Life was no longer just endless fields of green.

Rather, life was full of wildlife, monsters, berries, and endless fields of green…

“I think I prefer the weirdly silent hills over this. At least there weren’t any monsters back there.”

“They also view us as monsters; and the thing you’re carrying is one of them,” the man said. “So, I’d say it’s a matter of perspective.”

“I know that. I’m just saying, I prefer the quiet atmosphere over being targeted by a two headed bear, or a three tailed lion every now and then. Back then at least I could sleep peacefully knowing there was nothing out there that was going to kill me…”

The sun was beaming down on them from straight above. Blistering heat, really tanning them outright.

“There’s always something that can kill you. That thing- can kill you too.”

“I’ve named her Fluffy, so call her Fluffy.”

“When in the actual fuck did you-” he paused.

Jane stared, slightly surprised. “HAH HA HAH H!” It was the first time she saw the man display any frustration which prompted her to laugh so loud she almost wet herself… almost. “The more you know,” she shrugged, offered a smug grin and walked ahead.

The man snorted, walking behind her. “Careful now, this land is crawling with spiders.”

“Not gonna fall for that,” she did not look back, no.

“Warned you,” hands behind his hand, he casually kept walking. He didn’t really need to watch the surroundings, he already knew what dangers were present and he knew what they could do- but at the same time, his eyes remained a little cautious.

“So, two days to the next village?” Jane asked.

“Yes.”

“And you mentioned we’d find a water source here?”

“We should find something if we keep this pace.”

“Nice~!” she hummed, the little critter clutched into her arms. She wasn’t complaining every moment and she wasn’t screaming either. Actually, she as in a good mood. Really good, despite the whole monster scenario.

“Miss, you should remember that we’re out in the wild. Anything can kill if you if you’re not careful,” he stared at her back, and quite intently at that.

“I’m aware~”

“Then please burn off that spider off your back.”

“You really think I’m gonna fall-” Jane’s words got stuck the moment she turned around.

She could see a leg, a hairy black leg… judging by the leg… actually no, she didn’t want to judge. After all, she bent her head a bit and saw it… a spider. Roughly the size of her palm. Rather big, rather red at the center. Definitely poisonous. “Do-do something!” She murmured vigorously.

A smug grin. “Didn’t you say-”

“Just do something!” she hissed.

“Sure thing-”

Nick!

Just a flick was enough. Enough to cut the spider in two. Both halves fell on the ground. “They crawl silently so unless you’re paying attention, you’ll become their food for the next winter season.”

Jane gulped. “Noted…”

They of course kept on going. The man walked the same as ever, casually. Jane though, she couldn’t help but vigorously glance around, and look down every now and then over and over again.

***

By evening they ran into dozens of monsters. Some large, some small, mostly just large and with more limbs than usual creatures. Some with extra heads or tails or horns or even hanging genitals but the most telling of signs of a monster were its aggression.

“There’s a lake. There’s a lake!” Jane ran ahead.

A small lake. Probably slightly larger than a pond, surrounded by trees on all sides. And the trees had fruits?

Peaches. Bright yellow peaches. Ripe too.

Odd.

The man stared for a good few minutes, observing. “We’re going to camp away from the lake,” he said. “And for now, let’s not eat the fruits.”

“Sure, sure~!” Jane didn’t stop. Her destination, the water!

Once she was there, she stared around for monsters or animals or even fish. Nothing so far. Just calm waters.

So she dipped her water bag in and filled it. “We can use this stuff if we boil it, right?”

“Seems so,” the man had arrived. “You’re too reckless lady.”

“Can you blame me though? I’ve been seeking a place where I could soak myself without caring. I couldn’t do that in the settlement because I was too worried about wasting water. Here. You can see.”

“Yes, I can,” he said, standing behind Jane. “Well, go on.”

“What do you mean? You’re just going to stand there?”

“Yes?”

“But there’s no monster here. Go away.”

“Who knows what might come out of the water,” he said. “Better if I stay. Besides, I’ve already seen you in your underwear-”

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

“GO AWAY!”

