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Chapter 4

A Feast of Ants

The following morning as the sun just begins to rise, the girls climb down from their tree to gather at the base for breakfast and sort through their new gear. They all have backpacks loaded with food, mostly hard bread, a few fish, and their temporary wealth even allowed them to splurge on some cheese. Each girl has a few water skins and a small assortment of additional clothing as well.

"Here, this is for you," says Alice, handing the traveling cloak they bought to Danahlia.

She puts it on with the hood up and gives a little spin, "How do I look?"

Alice chortles, "Your tail's showin'."

Danahlia wraps it as best she can about her waist and one leg while Twinkaleni puts in, "As conspicuous as anyone wearing a cloak. But as long you're only seen from a distance, I believe it will serve to obfuscate your Liguna features. Still we must be cautious. Your feet would give you away to anyone looking."

Danahlia taps her large curved talons on a surface root, "Right, so what's our next move?"

Alice puts her pack on over her sword, "I don't think anyone is gonna come lookin' for us in here."

Twinkaleni rubs one of her large ears in thought, "And if I recall from our maps, this forest is particularly large, with several settlements close to its borders just like your village."

Alice's eyes widen in excitement, "You have maps?" Alice had never ventured far from Toki and thus had no idea what the rest of the world looked like.

"Mmm, not anymore. Jellies got those too," Danahlia answers glumly.

Twinkaleni nods, "Indeed, and I think it would be wise to stay within the wood until gossip of what transpired yesterday can be replaced by some other event."

"That's a plan. We can explore the forest awhile, we have enough food," Danahlia says encouragingly.

Alice adds, "We can get more cores to trade for when we leave."

Twinkaleni claps her small hands, "Then I believe we have our course of action."

With that the girls gather their things and head deeper into the forest.

"Maybe we should try to find that pond again, that was a good spot for jelly huntin'," Danahlia suggests.

Twinkaleni nods, "Having a fresh water source will be an asset."

"Yeah, we'll just have to find it again. Which way was it?" wonders Alice aloud.

Danahlia points in a westerly direction, "I think it was over there."

But Twinkaleni interjects, "I believe it was to the northwest of our present location."

Alice doesn't bother suggesting it was southwest.

"Alice, which way do you think it was?" Twinkaleni asks.

The Tokala shrugs, "I'm not all that sure, but I think we should head west for now, just to put some distance between us and Toki."

Danahlia grins at her and Twinkaleni considers for a moment before saying, "That is a prudent course. We need to find a source of water if we plan to stay out here for long."

Alice adds, "Our food won't last forever either, let's look for things we can eat."

The girls head west, for the most part. Danahlia spots a green jelly and asks Alice for her sword, but Twinkaleni advises against it, "We should establish a camp first before expending energy on eliminating these creatures. Carrying core stones around will only add to our weight."

"Oh come on, its right there," Danahlia whines.

The mouse mage concedes, "Oh very well, but we must pace ourselves. Who knows how long it will take to find a decent site."

Danahlia grins and Alice hands her the sword. The lizard girl reduces the jelly into a puddle in moments, bringing back a nice little green core. She wipes down the sword and the core with her cloak and the trio continue on, Danahlia leading while happily humming to herself.

"So how did you guys meet?" Alice asks.

Twinkaleni looks up, considering, "Oh, we rather literally bumped into each other."

"I almost stepped on her," Danahlia adds.

"What? How?" Alice asks amused as they walk through the woods.

"She's tiny," Danahlia calls back.

"I believe it requires a bit more explanation. You see, Danny had already been on her own for some time and I had just fled the Order. I was running through a forest much like this one, thinking the thick foliage would keep me hidden until I could plan my next move," reveals Twinkaleni.

Danahlia laughs, "Then you popped out right in front o' me and screamed just before I squished you."

"Yes, yes, it was the first time I had ever seen a Liguna. The war was already under way and well, she is quite a bit larger than I," explains Twinkaleni self-consciously.

Alice smiles as Danahlia goes on, "So she throws fire at me and I give her a bop on the head with my spear," the lizard girl shakes her long, if not dangerously pointed, stick, "Plan was to rob 'er, but she was just so cute and helpless, with her big ol' ears, and that tiny little pink nose, and-"

"We get it!" Twinkaleni squeaks, slapping at Danahlia's tail as it pokes around her face for emphasis.

