The next day comes quickly and announces itself with a knock on the door. Rolling out of bed and trailing the sheet, Roxie opens the door to a large woman with curly ginger hair beaming at her.

She chirps “Morning darling, figured seeing as you going with them recruits today I’d wake you up early”

Roxie slowly blinks then yawns and stretches out.

“Oh my, some big teeth you got there hope they match your appetite. But get dressed first we got customers” She then sashays away and down the stairs, leaving Roxie to get dressed.

she eventually meanders downstairs with her bag to the bar where she’s passed a menu, she peruses for a minute before she orders an omelette and a coffee. She sits down and spends the idle time scanning over the other patrons until her food comes which she practically devours after the first bite, much to the woman's joy who makes a thumbs up to someone through the window to the kitchen. A Tebrien man peeks through to give Roxie an appreciative nod.

Tebrien are a descendant of a species of ants, having evolved to be Titanoid over time; they are covered in a thick carapace that is coloured white if they are female or yellow if they’re male. They also possess an extra set of arms, antenna and large compound eyes and sometimes more insectile features such as large mandibles or translucent wings.

Roxie leans back in her chair as she makes a contented sigh before hefting herself up and out of the inn with her things, eventually stumbling up to the statue to join the large group of people as she continues trying to shake off the sleep; the group looks to be in a similar state as Roxie, each in a state of lethargy with some even sitting against the statues base asleep.

A tall and athletic man stands outside the group facing towards it who spots Roxie and nods “Roxie I presume. Stand where I can see you”

Roxie nods and sits down with her tail below her as a mat before digging through her bag.

“Hey there” A young orc man strides over and calls to Roxie “What’s your name?”

Roxie, realising that her unimpressed look doesn’t dissuade him, answers tersely “Roxie”

“Sooo? Uh. You gonna wear that stuff all the time or what?” He points indirectly at her.

Roxie looks herself over “What, my gambeson?”

“No, the ears and….” He watches closer to them and notices them twitching from sound to sound “You’re not an Elf, are you?”

Roxie spits out “What gave that away” as she rises back to her feet and spreads her wings out, gaining the attention of everyone around the statue and even some down the street.

The orc backs off and tries to say something but only manages to drone “Uhhhh”

Roxie’s expression turns colder as she takes a few steps closer “Is it going to be a problem?”

A random human from the crowd steps between them and holds his hands out to stop Roxie “Hey now, it’s not going to be a problem, right Zark?”

He turns to the orc who starts furiously shaking his head and calming down.

Roxie furls her wings and crosses her arms as she regards the human in front of her “Who the fuck are you?”

He looks surprised for a moment before shrugging “I’m Luke”

He holds out a hand that Roxie takes “Roxie”

He idly scratches the back of his head “Soo uh, what you doing here?”

“Ox said I should do this to get some training in. so I’m tagging along” she finishes with a shrug.

“Oh, so you’re experienced then, guess we’ll be learning from you” he chuckles and smiles at the comment.

“I’m an experienced fighter but not an adventurer. I think that’s his job” Roxie points to the man standing at attention away from the group.

“Yeah” Luke looks around to look at him.

Their conversation trails off and they end up just idling until the man decides to speak up.

“We’re heading out” he then turns around and starts walking down the steps towards a parked cart which he boards. But as soon as someone starts to put their stuff onto it “This is our cart. If you didn’t bring your own transport, then you have to walk” he nods to the two drivers who nod back.

The group grumbles their disbelief and annoyance as the man starts riding the cart down King’s road with the group trailing behind him. They travel through and up the realm tower out and onto the branch where they loosely march up it for an hour, eventually stopping so that the horses can be watered, the time which the others spend complaining and rubbing their feet until the cart begins riding on again without warning.

The group breaks out into swearing and hurried sprinting as Roxie and a few others, who look relatively unperturbed, walk with the cart, except for Luke who looks to be a victim of his exhaustion but still sticks with them. Much to his thanks they reach their desired portal after only another hour of travel at which they stop again, this time to let the stragglers catch-up and after doing a quick headcount, the man then gestures for the cart to carry on and down the realm bridge to the world.

All they can see is ocean, as far as the eye can see stretching to the horizon far, far down below them only interrupted by a few large island in the distance under the sun. further down the bridge is a small collection of buildings built on the bark itself, all on raised foundations of wood to get flat building surfaces.

The cart rumbles down and everyone follows it over a large path between the buildings until the floating village below comes into view, constructed from collections of sail less boats and floating houses, then stop next to a large crane where its operator sits at attention.

