Jin blinked in surprise at Clover's suggestion, then looked over at what her mind had dubbed the Guardian as a "weeping mangrove tree," then flatly stated, "I'm not throwing a knock-off pomegranate at the tree in hopes it doesn't fling me across the swamp like I'm a puntable chihuahua."

"I don't think I've run into a creature called a chee-wah-wah, but is it common practice to punt them?" Clover asked curiously. Then she perked up and bounced up and down on Jin's knee as she said, "Oh! Oh! Do I need to slip into my sports announcer persona for this? I'll have you know I can shift my vocal cords to be properly dramatic!"

The little dragon cleared their throat and began saying in a deeper voice that still somehow sounded like it was coming from a tiny squeak toy, "This is Mister Fourleaf coming to you live from the bowels of a divine death game… We see the Jaded Misfits team has taken the lead but run into their first hurdle this inning—And Jin comes in with the punt—And she scores! Jin has won the base!"

Jin snorted a laugh and shook her head. "More chaotic sunshine this time, Mister Fourleaf? Perhaps you'll really be lucky, and I can simply punt you over there as the sacrificial offering."

Clover scoffed and shook their whole body again, and a mane of pale green hair sprouted atop their head, trailing partway down their spine as their voice became a more normal pitch. "Oh, please… Have you already forgotten the beautiful wings Lady Clover has proudly on display right in front of your eyes?" She then stretched out those leathery wings and gave them a few flaps for emphasis. "I'll just fly circles around it and easily avoid its mouth." She paused in her preening as she looked back over at the large tree and muttered, "If it even has one… We might have to get creative with the snacks. Do you think it would enjoy eating a fleshy box?"

Jin rolled her eyes and chided, "We're not feeding Li's Familiar to it… even if I do think it's creepy."

The dragon let out a little huff and muttered, "Well, you're no fun. Just wait a few centuries when you'll be dying to see something new and exciting like that happen." She shook her new mane, then jumped, flapping her wings a few times, to return to perch on Jin's shoulder. "Are you ready to return to your companions now and actually strategize more rather than try running from your feelings?"

"Only if you promise to be less rude and more positive, like Basima would have enjoyed."

Clover raised a scaled brow and inquired, "Basima or you?"

Jin paused for a moment, thinking about that, and eventually admitted, "It could be both. Maybe it's the fact that she enjoyed that kind of thing that made me enjoy being near her."

The little Familiar hummed thoughtfully before saying softly, "I know it's hard to think past the loss, especially when you're so young, but I don't think Basima was really meant to be your forever person. I'm not trying to minimize her presence in your life, just trying to give you a fresh perspective to help you keep moving those feet towards a new light."

Looking up at the overcast sky that was beginning to lighten with the dawn, but still showed no hint of sunshine, Jin muttered, "I doubt I'll find it on this floor… or probably in this whole tower if the rest of these floors keep leaning towards gloom and doom."

"Well, we won't know until you reach them, and to do that, you need to move. Those. Feet. Forward!" Clover retorted, emphasizing the last few words as she emulated stomping forward on her hind legs while balancing on Jin's shoulder.

Jin rolled her eyes and playfully pushed the little dragon off her shoulder as she took off running, leaving the indignant Familiar shouting after her, "Hey! Just because I can fly doesn't mean I want to in this tiny form! Get back here, minion!"

With a laugh, Jin pushed forward, ignoring the Familiar's cries and returning to her team, knowing Clover would eventually catch up. When she made it back to the others, they had finished their makeshift slime-raft, which seemed more slime than bramble, and were just testing its float-worthiness with Hadia carefully standing on it as the others pushed it further onto the water.

"Should I [Leap] onto it to really stress test it?" Jin asked with a smirk as she walked up, feeling lighter for some reason after her scouting circuit. She chose to believe it was the run and not the talk that had helped most.

"Do it and you'll be going for a swim with me, Sky Girl," Hadia warned with a sharp glare in her direction. Her expression softened a moment later when she seemed to see something in Jin's expression, then added with her own smirk, "And you'll have to make your own dinner tonight. I'll make sure Liraz doesn't give you any of the prepped snacks either."

"Well, that's just not fair," Jin grumbled, crossing her arms in a dramatic pout. "Using food as punishment should be considered unreasonable abuse, maybe even a war crime in this kind of situation."

Hadia rolled her eyes, then turned slightly to sign to the others, "Okay, keep the tether there to pull me back, but I'm going to head out a little further." With a large, gnarled branch from a different tree, Hadia began pushing herself away from the muddy shore and towards the base.

Jin frowned as she watched with her sightless perception, making sure no monsters snuck up from the depths. There wasn't a hidden enemy, but it became quite clear that the branch wouldn't be long enough to keep pushing it across like a gondola. They could potentially try using it like a paddle on a kayak, but that seemed wildly inefficient, too.

She noticed Alim looking at her curiously, like he was trying to analyze the thoughts behind her frown as he looked between her and Hadia. With a few hand signs, he asked, "You don't think it'll work?"

"Not well," Jin silently replied. "It'll eventually get us all across, but I'm not sure if it was just a coincidence that the tree attacked when I touched the other shore, or if it'll be 'awake' now and attack us while we're still in the water. I think those viney branches are long enough to reach."

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Alim put a hand on his chin in thought as he looked towards the raft again and the Guardian tree beyond it. A small smile tugged at his lips as he signed, "Well, we can have you test that theory as you pull our raft along. You can just walk over there, after all, and we already know it doesn't like you very much."

Jin groaned just as Clover landed on her shoulder and asked with barely stifled annoyance, "What's the questionable Mage Defender saying this time? And should I thank him for getting you to make that noise? You know, you told me to be less rude, but I haven't abandoned you to get eaten by a hungry half-dead fish-beast."