Alice laughs.

Danahlia faces forward again and continues, "Anywho, she says she's on the run same as me and we've been at it ever since."

"Wow. How long have you been together?" Alice asks, watching another green jelly wobble along as they pass by.

The two look to each other and Danahlia replies, "Few months now."

"Nearly three," Twinkaleni corrects.

Danahlia looks surprised, "Really? Time flies."

"Why did you run away from that Order?" Alice asks the trailing mouse mage.

Twinkaleni says simply, "The war mostly."

Alice looks back at the usually talkative Murin, "What about it?"

Twinkaleni tugs on her ear, "I suppose I should provide a bit of context."

"Here we go," Danahlia announces.

Twinkaleni continues, "You may come to realize that magic is a powerful force and can be used for destructive ends as easily as not. And, as all power, it has ways of corrupting those who think they can control it."

"But you have magic," Alice interjects.

"While it is true I can manipulate the ambient forces of nature from time to time, I try not to lay any claim on the magic itself."

The fox girl raises an eyebrow, "Ambient forces of nature?"

"Oh yes. You can feel and see many of these forces, like the movement in a breeze, the heat of a fire, or the light of the stars. These are all forms of energy and when someone, such as myself, alters this energy, it is commonly referred to as magic," explains Twinkaleni.

"How come only people like you can use magic?" Alice asks, waving her hand around to feel the air.

"So far as I am aware, no one really knows why exactly. People seem to simply be born with this particular ability. I've read that some believed it was something passed down by blood. I've also heard that it depends on things such as the phases of the moon or the position of the stars at times of conception, birth, or periods of growth, all just hearsay really."

"So, no one can learn to use magic unless they were born with it?" Alice asks, a little disappointed.

"I do not believe so. As far as I know, one must be born with it."

Alice continues waving her hands around, "So what does it feel like, to... manipulate nature forces?"

Twinkaleni chortles, "We're getting well off the original question aren't we?"

"I don't mind," Danahlia calls from in front.

Twinkaleni looks to Alice who watches her with both pointed fox ears angled in interest. The Murin smiles, happy to have an attentive audience, for once, "Well, it feels somewhat like breathing I suppose, as there is an intake, a holding for altering, and then a release. Except instead of air going into your mouth and filling your lungs, energy flows in from wherever you call it, fills your being, and then is released, most commonly through the arms and out the palms or fingers."

"What do you mean, 'wherever you call it'?" Alice inquires, pointing and flexing her fingers experimentally.

"Oh, for example, the light spell I used last night so you could see us in the dark. Do you remember?" Twinkaleni asks.

Alice's eyes widen a bit, "Yeah, that was beautiful. How did you do that?"

Twinkaleni smiles, "Yes, mmm, basically I collected the light of the stars, but the light reflecting off the leaves fairly far above us, so it was an effort you know."

"Yeah, yeah, we're all very impressed with your light show," Danahlia smirks back.

Twinkaleni narrows her eyes at the Liguna before continuing, "Indeed. Well, then I simply formed that light into a ball and sent it down to you."

"That's amazing, Twinkaleni. I wish I could do magic," Alice bubbles, thinking of the possibilities.

Twinkaleni grins and continues her story, "As I was saying, magic is a powerful force, but granted to few. Naturally, those without the gift want it, and if they couldn't possess it themselves, they would control those that did. I learned this, shortly after the war began, to be the true reason the Order of Thermathrogi was created. You see, the Order made sure to collect those with the touch of magic early so they could indoctrinate fresh minds that knew little of the world."

"Indoter...?" Alice stumbles over the unfamiliar word.

"Brainwash," Danahlia provides.

"Brainwash?" the Tokala raises a brow, "What's that?"

"Let me answer that with an example," Twinkaleni responds, "Imagine if, at the moment you were born, you were placed in a box that had no door, nor window, nor light, nothing but pitch blackness, save for a voice that spoke to you from outside the box. In such an environment, all you would know would be what the voice told you. You would not know your mother's gentle touch or even the sight of your father's smile, only the voice."

