"Most of this is gonna go bad soon, why are we still lugging it?" Toni groused looking over towards the rge sled, then to Temate gleaming with sweat and exertion. His bone arm gleaming in the light as he hung his freshly washed clothes up to dry for the night.

  "I tol' you, it's preserve'. It'll s' all the way to Bearbhaile." Pipuck answered her. Toni sighed giving the spiras a critical eye. She carefully patted down the edge of her dress, the green leaf like fabric quickly riding up her legs as she sat.

  "And you still won't tell us how you preserved it why?" Toni asked them. Pipuck sighed before they responded.

  "It's har' to expin alrigh'? Especially to someone who couldn't figure ou' 'ow to listen to their 'ear' an' 'ad to ge' tricke' into i'!" Pipuck replied with a grin. Not for the first time on the trip Toni flung a small ball of metal at the spiras who ducked it.

  "Toni please don't kill our healer." Temate said.

  He sat down next to her, fnking the small pot she'd not let out of her sight since they started this trip nearly a week ago. It was no longer a small thing with a cluster of flower petals. It was nearly three feet of thick, green, thorny stems. At the top the cluster of flower petals was now a thick pte of petals.

  Closely examining the petals you could almost make out a face. There where the petals tilted to form eyebrows, there for a mouth. It didn't help that the petals were on the side of the pilr of thorns instead of the top. Nor that two slightly thinner twisted bundles split from the main stem just beneath it into arm like appendages.

  "Then they should stop telling me I'm stupid!" Toni grumbled and gred at Temate when he ughed with Pipuck.

  "Well you haven't figured it out, and he told us how his [Power]s work." Temate pointed out, which made Toni's glower grow deeper.

  "I've been trying but I just don't see it." Toni muttered.

  "Well why don't you go take a bath, I'll watch the seed." Temate told her, pulling her gently over to kiss her, quickly ending her irritated mood.

  She grumbled but got up to head over to the spring they were camped nearby. Temate smiled as he watched her go, then turned to Pipuck with a raised eyebrow.

  "You really think it'll st all the way to Bearbhaile?" Temate asked them.

  Pipuck ughed and shook their head. "Nah '. I think it'll be gone by tomorrow. Goblin's 'ave been tearin' through the mea' like nothin' else exists. Honestly I'm surprise' it's still all there." Pipuck looked over to where the goblins tents were set.

  Always slightly apart, just enough that the goblins campfire doesn't overp with theirs. Chiel had expined it wasn't appropriate to intrude on the chief's space. He was still working on getting them to set up camp around his tent instead of away from it, but he'd get there. He could just command them, but he wanted them to understand, and it wasn't urgent.

  "Something to do with [Fluid Idea] right? I don't know 100% but..." Temate trailed off but Pipuck continued with a nod.

  "Aye, righ' track. Sal' exist's everywhere, I jus' mixe' i' into the mea'." Pipuck expined for Temate.

  Temate ughed. "Why not just tell Toni?" He asked the spiras.

  "It's fun messin' with 'er mostly? If it's importan' I'll tell 'er bu' it's no' so I'm jus' 'avin' some fun. You see 'ow she get's when she doesn't know somethin'!?" The two ughed together at that, Pipuck bellowing loudly over Temate's small ugh.

  "I have. It's honestly pretty cute how annoyed she gets..." Temate spoke softly.

  Toni definitely had a temper, mostly when it came to people being stupid, or her not being able to figure a thing out. It was endearing because it came from a simir desire as one he held. To protect. In much the same way that Surrender was always watching.

  Watching for danger, for enemies, looking for opportunity to stop a thing before it gets to them. All in all their group seemed to share that, the desire to protect each other and others. What Temate hated wasn't that he knew that, but that some sick part of him kept trying to figure out how to use that.

  It turned his stomach every time he caught those thoughts coming up.

  "You're tryin' to protec' them." Pipuck cut into his thoughts.

  "Huh?" Temate replied oh so eloquently.

  "I dunno wha' you go' goin' on up there bu' I can see i' on your face." Pipuck wiggled their index finger in a circle to indicate Temate's face.

