I could only conclude that goblins were dumb after listening to Lezuz talk about them, she had been used as a forward scout sure, but she had only been told to look for Naga. She was free to interpret those orders as she wished, Lezuz had smelled us as soon as she neared the village but had gone out of her way to avoid as for as long as she could be searching the huts further out. Then when I had made myself known to her, she had basically thrown herself at me not really attempting to do any harm, but allowing me to disable her quickly. It appeared that the orders the goblins gave must be followed, but they could be interpreted in a lot of different ways if you were creative. Lilian exited the hut then and stretched in the morning sunlight, Lezuz, and I rose up from where we had been laying.

“Good morning Lilian, I have some good news and some bad news to share with you,” Lilians attention turned to me and she nodded at my words, she started blushing when she noticed Lezuz though. I was wearing my regular coverings, I was getting used to them, but they must seem strange to Lezuz who of course had nothing on. “There is no need to be embarrassed, we are all women here after all, besides I expect you will see much more naked Naga when we get to the home cave,” Lilian made a visible effort to school her features after that, having calmed down she said.

“Of course, you’re right Eshanai, I’m sorry,” she squared her shoulders and walked determinedly up to Lezuz before sticking out her hand to her. “Hello, my name is Lilian, what’s yours?” She asked, all of this had been in the language of the mainland, so Lezuz hadn’t understood a thing. She looked uncertainly at the hand pointing at her, she glanced at me looking for guidance.

“She’s introducing herself, this is Lilian, my friend from the mainland. Just take her hand and shake it gently up and down before you tell her your name,” I instructed using the Naga tongue. Lezuz eyes lit up in understanding, and she turned back to Lilian with a broad grin on her face she took the girls hand and having taken my words to heart she used both hands to move the hand slowly up and down.

“Lezuz,” she uttered her name as if speaking to someone of slow mind.

“Don’t underestimate the girl, Lilian is one of the smartest people I know, even if she isn’t done growing yet,” Lezuz heard what I said, but still looked at Lilian skeptically, not understanding how something so small could be of any threat. Perhaps I shouldn’t have told her about Lilian not being fully grown and let her form her own opinion. Lilian had been listening to us speak, but cut in after a moment seeming almost sad to interrupt.

“Although I could listen to you speak this strange language all day I wanted to ask what you meant about good and bad news?”

“Oh yes, thanks for reminding me, as you might have seen, Lezuz has made a full recovery and will be able to help us get to my people, Lubus has also promised to help, but I am unsure of what form that will take. The bad news is that my core is being difficult, all our equipment and supplies are stuck in the gem for the moment, we will need to rely heavily on our magic if we run into trouble.” Lilian looked uncertain at this, shoulders hunched up to her ears before she took a deep breath to try and calm herself.

“I’m not sure how much good my magic can do, but I will do my best,” Lilian said, still trying to reassure herself.

“We will be avoiding most things by smell as we did on the way here, but if we do get into danger I expect you to watch our backs and only cast a spell as a last resort, I don’t want you to run out of mana. Lezuz and I aren’t totally bereft of weapons though,” at this, I showed her my extended fangs and gestured to my tail. Lilian seemed reassured by this, finally calming down and giving me a genuine smile.

“The little girl is scared, tell her she has nothing to fear with us,” Lezuz said, having not understood anything that had been said in the mainlanders language.

“I did just that Lezuz, will you help me keep a lookout for threats and to protect Lilian?”

“Of course Eshanai, the forest grows strange the further inland you get, take my advice don’t touch anything if I don’t say its safe,” Lilian said looking at me with a serious frown on her face.

“I understand Lezuz, but remember, I was the first hunter. Has the forest truly changed that much?” I asked, not believing that I wouldn’t be able to handle myself. Lezuz shuddered as she seemed to remember something.

“It’s still changing, chances are that the forest outside the home cave will be unrecognizable to me due to the time I’ve spent away, it will be worse for you I suspect.”

