[ ––––––––– ֎ Day 2 ––––––––– ]

The girl set off towards the region right under the center of giant fungi in the sky. It would be a long road, but there was no reason to give up on a new goal.

Noemi walked through the darkness, her reptile eyes accustomed to the night. It wasn't long before she arrived at a rocky hill with a ruined, cobble tower at its top. There was an entrance to a cave. From the wind leaving the tunnel, the girl could tell that there's a high chance that the pathway is leading to higher outside grounds. On top of that, the place was inhabited by predators. It obviously didn't scare the girl, she had experience dealing with dangerous animals.

The cave was cold but dry. Considerably deeper, pieces of fur on stalagmites signaled a close presence of beasts. Noemi crouched and sniffed to find out the proximity of the target. There was intense smells of blood and bodily discharges, she was confident it was the den.

Huntress snuck as far as it was possible without being detected, then observed the core lair. Multiple crushed bones laid around and there were passages to secondary chambers. In the middle of the room, laid a massive bear with snout to tail length of over five meters. Its fur was discolored on the sides above the belly, forming symbols of ancient runes. Their translation was 'King of the mountain', what Noemi was perfectly aware of.

Bear sensed the presence of an intruder and opened its eyes, but didn't make a move and only tracked the silhouette of a new strange creature.

Noemi had great respect for swamp spirits and reminisced about her lessons. She took out a grilled rabbit, then unwrapped it from the leaves in front of a king. She backed off, knelt on a single leg, crossed her arms, and prayed in a dignified whisper.

“Oh, Great King of the Mountain. Please accept this humble offering and allow your guest to pass and continue her journey.”

The beast rose its heavy torso, approached the gift and grabbed it in its mouth, then moved and dropped it down next to the entrance of one of the smaller tunnels. A moment later, a single cub, then two more, made an exit and bit into the rabbit.

King of the Mountain nodded at his reptilian visitor as If to allow her to go. Noemi nodded back with full respect then rose her body. Her quest carried on.

[ ––––––––– ֎ ––––––––– ]

Noemi stood in the front of a quarter-collapsed tower, cobble bricks laid in the grass surrounding the structure, and the right wall of the building was fallen to pieces on the neighboring ground.

Steps were crumbling under Noemi's feed, but she remained confident and climbed up. As the distance towards the top reduced, the girl could gradually count more and more eagles resting at ruptured sections of the tower.

Once she reached the top, there were dozens of them, but all flew away as soon as the girl entered. Noemi also picked up the scent of rotting flesh. There was nothing but a single bloated human corpse. It started decomposing a few days ago.

Although alarmed by the presence of tailless humanoid cousin, the girl knelt and silently entrusted the poor soul to local spirits, then rummaged through his belongings while holding a breath. She had found a bow and quiver full of arrows, she knew how to hunt using that weapon, but as a warrior, she preferred the power of impact that her javelins provided against larger beasts. She couldn't afford an extra weapon that she wouldn't use, but If it laid here for free, then she would take it.

Dead hunter also had a small cooking stand, fire steel, a lantern, vial of oil, ball of cordage, needles, fishing net, sleeping bag, three small bells, which Noemi all lacked, but could also live without them. She took these items regardless but didn't pay attention to many other, which she already had or which seemed useless to her.

Noemi told one last prayer and returned down. After the long night, it was time to settle. The giant mushroom moon was well visible from this solitary place and lost nearly all its glow by now. Even the sounds of cicadas went silent. Nights were colder than at the swamp, where the climate was humid and hot, more suiting reptile race. Noemi put herself in a sleeping bag, which luckily was sealed well enough to not be soaked in the odor of death, but she couldn't fall asleep.

'Who was that?' - She recalled the dead body. Its scaleless skin, small nails, round pupils. If she were to met someone, it should've been one of her people. Alive. Not that. Although she now knew that she wasn't alone, she was confused about her feelings on that matter. Was it a good sign or a sign of danger? Death was still real in the land of gods. How did that person die? How would she interact If she were to meet someone? There were no other villages other than hers up to crossing the gate. Her lands were closed off by an endless green sea filled with swamp trees.

Noemi squirmed in bed for about an hour, pondering about the near future, but as a warrior, she was trained to deal with the impact of stress during the rest and once her body was warmed up by the bed, she fell asleep in an instant.

[ ––––––––– ֎ ––––––––– ]

Noemi had spent her late morning in the following fashion - she did small warm-up exercises, ate leftover fish and foods packed back in her village, hunted down a large cockatrice, that is a wild cousin of a rooster with a long neck, razor-sharp claws, and strong tail, prepared that chicken for later consumption, did her morning exercise routine, consumed a second meal, sketched the last two places she visited, that is her meeting with a bear and the top of the tower. By the end of everything, it was already early mid-afternoon.

The girl climbed down the mountain and continued her journey. She was filled with willful hope and decided to pay close attention to every herb and insect. She even made some very simple notes in her journal, in ancient glyphs, the only written language of which she knew the basics. As she progressed, the girl also picked some blueberries and wild garlic.

