"We are on the right track, but it's too risky to move during the night so I think we should rest now," said Owen. It was already nighttime, and the jungle was so dense that even the moonlight had difficulty in crossing the lush foliage.
"I know, let's rest," said June.
After some time of searching, Owen found a cosy clearing and decided it was the perfect spot to set up camp for the night. The relief was palpable as they dropped their hefty backpacks, loaded with grilled and smoked fish, more than the other group carried. Why the excess? Simple – they didn't want to risk ingesting anything from the forest.
The forest had its dangers, especially with the Awakened flora. These plants could mess with the nearby vegetation, making it a risky venture to eat anything even if it seemed edible. Different awakened plants had varying effects on different species, making it a thumb rule to steer clear of anything suspicious. Given the certainty of multiple awakened plants around, they played it safe and skipped everything from the forest altogether.
Owen wasted no time gathering firewood, while Anna used her Awakened ability to control vines to craft a makeshift tent, and covered it with leaves. After a satisfying meal of heated fish, Anna and June called it a night, leaving Owen on night watch duty.
Owen was perfect for night watch as his ability
Soon 2 hours were finished and Anna woke up from her slumber. With Owen two two-hour shift over it was Anna's turn to keep night watch.
"Hey Owen you can go rest" said Anna as he tapped on Owen's shoulder.
Owen nodded and went inside the tent to sleep, while Owen and Anna had always bickered outside, when it came to test they were professionals.
Anna took some water from the wooden bottle, washed up her face to wake herself up and sat in front of the fire with a sword in her hand.
After 2 more hours June woke up and got out of the tent. But as soon as she opened her eyes she was surprised. She rushed inside the Tent and started shaking Owen.
"What happened," asked Owen still sleepy, but the next sentence woke him up completely.
"Anna is missing" June replied in a grave tone.
"What do you mean she is missing" said Owen confused by the situation as both of them came out of the tent.
The view in front of them was strange, the campfire was out and Anna was nowhere to be seen. Since they had enough firewood collected to last the entire night there was no way Anna would have gone to collect firewood and that also without telling anyone of them first.
"Wait let me check" said Owen as he once again used his awakened ability, his ears grew in length and transformed into bat-like ears. He used his echolocation again to get sense of things.
"1 o'clock, there is movement but it is too far away, we have to move quickly" Owen replied.
"Owen you go first, I will only cause hindrance, I will light up a torch and follow," June replied.
"But to leave you alone" Owen was hesitant but before he could oppose to say anything.
"It's an order now go" June said in a strict tone, leaving no room for negotiation.
Owen following the order did what he was told. His eyes due to his transformation allowed him to easily watch at night and along his radar-like senses, he quickly caught up with the trail of Anna who was walking mindlessly.
June wasn't one to lag behind either. Swiftly grabbing a stick and sparking it up with a flintstone, she tailed Owen. It only took a few minutes of running before June caught up with Owen, who was standing outside a cave.
"Where is Anna" June asked.
"She is inside the cave, but I detect many movements inside, so I decided against going in alone" Owen replied as he pointed towards a small cave.
"You made the right choice," June said as she turned her attention towards the cave.
"I think there might be an Awakened flora inside, but what kind" asked Owen.
"Your guess is as good as mine, Anna was the one who was most knowledgeable about the Flora, we can only move forward and then know," said June as she conjured up an Ice sword in her hand.
Owen also followed the Suit and transformed himself into a human half-bat equipping himself with his two wooden daggers.
Owen took the lead as his senses were superior during the night. As soon as both entered the cave Owen and June saw Anna collapse on the floor, owen wanted to rush towards her but was stopped by June.
Before Owen could ask why, June pointed towards the ceiling, the whole ceiling was covered by an Orange moss-like substance. But it wasn't any orange moss, it was hallucin-bryophytes.
It was one of the awakened flora species that possessed no harm on its own, it just released a special kind of spore that when inhaled would make you hallucinate and walk towards it.
But the real danger was the species that are commonly in a symbiotic relationship with it. Other species allow them to grow on themself because they lure in the prey and in return they provide the bryophytes with the nutrients that they require.
And since there was a group of bryophytes covering the walls of the cave it would mean that this was no cave, to begin with.
"When I count to three, you will take Anna and run out of the cave while I will shoot it with my Ice swords," June ordered understanding the gravity of the situation.
While Owen hadn't fully processed the situation, he knew better than to argue.
"One two three now" June shouted as she threw the sword in her hand towards the bryophytes followed by conjuring more swords that she sent towards the walls of the cave.
Owen also didn't waste a second, he quickly transformed himself into full bat form grabbed Anna between his claws and quickly flew out of the cave, June also exited the cave which was now screening in agony.