Made his way through the forest

"Then she should also be capable of surviving it right?", Ivan asked. He wasn't trying to reassure the other person since he seemed to be very calm.

"Yeah. It is truly a miracle. Not only does she manage to always get into trouble she also manages to get out of it. And in the few cases where it didn't seem likely, it was weirdly exactly when I arrived there to fetch her back."

"Wow, she really is a handful."

"You don't even know half of it."

He then told Ivan some stories about what his little aunt had done or gotten into. It was very entertaining to hear those stories and they made time flow by.

While they talked, Vlada had carried them over the grassland and the forest came into view at the horizon.

A look at the compass revealed that the girl was still somewhere in front of them. She should have entered the forest.

"I knew it.", Ivan's new companion exclaimed, "There is no way she would just stay in the peaceful grasslands."

"Well, as long as she is only in the forest we can still find her swiftly."

"Thank you once again for your help.", he thankfully told Ivan.

"No problem. It is on my way anyways."

While they were flying over the forest he slowly got nervous. Until now he hadn't been worried about his aunt but now that they went further into the forest he started to get worried. The danger here was much higher than further out towards the grassland. Especially when the terrain got more mountainous.

"Damn, how far did this girl get?", he said in a worried tone.

"Could she have something to ride on?", Ivan asked. He didn't think that a small girl would be able to get this far without any steed.

"I checked beforehand and she didn't take any of our families steeds."

"Then could she have gotten it somewhere else?"

"I can't eliminate this possibility. But let's hope not, or it would get much more difficult to catch up with her."

Sadly it got more apparent as time went on, that the girl must have gotten her hands on some kind of steed, as they hadn't caught up even after flying over the forest for a long time.

Slowly the ground below them changed as the trees got less and less and the terrain got rockier and rockier. The mountain peaks that had seemed far away before also got closer and now completely filled the horizon.

There was also an increasing number of black spots visible on the sky before them. Meanwhile, the compass still pointed straight ahead.

"We will have to land.", Ivan said when he saw those black spots. He knew that they were the monsters that inhabited the skies above the mountains. And they weren't something he wanted to mess with.

"Yeah.", a sound of agreement came from the other rider.

With Ivan's command, Vlada started to dive towards a small clearing in the forest.

"Thank you for your help."

"No problem. I was planning to go here anyway."

It was as if they both had decided independently but at the same time to split up, now that Vlada wouldn't improve the chance of finding that guy's little aunt faster.

There wasn't any need for further words as they split up. Ivan was planning to stay in the forest for a bit more and train as well as collect some herbs, while his companion had to continue on. Until now Ivan didn't know his name and he didn't feel that there was a need to ask either. If fate allowed it then they would meet again and if not, then there was just no fate between them.

Vlada shrank into a smaller form, allowing her to fly between the trees and allowing her to much better scout.

"Go search for some bears.", he gave her a mental command before splitting up. He was planning on finding some herbs which he knew grew around here.

He slowly made his way through the forest. Although it wasn't as dense here, where the terrain was already mountainous the trees still rose high in the air. There wasn't much underwood which made moving between them much more comfortable and safer.

The rocky ground was largely covered by moss instead of grass. While most of the moss had a green color there were also patches of different colored moss. These patches were different kinds of mosses, each of which he had learned about before. And while some of them were useful for pill refining there were also some that were poisonous and could even kill a grown man if stepped upon barefoot. Of course, even the simple boots he wore would provide enough protection from their poison. It just meant that he had to be careful when harvesting the moss he wanted.

Below one tree whose trunk had a radius of at least two meters, he found one of the mosses he searched for. It was hard to differentiate from the others since it had the same greenish-brown color, but its form was special since each fiber seemed to be surrounded by a star-like pattern.

He took out a small trowel and carefully removed part of the moss. This was something that every person collecting herbs in the wild was urged to do. By removing only part of it, the herb would be given the opportunity to regrow and thus be of use for the next person to stumble over it.

Of course, there were also exceptions, since doing so would not only reduce the harvest but also sometimes be impossible. Then it was fine to remove it completely.

After he had carefully removed the part he wanted he stored it inside his herb ring before moving on.

The forest was like a treasure trove. It wasn't visited much, so herbs could grow freely and while there weren't really high-grade rare herbs around, lower-grade ones could be found quite easily.

Not long after he had found the moss he spotted a thin blue vine wrapping around the trunk of another large tree. This vine didn't have any use in pill refining by itself but it could grow small flowers at its end which could be used together with the moss to create a pill that was capable of providing a small amount fo HP.

To harvest the flower it was necessary for Ivan to ascend the tree and find the end of the vine, hidden in the crown. If Vlada was here, he could have easily let her carry him to the top but she was still scouting around. In his mind, he could feel through the connection with her that while she had found some single bears she determined them to not be useful in his training.

Her making this decision would later greatly help him with his training efficiency. But for now, it meant that she was still scouting and was thus unavailable, leaving him with only the option of climbing the tree by himself.

Of course, with the vine as well as the rough bark of the tree, this wasn't hard. He speedily climbed up the tree until he had nearly reached the crown of the tree. That was when suddenly one of the small branches above him came alive. It shot towards him, while a mouth opened and two fangs where displayed.

It was a snake that inhabited the crowns of the trees in this area. With its appearance, Ivan was in a precarious situation. He didn't have a save stand and needed at least one foot and hand to secure his position, leaving only one hand free to fend off the snake.

With a flick of his wrist, he whipped out his dagger and stabbed towards the incoming snakehead. The snake, of course, didn't let itself be hit and it recoiled just as fast as it had moved towards him. With the stab going into empty air, Ivan was now in an even more problematic situation. There was no way for him to move, as long as he needed to hold the dagger in his hand. Moving would require him to use both hands. And as soon as he put the dagger away the snake would surely attack again.

This left him with only the option of feinting, in order to lure the snake out with the hope of then being able to damage it.

He carefully hid his dagger while putting his full focus on the branches above him.

There was no movement above. He didn't know whether the snake understood that he had put away his weapon or not but if it didn't show itself he would only have two options left. One would be to move upwards, increasing the risk of the snake successfully attacking him and one downwards, which was safer but would also mean that he would give up on the flowers of the blue vine.