The path to Natalia's home was a simple one, and H'aanit found herself at the front of the party. Linde and Hägen remained close to her, but H'aanit could sense another presence drawing near. She glanced over her shoulder and saw Primrose, and H'aanit's gaze told the dancer to come closer. The huntress could tell that there was something more on Primrose's mind, and she wanted to do what she could to hear the other girl out on everything that plagued her.

Primrose understood that H'aanit was listening as she fell into pace with her companion. Her hand was dancing around the hilt of her dagger, and her eyes were darker than H'aanit had seen them since Stillsnow. "The sheer nerve of that man!" Primrose muttered, her voice overwhelmed with rage.

"Thou canst sayen that again," H'aanit agreed with a nod. She didn't know much about what happened with Helgenish and Primrose before she joined the party, but H'aanit could put the pieces together well enough to understand that it was nothing good. She wasn't about to push it any more than she absolutely had to. Primrose had shared as much as she was willing to, and H'aanit didn't want to make her uncomfortable in asking for more.

Primrose's gaze was still filled with rage, something that only continued to feed H'aanit's suspicions that the Helgenish issue ran much deeper than Primrose was willing to say openly. "Consider yourself warned, H'aanit. Stay well clear of self-centered men," she said, her voice as dark as it was sage.

H'aanit nodded as she adjusted Natalia's bags over her shoulder. "I have little experiences with menfolk. Aside from my master, of course," H'aanit explained. "But thou hast experience in abundance. Praye tellen me of their ways."

Primrose scoffed, her anger still clear as could be. "I suppose I know a thing or two," she remarked under her breath. She thought for a moment before adjusting herself, her fingers still dancing dangerously close to her dagger's hilt. "Alright. There are two kinds of men in this world. Those who devote time to their trade or calling, sparing little time for women..." Primrose glanced over to Cyrus and Olberic at that. Cyrus was examining Hägen from afar, murmuring something to himself about the curiosities of the direwolf. Olberic's hand rested on the handle of the sword he had received from Brand as he stared firmly ahead.

Primrose glanced away from them a moment later, her eyes following the path that Nathan had taken when he fled from Hägen and Linde. "And those that have little time for work, but plenty for pleasure," she finished, her voice cruel and twisted with all the rage in the world.

H'aanit started by looking over to Cyrus and Olberic, a small frown on her face. Neither one of them was particularly focused on the conversation she was sharing with Primrose, not that she was surprised by that. She cared greatly for them the same way she did for Therion and Alfyn-both of whom seemed to fall into the same category as Cyrus and Olberic-but she couldn't ever imagine herself with them romantically. H'aanit didn't care much for romance herself. She hadn't thought about it much before, but she didn't think that she would ever find herself at their sides in terms of romance.

As for men like Nathan, H'aanit knew already that she was never going to have any interest in people like that. She could already say that conclusively even without needing to ask Primrose for more details. Judging by the way the dancer's expression had contorted into an enraged snarl, H'aanit could tell that she had more than enough experience with the second group and was easily able to conclude that they weren't people to be trifled with.

H'aanit shook her head as she looked up to meet Primrose's gaze. "If that is my choice, I shall taken neither," she remarked simply. She adjusted the bags in her grasp effortlessly, seeing Cyrus speaking to Olberic out of the corner of her eye.

Primrose let out a small laugh at that. "Why, H'aanit, it would seem you don't need my counsel after all," she smiled. She was quiet for a long time before her fingers found a home on her dagger once again. "If anything ever happens... You know where to find me."

H'aanit wanted to say something in response, but she could already tell that she wasn't going to be getting any information out of Primrose beyond what she had already heard. This wasn't the time to talk about such dark subjects anyways, and H'aanit knew it. They would get their chance soon enough, but for the time being, Natalia and the information she possessed had to be their priority.

Speaking of Natalia, she finally brought herself to a halt outside a small building constructed from stone. She sighed before glancing over her shoulder. "This is the place," she explained before reaching into her pocket for her key and unlocking the door. H'aanit nodded before trailing after her.