"That sounds terrible," Alice comments.

"To those who have enjoyed freedom, certainly, but to the one in the box who knows nothing else, it would be home. If the voice said there were horrible creatures outside that would tear them to shreds and that the only sanctuary is inside that very box, then the occupant would have little desire to leave it."

"But that's just lying."

"Quite right, but to the one in the box, it would be the only truth. That is something like what happens to those given to the Order of Thermathrogi."

"They put you in a box?" Alice asks in equal measures of horror and disbelief that something like this could even exist.

"Yes, a very large box made of stone, with many rooms and many doors, but no exits, not for us anyway," Twinkaleni says, her gaze on the ground before her.

"Was there a voice in there too?" Alice asks, not even sure she wants to know but still curious enough to let the mage go on.

"Oh yes, quite a few. I had several masters and they all had many pupils."

"What did they do, your masters?"

"At first, they told us that we were beings of evil. That our talent for magic was the result of our being the spawn of demons, and further, that we were then, ourselves, abominations unfit to live in this world."

"That's terrible! But couldn't you just look at yourself and see that you weren't? That you were just a kid?"

Twinkaleni shakes her head solemnly, "Remember Alice, inside the box, all you know is what the voice tells you."

"I can't believe something like this could be. How can parents let that happen to their children?" Alice asks, looking to both girls.

Danahlia shrugs, but Twinkaleni replies, "I imagine my parents were either forced or not told what exactly would happen to me. Perhaps spun some yarn about how I would be raised with the utmost care, given the best possible future, and assured that great things would come of me, but at the cost of never seeing them again. Who would refuse their child such opportunity in so difficult a world?"

"They lied to them too?" Alice asks, feeling the burn of anger for this Order she knew so little about but already hated.

The mouse girl shrugs, "Possibly, it's been too long. I don't really recall now."

Alice remembers Danahlia mentioning that Twinkaleni never saw her parents again and asks, "Do you remember anything about your parents?"

Twinkaleni tilts her head and tugs on her ear, "I believe I remember my mother. She was gray too, I think, and had large ears like mine. I feel like I can picture her singing to me but I, can't hear her voice anymore."

Alice turns and drops to her knees, grabbing the little mage up in a hug as tears threaten to roll down her cheeks, "Oh, Twinkaleni, that's so sad."

"Alice, please!" the mouse mage squeaks as she squirms uncomfortably in the fox's arms.

"Better get used to it, Twinkie, tellin' stories like that," Danahlia says with a sniff, she then joins in the hug, wrapping her tail around both girls and squeezing tight.

"Ladies, enough!" Twinkaleni squeaks again but both Alice and Danahlia rub their cheeks all over her face and massive ears. "Ok, ok! I think that will be all for my history today!"

Alice pulls away, "I'm sorry, Twinkaleni, but it's just so sad. I mean, I at least remember what my parents looked and sounded like."

"Me too," Danahlia frowns.

"But to not have even that," the fox girl gets teary eyed again and leans in for another hug.

Twinkaleni extends both of her short arms and shouts, "Whoa! Ok, we need to get back on track here. Danny, have you spotted any fresh water sources yet?"

"Eh-h, no," Danahlia replies hesitantly.

"Are we still headed west?"

"Y-y, maybe?"

"Maybe? What do you mean, I thought you were leading us west?!" Twinkaleni exclaims angrily.

"Ye-, well, I was, but then I became enthralled by your story. Look all we need to do is spot the sun and figure out which way it's setting," Danahlia says with a placating gesture.

Twinkaleni sighs.

The orange light cast in patches over the undergrowth tells them the sun is indeed setting, but the thick canopy of the forest makes it difficult to determine in which direction. The girls continue their trek in search of a clearing to check their heading by. As daylight fades, they still haven't found any and Twinkaleni suggests they find a tree for the night. By the time they manage to find one that will suit them it's nearly dusk. Tired from their day long hike, the girls share a meal at the base before climbing up into the thick branches to sleep.