“G’ day want t’ get down. Just give me a sec” he then sets about pushing the crane around, using Chi to enhance his strength, and pulls the platform low enough so the cart can roll onto it.

The leading man gives him a couple copper coins before they are lifted and lowered to the village below, the change in gravity unsettles the horses as it slowly goes from aligned with the branch to the world’s own gravity whilst it's lowered down, leaving the group behind. After twenty minutes of waiting, the man finishes pulling the platform up and leans against the cranes massive wheel as people start climbing onto the platform, then start looking around confused as the man doesn’t move.

“That’s gonna be three copper from each of ya’” the man gives a sly grin as he regards the group.

They are evenly split between outrage and reluctantly reaching for their coins, meanwhile Roxie finds herself panicking a little as she remembers her distinct lack of money. She walks past the crane’s platform to the tip of the bridge and takes stock of the distance below them, head bobbing around as she tries to better gauge the distance.

She takes a deep breath, checking her gear and leaping, ignoring the cries of surprise from the group as she descends and picks up speed, but as the people below come into view, she spreads her wings and starts tilting upwards to curve into a glide.

She takes her time descending, enjoying the rare freedom of flight even as pain starts to creep into her wings, until an idea strikes her and shifts her little chi into the worse areas, reinforcing them against the strain to so much effect that she even starts to let out a giggle and spreads out her arms. Realising that she’s going further and further away from the village, she turns around and starts gliding to the village in earnest, and in the meantime scans the area.

She notices that she seemed to have grabbed the attention of the entire village who have all stopped to watch her flight and are slowly making their way to get better views. With a couple violent beats of her wings she stops her momentum to thud onto a deck, a few boats and docks away from where the crane has deposited the cart, and so with a hop and a few skips she makes her way to them and is immediately smacked on the shoulder by the dwarven driver.

He laughs as Roxie stumbles “You gave poor Kizzy here a scare when you jumped off”

The dwarf points to the Tebrian woman currently clutching at her chest with all four of her arms. "Shut up Joe! Roxie, right? Please don’t do that again, we are responsible for looking after you”

“Really now? doesn’t seem like it cuz’ I had to do that. Got no money to pay that guy to get down” Roxie pulls out her pockets for emphasis.

“Shouldn’t be a problem” the man in the cart speaks up without looking.

Kizzy and Joe snap around to look at him before departing and unhitching the horses, the conversation seemingly over. Now that Roxie takes a looks around, she notices that this boat has it’s sails and is notably bigger than the others with a full crew that is currently at the end of shifting cargo and is now bringing the horses and cart below deck.

She slowly makes her way to the edge of the boat to look at the village before Lukes call gets her attention “That was amazing, take me with you next time!” he jumps off the platform early to land on the deck.

Roxie spares a glace to the few people in various states of panic that are either clamped on the edge or clutching the ropes “Yeah, no” she then turns to Luke and starts massaging her wing joints “I was barely able to keep myself in the air”

“Still it was cool, everyone panicked when you dropped off, even the crane guy was running around until you stopped falling” he grins wide at her as the platform slams into the deck and the others are guided away.

Roxie chuckles slightly “Glad to hear it” she then addresses the man who’s leading them “So what now, wait?”

He tersely responds “Yes and keep out the way” he nods to the crewmembers walking around them.

After half an hour of keeping to the side everyone else is lowered on the boat and ushered away, leaving the leader of the job, Roxie and Luke to watch as the boat springs to life. The sails are unfurled, and the boat sets off to the island in the distance. As the crew calm and are set at their stations Roxie starts to wander across the deck, eventually coming across a human in robes staring into the sky.

He notices Roxie stomping around with Luke in tow and turns to them “Ah, miss Aultflight Mr… Luke? How are you two, I do hope that Mr Wolf is not being too cold” he finishes with a chuckle.

“Oh no, he loves Roxie. Spoke to her twice now, he’s just addressed us” Luke speaks up.

The man brings a hand to his chin in thought “She has been credited with saving Ox’s life, he and Wolf do share a history”

Luke snaps to look at Roxie with wide eyes as she puffs up her chest.

Roxie smirks “Somebody had to save him from dying like an idiot”

The human does nothing for a few moments before doubling over in laughter “He never mentioned that in his report”

Luke stammers out “What? how?”

Roxie shrugs and explains her side of the story, giving the human enough time to recover.

He eventually straightens up and wipes a tear from his eye “Well, that’s definitely a different view. Anyways, I thank you for saving him, I am rather fond of the man”

Luke meanwhile looks distant and troubled, not saying anything.

Roxie asks “What’s up” her expression turning to concern.

