"That's definitely gonna leave a scar." Mo watched as Alix carefully replaced her bandages. It's been around two days since their troublesome encounter that wolf pack. Of course, in these past few days those wolves were not the only things that they encountered.
From those wolves to herds of buffalo and even rabid bunnies. Let's just say that the last few days have not been the best for Alix. "You are so unhelpful, Mo." Mo became appalled by his friend's accusation.
"What exactly do ya mean by that? I'll have ya know that I've been tryin' ma best to help ya but it can be pretty difficult when yer partner is so dominating in battle! I mean, ya be plannin and handlin all these many-versus-one situations so well that I'm not needed, so what is it that yer so upset about?!"
Alix looked to Mo with a deadpan expression. "Are you done?" Mo nodded. "What about you? Are ya done yet?" Alix lightly patted her fresh bandages and nodded.
"We should get moving again." Alix stood up and began to pack all of her stuff away. While packing she could not help but think back to what Mo had said earlier. She really had been handling those fights mostly alone but that was only possible because Mo had been there. She knew that Mo wouldn't let anything terrible happen to her.
She would still prefer that the fish get more involved in their battles. She remembered the few moments that her and Mo managed to work together. Like against the Djinns and Angelica as well. No, those were Mo doing the work while she stood on the sidelines.
Had the two of them ever actually worked in unison? Alix resolved herself at that moment. 'Just another thing for us to work on.' Alix turned to Mo as he waited for her to pick his fishbowl up. As much as he complained when he first got it the fish seemed to have come around to his living circumstances.
Alix and Mo spent the next days just travelling through the fields of Selden. They tried their best to avoid any contact with monsters for the time being. Alix only had so many spells and catalyst on her person. She had already used around a third of them and they would only last around another week at most.
They eventually arrived the next obstacle of the journey.
The Gallenway Rainforest. The giant mass of trees and poisonous plants that separate's The Selden Plains from Pesinwok. The forest is known to house various strong monsters which was part of the reason that Alix wanted to travel through it.
"In hindsight, this may have been a bit overambitious." Alix gently rested her hand on the injury that she obtained just getting this far. "Yer only realizing this now?" the pair entered the forest, despite fearing the dangers.
They had already come this far, so there was no going back. The forest was dense, as one would expect, making it difficult for Alix to find her footing. She pushed her way forward as best as she could until she finally made it past the wall of green. And the sight that she beheld was astonishing to say the least.
The trees stood tall. Taller than anything that she had seen before blocking out the sky entirely. Despite that she could still see the rays of light that Blaze emitted peering through the trees and giving light to the forest. The different plants that she saw, the beasts that frolicked through the forest.
"This place is magnificent!" Alix analyzed her surroundings completely awestruck. She had truly never happened upon anything so beautiful in her life. "A bit green for me." Mo's snarky remark snapped Alix out of her amazement.
"Would you prefer it to be underwater?" Mo placed his fins to his chest. "Ya know me so well!" Alix continued to walk through the rainforest still finding new things to be amazed by. 'This makes it all worth it!'
The rainforest was just so exciting and interesting to the girl. Not everyone would agree, however.
"Ouch! Gah another one of those damned plants bit me!" The brown haired woman screeched.
"What is up with the plants in this place anyway? Why do they all have teeth?" a man with a similar look the the woman questioned.
"Can you two just shut up! We're looking for a cockatrice and I would rather it not be alerted by your whining." The final member of this trio ordered. This person seemed to be the oldest of the group but still had a similar appearance to the others.
"Why did we have to go for the cockatrice quest anyway?! I don't even like poultry!" The younger man yelled with the woman agreeing. "And isn't this rainforest supposed to be really dangerous if you don't know what you're doing?"
"Well, luckily for us I know what we're doing. So, I'll ask one more time for you two to please SHUT UP!" The two younger followers quieted down. They did not want the wrath of their older brother to rain down on them.
"Great. Also, for the last time a Firebird and a Cockatrice are two different things. We are not looking for the giant dinosaur chicken but for the big flaming bird. Okay?" The younger siblings nodded in understanding.
The eldest sighed in relief. "Why do I take you two anywhere? We should never have left Bhigele! Then I wouldn't have to hear your constant whining and nagging." The three continued to search for signs of their target.
They were a team of siblings if that wasn't obvious enough already. They were not from around this area and in fact weren't even from the nation of Pesin. They came from a nation know as Bhigele. A nation known for having an...unsavory reputation.
This family left home to become big time adventurers but were struggling to find success. Not due to a lack of strength by any means as they were all quite skilled. However, they were not very good at teamwork as seen by their constant arguing.
They could barely agree on a quest to go on without finding some reason to fight. Which was how they ended up with this annoyance of a quest. They were fighting over what quest to pick until the oldest just ripped one from the board and called it a day.
They had been in this rainforest for about a month now looking for this Firebird that had been requested to be taken alive. They didn't know what made the bird so special and they honestly didn't care. They just had a job to do.
Need to raise that rank and all!
"Maybe we should just give up at this point. How are we supposed to find some random Firebird in this confusing place?" The sister complained. "Did they say anything on the quest that gives us any sort of clue that would differentiate it from any other Firebird?"
The eldest brother pulled out the paper again and took another look at it. "Green." He put the paper back in his bag and kept walking. The sister rolled her eyes. "What do you mean green?"
"I assume it means that it'll be somewhere green?" The eldest remarked in frustration. "Somewhere green? In a rainforest? Maybe you should take another look at that request?" The eldest turned to his sister in a huff.
"What do you want me to do? That's what it says on the paper." The girl tried to hold herself back from exploding. "THAT'S WHAT'S ON THE PAPER?!" She failed.
"Why do you always half-ass everything? This is exactly the reason that mom kicked you out!"
"She did not kick me out! I decided to leave on my own! Besides, you were the ones that begged to come with me when I said I was going to become an adventurer!" While the eldest brother sister where bickering the youngest sibling noticed something.
"Um guys?" The arguing stopped as they turned to their final sibling simultaneously. "I think that's what the paper meant by green." They turned to the direction that the youngest gestured in and noticed the freshly burned remains several plants before them.
They could tell that the burns were fresh because there was still fire on some of the scorched leaves. The color of the flames?
Green. The eldest smirked to himself. "Well guys." the younger siblings turned to the eldest.
"Let's go catch us that Green Flamed Beak Freak!"
"Was that supposed to be a one-liner. How corny!"
"SHUT UP!"