We moved out soon after that, keeping Lilian between us, we left the village as we had found it. We picked some fruits on the way that made up our breakfast, Lezuz insisted on inspecting them before letting us eat. At first, I thought she was being ridiculous, I did recognize the fruits, we had been eating them for as long as I could remember, but her words turned out truer than I could have expected. The air grew so thick with mana that you could see it as a haze in the air making distant objects fuzzy in my sight, as we got deeper into the jungle the vegetation seemed to come alive. Mana was sucked through the roots of trees in pulsing blue streams, entering the trunks, you could see the paths it took out to the leaves like there was a glowing network under the bark. Plants on the ground shot out what looked like little hands of vines to move through the air gathering mana before quickly retreating back into the flower that pulsed with light before slowly moving out through the air again. Everything seemed to move and glow in this part of the forest, but I could see no animals or bugs. The haze in the air wasn’t making things easier, everything beyond a certain point turned into a glowing blue blob. The forest seemed to sense our presence for the plants closest to us retracted their vines and stopped glowing, making a little bubble free of activity where we moved, I looked back multiple times in fascination to watch the vegetation turn lively again.

I scented the air multiple times, but I sensed no animals in our path. I still felt eyes on me, like we were being watched, I couldn’t help returning to my theory that the forest knew we were here. I dismissed the idea as we traveled through the day, we reached a more open area when Lezuz grabbed my attention and motioned behind us. There was movement coming from that direction and the sound of multiple feet moving through the forest. We made sure that Lilian was protected and waited for whatever it was to show themselves. I had neglected to check our flank, forgetting for a moment that we weren’t the only ones hunting by scent in this forest anymore. These things could have followed our trail for a long time before finding us and springing their trap.

Their yipping, almost laughing cries reached my ears as more than twenty individuals reached us and encircled us. They looked like spotted muscular dogs with huge jaws and powerful looking legs.

“Hyenas,” Lilian exclaimed, “Big ugly Hyenas, don’t get bit by them, their jaws are strong enough to crush bones. These look bigger and can probably do more damage,” we would just have to keep their mouths away from us, but I believed we could survive this. As the first hyena took a step forward, runes appeared in a circle around us, and blue etherial orbs appeared above my head, one of them flying towards the offending creature and exploding in its face. We stood stunned for a moment, watching the now headless hyena fall to the ground.

I told you I had a few tricks up my sleeve, Lubus voice sounded in my head. There was not much time to answer as more monsters stepped over the glowing circle, but I sent him my gratitude. Blue orbs flew off to kill anything that ran at us, but there were too many hyenas for that alone to be enough. It gave us breathing room, however, and I used that to breathe fire on anything that got to close. I watched as Lilian summoned her protector behind me and backed away to watch it impale monsters left and right. Lezuz batted them away with her tail for the construct to finish off with its spear. Soon all the dogs were dead and bleeding on the ground, and we stood panting in the sun. I could feel my reservoirs replenishing already, but I was unsure how much Lilian had left.

“The goblins won’t stand a chance,” Lezuz began, the awe clear in her voice, but was interrupted as the underbrush came alive with churning undulating vines. They seemed to seek out the blood on the ground when they found the corpses they wrapped around them and dragged them slowly away. I guess I would have to find something else for Red to absorb, but we didn’t slip the vines attention, we swatted them away but they just kept coming. I burned them away, but the plants only seemed to grow more energetic, redoubling their efforts to ensnare us. Blades of air appeared from Lubus and tried to cut away at the vegetation, but the vines kept coming. Knarled roots snuck around my body and trapped my hands against my sides, struggle as I might I could not escape their grasp. My companions had suffered similar fates I could see, I would not let us die here when we were so close. The bubble of heat grew out from my body, but this time it was made of fire. The vines holding me withered away to ash and I moved on to my friends to do the same. We continued moving towards the home cave, leaving ash in our wake as I had enlarged the shield to engulf all three of us. Plants attacked us the whole time, burning themselves to ash on my protection, chipping away at my mana reserves. The onslaught was constant and though my mana was returning, I was spending my power to fast to keep this up. When I thought I couldn’t keep it up anymore, the air was so thick with ash I couldn't see where we were going, the plants around us suddenly stopped. Their movements were growing stiff and slow. I looked up the path to see several Naga standing there, one of them moved forward and I smiled as I recognized her.

“Perhaps you could use some help now that you’ve returned to us,” Rulan said beaming at me, questions could wait as I let go of my magic and ran to embrace my friend.