"Did something attack you?" Jin asked with a raised brow, pretty sure that she had made sure no monsters were roaming this close to the base.

"No, but it's the principle and possibility of it that's the point," the dragon grumbled and gestured towards Alim. "So what did the squishy tank say?"

"He's not that squishy," Jin countered in the Rune Shield's defense. "And his name is Alim."

"Eh, I'll remember his name if he survives another ten years. It's an unspoken rule among Familiars to not get attached to side characters before the first decade. More likely than not, they vanish at some point, whether it's a shift in party dynamics, a random kidnapping, or death." Clover quickly added, "Not to lessen the impact that kind of death has on our Summoners, but it helps our own mental wellbeing not to get too attached over and over again, you know? It's bad enough that we usually outlive our Summoners; we don't need to be mourning a whole town on top of it."

Jin raised an eyebrow and asked, "Are kidnappings really that common?"

"You'd be surprised how some people attract that particular kind of attention. Luckily, I don't think we'll need to worry too much about kidnappings and unfortunate confinement arcs in this particular setting."

"You do realize I've basically been in confinement since coming to this world, right?" Jin lifted the bracelet around her wrist and added, "I don't wear this as a trendy fashion accessory."

Clover paused, momentarily frozen in speechlessness before grumbling, "Well, this is a bit of a different kind of confinement; you at least have the illusion of agency. Anyways, quit stalling and tell me what the ritualist said."

"He was just saying I could pull the raft myself and test the Guardian's reach before endangering the group."

The dragon seemed to perk up and reassess Alim while saying, "Ooo, so he's a bit smarter than he looks or the company he keeps—"

"Hey! You promised no more rudeness."

"That was before you left me to become fish food," Clover retorted, sticking out a forked tongue. "So are you going to tell him about my snack idea?"

"I'm not so sure I should now," Jin said with a pout. "I'm suddenly not smart enough to remember the hand sign for 'snack.'"

"Pettiness doesn't suit you, minion. Stick to snark and broody indifference."

"I'm petty? Who sulked for hours like a—"

"Did you forget I'm a dragon? Pettiness is practically in our blood, along with regal ego and limitless magnificence," Clover replied with a sniff and raised her snout in the air. Then the little beast gave her a pointed look as she added, "Perhaps you should think about the implications behind a dragon being the best fit for your particular soul, minion."

"Is everything okay, Miss Jin?" Karam suddenly asked as he walked up to stand beside Alim, tilting his head at her and Clover curiously.

"Yeah, I'm just starting to think I'm going to be a lot more exhausted as we climb this tower," Jin said with a flat look at her Familiar. Refocusing on the two boys, Jin began signing and talking for everyone's benefit. "I'll pull the raft, but if that tree so much as twitches oddly, I'm letting go of the rope. Clover also thinks the way we need to get past the Guardian is through the usage of snacks instead of fighting the damn thing."

"Hey, don't underestimate the power of snacks," Clover retorted from her shoulder perch. "I've seen the right kind of cookie bring the fiercest beast to heel."

"I highly doubt that," Jin said with a narrowed gaze. However, she didn't push the issue as she added to the group, "That said, I have no idea what a potentially sentient tree would want as a snack or if we have anything suitable available."

"We have a few things that might not hurt to try," Karam said thoughtfully, rubbing the back of his neck as he seemed to think about it. "If it's similar to a monster, I doubt it wants anything grown, but we still have a lot of meat available."

"We don't even know if it has a mouth," Jin pointed out. "It's more likely to smack us away or strangle us to death, and like I said, it's not actually a monster despite looking monstrous." She looked at Alim, who was peering between her and the tree again with his "I'm thinking" look on, so she waited instead of prodding and potentially breaking his train of thought.

Finally, he signed out slowly, as if unsure of his conclusion. "If it's really not a monster and is indeed a magic item that's replicating some kind of floraval—"

"Like that Grimm Oak we fought?" Jin clarified.

He nodded and continued, "Then perhaps it wants what most plants want."

"Water and light?" Jin suggested, then furrowed her brow. "No, this one was weak to Light magic."

Alim grinned, then turned to Karam and asked, "Do you remember that sick Mistmuddle sproutling I tried caring for when Lady Shahara was on her crusade to create an invisibility potion?"

Kar's brow furrowed in thought before he let out his own groan and glanced at Jin hesitantly before saying, "Many plants and floravals actually thrive best with Life magic. It's as healing to them as it is to humans, and they'll drink it up greedily. Sometimes even more so than Plant magic itself."

Jin let out a small laugh. "So, my original plan of sending you is our best option again?"

"Can't we just try tossing a bunch of cherrim berries at it?" Karam pleaded as he turned back to sign for his best friend.

Alim simply grinned and said, "Don't worry. We can prepare this time and make sure you're safe enough between my shields and your heals."

Karam bowed his head and seemed to shrink in on himself, which was quite the feat for how large he was, but Jin didn't like to see him get that look of resigned submission and spoke up. "Hey, we can tackle this as a team. Hadia and I can both play the role of mobile distractions while you and Alim sneak in like thieves, but you know, the opposite with leaving a snack or trying to heal it or whatever you think might get it to realize we're on its side instead of an enemy."

Just then, Hadia made it back to the shore and announced, "Alright, I think we're ready to go. That raft is probably as stable as we're going to—" She cut off her words as her gaze fell on Karam, and she asked, "Why does he look like someone kicked his favorite pet?"

Clover perked up and excitedly asked, "Oh! Was it a chee-wah-wah? I've heard those are very kickable."

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