We left early the next morning. Tasha acted a bit brighter, but her smiling expression did seem a little off. I tried not to read too much into it and I tried my best to just casually continue our journey, at least until we reached the Nature Clan’s territory. On our way there, we passed by another destroyed fort, which we steered clear of. Not too far past that fort, we arrived at the edge of the forest. We traveled through the forest for about an hour before coming across a dirt trail. We followed it for another couple hours before night started to set in. We gathered some firewood and set up camp for the night a bit away from the trail.

A week and a half went by like this and although we were close to running into Nature Clan patrols a couple times, we avoided them in time. As we neared the heart of the giant forest, I would occasionally climb up a tree to spot ahead. Early in our tenth day in the forest, I spouted the landmark in the distance. It was a massive tree, at least five hundred feet tall. I had heard from Lars once before that the Nature Clan’s capital was founded around this giant tree that they treated as a deity. I originally thought that just meant it had historical significance, but after seeing magic at work and gaining the powers of a guardian spirit, I’m not so sure of that anymore.

I climbed back down from the tree and we travelled for another hour before I climbed up a tree again. By this point, we noticed that the number of trees had begun to thin quite a bit. The trees were now more than fifteen feet apart on average, although they were still quite large, at least forty feet tall even for the smaller ones. In general, the forest was not particularly thick with trees and there were not that many places where a group of people would have difficulty getting through. However, that did not change the fact that this forest was indeed massive. We were near the capital, but according to the map, that was not even halfway through the forest. The forest was also longer north to south than it was east to west.

Enough about that, though. There was something more important to be concerned about now. To no surprise, I was told that patrols were the greatest around the capital. After climbing up the tree, I thought I could spot faint movement just ahead of us. There was also movement not too far to the right and left as well. I climbed back down from the tree and went over the plan with Tasha.

“Alright Tasha, we’re almost there now. There are a lot of patrols around and even if we run our fastest, there’s a decent chance one of them might still spot us.”

“So, we’re just going to turn back?” she asked with subdued outrage, probably not wanting to raise her voice too much.

“If worse comes to worse, we will.” She glared at me for a second before turning away. “However, that doesn’t mean we won’t try. We will see if it’s possible to sneak past them for now. If they do catch us, I will try to convince them to let us through. Whatever I say when that happens, just play along, okay?” Tasha nodded without looking at me.

I charged up a couple bolts into my legs so we could dash away if necessary. Then, we cautiously made our way forward. Right as we spotted a pair of soldiers from the corner of the eye, we quickly hid behind a tree. I concentrated on the sound of their footsteps and waited for the sound to fade away. Then, I waited another ten seconds for good measure before taking a quick peek around the tree. I didn’t see them and quickly beckoned for Tasha to continue to follow. The moment we stepped out from behind the tree, we heard a commotion coming from the direction the soldiers walked off to. It sounded like a loud cracking sound followed by shouts. Unsure of what that meant, I didn’t know whether or not to hide behind the tree again or make a break through the patrol routes. Before I could decide, Tasha grabbed my hand and pulled me forward. Breaking through it is then. As we started to race forward though, we heard shouts coming from the opposite direction of the commotion. Another pair of soldiers came running in and although we dashed behind a nearby tree as quickly as we could, one of them caught sight of our movement.

“Hey, there’s something moving over there! Right behind that tree!” the soldier cried out. Well, trying to keep hiding clearly wasn’t going to work. So, keep heading for the capital, or fall back. Tasha gripped my hand again. Honestly, the plan already seemed like a bust, but there were only two soldiers for now so I can go along with this for a little bit longer. Tasha would probably act up if we gave up so quickly anyways.

“Alright, let’s go,” I said in agreement to her silent request. We came out from behind the tree and went running towards the direction of the capital. The soldiers quickly spotted us and started running towards us, and although I didn’t look back, judging by the sound, we were rapidly gaining distance over them. We continued to run for another couple minutes and by this point, we were sure that we lost them, but another few seconds later, the forest came to an end and we were faced by a forty foot high, metal-plated wall. Standing atop the wall, I spotted a lone archer. Unsurprisingly, he spotted us too. He took an arrow from his quiver and readied a shot. I charged up a couple bolts and focused on him. He fired off the arrow and I evaded it.

Well, that’s it for now. I grabbed Tasha’s arm and pulled her along, retreating from the capital. Reinforcements were likely to arrive and even with our strength and speed, we would not be able to scale the wall. Tasha resisted me for a couple seconds before sighing in resignation. At least she understood it well this time. We ran away from the wall, but to my surprise, the archer readied another shot and fired at my back as we fled. Honestly, I thought we were quite a bit out his range and the piercing of my back was surprising. I stumbled and tripped, crashing into a tree. The end of the arrow also snapped as I fell, somewhat nudging the arrow slightly deeper into my back.

“Dad!”

