You’d think I would have learned my lesson by now,” she muttered before flying down to a clearing near some trees and bushes. She touched down on the grass and looked around with annoyance before reaching into the pouch and pulling out a blue and black beetle.

“Hey! Luna, Emily, where are you two?” she called out before munching on the insect. The girl chewed it with a bored expression as she searched around the area for her sister, not hearing anything or anyone responding to her call.

“You’ve got to be kidding me, where could she have possibly gone now?” Falla groaned with annoyance. After a few more steps she stopped and looked down, seeing that she stepped on something in the grass. Lifting her foot she saw Emily’s shoe on the grass, the few bloodstains it had on it a clear giveaway it was the child’s. Falla reached down and picked it up, examining it carefully before looking around quickly.

“Emily? Luna?” she called out, again not getting a response from either of the missing girls. Falla looked to the shoe then slowly glanced around the area as she started to get a very bad feeling about this.

“On second thought, looks like my luck is still shit.”

Chapter 4

Hidden Feelings

In the world of Eden, it was always a good idea to travel with those you could trust and count on. It would be dangerous to traverse the world alone when humans and monsters could pose a threat at any time, and traveling with friends was a better alternative to trusting complete strangers. Facing the dangers of the world with those you knew and cared about would help make the journey easier, and if you’ve never traveled with them before, allow you to really get to know them better. You would have plenty of time to talk about anything you wanted, learn what was driving them forward in life, discover what was truly important to them and why, become even closer from mutual interests and goals.

And in certain cases, learn how you each truly felt about one another.

*****

In the night sky above stars were starting to be seen behind the clouds as the day was slowly coming to an end. Parked at the base of a large hill under a tall tree was the group’s caravan, with Lucky leisurely eating some grass and Daniel gently petting the horse as it ate for the night. Next to the caravan a small campfire was going, the fires burning in a little pit that was dug out while four girls were seated around it. Triska, Squeak, Specca, and Alyssa were eating dinner together, sitting on large vines and roots that were manifested by the young witch of the group to sit on. Alyssa had merely waved her staff around gracefully before the roots were uplifted and moved through the dirt by her magic, rising up from the ground then curving back down into the dirt to form makeshift seats for the girls to sit on while they ate something that Specca had prepared for the group on this night.

“This is much better than Triska’s boring sandwiches,” Alyssa commented before she bit down onto a fried fish on a stick, munching on the cooked meat while over the fire two more fish were sizzling on their sticks they were speared onto. Specca nodded in agreement while Triska glared at Alyssa.

“Again, I could only pack things that won’t go bad so quickly, I would love to go hunting if we ever stopped for me to do so,” she snapped before taking a strong bite out of her fish. Alyssa just gave her a dull stare and shook her head.

“So then go hunting, we’ve stopped haven’t we?” she pointed out dryly.

“Right, nice try. I’m not giving up my turn with Daniel tonight just to go find something else for you to eat,” Triska scoffed, looking away with a stern expression as she ate her dinner.

“Specca caught these pretty quickly during a small break earlier today, how long does it take for you to hunt for something?” Alyssa replied with a smirk. Triska growled and bit down onto her fish again, not saying a word while Specca glanced to her with a weak smile.

“Um, for the record, I didn’t catch these to show you up, Triska. I just happened to come across a school of them in the river and, well, they looked so tasty,” she reasoned with a shrug. Alyssa giggled and smiled inquisitively at her.

“I’m curious, you didn’t have a net with you at the time, how did you catch all of these anyway?” she asked.

“I can outswim a simple fish; it was as easy as picking flowers under the water for me. I just grabbed what I could carry and then threw them onto the shore,” Specca explained. Alyssa nodded then pointed to Specca’s fish with a raised eyebrow.

“Um, Specca, aren’t you going to cook yours?” she asked as she saw the nixie eating her fish raw. Specca shook her head and looked to it with an eager smile.

“No, that’s alright, I actually prefer them raw,” she answered before biting down onto it with a crunch. Alyssa showed a disgusted expression while Triska was merely glancing to Specca with a cringe as she saw the nixie eating the raw meat. Squeak however was looking at her fish with a curious eye as she had yet to bite into it. Specca looked to her then to her fish which was cooked to eat.

“What’s wrong, you haven’t even tried it yet,” she said with some meat and scales in her mouth. Squeak glanced to her then to her food with a raised eyebrow before carefully smelling it. She showed a troubled expression and looked around at the other girls who were all watching her now.

“It’s alright, it’s just a fish,” Alyssa reasoned.

“Has… she ever had fish before?” Triska asked curiously. Specca looked up thoughtfully then shrugged as she took another bite of her meal.

“Nod shure, it wold depem om-”

“Specca, swallow your food first,” Triska commented flatly. Specca jumped a bit then quickly swallowed with a large gulp, the girl then blushing and smiling nervously at everyone.

“Sorry.