I woke up to a dull, aching pain on my chest, but with no soreness in my body. linking my eyes open, I found myself staring up at an immense scaled snout, nostrils flaring with every deep breath. Panic shot through me as I thought another monster was here for me, but, clearing my vision, I realized that it was just Hunter. They rumbled at me in a greeting.

After greeting them, I examined my surroundings. This was around where we fought the creature. There was a puddle of blood near a bunch of scratched and cracked trees. Why were we still in the same place? Where did the creature go? Did I kill it? The last thing I remembered was the fight in the forest and the searing pain as the plant animal's claws tore into my chest. Yet, as I gingerly ran my hands over my chest, I felt only torn clothes and fresh skin underneath.

I propped myself up on my elbows, trying to stand up, and was immediately pounced on by Willow. I fell over in shock, Willow wrapping her arms around me in an uncomfortably painful hug, and heat rose in my cheeks as she pushed herself against me. “You’re finally awake! I was worried something might have happened!”

Before I had a chance to reply, A furry animal pounced on my face, and a coarse tongue rasped against my face. “You’re back!”

“Riley, stop that!” I exclaimed, but he ignored me. “Willow, please let me go.” She released me and stood up, taking a few hasty steps backwards, her face reddening.

“Sorry, I wasn’t thinking.”

I picked Riley up by his front legs and hugged him, but put him down quickly as he licked me again. “Disgusting! Don’t lick me!” Willow laughed at my situation, and I glowered at her.

After Riley settled down, Willow explained to me what had happened. Hunter had flown off with me and give me some herbs, which completely removed the injuries on my chest, while leaving Willow and our companions in the area where we had the fight.

I felt amazed that there was a plant that could cure such serious injuries. I’ve received a few similarly severe wounds in the past, and had to rest for at least half a rotation, waiting for them to mend. We had herbal mixes to speed up natural skin and flesh mending, but this plant completely fixed my wounds overnight. If Nature had supplies like these, it was no wonder that they could recover from a battle so quickly, and explained why we were told to show “absolutely no mercy” to those of Nature.

Willow also showed me an object similar to the shards we’ve gotten, but quite a bit smaller. She said that it was probably a fragment of the nature shard. I was confused as to why the nature shard was split into several pieces, but accepted it as a quirk of the shard itself.

I was ready to continue our journey, so I called Hunter over so we could continue walking.

The order of our small group was the same as usual. Hunter walked at the front, with me not too far behind, close enough for me to ask some questions, all of which Hunter invariably answered to the best of his ability. Riley padded at my side, licking me periodically despite my protests, and sometimes talked to me with almost perfect words. I was proud of his progress, but he would sometimes ignore me for a period of time. I did not know why, nor did he ever tell me why.

At the back, a good distance behind us, was Willow and Luna. They chatted to themselves, snippets of their conversation and laughter making their way to us occasionally. Sometimes Willow would run up to me and ask me for something, such as my opinion on a food, what we did in Fire, or to see my map and our progress.

Eventually, we gave up our attempts at approaching wild animals, as they would usually either flee or attack viciously. Willow scraped off some skin on her arm while fighting a lizard creature, and asked me for a plaster to put onto it. It healed rather slowly, as did all the injuries we received. Willow was able to heal the more serious ones with her healing with water, by using her necklace to pour out some water and then somehow absorbing it into her body.

Needless to say, Hunter was extremely intrigued by this, and, for some time, I was at the front of our team, while Hunter discussed the water healing with Willow. I was excluded from the conversation, and made no complaints. After all, it wasn’t going to be very useful for me.

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While walking, I made some progress on the more magical parts of fire. Being a person who preferred hand-to-hand combat instead of tossing around fire and lava balls, I focused my training on weapons such as swords and axes and didn’t put much effort into what normally mages would do. Given recent events, I’ve decided to put some effort into improving the control I have over fire and hot items.

As I summoned a plume of fire to my hands, I felt the power of the fire coursing through me, energy begging to be unleashed. With a deep breath, I focus my mind, drawing upon the raw elemental force that resides within me. My fingertips begin to glow with an inner flame, dancing across my skin like living embers.

