The jungle had come to life after the rain and was abuzz with a cacophony of sounds as the day grew dim and orange. All of the insects and animals that had stolen away from the storm were now reemerging and causing a racket. Despite this, a single sound pierced the jungle air...

“Eeeyaah!” The sound of Herring screeching as he careened down a slope of mud and straight into a massive tree. With a solid thud, Herring found himself on the ground, dizzily looking up in the air. It was a familiar feeling—the one of blood gushing out of his skull.

He tried not to think about it. Blood and gore had always made him woozy. If he thought about it too much, he’d get stuck worrying over the possibility of getting an infection and subsequently dying. He’d heard head infections were especially dangerous.

Redlette deftly slid next to the felled Herring, slowing to a perfect stop. She then offered him a hand as though it was routine. “Yeesh, you really like splitting your head open, huh? You good, man?”

“I’m fine… This is still the quickest way to get around. We don’t have much of a choice. Besides, I’m getting used to slipping on mud.” Herring wiped his head off with a sleeve and motioned to Redlette. “Give this tree a purpose other than blunt force trauma. Could you climb up and see if you spot the elf?”

The jungle was laid out like an earthy staircase of precipitous slopes. Normally, it would’ve been an inefficient pain to navigate, but with a bit of foolhardy foolishness, it wasn’t so bad.

It’d been in the haste of seeking shelter from the rain that Herring had discovered that the slopes could be used as slides of sorts to surf down to the lower levels—like a messed up game of snakes and ladders that didn’t stop your piece at the end of the snake. It was this such discovery which had resulted in the bruised, beaten, and blistered state Herring was in when he’d arrived at the shack, as well as their swift retreat from the rain.

As for how the shack was located…

“No prob. On it!” Redlette’s tail eagerly flicked as she heard Herring’s suggestion.

She maneuvered herself like she’d been masterfully trained in the very niche skill of tree climbing. Her short body cannoned itself from branch to branch, never faltering regardless of their stability (or lack thereof)—all while wearing their overstuffed, soggy backpack.

Once high enough on the tree, Redlette found a decently sturdy branch and struck a lookout pose, squinting her eyes and peering through the endless canopy. Evidently, she had insanely good vision. Herring chalked it up to her simply being a deity or whatever. Or perhaps, he thought, it was a perk of her wolf-like attributes. Either way, it’d been essential in locating the shack.

After an amount of time, Redlette made her way back down from the tree and gave Herring a thumbs up as she made a show of landing.

“Can I assume this means you saw her?” Herring inquired.

“Yup! And she’s heading our way, even! Guess we got ahead of her.”

“That’s a relief… Here I was worrying that she might’ve turned a different direction. We would’ve been majorly screwed if she had.” Herring exhaled, releasing his worries.

“Yo, ease up a bit. Adventures are all about adapting to the circumstances. And that’s what we’re after, yeah? An adventure? So even if we lost her, we’d find our way to civilization… eventually… There’d just be a few more obstacles in the way.” Redlette assuaged Herring, powerfully patting his back to make him stand up straight.

“Yeah, yeah. I know.” Herring realized he must’ve seemed rather troubled for Redlette to find the need to speak up. Even though they hadn’t lost the girl, he’d still been mulling over the hypotheticals for if they had. He couldn’t help it. It was a nervous habit so prevalent in his life that it couldn’t even be called second nature—it was primary.

“Although, I totally would’ve given you shit if you led us the wrong way.”

“Yeah, yeah. I know…” Herring moaned. While it’d completely ruined the mood, in a weird way, it comforted him to know that Redlette was as blunt as she ever was. No matter the situation.

It wasn’t long after the exchange that the sound of snapping twigs and shuffling leaves could be heard from a distance. It was the girl for sure, hopefully, but the way she was approaching seemed somewhat methodical. Rather, it sounded like someone sneaking around—something that shouldn’t even have a sound.

“This is kinda sad to listen to…” Redlette mused, likely having heard her from even further out than Herring.

“Mhm… It appears no matter how naturally camouflaged she may be, with a body as lanky and awkward as hers… she’s hopeless at stealth.” Herring looked on sympathetically. He knew far too well how upsetting an awkward build could be. If he couldn’t be sympathetic, it’s likely nobody could.

Over time, the girl emerged from the foliage, a cautious look evident on her face. It was like she was stalking a predator and she was the prey. Or rather, it was like a recon mission where the scout was actually afraid of the enemy. For whatever reason, she had an intense aura around her as she muttered something indistinguishable and moved with utmost intricacy and care.

