[center][hr] [img]https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/935994562026016780/1002998806339657860/TaiBanner.png[/img] [hr][/center] "Shixiong, take care of us!" Tai whirled around as a vein pulsed in his forehead. "I ain't takin' care of nothin'! Why ya gotta ruin the mood!?" he snapped, before turning a cold shoulder on the girls. "Whatever!" With a stiffer, longer stride he hurried down the path--and of course, the two other students followed despite his protests. [hr] No matter how he hurried, they kept following him. Maybe he could lose them--at least the little one--if he just sprinted full tilt, but he didn't feel like wasting his energy this early on. He kept quiet throughout their annoying chatter, even when Na Jiayi insisted on acting stupidly cute and trying to make him laugh. He had better things to do, dammit! Soon they reached the "proper" entrance to the forest, a great gatehouse built to offer some meager ward against the beasts and dangers that lay within. Tai supposed if they'd taken any shortcut or the various game trails they could have entered the forest by other means, but better to have a starting point they could actually identify on the map--No! Better for [i]him[/i] to have a starting point on the map! He was [i]not[/i] going to play babysitter! "Alright," Yan Huiyin started, turning to Feng Tai, "What's the game plan?" He huffed as he pushed open the gates with a grunt. "Find a fruit before any of the other dummies! What, you want me to hold your hand?" His lilting voice of mockery trailed off as they walked down the path, which now turned from proper cobblestone to packed dirt. It didn't take long before grass and vines encroached upon it, eating away at the road. Soon their only guide would be their own sense of direction. Perhaps if they had come in the light of day, the outer edge of the forest would have been quite pleasant. The greenery was lush, but trees had been cleared away from the gatehouse so the canopy remained thin. Flowers, without the bright sun overhead, had closed themselves up in tight bulbs. Nonetheless they displayed bright hues of every color and filled the meadow with pleasant smells. Soon tall grass and thick, broad leaf bushes gave way to roots and thickly layered detritus--leaves from last year's fall season that crunched over head, and fuzzy green moss that coated every rock and patch of dirt. Thick wooden trunks trailed vines from their lower branches. The night dew dripped, wet and cold, down the back of their shirt collars more than once. The weighty silence of night was broken by their presence...a disturbance that seemed to ripple outward, and awakened glistening yellow eyes. By handfuls they rustled and growled, just out of sight--then, when Tai stomped on a dry branch or shoved a woody bough out of his way, they scattered. Once, a bird exploded in a cloud of dark feathers almost under Na Jiayi's foot, and the girl squealed. Tai immediately turned and grabbed her, slapping a hand over her mouth to muscle the noise. Whatever animal it had been seemed more terrified than the small girl--they could already hear it some distance away, crashing through the underbrush. "Bah! Why'd you come out here in the first place?!" grumbled the elder brother as he sat her back on her feet and turned up his nose. Several minutes' walk had carried them deeper, enough so that the white moonlight now struggled to push its dappled rays through the green mesh up above. Suddenly, Tai stopped--sudden enough that the two girls bumped into his tense shoulders and broad back like the unforgiving side of a brick wall. He crouched down and began brushing at something in the dirt. It was an animal's footprint, though what type it seemed he had yet to figure out. "...Toes press apart for boar, press together for deer? Yeah, that's right, isn't it?" he mumbled as he traced the shape with his finger. "...Very big..." Whatever the creature was, it had dug a pit destructive enough that it appeared like a pothole in one of the King's roads not too far ahead of the trio. Rooting for food, Tai figured. Maybe...if they followed it, would it perhaps bring them to the Spiritual Heart Fruit? Did animals or Spirit Beasts eat them? The thought occurred to him that Huiyin might know. And just as he turned, a dark shape barreled out of the nearest bush. [img]https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/935994562026016780/1013524052314439690/unknown.png[/img] The Crimson Razor Boar--a beast considered physically on-par with the Third Rank of Training Foundation Realm--stood five feet at its shoulder, and its massive body had to be over a thousand pounds of raw, terrible muscle. When it saw the three, it bellowed and shook its enormous head. Spittle steamed in the chill night air as it slobbered all over the grass. Then, it lowered its tusks and, with a single paw of the earth, charged at all three of them like an avalanche--!