Slowly, I extend my hand, willing the fire to coalesce into a ball. At first, it flickers and sputters, struggling to maintain its form. But with each passing moment, my control strengthens, and the flames begin to combine into a swirling orb-

I trip across a stray branch in the middle of the road, interrupting my focus, the fire sputtering out as quickly as it came.

I kicked the branch and cursed, while giggles and a low rumble sounded from behind me.

“Don’t laugh at me.”

The laughter died down, and my madness ebbed away. I took a deep breath and shivered, just noticing how cold it was.

The uncomfortably low temperature fueled my desire to enhance my control over fire. I once again ignited a small fire, trying to coax it into a ball, but quickly dropped it soon after.

I recalled how the fireballs work. Instead of using fire, which is not an object, mages used lava. They could shape the lava into a hollow ball to maximize damage and minimize waste, and retract the lava once it finishes its job. It’s difficult for me to learn, especially without anyone to teach me, but I need to do my best.

Over the next few days, we travelled through nature. Nothing major happened, except that we found another plant leopard creature. This time, I blasted it apart with a crude fireball, but not before it clawed me again. Thankfully, Hunter prepared extra herbs, so I ate a few pieces of it to stop the wound before it got worse. It dropped another piece of the nature shard, but this time smaller.

I managed to get enough practice on forming my projectiles so that I could make one in around five seconds. They weren’t very large (around the size of a small apple) but did their job well. I also practiced recalling the lava, but I wasn’t as efficient with it as the mages. I was happy with my progress though.

Our food stock was running short, so I went hunting. This was also an opportunity to practice my fireballs.

While in the forest, I became too intent on practicing shooting fireballs at live targets and hunted too many animals, to the point that I had to leave behind a rabbit for Riley to eat and a few more smaller animals for a group of wild wolves we saw, on top of completely filling my stoke. Riley pointed this out as a disrespect towards food and the wildlife, which I reluctantly agreed to.

The hunting with the fireballs was very efficient, although quite messy. My fireballs often blew up entire animal heads, and Riley ate up those that were mangled and charred to the extent of being unrecognizable. Since the animals here weren’t resistant to fire at all, I had to draw the lava back into my stoke as soon as it hit the animal, or else it would eat away at the carcass.

Sometimes, the animal wouldn’t die immediately, and would manage a wheezing scream before collapsing. In other cases, I didn’t hit the animal’s head, and rather than a dead carcass, we would have a rampaging creature caterwauling at the top of their lungs while escaping. Riley, being an awesome buddy, would chase after our victim and lock his fangs around their neck, preventing their getaway and allowing me to put it out of its misery.

Our hunt provided us with plenty of food and plenty of time to travel without needing to pause to forage for our meal.

Travel in Nature was boring. The environment never changed, so at times it felt like we were walking around in a circle. I would reassure myself that nothing was wrong after checking the marker on the map.

After many days of walking and not much distance gained on the map, we figured out the problem: we were making progress, but since we would choose to walk in areas with less trees and plants, we would walk in a snake-like pattern, reducing the speed at which we journeyed through Nature.

I shared this revelation with our group, and Hunter said that they noticed it a long time ago, but thought that we were doing this on purpose.

I believed that this unique way of navigation was intended for leisure and convenience.

We continued onwards from there, but after traversing a particularly dense and spiky forest, we decided to keep going in the more comfortable manner. We did need to go a longer distance, but the areas with more plants took a longer time to get through, so they were about the same.

The night our marker reached around halfway through Nature, we just so happened to run short on food once again, so we set up a small camp inside a rather sparse forest.

I went hunting to bring back some fresh food, hopefully enough for a feast to celebrate our progress. I even gathered some fruit from bushes and trees near the area, getting swept off my feet by some vines multiple times, bruising my knee.

As I returned to our camp, I noticed that the fire I lighted went out. Frowning, I examined the charred wood. I told Willow to keep it lit, but she was not here.

A terrifying screech rang out from behind me, and I was given no time to react before I was knocked over, the air driven out of my lungs and a familiar pain gouged into my back.