“Mmmmm.” Embla stared at Cal, looking deep into his eyes. She never knew how rich of an amber-gold his eyes were. Were Pandora’s eyes the same?

“...” Cal returned her gaze. His amber-gold eyes looked deep into her red ones. The red of her eyes reminded him of a field of roses and that’s what she was to him. He was a healthy male and he found her rather pretty. She was like a rose but rather, she was 90% thorns and 10% flower.

And in between them, Pandora sat, looking between the two. They had been at this for several minutes now. Just how far did they plan to take this? The tension in the compartment was already growing heavy with each passing second. As she was about to say something, the sound of the door opening caught her attention.

“Hey. We’re almost at our stop. Are you guys re-”

“Yeah now shhh!” Cal held his finger out to Yuki as he continued staring at Embla. The girl’s eyes began to twitch as she focused solely on him. She would block Yuki and Red’s presence.

“Did you just shush me?” Yuki gave Cal an annoyed look.

“What are you two even doing?” Red asked.

“They’re having a staring contest. Embla and Cal got into an argument earlier about who was the better tracker between the two of them since Cal is our Archer and Embla is a Hunter. One of the things they got into was that one had better eyes than the other so Embla proposed a staring contest.” Pandora slung her bag over her shoulder.

Cal felt his eyes were about to give in and Embla looked like she wouldn’t last any longer. He would have her submitting in a few seconds. His final technique would send her over the edge. He grinned as a small ball of light manifested itself on his finger. Pointing it at her face, he let loose a small beam of bright light, similar to a laser pointer into her eye.

“H- Hey! No blinding spells! That’s against the rules!” Embla tried to look away without closing her eyes.

“Street rules bitch!” Cal said as he unleashed the full force of the magical skill, [Flash].

“Knock it off you two. We’re here.” Yuki got in between them, allowing the two to finally blink and end their competition. “You can finish this when we’re heading home. Besides, we’re here.”

Their train had dropped them off rather close to the town. Granted, this town, like all towns in the Hinterlands, had a train station for trains to travel through. It was the only way in and out of the Hinterlands other than flight. But the nearest Sleipnir Station was miles away in the next town.

Embla stepped off after the others, breathing in the fresh northern air. Crisp and cool, like the land was trapped in a perpetual winter. The air was far cooler than the southern or middle regions of Midgard. Here in the Hinterlands, Winter gave way into Spring which gave way to Fall. The concept of Summer didn’t even exist in this place. Thus, the people here were rather hardy and resistant to extreme colds. That was the first thing the others noticed when they got off the train.

“I think I’m underdressed,” Pandora said, rubbing her arms and shivering.

“It’ll only get worse so you better put on something warm or cast a warming spell,” Embla said.

“How are you okay with this?” Cal asked, letting out a breath of mist.

“I’m from this region. I’m used to this kind of weather,” Embla said, smiling at his discomfort.

“Well, let’s go. The town should be almost a mile up the road,” Yuki said, reading the map.

Red cupped his hand and let loose a small puff of fire to warm himself. He followed after Yuki as she began to walk out of the train station. Embla and the others followed suit.

The first thing all of them noticed that despite the weather, there was an abundance of fields. The wheat field looked like a sea of gold that stretched off to the edge of the forest in the distance. People tended to these fields of gold, swinging their sickles and harvesting.

The dirt crunched under their boots as they walked past some people carrying this year’s harvest. The whispers were heard as they passed by. Suspicion. These people were highly suspicious of them. It was understandable, considering their circumstances. Strangers were not a welcome presence within their homes.

“These people are acting like we can’t hear them,” Cal said, glancing over his shoulder.

“They’ve probably never met adventurers before.” Pandora looked at the children, hiding behind the stone wall that marked the path.

“That or these people think we’re here to extort them.” Red nodded his head over to a group of farmers who were gripping their farming tools tightly. They looked like they were ready to fight at a moment’s notice. Even the kids were holding stones in their hands, ready to aid their parents should push come to shove.