Luke slowly meets her gaze “Those skinners, and the other monsters, is that what we’re gonna fight?” his face clearly shows his worry.

Roxie lets out a sigh “No, well, not all. We will probably still be their main target as were the closest to them, but they are going to start taking the Tree realms more seriously, I can guaranty that at least”

The human looks between them and starts to share their expressions before forcing a smile “Come now, let’s not dwell on that. You have a month of sunshine to enjoy”

Luke’s mood doesn’t improve at all from the assurance and continues to dwell in worry until Roxie grabs him by the shoulder.

She gently shakes him a bit before stating “If you’re worried about them killing anyone you care about, then grow stronger to protect them, the monsters can only be fended off with tooth, claw and power”

Roxie stares at Luke with absolute resolve in her cause, which he seems to gather as his expression starts to mirror hers “Is that what you’re doing”

She responds with a menacing grin “No, I plan to exterminate them, or at least give them a reason to never bother us again”

“Then you should probably look to others for support, you'll need them” Wolf walks past them to stare at their destination.

“You're one to talk wolf, giving everyone the cold shoulder” The human chides as he joins him.

Wolf responds “Hey, I have friends”

“Your sword doesn't count” he chuckles before looking to the sky again.

Roxie sighs as she moves lean against the ships railing, paying Luke no mind as he joins her.

They lean in silence for a few moments before Luke asks, “So hey, we’re you come from?”

Roxie gives a genuine smile as she starts recounting her home to him, gladly passing the time to remember it, only stopping because the crew start filtering on the bow with Kizzy upfront and glaring at the beach.

She holds open a large tome with her lower hands as the top pair are held out, a map of the island quickly being drawn in the book. Once that finishes, she takes a deep breath and the veins in her chitin quickly become visible before a stone dock erupts out of the ground, kicking up sand and waves as it does so.

After a few moments of her focusing on the dock she drops her arms and announces “Alright, should be able dock now” At which the crew burst into action.

As they filter away, Roxie skips up to Kizzy who's currently leaning against the railing and catching her breath “That was awesome”

She turns to smile at he as Luke follows “Yeah, how’d you do that?”

She turns around proper and clutches her book to her chest “It’s nothing really, just some simple magic and spirit use”

“I’ve never even heard of mages making an entire dock appear” Luke throws his hands out to the docks in question.

“Yeah, can you give me any tips? I plan to make mana my second energy” Roxie asks politely.

Kizzy Looks Roxie over with her compound eyes for moment before responding “I would love to, but it would be best if you got your first energy sorted first, I'll give you some pointers ” she giggles and smiles back.

Roxie points to her “I’ll hold you to that”

After a few moments of amiable silence as the boat stops, Luke asks “So what’s this all for?” then suggests “Mining, fishing?”

“Research, this realms world is a still one like ‘Esta-sol’s’ but they believe that it is actually moving and so want to do research, whilst also testing new boats because of the ocean” she gestures to the water around them.

Both Roxie and Luke give an understanding “Oh” before the silence descends again.

Roxie, desperate to do something, spots wolf and the researcher looking over the edge of the dock with the captain and points them out “Hey, let’s head down” She then leads Luke off the boat to follow the pair to the edge of the dock with Kizzy shortly behind them.

Wolf notices them and quickly addresses Kizzy “You built it too high” he points over the edge to the sudden drop to the sand.

She shrinks under the crews gazes as she scurries to the edge and makes a ramp which they start hauling the supplies down, Roxie and Luke watch them before the captain grabs them both the shoulders “And what are you two boobs doing here, get moving” she then shoves them towards the stacks of crates.

They haul crates, bags and cages from the docks for nearly two hours as the rest of the trainees are shouted into action to unload the boat, after which Roxie and Luke can rest whilst the others move things from the docks to the designated spot in the forest. They're then are called over to join the rest, where the captain and the researcher, with wolf, Kizzy and Joe behind them, stand ready to address everyone.

The captain clears her throat before shouting “Aright you lazy lot, we want this spot cleared of trees, stumps included, before nine”

Several of the recruits produce watches and immediately start complaining about a lack of time.

“Are we gonna get any tools or are we gonna have to this with our bare hands” Roxie shouts over the complaints.

“Good question, in the supplied is three boxes worth of tools and equipment to use, if you can find them” Roxie and most of the rookies look behind them to the massive pile of boxes behind them that they were told specifically to stack “All of it is enchanted, by novice enchanters but enchanted no less, just gotta’ find it in all those boxes”

One of them speaks up hopefully “They should have mana batteries, who can detect mana?”

