Looking for the Spring in the Woods

Knockout stood impassively before the great and sprawling forest, barely moving even as she looked upwards to take in the tallest trees visible from her vantage point. While she wasn't exactly intimidated by the sight, she couldn't deny that it was going to be a challenge to get to the spring deep within. The ground was dappled with sun now, but it would disappear come night, and perhaps even sooner as the trees gradually got thick enough to block out the sky. Knockout had come prepared, of course. All the valuable experience and training she was planning on getting out of this trip wouldn't be worth anything if she got lost or hurt and couldn't find her way out.

Legrandite was approaching the forest from a different direction from the nightmare. Like Knockout, he had come prepared for the journey into the forest. He heard of the spring and hoped to at least come across it during his search on the forest. 

Since he was not in a rush, he took his time arriving and taking in the scenery as he walked.

Knockout continued thinking to herself, trying to remember what she’d read about her destination. It didn't really matter to her if the spring was as pretty or full of magic as she’d heard so long as it actually existed and she managed to get to it....but she wouldn't complain if it was. At the very least it she hoped it would be a safe place to rest, because she had no doubt the journey there would be long and perilous, especially attempting it by herself.

She didn't notice the nearby nightmare for now, far too focused on psyching herself up and taking the first step into the trees.

The scent of the forest caught his attention as he got closer. No longer taking his time to enjoy the scenery, Legrandite stopped at the edge of the forest. He observed the trees and shrubs growing as well as the scent and sounds from it. Taking a deep breath, he too entered the forest.

He was busy looking and smelling around to notice the drakiri nearby. A particularly interesting plant caught his attention, so he stopped to study it better.

Knockout stopped, eyes narrowing in annoyance as she heard a sound nearby. Or maybe that was just her default expression? Probably that.

But she raised a scaly brow as it turned out to be a whole other drakiri, instead of a random animal as she'd half suspected. She stared at him as he stopped and seemed to ignore her. Pretending not to notice her? Just what was his deal?

"You," she called out, voice carrying easily. "Who are you?"

Legrandite quickly pulled himself from the plant upon hearing a voice and looked around. Spotting the drakiri, he mentally scolded himself for not keeping a better look out. Being at the edge of the forest was no excuse for getting lost in his thoughts. Taking a deep breath, he answered the question, "I'm Legrandite. And you are?"

"Knockout," she answered, with little hesitation. "What are you doing here?" Her tone was almost accusatory, but to anyone who'd known her for longer than five minutes it would be no surprise. She was just like that.

"Have you come to brave these woods by yourself?" If her tone wasn't disapproving before, it certainly was now.

Legrandite certainly bristled at the questions. “So are you. I am here to explore and discover what the woods have to offer.”

".....That’s true." She let out a soft huff. If Legrandite's attitude amused or annoyed her, Knockout didn't show it very well. She didn't show much of anything.

"Come with me. It will be safer."

He was surprised by the quick offer, having to take a moment to consider. Letting a sigh, he replied, "I suppose there's no point in arguing, sure. As long as you're not bothered by me having sphinx to deal with."

She let out another huff at Legrandite's words, eyes narrowing in what almost seemed like....amusement? "Hmph. So long as you don't complain about being cold I see nothing to be concerned about. It's a good thing the weather isn't too bad today. Though that may not matter the further in we go.."

Knockout turned to look deeper into the woods. In the distance, the amount of sunlight filtering in through the trees lessened considerably.

Legrandite hate to admit it, but she was growing on him a little. "I have blankets and stuff for that," he assured Knockout. He was currently wearing a blanket to protect his hide from the straps that held his pack on his back.

“It’s good that you’re prepared.” She nodded in approval, glancing to his back before looking him in the eye again. “Well, we should getting going sooner rather than later.”

He nods from her suggestion. "I do agree. Do you have a direction to start with?"

".......I couldn't find any reliable maps to the spring. Or rather, all the maps I found were different. Perhaps the woods have changed over time. Perhaps the magic of the spring itself shifts things around.... I can't say." She seemed hesitant to admit all this, mouth settling into a grim little frown. "My plan is to follow the natural paths. Wandering off of them will just make traveling harder and heighten the risk of getting lost."

Legrandite fell into steps with her after listening to what she had to say. "Natural paths are a good start. As for maps, I ran into the same problems you had. So, I looked up for other ways to navigate, and I came across a few poems... or maybe they were songs? in my search. According to them, there's ways to keep on track or find your way when lost."

"...I suppose that's better than nothing." She took the lead, but slowly, preferring to be a little more cautious and looking around beforehand. "I do have the maps I found with me," Knockout jerked her head back towards the pack strapped to her back. "But considering the fact that they're all so different...I don't know if they'll be of any use."

