Her feet were sore from running for who-knows-how-long, and her still-recovering head was throbbing in a droning cacophony of agony, but Akko paid neither of them mind.

The only thing she had her mind set on was finding that tree thingy and thanking it for saving her yesterday.

Almost from the very moment the small sprite entered Akko's field of vision, her Akko-Instincts took over, propelling her down the hallway, down the stairs, through the cafeteria, rocketing past her confused friends, and out the door in almost record time. Now she dodged and weaved her way through the low-hanging branches of the woods and did her best to avoid receiving scrapes and bruises from the occasional stray twig.

Akko could see her own breath as she panted heavily, chest heaving in quick bursts until black spots filled her vision. Doing her best to ignore the growing fatigue, Akko shook the bulbous black blobs away from her vision, only focusing on staying on her feet and doing her best to think of where the small sprite had wandered off to.

Her feet never once faltering in their forced journey, Akko's mind began to conjure up all potential directions the creature could've traveled in.

Let's see, there's a bunch of leaves laying around. I might be able to see if it had left behind a trail for me to follow.

Looking down, Akko observed the ground, disappointed to discover that the leaves had shown little to no signs of disturbance, offering her no clues to its whereabouts.

Hmph, that's no good. Uuuuuumm, the bushes? Yeah! With its leafy head, it could hide out in there!

Coming to a stumbling halt, Akko flailed her arms in a petty attempt to recover her balance, falling on her stomach and skidding forward until she came to a stop in front of a bush. Grinning, the brunette dusted off her uniform and poked her head inside.

Pushing aside stray needles and twigs, Akko maneuvered her neck to dig herself deeper inside, getting a better view.

Nothing there other than the pleasant pine needle scent she usually associates with Christmastime.

Frowning in agitation, Akko pulled out her head and moved to the next bush, doing the same as before and digging her head inside. Taking it out after not having seen anything noteworthy, she continued to exercise her strategy and poked her head into all of the bushes in the surrounding area.

Nope.

Nuh uh.

Not here either.

Dang it!

Right before plummeting her face into another bush, Akko took notice to a particular fuzzy sensation grazing her shoe.

"Eh?"

Looking down, her stomach did a backflip when she noticed the same bird's nest from the night before still laying there undisturbed.

"Uh oh."

The cawing of an angry mother was heard from not very far away.

Not choosing any particular direction to run in, Akko turned on her heel and gunned it, a comical amount of twigs, needles, branches and leaves spraying up behind her in a massive puff as she ran, covering the top of her still pounding head as she ran.

After she managed to shake off the defensive Mama Bird, Akko slowed her run into a steady jog, catching her breath while still scanning the ground carefully for any signs of movement.

Her jog slowed to a hearty sprint. Then her sprint slowed to a walk. Finally, she gave in to her fatigue and rested her hands on her knees, taking in large gulps of air at a time.

Eyes stinging with tears from the crisp air, Akko rubbed them, letting out choking gasps for air in the process.

As she sat, she found it wise to give herself at least a five minute rest before resuming her search . . .

And maybe revise her searching strategy while she was there.

With the throbbing in her head not nearly as agonizing as it had been minutes ago, this allowed Akko to take in slower, more relaxed breathes, forming a more thoughtful approach to her expedition.

She may not be a hunter (honestly even the thought alone of approaching an innocent animal with a weapon made her stomach twist in guilt), but she did understand that things tend to run away when something is chasing them – especially when that thing is more than three times your size.

Another observation that she made was that this thing she was looking for was clearly intelligent: being able to walk on two feet and use its adorably stubby arms to make an opening in a bush for it to walk through having been major indicators.

Then there was the fact that it could actually use magic on its own.

The memory of how that thing had lowered her gently to the ground came flooding back to her, a new sense of motivation to thank this thing properly crashing over her like a tsunami.

With the thought that this thing may actually be a somewhat intelligent creature in mind, Akko rose to her feet and took in one more shaky breath to steady her nerves.

Blindly hoping that at least something would be around to hear her, Akko began to speak.

"Hi! My name is Atsuko Kagari! But all of my friends call me Akko." She smiled, hoping that if the creature could see her, it would immediately think of her as approachable.

