Sebastian fell to the ground, along with the chair with a loud ‘crash’, separating the wooden seat into numerous parts, “What?! Are you sure?”

“I’m dead sure. I was hesitant to tell as it could have changed your mind about going into the woods. Also, are you okay?” Nia asked as the echoes of plates came from her side.

“Yeah-” He groaned, standing up with a minor soreness on his side, “- I’m fine.” The pieces had separated into its individual sections, realizing that the rope that held it together had snapped. “Still, this doesn't change my mind about going and I don’t assume Camila will reconsider either.”

“Thank you, Sebastian, it means a lot. Have you mentioned to your mom we are leaving today?”

“I will in a moment, thanks for the reminder.” Sebastian kicked one of the legs on the floor.

He returned to the table after his call to finish up his breakfast, not forgetting to inform her mom about the arrangement. She wasn’t particularly elated because of news from before, but she understood the situation. Subsequently, Sebastian contacted Camila to recite what Nia told him. She learned that a merchant was assassinated since her dad received the report earlier, but shocked her to find out it was that same person. As Sebastian expected, she too wasn’t backpedaling from the plan as she mentioned the guards had it under control.

After collecting the items he acquired a day prior along with his bokken, Sebastian continued to the living room to bid farewell to his mom and sister. He spotted his mother sitting on their small couch, staring at her transmitter as if she were awaiting a call. Sebastian placed his leather pack down on the floor near the front door.

“Are you okay, mom?” He asked apprehensively, sitting next to her.

Jennifer snapped out of her daze as she heard his voice, “Yeah, it’s just your father hasn’t called for a while, I’m starting to get worried.”

He hugged her mom, “It’s going to be alright. Maybe he’s just busy and hasn’t the time to call, or -” Sebastian considered for a second, feeling a slight tightness in his chest as he imagined other scenarios. Realizing it’d be best not to share them, he thought of something else to give her hope, “- or he drank too much the night before! You know he loves his tequila!” He laughed nervously, disguising his fear as best he could.

“Yeah, you’re right.” Jennifer wiped a tear on her cheek. “I’m going to have a word with him when he gets back for making me this worried, como se atreve?!”

It was better this way. If his mom were to freak out about the possibilities, it wouldn’t be beneficial for her health. With that, he departed for the village center where the three of them agreed to meet. Passing through the streets now during the day, he remembered the night before when he saw the shadowy figures. Could they just be here to wipe out the seller because of what he knew? Do they know that the Aquino family knows of the herb and are they in jeopardy as well? These questions persisted in Sebastian’s head until he reached the center.

Neither of the two hadn’t arrived yet, so he took a moment to rest on the fountain’s edge. As normal, the crowds here remained doing their everyday routines, but he felt dread in his heart. Was everyone safe here in the village? Murder here was certainly unusual because households didn’t have any grievances or hated each other. Instead, everyone acted like a family. Maybe the culprits weren’t from the village and…

“Yo, hello to Sebastian!” Nia smacked the side of his head, causing her undone hair to swing.

“W-What?!” As he held his head from the impact, he glanced up to acknowledge both Nia and Camila standing in front of him with their bags next to them. “When did you two get here?”

“We’ve been here for a solid minute trying to catch your attention.” Camila flicked Sebastian in the forehead, looking a little perturbed.

With one of his hands, Sebastian pushed her hand aside, “I’m sorry, I was just… thinking.”

“About what?” Nia asked as she began tying her hair into a ponytail beside her dark brown bow on her back. She also had some arrows in a quiver on her hip which was held in place with a belt.

He stared at both of them, looking down at him. Knowing both of them, if he were to tell them of what he witnessed yesterday, all they’d do is worry and ask a myriad of questions. Not merely that, but the situation with his dad was still in his head. Could they be related somehow? No, he couldn’t tell them. Taking a breath, Sebastian stood up, “It’s nothing, don’t worry about it.”