Once Alice drifts off, she dreams. She is in a small room surrounded in blackness, save for a sliver of light shining under an imposing wooden door. Though she sees nothing, she knows the darkness is full of dangers, the kind that reach out from the shadows only to flitter away when caught in the periphery or wait under the bed to snatch at a carelessly dangling paw. She crawls to the sliver of light and wishes desperately that the door will open. Under it she can see the silhouettes of feet just on the other side. Then a voice calls through, the same one that announced the war had begun and had instructed her father to prepare to leave. Only this time, it calls for Alice.

She recoils as the door receives a solid knock and shrivels into a ball, terrified that she may be thrown into a horrible battle and be killed by savage lizard people. The knocking grows louder, more impatient. She can't move. The darkness of the box grows, seeking to swallow her up. The light under the door fades to black and she can see nothing, only hear the knocking at the door get louder and louder until it's thundering in her ears and she screams just to hear something, anything else. And then she's awake, holding tightly to her branch, shivering.

Her sharp ears pick up a noise, not knocking, but more of a shuffling, as if something were being shifted around. It's quite early, the forest in muted tones, when she peers over the branch to the ground where she suspects the noise is coming from. Her vision is still blurry from sleep, but she can make out something moving about the pile where the girls had left their inedible supplies. She rubs her eyes and blinks, then squints trying to get a clear visual. As her eyes slowly focus she can see that it is a very large ant.

It's bigger than any she'd ever seen. It appears dark gray in the early morning and is maybe as long as her forearm. Alice watches it for a moment, its short crooked antennae waving about as it crawls over their gear, perhaps in search of food. Its features are proportionate to the smaller ants she'd seen, though this ant's mandibles look viciously large just the same. Danahlia is asleep in the branch nearest and Alice tries to reach for her, but her arms are too short. She stretches a leg toward where Danahlia's tail hangs over the side of her own branch and waves her foot a bit while she hangs on tight to the bark of hers. Just before she's about to slide off, she manages to touch Danahlia's tail.

The lizard girl grumbles as the long appendage wraps around her branch and out of Alice's reach. Sighing, Alice looks down at the still exploring ant. She then unsheathes her sword and slaps Danahlia's butt with the flat of it.

The Liguna jumps, shouting, "Hey!" and looks around to find Alice grinning at her.

"Ugh, it's too early, Alice," the larger girl grumbles and puts her head back down.

"No, Danny, look!" Alice whispers hoarsely not wanting to disturb the ant while pointing it out with her sword.

Danahlia peers over her branch and then looks closer, "Oh, is that an ant?"

"Yeah, it's huge," Alice nods.

The lizard girl pokes the mouse mage, still snoozing a little further along the same branch, "Hey, Twinkie, wake up."

Twinkaleni's foot kicks a little but she doesn't wake. Danahlia smirks at Alice and crawls along the branch to position herself over the much smaller girl. She then takes a deep breath and blows hard into one of the Murin's large ears.

Twinkaleni squeaks in panic and nearly rolls off the branch but Danahlia catches her and kisses her on the forehead, grinning widely.

"Danny!? What are you doing?!" the angry mouse cries, tucking her knees in to push the Liguna away with her feet.

Danahlia and Alice laugh as Twinkaleni tries to clear out her ear.

"Alice found us some breakfast," Danahlia says excitedly, peering down at the ant.

Alice raises her eyebrows, "Breakfast?"

Danahlia looks to her in surprise, "You haven't had giant ant before?"

Alice shakes her head and Twinkaleni grumbles, "Great, more bugs."

"Come on, Twinkie, you like ants," Danahlia says making her way to the base of her branch.

Twinkaleni stretches, "Nghhh, I suppose they are one of the more appetizing of the insects."

Danahlia reaches the ground quickly and makes her way to the giant bug as Alice watches from her branch. The lizard girl simply picks up the ant by the thorax, its legs wiggling wildly, and pulls on its head until it pops free, "Let's get a fire goin'. Nothin' like flame roasted ant."

Alice lets out an approving, "Huh," at Danahlia's efficiency and begins climbing down the tree as well. She examines the two pieces of the ant on the ground where Danahlia left them before going off to join her in search of fire wood.

They gather a few fallen branches, twigs, and dry leaves until Danahlia hurries back to their tree, clearly very excited about getting started. Alice follows. By the time they return, Twinkaleni has climbed down and is inspecting the ant. The two girls dump their firewood into a pile and Alice starts to rummage in her pack for her fire starters.

