Scarlet had been walking for some time, maybe half an hour, when she felt comfortable stopping and orienting herself. She hadn’t felt the pulses for ten minutes and felt them go past her even earlier. Now, she just needed to know where she was. The pulses and the sun had helped her to roughly keep her direction, but that only meant that she had the vaguest idea where she was, not where to go or how to get there.

After a few minutes remembering the map she had seen, she decided to continue her way south, until she came upon another stream flowing down from the western mountains. That way, she’d just have to follow that stream, first back west, towards the mountains, and afterwards back east, until she reached the Alb and then following the Alb back north, until she got to Albertina.

Nodding to herself, she let herself relax a little and started to spread her awareness, which she had contained within herself to hide, feeling the area around her. In addition, she pulled her scanner and checked the radiation, grinning when the reading was already at the boundary between green and yellow. She wanted to take down as many crystal monsters as she could, not just to pay her dues, without needing whatever ‘other options’ the Doctor had in mind, but also to strengthen Crysan and Cyca.

With the higher danger-level in mind, she let Cyca’s crystal drop, letting her cat accompany her. Cyca seemed happy to be out again, making Scarlet, once again, curious what circumstances had led to the existence of the crystal monsters. There seemed to be no natural explanation, so clearly, she needed more information.

For now, she continued on her path south, looking for food to be harvested and crystal monsters to be slain. She perked up when she noticed more of the deliciously sharp vegetables she had eaten before, ready to be harvested. Digging them out, without the advantage of a shovel or Keera’s crystal monster was annoying but after some digging, she had enough of the roots to last her a few days, if she added something else to the food. Maybe some fish, cooked in her new cookware, into some sort of stew. The spiciness should work great for something like that, she thought, licking her lips.

Her smile turned vicious when she realised that either her or Cyca’s presence had drawn a crystal monster to them. For a moment, she wondered if she should look into using that effect, if she could understand it, to draw enemies to her, like moths to a flame. But that would have to wait, the monster was almost upon them.

Cyca went into higher alert and Scarlet tried to add her own sensory impressions to the link they had, so that Cyca had access to them, eliminating blind spots thanks to a second viewpoint. If it worked like that, she didn’t know, but was quite sure that it would help.

Scarlet had to suppress a giggle when she realised just what was attacking them, it was another one of the stupid rat-type crystal monsters. She felt Cyca ready herself, when the monster burst from the bushes. Seeing it, she noticed that it was a little bigger than the ones she had seen before and there was a feeling of strength coming back from Cyca.

With a leap, it tried to go for Cyca, its mouth opening impossibly wide, far wider than a jaw should allow, and there was a strange, darkish glow around the teeth. Cyca had long since been prepared to dodge, easily avoiding the attack and, while in the air, she used her electric attack, the lightning bolt slamming into the rat’s back. Golden lightning cascaded around its body, most of it grounding into the earth, but some sparks remained.

The rat seemed to be shaken, or maybe, shocked would be a better word but not defeated. Cyca landed against a tree, pushing off to attack again, while the rat was stumbling. This time, Cyca went for the direct attack, her claws elongating in order to rip into the other crystal monster. The rat tried to dodge, but its movement was still jerky and uncoordinated, allowing Cyca’s attack to land right in its side. The glowing claws seemed to simply go through it, causing flickering in its form.

As the attack landed, the rat tried to use its own claws to strike back and the two monsters stuck next to each other, clawing at the others form with frantic abandon.

Scarlet wanted to intervene, but she knew that there was little she could do, trying to attack the rat with her mind would only cause Cyca trouble, so she kept back, only giving Cyca directives if she noticed something that her monster wouldn’t see, due to the perspective.

The clawing furball lasted only for a few moments, until the rat dissolved into sparks of light, which Cyca happily absorbed. Scarlet felt Cyca perk up, exhausted but satisfied. It dawned upon Scarlet that she’d have to be careful with her visual assessment, the rat they had just fought had clearly been stronger than the one they had fought on their first day, or the rat Keera had fought. That meant that wild crystal monsters also got stronger, just like the Doctor had described for the monsters she controlled.