"Does your maps have markers that help you see which one might match up to the one we are on?" It did not hurt to ask.

"Like which trail?" She tilted her head in thought, trying to remember. "...None of them even had keys or guides, no. As much as I hate to say it, we might be better off with your songs." Knockout stopped and looked at him for a moment. "I don't suppose you're the singing type?" Her voice was flat, it was hard to tell if she was joking or not.

He did not expect the question which made him pause. "Er, no. Don't have much practice with it either. Only heard them."

"Hmm." She chuckled slightly and turned back to keep walking. "Well that's fine, it shouldn't matter. I'm not really the singing type either. At all. But can you tell me the gist of what the songs tell us to do?"

"I do have the songs and my thoughts on what they mean in my pack. Off the top of my head..." He continued walking alongside Knockout as he recalled what he studied. "It helps to determine the right path forward, potential dangers, and how to find the spring."

"Good to know.." Her plan at the moment was to just stay on their current path, but all the twists and turns made her a little wary. Did that tree look a little too familiar or was she just overthinking things? "Any notable dangers besides getting lost and predators? Maybe poisonous plants?"

"Well, each song seem to have at least one predator to watch out for, but the description was vague on what it looks like. At least, I have a hard time picturing it. One did mention about being careful of what plants to eat, least we get sick. As for plants in general, some may be helpful and others will confuse us. How they confuse us varies depending on the plant."

Knockout grimaced. "I don't really understand how a plant could help us unless it was for eating... And I wasn't exactly planning on eating anything here because of the dangerous plants. I'm no botanist and I'd rather not die in such a stupid way." She looked around at the trees and vines, bushes and grass. They looked perfectly normal to her. "Though we can't exactly avoid plants in general. It's a forest. ...I can deal with predators at least."

Legrandite did not have much to add regrading to plants and shrugged. "Any specific predators or type you can deal with?" he asked, curious. 

"Other drakiri," She replied with no hesitation. "....If it comes to it, that is. Nightmares preferably, I have the most experience fighting them. But I can handle Primals, Q'lin, Kainu... I'm well versed in combat, and Drakiri are smarter than most predators so we should be fine. The biggest threat in here is the Saber Cats, so keep an eye out." She looked around, as if to prove her point. "They're big, but sneaky. The denser the trees get, the harder it will be to keep track of them." Knockout frowned. These trees really were looking similar. At least conversation would keep her mind off of her doubts, even if she wasn't usually the talkative type.

"Well, thank you for not attacking me on sight then," he said with a dry chuckle. "Any other tips or pointers with Saber Cats?" He looked around too, wondering if this bush or tree was where a saber cat might be hiding.

Knockout snorted. "I wouldn't fight you if you didn't want to fight. I'm not a savage." She came to a stop suddenly, changing the subject. "As for Sabers? Just don't get caught. But that's the least of our worries right now. Have we been walking in circles?" She angled her horn towards the nearest tree, pointing at a vine that twisted around it in an unusual pattern. It was nothing special on its own, but Knockout felt like she'd seen it before. Multiple times before, in fact. "That looks familiar, right?"

Legrandite stepped around her to see the tree better. The vine's design did seem familiar. "I think so," he replied before adding sheepishly, "though I was not paying too much attention before." He turned to his pack and used his magic to get the songs out to look over them. "You were saying about walking in circles... If this image is repeated, we need to figure out what that means."

She seemed frustrated, pawing at the ground with her hooves. "I don't really care what it means as long as we never see it again. Do the songs have any clues?" Knockout walked back to Legrandite in an attempt to get a look at them herself.

He willingly showed the songs to Knockout, having at least studied them before coming. There was notes from him written on the sides of the song. Maybe she would see something he missed.

"Well, it had mentioned about seeing repeats and what to do to move forward."

" 'The words of this song will show you the way,' " she read aloud, scaly brows furrowing in annoyance. "Yeah, I sure hope they do... Not much of a point in reading them otherwise." Knockout sighed, skimming through the rest. "The question is, do vines usually grow like that here or is this the same tree we've walked past like three times now? We need a way to test that."

He managed to resist chuckling at Knockout's response to the first line. He looked around to see if he could spot the next one, but it was too far in either direction. "Well, having one stand here and the other walk to the next one is a possibility."

"Absolutely not." Her yellow eyes flashed as she glared at him, her tone leaving no room for debate. "And risk us getting separated? We teamed up for a reason. I'll just..." She wracked her brain for a moment, before dragging her horn across the bark and vines on the tree, leaving a large scratch that would be hard to miss. "There. If we see this again, we'll know it's the same one. If we don't... I guess we're going in the right direction. I can only hope so. Those songs make no sense to me."

