Skylar's P.O.V

Hop Pop had decided that it would be a good idea to pull over and set up camp in time for dinner. We had just finished preparing when Hop Pop had finished cooking.

'Ok, dinner's ready!' He said.

'Whoo hoo!'

'Yeah!'

'About time!'

'I'm starving!'

'Now hold onto your buts! Bam! Stick surprise!'

All of our faces dropped at the sight of a lonely stick and a few leaves presented on the plate.

'Hop Pop, this isn't food' Sprig complained.

'But I didn't tell you what the surprise was' we were filled with hope again. 'Alright there's no surprise' he admitted.

'Aaaaaaahhhh' we all grown as we slide down our seats.

'Sorry kids, this journey's been longer than expected and we're out of food' Hop Pop sighed.

'No food eh? That's what you plebes think' I hear Polly mutter as she take a bite from a cookie so I put out my hand next to her and she reluctantly gives me one.

'Dammit this is all my fault! I dragged you guys out here to figure how to get me home. And now we're gonna starve to death!'

I put my hand on Anne's shoulder to try and calm her down. I was about to say something but the Plantars started laughing before I could.

'We're not gonna starve to death' Sprig said casually. 'This is our chance to find food the way nature intended, as hunters!'

'Hunters aye?' Anne whispered as she got lost in her own imagination. 'Guys! Leave the hunting to me!' She suddenly said.

'What?'

'That came out of no where'

'You guys do so much for me. Let me do something for you for a change. Skylar you're helping too'

'Alright'

'Oh! I can teach them to hunt the Plantar way Hop Pop, just like you taught me!' Sprig suggested.

'Hmm ok. But you three need to be careful. We're not in the Valley anymore, who knows what dangerous predators could be lurking about. They could be poisonous, they could be psychic! They could be poisonous and psychic! You don't know!'

'Whoa, whoa, Hop Pop, it's fine. Anne, Skylar, you ready to hunt?'

'Heck yeah I am!'

'I'm so pumped! This is gonna be awesome!'

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'This is not awesome' I sigh as me and Anne sit and watch Sprig eat mud.

'Yuck, I thought hunting was supposed to be cool, conquering nature and stuff' Anne said. 'Not eating mud'

Sprig spit out the mud in his mouth and laughed. 'Conquering nature? Oh no no no no no. Hunting is about becoming ONE with nature'

'Do we at least get some cool weapons?' I ask. 'A bow, sword?' I pick up a stick the shape of a sword.

'Yeah like a crossbow, a kunai. A crossbow that shoots kunai!' Anne adds on, grabbing a stick of her own.

'Weapons are for barbarians!' He exclaimed as he hit the sticks out of our hands, causing our faces to drop. 'Hunting the Plantar way involves three main steps. The first? Track your pray. The soil is a buffet or clues!' He eats a ball of mud. 'Oh oh oh, I think I'm getting something! This way' he points before hopping off.

Anne and I lazily follow behind him as he hops around, eating leaves and mushrooms among other things. We stop in front of a bush and see a small grub like thing poke it's head out then fall.

'See girls? Nature provides. We found some grubbles. They're supposed to be delicious. Step two, use your surroundings' he walked up and started digging a whole in front of the bush, he then pulled bark off a tree and used it as a ramp. 'Perfect! And now it's time for the final, and most important step. The dance!'

'Dance? What'd you mean dance- oooh my gosh' Anne said as we both covered our eyes in embarrassment while Sprig danced around.

'You gotta be kidding me' I grumbled.

'This dance has been in our family for generations. Watch me closely, it's designed to both entice and disorient' he continued to dance.

As Sprig did whatever it was that he was doing, a bunch of grubbles poked their heads out of the bush and went straight into the hole Sprig dug. Maybe this dance actually does kinda work. Still no way in hell I'm dancing like that though.

'Oh boy, ok that's enough' Anne decided to cut in once Sprig had started to bash his head on the floor.

