From Sakura in the northeast, down 'round the coast, struggling down into the desert, only to realise that was a bad choice: Kaede's journey had involved a lot of false starts. Almost starving to death, and nearly dying due to lack of water, for instance. After her near brush with death, the tall girl had reconsidered her journey and pushed westward, mostly not dealing with people; though the war raged on around her, the brunette took a winding route through leafier areas, practising on her own. Her path eventually lead her to the river feeding the desert: the most social stage of her journey as she strolled her way to the coast, and from there slowly made her way westwards along the shores, never too far from--at least--food.

And thus, having extended the journey far longer than it needed to be via regular breaks, Kaede finally headed towards civilisation once more, having decided that now she had her swordplay down, it was time to start on the arenas. She was quite a sight: dust and sand having leached her clothing of any vibrancy, clothing that was on the verge of falling apart; but a sword that looked almost brand new, obviously the more cared for of the two. Clean but dishevelled, and so [i]tall[/i].

Near the edge of town, the swordswoman paused to inspect her clothing, to see if anything urgently needed actual replacement. Her shoes, perhaps; the soles were parting from the uppers, and the laces had long been replaced by a tough creeper she'd found. Then she continued onwards, continuing to walk along the coastline and thus liable to enter through the docks themselves.

She was, of course, not alone. There was her faithful cherry bush, brought all the way from its namesake. The flying gecko whose combat potential had sadly been neglected, though it was obtained barely after leaving home for the first time.

Then there were some more recent acquisitions: the Ocalia had served as good practice, and joined her little group at the very edge of the desert, where she nearly starved the first time. Now the strongest, possibly due to spending so much time in arid areas, it had been rather... shocked when she defeated it. Quite literally.

Along the river, she'd gained an electrical dog, and subduing [i]that[/i] had been quite the task--fighting something electrical knee-deep in water was, in and of itself, highly risky. The poor cat had failed that encounter utterly, not liking the water and [i]really[/i] disliking the static when it tried to eat the Datic. It, too, had been brought along.

Finally, she'd quite literally [i]just[/i] added the Xiao to her group. Focusing mostly on its fight with the cherry bush, the squirrel had been completely unprepared for being hit with a sword. It could have been worse, though--it could have been split in two entirely.

It was the Mythin that most concerned her right now, however: it was weak, and this [i]sorely[/i] needed remedying. Perhaps she could try and gather as many Armkfish as possible, then force it to fight the almost-useless Natrelmon? It probably couldn't fail at that.