Doing her best not to let the silence damper her attitude, she resumed speaking to no one in particular.

"I, uh, I'm not sure if you remember this, but just the other day, you saved me. Remember? I was the one who flew into the woods after I got launched from my broom?" She chuckled nervously. "I guess that'd be pretty hard to forget something like that, huh? Unless that wasn't you." She gasped in horror as a thought came into her mind. "Ih-if that wasn't you, then I'm sorry! I didn't mean to assume! The last thing I want to do is offend you. I'm sure you don't all look the same!" She added that last part a little too forcefully, she noticed.

More silence filled the air.

Her eyes darting back and forth nervously, she did her best to hide her doubt and kept going confidently.

"But if it was you . . . I wanted to say thanks!" Her voice echoed through the open air after her last sentence. "If it weren't for you, I would totally have broken everything in my body. I was really lucky to have had you there and just wanted to say it in person."

Without knowing it, her feet had carried her further into the depths of the woods as if on autopilot, her head craning this way and that to get in a full sweep of her surroundings.

"So, I just want you to know that I'm not gonna hurt you. And I'm sorry for chasing you this far. I kinda have this thing where I do things without thinking them through first. Hehe, my friends all sorts of stories about that!" She broke into a rowdy fit of laughter, as if she had just been told the funniest joke as she reminded herself of all the trouble she had gotten herself into alongside her friends.

She remained silent for a few moments, silently praying that her awkward lures to start some sort of conversation would eventually produce something worthwhile.

When she was met with a gust of wind as her only reply, her eyes wandered down and her shoulders slumped.

But she wasn't planning on throwing in the towel yet.

Her hand brushed against her wand resting in its sheath on her hip, giving her a desperately needed new topic.

"You like magic, right?" She took out her wand and held it in front of her. "I'm a big fan of it too! I figured you liked it since, you know, you used it to save me. I'm not the best at it yet, but I'm getting better!" She added that last part as if she were the one she was trying to convince.

She sat herself down, cross legged, absentmindedly drawing circles in the ground with the tip of her wand. More personal thoughts began to come to mind.

"My teacher is giving me these private lessons. Oh, maybe you've heard of her? Get this, she was my teacher all of last year, and I didn't even know that I was being taught by the Shiny Chariot!" She paused, letting what it was she just revealed sink in to whatever or whoever she was speaking with. "I saw a show of hers when I was younger. It was so pretty and fun and cool and inspiring . . . that's why I'm here today. I joined the school because I want to be just like her. And I've come this far because of her, and because I'm lucky enough to have all of my friends behind me too!

"Most people don't believe in luck, but honestly, it's because of luck that I've gotten this far. I'm lucky I have my friends, I'm lucky that I get to learn at this school, I'm very lucky that my childhood hero is my teacher. And I was lucky yesterday when you saved me. I've been meaning to thank you ever since."

More silence filled her ears.

But if a missile wasn't enough to keep her from attaining her goal, then a little case of the cold shoulder wasn't going to either.

A reinvigorated sense of determination swelling in her gut, Akko shot up to her feet, an ear-to-ear grin somehow finding its way to her face.

"Well, whether you can hear me or not, thank you!"

She spun on her heel, facing the opposite way. "Thank you!" She yelled again, louder this time.

She continued to spin. "Thank you! Thank you! Thank youuuuuu!" The empty air echoed back the last lingering few syllables multiple times before finally fading away, leaving Akko alone in silence once again, panting in delight with her arms stretched out both sides, her wand still clutched in her grip.

If anybody who just so happened to have taken a stroll in the woods to enjoy the peaceful day came across Akko, they'd probably do one of two things:

Either ignore her and keep going on their merry way, thinking nothing of it other than a girl who enjoyed time by herself. Or they would call the local loony bin, requesting a spot be made open for a teenage girl with a glowing stick and an overactive imagination.

But she could honestly care less about what people may have thought of her had anybody noticed her. She did what she had set out here to do. Maybe not in the way she had planned, but, for some reason, she could feel in her heart that her message got across.

Lowering her arms back to her sides and sheathing her wand, Akko nodded in affirmation and took one step forward, preparing to march her way back to school . . .

