The giant boar sniffed, the air moving in a torrent that whipped at Yuriko's hair, and exhaled a breath that almost blew her off her feet.

"No," the creature rumbled, it's bass tone caused a vibration that struck at her Anima, shaking her core. It caused the leaves around them to sway, creating little dust devils that swirled around the bushes. "You are mostly human. Hrmmm, what are you? I smell an Imperial nearby..."

It's head swayed as it looked around, zeroing in on Orrin who was shivering on a tree branch. The boar snorted disdainfully. "Your kind has not abided by the treaty."

"Ah, uhm, excuse me…uhm, Mister Boar?" Yuriko stuttered, "May I know who you are? I am Yuriko Mishala Davar, from Faron's Crossing to the south. A cadet."

"Soooo...they send a child to do their duties. Disgraceful. The Chaos Taint must not touch this Great One’s forest! Yet what is here?" The boar snorted again.

Yuriko stood perfectly still, sweat beading on her forehead from the heat of its breath.

"Hrmmm, yes. Introductions. Hrmmm. You address the Avos Shillogu." The boar tilted his head up, looking down arrogantly at Yuriko.

"Shillogu, as in…the forest?" Yuriko blinked up at the giant boar.

"Woods. It's called Shillogu Woods." His curt tone betrayed more of his annoyance than anything else.

"Apologies," Yuriko hurriedly answered. "I, uhm, it's a pleasure to meet you?"

It wasn't as if she had never heard of the Avos. Childhood tales were replete with them though usually as givers of quests or targets of subjugation. Still, she didn't expect the woods’ Avos to be a boar, though it did explain why there were so many wild hogs in it. Suddenly, she was glad that she vetoed Orrin and Krystal's desire for roast pork and bacon.

"Indeed it is a pleasure," Shillogu agreed. "Now, thank you for saving one of my kin, but this Great One must remove the taint your people had carelessly allowed in."

"Ah, wait!" Yuriko yelled just as Shillogu turned to move on. Behind him was the familiar furrow that she and Orrin had followed earlier. 'Well, that solved that mystery,' she thought idly.

"Yes, child?"

"What do you mean mostly human?" Yuriko said.

Shillogu placed his snout on top of her head and drew a deep breath.

Yuriko felt her skin crawl while the giant sniffed her. She gulped and fidgeted, then froze when she thought it might offend him.

Orrin had overcome his fears and he'd climbed down the tree, gingerly stepping past the dried-up corpses of the swarmlings. The critters were already starting to disintegrate.

"Hrmmm, yes. Mostly human," Shillogu nodded though he didn't elaborate which somewhat irked her.

"And why would you say that?"

"Hrmmm, your question. Do you expect an answer for a boon?"

That brought Yuriko up short.

“What do you mean?”

“Nothing comes for free,” Shillogu grunted.

Her thoughts raced. “What do you want for such an answer?”

“Wyldlings infest my forest. It is your duty as a citizen of the Empire to keep such vermin out. But since you are but a child, your efforts will be rewarded. Bring me Chaos shards fresh from the heart of Wyldlings and this Great One will answer your questions.”

“How many will it take for you to answer how I can find my Da?”

“That question cannot be answered.”

Useless. Yuriko clicked her tongue.

“Then...do you know of a way to finish the Wyldling Wave?”

“Bring me ten shards.”

Orrin blurted out, “But isn’t ending the Wave beneficial to you as well?”

Shillogu turned his head to face Orrin who took a step back wide-eyed. “Not my responsibility. This Great One will protect the forest and it is your nation’s responsibility to break the Waves. However, Wyldling Waves are formed by an act of Will. Something is behind them and if you can stop it, so will the Wave end.”

“Da…” Yuriko whispered, her heart skipping a beat. They attempted to stop the Wave but failed. They may even have triggered it early. “How can we even do that?” she blurted out.

Perhaps it was her imagination but Shillogu seemed to be grinning.

“A weapon. An ancient artefact will give you enough power to end the Will pushing the Wave. This Great One knows where one is.”

“Why don’t you use it yourself?” Orrin asked.

“This Great One in not capable of wielding it nor of entering its sanctum. But she can do it.”

Orrin’s eyes narrowed. “You obviously want us to use this weapon, why?”