“Sure thing, lady,” he went away chuckling. Stood by the trees, looking away. He even picked up a peach and started chomping on it… not as ripe as he thought.

Meanwhile, Jane took out her armor, then her shirt, neatly folded everything and put them on the ground over some dried leaves. “Spee!” Fluffy watched over the things.

Jane dipped a cloth, and wiped herself. She actually wanted to dive into the water but even she wasn’t that dumb. And she didn’t have any proper way to drowse herself without removing everything, so she didn’t do that either. Far from what she had in mind.

At least I can wipe away the sweat… And the smell.

And she did.

She wiped away it all. She dried herself with another cloth and put everything back on.

But what about below? Should I?

She thought for a second, but eventually decided not to, and put on her robe. “You can com-” Her voice stuck. Something, had grabbed her feet; wet bluish purple… tentacle. “Fuck…” she mumbled, looking down. “HELP!”

Tentacles. More were emerging.

The man sighed with a knowing smile. “See what happens when you don’t listen?”

“Oh, for fucks sake, fuck off with the attitude and save me!”

The man laughed. “You got it lady,” he quickly slit the tentacle and the two of them moved away.

The severed bit coiled and moved slightly while the thing kept on wiggling and leaked some white viscous fluid.

“The hell is that?” Jane wondered.

Splash!

“Master of the lake,” the man said. “It was pretty small the last time I’d been here. Didn’t think-” the thing rose up. a squid. About two stories high with massive tentacles. “-It’d grow this much.”

“Well, it did…” she mumbled. “How good they taste though?” She wondered, staff pointed, already chanting.

The man chuckled. “Pretty good I heard-”

“SPEE!!!”

Rumble! Rumble!

Crackle!

Thunder descended. Electrocuting the squid in the speck of a second and frying the whole thing, smoking the lake itself along with all the fish near the squid. The rest of the lake didn’t seem to be that effected… probably.

“Well, shit…” Jane stared dumbfounded at the caster. The fluff. “The fuck just happened?”

“Where did you even pick up cursing like that?” he shrugged. “When I identified this a Peachfluff, I was wrong. It was actually even rarer. A fluff that can use magic. Particularly thunder magic.”

“Amazing…” Jane picked up the thing, gave it a tight hug. “AMAAZING!”

“Spee~!” It purred in response.

“Right…” the man mumbled, smirking.

“But what about this?”

“With the thing gone, the monsters would come here to eat everything. WE should hurry and get the stuff we want to eat and leave.”

There were plenty of fish on the lake too. It wasn’t really that big of a lake but given the sheer quantity, it was probably really deep.

They took some fish that looked good, cut a good chunk of the squid and its tentacles, picked some peaches and left the place as fast as possible. On their way, they did encounter some monsters but the things just didn’t bother with Jane and the man and ran for the lake. Why try for food that could fight back when you had loads just lying around without any challenge?

“They already know the monster’s been defeated?”

“Yes. They have a sixth sense of sort. How do you think they’re still alive?” The man said.

“I guess.”

It took them some time and lots of carrying but they eventually found a large tree and decided to settle under it.

Trees were always a priority when camping. At least for them. Trees provided lots of firewood and fire starters and it even came with the bonus of food assuming there were squirrels on the tree or maybe some birds. Besides, if a monster sometimes visited, and it was too strong, having a large tree and climbing it was a blessing they couldn’t have in many places.

***

Jane wanted to cook but the man cooked instead. in his words. “Too complex for you.”

Apparently, there was a lot of preparing involved which he didn’t think was necessary for Jane to learn right now. Of course, Jane disagreed and pouted like a child. Precisely why the man had been carrying some fish. “You can instead cut up these for our soup. Be sure to remove some of those large bones. The smaller ones will be easy to pick once its cooked.”

Jane didn’t necessarily buy it but she did oblige.

“You said there was a lot to prepare but you’re just roasting the already roasted squid,” Jane asked.

“And you’re picking from already roasted fish,” he said.