All three started walking on the dirt path that led north-east to Willbury Woods. As they reached the outskirts of the village, they encountered a few farms show up along the Luli River. The plan was to follow the river upstream into the woodlands seeing as that area was most unfamiliar to everyone. Once in the woods, it was only a matter of pinpointing the plant.

Half an hour passed as they continued walking, gradually shortening the distance between them and the woodland's edge. It wasn’t all silent as they traveled, they conversed amongst themselves covering topics from family to the food each liked. Camila was trying to be friendlier to Nia from which Sebastian could observe, which made him glad to see her stepping out of her comfort zone.

Now that they were closer, the earth road dissipated with every stride they took, transforming from hard soil into soft grass. The towering trees of Willbury Woods stood before them like gates into an unfamiliar land. The trio halted at the entrance, astonished by the size of them.

“Those are some enormous trees!” Exclaimed Nia, marveling at them. Then with a chuckle, she shook her head, “Hey hey, let’s be sure we don’t take the wrong ROOT.”

Both Sebastian and Camila groaned with the taste of the pun sour in their mouth. “Seriously?” Sebastian facepalmed as he and Camila walked in.

As they stepped through the woods, the three of them checked regularly to keep a close eye on their surroundings, making sure they weren’t being followed. There were the occasional squirrels and deer, which were nothing to fret about, but coming across a bear would be a nightmare. Sebastian held a tight grip on his bokken on his hip since it was his only way of defending himself. Time passed as all three walked carefully, watching their environment for any sudden movements. The trees around them seemed to get thicker as they delve deeper inside the dense woods. Nia noticed a few abnormal trees appear from time to time; some had spiraled trunks that twisted around themselves while others had their branches make a sphere shape above their body. Even animals around the area showed signs of interesting alterations; rabbits started appearing larger with antlers and foxes having multiple tails.

“Are you sure you know where we are going, Nia? Things are looking... weird around here.” Sebastian asked while he stared at one of the sphered trees they passed by.

Nia held her bow at the ready with her left arm while she held three arrows in her right hand, one already in position. “I think? Like I said, I have little to go by, there wasn’t information on the herb.” She stayed behind the other two to support them if there were to be any attacks.

“Well, I hope we find it soon. I’ve been in these parts before-” Camila held one of her daggers on her left hand reversed gripped for blocking while the other was right-side-up for stabbing. “- and you see some crazy stuff.”

“You’ve been in these areas? Was this where...” Sebastian stopped talking immediately when he heard some leaves rustle close to them. He held his left hand up to signal them to stop.

Camila tapped the other two on the shoulder, telling them to make a triangle. With them in position, they listened carefully to get an idea of where the movement came from. Nia pulled back one of her arrows, pointing ahead of her as Sebastian gripped the handle of the bokken on his hip. The rustling moved closer to them, slowly making its way towards them, allowing Camila to detect it was coming from her direction. Sebastian moved to the left of her while Nia took her right, pointing above a big messy looking shrub.

Then, in an instant, a beast the size of a mule jumped at them from behind the shrub. Nia launched an arrow, viewing the head penetrate one of its legs as they all dodged. Sebastian swiftly rolled backward once and scanned the creature as it tried to remove the arrow from its leg. It had the head of a badger, a mane of a lion with a large, grey body. Camila stared as well with a horrified look.

“It’s a Leucrocuta! Don’t let it-” Camila watched as the beast ripped the arrow out then spit at her. She dodged, seeing the spit splat on the tree that was behind her a second ago. The Leucrocuta laughed, eerily sounding like a human cackling with its big mouth. “- that! Don’t let the spit touch you, it’s lined with acidic venom!”

Nia fired another arrow at the creature, hitting the side of it this time, hearing as the animal screamed in pain. “Damn, this thing is loud!”

Sebastian got up, ran to the beast, and bashed hard against the cheekbone upwards, lifting the Leucrocuta up in the air. Once the creature landed, it turned straight at him, growling deeply, clenching its bony teeth. “I think I made it mad...” He pointed his bokken, shaking a little as he backed up.

