For the next few months Jachum’s everyday life didn’t change much. He would wake up the morning and follow along with his training same as usual. But he felt different, there was a sense of impatience welling up inside of him. He wanted to track down this Morana even if she was a goddess, he started to think he had a curse because he couldn't stop thinking about her. Everything else seemed less important than is was before. Caught up in an obsession of a goddess far beyond his reach and had almost killed him, it came as a complete surprise to him when his Father said they were going to be traveling outside of the forest the following week.

“Uhhh, what?” said Jachum in surprise. His Father grinned at him, “Yep we are gonna go visit your grandfather.”

Jachum tried to ask more questions, but his father promptly ignored him. After getting past the shock of it all, Jachum started to feel kind of nervous. Its not as if he didn’t know about the outside world. His Father had also told him about the normal political situations that had been occurring the last time he was there. But the only people he actually knew were his father, the damn fox spirit, and Morana. Jachum didn’t get even an hour of sleep that night.

Over the course of the following days, the tension Jachum felt kept increasing, it became so bad that during an afternoon training with wooden swords his Father ended up almost bludgeoning him. He was so tight, his bodies wasn’t moving right, and because of a slip in concentration his father swung for his head. Jachum was barely able to throw himself out of the way.

Standing over him and shaking his head his father said, “Jachum I know the idea of traveling to the outside world is scary, but you need to get your shit together. Even the most highly trained individual will still die if they are stabbed, or poisoned or burned or sliced. Or most other ways to be fair. But in all honesty Jachum you need to calm down, there is no way you can stay alive if you act like this then entire journey.

His father told him to chill for the next couple of days before they left, which Jachum felt odd. But realizing he didn’t really have a choice, decided to spend those days reading a little from his Father’s library. Nothing that interesting, but there had been book called myths and legends that he had always enjoyed, so he spent the follows days reading about the ghosts, gods and fae that prowled his continent. Because of the many instances where the damn fox had tried to trick him over the course of his childhood, it wasn’t hard to pick out the nature of the stupid spirit and at every story he would skip as soon as he realized it was about the damn fox. The creature was just a menace to society and didn’t deserve any of his attention.

The morning of departer took years to come around, but was it was finally the day, Jachum felt boundless nervous energy. He was carrying two space packs that held food and and tent supplies along with the weapons and armor he wasn’t wearing currently. Right now he had on a pair of cotton pants and light shirt, with a thick hardened leather overcoat. He had on the customary moccasin boots he always wore, but the overcoat felt a little weird restricting his movement a bit. His bow and a quiver of arrows were stored in a water proof case across his back, with a few knives were hidden on his body.

His father was wearing something relatively close to the outfit with a bow strap acrros his bacfk as well. The major difference was the Large blackened staff he carried in his left hand. Jachum had always seen it stuck in the corner of the cabin but had never played with it under strict orders from his Father. Seeing it out in the open air surprised him, and on closer inspection in the sunlight the staff look like the inside of is was a liquid rather that a solid which he found rather odd. In the blackened depths of the staff, darkness seemed to swirl around. “This is a special staff, I might try to bite you if you touch. I know your curious, but I’m gonna need you to stay away from this. This is important Jachum, the only reason I bring it out is because I’m not sure what we are going to encounter. It’s a three week journey and I haven’t traveled out of the forest since you were a babe.” Said his father after noticing the curious eye Jachum was giving the staff.

They set off fairly late in the morning and began the tract south towards Jachum’s grandfathers home. The first day they traveled at a very leisurely place, his father going over their course on the maps with him, discussing a few meet up spots if they were to become separated over the course of their journey. Jachum was excited the start but as soon as he realized that this was not different that any normal hike through the forest his nnervouse energy began to relax.

It was around evening when they came across their first hint of danger. Jachum hackles were raised as soon as he felt somethings eye on him. Over years having to deal with the fox’s tricks he began to develop a keen sense of when someone was watching him. “Enemy” Jachum signed to his father, unwilling to break the silence.

His father replied with a couple of complex hand signals of his own. “Yes, plan k.”

Jachum palmed a war tomahawk and a knife, then began making his way to the left of their location while his father kept traveling following their original path under the massive trees towering above. Jachum continued moving left until he couldn’t feel anythings eyes on him. He climbed the large tree closest to him and became began following behind his father from the treetops. It didn’t take them that long to discover It was a large snake, waiting in the canopy ready to drop down as soon as they passed by.

Jachum shouted a warning seconds before the large snake dropped from the canopy to the forest floor and his father below. His father had time to look up and dive to the side as the snake sort of glided his way down striking out with fangs and barely missing the fleeing man.

Jachum stored the weapons in his hand and quickly with withdrew his bow and five arrows which he stabbed into the bark next to him. He strung the bow and brought an arrow to bear on the massive beast just as it stuck for a second time at his father. He was able to strike and dodge at the same to using the force of the staff against the snake’s skull to propel him farther away. Jachum released an arrow at the snake, and it sunk into its neck causing it to his in pain.

The spot where his father had struck the snake with his staff was producing black smoke which Jachum thought was weird. It took another ten minutes of his Father dodging strikes and Jachum shooting inbetween to finally bring down the beast, with eight arrows piercing the neck skull, and a lucky shot hitting its right eye. During the hunt, the snake had gotten slower and slower for some reason making it that much easier the finish off.

By the time Jachum had climbed down the tree his father was already in the midst of skinning the beast. It took another half an hour to gather and store the snake meat in the food bag before they once again set off. The coolest thing Jachum had noticed was that the snake’s skull had been partially dissolved from where his father had struck it. When asked, “Yes, the staff produced an acidic poison that can melt just about anything, as long as I let it. I’m not going to explain everything so save your questions I’m not going to answer them.” His father said.

It was another 2 hours of travel before they set up camp in an old warren under the roots of one of the towing trees. Jachum laid traps and covered up the the entrance of the tunnel, while his father took out a light stone, bread, and dried meat for dinner. They ate in silence, and once finished his father signaled him “First.”

Then grabbed the light stone, took out a bed mat from his pack fell asleep. Sitting in the silence, Jachum paid attention to his ears and smell, as he waiter for his watch to end. After roughly four hours, Jachum walked over to wear his father lay then gently stomped on the ground three times in quick succession. Two click in recognition told Jachum all he needed to know, and in the darkness he took out a bed pack, unrolled it then quickly fell asleep.