  "What do you mean?" Temate asked.

  "Mmm. Har' to expin, the whole spoken tongue doesn't 'ave a proper simple way to do tha'." Pipuck held up a hand at Temate's disbelieving look. "An' I mean tha' this time. The easies' way of expinin' i' woul' be... insecurity?" Pipuck frowned at the word.

  "No, definitely not that." Temate replied with a half smile, waving Pipuck off.

  "Mmm, I don't think it's as far off as you think i' is." Pip continued. "Bu' i' doesn't matter wha' i' is. I'm tellin' you." The small spiras stood up and looked Temate eye to eye. "You're doin' your bes'. I can see tha', so can they. Thank you." Pipuck said and reached up to pat Temate's head.

  Temate brushed the hand off and glowered at Pipuck. "You don't know what I'm thinking about. I'm..." confident he can protect them? Why hesitate he was. Right? After all none of them had been seriously hurt yet, and they'd been in some really nasty scraps now. He looked back up to Pipuck.

  "I'm doubting my own intention not my capability." He finally said, that at least he knew was true.

  "Why?" Pipuck said, sitting next to the pot and running their hand along the petals. A flutter of green energy filled the pnt and it seemed to smile and flex.

  "It's. Hard to expin." Temate said, watching Pipuck gently care for the pnt. "I don't want to become my A- father. He used everyone, even family, like tools and objects. At the same time, I can't help but try to get people to do things my way."

  "Hmm." Pipuck muttered and leaned back to look up at Temate smiling. "Here I thought Toni was the idio'." They said.

  Temate frowned at Pipuck, the spiras sliding backwards out of reach of Temate.

  "Heh tol' you I'd ge' a reaction ou' of you." Pipuck practically danced backwards, moonlight glinting off of their silver-gold crop of hair. For the first time in awhile Temate was reminded just who Pipuck was as the smile the spiras wore seemed both young and pyful, and ancient. As if Pipuck was an adult, teasing Temate who was a child.

  "Expin?" Temate asked, letting his ego step back for a second to listen.

  "You're tryin' to protec' them. You do everythin' you can for them, an' you do i' with their bes' interests in min'." Pipuck looked up into the sky, visible here where the trees thinned on the approach to the spring. "Sure, tha' can ge' twiste'. Bu' you listen to them, so long as you can do tha', an' jus' keep doin' your bes', that's wha' matters."

  Pipuck looked back down to Temate and smiled. That ancient, weary smile he'd seen on his grandmother so many times. Temate watched Pipuck as they held up a small hand, a set of lights glimmering to life.

  "Love. Kindness. Care. Protection. Idea's are all like fire. Or any kin' of energy really. If you don't fee' it." Lights began to splutter out in Pipuck's hands. "It slowly dies ou'. So you 'ave to fee' wha' you 'ave. Wha' you care for an' wan' to see." Pipuck blew and the final light stopped sputtering, slowly glowing brighter and brighter.

  Eventually Temate had to cover his eyes as the light grew ever brighter. "Fee' i' too much an' even a goo' thin' can lose control. Love becomes obsession. Kindness becomes overbearance. Care becomes control. Protection become coddlin'." The light burst, fshing so bright Temate closed his eyes.

  "In the en' good inten' can cause harm jus' as easily as ba'. More so sometimes because people presume the bes' of the goo' intentione'." Pipuck sat back down next to Temate and smiled at him. "Your intention's are goo'. I can see tha'. Jus' don't forge' tha' goin' too far will cause 'arm. If you're really worrie' talk to the others. They trus' you, they'll be hones' if you ask for i'."

  Pipuck ughed as they got up to walk off toward their tent for the evening. "Especially Toni. Girl 'as no filter an' I love tha'."

  Temate watched the spiras go. His mind spinning through a dozen different thoughts. He grimaced, thinking about Pipuck's advice. Talk to them. He could do that, even if it was... Frightening to open that part of him.

