Sorry for the very long delay... College life is very hard... Especially the finals... But now that it's sembreak, I finally found the chance to update this story.

For those few who were waiting, here it is. Hope you guys are still tuning in!

Disclaimer: Refer to Chapter 1 (me is too lazy to write it all. XD)

Chapter 3: Onward to Flora Fields

Two people were running through a wide open grassland. A purple-haired girl was dragging a young man with blonde hair as they ran across the field, the gentle wind ruffling their hair and caressing their faces. They were laughing so freely in their place of freedom. The girl playfully pulled the blonde until they got into the middle of the vast field. Under the soothing sunlight, with the wind slowing down into a comforting breeze, and with the fresh smell of grass mingled with the smell of the girl's perfume, it was the perfect place for the blonde. Then when he thought it couldn't get any better, the girl twirled around to face him, and gave a smile. It wasn't sweet nor cute, just a simple smile. But for the guy, that made the moment picture perfect. He almost had to pinch himself to convince himself that he wasn't dreaming.

And then, he blinked.

He had only become aware of the screams after he opened his eyes again. He was no longer in a grassland but rather in a familiar-looking town square, and an inferno was surrounding the two of them. The houses and shops bordering the square are up in flames, some already completely burned to the ground. The cobblestone floor of the square was littered with small craters with smoke coming up from within. All around vicious-looking plants were writhing and snapping, some lashing out at unfortunate citizens who were trying to run away. Most of them were either covered with severe burns or huge gashes; some were already lying on the ground, dead. Those who remained were screaming desperately for help, all their voices concentrated on the blonde that was rooted to the spot, horrified at the scene before him. Something clicked in his mind, and he looked right ahead, at the purple-haired girl that was supposed to be standing in front of him.

She was gone. Right on the spot where she was supposed to be stood a different woman. She looked the same as the girl he was with a moment ago, with her clothes, her purple-hair and her crimson eyes. Except that her hair looked very unkempt, her eyes were blazing with blood-red light, and her mouth was twisted into a mad grin, showing her teeth which were sharp as a shark's. Then she let out a shrieking laugh, one that sent every single hair on the blonde's body on end.

Demon.

That was the only word he could think of to label the woman standing in front of him. He wanted to run, but he couldn't move his legs. He was rendered motionless by the maniacal stare of the woman. She laughed once again, before she raised her arms. In a swift motion she swung her arms down, and all at once the plants came charging at him, along with the blaze that seemed to come alive at her bidding. Soon he was about to be engulfed by the flames and the writhing plant mass. And through a gap in the plants he saw the woman giving him one last smile, neither wicked nor friendly. Just a smile.

Then everything came crashing down on him.

Johann bolted upright, panting heavily. He was drenched in cold sweat. His hair was unruly, his clothes were ruffled, and his eyes were wide in terror. He tried to recall what he was dreaming about, but he could only remember the girl, the demonic woman, the town square of Prontera (as he recognized just now) infested with plants and going down in flames, and his presumed demise at the hand of the woman. Even with only snapshots of his dream, he felt them too real to be just a dream.

He stood up, almost falling down again due to wobbly knees. He wiped the sweat off his face and he surveyed his surroundings. He saw trees and grass all around him, along with a few curious pink creatures he identified as porings. 'Wait, why am I here? I'm supposed to be in Prontera, which hopefully wasn't burned down… I just got back from a quest in Alberta… Huh?' Something in Johann's mind clicked, and he looked down. He saw a girl sleeping on a makeshift bed made up of a blanket and a heart-shaped pillow. There was a funny-looking red handbag sitting next to the girl, and what looked like a PhD hat lying messily on her head. He could make out the purple hair from underneath the hat. 'Her clothes… that hat… that bag… and that hair… She looks familiar,' Johann thought, rattling his mind.

Then it hit him. The fire, the plants, the craters, the screaming people, the chasing mob, and the most vivid of them all, the crazy laugh of the girl sleeping on the ground. The rush of thoughts put him on alert, and the first thing that entered into his mind was terror. He quickly thought of ways to escape without waking her up. 'Great. I'm with a psychotic girl in the middle of a forest in who-knows-where. I can easily get away, but where am I supposed to go? It's not helping that she looks like that demon in my dream… Gah… Don't tell me I'm stuck here…'

His thought train stopped when another thing clicked in his mind. The flashes of events came back to him, only thing was, he became part of each memory. In every mental picture he saw himself with the same demon girl that was snoring on the forest floor. 'Oh right… I was with her the whole time. And to think it all started with me ogling at her like some idiot.'

