“ This feeling is like being sick with the flu, my joints ache, my body is sore, and I'm super nauseous. Really makes you want to log out.” Courage said with his hand on his stomach. Bam nodded in agreement, with a hint green in his cheeks.

  Reilly was quiet, she held her staff halves and looked up at Lance filled with sorrow. He tossed the wand he found at her and it fell in her lap. She picked it up looking it over.

  “ It's a wand, I'm pretty sure that… thing cast some kind of spell on you. And I'm betting poison or something in the food.” Lance said, shrugging his arms

  “ What was it? It was like a Dwarf” Reilly said, still examining the wand.

  “ Called itself a redcap. What I will say is it wasn't flesh, I cut into it for it's Experience. It was like a mushroom, but honestly that little bastard wasn't tasty. I don't think it was an edible mushroom.”

  “ How are you okay? I literally feel like absolute shit.” Courage said.

  “ I didn't actually sip the tea, when I acted like I did it should have been obvious! I was just trying to get information. Besides, you watched him bite a worm pie. Are you stupid?” Lance spoke at Courage and then looked at Bam who was already looking downward in shame.

  “ I don't know man, you've made food out of weird stuff! How was I supposed to know!” Courage said, pulling out his water skin. He bit the cork off and began to drink. The color in his face began to return to normal as he slurped his slime soda.

  “ That's fair. But it was made by me, next time. Don't let there be a next time. You guys eat what I make and that's it. And Bam.. worm pie dude…” Lance gave a confused shrug at Bam.

  Bam looked around at everyone. “ You know what's weird, it was actually pretty good. I don't know how it was so warm and the worms were still wiggling. It reminded me of calamari in a way.”

  Everyone stared for a moment then burst into laughter. “ What?” Bam asked, a little embarrassed.

  Reilly shook her head. “ Nothing… You're just a little silly. Anyways Courage pass that around I will cast a few Bliss’.”

  Courage passed the slime soda around, after everyone drank some, then the nausea began to pass. Bam and Courage still had a debuff called Rot, it was a poison based debuff that gave them a weakness and illness combination. Drinking the slime soda only masked the feelings and made them look a bit more normal. Reilly unfortunately didn't feel any better even after casting the Bliss spell a few times. She tried to feign being okay but as everyone stood up to move on, she lost her balance, and fell into Lance's arms, and he caught her before she fell entirely.

  “ You okay? Still hurt?” Lance asked, helping her get her bearings.

  “ Mm.. yea. Don't take this the wrong way, but you kind of did a number on me. I wasn't in control but I still remember it.” Reilly said, looking down and away.

  “ Shoot.. sorry, I mean I tried to go easy. Just to knock you out. I wish it hadn't come to that, we were all just caught”

  “ It's okay. Let's just move on, plus you gave me a better wand. We can hit a checkpoint and maybe make some food. I'll feel better soon.” Reilly said stepping forward towards the other two. They had began to move past the hut towards the far treeline.

  As the group neared the next treeline Bam shook his head quickly turning it into his canine form. He began to sniff the air and his ears perked moving side to side.

  “ I think I hear water, and I smell… blood... Somewhere upwind. Here, put it on your necks and wrists.” Bam said, leaning down and grabbing handfuls of moist moss from a small patch against a large rock.

  “ What's this?” Courage said, Screech on his shoulder sniffing at the moss he brought to his nose.

  “ Dunno, but smells strong, like dirt. It should cover our scents. Oh not you Lance you're fine.” Bam said taking the handful Lance took off the boulder and handing it to Reilly.

  “ What's that supposed to mean? I smell like dirt?”

  “ No. Death. We should go, while the wind is against us. It'll be easier to catch whatever is hurt off guard that way.” Everyone began to walk forward behind Bam.

  Lance at the rear seemed to be the only one still pondering what Bam just said. He wore a smirk and scratched at his neck, trying to smell. He didn't notice anything off. “Death.. well I am the only one who managed to save our ass anyway”

  “ Huh? What's up?” Courage said turning back looking at Lance. Screech sat on his shoulder now like a captain's parrot, it was beginning to be easier to see a bat in the daylight to them all.

  “ Huh, oh nothing. Hey while we're walking, keep an eye out for forest foods.”

  “ Forest foods? What, like animals? Mushrooms?”

  “ I don't know. Forest stuff. I've never been camping”

  Courage looked at him confused.

  “ What?”

  “ I don't know. Just kind of thought you were an outdoorsy kind of guy. Swinging the axe like you chop wood. And gutting things like you've done it before.” Courage said looking around, Reilly and Bam leading the pack having their own conversation.

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  “ You know, it's not hard to swing an axe. And the cutting into stuff. Yeah I'm surprised by that too. I don't know, it seemed like it just came to me. Everything here is just different.” Lance said watching the leaves blow from trees.

  “ Yeah.. ha. No kidding. I get what you mean. I guess I didn't look at it that way.” Courage said looking down. “What about this place is different for you?”

  “ Huh. Well for starters I cant touch my damn face. I guess the next big thing would be.. being oblivious. I mean we're in a forest right now, everything is new. Something about that is pretty freeing. There's magic, and I have a level and stats. You can feel those things but they aren’t physical if that makes sense. What about you? Not having an arm probably feels strange.” Lance said, looking up through the trees for fruit.

  Courage smiled and then laughed. “ Oh dude you wouldn't even believe me if i told you. I can feel your face right now!” He said putting his wrapped nub of an arm out towards Lance's face.

  “ I can feel your brain right now im poking it with my phantom fingers OooOOooOO”

  “ AH! Nooo! Get it out! dUUUHH*” Lance acted as if he lost intelligence holding his head in his hands, the pair of them laughed loudly before Reilly yelled back to them to shut up. Bam had his fist up indicating that they should stop moving. He was just a few steps ahead of Reilly. They all stopped in their tracks hushing quickly.