Noemi arrived at a glade of birch. Between the trees was a modest, round, stone shrine with two arched entries. The structure's ceiling opened to the sky – it was supposed to allow the moonlight in, which would allow illuminating the small rectangular altar inside.

At the front entrance was a juvenile, snow-white vixen with captivating aquamarine eyes. It was lazing at top of an arch.

Noemi walked up closer to a fox, what ensued in a hostile gekkering. She focused her sight, the animal had similar runes to the previous bear, but this time in cyan hue. They spoke 'Aurora', but Noemi didn't understand the meaning of the word.

Noemi respected the heritage of her ancestors. She repeated the well-learned patterns, by first offering a gift to the shrine guardian – a handful of blueberries and cockatrice leg – then addressing it in full respect.

“Noble protector, please accept the tribute and allow me to pay homage to the spirits.”

Vixen scented the aroma, nimbly leaped down by glancing off a curved stone once, and began biting into a free meal.

“Enjoy.” – Noemi replied with a gentle smile and walked into the primitive temple.

She was shaken up by the condition of the interior. The central altar was broken in half, with the second half overturned to the side. A small featureless statue of a human woman with antlers was left covered in some sort of black mold. In the back, a small ritual vessel designed for cleansing the temple was filled with dirty water and weeds.

'It cannot be.' – Noemi fixed her shoulders and got to work. She brought pure water from the outside pond, removed filth, and lifted the heavy stone back into its place. She couldn't fix the crevice, but she deemed her job as good enough according to the 'hero' code – it was obligatory to always try to improve every aspect of your and others' life, even by the tiniest amount.

Noemi told her prayers, then sat down to draw the image of a renewed place in her journal. While she was doing so, Aurora leaped inside, and curiously tilted her head to look at the sketches.

“Do you like it?” - Noemi softly laughed, then presented the result in front of an animal guardian. Fox jumped onto the girl's crossed legs and began studying. Noemi flipped page after page, steadily explaining her experiences so far and in detail. She felt relieved, she didn't have anyone to speak to in ages, and the new fluffy friend even allowed herself to be patted. It felt nice to touch someone warm.

Once Noemi wanted to leave, to her surprise, Aurora followed.

“Aren't you supposed to guard this place?” - The girl jokingly asked the clinging animal, but she didn't mind. In response, Aurora only askingly tilted her head, like she didn't understand the meaning behind these words at all.

[ ––––––––– ֎ Days 3 to 13 ––––––––– ]

Noemi and her new companion have spent the next three days together, bonding and traveling. Little vixen protected her dear lizard by fending off insects and snakes during night sleep, while the girl protected vixen during the day nap when she usually sketched and hunted for food.

During the journey, many new places were discovered and challenges were faced. On the first day, our duo explored a meadow full of sunflowers, where giant yet peaceful and gentle rhinoceros beetles lived. One of them was gigantic and had runes on its horn and wings. His name was placed on the horn and meant 'Immovable One', glyphs on his wings were protective incantations. Chitin under its adamantine plates had nice, dark chromatic color. The gentle giant slept on a bed of red, pink, and violet flowers, unbothered by a fox who climbed and played on its back.

On the second day, Noemi and her friend had to face an aggressive and large cockatrice with feathers made of barbs resembling steel. Its ancient title was 'Razorwing'. The bird attacked without warning, its runes glowed red. After the first strike with a beak, the top of Noemi's shield splintered into pieces. Foe agilely bent its torso to follow-up with a talon attack, but the skilled warrior girl evaded an attack effortlessly. She tried to counterattack with a spear, but couldn't penetrate metal feathers, the tip of her weapon was simply deflected. The reptilian dodged all subsequent assaults, but she couldn't keep doing that forever. That's when 'Aurora' jumped onto a bird and bit into its neck. To protect companion from the beak, Noemi dropped her handheld equipment and grappled the enemy by a chin and over a shoulder. Lacerated arteries and rapid blood loss caused 'Razorwing' to soon collapse under its own weight. It was a shame that such a beautiful creature died, but its own aggression led to it. The victorious warrior plucked the steel feathers as a trophy and the two ventured forth.

On the third day, 'Aurora' returned to Noemi squealing in plain and bristled with needles. It entered a den of Hedgehog-rabbit. The girl had no choice but to take the needles out, apply her healing grease, and allow the fox to heal for a few days, which were peacefully spent next to the river in the forest. Close to a mound where Hedge-rabbit lived.

After the accident, Noemi decided to better look after Aurora. She trained her for two days to understand commands such as 'sit and 'stay'. She also taught a fox to fetch things, but that's due to fact that the little animal understood the rules of a fun game by instinct.

On the twelfth day, Noemi and the fox crossed the territory of 'The Great Old'. It was a felled forest of burnt-down trees. 'The Great Old' was what appeared to be a tall tree trunk with two wooden scythe arms and roots underneath its bottom. Having no legs, it naturally moved on its arms. Noemi trusted her warrior senses and didn't face the dangerous opponent and instead snuck behind blackened stumps. The two passed the treacherous region with no bigger issues. They were way closer to their goal – the central area under the mushroom sun.