The celestial rings hurtle by, and finally, light from the distant star peeks through, bathing the grasslands in a seconds long sunrise before transitioning rapidly to full noon. Immediately, the slight chilly bite of the darkness abates in favor of a more gentle warmth.

[Congratulations! Phase 1 of the Trials completed! Next, you must find a hidden key on each of the major continents. Keys remaining: 3.

Warning: Danger levels of monsters increase dramatically in each subsequent continent visited.]

Cryptic, and unhelpful as always. Looking at my map, and zooming way the fuck out, I see several areas have been illuminated out of the gray nothing that usually fills the places I haven’t seen. The closest one, likely still on our continent, seems to be in a barren, stony looking place… the map doesn’t give significant detail like it does with places I’ve seen. The next one is way North and East, but looks like a uniform section of blue. Water, maybe? The last one just looks red… which is far more worrying than the rest combined. Why couldn’t it have been light blue, like ice? At least I have a resistance to cold!

Ugh, problems for the far future. Cerberus silently pads into the forest, saying nothing. I get so far as to opening my mouth to reproach him before he growls “Follow.” Frowning, I swallow my words. It’s something.

I’m content to let him have the lead in front of his people. It’s the last they’ll see of him for a while, so hopefully it gives them the strength to survive till we return. The forest makes no noise, with all the small life seeming to have moved elsewhere in the wake of the army camping out in their midst. It’s a little sad, honestly, and a little strange. They were all very content to chirp and croak when it was just parasitic Treants, but a few dogs and they move? It’s almost like the forest is rejecting them.

Though I feel eyes on me, it takes a few moments to spot the scouts lying still in the underbrush. The only thing that gives them away is the faint glint of the sun in their eyes, but if we were in under thicker canopy, it would be impossible. Cerberus doesn’t even spare them a glance, and we head around the camp proper. It seems he finished up everything he needed to during the dark hours.

We come upon a lone figure: a Werewolf, standing beside a tree. It immediately strides forward staring intently at Cerberus, and shooting small looks at me and Lauren. They’re obviously communicating, but I couldn’t say about what. Kaythe tightens around me slightly, sending signals of discomfort under the gaze of the Werewolf. Poor thing, he didn’t used to be scared of anything… but is he afraid because he now knows what it’s like to die, or because he doesn’t like knowing he couldn’t protect me from something?

The creature looks directly at me with a sudden intensity. “Human, you will avoid endangering our leader. Do so, and I can guarantee the safety of your kin. Yes?”

I don’t respond, having become more than sick of being called ‘Human’ at this point, but Lauren isn’t one to let an awkward silence go to waste. “But of course I’ll keep Cerby safe! Just leave it all to me!” Her cajoling, overly peppy tone sounds every bit as intentionally inflammatory as I’m sure she wants it to, and though I should probably not have let it happen, it feels good to see the Werewolf’s ire. “I was speaking to the other human.” It speaks with great distaste. My eyes flit to Cerberus, curious at his reaction to all this, but he seems uncharacteristically blank instead of bristling with fury like I expected.

“Ah, a miscommunication, I’m sure. For this, we humans have developed a concept called ‘names’. You know mine, correct?” I do my best to keep my smile from becoming nasty, but who can say how successful I am.

The Werewolf growls, but seems unsure, looking to Cerberus for support but finding nothing.

“Yes.” It finally answers.

“Use it. Cerberus, please lead the way.” Though I don’t spare the creature another glance as we walk on, I notice Lauren pantomime some obscene promise with one of her knives at it. It takes more willpower than I care to measure to stifle my laughter and school my expression.

Nothing is said as we walk, with each of us trying to acclimate to the new environment. Take note of every sound and investigate it thoroughly. Understand exactly what the underbrush and canopy does to sound, how far away it originates, what the crackling of leaves means at various amplitudes… everything. I have to establish a baseline for sound, sight, and smell in order to identify violations to that norm. Slowly, the sound of buzzing insects grows as we leave the camp behind us. Soon, sounds of birds join in, and the strange sounds of things that could be amphibians, but look more like slimes than I’m comfortable with.

Suddenly, something flashes in front of my eyes, falling down, and I jump back from the sound of a meaty plop on the ground.

My sword is in my hands in a flash, and Kaythe is posed on my shoulders, ready to stab the shit out of whatever just tried to fall on me… but it just kinda oozes a little bit. It suddenly reforms, before rolling slowly towards the nearest tree.

[Spogdig - Relatively harmless creatures that have a nonstatic biology. They have mild shapeshifting ability, and are capable of moving their existing parts around their gelatinous body to optimize use. They are known to try to hitch rides on passersby.]

“System says it’s harmless.” I say, straightening and putting my sword away.

The sound of running water has been ever present in our journey, but there’s no reason for us to be near the water as of yet, so we opt to keep away from it to make sure we aren’t backed into a difficult situation if we’re assaulted. Our proximity does explain how something that looks like a glorified globe of water can continue to not dry out.

Looking up, I can see a few more of the Spogdigs grouping, attempting to get into position to land on my pack or head. I pick up the one who tried to drop on me and examine it more closely.

It’s blue in color, but mostly translucent. In the center, I can see a core, similar to what the slimes have, but unlike the slimes, there are more ridges and folds in the core, and there are complex organs like eyes and hands littering the exterior. They look shoddy at best, but they’re leagues beyond a fucking ooze or shitty slime that’s only good for burning your legs… not that I’m bitter.

I’m interrupted from my inspection by Lauren poking my face. “No. I know what you’re thinking, and no more pets. I’m sure you think it’s cute, but we can’t have you distracted the whole way with this thing.”

I grimace and gently place it part of the way up the tree it had been heading towards. “I wasn’t going to keep it, just curious.”

She rolls her eyes, clearly not buying it. Though the thought occurred to me, I don’t need more companions besides Kaythe and Cerberus right now, especially when Cerberus is so hard to work with. I can’t have anything dividing my efforts until that’s in a stable place. Speaking of… “Hey Cerberus, could you help me out with these? They’re hanging so low they’re catching on the bushes.” Cerberus, whose massive figure puts him well above the miniscule plant life on the forest floor, looks at me for a moment before turning away and presents his side. Close enough for me. I swing the packs carefully over his back, making sure it doesn’t smack him as it lands, and fasten it. I shrug my shoulders and roll them a bit, working out the tension from the straps digging in for so long.

The forest quickly thickens, with trees growing closer and closer together. Where before we could get a general picture of our surroundings, now there are huge clumps of trees that have grown too closely to actually pick out individual organisms, let alone pass through them. We still manage to pick our way through for a while, but it quickly becomes clear we’re fighting a losing battle.

“We could just burn them all down.” Lauren looks far too excited about her idea for my comfort.

“That would kill us.”

“We could definitely outrun the fire.”

“Perhaps, but perhaps not its denizens.”

“I’ve got a solution for that too!”

“Lauren, no killing unless they try to off us first. We want a moss, not a fight, if we can help it.”

“Come onnnn. Don’t you want to get back that Power you lost?” She’s clearly teasing me, but she’s also unfortunately not wrong. I really do crave Power right now. It took a lot of self control not to crush the Spogdig earlier, just for a small amount of relief… which is all the more reason why I really don’t want to get in a fight. It’s an addiction I have no intention of feeding.

“There are no trees growing in the water.” Why is a dog our voice of reason.

“Sounds good to me.”

Lauren mutters something about not being able to ‘light that on fire’, but follows as Cerberus changes course directly for the sound of rushing water.