Little Red Riding Hood... Minus the hood.

"Hello?"

After leaving the bench where I had taken a break I continued to make my way forward, and pretty soon I was greeted by a girl with long silver hair and a red cloak looking down on me from a high place in the distance.

With a strange mask on her face, she continued to look down without saying a word, seemingly analyzing my actions.

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"Are you one of the zombie husk things? I asked out loud after not getting any answers.

The red-cloaked girl just looked at me for a moment more before dashing away.

I was a bit confused at the interaction, but at the very least she hadn't attacked me. So that was nice. I never thought I would meet little red riding hood, but here we are.

"Bye!" I shouted to the distance only to get no response.

I simply shrugged and continued to make my way through. I wasn't going to be able to reach the cliff she was looking down on me from by jumping. While I could climb my way there I wasn't really looking for trouble. If she wanted to leave I wasn't gonna be a stalker and follow her.

I just simply continued to wander around, and soon I was greeted by the worst creature in existence.

Mosquitoes.

God, I hate them. Especially when they kamikaze their way to me. I guess I should have expected this but this place was full of them. The moment they spotted me they would charge at me trying to stab me with their freaky little mouths.

And of course, since this world was cursed with gigantic bugs, the freaking nightmares were the size of my head. Thankfully I had enough reaction speed to snatch this devilish creature from the sky when it flew right at me. Once I had them in my hands I would simply snap their necks by twisting the head around.

This wasn't the nicest way to kill them but it sure was efficient. And who doesn't love efficiency? To be honest it was a bit disgusting to snap mosquito necks but I guess they were good for fertilizing the ground.

As I made my way down I eventually heard a familiar song in the distance.

A strange humming tune that only one mapmaker sang.

Following the humming, I made my way through a bit of a jungle obstacle course filled with the cursed mosquitoes and more of the strange leaf armor dudes that exploded in orange fog.

— — —

"Cornifer!" I said with excitement at seeing the familiar face.

It had taken me some time to get to him but nothing a good smack on the head or a good twist of the neck didn't fix.

"Ghost! Isn't this a contrast from the Crossroads? Such a humid, lively place. The roads twist and turn in the most wonderful ways. I've done my best to chart the area ahead, though I must admit some of the area's inhabitants proved quite a nuisance." Cornifer answered as he looked up from his map.

"Do you mean the mosquitoes? I hate them too. The thing has to charge up to you and try to stab you in the face with its stupid face." I said as I mimicked the snapping of a neck.

Cornifer looked at me with a bit of confusion before asking with a bit of laughter.

"Are you talking about the squits? Yes, they are a big nuisance. A couple of them nearly got to me, but thankfully I am quite adept at dodging attacks and sneaking around."

I sat on the ground next to him before taking a peek at the map he was drawing.

"You got a new map already? You work fast. I haven't even finished exploring all of the places on the old map." I said as I pulled out the map and began pointing at certain locations I had yet to go to.

"Oh, and also, you should probably figure out a better way to describe dangerous places. I almost got myself killed going to the fancy armor you marked down." I added

Seeing the map Cornifer smiled.

"I will keep that in mind. Maybe I will add a little frowny face to dangerous places. What do you think?"

"Hey, as long as I know to be ready to fight I am good." I answered with a shrug.

Pointing at the map Cornifer said.

"I see you have met my wife. When you bought that map it was nowhere close to finished. How was she doing?"

"She was doing great. In fact, you are looking at your mapmaking assistant right here. In exchange for some nail-fighting lessons, I am going to be helping you with your map. You need someone to chart out the dangerous places don't you?" I said as I pointed to some of the unfinished places in my map.

Cornifer let out a friendly laugh before nodding his head.

"You look to be pretty young, but if my wife thinks you are strong enough to not get yourself killed you must be pretty good, or well, at least pretty good at running away."

Cornifer grabbed one of the maps that he had next to him before passing it to me.

"Kid, don't get yourself killed by trying to help me. Even though I love making maps I don't wanna put others in danger for it so if you feel it is too much there is no shame in leaving some parts uncharted. Here you go, if we are going to be business partners then I can't have you paying for your map, can I?"

Grabbing the map I gave him a quick thanks before starting to analyze the path I should probably take.

"You know, I ran into another traveler as I made my way down here. I tried to call out to her as she dashed past but she barely even glanced in my direction. Not an appreciator of maps like you and I, obviously. Well, she is missing out." Cornifer laughed once again as he saw me being so focused on the map.

As I kept my focus on the map I answered him.

"Oh, yeah, she seemed nice. Maybe she's just a bit shy."

These words only made Cornifer shake his head in slight amusement before he grabbed another map and began working on it.

After deciding on where to head over next I stood up and put the map in a safe spot.

"Stay safe kid." Cornifer said as he waved me goodbye.

— — —

Let's see, If I take a right in here and keep going straight this should be one of the places marked as dangerous.

However, as I walked into the gigantic room I didn't feel anything. Cornifer told me he left because he felt as if he would die if he went any further. But maybe the thing that scared him had left?

The place looked like a nice little hideout. So maybe whatever monster was here used this place to rest.

Walking into the room I saw a big bush that sort of resembled a cave.

'Is that where it stays?' I thought.

As I approached it I began to feel as if I was being watched. But my instincts were not telling me I was in danger, so all the feeling did was make me confused.

I could only imagine that whatever was watching me didn't mean to hurt me. So after thinking for a moment I said out loud.

"Little red riding hood… I mean- Girl with the red cloak, is that you?"

Yet I was unexpectedly greeted with a low humming sound before a very deep voice spoke to me from within what looked like a cave.

"Tiny squib... You approach fearlessly. Are you a hunter like me?"