Unfortunately, Red wasn't given much time to recover before they set off. Narcha, the proper name of the female warrior as he would come to learn, insisted that they should immediately be on their way and not even Eiwin's protests made the angered woman change her mind. The younger lady offered to help the boy by helping him walk, but Red promptly refused it.

His left arm had been tied to a sling, and surprisingly his fever had disappeared too. He was still wounded and weak, but it wasn't to the point of incapacitating him anymore. Besides, even if that had been the case, the youth still didn't feel comfortable accepting her help. Thankfully, they did not seem to be in a hurry, and Red was still able to keep up with their pace even as injured as he was.

"I'm gonna go." Rog spoke, unstrapping the wooden bow from his back.

Narcha, who led the vanguard, didn't turn to look at the man and only grunted in response. The archer seemed to take that as approval and immediately dove into the sea of trees. The boy watched his figure disappear amidst the foliage, and soon enough no trace of the man could be seen anymore.

"He's going to hunt." Eiwin's voice came from behind him.

Red looked at the woman and nodded, continuing to follow Narcha's steady steps while examining the forest ground. His curiosity had returned after he was saved, but he still had a lot on his mind regarding his current situation. Suffice it to say the boy didn't completely trust these people, but he knew that the reason he was still alive was because of them.

Even if they had some ulterior motive, they had helped him despite having no obligation to do so, and the least Red could do was follow them for now. Not to mention, they also knew the place better than him and it was much safer for the youth to travel with them. However, it didn't mean he had put his guard down either.

Approaching a tree, the boy was surprised as he saw a swinging branch from which a bulbous red object hung. Red had learned with other slaves that some types of plants on the surface grew fruits completely edible for humans and a lot of them were even treated as a delicacy. He didn't know what they looked like, but the description he recalled and the item in front of him seemed to match up in his mind.

It was only now that the youth remembered how hungry he was. He didn't feel like owing these people even more by asking them for food, so he was left to find it on his own.

At first glance, though, the red fruit looked too high up to reach with his height. However, that didn't mean he couldn't get it. Red tentatively assessed the condition of his body, stretching his limbs. They were still sore, but climbing up a few meters on a tree shouldn't prove to be too hard of a task for him. Just as he got ready to move, though, he saw a figure fly above him.

Eiwin gracefully jumped a few meters up in the air and plucked the fruit from the branch in one fluid motion, landing in front of the boy. She turned around and smiled at Red.

"Here." She said, offering him the red fruit. "You must be hungry."

The youth hesitated for a second but ended up accepting it in the end. He considered examining the item to see if it was poisonous, but since Eiwin didn't mention anything, the boy decided to simply dig in. With a crunch, his teeth bit into the fruit and a sweet and juicy flavor filled his mouth.

It was a taste the likes of which Red had never felt before, and it didn't take long for him to completely devour it. The woman continued to look at him with her usual serene and smiling expression. He didn't feel comfortable under her gaze and simply nodded his head in thanks while wiping his mouth.

After that, he turned around and followed her companion. Narcha had already moved away while they were occupied, but either she didn't notice that they had stopped or didn't care about it.

"Do you have anything you want to ask?"

Suddenly, Eiwin's voice came from his side as she started to walk with him. It seemed no matter how hard the boy tried, it was impossible to get rid of this strange woman.

"No." His reply was short, trying to end the conversation before it even started.

"Really, nothing at all?" She wasn't dissuaded. "I noticed how you look at everything around you. Is this the first time you've seen a forest?"

"From what I remember, yes." Red continued to reply in his monotonous voice. Since avoiding the conversation wasn't working, he just decided to try to make her lose interest.

Unfortunately, it didn't work either.

"This entire region is covered in trees, and it's really easy to get lost if you don't know how to navigate it." She continued. "We have some experience with traveling out here, but if we didn't have Rog with us then we would probably still get lost every now and then."

"Hmm..." Red hummed in agreement. He didn't understand her intentions, but he knew what she was trying to say.

The underground was very vast too, full of tunnels leading to nowhere and everywhere, but it couldn't compare to the open surface. Here you had no tunnel to direct you to one single path, and if the boy was left to his own devices then he really wouldn't know where to start.

"How old are you?" Eiwin continued to ask, not deterred by his short responses.

