Night's Rise

The moon still is almost halfway hidden by the skyline as the second sun peeks out just barely, its green glow becoming withdrawn as an incredible dark overtakes it. Rechend and Vadana talk about something by the hole Rechend dug for an ash pit, Rechend's bag sitting behind them. Haste and Rechend have already designated five spots for what Rechend just labeled as "Shelter" so now both of them need to wait for Nimaril to return with wood for those shelters and the campfire. Haste spends this time wandering around a fair distance from the two of them as he looks at the larger wild plants nearby, some of which look slightly fern-like, others seemingly producing fruits or berries on their thin stalks, each of which he's completely avoided touching, in worry they'd secrete some kind of poison. As Haste approaches the closest plant; he realizes, that in contrast to the deep darkness covering the fields, the light covering the plains has the slightest red tinge to it; almost definitely due to the moon itself being a red giant, looking back up at it he sees the moon itself is just as dark, no sunlight surrounds it like the moon he's so used to. internally monologuing to himself as he takes in the sight again, "Actually I don't know what I expected, of course, there's no moonlight here, the moon isn't on the opposite side anymore..." Haste was still able to see his surroundings however due to the barely peeking part of the second sun still illuminating some green over the grass fields. Haste takes his attention away, though, instead, he approaches the next plant closest to himself. It has a thin stem and appears to have no leaves, Haste looks closer at the plant which seems to be only a stalk sticking straight up, Haste gets onto one knee and lowers to the same height as it, looking closer he sees it actually does have wide long leaves, but they're wrapped around the stem, completely coating it. There's more of the same plant close to the one he's looking at too, so Haste decides to investigate the one closest to his left as well, seeing it too has its leaves wrapped around the stem, hiding its stalk. He tries unfolding the leaves a bit but sees there's nothing unique underneath, just a green stalk. However, he's still really curious and decides to simply wrap his fingers around the entire stem and try pulling it out of the ground, gripping it with both of his hands he pulls, leaning back to use his body as a weight; he feels it loosen from the ground as he leans back further for the added strength. Then with a pop, it's yanked out of the ground, sending Haste reeling as his back collides with the soft ground, plant in hand as the fruit of his success. He sits back up as he rubs his back with a free hand and speaks to himself "Ah... That was really stupid I guess..." Forgetting his mistake, he stays sitting down as he inspects the plant, on the end that was rooted into the ground is something almost wooden in texture in the shape of a drill, the tip pointing downwards as the stem extends from the flat top covered in dirt and torn grass, as Haste stands back up patting dirt off of his clothes, his hands slipping into the now even larger tears as he does. He decides to simply try snapping the plant's stem, yet fails to do so due to the plant being rubbery and tensile, refusing to rip but easily bending and coiling. Haste thinks to himself as he drops the plant to the ground, "That was just a plain plant, albeit a bit strange. Did things really not change that much from what I'm used to?" as he rubs the back of his neck he just shrugs this off, figuring it's probably for the best that things don't seem too out of place. "Though I feel kind of bad for this plant... Probably shouldn't have done that I guess." He finishes feeling bad to himself as he kneels, giving the plant a little pat and a quiet "Sorry." Once the memorial is over, he stands back up and walks back over to the small, unmade camp, seeing Vadana and Rechend still chatting as he approaches, Haste doesn't join, however, as they're just saying lots of words he doesn't know, probably involving cities or people, instead, he looks to the fields straight ahead from where he is, seeing Hashriko in the far, far distance, he's walking back while holding something large on top of his arms with his bow on his back with a quiver. Haste realizes that Hashriko probably hunted something like Vadana said he was tasked with. Haste turns to Vadana and Rechend before speaking, "Hey, I'm gonna head over to Hashriko, it looks like he's found something." Rechend breaks the conversation to give Haste a simple nod, returning to talking to Vadana again almost immediately, Haste turns on a dime as he sprints over to Hashriko, seeing what he hunted better while closing the distance, resting on Hashriko's extended arms is an animal about the size of a boar, it has no fur, instead purely having a pink flesh simply cover it, its spine and joints being clearly defined as they look like they're about to tear out, looking at its hook-shaped head Haste is able to see six eyes three on each side of its head in vertical columns, underneath these eyes is a mouth with square teeth protruding from the lips, similar in looks to human buck teeth, Haste is both grossed out and confused