Lucky?

They enter the dark path and deeper into the forest, Reima occasionally looking for a wild Berbercane fruit.. One of the ingredients for a Cat's eye potion, the other components are Dwarven spirit, a very high percentage alcohol that can be switched with fermenting fruit (Albeit with less effect) and Water essence, a water-like substance acquired from aquatic monsters like Drowners... For this Reima had managed to slip a vial from the storehouse and hide it under his trousers before the trial.

Reima "Arie, Eskel say anything about potions?"

Arie "Yes but I didn't think it was possible without managing to kill a creature..."

Reima "We're Witchers, and there is one thing all Witchers have to do... Preparation." As he shows Arie the vial of Water essence."

Arie smiles "Nice, but it's only enough for one dose..."

Reima "We can split it, while it won't last as long as usual, I doubt we are going to be spending a significant amount of time in the dark."

The boys continue on while watching out for predators or anything unusual, they both start to notice the Crows that seem to be watching them.

Reima "Arie, the Leshen has found us..." he whispers to his equally dire looking friend.

Arie "Should we run?"

Reima thinks for a second, "We've been walking a while and from what I saw we should be close to the mountain path that's out of the forest... If we run we should make it.

As they talk more Crows start perching on trees around them, 10, 20, 30...

Arie "On three?"

Reima nods, "One, two, Three!" They both start sprinting down the path, Arie chopping at the branches that seem to want to block their path with his sword. Reima jumping over and warning Arie of the roots that have started rapidly growing in an attempt to trip them.

The birds cawing loudly can't gather and attack them due to the thick underbrush attacking and simultaneously protecting them.

Reima with Observation Haki spots a branch about growing rapidly and about to knock Arie over, he uses Armament Haki and punches the thick branch causing it to explode in a shower of splinters. The impact results in the tree it came from shaking and dropping debris on the path, as Reima was about to hop over it and continue he notes some overly ripe looking fruits next to a familiar fruit he was just looking for, the Berbercane fruit. Taking his shirt off while keeping an eye out for roots and branches Reima lowers the still slightly damp shirt to the ground and scoops some dirty, branches and thankfully the fruits into the makeshift carrier.

Arie slows down for Reima but gets scratched on his side by a rather vicious looking branch extending out of a gnarled tree.

Arie "Hurry up!"

Reima "Go!"

After receiving this response Arive continues to sprint ahead as Reima follows him, branches targeting Arie change their focus onto Reima who unleashes short blasts of Igni and Haki infused punches to stop they barring his way.

Eventually he seeds light crawling through the trees and sprints harder and faster before bursting out into a clearing with Arie already sitting on the floor waiting, gasping for breath.

Reima "Haaa... We made it!"

The forest continued making haunting sounds as beasts and birds alike make their dissatisfaction known but slowly quietened down as the Leshen cannot extend control outside of it's domain.

After a short rest Reima looks at what he had managed to get...

6 relatively small Berbercane fruits,

A large amount of overly ripe berries that have started to ferment.

A bunch of large leaves

Some sticks and fibres,

Some dirt that he quickly discards...

Reima "This should be enough for a primitive potion..."

Arie "How lucky is that? Fate must be smiling on us both."

Reima looks at the mountain path that is covered by slate and other minerals as it zigzags up the mountain.

He looks for a smooth, round, hard mineral and places the fermenting berries on a large slate.

He mashes them up with the smooth piece of granite is managed to find before adding the Water essence. The mixture slowly turned a dirty blue as he mixes, eventually after 3 minutes of making sure it's all thoroughly integrated he adds the 6 small Berbercane fruits, the purple fruit causing the mixture to turn a dark grey or purple.

After Reima confirms that it looks fine he wraps it in a large leaf like some sort of hobbit short cake, he takes some fibres and strings them together like a makeshift twine and wraps the leaf as securely as possible.

The two boys look down at the small makeshift leaf wrapped package and grin.

Arie "For what it is, it's rather impressive work."

Reima "Yeah well, I learned from the best."

...

Arie "Wait, don't we have to go back through the forest to get to Kaer Morhen?"

Reima "Oh for fuck sake! The Leshens already pissed off at us, there has to be another route..."

Arie "We can try find one higher up. For now lets try and find the forge."

The two boys slowly make their way up the rocking outcroppings that form the path, they keep an eye out for anything that might be living here like Harpies or Rock Trolls.

Luckily they find the cave a mile into the mountain unmolested.

Arie "This it?"

Reima "Should be, look at the markings." He points at the Quen Signs carved into nearby rocks.