I ran through the forest as quickly as I could. The motions I made while zig-zagging between trees caused Cellestra to hold on to my hairs tighter than usual. I slowed down as I saw the look in her eyes become a bit too focused.

“If you want me to slow down, just warn me.”

“I… I think I’m okay. Just seeing trees come that close so fast is a bit… scary.”

“Alright. The offer still stands for whenever you want to take it.”

I continued at the same speed. It appeared that the elf on my back eventually got used to my maneuvers. I thought it was a matter of getting used to, at least.

Eventually, trees became fewer as more space appeared between them, allowing me to pick up the pace a bit more. I hoped it signaled the end of the forest, but we had no such luck. Instead, some trees we saw had blue-barked trunks.

The moment we saw them appear, I walked up to one of them out of sheer curiosity. I could see the same hint of wonder in the elf’s eyes.

“What are those?” I asked while slowly walking up to a tree.

“I have no idea. I haven’t seen anything like those before.”

I reached one of them and laid a hand on the blue bark, noticing that it wasn’t even made of wood. Rather, it appeared to be some kind of crystal from a distance, but it still felt like the normal outer layer of a trunk.

“You haven’t read of anything like these?” I asked, looking at the elf who reached out to touch the bark as well.

She shook her head. “Nothing that even comes close to it.”

I summoned a small icicle to strike the tree and discovered that the spell simply shattered upon hitting the weird tree. When I walked a bit further and repeated the spell on a normal tree to compare the effects, I found that it created at least a small dent.

“So, it’s at least stronger than normal wood,” Cellestra said what I had just concluded from my little experiment. “That’s interesting.”

“That’s more than interesting. I’d love to check out what happens to the wood after cutting one of these trees down, but I don’t think I’ll be in a position to carry wood in addition to everything we already have.”

“If it’s only for that, you could just bring a small piece?” The elf suggested.

“I could. Thing is, I don’t want to linger around here for long. These trees feel unnatural to me.”

“I see what you mean,” Cellestra said. “Let’s keep going then.”

I nodded and waited until the elf had a good grip on my back again before continuing to run through the forest. For a while, the number of odd blue-barked trees increased, before eventually shrinking again. Near the end of the afternoon, all we saw was the more ordinary flora once more.

“I have the feeling that not all is said and done with those blue trees,” Cellestra said as soon as the last one left vision.

“How do you know?” I asked with a sly smile. Unfortunately, the purple-eyed elf wasn’t in a position to see it.

“I think I know you well enough for that,” Cellestra said, with a smile that rivaled mine. “I have a feeling you were already concocting an idea of how to use that wood in a weapon.”

“I thought you said you didn’t know me well enough earlier?” I joked and chuckled. “You’re right, though. At the same time, it would probably be a pain to process that wood. Did you see my attack on it earlier? Not a scratch.”

“The thing that bothers me,” Cellestra said. “Let’s say it is usable in weapons and whatnot, how come we, or at least I, have never heard of it? You would think it has a high value and is known for its sturdiness.”

“Why do you think I wanted to get out of there? I thought the exact same thing, so I figured we shouldn’t stick around. That does not mean I don’t plan on coming back here… someday.”

“You’re already planning all of this, aren’t you?” A sly smile appeared on the elf’s face.

“In a way yes. Much of it is going to depend on what exactly happens at the end of this trip. I can’t see myself leaving my parents again so soon, but I am also not the type of person to just sit around.”

“Heh,” Cellestra let out. “Yeah, I’ve seen that.”

“I mean,” I continued in response to her statement. “There will certainly be less hurry from my side now that all that is behind me. My blessing is still here, however, and I plan to use it.”

“How so?”

“Dungeons, primarily. There are bound to be plenty out there where I can pick up useful abilities. That is, if this world is at all similar to my old one.”

“It is true that dungeons are plenty, but I’m not a hundred percent sure how it works when it comes to delving into those that are visited by adventurers regularly.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, unsure what the elf was getting to.

“I mean, aren’t you afraid of adventurers attacking you? If we visit dungeons that are often raided for treasure, we’re bound to run into others.”

“You’re right. There are probably a few people that I should be scared of. I guess it’s something we need to look into later. I’m sure there are some people we can talk to that know more about these things.”

Cellestra nodded. “I’m sure we’ll figure things out later.”

“There will be a lot of figuring out in the future, for both of us, I guess,” I said softly.

“Yeah, I suppose you’re right,” The elf concluded.

After our conversation, I could see an opening beyond the furthest trees. I was about to call it a day as evening was almost upon us, but decided to keep on going in the hope that we’d reached the end of the woods.

A couple of minutes later, I was rewarded for my efforts when I stepped out in green plains once more. The terrain from here seemed to go downhill, and in the distance, I could clearly see a small village.

It wasn’t anything near as impressive as the two elven cities we’d encountered. I could make out simple brick houses with something that looked like a smaller version of a temple in the center of the settlement. It was surrounded by a wooden palisade and a moat. A stream ran from west to east, that was if we were still heading north, but I didn’t feel like we had strayed far from our course.

“Think we should see if we can talk to anyone there tomorrow?” Cellestra asked.

She was right in the fact that I’d prefer not to approach the settlement with darkness setting in. Chances were that a giant spider lady in the evening would not leave the best of first impressions. It would be much better for my, and mostly their, health to visit them in the morning.

“Yeah, let’s find out just how much we botched heading due north.”

Cellestra giggled softly as I walked up to an area that was relatively flat on the downhill-leading terrain to make up camp for the night. Once I’d picked the spot, we started unloading. I created another flame before darkness covered the rest of the world as Cellestra started putting together some things for dinner.

As she crouched next to the large brown bag and her own backpack which she’d placed next to it, she handed her pouch of tea leaves to me.

“Let’s see if we can speed up the natural process of drying leaves,” I said as I took out some leaves. “You didn’t bring any cups with you, did you?”

“Unfortunately not. The only thing I can drink from is my canteen.”

“This might get more complicated than it should be,” I let out as I tried to figure out a way to solve a couple of issues in my head. For instance, I had no plate or anything to lay the leaves on.

In the end, I used some of the larger leaves that Cellestra had left over after unpacking the dried meat and making sure to get rid of the salt. I laid the leaves on top of them and summoned a small flame above it and a weak version of the wind gust spell, to heat and dry the tea without burning it. The elf had a great time watching me work if the look in her eyes was anything to go by.

“Just don’t get them too hot,” Cellestra suggested, causing me to lift the flame slightly higher.

“You’ll have to tell me how it’s going. I have not tried anything like this before.”

“Just like that is good,” She said as she kept close watch.

I smiled. I couldn’t believe I was having a great time doing something like this. Something I would have considered ‘stupid’ if I had never died.

Cellestra smiled back. How I loved that cute smile of hers. I wished with all my heart that I could hold on to that smile forever.