Valde Incompertus Silva

Disclaimer: I own nothing. And Etrian Odyssey is sounding more and more awesome already.

It was several hours later that the group resumed their trek through the verdant woodlands. Mihawk stalked ahead, eyes alert for any signs of an enemy. Lash whistled to himself as he followed behind her, giving the impression of being out for a leisurely stroll. Medigirl walked alongside Eurydice, clutching her oak staff protectively as she cast furtive glances at the landscape, and Quark brought up the rear, arms folded, face as impassive as ever.

To any observers, it would have appeared that they were all singularly focused on their task at hand, when it truth only four of them were. One of their member's mind was a world away.

It took a while for Lash to spot the distracted look in his leader's eyes, but when he did he slowed his pace enough that he could walk beside her. Offering her an easy grin, he opened his mouth. "Anything on your mind, fearless leader?"

Eurydice didn't respond for a long moment, merely looking away tersely at the surrounding foliage.

Lash rolled his eyes. Perhaps it was time to change tacks… Unfurling his whip, he flicked it about experimentally. "Medigirl's the medic. Her job's to look after us, make sure we make it out of the Labyrinth."

This time, Eurydice did give him a questioning glance. Pretending to ignore it, Lash continued. "Mihawk here's our scout. Her job's to map the Labyrinth so we don't get hopelessly lost, not to mention to keep an eye out and to be our advance guard for run-ins with the locals."

"Lash, where are you going with this?"

"Now, Quark? He's the brains of the operation, whether we like it or not. Nothing here ruffles his cool – he seems to know a lot more about the Labyrinth than we do. He's our guide to the flora and fauna – and we need one, really."

"…" The Protector flipped a strand of her golden hair behind her shoulder. "Your point being?"

"You, Eurydice, you're the leader," The whip-wielding warrior continued on as if she hadn't said a word. "Your job's to look out for the crew, for the lot of us, and to lead us in a manner that will give us the best chance of fulfilling our goals. Not any easy task by any means, huh."

This time, Eurydice remained silent.

"And of course, the right-hand man's job… is to look out for the leader."

A snort, half of amusement, half of contempt, came from the Protector. "What, you're my right-hand man now?"

"It was either that or 'errand boy', and it just doesn't have that same dramatic flair, y'know?"

She shook her head. "Right, well, you can do your 'looking out for the leader' in terms of a combat situation. Eyes forward, Lash."

The Dark Hunter shrugged and headed off with a somewhat resigned smile.

And as he moved off, Eurydice bit her lip, trying not to let her actions be seen, trying not to let the inner turmoil show itself.

She was, after a Protector. She was a Holy Knight, the party's leader… and their shield. Like it or not, Lash was right in saying that her job was to look after her men.

Just now… with that… Ragelope... She'd lost control when it had screamed at her. She'd dropped her weapon, her shield – a cardinal sin for any warrior on the battlefield. Because of her, Medigirl had been put in danger, Lash had been wounded, and…

She shook her head. Her failure (for that was what it was) could not be denied or ignored. She sighed, tightening her grip on her blade. She could not afford to let down her men again.

Her reputation as a leader was at stake, after all.

"Definitely didn't taste as good as it looked." Mihawk muttered with disgust as she threw the juicy red fruit onto the ground.

Cassandra frowned as she stared at the red pulp. "I – I don't think you should have eaten that." She mumbled. "It could have been poisonous."

"We saw creatures like those rabbits chewing on these earlier," Mihawk shrugged. "If it were that virulent, they wouldn't be eating it. Still tastes like crud, though." With that, she returned to mapping out their position in the floor.

Cassandra blew out a breath of air. "I wonder why so much of the wildlife here is so… hostile."

"Who knows." Mihawk quirked a smile. "Could be the rumours about them being guardians of some great unknown treasure are really true."

Cassandra chuckled in return. "Wouldn't that be something. I guess that's why so many adventurers want to conquer the labyrinth."

"Fame and fortune are powerful incentives for many." Mihawk replied distractedly as she continued sketching out pathways they had explored.

"Well, what about you, Mihawk?" Cassandra turned to her, an inquisitive look in her eyes. "Why do you want to conquer the forest?"

"Why do I-" Mihawk jerked slightly. "I… I… I don't really know."

Cassandra's eyes widened. Her memory! I forgot it- "I- I'm sorry… I should've…"

"No, it's alright." The archer sighed. "I suppose that's part of why I want to explore the Labyrinth. I feel such a strong urge to… I just… I can't help but wonder if it's got some connection with my past."

