Aqua stood proudly in front of Kazuma. Her staff was slightly dirty but strangely her scarf was unblemished. She had muddy shoes and he could see bits of wood and leaves stuck in her hair.
"Hey Kazuma!"
He sighed in resignation. 'Oh great she's going to be my partner for the next four years.'
"Hello Aqua. How was your landing?" She coughed and kicked a nearby stone, pouting. "It was good…"
'She's obviously lying.' Kazuma knew her well enough to know when she lied. That and she was a bad liar. "Right." He looked around, seeing only trees. "Do you know where we have to go? I mean, I can only see trees."
"No I don't. Let's try and climb a tree to see where the cliff is?" Aqua suggested. Kazuma thought about just walking until he saw an ancient temple but her idea was faster and there was less chance of meeting grimm. 'Apparently she can have good ideas.'
"Alrighty then. Wait here, I'm going to climb a tree." Kazuma looked around for a suitable tree to land on. "Kazuma, Kazuma!" Aqua put her finger to her lips in confusion. "What are you doing?"
"I'm trying to find a good tree. AHA! This is a good one." He turned his back towards it, further confusing Aqua. He reached into one of his many pouched and retrieved wind dust. "Hmm. Too much. Ah, that's perfect." He regulated the amount and hunched over.
He jumped up and poured aura into the wind dust and the resulting force managed to push into the tree behind him.
He quickly climbed the tree, thankfully without slipping, and looked around. He did not like what he saw. 'There's a nevermore flying around that cliff, but it seems as though it's hunting someone. Not my problem.' He looked further to his left. 'Aha!' He spied the cliff edge where he was launched from. 'We have to walk there. A large distance, but at least we know where to go now.'
"KAZUMAAAA!" He looked down sharply. Aqua was being chased around by a lone… frog? It wasn't a creature of grimm, as its colour scheme was not black, red and white, but rather a variety of green. 'One of the Emerald forest's wildlife: the giant frog is known for eating sheep, or even humans if they feel peckish enough.'
"AQUA!" Kazuma yelled down at the fleeing girl. "IT IS JUST WILDLIFE! IT MAY TRY TO EAT YOU, SO YOU NEED TO CHASE IT OFF OR KILL IT!" He began climbing down. "IF YOU KEEP RUNNING AWAY IN FEAR, YOU WILL ATTRACT MORE GRIMM TO OUR POSTION!"
That seemed to calm her down. She screeched to a halt and turned around with a furious expression on her face. "He's right!" She seemed to pour aura into her hand, something that Kazuma had never see her do before. "This move is known as God's wrath!"
Kazuma inwardly groaned. 'Fuck all kinds of duck; what's with her and the useless names!'
"I pour all of my emotions into this one hit; nothing will survive!" She charged the now stationary frog.
"There will be nothing left of you!" She hit the frog with all her might…
Nothing happened. The frog didn't seem to be affected by the attack and simply stared Aqua down. She looked up, an angelic expression adorning her face. "On se-second thought, you're quite cute when I look at you close up."
Nom
Kazuma's eyes widened with fear when he saw the frog's mouth close around Aqua. "Oi!" He scrambled down the tree faster. "Don't eat Aqua!" The frog was directly underneath him and thinking quickly, he jumped down, aiming his sword at the frog's head.
Kazuma stood, hands on knees, panting. He had managed to kill the giant frog and Aqua was finally out of the creature's mouth. She was crying underneath a tree. The time spent in the frog's mouth was not long at all but it was more than enough time to get the girl covered in slime.
"Kazumaaaaaa." She sobbed. "Whyyyyy?" He glanced at her spit-covered body and looked away. "Life is like that." He said, nodding sagely. Kazuma then motioned for Aqua to follow him. "I know where we are now. Let's go." Aqua sniffed and followed after him further into the woods. Looking at the dead frog and at Kazuma, Aqua sniffled.
"Why don't the frogs ever eat you?"