“I’m fine!” I quickly got back up on my feet and started moving. “We don't have time to sit around!” I started sprinting again and Tasha followed. As we got deeper into the forest, we encountered a pair of soldiers. They may have been the ones chasing us, but that hardly mattered. In the distance, I heard even more soldiers shouting. Several patrols had clearly gathered together by now. We charged at the two soldiers and slipped past them. They both tried to take a swing at us, but even with half an arrow in my back, I was still in more than good enough shape to dodge. As we passed them, I noticed that the commotion had grown louder. Then, coming from the direction we were heading towards, a girl with flowing brown hair came running towards us. She didn’t look much older than Tasha and she wore hide armour and a felt, triangular-shaped hat. She also had a bow and quiver slung around her chest. For a split second, I turned to look at Tasha, to check to see if she was seeing the same thing I was seeing.

“R- run away! That way!” Tasha blurted out awkwardly at the girl. The girl slowed her pace a bit.

“N- no! Run that way! There are a bunch of them right behind me!” she shouted back in between quick breaths.

“No, there’s a bunch behind us! There’s a wall and an archer too!” Tasha shouted back, somewhat needlessly as we were now only a few yards away from each other. When Tasha and the girl were right next to each other, they both stopped. They both started to argue how either direction was dangerous. Then, soldiers came in from our left and right. Well, I knew what was behind us, and even though she said there were soldiers in front of us as well, that was still the safest direction.

“Tasha, they’re here, we gotta move!”

“Huh? Yeah, right! Come on, we gotta get out of here.” Tasha grabbed the girl’s arm and started pulling her along. She might have tried resisting, but with Tasha’s level of strength, I really couldn’t tell.

“Fine, bring her along!” Whatever, I don’t care. Tasha successfully dragged her along with us and we started running again. However, the girl couldn’t run as fast as us and the soldiers were starting to gain on us. I let out a quiet sigh of exasperation. I charged up another bolt throughout my body, which both induced a minor headache and stinging pain where the arrow was still in my back. I took the girl away from Tasha, picked her up in my arms and just ran. Tasha followed closely. Soldiers appeared in front of us and I asked Tasha to clear the way. Tasha drew her sword and engaged them for just a few seconds, enough to give me space to run past them. Then, she gave them the slip and continued chasing after me. Before escaping, another arrow came whizzing by and missed me by a couple feet. For a second, I imagined how horrible it could have been if all our previous enemies were archers. After another few minutes of running, I was now pretty sure we lost the soldiers, but now I had a rather intense headache. I dropped the young girl onto the ground rather unceremoniously as I leaned against a tree and massaged my temple. The power of the bolts quickly faded.

“Are you okay?” the girl asked, seemingly not upset about how I’ve treated her so far.

“Dad, are you okay?” Tasha echoed, which caused my head to pound a bit harder.

“Y-yeah, just…don’t talk so loud.” As the headache started to die down a bit, I felt a burning sensation in my back. I reached at my back and recoiled as I touched the broken shaft of the arrow. Right, that’s still stuck in me too.

“Dad, we need to get that arrow out.” Tasha went behind me to pull out the arrow but the girl stopped her.

“Wait! If it’s really deep, he might bleed out if we can’t stop the bleeding.”

“Well, it doesn’t feel that deep. Just burns.”

“It burns?” she asked with great concern on her face.

“Yeah, there’s a burning pain.”

“We have to get you help right away!” she said with panic.

“What? Why? Is something wrong?”

“Yeah, is there something wrong?!” Tasha asked, repeating my question.

“The arrow might be poisoned!” she answered. Oh, that is indeed a problem.

“What?! Dad!”

“Calm down, Tasha! You, uh, you!” I said, pointing at the young girl, who seemed to be shaking slightly in my eyes. Was the poison affecting my vision now?

“I’m Flora.”

“Right, Flora, do you have something? Antidote or something?” She shook her head.

“I don’t have anything like that on me right now, but, I can take you to my grandpa and he can help.”

“What are we waiting for then?!” Tasha spoke up quickly and loudly. “Come on, dad, we need to hurry.”

“Wait, we don’t want to rush too much as well. It could be a poison that spreads faster if you do that.” Tasha looked around in a panic for a bit before suddenly nodding her head.

“Got it,” Tasha began, before turning to face me again. “Alright, dad, I will carry you to Flora’s grandpa.” I immediately threw one hand in protest.

“No, no, no, I can walk just fine. Flora, is this place far? How long would it take for you to lead us to it?”

“It would take me about an hour to get back there.”

“How do we know if we even have that much time?! Alright, I’ll carry both of you.” I could tell from Tasha’s face that she wasn’t joking.

“No, an hour should be fine. Odds are the poison isn’t lethal, but meant to cause other serious conditions. Um, a lethal poison would have killed you already. Probably.” Probably?

“But you’re not sure?” Tasha asked.

“Well, I’m pretty sure.”

“Enough! Flora, just lead the way, please.” I put one hand over Tasha’s mouth. “We’ve wasted enough time arguing.” Tasha finally submitted and we followed Flora. As we traveled, I started feeling feverish but I ignored it. We had just arrived at a small hill when the fever suddenly intensified. My vision blurred and my entire body felt like it was on fire. I lost the energy in my legs and I collapsed to the ground. I heard Tasha and Flora shouting above me, but it was all muffled. I blanked out soon after.