and then in a lecturer’s voice started to speak “Realm Rippers create a door between realms. They can open a door in an active volcano and drop magma into your living room.”

“That sounds like a difficult opponent to fight.” Mrs. Strawberry said as she rubbed her chin thoughtfully.

Devourer shrugged “Not as difficult as the Colligere will be.”

“The Realm Rippers?” Gus said, redirecting the conversation to the matter at hand.

“Like I said most Realm Rippers are pretty decent. They are the masters of the official gateways between realms. Our Realm Ripper howev-- Ghaaa!” He slipped over some rocks and the cook caught the back of his jacket and pulled him back up to surer footing. The Auris took a moment to pat himself down and unwrinkled his clothing before continuing “Thank you for that, quick wits.”

“Think nothing of it…you were saying about the Realm Ripper we are dealing with?”

“Right, right. Our little nuisance of a Realm Ripper is just creating doors between realms at random, I think the Songbeetle and the White Terror are evidence of those gateways. Creatures that found their ways through these gateways. Right now this Realm Ripper is experimenting with their powers, but once they start feeling clever, well there is a lot of potential disasters they could unleash.”

“Best we get a move on.” Mrs. Strawberry mused.

-

They spent the day traveling and searching for signs of the Realm Ripper. That night (for the first time since Mrs. Strawberry arrived) they setup camp beneath the dark sky with twinkling light. She leaned against Descendre and stared up at the stars. “I can tell I’m not in Idaho anymore, the stars are completely different.”

The Derkaz purred contentedly before responding “Very different. The blue stars always shiny brightest. The red stars always twinkle in rhythm to your resting heart rate. Each creature sees them twinkle at a different rate. And you will find that none of the red stars are in the same place tomorrow night. They always change positions. In this realm.”

Mrs. Strawberry sipped the tea made from the blue leafed trees above them. “It is marvelous.”

Onion was sitting on the other side of her, as the cook said the words six flowers bloomed: two with a blue flame, three with a red flame and one with a purple flame. His voice was bordering on a squeak “Excelsior!” he blushed as he realized how excited he was, he attempted to become a little less hyper “You will be a great source of magic ingredients I think.”

“Excuse me?” Mrs. Strawberry rested her hand on her frying pan, “I am not going to be letting you grind my bones to make a potion?”

Descendre spoke up before the plant mage got himself brained. “Some of his magic ingredients are moments captured, a murmured wonderment at stars, a baby’s first laugh, the held breath at a child’s first step, all those little moments that seem magical. He captures them and makes them into little berries or flowers.”

“Quite potent actually.” The cyan skinned Silken patted the cook’s shoulder. “You are experiencing everything about this world for the first time, so I get rare ingredients galore.”

Devourer piped up “He does do some cool effects with his ingredients. Though he should use my unique moments more often for ingredients.”

“Tasting a new expensive wine does not count as a magic moment.” Onion sniped back, he stopped, the leaves on his rustling and sprouting slightly, he turned his head towards the darkness “We have company.”

Devourer casually stood up and stretched “I am going to go smell the flowers I think.” The Auris wandered goofily into the darkness, whistling a tune.

Descendre put her head down as if she was going to sleep, she whispered “Best to get up and get ready for a fight, Cook.”

Mrs. Strawberry got up, started tidying up things around the fire, wrapping a cloth around the pan’s handle as a makeshift handle. Onion started singing a little ditty.

There was a crash as a gigantic creature charged into the fire lit area. Its fangs wide open as it charged Mrs. Strawberry. She stood firm, brought her frying pan around and swung full force into the creature’s jaw. There was an audible crunch as his teeth snapped together so hard that the fangs chipped. Mrs. Strawberry didn’t stop there she brought another swing around to the other side of the creature’s head with a resounding clang. Felling the beast. Mrs. Strawberry was panting slightly and shaking as she gasped “What a rush.”

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Descendre slunk up beside her comrade “That was impressive. Different from your previous deflection tactics with the Trilopod spears.”

“Different type of attacker and different terrain.” Mrs. Strawberry explained as she wiped her pan off. “Another dent in my pan.”

There was another crash as one of the beasts roared in the distance, they waited, unsure if all was well.

