The wild woods of Tarashima were treacherous, but upon the arrival of certain elements they had become more-and-more dangerous. The purple-haired woman had thought she could brave it, all in the name of her religion. The gods had bluntly explained to her why that was not the case.

When she screamed out for help, she had been running for several minutes. She presumed it would be a worthless thing, to scream for help in a expanse like Tarashima, but she still did so. She was only surprised when she heard voices call out to her just beyond the brush. After all, unlike the three strangers in the jagged wilderness with her she happened to know her particular predicament. Much like her surprise with those who were chasing her and the voices in the woods, she found herself also surprised as she inadvertently tackled a young girl bearing the strangest clothes she had ever seen. However, being in a state of panic did not make her question such things.

As the purple-haired girl scrambled off the person she had essentially tackled to the ground, she couldn't help but stammer.

“Hurry! They're c-coming!”

Location: Tarashima Forest -- Ipharia's Camp

---

As the two girls got to their feet, Ipharia remained utterly terrifed, for it was she who understood what was beyond the wood. She was low on energy, but at least she found others even if they were unarmed.

“We h-have to hide! We can't s-s-stay still!”

Before any of the three strangers could address something, a loud screech came through the woods, followed soon by inhuman chattering. It was hard to decipher, but if they listened closely soon the distorted noise became filtered into a language they were familiar with—as if it jumped from something indiscernible to their native Japanese. The tone was still coarse and brutish. But the words were simple. “Boys, we’re going to have fun with this one!” followed by innate, schoolyard-like cheers.

Any further listening would be cut out by the sound of a string pulling back and the sight of several arrows flinging themselves into the brush around them, barely missing the three and hitting the trees nearest to them instead.

And so the first signs were revealed.

As Kaito hid in the brush, Honami’s rock flew through the air almost like the petite Japanese girl was a Hall of Fame-worthy baseball pitcher, cutting through the wind with force and speed. She hadn’t seen who—or what—had chased the purple-haired girl, but somehow the blow landed. The proof of this was the sound of rock landing with a sharp ‘crack’ in the darkness of the forest. The sound of a body hitting the ground followed and there was a sudden silence before a blood-curdling, angry scream from the voices that remained.

“Grok!” One of them shouted in their strange, gravel-like accents.

For Hiroko, she would see a shortbow, crude and tribal, roll downward from the higher elevated forest, landing only a few feet away from her.

It was then there was more chattering and rustling in the woods. All three of the Japanese strangers would then hear another phrase in the strange voices that were pursuing the girl and now them. “Go around! Make it slow on the rock-chugger!”

Much like how Hiroko found an odd sense to use the small shortbow, the branch in Honami's hands felt natural, oddly so. The piece of timber didn’t feel like a crude stick ready to snap at the first sign of pressure, almost like it fit naturally within the girl’s hands.

The purple-haired girl had noticeably taken cover, pressing her back against a tree parallel to Hiroko’s, her wide pink irises looking into the forest. The sun above the four of them had been partly clouded and the amount of thick overgrowth made it hard to make out much in this part of the forest. As Hiroko suggested defending themselves a sense of dread covered the girl’s face, though she understood it well enough. That much could be told as she tried to calm herself while she waited for the enemy to strike.

Fortunately, Hiroko could, if she focused, hear the pitter-patter of each footstep as they hit the thick brush and dirt of the forest floor.

Which, in this case, was exactly what the group needed to keep a sense of their enemies. They were fast but not as quiet as they might have thought they were. By their movements she could tell there were three of them, all approaching from different parts of the deeper woods. One to her left, one straight ahead, and one trying to move around toward Honami on the far right. That meant two were coming in toward her direction and the last to flank Honami, or at least attempt to. When she was finished collecting this information she heard another battle-cry. As three small creatures with olive skin and shark teeth emerged from the forest with blinding speed.

As Hiroko lined up two shots on instinct, nailing the two creatures near her in the head with pin-point accuracy a loud ‘CRUNCH` echoed as Honami knocked the one attacking her down in one blow. A short silence followed. The creatures were all defeated in one motion?

Wait. Creatures?

It was a curious thing, now that the imminent danger was over. But as Hiroko and Honami could see plainly outside of the heat of the moment, it had not been as they initially thought. Had they filled themselves with doubt, they might’ve believed it to be a kappa, an impish like creature that was commonly told of in Japanese folklore. But, these creatures did not have the back of a turtle and maw of a bird. The creatures as they appeared looked closer to goblins from a bog-standard fantasy anime or video game. But as far as the three of them knew that was impossible. Goblin's were creatures of fiction; but yet, here they were as their corpses remained on the forest floor.

Before Hiroko and Honami could make a statement of disbelief the purple-haired girl decided to do so first.

“Oh wow. Thank the heaven and the sky. You two are pretty strong!”

It was a statement that was true in many ways that the two were yet to realize.

Location: Tarashima Forest -- Ipharia's Camp

---

“Hey, uh--” The purple-haired girl yelped as the equally petite girl grabbed her by her neck. Immediately the tone of the conversation changed. “--what are you doing?! You're just talking crazy! Let me go!”

For Ipharia, Honami's words were as strange as Honami perceived the world around her.

Goblins were not strange to her world, though the purple-haired girl did not disagree with Honami’s assertion that the green-skinned creatures shouldn’t have existed. She never understood why the goddess created such beings. Though, it seemed that the green-haired girl in front of her was just as terrifying as the entire band that had chased her into this particular clearing in the first place. Her mention of “Japanese” was just as confusing to her. Did she mean Eianese? She wondered if she had run into an eccentric trio of bandits.

“Please! I don't know what you're talking about! If you're trying to scare me, I implore you to calm down! I-I don't have any money, if that's what y-you're after!”

Location: Tarashima Forest -- Ipharia's Camp

---

“Wait. That guy was serious?”

The girl managed to reply to Hiroko’s question with relative ease as she adjusted the collar of her cloak. Though, her eyes remained on Honami as she stepped back from the trio once she let her go, still obviously nervous about her situation. She had not expected to survive goblins to be harassed by an impromptu interrogation.

“Uh, Japan? I’m pretty sure I woke up at my camp before, well, the goblins. I don’t know about what happened to you guys, but right now you’re in the Tarashima Forest.”

She thought hard about answers she could make, but as far as the three of them could tell she was saying nothing that she did not believe wholeheartedly. Tarashima sounded Japanese enough, but it wasn’t a location that the three were familiar with. The closest thing the three of them could think of was Terashima, though that wasn’t a place but rather a very uncommon Japanese surname. While the information the girl iterated was far from useful, she didn’t seem to recognize Hiroko’s mention of Japan, at the same time. She looked Japanese enough, despite some of her clothing choice, so this may have surprised the group of outsiders.