We moved through forests, and there wasn’t any path to take, so we had to move one at a time between the trees with Sana leading the way. This section of the wilderness tested us at every step. Dense underbrush and low-hanging limbs became relentless obstacles, leaving their mark with scratches and snags. As we forged ahead, battling through the verdant barrier, the forest’s thorns and brambles seemed almost spiteful, etching minor wounds into our skin. Amid the natural orchestra of rustling leaves and distant birdcalls, Jack’s intermittent grumbles punctuated the air, a human reminder of the challenges we faced in this untamed world.

  From the start of the journey, Jack was not happy, and I wasn’t entirely sure why he came along. Eventually, it piqued my curiosity, and I asked him. He replied with a voice heavy with disdain, “We are not on our day off. We are going on a journey. That means it is not safe out here, and the more questions you ask, the more likely we are to be killed by whatever is out here.”

  Kaylie jumped in to say, “Jack, be nice to Alf. This close to the village with all four of us, nothing can challenge us.”

  “But the Elf never shuts up,” Jack complained soberly.

  I wasn’t sure what his problem was. We had worked just fine back on the Islands. Granted, we didn’t talk much even then, but we often fought and snuck around together. Even on the way to the village or on the ship, it was mostly business. I wondered if this was just how Jack usually acted.

  After the interaction with Jack, I didn’t speak as much until we got down the mountain. The route we had chosen, while seemingly the safest, was fraught with irritating vegetation. This, I speculated, might have been the root of Jack’s sour mood, though I couldn’t be sure. If it were up to me, I might have chosen the more mountainous paths. They would be more dangerous, but I wanted to test out my greater Strength and Agility anyway. Of course, if I got hurt, I would heal fast, but the others didn’t have that option, so I kept my mouth shut.

  Our only real break came when we followed a river. The water paths crisscrossed, giving us a bit of a breather. That was, until the river decided it had other plans and turned north, away from where we were headed.

  When we broke at midday, I took out rations and even a blanket for all of us to sit on. We found a spot in the shade of a nearby tree.

  “You planning on taking a nap?” Jack asked as I took it out.

  “No, I figured we could sit on it without getting dirty,” I replied. After smoothing it over the grass, I sat down. Kayle and Sana pulled on the edges of the fabric, and they too settled on it.

  “You know you’re already filthy,” he commented flatly, and he was right. Traveling through a forest was not like going on a hiking trail. There were not just tall trees and clean pathways. There were pockets of those areas, but mainly the ground was strewn with bushes, brambles, and tree branches that cut you. Fortunately for me, I healed extremely fast, so all of those little nicks I received were gone as soon as I got them. This didn’t mean I was not stained from all of that, but still, it was not like my butt was filthy, so I still thought the blanket was a good idea.

  “Well, if you apply the same logic, you should never take a bath because you will just get dirty again,” I quipped in return. I had never been nasty to Jack before, but he had been getting on my nerves with his attitude this whole journey, and I wanted to bite back at him. “Judging from your smell,” I continued, pinching my nose with my fingers, “you do apply that logic.”

  Kaylie burst into laughter at that, and even Sana cracked a smile. Jack, though, was far from amused, looking like he was ready to start a fight. He whipped out his ax and stated, “I challenge you to…”

  “Nope,” I cut him off. There was no way I was dealing with his drama right now. I was too hungry and tired for that nonsense. He’d been throwing digs my way the entire trip, and it was about time he could handle a little poke back. Jack looked at me like I was crazy.

  “No?” he questioned. “What about your honor?”

  “What honor is there in getting beaten by someone stronger than you?” I shrugged. “We all know you are going to win.”

  “But…” Jack started, but I cut him off again.

  “Listen, is there any honor in beating someone who just got to this world and has only trained for a couple of days?” I questioned to settle down the issue.

  “Alf is right. Besides, it’s illogical for us to fight among ourselves. Come sit down and eat,” Sana said, patting the blanket next to her. When Jack started to move over, she smiled now that the tension was broken.

  The whole time we ate, it was an enjoyable meal because Jack was quiet. I was expecting him to start yammering again as soon as he was done, but even after eating, he was dead silent. When we stopped in the forest for the night, Rabbit gave me an outline of the practices Kibi had given me, and I ran through them. Jack spent his time sniggering at my training. The others didn’t comment on my practice and pretended I wasn’t doing it.

  Jack still didn’t say any words, and that was when I began to worry that he might kill me in my sleep. The only way I was able to fall asleep was after convincing Rabbit to wake me if Jack approached me during the night. For Rabbit, it was a waste of his time. He thought that if Jack wanted to butcher me, it would happen anyway, and I should not worry about ‘small’ things like being murdered in my sleep. I pestered Rabbit until he relented, hoping I would shut up.

