Sabine placed one end of her staff on the ground, leaned it against her front and took the poison from Thorantilth. Before she drank it, she held it under her arm and swigged down her fortification potion. When she got to the poison, she felt more ready than she had ever been for this trial. She snatched up her staff and held it forward in a guard stance, focussing on Okun.

Part of Sabine felt sorry for Okun, she could relate to his nervousness. At the same time though, to know that her opponent was as fearful as she was seemed oddly reassuring. This time, Sabine decided to strike first. Lauching off from one foot, she raised her staff over her head and feinted a swing at Okun's side, before stopping it and swinging around to his other side. Already, she felt her potion giving her swifter and finer control of her movements. That would be overcome by the poison over time, but she intended to press every advantage she had.

---

Involuntarily, Janius perked his ears and twisted his head in the direction of Kaleeth's scratching about an eighth of a turn. For some reason it felt nice, as if an itch was being scratched that he hadn't noticed until now. How did she know to scratch behind his ears if she didn't know what a dog was? A lucky guess, maybe.

Janius had to pause for a moment to think of where to go. His thoughts were mostly distracted by Kaleeth's hopeful comments. It was clear that she wanted to try being a werewolf. That made Janius wonder whether what he was doing was only encouraging her, that perhaps this wasn't a good idea after all. Janius decided that, when it would be more appropriate, he would make it clear what Kaleeth would be giving up. She may be disillusioned with her family, but that would pass. If she had given them up by then she would regret it more than Janius could justify.

After a while, a memory came across Janius' mind from their first day in the village. The corners of his mouth curled upwards as he looked up at the rain. "There is a grove of trees that I saw when the pack was travelling here. I believe it is outside of the hunters' patrols, but... they would be good for running through the air." Careful not to dig into Kaleeth with his claws, Janius picked her up almost effortlessly and helped her onto his back again. As before, he bolted off as fast as he could, now making far more splashes in the new newly formed rain and mud. He was going in a certain direction this time. It was harder to navigate by scent in such heavy rain, but Janius knew the general direction he was headed.

Eventually they came by the grove that Janius mentioned. It was merely a part of the marsh that was a more densely packed set of trees. Most of them were mangrove-like trees that sat in a consisent and huge body of water. Janius leaped onto the trunk of the first tree he saw and climbed up to its middle branches. Running through the air, as Janius liked to call it, was merely jumping between tree branches fluidly amongst the mangrove. It was something he didn't get to do often as not many places were suitable for it, but it was one of his favourite things in wolf form. It combined the strength and agility of the beast spirit with his own judgement of whether the branches would hold his weight and the path ahead to take. In this mangrove-like body of trees, jumping over a void that was over rain-churned water filled with any sorts of hidden creatures only made it more invigorating.

After mapping out much of the patch in his mind, he found the tallest tree and climbed to the top of the canopy as far as the branches would hold him. There, as he had hoped, he found a verdant view of the tops of the trees. The green leaves glinting with the rain pouring onto them. From here he could see further across the flat marsh than most places. Even though the clouds greyed and darkened the view from above, patches of mist and fog were visible weaving amongst the foliage, painting eerie streaks of white through the dark green and brown marshland. Of all of the treetop views he had seen, this one was unique to Janius.

"This is what I wanted to see," Janius said while panting his breath back. In a distant part of the marsh, a fork of lightning flashed briefly. The thunder came many moments afterward and was quieter than the other claps, but it was mesmerising all the same. "Here, we can watch the storm if you like." Janius carefully seated himself on the branch while holding onto the trunk. He helped Kaleeth-Rei off his back and onto his lap where he could hold onto her without her slipping from the branch or digging into his back. He glanced down at her and chuckled slowly, "Have you been in this place before?"