The woods were not foreign to Kasyn, much like how the sky was familiar to pretty much everyone with functioning eyes. However, what he wasn’t used to was hiking through the wilds of those woods, well beyond any man-made trails. Here, the trees grew thick and the underbrush, at times, rose up to his chest. Even the ground litter was deceptive. As he went to step onto a log that Damarys had hopped over, he found his leg sinking deep into the rotten wood until he was stuck up to his thigh.

“Careful,” Damarys whispered and she and Zeter grabbed him under his arms and heaved him back up and out.

Hundreds of insects ran wild over his leg and Kasyn spent the next few minutes smacking them away or else wondering if that strange new itch was in fact a bug crawling on him.

“Just leave them be,” Damarys suggested. “They want to get off you as much as you. They’ll figure their way out. Besides, I doubt anything in that log could hurt you. Most of the stinging and biting insects here are the ones that fly, not burrow in logs.”

“What about spiders?” Zeter asked.

“Not helping,” Damarys bit back and Kasyn redoubled his efforts, patting his legs and then his torso down in an effort to squash any hitchhikers he might still have on him.

Emilie pointed and a large, illusory spider appeared on Zeter’s chest.

“How do you like it?” she asked.

“This is fine,” Zeter shrugged. “It’s not real so it doesn’t bother me.”

“Well the spider Damarys just put on your back while you were distracted by my illusion is quite real,” Emilie grinned broadly and Kasyn turned to see a spider almost as large as his own hand slowly crawling up Zeter’s back.

“Don’t squirm or it’ll give you a nasty bite,” Damarys warned, also grinning.

Zeter froze up, quite literally, with frost forming on the hem of his clothing and the ends of his hair. The spider similarly frosted over and then fell off his back. Zeter turned and stomped on the frozen spider, shattering it.

“Pity,” Damarys frowned, “that was one of my favorite varieties.”

“Yes, well, come here Kasyn and lets get rid of the rest of those pests you’ve got on you.”

Zeter placed his hand on Kasyn and a chill, though not uncomfortable sensation ran over him. Ice formed on him just as it had on Zeter, and within a few seconds all the small itching sensations stopped and went away.

“Give yourself a good shake and they should all fall off,” Zeter instructed and Kasyn obeyed.

“Now if only we can keep all of our adventures just as eventful we’ll be alright,” Emilie chimed in as they resumed their march through the forest. “How far is the elder tree again?”

“I don’t know exactly,” Damarys admitted. “It’s a spot all hunters know to avoid but I’ve never been there myself. I doubt we’ll reach it today. It’s up and over another couple of ridge lines.”

“How often did you come this far into the woods as a hunter?” Emilie asked.

“This is nothing,” Damarys scoffed. “I’d go days into the woods before even beginning my hunt.”

“Really?” asked Kasyn.

It seemed there was plenty of wildlife around here so why bother going deeper into the woods to hunt. Sounded like a waste of time to him.

“If we focus all our hunts on any specific parts of the woods, the animals will figure that out and start avoiding those parts,” Damarys explained. “We actually reserve the nearest parts of the woods for hunting only when we really need to get a lot of meat, like when the soul tithe is due to come in.”

“Do you have any favorite spots out here?” Emilie asked.

“A bunch, yeah. There’s the Glittering Falls, which is a waterfall over a crystal formation. The Great Chasm, which is a deep hole in the ground with a lake at the bottom. But just the views themselves are spectacular. There’s nothing like climbing into a tree, setting up your hammock, and watching the sun set over endless mountains. Then there’s the frosty mornings in the winter when we hunt white hares and there’s fresh snow without any tracks in it yet. Or watching a storm roll in from miles away over the distant canopy.”

“That sounds beautiful,” Zeter said, “but definitely not a lifestyle for everyone. I think I’ll have a hard enough time as it is just getting to sleep tonight in fair weather.”

“It’s not that different than how we were living outside of Yomichi,” Damarys shrugged.

“And I didn’t sleep well that entire time.”

“Someone’s a little too used to his feather bed,” Damarys teased him.

“More like I’m used to having sturdy walls and a locked door.”