at the sight of the failed pig. Hashriko gives Haste a simple nod with an almost as simple "Caught dinner." As he moves past Haste. Breaking free of the confusion Haste turned around as he walked behind Hashriko and spoke, "What's that?" as Haste asked this he felt like a young child bothering his parents with dumb questions. Hashriko simply sighed as he explained, "This is a quirenax, they're a wild variant of quirepiene, thus its name." Hashriko finishes as his fancy outfit is blown a bit by the wind, blood splattered on it as Haste continues prying, "Is there a specific meaning to nax or piene?" Haste hopes what he's asking isn't something hard to forget, either that or it isn't something elementary. Hashriko turns his head, slightly facing Haste with a confused look before turning back, "You've used the suffixes a few times yourself, you don't know what it means?" Haste gets worried as he quickly responds speaking off the top of his head, "Well, I actually speak a different language, Vadana just injected her... Brew that allowed me to speak so fluently, I really have no idea how anything I'm saying sounds to you." Hashriko nods facing away from Haste as Haste steps up to walk at Hashriko's side, Hashriko speaks with the Quirenax still bleeding in his arms. "Oh, I guess you really do have a lot to deal with, huh? Well, I guess you'll hear them a lot so I should tell you. -nax is commonly used for wild creatures that may pose some danger to unarmed people, almost a danger rating I guess

-piene is attached to creatures that are... I guess domesticated inside of civilization or common livestock, but there are some other suffixes. Most of the time we separate them into groups called classes going up to fifteen. -piene's are of course in class one" Haste thinks back to what Rechend called the monster he saw them slaying, remembering he had called it something like a "Meseniorcrine" he decides now might be a good time to both learn more and not look as dumb as he speaks, "So that... meseniorcrine? What was the suffix for him?" Hashriko raises his eyebrow as Haste asks, taking a second to understand the question, "Oh, you mean the mesanercrine, they're considered deadly for a couple of experienced trainers or a group of three novices, unlike this group which is four, the recommended number to go up against creatures that have -crine in their name. I believe -crine is attached to creatures in the class three area?" Haste is caught off guard to learn that they're novices and even further off guard to learn that beast was so low on the strange scale but catches his thoughts as he continues pestering Hashriko with questions. "So does every creature have an attachment to their species name?" Hashriko simply shakes his head, his arms slightly moving too as the quirenax's body jiggles in them, "No, there are lots of examples of common species evading the rule, and even then the rule only exists in some languages. Oh! It also can depend on the strength of the creature, if something is strong enough or more of a 'one of a kind' creature it gets its own title which won't have a part of its name attached to some danger scale, instead they'll just be their own thing, but they tend to only be classes thirteen and above." Haste gets a chill as he thinks to himself, still walking with Hashriko as he does, "Wait, doesn't that mean there's been a creature like that before? Wait..." Hashriko waits for Haste's next simple question and on cue Haste asks it, "Wait there isn't anything like that right now, right?" Hashriko looks puzzled as Haste asks this before he speaks, "What? Haste, of course, there is. I mean I can think of a few examples in this general area, well I mean not really 'this area' but relatively close for creatures strong enough to act as formidable siege beasts, such as... Actually, they'll make for pretty fun stories over a campfire so I guess you have to wait until then." Haste pouts a bit to himself, having wanted to hear some cool stories as soon as possible, but looking ahead he sees Hashriko was being reasonable as the camp is barely any distance away. Haste sees Nimaril out of breath and leaning against an entire chopped tree, Vadana is sitting by her wiping Nimariil's brow with a rag of some sort. Haste looks at the lengthy tree, it's unlike the trees from the forest he came from, it's almost normal looking, being only kind of tall, Haste assumes it's probably as tall as three of him on top of each other, what sets it apart though is its empty branches, it looks like its leaves were removed, though the branches are kind of green. Haste looks at some of the green on the tree's beige trunk and realizes it's something similar to moss, "Nimaril must've simply tore the leaves off when carrying the- Wait, hold on! She dragged a whole tree!?" Haste's eyes widen as he thinks this, realizing why Nimaril was so out of breath as he stands there, simply impressed, Rechend walks up to him and speaks, "Hah, you weren't expecting her to carry this much back?" Haste shakes his head as Rechend chuckles and continues, "Well then we better get chopping, after all, you agreed to help me out." Rechend pats Haste on the back as Haste looks up and down the tree and realizes he's in for tough work as he leans forward and nods.

