Dubhan held up a paper to Allouet, the two gathered in the Dozing Lamb once again for work. Allouet took the paper, his eyes flicking down to the pay first and foremost. “The reward seems quite good for…” He trailed off as he switched to reading the request details.

According to the request sheet, a rare mineral vein had been located within the soil of labyrinth’s forest. A valuable resource for some, usable in plenty of craftsmanship work and construction. Just one problem—the vein lay in the middle of a monster’s territory. Were that all, that would be standard work for a pair of adventurers. But it was the name of the monster in question that caused Allouet to grip the paper of bit more tightly, hesitation overcoming him. “A rafflesia lives in the area?” he said.

“Rafflesias aren’t so bad!” Dubhan said with his usual cheer, patting a hand on the countertop.

“Have you fought one before?”

“They’re plants! You just cut ‘em or use fire, right? That should be easy between the two of us.” Dubhan indicated the sharpened outer edge of his scythe’s blade.

“But you haven’t fought one yourself, have you?” Allouet looked over the paper again. “I am hardly looking forward to facing a creature known for as many forms of attack as a rafflesia… And, for the record, I do not think fire in a forest is a wise choice, Dubhan. Even my lightning spells take considerable aim and control in that sort of environment.”

“You think we should skip this one, then?” Dubhan asked.

“Well… As I’ve said, these types of threats are ones we’ll need to face eventually, so… I am not trying to say that, exactly. Only that we should consider our preparation carefully.”

Dubhan stood up from his seat, ready to be moving already. “You know we will! Come by my apartment in about an hour, alright?”

“We’re not going immediately?”

“I’ve got a couple things to take care of first. But after that, we’re hunting some big ol’ plants!”

Allouet was far less than pleased based on the look on his face, but he sighed and said, “Very well. I shall meet with you shortly.”

Dubhan stood in his apartment, in the center of the main room. Curtains drawn, the only light provided was from a series of candles that formed a ring before him. Dubhan held his scythe upright, the blade towards the ceiling and the end touching the floor in the circle of candles.

For a while, Dubhan was silent, eyes closed as he meditated and focused on energies in the room. Energies present and noticeable uniquely to his senses. Here in the city, in this building, those energies were tinner than the oppressive, heavy mist they formed in the labyrinth.

“I am Dubhan. Harbinger of an enduring lineage. Bringer of doom upon foes before me. Commander of the darkness beyond this coil of the living. Obey me, and follow the blade with which I reap.”

In answer to Dubhan’s recitation, he heard a sound. It was faint, like whispering, indistinguishable words that came from the mists around him. But those mists did not respond further.

“You will obey me,” Dubhan insisted, opening his eyes and staring into a point of the dark mist. He held the blade of his scythe out to it. “It is your duty.”

The moment Dubhan said that last word, the mist made a new noise. It sounded like an amused chuckle. Dubhan always hated it when the miasma was defiant—which was most days.

One of the candles changed suddenly, the closet to Dubhan. The flame grew large, and its color shifted to a pale blue-grey. Dubhan did not so much as flinch when the change occurred, long since used to this. By now he recognized this as a request from the miasma. Dubhan held back a sigh, not keen on allowing the mist to know how greatly this irritated him, and he obliged. He lowered himself onto one knee before the candle, and held his arm out into the flame.

It did not burn. The miasma’s way was not heat. The flame felt cold, then it shifted into a shape. It spread out into a hand with fingers and claws that gripped Dubhan’s forearm tightly. Dubhan gritted his teeth against the freezing cold on his skin or the claws that drew blood in a series of harsh lines.

Then, just as quickly as it had happened, the hand of flame drew back. It extinguished as if blown out by a gust of wind. The other candles followed suit, and Dubhan was plunged into darkness. For a few moments, he remained there, knelt on the floor in the dark. He laid his scythe on the floor and gripped at the bleeding wounds on his left arm. It had gone numb from elbow to fingers with the freezing cold, and Dubhan found he could not move it well at the moment.

When he opened the curtain to the room once more, letting the light in and burning his dark-adjusted eyes, he looked back at the scythe lying on the floor. The miasma had gathered around the blade, clinging to it before Dubhan allowed it to fade from his senses. He still had some time before he’d be meeting with Allouet. For now, he decided he should tend to the shallow bleeding before then.

“Rafflesia hunting we go!” Dubhan called out as he and Allouet returned to their usual route in the forest’s early pathways. With the feeling returned to his hand, bandages covered by the gloves and clothing he wore, he had managed to put the day’s incident out of his mind and was eager to focus on the work ahead.

