It appeared as though the teachers had the same idea Niphru did. Instead of everyone heading out at the same time, only half of the groups would go out at a time, while the others would remain to keep the camp safe. His group, oher hand, would be leaving someone behind, as Lisryn only needed one of her guardians with her at a time. Apparently, the instructors wanted everyoo start with three one-day trips in a row, then have a three-day trip for their ime out. Oddly, in his opinion, everyone seemed to be fighting to stay as long as possible, even though it wouldn’t make a differen the end.

  Since his group had already discussed things before, and some of them had experience already, they offered to be one of the first groups to head into the wilderness. Fortunately, they were allowed to leave immediately, with the teachers stating that if the others couldn’t decide, they would pick who else went first. With a chuckle, Niphru shook his head, notig as he did so that the rest of his group looked amused at the indecision in the remaining groups.

  After heading a short way to the side, Niphru stopped the group so they could arrange how they would move. Since he had the most experience, he would be scouting ahead. As Viera had also e from a vilge and had some experience, she would be towards the rear, helping direct Miana in defending the group from behind. In the middle, Thomas and Richard would joiher dire that needed help, as well as keep an eye on the sides, in case anything was missed. Both Dawn and Lisryn would be up front, as they had more bat experienbsp; Meanwhile, Morris would watch over them along with Lisryn’s guardian, keeping themselves out of sight as much as possible.

  Oheir formation was firmed, Niphru stated, “I’ll head off to start scouting. Follow Dawn’s lead; she sense where I am, and I rey messages back to her.”

  Seeing that there were no objes, he ed himself in an illusion to hide and headed towards the forest, leaving an odd trail in the grass where it appeared to and fray. While he couldn’t do much about it in the pins, he could at least keep the illusion w in the forest, where there was less that o match along the boundary of the field.

  A short while ter, he ehe woods, tail swaying side to side as he calmly wandered along. As he checked out the surroundings, he listeo Dawn’s rep of the distahe group was behind, as well as a wele remihat the pnts could be dangerous due to others not knowing of them yet. Keeping the remark in mind, Niphru kept a, sidering the risk eat posed for someone unaware of it. Fortunately, this close to the edge of the forest, very little had gained enough may to mutate.

  While pig his way through the forest aing his findings to Dawook a few short breaks to watch squirrels and birds going about their business. Perhaps in the past, he would have hunted a few for snacks, but he had growo cooked food, and would prefer to wait until they made some back at camp. As suiphru simply enjoyed being out in nature again.

  For a time, he found himself only needing to report terraiures, such as hidden dips and unstable footing. Dawn did mention, however, that they had to stop because Viera caught a rabbit and etting it for a few moments. He did sider it odd, however, that there was ion of it trying to bite her, but perhaps she just felt friendly to animals. After finding a hidden spot, he reached through their bond and looked out through Dawn’s eyes, seeing the situation for himself.

  As Dawn had said, Viera etting a wild rabbit, holding it with one arm as she began slowly walking again. If anything, the creature looked sleepy, not at all stressed like he expected. After sharing how odd he found the situation, he focused ba himself and resumed expl.

  Niphru did find himself quite surprised when a rather ft fern-like pnt he had stepped on suddenly curled up around him and began excreting an incredibly sticky and caustic fluid that burned his skin. It may have been an issue if he didn’t have his foxfire and healing magic, but with those, it wasn’t too bad. He simply focused on having his foxfire burra and surrounded himself with it. A few seds and a quick pass with healing magic ter, he no longer had the burns its liquid had produced, and the pnt itself had been turned into ash.

  After his unpleasant surprise, he spent a few minutes looking around, finding several runners leading a bush. After a little more examination, he spotted further partially buried shoots spreading out from it, leading to several other of the ft traps. One of them was even curled up around some partially dissolved bones. Given how nasty this particur pnt was, he requested that Dawn watch through his eyes as he paced around it so she could learn what it looked like in order to help make sure the group could avoid it.

  tinuing onward, the only twisted creature he eventually discovered was a very heavily muscled rabbit. Although he was still hidden, it seemed to notice him, sniffing the air repeatedly. A moment ter, it was hurling itself far into the distah an incredibly forceful leap that dug a crater into the forest floor.

  Further exploration showed nothing of any real value, so Niphru eventually began to return to the rest of the group so that they could all return to the camp. While he was mildly disappoihey wouldn’t get to work together to take down anything, he wasn’t too surprised. You didn’t find something every siime you went out, after all. As he was lost in his thoughts, however, he was surprised by an attack from a snake.

  Somehow the animal had seen through his illusion, which he had, perhaps, been relying on too heavily. As he quickly threw together a bolt of force to keep it away, it had mao unch itself forward, managing to pierce deep into his side. Bsting it away, he felt a lingering burning feeling where it had bitten him. Quickly reasoning that it must have been a poisonous variant, he told Dawn what had happened over their bond as he colpsed to the ground. He then immediately got to work on resolving the situation.

  First, he sent one of his fmes to burn the snake before it could sider attag again. Immediately after doing that, he focused on using his foxfire to try to purify the wound and heal himself. Adding to that, he focused on using normal healing magic as well to attempt to maintain himself as best as possible, though he could feel weakness spreading through his body.

  A few long mier, the group burst through the underbrush around him, Dawn immediately dropping to her knees and sending a stream of mana through him. While he described what was going on, he could feel her mana moving around to examine his health directly as well. Mere seds ter, she began using healing magic as well, managing to push back the spreading weakness instead of simply slowing it as his efforts alone had done.

  As this was , Niphru mao spot Morris pulling his hand out of his robe and Lisryn’s current guard walking closer to them. After a faint touch of fn mana, they rexed and walked baorris, beginning to discuss the events of the day. Meanwhile, the rest of his group milled around, clearly worried but uo do anything to help besides keeping a for any other potential problems.

  Several mier, the bined efforts had mae the poison, and Niphru felt his strength returning. A short rest ter, aood back up, catg everyone’s attention. As they focused on him, he remarked, “Well, that wasly expected. I suppose at least this is a good lesson; even normal animals be dangerous if you miss their presence, even experienced people have acts happen, and being too fident will get you into trouble.”

  Upon seeing the others aowledge what he had said and not share any questions, he moved to lead the group back to their camp. This time, however, he stayed within sight of the rest of the group, even if that reduced his ability to scout ahead. He was still somewhat shaken by how easily a non-mutated animal had crippled him so rapidly, after all.

  A few uful hours ter, they emerged from the forest, finding themselves much further from the camp thahey had entered. The walk back was much easier than traveling through some of the rougher areas that they had avoided on the way back, however, so everyone seemed fih that. As they approached, they could make out the silhouettes of a few people standing atop the walls, though they were able to get very close before anyone seemed to notice.

  Sihey’d already made it well within hearing distance, Morris began shouting at them about how sloppy they were if a group of humans, who were far more obvious than animals, could sneak up so easily. Just a moment ter, one of the other teachers within the camp also began shouting. Apparently, this had been a stant problem, and their group was certainly not making a good impression so far.

  Fortunately, this didn’t their group, so they simply ehe camp and headed towards the tral fire to pick up some dinner. Partway through their meal, the group who had been on watch desded from the walls, looking sheepish as they went directly to bed. Their repts seemed properly atte least, so no one was too worried when it became time to go to sleep.