Stabby lays inside the circular body of the Noch Kohdok.

There's a lot more space in the interior. Not very fancy. Kinda bland, actually. Just a smooth black orb with lots of unused area. He wasn't sure where the creature kept its organs. This sphere takes most of the creature's interior, but he couldn't find insides anywhere. Where are they held?

Oh right, Kir gave him anatomy and biology books in case he got bored. Maybe it says in there. Hours have passed since they began traveling, and he needs something to do, anyway.

Stabby digs through his sack, throwing clothing onto the floor behind him.

"I need to organize this."

He reaches deep inside the bag, feeling a batch of hard and pointy objects. Holding them in front of him, he finds they were the lighting crystals his brother mentioned. Grisha said they could use these as emergency lights if they find themselves somewhere too dark to see.

It was a bit dim in here... and he is having trouble finding his books… This probably counts as an emergency. The room clearly needs decorations, anyway.

His vision clearer, he peers back into his bag.

"There you are." Grabbing a book called Creatures and Critters from the Land of Shadows, he places it on his lap.

Alright, where is the Noch Kohdok? From the index it looks alphabetical, so he has to find N.

Skimming through the pages, he flips to his wanted destination.

The Noch Kohdok is a nocturnal creature. If brought into beams of day, it enters a drowsy state and moves at a snail's pace.

The length in time before each loud stomp confirms the passage.

But once nightfall arrives, the Kohdok bursts with energy, dashing at unparalleled speeds.

His mother already told him this.

He skips forward, scanning for a mention of anatomy.

A sister species to the shades, the Noch Kohdok has parts of its anatomy that only shades can access... This circular resting room encompasses most space inside the creature. It can only do so because of how the Kohdok compacts its organs into a singular core, located deep in the center of its sphere-shaped body.

That's where it was.

He wants to find it.

"Alright in there?" Grisha asks from atop the Kohdok.

Stabby answers, filled with excitement, "Yep! I'm finding the core."

Grisha's voice deepens an octave, "No you're not."

"Why not? It'll only take a second."

Stabby trots towards the center. His movement is stopped by Grisha's hand grabbing the back of his shirt through the Kohdok's portal. The hand yanks him out of the orb, leaving him dangling beside the creature.

"I said no."

Stabby twists his head towards Grisha's firm biceps."You have very strong arms."

"You're my sixth sibling. Kinda have to by this point." Grisha says, placing Stabby on the saddle behind him.

"Fair point."

Wait... sixth sibling?

A shade drops in front of them, landing on his feet, before bending to a kneel. He seems to be of higher rank. His form is a lot more detailed than the others.

"Your highness, we've scouted the villages ahead and overheard information about an upcoming forest." The shade says, keeping his head low.

"You may rise," Grisha responds. "What have you heard?"

The shade rises at the command. "They mentioned closing trade routes in that area due to constant ambushes."

Grisha's brow furrows. "That's odd, there's been no report of any danger in this territory for a long time. Were you able to find out what was ambushing them?"

Stabby keeps quiet, intently listening for what's ahead.

"There seemed to be mixed reports from the survivors. Some say orcs brought back from the dead by a necromancer, some say spiders, and others say it was devils of some sort."

"I find each of those unlikely."

"I feel the same, it's probable those are all common folktales around here. But I still believe something dangerous is in there."

"What do you think would be our best option?"

"I believe we should go around," The shade says with certainty. "We should avoid placing the princes in unnecessary danger if possible."

Grisha contemplates on the shade's advice. He pulls out a map from his belt and rolls it out, pointing to their location. "This is where we're at." Sliding his finger over to the forest he continues, "Up ahead is where the forest they speak of is. It's wedged between these two mountains. If we tried to go around, it would take more than a month, and after that, we would still have a lot of ground to cover before we reach the Mad Shaman's swamp. Although this forest might be dangerous, I'm certain we'll be followed by one of the many people trying to kill us, if we aren't already. The longer we're out in the open, the more danger we'll be in." He rolls up the map, and with no room for disagreement, says, "We'll go through."

"Very well, your highness." The shade bows, and with that, he leaps into the trees and disappears.

He talks so formally with the troops. It's a lot different from when he talks with him and Kir. It must be what they call etiquette.

How do I know what etiquette is?

Stabby's ears perk up. "Oh, yeah!"

Grisha, who had realized the significance of his brother's ears perking, lets out a deep sigh, mumbling under his breath.

Stabby turns to Grisha, his curiosity clear on his face, "Hey Slicer?"

"Yeah," Grisha responds grimly.

"So, I have another question. I keep thinking about things I've never learned about. Things I never even heard of." Stabby leaves a second of pause, before asking, "How do I do that?"

"All of our memories are connected." Slicer explains, lacking enthusiasm. "If one shade experiences something, all other shades can learn from their experience. It helps speed up the growing process by teaching subjects we may not have time for and allowing us to focus on other parts of the shade's improvement."

"So we can see everyone's thoughts?"

"For most shades, yes, but royalty and more powerful shades can block certain parts of their memory from being tapped in to, both intentionally and self-consciously."

The unceasing shaking changes Stabby's focus to a different topic. "Oh, I think I came up with a name for a big friend here."

"Yeah? What's that?"

Stabby answers with his usual confidence, "Stomper."

A smirk cracks through Grisha's scowl, "Fits the little theme we've got going on."

"Also, do yo..."

Grisha's smirk disappears at the prospect of an additional question. "Stabby. Do you remember why I had you go inside Stomper in the first place?"

"To mourn the loss of future sleep, putting you in a state where you are unable to answer questions," Stabby recites.

