The first sightings of other parties began early the next day. First, during a routine scan of their surroundings with her aura vision, Victoria saw the auras of another group traveling parallel to them some distance away. The forest blocked the line of sight many times over, and she guessed that the other group wasn't aware of them yet. Eli had the gang divert course away from the strangers, traveling more at an angle towards the edge of the forest than a straight line as they had previously.

At another point, Eli instructed the rest of the gang to stop and wait while he and Victoria scouted ahead. They were gone for several minutes, during which time Autumn foraged around for nuts and berries on the forest floor. They returned as Autumn was dumping handfuls into Iris's bag.

"Another group," Eli reported, "Giantrock is a big region, but we're all heading to the same city. It was only a matter of time before we started converging on each other."

"Yeah, converging," Autumn said sarcastically, "this definitely isn't happening because you kept mentioning it."

"We've been over this Autumn," Eli said, "there's no scholarly evidence for the law of attraction."

"Eh," Victoria doubted, giving Eli an apologetic look.

"Don't start," he said with a pointed finger.

"So what do we do?" Titus asked.

"We keep going," Eli said, "we'll keep avoiding contact as much as we can, but running into other groups is inevitable at this point."

"What if we tried to make friends?" Iris suggested.

"There'll be time for that when we're safe in the city," Eli said, "well, relatively safe, anyway. Giantrock City isn't known for its law and order."

"You make this place sound pretty rough," Iris said.

"It has rough edges," Victoria said, "but it's not that bad. He just likes to worry."

"I don't like to worry--" Eli cut himself off, raising his staff to aim between the trees, "someone's here."

"Finally!" Autumn said, crouching to conjure two axes from the dirt.

"Their auras are weak," Victoria said, the veins around her eyes bulging as they turned grey. She spun in place to quickly scan their surroundings, "three, maybe four. Can't pin them all down."

The foliage around them was rustling, and more than a few branches broke under heavy footsteps. A hulking figure leapt out from behind a tree and landed in a battle stance. His loose fitting platemail clanked with each movement, he wielded a large zweihander-style sword and stared down Titus. An archer slipped out from behind a tree opposite him, drawing an arrow leveled at Eli. A small woman in mismatched leather armor dropped from a branch above, landing amongst the group and placing a dagger against Iris's neck.

"What are we thinking?" Titus asked, his eyes still locked with those of the man in platemail.

"I'm not worried," Eli said, giving Iris a knowing glance.

Titus nodded, but didn't move.

"You should be," a voice spoke from somewhere in the trees, "wouldn't want anything to happen to your tag-along."

The woman holding a knife to Iris's throat smiled devilishly. For Iris's part, she seemed unbothered, giving a little wave from where she kept her hands held high and visible.

"Drop your bags," the disembodied voice said, "then back away."

Eli slowly pivoted his aim towards the trunk of a tree.

"We're not wearing any bags," Autumn said, "seriously did you guys do any recon?"

"What?" the voice said, breaking his ominous character, "wait, where are your bags?"

Eli coughed.

Iris blipped away. Titus lunged forward, deftly grabbing his opponent's sword with his gloved hands, twisting it aside and slamming a knee into his abdomen before ripping the sword from his grasp and slamming the pommel into his head. The loose helmet spun from the blow, leaving the man staring at the inside of his sideways helmet as he doubled over. Iris appeared on his back, kicking downwards and driving him into the ground before blipping away again.

An arrow flew, racing towards Eli but knocked aside by a sweep of Glimmer's wing, who turned and screeched in the direction it had come. Eli's staff charged and released a pinpoint bolt of magic that blasted chunks from the tree he had been aiming for. A startled yelp could be heard, then a thin, finely dressed man with shaggy black hair revealed himself as he scrambled across the ground away from the blast.

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Autumn caught the rogue woman off guard as she spun around looking for Iris. She twisted her hand axe around and struck with the blunt surface behind the blade. A single blow to the back of her head knocked the rogue out.

"You guys suck at this," she said, nudging the woman with her foot.

The archer had dipped back into the trees, but Victoria's gaze was now locked on and followed her effortlessly with her aura vision. She placed a hand behind her back and conjured a single card, the Empress Reversed. She watched as the archer's aura was filled with anxiety and distraction.

Titus crouched down beside the armored man, grabbing his arm and twisting it behind his back to hold him in place. Eli closed in on the finely dressed man scrambling across the forest floor, his staff humming and glowing with the charge of a powerful blast as he kept it locked on the man. An arrow whizzed through the air and thunked into a tree nearby.

"Hey!" A feminine voice shouted from where it had come.

A second later, Iris reappeared beside Autumn holding up a prize, "I got her bow!"