"Ten." The youth replied.

"That's very young. How many Spiritual Veins have you opened?"

Red wasn't startled by this question considering her warrior companion had already guessed as much.

"Two." In the end, the boy decided against lying, since he didn't know if they had a way to check it.

"That's not bad for someone your age." Eiwin praised him, not surprised by his answer either. "Did you have a master or did your parents teach you?"

"I don't remember." Her intentions started to become clearer to Red.

She was probing for information. Perhaps she had been using a softer approach compared to her companion, but she was curious all the same. Her help earlier didn't look dishonest, but regardless, she was still interested in knowing more about his origins. This method of trying to lower his guard made Red even warier of the girl than the angrier warrior.

Since she wasn't willing to give up, the boy decided to indulge her in conversation to keep her from prodding further.

"What was the name of that thing I ate?" He asked, hoping to steer her away from the line of questioning.

"You've never eaten that before?" This time, Eiwin seemed surprised. "It's called a plum. You'll find a lot of these in this region. What did y-"

"What's this called?" Red interrupted her, pointing at some nearby white flowers.

"That?" The lady seemed taken aback by the boy's sudden surge in interest. "It's a bloodroot."

"And this tree? Does it have a name?"

"Ah, well, that's just an oak tr-"

"What about that over there?"

Over the course of the next few minutes, Red bombarded her with questions regarding the forest and all the things living in it. Since he wanted to learn about them and the woman wanted to talk, the boy found the perfect solution to keep her speaking without asking him difficult questions. Although she was overwhelmed, Eiwin didn't lose her patience at any point, much to her credit. She calmly answered any questions he made, and the youth was even able to learn the name of the white critter he had seen as he was entering the forest.

'Rabbit.'

When the slaves talked to him about animals on the surface, they spoke about great eagles and fierce wolves, not things like rabbits. However, by the looks of it, the world up here was full of these inoffensive beasts in just as big of a number as those that hunted them.

"What about the monsters the big lady was talking about?" Red asked something that had been on his mind this entire time.

The warrior leading the group stumbled as she heard him, but then continued to walk as if nothing had happened.

"Well..." Eiwin thought to herself for a few seconds before continuing. "There are some creatures which are naturally stronger than your average animal. They are quite dangerous and most of them are very aggressive towards humans, so we call them monsters."

The description just about matched the giant insects Red had seen in the underground, so he understood why Narcha was so cautious.

"Is that why you're here? Hunting for these monsters?"

"Not quite..." For the first time since they began speaking, the woman hesitated. "As Miss Valt said, the monsters in this region have been disappearing and we're trying to find out where they've run off to."

"If they're that dangerous, isn't it good for you that they're gone?" The boy knew it wasn't as simple as that, but he continued to play the role of a curious naive child.

"You could say that, but it's not as simple as you may think." She waved at her surroundings as if telling him to look at the rest of the forest. "You see, as dangerous as these monsters are, they have been part of this forest for thousands upon thousands of years. They are an important part of nature too, as much as a common rabbit or bird. For them to suddenly decide to leave this place, that means that there might be something strange happening to the forest as a whole. Do you understand?"

Red nodded, but he didn't push her with any further questions. The only weird thing about this forest that he could think of was the entrance into the underground hidden beneath a wall of vines. However, when the boy passed by there were no traces of living beings going in or out of that place, so he couldn't see a connection. Still, it was a matter worth considering, but he didn't plan on telling Eiwin about it.

The youth's thoughts were interrupted as he saw a figure flying above them. A large brown bird, its wingspan almost two meters in length. It was similar to the one he had seen the night before, hovering over their general area. Red examined the creature, bewildered by its ability to soar through the sky so smoothly.

"That's a Great Eared Owl, one of the greatest hunters of the forest." Eiwin explained as she saw the boy staring at the flying beast. "They can grow even bigger than that, and they're one of the most majest-"

Suddenly, an arrow shot through the air like a bolt and struck the bird. It didn't even make a sound as it immediately died and fell to the ground with a thud a few dozen meters away from them.

"-ic birds..." Her words trailed off and her expression became embarrassed.

She put her hand on Red's back and tried to hurry him along, but Rog’s rough voice suddenly yelled from somewhere between the trees.

"We got dinner!"