As soon as she was inside, H'aanit set down Natalia's bags on a nearby table, and the other woman did much the same. Natalia sighed after the fact before she took a seat, a heavy sigh pushing its way free of her lips. It seemed that her conversation with Nathan had drained her more than she originally anticipated, and the weight still seemed to loom heavily over her shoulders.

Luckily for her, Hägen wasn't going to stand for that, and he approached her carefully before sitting at her side. Natalia smiled as she reached out to stroke at his head, and the tension in her shoulders immediately began to dissipate. H'aanit watched her with a content smile as Linde purred and leaned against her legs. H'aanit stroked at the snow leopard's head carefully before returning her eyes to Natalia.

The woman seemed to sober the second she realized H'aanit's eyes were on her, and she shook her head carefully. "I wish there was more I could tell ye," she admitted. "Last I heard, he was headin' out for the forest, out in the hills yonder. Then..." She was silent for a long moment before sighing. "Nothin'."

H'aanit rolled Natalia's words carefully in her mind as Linde laid down on the ground at her feet. "When was this?" H'aanit finally asked carefully.

Natalia considered it before she shook her head. "Three months, I'd say. Give or take," she answered. "He'd disappeared before only to show up all of a sudden a few days later." She fell silent for a moment that lasted for an eternity before she shook her head. "I thought this time would be the same, but then the days turned to weeks, and the weeks to..."

Natalia couldn't even push out the final word, and H'aanit swallowed dryly before forcing herself to speak. "I bege thee forgivest my bluntness... But how didst thou knowen him?" she questioned slowly. No matter how many times she played Z'aanta's stories of the past over in her head, she never remembered the name Natalia, and she could only imagine that their relationship was a recent engagement.

Natalia thought for a moment, and the air around her seemed to morph into something wistful. "My husband died not so long ago. Z'aanta was a friend of his," she responded. "My husband, you see, was a soldier the Knights Ardante in service to the realm. They met when huntin' monsters and-well, they shared a love of huntin' and ale, so they had much to talk about down at the tavern." She looked down at the table, and her spirit began to fade from her eyes. "Then my husband grew sick and..." She shook her head before glancing back up to H'aanit. "After the funeral, Z'aanta started callin' from time to time. I 'preciated the company, truth be told."

"Oh," was all H'aanit could bring herself to say in response. She knew that Z'aanta went out on hunts often, but she never would have expected that he would make his way to Stonegard to visit with Natalia. She could tell easily enough that there was nothing of romantic interest going on between Natalia and Z'aanta, but it still felt strange to pry into affairs that he had never shared with her. This was Z'aanta's tale to tell, and here she was hearing it when he wasn't present to explain anything.

Natalia didn't seem to notice H'aanit's gloomy concern though, instead simply laughing easily to herself. "Am I embarrassin' ye, dear? I s'pose he's like a father to ye..." Her expression grew solemn at the words, and she seemed to recognize the weight of everything she was saying. With Z'aanta gone, none of this felt right to either one of them.

Truth be told, H'aanit didn't know how she felt about the idea of thinking about Z'aanta as a father figure to her. Her parents had died when she was young, and he had been the one to take her in after the fact. He was a friend of theirs, and he was the only one willing to look after her. H'aanit had graciously accepted his kindness, though she hadn't been in much of a position to do much else. She barely remembered anything about her parents beyond vague stories Z'aanta had told her, and yet, she knew where the boundary rested between herself and Z'aanta.

She rolled her words around in her head for a long moment before swallowing dryly. "He is my teacher," she began simply. "But... I have no kin. I was alone in the world. Master tooketh me in, cared for me, raised me as a hunter." She was quiet for a long time before she looked over to where Linde was resting at her side. "Perhaps he only did so because he wanted to passeth on his knowledge, the hunting lore that he had learned from his own ancestors." The words tasted bitter on H'aanit's tongue, and she could feel Natalia's eyes shifting for the worst the longer she stood there to think about it. She didn't want to think of Z'aanta as being selfish in that way, and deep down, H'aanit knew she was wrong. Her self-loathing wasn't productive nor was it true to Z'aanta's image in her mind and heart, and she knew that her fears about him were unfounded. Of course they were. She knew him better than that.

