There was a thought in Idalia’s mind that she was being brought out into the woods to be killed. Maybe she would die, but she didn’t think that Birita’s thug’s would go through such trouble when they could just kill her in public. Plus, if they were going to do that it probably would have been different people.

The great size of Sasho contributed to his ability to casually destroy things- including on accident- but those big bones of his were also the least subtle bones Idalia knew. He seemed completely incapable of deception, unless he was secretly amazing at it and everything was an act. But that just seemed too improbable.

On the other hand, Trix might be capable of killing people maliciously, but she was generally better at solving things without violence. Idalia had seen her shake down some people and make them almost happy for the privilege. It was people like her that kept Birita’s hold on the area from completely devolving into chaos. Idalia wasn’t sure whether or not to appreciate that, since it would be bad for both sides if things turned into a straight conflict

When Idalia saw a patch of blood clot moss on a large stone, she stopped to scrape some of it off.

“What are you doing?” Trix demanded. “We need to keep moving.”

“And I need to stay in business,” Idalia retorted. “If I’m going to be away from my shop for an entire day, I at least need to get what I can.” That was all true, but she was also trying to delay things so she could think of a way to protect herself. Unfortunately she was coming up blank, as either of the two could take her out. Maybe she could outrun them, but even if she did they would know exactly where she was going. It might be better if they died to something in the forest, but in that case Birita might notice them gone.

In the end, Idalia found herself with little choice but to go along with them into the deeper parts of the forest. After quite a few hours of walking, Trix stopped and looked around. “Alright, should be far enough. So where is it?”

“Where is what?” Idalia asked.

“The tree thistle. That’s the whole reason we’re here, remember?”

“How am I supposed to know?”

“You’re the herbalist. Just look at the paper.”

Idalia grumbled, but looked it over. The information only said deep forest in the shadows. That meant the thickest areas, which of course ended up with the most problematic beasts. Idalia didn’t know that much about them, except to stay away. Even if she was a cultivator now, it didn’t suddenly become safe just because she was a bit stronger. “It might be… this way, I suppose.” She was already inside the region she wanted to stay away from, but she had some idea where the worst parts were.

Up until that point they had managed to avoid encounters with unfriendly beasts, but they soon stumbled into the territory of a large bear. Idalia swallowed nervously. Sparring with people was basically nothing like real combat, and despite how strong she knew Anton to be, he wasn’t as terrifying as the several meter tall bear. Mostly because he wasn’t trying to hurt her.

When the creature stood up on its hind legs and roared, all hope of backing away went out of Idalia’s head. She clutched her walking staff tightly in her hand. At least she’d remembered to bring the thing with her. It was useful enough as a weapon, and for extending her reach.

Before she could truly bring herself to act, Sasho was already charging the great beast, his wheelbarrow left behind. She felt its sharp claws whistle through the air as it roared, with the man also yelling back at it as he pulled a large axe off his back and chopped at it. The results were immediate and bloody. A line of claws drew across Sasho’s chest, but the majority of the spray came from the bear, coating him in from head to toe. And that was it, the whole fight… resolved in an instant.

It was kind of terrifying… but also almost assuring. While she wasn’t sure about killing the bear in a single attack, Idalia felt that she could have dodged either the bear’s swipe or Sasho’s wild chop. So she probably wouldn’t die instantly, if it came down to it.

“Sasho you big lug,” Trix strode over next to him. “You need to wait for me to fight.”

“Don’t want anyone to get hurt,” he said simply.

“You got hurt though!” she said in an exasperated manner.

“It’s okay. I'll heal… eventually.” Sasho nodded with complete assurance.

Seeing the wounds on his chest, Idalia wasn’t sure if that was true. She was certain that even with a cultivators ability to recover their wounds quickly, since he didn’t seem to be actively closing them he might just bleed to death before it came down to it. “I don’t think you will,” she said as she approached. “Let me patch you up.”

In the short term, it might be better for her to let him bleed to death. But if Trix made her continue into the deep forest without him her life would be at greater risk, and they could hardly transport back the tree thistle without his bulk. She was able to lift quite a bit more than she had before she began cultivating, but even if it was rather light anything a few meters in height would be pretty tough to carry or even drag.

She took some of the bloodclot moss, some bandages, and a few minor herbs she was already carrying on her when they started the journey, applying them to his wounds. It wouldn’t let him recover much faster, but at least nothing would get worse. “I’d try not to move too much after that,” Idalia said professionally.

“Can’t fight without moving,” Sasho responded. “Can’t do anything.”

“Just… try not to strain it,” she shook her head.

Trix looked at her suspiciously, but let her work. But Idalia wasn’t so crazy as to poison someone right in front of her. Cultivators could detect some of that, and again- she needed them to survive this. For her own survival. Or maybe she could just run away. It was a shame to leave her hometown, but with Birita lording over the area she probably should have gone away long before.

As they got deeper in the forest, Idalia wished she had refined her eyes more. It wasn’t as dark as night, but it got rather difficult to see. On the other hand, she was able to pick out a number of medicinal plants just by her energy senses. Some of them stood out, in fact, as they contained natural energy within them. She wasn’t completely sure what they all did, but she could learn study them later- and perhaps get her hands on some relevant books.

