Three days after leaving the Sparkle behind, Scarlet was wondering if she had chosen the right path. Navigating had been a little challenging, but on the other hand, she had managed to find even more Crystal Monsters, hunting down eleven of them over those three days. She didn’t happen upon new types, only fighting two rockdogs, four rats, three birds and two nutty squirrels, but, she had managed to gain some more understanding. With a little trial and error, she had ascertained that the rockdogs were easily defeated by Crysna and that Cyca had an easier time with the birds and squirrels. The rats on the other hand, were quickly dispatched by either of her monsters.

What made her consider her choice was the fact that, while Crysna had been able to find a few small brooks and puddles with pretensions of grandeur, using some sort of water-sense, she was missing something. Those small water-sources had allowed her to fill her bottles, even if the water in them was far less tasty than the water she had tasted in the Sparkle, there hadn’t been enough water to bathe, forcing her into splashing water onto herself, if she wanted to wash up. She made a mental note to focus further exploration along the waterways, even if that meant she would cross longer distances for less reward.

She decided that she should head back towards Albertina and made a few guesses when it came to directions, knowing that, if she went east, she would, sooner or later, run into the Alb and could follow it back. That led to her thinking about Keera and the way she had ditched her. Her departure hadn’t been thought out, just a combination of uncomfortable feeling regarding the Doctor and his machinations and utter disgust towards Aida and her sneaky social predator-games had driven her away from town and into the wilderness. Not that she regretted the last few days of journeying alone, it had been liberating, to say the least and she had greatly enjoyed it. Maybe, there would even be an advantage to be gained, if Keera had been unable to find another partner and hadn’t had the courage, bravery or stupidity to go out alone, she would realise her dependance on Scarlet, allowing Scarlet to further place her hooks into the other woman. The thought of putting Keera into her place, firmly beneath her thumb, made Scarlet smile.

Suddenly, a beeping sound she had never heard before pulled her from her thoughts. It came from the scanner in her bag, which made her frown and look at the display. What she found caused a shiver to run down her spine, the display showed a deep orange, bordering on red. She had taken readings every so often, but apparently, her path had taken her into a dangerzone. For a moment, she considered simply walking back, the way she had come from when a strange sound caught her attention. It sounded like a mix of rumbling and groaning, sending her senses into overdrive and making her consider simply running

It was then, that she saw the source, maybe a hundred meters before her. The forest was rather light in the area, so she could see the earth moving upwards, as if there was some gigantic animal, or rather monster, beneath it, just waking up. The mound that raised itself was easily ten meters across and a meter high, while still growing. Next to her, Cyca emenated panic, her tails spread and lightning arcing between them, ready to strike, if need be.

Her mind needed a moment to pierce together what she was seeing, vines, or maybe tentacles pushed the creatures body up, some earth falling down but other parts seemed to be pure creature. Calling it anything but a nightmare would be lying. She had no doubt that she was seeing a crystal monster, only that it was huge, massive, now almost two meters higher than before and the vines were spreading around it, forming a network almost like roots. When the thing started to move, it startled her out of her stunned state and made her start backing off, fearing to force a reaction with a sudden movement.

Cyca, in her panic, broke through Scarlet’s mental hold and shot lightning at it, easily hitting the huge form but the effect was about what Scarlet had expected. There was none. On the other hand, the creature began moving towards them, pulling itself along the forest, knocking over trees and started to shoot clumps of earth at Cyca, who just managed to dodge a few of them, before getting hit and thrown back, barely able to keep her form.

Scarlet turned, grabbing Cyca’s crystal and just running, clumps of earth impacting around her, some of them with enough power to break branches and even knock over a small and thin tree. She considered using Crysna for an attack but there was just no point, he wouldn’t be able to slow down the attacker, even if he sacrificed himself.

Her mind racing, Scarlet did the only thing she could think of to gain distance, before one of the clumps managed to hit and knock her down. She used her own talent in an insane, all-out strike, slamming against the earthen mound, not even trying to dominate it, merely trying to disable it. It felt as if she had hit her head against a wall, multiple times, the backlash bad enough to make her fall. But deep within her, a stubborn part was still alive, the part of her that survived, no matter what. Barely conscious and seeing through a red tinge, she stumbled onwards, no sense of direction, no nothing, only following the simple, primal direction from the primitive part of her brain, the directive to flee from the threat.

Later, she had no idea how much later, she stumbled again, falling to her knees, breathing raggedly, her lungs sucking in oxygen as best as they could. Her whole body was filthy and shaking in exhaustion, but the fall caused her mind to snap back into focus.

Alive…

She was still alive.

That simple thought bubbled to the forefront of her mind and she started to giggle, losing it, until she was laughing and crying at the same time, the memory of terror and the blinding headache mixing with the relief of her escape, making her lightheaded and almost causing her to faint.

She dragged herself to the next tree, sitting against it and, some minutes later, managed to get herself far enough under control to take stock of herself. Her whole body felt beaten and sore, scrapes and scratches decorating her arms, legs and face. Her mind was still only firing on half its thrusters and she was tasting blood. Using some of her water, she rinsed her mouth, spitting the bloody foam out, before using one hand to investigate the sticky sensation in her face and over some of her upper body.

Her hand came back bloody, giving her an idea how badly she had overdrawn her mental abilities. She had managed to cause herself to sweat blood, not just in her face, which was, according to her instructors, something that had a good chance to cause lasting brain-damage but even further down to her collarbone. It was something they had never even mentioned, so the fact that she was not a vegetable seemed to be a good thing.

With some effort, she managed to pull out her scanner again and was relieved that it showed a calming, light-yellow colour. Unwilling to move more than necessary, she started to apply the Doctor’s lotion to Cyca’s crystal. There was a tickling sensation in her mind, through her link with Cyca, and she felt Cyca’s relief pour into her mind.

She stayed beneath the tree for another hour or so, until she noticed that the sun was slowly setting, somewhere above the trees. Forcing herself to move, she pulled herself up and started to walk again, stumbling at first but she wanted a secure place to spent the night. She was quite sure that she had managed to lose the earthen mound, or it would likely have caught up to her by now, but still, she wanted to be up a tree, especially because her mind felt like cotton and she doubted that she would be able to control either of her monsters if she let them manifest.

Once she noticed a suitable tree, she started to climb it, wedging herself between a couple of thick branches and pulled one of the rationbars from her pack, munching on it with a handful of berries. The bar tasted like cardboard, reminding her of another reason why she had stuck to foraging. After washing her meal down with some water, her mind simply shut down, sending her into a deep, exhausted sleep.