“‘I swear I heard it again…’” Redlette commented softly, her ears flicking intently.

“Hm…?”

“She’s saying ‘I swear I heard it again,’ over and over.” Redlette repeated herself more clearly, this time addressing Herring. “Honestly, it’s kinda creepy.”

“What did she hear, though? We’ve been here this whole time, and haven’t heard anything.” Herring replied before turning to Redlette with an unamused glare. Sensing an opportunity, he grabbed her ears and started tugging on them, heckling her for information. “We didn't hear anything, right?”

“Nope! Not a thing.” Redlette swiftly broke free of Herring’s grasp, pulling away as though she hadn’t been grabbed at all. Still, it didn’t not bother her. Much like actual dogs, her ears were apparently highly sensitive to the touch. After a moment of recovery, she appeared to have come to a realization, though, as her face shone with a non-verbal ‘Aha!’. “Y’know, I think she was talking about hearing something strange when we burst in on her.”

“Oh? Is that what she asked us about then?”

“Yup! Pretty sure.”

“I see…” Herring started racking his brain for some correlation between the two times. When they’d entered the shack, it’d been raining so hard that it was difficult to hear anything over its roar. Back then, the jungle had gone silent, its exuberance retreating from the rain. Comparing that to afterwards, where it was so alive that it was hard to hear one’s own thoughts, it was hard to draw a correlating line between the two atmospheres—they were practically two different worlds.

The only sound that could subsist in both environments would be one that wasn’t deterred in the rain. A natural sound? Why would a natural sound worry the girl, though? She’d lived here for, presumably, her whole life. Maybe a creature? Was there a creature she didn’t recognize? One that wasn’t drawn back by the rain? Hold on. A creature she didn’t recognize…? A creature she wouldn’t recognize…

“Wait…” A ghastly look appeared on Herring’s face as the girl neared the tree which they were standing by. A bright spark of reasoning had kindled itself within his mind, and it lit the burner in his cheeks to boil him red in embarrassment. There was only one sound that existed in both scenarios, one sound recent enough that it would draw the girl near to them, and one sound that would be totally unfamiliar to the girl. “It was my screams…! She totally heard my screams…”

Coming to this conclusion, Herring boiled over. And as if it couldn’t get worse, the girl had reached them and was looking over them with a face full of confusion and, most of all, sheer surprise. She had to have known that the sound came from them, but the how and the who seemed to evade her.

So, just like anybody would, she prodded them about it. Or at least attempted to. “How did you… Didn’t I leave you… Are you… Was that sound you two?! That really shrill one…! L-Like a banshee.”

That was all it took. As though the weight of the girl’s words were too heavy for him to bear, Herring slumped down against the nearby tree, his flesh somehow growing redder and redder—red enough to mask his bloodied forehead. Like a dam broke, Redlette, too, came to understand what was going on and started to holler in laughter, slumping down as well as she was unable to contain her pure elation at Herring’s expense.

“That… That was— Herring! He was— His screams… Oh, man. A banshee…!” Redlette was choked of air and her words couldn’t form comprehensive sentences over her bursts of laughter. But even so, through many failed attempts, she eventually landed on what she was trying to say, practically asphyxiated by the time she was able to muster them out. “Those were Herring’s squeals! Somethin— Something like ‘Eeyah! Eeeyaah!’ Right— Right?! Man, I can’t even make them as girly as his— and I’m a chick! Pffft… Fwahaha!”

“Eh… Um…” The girl stammered, totally at a loss of words. Much like before, her face bloomed into a flush, perhaps sympathetic, pink and a perfect reverse of their prior encounter was completed. She’d been the one to embarrass and humiliate Herring this time around. There was likely nothing she hated more than that. In a way, she seemed more flustered than when she, herself, had something offensive exclaimed towards her. “I-I think I might have said something uncalled for…! I’m so sorry! I’ll see myself out!”

The girl bowed swiftly, tears of apology welling within her eyes. She clearly feared being disliked. When she lifted her head, she couldn’t even look the two in the eyes. It was as if it’d pain her too much. So, in her mind, there only appeared to be one option. She clutched her basket tightly towards her chest and took off running full sprint, attempting to escape the awkward situation. Although, it was more akin to a reckless stumble than an effective sprint as she almost tripped over every straggling root that stuck out of the thicket—her teary eyes no longer able to navigate her world capably.

