A clear blue sky arose the next morning, but the winds only weakened modestly, nonetheless.

"These winds...!" Yavetz grunted, everything below her chest hidden behind Talia's standing collar. "This has to either be deeply inland or coastal, because winds are not this strong for no reason."

"We can only speculate, Abbie." The long haired warrior bunny said, unbothered by the fairy's legs squished between her large bosom. "But you got to admit, this does feel good."

"Well, not for me it is!"

"Shhh, now, now. We don't want to betray our presence, do we?" Talia shushed soothingly.

"Of course not! But please spare me the innuendos for once. Need I remind you that the Empire isn't exactly fond of our kinds?"

"Who asked?"

"Ugh...never mind." The fairy scoffed, her tiny hands clutching the collar as the warrior bunny woman trudged through the woods.

Just then, Talia approached a bushy branch at chest level, lackadaisically sweeping it leftward. Some leaves rustled against her black leather jacket, none of them sticking, or inconveniencing Yavetz. However, when she passed a pair of trees, her right palm was about to touch a fallen tree trunk, but there was a sudden grip on her right arm.

"Don't touch it." Weizenegger said, approaching from Talia's right. "The sap is poisonous."

"Oh...?" Yavetz and Talia uttered, eying the deceptively benign greyish-brown trunk.

"The smell is bittersweet...too sweet, actually."

"But it looks like it had fallen a week ago." Yavetz said, looking down at the trunk. "In fact, it looks like some kind of cedar."

"Still poisonous." The bipedal wolf humanoid said, gently yanking the warrior bunny away. "I wouldn't even think about kicking it either. The sap might be thick, but even the splinters are deadly."

"What makes you come to that conclusion?"

"Look." Weizenegger sniffled and nodded upward, specifically rightward towards a red lanky fly-like creature with long spider-like legs lying lifelessly on its nightside, a bunch of wooden shards piercing the left side of its long neck. "And that I'm afraid looks like an accident."

"Aw...poor little thing." Talia purred, approaching the alien creature despite the sparse swarm of roaches and several giant spiders.

Yavetz, despite the decaying body horror down below, excitedly vaulted over Talia's collar and hovered above the carnage. She produced a brown leather notebook from her khaki satchel, which hung around her waist.

"Spiders and cockroaches eating from the same plate?" The fairy muttered loudly. "Usually, the cockroach is dead meat, but here...? They're merely passersby or friends in a restaurant. This shouldn't be happening."

"Maybe they're keeping their distances from each other." Weizenegger said.

"No, no, quite the contrary." Yavetz shook her head while she wrote. "Look inside those open wounds. The roaches are eating just right above a bunch of spiderlings and their parents."

"Hmm..." She hummed gutturally.

"The further also points to the corpse itself. Judging by the shrinkage and tightening of the flesh, it looks like this creature has been dead for four to five days ago."

"Four days."

"Huh?"

"it's been dead for four days, Yavetz." The wolf humanoid said, sluggishly walking around the corpse. "I've done plentiful hunting throughout my youth to establish timelines right off the bat. I'm surprised there's no large predators coming to feast on its flesh. Usually, something around its size would be gone in a few days, including the bones."

"Yes, yes, I noticed." The fairy half-laughed, landing upon the wolf's left shoulder, swiftly clamping her notebook. "Amid the rancidity, you would think birds of prey and wolves would already be here. Suffice to say, we are dealing with a completely different world than ours."

"Bugs do thrive on carnage, doctor. They consume, infest, destroy, and live off the death and destruction of other species. That fact is no different even here."

Yavetz was about to speak, but she said nothing, especially when she saw Talia hop onto the tree trunk and took a panoramic view. "Talia, do you realise that you now have sap on your boots?" The fairy said upon landing on Talia's right shoulder.

"I'm aware of that, my little friend." She said nonchalantly, her grey fur-lined leather jackboots quietly clicking upon the trunk. "It might come in handy later on."

"Maybe not when you're trying to take them off."

Talia sedately rolled her eyes before leaping off on the other side. But just then, there was a couple coarse rustlings overhead, followed by a sluggish yellowish blur landing gracefully on the ground.

"Isabella." Talia awed welcomingly. "I wasn't expecting to see you again so soon. You certainly made your presence known."

"Everything..." The yellow-skinned brunette panted softly while her wings flapped rather tiresomely. "Everything is either toxic or poisonous."

"Yes, we just found that out." Weizenegger said as she joined alongside Talia. "Are you okay?"

"Y-Yeah, I'm fine."

"Haven't you ate anything or...?"

"No, no, no way!"

"Then why are you out of breath?" Yavetz asked with a mild frown.

"Ja, und, were you being chased?"

"No!" The Draconian uttered; however, Yavetz couldn't help but noticed that her palms were turned the other way. "Come on, I'm not that stupid, you know!"

The trio looked at her, Weizenegger particularly sighing quietly, while Talia noiselessly chuckled. Yavetz was unconvinced, however, and she flew behind the Draconian. But upon hovering near her right hand, the Draconian looked down and jolted away.

"Hey, w-what're you doing?"

"Your hands are burned." Yavetz deadpanned, now hovering in front of her face. "Are you sure you didn't eat anything here?"

"No, I didn't! Would you stop that?!" Isabella said, instinctively raising her hands.

However, before she realised her mistake, Weizenegger gradually noticed. "Those don't look like fire burns; your flesh hasn't melted or charred. What was the last thing you touched?"