Lucille stepped into the grove she had scouted for her team, it was decently sized, with the entire area spanning around… 14 feet or so in diameter? She wasn't really sure without checking but her rough estimate felt right so the overall size should be around that.

 

Lucille turned to her friends and spread her arms wide, proud to have been able to help with their hunt instead of just being a passive observer, she grinned happily, “so? What do you guys think?”

 

Yhaine, the one responsible for carrying their bags, walked over to Lucille and handed her a large duffel bag- which was hers, - Lucille reached out with both arms and Yhaine dropped it, “it's more than big enough for three of us,”

 

“Which isn't a bad thing,” Lucille pointed out as she slung the cylindrical bag over her shoulder, “since it means that we'll spot anything trying to get close to us before they get in range for any attack,”

 

“And if they have bows or a mode of long ranged attacks?” Zyra, their ever dutiful tactician, pointed out a flaw.

 

And to that, Lucille merely shrugged, “eh, we'll figure it out,” she answered with a playful grin, “and besides, you don't have to worry about it, since Neo bought you a ring that makes barriers,”

 

Zyra hummed, nodding, “I suppose,”

 

Their conversation ended there and all three of them went deeper into the grove, heading straight for its center, which Lucille told them was the perfect spot for setting up their camp.

 

On the way there, they passed by several rocks, as well as fallen, rotting logs whose insides have long gone hollow, by now it was likely infested with pill bugs and mushrooms, the things in the grove weren't just limited to rotting plants though, as there's also a few shallow ponds full of…

 

“Huh, did anyone bring the salt?” Lucille faced her friends, her eyes focused on Zyra when she took out a small bottle of the stuff.

 

“Scum snails?” Her fellow florist guessed, Lucille nodded in confirmation, “hm, guess we're going to have to kill them all, any mosquitos inside the pond?”

 

“No but-” Lucille went back to inspecting the pond and narrowed her eyes at the purple snail with white stripes, and if the bright color wasn't ominous enough and a telltale sign of its poison then the white skull that naturally formed on its black shell should have made it obvious that the damned thing brings death.

 

“- these are scum snails here alright,” Lucille said with disgust, “and a few dragonfly nymphs and tadpoles too,”

 

She walked back to her group.

 

“Poisonous snails,” Yhaine mentioned as they threw their bags on the dirt, “does anyone know why scum snails have skulls on their shells?”

 

“It's an adaptation, though it is also likely that it's purposefully designed by the Goddess as well,” Zyra supplied two possible and obvious explanations while eyeing the ponds surrounding them in worry, “but the obvious answer is that the snail evolved it because of Pygmies, who love bright colors,” Zyra answered with a shrug, “it's assumed that the snails whose shells had skull-like marks on them survived because the Pygmies saw them as a threat-”

 

“The deaths of their friends weren't enough?” Yhaine said in humor.

 

Zyra shook her head while mirroring Yhaine's smile, “- and eventually, those marks turned into what we know today,”

 

“Neat,” Yhaine said as she hammered a tent pole into the ground.

 

“Speaking of Pygmies,” Lucille started unrolling the mat that will act as their tent's floor, she straightened out creases, offering a brief pause to what she was going to say, “does Greatape Forest have them?”

 

Zyra nodded grimly, “not just Pygmies, but Jungle Warriors and Amazoness too,”

 

“Great,” Yhaine drawled, “so we're in a forest with not just monkeys smart enough to put nine year olds to shame but also actual Jungle Warriors.”

 

“To be fair,” Lucille rebuked, “the princess did say that they're ever present across the forests of the world, so I don't see why you'd be surprised to find some here,”

 

“Well, I mean, I guess?” Yhaine replied in confusion, “but you know, I thought that they'd at least find a bit of competition around here,”

 

“They most likely do,” Zyra offered in reconciliation, “With all the Eukaleaf tribes and Spider Monkey nests, I'm sure that even Jungle Warriors would have a hard time hunting around here,”

 

“That actually came off as ominous,” Lucille said with a nervous chuckle as she started putting their bags on top of the mat, “and I'm going to be honest, I'm feeling scared at the thought of going back inside a forest full of creatures that can threaten a Jungle Warrior, or even a group of them,”

 

Jungle Warriors that weren't just better fighters than anyone on their team, but also very adept at traversing forested areas, or any place with trees on them.

 

“What was the old adage again? If the place has trees then a Jungle Warrior would live there and fill it with traps?” Yhaine murmured, “that's how the saying goes right?”

 

“I don't see how that's relevant to anything,” Zyra raised her eyebrow and offered Yhaine one edge of the tent and gave Lucille the other one, they both took it and with Zyra's command, pulled until the entire thing covered the mat on the floor, then all three of them locked their respective edges on the poles and a three footed tent stood proudly in the center of the grove.

