"You're back!" A gentle voice shouted as we approached the camp, "And you found friends!"
A short high school-aged boy ran up to us. He had wolf ears and a fluffy tail that wagged wildly at the sight of Vallory.
"Let me introduce you to Ash. Ash, this is Ivy and this is Victor."
"A pleasure to meet you two!" He said politely and cutely, "Wait, you mean she's the Ivy that you always talk about? I've been waiting so long to see you! You sounded so nice, and you're so pretty! Your eyes are beautiful!."
I blushed at the sudden barrage of cute compliments, "Thank you." I shyly said.
"Ash is my battle buddy and we've been through a lot together these past months. He may seem cute and small and fragile but, trust me, he fights just like a wolf!"
Ash's tail started to wag faster and he started to blush, "You're too sweet, Val! I'm not that cool, am I?"
Vallory smiled and petted him on the head, "You are too! Now, I wanna know what's for dinner."
"More dinner?!" I said excitedly while wagging my tail and drooling from the side of my mouth.
"Oh, yeah! Nothing that exciting today, just some mashed potatoes, grilled asparagus, and steak."
"Not exciting?!" I blurted out, "That sounds like heaven!" I drooled and held my face at the thought of the food.
He started twirling his bright blonde hair, "Y-You really think so?" he blushed, "Well that makes me so happy!"
He ran to the campfire and started setting plates full of food around a makeshift table.
Vallory leaned to me and whispered, "He gets excited when you say sweet things to him. Thank you for that."
"No problem. I just said what was true." I giggled, "Why wouldn't steak and mashed potatoes be exciting?"
"He's just really humble and self-conscious, you'll get used to it."
We sat around the table and thanked Ash for the food. The food tasted amazing and tasted one hundred times better than the nuts and berries Val gave me.
"So." Victor spoke up, "I know this might be a dumb question but, what's up with the animal features?"
"Oh? No one's told you yet? Well, basically, whenever people enter this forest, their spirit shows. For example, Victor, you're a bunny so you're probably agile and sweet and kind and cuddly." she smiled.
"What about me?" I asked in between bites.
"You're a cat, so you're loving, kinda lazy, loves swatting at butterflies and things like that."
"That sounds kinda lame. How come I couldn't get eagle wings like you!" I pouted.
"You should be happy! Cat spirits are one of the rarest!"
"I don't feel like I'm that rare, I almost died to the plant thing earlier today and you were the one who saved me."
"You haven't trained like me, Ivy. If you want, I could teach ya! And then you can become strong just like me!"
"Fine... But I still won't be able to fly and I really wanna fly!"
"You'd be surprised~" She smirked.
"So you're saying the cat spirit is one of the rarest, what's the rarest spirit?" Victor added.
"Hm, probably the dragon spirit. They have wings and claws and they can shoot flames from their mouths! It's pretty crazy."
We finished our meals and got ready for bed, "Where do you want me to sleep?" I asked while rubbing my eyes.
"Well, we only have two small tents. Ooh, I got an idea! How about you two love birds sleep in the same tent together and Ash and I can sleep in the other one."
My face turned bright red, "W-What! No way! Not if you're gonna say it like that."
"Well, then you two can figure something out. As for myself," She yawned and stretched her wings along with her arms, "I'm gonna hit the hay."
Ash and her happily crawled in their tent leaving Victor and me sitting at the table, "So, uh... What do you want to do?" I nervously asked.
"Whatever you're comfortable with, I can sleep by the fire if you want."
"No! You can't! That'd make me feel so selfish and spoiled. I mean, I don't mind sleeping with you, it's just that it bothers me that they'll know I'm sleeping with you."
"Stubborn or self-conscious?" He smirked.
"Neither! It's just that... well, I don't know how to describe it."
"Welp, I'm tired so you better choose soon or I'm gonna fall asleep here."
"Fine, fine! We can sleep together. But you gotta sleep as far away as possible!"
"Oh, but you were okay with falling asleep in my arms last night?"
