The Forest

Loma handled the delicate parts like the eyes and heart but promised Jax that he would let him do it the next time they killed another bear.

Jax nodded. "By the way, why aren't we taking the meat with us? Is it just because it's heavy, or is it not edible?"

"Because it doesn't sell well," Loma explained. "It's edible meat, but it has a scent to it that most people don't like, and it takes hours and hours to cook well enough so that you don't feel like you're chewing on rubber. It's just not a good replacement for the meat we already have."

Jax nodded.

"And the eyes and the heart; they go to who again?"

"Potion Masters," Loma said. "They make potions using different ingredients found in the open. You can make a living finding those ingredients for them, but it's a lot of learning to do, so most don't do it."

"Interesting."

"Hey! You guys done or what?" the sorceress asked.

"We're done!" Loma quickly answered as he picked up the things they had gathered. The bones were wrapped with the hides, and the heart and the eyes were in individual metal containers.

"Here, take this." He handed everything to Jax.

Jax took it and pulled the empty bag from his back, which he was given earlier when they met up. However, Loma stopped him. "Why are you bothering with your bag right now? Place it in your Inventory. You have one, don't you?"

"Oh right, my Inventory. I'm still not used to it being a thing," Jax said and placed everything into it. He had a mental image of his Inventory afterward and realized that he had filled it about one-fifth of the way.

Four more of these same items would fit in there. 'Ascendants are supposed to have larger Inventories,' he thought. 'I wonder how large the ones for the regular settlers are.'

"Let us move," the sorceress ordered.

"What about the rest?" Jax asked, pointing to the remainder of the bear's corpse. "Do we just leave it here?"

"Of course," Loma said and smiled. "Let us move. You'll see."

Jax was curious. What was he going to see?

As they began moving, the sorceress held the torch ahead, burning away any of the cobwebs in their way. Once they were sufficiently far enough, Jax saw it.

The ground below the corpse of the bear opened up and swallowed the entire thing whole. When the ground came back up, it seemed normal once again, with the blades of grass lacking a single piece of evidence of the battle that took place there just before.

"What the fuck!" Jax cried out in surprise, unable to hold back his shock. "What was that? Was that a monster?"

"That was the forest," Gemma answered.

"The forest takes away the monsters we kill and leave behind," Loma explained. "Anything we discard is gone as a result."

"But… why? How?"

"The why is simple. Because that is how it is supposed to work. Because that is how the Navigator intended for this forest to be," the sorceress answered. "As for how, we do not know. There are many things that just do not have a logical explanation within the Celestial Express."

Danny placed his arm around Jax. "Sometimes, you just have to accept that things are the way they are. Don't worry, sooner or later, you will get used to not being surprised by anything that happens."

The male sorcerer turned. "Although there is a theory that the forest is taking back what it can so it can repurpose what's left back into a new monster. That explains why the forest seems to never run out of monsters, no matter how many hundreds we kill each day."

"There is no proof that is what happens," the female warrior said.

The male sorcerer turned toward her next. "I did say it was a theory. If we had proof, it would be a fact, wouldn't it?"

"Keep your glib tongue to yourself, Jholl," the sorceress said and turned to Jax. "We'll teach you what we can while you are with us. But for now, we must move. We cannot delay any longer."

Everyone nodded and began walking, so Jax followed them as well.

He asked Loma a bunch of questions and got a lot of answers back, which Gemma added more information to so Jax would have a complete understanding of these topics.

He asked about potion masters and what that profession was really about. Learning that potions could do a ton of different things surprised Jax. He wanted to drink a few to see what they did.

However, when he heard about what they cost, he quickly gave up the idea. At least right now, he didn't have the funds to purchase even the simplest of potions.

Another thing that surprised Jax was the forest itself. When he asked the group why they had not seen a single spider, despite there being cobwebs all around, he was told that the spiders were not the ones responsible for the cobwebs.

"Spiders could never produce this much web," the male sorcerer said. "They would die if they were forced to make this every night."

"Then where do the cobwebs come from? Another monster?" he asked.

"They come from the same thing that took away that corpse earlier."

Jax's eyes narrowed. "The forest?"

"You got it."

"But… how can the forest make webs?" he asked. "Or is this something I should not think about either?"

The group simply smiled in response.

Jax didn't know what to say. "How is that possible, Gemma?" he asked.

"Sorry, can't tell you," Gemma said. "I'm not allowed to reveal the truth on the basis that it will ruin the mysticism of this place."

Jax paused for a bit and shook his head. "Alright, fair enough," he said. "We should continue on."

The rest nodded and moved along. A few minutes later, they finally met another beast. This time, it was a large wolf.

The five fighters got into formation once again and began their battle.