Allouet, on the other hand, was not so enthusiastic over the matter. “Rafflesias hunt often by ambush. If people have been attempting to gather ore from the mineral vein in question, it makes sense that they would be attacked while distracted. Typically, a rafflesia uses a toxic pollen to weaken its prey, then freezes them into mobility before devouring them.”

“Sounds bad.” Dubhan tried to picture that. “Hold on, how does a plant freeze someone?”

“The texts I read on them indicated that they use their vines to do so.”

“Their vines, huh? So they have to be up close to do it, no problem! You leave that to me and you can handle ‘em from a distance, easy!”

“In theory, yes… Though that doesn’t account for your safety quite so much.”

“You let me worry about that,” Dubhan said, patting Allouet on the head.

Allouet swatted Dubhan’s hand away and mumbled, “Stop that,” before turning his attention to the guild’s map.

Having some familiarity with the Forest of Dawn at this point, Guild Shiragiku quickly found themselves traversing the earlier paths at an easy pace, growing more accustomed to the standard signs of danger to look for in the foliage. Periodically, Allouet turned his attention to grass at his feet or the leaves on the trees. Eventually, he commented, “Perhaps we should consider making our excursions into the labyrinth earlier in the day.”

“Oh, yeah?” Dubhan looked up to the tree canopy above at the sunlight coming through, forgetting for a moment that there was no way to see a sun or anything of the sort above. “I think we get plenty of daylight in as is, don’t we?”

“Are you saying that because you prefer to sleep in?”

“Yes.”

Allouet couldn’t help but laugh at the bluntness of the comment, then said, “The more time we have, the better, wouldn’t you agree? And, personally, I do not have any particular interest in encountering the predators that may come out at night. At least, not as of right now.”

“Mm-hm… And we’d get to see the flowers again that way, wouldn’t we?”

Allouet paused. “I… Well, that is true, but that wasn’t why I brought the topic up, exactly.”

Dubhan smiled at Allouet. “Not at all?”

“W-well…” Allouet turned his face down to the map in his hands. “Perhaps… that was a coincidental consideration. There is less scenery like that where I come from, so, it may be a nice view to see periodically.”

“Where are you from, anyway? You hadn’t mentioned.”

“Oh. I come from a town up north, actually. It's not far from High Lagaard, actually."

“Lagaard, huh? Makes sense, I’ve heard it gets pretty cold up there. There’s lunarians around there?”

Allouet seemed to hesitate for a moment, then said, "Not very many. My village make up most of the lunarian population there.”

"There's an Yggdrasil in High Lagaard, too, right? I wonder what sorts of things have been found there..."

"I do believe a number of the species in that Yggdrasil match the ones here. I admit I hadn't done much research into it given that the one here is the only one that holds anything of value to me. But what of you, then? Have you lived here long? You seem to know quite a few people in Omaros.”

Dubhan tried to recall just how long it had been. "Hm... About a year now? The folks here are just nice, really."

"I suppose that's true. Though I think you're just a notably outgoing person, if anything."

"You think so? I didn't think I was doing anything special."

"If drunkenly wandering up to strangers and inviting them into your nonexistent guild isn't some form of 'outgoing,' to put it generously, I don't know what is… Oh." Allouet held up the map, pointing out a mark on it. “The area we’re looking for should be just up ahead.”

Though Allouet said that, he hadn’t made it halfway through the sentence before Dubhan noticed something up ahead. A short distance before them was a small area where the trees thinned out a bit, not that the canopy above cleared up enough to see any further into the sky. Large rocks rose up out of the dirt here and there, parts of them glinting in the sparse sunlight with signs of ores inside of them. Yet, towering over them was something that drew Dubhan and Allouet’s immediate attention instead.

Rising up taller than any humanoid was, for lack of a better word, a plant. The red-petaled rafflesia that they sought, the center of the huge flower ringed with huge pointed teeth that marked the entrance of a circular mouth. Rather than existed rooted into the ground, a thick stem acted as a writhing body like that of a snake or a centipede and somehow stood upright. A series of thorned vines extended from it like limbs.

Allouet stared on at the rafflesia in obvious wide-eyed terror, but the creature did not seem to notice either of the approaching men through the trees. Dubhan quickly scanned the surrounding area. The trees could work to their advantage here. He slipped his supply pack off his shoulders and onto the ground. “Allouet,” he whispered.

Allouet tore his attention away from the rafflesia long enough to look at Dubhan.

“We’ll be fine,” Dubhan said, smiling. “We’re gonna ambush it.”