"Aha! This looks like a job for my unique brand of genius!" Singed declared. Moving his tail quickly, he drew a plate of corn out of lava. Once it set, the rough drawing became reality, as there was suddenly plate of corn in front of him. "Now then...LET THE MATING BEGIN!!!!" At his command, the cobs of corn all stood straight up, vibrating as they did, before launching themselves at the last snake creature thingy. Like a swarm of angry corn (since that's what they were after all), they punctured the snake with their bodies. That was when Singed spoke to the snake "that was just phase one Steve! If you make thing's anymore difficult, then we move onto phase two. Spoilers; phase two involves lava!"

My teammates all jumped in to help, leaving me to deal with just one vinesnake, which was already pretty badly hurt thanks to... uh... corn? The other ones were driven away, or knocked out by some sort of healing magic, and water jets respectively. Singed seemed to try diplomacy on the vinesnake, though, it being a vinesnake, it didn't understand what he was saying, at all. No, instead of being intimidated by Singed's speech, it lunged at him, trying to bite and poison him with its fangs. I tried and failed to get in the way of the attack, just due to how quickly those things actually attack things. I then decided to retaliate for him instead of just take his damage, and formed some rocks, launching them at the vinesnake who may or may not still be attached to Singed at this point... the other vinesnake decided to wake back up, and it tried to bite me. Thankfully, I was resistant to their kind of poison, but the bite still hurt, of course, even if it just bit my left wing. I eventually pried off the snake using my beak and talons to remove it, I then picked it up and flew it above the treeline, throwing it back down to the ground once I got far enough above the ground. I landed right next to Singed after that, and I had no idea where the other vinesnake went, or if it was even still alive right now. If it was, then it probably won't find its way back to us, anyways, so I wasn't really worried about it at all. I knew that Ganymede would be able to heal whatever damage the poison does to Singed, but... if only I knew how to heal, then I'd be able to just get rid of the poison, myself... after all, nature-based healing does usually cleanse the body of poisons.

"AHHHH!" Singed cried out, more in anger then pain "this is what I get for trying to be nice. For trying to be diplomatic. Well screw that! Steves, kill Steve!" All at once, the Squirrels descended on the snake thingy that had attacked Singed. What happened next was something that has been omitted, due to it being Rated M levels of gore. Once the horde of Squirrels were finished with it, the snake no longer looked like a snake. It didn't even look like a dead snake. "I warned you Steve, I fucking warned you!" Singed bellowed at the pile of meat that was once a living creature. "Alright you Steves, back to your positions" at his command, the Squirrels spread out, returning to where they were before. "Huh..." Singed suddenly noticed something "I...I think Steve poisoned me. Hummm...Yep, that feels like poison. Ah well, I've had worse. I'll just walk it off."

Erion just looked as the last snake was savagely killed by the squirrels, but also sees that Singed was actualy poisoned by the snake thing. He sighed softly as he then walk to him, and create some kind of weird grayish water in his hands.
"Let me try to help you." he says before starting to put the water where the bite was, starting to heal the wound and possibly nullify some of the poison using his null magic. He then look at the group.
"Now that this is done... where to next? I mean... we still need to find that seed or..." he then asks calmly, trying to stay calm. Multiple things in this forest could just sneak up on them and attempt to kill them. Great.. a forest that everything wants to kill you, that is how it felt here.
"We need to thread carefully, we never know what kind of beast could suddenly swoop down and attack us or ambush us here." he then says. Maybe.. deep down in the forest he could find some exotic ingrediants that he could keep and use. Well, it was best to just keep moving for now.

Ganymede

---

I watched the snake get torn apart by all of Singed's... "steve"s. No mercy whatsoever, but it was an animal, I guess. I looked at Erion as he... sanitized the wound? I walked over, lightly pushed him aside, and began to heal Singed's poison and the wound itself. "There," I said, looking as the wound stopped bleeding and closed up. I looked around, before backing up and taking to the skies, looking around to see another clearing about a kilometer away. I landed back at the group. "There's not really many nearby clearings, really only one that's a trek away, to the northeast. It's kinda small, too, so we may not find much there. We could go back to the path and walk safely... or as safe as it can get out here, down until we see something. Or we could follow the river and see if there are any clearings along that route."