“Let’s just go see the mayor.” Yuki kept walking, ignoring the stares they got as they entered the village.

“These people look like they’re ready for a war,” Embla whispered, noticing how the windows were all boarded up. Her eyes traveled among the fortified homes and noticed that there was a blackened empty lot between two of them.

“What do you think happened here?” Cal asked, noticing that she stopped.

“They probably tried fighting back and got… that.” Embla grimaced as she stared at the charred earth in front of them.

“Guys. You can pity them later. Right now, we need to see the mayor.” Pandora called over to them. The two nodded and made their way back to the group.

Seeing more of the stares, the group tried their best to ignore the whispers as they made their way to the village’s townhouse. The townhouse was the largest structure within the village. It was a three-story building made of brick and had a black tiled roof. A small plume of smoke wafted through the chimney, dancing and twisting its way into the air. The entrance consisted of a set of massive white french doors made of oak.

Like the other homes, this place was fortified as well but had the added liberty of having magic runes engraved into the building.

“Runes. Looks like this is to trigger some sort of barrier spell.” Pandora’s eyes glowed as she held her hand out.

“Is that it?” Yuki asked as Pandora continued appraising the barrier.

“Yeah. It looks crudely done. Someone with enough magical skill can knock over this barrier in a few spells or burst spells,” Pandora said, putting her hand down.

“Where is the mayor? For a guy who hired a bunch of adventurers, he sure likes to make his workers wait,” Embla said, drawing some pictures on the dirt.

“Yeah, where is this guy?” Cal shared her sentiment. He didn’t like being made to wait. There were things he could wait for but things like this were annoying.

“Are you perhaps looking for the mayor?”

The group turned around to see a young woman standing behind them. The look on her face was that of fear and anxiety.

“Yeah, do you know where he is?” Red looked at her fear-filled face with some confusion and some apprehension.

“T- The mayor offered himself as a tribute a few days before you all got here. The bandits… they found out that he sent out a request to the other town for help and they came back to kill all of us.” The girl’s knees trembled as she spoke. She choked back a sob as she forced herself to continue. “They took the mayor after killing one of us to make an example.”

“Well,” Pandora said, turning to Yuki, “This was unexpected.”

Yuki placed a hand on her chin, deep in thought. Her eyes looked at the girl and she could tell that she wasn’t lying.

“What do we do now?” Cal asked, watching as Red and Embla worked to calm the hysterical girl down.

“Nothing changes. Just the number of people we have to rescue and… the difficulty,” Yuki said. She looked towards the woods before she turned to the girl. “Is that where they went?”

“Y- Yes. They’re holed up in the old ruins I think. The old fort that used to be there,” the girl said.

“Old fort?” Embla asked.

“Yeah, from the war. Troops from Muspelheim used to occupy a fort there until the end of the war,” the girl said.

“They are?” Embla asked, “The report never said anything about this.”

“We assume that’s where they are.” The girl looked down at the ground.

“Alright. We’ll check it out,” Yuki said as she took note of what was said. The girl nodded and the five began to make their way to the edge of the village. The sun was still high in the sky, casting the light of day onto the massive trees of the forest. Yuki crossed her arms as she began to think of a plan. Their next course of action.

Red placed a soothing hand on her shoulder, calming her down a little. She sent him a smile of appreciation and gripped his hand.

“We’re going in. We have a lot of places to hide so if there’s a patrol we can just hide in some bushes,” Yuki said.

“Sounds good to me.” Cal walked past her with his hands behind his head.

“Yeah, so Cal and I will take to the trees and keep a lookout for anything from above.” Embla smiled at her.

She nodded. “Well, let’s get going then. We have a lot of ground to cover. It’s a really big forest after all.”

Cal and Embla hopped from branch to branch, thankful that the jumps weren’t that far apart. These trees were rather thick in their limbs and the number of leaves allowed them to hide from view. Cal landed on a branch and sat down, seeing that the rest of the group was a ways behind them.

“See anything?” Embla landed next to him.

“No… nothing yet. I think we’re too close to the edge still,” Cal said.