Camila threw one of her daggers at the beast, penetrating its torso. The beast squealed in a high pitch as it fell to the ground hard, still moving a little but a lot slower than before as it stood back up. With no other way to attack, it spat at them with fury. Sebastian jumped behind a fallen trunk to take shelter from the rapid-fire while the others hid behind trees.

As Nia took shelter, she noticed a rock next to her foot and had an epiphany. She picked it up as her other hand held her bow and an arrow. Biting her lower lip, she measured how far apart each spit was to measure the right moment. Once her calculations were in order, Nia took a deep breath.

She counted the spits; 1… 2… 3! At that second, Nia tossed the rock beside her. As she had predicted, the Leucrocuta saw it and aimed right at it, shooting its saliva. Nia took the chance; she instantly withdrew from cover from the other side of the tree, grabbed her arrow with her other hand, and shot the monster right between the eyes. The rock landed with a ‘thump’ followed by a crash from the body collapsing.

Finally, jumping over from the fallen log, Sebastian looked at the dead creature with widened eyes, “That thing was scary! I didn’t know creatures like that could exist.” Sebastian analyzed the dripping spit which was on the trees, as they shriveled and died. “So the spit is venomous to living things?”

Camila took out the dagger from the leg and wiped the blood off it with a dirty rag she took out from her rear pocket. “That’s right, good thing we weren’t hit.” Camila put the weapon back in its scabbard. “This is why people only go so deep into these woods. Few have come back because creatures like this can lurk around.”

Nia removed the projectile that was in its head plus the one on its side. “These things are awful, I’m glad I brought you along, Camila.” She said as she cleaned the arrows.

“Let's just keep moving. We need to locate this herb you’re looking for, don’t we? Thankfully this animal was small so my daggers could still paralyze it a little.” Before she advanced on, Camila looked back at Nia, “Also, nice shot.”

As the three kept following the stream, they stumbled upon a half fox, half eagle, which Nia called an Enfield who she claimed to be passive, but did expect manners. They followed it for a while, hoping it would lead them to something interesting, but it only led them to some golden berries. Although this wasn’t what they were looking for, it was an excellent opportunity to take a break. All they had with them was the raw meat, which Sebastian carried in a small bag around the shoulder for later. As they ate the small yellow berries from the bush, they tasted sweet with a hint of sour to them, making them an enjoyable snack. They discovered that after eating a few; the berries re-energized them, so Nia grabbed a handful and stored them in her bag. “I’m not quite sure what these are exactly, so I’ll take a few for later.”

After a quick rest, they thanked the Enfield who had eaten barries beside them and continued onward, searching for their objective. More unusual trees kept appearing while the critters became stranger with each passing by them, some even creeping upon them, but meant no harm. As Sebastian kept a close eye forward, his shoe hit a stone that was the size of his fist, making him faceplant. The other two asked if he was okay, Camila helping him up while Nia kept watch.

“Yeah, I’m okay-” He picked up the stone he tripped on, looking at it. “- seems I found some Obliriumite.” Sebastian chuckled a little, putting the rock in his pocket.

“Did you find it or did it find you?” Nia laughed, continuing to watch for anything hostile.

Sebastian smiled a bit, then looked at the tree he was next to. He put one of his hands on it, causing the small bulbs on the twigs to light up. “So all of this abnormality was caused by the rocks?”

“The stones can affect its surroundings, so there must have been a lot in these areas. Over the years, some people must have come through and picked them up, that’s why we aren’t seeing a lot of them.” Nia kept scouting. “Time does this when you are near the stones for far too long. Our village has only been using them for a short while compared to other places in Nuria.”

“I’ve never seen their effects as I have today.” Sebastian started walking again while the other two followed. “Though I’m glad I’m here, I’m learning more about our world.”