"You little shit!" Two throwing knives flew out of a bush, both landing in the dirt beside Iris and Autumn.

Victoria conjured a second card, the Chariot Reversed. The archer's aura filled with the dark colors of failure and defeat, "it's over," Victoria spoke in an uncharacteristically commanding tone, "surrender."

"Don't listen to her!" The finely dressed man yelled.

Eli placed a boot on his back and shoved him into the ground, "shut up."

Victoria turned her gaze on the man, shifting the power of the Chariot onto him, and speaking in a deeper, angrier voice that reverberated in the air, "surrender."

"Okay, okay!" The man's voice trembled with fear, "We... We... Everyone run!"

After the man shouted, he exploded into glitter.

Eli stumbled forward as the man disappeared from beneath his feet. Victoria felt the archer's aura grow distant as she fled. Autumn yelped as the rogue on the ground yanked her feet out from under her, then darted into the brush. With a grunt, the armored man rolled and threw Titus aside, then scrambled to his feet to run but stumbled after his first step.

"Let them go," Eli commanded, groaning as he dusted the glitter from his boots, "they're not worth the trouble."

"You're just going to let them disrespect us like that?" Autumn demanded.

"Yes," Eli said simply, "chasing respect will get you killed. The best course of action is whatever gets the best results, and right now that's letting those fools get away."

Autumn groaned like a teenager being lectured.

"It's not like you to leave threats in the wind," Victoria said, glancing at Eli while she watched the last man scurry climb back to his feet, pick up his sword and finish scurrying away, "what if they come back?"

"Then we kick their asses again," Eli said, "we shouldn't let them distract us from the real threats."

"Do you think the real threats explode into glitter too?" Iris asked.

"Don't let this color your perception, there are dangerous people in these woods--"

"I'm just saying, that whole encounter was very silly."

Autumn said, "I know you like to be right, Eli, but this was definitely a point towards Iris."

"It was not a point towards--ugh," Eli gave up, "let's keep moving. Iris, I want you in the trees, stay close but don't stay still. Vic, keep your eyes up, I want constant updates on nearby auras. Autumn, no distractions."

Eli climbed onto Glimmer's back, leading the way as the griffin leapt onto a large root. Iris did as instructed, and blipped her way up into the trees. Even the lowest branches kept her high above her friends, giving a wide view of their surroundings. Though she mostly kept her eyes on them, she stole frequent nervous glances to her own surroundings to check for snakes. Eli took them at a faster pace than they had been accustomed to, eager to get out of the forest and into the open. They traveled for several hours without event, then Iris saw something up ahead.

Iris appeared beside Eli and spoke, then interrupted herself as he jolted in surprise, "there's something-- do you want me to say blip or not?"

"It's fine, what is it?" He asked urgently.

"There's a structure up ahead," she continued, "it looks like the ziggurat we saw in the plains."

"Which way?"

Iris pointed in the direction she'd seen the structure, though it couldn't be seen from the ground.

Eli promptly shifted course to the left of that direction.

"Wait," Iris said, "aren't we going to check it out?"

"After what happened last time? Absolutely not."

Iris opened her mouth to argue, but stopped. Last time had been kind of a disaster.

"Hey," he said hesitantly, "you did good back there. With those bandits, I mean."

"Yeah?" Iris said, almost rising to her toes with excitement, "did you see how I kicked off that guy's back? Did it look cool?"

"Being an adventurer isn't about looking cool."

Iris eyed his matching leathers, fine shirt and carefully pinned hair. Then his now ornately carved staff with runes that matched those on his silver gauntlets. Then she shifted her eyes over the griffin that he rode atop of.

"I didn't say we're not allowed to look cool," he defended, "it's just not what it's about."

"I'm just gonna go ask Autumn," Iris said, blipping away.

"Don't stay on the ground too long," he called out after her.

They finished out the day's travel without further incident. That night they camped in an unassuming spot between the roots of two especially thick trees. Iris settled in early, as she would have the morning watch. Before she closed her eyes to sleep, she peeked at her journal.

IRIS ORION

Hero Rank, Level 4

Experience Points: 6302 / 6510

Progress to next level: 96.80%

She closed the book with a sigh. Victoria had explained earlier in the day that her recent experience gain was likely due to the training she had been doing, both with herself and Titus as well as the independent practice Iris had been doing with her teleport ability. Combined with her encounter with the rats and the snake, she was on a fast track to leveling up. It certainly didn't feel like a fast track to Iris, though. She was desperate to gain more power and become a real adventurer, and no amount of reminding herself she was having real adventures already seemed to appease that desire. She drifted off to sleep with her hand on the journal and familiar fantasies on the mind.