Jesse froze in front of the expanse of the dark forest.

  Its distant sounds echoed around her, and the cold air of the massive tunnel brushed against her skin.

  The white light of the moss high above cast discordant shadows, and horrible beasts soared above into the mists and around the gigantuan roots coming from above.

  Jesse saw the creatures from the navigator's notebooks, the Red seeker along with numerous flying creatures

  Some large and bat-like with leathery wings, others small and darting through the air with quick, erratic movements.

  She could see the massive lake shrouded in mists high above the various levels of the tunnel.

  The air was moist and carried an earthy and slightly spicy scent on it.

  She pressed her feet into the soft ground, wiggling her toes inside her shoes.

  After so much walking, exhaustion settled deep in her legs. She turned to Luke with a tired smile. "Yeah, I think those might be pine trees, though they look a little different from the ones I'm used to."

  Luke was still awestruck and just ignored her, continuing to walk.

  The eighth Messenger smirked, "it's really cool, am I right? Let's get to the camp, and then we'll move with Jackson. Are you sure you can keep up with the descents?"

  Jesse nodded, a little unsure. "i might need some help but yeah, i think i can."

  "You don't seem tired, you workout a lot?" He asked offhandedly as he bound over a stone

  "I jog everyday and I try to keep to a diet." She slowed down as they reached the edge of the terrace as it was now a steep drop.

  There was a ladder made of rope and vines securely tied against two rocks, she gulped as she looked down trying to above the edge by leaning over.

  A pair of hands grabbing her shoulders making her jump back screaming.

  It was the Eighth laughing playfully, "Hey i'm sorry it was a joke."

  Her face turned red as she glared at the immature fool, she blew a tuft of her blonde hair away from her face and asked curtly "How are we getting down?"

  The eighth was still laughing but answering pointedly "the ladder of course. If you're scared I'll carry you."

  Boys, can he just focus on our job for a second.

  She rolled her eyes, "I doubt you can." She laughed a little at the exaggerated look of offense on the boy's face.

  The Eighth stepped closer to her grinning, "let's bet. You haven't asked my name even though i know yours"

  "Do we need to know each other's names? I also never told you my name so how do you know that?"

  "My name's Keith but it doesn't matter how I know yours. Let's focus on the ladder though, are you sure you can make it down?"

  "umm yeah i think i can." she rubbed her arm and turned away, turning paler.

  Keith signed, "I'll go before you. Don't worry i'll keep my eyes down"

  Her nose wrinkled in disgust as she felt the bile rise in her throat as she grimaced, "Whatever?"Jesse answered.

  She wore a pair of white running shoes and a blue compression shirt. The baggy black shorts Adelina had given her was a godsend.

  She took her time climbing down the vine ladder, every sway made her gasp and tighten her grip on the ladder.

  Keith encouraged her the whole time telling her the faster they went the faster she would be done with this.

  The ladder swayed slightly as she descended and she clenched her jaws tight feeling her stomach lurch.

  She only opened her eyes on the ground and stumbled into Keith who held her "you did really good" he whispered.

  Jesse pushed off him, pacing for a second. She tilted her head to the sky and took long steady breaths.

  Looking where she had climbed from a shaky smile crept onto her face, "That was insane."

  It wasn't long till they reached the camp, completely covered by the massive trees, many thick branches tangled overhead.

  Jesse guessed this was the natural protection from Red seekers Matthew had suggested.

  The camp was loosely organised, many people were out and their bags were used to create a circle.

  Some boys sat about carving branches to make pikes and laughing, it was dark as the luminous moss' light didn't reach this place.

  There was a weak fire in the center of the camp

  Someone kept watch on the edge of the camp and was surprised to see them turning to call out to his friends.

  Jackson who seemed very worn smiled as Jesse approached them, he stood and walked out giving her a hug.

  "Welcome to our humble abode, it's a little shabby but you can take a bath and eat as many fruits as you're willing to climb to get," He explained, taking a half spin and spreading his arms.

  "How are you feeling?" Jesse asked pushing him playfully "i wouldn't mind a bath but work first"

  "All good, we haven't gotten into too many fights. Fire can scare most things away except the Seeker though, he's a persistent bastard." He looked up warily before waving his hands, "anyway what do you need?"

  "You guys have pots right? Then we'll use Blue trick for the tapping. I also would like the berries from that tree… they look like juniper at least. Then i saw some Goldenrod earlier, i think the Poultice method for it isn't too hard if i remember properly" Jesse explained

  The boys were willing to help, she taught Keith what they were looking for and left Luke in charge so she didn't have to talk too much.

  Jackson followed her summoning the Blue cloud inscribed sword.