Kasyn laughed a bit uneasily at that, knowing what he knew about Zeter. It was a strange thing, knowing a thief or whatever Zeter really was. And yet he didn’t seem like that bad a sort, really. He was loyal, it seemed, to the city and its people at least, rather than to the Sages whom he had some sort of affiliation with. Emilie was a full member of the Sages, too, but she didn’t seem as suspect as Zeter. More like a regular person who minded her own business and was just interested in learning magic.

As they hiked further in and their conversation died down yet again, Kasyn tried to notice the beauty in the woods that drew Damarys here. It wasn’t hard to see, and yet there were the obvious drawbacks of bugs, rough terrain, unpredictable weather, and the general threat of other predators. It was that last thought that prompted Kasyn to speak up again.

“Damarys, you ever run into anything dangerous out here?”

“Only rarely,” she replied and yet Kasyn felt she was too quick and casual with her words.

Akumu’s realm, though free from most evils, still had natural dangers.

“What sort have you had to deal with?” Kasyn asked.

“Well, a bear once bit my arm off,” she replied a bit stiffly, “though that was as much my own fault since I was running carelessly through the woods and not paying attention.”

Zeter laughed a bit but stifled it quickly.

“Sorry,” he said, even blushing a little.

“In all honesty, Kasyn, most animals will avoid you if they can. They know people are dangerous and even big predators will tend to avoid you if they can. Unless they’re really hungry or something.”

“Do we not taste good enough for them?” Zeter joked.

“I think it’s more that people have a habit of hunting and killing anything that hunts and kills us, so a lot of creatures have figured out it’s best to just leave us alone.”

“That sounds a lot smarter than I’d give most animals credit,” Kasyn said.

“When it comes to survival, they are,” Damarys nodded. “Smarter than a lot of people I’ve met, especially in the wild. I guess it just comes down to what you’ve experienced and survived to get to where you are, you know? Take us for example. How many others went into Autay Wa? We survived, a bit by chance, a bit by skill, when everyone else didn’t. The next time we went in we were even better prepared. Wild animals are a lot like that. A lot of them don’t live to adulthood but those that do have a lot of experience avoiding the things that’ll kill them.”

They continued on hiking the rest of that day, resting a few times to let them rest since only Damarys was used to this amount of physical exertion. When they finally stopped for the day and set up camp, Kasyn thought his legs would collapse beneath him if he tried to go much further. Zeter and Emilie didn’t look much better off than he was and the three of them happily sat by the fire Damarys started and began eating their evening meal.

Up until recently, trail rations were never something Kasyn ever ate. Even when he found himself eating them for the first time in the outskirts of Yomichi he hadn’t particularly enjoyed them. Right now, however, after hours and hours of hiking over such rough terrain, it was the best tasting meal he’d had in a long while.

“Don’t eat too quickly,” Damarys warned, “and make sure you drink enough water to wash it all down or you’ll wake up in the middle of the night with a stomach ache.”

He didn’t want to slow down but he listened all the same and forced himself to obey.

Darkness fell in the woods much faster than Kasyn was accustomed to and pretty soon he couldn’t see anything beyond the dozen or so feet that their camp fire illuminated. Every once in a while he caught a glimpse of bats swooping overhead, catching insects that were drawn to their fire. Croaking and chirping made the forest much louder than he would have expected but every once in a while everything went eerily silent. In those moments, Damarys would sit up, her hand on her bow, and she’d peer into the dark as though she could see more than the rest of them.

“Something over there,” Zeter said, pointing away from the fire and into the dark. “It’s been circling us for a while I think.”

Damarys nodded.

“I can’t tell, does it have fur?” she asked.

Zeter shook his head. “Scales, I think.”

Damarys swore under her breath and she drew an arrow.

“Most animals with fur know to avoid a fire, but…”

Kasyn didn’t like how she left the rest of that sentence unspoken. He readied himself, pulling magic into his body and prepared to cast. Emilie was doing likewise beside him while his skeletons moved to form their small shield wall between their camp and whatever it was that Zeter and Damarys were seeing.

“What is it?” Kasyn asked after an uncomfortably long stretch of silence.

