Samantha and Julian

Barely five minutes had passed since Samantha's encounter with the mushrooms. They had reached another junction, this one heading in three. Although, before making a snap decision, Julian shifted his backpack off of his shoulders and flipped open the lid-flap. "Let's take a look at the map before deciding which way to go."

Samantha shook her head. "We don't need to do that, all we need to do is remember to head north. So that's the way we should go." 

Julian looked in all three directions. "And which way is that? Got a compass."

"Don't need one," Samantha scoffed. 

"Go on then, show me how you do it." He gestured with an open palm as if waiting for her to step up and prove it. 

She looked in each direction and then up into the canopy. "Hmm... I think maybe..." There was enough sun seeping through the trees to get a proper fix on its location. Samantha was stumped on which way was north, but she wouldn't let on that she didn't. With some exquisite pondering and thinking sounds, if she did think so herself, she decisively pointed in what her gut thought was the right direction. 

Julian, however, noticed something was off. Not only because there was no way to tell where the sun was at this current moment but also because he noticed she was pointing somewhere in between the two paths to the right. Not wanting to get lost, he looked down at the inverted flap of his backpack with a little too much pleasure that Samantha didn't know. "You could go that way if you want. I might not," he said, attempting to catch her out. 

"How do you know?", Samantha snapped. Julian didn't verbally reply, he only smiled gleefully and pointed down at his map. "Alright, clever dick, so I don't know the way north. Which way is it then?"

Again, he didn't speak. Instead, he closed and shouldered his pack, then walked off down the left of the two paths to the right. "That's the one I chose," Samantha raged as she chased after him. "I told you I knew which way north was."

The path continued to lead northwards, as far as Julian could tell as he lead the way. Then at last the trees began to thin out and no longer looked that creepy as daylight streamed through between them. 

To the right of the path, an old oak chair covered with moss could be seen. Sam slipped off her backpack and it fell to the ground as she stared at the chair. "I'm curious, why would there be a chair out here, in the middle of a forest?"

He shrugged and muttered under his breath, "Could be some monster's trap. Wants to catch the thickest prey."

Luckily for him, Samantha didn't hear his insult or wasn't listening. "I think I will sit on the chair." She looked around at Julian before adding, "Since you have the potion of plant control, just in case."

"You think it might be a plant-based trap? Interesting."

"I didn't say trap. I don't think it belongs to anyone unless its owner is a tree."

"...Interesting," Julian continued, clearly having his own private thoughts about the chair. "The possibility is rather likely that the chair is somehow connected to the trees and growth around, and yet, you still wish to chance it. You are peculiar, Sam." 

"Samantha," she stated in annoyance. "It's just a chair."

Julian looked between the chair and Samantha, then shrugged. "Fine by me, but don't you think it's super weird to have a random chair in the middle of a forest? Because it seems like a trap to me." He was thinking about getting out the potion of plant-control, but what was stopping him was the nagging feeling that it wasn't that sort of trap. 

"Maybe but I'm way too curious about it-" She had already walked to the chair and sat down upon it. Despite it being made of hard oak, the chair was surprisingly comfortable and she started to relax. BUT, instead of feeling stronger, she started feeling weaker. Energy seemed to be seeping out of her; she was feeling even more tired and her muscles were aching. She yawned, and that was when Samantha realised it was some kind of Chair of Life Draining or something and managed to climb slowly out of the chair. 

"Are you okay?", Julian asked as she fell to her knees out of the chair. She didn't respond. Then speaking to her as if she was his daughter, he asked, "Did you just learn that the chair was cursed?"

Samantha shot him a look. "Shut up!" Julian didn't care for her look and wasn't intimidated in the slightest, he was too laughing at her stupidity. 

It was a good three minutes before his laughter died down. He had to wipe the tears from his eyes. Samantha had already managed to pick herself up and collect her pack from beside. "We should keep going anyway," she managed to say as she staggered north at a much slower pace. Julian followed closely behind, a massive chin on his face, watching her like a hawk in case she stumbled.

Desiree

She walked only another 10 minutes along the path before she eventually emerged from the trees and out into a vast plain. Beyond it, Desiree saw rising ground leading to low hills. The waist-high grasses on either side of her swayed gently in the warm breeze, while flattened grassed grass before made the makeshift path to follow. All was peaceful at that moment and the dangers up ahead seemed unimportant. Desiree took a large gulp of the fresh air and breathed out slowly. She was feeling incredibly relaxed, nothing could disturb her... 

That's when all of a sudden the peace was broken by the sound of squealing and grunting off to the right. Instinctively she gripped tightly to the handle of her flail, readying her weapon for a fight. A path was being made through the grass by an unseen beast, which was moving quickly toward her. At least she assumed by the noises that it was a beast. It was only when it was a few yards away that she saw it was a large pig-like creature. It burst out onto the path she was on and halted there, analysing her as she was its dinner. Desiree stared back at it. It had two long tusks protruding from a short stubby snout. Steam rose into the air from its sweaty body and its small eyes looked at her before it put its head down to charge. 

Aim for the knees, she told herself. So that's what she did, Desiree swung her flail and smacked it into the boar's front knee, causing it to buckle slightly. Not by much, as the boar was quick to swing around and charge again. But Desiree was quick too, and in the fastest blink of an eye, she swung her flail back again. This time connecting with its rump and sending it flying a couple of metres. She raced over to where it was starting to unsteadily stand up, and threw the spikes down into its head, killing the boar.

The limp body of the boar lay at her feet and she stood there, staring down at it. Desiree had no idea how long she stood there in silence, contemplating the kill she had just made. It wasn't until she heard the sound of barking dogs in the distance that she was pulled out of her thoughts. Multiple dogs barking in these parts usually meant they were being used by another species to search for something. Perhaps the boar was being hunted and being trapped, it made its last stand against her. 

Time to move. Desiree didn't want to replace the boar by becoming the hunted. Looking down at it one last time, seeing the large gold ring through the nose of the boar; she decided to take it with her, carefully pulling it out of the snout and slipping it into her backpack. Its worth must have been about 10 Gold Pieces, so she was feeling lucky. Though Desiree did briefly think about taking the boar for meat, she knew she wouldn't be able to carry such a big beast alone. As she continued north through the grass, she wished that the others were here to help. 

It wasn't long before she arrived at another junction, this one with three paths. But Desiree kept telling herself, north, north, north, and continue that way.

As she walked further northwards across the plain, the grass gradually became shorter and the ground started to rise gently. Then ahead she heard the roar of crashing water and soon reached the bank of a wide river split into two levels. To the right, the water was calm and slow-moving but in front of her, it tumbled noisily down a great waterfall into a gorge where the river narrowed and ran quickly west over boulders. Steps led down the side of the waterfall to the bottom of the gorge, although it was difficult for her to see where the stairs ended because of the spray that was thrown up. Across the river, she saw the path again, heading north into the distance. To her right, where the river was calm, was a small wooden boat tied to a post.

Thinking for a few minutes, Desiree descended the slippery stone steps. She was halfway down when she froze, the boar was still on her mind. Turning around and almost slipping, she made her way back up and toward the long grass to the junction. Gripping her flail as she didn't know if those hunters had found the beast, but still, she headed south.