Just as she finds the little bits of flint and steel, Danahlia calls out, "Ok, Twinkie, do it!"

Alice turns and sees Danahlia has stacked their wood pile a little neater as Twinkaleni makes her way over to it.

"Very well, stand back," the mouse mage orders as she lifts a single finger to the center of the pile.

Danahlia hooks a thumb to Twinkaleni, "Check this out."

"Feasta," Twinkaleni commands and what looks like tiny tongues of flame emerge from the Murin's finger in a fast moving straight line into the pile. It lasts for only a second but is enough to ignite the dry leaves and start the fire.

"Wow, that was incredible!" Alice exclaims, knowing how long and how much effort it could take to start a fire herself.

Twinkaleni makes a satisfied noise and plops down to her rump. Danahlia adjusts the twigs and leaves, soon getting the fire up to a good size. She then uses her somewhat pointy stick to skewer the ant and sets it over the fire.

As Danahlia spins the ant slowly on her spear, Alice asks Twinkaleni, "Are those magic words?"

The mouse mage lies on her back and yawns, looking to the fox girl, "Mmm, not in the sense that saying them alone makes anything happen."

Alice replaces her fire starters and crawls over to the small girl to sit beside her, "So what are they for?"

"Well, when I manipulate energies, the intent of what I want to happen is very important for achieving the desired results. Having the results pictured clearly in my mind is helpful in forming the intent. The words I use, I've used many times and so whenever I say them, I immediately picture what I want the energy I've gathered to do. In this way, saying my phrases helps me form and channel the energy easier."

"Oh," Alice says, not entirely understanding, "Is it hard?"

"Let's just say it takes practice," Twinkaleni smiles.

"Legs are done," Danahlia announces, after snapping off one of the finger thick ant limbs and crunching on it. She then snaps off the other five, handing Alice and Twinkaleni two each and keeping the last for herself.

Alice watches as Danahlia munches with apparent relish and even Twinkaleni begins nibbling on hers. The Tokala brings one of the fire warm appendages to her nose and sniffs. It's different but not in a bad way, so she tries a bite. The exoskeleton is crunchy while the inside is soft and tastes almost like a lemon zesty chicken. It's quite good and she lets out a delighted 'mmm' that makes Danahlia grin. Alice finishes her ant legs and eagerly awaits more as Danahlia continues rotating the thorax and abdomen over the fire.

"What'd you think? Not bad huh?" the lizard girl asks.

"These are great!" Alice exclaims, "Think we can catch more?"

Danahlia laughs, "Sure, this one was a scout, so there's bound to be more 'round here somewhere."

From an adventuring stand point, this excites Alice. If they can find food, that's one more thing they won't need to risk trading for.

"But we should avoid them if we see them in force. Giant ants can be dangerous in numbers," Twinkaleni warns while she nibbles.

"That's true, but at least these gray one's don't have stingers. Not like those red ones, remember, Twinkie?" Danahlia asks, inspecting the cooking ant.

"Red ones?" Alice raises an eyebrow.

Danahlia taps the steaming ant parts with a claw, "Yeah, they were vicious, had poison stingers as long as your hand. Still good eatin' though."

"Indeed," Twinkaleni agrees.

"Ok, these are done," Danahlia announces proudly, sliding the thorax and abdomen off her spear with an unburnt stick.

She then gives each part a sharp tap with the stick and they burst open in a plume of steam. The insides of the ant have become a thick, mostly yellowish goop. Danahlia breaks off a piece of the exoskeleton and scoops up some of the goo. Strands trail behind showing how viscous the ant's inners have become as she brings it in to blow on it. After several blows she pops it into her mouth. Twinkaleni crawls over and does the same, so Alice imitates them. The goo has the same delicious flavor as the legs.