"Well, that was on accident, it's different."
"Okay, let's go to bed."
We entered the tent and picked our sides. There were luckily a lot of blankets so we didn't have to share. I wrapped myself up in a few blankets and made myself a comfy sleeping nest. I laid my head down and fell asleep within seconds.
When I woke up, I felt something warm against my body, "W-What are you doing, Victor? Didn't I tell you?" I blushed and let out a soft moan as I felt its grip tighten, "I-If Vallory saw this, she'd never let me live it down."
"What do you mean silly!" I heard the voice of Vallory from under the blankets, "I'm the one snuggling you!" She giggled and tightened her hug more.
"Wha-What! Why are you in here? I thought you had your own tent!"
"Well, I do but I wanted to spy on you two last night to watch you cuddle. But, I saw you were being lame so I decided to step in cause, honestly, I needed some affection. It's been so long since we snuggled like this!"
"I don't think we ever did..."
"See! That's way too long without affection." She groggily pulled herself out from under the covers, "So! On today's agenda, we gotta get you two trained. Isn't that right, Victor?!"
"What?" a tired voice came from the other side of the tent.
"He's ready! Okay, I'm gonna take you on an adventure and Ash is gonna take him on an adventure. Hopefully, by the end of the day, both of you improve your skills and we can take out the Blight together! Alright, let's go!" Vallory grabbed my hands and pulled me out of my comfy nest.
"Can't I get ready first?!" I shouted as she pulled me out of the tent.
"Nope! A good soldier is always ready!" She let go of my hands and grabbed me by the armpits.
"What's going on?!" I tried to shake off my morning drunkenness.
"I haven't tried this before so let's hope it works out!" Her wings started to flap and we quickly ascended.
"Are you crazy?! Put me down!" I screamed in fright while closing my eyes and digging my claws into her gauntlets.
"I thought you wanted to fly? What's the big deal?"
"I did but, not this early in the morning!"
She mischievously giggled as I screamed for my life, "Trust me Ivy, It'd be a lot less scary if you just opened your eyes."
I slowly opened my eyes and saw the dark overgrowth from above, it was kinda pretty. My eyes sparkled at the sight of us flying over the clouds. The wind rushing through my hair felt surprisingly nice. The sun shined on my face, it was nice to feel its warmth considering I hadn't felt it in such a long time, "Woo-hoo!" I cheered as she started to dive back down, through the thick forest.
We landed and she let go of my armpits, "So, what'd think of that?"
"That was a-meow-zing!"
"I told you it wasn't that scary!"
"You're right, it was beautiful! Can we go again?" I said with excitement.
"Of course, just give my arms a little rest. I kinda almost dropped you while we were up there." she whispered
"You what now?"
"Oh, nothing... Do you hear that?"
We heard a gurgling sound from deeper in the forest, "W-What is that?"
"A Weed. Let's go get it!" Vallory took me by the hand and started to the noise
"Can we slow down?" My stomach became nervous.
"We can't let it get away! Come on!"
We came across a similar-looking plant creature, but this time, it stood on two legs and was holding a large branch as a sword.
"This is gonna be some good practice for you!" Vallory whispered in my cat ear.
"B-But..."
"What's the matter?" she asked with concern.
"It's just that, I'm nervous."
"Don't worry Ivy, I'm here with you. If anything bad happens, I'll step in. It's the only way you're gonna get stronger!"
"Fine, I'll do it. I just don't want to get hurt again."
She grabbed my face and looked me in the eye, "You won't get hurt, I promise!"
She gave me a gentle pat on the shoulder and pushed me toward the creature. I slowly approached the Weed. It turned toward me and gave an ear-piercing screech as it lunged at me. My feet thought quicker than my brain and I jumped over the Weed. I landed behind it and dug my claws into its back. It let out a screech of pain and quickly turned around and plunged its stick into my right flank. I hissed in pain and gave the Weed another scratch, this time deeper and harder. It dropped to its knees and started gurgling.