'Come to think of it, why did I stare at her?' Johann contemplated. 'She's nothing but a simple alchemist. An alchemist with a pretty face, white skin, and a b-… Okay, let's not go there. Safe to say that any sane guy passing by would definitely stop to look at an alchemist like her doing her thing, mixing potions and stuff.'

He paused, contemplating what to say next. "And, because of her, I was able to escape that stuffy old town. I should thank her," he said to no one.

"You say thanks to who?" a groggy voice spoke. Johann almost jumped out of his skin at hearing that familiar female voice. He looked down and saw the woman stirring awake. Her eyes opened to reveal a crimson color. Her pink lips parted and gave way to a long yawn. She slowly got up, stretching her slim body in various places. Her purple hair was a mess, and her dirty PhD hat lay forgotten on the floor. She gave one more yawn, before looking at Johann. Something seemed to be working inside her head, processing the identity of the blond-haired blue-eyed man that was standing in front of her.

"Oh… Good morning, Johann…" the woman said, still in a daze.

"Uh… Morning, Mei," Johann replied.

Then without warning, Mei the Alchemist exclaimed, "TODAY, I GIVE IT MY ALL!"

Apparently it was part of her morning ritual, but Johann still found it very weird. Not to mention it had the potential of attracting nearby monsters to unprepared people who just woke up from their sleep. This certain thought was the one blaring alarms in Johann's mind, because he snapped awake, grabbed Mei by the arm and covered her mouth with his hand.

"What are you thinking?" Johann whispered angrily to her. "You want us to get killed or something? What if you draw a monster towards us with that shouting of yours?"

"Mmm, mmmm mmmph MMMPH!" Mei tried to say. Johann didn't get it, but then he noticed that he still had his hand over her mouth. He let her go and immediately she retaliated, very much irritated by Johann's actions.

"What's your problem? It's part of my morning routine," Mei explained, now fully awake as well. "Besides, you really have nothing to worry about. Have you forgotten our little ward girl?"

"Our little… what?"

"Just watch," Mei said, pointing to a stump a few meters away from our camp. It would have been a normal stump, except for the fact that there was a girl sitting on it. From the bushes near it a Thief Bug popped out. By its nature, the moment it spotted our things lying around them, it quickly skittered towards them. It never arrived at its destination, as it was peppered with seeds in just a split second. Only bits and pieces of the poor Thief Bug remained where it once stood.

Mei looked happy, and even proud, at her little creation's achievement. Johann stayed silent for about two seconds. The girl on the stump seemed to glare at him for a bit, before going back to its post. Then he thought, 'Note to self, getting on this girl's bad side is not such a good idea, unless I want to be attacked by vicious plants.'

"Well, we have a long day ahead of us," Mei said, picking up her things, including the luminous bottle she used for last night's bonfire. "Hurry up, Johann."

"Work?... Oh right," Johann remembered the deal he had with Mei. He had to help her gather ingredients to brew potions as replacements to the ones she used to help the two of them escape Prontera. 'Those potions did more damage than help, though,' Johann thought as he pictured the town ravaged by Mei's dangerous concoctions.

"Seeing as we're both ready, I'm going to give a little briefing for today's activities," Mei said.

"Our destination is north of here, and we have a bit of walking to do, so be prepared. The place is a fertile ground for Floras, the plants with human-like features, with the most prominent being the digestive system. To get there, we have to pass through the territory of Eclipse, the mother Lunatic. Hopefully we won't have to encounter it, but if we do, I trust you to keep us both safe-"

"Question," Johann interrupted. "Why am I the only one defending? You can do something with your potions, right?"

"Um… It's just… You're the swordsman. So you have to fight it."

'Nice logic,' Johann thought, smirking a bit. He didn't notice it, but there was a small blush on Mei's cheeks.

