The situation became more dire than Cho was expecting. A child had been snatched right under them, taken away. Furious, displaying his first act of raw emotion since he met Casper, Cho shouted at the Okapi woman. “And you let it get away?! You guys have a festival going on and didn’t think of putting more security around?!” Grunting in annoyance, he immediately started breaking off from the group. “I depart. May our paths cross again, Casper, but if they don’t… Whatever.” Crouching down, he jumped up. In one single bound, he was able to cross a decent distance, landing on a nearby train car. Then, another… Then he was gone.

Casper, Trace, and the wounded messenger were left behind. Trace was inspecting the other woman’s wounded arm. It didn’t look too serious, nothing that they had to stem the bleeding on, at least from what Trace could tell. They likely only needed an Ascendant versed in healing. “Go.” She said, looking to Casper, brow furrowed. “Go find Rakkan. This is your chance!”

“Is this really the best way to say goodbye?” Casper began to ask, only for Trace to dismiss him. It wasn’t the best, especially after he was just getting into the interesting stuff about the town, but it didn’t look like she was going to argue with him.

“No it isn’t. But you wanted to join in on the Coalition, huh? Well there is one of their members right there. How about you come back here and visit your big sister Trace, when you come back from the Weald, huh?” She grinned, “We’ll talk about movies then.”

“Uh, if I can add something, I don’t know what you guys are going on about but…” The Okapi said, feeling a bit winded from her earlier fight with the Amalgamate. “But I think that Fox needs all the help he can get.”

As much as he wanted to stay here and get to know the place of Tracks even further, without the need to go monster hunting with a man he didn’t even know the first thing about, she was right. He decided not to entertain the idea even further. With a nod, he broke away from the group as well. “I look forward to it, Trace… Until we meet again: Ciao.”

Just like that, he broke into a sprint, and was off to catch up with Cho. He also made sure to make a pass by Rakkan. No way he was leaving him behind. They needed the muscle. For someone who was frequently seen smoking, he was quite the runner.

As Trace watched him run off, she helped the other woman up, “You doing alright, ma’am?”

“I’ll be fine. I’m made of stronger stuff than I look.” She said, standing up, “But when I say I’m worried about the three of them, I mean it. That Amalgamate isn’t like the others that have been close to here. It’s old… And strong.” Silently, she cursed, wishing that she could’ve done more.

“Don’t talk like that.” Trace said, putting on a hopeful smile, encouraged at the site of her friend standing. “I have hope. I will admit, I feel a bit jealous… Not of him specifically, but of that life style the three of them lead. Just traveling and fighting and leaving dangerously like that?” She scratched her head, laughing, realizing she was going into full ramble mode, “Just a thought is all, nothing too serious.” She couldn’t help but feel that she was lying to herself with those last few words, “Yeah… Nothing too serious.”

Cho was in a hurry, but he couldn’t just rush ahead, there was still time to figure things out and double check where he was going. Sitting on a fallen tree trunk, before him was a map of the surrounding area. There, circled in red, was where he believed the Amalgamate to have set up its nest, along with the letters: WBHM. Close to it was another red circle, that was the key to figuring out where the Amalgamate was. Both of them were about a kilometer away. One and a half kilometers maybe. Nothing that he couldn’t get to by running. With a nod, he stood up, and began to march on. It was now or never. That was until a voice was heard from behind him.

“Hold up! Cho!” The voice shouted, coming closer. As Cho turned around, he was met with the Sphynx that he met just minutes ago. “I’m coming with!” He said, before stopping in front of the Fox, huffing and puffing. From just a short run, he already looked exhausted. Was this really the type of man who lived his life on the road, Cho wondered. Casper looked up at Cho, standing at the bottom of the trunk where the Fox stood.

Regardless of his physical attributes or detriments, Cho asked him. “Why?” He said, crossing his arms, sizing him down with his eyes. He was shorter than Casper, but he certainly attempted to make himself more imposing. “What exactly do you hope to achieve? You’re not getting a cut of my pay. You might die, splattered on the floor like a ripe tomato and I won’t even mourn you. But, I won’t deny your request, but I won’t quite agree to it either… So what is it Sphynx? Why do you want to join so badly?”