It was her words that had snapped Redlette out of her frenzy, however. After all, it would be hard to laugh when someone—a stranger even—was taking the situation so seriously and was so defeated in their apologies. Especially when they hadn’t done anything wrong.

Meanwhile, it was her actions that snapped Herring out of his stupor. She was running… She was running! No matter how embarrassed he was, he couldn’t let her get away—they needed her! The practical side of him wouldn’t let him pass up this opportunity for a guide to his new beginning. So, shaking off the red from his face, he called out, “Redlette!”

“On it!” —A slap was delivered to his cheeks. She’d gotten the wrong idea. He couldn’t blame her, though. It was an easy misunderstanding given the formula from last time.

“Oww…!” Herring rubbed the new red in his face left there by Redlette’s hand as he pulled himself off the ground, “I meant for you to chase after her! We can’t let her get away again! I’m not gonna go through this again… So, go! Shoo!”

“Oh… On it, again!” Redlette hadn’t even given herself a moment of respite to let the realization of her mistake sink in. Her impatience in life was used to its fullest extent as she sprung into action immediately. Within seconds a trail of dirt was left behind her as she zigged, zagged, and hopped around rocks, trees, and shrubbery. The whole display caused a stone of jealousy to fall into the pit of ineptitude within Herring’s stomach.

He squinted his eyes as he watched from a distance at Redlette trying to grasp the girl’s attention through her pink panic. It was almost comedic—watching her bounce around the girl and getting in her way as attempts to garner her focus. However, all of her efforts appeared to have failed as she stopped short for a moment, giving the girl a momentary reprieve to gain some distance.

Then, as if a lightbulb went off in her mind, she dashed once more towards the girl. By this time, they were out of Herring’s sight. He just had to hope that his partner’s pesky nature would outweigh her incompetency. And sure enough…

“Wahoo! Come and get me!” Once they came back into view, their roles had switched. The girl had changed trajectories and was now desperately chasing after Redlette, who had stolen her basket and was carelessly letting fruit spill over its edge as she ran, causing the girl to have to stumble to gather them back up as she pursued her. “Herring look! I’ve totally got her! Like a fish on a hook.”

“Poor girl…” Herring looked on with a blank expression. He knew it was a necessary and an unexpectedly smart solution, but it was also overtly Redlette. He was usually the victim of her mischief, so it pained him, nevertheless. “Never mind that… Good job, Redlette! Keep her coming!”

“Please! Give it back, I’m in a hurry!” The girl almost tripped as she screamed out to Redlette who had just arrived by Herring. It was a marvel how quick Redlette was—the girl was still a good way back and had slowed down significantly.

“How’d you even go about getting that?” Herring inquired with a raised brow, waiting for the girl to catch up. It was an impressive feat. “I mean, she’s so tall. So, so very tall…”

“Oh, I just jumped and snagged it. She was already sorta hunched over, kinda, sorta.”

“Even still…” Herring knew it made sense—he’d seen her climb trees—but it was just so absurd. This was the same girl who sat on a chair playing games all day, after all. The world was messed up for letting her be so athletic despite her lifestyle and physique.

It was during their musings that the girl had finally reached them. Upon arrival, she was clearly beat and had to hunch over to catch her breath, letting her body recover and her excessive head of hair droop down over her face so she could catch the cool breeze along her neck and back. The sudden chase must’ve blown out her remaining reserves of stamina. “Wh… Why… Why did you take my basket…?! I was trying to be nice! I mean, I was clearly making things uncomfortable. A-And I’m in a rush! Everyone’s gonna worry about me if I stay out this long. And they’re depending on me, too… So… so can I please have my basket back, please?!”

“Mmm… Nope!” Redlette replied chipperly and without hesitation. It was a rather ruthless response for what came with such an upbeat countenance.

Herring felt the need to interject himself into the scene, knowing little more progress would be made with Redlette handling things. The girl had just started to open her mouth in protest as she once again attempted to snag the basket from Redlette’s grasp when Herring spoke up. “What the hell’s your problem?!”

“Eh?” The two women before Herring responded in unison, not knowing who he was talking to. His gaze, though, was directed at the girl, so Redlette rushed to his side, realizing what was going on.