H'aanit thought carefully for a long moment, and before she knew it, she was speaking once again. "But yes. To me-he is like the father I never had." It felt strange to admit it, but deep down, H'aanit knew it had been the truth all along. How could it not be? She knew what Z'aanta meant to her even if she had never referred to him directly as her father. They cared about each other endlessly, treating one another as family in a world that nobody seemed to understand in full. H'aanit loved Z'aanta to the moon and back, and she knew that he felt the same way about her.

H'aanit's throat was still tight from the admission when Natalia spoke once again. The woman either didn't notice H'aanit's unease or was choosing to not comment on it out of respect. "Ye must be worried sick, him bein' gone so long without no word," Natalia murmured.

H'aanit's shoulders went slack. "I am," she said, and for the first time since Hägen's return, it felt like she was actually allowing herself to acknowledge the truth. She was worried, and she was afraid. H'aanit had been subconsciously shelving her emotions for much of her life, but it felt like she wouldn't be able to push this away now that she had finally noticed it. She wanted Z'aanta to come back home, but she had no idea what she was supposed to do about it all. How could she bring him back to S'warkii, back to her, if she barely knew what was going on regarding his disappearance to begin with?

H'aanit shook it off to the best of her ability, though she could still tell that she was rattled. The other travelers, who had been waiting by the door previously, were all scrutinizing her from afar, and H'aanit could feel their gazes on her. She had never been this openly emotional before, assuming her current state could even be called that. She did her best to ignore it though, pretending Ophilia's worried gaze wasn't piercing her soul to the core. "Thanke thee for thine help, but now I must taken my leave," H'aanit forced herself to tell Natalia around the rock that was steadily forming in her chest. "I am going to the forest. Though surely the trail is cold by now..."

Natalia nodded in understanding and smiled tenderly. "Do take care of yerself, my dear," she told the huntress. It was as if all of Natalia's care for Z'aanta was manifesting in her eyes then, and she was sharing it with H'aanit for a brief flicker of a moment.

The huntress took a long moment to try and push her way through it, and she eventually forced herself to nod despite the slowness that was quickly seeping through her mind. "I will," H'aanit said thickly. She approached the door, still feeling the eyes of the others in the room on her as she did so. When she was close to leaving, she paused and turned to face Natalia one more time. "May I aske one more favor?" she questioned, and Natalia nodded. "When thou next seest him, dost not tellen him what I saide today."

Natalia seemed taken aback at that. "Ye mean, about him bein' like your father an' all?" she asked, and H'aanit refused to meet her gaze. "I don't see where the harm is..."

H'aanit shook her head. "He would never letten me live it down," she explained. It felt refreshing to be able to admit her feelings to herself at long last, but at the same time, the last thing she wanted was for Z'aanta to find out. This was something she could keep to herself without him getting involved. He didn't need to know the truth, especially since she still struggled to understand it herself.

Natalia's expression shifted to a smile, and she let out a laugh. "Aye, doubtless true, now that ye mention it," she agreed. "He's just the sort who'd tease a poor girl for speakin' her heart." She nodded. "Alright. It'll stay our little secret then."

H'aanit nodded with a small smile. "Thanke thee," she whispered. She moved for the door a moment later, and both Linde and Hägen rose to their feet to trail after her. Hägen gave Natalia one final nudge with his nose before following her, and H'aanit found herself outside soon afterwards.

The other travelers were quick to follow in her footsteps, and they watched carefully as H'aanit sighed to herself and tilted her face towards the sun. H'aanit turned to face them once again a moment later. "We maken for the forest. There may not be any clues left, but I still wishen to try and searche," H'aanit explained. They all nodded their understanding, and H'aanit took in a careful breath before she looked to the path that would take them to the upper area of Stonegard and eventually lead them out of town.

"You're worried, aren't you?"