Unfortunately, that single step was all she could take, as the ground underneath her literally gave way, plunging her into darkness.

"GUWAHH!"

The dull throb of her head returned upon hitting the ground, her impact only slightly softened by a small pile of leaves that had built itself underneath the false floor that she had just found.

Rubbing her head and back simultaneously, Akko squinted in pain and looked upward and thanked goodness that the hole she had fallen into was not that deep and could easily be ascended given the right amount of effort be put in to it.

Standing up, the young witch dusted off her uniform once again (it'll take forever to get these stains out!) and mentally berated herself for being so clumsy that she had probably found the only hole that was in these entire woods.

That's when it struck her.

What the heck is this doing here anyways?

She hoped it wasn't a trap built for some sort of inhumanly large creature that she had inadvertently fallen into, but hey, that's probably the worst case scenario.

Looking left and right, Akko nearly jumped out of her skin when a small gust of wind passed by her . . . not from up above, but from a gaping opening looking like the entrance to some sort of deserted cave. Looking the other way, she saw that it was also on the other side as well.

"Is this . . . a tunnel?"

She got her answer in the form of her own voice echoing farther and farther away from her.

Her insatiable curiosity besting her once again, Akko stepped out of the natural spotlight above her and wandered deeper into the black, unable to tell how far it even lead.

It was only after the light beaming through the hole she fell through vanished into the dark that she brought out her wand, illuminating the area around her. It was as if a giant worm had burrowed a tunnel into the ground and simply kept moving forward, for there was no sign of anything artificial inside, not even support beams to hold it up. It was just a seemingly never ending hole in the ground.

As the dry soil continued to squish underneath her shoes, Akko realized that she had lost track of time quite a while after she took off running into the woods, and her friends are more than likely wondering what it was she had been chasing after, or what was taking her so long.

She would have to think of a more logical excuse for them later.

Her stomach growling, she also realized that she had skipped supper for this search, not realizing beforehand that it would take this long . . .

Or lead to.

Her breathing hitched in her lungs for a split second after her eyes caught the faintest trace of light shimmering on a far off wall like a shadow.

Her feet picked up speed subconsciously, propelling her into a brisk walk, then into an eager jog, and finally into an impatient sprint, the light emitting from the wand washing over all crevices in the tunnel making it appear as if a party were being held underground.

As she drew closer to the literal light at the end of the tunnel, she failed to notice a slight descent in the walkway. With a startled yelp, her foot caught her from falling on her face, but her forward momentum carried her forward, forcing the girl into an unwanted downhill run. Her feet now acting at their own accord, Akko's hands all but flailed maniacally as she got closer and closer to the bottom, which she now saw was the source of the light she was heading towards.

"Whoawhoawhoawhoawhoawhoa!"

She closed her eyes and held her hands in front of her. She could feel the ground level itself out, but her speed brought her forward even still.

Still afraid to open her eyes, the girl failed to notice a rock jutting out from the ground.

She kicked the rock with full force, each individual toe feeling like they had just been run over by a semi-truck that was hauling several hundred tons of farming equipment. All the brunette could do now was shield her face as she fell head first onto the ground, skidding multiple yards and leaving a furrow of dirt in her wake.

Her eyes remained closed throughout the ordeal, so the moment she felt her shoulder make contact with something came as a surprise.

Snapping her eyes open in shock, she saw that she had crashed into a shoddily built tower made out of sticks and mud. It almost resembled a silo which, had she been standing up, was only a few inches taller than her.

She blinked. Then blinked again to get rid of the lingering dizziness. She planted her hands underneath her and pushed her body up into a kneeling position, frowning at the ever growing stains on her uniform.

Movement was caught in the corner of her eye.

Turning her head to the side, she almost passed out from surprise.

It was a tiny village. Little huts were scattered about with a smooth trail of dirt twisting and turning around them, giving off the illusion that it was a city street.

But it wasn't only the small community of buildings that held her attention like a hostage.

It was the fifteen sets of tiny, black pupils staring at her in awe.

Akko returned their shocked expressions with one of her own.