 

“I think we're going to have to start searching for traps,” Yhaine tilted her head, "don't we?”

 

“... I think we should just avoid the likely places that Jungle Warriors would hunt in,” Zyra answered after a bout of silence, adding, “and what do they like to hunt?..”

 

“Powerful creatures,” Lucille answered.

 

“Powerful creatures yes,” Zyra nodded, “and those are…”

 

No one answered because none of them knew what the most powerful animal was in this forest.

 

All three of them stayed silent and went on to prepare their stuff, such as sleeping bags, cooking materials, and the like.

 

When they were done, it was Zyra who answered her question from earlier, “... Toiler Gorillas,”

 

“Toiler Gorillas, yep, I know what those are,” Yhaine nodded, “but just to be sure, what are they?”

 

“Giant apes with the capacity to punch trees into splinters if they felt like it,” Lucille answered, “they're usually docile though, and are more than happy to sleep on the bed of leaves they make for themselves instead of going out to fight.”

 

“Uhuh…” Yhaine said, “and how big are they?”

 

“9 feet tall as an adolescent and 16 feet when they become adults,” Zyra's words got Yhaine's eyes to widen.

 

“And they live here?!” Their front line exclaimed.

 

“Well yeah,” Lucille tilted her head, “also, aren't we supposed to be Slayers? Killing monsters like that is part of our job,”

 

“No, definitely not,” Zyra corrected bluntly, “and before Lucille could say that we will kill one of them, I'm going to add that we're just first years and killing Toiler Gorillas is not, in fact, our job.”

 

“I wasn't going to say that we should hunt one though?..” Lucille replied in betrayal, do her friends really think she's that reckless?

 

“It was a just in case,” Zyra retorted with a shrug.

 

Lucille slumped.

 

Putting up their tent and preparing their stuff had been some of the many tasks they needed to do while setting up camp and soon, Lucille found herself digging a pit for their campfire while Zyra and Yhaine prepared food and chopped wood respectively.

 

By the time they were done, they had a firepit going and a small stew boiling on top of it, the ponds around them had also been cleared of scum snails, and the grassland surrounding the grove was now trapped for defense.

 

As night fell, their meal finished cooking and they all ate underneath the calming gaze of the Seraphim, their astral forms clear for them to see.

 

“It looks so beautiful…” Yhaine said, her voice full of awe, “I never saw the night sky like this before,”

 

“You haven't?” Lucille, choosing to break the silence alongside her friend, put her stew on her thighs and stared at the noble, “this is a pretty common thing to see,”

 

“Light pollution,” Zyra replied, earning looks of confusion from both girls, she shrugged, “pollution is when we ruin the environment with trash or something, and that can happen to light too apparently since you know, cities have lamps on during the night and stuff, so the light of the stars don't reach them,” Zyra finished, adding- “or something,” - with a murmur.

 

“Huh, so we can ruin the environment?” Lucille looked around her, everything didn't seem all that ruined, “how?”

 

“I dunno,” Zyra shrugged, sounding unsure for once, “maybe if we kill all the creatures who love to eat trash we'd be able to do it, or uh, wipe out swaths of monsters or something?”

 

“Oh- wait- like Dread!” Yhaine snapped her fingers and her two friends nodded in realization.

 

“Huh,” Zyra said dumbly, “like him, yeah,” the Florist said, “what he did is pollution,”

 

“What does pollution do anyway? Just destroy stuff?” Lucille asked to Zyra's nod, “then I guess the world healed from Dread's effects then since there are trees around his corpse, I don't think the area is destroyed just… changed,”

 

“It was pollution at the start,” Zyra rebuked, “around a few thousand years ago maybe,”

 

“Heh,” Yhaine chuckled, “we weren't even born then,”

 

“Even Everlast's Houses weren't there at the time,” Zyra said, smirking.

 

“Odd how time passed like that huh?” Lucille found herself putting her bowl of food away in favor of curling up her knees and placing her hands over them, she rested the sides of her head against her knees and eyed the sky, the side view gave it an odd clarity, “I wonder how the Seraphim feel up there?”

 

“They're probably asleep, like always,” Zyra shrugged, “aren't you going to eat?”

 

"... I will,” Lucille grabbed her food and started eating.

 

No one talked after that and all three were simply content to bask in the heat of their blazing campfire and the warm silence of each other's presence.

 

The night was young and the stars were bright, and Lucille- Lucille found herself idly wondering how it would feel to live for as long as the Beast King, or maybe a Dragon; all of them seemed fine living for as long as they did, but at the thought of it Lucille felt… scared.

 

How would she even- what would she even do if she lived for as long a that? 

 

Lucille didn't know, and she didn't bother to know.

 

Their meal went on in further silence, the fire died out, and all three of them moved on with their nights by packing their things in preparation for their leave in the morning and then afterward, by shrugging off their armor and, with Zyra's help, bathing themselves in large, cold balls of water that floated up in the air.

