Ryan crept up behind the trio. “What’re you girls watching?”
“Just Faith practicing.” Tara answered.
“Are you guys coming to eat?”
“You’ve already roasted it?”
“Actually, I was going to get Faith to do that.”
“You’re a bum.” Cael sighed.
“What’s everyone doing?” Faith asked.
“Just watching you.” Nell said.
Faith’s face twisted with curiosity. Ryan grabbed her arm. “I need you to use your Fire abilities. That pig ain’t going to roast itself.”
“Sure, okay. Just stop pulling me!” She jerked away.
“Oh, stop being a baby.”
“Why, you--” The two walked back to the fire, bickering.
“I’m kind of excited.” Nell said. “Just think of all the nights we’ll be sleeping out under the stars.”
“Forget that.” Cael said. “Think about all the different varieties of fighters we’ll see.”
“What’s so great about that?” Tara questioned. “They’ll probably want to fight us! What about all the new cities we’ll see?”
The three girls nodded at the thoughts. “Come eat!” Ryan bellowed. “God! This stuff is gooooooood!”
The trio rushed back.


“I think we’re off course.” Faith said as she looked around. A thick forest had suddenly swallowed them.
“Yeah, me too.” Tara whispered. “I don’t have a good feeling about this…”
“What should we do?” Nell asked. “Back track?”
“No, it’s starting to get dark. We should probably set up camp here.”
“Good idea.” Ryan said, stopping in his tracks. “We should set up the tents quickly, before we lose all the light.”
“Okay.” The girls dropped their bags.
“Wait, we only have three tents.” Cael barked. “I thought we each had one.”
“We had to lighten the load so I could carry some books.” Faith said.
“Whatever. Nell’s bunking with me.” She set about to fix up the tent.
“Want me to help?” Nell asked.
“No thanks.”
Faith held up the poles as Tara draped the tarp over them.  “Nice.” they agreed.
Cael finished pitching her tent without trouble. Ryan growled and threw his poles to the ground. “I can’t do it!”
“Loser.” Cael and Tara said.
“I’m so ready to rest!” Nell said. “I’m too tired to even eat…” She scrambled into the tent.
“I really wonder what forest this is.” Faith said. She pulled her BluBerry out and commanded the map to be displayed. A large screen of static greeted her eyes. “That’s not good…”
A loud roar echoed through the air. Nell poked her head out. The others looked around, curiously. “Whatever that was,” Cael started, “definitely sounds a whole lot worse than that static.”
Faith dropped the device back into her pocket. “How close was it?”
“Extremely.” Cael grabbed her sword. “Bring it on.”
Tara unsheathed her katanas. “It sounded really big.”
“I hope it’s not a dark creature.” Faith prayed, clasping her hands together. “We don’t need it while it’s getting dark.”
Nell crawled out of the tent. “Maybe it’ll be a cute monster.” She snatched up her bow, just in case.
“Yeah, ‘cuz cute monsters roar really loud.” Ryan said, twirling his hand guns. “They do it to say ‘I’m a cute monster! Come pet me.’”
The ground began to vibrate. The group formed a circle, backs to each other. Wherever it was coming from it wouldn’t surprise any of them.
“I don’t feel anything.” Faith whispered.
“Where’d it go?” Tara asked.
The ground beneath them shifted. Realization swept through the group. “It’s underneath us?!” Ryan cried.
“Jump!” Cael ordered.
As one the group leaped away from one another. The ground cracked open, a giant snake-like creature breaking through and slithering from its hole.
“What the hell is that?!” Cael shouted.
“Does it matter?!” Tara asked. “Just beat it to a pulp!”
“It’s a Repiv.” Faith said, leaping back as the snake whipped it’s tail at her. “Its only threat is its poison, but its body is solid rock so it has a sound defense. Be careful.”
“What are its weaknesses?” Ryan asked, firing a few shots from one of his guns.
“I’m not sure, but it really doesn’t seem very strong…”
The Repiv glanced at each member of the group, slowly. Tara nervously turned to Faith. “What’s it doing?”
“I don’t know. Studying us maybe?”
“Should we attack it?”
The Repiv reared its head back and lunged at Cael. She gritted her teeth and swung her sword. The metal scraped against the giant snake, uselessly. Cael stared, dismayed, at it before being swatted away by its tail. She landed on her back, cursing.
“I definitely think we should attack it now.” Nell advised, forming an arrow of pure energy with her fingers. She strung it to her bow and aimed carefully. She smiled and released the strong. It hit the Repiv’s mid body, but vanished on contact.
Ryan furiously fired shots at it. Nothing seemed to be working. “We need to know its weaknesses!” He shouted to Faith.
“I can’t recall any!”
“Think hard, Faith!”
She pressed her fingers to her temple and attempted to remember what she had read on their assailant. “Nothing’s coming to mind…I’m sorry!”
“Maybe it doesn’t have any.” Tara said. “We’ll just have to come up with our own then.” She sprinted forward at the beast. It swung its tail at her. She jumped as high as she could, coming down on its tail. Without pausing she ran up the length of the creature to its head. “Hey there, big and ferocious. How’s it going?” She whispered.
The Repiv began to thrash around, desperately trying to rid of the trespasser. Tara dug her blade into the back of its head, looking for a safe hold. The blade dug into a crevice and she held onto the hilt.
“Hang on, Tara!” Faith shouted. She pulled her yo-yos from her pocket while rushing to her friend’s aid. She slipped her fingers into the slipknots in the string. Thrusting them with every bit of arm strength she had they wound around the creature. “Glacialis!” The creature halted its movement.
Tara pulled her sword free. She held the twin katanas up. With a loud cry she pierced them into the Repiv’s eyes. It screeched in agony. The others covered their ears. “Let’s get out of here!” The chimera girl said. Jerking the blades out of the Repiv’s eyes she jumped to the ground.
Faith retracted her yo-yos and nodded. “Do you think it’ll be okay to leave it here?”
“Yes. Come on.” She began to push her friends away.
The Repiv groaned. It opened its mouth, releasing a purple gas. “It’s the poison!” Faith gasped. She quickly covered her mouth.
Tara turned around. A cloud of purple slipped into her mouth and down her throat. Her hands dropped her swords and instantly grabbed at her throat. She fell to her knees and began to cough, uncontrollably.
The Repiv grunted, seemingly satisfied. It slumped over, dead, recalling the poison.
“What do we do?!” Ryan asked.
“We have to find a village, quickly!” Faith said. “You and Cael, take turns carrying her--”
“But the closest village is half a day away.” Nell pointed out.
“No wait!” Cael interrupted. “The old map had a village point near here. Uh…North East! Go North East!”
Ryan scooped his sister up. “Lead the way.”
Cael raced off. Faith and Ryan followed her. Nell snatched up Tara’s weapons and hurried to catch up with the others.