My gaze drifts up to the canopy overhead, riddled with the shitty, carnivorous vines. The vines themselves are mostly quite thick, due to their need to lift things up, and covered with a thin layer of something like sap that lets them stick so well. The main question is: why? Why drag me up like that? It’s not like the vines were actually damaging me, just restricting me. With the system, it’s not like they can wait till their prey dies from exposure, it would take too long… or end up impossible, if they had the Power to learn the right adaptive skills.

At first, nothing looks odd. The vines seem to hang off the trees, dipping into the water to make up for not having a true root structure and using the trees they cling to as ladders to reach the light from the star… and that well may be their normal way to subsist. The thing that doesn’t fit with that picture is the strange mass of vines that runs along the branches at the tops of the trees.

On a whim, I take a break to let my Energy recharge, and rip off a chunk of the Salamander corpse. Acquiring some slow acting, high lethality poison from Lauren’s bag (thank you system for making labelling things unnecessary) and lightly marinate the flesh. The vines don’t seem to mind the ‘secret sauce’ and, after letting it hang for a bit, slowly reel it in.

I look on with growing fascination as the tendrils pull the meal into the suddenly writhing mass of vines. It effortlessly pulls the meat inside, continuing to writhe for several minutes before slowing, then stopping. Nothing more happens, so I shrug and go back to tending Lauren, but just as I pull my attention away, I start to hear a light hissing… that grows steadily to nigh ear splitting levels. The writhing begins again, almost frantic compared with the steady rhythm from before, and a large number of the vines begin to retract from their fishing positions, instead wrapping around nearby branches for support.

Then, the odd collection of vine creatures… vomits. A rain of a brownish red liquid first, then things that could be flesh, including the poison I fed it… then bones gently splash into the water below. With my Perception, there can be no question. The bones are mostly human.

The fascination leaves my face, slowly ebbing away like so much innocence. In its place, a cold fury rises. I look down to find that the gold bracelet, my Energy weapon, has suddenly become a barbed knife with a small, metallic tether connecting it to my wrist. As it should be, I have need of it. The bottle is quickly found; poison, but of a different variety. The blade is already doused when I become aware of Cerberus.

“What.” The word is harsh, but I don’t care.

“What do you intend, human?”

“It killed humans.”

“It is a small creature, of small aspirations and little ability. The lives of your people mean the same as any other: food. What do you care that the weak of your race were weeded out? I too killed humans.”

The barbs grow more cruel and twisted with each sentence.

“You will repay that debt. Not in full, never in full, but you will try. One day, you will understand fully, or such is my hope. That… monster-” I spit the word “will never do anything but sit and eat. It grew fat off the flesh of humans. I’ll ensure its death goes to serve those it destroyed.”

“You indulge yourself. Claim justice as your defence, but do not forget that you kill to satisfy yourself, not the dead.”

Part of me is aware how Cerberus doesn’t deserve the hatred in my gaze, nor is my problem with him, but a larger part roars in defiance of his words. “I saved you and yours, but only because you could be reasoned with. No matter how you rejected it at first, there was a chance. For that worthless trash, there is no redemption. It will either continue to exist, or it will not, and not even it has much of a preference.”

Cerberus gives me a long look before slowly turning back to his vigil. “That may be, but it does not reject what I have said.”

To that, my answer was only a flick of my wrist, followed by a small burst of fire and the wondrous sound of hissing screams from above.

---

I check the map, marveling at how far we’ve come in only a day of hiking. Especially considering we were slogging through mud, we made pretty solid progress. We’re still quite a ways from what could tentatively be considered the ‘center of the forest’, but it shouldn’t take more than another day of travel to get there. In the last minutes of starlight, I climbed a tree and briefly got a feel for the surrounding area, at least on a macro level.

To the South, the sea of trees stretches on for a few miles before being broken up by a veritable wall of mountains, much like the Western side of the plains. It appears that the mountains systematically block those directions, and from the map, it looks like that might be where the coast of the continent should be. We basically ended up spawning in the South-Western part of a giant landmass, with no easy way to just get to the ocean and use the water to skirt obstacles. To be fair, that’s likely for our own protection, as god only knows what lives in the oceans on a world like this.

To the East, trees for as far as I can see, though there appears to be something of a gap a few miles away, following the general path of the river. Maybe a lake? Or maybe the river somehow widens? Either way, it’s where we’re probably going to end up. Hopefully there’s moss there, but considering I can see the tree gap from here, I doubt the moss will find it quite dark enough to grow. Of course.

To the North, trees, but after a great distance, they start to thin out. I can’t make out why, but that seems promising for making the trip back less terrible… we’d just have to hack through a few miles of forest. Ugh.

The biggest issue with making camp in the river was having to literally carve a place to rest out of the trunks of probably three conjoined trees.That job had fallen almost entirely to me, with Lauren claiming daggers couldn’t handle that kind of job, and I wasn’t going to suggest to Cerberus that he bite the wood to clear it. I can’t complain too much, as it took only a few minutes with my sword and a bit (lot) of Energy.

I didn’t have the inclination to make this tree hovel roomy, so we all barely fit inside, with Cerberus taking up almost three quarters of the available space. I would insist he pay his way by being a pillow, but I really believe I’d wake up blind, having accidentally rubbed my face on his porcupine-like hair.

With the deep darkness of night rapidly approaching, I rehydrate some of the red flower petals we were given in our packs and coax some of the wet wood into burning. As much as I’d like to keep the fire in the hovel… we’d just end up lighting ourselves on fire. I ultimately decide to set the fire on a raised platform of wet wood, over the river. Like this, it serves more as a light source than one of warmth, but it’s still useful. While it would have been nice to let things dry, neither Lauren nor I is willing to take off (and potentially lose) any of the precious clothing we have.

“I hate to disappoint you, Amadeus, but all this is staying on. Though, I must say you’ve ensured I’m quite wet.”

“Oh my god, I hate you so much.”

She never misses an opportunity.