The second sun has fully tucked underneath the skyline and the large moon has fully risen, though the moon somehow still illuminates the plains well enough for Haste to see a fair distance away. Rechend continues as Haste looks at the moon with awe, ripping Haste out of the trance with some words, "Actually... How about for now you cut the branches off for firewood." Rechend hands Haste the same dagger he did before, still slightly bloody. "Here, just chop off as many as you can and bring them over to the pit." Haste nods as he grabs the hooked knife by the brown handle and walks towards the head of the tree as Rechend pulls a hatchet out and steps towards the trunk. Haste reaches the top of the tree while Rechend chops at the trunk with the hatchet. Haste grabs some of the branches as they try scratching at his face, he places the knife at the base of the branch and grips the handle, however when he does he hears a click as suddenly the blade of the knife straightens and sections of its backside inwards to form a serration. Haste finds the transformation cool as he finds the button and clicks it again. With another click, the serrations are refilled and the blade returns to the first form, he thinks to himself as he looks at the blade, "Oh... Still cool though!" Haste takes a chop at the root of the branch as it snaps off, as he cuts it his hand slides a little back over the strange moss-like substance on it, he notices how spongey it feels almost immediately, gripping with the hand it's under, he accidentally crumbles it in his hands as a white viscous liquid squelches out. Haste shakes it off his hands and wipes his hand on his pants leg, some still slipping in through the holes. Ignoring his own mistake, again, he tosses the branch to the side as he starts on the other branches, trying his best not to touch the moss stuff. as he's making reasonable progress on the branches, managing not to cut himself yet; he looks up at Rechend and quickly realizes just how much he's done in comparison to Haste. Rechend has already chopped off entire chunks and carved them down, he looks up to make eye contact with Haste as Haste instinctively looks down to dodge it, back to the branches to continue cutting them off.

After some more time Haste eventually finishes and puts his hands on his sides as he takes a breath and looks back around, Rechend has already finished more than half of the tree by now and has uncarved cuts in a different pile them five unstripped pieces, the other members sit on the ground by the campfire talking, except Nimaril who sits further away, she's taken out the projectile spikes from the top of their battle axe and is using a sharpening stone on them while a rag drenched with blood lays next to her. Haste looks down at his bundle of sticks, rests the knife against the trunk of the tree, and starts splitting them into smaller piles, he then wraps his arms around the first lessened pile and lifts them up, they stab into his torso but he does his best to ignore them and starts bringing them over to the fire pit; some of the bundle falling out behind him, leaving a trail. He steps past Vadana and Hashriko who stop talking about Hashriko's hunt as Vadana gives him a simple "Nice work." before returning to their conversation. Haste reaches the pit and drops the sticks into it before he finally rubs his gut and feels the marks the sticks must've left, he then repeats the process four more times with the rest of the bundles as Rechend finishes stripping the rest of the logs, Haste counts them up while passing with the last bundle, counting ten in total. Rechend grabs four logs, two between each arm as he walks next to Haste, the entire tree is now gone, its only remains being the moss and bark strippings that may as well leave a chalk outline, Haste thinks some more as he looks at the sight, "I if my corpse is still back home, if not..." Shivering while fearing the worst he snaps out of thought when hearing Rechend speak to him, "Haste?.. You okay?" Haste nods and responds, "Yeah, I was just thinking about something." Rechend gives him a shrug as he turns back to face the tree remains, speaking as he does, "Ah, all right then, anyways I just wanted to say thanks for the help, usually I have to cut the whole tree down!" As he says this Haste chuckles then thinks about the stamina he must have to chop up an entire tree, "That's impressive, Rechend." Rechend nods at the praise and loudly speaks, almost as if he's trying to be heard by somebody else, "About time somebody said it..." He looks at Vadana after saying this, only for her to return a look, Rechend's facing away from Haste so he can't see the face he's giving her, but he can see Vadana giving him the same mother look he's seen a few times now, Rechend simply ignores it and looks away as Haste and him reach the pit, Haste throws the sticks in as Rechend starts placing the logs around the fire, presumably to act as chairs before he goes back to grab some more. As he walks away Haste looks at the unlit firepit, realizing plenty of things as he does, noting each of them mentally, "Wait, how will we start the fire? and