They all looked the same as the one she had found yesterday, only with little variations of their bodies to differentiate them. Some were thinner and some were thicker than others while others had bushier afros compared to others who merely had a patch of grass atop their craniums, giving them a spiky, wavy appearance. But they all had the same distinctive stubby limbs and dots for eyes.

The brunette wasn't entirely sure what it was she was meant to do. Stand up and introduce herself? Slowly back away and pretend she never saw them? Try to find the one she had met yesterday and thank it properly this time?

For now, she settled on awkwardly clearing her throat, standing upright and dusting off her uniform once again, all while never once taking her eyes off of the curious specimens before her.

Once she was fully upright, she opened her mouth in preparation to speak . . . but was interrupted by the sound of cracking twigs. Looking down, she found the source of it.

From the point where she crashed into the makeshift silo, the damaged sticks had taken its toll on the structure as it began to list precariously forward. Akko yelped and sidestepped out of the way as it crumbled apart like a delicate house of cards, snapped twigs and mounds of dirt piling up at her feet as well as its innards: multiple vines and clumps of grapes as well as apples, oranges and pears.

After the last of the fruit spilled out and the final piece of the silo came to a rest, the area surrounding them became filled with a pregnant silence that she was now even more reluctant to break. She could feel her heart swell up in guilt and embarrassment in her chest, fisting the hem of her skirt in anxiousness as she waited for one of the creatures to say something, if they even could.

Their tiny eyes went to what remained of the silo, then to the brunette, then back and forth and back.

She saw one of them lift its stubby arm in her direction, and all at once, their eyes froze in her general direction until-

"Our harvest has been defiled!"

"It'll take us months to rebuild!"

"Get her!"

The shock of finally hearing one of their tiny voices causing her to jump back in alarm for a split moment, she regained her composure and smiled sheepishly at the tree thingy who had the accusatory 'finger' pointed at her.

"I'm uh, real sorry ab- hah?"

Before she could fully form an apology, the tiny, now livid mob of trees marched their way over to her feet and gripped her ankles, yanking backwards harshly and forcing the young girl to land on her back with a frightened squeal. Wasting no time, the remaining creatures made their way over and clambered on top of the girl, tiny eyes glaring daggers at her as they did.

Her heart pounding, she swatted and batted at them, sending them rolling clumsily in the dirt. Kicking off the last of them, Akko rose to her feet and hopped away from the swarm, careful as to not accidentally hop on any of them or destroy any other buildings in the process.

The aggravated specimens weren't done with her yet though, as they scooped up balls of soil and dirt and chucked them in her direction. For their small size, their throwing arms were surprisingly strong, as some of them managed to reach Akko's face and shirt, smearing them even more.

"Hey! Hey, come on!" She protested as dirt flew into her mouth. "Pfft. C'mon! Grow up a little, would ya?! Who even throws dirt anymore anyways?!"

Her arguments fell upon deaf ears as they continued to hurl their unlimited ammo at her with no sign of them stopping in sight.

As a slightly larger sized clump of dirt struck her in the stomach, knocking the wind out of her, she realized she had to come up with a plan to appease them and make up for her mistake.

Eyes darting left and right, an idea formed when they landed on the piled up remains of the silo she had accidentally destroyed, various fruits lying about as well. She also remembered the incident in Ursula's office not even an hour ago involving the picture frame atop her dresser.

A flicker of hope igniting in her chest and determination flaring within her veins, Akko leapt forward, once again careful as to where she landed so she didn't bring any harm to the already frustrated creatures. As she landed, a few of them dove forward to avoid being crushed, tiny arms attempting to cover the back of their heads (which they couldn't possibly reach, but Akko found it adorable nonetheless).

Clearing the mob and dodging the balls of dirt, Akko made it to the base of the silo and unsheathed her wand, pointing it down at the rubble.

Akko didn't even notice that the dirt had stopped being flung and that all eyes were all but glued to the wand she held in her grasp, tiny mouths agape in shock. Paying them no mind, Akko took in a calming breath and let Ursula's instructions take over.

Intentions . . . check.

Cleared mind . . . a little hard right now but I'll try my best.

Here I go!

She raised the wand above her head and flicked it down aggressively.