'I think we can hunt just fine without a funny little dance dude' I say.

'There's nothing funny about the sacred Plantar hunting dance Skylar. Besides I thought you two liked dancing'

'Well yeah when there's music and a dance floor'

'And when I'm in my room alone so no one can see' I add.

'I mean is this even necessary? These little guys seem pretty easy to catch. I don't even think they have brains'

'Not all prey will be as easy as grubbles but that's not the point. Hunting is about connecting to the harmony of nature, let its rhythm flow through you, can you hear the drums girls? Can you hear them playing the beat of the hunt!'

'No' we responded simply.

'Now let's split up and catch double the grubble. Don't worry about me I've got the eyes of a hawk-' she almost walks off a cliff before I grabbed her shirt.

'Anne!' Sprig yelled.

'Totally saw that' Anne lied.

'Alright, just be careful ok? We still don't know what's out there' Sprig said as he walked off.

I started walking in my own direction before I walked into a spiderweb. When I saw the giant spider who spun it I panicked and ran the other way.

'AnneAnneAnneAnneAnne!' I yelled as I chased after her.

'Whoa, you ok?'

'Giant spider' I mumbled, holding onto her arm.

'Haha, don't worry scaredy cat, I'll keep you safe' Anne laughed, patting my head.

'Oh shut up' I grumbled with a laugh, shoving her away playfully.

The two of us didn't have to walk too far until we found another grubble bush.

'The dance girls' Anne mimics Sprigs. 'You wanna know what's better than a ridiculous dance?'

'A stick!' I say, proudly holding the large stick above my head.

'Time for some grubble satay' Anne smirks.

'AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!' We hear the Plantars scream.

'Guys!' Both me and Anne panic, dropping everything and running back to camp.

When we arrived the camp was empty.

'Sprig! Hop Pop! Polly!' I called out, hoping for an answer.

Anne ran over to Bessie to try and calm her down. Just as I join her we see a large shadow hang over us. We turn around and see some kind of terrifying creature holding the Plantars with its tail.

'It came out of no where!' Sprig cried.

'Careful girls it still might be psychic!'

'I'm too cute to die!'

'Guys!' We yell again as the monster ran off, the Plantars still in its grasp.

One of Polly's biscuits fell down at our feet.

'Dang it Polly, food hoarder' Anne mumbled.

I looked up and saw that a bunch of branches had broken in the direction the creature went.

'Look it left a trail' I pointed out.

'Super huntress instincts engaged!' Anne yelled, running ahead of me. 'We can totally do this!'

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'Yeah I- I can't do this' Anne sighs as we reach a fork in the road. 'The trail's gone completely cold. Sprig was right I don't know what I'm doing. If only he was here' she sighed again.

I went to go say something but another voice cut me off.

'Anne, Skylar' an ominous voice called out.

'That wasn't you was it?' Anne asked, turning to me.

I shook my head and was shocked by a glowing blue light. Both Anne and I fall over when a floating Sprig head appears.

'Follow the true way of the hunter' the head/Sprig said.

'Sprig!? Holy cow! Are you dead?! Is this your ghost!?' Anne panics.

'What no. The real Sprig is still out there and needs your help. Me? I'm more likely a stress induced hallucination!'

'So what you're saying is, I finally cracked!' Anne cheered.

'Yup' Ghost Sprig responded.

'That's probably not a good thing' I added on.

'Eh don't overthink it, as long as he's helping' Anne said before standing up and moving off. 'What'd we do?'

'Follow the steps' Ghost Sprig said in a ominous voice.

'Right, right, the steps! .... what was the first one again?' Anne asks.

'TRACK YOUR PRAY!'

'Right! Track!' Anne says determined.

'How do we track again?' I ask.

'Sheesh, smell the dirt girls'

'Right got it, got it'

We both bend down and take a sniff of the dirt.