isn't this too big? We don't need an entire bonfire out here! Also, we have no fire-starter even, right?" As Haste thinks this he answers each question instantly with one answer that's started to feel almost like a cop-out, "Ah right, it's a different world. They probably have some fireball or something, or Vadana has some 'start flame' vial, they've clearly done it before so I should just trust them here." Haste finishes his unnecessary thinking as he looks back around, near the fire four seats are forming a half-circle around it, upon these Hashriko and Vadana have sat, only in a strange manner, leaving a space between them as they still chat. Rechend is carrying over four more logs, and Nimaril is now sharpening her axe's blades, having distanced herself from the fireplace. Haste thinks about what he should do here only for a moment as he simply decides to try talking with Nimaril some more. He walks away from the fire as he sits on the grass near her without a word spoken at first, even though on his way she did notice him walking over before returning to sharpening. Haste starts talking first to stop it from being awkward silence again, "That weapon's really cool, it looks tough to use though." Nimaril looks away from sharpening to face Haste as she puts the stone down, speaking more outwardly for the first time, "Yes, it's my signature weapon, I really do find it beautiful, thus why I keep it so polished." She brushes her hand against the left blade, the black metal reflects it perfectly as she puts her hand back down, Haste thinks as she does this, "Huh, I think I found her weak spot in conversation." he starts talking aloud again, pretending like he didn't just talk to himself mentally, "You do a good job, it looks pristine! How long have you had it?" Nimaril smiles a bit as she's silent for a moment, speaking after the silence passes, "Nearly a decade now, it's my pride as a chaser-" her hands run up the silver symbol on the center and grasp one of the trident-like spikes at the top, "If I were to lose it I don't even know what I'd do, probably wouldn't be as pretty though." Haste nodded while she talked, he'd seen this trope of a warrior loving their weapon like a kid before, it was simply a common trait that worked because it was realistic. Haste gets a smug smile as Nimaril realizes how she was talking before she grabs the sharpening stone and continues working on the axe, talking again after letting a few sparks fly, "You took advantage of that, didn't you?" Haste is unsure how to respond so he just gives a short, "Yeah." with a shrug, Nimaril gives a small smile in return then goes back to being straight-faced and silent as the sound of the stone sliding against the steel fills the cold dimly lit air, Haste speaks again, hoping what he says won't be too intrusive, "So, what's up with the silent demeanor? I don't need to know, of course, I'm just curious." Haste feels confident with the last part of the sentence as Nimaril stops sharpening to speak, "I'm just a quiet person." she continues sharpening after saying this as Haste gives no response, unsure if she's being private or honest, either way, he doesn't feel like prying her so he gets up and speaks, "Well, that was still nice talking to you a bit more, I'm gonna go over to the fire now." Nimaril gives Haste no acknowledgment as he turns around; walking away, the sound of scraping metal becoming more drawn back behind the light crackles of the flames. Reaching the starting, red fire as he walks behind the seats he sees every log has been set up, one to act as a chair and another in front of each, probably to act as individual tables. Haste sees Rechend slouched on his chair with his backpack laying against it, on his table is the quirenax's body. Rechend's to the left of Hashriko, another empty chair to his left. Haste thinks to himself as he stands there awkwardly, "I don't know if I'm supposed to sit somewhere specific... I'll just stand around until Nimaril comes over." Haste enacts his own orders, stepping around the chairs as he looks at the fire, a large metal grate rests over the building fire, though it still looks far from ready to cook anything, Haste is a bit upset he didn't see how they started the fire, but he still has some questions he looks around the camp, thinking to himself as he notices an important part missing, "Where are we supposed to sleep?" There are no tents, sleeping bags, or even anything that could even be an incredibly primitive bed, the campfire is the only thing there. Haste trusts the group enough though to believe they'll have something sorted before... He thought to himself more actively as he questioned this, "Actually I'm not sure what'll happen when it gets darker here, will it just get colder? In fact, can it even get darker anymore? Isn't the moon already fully out?" Haste looks up at the moon as he asks himself this, it makes Haste feel microscopic, yet still curious about how far away it is, "I wonder how tides work here? Gravity feels about the same, so will they be similar as well?.. If only I was a scientist... I'd probably know this stuff." As he idolizes and fears