"I'll avoid suggesting separation in the future," he said and meant it. He decided not to mention that she did scare him, but he understood why. He was quiet as Knockout made a mark on the tree. It was a decent scratch, and he approved with this idea.

"I did study them for some time before coming here. If the next one proved to be a different tree then... I guess we have to find a less beaten path? If you think about it, the travelers that got lost in circles will make the lost path more noticeable than the right path."

She listened to him, letting out a groan. "Ugh.... I hadn't even considered that. You're probably right. But," Knockout shook her head as if to clear it, flipping her bangs out of her eyes. "I guess we worry about that depending on if we see this tree again. Let's go in the same direction we were headed before. ....Not that that seems to mean anything here."

Legrandite followed along, thinking. This had been an odd puzzle and seemed to be a common one. So, what was the key to unlock it? He hoped the next tree Knockout spot may provide some clue.

Knockout walked forward as straight as she could without veering completely off the path. Though judging by what Legrandite said, she was almost tempted to start ignoring the path entirely. She had just read so many warnings about the dangers of straying off paths that the she hated the mere idea of it. But these woods seemed to turn a lot of rules on their heads. 

...And just as she was thinking this, she came across the very tree that they'd just left, large scratch mark and all. It took every ounce of willpower she had to not just run it through with her horn entirely. When she finally spoke, she sounded incredibly weary. "....I guess that gives us our answer."

"Yeah, I been counting my steps and it was 50 some paces. I also saw some other paths, but they may just be wild animal's path or won't help us." He brought out the songs again, decided to figure this out.

Knockout half wanted to leave him there to figure it out while she took another path. She had a feeling she'd end up back at the tree no matter what path she took. But she'd just snapped at him for even suggesting the idea, and she didn't want to risk it on the off chance that this stupid forest decided to separate them just for the fun of it. She had no doubt it could, considering it was turning them around in circles easily enough.

"Do you think we should just try to ditch the paths in general? I don't know what would be worse, if we somehow got led right back here, or if we got led right out of the forest and lost all our progress getting in so far." She didn't bother looking at the songs again. Legrandite would probably figure something out faster than she could.

"Maybe. I'll leave that up to you." Legrandite looked over to Knockout as he continued. "I am thinking of reading this out loud as we walked, so you'll be guiding me. This thought got into my head that songs are supposed to be heard, not read."

"If you're doing that, you might as well sing it." She rolled her eyes. "It's a song after all. Apparently. ......That was a joke, by the way. Please don't actually sing. Or make me sing." Knockout grimaced, but started walking off the path, carefully watching where she put her hooves.

Knockout did have a point, but he still planned on just reading out loud. He did chuckle after she clarified. He then went to follow her though, reading out loud and watching where he was going proved to slow him down some.

She occasionally glanced back at Legrandite, just enough to make sure he didn't trip over any stray rocks or roots and faceplant. Or trip over his words. Would saying them wrong negate any effect they might have on the forest around them? Knockout couldn't even tell if anything was happening in the first place.

"Well. I doubt anything's going to happen, so you might as well.... Ugh." She started talking, then stopped, stopping in place entirely. There was a rather familiar vine on a tree coming up on their path, and she wasn't thrilled in the slightest to see it. "I guess nothing we do really matters... Wait." She squinted, then started walking again, inspecting the tree more intently when they got close enough. The was no scratch. "....Huh. I wonder what that means."

Legrandite wouldn't admit that he did trip a few times on the way there. Since he was reading out loud, it was obvious to anyone paying attention. He only gotten a third way through when Knockout spoke. He looked up to see what making her stop.

He saw the tree quite easily now that Knockout was looking at it. "I guess we're doing something right," he commented, noticing the lack of a scratch mark. He looked around. "Hm, the tree's the same minus the mark, but I can't say the surrounding's the same. The path's a little different. Should we make a new different mark on this one?"

"....That's not a bad idea." After a moment of thought, she reared up on her hind legs with a grunt. Scratching at the bark with her hooves made a new, much different mark than her horn had on the other tree. "There. ....Keep reading. I don't want to get zapped back to the first tree or something if you stop for too long." Knockout started walking off again, though at a slower pace so Legrandite could hopefully keep up more comfortably.

He nodded and continued to read, following Knockout again. With more time to watch his step, he was able to avoid tripping as often.

