The dense branches attached to the thick fallen trunk had effectively hidden the snout at first glance. I tensed up in preparation for the next blast of air. Suticat had bolted, but I was sure she could find us later if she wanted to. Meanwhile, I could hear the distinctive sound of Sarratina panicking as she ran towards Shiara. It was doubtful that she had even seen the Bellower yet, but this way she would at least be out of immediate danger; conveniently leaving me as the main target. Bracing myself, I counted down the time till the next attack. Three…two…one, I dived to the side, rolling slightly to disperse the impact…

-And nothing happened. Puzzled, I tentatively glanced back to the snout. Peeking cautiously around the tree I had dived behind- not that it offered any true protection, I noticed that the trunk had not moved at all. Was it stuck? It was quite rare for the Bellower to not be strong enough to release itself…unless it had snapped its snout.

Marvelling at our luck, I got up from behind my tree and proceeded to head back towards Shiara-

HASNICH!

I dropped to the ground again as I felt a large gust of wind blasted by me again. What was going on?? It was getting dark and in the faded light I struggled to see both the Bellower’s snout and Sarratina.

“Oh no! Vixen, Shiara’s unconscious! What do we do-“

HASNICH!

The air next to me became turbulent again as the Bellower released another blast of air. However, though the rest of Shiara’s speech was deafened by the attack, suddenly everything made sense to me. Taking advantage of the lull between attacks, I quickly passed through the blasted area and headed over to Shiara.

“Vixen? YOU STILL-” “SHH!” Popping up next to her, I signalled for to quiet down. “What do we do?! What’s going-”

HASNICH.

“And what’s that noise?” A brief examination of Shiara showed that she hadn’t suffered too heavy of an impact; at least nothing capable of knocking her out. Rather, she was just asleep and not unconscious.

“Less questions, talk later. Slap Shiara until she wakes up and tell her to be quiet, than follow me.” Turning around, I heard a resounding slap sound that made me wince. *1

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“Huh, huh? What’s going on?-“ “-Shh.”

I silently shook my head, speechless. I did tell her to do it and she did manage to wake up Shiara, but I hadn’t expected her to perform my order so vigorously. Although she was faultless, the slap was truly too resounding. Then again, she had followed all my previous requests very dutifully, so this excessive behaviour could be expected. Ignoring the rest of these thoughts, I continued squinting into the dark, finally confirming that the Bellower’s snout had not moved.

HASNICH.

…And as expected the blast of air came at the same time. Feeling the two arrive behind me, we slipped away towards the West.

…

Having left the Bellower along with the chasm behind, we were able to continue heading South, making good time. Suticat re-joined us briefly after we started heading West, clinging unnaturally close to me. I was feeling extremely tired so it may have just been my imagination, but she seemed to be acting contritely. We were still in Bellower territory, but the blue moon was nearing its second nightly zenith and the other two were brimming with impatience and curiosity. There didn’t seem to be any other Bellowers in the immediate vicinity, so with a sigh, I decided to get their interrogation out of the way.

“Ok, you can ask away- quietly ask away.”

“What was that back there?! Was that a Bellower?” “Why was I suddenly knocked out, and why did you let Sarratina slap me?” I took a look at her still swollen face; at least there was no handprint.

“I can’t say for sure, but yes that was a Bellower back there. Not sure if you two saw it, but I think it was trapped underneath that fallen tree-“

“Oh! That one, I thought I saw something weird coming from it. That reminds me, Sarratina, why didn’t you scream or shout when I flew by you?”

“Well Vixen did say to keep quiet…but it’s also because I wasn’t very focused…and may have not noticed until you had already gone by…” “…”

“So why didn’t the Bellower continue attacking us?”

“I’m not sure. At first I thought it was because it was stuck, but if that was the case, it should still be able to change the direction of it’s attack by just changing the snout, even if the rest of it’s trunk is stuck. I also thought it could have been a baby Bellower, but it’s snout was too big. That’s when I realised that though its attacks were coming at a regular interval, they were more spaced out. I suspected it might be asleep and the previous blasts of air being the Bellower’s sneezes or snoring. Finally I realised that though Shiara was knocked off her feet, she hadn’t been knocked out by the shock from impact. Instead she had just gone to sleep, leading me to believe that somehow the Toxic-fireflies have evolved to produce a variant toxin; potent enough to induce sleep in not only regular prey, but even Bellowers as well. That might also explain the lack of Bellower’s we’ve seen.“

“…Oh.”

“…”

“But than why haven’t we seen any Toxic fireflies?”

“Well they could be all eating the insides of Bellower’s nearby.”

“I don’t think that’s very likely Shiara. More likely they just overpopulated the region and starved to death. Right Vixen?” …Hmmm

“Hopefully. The only other reason I can think of is that something else ate them all…” We all silently pondered over the gloomy thought of what that would mean for us. Well, there was no use worrying about that now.

“Hey, enough of the depressing thoughts, isn’t that normal jungle ahead.” I glanced up at Shiara’s shout. She was right! In front of us lay normal jungle terrain with its vibrant maniacal overgrowth. “Finally!” Shiara fell forward, face planting into the ground. “And the ground’s soft and wet!” …ah!

“Yes! We can finally sleep as-“

“-Quiet Sarra.” I listened intently…yes, there was a slightly trickling noise, barely audible. Ignoring the other two I started sluggishly climbing the nearest tall tree. It wasn’t a great one to climb, and I was tired, so I struggled, but I eventually managed to haul myself to the top.

I looked to the South and soon noticed close by a brief East-West break in the canopy. That must be the river! Looking to the East, I spotted the chasm as well. The chasm continued into the overgrown forest as a gap in the canopy, however that gap did not connect with the river gap, leaving a space of a few kilometres of passable terrain. As I was analysing the area from above, the first rays of sunlight burst through lighting up the distant horizon. A new day had begun.