"Oh… well, uh, I hope you get your memory back."

Mihawk grinned slightly. "Thanks for the encouragement, Medigirl." Then she cocked her head to one side. "And what's your reason for plumbing the vast, treacherous depths of the Yggdrasil Labyrinth?"

The healer flushed. "Well… it… it's kind of a dumb reason…"

"Oh, try me."

Cassandra glanced at the ground. "Well, it's… I've always had a dream about cataloguing every single animal, plant, mineral… basically everything in the Labyrinth. It… it would be an invaluable resource to Etria, you know…? And so… so whenever I enter the Labyrinth, I collect samples, I study the flora and fauna… you know… stuff like that…"

There was a pause in the clearing for a moment. Then Mihawk burst out.

"You're crazy!"

Taken aback by this outburst, Cassandra glanced up into Mihawk's face, which currently bore a frown on it as she crossed her arms.

"How in the world could you possibly think that's a dumb reason?" Mihawk continued. "It's a heck of a lot more selfless and noble than a whole host of other motivations I could think about."

"R- really?"

"Of course!" Mihawk slapped Cassandra on the back encouragingly, knocking the frail medic forward slightly. "Chin up, Medigirl!"

"Yeah, chin up… I guess."

"Break's over!" They heard Lash call out. "Back to the hunt!"

Nodding to each other, the two friends set off deeper into the woods.

Quark paused to look at several claw marks laid upon the tree's bark. "More of those moles…" He murmured to himself.

The group he was traveling with was making rather speedy progress. Well, that was a good thing, he supposed. Still, he was rather concerned about them overextending themselves and running into dangers they had no business facing.

Enough have been sacrificed to the depths of the Labyrinth already.

Even as he was musing, he heard a startled cry, and out of his peripheral vision he noted their leader facing down a trio of the hares they had fought off earlier.

"Aggressive little fools…" He growled as he prepared another set of lightning spells.

The battle was quickly finished, and as the trio continued, Quark noticed the medic crouching over the defeated creatures and extracting some samples from them. With a mental shrug, he wrote it off to curiosity and continued on his path.

The current section of the Labyrinth wasn't overly complicated by any measure, but it was winding and tedious, filled with several unpleasant dead ends. More than once Quark found himself wondering why they hadn't simply appropriated maps from people who had ventured deeper.

The obvious answer was that no one would share maps, of course – each guild guarded their own charts with a jealous fury. And it probably couldn't be helped, especially with so much prestige – here Quark had to restrain the urge to roll his eyes – at stake.

So here they were, and of course they would have to do things the hard way. Quark was glad that their cartographer appeared by all accounts to be a rather competent one, but still… he couldn't help wishing they were farther than they were now.

Patience, patience. He reminded himself. As long as they continued on their way, he'd reach his goal… sooner… or later.

While the majority of hares that live beyond the labyrinth are omnivorous in nature, the Hares within the Yggdrasil Labyrinth are, from analysis of their dental structure, quite clearly carnivorous. This is a fascinating insight, yet it also poses a host of problems towards the nature of the ecosystem of the Labyrinth, not the least of which is the fact that we have yet to run into any herbivorous creatur-

"Yo, Medigirl!" The shout broke her from her hastily scribbled notes, and she looked up to see Lash gesturing at her. "Mihawk's gotten herself a little cut. If you could come look at it?"

"It's fine, Lash." The archer sighed. "I am trained in the basics of first aid, you know. I can look after myself. Don't bother her unless it's something bigger, okay?"

Medigirl was already jogging over regardless, but any other potentially forthcoming reply was drowned out in a roar as an enormous creature burst from the woods. For a split second, Cassandra thought it was a bear of some sort, but the humongous horns on the creature revealed itself to be of a decidedly different sort.

A Kuyutha… Amongst the upper echelons of the Labyrinth, the only beast more feared than the Ragelope… was the Kuyutha. Wherever it roamed, all the lesser denizens of the Labyrinth knew to get out of its way… or else. Still, they'd managed to take down a Ragelope with relatively little injury… maybe, just maybe, they could handle this as well.

Still, they'd started off on a bad foot. The Kuyutha had clearly caught them by surprise, and as the tiny party moved into battle positions, the rampaging bull-like creature lurched forward, smashing its body in Lash's general position. The agile whipfighter managed to roll out of the way, but just barely. If he'd gotten caught in the rush… Medigirl shuddered.

