Mint slid under a collapsed tree carcass, causing the lead wolf behind her to slam head-first into it. The rest reacted in time to run around it.
She was now way further into the forest than she'd ever wanted to be, and had no idea where she was going; she just knew she had to keep moving!
How am I going to lose them?! she thought as she gracefully hopped over a large stone.
Her leg muscles were on fire; she couldn't keep this up for much longer and she knew it.
But just as she was losing hope, she spotted a dangling vine to her right!
It was dead, but it looked sturdy enough to offer her a chance.
She dash-rolled across the ground toward it, narrowly avoiding the jaws of one lunging howler.
Once close enough, she leaped onto a nearby tree.
Once high enough, Mint leapt from the tree trunk and twirled mid-air towards the vine.
It was close, but she just barely managed to grab and hang from the bottom-end of it.
The four predators pursuing her gathered below; just as she began to climb up the vine, one of them jumped up and managed to cut a small gash through her leg!
"AAAGH! AAHA!" she shrieked in pain, pulling herself in and practically hugging the vine.
She kept her mouth agape in shock and continued to climb. She didn't dare look back down, as she could hear them continuing to leap up at her.
Oh gosh! she thought. I'm trapped!
But maybe not.
From her vantage-point, she was able to spot it: a steep ravine just over the next rise! They would have to give up the pursuit if she managed to make it across!
Not only that, but there just happened to be dangling blue moss between her and it, along with a small, glowing hive of fireflies dangling from a vine just beyond that.
She knew what she had to do.
Mustering what strength she had left, Mint leapt from her vine, grappled onto the blue moss, and flung herself towards the firefly hive.
She flinched upon bashing off of the hive, as it exacerbated the pain in her leg.
She then jumped in mid-air, dashed mid-air, pulled out her leaf, and finally began gliding towards the other side of the ravine!
She saw the four predators continue to give chase, continuing to look up at her without noticing the approaching cliff.
All but one managed to catch themselves before going over, the yellow-eyed pack leader crashing to the ground and possibly breaking its neck!
Mint just barely made it to the other side, landing hard on the cold and decaying surface.
She tumbled through the dirt, grabbing her injured leg.
After writhing in pain for a few moments, she mustered what energy she had left to cast a regeneration spell on the wound, healing it in one second.
The pain fading, she released the tension in her body and lay exhausted on her back.
A cool breeze blew over her chest and face, and she finally felt relaxed.
A breeze?...her leaf! She had forgotten about her leaf!
Rolling onto her hands and knees, the spirit looked behind her to see it stuck on a rock, flapping in the wind.
She reached out to grab it, but was too late; a sudden gust ripped it away from her!
Mint got to her hooves and chased it, but to no avail: it was too high up in the air to retrieve now.
But it had led her to a large clearing, and it didn't take long before she realized she was stepping on...grass?
Grass!
The trees above were lush with leaves again, and before her lay a vast and open meadow of rolling hills and blue skies!
"Wow," Mint breathed.
It was the place she had spotted from afar, and it was beautiful. Flowers of all colors were everywhere!
But still no tree in sight. Maybe it didn't have to be a tree?
Mint jogged until she reached the top of the first hill, hoping to see something behind it, but only a large lake filled her view.
And beyond the water were just more hills and more flowers!
Is there light in the water? she wondered, approaching the edge of the lake.
She peered over, seeing her reflection; the water was so still, it might as well have been a mirror.
She took a deep breath and dove in. It was somewhat deep, but she managed to make it to the bottom.
There were even fish swimming around, but no light to be seen!
She surfaced, taking a gasp of air upon doing so, before swimming back to land.
It can't be!
She plucked a flower out of the ground and examined it.
"It's just," she started. "A normal flower!"
In a last-ditch effort to avoid an existential crisis, Mint tossed the flower aside and dug her paws into the dirt it grew out of.
There was nothing special about the soil either; it was just well-hydrated soil allowing plant life to thrive in it!
"The world...doesn't need us!" she deadpanned, sitting on her knees and staring at the dirt in her paws.
She let the dirt spill out of her grasp and started hyperventilating again, grabbing her own face and staring down at the grass.
This awful, awful grass which was delivering such awful news! The realization was so terrible that she wanted to scream!
"The world doesn't need us!" she repeated. "Wha-what are we?!"
Finally, she shut her eyes, took a deep breath, and smacked herself across the cheek.
"Enough!" she shouted. "Focus, Mint! SNAP OUT OF IT!"
She stood up and went back to the water, where she would splash her own face with it (both to remove the dirt she'd smeared on her face as well as snap her back to reality).
The spirit then went back to the hilltop and looked back into the forest that she came from.
"You need to get back to Niwen and tell the other guardians about this!" she said to herself. "Tell Fir and Keo. Tell the Elders...but how?...I can't go back in there!"
She thought for a moment before snapping her fingers.
"I...can teleport!" she continued nervously. "But I've never done that before."
But she had also learned how some moons ago.
"Well...now's as good a time as any to try!"
Was all she had to do is focus? Was she too far away?
What other option did she have?
She rubbed her paws together and closed her eyes. She began to visualize the spirit well at the center of the Wellspring Glades.
The more she imagined, the more it felt real, but...where was the ground?
She opened her eyes to find that she was floating!
Mint snapped from her trance and plummeted back down onto the flowers.
"Ow," she groaned, rubbing her butt. "Ok, don't get distracted. Noted."
. . .
The spirit well at the heart of the Wellspring Glades glowed to life as a spirit was being teleported onto it.
But it was such a common occurrence these days that hardly anyone took notice for more than a few seconds before going about their day.
Mint materialized spinning in mid-air; she then proceeded to collapse to her paws and knees shortly after.
"First time teleporting?" said someone to her right.
She looked over to see a Gorlek builder standing guard by the spirit well.
"Yeah," she replied. "That obvious, huh?"
He smiled back.
"The dizziness will get to ya. That's what they all say," he stated. "Don't worry, everyone has a first time for something, and it always gets better!"
He then approached rather rapidly and pushed her off.
"Now shoo! There's room for five, but you wouldn't want to be in any spirit's way, now would you?"
Mint just looked at the spirit well, then back at the Gorlek builder.
"Is it your job to make sure no one's on it for too long?"
"Well, one of my jobs: Grom was the builder before me, and he was both the watcher and the repair-Gorlek for the Glades!"
"Really?"
"Yep! 'Course, in my father's time there was but one spirit guardian to look out for and not hundreds...you would know that one as your current spirit tree."
He pointed at the towering spirit tree off in the distance.
"Wait," Mint started. "Your father...knew our father?"
"Indeed! In fact, he was standing right here when he transformed!"
"That-that's amazing!"
The Gorlek builder just shrugged.
"It was his post, so not too surprising if you ask me."
He then eyed the spirit well once more, as it began to light up again.
"Ah, I wish we could continue this conversation, but more are on their way as-per-usual! We should chat more sometime soon!"
"Uh, sure. Sounds like a plan!"
"Oh-kay spirits, you know the drill," he said as Mint began walking away. "Off the platform with ya!"