"The time of mourning has not ended."

"Fine..."

The brothers rode in silence. Stabby every once in a while thinking of a question and writing it down, and Grisha stares in fear at the ever-growing list his brother prepares.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Stabby had gotten bored from the lack of interaction from his brother and was practicing separating his second shadow in silence.

He still couldn't do the full thing without being attacked, but he can separate it from his limbs.

His practice is interrupted when Stomper suddenly stops its tread. The stop slams Stabby into his brother, his head knocking against Grisha's back.

Rubbing his reddened forehead, Stabby asks, "Why did you stop?"

Grisha's gaze stays glued in front of him. "I think we made it to the forest the villagers were mentioning..."

Stabby looks up to see a forest entrance riddled with corpses. Wagons lay to their side, some battered, others crushed. Bodies of a multitude of unidentifiable species were gutted open. Venom leaks from them, the bubbling ooze melting the dirt beneath. Strings of webs connect every form in the brutal scene.

"I'm going to have to agree with you."

Shaking his head, Grisha says, "Well, we can't wait forever we need to go in there. Though we probably shouldn't bring in the Kohdok at its current state." Grisha hops off. He stretches his arms as he heads towards the forest, stepping over the wreckage of the entrance.

"Wait a sec," Stabby says, running over to Stomper's side and whispering something into its ear.

Stabby dashes to catch up with his brother, keeping his head up, away from the carnage.

As he reaches his brother, Grisha asks, "What'd you say to it?"

"We needed a backup plan, so I told it a code sound for when we get in danger."

Grisha gives him a disbelieving glance. "I don't think it was listening, even if it could understand you."

"Tell me that after it saves us from the spider monster," Stabby retorts.

They travel deeper into the woods, no sign of life in sight.

Stabby stops at a corpse, filled with the strange venom, the liquid bringing more questions to his mind. Why is there so much venom inside of them? How did it get there? He was guessing from the depth of the laceration that an ax or large blade did it. But why would you need venom if you could just dissect them?

He lowers to his knee, grabbing a stick and poking at the body.

His brother takes his attention momentarily, warning, "Try not to touch the ooze. It's acidic, it'll burn through you."

Stabby's hand feels warm. A bit too warm.

He turns back towards his stick. Right as he sees it he flings it as far as possible. The venom had melted almost the entire stick in a matter of seconds. The stick lands in a different stomach of boiling liquid, quickly sinking inside. If he hadn't thrown it at the time he did, his hand would've been just like that poor branch.

Stabby continues his trod through the forest, now keeping his distance from anything he's uncertain of.

Grisha stops, observing every direction of his surroundings.

Stabby is about to say something when his brother signs him to be quiet.

His sudden silence must mean... the creatures are nearby.

Stabby's eyes dart through the forest, watching for any sign of movement.

The corpses become less and less intact the deeper they go. The brutal mutilations exuding a horrid odor and the silk threads becoming more numerous and thick.

It has to be some kind of spider, there are way too many webs for this to be a coincidence. But according to what he's getting from their connected memories, spiders don't normally appear in these parts.

His forward motion is stopped by the muscular arm of his brother.

Grisha points towards an open area that the path of corpses leads to.

They crouch low, slowly progressing towards what seemed to be the center of the graveyard. As they reach the opening, they hide behind the trees, keeping watch for the hidden predators.

There was nothing… that was living, anyway.

Stabby rises and enters the opening, hoping to get a better look.

Grisha silently resists, grabbing his arm. He mouths, "What are you doing?"

"They aren't here," Stabby mouths in response.

Grisha's grip tightens. "They aren't visible, they could be watching."

"Sitting here won't do anything." Stabby slides his skinny arm free, making enough distance to prevent a second attempt to stop him.

Moving closer, he realizes how the bodies lying inside the clearing differed from the ones that riddle the path. They were orcs. And besides their scars, they were intact. The only sign they were dead was the emptiness in their eyes and the odd way they were stuck. The trees and dirt encase half their bodies, their torsos sticking out from the waist up.

Grisha steps cautiously over. Seeing the lack of movement in the area, he relaxes, straightening up. He speaks, his voice hushed, "I guess the orcs weren't the ones doing the ambushing."

Stabby responds, his voice much less hushed, "It's still possible they were. It could be something just ambushed them."

Grisha's voice reached its normal volume, "Well, either way, it looks like whatever they were, they're gone now. We should keep moving."

Stabby agrees and turns to leave.

He's about to take a step forward when something grabs his ankle.

"What's the problem this time, Slicer?"

A deep growl echos from behind him.

That didn't sound like Grisha. Stabby shifts to look at the source of the aggressive noise.

The orc that was supposed to be dead glares up at him, pulling its torso off the ground.

"Uh, Grisha... We have a problem."

Weird wounds on the sides of its head appear on its skin. The wounds seem to open, growing bigger.

Those weren't wounds.

Four round, empty eyes of a spider emerge from the slit.

"A BIG problem."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The shades lay dead on the floor, their limbs mangled. Two of the masked forms stand in the middle, the larger one holding the squad's captain by the throat. He thrust his hand into the captain's chest, tearing out his core. He keeps eye contact as he crushes the shard, then throws the lifeless shade to the ground.

Wiping the blood off his mask, the larger form says, "They were tougher than I'd thought they'd be. They even got a few hits in."

The second responds, "Shade training has grown more intense these past few years."

"True. But from the looks of it, the rest of our job may be done for us." The first says, looking up towards the forest.

"It seems so," The second snickers. "They should've gone around."