"Now, if we start walking now, we can get there by noon. We'll have enough time to gather the blossoms way before nightfall. Hopefully we can spend the night at the inn in Al De Baran. I don't want to sleep on the cold, hard ground again. My back hurts just from last night… But we have to watch out for the petite dragons along the way, though.

"Well, that's it. Let's go, Johann!" Mei merrily said, pumping a fist in the air.

And thus, after Mei disabled the Parasite, the little girl ward, using some sort of potion, the pair started their walk towards the Flora fields. Nothing major happened for the most part of the journey, except for their unlucky encounter with the Eclipse. For some strange reason, Mei was stunned at the sight of the Eclipse. Johann had to literally drag her away from the scene before they were overcome by the huge bunny and its kids. Because of that, they had to take an early lunch due to the running they did, with Johann doing most of it. And even then they were almost assaulted by a mandragora taking root nearby.

By noon, they got to their destination. As Mei had mentioned, it was a place of a Floras. They were scattered all over the place. Mei looked ecstatic at the sight of the plant life, possibly at the prospect of making use of their parts to concoct her precious potions. Johann involuntarily shuddered at the thought of Mei's potions.

"We're here!" Mei shouted excitedly. She seemed to have forgotten the Thief Bug incident that happened that morning, and Johann face-palmed himself at that. She also appeared to have a knack for attracting dangerous creatures, because a huge bug that happened to be passing by heard her voice, and started crawling towards them, and it was crawling fast. It was an Argiope, a monster with aggressive tendencies.

"Stand back," Johann said, getting in front of Mei. He drew his sword, an ornate katana, and got into stance. The agriope was almost upon them, raising its upper appendages to bite their heads off with its poisonous jaws. Johann breathed deeply, and in one swift motion, sliced the bug with his katana. Injured, the Argiope retreated back, but tried once again to attack the pair. Johann went back into stance, and waited for the monster to approach. Then as it came half a meter away from him, he made two diagonal slashes, finishing with an overhead vertical slash. The Argiope stayed in place for a second before collapsing on the ground, its upper half showing three huge gashes. Johann cleaned his sword with a cloth he took out from his pocket, and returned it to its scabbard. Everything happened in the span of five seconds.

"Wow," was all Mei could say. She never saw him fight until that day. And she was impressed with his swordsmanship, even if it appeared unfamiliar to her.

"If I remember, you have blossoms to collect, remember?" Johann said.

"Oh right!" Mei said, walking around the Argiope's corpse and towards the nearest Flora. "Um… sorry for shouting like that… I always do that when I'm excited… And thanks for dealing with that Argiope…" she added, smiling at him.

"No problem," Johann said. "The last rice ball will go to me after all."

"Hey, no fair!" Mei complained. "I was saving that last one for me…"

"Too bad. Consider that as payment for having me deal with the other monsters here."

Mei just huffed and went back to the Flora. She didn't make three steps when an arrow came whizzing past her ear, lodging itself onto the ground in front of her. She fell down in shock, her face showing intense fear at having an arrow dangerously close to her head. Johann quickly drew his katana, on the lookout for the culprit.

"Show yourself!" Johann shouted. The answer was flying another arrow, this time landing on the space between Johann's feet. Realizing that they can't do anything without risking death by arrows, Johann sheathed his weapon and brought up his hands in surrender.

"Okay, okay, whoever you are. What do you want?" Johann called out to the shooter.

In response, a figure came out of nowhere. He walked to the immobilized pair, his bow at the ready, and an arrow cocked, ready to be fired. When he got nearer, Johann immediately recognized the get-up of the Hunters. The man was wearing aviator goggles, with what looked like a sunflower resting on top of it. The flower would've made Johann and Mei laugh out loud, if it weren't for the situation they were in right now.

The hunter surveyed the two of them, from top to bottom. He kept his bow trained on them, making sure they stayed were they were. After a while he grinned, and spoke up.

"Welcome to my territory, you bastards."

Trouble for our young heroes... What will happen next? Is this hunter a friend or a foe, or someone the author put as an extra to move the plot along? Whoever it is, find out in the next chapter. XD

BTW, serious reviews are very much appreciated. Flames will be flamed by Mei... (Mei: You don't want that, guys. You really don't. [chuckles])

See ya...