H'aanit shifted her attention away from the path when she heard a familiar voice, and when she glanced off to the side, she was met with the sight of none other than Tressa. The younger girl was looking up at her with wide eyes, loving but still expecting an answer. It was certainly nothing out of the ordinary for her, but H'aanit found herself caught off-guard by it regardless.

"Yes... I am," H'aanit forced herself to say despite her surprise. Her grief was starting to become a lead weight in her chest. She knew better than to believe that Z'aanta would let himself be surprised and killed even by the most fiendish of beasts such as this mysterious Redeye, but at the same time, she couldn't seem to shake the sensation that there was much more to this encounter than met the eyes. A hunt had never before lasted a full year, and if he had gone missing months ago, then H'aanit could only wonder what could have happened.

"I'm sure that we're going to find him soon," Tressa assured her with a smile. She was quiet for a beat before continuing to speak. "I think about my Pa back home sometimes too. I care about him a lot, and he taught me a lot of what I know as a merchant today. I don't think I'd be where I am now if he hadn't spent so many years teaching me how to follow in his footsteps."

H'aanit nodded her understanding, and Tressa's expression sobered. "I... I know Master Z'aanta is like that for you too, and I want you to find him so that you can all go back home. I haven't heard all that much about him from you, but... I'd love to talk about him sometime if you'd be willing to share. I can tell that he's special to you, and... I want him to come home as soon as possible for your sake."

H'aanit smiled at that. "Perhaps I will have to inviten thou and the rest of our companions to S'warkii for a proper feast one day. I haven no doubt that thou will greatly enjoyen it," she said simply.

Tressa nodded and clapped her hands together in excitement. "That sounds great!" she cried out. "Until then, I guess we should put our attention to investigating though. I'm not going to let anything bad happen to anybody as long as there's something I can do to protect you and the others. I don't know what this Redeye monster is like, but I'm going to make sure that we take care of him and take Master Z'aanta back home as soon as possible. I promise."

Despite the concern that had quickly found a home in her chest, H'aanit found herself smiling. "I thanke thee," she murmured. She had never been familiar with interacting with others in such a personal way. She had friends and neighbors in S'warkii, yes, but there was something about spending time with the rest of the travelers that simply felt much more personal. They were meant to be together, and it had nothing to do with the prophecy Aelfric had whispered into Ophilia's ear demanding that they meet. Everything about the group was special, and H'aanit was happy that she had come to call them her friends.

Before H'aanit had the chance to say much else, the group arrived outside of Stonegard, and the huntress frowned to herself at the sight she was met with. The ground had crumbled, leaving a massive pile of rocks in its wake. She glanced up and saw that an overpass had begun to weather away, and H'aanit could only imagine that the stones above had caused the sudden obstruction to her path.

"That's... Inconvenient," Primrose said simply as she took a step closer to the rocks. She reached out to touch one of the stones, though she already seemed to be able to tell that moving them would be nigh impossible. It didn't matter what physical strength they had at their disposal; there were simply too many rocks, and the landslide was much too large for them to get around it.

If there was one thing H'aanit could say for sure though, it was that this collapse had been recent. She had grown used to gleaning all that she could from her surroundings in the past, and that included discovering as much as she could about nature from what her senses could provide. This time, her instincts explained that this had only happened a moon or two ago. The shoots growing atop the collapsed stones made that much clear as could be. Z'aanta had already vanished by the time that the rocks began to crumble, and she couldn't help but wonder if perhaps the reason he hadn't return had anything to do with the massive obstacle blocking any and all travel. She wished it was something so simple, but a horrible sensation in the pit of her stomach told her that it wouldn't be that easy.

Hägen growled as he approached the rocks, and Primrose pulled back from the collapsed stones. H'aanit frowned as she turned to face the direwolf. "Thou rememberest this place?" H'aanit questioned even though the answer was clear as could be. "Is this where thou leftest him?" Hägen bowed his head in shame at that, and H'aanit shook her head before reaching out to touch the gentle fur between his ears. "Shh... I doe not meanen it like that, little one. Thou hastenedst all the way to the village for helpe. Thou didst not betrayen him, Hägen."