Palythius

---

"... I suppose Gaia would be a good place to go." I walked down to the shopping district with Vermont, glancing back at the crime scene a few times, a bit shaky. As we walked down to the shops, I looked around a bit, searching for a convenience store of some sort so I could grab a snack and try to forget what happened... at least, temporarily. "Not sure if I'll be sticking with you for too long unless something happens, but que sera sera," I said, trying to act aloof. I smiled at a few people we passed, waving, sweating a tiny bit. "S-so that guy was attacking you, huh? What was it about?"

"Well, thanks mate." I said, walking beside this new fellow who looked like he was some athlete. At this point, I was rather calm and just trying to detach myself from the previous situation. Of course I felt sorry for him, but in the end I had to defend myself. Zephyre laws would probably back me up on that, though considering my only witness also happened to be an accessory to this...

I stopped thinking about it. Really, it was beginning to drag on. Me and Palythus (I'm pretty sure that's a typo, but I don't know for sure) kept walking into the plaza, brushing past more and more people of this city. It seemed as if everyone was simultaneously aware and unaware of what we had just done earlier. Palythus seemed to be sweating under his tracksuit of sorts, something you probably wouldn't want to wear when there are barely any clouds up here and the sun offers skin cancers. Either way, I was really only supposed to be getting some gear for the journey down to Gaia. Maybe it was a wasteland down there, maybe there would actually be some clouds to protect me.

Eventually, after keeping an eye out for any Knights of Balance fanatics, we made it to the front to the front of some darkened store, selling all sorts of accessories for stuff like hiking. It was unsurprisingly popular for the more adventurous citizens of Zephyre. Palythus continued looking around for something while I was about to enter the store, when he asked me a question about the person I faced earlier. "I... don't actually know." I said, turning to the dragon and moving to the right of the doorway so a gryphon could exit. I made sure not to speak until I was sure no one else was coming through, leaning against the wall of the store. "The guy was a Knights of Balance member. Basically a bunch of gang members." I spoke, thinking about past interactions with those people. "They're racists if anything, spending all day harassing people like myself. For some reason-" I chuckled, almost trying to distract myself. "They managed to convince every nation in Gaia that they were some police force, 'guardians against the darkness.' They were recently given powers to start detaining and questioning those who seemed to have affiliations with more questionable elements, like darkness." I grew worried because I think I had just implied I wasn't exactly a good guy here to Palythus. "Paly, I used to be harassed by those people. Now, they're looking to kill me simply because I look black. Let's just try avoiding eye contact with them from here on out, alright?"

I actually closed my eyes once the squirrels started attacking the vinesnake, but once that was done, all that was really left was a puddle of blood with some flesh and bone mixed in for good measure. I resented the fact that I couldn't heal him, however, between Erion and Ganymede it seemed like Singed was going to heal up pretty well, and just as well as immediately after she finished healing him, Ganymede flew up to see where the next clearing was. According to her, it was to the northeast, and seemed to be somewhat far away... for some reason, she thought we might be able to backtrack to find something, but I shook my head. "No... anything useful around there has already been taken, besides, the rare stuff's always in the less explored areas, right?" I then tried heading northeast, though, as per usual, I couldn't really see very well past the wall of darkness. "Uh... Singed? Mind lighting up the way for us, again?" I asked Singed in a very polite tone. I then sort of waited, noticing the fact that it was getting somewhat late, and that in only a few hours, the sun was going to set... normally, I'd be a little worried, however, Artemis, our instructor, and the old guardian didn't give us a specific time limit when he sent us off... of course, given the nature of this area, it might be best to return before sundown... the least that would happen is that he'd get worried, and try to find us, and the worst? Well... we'd get attacked and possibly even killed in our sleep, or during some other moment of vulnerability. I heard something move in the bushes behind me, and kept my guard up just in case whatever that was turned out to be hostile for any reason. Oddly, nothing jumped out from the bushes immediately... though, the fact remained that there was probably someone, or something there.

Upon hearing David's request, Singed got to work "well? Don't just stand there you lazy bums! You heard Steve, light up our path!" Upon his command, the Squirrels re-positioned themselves to light up the path "Ah, much better. Now we won't have to worry about tripping over something in the dark."

"Hello!"

"Well I did say something...but yes, I was sort of talking about you"

"Hello!"

"Of course I know that, I created you! But that doesn't mean I want any of us to trip over you. Some of these poor saps look like the burn really nice too. So...yeah, kinda got to avoid that."