“You believed that we came from another world, right? Okay, cool. That makes life a lot easier, I thought. Surely we’ll get some help or, at the very least, she’ll inquire about our situation. After all, we said we were lost.” Herring began ranting—his favorite activity. “But no! Before we could ask for help—much less your name—you dash off in a panic, saying to the two people that you knew were lost that you had to return home—to the same city that we were looking for! Fine, maybe you don’t owe us anything. You really don’t so there’s no pressure, but…” By the time the rant had reached its concluding notes, the girl before them was awestruck and shaking. She hadn’t expected the generally soft, if not somewhat sharp, spoken Herring to go off on her in such a manner, and her morality being questioned appeared to cause a conflict in her mind. “...Don’t go off saying you have to do stuff for the sake of other people without even asking if we need help that we so obviously needed. Don’t apologize instead of even attempting the basic courtesies that would remove the need to apologize! And most of all, don’t give such lame excuses for running off over and over! It’s absurdly annoying.”

Following Herring’s rant, a moment of respite was found. Everyone had been shocked to silence by the sudden nature of the criticism.

“I— I’m so… That wasn’t my—” The girl stammered over her words, equally out of breath as the post-rant Herring. She was hyperventilating, not handling the crude confrontation very well. Redlette was preparing to head over and mollify the girl when she was interrupted by a partitioning hand.

It was Herring’s—extended outwards towards the girl as a gesture of good will. He was offering her a handshake. This was his conclusion. “With that all out of the way, we can start over. My name is Joe— no— my name is Herring. Nice to meet you. And this one here is…”

“Redlette!” Herring was interrupted by Redlette chiming in for herself, not wanting her friend to hog the conversation, “Unlike this guy, I’m not very mean. So you don’t gotta keep your guard up around me, okay? Let’s just be friends.”

“Huh?” The girl’s breathing had calmed down at the sudden transition to introductions, but she was still just as speechless. Her mind was overloaded, and her eyes were glued to the hand in front of her. On one side she’d just been thoroughly and mercilessly chewed out by Herring, but on the other he appeared to be welcoming her—one even asked to be her friend. It must’ve seemed very contradictory to her.

“You’re staring at that like you’ve got no idea what’s going on…” Redlette gingerly dropped the basket and walked forward, placing herself to the side of both Herring and the girl. Then, without warning, she grabbed the girl’s hand and brought it towards Herring’s, causing her to stumble forward. This created an awkward three-person handshake as Herring clasped onto the misshapen ball they’d made. “And now you…”

“—Oh!” The girl finally began to realize what was going on. In a frantic manner that accompanied such a sudden realization, she pushed her hand down completing the handshaking motion. A warm smile appeared on her face. She’d been forgiven—it was like that realization had just struck her. Then, completing the introductions, she spoke up, her slight accent rearing its head in a situation outside of her being flustered, “My name is Katelynn Springs. I’m an elf living in the half-elven capital of Beloveil Canopy. It’s my pleasure to make your acquaintance!”

The hands remained interlocked for an unpleasantly long period of time after the girl, Katelynn, had finished introducing herself. A slime of sweat soon covered the palms of each of them as the moisture from the jungle pressed into their happy scene. It was like they’d overcome the biggest hurdle, but the following step was still unclear to the group of social misfits. Who should speak up next? Was that it? Was everything settled?

Finding the need to ease the tension, Herring broke the silence with an “Ahem…” before breaking free of the group along with Redlette, who nearly tripped over the basket as she retreated. “So, Katie…”

“—Katie?!” Katelynn—Katie—had a face full of shock at the apparently unusual name she’d been called. It was like she’d been called by a completely different name in general.

“Well, yeah. Or do you go by Kate?” Herring asked, somewhat put off by the extreme reaction.

“Uh…”

“Don’t tell me… You don’t just go by Katelynn do you?!”

“Is that not normal?” The girl seemed genuine in her questioning. She’d evidently been called something entirely unfamiliar. Herring doubted she’d even heard the nickname before.

“No, it’s not! That’s awkward and long. Well, it’s only two syllables, and so is Katie, but still… you’re just not graceful enough to go by Katelynn.”

“Herring! Just because you’ve introduced yourself, that doesn’t mean you can be rude whenever you want.” Redlette chastised Herring, giggling at his lack of social awareness. Even if she agreed, she wouldn’t come out and state it in the same way he had. Although, there was a solid chance that what she would have said could’ve been worse.

“My bad… But it’s true, you know? She’s totally a Katie.”

“Oh yeah, for sure.” The two were on the same wavelength. No matter how much Katie wanted to protest, that was now her alias. However, it didn’t look like she would mind it. In fact, she seemed appeased by the ordeal, despite having just been insulted. For her, it was probably a human interaction that grounded these two unbelievable foreigners as people within her reality.