Hägen leaned a bit closer to her at that, and Linde settled down near H'aanit's feet in anticipation of what she would do next. H'aanit nodded to herself. "Thou wilt turnen back and searchen for another path. There is no way past this rockslide; that much is certain," she murmured.

"I could try and do something to clear the way," Olberic offered. He reached for his sword before examining the rockslide carefully. "I may be able to channel the power of the blade Brand gave me to change the earth and offer us a way through."

H'aanit shook her head. "That wouldst not worken. The rockslide proveth to us that the grounde is unstable. If we pushen it too far, we may riske a greater tragedy," she told him. "There must be another way around..."

H'aanit closed her eyes in contemplation, and her mind was cast back to conversations she had shared with Z'aanta previously. She had struggled in the beginning finding a way to tune herself to the world around her, but Z'aanta had taught her how to learn more about nature and use it to her advantage. Hunting was always more about simply defeating monsters in his eyes; using one's environment was important no matter what, and he believed that nature did not simply have to be a hunter's enemy. In truth, it could be the greatest ally that anyone could ever ask for.

H'aanit looked to the rockslide before allowing her hands to fall back by her side. When she listened closely, she could hear creatures rustling through the grass and the trees on the other side of the barrier. In other words, it seemed as if the monsters living near Stonegard had found a way around the blockade created by the rockslide. If they had a path, then that meant there was an alternate way to continue following Z'aanta's trail without breaching the collapsed stones.

"The creatures of this forest must have founden a way past. Leten us searchen for their trail," H'aanit declared to the other travelers. They nodded their understanding before following in H'aanit's footsteps as they moved towards the main part of Stonegard once again.

Leaving the city from a different direction was ultimately a simple affair, and H'aanit was glad for it. The last thing she wanted was to add another dimension of complication to a task that had already proven itself to be frustrating in more ways than one. She kept her eyes on the ground and the stones around her as they traversed the area near the city. There had to be another path to enter the forest without use of the path at the back of Stonegard, and while it was no doubt longer, H'aanit was willing to take it.

She had grown somewhat lost in thought along the way, caught somewhere between her fear for Z'aanta's safety and her detached concern about what she was going to do when she finally found him. She should have been more focused, but she couldn't bring herself to fully concentrate until she heard Linde let out a small growl. H'aanit stopped immediately, and she heard the rest of the group's members come to a halt behind her. They had all been looking for clues in the silence, seemingly wanting to give H'aanit a bit of space for the time being. She was grateful for it, though she was much more thankful for whatever it was that Linde had found.

There were two trees blocking the path ahead, though there was just enough of a gap between them for H'aanit to travel through. In other words, they had found their way forward. She frowned and took a step closer, but she realized that there was something obscuring the way forward along the way. The two trees left behind a gap, yes, but that hole had been filled by what appeared to be a monster of wood of some sort.

The beast looked more like a tree than H'aanit had been expecting, standing tall and powerful over the immediate area. The trunk held the creature's face, and its mouth was wide in an expression of ghastly shock. Its bright yellow eyes watched H'aanit, and when she looked carefully at the ground, she could see the way its roots swirled around like tentacles. In other words, this wasn't going to be an easy foe to defeat, but she still knew what had to be done.

"What now?" Ophilia questioned, reaching for her staff carefully. "Do you think we're going to have to fight it in order to get through?"

H'aanit's eyes fell to the ground, and she nodded. The tracks of the beasts that had traversed this path went beneath the tree's thrashing roots. In other words, their two options were to fight against the wood monster or take the risk of using Olberic's newfound earth magic to try and move the rockslide on the other path. She already knew which choice she was going to make though, so she reached for her bow and nocked an arrow on it. "Preparen, everyone," she announced firmly.