“Close to the edge? We’ve been jumping for two hours,” Embla complained, feeling the ache in her thighs. Jumping for two hours straight was not easy. She may have had stamina but even she had an upper limit to how long she could go about doing this.

“Well, this forest is supposed to be hundreds of miles in diameter so we’re not even that far in,” Cal answered, looking down at the forest floor. He could make out the figures of his teammates walking on the forest path.

“Don’t you have a skill that we can use to see them?” Embla sat on the branch as the others passed underneath.

“Don’t you?” he fired back.

“Touche,” she said. “I’ll hop down and see if I can’t pick up any tracks down there. I’ll be back.”

He nodded as she jumped off the branch and landed next to the others.

“Hey!”

“Aaaah!” Pandora jumped onto Yuki’s back when she heard Embla speak from nowhere. Red and Yuki looked at her with a deadpan stare as Embla began laughing hysterically at her reaction.

“What the hell!?” Pandora yelled from behind Yuki.

“Sorry, I didn’t know you were easily startled,” Embla said, covering her mouth to stifle her laughter.

“What is it?” Red asked.

“Huh? Oh right! I’m going to see if I can pick up some tracks. It’s only been a few days and there’s no rain or snow so maybe I can still pick up a trail,” Embla explained, kneeling as she brushed her hand over the dirt. She got up and walked past them, examining her surroundings for any signs of activity that didn’t belong to the wildlife.

“Find anything?” Pandora asked.

“Yeah… there are bootprints that someone here tried to get rid of. It’s faint but it’s still there,” Embla said, tracing her fingers at a strange dent in the ground. It wasn’t like any dent or pothole she had seen from animals or rocks being moved. The grooves on it indicated that it was a boot.

“I know some scrying spells. I can help track too!” Pandora walked forward and held out her staff. Her golden eyes glowed as magic circle appeared in front of her.

“Doesn’t scrying only work if you have something of theirs?” Embla asked.

“No, that’s a different version. This one picks up traces of the person…” Pandora squinted as she saw a small trail of blue wisps that led further into the woods. “I got a trail.”

“Let’s follow it. See where it leads to,” Yuki said.

“I’ll head back into the trees with Cal. I’m supposed to be your guide so I’ll keep a lookout for any dangers,” Embla said.

They nodded and she hopped back into the canopy.

“So?” Cal sat on the branch, sharpening an arrow. His eyes drifted lazily to her as she landed in front of him.

“Your sister has a trail. I’m thinking of heading back down to make sure she doesn’t run into a trap or something. Are you going to be okay being up here by yourself or do you need me to fight off all the scary monsters?” Embla asked.

“Nice try Feuerdrache but you should help Pandora. She’s directionally challenged,” Cal said.

“That- That’s a horrible thing to say about your sister,” she said with a deadpan expression on her face.

“It’s true. One time, when we were little, our mom gave us 50 tokens to go buy some ice cream. On our way to the ice cream shop, we somehow ended up in the middle of the forest and that was the last time I ever let her take the lead,” Cal said.

“I don’t know how to respond to that. Have fun up here.” Embla didn’t say another word and jumped back down. He sighed and jumped to the next branch after she did.

Embla landed behind Yuki and tapped her shoulder. The white-haired girl’s ears twitched as she turned around.

“Oh, you’re not…?” Yuki tilted her head.

“No. I’m your guide. I need to look out for whatever traps they might have set in the woods,” Embla said.

“That’s a good idea. Pandora’s Clairvoyance spell won’t be able to detect traps if she’s focused on tracking someone’s mana trail,” Red said, poking the bushes and leaf piles with the scabbard of his sword.

“Don’t do that.” Embla crossed her arms.

“Huh?” Red looked at her with a confused expression on his face.

“If you poke around, you might trigger more than just a bear trap,” Embla said. She walked over to the bush and moved the leaves aside. “See, nothing there. Let’s keep going.”

“Yeah.” Red followed after her as Pandora and Yuki looked at each other before going after them.

