I noticed the others casting me a few confused looks while I gathered leaves and branches. The slowly dawning comprehension on each of their faces as I built my shelter was rather funny.

Martin looked like he wanted to say something, but just shook his head and gave some further directions to his men. Most of the others, aside from the cook in blue, headed into their tents.

I wasn’t sure if the man was just staying up to clean the dinner pot or if he was on watch, but I was too tired to give it much thought. Between a wonderfully full belly, fatigue from another long walk, and an unexpected feeling of security, I was feeling quite drowsy.

----------------------------------------

After a vague and cheerful dream, I woke to the sound of pouring rain. Hearing something moving through the underbrush nearby, I instinctively started weaving a spell to defend myself. Before I could finish the first couple mana forms, I remembered that I wasn’t traveling alone anymore.

Peeking out from my shelter with a bit of hesitation, I saw the others tearing down their tents. Most of the group looked a little irritated by the rain. The giant, on the other hand, looked very irritated. He was much more vocal than the day before. Most of what he was grumbling to himself repeatedly used some of the same harsh-sounding words.

I couldn’t help but smile when I realized that the first of these strangers' words I was starting to learn the meaning of were probably swear words. Hopefully I could pick up a few more useful things to say before we made it back to their village.

After all of the tents had been packed away, Martin approached me holding the fancy bag my bowl came from. Opening up his interface, he showed a simple scene of me carrying the bag through the jungle, but returning it once we were at the wooden wall of their village.

With a large smile, I nodded. Even if it was only temporary, the pretty bag was a large improvement over the abused piece of fabric I had to call my own.

As we set off into the jungle, we walked in a similar order to the day before. While stepping around a particularly deep puddle of mud, I tried to figure out the logic behind the formation. Martin was both the leader and the most capable of stopping attacks in combat, so it made sense that he was in the front. Behind him walked the giant, who seemed to be the most perceptive. Despite his grumbled complaints, he seemed to keep a very keen eye on his surroundings. Salvador walked just in front of me, looking the least annoyed by the rain.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

The fact that Liam and I were in the middle made a great deal of sense. We both could use magic, but were much smaller than the musclebound warriors. Placing us in the center of the group would have ensured that we would be easier to defend should we be attacked.

Behind the two of us, the cook who I still hadn’t got the name of, plodded along. Matt, the carver in red, followed in the rear. I figured the two of them could probably hold their own fairly well if something snuck up on us from behind.

Around midday, our formation was put to the test, the giant held up his hand to call the group to a halt. Whispering quietly, he pointed at something ahead of us.

Looking ahead, I could barely make out a very large creature moving through the trees ahead of us. I couldn’t tell what it was, but it was moving towards us quickly.

Liam quickly started carving runes into the ground as the warriors readied their weapons. I held my spear tightly as I started weaving a spell.

We didn’t have long to wait before the beast crashed through the trees ahead of us. The massive thing was covered in grayish blue scales and stood almost as tall as the surrounding trees. Half this massive creature’s height came from its ridiculously long neck.

Taking in some more of the details about the creature, I grew a little less concerned. The beast’s relatively small head didn’t look like it was meant for hunting prey. The eyes on the side of its head and almost beak-like mouth told me that I was probably looking at a large herbivore.

I still didn’t want to end up getting caught in the creature’s path. Its trunk-like feet didn’t seem to have any claws, but they pounded against the earth with enough force to easily smash anything caught underneath. I was very glad that the creature’s path wasn’t taking it directly towards us.

The giant man looked like he was about to launch an attack on the thing, so I quickly moved towards him. I still didn’t know how to talk to him, so I opened up my interface and quickly called up a series of images. Each one depicted different animals eating plants. He lowered his weapon as I pointed at the large beast peacefully minding its own business.

Everyone looked relieved as the beast meandered to the side of our path. The beast easily waded into a small ravine we had chosen to go around.

It was always nice to see a titan that didn’t want to kill me. I smiled as I looked up at the creature's head as it strolled between a gap in the treetops. It looked quite peaceful silhouetted against the gray sky.

My smile vanished as a bolt of lighting illuminated a massive winged figure swooping down towards the beast.