Adventure Time

"Now honestly, how much time do we have to get back to the ship?"

Elaryn asked as the group passed by a familiar line of thick bushes growing in an S shape.

Marcello was the one who answered with "Less than a few hours but that estimate might be a ways off," before he picked the little girl they found up and helped her get down from a large fallen tree trunk.

"We shouldn't be more than an hour away at this point. The line of bushes there is something I remember Bobby commenting on only a little while after the start of this whole ordeal."

Johnathan spoke as he cautiously observed his surroundings.

"Can't we hurry up though? I need, and I mean I Need a shower and a bed."

Elaryn asked as the odor of the group wasn't quite on the pleasant side.

"I can understand that, yeah. I'd love a good bath after this. Yet we can't just force the little girl we found to sprint through the jungle without any shoes."

Marcello was the one who spoke up. Though he understood where Elaryn was coming from, he couldn't just force a girl as young as the one they had found to run through a dense jungle, he had a set of rather strict morals reassuring these thoughts.

"Why don't you just carry the girl?"

Elaryn asked.

Before Marcello could comment in response, Samaton made the decision for the group as he reinforced their caution.

"Remember to keep quiet with the bickering. We'll pick up the pace for the next 20 minutes or so. If the girl gets tired or starts having trouble with keeping up, Marcello will carry her and we'll slow down to the original pace we were going at."

Samaton said only to be greeted with a "Bahh." from Marcello and a smile accompanied by a thumbs up from Elaryn.

As they closed in on the two adventurers, Johnathan and Bobby, who were walking a few metres ahead of the group, they made sure that they heard about the plan.

Bobby only replied with a nod while Johnathan replied with a snarky "Okay knight boy." before the two picked up their pace and moved further ahead of the group.

Marcello meanwhile turned to speak with the little girl they found. Junko. Not that they knew her name at the time.

"We'll be going a bit faster so try to keep up, okay? If your feet start hurting, I'll carry you on my back."

Although Junko couldn't understand most of the words that were coming out of Marcello's mouth and could only wonder about why two of the group members started running away, she followed along as Marcello slowly started jogging while holding onto her hand.

As Junko followed along, she couldn't help but stare at the people in the group.

'No fur.'

She thought to herself simply. She didn't have any fur either. The tops of their heads had a little fur just like her own head but all that fur was shorter and different.

'Weird.'

Following along without a single problem, she hopped over a metre-tall bush as she ran next to the man named Marcello. The adventurer could only stare in wonder at the athletic ability little Junko was showing after feeling the hand he was holding suddenly rise from the ground.

'Must be a General Skill for movement.'

He thought to himself before refocusing on following the group.

Junko sent her gaze forward as her eyes pierced through the dense jungle foliage.

She could see the jungle soon stopping much like the area around the cave that she slept in.

The colour of the ground changed. Further in the distance, she could see the ground moving as a deep blueish colour stretched as far as her sight could reach.

Standing partly inside of the blueish ground, Junko could see a strange brown contraption.

Surrounding the area outside of the jungle and on the strange contraption were even more people who looked like her. More people who looked like the group she was in.

Junko could see smaller brown contraptions on the shore. There were few that were moving towards the larger contraption.

Junko partly believed that all these brown-coloured 'things' were living beings yet she didn't feel anything when she looked at them. So that belief was dismissed some few moments later.

All the people who looked like her were busy moving around and looking towards the jungle. Most of the people who were busy moving around were doing their activities near some of the brown contraptions. Boats. The groups of moving people were preparing to depart.

With how fast the group was running through the jungle, they would make it there in a few minutes. It seemed like the calculations of the party were some ways off in terms of time but it's not like Junko could understand that.

The group ran past a few scattered boulders with moss growing on them and through a single-metre-wide stream of water without a break. Every now and again they glanced behind them to make sure the little girl they found hadn't run head-first into a boulder or suddenly drowned. Thankfully that didn't happen.

In fact, a feeling of surprise spread among the party members as little Junko didn't seem the slightest bit tired, bothered or uncomfortable with the trek.

"I don't know if I should be surprised."

Samaton muttered after glancing at Marcello and Junko easily keeping up with the group.

"About the kid?"

Elaryn asked.

"About the kid," Samaton confirmed, "Considering her visible age she shouldn't be able to keep up, yet considering we found her here... Honestly, the very fact that a human even existed and survived on this continent for who knows how long is a miracle."

Samaton sighed.

"If she is a human."

Elaryn commented as she kept her gaze forwards.

"Human or not, surviving on a continent filled with the Apex is a miracle."

"...She does 'Look' human..."

"A Deviant Human maybe?"

"Wouldn't explain it. A Unique Deviant would be more believable. But even with that type of gift, it would be next to impossible to survive here for long."

Elaryn shook her head as she vaulted over a small pit in the ground before looking back and seeing both Marcello and little Junko doing the same with ease.

