Their journey through the Great Forest continued according to a steady rhythm: waking up at sunrise, cleaning up camp, eating breakfast, walking, lunch, more walking, making camp at sunset, dinner, sleeping and guard duty.

The meals were always a combination of scavenged greens and beast meat, both acquired while travelling. For lunch they ate grilled pieces of meat supplemented with raw greens, dinner was thick soup, while breakfast consisted of leftovers.

Morning was always the most dangerous time, which was why they hurried each sunrise to leave as swiftly as possible. The hunters explained that most beasts searched for prey as soon as they awoke. This fact was easily confirmed by comparing the amount of attacks before and after midday.

Throughout the journey everyone kept to a fixed role.

Lyall was vanguard, whether in or outside of battle he led the charge. He made himself the example by taking the troublesome jobs, he kept everyone going by never showing weakness himself.

Though Lyall acted as their leader, the one who made the decisions was Aiden. He always kept an eye on everything and everyone, assigned tasks, decided their tactics during battles, and determined when and where they would rest.

Alcaeus was the emotional centrepoint, keeping moral high and resolving disputes. When someone wasn't feeling well, he was the first to ask.

Their rearguard, the one watching everyone's back, was Evelyn. Her position required a lot of trust, yet it was never questioned. If necessary, she could keep back multiple opponents at once to allow her comrades the time to begin a counterattack.

Rina was at the centre. Despite being shy to strangers, she was always available for conversation. During battles, her arrows and daggers never failed to hit their target, but her duties also consisted of cooking and taking care of injuries.

Dealing with enemies from above was Solon's task, he prevented surprise attacks from beasts that live in the trees. When not doing that, he hung around Evelyn, or spoke with Aiden or Jyl, though Cecile soon joined that list.

Mirus gravitated mainly between Aiden, Rina and Alcaeus, initiating conversations about as large a variety of topics as possible. He liked helping take care of injuries, while in battles he pinned opponents down using his agility and the versatility of his twin blades.

When Cecile finally calmed down it didn't take long for her to start mingling with the hunters. She often took part in contests of strength or skill, or discussed the pros and cons of using particular weapons against certain enemies.

Arick very much enjoyed watching the interactions between the different members of their group. He also did his utmost to learn as much as possible about the habits and peculiarities of the village that raised these humans. In order to keep his promise with Jyl, he needed to know how he could help.

Speaking of Jyl, he hadn't seen her a whole lot since they entered the Forest. She travelled alongside them, but not exactly with them. Except during meals, they never saw her. It frustrated him that he had yet to see her fight and so could not accurately determine her fighting strength. The hunters seemed to find this fact amusing.

It was about a week and a half before he finally saw her in action.

Roughly an hour before midday they suddenly heard a reverberating roar. Everyone was immediately on full alert. Another followed quickly after, coming from directly ahead.

"What do you think?" Lyall asked Aiden.

"Let's go take a look", was the reply.

Rina beckoned Arick with an excited smile on her face, confusing him even more.

"You'll want to see this."

They soon arrived at an open area, created because a gigantic tree prevented anything else from growing. There stood a three meter tall brown bear angrily roaring and flailing around. Multiple arrows decorated its fur, blood flowing from the wounds. They were all at least halfway embedded into a variety of vital points.

The bear noticed them, momentarily stopping its movements to hatefully glare at them. In that blink of an eye, Arick noticed a dark figure falling from the tree above it.

The beast dropped to the ground. On its neck stood Jyl, pulling her spear from the flesh it perforated. Not paying her audience any attention, she started skinning the bear.

"Need some help?" Aiden offered.

"If you would."

Rina nudged Arick. "Impressive, right? How she makes it look so easy. Though, the only reason it lasted as long as it did, is because of its thick fur and tough hide."

"It seems we'll be eating Brown Bear the next few days!" Alcaeus laughed.