(Lave POV)

We were walking through another goddess forsaken forest. However this one was way thicker than the last one. Birds and rustling could be heard through the constant drizzle. Amice was bouncing around in front looking here and there. I still don’t know what we are looking for but I’m guessing that it’s a plant due to the way she’s acting.

I stretched lazily as I scanned the surroundings. Luckily I haven’t seen anything dangerous. The animals here are strange. There is a species of green monkey that hangs around in the tree tops. However its made no move so I’m dubbing it harmless.

Suddenly, Amice squealed scaring the hell out of me and our audience. “Look Lave, ዘንዶ ሥር.” She crouched down ignoring the shouts of anger and thrown twigs from the startled monkeys. “I ቀደም ብለን አንዳንድ አገኘ.”

Slowly she began to dig out a plant from the ground using her dagger. I slit my eyes, annoyed. There was no reason for her to screech like that. I thought we were under attack. And now if there are any dangerous things they know where we are. I slapped the back of her head.

“ውይ, Lave, ለምን ይህን ማድረግ ነበር?” Amice dropped the plant she had dug out of the ground and grabbed the back of her head.

“You’re such an idiot,” I told her, even though I knew she didn’t understand. At least she should be able to tell that I’m not happy. I grabbed that brown bag and shoved the plant inside. The faster we moved from this location the better.

Amice pouted on the ground and started mumbling. I sighed. She was such a child. How many of these plants do we need to collect anyway? Finding the sheet of paper with what I assume has the information on it I attempted to read it.

‘ ዘንዶ ሥር ሰብስቡ. ሽልማት, ተክል በአንድ = የመዳብ. ‘

I stood there staring blankly at the paper. I can’t read it. What are these lines? It this a spell? There is an equals sign in the middle of the sentence. I sighed… I knew I couldn’t read it, but I still tried. Am I stupid? Why would I even try?

As I glared at the paper, frustrated, Amice went back to digging up plants. I just want to go sit in a corner and cry now. Language was never my strongest subject. In fact you could say it’s my weakest. And now I was stuck in a place where I don’t even know how to count. Why is this happening?

You know what? I’m going to fight something. Thats it. Lets go fight something, that will make me feel better. I don’t need to know the language of this goddess forsaken place. I began chucking to myself. “Lets go kill something.”

“Lave, አስፈሪ የእርስዎ እርምጃ ዓይነት. ደህና ነህ?”

Giving a vicious grin I crumpling up the useless paper and threw it to the ground. While scanning the tree tops for my first victim Ahem.. I mean playmate, I pulled a dagger from my belt. There! The green monkeys that have been following us ever since we got into this blasted forest.

Locking on to the closest monkey, I flipped the dagger over so that I was holding the blade. Take this you weird looking chimp! I threw the dagger as hard as I could. The monkey didn’t even make a sound as the blade buried itself into it’s skull. Pulling on the thin metal wire that connects to the dagger, the blade dislodged.

The monkey fell to the ground with a soft thud. The rest of the troop stood in silence as they watched their companion die. Finally one of the monkeys made a noise. Breaking the silence and causing the other monkeys to join in. Branches were broken off of the trees and wielded the larger ones, while smaller monkeys grabbed sharp rocks.

I started swinging the dagger lazily by the wire, flinging the blood off the blade. Enraged the monkeys charged forward, their killing intent so thick I could taste it. Cackling, I shouted, “Come at me with everything you have! Let me have some fun!”

Taking a step forward I meet a large monkey’s charge. Slipping out a second dagger, I ran it along the monkey’s side opening a deep gash. It collapsed in a pool of its own blood before breathing out its last breath. More Monkeys charged down out of the trees trying to surround me. Which I aloud.

Lashing out, with the dagger swinging in my right hand, I swung it out in a wide circle. Four of the ten monkeys fell to the ground with their throats cut. Choked gags sounded out enraging the monkeys even further. Their eyes even turned red, interesting.

One of the six monkeys shouted, what I assume was an order. I dodged quickly to the right as a pointed rock sailed passed me slamming into one of the monkeys on the ground, killing it. That leaves three monkeys on the ground, six surrounding me, and about ten more in the trees. Well, I don’t have to worry about the ones on the ground. They will die from blood loss soon enough. I snickered at the thought. “Just try as hard as you can, my toys. Try to kill me.”

More stones came flying at me. Dodging them by a hair’s breadth I made my way to one side of the surrounding monkeys. With a light jump I vaulted myself off the face of the one that shouted and landed in the trees. The monkey I had used as a stepping stone slammed into the ground from the force, knocking him out.

Running along the branches, I chased the monkeys throwing stones at me. They were surprisingly good at dodging while in the trees. Every time I got within three meters of one it would jump away while the others threw rocks to hamper my advance.

My smile grew at this game. This is so much fun. I threw my dagger while jerking the string with my other hand making it turn in the air. Like a homing bullet it landed right in the eye of a monkey. Screeching in pain, it tried to pull the dagger out.

“Your mine now.” I whispered while loosening the pressure on the wire. With a quick jump forward I tightened the loose string making it wrap around the monkey’s neck. It lost balance and fell towards the ground effectively hanging itself.

More rocks where thrown at me while I flew through the air to the next branch. Using the wire like a vine I swung my way around up to a higher tree branch. Once I landed I broke off the wire. It would be useless now.

~~~

(Amice POV)

I just stood there horrified at the scene unfolding in front of me. Lave had started laughing while looking at the quest paper. Oh, it was a beautiful sound. However before I knew it she had killed the first Moss Monkey. Its stiff body fell to the forest floor in utter silence showing just how dead it was. The silence stretched on like the still before a storm.

Finally it broke as the larger Moss Monkeys screamed in anger. Wielding weapons they launched themselves at Lave. Cold sweat started running down my back. This is not good. Moss Monkeys were one thing but what if it called something bigger and more dangerous. Just what was she thinking?

She was fine a moment ago. I ruffled my hair in annoyance. Just when we found the Dragon Root too. Taking a deep breath I turned back to watch the fight. Hopefully, this will end without calling a more dangerous being to us. I sighed in admiration, but those moves where absolutely stunning.

Shaking myself out of my aw I pulled my sword out. Lave had left five Moss monkeys on the ground when she jumped into the trees. None of them where paying attention to me. Taking a deep breath I lowered my stance. I shoved my back foot into the ground as hard as I could launching off at the Moss Monkey closest to me.

With a large swing I cut the Moss Monkey in two across the torso. Allowing the weight of the sword to drag me forward I spun in the air and brought it up over my head splitting the next monkey in two the long ways. My sword buried itself into the ground causing dirt to fly into the air. The last three Moss Monkeys stared at me in surprise.

I hefted my sword up onto my shoulder and leaned my weight forward. If Lave was going to fight these things than I might as well help. Plus the Dragon Root was here. It is to much of a pain to go and find them again. Steadying my breath I lurched forward dragging my sword diagonally down the front of another Moss Monkey.

The last two screamed and ran at me saving me the effort of going to them. Pushing the sword into the ground I used the force to propel me up over the head of a Moss Monkey. It slammed into the sword cutting it. I spun the sword around me using my arm like a wipe to cut the Moss Monkey the rest of the way. As the sword dragged my forward I spun on my toes and slammed my foot down burying the sword in the side of the last Moss Monkey.

Spitting up blood it fell to the ground dead. Phew, well thats done. I pulled my sword out and looked around me. Eleven Moss Monkeys lay strewn across the ground some in pieces but all dead.