"Her dress looks expensive. Maybe a noble exiled here from Ghala Cairmante?" (The southern continent for those who forgot)

Elaryn wondered to herself out loud, not expecting any sort of answer from Samaton.

Samaton glanced back again.

'Just who did we stumble upon?'

The group continued on in silence for ten or so minutes reaching the edge of the jungle many times faster than they had expected.

"We made it!"

Bobby yelled from in front of the group as he and Johnathan reached the shore. He notified both his party members who were still within the jungle, running towards his direction and all the adventurers, mages and knights still on the continent itself.

Immediately after they were noticed, the knights and mages dashed to them to check for any injuries and inquire about if they had found any signs of Devil Shards or Apex corpses.

The adventurers, on the other hand, all sprinted to them as fast as they could to hear about the long, difficult and beautiful adventure they had definitely had.

Bobby and Johnathan were the ones bombarded with questions from the adventurers first.

The mages quickly checked their conditions before moving on to ask their own questions as well.

The surrounding knights, although their interest was booming, held it in and waited for the others to arrive while some of them moved back to alert the prince who had chosen to stay on the continent until the last minute and make sure everyone returned in one piece.

Bobby was kindly answering questions from the surrounding mages about the plant life and creatures they had seen as well as notifying the mages about the many different elemental mana areas they had stumbled upon.

Johnathan on the other hand started telling the story from the very beginning, their first encounter with a great Apex and their discovery of another corpse was what he was on now. Slightly overplaying everything but all the adventurers were enraptured by the story, smitten entirely by Johnathan's clever use of words to describe the encounter.

The next duo to leave the jungle were Elaryn and Samaton who were immediately approached by knights as they were questioned on any sightings of Devil Shards or Apex corpses around the area.

They started speaking to the knights immediately after taking a quick breath of the fresh ocean breeze.

As Johnathan started speaking of their continued journey to the centre of the continent, he couldn't help but overhear a sarcastic question thrown by one of the adventurers present.

"The adventure ya'll had already seems unbelievable, Hah! What next did ya find a nice woman to elope with?!"

And that single question made all the present party members stop for a single clean and crisp second. That reaction set off a chain reaction, where suddenly silence spread among the gathered crowd.

"Ah," Johnathan spoke, clearing the silence and drawing all the attention to him as he scratched the back of his head, "Well, not exactly... but."

At that moment, Marcello walked out of the jungle foliage, Junko beside him as all heads shifted to him and the little girl beside him.

Looking at the gathered crowd, Marcello could only ask sarcastically.

"What? Did I miss somethin?"

And a commotion broke out as everyone started blasting him, the rest of the party and little Junko with questions.

"Ellie!? did ya have a kid out there or what?!"

"Why's there a five-year-old lass ere Marcello? Where'd ya even find er?!"

"Was she living out here in this over-baked hellhole of a continent?"

"Is that the rumoured thousand-year-old great sage with the body of a child that I've read about in the Great Galchelles Archives!? Have my dreams been fulfilled?! Is she snarky?!"

"Are you brain dead?! How is that a 'great sage'?! She doesn't look older than three! The book from the Great Galchelles Archive that you're talking about specifically mentioned that they seem to physically be in the age range of 8-12 at the minimum! Also! Is something wrong with you?!"

The two previous commenters, mages both, had suddenly started a fistfight within the commotion while the others were still unrelenting with their questions.

Junko could only look at the loud group of people in both confusion, interest and glee.

'Loud' kin' funny!'

She thought as her gaze swept over the new and interesting reactions each person was showing her. She didn't understand their confusion or surprise, neither did she think that it was all due to her as she had seen quite a few interesting reactions from them when the other four party members exited the jungle.

Smiling in interest, her eyes stopped on a man with brown hair and blue eyes. Well, not exactly on him in particular but the small flying creature that sat on his shoulder.

The small creature had hair of pure white and small paper thin pale blue wings on her back. The little creature was staring right at Junko, who chose to stare back.

Making eye contact, Junko could feel a different type of reaction from the little creature. A different emotion compared to everyone else present.

Junko herself, however, felt a strange connection to the small one.

'Not kin... Old... Enemy...? No. Comrade? Friend?'

She thought as she was trying to think of the correct word that had the correct meaning she was searching for, yet her knowledge did not hold that word.

Junko could only wonder as she tilted her head and observed the small one.

Her eyes piercing through the flesh and blood of the small one, Junko observed how the creature was built. Different from anything she had ever seen before. All the bits and pieces were different. In the 'heart' there was a strange gem almost like a star. Junko felt attracted to it. Junko felt like she could easily control it. She wanted to rip it out of the small one, but only a little bit, since she was very interested in the

small one.

The small one in question felt like a prey animal. No. Like a soldier ant facing an anteater.

Even when the Level difference was as high as it was, to the fairy, the creature that had just exited the jungle and made contact with humanity was far, far beyond a simple Apex which she could kill without much difficulty. It was horrifying.

The prince stepped forward.