The forest passed by peacefully. A gentle breeze ruffled branches and dislodged leaves as it passed overhead. The dull sound of hooves on the loamy soil resonated throughout the forest, adding to the continuous racket that filled the forest. Although it was autumn, the forest was full of life. Songbirds called, and insects chirped. Mostly, however, nothing but plants could be seen as the denizens of the forest hid from the human interlopers.

The humans for their part rode through the forest slowly, but steadily. Ensuring that they did not interfere too much with the local flora.

Eventually the group came up upon a strange plant. It was a dark purple. Almost black, with five very wide leaves at its base. Above the leaves was a single large bulb. About as wide as Ril was shoulder to shoulder.

Considering the other strange plants that they had encountered through their journey - and ignored - it was strange that the party stopped for this particular plant. Julius dismounted, before carefully approaching the plant on foot.

“What’s so special about this plant in particular?” Ril asked Felix, when the rest of the party patiently stayed on their horses.

“Not a plant.” Felix said with a dark expression on his face. “That’s a Spore; a baby powder beast.”

“What...” Ril said, confused. To his eyes, the bulb was most definitely a plant.

“You’ll see, just watch.” Felix said.

The others in the party did not seem surprised by this turn of events and Orden even seemed bored as he waited for Julius to finish whatever it was he was going to do with the plant.

Julius approached the Spore with a small hand axe in his hand. The plant did not react. Obvious. Considering it was a plant and not a powder beast. Then Julius began hacking away at the plant with gusto. The plant was surprisingly tough, but even it could not survive for long under Julius’s onslaught.

As the bulb split open, a nasty viridian smoke puffed out, and a slime covered package slithered out from what remained of the plant. Julius stepped back to make sure that none of the slime got onto his clothes. Then he took a step forward and hacked once decisively into the slimy package.

The package burst revealing what looked like a ... fetus of some sort. It wasn’t developed enough to know what species it was, but it was clearly a powder beast, with black powdery skin and faint orange veins peeking out from under the layer of semi-translucent slime.

Ril stared in shock, as Julius cleaned his axe and remounted, leaving the dead powder beast on the forest floor.

“That’s a spore. If you ever find them out in the wild make sure to break them.” Felix said, encouraging his horse to follow the others. “If you leave them long enough, it will open and a new powder beast will be born. Downright unfair if you ask me.”

Ril looked back for a moment at the cooling body of the baby powder beast as it lay forlornly on the forest floor.

The group continued on their way after that mostly in silence. That is to say, everyone but Felix spent the journey mostly in silence. Felix seemed determined to turn Ril into a botanist, or some kind of arborist by the time they left the Dread Thicket behind.

“Now that is a dangerous mushroom. Look, Ril. It’s a Deathcap. Dunno which kind, but you can tell by the frills under the head of the mushroom. You see how they’re speckled. The red speckled ones are super dangerous. Contact poisons. Make sure to wear gloves if you want to harvest them. Or a really long stick. Oh, and the silver speckled ones are hallucinogenic when you consume them. I got a cousin off north that sells dried deathcaps that people can smoke. Wonderful business strategy. You should consider it if you ever regret becoming an adventurer. Though I will warn you, that you would be giving up much of your lucidity if you chose that path. Maybe your lifespan too, but the answer to that is still in progress.”

Ril closed his eyes, and let out a soft sigh. By now he was sure that he had learned about every single plant that had ever grown on this earth. Whether it grew in the Dread Thicket or not. That’s not to say that Ril didn’t appreciate the impromptu lesson on horticulture. Rather, the lesson had been going on for hours now, and had left Ril a little exhausted. Also the plants were starting to meld together in his head, and he wasn't sure if he could keep them straight after this. On the bright side, Ril was reasonably sure that he could survive in a forest like this if he ever had to leave Anduin.

“Oh, look, it's a Mirgrove!” Felix continued, oblivious to Ril’s reluctance. “The blossoms are lovely and can be used as a muscle relaxant if you steep them in boiling water. Only use the pink ones though. The more red the petals are the more...ugh, side effects you will get. Not that those side effects aren’t desirable, just--”

“So Eren, have you lived in Anduin long?” Ril interrupted desperately. Felix for his part didn’t seem insulted by the sudden interruption. Instead he turned to Eren with an interested look as if he was expecting something like this to happen.

Eren for her part, looked over at the two sharing the horse. She hesitated, clearly preferring silence to conversation, at least when they were in a dangerous forest. But then, she glanced at Felix and something on his face - which Ril did not see - made her change her mind.

“Born and raised.” She said, shortly, still hoping that they could continue the ride in silence.

