Garden Of The Abyss

"There--you can have it back!"

Ren shouted at the towering, carnivorous plant as its vine-like limbs whipped about in the air. His pleas for peace were in vain, as the violent plant swiped its vines towards him, causing him to draw his sword in response as he avoided their striking range.

"--Seriously, what\'s with this forest and angry mothers right now?"

Compared to the katzern, it was hard to feel any real sympathy for the raging plant, as he wasn\'t even certain as to what he was seeing. Besides that, his own body devoid of nutrients no longer had any room to hold back.

Bursting forward with reinforced speed, Ren landed in front of the agitated creature made of vines, swiftly bringing his blade through its bulbous head. It seemed he guessed right on where its "core" lied, as the creature withered into crumbled, lifeless specs of what was once living.

"--I still have nothing to show for now. Great."

His stomach growled once more as he looked up at the moonlit sky, hoping for some sort of miracle of food to just drop in front of him.

Rustle. Rustle.

Hearing the rustling of bushes in front of him, he quickly brought his gaze back down to see a plump rabbit creature with silver fur, nibbling at the grass.

--Ah, thank you, moon god!

Returning to the temporary home which was the cavern, it took him longer than expected as he lost his way in the darkness. Entering the stone-house, Ren presented his spoils--the stocky rabbit he had managed to procure.

Sirius was still sitting in the same spot in front of the orange flames, looking up at the returned young man with a raised-eyebrow.

"--You took like two hours."

"Hey, this was your idea!"

Ren let out a huff before dropping his rear onto the solid ground below, handing his caught prey to Sirius, who promptly slid a knife out from his belt, skinning the rabbit with surprising handiwork.

"I seriously did not expect you to be so good at that."

"Well, it\'s something I learned back home. The nights back at my motherland were always so cold that your fingers and toes would go numb--and your nose would be as red as Rudolph\'s."

"Your last name is "Federov", right? If I had to guess...that\'s russian?"

"Yup! Thinking about it...there isn\'t much to miss about that place. I lived in a pretty remote village, where it constantly rained with bitter snow--I was taking care of my sickly siblings half the time. I suppose that\'s what I miss about home...I wonder how my siblings are doing. Little Dimitri and Lada are probably all grown up by now…"

Seeing that melancholic smile perched across his lips as he reminisced about life back home, it reminded Ren that these were people, just like him. Sometimes it was hard to remember that when they were all already waiting for him in this world, flinging magic about--but in reality, they yearned for home just as he did.

"Well--enough about that! Maybe one day I\'ll teach you my expert skinning technique, passed down for generations through my family!"

The man bragged, flipping the knife between his fingers before he set the skinned rabbit over the stoked fire. Using the time before the meal would be finished, Ren decided to clean his blade--wiping it over with a handkerchief.

"--Huh, looks like you got something from our list while you were out there."

Sirius commented after pulling out the paper from his pocket, taking a bite from the cooked leg of the creature.

"Must\'ve been that angry plant-vine-berry monster…"

"It\'s called a "Trailsnapper"--they lure in prey who attempt to steal their berry-like appendages."

"Appendages? Uh…"

Surprisingly, the rabbit didn\'t taste half-bad, at least to his starving body it didn\'t. With full-stomachs and a few points to their names, Sirius and Ren decided to check in for the night.

Predicted by the lightning mage, clouds carried with them rain, soon showering the valley as the dirt turned to mud.

As uncomfortable as the smooth, rocky floor was, he was tired enough to pass out as soon as he closed his eyes.

He slept like a log, not waking up a single time despite the wilderness ambiance, only waking once the rise of the morning made itself known--pelting rays of sunlight against his closed eyelids.

"Ah…"

Ren yawned, slowly parting his eyelids as he met the new day. One thing felt weird however--he didn\'t have any sort of blanket, yet his body was kept to a soothing warm. In fact, it felt like there was an entirely separate source of warmth radiating against him. As he attempted to get up, he realized he was being held--there were arms wrapped around him.

"Sirius--?!"

His shocked yell caused the man huddled up behind him to slowly wake up, opening his crystalline eyes before greeting him with a casual, "Good morning."

"Get off me already!"

Ren stood up, shivering as his body tried to rid itself of Sirius\' presence.

"What\'s the big idea? It was cold, so naturally…"

"Naturally you cuddled up with me? If you were a cute girl, it\'d be one thing--you may be a good-looking guy, but that doesn\'t give you a pass! Seriously, is one of the requirements for being summoned into this world to be abnormal?"

"Don\'t you know siblings do this sort of stuff? When did my little brother become so cold?"

"For one, I don\'t know any siblings who cuddle! And also, we just met yesterday!"

Ren shook his head, finding it too early in the morning to deal with such an eccentric entity.

--I\'m stuck with this guy for another two nights--I\'m going to need to start sleeping with me back to the wall.

"Today is the big day."

Sirius suddenly said as he adjusted his gloves, stretching side to side he made his way to the front of the small cave.

"What do you mean?"

"I guess you could call it an "Outlander-Royale". The grace period is over--which means its all-out war between the other teams."

"I don\'t get it--there isn\'t any benefit to defeating anyone, right?"

He was left clueless to what Sirius kept hinting at to be the main attraction of this whole game, standing next to his partner as they prepared to set out.

Without turning to him, Sirius gave him the explanation he wanted, which was certainly not what he wanted to hear, "Besides maybe calling dibs on a monster, there isn\'t any reward for beating another team. It\'s all because we want to do it. This is the only time which Beatrice allows something like this--so we use it to measure our strength against one another."

--As I thought--it seems the only requirement to be summoned is to be a total lunatic! I want nothing to do with an all-out battle just for the fun of it!

With the idea that somebody like Sora was now his temporary enemy, Ren was onguard as he left the cave alongside his partner.

The welcoming scent of the morning dew greeted him, glistening with droplets of the previous night\'s showers. If it wasn\'t full of hostile creatures, the forest would be a utopia of its own.

"So what\'s the plan today? We only acquired...eight points in total yesterday. I doubt we\'re in the lead at all."

Ren asked, scratching his head before ducking under a low hanging branch.

"Don\'t worry--I\'ve got it all figured out. I know where we can score some major points."

"And where\'s that?"

In response to Ren\'s doubtful question, Sirius pointed past far to the north, towards the distant, gloomy mountain.

"Grandshire Peak, that\'s where a thirty-pointer lies--or should."

"Should? You don\'t even know for sure?"

"Relax, I\'d give it an eighty-percent chance of being there."

"Eighty-percent...staked on a hike that will take the entire day. Yeah, I don\'t know if I like the sound of that."

Ren contested the idea, knowing that they could probably make up those points by hunting gambons all day.

"Don\'t worry, we can gather points while making our way there--two birds with one stone, Bro! I\'ll chip in this time, so it should be a walk in the park."

"--Fine."

He reluctantly agreed to join him on this arduous journey up the mountain, putting his faith in the man who at least had more experience with the Monster Hunt than him.