  When I awoke the next morning, it wasn’t to a blade to my throat but to being dead tired from my restless sleep. It seemed like Jack already had his revenge, whether he knew about it or not. While packing up to go, he had at least snapped out of his mute phase to talk to Kaylie and Sana, if not me, and we started to move through the trees once again.

  Gradually, the dense canopy of trees gave way, revealing a vast expanse of open land. We emerged into a clearing where the forest’s grip loosened, hindered by the sprawling mudflats that dominated this new landscape. The trees, which had been our constant companions, struggled to anchor their roots in the waterlogged earth, making room for a sea of tall grass that swallowed the ground whole. This grass, a vibrant green tapestry, towered to the middle of my chest, waving gently in the breeze like the undulating surface of a verdant ocean.

  The flatness of the terrain offered little in terms of vantage points. Straining my eyes, I attempted to see through the sea of green, to catch a glimpse of what lay beyond. The thought that a large beast could not sneak toward us was somewhat comforting. Its massive form would surely disturb the grassy waves well before reaching us, providing a warning from a quarter mile away. Yet, the smaller creatures, those silent and swift predators that could navigate this dense underbrush with ease, remained a concern. Their presence was a mystery, hidden among the rustling of the grass, unseen.

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  As we started walking through the grass, each step made a sound that gave away our position, as if we were rubbing two plastic bottles together. There was a ‘vip, vip’ sound with each leg I moved.

  “Would you walk quietly?” Jack hissed at me in a low voice.

  I didn’t reply, but I stopped to listen to the others and realized I was at least twice as loud as all of them. In fact, I could barely hear Kaylie walk through the grass. I wondered if it was because she was so slight of frame. But that didn’t make sense because Sana had a similar build.

  “What am I doing wrong? How are you so silent?” I asked Kaylie, just loud enough for her to hear me.

  “Stealth. I have the highest level in the group,” she paused, thinking how to say it delicately, but then decided to say it anyway, “and you don’t have the skill.”

  Once again, my lack of skills was a testament to how useless I was. Sometimes, it was not about one overpowering skill. I could heal fast, but so could any group with a mage. Even if no one could recover like me, that skill was of limited use. It was like having the power of a cannon but having no mobility. It didn’t help if you didn’t have a well-rounded combat experience. The only reason I had a good defense was that I could naturally heal, but I lacked any real offense and mobility. Adding to my lack of Stealth, I was only endangering our party.

  The whole situation was getting under my skin, made all the worse by Jack’s relentless nagging. It was infuriating enough to navigate through the unseen mud, my feet sinking into it unexpectedly. Each time, pulling my foot free became a silent battle, all while the others stood by, waiting. The grass concealed these mud traps perfectly, yet somehow, I was the only one who seemed to fall victim to them. I would have asked what skill it was, but I was getting more heated by the moment. Over the next five minutes, Jack kept telling me to be quiet until I couldn’t take it anymore.

  “Would you stop that? I can’t go any quieter,” I lashed out at Jack as quietly as I could while still showing my anger. My voice was roughly the average speaking voice level.

  Jack, in turn, raised his voice at me. “Do you need me to carry you like a child?” he mocked.

  Sana turned around and hushed us.

  “No, but you don’t have to be here if you don’t want to,” I replied scathingly.

  “I am only here because of my debt to you for our rescue.”

  That was a surprise to me. To me, helping someone escape slavery felt like a basic human duty, not something that warranted a reward. The idea that someone might expect compensation for such an action seemed utterly wrong. It was the kind of thing you did because it was right, not because you were looking for a payoff. Only someone lacking a moral compass would think to benefit from such a situation.

  My blood was boiling, though, and I didn’t care for him mocking me the whole time. I couldn’t change my skills, and if he didn’t want to be here, he shouldn’t be. “You don’t owe me anything. You should go,” I spat.

  “Quiet. We are going to be overheard,” Kaylie tried to chime in, as Sana’s shushing wasn’t getting anywhere.

  “It doesn’t work that way. I ow…” But his words were abruptly cut off by a ferocious roar that filled the air, snapping our attention to the right in unison.

  I unslung my bow and reached for my quiver. The quiver was designed so that an arrow shaft was always sticking out, ready for me to snatch up immediately. The clever part was that as soon as I drew one arrow, the next would automatically appear in its place, ready to be pulled out. This magic, or whatever trick Bolo had used, made it seem like the quiver shared the same endless capacity as the bag. The way it worked seemed focused on keeping things light. Only one arrow appeared at a time, so it was probably meant to reduce weight. It let just the needed part of the next arrow form.