They immediately set upon the boxes and try to pull them open, getting some progress as Roxie looks at them with her head in her hands whilst Luke looks around confused, trying to find a spot to help. Just as Roxie is about to start shouting, Luke rushes to some of the discarded items and pulls out a metal ribbon and a large wooden stake.

She leans over Luke’s shoulder “So what’s that?”

He doesn’t look at her as he answers “A cutter line and an earth shifter” he then muses “These are expensive”

“So, these are what we’re looking for?” Roxie takes the metal ribbon and looks it over.

Luke stands up and starts looking around “Yeah, just need a battery”

Roxie looks over the people currently tearing through the supplies “What does it looks like?”

“A cylinder with two metal pins” he joins Roxie in looking through the crowd.

She then focuses her watchers’ sense on the crowd, causing them to slow down and start looking around suspiciously. She quickly spots a battery and wades through the crowd and snatches it out of their hand and gives it to Luke who quickly sets about testing out the equipment.

The one she snatched the battery from with several of the others approach her “What the abyss do you think you’re doing!”

Roxie looks at him like he’s an idiot “Waiting for Luke to cut down a tree”

He looks around Roxie to Luke who’s tightening the metal ribbon around the tree trunk, then starts storming towards him until Roxie picks him up by the collar with the tip of her tail and gives the others a glare.

“Hey Roxie, mind pushing this for me?” Luke calls with a wave.

Roxie, with the man still struggling on her tail, strides over and gently pushes the tree, then starts putting more of her weight onto it as it starts cracking. She huffs, drops the man and digs her tail into the dirt and braces against the tree with her hands and wings before pushing with all her might, sending what little chi she has to her palms to ease the pain as the tree creeks and gives way.

She stands proudly as the tree falls over, then looks at the trunk to find that only half of it is cut “This one is a dud”

Luke scratches his head for a moment before remembering “Right, novice enchanters” Until the researcher comes over and takes the cutter ribbon, but hands back the battery.

“I’ll take this one seeing as it’s not working properly” He then walks off to join the captain and others.

Luke shrugs before drawing a circle around the tree trunk with the wooden steak and stabbing it into the dirt, then slots the battery into its top and holding his thumb over one of the symbols on a flat section “Roxie?”

Roxie quirks an eyebrow before looking to the stump and noticing that the dirt around it is shifting. Shrugging, she makes sure not to step into the circle but digs her claws into the stump and pulls at it, shifting her chi to her claws to ease the pain again. After a minuet of pulling, she manages to pull it halfway before letting go and taking a seat to the side.

She then glares at the others who are standing around “Well, get started, I’m not going do all the work”

This repeats for the rest of the day, Roxie and Luke felling trees and pulling out what stumps they can before ordering the others to finish the work, she does tell those with mage sense to continue sifting through the supplies, gently this time too instead of throwing them about whilst the rest of the recruits who don’t have jobs are instructed to take the branches off the logs and stack them to the side.

“And that’s time! I guess this is good work, for a bunch of baby-faced nobodies, but good. Now bugger off and get some rest and get my idiot crew over here!” she points to the docks behind them.

The group stops and takes a look around at what they’ve done; they have felled three dozen trees, trimmed and stacked half of those, and only ten stumps have been removed, all before the batteries they had ran out of power and they had to start working manually. They filter out of the newly made clearing and to the docks where the sailors have setup several tables and chairs to drink and eat on, however they pause and immediately pickup everything as they spot the group trudging back and head to the clearing, leaving the group with nothing but a barren ship and a dock. Zark and the others trudge up the ramp and into the boat, disappearing into the ship with the rest of the group following behind.

Roxie follows onto the ship but instead heads to the bow and lays across the floor, using her tail as a pillow as Luke stands around looking put out, that is until the complaining and grumbling from Zark and the others reaches them.

“What are they saying?” Luke asks whilst stepping towards the stairs down.

Roxie perks her ears and listens for a moment “The bastards took the hammocks, and the bags”

“What? Why?” as he spins around to ask, the captain stomps onto the boat.

She locks eyes with Luke, then gives Roxie a withering gaze that she missies due to her eyes being closed. The captain then strides down into the boat before the shouting begins, shouting that goes about the lines of “I did not say you could sleep, and what in the abyss gave you permission to enter my boat!” for ten minutes straight. After seemingly venting her frustration, the group below come out with their heads hung low with the captain last.

She then stomps her way to Roxie who is still asleep, but by herself now that Luke scampered away, and stands with her hands other sides before roughly kicking her foot.

Roxie curls up to get her foot away from her “The shit?”

“Get up, who said you could lounge on my boat” the captain barks at her as Roxie gets up.

