Our trek took us through more of the terrain we had already seen more than enough of. Most of the landscape consisted of more of the same dark soil and obsidian that I'd gotten used to.

After a certain point, we had reached a kind of edge to this terrain, however. The dark ground and rocks gave way to lighter dirt and a type of patchy green plant reminiscent of the grass I was used to on my own planet.

Upon asking Soot and Hal about it, I found out it was grass. They gave a brief explanation of the local wildlife as we reached deeper into the forest of this world.

From where I came from, my planet was a landscape without much ocean. We had a few small ones that were sparse throughout the terrain but most of the clay-filled land I grew up on covered about eighty percent of the planet’s surface. Not much difference was found there that I knew of, a few deserts and tundra sure but small ones. Wet and soggy ground that secreted clay covered most of my home.

It seems on this world, however, that they had much more water, a horrifying over sixty percent averaged at this point, but other than that they have similar creatures and objects as I was used to. The only notable difference was the massive variation in color and substance here!

Forests, plants, animals, and even the rare occasional ocean life on Alma, the name of my home realm, are all made of clay-flesh. Our bodies are mostly one large mass of living clay that matches the environment that birthed us. The food chain seems to work in a similar cycle as I learned exists here. Plants grow and absorb the nutrients, or raw clay, in the ground. These grow and are eaten by animals then, in turn, eaten by us.

The Almaej do have some notable differences than other creatures where we come from that make us the dominant species. Along with intelligence, we can eat anything made of clay, from animals to raw material, and store it in a hunch that'll grow on our back. We can access this mass, as a general term we use, to pick and choose how we grow our bodies. However, the most notable thing we can do is choose to color ourselves! At expensive cost to grow and maintain this has actually allowed us to develop color vision that gave us an advantage back home.

All this to say, that boy was I glad I chose to keep and maintain my color vision on this journey. The amount of color I witnessed on this trek was utterly dizzying! Bright blue birds, vibrant green plants, and beautiful red berries were just some of the things that I stopped to admire.

I tried to eat the berries that Soot encouraged me to try but Hal stopped me from trying that. Something about "severe indigestion" it would give me but I'm not too clear on that. He also stopped me from eating the bird but that was for entirely different reasons.

We eventually reached what even I could clearly identify as a road and were nearly to the forward base after a few hours hike.

A large, wooden gate over twice my height stood in front of us. Thick logs with pointed ends barricaded us from entering. On the corners, there were crenellations for two guards, I would assume, to stand watch. They didn't seem to be too interested in us as they saw us, giving us a quick glance over from afar, their eyes were peeled and looking for threats from the forest rather than us.

It wasn't until we got close enough that they bothered to give us a second look that they noticed me and stood to attention.

"We see you've gained an interesting friend there, Hal. Or maybe a new recruit?" The bulkier one with pointed ears questions Hal, one eyebrow raised in question.

“Hrrg,” Hal groans under his breath with what I tell to be mild irritation, “There’s at least two portals that’ve opened recently around the nearby volcanic region. This is Arc…”

“Hello there! I identify as male in this form, and you can call me Arc!” I give a proper introduction upon Hal pointing me out to these new faces I’m meeting.

“Umm… yes. I am male too and you may call me Aster in that case.” The pointed eared man greets me back. He’s fairly similar to Hal in appearance, same general feature excluding pointed ears. His skin is an ultralight shade compared to Hal, almost a pinkish white. Pointed ears frame his side swept brown hair that cascades over his right side, leaving a shaved opposing side revealed. His emerald eyes stare at me confusedly before his partner speaks up.

“Ha he!” The other person guarding the gate gives a lighthearted laugh in response to Aster, possibly to myself but I don’t see reason why. I gave a perfectly acceptable greeting while Aster stuttered oddly in response, clearly some low-ranking person not used to greeting individuals with his full status.

“In that case, I’m a woman and my name is Paama Treestrider. You can call me Paama for simplicity’s sake.” Ooh, now Paama can properly give greetings in turn.

She’s definitely the more noticeable of the two guards. While she maintains a general appearance like Hal, in his current non-combat form, and Aster without the pointed ears and fair skin, she is strikingly tall. As in over ten feet tall at least, taller than my height when I had my cannibalized mass. Whereas when I was that size and had misshapen body parts, she maintains a lean physique that is balanced as well as any fighters would be. She has a sculpted, muscular body that’s barely covered by the clothing and armor she’s wearing. Short, light beige capri pants and a messy green cropped tank top barely cover her russet, reddish-brown skin. Leather, a word I recently learned from asking Hal what his armor was made of, covered her sparsely along her chest and joints. It’s possible she may just prefer a more freeing style of clothing, one I can get behind being essentially a naked Almaej only “wearing” a pair of pants I shaped from my mass, but my guess would be more along the lines that it’s quite difficult to craft clothes for a woman her size.

Paama leans over fully against the wooden railing on her post, kind of an impressive sight considering her size, and waves Hal on.

“Anyways, as Hal who identifies as male was telling us.” She gives him a quick wink and subtle smirk as she does so.

Hal groans loudly this time and sighs once again before continuing his brief explanation.