As dusk approached, Sebastian spotted a small old shack on top of a small hill with one of the sphere trees next to it and another large, twisted one behind. He pointed it out to the others where after some thought, they all decided to go investigate. As he opened the door, the darkness enveloping the area was apparent to them, only some furniture outlines were visible. Seeing as the place had no windows, all three tried to find some cables against the dusty walls so Sebastian could connect the Obliriumite. He stumbled through the messy floor, which caused him to bump into a desk. Soon, his hands softly felt the surface of a counter until he found a few cords where a stone could be connected.

A small light bulb on the ceiling flickered to life, revealing the filthy interior. Cobwebs hung from corners, a chair missing a leg next to a fireplace full of ash, the desk next to Sebastian had holes from rotting and dusty books on a bookshelf next to the front door. The floor was littered with battered equipment along with pieces of what looked to be a bed.

“Looks like housekeeping hasn’t been here for a while.” Nia commented as she stared at the books on the shelves.

Camila swiped one of her fingers on a wall. Bewildered by the filth, she wiped the dust on her rag, “More like nobody has been here for years.”

Sebastian got his face close to the desk, placing his hand on top while trying to see through its holes. As soon as his palm put a small amount of pressure on it, his arm went right through it, making a bigger hole and causing a mess. “Uh… oops?”

Camila looked at him dumbfounded, shaking her head in disbelief. As she searched the place, she noticed something that looked like a sheath in the corner, next to the bookshelf. She strode her way to it, picked it up, then dusted the cobwebs that clung. The black sheath was somewhat curved, telling her that the sword itself must be as well, tied on dark purple fabric near the top, and was made of polished wood. As Camila drew out the sword a little, she saw that the gleaming blade was practically black except for the edge which matched the color of the fabric. Its hilt had the same textile as the sheath was tied in, making diamond shapes across it, giving it a magnificent expression of black mixed with purple.

“Hey BOY, time to become a man. Catch!” She tossed the katana in its sheath at him.

Sebastian promptly looked at her and stumbled on catching the object with both hands. “Did you just throw a sword at me? Be careful!” He whispered yelled angrily at her. He raised it a moment to get a better look at the sheath, then took out the sword a few inches. “Wow, this katana is really beautiful! I think the time has come to put good ol’ wooden sword into retirement, it’s seen better days.” Sebastian placed the bokken on top of the broken desk, seeing now it had a large crack from bashing the Leucrocuta across the face.

“On another note-” Nia started as she held one book in her hand, “- these books don’t seem to make much sense; they’re only about the natural elements in Nuria and Obliriumite, but I don’t see what connection they have with each other.” She pondered while flipping through its pages. “It does say though that the rocks aren’t naturally from here. Instead, they are from a larger meteor that rained down one night long ago.”

“Usually people say that the stones have been here all this time. What kind of person used to live here?” Camila asked as she looked at Nia.

“Who knows, but I’ll take the book to read later.” Nia answered, confused as she placed a thick scarlet book in her bag.

Sebastian glimpsed out the door only to discover that the sun was setting. “Crap, it’s getting late. Nia, which way is the river to follow it back home?”

Nia reached into her bag where her hand felt around for a few seconds. After holding a metal casing of the compass, she took it out to find it was crushed. “So... you know how we fought against that beast earlier where we all had to dodge?”

Camila put her fingers on her temples. “Please tell me it’s not broken...”

“Ok, I won’t tell you.” Nia looked at Sebastian. “It’s broken.”

“Ugh...” Both Sebastian and Camila groaned.

While the sun was coming down, the three of them decided to stay indoors considering that going outdoors was dangerous. As Sebastian looked around the perimeter, he located a few logs behind the small shack. He carried them to the fireplace, then proceeded to use a flint and steel he had to ignite a fire. They cooked the raw meat that Sebastian still carried, though with no real seasoning, it didn’t taste like much. Nia took three water flasks out from her bag so they could drink to help the meat go down easier.