Roxie tentatively puts pressure on her foot “Doesn’t mean you have to kick me”

“My boat, my rules. Now get!” she points to the ramp which Roxie limps down to join the others “Alright you pathetic lot, get your asses back to the clearing” she then commands the group and points the way they came.

The group trudges back to find that a few more stumps have been removed and the logs have been used to construct the beginnings of a log cabin, the clearing has also been populated by the tables and chairs that the crew were using as well as a cluster of small tents.

As she's looking around, she spots that the tents each have a bag sitting in front of them whilst the rest of the bags have been piled to the side.

“Alright, those of you who performed well had priority when we were setting up your tents, if yours isn’t up, then tough” The group collectively sighs in relief before heading to the tents “Hey! You’re not done—!”

“Will you shut the fuck up!” Roxie shouts, interrupting the captain.

The captain’s face goes blank, then turns to pure rage which Roxie responds with defiance, stepping up to her and even puffing herself up a bit to get her point across.

This continues for a moment before the captain asks “Hope you can swim”

Before she can respond, Roxie is picked up by the waist by a hand of water that flings her to the ocean. Roxie opens her wings to catch the wind which then break as the speed she's moving at is too great to suddenly stop. She plummets into the ocean, far from the coast with her wings broken, and try as she might, she cannot swim.

She fails to try and keep her head above water as her weight drags her down, and down she does go, her attempts futile, her breaths nothing more than used air as she sinks below the waves. Her sight falters. Her lungs burn. And the sounds of lapping waves fills her ears. Hands press against her chest as pain shoots through it and water flows out, the sudden vomiting bringing Roxies back to conscious.

She forces herself to a sit on the stone platform, wiping the sea water from her eyes to the sight of Kizzy “What?”

“Oh thank the Saints your alive. Please, don’t move much, we'll be back on land shortly” Kizzy gently presses Roxie back down before she places her hands on her abdomen and closes her eyes. After a second of nothing, Roxie feels waves flow through her, first bouncing off her organs, then her veins, then her bones until Kizzy seems satisfied and pulls away “I’m sorry to have to do this but I am going to have to set your bones”

Roxie nods in acceptance as Kizzy places her hands on her leg. The same searing pain comes from it, then the pain of her bones being moved, she then repeats the process with her wings before bringing forwards her book and encasing the broken limbs in stone “There, we have wooden splints but these will do until you dry” she smiles reassuringly at Roxie who simply grits her teeth and claws at the stone below as the pain all comes rushing in.

They continue slowly drifting back to the shore on Kizzy's pillar of stone to meet the other recruits who are waiting at the shore. The pillar displaces sand as it brings Roxie onto the beach where Zark swiftly picks her up and starts carrying her inland.

He complains “You're heavy”

Luke chimes in as he weaves through the crowd “Hey, that's rude to say to a lady”

“No one I consider a lady could survive being thrown into the ocean like that” He retorts, not even looking back.

Roxie meanwhile had curled up her tail into her lap, but idly says “Guess Gelga was right, I do have a watched fate”

“I don’t know who that is or what that means but I’m guessing that's good. Now” Zark stops lays Roxie onto a blanket with her bag as a pillow “Enjoy the show” He points towards the sailors and captain who have all been gathered and are currently being shouted at by wolf.

Roxie watches with a frown, her discontent at this being the captain’s punishment very clear on her face. That changes as she starts rushing in the crew’s direction without any control, only to end up with a knife blade pointed at her throat.

“Now you're gonna let us leave here, or the girl gets it” the captain airs her demands as the crew start moving the supplies they can grab.

Roxie tries to struggle but the damage and strain she's under makes even maintaining the awkward angle she's in difficult, coupled with the crewman's threats, leaves her useless.

The group of adventurers also start surrounding the sailors, not blocking their path, but standing ready if things turn sour.

Meanwhile Wolf continues glaring at the captain as she slowly backs away to follow the crew “James, bring the girl” He follows her orders and starts dragging Roxie, but her weight makes it difficult “C'mon”

The crew has already made it to the boat, they're only waiting for their captain and James who is struggling to drag Roxie. He stops holding the knife to her throat and instead starts using both hands to pull her which is the moment Wolf decides to strike; he bolts forwards, his chi arcing dark crimson to push his legs to go faster than before but halfway he switches to charging the captain as drops start falling on Roxie.

Looking up, she's met with the decapitated body of James, who's head has landed in her lap and is spraying blood as his heart pumps it's last. In a panic to find the killer, she pushes out her watchers’ sense around her to find a Tebrien man to her side, currently staring at his bloodied sword. She turns to look up to him as shouts of panic and revenge sounds out from the boat.