The four walked, hearing Cal’s occasional whistles up above. Embla’s ruby eyes scanned the surroundings for anything out of the ordinary. Her eyes drifted down to a broken twig. She knelt down and inspected it.

“What is it?” Pandora asked. Her eyes were still focused on the now extremely faint mana trail. “Did you find a trail? Mine’s getting fainter.”

“Yeah… I did. Someone was here…” Embla looked up and saw several signs of a struggle. The leaves of the shrubbery were displaced. There were marks on a tree that wasn’t characteristic of any animal or magical beast she had ever encountered before. No, these marks look like they were made by weapons. On top of that, the dirt around them had been displaced slightly, indicating that this happened over a day ago. Her eyes drifted around the path and spotted something. She got up and walked over to some brush and pulled something out.

“A manacaster?” Red said, seeing Embla pull out a rifle from the bush.

“Someone got into a fight here.” Embla held the manacaster in her arms and aimed it at a tree. She pulled the trigger and a blue blast of energy fired from it and hit the tree. A black scorch mark was left on the tree.

“This is where that mana trail came from I’m assuming.” Embla looked over to Pandora. The girl walked over and held her hand out. Her eyes glowed and grew wide as she pulled her hand away.

“Yeah… it is.” Pandora confirmed her suspicions.

“So what now?” Yuki asked.

“Thankfully, whatever idiot left this gun here left quite a trail,” Embla said. She pointed to the drag marks on the ground. “Looks like they were bleeding too.” She noted the small red marks that had mixed in with the dirt.

“Well, we got our trail. All we need to do is-”

A sharp whistle ripped through the relative peace of the forest. Pandora was the first to react, recognizing it immediately.

“Cal!” Pandora gripped her staff and ran off in the direction of the sound.

“Wait!” Embla yelled. “Damn it!” She ran after her, followed by Red and Yuki.

When they broke the clearing, they slid to a stop as Cal dropped down from the canopy. His bow twisted and snapped into two curved blades. He raised them and blocked a flash of steel that fell from the branches above. A hooded man landed and dashed towards Cal, locking blades with him.

“Get your hands off my brother you prick!” Pandora yelled. She raised her staff. “Fireball!”

A flaming orb manifested at the tip of her staff and rocketed forward towards the attacker. The hooded man turned and was hit square in the chest by the orb. The force sent him flying into a tree and he hit it with a sickening crunch.

“Cal!” Pandora ran over and checked for wounds.

“No time! There’s more.” Cal gripped his bow blades tightly.

A blue blast came from the woods as seven men came rushing out of the brush. The hairs on Embla’s neck stood on end as she reacted in an instant. She drew her blades and deflected the attack back at the shooter. The sound of a scream of pain reached their ears before dying down.

Damnit, Embla thought, I resorted to using it… hopefully, they didn’t notice in all this…

She turned to see the others fighting. She already had a good idea of how Yuki and Cal fought but not the others.

Red drew his sword and skillfully parried the blade of an elven bandit. He raised his leg and kicked him back.

The elf bandit growled and charged at him, his daggers poised to cut Red into bloody ribbons. Red sheathed his blade and dashed forward. The two met in the middle and ran past each other attacking.

Red calmly sheathed his blade as the elf bandit behind him was bisected. As he turned to finish the bisected elf off, a smaller bandit jumped up to drive his sword into Red’s spine. However, it was all over in a flash. A flash of white removed his hands from his arms, causing him to howl in pain.

“AHHHHHHHH!” he stumbled back and fell on his butt as Yuki landed in front of him. Her snow-white blades were stained with the crimson lifeforce that flowed profusely from the bandit’s hands.

Meanwhile, Cal readied his blades. “Come and get some!” he said, charging forward. The bandits looked at each other. One of them aimed their manacaster at him and fired. He ran, sliding under the speeding mana bullet and sliced into the bandit’s flesh. Blood sprayed everywhere as his limbs were removed from his body.

The second bandit attempted to flank and strike Cal, however, a blue barrier blocked his attack. She turned and saw Pandora raising her staff at her. Three magic circles appeared behind her and fired lighting at a single point.