  Temate stood up and went to look for Surrender. Then realized she was still out prowling about somewhere. So he decided he'd pay a visit to Toni instead. After all, he'd seen her naked plenty of times, and there was no shower here to slide into. This was close enough right?

  He grabbed his poncho, already dry thanks to the barr threads, and tossed it on. He began to head off but stopped and slipped back to grab his machete. Just in case, it is a forest after all.

  Toni sighed as she sunk naked into the warm spring water, a small ball of [Eternal Fme] set to hover above her. She hummed happily as she grabbed a small cleaning kit from her things on the edge and got to work. She missed her shower, but lords were these hot springs handy.

  And soothing.

  And apparently pretty common.

  Another mystery to solve. Not now though, for now she just wanted to enjoy and get cleaned.

  She hummed as she rubbed the rough, strange stone through the poultice Pipuck made specifically for this. That little runt was always finding and making things and she still didn't know where. This whole kit they'd made from stuff they'd picked up as they walked.

  The scrubber was a rock, which sounded strange, but the porous stone seemed to function better than a scrub brush at home. It's just like the meat, how do they do it? What trick do they have that let's them make things like this? Just on the spot, making things by taking parts from other things a-

  "Oooooooh." She spped her forehead, unfortunately with the hand holding her stone. "Ah! Stupid fuckin rock!" She grumbled then shook her head. "No no, not your fault sorry sweety you're doing a great job. Here get my back."

  Great now she was talking to rocks. At least back home she could put little googly eyes on things. Then it felt less weird. She sighed as she scrubbed the back of her shoulders with the rock sponge... Thing.

  [Fluid Idea] was the obvious assumption. Yet she'd kept disregarding it because she was, as Pipuck put it, someone who had to get tricked into empowering. Magic. It was based in idea, idealism. Back home that was literally just an idea, something people said to make themselves feel more in control.

  At least as Toni saw it, to deny the world influenced your life and set the rules and boundaries in which we live and py, was foolish. Yet that's exactly what magic is, isn't it? The ability to push those rules, to change them for yourself and you alone. What [Power]s were.

  So her guess with that in mind? [Power]s worked the way you instinctively understood them, and then some. Just like how Eternal Fme didn't just let her make a floating ball of fme. It let her call and shape fme of her making. That's what clued her in.

  The little ball of fme floating above her head, lighting the hot spring. The one she was absentmindedly reshaping as she considered how Pipuck's [Power]s worked. How they might be used to make food safe to eat. She wasn't a hundred percent sure buuuuuuut.

  Maybe it worked like simple enchantment? In the same way Temate expined Timbear making the small carved bear cw. She picked the cw up and examined it as she continued to think out loud.

  "If Pipuck used their [Fluid Idea], which let's them quickly mix things into other things, to mix the idea of freshness into the meat? The intention behind that might make it work right?" She grunted. It didn't sound right.

  With a deep breath she dunked her head under water then came back up with a spring. She decided to just throw the worry away. The goblins would eat the st of the meat anyway, and if they got sick she could get mad at Pipuck. If they didn't, it didn't matter.

  She continued cleaning herself. Careful to get every part of her, after all she wanted to be clean as she could. It made the idea of being dirtied by Temate or Surrender, or even Kea, all that much more... dirty. It also just felt good to get clean though.

  A few minutes ter she spotted a figure on the far side of the spring. Tall, somewhat nky. They had crouched at the spring and were drinking from it but seemed to spot her at the same time as she spotted them.

  "Ah-!" She shouted, freezing as she tried to decide on getting out of the water or burying her naked body further. "W-who the fuck are you!? Don't you know not to sneak up on a g- oh." She watched the figure begin to move around the area, ducking passed a tree as it stepped into the light.

  "It's you." She grumbled looking up at Temate, still naked from the waist up. He grinned at her as he approached.

  "What are you... Doing here?" She asked tentatively, suddenly blushing instead of being embarrassed.

  She forced the knowledge of her state of dress out of her mind and began climbing out of the spring. Still naked and holding the cw she beamed at the thought. She held the wooden dagger up to Temate as she excimed.