 

Lucille settled into her sleeping bag, her body feeling light and refreshed. An idle thought passed her by, “hey Yhaine?”

 

“Whut?” Her friend's answer came out as a murmur, words soft and barely audible.

 

“I was wondering, why change into nightwear when you're so scared of the monsters in the forest?” That was a valid question, wasn’t it? Lucille seemed to think so, but if Yhaine thought it was stupid or even insensitive then she'll apologize…

 

… thankfully, nothing like that happened and her friend answered without heat, “eh, I'd rather risk it if it means I get to sleep this comfortably you know?”

 

A shadow flickered on the warm, orange light from their heat lamp and Lucille knew that Zyra- who slept directly next to it, - was moving around, Lucille felt Zyra's gaze land on her, “then you should always think like that while we're here,”

 

“I don't- what are you talking about?” Yhaine… sounded a tiny bit irritated.

 

“Take risks if it means you're comfortable in the end,” Zyra answered dully, “you're doing it now, why not do it when we hunt tomorrow?”

 

“... well, fine,” Yhaine murmured amidst the sound of shuffling cloth, “I'm your front line so I… agree, I think- yeah, I do, me being scared means you guys are more likely to die right?”

 

“I don't think so,” Lucille replied.

 

“Then what do you think?” Yhaine's question sounded like pleading, a bit. Lucille thought so.

 

“You did well earlier when we fought those Iron Tusks and that small group of Branchlings, I think you're fine the way you are,” Lucille paused, unaware of how she should finish her sentence, “or something,”

 

“Geez, thanks for the vote of confidence there,” Yhaine giggled, then more sounds of shuffling and Lucille felt something warm come up to the sides of her sleeping bag, she turned her head and saw Yhaine's face directly next to her own, “can I sleep like this?”

 

Lucille nodded, smiling, “sure.”

 

Yhaine closed her eyes, “goodnight Lucille, goodnight Zyra.”

 

“Mhmm. Goodnight.” Their tactician returned.

 

“Goodnight, Yhaine,” Lucille turned her gaze away from her friend and faced the top of their tent, she closed her eyes and embraced sleep, excited for what would come in the morning.

 

And what came was weight- something heavy was on her chest and Lucille's head shot upright to figure out what it was only to pause at the sight of Yhaine directly sleeping on top of her, Lucille slumped and her head fell back down, “Goddess,” she said, “always the mover and cuddler aren't you, Yhaine?”

 

She eyed her friend and… slowly, reached a hand to rub Yhaine's head. And Yhaine leaned into it, humming.

 

Lucille smiled and stopped.

 

Well, she might as well sleep for a bit more.

 

When she woke up again, Yhaine was still on top of her, though this time, her head was pressing against Lucille's neck and the heroine sighed before pushing her friend away from her, “alright, wake up Yhaine,”

 

“10 more minutes-” the girl didn't wake up even as Lucille rolled her off herself. Yhaine fell to the mat with a soft thud, and then she continued sleeping as if nothing happened.

 

Lucille sat up and stared at the prone form of Zyra, she still faced the heat lamp.

 

Lucille looked away and proceeded with her morning.

 

If her friends were going to sleep, she might as well take the chance to change into proper gear and then scout out the surrounding area for any signs of monster intrusion the night before.

 

A few minutes later and Lucille was now armored up, she walked, causing her chainmail to release clinking sounds that made Lucille flinch in worry. She slowly and anxiously turned to her sleeping teammates, glad that the sounds didn't do so much as bother them.

 

Nodding, Lucille got out of the tent as quickly as she could, if she was going to make noise anyway, then that noise might as well be brief.

 

She scouted the area surrounding their camp, starting by checking a tree on the edge of the grove and noting that the right side had the distinguishing marks of a Quill Bird, with the torn bark looking rather fresh.

 

Her eyes trailed up the trunk of the tree and she paused when she saw a handprint somewhere above her head as though something leaped up, used the tree for a bit of stability, and then dived back down to stab a panicking Quill Bird underneath.

 

There was blood on the ground at the bottom of the tree too… but that wasn't the most worrying sign because the hand had four, thin fingers and was bigger than hers by a good margin.

 

Lucille eyed the handprint of the Jungle Warrior in fear, had one of them come to the grove for a hunt and spotted their camp?

 

Slowly, she moved away from the tree with the hand print and started searching the surrounding area, she thankfully didn't find the typical temporary “camping spots” of Jungle Warriors.

 

Or at least if there were indents on the ground where one of the large, very powerful monsters hid so that they could spy on Lucille and her friends, Lucille couldn't find it.

 

Still, this was a very worrying discovery and Lucille quickly made her way back to their tent to tell her teammates about it.