Before Casper could answer, another voice was heard approaching the pair, a very loud and deep voice, shouting as it ran over. It could belong to no one else. “Oh also, I have someone else coming with me. Do you mind?” Casper asked, genuinely, seemingly dropping Cho’s initial question as soon as it was asked.

As Cho’s ears picked up the voice, he immediately turned his back to where it was coming from. “Don’t come over here, don’t come over here…” He mumbled to himself, sounding annoyed, only to find himself picked up. Embraced in a tight but friendly hug. The once cool headed and stoic Fox was suddenly kicking and screaming like a child.

“Ar har har har har!” Rakkan laughed, the hugger being none other than himself, as he held Cho in his arms. His hug was like being crushed in the most loving way possible. The fallen tree sunk a bit into the soft ground with the addition of his weight being added to it, plus the weight of whatever was in Rakkan and Casper’s backpacks, that the Lion was now carrying. “Ah! Cho! My friend, it has been far too long. I say ya in the audience, I did! Now what’s say we team up with Casper here. Help you out with this monster hunt of yours?”

“Let go of me, you wall of meat!” Cho shouted, still kicking and trying to squirm out of Rakkan’s grasp.

Casper only looked on, feeling quite good with himself that someone broke Cho out of his whole smartass gimmick. “You two know each other?”

Rakkan let go of Cho, gently letting him down, “Of course!” The Lion nodded, “Our paths cross many times, tis a small world and us travelers run into each other all the time.” He looked down upon Cho, nodding, “Don’t let his puny size fool you, he is truly good at what he does.”

“You truly have no indoor voice.” Cho said, rubbing the nubs on his mask, where his ears would be.

“We’re not indoors,” Casper interjected. As much as he hated to admit it, it did feel good to be a smartass sometimes; that explained why Cho was one all the time.

“I know what I meant… Now, on to the point, are the two of you going to stand here and feel me up like a group of perverts or are you going to come with me like you planned? If you have forgotten, there is a child in danger. They could be dead now for all we know. Follow me or stay behind, whichever you do, I care not.” With those few words, Cho ran off, motioning to the others.

Casper took one step forward, before immediately being picked up by Rakkan. The Lion, now holding the Sphynx in a bridal carry, ran after Cho. Now rested firmly in his new partner’s giant arms, could only comment on the situation. “That was… Uh… Easy?”

Rakkan chuckled under his breath, although Casper couldn’t help but hear a hint of worry in his voice. “…Well, he’s probably going to say something along the lines of ‘explain to me why you want to join so badly?’ once we stop.” Rakkan said, trying out his best impression of Cho. “What do you think? 2000 Shells says so, that’s pocket change for both of us.”

“No thank you,” Casper said, shaking his head, as he watched the white and purple blur of the forests rushing by. “Not because I don’t like gambling but because I think he’ll say that too.”

Before long, the soft sound of Rakkan’s heavy feet on the leaf and dirt covered ground of the forest grew heavier, as the forest cleared into a new environment. The two were now in the messy, moss covered streets of a Pre-Bloom city. Looked to be the same architecture as the one. Casper was in just a few nights ago. Sometimes it was hard to tell where certain cities started and others ended. If he had to hazard a guess, it was all just one city, with the trainyard that became known as Tracks was located in the center of it. Didn’t really matter now, the trainyard had become a traveling destination while the rest of the city was left to become consumed by Jinmenju.

Rakkan looked around for Cho, before spotting him, standing on top of a vine covered car, looking up at a tree growing out of a building. Rakkan looked down at Casper, before setting him down. “Apologies, friend. But you aren’t a good runner, had to catch up with Cho somehow. I do wish that you would have told me a child was in danger though. All is forgiven though.”

“I was in a hurry.” Casper said, brushing himself off, making sure his clothes were on right. He had never been carried by someone before, albeit not like that. Maybe he could start paying Rakkan to carry him for now on. Just give up walking and go around with his huge, muscular vehicle that didn’t seem to mind picking people up. Better yet, he could just sit on his shoulders and use his giant height as a sniping position. The ultimate combo of gun and muscle. But, now wasn’t the time for that… Casper was now focused on the same tree Cho was looking up at, giving his own comment on it. “There’s something different about that Jinmenju.”

