Descendre looked towards the sun “I can scout ahead for a few hours while you guys get camp setup, these Chompers meander so much that I feel like we are gonna be going around in circles. If I can find a direct route through their tracks it could cut down on our travel time a lot.” She turned to leave.

“Have fun!” Devourer said, with a little too much enthusiasm.

“Wait.” The feline turned back with an air of suspicion; she jabbed a claw towards the be-hatted gentleman “Don’t go having any crazy adventures while I’m away.” she pointed a finger at Onion “No adopting any crazy creatures either. You have your Songbeetle and that is more than enough pets in our camp.”

The beetle emerged from the leaves to make a quizzical chirp. Onion made a few sounds and she returned back among the leaves with a displeased jingle, he turned back to the cat “I promise to not adopt any new pets while you are away.”

The cat eyed them both suspiciously “Good, I’ll be back.” She turned and faded into the shadows with a flick of her poisoned tail.

The Auris clapped his white gloved hands together “Welp, I don’t know about you guys but I have some knife practice that is needed. I spotted a clearing a little ways back, I will be doing my exercises there. I don’t want to accidentally stab anyone.” He pulled out the knives and leisurely started walking into the trees while juggling them carefully to get a feel for their weight.

The Silken watched him vanish then made his ‘wind through the cattails’ sound, the Songbeetle re-emerged and circled above him with the song of Greensleeves. Onion watched the bug fly above him as he said “I do love that song you taught her, cook.”

“One of my favorite piano pieces that I loved listening to as a child. Always wished I had learned to play a musical instrument.” Mrs. Strawberry offered up a piece of dried fruit to the beetle, the bug took it before following her leafy host towards the stream’s edge.

The old woman enjoyed the silence.

She finished setting up the tents and other camp necessities. It had only been a few days with the group but she already feeling the comfortable familiarity of camping and hiking. Her actions almost meditative with her muscle memory taking over and giving her some free time to let her mind wander. The biggest concern she had was her dented pan. It was a fine makeshift weapon, but it would eventually break if she kept on swinging it around like a berserker, she needed to be more like the úlfheðnar. Agile and precise.

With that thought set in her mind she searched for a small tree, one that needed to be removed, her words were spoken softly to the sapling. “Sorry fella, you’re going to be choking each other out, eventually none of you would survive, best to do some pruning and let the other trees around you live.”

She used a hatchet to cut the tree down. Beside the green campfire she trimmed down all the branches, sharpened one end and started fire hardening the point.

The sun was just starting to touch the horizon, casting long purple tinted shadows when the cook heard something.

Thud!

She paused in her fire treatment of the wood to cock her head to the side and listened with the patience of a forest ranger.

Nothing.

She turned back to the spear, turning it slowly over the emerald flames hardening it for battle.

Thud!!

This time it was closer.

She shifted her weight and turned to give herself a better view of the source of the sound.

Thud!!!

She kept her eye on the spear while letting her peripheral vision take over.

“Squeak!”

A bright blue, rotund little creature sailed through the sky, all four legs flailing wildly as it tried to adapt to a mode of travel it was not designed to experience.

Mrs. Strawberry moved quickly, grabbing her frying pan and using it as an oversized catcher’s mitt to grab the creature. She lowered the metal cook ware to absorb some of the kinetic energy then using the metal as a cradle she pivoted to allow her body to absorb more of the force and reduce the jarring impact of the fall. She came to a stop with the cub-like creature curled up in a ball on his back with his eye scrunched closed, it took him a moment to realize he was no longer falling.

“There, there little fella. You’re safe now.” Her tone was soothingly soft and the creature peeked with one eye at her. His fear instantly replaced with curiosity as he rolled over to stand up. His horned head rose up to sniff at her face.

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“You’re an adorable little fella, aren’t you? No bigger than a cantaloupe.” He made a little woofing noise, the red spots across his body turning a little brighter. He was favoring his hind foot Mrs. Strawberry noticed, “What did you do here?” she asked, seeing a trickle of pink blood she scooped him up and carried him over to a stump where she could more closely examine his wound. His largest toe was missing, she quickly pulled out some anti-biotics and rubbed them over the wound, then took a large band aid and placed it securely over the stump.

The little creature peered down at it, sniffed. Then woofed happily and attempted to lick her face again. His short stubby tail wiggling with happiness.

There was more sounds of rustling and branches breaking. “I don’t see it! Do you?” an unknown voice asked in within the woods.

Mrs. Strawberry saw the little blue creature growl towards the voice, the little barbs that dotted his body rose up, making him look slightly bigger “Ah, I think I know your feelings on our unknown visitors.” She scooped up the creature in one arm, picked up her frying pan in the other and turned to see two bipedal creatures come into view. The male had a specialized crossbow (of sorts) and the female held a with a short pole with a long-barbed scoop on the end. They were so busy talking to each other that they didn’t notice the fire, the woman or the camp.

