"Pff." Morio snorted. "I'm not doing that."

"YES YOU ARE, MISTER!" Jyuzou grabbed him by the cloak, almost choking him. "I'll give you half, okay? We both know how much you love food." he let go.

"It won't be as delicious as Metho seed!" Morio added, trying to escape his grasp

"Seriously? That salty little snack? Come on, only children eat all that" Jyuzou walked up to the tree and pushed on its bark. "Shake it, shake it! Morio!"

Morio sighed loudly and put his hands on the other side of the tree, with much less newly found enthusiasm.

"Shake it, shake it!" Jyuzou repeated. "Woohah, eureka!"

"Chanting won't help!"

"Shake, shake, shake, shake!" Jyuzou shouted. "SHAKE!"

"Oh!" Morio opened his mouth, his eyes scanning the fruit. In a few seconds, its rather flimsy stem split into two, and soon after, such was followed by the sound of something splashing, staining the snow.

Morio slowly turned to Jyuzou, who stared, devastated.

"We should've thought of that!" Jyuzou raised a finger, trying his best to hold back tears.

"It was your idea!" Morio continued.

"Ghh!" Jyuzou closed his eyes, before turning. "Bah." he made a strange noise and followed through the snowy road.

Morio glanced at him for a while longer, before glimpsing back at the orange juice which gathered in one place, sucked into the snow. He slowly inched closer.

"Don't eat the snow!" Jyuzou yelled out.

"Coming, coming!" Morio said, hopping towards Jyuzou.

The next place they found themselves, right after the Uvo forest were these big hills, tilted upwards, seldom decorated with patches of trees, which you couldn't squeeze through. The further they went, the more the terrain changed from grass covered in snow to rocks, ones that started shaping into a mountain. Upon reaching its peak, Morio took out the map of Shimori and scribbled around on the other piece of paper.

This mountain had no name, yet was well known for being a place of rest during the annual Gorro animal hunts led by Morians. At this time of year, people from Mistwick and some from Wendigo came out of their huts, wore their sleeveless jackets and ran through Shimori, trying to find as many animals for the feast later at night. It was said that the one with the highest count received a special prize from Bancho himself, but that only applied to Mistwick. The people from Wendigo simply enjoyed their meal without any strings attached.

Back to the mountain, if one would get tired, they could easily catch some sleep, as no animals wandered around during the warm days. It was as purple as every other leaf or plant in Shimori, but too steep for some of them to walk on. During Yule, it was barely recognizable, however.

From the peak, Morio and Jyuzou started treading downwards, towards a rather empty valley, with trees extending on the other side. The march down from the mountain was way more even and gentle, with copses present, almost dictating the path they were to take. After all, there was no way around the mountain and the sharp rocks or steep falls blocked them from taking any potential shortcuts, but at the same time, it wasn't a problem for Morians.

In one of the tales Bancho told, when it came to climbing mountains, Paladians would give up halfway, Tributals would make a fuss and blame the mountain, but Morians would climb it without a second thought, barely sweating or complaining. On that note, Mirillians would've found a way to move through the underground, and for some other reason, Erans weren't mentioned.

For one moment, Morio turned around, seeing Mount Aria once more. He passed a rather slim and leafless tree, with barely any snow covering it and smiled.

The neat thing about Aria was that it could be seen from practically anywhere in Mainland Errarion. If you didn't know where you were, turn to that massive peak, extending above the clouds. Most of Jyuzou's assumptions about Morio's travelling philosophies stemmed from that belief, mainly because both of them were rather quiet during their travels.

Morio didn't explain why the path was chosen, but Jyuzou trusted him well enough since progress was made. Besides, he found the other variant of the Callothia, so win-win.

Reaching Century Valley, the trees were covered in thick lumps of sleet, barely revealing their dark green colour against the snow. Mentioning such, there weren't many. Morio and Jyuzou had to jump above the bigger snowdrifts, surrounded by a rather thick orange fog, signifying that the night had grown near. Worn from their travels, and following the most basic of intuition, they came down to finding a place to sleep for the night.

Century Valley, of course, was out of the picture. It was a place of silence, barely visible from the mountains and difficult to walk through, however, that didn't seem to be a problem for the wild centuras which would scour for any seeds to be found.