  "Oh! I think I figured it out by the way! How Pipuck did his h-hey!" She shrieked as Temate grabbed her. "I-I'm really proud of this so listen okay? You gotta tell me if I'm riiaaaaaaah!!"

  This time the scream wasn't one of barely repressed need mixed with shame. This time it was pure fear as Temate grabbed her head and tried to sm it into a nearby rock! She shouted.

  Instinct drove her body as she took the dagger and smmed it down. She felt it stick into Temate... Into... Tema

  CRACK

  Her head smmed against the rock as she questioned what she was doing. In a blur of pain she fired up her [Burning Body]. Temate hissed as he recoiled away, Toni stumbled on her feet taking a defensive stance. Her vision swam and she csped her hand around-

  Nothing.

  The charred wood of the dagger splintered in her hand as she squeezed it. Shattered. Dust. She looked around in a panic and spotted the creature. Creature?

  It had no face. A tall, nky creature with no face, it's proportions too thin and narrow. It's neck was stitching closed as it raked embers from it's body.

  Not Temate.

  Not.

  Temat-

  CRACK

  With lightning speed the creature grabbed and snapped a branch off of a tree in it's thrashing. It took the branch and flung it at Toni, she threw herself down towards her gear. The branch smmed firmly into her shoulder tossing her on her side.

  Her gun. She reached for her gun, just out of reach. She tried to crawl over to it, but was stopped as the creature grabbed her legs. She grimaced, no longer in panic. Do or die girl.

  New pn. New pn. Quick, you can't just keep relying on Temate to step in you need- Ah!

  She fought, struggling against the creature. Despite having taken Temate's form moments ago it cked his strength and power. It was a mockery and she hated it. More than she'd hated anything before.

  More even then him.

  She grabbed the handle of the fungal sap, peeking just out of the pile of gear. With as much force as she could muster she spun. With a bellow she shed the sap at the creatures head, hoping that was still vulnerable despite it's ck of a face.

  [Hunter's Instinct] kicked in, guiding the sap straight into the center of the creatures face! The creature stumbled back, releasing her in the confusion caused by the impact. Spores burst out around the creature and Toni internally cheered!

  Knock it out or really fuck with it's head, that's what Temate had said. She turned, scrambling to her feet to dart to her gun. The creature smmed into her back, sending her too far as it fell to the ground with her.

  "FUCKING BITCH DIE!" She shouted, drawing on the fme in her she focused it in her hands.

  With a jerk of it's own hands the gathering fme was cast off course. With a soundless shriek, quite literally a shriek which seemed to mute the world, the creature reared up. It's long arm coming down to strike at her face.

  Toni growled in its face and pulled back on the fme. It twisted in the air and moved at a speed which this thing could not match. With a roar that drowned the silence it burst across the back of the creatures head.

  A gout of fme burned bright, reflecting in Toni's eyes as she gred into the faceless monster before her. The one which stole her lover's face. Which used it to get close to her.

  This fucking monster.

  It deserved to die.

  And in fire it burned, it's head a scorched crater when the fme was expended as Toni scrambled out from it's colpsing body. She stood above it, naked and furious. For a moment she considered burning it more. Torching it to ash.

  "Toni?!" An echoed shout filled the air and Toni turned to see Temate come crashing out of the trees.

  "STOP!" Toni leapt back to her gear, grabbing her gun and aiming it at him. He stopped holding his hands up. The orange poncho making him an easy target in the night.

  "Toni rex. It's just me." He stood still, unafraid. She narrowed her eyes at him.

  "Prove it." She demanded.

  "I mean I came here under pretense of talking to you in order to fuck you in the shower, or as close as I could, but seeing as you already seem pretty fucked up that might not be best now." He said and Toni blushed, the words weren't particurly convincing.

  No, that was the feeling of his [Towering Presence]. If the thing couldn't imitate his strength, it almost certainly couldn't imitate his [Power]s right? She defted and stumbled towards him. Without hesitation he ran to her, catching her as she slumped into his shoulder.

  She wouldn't cry. She wouldn't cry. She wouldn't...

  She cried in his arms as he held her, softly comforting her.