the moon he hears the clanks of armor walking, looking down he sees Nimaril walking over to her seat to the left of Rechend, across from the entire fire pit Haste nods and thinks to himself, "Guess I know where my seat is then." Haste looks at the seat between Hashriko and Vadana, both of whom have stopped talking, Hashriko stopped to speak to Rechend, Vadana just looked out to her left, in the direction of the main path, Haste walks back around the fire, walking in between the chairs and the pit to reach his seat as he sits in it. Feeling his legs die almost as soon as he does as they loudly crack, breaking Vadana out of a trance as she turns to look at him, luckily being the only one to notice as Haste clearly was hurt by it, Vadana speaks; a worried tone filling her voice, "Haste? Are you okay? Do you need--" Haste interrupts her dismissively, "Yeah, I'm fine, just... popped my legs." Haste rubs the back of his leg, the pain already having soothed to becoming a relaxing feeling instead as Vadana speaks again confused and worried, "What do you mean your legs popped? Are they okay?" Haste looks at her equally confused as he realizes what the situation might be, "Oh, yeah. Does uh... Do your joints not pop like that?" Vadana shakes her head as she responds to the question, "No..? I've actually only seen that behavior in a few non-humanoids, not even Nimaril's or Hashriko's joints do." Haste nods as she says this, holding his composure as he explains, "Oh, well it's common for my... Race, it isn't harmful though, rather it makes me feel limber instead." Vadana responds, her voice calmer, even if it only had a slight worry in it before, "Oh, sorry I didn't realize it was natural, just had me worried for a moment." Haste shrugs off the misunderstanding, after all, he'd be worried if somebodies bones made a weird sound out of the blue too. But as Vadana turns to the now nicely sized fire, with Haste left to think, "So do their bones not pop at all? How do they move so fluidly then? I thought that was necessary to do so." Haste stops rubbing his knee as he too looks at the fire, it's grown significantly and has engulfed most of the kindling, at some point Nimaril seems to have left, Haste no longer seeing her anywhere while looking around. Hashriko sees him searching and explains to Haste, "She went out to do some more tree chopping, kindling's burning fast." Haste nods as he looks at Hashriko, he's taken off his gloves, hat, and sweater vest, appearing more casual as he sits, looking into the fire. Haste notices his ears a bit better now, he looks around a bit more and sees Rechend now has his leather shoulder and knee pads to his side, wearing just a plain tunic and leather pants, to his right he sees Vadana still just wearing everything she had on, minimal leather armor and a sleeved tunic, also wearing leather pants. Haste feels out of place as he pulls his sweater out by the bottom, sighing as he still wears his torn, bloody clothing, Haste thinks to himself as his hands release his torn sweater, "I feel like I need that change more desperately now... Also a shower... A mirror too- actually I just need an entire bathroom." He looks around a bit more, "There definitely isn't one around here though, never knew I'd be so thankful for a strong bladder." Looking back at Rechend who seems to be going through his backpack he sees the quirepiene in front of Rechend, it's been cut open and gutted, its sanguine blood staining the stripped log, its guts set to the side of it. Haste looks away and turns back to Vadana to speak, "Hey, so where is everybody going to sleep?" Vadana looks away from the fire back to Haste as he asks, answering him simply, "Oh, Rechend just has some beds in his backpack, they're pretty good too." Haste nods and thanks Vadana, befuddled as he thinks while looking at the bag, "How much room is in that backpack..?" Haste shakes off the thought as he looks behind Vadana, cuing Vadana to turn as well, both of them see Nimaril dragging another fallen tree, she's walking at an impressive pace while doing it too, leaving a trail almost similar to the one the monster from earlier had left as well. Vadana turns around and with a slight shout yells, "Rechend, Nimaril's back!" Rechend sighs and slouches as he rubs his jagged knees and stands up, grabbing the hatchet at his side and holstering it in his belt as he walks over to the same area the other tree was chopped. The fire has really started taking out the weak kindling by now as it's all turned to gray ash, Haste looks deep into the fire thinks existentially while Rechends footsteps grow distant, "Is this gonna be what my life is like from now on..?" Even though not too long ago he had thought of this with excitement, asking the question had made him a little despaired. He kept staring into the fire as his brain spoke some more "I guess fire's still the same... At least there's that." Haste rested his arm on his knee and his face on his hand, he may as well have been having a staring contest with the flames, they had provided him a gateway for thought, yet just like every time he's stopped to think Haste is brought