Chapter 22 | Company

*squelch* *rumble*

"Be careful with your steps." As soon as Rieka entered the canal, Terla warned.

However, "Ahh?....ah ..ah. Ah."

*slip*

Rieka slipped over the wet rocks and her head rapidly reached the floor, but luckily,

*sigh* "Wind, catch!"

Terla's response was way faster as a sack of wind cushioned her head.

"Oh!" The other girls arrived but were wonderstruck by the scene of Rieka on the floor.

"Rieka, why are you lying on the floor?"

"Hey, get up. The floor is all wet, you will catch a cold if you keep lying there."

"Ah..ahh..help me get up. AH! My back!" Rieka grumbled.

"Oh."

"Guys, the floor is slippery, watch your step but come quickly. We must find a safe and warm place first or I'm afraid she can't hold on anymore." Terla warned again.

"Coming."

Terla created two light balls as she continued forward, one for herself and another to guide the girls.

They walked along the canal that got narrower as time passed but Terla didn't stop.

"Where is she going?"

"I don't know. It's already almost five minutes. She doesn't seem to be stopping soon."

*halt*

"What! Are we finally at a dead end?" Rieka complained.

"No, there are three openings ahead," Janice explained.

"Terla, where…"

Janice began, but Terla had already made the decision.

"Hey! Ha, is she disregarding us?"

She entered the middle cave and then came back out just as the girls reached the entrance.

"Next."

"Huh?"

Terla went in and out of the other two caves but in the end, the girls found themselves following Terla through the middle cave.

After walking for a couple more minutes, they finally reached a wide area for a potential resting place.

"Urgh…finally."

As if prepared, the girls all sat down or lay down at once.

Terla, after some thinking, she too sat down laying Calliope on her coat.

"What's wrong with her? Isn't it just a scratch?" Janice asked curiously.

Terla looked at Calli and said, "No, she seems poisoned."

"Huh!?"

Everyone was shocked by the news as they uttered in unison.

"What do we do now?"

"Janice, give me your water."

"That."

"?" Terla frowned.

"We ran straight here just as the weather changed, so…"

"You left all the food?"

"Yeah."

"How about I go back to the waterfall and fetch some water for you?"

"No need."

Terla then closed her eyes for some seconds, shaping her hands like holding a ball.

*Drip* *Drip* *Drizzle* *Sizzle* *Gush*

Gradually, clear drops of water gathered in between her hands and formed a ball.

"Wo."

"We have the water now, but how do we drink it?"

However, *splash*, the water ball was then suddenly dropped and fell onto Calliope's wound.

"Huh!" *slap*

Terla then tore apart the clean piece of Calliope's skirt and washed her dried blood.

When the stains cleared, the purple sore that seemed to have reached her thigh became apparent to the eyes.

"Aunt Ilana,..."

'Light spirits can do the healing, but the poison needs to come out before it. Luckily, the poison has not spread that much, so it might be possible to draw it out."

"Then, how do I do that?"

' However harmful it is, poisonous plants are herbs after all.'

"So, I can use herbal magic?"

'Yes, take it as drawing out medicinal juice from a herb.'

"Ok, let me try."

'But, you might need a vessel to hold the poison afterwards.'

"Mmm…"

Terla thought for a second before closing her eyes again.

In her mind, a tiny vase-like container was formed.

When the shape became clearer, she whispered "Stone, shape."

Terla then opened her palm where an identical tiny container formed.

"What was that?"

"Creation Magic?"

"But I have never seen creating a tangible thing. Don't they just draw and write?"

"Well, I have heard some legends though."

The girls watched and chatted for curiosity's sake while Terla carried on with her treatment.

She followed Ilana's instructions and after a whole hour, she could finally leave it to light spirits.

Terla leaned down on her arms and looked back to the girls who weren't done with their waffles.

"Hey, I haven't asked. What're your names?" Terla suddenly asked.

What first drew Terla was the girl in a pale blue hunting suit which matched unbelievably well with her alluring figure. In addition to silvery white hair with bewitching sky-blue eyes added to her pale white skin, she was like a living art of clouds in the sky.

When she opened her cherry lips, a surreal voice echoed in the cavern. "It's Dahlia." She smiled.

"Mavis of Delaney." The girl with dark ginger hair followed. Her voice was not soft or deep but sounded like the calmness of a forest, refreshing and peaceful. Her forest green eyes were inviting with a dreamy touch of wood color luring everyone to come in.

"Ahh, do you have to say the family name?" Rieka complained.

"Nefeli, Dahlia Nefeli." Dahlia introduced herself again.

Terla then looked at Rieka who scorned and turned away.

Reading the atmosphere, Dahlia prompted "Rieka,"

Rieka didn't respond but got up instead, "I'm going to look for some food…", she walked to the exit where she stopped to glance back at Terla, "It's Kamaria, my family name."

"Hey, it's raining cats and dogs. Where are you gonna find food?"

"Mind your business!"

After Rieka's departure, a long silence filled the cavern.

*awkward*

Terla quietly observed the awkward situation before stating,

"Can you guys introduce more specifically, like your age, where you are from and what you can do?"

"___" *silence*

"Nevermind. I thought we should rely on each other."

"Ahh," Janice vocalized, "what about you start Terla? I see you have a lot up your sleeve."