Devourer re-entered the clearing triumphantly “Well looks like you had a fun time taking out the leader, I took out all his little minions.” He peered at the giant creature on the ground before them then at Mrs. Strawberry as he asked, “Don’t suppose you have any recipes for these things?”

-

Mrs. Strawberry was up early making Chomper bacon in her frying pan. Onion working amicably beside her. She looked at her leafy companion “Why did we call these guys Chompers again?”

Onion threw another large of slice of the fatty meat into her pan over his green flickering rootfire “Devourer named em first, even though it was my turn.” He watched the magic flames as they soaked into the bacon, his voice wistful “I would like to name the next one though.”

“What were you thinking?”

“I was thinking something like ‘Frozen Death’” he moved his hands like a thespian when talking about their name up in lights “It has such a gorgeous undertone of darkness.”

The ranger flipped the bacon over, moving the grease around by tilting the pan “Well you helped me skin and dress down the beasts. I promise next monster we meet will be called Frozen Death.”

As the cook made the announcement Descendre stretched and rose with a yawn, the fur on the side of her face was turned towards the heavens like a zealot points at the sky during an eclipse. “Morning.”

Devourer rubbed his eyes, before he could greet the others the teleport stone somberly stated, “It is Tuesday, you have five more days to defeat the deadly Colligere and before Strawberry is returned to her home.”

The Auris grumbled something sarcastic, his ears loosely knotted together to keep them from catching on things as he stumbled towards the food “I love the smell of Chomper in the morning. I am gonna love this breakfast.”

“You’ve never tasted it before, how would you know?” Onion asked quizzically.

Devourer was wearing warm mittens on his feet (To keep the morning chill away) he took the plate of bacon with reverence that would have been more appropriate in a church. He cut a small slice of the sizzling meat. He bit into and made a small whimper of pleasure as the sweet and salty flavors washed over his tongue and sent shivers up and down his spine. “Good gods, I feel like I just got a mani-pedi from a ten-ear.”

Mrs. Strawberry tried a bite, as did the other troop members, each of them making various sounds of wonder or shock. They ate their meal contented happiness, only as they were finishing up the last of the meal did they notice that Onion had sprouted clusters of new berries “Well would you look at that.” The Silken murmured. “A new ingredient. I think I will call this berry ‘Gasps of wonder at a new meat.’”

Devourer opened his mouth to say something inappropriate, but Mrs. Strawberry held up a hand “Hush, and behave, it’s too early.”

Devourer closed his mouth and grumbled about how unfair the world is, though his griping trailed off when he took another bite of the Chomper meat. “Almost as amazing as a ten-ear.”

Mrs. Strawberry was cutting her food as she asked. “You keep on mentioning a ten-ear, what does that mean?”

Descendre sliced a portion of bacon with her razor-sharp claw, the two prehensile sections of her tongue wrapped around the morsel and she took a satisfied bite as the bacon slipped into her mouth “It’s the Auris’s most rare gender. Three-ears are the most common close to the human equivalent of a male, nine-ears second most common and close to a female and the ten-ear the rarest, they don’t have any of the same characteristics so everyone refers to them as ‘they’.”

Devourer piped up “I can talk about my own species thank you very much, yes, they have ten ears, but it is much more than that. Auris have pods or what you may call a family. Within the pod with have several three-ears, several nine-ears and one ten-ear. Sometimes a ten-ear might be part of multiple pods. Just to ensure that mating can occur.”

“Devourer’s pod doesn’t have a ten-ear.” Onion explained. “He jilted the last ten-ear and now his pod is blacklisted among all the ten-ears. Our Auris friend is trying to find one and thus divert the anger of his pod.”

“Hey, no one asked you, you overgrown rutabaga.” Devourer jabbed back.

“But we have a fix.” Descendre interjected. She changed the subject before the two decided to start fighting “Our entire continent was taken by the monster known as the Colligere. Most deadly creature I’ve ever heard of, it lays waste to armies in a moment, as invulnerable as a mountain and as fast as a cheetah. And this unstoppable creature took our continent.”

“And all the ten-ears with it.” Devourer lamented.

Mrs. Strawberry processed this for a moment “So, the reason you are on this epic quest is for a booty call?”