Though she was ostensibly leading the way, Idalia was just wandering and hoping that they would run into something. Until a gust of wind almost knocked her out with a putrid scent. She almost immediately led them away from the area towards somewhere else… but then realized that might be what they were looking for. She wasn’t sure what about corpses would make a tree thistle grow around them- since the soil usually had nutrients that were easier to access for most forms of plant life. “That way,” she gestured. “That’s our best bet, at least.” She didn’t want to sound too confident, because if they didn’t find something she would be at fault. Even if she’d never seen the thing before.

As they approached the area, Idalia began to get a bad feeling. More than she already had, of course. The flow of natural energy didn’t seem right, and she was beginning to sense a number of moving sources of it.

“Looks like we’re about to run into some trouble,” Trix said, confirming her suspicion. “Sasho, don’t run out ahead. You need to stick with us so we can all fight them together.”

“All of us?” Idalia asked nervously.

“Obviously,” Trix said, drawing a curved blade. “We don’t have the leeway to keep you completely safe. Besides, what’s the point of cultivating if you don’t fight?”

Idalia could have told her plenty of reasons to do it. Better health, more efficient work… but she figured it would fall on deaf ears at the moment. She clutched her staff as a loud buzzing became apparent, and the approaching blobs of energy resolved themselves into the forms of individual creatures.

Specifically wasps, each as long as a forearm with stingers nearly half that length. Idalia took a deep breath as they approached. Her position in the back seemed safe, but the way the swarm of dozens was spreading out they could very easily find their way around to her.

Despite the cautions from Trix, Sasho charged forward to meet them when they got close. His first swing sliced a few limbs off of one of them and chopped straight through another, but their wicked stingers pierced into him, his defensive energy only sufficient to keep their attacks from digging as deep as they otherwise might have.

Trix moved up close behind Sasho, nimble swinging her curved blade while keeping herself from being in the midst of them. Idalia wasn’t far behind her, though she couldn’t be as close as she liked for worry of interfering with the others- or being cut apart by their attacks.

When a wasp’s form resolved itself in her vision, her body moved almost on its own. Instead of an incoming attack with a human-made weapon, it was the attack- but her instinctive parry turned into a decent sweep, catching the creature’s wing and sending it veering off course where it slammed into the dirt. She didn’t have time to pay attention to it beyond that, as there were more moving in fast.

Her staff spun around her, weaving a barrier of combined defense and attack- anything getting close would find itself thwacked by the solid wood of her weapon, plus some natural energy augmenting it.

Any time her staff struck a wing or one of the creature’s limbs, the target crumpled- but if she didn’t the right angle the creatures kept coming, their momentum carrying them to her with their nasty stingers. Some of them scraped against her defensive energy as she barely dodged, but one lodged itself into her left shoulder. She grabbed the creature and flung it away, yanking it out- but the pain remained. Along with something else. She had to make a snap decision about whether or not to try to deal with the venom during the battle, and decided she really didn’t want to know what the full effects would be.

While it was all still in her wound she began coaxing and squeezing it out, unfortunately also with some of her blood. But blood would recover on its own.

Doing that while fighting at the same time was one of the hardest things she’d ever done, much harder than precisely measuring ingredients to be mixed into a salve. The swarm of wasps was slightly less numerous at that point, but she still had a few more close calls- including one with a particularly big wasp which looked intent to impale her through the heart. Her staff struck it right in the body, which was unfortunately only enough to shove it back a meter or two before it was coming right back at her. She clenched up and tried to keep her eyes open even as her instincts told her to cover her face- despite the fact it wasn’t attacking there. She wasn’t sure if she imagined a dull blob of energy washing over the thing, but her next overhead swing smacked it down to the dirt below.

She continued to beat the thing with her staff until it no longer resembled a nasty, flying bug. She probably should have been focusing on the other wasps, but it seemed they were either defeated or beginning to retreat. Sasho and Trix clobbered the last few around them, before taking a look around.

“Hey, you survived,” Trix said. “Looks like you could use a bit of a patch-up though.”

“Same with you,” Idalia commented. Sasho had more than a handful of visible holes, slowly leaking blood, and Trix was clearly not unharmed. Both of them were pretty low on energy too. If she wanted to take them out this might be her best chance… but of course she was pretty exhausted herself.

Instead of doing that, she treated all of their wounds to the best of her ability. The two of them appeared a bit woozy, and Sasho seemed to be in significant pain, but all she could do was relieve some of the symptoms. Back at her shop she had treatments for normal wasp stings, but those were mostly relief for the pain and swelling. These things could have entirely different properties.

The wind switching directions once more reminded her of the task- and how awful the area ahead smelled. The group continued forward until they saw the bodies of various beasts lying in a pile. There were weird grubs- or maybe they were larvae- wriggling around in the bodies. A short distance away was their target- the tree thistle. Just as pictured and described, it was basically a milk thistle but several meters tall, with all of its other attributes scaled up as well. That included the spikes along the giant stalk and various leafy offshoots.

They were supposed to carry that back? Idalia looked down at the little hand shovel she’d brought to dig up herbs and shook her head. It was quite inadequate for the job. At least they had the wheelbarrow, but even that was looking rather small if they had to dig up the whole thing. Was this what cultivators always had to deal with?