"Me? Mmm…"

'I can't tell them "I'm a spiritualist.", can I? No, of course not. I don't want to answer questions I don't understand myself.'

"I'm just some unpopular girl from Orton and I just did what I did, there is nothing up my sleeve."

"Come on. We are not blind. We saw you splitting up the waterfall with just a few words. Don't be so modest."

"Yes, what kind of magic was that? We are also curious."

"But I really did nothing," Terla mumbled.

More than an hour ago…,

*sigh*

'For whose sake did they bring me here!?'

"If I could just cut open a waterfall!"

*rumble*

"Huh?"

*bubble* *plop*

"Will you believe me if I say I cursed at it?"

"Oh… so you were a witch." Rieka's voice sounded in the cavern which left the other girls speechless.

"Rieka, didn't you go for a fetch? Why are you still here empty-handed?" Perceiving her friend's foolishness, Mavis tried to change the subject and signaled her to go back.

"Nah, what would I find?" However, Rieka didn't seem to realize the signal as she boredly sat down.

"Could be." Terla as usual was not bothered as she replied bluntly while she sat up.

The other girls were terribly surprised by their behavior looking back and forth between them and each other.

"What about you?" Terla queried as she crossed her legs and leaned her head on her hand.

"Me? Unlike you, I come from …"

As their conversation started and the mood changed, the cavern became lively.

"So, all three of you come from Sonoma."

"Yep. I'm good at hunting. Dahlia…, don't mind her. She can do nothing but be beautiful." Rieka claimed proudly.

Terla had to watch dumb at her as she wasn't sure whether it was praise or a teasing comment.

What's more surprising to her was that Dahlia didn't respond but smiled mischievously.

Instead, Mavis interrupted, "But she did bring us to come here and we couldn't even complain."

*sigh*

"Yeah, I should be at the stream fishing by now." Rieka sighed reminiscently.

'She fishes at night and at a stream?' Terla was slightly puzzled.

"It's because of you. Were it not for you luring Fa Fa with Kiwi, I wouldn't have to agree." Rieka grumbled in dissatisfaction.

"I am a victim too. She said she would ruin the wedding by seducing all the guests."

'?' Terla and the two girls were baffled.

"What, do you believe that?"

"Real or not, I can't risk letting her ruin my day." Mavis declared in a solemn manner before seeing Terla and the two girls in perplexed looks and became tongue-tied.

"Ahh, aham ahem…so what else do you want to know?" Mavis quickly changed the subject.

"Mmm… What's your intention for coming here, Janice and Karou too?"

"For fun?" Rieka answered without consideration.

"We just wanted to take a look. "Once-in-a-lifetime event.", "Hunting Contest." It sounded interesting." Janice pondered before she shrugged it off.

"Aww." Terla nodded in disappointment.

Reading Terla's expression, quiet Dahlia questioned. "What about you?"

Terla looked at the floor and considered for a second before replying, "I… I want to free myself."

"___"

Terla looked up as no one responded which was met with puzzled looks.

"I mean I came here for the token."

"Token? You mean the prize for the top one hundred?"

"___yeah."

"Okay! We will accompany you." Rieka affirmed, looking away.

"Yeah, take us in." Janice also assured with a nod.

"Me too!" Karou followed.

Their words astonished Terla and bewildered her at the same time.

However, Terla smiled as if she found it quite funny since she knew very well that they were traps.

Traps, she should never fall into but always did.

"But there's this thing I don't understand. Don't we just need to survive? How will they decide the top 100?" Rieka spoke up.

"Do you take survival so easy? And it is not as simple as they announced. They just want participants to take it easy just like you are doing." Janice retorted.

"So what?"

"From the news from outside, 15 out of 40 groups have already given up and many groups have lost more than a quarter of their members. Only our group being the smallest with 25 members, two have dropped out."

"Wo. Is it that intense?"

"Yeah. And as per the latest announcement, the top 100 will be listed on the third day morning according to the number of life cores one possesses and will be updated every three hours."

Hearing the news, Terla frowned.

"Life core?!"

"Imm. And there's more they will consider the quality rather than quantity."

{Life core - a crystalline rock that appears when a beast faces death which bears the stories of its life and every knowledge and power they have gained during its existence. People can absorb these cores to gain their abilities and experiences as long as they can handle the weight of their stories including their hatred and despair. On the other hand, one might be devilized or devoured back by the stories meaning one would be seeking death by biting off more than one can chew.

Each of the cores has unique abilities since they are born from different stories and their quality differs as the stages the beasts are at, may vary and sometimes even the cores of the same level beasts can be quite different. }

"If that's the case, wouldn't we be lagging behind? But hey, how are you getting the news?"

Just then Janice held up her callo which everyone has failed to recognize.

"What? You could use that here!?"

"Yeah. I didn't know at first and accidentally brought it here but found out later that it was working well. Thinking back, they did say we can bring anything of use." Janice explained with a shrug.

"Gosh! So I paid the storage fee for nothing."

"Urgh. We should better sleep. Tomorrow's gonna be a tough day."

"But, a rather exciting one."

"Yeah."

Terla couldn't put a word as she sat there absorbed in thought while everyone lay down and fell asleep making their arms pillows.

When Terla realized, everyone was already sound asleep.

She checked on Calliope who was also asleep, before lying down and closing her eyes.

However, she couldn't fall asleep wondering about the tomorrow that is yet to come and everything that could happen to her.