"Compared to the kingdom's forest, this place looks much better. We could make a treehouse in this forest." Quill happily remarked, looking at the abundant amount of trees. Above them the sun was continuing its descent to nightfall.
"You like forests?" Myo asked, walking alongside her and Colton.
"Well, I never lived in a city or kingdom." She replied. Myo looked surprised at her response.
"Well, forests are rather nice as well. You know that city world before wasn't the only place I made a treehouse in." Quill quickly became interested after Myo spoke, starting a conversation with each other.
Further in, Colton noticed the light from above was getting less and less abundant, his worries grew after realizing they may have no equipment for dealing with the night.
"It's starting to get to nighttime, and we have nothing to light up our way." He remarked. Calliope noticed as well, looking around to make some makeshift torch to light their way. But Myo looked at him with a smirk.
"Don't worry about the light issue, I can deal with it. We just need to find a long and thick stick."
"I can find one." Quill joined the conversation.
"Find a branch that Myo may use then, lest we lose our way in this place." Calliope ordered. Without missing a beat, Quill ran from the group, disappearing in the trees. To the shock of the team.
"Do you think she can come back?" Celestine asked, concerned.
"Eh, she found her way back with the wolves before, she can find us later on." With the area around the team, full of foliage, bushes, and trees, there wasn't really much of a way to help with finding someone. The sound of birds and insects echoed into the forest making it far too difficult to hear. He started to worry for her after this realization but continued on their journey. Hoping she can actually find them in this massive forest.
"I ponder if it will be safe to remove the disguises." Calliope commented as they reached further into the forest. The trees had become thicker and darker in color. At this point the mountains behind them were barely visible, blocked by the dense branches and leaves.
"Why would we? These disguises look rather dapper." Marcus questioned.
"One thing of the disguise spell that I did not divulge sooner, is that once the disguises have been used for the length of an entire day, the user will experience extreme fatigue. And the spell will not be usable for another day." She responded in a calm tone.
After a few moments of silence, surprised by this new fact
"Well nobody's here, and if someone spots us we can just deal with them right? So I don't see an issue." Celestine added, still playing tricks with the deck of cards.
"And that irritating guy from earlier is nowhere to be seen. We're pretty far from the mountain after all." After moments of consideration, Calliope made up her mind.
"Very well, we have taken about 10,785 steps from the mountain. The distance is acceptable." A cloud enveloped everyone, quickly returning them to their outfits. The team was relieved to see their old clothes again, back to their real selves and real faces.
"Ah, back to my beautiful war robes!" Marcus rejoiced.
Their journey went on, the light only became dimmer and the place felt tighter than before. Their open path was getting smaller as trees became larger.
Colton began to daydream, bored of the walk, retreating to the memories of his past. His home, his village, the trees.
The sound of birds and insects soon became quiet as the day was an hour away from winding to an end. A once lively forest, now turned to an eerie land with the scent of leaves and dirt in the air.
Colton became weary again, a silent forest was never a good sign, especially in his village. Then he remembered Quill, becoming concerned once more if she survived or not. He tried to calm himself down.
'She's lived in our forest longer than me. Surely she can deal with this.'
Suddenly, the ground began rumbling, and leaves violently rustled. The team raised their weapons, finding the source of the rumbling. Before anyone could react, one of the large wolf creatures burst out, sending thick trees around the area.
But on top of it, Quill fired arrows at its head. Colton couldn't believe it, they struggled to beat even just one, but now Quill was capable of fighting on her own.
"So this is what she learned when she played possum with them before huh?!" Marcus shouted, shocked as well by what he was seeing.
The wolf thrashed around with its large claws, leaving marks on the ground and clearing trees around it.
The team frantically ran back and hid behind one of the trees, trying to not get crushed or slashed in the process as the area quickly turned into a battleground. The wolf hopped around, trying to throw Quill off of it, but she continued staying on.
Amidst the chaos, Myo unexpectedly joined in the fight, running close to the beast and dodging its large claws, cutting into it, seemingly uncaring whether it did any damage to it or not.
But the fight came to an end, the beast dropped to the ground, exhausted and heavily wounded by the barrage of arrows Quill had shot at it. She jumped off its back while it began vanishing, with a face of confidence and pride. Myo stood next to her with a smile.
She turned around, noticing the rest of the team huddled in fear by the tree. Her disguise had also vanished, returning to her nature huntress attire.
"Well, that was a tough one." She looked at Colton
"Aw come on, thought you'd join in with me, we're forest dwellers after all, we adapt to the beast and kill it afterwards. Even Myo joined in, and he's a forest one as well."
"This is different, you know!? This isn't just common wolves and angered moose!" He retorted, but Quill only laughed.
"Excuses, excuses. A forest is a forest, and a hunter will always adapt and kill their prey." Once done, she took out a thick stick from her robes.
"The disguise outfit thing disappeared and I dropped the stick, so that's how this whole wolf killing thing started."