The huge bulk of the Kuyutha afforded the fighters a singular advantage – it wasn't maneuverable, and since the majority of its attacks consisted of throwing itself at its foes, it allowed the warriors ample time to strike the beast.

A seeming blob of darkness burst from Quark's hands, landing on the Kuyutha's furred hide and quickly soaking into the skin. The Poison spell completed, the Alchemist returned to preparing more lightning spells.

Eurydice rushed over, silver blade flashing as she stabbed at the creature. Unhappily enough, her sword refused to cooperate, bouncing off the Kuyutha's toughened skin. Before Medigirl could do or say anything, the creature tossed its neck, slamming its sturdy horn into the Protector's body. Eurydice was sent sprawling.

As Medigirl rushed over to administer aid to the fallen warrior, Mihawk quickly took up the slack of distracting the creature. Her sharpened arrows were able to pierce the creature's hide easily, and the Kuyutha's furious bellows were proof positive that it had (for the moment) forgotten the hapless protector.

The swift Survivalist was now playing a dangerous game of cat and mouse with the Kuyutha as she ducked and weaved through the trees, making use of her smaller frame to duck away in smaller recesses. The Kuyutha had nowhere near that level of subtlety, choosing instead to trample everything in its path.

And then it happened. Lash and Quark were rushing up provide aid, the Alchemist's hands already glowing with barely-contained energy. The Kuyutha was once more bearing down on the archer, eyes blazing. Mihawk had loosed another arrow into it's frame, and was preparing to leap nimbly out of the way… when a Hare darted out from the bushes, sinking its sharp fangs into her legs. The Survivalist let out a tiny yelp of pain – which quickly translated into a cry of horror as the Kuyutha slammed into her with all the momentum it could bear. With a sickening crunching sound, Mihawk was literally sent sailing through the air until she collided with another tree, flopping limply to the ground. Meanwhile, the unlucky hare was quickly trampled underfoot.

"Dammit!" Lash spat. "Quark, stand back! I'll distract the thing, you blast it with what you've got!"

The Alchemist obliged, and streaks of blazing lightning erupted from his gauntlets, searing into the beast's skin, drawing agonized bellows of rage. The Dark Hunter, meanwhile, stood in front of the monster, taunting it, drawing it away from Quark, letting the spellcaster continue his lethal work.

Meanwhile, Medigirl frantically mixed up her health-giving concoction, checking the fallen Protector for serious wounds. Her heart screamed at her to go to Mihawk's aid, but she had to finish looking to Eurydice first.

"Ugh… I… fine…" Eurydice muttered as she pulled herself into a sitting position. "Go… Mihawk…"

Pausing to give her leader one more worried glance, the medic stood – just as a cry of alarm rang through the woods. Snapping her head up, she saw Lash in the process of being flung through the air as if he were nothing more substantial than a feather.

Now unprotected, the dark-haired alchemist nonetheless stood resolute, one final thunderbolt searing its way through the air before he, too, was slammed by the massive beast. He fell, rolled, and lay still.

And there were only three – Medigirl, the Kuyutha… and Eurydice, who could barely stand.

A long, tense silence ensued as the bull-like creature slowly wheeled around to face the two of them.

"…" Cassandra stood frozen, backing up.

"Medigirl. Go." Eurydice snapped. "Find a safe place – and use that Warp Wire. And on't stop for anything."

"Wha- no! No! I'm standing here to-"

"I said GO! And that's a damn order!" The Protector snapped before exploding into action, charging the behemoth. The Kuyutha growled softly, took a step forward, and slumped to the ground.

Pulling herself to a stop just before she slammed into the unmoving bulk, Eurydice gasped for breath as she stared curiously at the unmoving creature. Behind her, Cassandra clutched her staff, trembling.

The… the poison… Quark's poison… it must have been eating away at it the whole time… She trembled violently as, ahead of her, Eurydice slumped to the ground, her injuries getting the better of her.

"Medi… Medigirl…"

"Wha – huh?"

"The Warp Wire. You have it, right? Use it."

"Oh… oh! Right."

Hurriedly gathering their fallen allies into an enclosed area, Medigirl activated the Warp Wire, and the five of them vanished in a burst of light.

They had survived. And for now, that would have to be enough.

Chapter End

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