“Thunder Blast,” she chanted. A violet bolt of lighting fired forth and struck home, electrocuting the female bandit. Cal turned to see a blackened pile of flesh drop to the ground.

“You almost hit me.” He looked at her with a deadpan expression on his face.

“You’re fine.” Pandora crossed her arm. A shadow loomed over the two of them as they turned to see a large armored orc standing behind them. He raised his axe and licked his lips when he saw Pandora.

“Elf… meat. You’ll satisfy me tonight,” he said.

“Get lost.” Pandora snapped her fingers. The orc stumbled back as he was impaled with several ice spears.

“Geez… you’re attracting creepy guys too,” Cal said, getting up and reforming his bow.

“Let’s keep one alive at least. We’ll never be able to find their fortress if we kill them all,” Embla said, walking up to the two. She saw the bandit that Cal quite literally disarmed and sighed.

“What?” he asked.

“He’ll bleed out. Let’s save him so we can interrogate him,” Embla said. She raised her hand and fire engulfed her palm.

“Fine fine.” Cal walked over and grabbed the nearly unconscious bandit. “Hey Pan, use a healing spell so Embla can cauterize this man’s wounds.”

“Right,” Pandora said as she pointed her staff over the bleeding bandit. An amber glow enveloped him while Embla worked on burning his wounds shut.

“Are you done?” Cal asked. Embla and Pandora looked over their shoulders with a look that said shut up. Cal crossed his arms and blinked when a body flew past him. Yuki and Red walked towards them with blood splattered all over them.

“What’s going on?” Yuki asked.

“They’re saving one so we can interrogate them,” Cal said.

“Uggghhh…” a groan came from the body that just flew by. “You’re all fu-” was what he could get out before falling unconscious.

“So, how many did we kill?” Cal asked.

“Four. Two are out cold and one is receiving medical attention,” Red said.

“What about the one who got his shot parried by Embla?” Yuki asked.

Cal raised an eyebrow and pulled an arrow from his quiver. He nocked the arrow and fired it in the direction he remembered the shot coming from. A squelching noise was heard as the arrow hit home.

“Right. Our party’s name might be Memento Mori but we don’t need to go on a killing spree,” Yuki said.

“We’re done,” Pandora said. She clapped her hands together and bindings made of pure light wrapped around his arms and legs.

“Good. Wake him up,” Yuki said.

“It’ll be a bit before he can. He lost a lot of blood,” Embla said.

“I guess now we wait.” Red sheathed his sword. “Let’s go look for somewhere to camp out while we wait.”

“Who’s carrying the body?” Cal asked.

In the end, Embla and Cal were stuck having to carry an unconscious man across the woods. It took half an hour but they found a small clearing near the stream. It was well hidden but easy to defend in case anything happened. The sun had begun to set over the horizon as the group sat around the fire. Roasting over it were two rabbits that Cal and Embla had caught.

“True story,” Embla said, eating some of her rabbit leg.

“Bull shit,” Cal said.

“No, it’s true. My sister’s partner had a girlfriend and thought that he was cheating on her with my sister,” Embla said.

“That’s funny and sad,” Cal said.

“Well, Azalea apologized and became Big Sis’s slave for a week after that.” Embla finished off her rabbit leg and threw it over her shoulder. The bone flew through the air and hit the restrained bandit in the head, eliciting a groan.

“I think you woke him up,” Yuki said, looking at the now stirring bandit.

“Well, let’s go ask him some questions then.” Red got up from his log.

Albert groaned as he began to come to. They had been patrolling the forest, looking for any stragglers from that village they were holding up. But… he furrowed his brow as he began to recall what happened. He couldn’t feel his hands. His eyes widened when he felt something around him and began to struggle.

“Wh- What the fuck!” he yelled, letting loose a stream of curses.

“Good morning.”

He looked up and saw the people they tried to ambush. The one with white hair stepped forward and pointed a blade at his throat.

“Now, we have some questions for you.”