Old name, Selindried: Elma, New Name: Elma--this Hero of the Svil-Fainn Hero Hub had already completed one E-Rank Auxiliary Mission since departing and was onto her next. It was one that saw her dropped into a mountain forest, where she then had to go on and find the fledgling Hero that was supposed to be on an errand for her schoolmaster and ensure she got to her destination.

Given the non-impending doom nature of the Mission, however, Elma had decided to enjoy her time--

"YARRGH!"

She fired her fingers, fully separating them from her hands. They flew like arrows into the trunk of an old tree.

"Yeowch!" she cried as soon as those fingers hit the tree, her finger bones cracking on impact.

She, with tears in her eyes, shook her fingerless right hand as she walked over to the tree that had done nothing to warrant the finger assault. She lowered her hand and reconnected the damaged fingers.

"So I guess I can release more parts if I try hard enough..." She started wiggling her fingers, wincing at every surge of pain that came in time with the movement. "Why did I aim at a tree?"

She exhaled and stood back up, continuing on her way and soothing her throbbing fingers.

"I wonder if this world sells potions..."

Elma traversed the forest, following the rudimentary sense her Mission gave her. With the <Observatory's> upgrade, Elma's hero-tracking ability had improved. So long as she kept her focus, she would be able to track the wayward Hero. She made the note to thank Fainn properly for making her jobs easier.

Elma continued her trek, playing with her floating fingers every other step. She was certain of it now--the hero she was tracking had moved. That was to be expected though--it would be strange for them to not be on the move. That said, the pace at which they had moved was curious. Elma had a feeling that they had been running at some point. She continued her walk until she spotted footprints, leading to a slippery slope off the side of the trail.

She stood in front of the sloop and looked down to the next level, noting the many broken branches and shrubs that lined the slope.

"Huh... Someone take a fall then?"

Elma focused on the extrasensory perception the Hub afforded her.

"Yeah... Poor Hero..."

Elma slid down the slope, intent on following the hero's trail. When she got to the next level, however, she was surprised to find the tracks of some kind of beast mixed in with the hero's footprints.

"Uhoh."

Elma ran faster now.

***

Elma was in a section of denser mountain forest now.

"What the?"

She approached the strange scene cautiously. Hanging from the trees and strewn across the ground were the bodies of hounds caught in what seemed to be black wool or something similar. One of the bodies--its rump was facing Elma as she came upon it. This one was hanging from a tree, and it looked like the wool had formed a ring around the hound's midsection and trapped it. That same wool, from what Elma could see, was clinging to the tree branch overhead. Had it been tangled in the wool?

Quickly inspecting the hounds still ahead of her, she noticed that all seemed to be captured by the same method. The wool seemed to anchor to whatever surface it touched too...

Elma kept moving forward. "Did they try to run through the wool? But how did they end up in the trees--Whoa! What is this!?"

Elma had walked past the first hound and had turned to see its face. When she did, she saw the most horrifying thing--instead of a hound's head, it was like the hound had been beheaded, and a goblin's head had grown out from the wound. Long, thin nose, a sickly green complexion, yellow eyes, and a head with disgusting growths and lesions--it was definitely the goblins she had read about in the books her former Masters owned.

"G-Gross," Elma said, wincing. She went to the other corpses--six in total--and inspected them. They were all dead, and all had goblin heads.

Elma covered her mouth. "Wouldn't want to live in a world like this one with goblin-dog chimeras running around--"

Elma closed her mouth and listened closely. She was sure she heard something.

"Mmm...Shnf..."

She was sure of it. Someone was sniffling. She focused on the sound and followed it off the trail. Her eyes landed on a mighty tree--one the size of a small room. Her senses synced with the information she was receiving from her Mission.

The Hero's right around that tree.

Elma approached the tree cautiously and circled around it. There, on its other side, she found an opening a person could fit into. She poked her head into the hollow and smiled gently.

"Hello there."

The young woman inside looked up. Her golden hair was as fluffy as wool, and her eyes were as brown as the bark of the tree she hid within. By all appearances, she looked to be a simple village girl--one with a modest white blouse beneath a brown tunic-skirt combo.

If those strange hounds had chased her--well, Elma wouldn't blame her for cowering within a tree's hollow.

Elma extended her hand to the young woman. "I'm here to help."

The young woman had climbed out of the tree and now stood before Elma, looking down at her feet. Elma scanned her quickly. She didn't notice anything strange--she looked to be as human as Fainn and Svilran.

"So, I just want to confirm a few things," Elma said. "What was your purpose coming out into the woods, and what were the events that led up to you hiding in a tree. And please speak clearly."

Despite Elma's fair request, the young woman was an inconsolable, sniveling mess. The story that Elma was told was one that was broken up by random bouts of crying and whimpering, much to Elma's displeasure.

To summarize, and to convey the version of the story Elma wished she had been told, this young woman, Cindeen, had been on an errand. The two were currently deep in the volatile Trevolba Mountain Range. In these mountains, there was a large academy, one secretive with its curriculum but not in its existence. It was one geared toward training its students to be Mountaineers, people who--in this world--were specialized in studying, exploring, and surviving the Trevolba. Cindeen was a student of this school, and on this day, she had been given an errand--she had to deliver a parcel to the mayor of a small town further down the range.

It was supposed to be a simple two-hour trek up and down the mountain trail, but halfway through, she got caught in a 'freak landslide' and fell into the deep forest below. Cindeen hadn't given up, but then she became lost and got stuck in quicksand, losing one of her boots in the process. Then, she kept going, but a tree fell in her way. She overcame the tree, but when she did, she found those strange monsters. What came next was a desperate escape through the woods, where she slipped down a ridge, continued to get chased, and finally found a tree to hide in. She still had the parcel in her satchel, so there was that.

Analyzing her story, Elma noticed that there was no indication that Cindeen knew of what ultimately stopped the goblin-faced hounds. Even now, Cindeen was still looking over her shoulder, terrified at the idea of the hounds coming upon them again.

Well, whatever, Elma thought. I'm here now.