"Altus Craesha!"

After a painful moment of nothing happening, the tip of her wand glowed a brilliant aura and shot out a sparking ball of green. Upon impact, the spell took effect, the twigs, dirt and an assortment of fruits spiraling and repairing itself. Akko was now holding her wand in a white knuckled grip, her brow furrowed and her tongue was out in fierce concentration.

Some of the twigs snapped back together with ease while others were caught in the floating assortment of dirt, but bit by bit, the silo was surely rebuilding itself.

Starting from the bottom, the swirling tornado of sticks and mud formed a circular base, allowing the fruit to come to a rest inside as the silo built up higher and higher. After about a minute, the last of the fruit filled the top, and the dome was reformed, completing the job.

Akko let out the breath she didn't know she was holding and began inspecting her handiwork.

It was sloppy to say the least; snapped twigs were jutting out from the sides as they stuck into the mud and the domed top was rather crooked at second glance. But it was still solid and didn't appear to be in any danger of falling over again any time soon. To test it, however, Akko took two small, nervous footsteps toward it, wary of it falling directly on top of her.

Wand still in hand, she reached forward and poked it, flinching in fear as she did.

When nothing happened, she poked it again, and one more time for good measure.

She let out a sigh of relief and deemed it safe to sheath her wand once more.

Pivoting on her heel, Akko placed her hands on her hips and glared down at her tiny attackers, who have all but given up on throwing dirt at her and were now marveling at how quickly their food container had been reassembled. When they felt her eyes upon them, they one by one turned and looked at the girl.

"Just who do you think you are?" Akko demanded, her previous motives of thanking one of them having washed away and momentarily forgotten, a new drive to give these things a piece of her mind having taken its place.

"I mean sure, I came barging in here and accidentally wrecked something of yours, but you didn't have to freak out over it!" Her arms were flailing in the air and her voice was cracking. "You didn't even give me a chance to apologize! You just kept throwing stuff at me! Do you know how hard it is to wash these? I know because I always have to at detention! It takes forever! Luna Nova doesn't have-"

"You're from Luna Nova."

Akko paused mid rant, mildly annoyed at the interruption.

All heads turned to the one who had said this. It wasn't even phrased as a question, but more of an observation after having looked her up and down.

"I guess that explains the uniform," the small voice continued. "I swear it's been the same for the past century. I don't understand why that place is so afraid to change. Those colors I've felt like have always just drained the life out of the students."

Akko gazed down at her uniform self-consciously, red present in her cheeks.

She shook her head in an attempt to regain her concentration, continuing her tirade. "Th-that's not what's important here! How can you just bully some poor person who fell into your-"

She cut herself off after her eyes fell on a familiar looking tree creature.

She wasn't sure how she knew, but out of all of the nearly identical specimens before her, she knew that was the one she was looking for.

"It's you!"

Pointing, Akko's outburst lead to all of the others to turn their heads to the one in particular she was referring to. She couldn't be sure from this distance, but Akko was pretty certain their eyes narrowed at it.

Her heart sank when it began to shiver in fear, arms curled in its sides and leaves noticeably trembling.

Before she could say anything else, more accusations began to fly left and right.

"You said you weren't spotted!"

"How could you let some girl see you?!"

"This is most disappointing."

Her frustration over being interrupted was now overwhelmed by the swelling sense of injustice.

"You leave him alone!"

All eyes went back to her. "If it weren't for him, I'd have a lot worse than a concussion right now! And I came all the way down here to find him and say thanks! What kind of living creatures punish somebody for helping?!"

"The kind that needs to stay hidden."

The voice that answered wasn't hostile in its tone, but it was well reserved and fairly harmless. The tree creature it belonged to stepped up to the front of the group. It was stout in its stature, but had the bushiest afro of leaves out of all of them.

And frankly, Akko had a difficult time determining whether this one was male or female (and wisely held her tongue to inquire about it).

"As for your previous question . . . we're Yggdrasilians. To simply put it, we're the last remaining, and living remnants of Yggdrasil."

Akko used everything in her power to prevent her jaw from unhinging from her face and falling flat on the ground.

"Or you can call us Yiggins for short. Whichever you prefer."