As I retreated through the branches of the forest, I became keenly aware of the ambient noise around me. It differed substantially from the first time I had come to the forest with the [Hunters]. The forest was more alive. What last time had been a quiet stroll, more or less, now was accompanied by a plethora of animal noises. There were screeches and screams in the distance. Yapping, growling, and the ever-present rustling from wood and leaves.

With the awakening of the plague of the grubs, eating everything close to the ground, the hunters had awakened too, it seemed. I just hoped it was as frantic as this because they were preying on the more or less defenseless grubs and now was the time for the feast.

There still was the giant claw print to consider we had found. It seemed strange to me, for such a big creature to exist in a forest this dense, but who was I to judge the Wyld. I had seen stranger things. Thousand Teeth, the giant crocodile in the Wyldmarshes, would have left a similarly impressive mark.

As I hiked over the Stormplains back to our camp, I could see from a distance that my companions had been faced with a related problem. Both were kneeling over the body of a creature, a pair of arrows sprouting from its chest.

It was a lizard of some kind, six or seven foot from the ground to the withers, bipedal, with claws at the front, sharp and angled to rake its prey. It also had a triangular jaw and sturdy scales. It looked to be nimble and fast, its legs strong and wiry, made for pouncing.

“Almost got away, this one.“ Grim said quietly, as he checked the scales for their durability with his hunting knife. “Quick thing. And a pack to back it up.“

“How many?“

“I saw four. But the others booked it as I shot this one.“

Kara was kneeling beside him and looked up to me, holding her bloody hands out to keep it away from her clothes. “Never saw a thing like this.“ She said. “But I have seen stranger things in the forest of the Mad King. They were fast.“

“Good shots then, Grim!“ I clapped his shoulder, leaning over them to see what they were doing. Actually, what were they doing? “May I ask why you are in the middle of dissecting this strange lizard.“

“Because I have a reason to think it tastes like chicken.“ Grum mumbled, his blade making awful noises as he cut the flesh off his prey.

“Chicken?“ I asked.

“There are many brethren of the scaled friends in the Wyld.“ Kara said. “And most of them taste like chicken.“

And to be fair, I knew that to be true. I had eaten my fair share of crocodile meat as I hunted with Cogar.

“I will just take it as the good news that it is. I have discovered the source of the ground-level deforestation, in the meanwhile. Strange flowers opening up to spew hungry grubs in the air, mindless creatures with one goal only: feast. And the predators seem to have come to life in the forest. It was far noisier than last time.“

Grim looked up to me, as he slapped a thin strip of pale meat on a flat rock he had brought.

“Makes sense. Insects live in cycles. Now is the feeding cycle. For everyone.“

“But...autumn? Does that makes sense?“

He shrugged again. “Maybe they lie dormant in winter to hatch in spring? Maybe it doesn’t even get cold enough here to freeze the waters.“

“Would we be so lucky?“

Grim grinned. “Guess not.“

“These are good hunters.“ Kara said poking the carcass. “Even better prey. The Bear Clan can use every morsel of their body. The Skin is tough, the claws are sharp and the meat is lean and tasty.“

“Could we domesticate them? Ride them?“ Images flitted through my mind of nimble, jumping hunter-lizards ridden by armored, spear-wielding cavalry flying over the Stormplains.

Both Kara and Grim looked at me as if I had lost my mind.

“[Beast Tamers] and the sort could, s‘spose. In general? Worst Idea you ever had.“

I shut my mouth after that and helped them drag the body and the cuts of the meat back to the fire, where we cooked it, short and dirty. It was indeed quite like the taste of a chicken, which I had almost forgotten how that felt on my tongue. It felt like a lifetime ago. How fitting that it came from the body of a formerly unknown predator lizard, in a forest of giant trees growing above a probably insect queen of immeasurable proportions. And the home of a Roc, the giant bird I had seen, and a clawed giant that at least once had wandered this strip of land. There, nothing like home.

“What happened to the things you saw after they were done feeding?“ Kara suddenly asked, mouth still glistening from the fat of the meat she held in both her hands.

“They burrowed into the loose soil. They could not have moved more than a couple of feet before they did so. I assume the strange flower retracted back underground as well.“

“Did they crawl back into it?“ Grim asked.

“I did not see. I assumed they would just burrow.“

Kara chewed on her meat, looking at the forest. “I want to try and see how far this goes.“ She said. “I can ask a spirit of the earth to look around a bit.“

“You can do that?“ Of course, she could, she had convinced the spirit of a bonfire to fight for us before, as it were.

“They will not be able to tell me much, most of them, the lesser ones are beyond stupid. But I am used to work around that by now.“ She shot me a glance, a little mischievous glint in her eyes.

I frowned but said nothing because no good answer would come to my mind.

“Need anything?“ Grim interjected, clearly amused by the banter.

