The next morning, the group headed out on foot to make the two-day trip to Reach, a large town on the massive crater-lake known as The Eye, and the origin of the Snake. Reach also marked the end of the grassy plains, and the start of a continuous forest which transitioned to the so-called Jungle of Bones within twenty miles. It would have been somewhat quicker to board a barge, but not markedly so given that they were headed up river, so the group opted to save a few coins, walk and talk. While The Eye was a fairly massive lake, several miles across, the plains were featureless, and getting off track was easy. Path Finding was one of the rare skills unlocked relatively easily for free – at least by folks like Hunters that spent a lot of time away from civilization – but their group did not have anyone with the skill. As such, they kept the Snake in sight despite its twists and turns.

As they walked, Arn read from one of his purchases at the Festival, “Asir’s Guide To Jungle Gold, The Definitive Guide To Jungle Herbs” – or tried to. Keana was seldom quiet, and seemed to delight in needling him in particular. “You missed a real opportunity Arn. I know there were a couple of full mages at the Festival. You could have trained your lightning and ice resistances, not just fire. Could have sold tickets. Not to mention kabobs. Everyone loves kabobs. When the barbecue smell hit, all I had was some jerky. Sad.”

Arn sighed; he was glad Keana didn’t hate him, and was starting to think that there might be hope there, but the girl TALKED. Blade Dancers were known for grace, but the girl herself . . . not so much. Ignoring her didn’t seem to work, so he decided on a little bravado. “No way I could have trained all three. I have amazing stamina true, but even I have limits. Besides, we won’t need ice...”

Keana started howling. “Amazing … stamina!!!” Arn scowled. “Enough already Keana! I. Was. Drunk. You said I drank enough for ten men! That is going to affect any…”

Pepper exploded. “Enough! No one cares! Get a room for the night at the next inn!” Keana gasped out, “FOR THE NIGHT? THE WHOLE NIGHT?”

Val tried to redirect the conversation. “All right, all right! We need to talk about strategy, right! Like Elder Dannis said, this isn’t a natural group and we need to work…”

“BUNNY!” Keana said, jumping over to Sar, grabbing his shoulder and pointing at a bunny hiding in the knee-high grass 15 feet away. Sar frowned. “It’s too far and too small.” Keana whined, “come onnn! Captain Dannis warned us you’d barbecue us all, but you assured us you were an ace! And now you can’t hit a bunny just sitting there??? Show us what you can do or we’ll replace you with someone with a nice and generic class in Reach!”

As Sar starting to raise his hand, Arn shouted, “wait! The grass…” A thin spear of flame shot towards the bunny. Sar pumped his fist and exclaimed, “I think I got him!” Arn stared at the growing area of blazing grass with horror and shouted, “run!”

Arn took off toward the Snake, using his new speed for all he had. After a few seconds, he turned to look back at the rest of the group . . . just staring at him. Sar walked over to the fire, and started waving his hands. In response, the fire swayed and swirled, streamers of fire trailing up towards Sar’s hands, where they gathered into a ball. Sar raised his hands and the ball shot upwards, dispersing into the air. Sar turned to Arn with a smile. “Pyromancers wouldn’t be allowed in the villages if we burned everything down, would we?”

Keana smirked. “Barbecue boy afraid of a little fire, who would have thunk it? You have to work on not getting excited so flipping quickly Arn. It’s sooo disappointing when a man doesn’t take his time, you know? Or any time at all.”

This time, it was Val that came to the rescue. “Enough! Arn may not be the sharpest arrow in the quiver, but we really do need to talk strategy!” Arn ruefully smiled. It was funny, and they did need to talk strategy, but . . . perhaps not yet.

“Thanks Val, you’re right, we need to talk strategy.” Arn turned to Pepper, who could go hours without words and said, “so, Pepper, what do you think the strategy should be?”

Pepper snorted. “I’m thinking tie you two bitches to a tree, let Princess mark you, steal your shit and use it to pay for a massage in Reach.” Arn nodded. “It's good your thinking ahead. I was thinking maybe something a little different though. I’ll take point, and assuming we don’t get ambushed, I’ll Scream at whatever first. Val will stand by to intercept anything that doesn’t get affectionate with me. Keana will flank on one side, and if you can control her well enough, ideally Princess flanks on the other side, with you supporting from bow range. Sar gets a clean line of fire and stays close enough to Val that he can pick up anything that comes for Sar.”

Val beamed at Arn and slapped him on the back. “That sounds like a good plan Arn! How well can you control Princess Pepper?” Pepper said, “Princess is smart and obeys hand signals. Once she isn’t looking, I can whistle to retreat. The stuff I can do with Beast Bond at level 3 is much more limited. I can let her know I’m in pain, that’s just sharing an emotion, she’ll feel it and come help, but anything fancy like trying to get her to switch targets is iffy.”

Keana shrugged. “Great. Plan could work. But . . . it’s the ambushes and the getting surrounded that get you dead, right?” Arn interjected, “all we can really do is try and make sure Val and I pick up different enemies or groups. With my Scream and being hard to kill, you all try to kill off whatever isn’t chewing on me, and, you know, finish up before I get completely eaten. We have plenty of damage. And there is a lot of me.”

* * *

The first night, Arn convinced the group to stay at the Inn in the small village of Fisherman’s Haven. Having lived most of his sixteen years with a heart affliction, he had never spent a night in the wild, unless you counted passing out away from the Festival with Keana. While he wasn’t afraid – precisely – of spending the night outside, he had an unshakeable belief that something would find them, and he wasn’t in the mood to be snacked on. Plus, he was a man now, wasn’t he? No reason he couldn’t just knock on Keana’s door; she might say no, but she wasn’t likely to stab him. Probably.

Unfortunately, Val had plans of his own. Over dinner, he announced, “I think this is the perfect opportunity to get to know each other a little better! Lets take turns and tell each other our stories. It will help us bond and function better as a team.”

Sar spoke up first. “I was more thinking a bath and a shit. But I guess I can start us off.”