There were several overgrown Jinmenju in the city. Towering over even the tallest buildings, sprouting in and out of them, and crushing the smaller buildings with their roots and branches. But there were two in the city that stood out among them. Jinmenju had purple leaves and ivory white bark, this was their signature characteristics. But these two trees were different. There, sandwiched between two other trees, growing out of what looked like an apartment building, was a thin and tall Jinmenju sporting leaves as white as its bark. “You recognize this?” Cho said, looking to the other two. “Look, over there too.” With a slender finger, Cho pointed several blocks down to a hill with a square shaped building at the peak. Growing out of it was another Jinmenju with the same characteristics. Silver white bark and silver white leaves.

“Not me.” Rakkan said, shaking his head, content in his obliviousness, but still yearning to know. “Is it sick?”

“No, it’s a sapling,” Casper said, furrowing his brows. “There haven’t been any blooming periods in a while, so that could only mean…” Casper drifted off, rubbing his chin.

“An Amalgamate.” Cho said, hopping off of the car and stepping towards the base of the Sapling. “Are you aware of the process of Sowing?” Looking down at the ground, Cho was able to identify a few objects. A backpack, torn open, a coach gun that didn’t even look like it had a chance to be fired, and near them, a giant hand shaped print in the ground, big enough to easily crush someone’s under it. There were no bodies in sight. Blood, yes, splashed upon the ground, but not any sign of who it belonged to.

“Sowing…” Rakkan said, still in the dark about things, “No… Again…”

“I might.” Casper said, although sounding uncertain, “But explain anyways.”

Cho picked up the gun as he continued. It looked like a normal, gunpowder based weapon, unsuited for killing Amalgamates. “Sowing… While Amalgamates aren’t exactly sentient, bordering on autonomous actually, the older ones among them are often driven to create more Jinmenju.” Now inspecting the backpack, the contents were remarkably empty, other than what appeared to be a crushed ration that Cho tossed aside. “They must’ve been travelers. Coming out of or coming towards Tracks. From how empty this guy’s backpack is, I lean more towards the latter.”

“How do they do that?” Rakkan asked, looking at the carnage before him, wishing there could at least be a body to identify and mourn… Impossible, their body was now making up the tree in front of them.

Casper broke his silence, adding to Cho’s explanation, “They use the corpses of people they kill to rapidly procre… proce…” Casper explained, trying to find the right word.

“Propagate?” Cho asked, setting the gun down and standing up.

“Propagate, thanks,” Casper nodded. “They kill people, then they rapidly propagate Arborpathy in their corpses. Turning ordinary bodies into Saplings like these.” Casper looked to Cho, to confirm his explanation.

“You’re quite astute, aren’t you? Here I thought you were just a common fool.” Cho nodded, “From the looks of it, this one took the lives of 5 people, can’t be too sure.”

“May they rest in peace, however many there were.” Rakkan nodded, before asking. “Is that why they kidnapped the child instead of… Well… Killing her?”

“No, but I have my own ideas. I’ll explain later, unless Casper here knows that too.” Cho then looked on to the distance, seeing the other sapling in the distance, “Five people could’ve died here, but the body count goes even higher than that, in case you can’t guess. That building is where I believe my target is. Wilfreed and Brother’s Historical Museum.” Cho put his fingers to his ear, activating his transceiver. “Vramosa? It’s Cho. We have two saplings in need of removal. Yes… I will call again when the job is finished, but I’m moving on the target now. If you don’t hear from me in the morning, come to the town of Tracks.” He then hung up, preparing the move forth, reluctantly allowing his two new allies to tag along with him.

Capser lit up another cigarette, looking towards the Museum. Already he knew that things had grown far more important than he initially thought. All he knew that this monster couldn’t be allowed to live any longer. Not just for the life of the child that he could only hope was still alive, but for the sake of Tracks. People coming in and out of the town, only to be amushed by some Amalgamate? He couldn’t allow it.

Especially if he were to gain the patronage of the Coalition, after all.

Even Rakkan looked raring to go, cracking his knuckles, didn’t even look tired from the fight just moments ago. All this Amalgamate business was so confusing. All this talk about Sowing and whatever Cho was talking about? He didn’t get none of it. But fighting, on the other hand, that was speaking his language! Plus, he couldn’t sit idly by while a kid was in danger. It wasn’t in his creed.

The sun was starting to set upon the town. Three long shadows moving towards their destination. Towards the lair of the Amalgamate known only as The Artist.