Kara shook her head, wiping her hands on the grass to her side. “Just watch over me, I will be distracted for a few moments.“

She got up from her casual sitting position and roamed around the rocky place for a patch of soil and knelt before it, getting out a few pouches and small pots of clay. She formed the soil to roughly the shape of a man - well a body and a head - and began to insert little stones and twigs, and many more things out of her pouches I could not see.

She then spoke a few words and the little body rose without a sound, just the small rustling of falling and grinding earth. It did not speak, but a little mouth opened and chewed the air as if it was tasting, no - moving anything, for the first time.

Then the little guy hopped away and dove into the spot of dirt, as if it was water, disappearing completely.

“It didn‘t dare go closer.“ Kara said finally, holding the little earth spirit in her hands, who was overtly shaking and showing signs of fear on the face of little rocks that Kara had put there. “He wanted to help me, but there is something big and ... I guess someone that could hurt or command him.“

The little guy nodded eagerly, spreading his arms as if to indicate a large size. Then he shook again, throwing his arms around himself.

“He did not like that. But he has seen the soil around the forest floor. The flowers are everywhere, just beneath the ground, connected to the big thing much deeper. And the soil is full of burrowed grubs, sleeping or waiting.“ Kara explained while the earth spirit nodded in exaggeration.

“How do you hunt something like that?“ Grim stared at the forest in thought.

“We do not have to. That does not mean much, though.“ I said.

“Yeah, right. Befriending a giant insect will be easier.“ Kara spat sarcastically.

“Any underground...openings?“ Grim interrupted her before I had the chance to answer.

“The spirit dared not dive that deep.“ She said, even going so far as to scratch that moving lump of soil on the head, receiving a wide smile from the relaxing spirit. “And I would not make him do it. Spirits are fierce and without fear, when it comes to confronting enemies of nature or corruption. He sees the Guardian of earth as a superior being. He cannot act against it.“

“There must be something.“ I said. “I cannot imagine the thing to just grow underground. The ground is more than just soil and sand. It will need natural caverns and the sort to not get crushed by the weight of the earth.“

“So, what now?“ Grim asked.

I shrugged. “If we could make it to the mountains, I can use a Skill to look for caverns. But there is no reason to believe that the thing stretches that far. In the forest, I am without such means.“

“Not sure if we should even kill the thing.“ Grim suddenly said. "Don't mind what I said earlier."

“What? Why? What else would we do?“

“Look at the forest, son. Really look at it. It is all connected. Things live in the branches and up top. What falls down gets eaten by the insects. Insects get eaten by the lizards and the rest.“ He shrugged. “Seems...whole.“

“What happens if the insects would cease to be?“ Kara asked.

Grim shrugged again. “Change.“

“No more giant trees? That cannot be the reason, can it? Would they wither and die?“

“Who knows.“

“Well it does not really matter, because we have no way of reaching the thing, not to talk about killing it.“ Kara said.

“Not with that attitude.“ Grim grinned. “You remind me of my daughter.“ He suddenly changed the subject.

Kara stopped mid-sentence, taken aback by his words.

“What is that supposed to mean.“ She said scowling, but careful at the same time.

“Young, beautiful, ready to make her hands dirty when necessary...but not a lick of sense between her ears.“ He smiled crookedly.

“What are you on about, old man?“ She retorted.

“You can communicate with spirits.“ He said dryly.

“Yes?“

“Well, do it then.“

“What? With which one?“ She threw me a look which had ‘do you know what the crazy man is talking about?‘ written all over it.

Grim leaned forward, poking the little spirit in her lap. “That guy thinks his boss is down there, right?“

“Well, something like that. It was just a feeling.“

“Well a spirit would not feel an insect queen to be his boss, right? So whatever the thing is, it must be half spirit, more or less.“

“That is...well, that makes some sense.“ Kara conceded, then shot him an angry look. “But I don‘t care for your tone, old man.“

“My daughter didn‘t either.“ Grim bit into a slab of meat with a grin and chewed happily.

The rest of the day we continued traveling along the forest. We wanted to spend a few nights here, and besides the cliffs at the shore, we had not found adequate shelter from either wind or animals all day. In the end, we returned to the sailors that had set up camp at the river delta, which was somewhat protected as the river had carved a way through the rocky ground on its way to the sea, so there were two walls of soil and rock to either side of the gurgling stream.

They had been industrious all day, building a sturdy fireplace, a couple of tents and screens spanned with old and cut sails, to protect the camp from the cold sea breeze and keep the warmth somewhat inside.

We wanted to make this a more permanent arrangement, and so we spend the rest of the day planning our base camp.

The one thing that bugged me about the place down here beside the riverbed was the fact that I could not see what was coming across the Stormplains. Every moment I expected the giant thing that had made the footprint to peek over the crest of the cliffs or the smaller predator lizards to jump out of the darkness on top of us.

In the end, I made use of my lack of need to sleep and sat atop the plains, looking out, while my companions slept beneath me, listening to the wind and the gurgling of the river. Thinking of what the hell to say to a giant insect-earth spirit to let me claim its Elemental Key.