Erion looked at David, and then at Ganymede, thinking a bit.
"Well, going down a river would be good if we find a clearing, but the problem is finding one." he says calmly, before looking at David and then Singed who sent some squirrels towards the path to light up the way. He smiled a bit, before hearing something in a bush. He frown, before creating what seemed to be a orb of water and then lifting it over the bush, before letting the thing drop right into the bush, possibly to get the thing hiding in there to get out of hiding. He hoped that would work and not have it suddenly attack. He was on his guard, prepared if the thing was going to attack right now. Last thing we needed was more poisonous snakes to attack them by surprise or anything. This place was really dangerous, even if there were lots of potential ingredients here.

Palythius

---

I looked around as we entered the store. "Well, there weren't any witnesses, and I've only been in town for a day or two, so we're partially safe. A bunch of sky racists... sounds like an interesting concept," I say, murmuring the last part to myself as I grab a new pair of goggles, and I search through a bunch of the flight suits but find none my size. I grab a few granola bars, and find a pocket with a zipper on my jumpsuit to put them in. I paid for everything real quick, then went outside. "Maybe we'll meet again. If you're going to Natura, that is," I said to the slime before leaving, and I walked around the edge of the town to find a cloudless spot, and then the side with the biggest forest on the ground, and when I did I walked back a bit, took a few deep breaths, and used my sprint to jump off the side at a good speed, spreading my wings and gliding towards Natura.

After about twenty minutes post-takeoff I had hit a nasty bit of turbulence, making me stall and begin to plummet towards the ground, gaining speed as I tried to get my wings to catch air again. As soon as they did, I saw that I was in fact near Natura, and now that my wings sorta hurt, that I should probably land soon. I found a nice clearing near a river, and I circled around it until I was able to touch down, and I looked, seeing a few people. "Oh! Er... hello!" I said, waving at them. They were comprised of a dragon, two phoenixes, and a gryphon. "Just taking a breather... you're not village people, right? I don't fancy being near Naturian village people," I said, looking at the gryphon as I sat on a rock. The swan-like one stared at me. "... What?" I asked, and she walked over, and grabbed my snout. "Hey, what're you--" I began to say as she used some sort of healing magic to fix the cut. I rubbed where I was healed. "Er... thanks."

To avoid being accused of loitering, I quickly moved on into the store with Palythus, who was still talking quietly. He even commented on the matter while I wandered around, looking above and below shelves while catching the eye of the store clerk, sitting idly at the cashier. Apparently he assumed I didn't need such fancy gear, sneering at me before digging himself in some newspapers beside himself. I made no attempt to notice and grabbed a few cubes of protein from a bag (mostly used for emergencies and soups, but for me it was just regular old energy). The store itself was pretty dark, removing the need for my cloud as it dissolved while I continued moving around. It was pretty cluttered and cramped, forcing me to shift form occasionally to move around. The other dude took a few bars near the entrance while I took a flash-stick (so that I could see in the dark) and some large folded cloth (for temporary shelter), heading over to the register and letting a few coins spill. Understandably, the clerk stared briefly before processing my order, sliding the shiny coins to himself and giving me some change.

I met with Palythus outside again, stuffing all the things down my bag. He was intent on returning to the land of Natura, seemingly unaware of the fact I was in fact going down there. "Of course I'm going down to Natura. I got an uncle down there waiting." I... messed up my sentence. Before I could correct myself however, Palythus had already started walking, before almost leaping off the side and down into oblivion. "Blimey." I turned left and right before going over to where my new acquaintance had just left, now a winged speck to the world above. I ended up shuddering somewhat because... it was so far down. Regardless, I took my own leap of faith, holding onto my bag as I jumped off the balcony and down into the land of green.

I opened my eyes to see that I had transformed into a bubble, holding my bag inside myself. Though, all the weight ended up making me fall anyway, much to my dismay. Never before had I had the air screaming past my airs and everything bracing for a rough impact. Sure, I left the city a few times, but NEVER to this damn depth. Unsurprisingly, I was almost shrieking.

