Making my way through the forest, while nibbling on some snacks, it doesn't take long before I find Frederic and Frida. I finish the snack before I call out to them and get two different reactions.

Frida's reaction is expected with her sprinting towards me when she hears my voice. Frederic seems to jump when he hears my voice and his hands move a little too fast behind him to be natural.

Looking away from his poor attempt at hiding and back towards Frida, I notice she is quite excited and makes me wonder what he is hiding.

"Having some fun with your cousin Frida?"

"Yeah, it's fun!" Was all she said, before giving me a gesture to crouch down. "But did you know that Frederic could breathe fire?" She whispered.

Fire? I'm not sure that is possible by natural means, though there are a few ways one can imitate that, one possibility being something he promised he wouldn't do.

"Was there actual fire coming out or just smoke?" I asked to confirm my suspicion.

"There was smoke since he used up his fire for the month he said. And he was making all these shapes with it too. There was a circle, a snake, a donu-" I stop here before she goes on a speech about all the different shapes with most of them probably the same thing only with different names,

I move the backpacks to one hand while I hoist her up on the other. I make my way to Frederic, where he is still sitting on that same stump only noticeably more nervous after he heard what she told me.

He tries acting normal but my only answer to that was a stare that many fathers have to learn.

The 'I am giving you a chance to confess now' stare.

It doesn't take long before he gives up and takes out what he hid behind his back.

"You do know that smoking isn't as dangerous as when you were you were young, right?" He complains.

"I know, but you promised your parents to wait till you were at least 18. I just want to make sure being honest to yourself." I explain while pocketing the wares.

"Where is Helena though, wasn't she supposed to be with you?"

Frida comes into the conversation and answers the question for him. "She heard some bird noises and took off after it. Said something about completing the collection."

Meaning that I need to go after her. I give two of the packs to Frederic and tell them to go back. Better hurry too, the look Frida had when I said Lyssandra was preparing something warm meant that there might not be much left when I get there.

I walked the path she took by following the imprints of her shoes that went a lot further inwards than I thought they would.

The walk went on for a bit before the path ended, the trail stopping at a large tree. I wondered why she would stop here of all places, I haven't heard a sound from the birds she said Helena went for either.

Stepping closer to the tree one could hear someone panting, did she really get that tired from running her?

"Hele-" Is all I get out before something grabs my face and starts clawing at it. The claws are small and don't do much damage but the creature, for this is definitely not Helena, has a good grip.

While I'm trying to fight it off, I manage to trip and I consider it good that there aren't any steep cliffs near me to fall in. But I notice something amiss when I don't feel any pain from an impact.

It goes from something unusual to terrifying when I'm still falling long after I should have hit the ground. The realization that I'm still falling makes me fight much more desperately to get it off but the creature barely even moves and only bring up a fresh wave of agony from trying.

Finally, the creature gets tired and starts to let go, giving me the chance to get it off my face.

The victory is shortlived though with my own strength disappearing so rapidly that I can't even open my eyes to see what's happening and my consciousness going with it.

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Back at the tree Helena, who is wondering what that strange sound was, walks to where she last heard it. Seeing nothing there, she shrugs and goes back to fiddling with the camera.

After getting the settings right, she casts a glance at the clock to see the time and notice that the clock is almost six.

"Only one hour till sunset, better hurry back or they will get worried." She says for herself not really knowing that someone already came but disappeared without a trace.