Centuras weren't dangerous creatures, but they were scared of Morians, meaning they'd attack with their elongated, spider-like limbs and release a toxic acid from the opening below their stomachs. They varied in size greatly. Some were as small as rabbits, and some as big as deer. Some said that centuras were connected to demons, and others claimed that history wrote about them way before they were exclusive to the Mainland, but no one knew the answer.

During Herbes and Gorro, Century Valley was nothing more than an empty field in between mountains. Morians who travelled, since there weren't many huts nearby, tended to stop for a moment to smell the flowers. They were very charming and resembled Gorro's strawberries and manyberries.

As for historical events, Century Valley only had one. A Demonear was escorting a family from the depths of the Tukman Woods when a Demon attacked them when the fog cleared into the night sky. He fought off the Demon and then managed to climb on the Centura's slimy back and travelled atop as if it were a horse.

Morio and Jyuzou eventually trod through the valley, after one of them swore he saw a centura the size of the hut, and the other desperately searched for it to quench nature's thirst. With the mist slowly lifting, the two started climbing the mountain to the south. This time, it had no tilt or easy path to tread. It was full of steep steps, which led down into its unexplored caves or up to the even more dangerous peaks. At times, they'd take a small break, as in, they could walk in a straight line for five minutes, balancing themselves on the rocks to not fall off.

After a few hours, they finally reached the top of Mistigo Mountain, named after the towns of Mistwick and Wendigo, since you could see the two from its summit.

Morio smiled, turned around, and Jyuzou exhaled. The two strolled through the upper passages of one of Shimori's largest mountains as the night sky changed colours.

"We should rest for the day," Jyuzou informed, scratching his head.

"I'm still up for a walk," Morio said. "I always wanted to travel with the night lights above me. Mama said they're pretty in the snow, and here's some confirmation!."

"Sorry, Morio. You know the rules. Don't travel at night, unless you absolutely need to."

"Who told you that?" Morio squinted his eyes, smirking.

"Everyone knows that. Besides, I'm tired," Jyuzou added, before jumping down a few rocks and landing in a snow pile, next to a singular cinder tree. "We'll set up a tent here, okay?"

Morio hopped around, nodding.

The two got to work, fixing and moving the wool and cotton structure, before sitting down on the ground to start a fire. Jyuzou took a small black pot out of his backpack and placed it above the flames, adding some of the stew from a pouch, and smashing some Metho seeds he carried.

Morio wrapped himself around in the Talia cloak, beaming.

"Hm." Jyuzou made a strange noise, before looking at Morio. "I'm kind of surprised."

"By what?" Morio snacked on a Metho seed from his collection.

"Maybe you are a w-wizard when it comes to maps and all that, but we haven't encountered anything dangerous since we left Shimori. O-Of course-" he snickered. "It's not that I want such to happen. I'm glad actually, because then we really would need an actual wizard." Jyuzou explained.

Wizards were a certain group of the Exeter Tributals, before the Second War. They specialised in, as one might've guessed, casting spells, and using their rare ability to help out during certain conflicts. Of course, they couldn't kill demons, but one wouldn't mind having their wounds mended much quicker than usual.

"Heh, we won't need a wizard soon." Morio pointed. "Be happy that I'll be the Demonear pushing through! Don't focus on the bad that could be!"

"I'm happy, idiot!" he furrowed his brows. "I already saw a nahi and that's halfway to my j-joys. Pity we didn't think through before it fell." Jyuzou said, sighing.

"That was your idea." Morio squinted his eyes, as Jyuzou opened his journal, scrolling through.

As the soup started boiling, Jyuzou covered the fire with cloth, so it would still smoulder, but not affect any of the stew. The two started eating from the same bowl, with two wooden spoons.

"I remembered a story that might interest you," Jyuzou said, smiling a bit. Morio glanced at him. "Mr Bancho told me about these mountains, not too far away from Mistwick. He used them as training grounds for some Demonear back in the day. You know, jumping around spiky rocks and using the environment to both's advantage."

"Ooh!!!"

"He said that um... if you wanted to, the two of you could go there." Jyuzou scratched his head. "I didn't mean to spoil the surprise, but since we're here, then-"

"Where is that?" Morio's eyes shone.

"Lockum Mountains?"

"Lockum? Oh," Morio shook his head. "We won't be passing through Lockum, Jyuzou. That's nowhere near our destination."

"Huh."

"Is there a plant you wanted to see there?" Morio winked.