Descendre and Onion burst into surprised laughter, Devourer looked visibly hurt, he folded his arm into a pout and tried to talk above the gales of giggling from his companions “It’s more than that!”

“Is it?’ Onion asked. His leaves folded into a passable imitation of Devourer’s bowler hat. The Silken then imitated the Auris’s voice “Let me save your city, oh wait no ten-ears, never mind’.”

Descendre put a pot on her head, she drew herself up with mock haughtiness “I am here to save the day, have no fear Devourer is here. I will save you, but I need to pour hot coals over you first!”

Onion chimed in “I must save that gorgeous ten-ear at all costs.” He did an exaggerated double-take “Oh wait, this Auris only has nine-ears I miscounted from a distance.” His voice becoming saddened “Never mind, the Auris is gonna die, no way to save em.”

“Hah, hardy har har.” Devourer grumped, and pointed at the food in hopes of distracting his tormentors. “What are we gonna do about all this meat?”

Mrs. Strawberry pointed at the makeshift tent that she had setup to smoke the rest of the meat “I had that smoking all night long, should all be cured by midday.”

Descendre was visibly impressed “Where did you learn to do that?”

“I took a few classes, also experimented a little on my own on some of my camping trips. As long as this meat works the same way as my world, we can safely transport it and use it with no issues. Now let’s start heading out, unless you want to discuss how you drove off your ten-ear.”

Descendre and Onion both looked ready to start up again. The Auris hurriedly started to clean up the camp, “No, no, let’s go. Don’t wanna burn daylight.”

-

Descendre tracked the Chompers hoping it would lead them to the Realm Ripper. The trail of the Chompers was a winding path between uprooted trees, over the crushed creatures and shattered rocks. The adventuring party followed the path of carnage over streams and valleys. They paused as came upon a singing stream. It was a lyrical composition about no one having one true love.

Descendre listened to it and winked and Onion “This is a song you should take to heart.”

Mrs. Strawberry quirked up an eyebrow “Oh?”

“It’s simple.” Devourer took a ladle of the musical water and sipped. When he opened his mouth to speak it emerged as a song “Onioooooooon issss…” He crossed his eyes attempting to see his own lips and force them to obey his commands “He has a love that is unrequited, has been that way since we first met him, and many years before thaaaaaaat.”

Onion was amused by the unexpected music. “I like this version of your speech better, Devourer. And it isn’t unrequited, she just isn’t sure what she’s doing with her life. She isn’t willing to settle down til she has decided.”

Devourer scrunched his face in an attempt to keep from singing “But she has been unsuuuuuure for yearss, time to moooooooove on, my lad.”

Onion expanded his tail into a large bowl, scooped up the singing water and dumped it on the Auris.

There was a moment of horror on Devourer’s. He burst into choreographed song and dance “Make, make, make me stop! I can’t control this feeling and it’s so unnerving!”

The Songbeetle emerged from among the leaves on Onion’s shoulder, she flew around the capering Auris, playing a happy little ditty to accompany his dance and words. He did not look amused which didn’t matter to the oblivious singing bug.

Mrs. Strawberry looked at the cat “Should we be concerned?”

Descendre chuckled “Nah, these types of streams are rare, but the effects are all the same. We just need to let to run its course. And enjoy the show.” She saw the concern continue to linger on the cook’s face. “There’s one city that’s literally built around a stream, people love it and everyone sings.”

“Showtunes everywhere?” Mrs. Strawberry said with disbelief, though the disbelief faded as she watched the three-ear pirouette and sing to the rocks and trees and a very confused herbivore that wasn’t sure what to do with the little fellow dancing among her horns.

The effects of the magic water (and Devourer’s singing) lasted for several hours as they travelled through some of the more treacherous terrain. They stopped to camp beside the stream while the sun was just starting to drift towards the horizon. Devourer and Onion setup camp while Mrs. Strawberry and Descendre explored and picked fresh herbs. The cat was invaluable to point out different plants that were poisonous or toxic, others that were beneficial and some in between.

Once back at camp Mrs. Strawberry took some of the non-jerkified meat and using the fresh herbs made a stew with the singing water. When it was boiled the water made everyone’s voices sound like they were on auto-tune. That night as goodnights were said and blankets were set down the words sounded like a musical just waiting to occur.