out of trance by a thwack. Looking at the noise he saw Rechend chopping the second fallen tree as Nimaril walked back to her log seat. She wasn't wearing her armor anymore, revealing simple, leather clothing that was under it, her armor resting by her log as Haste watches her sit down, out of breath. Turning away from her back to the fire silently, Haste sees the steel grate over it is turning a dim red, probably starting to really gain heat. Haste turns to Hashriko and speaks, "Hey, how hot is the, uh- Grill? supposed to get?" Hashriko looks at the red grill as Haste nods to it. "Oh, don't worry about that, we just put whatever we're cooking on when it gets almost entirely red." Haste looks at it then back at Hashriko, "Won't it like... I don't know, melt or something?" Hashriko shakes his head, "Zerbirios is highly heat resistant and flexible, it's how Rechend can fit it in his backpack and why we make adventuring grills out of it," Haste nods understandingly as Hashriko continues, "It's terrible for weapon-making though, it's a brittle metal, even placing food on it you have to sometimes be careful, I can't count the number of times Rechend would put a good looking hunt on the grill only for it to just snap like a twig." Haste looks back at the metal grill, curious about the zerbirios material, thinking to himself as he looks at its growing heat, "So many strange things here... Even the metals are different, I think at least, never was a chemist so maybe there was a metal like this?" The background hacking ceases as Haste turns back to his right, seeing that Rechend has finished chopping the second tree into logs and those logs into quarter pieces. He scoops up a bunch of the firewood and tosses it into the fire, Haste watches as the fire spikes up, its burst of flame spraying ash all over the inside of the fire pit, as the flame calms down another bunch is thrown in by Rechend, this time some ash's fly further into the air, getting carried in the smoke that blows the opposite direction of the party. Rechend retakes his seat behind the quirenax, a pile of firewood now laid by the fire. Rechend looks to the rest of the group as he speaks, "Well I think we're ready to get cooking, I'll put it-" Hashriko interrupts him as he speaks, "I'll put it on the fire, thank you, Rechend" Rechend slumps back down in his seat as if he was a child just scolded by his mother.

As Hashriko stands up and stands next to Rechend he slips on his bloody gloves, Rechend reaches into his bag and hands Hashriko a thick, cylindrical rod, sharp on both ends. Hashriko grabs the rod firmly as he takes it and leans over the quirenax's body, he holds the reflective rod in his right hand as he sets his left hand on the fleshy protruding shoulders of the animal, then as Haste watches in curiosity, Hashriko takes the pole and slams it into the back end of it. Haste's eyes widen as Hashriko twists the pole while applying pressure to dig it further in, its blood squelches out as it starts to go all the way in, Hashriko then instantly tears the rod out. It's covered in the quirenax's red blood as Hashriko sets it aside. Haste is mortified by the sight, a large hole full of bloody mush is all that's left in the cavity before Hashriko reaches his hand back in and scrapes the rest out onto the ground, then he moves to his pouch rested on his seat, taking out a bundle of multicolored plants and crumbling them in his gloved hands before moving back towards the carcass, setting some of the herbs by it before slathering it with the rest, then grabbing the rest he stuffs it into the cavity and rubs it around inside some. He speaks as he grabs the pipe and sticks it back in, "All right, I actually need you Rechend to help me set this onto the grill..." Rechend slaps his legs with a grin as he stands up and grabs the front legs of the Quirenax while Hashriko grabs the rear ones, they gently lift it, shuffle to the right, and with incredible precision set it down onto the red grill. It loudly sizzles as they both release it and the grill buckles a bit under its weight, but stays standing. Haste is still grossed out while looking at the guts on the ground but can ignore them because of the loud sizzling. Looking back up, Haste sees its head directly facing him, its eyes still in their sockets as they wave behind the heat. Haste thinks to himself as he makes eye contact with the pairs of eyes of the cooking quirenax, "Creepy..." He chooses to break away and look around the camp to find anything worth pouring attention towards. The fields are still illuminated by the looming moon and not much is around that he hasn't seen, Haste asks a question directed towards anybody as he notices the lack of wildlife, "Is it usually this empty out at night?" He gets a response from Rechend somewhere to his right, "Most of the time, yeah. Can't see much regardless though; no point worrying about it." Haste is a bit confused about what Rechend meant when he said he couldn't see much but shrugs it off as he turns back to the fire and the quirenax. After the whole group falls silent for a bit and the fires rise higher, somebody finally speaks.

