“What’s wrong Gallo?” Aurelie called, as she finally ran out of the forest, holding a turquoise stone in her hand. It was the same stone that Mrs. Dreslin had used to contact Raotin. It was called a Communication Stone. It was basically Sorainella’s version of a cellphone with a GPS, but it used Spirit Power instead of electricity. You injected your Spirit Power into the stone in a predetermined pattern, and that caused other Communication Stones with corresponding patterns to hear you and track your position. There was a different pattern per Communication Stone, and a separate one for a group of Communication Stones. Mrs. Dreslin had given her students a Stone when they started out from Lejus Village, as well as the patterns to contact her, the others, and the group.

One of the reasons Tanor had taken Aurelie’s storage ring was to prevent her from contacting the others. She had made sure to store her Communication Stone in her ring in front of Planos, so that Tanor would feel that she wouldn’t have her Communication Stone on her. True, not having the Communication Stone wouldn’t have been a huge bother, but it had been how she had contacted Farn to come to where she was.

In any case, about half an hour ago, Gallo had made a general SOS call on the group channel. Aurelie and Farn, who had been near him, had immediately set off in his direction.

Aurelie looked around. There. Gallo was up in a tree, holding onto a branch for dear life. Underneath the tree, there were several Spirit Beasts eyeing him hungrily. They were a pack of wolves with green fur and the smallest one would be as tall as Aurelie if it were standing on two paws. Their cultivation was at the first stage of the Master Realm. Aurelie and Farn frowned. Though they could take care of the wolves, it would be rather difficult, and they risked getting injured.

Getting an idea, Aurelie whispered something to Farn. He nodded, bent down and grabbed a few pebbles on the ground, and then ran out towards the wolves, firing the small stones to gain the animals’ attention. It worked, and the entire pack turned and ran after him, snarling. Farn turned and ran a small distance, then turned back around and faced the pack head-on.

The wolves all leapt towards him, snarling, anticipating the feeling of sinking their teeth into him… and then they were flying sideways. Farn watched as they fell, howling, over the cliff. He then faced the remaining three wolves, a short sword materializing out of his own storage ring and dancing through the air. Now that their numbers were cut down, the wolves were no problem for him to take care of. In short order, three dead and decapitated bodies fell to the ground, and Farn started to clean his sword.

Aurelie stood where she had been standing when she used her patented and perfected Rejection Palm, which she named after the Suction Palm, from which the technique was derived. She had been right. Ever since Mel’s death, Farn had been… angry. He had turned a bit aloof, like a loner. He was quieter, and far more serious than usual. She was worried about him, but she knew better than to intervene. Not for the first time, she reminded herself he needed to get through this alone. ‘If it gets too bad, if all that anger turns inwards, then I’ll help.’ She promised herself, scanning her surroundings for any other approaching Spirit Beasts. Recognizing where they were, she froze.

Meanwhile, Farn helped Gallo down from the tree.

“What happened?” He asked.

That was all the encouragement Gallo needed. Although he was just a year younger than Farn, Gallo was much more timid than Farn and relied completely on his peer. “Well, I was wandering around, trying to find the Spirit Fruit, but I got really lost, and I couldn’t find my way back to camp, and I’ve used up all my food and water, and then the Spirit Beasts came and they tried to eat me and I ran and I climbed the tree and…”

“I see.” Farn said, cutting Gallo off.

Gallo looked between the two of them hopefully. “Do you guys know the way back?”

Farn frowned. He hadn’t paid attention to the path, having had been in too much of a rush. He turned towards Aurelie, planning to ask if she remembered how to return to the camp. It was then that he took in her appearance. She was pale, and looked shocked.

He frowned. “Aurelie? What’s wrong?”

“Aurelie! Do you know the way back?” Gallo asked, the desperation of a drowning man grasping at his last straw shining in his eyes.

“Huh? Yeah, I know the way.” Aurelie replied, her voice shaking. Gallo started to jump up and down in joy, happy to finally be returning to the protection of the camp and Mrs. Dreslin.

“I don’t think we should be going back just yet, though.” Aurelie added.

Gallo looked at her in surprise. “Why not? Do you want to spend another sleepless night here, wondering what Spirit Beast was going to crawl out of the shadows and kill you?” He continued to rant about other fears that had been plaguing him for the past day they had been in the forest, though he started to do it under his breath. He knew that he was the one asking for their help, and he shouldn’t be mad at them for delaying. That didn’t abate his fears, though.

“Farn.” Aurelie said, urgency a vibrant thread in her voice. She turned and looked her friend in the eye, ignoring Gallo. Her eyes were shining with excitement.

“What?” Farn asked, curious as to what was affecting Aurelie to this point.

“Do you recognize this place?” She asked.

Farn looked around, skeptically wondering how he could recognize a place he had never been to before.

But his eyes widened soon enough. Amazed, he turned and looked at Aurelie, nodding.

“The Spirit Fruit should be in that cave.” He confirmed.