The wooden beast seemed to recognize what she was doing long before she had the chance to let the arrow fly free, and the roots began to lash out a moment later. Linde jumped back to keep from being hit before baring her fangs and lunging forward, delivering a fierce bite to the creature's arm. The tree managed to throw her off, but Linde simply adjusted her course before landing perfectly on her feet with determination in her eyes.

Hägen was quick to follow up on her strike, jumping for the tree's other side as Alfyn raised his axe and brought it down firmly on the trunk. Tressa reached for her spear before striking forward with a quick stab that created a tempest in the blink of an eye. The monster was left to stumble despite its massive size, unable to fight back against the sheer force of wind Tressa had at her disposal.

Therion saw a brief gap in between the tree off to the creature's right and the monster's torso, and he closed his eyes before steadying himself and seemingly vanishing in the blink of an eye. When H'aanit next caught sight of him, Therion was behind the tree with fire magic thrashing atop his fingers. He firmly pressed an attack into the monster's back, and the creature roared in pain with the burning sensation.

Primrose was quick to follow Therion's lead, and she delivered a quick slashing wound to the area that the thief had burned a few moments prior. The pair jumped backwards before the tree could lash out at them, though the beast was distracted with them for a brief moment. This offered Cyrus the perfect chance he needed to launch a thunder attack square in the monster's back.

Olberic launched himself towards the beast before slashing with his blade. The rocks beneath his feet seemed to come up to hold the monster in place. Ophilia rained down a quick strike of light magic as the beast whirled around to face the direction of his newest attackers. Along the way, the creature roared with all the anger in its body.

As soon as the beast was facing the rest of the group, the stones Olberic had summoned pinned it in place, and H'aanit finally let her arrow fly straight between its eyes. It didn't take long for the tree to fall limp and stop moving from there. She took a moment to breathe as she dropped her bow once again. This was all for Z'aanta. She was going to make sure that everything was alright in the end.

"Thou wouldst maken good hunters," H'aanit said simply once she had put her bow away on her back once more. The rest of the group looked to one another before turning their attention to her. H'aanit nodded once more as she focused her gaze solely on where Primrose and Therion were on the other side of the threshold of trees. "Let us go. Master awaiteth us."

The other members of the group didn't protest in the slightest, walking around the remnants of the tree monster without missing a beat. H'aanit paused over the beast's corpse, clasping her hands together in front of her chest. She took in another careful breath before closing her eyes. "Thou death willst not be in vain," she murmured to the creature. She was going to find Z'aanta and do what she could to find answers. She had resolved to do so all the way back in S'warkii, and she wasn't about to let anything stop her now.

H'aanit rose to her full height again a moment later before following the rest of the group, Linde ever at her side. Hägen had drifted to the front of the group, even more antsy than ever before to get going. In other words, they were closer to the truth than ever before, and Hägen could feel it.

Before the sun set that day, they would have answers about Z'aanta. H'aanit was sure of it.

This chapter sure is moving at a decent clip, huh?

I suppose that H'aanit generally being a woman of few words allows us to make progress a lot faster than before. Plus, we don't have any other characters or group splits to worry about in terms of flashing sideways to other members of the cast like we have with the last few chapter twos. This one is fairly straightforward... At least for now. We'll just have to see if that rings true forever.

I like the way this chapter turned out, and I'm really looking forward on having the characters think about the events of this entire segment once it's over. I can say that there are going to be some unorthodox groups for post-chapter interactions once all of this is said and done, but I'm really looking forward to it.

While we're here, I also want to comment on something that I've heard from a variety of sources now: I'm really happy that you guys are liking my alternate takes on these characters! I'm doing my best to keep them close to canon while still adding my own spin to them, and it makes me really happy to see that you guys enjoy them. I've gotten comments about Ophilia and H'aanit here specifically, and since we're sort of seeing that a lot more with H'aanit now, I figured now would be the perfect time to bring it up. I really do love working with these characters and this story, and I'm happy that you're all having just as much fun with it as I am.

Next time, we're going to get closer to the boss fight while kicking things off with Therion's travel banter. Until then, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Feedback is appreciated as always. Have a nice day, everyone!

-Digital