“So, Katie…” Herring started, making awkward eye contact with her, “Putting all of my rudeness aside, I’d really appreciate it if you could bring us along with you.”

“Mmm…! No problem!” Katie seemed overjoyed to talk normally with these strange people. Everything in her mannerisms showed just how much she craved interaction. “I was heading back anyway, you know?”

“Trust me, we know.” Redlette and Herring responded together, monotone. The stress of chasing Katie around was still wearing on them.

“At least this time around, we won’t have to be running around everywhere.” Redlette added, not at all exhausted herself. “Herring might have a few surviving brain cells, after all. Onwards, Katie!”

“Yeah… let’s go! —H-Hey wait! What was with that remark?!” Herring sputtered as the group began forward with Katie leading the way, hearts light as they bantered about with one another. Everyone was happy to slow down after a long day of running. It gave them time to actually talk amongst each other about normal topics. Katie prodded them with questions as they went, her curiosity sparked to unfathomable levels. She asked about all manner of things.

She was surprised and impressed to find out how they’d gotten ahead of her despite not knowing the jungle. About how they’d gotten here and why they ended up where they were, a place they were told was called Beloveil. She was even more ecstatic to learn that Redlette had lived on the forest floor many years ago. She also found the recency of their arrival jarring, and apologized profusely for giving them such an awkward welcome to the world. Then she fretted over Herring’s condition, promising to fix him up whenever she had a chance later in the day. To this, he just had to look away awkwardly.

The whole time, Herring found it strange that they could talk about such things like it was commonplace. Normally, the fact that they were from another world would be a thing that was hidden, but here it was accepted and looked at with intense intrigue. He’d have to thank Redlette for introducing them in the way she did.

It was all going great. Long as the walk was, it was enjoyable. This, Herring thought, This is what adventures in another world should be like. However, the whole time it felt like there was something missing to him. They’d found a companion, temporary as their relationship may be; they were exploring an unfamiliar land, even if it was a guided expedition; and they, most importantly, were adventuring with each other. And yet, something felt off. It was all going too smoothly.

Herring had come to this conclusion when he realized that he’d raised a flag that should’ve been avoided.

Suddenly their conversation was ground to a halt as Redlette’s ears twitched aggressively, and Katie nearly jumped out of her skin a short while after. The jungle grew in sound to a point where it was impossible to hear someone talking right in front of you. A flock of colorful, fat-bellied birds hurriedly flew by above them, like they were fleeing from something—the sound of bells rang from their stomachs as if they were warning them of an oncoming threat. Following them, all kinds of beasts of unidentifiable natures swarmed past them, creating a hazardous minefield of life as they filtered around their group like water across a rock on a waterfall. It was a wonder they weren’t trampled.

Herring had no idea what was going on. He was really regretting having normal human ears. He seemed to be the only person—the only creature—not in the know of what was happening. Although, he doubted Redlette knew much more than him, other than a sound and an instinctual feeling. But if there was something he was certain of, it was that they shouldn’t stick around. This level of calamity could only mean one thing: Imminent danger.

“We have to run!” Katie called out to them, her voice barely breaking over the chaos. In her tone was a panic unlike that of her embarrassed frenzy from before, and her whole body appeared on edge.

That was right— Katie would know the cause of all this chaos. She’d know what was going on. Her words carried extra weight due to this. So, without question, they took off after Katie who had already started on running ahead.

“Which way is the city?!” Redlette, being naturally more boisterous than Herring, called out the question they were both wondering. In response, Katie signaled in the direction perpendicular to where the animals had ran. The fact that they weren’t running on the same route as the flood of creatures was worrying, but they had little other choice. No matter what, they had to reach society. Katie motioned for them to continue following her, but Redlette simply nodded to Herring and sprinted with him towards another path in the same direction—they knew how to get around quicker than her.

Making sure the confused Katie saw what they were doing, they slid down a muddy slope in the same way they had been all day. Realizing their strategy, Katie stumbled after them. It was a new method of traversing the jungle for her, but it was undoubtedly quicker.

Upon literally crashing down on the next shelf of the jungle, slamming himself against the ground, Herring could finally make out what the commotion was about. From behind them there was an earth-shaking sound of thundering trampling followed by a blood-curdling roar.

Something massive was following them, and it was heading directly in their direction.