Hashriko looks around before rubbing his knees and speaking, "So- Haste wanted to learn about some of the stronger monsters of this area, figured we could use this time to talk about it." Rechend smiles at this and pats his thighs, Nimaril is somehow still cleaning her axe behind him but unfazed by the question. Rechend leans forward to face Haste and speaks, "So you do? Well then take your pick, we have a giant, wooden golem, a constantly angry monster, an armored beast with too many legs, and a winged, large creature that tunnels underground." Haste is taken aback by how many exist but is interested in each, he cycles through the choices he was given in his head again, the choice is tough for him but he chooses to go with the winged creature. He leans forward and speaks with Rechend, "Tell me more about that winged, tunneling creature!" Rechend smiles and gets up, he moves his chair to be in front of Haste and closer to the fire. Then turning to face Haste, back to the fire as he speaks, "It's been named Kyklosaret, its name describes what it is, a giant cylindrical beast with a large pair of wings and a ferocious mouth, full of ten sets of teeth used to grind any mineral in tunnels into. It appears to have a single eye, but in reality that one eye is millions of tiny eyes that it uses for incredibly detailed sight, in one glance it can completely understand every physical attribute of its prey and where it's going, truly it's an intimidating foe. But its physique is barely what's important about it, it burrows underground but since it's so large when it burrows anywhere near your area, you'll feel a major trembling in the ground, as if the world is shaking under your feet, and if he chose you as prey... He'll launch into the air and slam his mouth down on you! Devouring you instantly as it immediately goes back underground." With the last part, Rechend had done some exaggerated arm movements to accompany the story, Haste was captured by his own thought, trying to imagine the beast with how it was described, he ends up picturing it as a wyrm-like monster with a giant flies eye. Soon after Haste blinks back to life, seeing Rechend and Hashriko on both ends of the quirenax, Hashriko stabs a metal spike through the body for Rechend to grab, together they both lift the quirenax into the air and carry it over to Rechends log table, where his seat has been returned. As they set it down and release the pole, taking it back to reveal a straight hole from the tailbone to the column in between its eyes while a part of it slightly sags off of the log, it doesn't smell the best but it does remind Haste just how hungry he is, his chest more noticeably cramping as he grips his gut. Rechend has taken out some sort of cooking multi-tool by now, along with five large leaves that Hate recognizes as the leaves he saw in the giant forest. Rechend starts cutting into it with a bladed part, slicing each piece onto one of five thick leaves, the seared slabs of meat slip onto the makeshift plates, a slightly dark red in the center of each of them. Strangely it looks closer to the color of a steak despite the animal having been more in the shape of a pig. Rechend then slides a large ladle out of the multi-tool and turns the log so the base of the quirenax faces him. He starts scooping out some of the cooked herbs onto each leaf with the ladle. It's simply green mush with some solid parts mixed into the piles on each plate. Hashriko then starts taking the oddly sturdy plates and hands them out to everybody. As he does Haste notices that everybody actually has the same portion size, five quirenax slices and four spoonfuls of what's easier to simply call stuffing. Rechend also takes out a black case from his bag, he opens it to reveal it's full of reflective silverware, which Hashriko takes and hands out as well. He hands Haste two tin-colored objects, close enough to what he's used to. The "fork" is six-pronged instead of the usual four, the "knife" is essentially a tiny rapier with an ivory-colored and looped handle that fits three of his fingers in it. He thinks to himself as he wields the tiny sword, its metal coat reflecting the moonlight, "Cool, it's actually just a tiny sword!" Haste weaves the knife through the air, essentially playing with it, however, as he does a glance from Rechend making his way back to his seat is enough to make Haste stop and put the knife down on the leaf plate, looking down to ignore the looks of anybody else potentially giving him confused gazes. As he hears Rechend sit back down he hears everybody else has already begun eating, his manners had him waiting instinctively for everybody to be ready so he was a bit late on the pickup of his utensils. Rechend spoke before Haste even got his fork into the meat, "Hah! You sure know how to cook these things, Hashriko!" Haste had looked up to see the sentence finished, Rechend had a mouthful of the food, chewing loudly for everybody to hear. Haste looked back down, looking back to his plate as he stabbed his fork into the dark slab of meat and sliced it next to it with his knife to sever it. The piece slips off as he lifts it to his face with the fork; he places it into his mouth as it slides off the fork onto his tongue.