Shillogu snorted, blowing Orrin’s hair back. “You are the one asking for a boon. Bring me ten shards and this Great One will bring you to the weapon. Count yourself lucky, I would ask a hundred shards for such a boon in other times”

“We are but a small group of children. Please, we cannot find so many shards in such a limited time,” Orrin begged. “But we pledge to accomplish this in as few days as possible so you need not trouble yourself!”

“Hrmmm, very well, your words have wisdom. Five shards.”

“Can we not offer you one now?”

Shillogu’s eyes narrowed. “Three is the least this Great One can take.”

Orrin bowed with his hands folded over his chest. “I agree.”

“Very well, child.”

“Where will we find you?” Yuriko asked.

“Address this Great One as the Avos Shillogu and wait.”

“Thank you, Great One,” Yuriko bowed.

Shillogu snorted and trotted away. Yuriko wondered how he could move in the forest without knocking everything down but the trees and bushes seemed to simply move out of his way as he did. He certainly should not have been able to fit through that copse.

The two of them shared a glance. They were but a few dozen paces from where they started fighting the swarmlings, though thanks to Shillogu and his blazing furrow, the swarmlings he had trampled had disintegrated.

“You’re hurt, let me, uhm, let me help,” Orrin said while Yuriko was lost in her thoughts.

Yuriko nodded. “I just need to stop the bleeding.” All the pain that had been blocked by adrenaline came flooding back. She couldn’t help but wince, while her Animus started the Recovery pattern.

Orrin had a few bruises from getting thrown back but since he never got close to the swarmlings, that was the extent of his injuries. Yuriko, on the other hand, had small cuts and punctures all over her body, though they would have been much worse without the forceweave pants and jacket. Unfortunately, the damage to her clothes was severe enough that it would no longer offer the same protection without major repairs. Her backpack, at least, managed to survive that melee nearly unscathed, sporting only a few scratches along the outer weave.

Orrin helped clean the blood off her face, hers and the swarmlings as she had forgotten to put up a blood repelling field in the heat of battle. He frowned as he dabbed some antiseptic on her scalp. “This is smaller than I expected,” he muttered, “Or do head wounds just really bleed that much?”

Yuriko had doffed her jacket. The sleeves of her button-up shirt were stained red and blue but the torso part was relatively clean as she had been able to avoid being wounded there. The four-inch gash along her left bicep had already stopped bleeding thanks to her Recovery. In fact, as soon as she used the golden silhouette’s recovery technique, all of her wounds had stopped bleeding.

“That’s unexpected,” she muttered. The regular version of Recovery sped up natural healing, but not that fast. She waved off Orrin’s ministrations and said, “I’m fine. It hurts a bit but we’re better off returning to camp.”

Orrin nodded while he packed up his first aid kit and, in short order, they were on their way.

“That was good work there,” Yuriko said after a while. The usual forest sounds had returned, but Yuriko couldn’t relax. Her eyes danced around while her ears twitched whenever she heard an odd noise, though most of the time it was either the wind or a bunny, piglet, or squirrel moving in the undergrowth.

Orrin shrugged. “My family is a merchant clan after all, even if I don’t want to follow that trade in particular. I wonder what he wanted the Chaos shards for? I doubt he wants to sell it for Sovereigns.”

“A ritual?” Yuriko ventured.

“Maybe. Sorcery was learnt from the Avos after all.”

“Sorcery? Do you mean Spellweaving?”

“They’re related but somewhat different, though I think the finer points are relevant only to the practitioners. I want to be a Rune Scrivener myself,” Orrin confessed.

“Ah. Interesting,” Yuriko said absently. The pain of her wounds slowly faded as she kept Golden Recovery active. Her Animus reserves were steadily draining though so she slowed down the circulation but doing so resulted in some of the pain returning. Still, they weren’t out of danger just yet.

“This is the first time I’ve actually met one of the Land Spirits,” Orrin gushed. “I must say that none of the books I’ve read gave justice to how it would feel like to meet a sentient force of nature.”

Yuriko gave him a sidelong glance, finding his happy countenance at odds with how Orrin usually was. There was a strong light behind his eyes while he nattered on.

“Did you notice how he used his Animus? I’m pretty sure he didn’t use any patterns. The bristles on his back were infused with Animus before he struck. Also did you notice when he charged at the swarmlings? A field of Animus ignited the air and burned them. And did you notice how he moved afterwards? It was as if the forest was one with him and moved aside to let him pass!” Orrin gesticulated wildly. “And…uhm...” His face reddened when he looked at her.