  Following my earlier trials with the quiver, I discovered an additional layer of control. I could mentally command it to provide multiple arrows at once or even a specific type of arrow. However, this required deliberate thought to alter its output from the standard setting. By default, it supplied me with one basic, low-grade arrow at a time from my bag’s pocket space. This feature turned out to be incredibly valuable, justifying every gold piece I had handed over to Bolo for it.

  I grabbed the arrow it gave. It was just a regular one from the Black Rock Islands. I had a couple of arrows of finer quality that I had gotten from the tomb of their former leader, but I was saving those for when I needed them.

  Sana started giving orders. “Jack, cut the grass. Kaylie, burn the path. Alf, don’t die.”

  Jack gripped his ax, gathering strength before unleashing a mighty swipe at a 60-degree angle. Miraculously, this single motion cleared a swath of grass stretching 30 feet ahead, despite his ax lacking the reach. I wondered if it had damage at that range or if it was only suitable for chopping grass. I didn’t stop to ask because, at that moment, I caught the orange glow of a flame out of the corner of my eye. Kaylie’s hands began to burn, and she shot a fireball straight at the creature that was heading for us in the tall grass.

  The creature remained hidden beneath the towering grass, its size too small to rise above the sea of green. However, we glimpsed fragments of its form, charging through the vegetation toward us. Kaylie’s fireball blazed a trail through the air, its path extending well beyond the 30 feet cleared by Jack, incinerating everything in its wake. Upon impact, the fireball exploded with a hiss, flames radiating outward from the point of collision.

  Turning to Kaylie, admiration mixed with a hint of awe on my face. I realized the sheer power she wielded. The thought crossed my mind that being on her bad side was a fate best avoided, for she possessed the ability to reduce me to cinders in a heartbeat.

  “Don’t look away,” Rabbit chided me. With that, I turned back, and Rabbit highlighted an area in blue. “Shoot that.”

  At Rabbit’s command, I pulled the arrow back and released the best I could, aiming at the spot he had highlighted. It didn’t even come close to the target. I was too rushed and didn’t control my breathing. I just wanted to help out. I would have liked to say the arrow went high or low, but it was soaring and not even straight at the target. It went far right and was embarrassing.

  We still hadn’t caught a good look at the animal, but since the fireball explosion, it had moved to the left and was in thick grass, closing the distance. I grabbed another arrow from my quiver and tracked where Rabbit had been laying out the monster, and it fell from its peg. It took a moment to get the arrow back up, and I rereleased it. This one fared slightly better than the last one, but it still wasn’t close.

  With the creature fast approaching the cleared 30-foot threshold Jack had made, I realized I had time for only one more shot.

  “Take your time,” Rabbit’s voice echoed in my mind, calm and clear. “You’re not breathing properly. Remember, this shot is closer, so it should be easier.”

  Heeding his advice, I paused to take a deep breath, seeking to steady myself. Both Sana and Kaylie were now chanting spells, their voices weaving together in a dance of power, while Jack watched with a sort of detached anticipation, ready for the creature to come within reach of his ax.

  This time, with a measured breath and a clearer focus, I waited for the perfect moment as the creature’s form began to emerge from the grass. As soon as its head appeared, I released the arrow. It soared true to the path I had envisioned, only to strike the spot the beast had been a second before.

  Even at this distance, I missed the monster. Wait. Was that a monster or an animal? It looked almost like a hippopotamus, but more sinister instead of the playful animal that I was used to.

  As the creature drew near, both Kaylie and Sana timed their spells perfectly, waiting until the last possible moment to cast them together. The grass, freshly cut by Jack, began to whirl around the beast, forming a swirling barrier that, while not harmful, severely limited its visibility. Concurrently, small fires ignited sporadically around the creature, outside the whirlwind of grass, serving more to bewilder it than to burn.

  Confused and unable to determine a clear direction to charge, the creature paused, its aggressive momentum stalled. Seizing this opportunity, Jack didn’t hesitate. As the grass slowly fell back to the earth, caught in the dying breezes, Jack charged. With a mighty leap, he caught the beast off-guard, delivering a decisive blow with his ax just as it turned to face him.

  The strike was so lethal and precise, a second strike was unnecessary. The beast didn’t scream or struggle. Jack’s ax had found its mark, sinking deep into the creature’s skull. For a brief moment, it remained standing, life extinguished, before collapsing, sending mud flying in all directions.

  Putting his foot at its face, Jack pulled out his weapon. A spray of blood followed the ax as it was pulled out from the creature, staining Jack’s torso and face.

  “Damn it, Alf,” he complained. “Now I’m covered in blood. Look what you did.”