Before I could head off in any direction or another, two newcomers just randomly decided to crash in. One was clearly from Magma, but the other... was some sort of black bubble? Honestly, I wasn't sure if the bubble was even sentient, but I did notice that it didn't pop within twenty seconds of existing, so, it might be magical in some way. "Uh... hello?" I ended up saying to the Magma drake who wore some sort of special fire-proof jumpsuit who decided to actually say hello to everyone after basically crashing into this place. I then decided to add "Uh... my name's David... I guess and yes, I'm from Natura, specifically, Terra. What do you have against Naturians, huh?" He seemed to just say that he hated the 'villagers' of Natura just randomly and before I even said two words to him. Of course, I've heard that there are stereotypes of Naturians being very closed-minded, stubborn in their beliefs and their traditions, that they occasionally physically attack those who disagree with them. I... was not this stereotype, however, I was almost tempted to become this stereotype just to attack the drake. Of course, Ganymede wouldn't have any of that, no, she'd just heal him up, and tell me to stop attacking 'potential allies' or something like that... besides, a few words about something some outsiders are probably legitimately worried about wasn't really worth attacking someone else over. I honestly hoped he wouldn't try my patience, though. Oddly enough, the bubble remained in the air, and I finally had the temptation to ask "So... what's with the bubble? Is it some sort of Magma experiment, or something? Sentient bubbles of smoke? If so, then... that's kind of a weird thing to experiment with, isn't it?"

I was dead silent after whooshing through the air. I did manage to feel a bit lighter though, having exchanged a few gases within the atmosphere through my bubble. Seems to me that dragon managed to land perfectly, something I probably wouldn't do so well in. Why? Because, for one, I was talking to some strangers. "Hello lads! Greetings from Above! First time I've set foot down onto soil, actually." Sure enough, I still wasn't touching the ground until I popped my bubble and basically melted onto the grass and dirt. I reformed myself into a drake, dripping somewhat and in fact requiring the assistance of a rock to keep me up. "Oh goodness! The stillness of this land..." You see, I used to all the turbulence on Zephyre. However, we NEVER had a time where things were absolutely still. As a result, I wasn't used to feeling so... still. I felt like everything was still moving, but that was just myself. Lord, help me against all the grass and dirt that would cling onto me, something which made me shudder. Regardless, I maintained a straight face and began taking faces of everyone, with apparently mixed feelings.

Erion looked at the slime that just arrive by flight, and looked confused a bit, before calming down. I look at each and everyone in the party, new and old. This felt a bit weird to have people of all these nations together at the same spot right now. Well, it did seem interesting to say the least, and with more people, there were less danger of getting hurt, cause everyone could work together. He looked down a bit at the ground, but didn't see much of interest. If he could have collected some kinds of roots or something, that would have been nice for some food or something. Well, he guessed searching will have to wait a bit.

A flying slime? This could only mean wonderful things for science. "Fascinating...truly fascinating" Singed spoke to himself as his head slowly started to intrude on the new arrival's personal space. "To think, a slime could achieve flight in such a manor. Oh Steve, I am going to science you so hard, in the way that only a man who has seen war can." Turning his attention back to his little Turtle, he spoke "Steve, get ready to jot down my notes"

"Hello!"

"What, again!? I thought I told you to bring extra!? You never know when science will strike!"

"Hello!"

"Well, that's different."

"Because I can't carry all the tools I'd need, let alone the table, everywhere I go Steve!"

That seemingly random bubble finally popped... and then reformed as a slime! "Uh...wha...how did... h...how can a bubble talk?" I ask the slime that was once a bubble, but slowly seemed to reform itself into a more drake-looking creature. This world was truly strange, and I really haven't seen everything yet. "Uh... um... w...welcome?" I say to the slime, still a little confused about its existence. Why does it seem like everyone who needs to crash land somewhere, or is just wandering around ALWAYS finds me? What makes them want to crash near me? I wonder as I eventually find a way to change the subject. "Uh, look, it's the next clearing, and it seems to be uh... VERY deep in the forest, let's go!" I then start heading towards one of the only directions that didn't have a clearing, despite me actually knowing where to go this time. Oddly enough, this seemed to pay off, as I eventually found myself in a sort of corridor where the walls were trees, and... a clearing with a seed in it that apparently none of the trainees knew about. Of course, even if they did know about it, they already chose their fruit or seed, with all of them looking rare, or otherwise special. The seed that I was looking at, however... looked remarkably unremarkable. It was just a plain, black seed that was tiny compared to most of the others, and, for some reason, the clearing seemed covered in giant, thick vines. I then checked to make sure everyone was with me before heading off towards the final clearing. I was finally going to have my entry in this final trial, and I'm not even sure if half of my team actually knew what I was doing in the middle of this hostile forest.