“Oh, go on,” Yuriko said with a smile, “Don’t let me stop you.”

“Ehehe, yes. Well, I could honestly say that I didn’t expect to see this when Uncle paid for the training camp,” Orrin cleared his throat.

“What treaty was he talking about though?”

Orrin shrugged. “I’m not sure either. But by inference, it must have to do with killing the Wyldlings that leave the Tidelands.”

It was well past noon by the time they finally arrived at the lake. Yuriko could smell woodsmoke from quite a distance away. In front of the campsite, Mikel was spit-roasting fish and smoking strips of meat. He jumped up as soon as he saw them.

“Ancestors! What happened?” Mikel exclaimed, bringing both Heron and Krystal running.

Heron glared at Orrin for some strange reason and the other boy wilted under his gaze, tugging at his collar fitfully. Krystal grabbed Yuriko, making her dump her backpack on the boys and dragged her to the bath.

“Tell me what happened while I check your wounds,” Krystal said curtly.

“Orrin already did some first aid.”

“Uh-huh. Strip.”

Well, Yuriko would have done so voluntarily but before she could move a finger, Krystal had already started undressing her with surprising ease until she was in her smallclothes.

“Hmm.” Krystal clicked her tongue while she inspected the various bruises and cuts along Yuriko’s arms and legs. She had some lacerations at the back of her neck too. Krystal inspected some of Yuriko’s shortened locks while grimacing. “Recovery won’t bring this back.”

Yuriko shrugged. “I would have had a shorter hairstyle but Da and my brothers vehemently protested.”

“Well, it's hardly noticeable,” Krystal said encouragingly. “Well, take the rest of that off and take a bath.”

Yuriko dipped a finger into the pool of water, finding it lukewarm. She rinsed the dried blood off her limbs and afterwards, Krystal applied antiseptic ointment and covered the bigger ones with gauze bandages.

“I can’t do anything about your forceweave,” Krystal lamented.

“I’ll have it fixed when we get back to Faron’s Crossing.”

“If we get back.”

“Well, we found the source of that burnt trench,” Yuriko said.

“You fought it?”

“Chaos, no,” Yuriko shook her head. “We found swarmlings and had to fight those.”

“You couldn’t have just avoided them? Is it Orrin’s fault? He can’t run on top of the trees as easily as you could have.”

“No, no. It wasn’t Orrin’s fault. If, uh, if anything it was more mine than his.”

“You found something cute being attacked by swarmlings and couldn’t help yourself.” Krystal said drily.

“Ehehehehe.”

Krystal poked at the puncture wound on Yuriko’s thigh, eliciting a yelp of protest.

“Really. Why?”

“Uhm, I just acted.”

“And didn’t use your head!”

Yuriko hung hers down in shame, digging her toes in the dirt. Well, the fact that she was practically naked while Krystal was fully clothed didn't help at all. A moment later, Krystal enfolded her in a hug.

“Don't be so impulsive, Yuri. We only have one life.”

“I know.” Yuriko sighed. “But at least we gained something from this.” She started putting on her clothes as she spoke. “The Avos of Shillogu Woods saved us. Turns out he is a boar.”

“Huh. That a fact?” Krystal shrugged. “Well, I’m sure he wouldn’t mind us culling his children.”

“Did you capture any piglets?” Yuriko gasped.

Krystal turned her face away. “Maybe. Alright, we caught a wild hog in a snare, and well, we’ll have pork chops tonight.”

“Ancestors forgive us,” Yuriko sighed. “Avos Shillogu gave us a quest too. He said the rewards could help us end the Wave early.”

“Ah.” Krystal looked doubtful. “Are you sure? Didn’t we just watch a play about making deals with strange powers just a week ago?”

Yuriko shook her head. “It is a trade. He’s asking for three Chaos shards in exchange for the location of an artefact.”

“Yuri, three Chaos shards isn’t worth an artefact and you know it.” Krystal shook her head.

“I know. But it is still a chance. I want to find our fathers but to do so the Wave has to stop. This is our best chance. I don’t want to keep running and hiding.”

“I suppose you have a point there. But let’s get the boys’ take on the matter.”

When they returned to the campsite, Orrin’s right eye was swollen shut and Heron was limping. Mikel gave the girls a long-suffering sigh.

“What happened?” Yuriko couldn’t help asking.

“I tripped and beaned Orrin’s face with my fist,” Heron said blandly while Orrin glared at the taller boy.