Exploring the Discriminative Forest!

After slapping him, Lyrielle retracts her hand straight away and fearfully looks up at him, Ryunosuke's towering height over her obscures the sun. "I-I'm sorry," her voice shakes as she watches him raise both arms over her head.

Lyrielle flinches as his arms quickly fall down onto her shoulders, making her already weak knees bend slightly downwards.

His face approaches hers, to the point of their noses nearly poking each other, and he opens his mouth. "Hey," he calls out to her, but no response.

"Hey look at me It's okay!" He yells point blank at her face, before backing away whilst keeping his hands firmly placed on her shoulders.

"Look at me, there's nothing to be afraid of."

She retorts, "there's plenty to be afraid of!" Whilst trying to throw his hands off of her, "I don't know who or what you are, but please let me go!" 

Her words are repeated in his mind for a moment before letting go, "my bad... I was treating you like my younger sibling."

"Little sister?!" Her face contorts, clearly feeling awkward due to his statement. "I have a big brother already, no thank you."

Lyrielle adjusts her makeshift robe and turns away from Ryunosuke, she observes Niko, who's still laying on the ground with only her chest puffing up and down as she breathes.

"Um, Ryunosuke we can talk about you later, what do we do with her?" Lyrielle points down at Niko.

"What else can we do, bring her with us."

Ryunosuke passes Lyrielle and drags Niko up by her arms. "Wake up," he proceeds to shake her up and down, to no avail.

He sighs before kneeling down on one knee before her, Ryunosuke gestures for Lyrielle by waving his hand.

"Oh okay," Lyrielle pushes Niko onto Ryunosuke's back, who now carries her like a backpack.

Lyrielle slightly tugs on the cloth covering her and raises it over her head, making a hood to conceal her head.

His robe is torn here and there, much to Lyrielle's embarassment, but Ryunosuke pays it no mind.

"The sun is heating up now, we should take shelter inside the forest Ryunosuke." Lyrielle covers her eyes using a hand.

He looks up at the sky, for some reason the yellow star appears much brighter, and feels warmer than before.

As they leave the traces of battle behind them, Ryunosuke silently ponders whilst approaching the edge of the trees.

He recalls the all too sudden experiences he'd just been exposed to.

Ryunosuke wears a grim expression as he steps upon a branch, snapping it apart.

Lyrielle follows him closely from behind, noticing his demeanour has changed, although she was no better.

She slowly lifts her hand, wanting to pat Ryunosuke's shoulder, however she stops as he steps on a branch.

After a few minutes of walking, they reach the first lines of trees that surround the forest clearing.

"Careful Ryunosuke," Lyrielle warns him, "this forest is infamous for an unnatural hostility towards humans."

"Huh? How does that work?"

"It's the effect on the surroundings by the summoning platform, a great dragon was summoned here before and apparently that changed the entire forest."

Her gaze wanders about the forest, "now any human inside it will only be unlucky, it was a lot worse before."

She takes a step into the forest and nothing happens, then a few more.

Meanwhile Ryunosuke curiously watches her from outside the forest.

Suddenly an egg drops from a bird's nest above, it cracks on Lyrielle's head as a gooey slime drools down the sides of her hood.

"Like that?" He asks, "like that," she replies.

Ryunosuke prepares himself for whatever nature could throw at him and steps foot in the forest, though nothing happens.

The pair continue onwards through the forest, with Niko still sleeping peacefully on Ryunosuke's back.

Along the way, an odd blue snake jumps out at Lyrielle, followed by her stepping on a pile of dung.

After what feels like hours, Lyrielle and Ryunosuke come across a clearing, where a wide flowing river carves a path through the dense forest.

Upon seeing the river, Lyrielle tiredly sighs, "haa... We need to find a way around the river."

"Can't we just cross it, the water looks fine to me?"

"One of my 'labourers' drowned in this river, damn this forest, he got sucked down into it by some kind of whirlpool." Lyrielle kicks a pebble into the water and it sinks quickly.

"Pure water like this mixes well with mana from the atmosphere you see, so if being in the forest makes you unlucky, this water will be much much worse," she continues speaking.

"Mother told me that's why Imram doesn't use the water here anymore, even though we're in dire need of it."

Her expression is one of worry, Ryunosuke slowly drops Niko on the grassy floor before stepping up on a tree root and walking beside Lyrielle.

Niko lays agaisnt a large tree.

"You seem tired, go get some rest, I'll see if I can get a fire started for us."

He confirms this when she looks up at him, her eyes appear as if she'd been up all night.

"I can use a spe-" He cuts her off mid sentence, "aren't you out of mana? Just go rest, I still have energy to spare."

Rays of sunlight cascade around them through gaps in the leaves above, Lyrielle finds a clean spot opposite Niko and rests her head on a tree.

Thin branches wave around when the wind periodically picks up, the smell and sound of a running river nearby soothes Lyrielle's mind.

Soon she falls into a deep sleep, right as Ryunosuke returns with a bundle of dry sticks.

'I hope nothing happens while I'm gone.'

He takes off Lyrielle's dirty shoe and makes for the river. He lifts his robe as he steps deeper into it whilst washing the shoe.

'Wait, should I be washing this shoe in the river?'

Ryunosuke takes the shoe out and places it beside the river. 'Earlier she said that this river is very unlucky, but nothing happened to me in the forest and nothing's happening now.'

He feels the water cleaning his dirt stained legs, 'so my theory is correct, the dragon core makes me immune to its unlucky effect.'

He hears something making its way to him through the bushes, immediately he tries to quickly get out of the river.

'Too late.'

Niko stands before him with her eyes wide in surprise, "what the fu-"