"No, not really. I thought it might be interesting for you, though. Since, you know. You're keener on becoming a Demonear than me-"

All of a sudden, Morio grabbed Jyuzou by his shoulder, essentially hugging him. He looked at the sky. "Awww!"

"Ghh..."

"I'll be fine, Jyuzou!" he raised his voice. "Stepping out of Mistwick means that I'm already seeing things that I only heard about from the adults! Some Lockum Mountains won't change that, eh?" he tried fist-bumping Jyuzou, but Jyuzou didn't understand. "We'll get there some other time!"

"You and Mr Bancho," Jyuzou muttered.

"You too!" he pointed. "You're already there with me for the entire journey, so you're obliged."

Jyuzou rolled his eyes. "Fine."

"Yay!" Morio clapped his hands. "Thank you, Jyuzou!" he raised his fist. "I don't think it would've been this easy without you!"

"Even though we barely speak when travelling?" he asked.

"It's not about that!" Morio waved his hand. "What if you weren't there if something happened? What if I or you would fall off that mountain, huh? Death, immediate death. But no! Just knowing that someone's there."

"It's c-comforting," Jyuzou added, grinning.

"Exactly!" Morio pointed.

"Heh. Not sure if I'd be able to see Shimori's plants without you as well. Even though you don't like hearing about them. At least I can always rely on someone to shake that tree with me."

Morio nodded. "See? You can be nice if you try."

"Shut up, Morio..."

"Back to you, glassy idiot!"

***

After they finished their meal, the two quickly climbed inside the tent and slept, right until the morning sun shone through the gaps in its entrance.

They quickly gathered everything they had, stuffing it into their backpacks, and with a reassuring look at the clear skies, the two set out to Wendigo. If there were no interruptions on their way there, they'd make it when the sunset, and that's what was expected.

They already kept up a pretty good pace, and the road there wasn't as mountainous as the other one. They quickly trod down Mistigo Mountain, much faster than the other way around, finding themselves in an unnamed forest, that stretched for at least twenty kilometres, without much of a change in the landscape.

Tall, dark trees, and not a human on this earth could reach their leaves. If one would be so dedicated, they could easily climb its branches, but there was no reason to. There were many tiny trees or bushes with Shato seeds, on the ground, much sourer than Metho, and occasionally, there would be a few Bullion seeds hidden in between the thick and snowy leaves.

Jyuzou often sat down and either read about the things he saw or noted some more interesting facts he learnt. He even instructed Morio to mark it on the blank sheet of paper, yet he refused to do that. Most of the time there, he spent looking around the place, nervously. It seemed like everywhere he turned his eyes he'd be greeted with the same thing.

The woods, extending far into the distance, were broken by rivers flowing in the middle. As for any light, it was replaced with a light blue combined with the bronze of the trees' woods. It felt like, at any moment, something might pop up. A centura, or a goblin, even if they were more commonly spotted near the exits of Cirim and Mirillis.

They were pesky creatures, born from the desire to steal and obtain this world's treasures. They couldn't speak the common Toric or Manjuno, and most of them focused on the primary objective at hand, getting the shiny, and unfortunately, blood shone in some Morians as well. In their hierarchy, the biggest and strongest leader of the pact would kill anyone standing in its way.

Despite the uneasy atmosphere, Morio and Jyuzou weren't alone. Many animals peacefully ate the seeds or slept in the snow. They didn't view Morio and Jyuzou as threats, but rather, as curious visitors.

For a moment, Morio considered naming the forest they were in, suggesting "Mozou Forest" or "Demonear Forest." Jyuzou dismissed the idea, almost laughing in his face, and the topic was dropped for about an hour. Then, Jyuzou struck with the name "Bullion Forest," since that's where the seed could be found. Morio reacted with a loud groan, and the two decided not to talk about that anymore.

The barks grew shorter with each heavy step, and lights shone from a distance. The monotony of the same bushes, leaves and wood ended, and the landscape started shifting, tilting upwards. Morio and Jyuzou started reaching the crowns, the trees were twice their height, and the sky was now barely visible, still obstructed by the earlier crowns. However, if you were to peek through some of the leaves, you could see a slope, going down towards the ground.

In one of these areas, the trees barely obscured anything. If there wasn't just another valley full of timber, Morio and Jyuzou would sprint down, trying to reach their destination as fast as possible.

Morio stuck his hand out, trying to feel the cold breeze of the air, however, he was greeted with something else. He felt a slight pinch on his finger. "It's snowing," he muttered.