“As I mentioned, two rifts have torn open recently in the area. One to Alma, where Arc told us he arrived from, and the other to the Plane of Water. A Water Wyrm breached the portal and I found it attacking him when I went to stop it. Together we drove it off, but Arc’s teammates didn’t make it and I…” Hal shifts uncomfortable again here and avoids her gaze as do I at the mention of my lost allies. “I had one of my wings cut off.”

Both Aster and Paama stir suddenly at this bit of news, a severe look of shock on both of their faces. Aster speaks up first before his partner regains her voice.

“How was this Wyrm so powerful and able to pierce your scales? Should we prepare for an attack from more?”

Hal takes a short moment to consider before responding.

“I believe it was a type of greater Wyrm if it was able to tear a wing, albeit just the wing, off. I also don’t think there should be any incoming soon. I may need time to heal but the beast was even more injured. It’s not coming back soon.”

“Mmhmm,” Aster nods his head, “That’s good then, I’ll keep an eye out ahead for any attacks that may come and keep you informed. In the meantime, we should get you and Arc to a healer.”

Aster turns his head towards Paama, and I follow his gaze as Hal suddenly seems startled and Soot grows excited behind us.

“Paama, can you take them t-”

“No!” Hal suddenly exclaims. “That won’t be necessa-”

THWUMP

The quick exchange of the two are cut off by the sound of Paama’s massive form landing after she leaps from almost as high as her height.

“Of course!” She smiles wide and spreads her arms out to us.

I’m startled by her reaching out but assume she must be meant to be our guide through the base. That is until she proceeds to reach down and sweep Hal from the legs and picking him up to cradle in her arms.

“Paama! I’m more than able to walk on my own!” Hal grows flustered as he lays in her arms. A large man made to seem like a child in her gargantuan stature.

“Pffft.”

Honestly, this is a sight that eases me a bit too much and I can’t help but let out a snicker. Seeing Hal lose his composure like this is more than I can hold in.

“Hargh Har!”

Even Soot lets out a hearty laugh before Hal turns and gives us a harrowing glare. Soot immediately stifles himself and takes off with a roar, stopping a couple dozen feet into the air.

“I’ll meet up at the Explorer’s Guild then check up on you in the infirmary, Hal” Soot shouts back at us before taking off before any of us can answer.

We all stare at the area he flew away to for a brief moment before Hal turns sharply to me from Paama’s arms.

“Arc!” He shouts.

“Err, yessir?!” I shout back, unsure of what he may be yelling to me about in this scenario.

Hal grins wide before answering back.

“Paama, Arc was actually vomiting after the battle and may be tired from the entire trip he’s been on. He could use a lift as well.”

“Oh, no. I’m actually able to walk fi-” I start to respond before Paama beams at me and reaches down to pluck me and place me on her shoulder.

“Of course! It must have been jarring and I am sorry your venture to Maja hasn’t been going well.”

Her strength really is incredible with that size! Maybe stronger than I was at my largest but much more agile for sure.

I’m so stunned from being picked up that I don’t get a chance to respond before she begins to crouch low. While on her shoulder, she propels herself towards a tree and performs a series of hops. She leaps from the first tree to another then back onto her post. She leaps directly from there to the ground, all this in the span of less than a few seconds. Every movement she makes contain such incredible bursts of power that I’ve honestly never seen in my world at all. There must be something more to how she moves than just size and mass. Maybe a power like how Hal has?

“I’ll take you both to be looked over, but I do hope this little home we made at least treats you better than outside has.” Paama gestures in front of her and I get a glimpse of the base in its full glory.

Races of a few kinds, some more varied than any I’d seen so far, walk about in a busy shuffle. A few of the buildings are made of logs, but I notice most are shaped out of stone. I hear rapid clanking reminiscent of metal working in the distance along with a few shouts from individuals in stalls looking to snag customers from the busybodies rushing.

A dirt road of sorts leads in front of us towards an immediate central plaza. The building I noticed lie in the outer edges of this area with stalls scattered randomly on or by the road. In the center of it all is an enormous stone, probably a half dozen feet wide by my guess, that secretes water in a pattern and pace that doesn’t make sense to me. Maybe Hal’s odd flask is related to the stone? Oh yeah! The welcome course might answer that.

“Actually Paama.” I shuffle a bit on her shoulder to lift myself into a more comfortable position. The padded armor on her shoulders is actually softer for me than I would’ve thought. I’m guessing she does this much more often than people would like.

“I think I’m supposed to go to a ‘Welcome Course’ or something? I have a lot of questions I really need answered.” My voice takes on a bit more of a serious tone as I let her know this. Thoughts of why the rift opened and some explanations sounding more important than being checked on when I feel fine.

“No, no.” She shakes her head with concern and looks at her shoulder to me. “That Wyrm sounds like it was more than a hassle for both of you. You both need to be treated.”

“Ahem,” Hal clears his throat and speaks up. “To be frank, Paama. Arc may be right. I think he’s actually… better than I mentioned and good to attend a welcome course.” Hal looks to the side and seems a bit regretful at how he mentioned my condition.

“Hmm, are you sure, Hal?” Paama asks Hal, looking at him directly in her arms.

“Yes, I am.” He responds.

“Ok,” She nods her head affirmably and begins taking her long strides towards a wide, flat stone building around the central area.