The girls quickly finish off the surprisingly delectable bug, Danahlia lifting up the last of the thorax like a bowl and sipping the rest of the goo before crunching on what's left. Twinkaleni pats her belly as a full Alice examines the remaining ant head. She runs a hand over the hooked mandibles, discovering that they are fairly sharp near the jagged ends and would make for a terrible bite, though the areas nearest the head are quite smooth. She grabs a smooth spot and pulls on a mandible. It takes effort and pulling in different directions before it pops off. Alice examines the freed mandible, noting that it might make a decent knife or even a saw if it were a little longer. As it was, the sharp jagged edge is about as long as her pinkie.

Alice picks up a stick and tries to saw through it with some success. Danahlia lets out a pleased sigh as she sits back on her elbows and kicks out the fire with some help from her tail.

The Liguna girl then looks over at Alice sawing, "The soldiers have really big jaws. Might be somethin' to look into if we can catch one."

"That would be difficult," says Twinkaleni, "The soldiers guard the workers and rarely travel alone."

"I know. I'm just sayin' if we could get one, their jaws might even be worth money," Danahlia grins.

"Could we sell them as food?" Alice wonders aloud.

Twinkaleni nods, "That might be a path worth exploring, if we can get enough and keep Danny from eating them all."

Danahlia rubs her tummy, "You can sure try."

Alice decides to keep the mandible and takes a drink from one of her skins. When she does, she realizes how low their water supply has gotten over the last day and a half, "We'd better start looking for water, guys. We don't wanna run dry out here."

Danahlia 'mmm's her agreement and rises, ensuring that the fire is out with a few handfuls of dirt. The girls gather their supplies and begin anew their search for water. Alice leads this time, at Twinkaleni's insistence.

As they press on, the girls encounter a green jelly and Danahlia asks Alice for her sword. The Tokala gives it to her and the lizard girl races off to dispatch the monster, retrieving its core with a grin. They see another a few minutes later, this one brown.

Alice steps up to take it but Twinkaleni calls for her to wait. "I'd like to run an experiment on this one. Danny I'll need that other core stone."

Danahlia hands it to her and the little mage maneuvers behind the jelly, though off to the side to avoid its goo trail. She then extends the green core to the brown jelly. Just before they touch, a bit of the brown jelly pulls away from the main body and extends toward the core. Twinkaleni pulls away and the brown jelly reforms into a near perfect hemisphere.

"Fascinating," the mouse mage mumbles as Alice and Danahlia look on.

"What does that mean?" Alice asks, staring at the brown core floating about in its bubble of goo.

"I have noticed that these creatures react very little, if at all, to external stimuli." Twinkaleni explains, while bringing the core to the goo again with the same result.

"Yeah, they don't care at all if they get stabbed or sliced or anything," Danahlia adds, poking the jelly with her stick. The jelly endures it, continuing on its slow way with no change in its behavior.

Twinkaleni slaps at Danahlia's stick, stopping her, and then goes on, "But it does show a clear reaction to another core stone. What I'm interested in now is if the core was taking the slime away, or was the brown jelly offering it."

Twinkaleni then places the core near the brown jelly again, but this time, when it reaches out for it, she lets it go and the core is quickly taken into the brown jelly's body. The two cores immediately seek opposite ends of the jelly and seem to push as if trying to escape their gelatinous confines.

Danahlia steps closer, "What'd you do that for?"

Twinkaleni watches with interest, "Wait and see."

"I think they're splittin'," Alice suggests.

She had seen jellies split before, but only when one core becomes two, creating two smaller jellies. She's never tried something like this and looks on in wonder. The two cores pull away from each other and slowly, the brown jelly begins to split neatly down the middle. This continues until there are two brown jellies, roughly half the size of the original, one with the green core. They continue to slowly move in the opposite directions that the cores where originally pulling in and the jellies soon part.

"Very interesting," remarks Twinkaleni.

Danahlia crosses her arms, unimpressed, "Great, now there's two. Can we get 'em already?"

Twinkaleni steps away to ponder and gives the larger girl a negligent wave, "I suppose so."

Danahlia makes a little cheer and she and Alice take one each, collecting the cores.

"So, what did you find out?" Alice asks, wiping her sword clean.

Twinkaleni rubs her ear in thought, "Well, it may be possible that the jelly creatures have some form of intelligence."

"No way," Danahlia says in passing disbelief as she wipes away some goo with Alice's damp rag blouse.