“Stop dodging questions…” she grumbled.

“Although somewhat cooked, you can’t eat it like this. The same goes for the fish. Squid meat tends to be mild and somewhat sweet, so trying to do much with it, will only ruin its flavor. Of course, that was true if it wasn’t already smoking. But since it already is, I having more experience, am better suited to handle it, no?”

“Fair point,” Jane sighed. She could have done it too- or so she wanted to yell but at the same time, she didn’t want to be that petty. Besides, she could always just learn later.

She had her whole life ahead of her after this journey.

There was a reason Jane just left her parents. They were oppressive, they were always forcing her to do things their way but most importantly, they were holding her back and dictating her life. They’d given birth to her sure, but Jane wasn’t some puppet. And so when the fire broke out, Jane quickly took her money and just left. She didn’t even bother to check whether her parents were safe or her brothers had taken them in or not.

Her parents were smart enough to worry about themselves so she didn’t bother. Instead, she made it seem like she burned along with the house with her magic and just ran.

Now that she thought about it, it was stupid. She should have just told her parents that she was sick of everything and was leaving. Instead, she chose the easier way out and run away. Maybe that was for the best. After all, they hardly ever cared and they hardly ever wondered how she felt.

Yet-

Yet, Jane felt an emptiness in her chest. She worried, although she shouldn’t have. She worried… about her parents. “Ow…” she proceeded to impale her finger with a fish bone.

“Do you know any healing magic?” the man wondered.

“There’s healing magic?” Jane stared, doubtful. “Didn’t it go extinct during the Sarveya war?”

“Really? Thought some people still had it…”

Jane noticed the man often spoke quite oddly. And although she’d been paying more attention, she didn’t see him randomly turn into that thing from that goblin incident. Of course she was glad but, what even was that thing. And who was this man?

“Might I ask your age?” Jane said.

“No, no you may not,” he grinned. “I’m a little uncomfortable about my age you see… it’s a pain being old.”

Jane rolled her eyes. “Oh please,” she was done with the fish.

And the man was probably done roasting.

“So, what are we going to do with the rest?”

“Smoke and carry them. Who knows when we’ll run out again. Though I doubt we will,” he shrugged. “In that case, we can just sell everything later.”

“True. But who’ll carry? I can’t carry all this,” she spoke innocently. “And my storage is full just from the peaches.”

“If I do the carrying, I won’t be able to protect you,” he casually handed Jane a skewer.

“If I happen to carry we won’t reach Ale in maybe three-four weeks.”

“I’m fine with being late. Got lots of time.”

“Well, I don’t. So please stop complaining and do all the carrying. Because I can’t.”

“Heh. Should have been that honest from the start.”

Jane shrugged. “Sure, sure.” She took the skewer of well spiced tentacle. They’d already boiled the water so everything was good. “This is good,” she said, tears in her eyes. Too hot….

Pleasantly surprised, the man took a bite of his own skewer while setting a pot over the fire. The pot of fish soup.

Once they were done, they got into their tents and let the fire burn.

“Good night,” Jane said.

“Night. It’s really dangerous out here, especially with our food so I’ll be waking you past midnight.”

“Alright.” Jane was too sleepy to respond and fell asleep.

The fluff ball slept right on top of her head.

The man though, stared out as usual. A skewer in hand, eyes out in the distance. “Would you look at that…” he noticed a maggot beneath feet. “Far from home…” his mouth hung a little… as he noticed not one- but a whole lot more of the maggots. “JANE?” he yelled.

“Mhhmmmhgh…” somewhere between a yawn and a moan-

“We have company.”

“Let- sme sleep…”

“I’m sure you don’t want to sleep through this one,” he snorted, watching the march.

The march of the maggots.

“The fuck are you whining about,” Jane woke up, but couldn’t keep her eyes open.

Too sleepy.

“Maggots. Lots of them. We should hurry out of here. Leave the food; even the tents.”

“Huh?” Jane stared down, saw some maggots and- “Not again.” -Groaned.