"...I wonder if it would help if I read along with you." She fell into step beside him, joining in at about two thirds of the way through. It was slower going, but by the time she'd reached the end of the song, they came to another tree with one of the special vines. Again, no scratches. "Well. Either we're making progress, or the trees are just. Healing themselves. I still don't see any signs of the spring."

He shared the song to Knockout when she fell into steps and indicated where he was at. It was oddly fun talking or chanting the song out loud together. Upon the third tree, it was indeed suspicious. "Maybe. We did see the first scratched tree a second time before the kicked tree. I think we found the repeating plant the song referenced."

"The vines? Yeah, I guess." She jostled the vine, pulling at it with her magic. It didn't budge an inch. "So what's the point? Where do we go from here?"

Seeing her fail at pulling the vine with her magic made him quite puzzled. Frowning, he looked to nowhere in particular in thought. "I'm not sure. We could always try your idea: singing this song. I know you joked about it before, but you're right. It is a song."

Her ears flicked back and flattened against her head in distaste. "No way. Nope. Not happening. I do not sing." She glared at the vine instead of looking at Legrandite. As much as she hated to admit it, Knockout knew they couldn't go anywhere without at least trying. "....No one hears about this. Got it?"

He kept quiet as Knockout decided to refuse to sing. He was planning on attempting alone, so he was surprised when it seemed she will try singing anyway. "What happened in this forest will stay in the forest," he promised.

She nodded grimly, before walking back over to look at the words. With one last glare, her gaze flicking between Legrandite to the papers, Knockout took a deep breath and started to sing. .....She immediately stopped and coughed in an attempt to clear her throat. ".....Gods, I hate this so much. Ugh. Fine. Let's do this." If looks could kill, Legrandite's papers would be shriveled up or burnt to a crisp, but she attempted to start singing again. It wasn't awful, but it was obvious she'd never win any awards for her singing voice either.

He did not expect singing along with Knockout to be nerve-wracking. He barely got a word out when he had to stop and patiently wait for Knockout to clear her throat. When he was sure that she was fine, he finally started to sing along. His singing voice was not much better.

As they finally got into singing, the vine on the nearest tree started to unfurl and snake across the forest ground. Knockout almost stopped singing in shock, her voice faltering and cracking, but she managed to keep going after giving Legrandite a shocked look.

Legrandite also thought it wouldn't work, but it did not hurt to try. When the vibe started to unfurl, he was equally shocked, forgetting to sing. When his eyes met Knockout, he swallowed and continued singing.

As they sang, the vine twisted further and further away, and when Knockout spared a glance away from the paper she saw other vines on trees in the distance traveling in the same direction. They all seemed to converge at a single point, though it was out of their current line of view. Knockout nudged Legrandite and started heading in that direction, trying her best to keep in tune singing with him.

Seeing the vines Knockout indicated, Legrandite followed along as he sang with her. At first, he was mostly looking at the paper and singing along with Knockout as well as an occasional look to where the vines were taking them. When they had gotten to the dangers in the forest part of the song, he recalled about the saber cats and glanced around for any signs of them. He was sure the song was likely attracting them despite them needing the vines to lead the way.

Knockout was mostly focused on following the vines, and to do that kept concentrating on singing the song. She wasn't worried about attracting saber cats, truth be told the idea that they might be summoned by the song hadn't even occurred to her. It was a good thing they seemed to be alone because any predators that dared to interrupt her would be getting an earful, or more accurately, a faceful...of angry claws.

The trees and bushes got thicker and blotted out more sunlight as they came closer to where the vines gathered. It wasn't obvious what they were hiding yet, when they finished singing the two drakiri would have to take a leap of faith to see where the vines had led them.

Legrandite let out a breath, feeling a bit winded from singing and walking at the same time. If he ever met a performer singing and moving around, he'll be more impressed. It took him a minute to get his breath back and look over his bearings. He was glad no wild saber cats had decided to attack them yet.

He then looked at the area the vines had gathered. It was dark, and he couldn't see much there. At least it was not another tree covered in vines again. He glanced at Knockout to see what she was doing.

She'd continued singing until the very last word, and stopped at the thicket, unable to immediately go any further. Knockout sighed. ".......Well. So we sang. We got this far." She looked around, seeing trees in every direction. It was lighter further out, but she had a feeling they'd been led here specifically for a reason. "I say we go in. It's not like we have any other options, unless you want to continue wandering around aimlessly. I know I don't."

"I don't see any other options either, and I have enough of wandering around now that we're here." He walked closer to the thicket, using a paw to find an opening to push himself through.

Knockout raised a brow, but watched him carefully. There wasn't really enough room anywhere for two fully grown nightmares to enter at once, but just one? They'd find a way to squeeze in through the branches and bushes. "...You first, I guess."