"Finish it, Ivy!" Val supported me.
I pounced on the weed's back digging my nails into the center of it. I felt as it went limp and started to decompose. In its place, it left two yellow flowers planted in the ground.
"Good job!" Vallory came from behind and hugged me, "See? That wasn't too bad, was it? We have two options now, we can either smell the flowers or let them grow! Watcha want to do?"
I dropped to my knees and started to vomit. Vallory crouched beside me and started to pat me on the back, "Are you okay? What's wrong?!"
I wiped my lips and fell to my butt, "That didn't feel right..."
"What do you mean? Do you need something?"
"I'm a murderer!" I started to cry.
"You're not a murderer, you're helping the forest."
"Then why does it feel so wrong? The poor thing was fighting for its life and we came and killed it!"
"You haven't killed one before?"
"Well, I never did... Only Victor- wait, Victor!"
"What's wrong?"
"He's my plus one! I wasn't supposed to leave him! That's what Aura told us!"
Vallory covered her mouth in shock, "I completely forgot! I'm so sorry!"
She grabbed me by the armpits again and started to fly back to the camp. When we arrived we saw Victor and Ash with cuts and bruises all over their faces.
"What happened!?" Vallory asked.
"The trees started attacking us and telling us to leave for no reason!"
We looked at the trees around camp and saw they had been pierced with arrows and some of the bark had been stripped.
"Never leave me again!" Victor shouted at me as he rested on the soggy ground.
"I'm sorry." I replied, "It's been a rough day..."
Vallory looked at each one of us with tired pale faces, "Enough training today! Let's just rest." She said nervously, "I'll start a fire, okay?"
I sat on the grass next to Victor, "Do you need anything."
"No! Just leave me here!" he growled at me.
I quickly got up and wiped away a tear. I sat next to Vallory as she made a fire, "It's not like I thought it'd be." I said in a depressed voice.
"What's wrong cutie?" She asked while blowing on the embers.
"Well, I thought when we reunited, I'd be overjoyed. I did the first day, but it quickly faded and it turned into this mess, and now I'm sad again!"
"Don't worry, sugar. There are a lot of sad days, especially in the middle of a war. You can't expect everything to be happy now that I'm here... Plus I'm mostly to blame, I shouldn't have pushed you so hard. I know you're a sensitive girl, I shoulda known how you would act in combat. And I took you away from Victor when I should have remembered he was your plus one. He snipped at you and made you sad huh?"
"Yeah, I just want everyone to be happy. I hate when mistakes like this happen." my nose started to run and my ears tucked.
"But remember, we'll learn from them! Listen, cutie, whenever you're sad like this you gotta remember good will come. That's something I remember every night. My mind always fills with the dark horrific things that happened in the forest. You know, there were a lot more than Ash and me. I have flashbacks and awful nightmares about my other battle buddies. Then I remember, 'good will come' then all the nausea in my tummy and all the bad thoughts in my brain go away." she said while the fire started to roar.
I felt a warm feeling in my heart as I pondered the thought, "Good will come" I felt my tears dry up and a firm, unexpected pat on my shoulder, "Listen, I'm sorry about snapping at you like that Ivy." Victor said in a shaking voice
"I forgive you!" I planted my wet face into his chest and wrapped my arms around him. I heard him give out a playful, "Ew!" as I started to wipe my tears into his chest.
"I don't know if you cuties are in the mood," Ash started, "but I completely forgot about dessert last night and thought we could have It now..."
"Are you kitten me!? I'd love dessert right now!" My shouts were muffled by Victor's chest.
"Me too!" I heard Victor's cheerful voice echo through his chest.
"Me three!" Vallory said while adding some logs to the fire.
"Great! I hope you three love brownies!"
He passed a tray of brownies to each one of us. I took a bite and tasted the pure chocolatey bliss course through my veins. We all enjoyed the brownies together and joked together and listened to Ash's and Vallory's amazing and kind of embarrassing stories as the sun set and the forest grew darker.