For the next few days, Scarlet and Keera continued the routine of the first days, travelling west along the brook, slowly making their way towards the far distant mountains. As they travelled, Scarlet focused on gently teaching Keera, helping her to better control her Crystal Monster while hunting down as many crystal monsters as possible.

On the second day, Keera finally got curious enough to ask how Scarlet was able to suddenly veer off into the surrounding forest, quickly finding crystal monsters to fight and harvest. That was when Scarlet started to show her how to look for the minute traces that crystal monsters left in their passing. Once Keera knew what to look for, Scarlet was in for a surprise. They noticed that, for some reason, Keera was able to pick up the traces easier than herself, now that she knew what to look for. While there was a small part within Scarlet seething with annoyance that her pet was better than her at something important, she hid that annoyance, showing nothing but pride and excitement at Keera’s accomplishment. It helped that it allowed them to find more crystal monsters, even hunting down one of the badger-like monster that was the same type as Keera’s partner.

That particular battle was one in which Scarlet experimented a little more about with varying efficiency of a monster’s attacks, depending on the enemy. Remembering how badly Crysna had beaten Keera and her badger, she used him again and lo and behold, calling the result a fight would be an exaggeration. Crysna managed to hit the badger full-on with his water-spit, keeping the stream focused on it and within mere seconds, the badger turned into light which was swallowed by Crysna.

Scarlet made a mental note as she picked up the earthen-brown core from the defeated badger, happy to see that Keera looked slightly apprehensive at the ease with which Crysna had dispatched a monster similar to hers. It was just an indirect lesson but Scarlet was happy that Keera was seeing how easy it would be for Scarlet to overpower her. She wanted to be seen as the powerful but benevolent Mistress, a force to be seen with respect and fear.

On the third day, Scarlet was a little surprised when, for the first time, Keera joined her when she bathed herself in the morning. Before, Keera had always blushed prettily when she had done so, and she still did, but had only hesitated a little before stripping. Scarlet simply shrugged, carrying on as always. not caring one way or the other. In close-quarters she would have insisted on Keera taking regular baths, but in the open forest, she would have to smell like a skunk to bother her.

Finally, on the fourth day of their journey together, after harvesting a few more Crystal Monsters, they left the forest, walking onto a wide-open space. Before them, sparkling in the sunlight, was a large lake, too big to easily guess at the distance to the other shore. It had to be a few hundred meters, they could make out trees but no more details than that. Both, Scarlet and Keera, stopped for a moment, simply taking in the natural beauty before them. Nature, untouched by civilisation, wild and primal, was something neither of them had been able to enjoy before coming to Verdun, on most planets of the Federation, nature had been tamed, civilised and made safe. The only time Scarlet had been in a wilderness before, it had been during survival training and the trainers had something to say to anyone who wanted to stop to take in the sights.

So, the image of the mirror-still surface before them was a treat for both of them.

“It’s…” Keera struggled for words for a second, before settling on the simple “beautiful.”

“That it is. Cyca, come back to me.” Scarlet called out, pulling Crysna’s crystal from her pouch. If there were enemies, she wanted a monster that was at home in the water, if not, she was quite sure that Crysna would enjoy the lake a lot more than Cyca with her kittenish dislike of water. When Crysna appeared, he looked around for a second before slithering into the water at Scarlet’s mental command, making sure that nothing was lurking in the shallow water.

“But let’s not get struck stupid by the environment, we can look at it all we want after making sure we are safe.” Scarlet continued, taking a look at her scanner. It showed a slightly threatening yellow, but not to the point that she was concerned.

Keera looked over to her before mirroring the look at the scanner. Sadly, even with all the control-training for Keera, they were unable to have their monsters fight together, their instincts too strong to allow that. They could suppress them far enough to make it work, but the result was that their combat-instincts were just as suppressed, making it not worthwhile.

“Let’s find out how big the lake is.” Scarlet suggested with a smile, turning to follow the lakefront south.

They walked for about an hour before Scarlet felt a mental tug, Crysna warning her that there was an enemy in the water. Not sure what they were facing, she called him out, hoping that the enemy would follow, possibly fighting at a disadvantage outside its natural habitat.

Crysna burst from the water, splashing water into their general direction and Scarlet warned Keera of the incoming enemy.

For a moment, nothing happened, while the three of them stared out, into the lake, waiting with bated breath. The moment felt as if it stretched into hours, when suddenly, a figure burst from the water. It was no large figure, about the size of one of the badger-monsters, slightly bigger than Cyca, but the water concealed most of its features.

Crysna instantly dodged aside and a blast of water ripped away the grass where he had been waiting, when the monster made its opening move.

Now, Scarlet was able to see more of it and once again, she started to wonder. It looked like a turtle, the shell very similar in colour to the lake-bottom, allowing it to hide during its approach. The other side was an almost sky-blue and after a second, Scarlet understood that it was most likely camouflage, hiding it from predators deeper in the water.

Not sure what the best approach to fighting it was, Scarlet let Crysna have his will, observing and looking for openings to exploit. The two monsters went at it with a similar tactic, maybe because they were both water-based ambush-predators. They used their water-blasts, trying to cause the other to stumble, so they could close in and use their jaws in an attempt to finish off their foe.

“What do you think, can you manage two monsters by now?” Scarlet asked, looking over to Keera. The water-turtle would be a good complement to her badger, at least in Scarlet’s mind. Keera blanched a little, uncertain if she had the mental strength to manage but unwilling to look useless in front of Scarlet once more. Scarlet noticed her apprehension and decided to, once again, play the gentle Mistress.

“You don’t have to force yourself, I’m sure there will be more monsters worthy to catch.” Scarlet told her companion, aware that it would be a stretch for Keera to keep two monsters. Not impossible, and it would make her more useful, but a stretch. On the other hand, she was relatively sure that the growth she had experienced since coming to Verdun was at least partially because she was using her psionics at all times, to keep her two monsters under control.

The gentle voice calmed Keera, who looked at the monster, still dodging Crysna’s attacks, and decided that she would try.

“I want to try.” she stated, squaring her shoulders.

“Do or do not. There is no try.” Scarlet admonished, quoting something she had heard ages ago.

“I will do it!” Keera mumbled, pumping herself up.

After another exchange of attacks, the turtle looked slightly worse for wear, its form flickering a little, but Crysna didn’t look much better. At that point, Keera decided that it was time to strike, pushing with her mind at the crystal that was visible when the form flickered. The turtle instantly turned, ignoring Crysna entirely and attacking Keera instead. Keera jumped to the side, narrowly avoiding another water-attack, and Crysna took the presented opening, striking with all the speed the snake could muster, sinking his fangs deep into the flickering form. Scarlet noticed too late that her monster was still in fight-mode, not quite prepared for Keera to already make her move.

The moment Crysna’s attack sunk into the monster, Keera gave a piercing scream, tumbling to the ground and convulsing, clutching her head in pain. At the same time, the monster turned into light and was absorbed by Crysna, to the sound of Keera’s screams. When the last of it vanished, Keera’s form stilled, only the light movement of her chest hinting that she was still alive.

The development caught Scarlet by surprise and she quickly made sure that Crysna was alright before calling him back and having Cyca guard her back while she took care of Keera.