Felix opened his mouth to comment, when Ril hurriedly cut him off.

“I have never been to Anduin. I’ve lived in Elkshire for as long as I remember, although I think that my parents came from further east. They traveled to Elkshire after the calamity, because... you know.” Ril said hurriedly.

Eren threw him a grateful, if somewhat bemused look, but decided that this strategy of keeping Felix silent was worth a try. If only for a little while.

“So what do your parents do in Elkshire?” She asked politely.

“They died a long time ago,” Ril said, “I don’t remember my father at all, and my mom died when I was five or so.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. That must have been hard.” Eren said sympathetically.

Ril shrugged, not really wanting to talk about this. He was an orphan and had come to accept this about himself. “Thanks, but it was a long time ago. The people of Elkshire took care of me mostly.”

“So why did you leave? Just for the adventure?” Eren asked. She looked behind her to study the forest quickly before returning to her comfortable position on her horse.

“No. Well.” Ril started, uncomfortable. “Well my hair turned silver a year ago, so lots of the people who took care of me kind of just started to avoid me. Also I was old enough that they said I could take care of myself. I tried for a while to fit in, but it didn’t work out. Didn’t seem welcome anymore.”

They were silent for a moment, which Felix had the presence not to interrupt.

“I’m sorry about that. I was meaning to talk to you about your hair before we got to the capital. While we don’t think that there is anything wrong with it--”

“Bloody unnatural is what it is.” Felix murmured quietly.

“--the rest of the people in Anduin would probably not appreciate it. You should consider cutting it before we arrive.”

Ril hesitated, glancing at Felix who was studiously staring at the forest for any danger. “That sounds good, but...” He paused. “My hair is hard. Like really hard to cut. Scissors don’t work very well, which is why I never really cut my hair back in Elkshire.”

“That won’t be much of a problem, we could use my sword. It will be awkward but the enchanted steel should be able to cut through your hair without much difficulty.” Eren replied, confident.

Ril didn’t reply for a moment.

“Thank you, Eren. That means a lot.” he said eventually.

They continued for the forest for a bit. Felix didn’t pipe up about its denizens thankfully. The sun was slowly descending in the sky with only a few more hours of daylight left.

“So what do your parents do?” Ril asked. He wanted to learn more about Eren, see if maybe he could repay her kindness.

“Nothing much,” Eren grimaced, “mostly they stay at home pretending they still matter.”

“...matter?” Ril said, hesitant.

Eren gave a sigh. She put her bow down and dropped her guard for the first time that day. “My family was a noble family.” She said, “I say ‘was’ because we were nobles before the calamity, but ever since then we lost most of our money and our holdings.”

“That’s why I am here working for the princess. My family is in deep debt after they lost everything. Felix is here as a jumping off point to becoming a great warrior, but I am here because I am trying to pay off that debt in any way that I can.”

Ril looked at Eren. She looked dejected. Frowning at the pommel of her saddle. Clearly she didn’t work as a guard attendant because she enjoyed the lifestyle. She chose it because it paid the most given her skillset. Although it seemed that her parent’s debt was weighing on her. Making it harder to enjoy the job that she had chosen. Ril decided that he would try to give her some of his - admittedly very limited - advice.

“Not that I know much about your situation, but maybe you could do what I did? You know, leave it all behind. Go to some other city, find someone to guard and live your own life. Your parent’s should handle their own debt, and you can go do something that you like.” Ril said.

Eren gave him a strange look. “What? No, even if my parents are terrible with money, I can’t just leave them. Also there is my little brother to consider. I would never leave him alone with them. They would be out in the streets within the year.”

Ril hoped he didn’t screw anything up. To him it sounded like good advice, but perhaps that was because he did not have parents for most of his life and had never become attached to a person or a place to any degree. Before he could say as much, Felix stiffened.

“Heads up, I see movement.” Felix said, lifting up his bow and knocking an arrow.

The entire party paused. Evelyn stopped her conversation with Cato, and pulled out a staff that she had replaced after her warstaff had broken in the dungeon.

Out of the forest came a snarl, before the sounds of a mad rush could be heard. Ril frantically scanned the undergrowth for the source of the sound, and found a black blur racing towards his horse. It was low to the ground and looked similar to a badger. Before he could blink an arrow sprouted in the right eye of the black badger creature.

“Powder beast attack!” Felix roared. “Off the horses!” Then he almost threw Ril off of the horse before dismounting himself.

Ril frantically pulled himself off of the ground and drew his shortsword clumsily from its sheath. Then as more badger creatures charged from the shrubbery, a pale white-yellow flame spread out in a nova out from Eren’s position. Eren was standing next to her horse with both fists clenched together and her eyes closed as if she was focusing heavily on something. The fire was mostly transparent. The only thing that indicated that it was somehow special was its strange color.