"Fascinating...simply fascinating. Steve here seems to be some kind of magnet for the strange and wondrous. I must study this until I can replicate the effect for myself!" Singed declared to...well, everyone in general. Pushing his face into David's he said in a whisper "where? Where do you hide your secrets? It's okay, I don't bite, just probe a little. Even if you don't tell me, I will learn the truth. The science can not be stopped." After that, Singed stood back up straight "everyone got that; I called dibs. Until I've learned the secrets hidden in Steve's body, NO ONE can touch him. Remember; I have Corn, and I'm insane enough to use it!" At the mention of the word 'Corn', the Squires all made some kind of distressed sound. "See, the Steves know about the Corn and they fear it, rightfully so! So don't anyone test me!"

Erion had fallowed that phoenix all the way to a clearing. He looked and saw the seed that the phoenix saw, and looked towards it.
"Well, that seems... normal." he says before hearing the local crackpot and what he said. He stares at him for a while, and then look at David.
"What in the world are you talking about????" he says confused as he stares at the dragon. Seriously, already he had some strange squirrels that reacted to everything he said, then he said sometihng about Corn and the squirrels all freaked out. Sure he did see that attack before... but for them to freak out like that... A good shield null shield could block those attack possibly... Who was that guy, a escape from a assilum prison or something deep in Magma. That sure was what it felt like. He looked at the clearing.
"We might want to be careful. We don't know what could go and jump on us." he then says.

So continuing on with a mixed reception, I assumed that many of the people around here were... well, they had never seen a slime before. It's been a while since I last talked sense, right? "What, you haven't seen a slime before in your lives? Amateurs. My name's Vermont, surname Orwell." I said, smirking and finally attaining a still form. No longer was I forming ripples and making myself look like a disturbed individual. Considering barely anyone's faces were moving like they had been frozen for months, I looked at the phoenix who seemed to be the boss of the group and ended up agreeing at his decision with hesitation. I was a foreigner around these lands and would likely need a guide... only God knew what poisonous and deadly beasts roamed around Gaia. Seriously, with all these plants and dirt, I'm surprised we hadn't been tackled by some giant snake yet. The ambience around here was creepy, being quiet and not as mechanical as Zephyre...

Did I forget the overwhelming sense of awkwardness? Seems as if I accidentally dropped down to a rag-tag... bunch of rats. Things felt rather edgy when we were all confronted by some mad-man of the group, and the fact he pointed out how by chance supposedly everyone met each other by falling out of the sky. "Well then. Our entrance wasn't original, but at least we have the excuse of a giant city above our heads." I looked up into the sky, but it seemed as if Zephyre was the size of fly. I didn't know we were that far up from the ground... for the time being, I didn't really need a cloud over my head - this place had plenty of shade and was misty enough to shield against the sun. "Uh, anyone willing to be a guide around here?"

After I made sure everyone was there, and after I answered Vermont's question with "Well, I've never seen a FLYING slime before. Besides that, slimes are actually kinda rare here in Natura," I tried to pick up the seed, but before I could, I heard an all-too familiar hissing sound coming from the nearby vines. I prepared myself for a horde of vinesnakes to slither out and try to poison me one by one, but what actually came out of there was much worse. One giant vinesnake. I narrowly avoided getting eaten by the titanic thing, and I tried to counter with my own stone shards, however, they didn't seem to do much, if anything to the thing. Shoot... I need to get out of here, but I can't just leave without a single thing to turn in... and worse, it's almost sunset by now... I'm sure that if I'm not back by then, I'll be disqualified, and this entire thing would have been for nothing. I think as I look around for any way to attack the thing, any sort of weak-point I could exploit. The thing tried to attack Singed with its tail... or maybe just its body, it was pretty hard to tell with snakes. I looked over to the trees, and apparently the thing knocked more than a few of them down just with its own weight... maybe making them fall down on it wouldn't do much. The ground itself? I suppose I could TRY to bury it, but that would take a LOT more magic that I'd want to use at one time right now... not until I was better at actually USING magic, that is. Maybe fire, or lava would work better? No... even if it did, this thing looked like it would take more than one decisive attack to finish off... an it looked even more angry at us than the typical vinesnake, so healing it might not be the best idea, either... as it might take even more of that to calm it down.