The meat has a muscley and tense texture to it, it doesn't exactly taste the best either, Haste, however, is still delighted by it. Not having food in the last whatever amount of hours was secretly driving him insane from the inside. He had not even taken a moment to dedicate to understanding its taste. He dug into the meat, surprised by the durability of the leaf as his knife and fork pressed hard against it, but he didn't investigate this time, finishing the meat off soon after, finishing his portion of it ahead of everybody else, surprisingly. He realized after a moment why though, thinking to himself as he looked back at his plate, "Oh right, I completely forgot about the slop- stuffing." He prods the pile, curiously with his rapier knife. It's slime-like, but Haste sees the others eating it happily so he scoops some with his fork and worryingly eats it. It tastes exactly how it looked, it has the texture of boxed mashed potatoes and the taste of grass and iron, it begs him to spit it out, but since he wants to look normal he keeps chewing, eventually bringing himself to reluctantly swallow it down. He sets his utensils down and acts like he's full, luckily timing it with Hashriko who's also eaten his full plate. Haste looks at him and speaks, "That was good, thanks!" Hashriko simply nods and drinks from a tan, woven pouch, offering Haste some after he's done drinking it, Haste takes the canteen from Hashriko's hands and sees it looks relatively normal, it just feels like plastic is wrapped around it. Haste simply shrugs and tips it into his mouth, lips disconnected from the nozzle. A sweet yellow liquid pours out, it tastes good and leaves Haste wanting more as he hands the canteen back to Hashriko. Wiping his lips he starts quickly thinking about the taste, it was berry-like with a hint of sugar, much better than what he's had to recently stomach. It tasted eerily similar to a modern energy drink, only without any caffeine. After a bit of watching the fire in wait, everybody was finished with their meals and the leaf plates were tossed into the flames to burn. The utensils were placed in one of Rechend's satchels apparently to be washed later. Haste was now feeling incredibly worn out as the calming, normal fire soothed him to the bone. What was left of the quirenax laid on the log, some meat-ridden bones, and a head. Rechend stayed in his bag, pulling out a bunch of strips of some unknown brown material. Speaking after he laid them in a pile next to his bag, "Alright, uh..." his eyes scan the group as he decides who'll help him, "Haste! Come help me set up the mats." Haste avoids nodding off and instead simply nods as he gets up with a stretch before walking over to Rechend. Haste squats down next to him and is slowly taught how to fix up the mats. Apparently, the strips have attached pieces that stick together to make a woven bed made of a latex-like material. After being shown how it's done Rechend tells Haste they'll both set up separate ones. Haste, following orders, grabs one of the piles and sprawls it on the floor, he thinks to himself as he sorts through pieces, "It's just like a jigsaw puzzle, each piece has a place to go... Hopefully, I don't lose one to bring it closer in similarity." Some pieces almost refuse to stick together, but after a while of randomly touching the rectangular ends together, to his own surprise, Haste successfully puts together a simple bed. He feels happy with himself, even ignoring the fact that Rechend had set up the rest in the same amount of time he took to do one. Rechend announces to the others that the beds are done, snapping Haste out of his confident trance, to drag the one he made closer to the fire, in front of his log seat. He crawls onto the mat and lays his back down on it to face the moon above. Everybody puts their beds in different spots as well. Nimaril, on the other hand, doesn't even lay down, instead, she stays up, tending her battle-axe. Haste wants to be more investigative of the situation but fails to command his body, having lost control the second he laid down. So he simply gives in to desire and his eyes fall asleep for the first-ever time since he died.

Chapter 6 -