Unlike real fire, this ghostly flame did not burn as it passed over Ril. Simply passing over him harmlessly. Neither did it burn the plant life that surrounded them. However when it passed over the badger powder beasts the fire seemed to come to life and roil over them before being sucked into the creatures.

Instantly, the badgers stumbled. Their powdery hide sagging, as if their muscles had shrunk due to the ethereal flame. This did not stop their assault, just slowed it, and it wasn’t long before the creatures were slavering up close to the party.

Ril leaped back, and cast Telekinesis on a particularly aggressive beast. The weakened creature stumbled further, scrabbling with its claws for purchase. Ril jumped forward and stabbed it. At the last moment the animal jerked to the side. Instead of the blade piercing its eye, it impaled itself into the creature's shoulder. Silver blood ran thick as Ril retracted his sword, carefully backing away, all too aware of the damage those little teeth could do if they managed to clamp onto him.

The beast snarled, and leapt again at him. Ril tried to swat the creature away but missed as the powder beast spun unnaturally mid air to dodge his blade. Before the beast could sink his teeth into Ril’s sensitive flesh, Ril summoned his mana and covered the beast’s face in a waterfall of red hot sparks.

Surprised, the badger pulled back and averted its face. Saved from a mauling, Ril was still bowled over by the beast’s charge. Ril, urgently shoved the creature off of him. The creature's claws scraped against him, spawning bright blue sparks, but the claws didn’t penetrate. Then, Ril rolled back to his feet, and took several hopping steps backwards to put as much space between him and the creature as possible. There was no doubt that the badger would win in a brawl with its sharp claws and even sharper teeth.

The badger rolled onto its feet after getting tangled for a moment with a protruding root on the forest floor. Then, faster that Ril could believe, it charged him. Ril recast Telekinesis, and lobbed a snowball at the badger right before it launched at him. The snow combined with the sudden loss of traction unbalanced the creature and it fell, rolling right up to Ril’s feet.

Without further ado, Ril hacked downwards with his sword like he was swinging a timber axe. The sharpened steel cut through the tough black hide with a spurt of silver blood. Before the creature could recover, Ril retracted his blade and impaled the creature through its throat, pinning it to the ground.

It struggled for a moment before laying still, and finally dying.

Ril took a breath. He looked around, frantically calming his racing heart. Blood was pounding in his ears as he looked for more enemies to fight. Surprisingly, the fight was over. The horses which had been rapidly dismounted upon identification of the danger had clustered as far away from the fighting as possible, yet not too far that they were out of sight from their human handlers. This seemed like remarkable training to Ril, but he didn’t dwell on it as he finally noticed the body count.

Around Julius and Orden no less than thirteen burned and broken bodies lay. Most of them were nearly bisected by broad sweeping cuts, whose edges were charred and cauterized. The smell of cooked meat wafted gently over to Ril. Julius stood nearby, carefully watching the forest. In his hand he held a sword that was quite literally on fire. Gentle licks of flame caressed the blade which was glowing red hot from the treatment. His armor was slowly fading to a dull red color. Clearly it was not only his sword that got hot during battle.

Next to him Orden had started lumbering over to Evelyn and Cato. While before he had been armored in an impressive set of silver steel, now the armor appeared to be thicker, and covered every part of him in inch-thick steel. He didn’t appear to have any trouble walking even though his armor in its current form must have weighed at least four hundred pounds.

Evelyn greeted him, with a reassurance that she was alright. Her staff was coated in a slight sheen of ice, and around her lay four bodies of bruised and battered badgers. Ice chunks liberally covered the ground around her feet.

Cato, for his part, looked unruffled. He stood next to her as if nothing had happened. He, unlike the others, didn’t appear like his physical appearance had changed during the fight.

Ril glanced at Eren. She stood over two dead badgers. A ring of ghostly fire similar to the fire nova that she had released in the beginning of the fight swirled like a crown over her head. It too was slowly fading as she withdrew her blade from her kill. She looked otherwise normal.

“Well that was fun,” Felix said jovially, swaggering over to Ril who still had a slightly shell shocked expression on his face. “Not to worry Ril, just an itty bitty monster attack. Over now. Nothing to worry about. Didn’t I tell you, with Julius here there is nothing to worry about!”

Ril looked at Felix. He also was unchanged, although his quiver of arrows was suspiciously empty and behind him four lumps that resembled giant pincushions lay motionless on the ground. It looked like no one was injured in the attack.

“What. You guys... That was...Wow.” Ril sputtered out.

Felix just grinned.