'Now taste it!' Sprig orders causing my stomach to do a flip. 'By all means take your time. We're only about to be eaten by a ' He said the last bit in the form of the beast that took the Plantars.

'Ok! We're tasting! We're tasting!' I say before reluctantly taking a small mouthful of dirt. I was about to spit it out before I actually tasted something familiar.

'What a minute' I hear Anne mutter. 'I'm getting something'

'Polly's biscuits!' I cheer, finally determining the taste.

'Which means it's this way!' Anne says, pointing down the left path.

We start to run down the path with Ghost Sprig trailing behind us.

'With you guiding us we might be able to pull this off!' Anne cheers.

'Now come on Ghost Sprig!' I smile as we pick up the pace.

We run through the forest, swinging from vines, falling through logs and following tracks all while Ghost Sprig sung a not so helpful song.

'You really need to stop that' Anne says to Ghost Sprig.

'OKAY!' he responds in return.

We continue to walk for a few more minutes until we peek through some grass and see the monster. Frog bones and many other amphibian remains scatter the clearing. The beast hops down from a tree and throws the Plantars down, holding them under its claws.

'What the heck is that thing anyway?' Anne asks.

'It's a Scorpileo. Half scorpion, half lion'

'Scorpileo? That is one messed up horoscope' I mumbled.

'Ok we don't have much time, think what was step two?'

'Use your environment!' We all said in sync.

Anne and I quickly get to work on digging a pit, although it's a little hard without a shovel of some kind.

'O-ok running out of time here' Ghost Sprig says nervously.

'Well how about giving us a hand!' Anne says, sounding aggravated.

'Think about what you just said Anne' I chuckled a little as I continued digging.

'Right, right right right right' she stuttered.

I crawled out of the pit just as Anne threw leaves over it.

'Ok, what's next?' she asked herself out loud.

'Oh you know what comes next. The dance!' Ghost Sprig said.

'Ggrrrg, ok fine but just this once because I like you guys, a lot' Anne says and I smile as she runs out into the clearing. 'HEY FUR BALL!' Anne calls to gain the Scropileo's attention.

'Anne!' The Plantars call.

Anne starts to hop from foot to foot, the Scorpileo looks at her for a second before turning back.

'It's not working!' Anne panics.

'That's because you don't believe!' Ghost Sprig explains. 'You have to feel the music!'

'There is no music!'

The Scorpileo picks up the Plantars and is just about to eat them.

'This is it! You have to save them! Me? Us? Them? This is confusing!'

'C'mon Anne you can do it!' I cheer from behind the bushes.

'Right! I have to do this!'

Anne then crouched down and started to dance again, this time it looked a lot more like the dance Sprig had shown us. I sneakily pulled out my phone and started recording, no way I'm passing up this opportunity. The Scorpileo dropped the Plantars and stalked over to Anne. In her dance, Anne kicked mud into the Scorpileo's face, getting it angry. The Scorpileo pounced for Anne but she ducked under it perfectly, causing it to fall into the pit we dug.

'You did it Anne! You did it!' Ghost Sprig and I cheered.

'WHOO HOO! I did it! In your face!'

'Whelp time to go' I said as I pushed Anne away from the pit.

'C'mon family' Anne said, carrying Polly.

'You got it!'

'Don't have to tell me twice!'

We all made it back to camp mostly unharmed and were laughing as we arrived.

'Ya did it girls!' Hop Pop praised.

'It was the best hunter dance I've ever seen, would've been better if you did it too Skylar' Sprig said.

'Yeah that was never gonna happen' I laugh.

'I did, didn't I? I heard the music Sprig! I felt one with nature. You were right' Anne said to Sprig. 'And so were you buddy' she said to Ghost Sprig.

'Uh, who're you talking to?' Sprig asks.

'Don't ask' I sighed. 'I'm now realising after all that, we still don't have any food'

'Eh you'll live' Hop Pop said.

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😁