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  They examined the tree a bit before she instructed him on where to make the diagonal incision.

  They harvested the sap for a moment before a chirping sound made them turn sharply.

  It was a small monkey-like creature with two tails. It had a stone mask on its head.

  It watched them relax and crawled on jumping against the tree and rubbing its finger against the sap coming from the tree.

  The creature recoiled sharply at the strange sensation making a chirping sound that felt more bird-like to Jesse.

  She studied the creature's pale grey back and white underbelly, it had three extremely long fingers with hooked claws.

  It watched her too, its stone mask like a demon's face with large fangs and a messy crown that resembled a jagged cloud.

  Its greenish yellow eyes were docile and bright, Jesse hesitated for a moment before taking out a berry from her pocket.

  She held it out to the two-tailed monkey who watched her, it looked between her hand and the berry before approaching her slowly.

  "Jesse," Jackson warned.

  She gave him a steady look before turning back to the monkey who had stopped. Once they regained eye contact it continued forward reaching her hand. Its mask dispelled into a torrent of golden sparks .

  "Wow… that's awesome," she whispered. Its face was furry and triangular, the fur around it's eyes was a darker shade.

  It ate the berry out of her hand and chirped excitedly bounding around her energetically.

  She laughed and tried to follow it spinning about.

  They played around for a while before she knelt and scratched under the monkey's chin receiving happy grunts

  "I have to go, i'll see you later hopefully," she apologised.

  She got up and began leaving but the monkey matched their pace, Jackson gave a funny look before they began to skip forward taking turns jumping over the creature as it chased them jumping around them.

  They got a lot of reactions from their comrades and got to immediately making the Pine resin and Poultice.

  Jackson and the others left to hunt something. It was quiet for a while as Luke and Jesse worked without much speaking.

  She appreciated the boy's ability to shut up and the monkey was surprisingly not a distraction.

  It was insanely helpful, summoning stone gloves to help her carry the pots without handles and crushing the goldenrod.

  The peace however only reigned for a short while.

  There was a loud sound that caught their attention and they began to hear a flurry of shouts. Jesse felt her heartbeat pick up as she mumbled "what the hell?"

  Three boys broke through the fauna carrying another in their arms jogging.

  They were sweating horribly and panting.

  The boy in their hand had blood running down his arm. Jesse cursed as she began gathering things.

  Keith was one of them carrying the injured boy, he fell to his knees gasping "poison we think it's poison, Jackson used the sigil on him. It's coming! It just keeps chasing no matter how far we run!"

  Jesse's heart dropped as she turned to him "what? Wait, it's coming here?!"

  There was a loud crash and more people shouting, a large figure approach them quickly

  Her answer came shortly after a massive creature tore through the fauna.

  it was a pale vomit green, its upper body was human like but had the head of a snake and red, spiked frills.

  It's lower body was a serpent and in its hard was a gnarly grey spear.

  It hissed in outrage and tried to charge straight at them but Jackson was close behind.

  He slashed its tail, forcing it to whip around and send a sharp jab which Jackson sidestepped.

  It slithered about—its massive coiled tail felt unnatural, wider than her entire body and heavy yet it coiled and sprang for lightning fast attacks.

  Jesse's hands shooks as the seven foot monster rose and engaged Jackson.

  She couldn't move for a moment till Luke screamed at her "Jesse we need you!"

  Jesse turned nodding vigorously trying to focus, she slapped her left arm twice before examining the boy's injury.

  There was a red mark hovering over it, it was crooked like drawn by claws and made a complicated symbol resembling a drawn bow with seven curved arrows and a disfigured letter 'u'.

  The injury itself wasn't too bad but went deep. I hope it didn't reach the bone

  She grabbed some slightly hot tea she had made using the goldenrod and used it to clean the wound.

  She ignored the nausea she got from feeling soft skin moving between her fingers, gauging the depth of the injury.

  Jesse took the poultice she made and massaged it into the injury carefully before wrapping it in bandages.

  Jesse stood to get some tea for him to drink when she froze.

  The green serpent monster had abandoned its duel with Jackson as it detected them trying to heal the wound.

  It hissed angrily charging at her specifically.

  Jesse nearly fainted before a fast small shape sprung up the serpent body attacking its eyes.

  The serpent whipped about in anger throwing it's attacker off.

  Jesse was running before she knew what she was doing catching the two tailed monkey in her arms

  "Are you crazy?! Don't do that ever again!" she warned as she retreated with the other boys.

  The monster hadn't given up turning to block attacks from a frustrated Jackson but was still chasing them.

  Jesse paled as she ran with the monkey in her arms, "Oh god, this is bad."