“I’m not certain, but I’d guess it’s either a troll or some kind of giant lizard,” Damarys whispered back. “Both would be drawn to the fire, though for different reasons.”

“What would those be?” Zeter asked, sounding more like he too was uncomfortable with the silence and wanted the conversation to continue filling that void.

“Trolls hate fire and will try to stamp it out whenever they come across it,” Damarys replied. “And some giant lizards like to eat hot coals or just roll around in them.”

“Can we just put the fire out?” Kasyn asked.

“We could,” Damarys admitted, “but then we’d have to worry about all sorts of other beasts that would want to eat us in our sleep.”

“I’m beginning to see why you love it out here so much,” Kasyn grumbled, earning him a wry smile from Damarys.

Kasyn was beginning to think they were going to have to wait until either the beast attacked them or went away when Damarys loosed an arrow. An enraged cry broke the silence and Damarys nocked another arrow a moment later.

“Troll,” she said, and loosed another arrow.

Zeter began firing off spells but still, Kasyn couldn’t see what they were attacking. Emilie didn’t seem any better off than Kasyn and the two of them had no other choice than to either stand there and do nothing or fire blindly into the dark. Kasyn chose the former while Emilie chose the latter.

The howling of pain and rage grew louder as the troll charged forward until, finally, Kasyn could see it. There were arrows sticking out of it’s neck and chest and there were other wounds caused by Zeter and Emilie’s spells, but for all the damage they’d been doing to it, the troll didn’t appear to be all that injured. In fact, even as he stared at the creature in shock, he could see some of the wounds beginning to scab over and heal.

The three skeletons pulled together and braced as the troll pounded into the firelight. Their spears met the trolls thick hide and barely managed to pierce its thick hide. It pummeled the shields but only managed to shift the skeletons back a few steps while Kasyn joined the other three in firing off attacks onto the troll.

“Concentrate your attacks,” Damarys called out. “Otherwise it’ll just heal.”

She fell back a few steps to more easily fire her bow and they all began to aim for the upper chest. Soon, its skin was flaking off to reveal a thick layer of fat on top of muscle. Emilie conjured claws that tore at the softer flesh and Kasyn saw an opening. His skeletons acted at once, stabbing at the opening that was no longer protected by the thick skin and one of the three spears struck true, slipping between ribs and into the heart.

The troll paused, looking down at the spear still lodged in its chest. Its knees trembled and its head wobbled as though suddenly all the strength had gone out of it. As it teetered forwards, the skeletons leapt out of the way along with Zeter, Kasyn, and Emilie. The ground shook as the creature hit the ground, sinking into the soft underbrush.

“Cut off its head before it heals,” Damarys said at once.

“It’s not dead yet?” Kasyn asked in disbelief.

“It’s dead for now, but as long as there’s enough of it to heal back up, it will.”

She pulled out a long dagger and began hacking into the troll’s neck. As she worked, Kasyn could see the skin trying to re-knit itself.

“Come on, give me a hand. The heart won’t take long to heal,” Damarys demanded and Zeter joined in to help.

A minute later, they had the head burning in the fire while Damarys, Zeter, and Emilie cut various parts of the troll off to add to the fire.

“Can I keep a few of these organs?” Emilie asked. “I know some potions that require them but I’ve never been able to get my hands on such fresh samples.”

“Help yourself,” Damarys shrugged, “just make sure you use them before they regenerate into a baby troll.”

“It’ll do that?” Kasyn gasped.

“Any part of a troll that’s at least a certain size can regrow into a Troll. That’s why we have to burn the body.”

“How big a piece does it have to be?”

“Hand size, I think. I’ve never tested it though and don’t really want to. The babies are nasty and will burrow into the ground like it’s water, then spring up a minute later and take a bite out of your leg.”

“They sound adorable,” Kasyn joked.

“I’ve heard of people trying to domesticate them,” Emilie said. “They’re not complete animals, and sometimes they form villages with rudimentary structures.”

“They get smarter from eating people,” Damarys said. “So if you come across such a village, I’d be wary since it’s a pretty good guess that they’ve figured out what’s making them smart.”

That night, the air was full of the sound and smell of sizzling troll. It was enough to keep any predator away and made all four of them sleep up wind of the fire.