“Did you see how far it flew?” the male asked, he was rail thin with muscles showing on his washboard abs. The tribal style tattoos on his pale white skin glowed a pale yellow as he casually checked his crossbow.

The female creature was equally built “Of course I saw how far it flew, I was the one that threw it for you shoot. You really gotta get better at aiming that thing. Or else it won’t matter how many arrows you can shoot at once.”

“Maybe you should try throwing better.” The pale male sneered, coming to stop when he noticed the camp “Oh, someone’s here.”

“Yes, we are.” Mrs. Strawberry said, her hand resting on the creature’s rumbling chest as it growled.

The girl spun the pole in her gauntleted hands, then pointed it towards the blue creature “That’s our prey, give it to us.”

“No.”

The male blinked, looked at the female, then the creature, then the woman “You might wanna rethink your response. There’re two of us.”

Mrs. Strawberry’s tone was colder than the peaks of a mountain “If you move one step closer, I’ll deal with you.”

The pale one sneered “Have it your way then, pincushion.” He hefted the crossbow and fired it at her chest. She stepped to the side and deflected the arrows with her pan. The boy blinked, trying to process what was occurring “You aren’t supposed to dodge those.”

The female rushed towards the cook with the scoop pole weapon “Don’t act smug cause you got lucky with a pan!”

Mrs. Strawberry lowered her center of gravity, right foot forward, the female was focused on stealing the blue creature and not the woman. The cook pivoted on her right foot, the motion moving her and the cub out of the reach of the jagged fangs. She brought her pan around using her momentum to hit the girl squarely in the elbow, there was a pop and the pole wielding female screeched in pain. She ran back towards her companion as she screamed “Kill her!”

Mrs. Strawberry moved down into her crouch “Wanna try round two?”

The male flipped a switch and lifted his bow.

Tree branches rose around him, he didn’t have time to react as Onion lunged up from the earth and yanked both of the attackers into the shadows of the trees.

There was some shouting and then silence.

“All clear.” The Silken announced from the trees.

Mrs. Strawberry turned to the little blue creature and inspected it. He was a rich blue color, with a pattern of red spots and little copper barbs across his body. He had no ears. He looked like a mix between a bear cub and a blue strawberry. He tilted his head to the side at her as she asked, “What am I supposed to do with you?”

“Well name him first.” Onion said beside her.

She jumped, not hearing him approach “Scare an old woman to death why don’t you?”

Onion chuckled “I doubt there is much that would scare you, nice work on the two morons by the way. A Bulo is always like that though. Can’t stand em.”

“Oh, so what species is the blue fellow?”

“Doesn’t have one that I know of, I’m assuming it snuck through one of the realms that was torn open by the Realm Ripper. So obviously we are calling it the Frozen Death.”

Mrs. Strawberry looked down at the little creature, she debated for a moment “Fair enough, Frozen Death species it is.”

The creature turned his head back and forth between them, then mewed and bumped his little round snout against Mrs. Strawberry’s chin affectionately. Onion chuckled “Welp, looks like you have an animal companion now.”

She noticed little flowers with a hammer icon growing on Onion’s shoulder “Those are new.”

Onion glanced down at them “Ah, yes, ‘Swift justice.’. A rare flower indeed.”

Devourer and Descendre both returned to find Onion and Mrs. Strawberry playing fetch with the little Frozen Death. “What is that?” Devourer asked.

“It’s a Frozen Death.” Onion said with great authority.

“Never heard of it.” Devourer countered skeptically. Offering the little cub a stick. The creature happily grabbed it in his jowls and started trying to tug it out of the gentleman’s hand.

“We named his species, since we met him first.” Mrs. Strawberry explained. “His name is Eli.”

The little Frozen Death looked in her direction with a quiet woof, his little stub of a tail wiggling excitedly.

“That’s actually a good name.” Devourer admitted.

Descendre inspected the tiny creature, she shot Onion a look as she reproached him. “I thought I said no more pets.”

The Silken shook his leafy finger at the Derkaz “You said I couldn’t have anymore pets, nobody set any limits on the cook.”

“Don’t get smart alecky on me, Onion.” Descendre had a introspective look as she watched the Frozen Death, after a long pause she admitted to herself, “He is cute.”

Eli turned with a curious woof and let go of the stick to sniff at the cat’s muzzle, without any preamble he leaned forward to rub his side against her face affectionately.

Devourer chuckled “Aw, he has you pegged as a softie.”

The cat’s glared up at him “You’re lucky I’m distracted by all this adorableness.”

Onion held up his hand, the leaves on his tail growing as he listened. He lowered his head to the ground as the leaves shifted and pointed towards the forest.

“What is it?” Descendre asked.

The Silken closed his focus his senses on sound alone. “Someone’s coming.”