Throughout dinner, they could hear the wind pushing against the walls, resulting it to creek in some areas. Seeing as they wouldn’t get much sleep from all the noise, the group talked about what they planned to do later on with their lives. Nia and Camila already had something in mind; Nia wanted to be a teacher because she enjoyed knowledge while Camila would rather be a bodyguard for influential individuals. Sebastian, on the other hand, didn't fully know what he wanted to do.

“You’re nineteen and you don’t know what you want to do? Your job right now is to sell weapons, don’t you wanna keep doing that but at a much larger scale?” Camila asked while she sat on the floor.

“That’s my dad’s thing, he’s the one that insisted I should work in his shop. There aren't that many explorers or adventurers passing through Pueblanto so our sales aren’t high.” Sebastian took a gulp of water from his flask and sighed, “That’s also why I didn’t have a real sword, every weapon in our store is for selling. The only reason we didn’t have materials now was because someone last week ordered a large amount. They didn’t say why they needed so many of them, but we didn’t complain as it gave us money.” As he leaned back, one of his eyebrows rose. “All of this reminds me if my dad has come home yet...”

As the night went on, the trio began to get tired from the walking they did during the day. Sebastian advised considering the shack was so decrepit, maybe they should rotate who should keep an eye out if any other creatures appeared. The others agreed, then pointed at him considering he was the one who mentioned it. Knowing he ran into that, he chuckled while saying he’ll take the first watch.

Sebastian gathered a few sticks from outside, wrapped their tops with decrepit rags from the shack, and lit one on fire with the fireplace. He walked back outside again, only to sit on the small wooden porch, looking into the lit woods from the luminous trees. A few animals did decide to investigate the fire he had, but they were harmless. A few hours flew by with nothing happening except him dozing off until he felt a light tap on his shoulder, startling him. Camila was standing there smiling softly, insisting him to get sleep with a light kiss on his cheek. Sebastian agreed, returning a kiss on the cheek before heading off to sleep.

Camila took the torch he had left behind, shoved it into the ground, then stared at the darkness in front of her. She kept thinking about how Sebastian needed to find something to motivate him for real, otherwise he would stay in Pueblanto all his life. She knew that he wanted to explore the world, but that wouldn’t gain him revenue. These things make her worry about him, though her other concern is him leaving her for someone else, resulting in her keeping an eye on him. Maybe she was overdoing it, he hasn’t shown any signs of cheating or even wanting to leave her.

Some time went by since Camila undertook her shift, nothing really happening as she thought. The door behind her opened with a small creek, causing her to turn around to see Nia coming out with a new torch. Nia made a head gesture to go inside telling her it was her turn. Camila left to move in, but before she locked the entryway, Nia called out to her.

“Hey, thanks for coming. If it were just me and Sebastian, we would have died to that Leucrocuta.” Nia said as she sat down on the porch, facing away from Camila.

“It’s fine, just keep us safe through the night and we’ll call it even.” Camila closed the door after her dry response.

Nia sighed, still tired from not getting much sleep, but was mostly annoyed with Camila. She watched the small lights the trees in the woods created in the dark, wondering what she could do to get on her good side. She has tried many things to prove that she has no affection towards Sebastian, but all she does is keep rubbing it in her face that he belongs to her. All Nia cares about right now is finding the plant to make her dad get better, she has no time for relationships nor does she want to be in one. She hangs a lot with Sebastian since they are childhood friends, way before Camila showed up in his life. He was there when her biological family passed away and consoled her through tough times. She values their friendship a lot, making her feel annoyed when Camila tries to push her out of the picture.

As dawn approached, Nia stomped the torch out. She sat while watching the light grey smoke lift from the smoldering stick to the top of the trees. Staring at it as it turned into a bigger, much darker puff of smoke, going up into the sky.

“These woods are so mysterious.” She squinted, “Wait... That can’t be right-” Nia kicked the smoking wood away and rubbed her eyes, only to see the cloud was still there, twisting in the wind from afar. “- is that… our village?!”