  Bam took in a deep inhale. In the silence, between the leaves rustling as they tumbled in the wind, the sound of rushing water could be heard. Every few seconds the sound of a slap could be heard. It wasn't rhythmic but loud enough to be heard from where they all stood between thirty to fifty feet away. Bam got lower to the ground and put an ear to the floor. His ears twitched and his nose bobbed up and down. He turned back towards Reilly and gave her a finger over his lips, then he whispered “Full Howl”. His hands touched the floor and with the speed of a breeze he stepped forward into a leap transforming midair to a large canine that looked very close to a maned wolf, his limbs lengthy and large pawed. He looked back and waved his paw in the follow motion. He silently moved quickly through the brush ahead towards the sound of water.

  Courage nodded in approval looking at Lance. “ Didn't know he could do that”.

  Lance shrugged. Reilly slapped Courage with her bag, shushing him. They all moved closer through the treeline towards the water and the slapping sound that had become less and less frequent. They had lost sight of Bam, but they crept up towards the now rushing river.

  They came to an edge above rapids. The treeline they were standing in was above the water by a good height that, though jagged and sharp, created a small cliff face over the moving water. The small river here was around thirty feet wide and was also cliff faced on the other side. The jagged stone here was like shale that had broken. Up the flow of the river the cliff face’s began to shallow to meet the edge of the water, which was much more calm there. They all looked down into the water with its white and pink bubbles.

  Slap! Crunch.. Slap!

  They heard the sounds again. They looked down over the edge to see a large bear, more large than they believed naturally possible on earth. Its size was like that of a compact truck from tip to tail. It was slapping the water's surface catching fish by throwing them into the jagged wall where they would die against the sharp edges of shale here. It then stepped over to grab them before the river could take them and almost swallow them whole save for a few crunches.

  Reilly looked around frantically for Bam worried. Courage looked at Lance with a look of shock, he slapped his nub and opened his arms wide pointing out the bear's size. Lance slowly pulled out his axe and knife holding them up. Reilly put her hand up, and pointed across the water to the other side of the river. Bam was hanging from the large limb of a tree waving at them gently. He then pointed down the flow of the river. A good distance down the way a large tree had been laid across the river's girth as a makeshift bridge. Lance waved his weapons at the bear below silently asking to fight. Bam gave him a slow nod no, giving his neck a cut. A second later the bear roared loudly. The three of them looked down and from closer to the wall they were on a cub moved out into the water. They had not seen it but it seemed the bears were mother and child and she had been teaching it to fish, it was now the cubs turn. Bam climbed back up into the tree. Courage and Reilly began to walk towards the tree bridge. Lance slowly put his weapons away. He walked towards the bridge as well staring down the backsides of the pair of bears for a while.

  The fallen tree was very large and made for an easy walk across the divide. After crossing the group met with Bam who was waiting.

  “ What happened, we lost you?” Reilly said.

  “ I scouted out ahead, would you rather I just let us be caught off guard? I only noticed it was fish when we got close enough. Bear mother and child are better to not mess with, but were at the edge of familiar territory for me. Plenty more bears ahead. Might even be near a checkpoint.” Bam said excitedly.

  “ Why not?” Lance asked “ Might be able to get Courage a pet” He shrugged.

  Bam furrowed his brow. Courage shrugged in response.

  “ Listen the bears aren't dumb, and that one is full grown, we don't want to fight it. It could break trees with a few good swipes. Besides, this is where I killed a bunch of them, smaller ones though.” Bam explained.

  “ What? How?” Reilly asked.

  “ You mess with them, get them mad somehow. Steal their food or annoy them. Run, and they will follow, especially if you act hurt. Come running out here and jump across. They fall in and die. And we get what's left at the end of the wash.” Bam pointed towards further down the flow of the river.

  “ What the, you just said they were not dumb! Plus I thought you said you fought them by yourself! You had a frikken river as a teammate. Lance this guys full of it.” Courage said, trying to get Lance as backup.

  Lance thought for a moment. “ Okay sure, I can see how that works. It's like the stones from above Courage, don't be a hypocrite. I still don't understand why we don't go for the big ones, the cubs will be easy pickings after that. Plus we could have had the drop on those ones.”

  “ Nope, we don't. Trust me when I say that bear and cub knew we were there. They could smell us, and if they weren't busy we’d be the next thing she taught how to hunt. They’re eating and having it easily, if it weren't for that we would have had to fight. The big ones like that with cubs are way smarter, and they dont mess around. We go find others that are fighting each other or other animals interfere and lure them to their death. That's how I did it, you said you wanted my help, listen to me.” Bam said sternly.

  Lance smiled. “ This guy is a different person in the dungeon. I like the confidence.” he thought.

  “ Okay we will follow your lead, but we’re not using the cliff. We use her.” Lance said, pointing to Reilly.

  “ What? Me?” Reilly said. Lance nodded then began to explain.

  Afterwards everyone began to tighten up their boots and gear. Lance put his hand out and everyone put their hands in. He pulled out a goblin knife and gave his hand a good cut, making it bleed. One by one they all did the same, except for Courage, who took out his nub, and cut it. Screech took off into the air flapping above all of them up into the trees.

  “ Are you sure you wanna do this? This is kinda risky dude. Remember if you die this part was your idea.” Lance said to Courage.

  “ You trust me right? I'm gonna be fine, think of the views! I'm gonna be internet famous. Alright come on let's do it.” Courage said. Reilly giggled, Bam bit his lip and gave a quick nod, hiding a laugh.