Feeling that she should check Cyca, she made her go back into her crystalline form, before picking both crystals up, the one containing Cyca and the one that was now empty of consciousness. The rat’s crystal was almost completely clear, with barely any impurities in it. What little there was, gave the crystal a smoky hue, making it quite pretty. But at the end of the day, how pretty it was didn’t matter, just how many credits the Doctor would spit out for it.

Putting Cyca’s crystal in front of the scanner, just as she had been shown, gave her a little better impression of her status. The scanner showed that her overall-power, had risen some, but in turn, the power she used to manifest herself was greatly depleted, only about half remaining.

Scarlet made a note that, if she needed to fight again, she would use Crysna. Not that she thought there would be a second fight, she planned to remain in the area and doubted that there was another crystal monster nearby. It would go against what she had seen before.

Placing Cyca in her pouch and letting Crysna out, even allowing the snake to wind around her left arm and be carried that way, she continued on, looking for a good camping spot for the night. She had enough water for the night and was sure she would find more the next day so she was not too fuzzy. When she noticed a burrow, possibly rabbit, she directed Crysna into it, letting the snake do his thing. The sensations were a little strange, the snake was not fully adapt at hunting below ground, but Scarlet’s connection to it allowed her to keep him calm and add direction and encouragement. When he came upon a rabbit, it was already shaking in terror, forced into a corner. Crysna slithered forward, almost gently biting through its neck, letting the blood spill into the earth. Dragging the corpse out was more difficult, but again, with encouragement and time, it worked.

Once she had the dead rabbit in hand, Scarlet quickly cleaned it, placing the useable meat in her new cookware before continuing. She had no need for the fur or guts, so she simply left them for another predator. Her thinking was that, if she left them here, out in the open, a predator might be already fed and no longer in the mood to look further and not run into her camp. And burying the waste seemed to be pointless and exhausting.

She continued her way, until she noticed a huge tree, reaching into the sky. Seeing it, she decided that she had her spot. Not only was the space around the tree free of bushes and nicely dry, the tree added nice shelter. Using a branch like a broom, she cleared some of the ground, cursing under her breath that she was lacking a shovel to dig a fire pit, but soon, she had an area free of debris. For the next half hour, she carried rocks over, lining the cleared area with them and added dry wood. Lighting it on fire was easily done, the thin wood and dried moss quickly catching fire and burning merrily.

Once the fire was burning, she added some bigger wood, with Crysna looking on from a few meters away.

While softly speaking to Crysna, or maybe herself, Scarlet made dinner, rabbit-stew with the strange roots, the taste not going as well together as the combination of fish and the roots, but it tasted good.

Once she had eaten, she felt a little hot from the spicy food and sitting at the fire, so she decided that the night was warm enough and she didn’t need the risk to burn down the forest due to her carelessness. Moving back, she directed Crysna to gently use her water attack, putting out the flames. Her monster seemed almost gleeful, rearing back and soaking the fire, causing it to smoke, splutter and vanish within moments.

Once it was done, Scarlet noticed that she had been lucky that whatever the substance that Crysna was using was, it seemed to put out fires like water would. Maybe not quite as good, it seemed to absorb less heat due to vanishing on its own, but it had worked.

Looking up, into the darkening sky that showed between the large tree and the surrounding forest, she decided that she needed to think of a way to keep herself safe during the night. Thinking for a moment, she decided that the easiest way would be to climb into the tree and sleep between the branches.

Climbing the tree was surprisingly easy, the bark was split and gnarled in places, giving easy hand-holds and within moments, she was up in the crown, quickly finding wide crotches that would easily let her rest, without a risk of falling. She wedged her sleeping back between them, so that she couldn’t fall, no matter what, and called Crysna into his crystal, placing it into her pouch. Before sleeping, she placed Cyca’s crystal in front of the scanner again, happily seeing that the manifestation-energy was back up.

After that, she went to sleep with Cyca’s crystal clutched to her chest, knowing that having it handy might be the difference between life and death.