"Indeed. Despite my inability to determine if the core was taking from the jelly to protect itself, or if the jelly was offering it to protect one of its own, I believe we can, at the very least, conclude that they had some sort of social interaction. Though no doubt a very simple one."

"What does that mean?" Alice asks, looking at her new brown core.

"So far, all it means is that these creatures are more complex than I originally thought."

Danahlia makes a disinterested noise with her tongue that gets Twinkaleni to narrow her eyes at her, and the girls continue on their way.

Late in the afternoon, Alice points, her tail wagging, "Look!"

She directs them to a small pool nestled at the roots of a large tree and the girls cheer. The water is clear so they drink their fill of what's left in their skins before refilling them. They then wash a bit of the day off their fur and skin. The cool water feels wonderfully revitalizing on Alice's face. Danahlia and Twinkaleni seem to be enjoying themselves as well. Alice watches in amusement as Twinkaleni carefully cleans her large ears. As she does, she notices movement a ways beyond her in the forest and peers over the mouse mage. A few yards into the trees, she spots another giant ant and a jelly fighting.

"Hey guys, check that out," she points, waving her other hand to her companions.

Danahlia gets to her feet, "Alright! Two in one day!"

Alice rises as well, taking her sword in both hands as Twinkaleni squeaks, "Hold on, this may be educational," while tugging on Alice's tail. So they watch for a moment.

Fighting may have been too strong a term. The ant mindlessly bites with its sharp mandibles, but they appear to pass harmlessly through the green jelly. The jelly, in turn, simply moves into the ant until it envelopes most of the insect's head. The core of the jelly stays on the opposite side, keeping a safe distance from the attacker.

Danahlia gives Alice's shoulder a little push, "Get it before that blob takes it all."

Alice looks back at Twinkaleni, who doesn't object, and then approaches the two combatants. With a single swing, she separates the ant at the join to its thorax and claims it while the jelly absorbs the rest of the ant's head.

"Wags!" Danahlia cheers.

Twinkaleni adds, "Yes, well done," as Alice proudly brings back their supper.

The girls quickly gather some dry fallen branches and Twinkaleni uses her magic to set them ablaze. They fill their bellies with delicious giant ant and as Alice lies back on the ground beside her friends, she thinks if this is how they're going to eat in the forest, she might never want to leave. By the time they're done, the sun is setting and they find a suitable tree nearby to bed in.

Then a question pops into Alice's head, "Can those ants climb trees?"

"Oh yeah," Danahlia replies, as she kneels to let Twinkaleni climb onto her back, "I've seen 'em do it, though they generally stick to the ground unless somethin' lures 'em up."

The thought of waking up to a giant ant chewing on her unsettles the young fox as she climbs up after the pair.

Twinkaleni and Danahlia settle onto a branch together as they usually do while Alice takes one to herself close by. She ties herself to it with her rope and lies down on her back. Her tail hangs over the side of the branch and she soon feels Danahlia's batting at it gently.

She turns to look at the Liguna, who smiles back at her, "So where'd you get your sword?"

"My dad gave it to me," she replies, moving her thickly furred tail along Danahlia's smooth one.

"Wags, did he teach you how to use it too?"

"Yeah, he started anyway, but then he was called off to the war," Alice says, remembering the day the messenger came to summon ever able bodied man and boy.

"Was he good?"

"My mom said he was a great swordsman, and that people all over the kingdom used to pay him for training before he settled down," Alice replies proudly, though she had always secretly thought her mother may have been embellishing the truth a bit to make her feel better about his chances of returning home safe.

"What happened to 'im?"

"Danny! I'm sure that is something Alice would rather not discuss," admonishes Twinkaleni.

"It's ok. The letter we got said he died bravely covering a retreat for his men at some place called the Nearthrough Falls. Said he saved a lot o' lives," Alice says, recalling how many times she'd read the letter with her mother. She roles over then, suddenly not in a very talkative mood.

Twinkaleni chides, "Well done. What a wonderful memory to go to sleep on."

"I was just askin'," Danahlia shoots back and then says, "Sorry, Alice."

The young fox sighs, "It's not your fault. You didn't have anything to do with this war."

The girls say their goodnights and drift off to sleep just as real dark closes on them.