Beist let out a startled sound as Kamille was suddenly screaming and being dragged away. They panicked for a moment before rushing forward to try and help. Thankfully, Kamille was able to grab a tree root before being dragged fully away. Beist ran forward and, by pure instinct without thinking very much about his actions, stomped a giant foot down on the tongue that was sticking to Kamille.

A loud, guttural croak of pain came from beyond the trees, where the tongue had shot out from. The tongue was tugged and pulled, trying to retract back into the giant frog's mouth, but it was pinned to the ground by the weight of the huge beast man. Beist held his cane and started hitting the tip of the tongue, trying to be very careful not to accidentally hit his ally. The enchanted cane burned the tongue, and a bit of white light flashed with each strike which seemed to cause it even more damage.

"Kamille! Are you alright?" Beist asked, concerned. He was glad she hadn't been pulled all the way into the frog's mouth, but he was still concerned after seeing her fall down and be dragged across the forest floor.

Though, after seeing what it just did to the fiery witch, he might have been more concerned for the frog. Diplomacy no longer seemed like much of an option, whether it was the frog who refused to listen, or Kamille.

---

Stone Giant
Ignis Staff
Angelic Light

With Beist's strikes and Kamille's pulling, the giant frog seemed to finally let go of Kamille's foot. Diplomacy was far from her mind right now, as she rose with her figure wrapped in dirt, dry leaves and spiders webs. Sparks gathered in her hand as a ball of fire took shape, the flames licking at her hands without hurting her. Following the general line of the giant toad's tongue dissappearing into the woods, she launched a ball of fire between the trees ahead [1]. As they saw the ball of fire being ingulfed by the darkness, a stroundous noise followed by an angry croak seemed to indicate it might've hit the toad.

Whatever it was that she expected, it certainly wasn’t what happened next: since the toad had its tongue pinned to the ground, it wasn’t going anywhere.... except forward. In a large, sudden jump forward, the giant figure of the toad came into their sight, already body slamming them into the ground. Nearly as tall as Beist himself, but heavier and wider, the toad was strong enough to throw Kamille back to the ground. Beneath a layer of mud and dry leaves, some patches of his slimy, sickly green skin were visible. Kamille's boot was covered in a thick mucus where his tongue was wrapped at. But its size was not the only thing unusual about it: while every other feature was of a regular toad, from slimy skin to small legs, its big head was crowned by, not two, but eight eyes.

Not unlike a spider.

And the noise it made was thunderous:

....cROooOoOOoOOOOAAAAAAAK!

Kamille managed to grab one of her rooks, throwing it to the side - upon landing on the ground, the rook grew many, many times its original size, until it became a six-foot tall stony gargoyle.
 
[1]Fireball

Beist wasn't prepared for the giant frog to suddenly shoot forward at him. Even with the beast man's size and strength, he couldn't brush off such unexpected force. He was struck in his side and was knocked onto his back by the force of the amphibian projectile. The frog's tongue was freed from beneath his foot and shot back into its mouth. The frog was even larger than Beist had expected. It was no wonder the spiders would have quite the trouble dealing with such a beast.

The spider on his shoulder was flung off as he fell, landing not far away. They scurried away to hide from the frog behind a tree. Beist shielded Awd and Ned with his arms. This was going to be more dangerous than he'd expected. He didn't want any harm to come to the two little creatures. With Kamille summoning some help, he decided to do something similar. Beist reached a hand into the thick fluff around his neck and pulled out his familiar, Pretzels, the little white snake with little golden wings.

"What! I was taking a good nap, why do you- Oh, wow that's a big frog!" the snake hissed in annoyance before noticing Beist was on the ground and a massive amphibian was looming.

"A little help would be appreciated." Beist muttered as he held the snake out.

The tiny serpent began to grow massively in both thickness and length, their wings spreading out, their fangs elongating. In moments, there was a massive white snake, nearly 30 feet long and over 3 feet in girth, between Beist and giant frog. With Pretzels providing cover, Beist stood up and backed away to a safer distance from the two oversized animals.

Pretzels and Kamille's gargoyle approached the frog from opposite directions, pincering it between them.

---

Ginma's Familiar
Polymorph (into an Anaconda)

"CrooOOoOOooOOOoOOOOOAAAaAAAAAK!"

Kamille stumbled back to her feet, as the giant toad eyes them with his malevolent, venomous eyes, if that was possible. Siz Prize, the stone gargoyle, charged towards the enourmous toad, trying to grab him in place. As it turned out, the toad was too slimy, and when the gargoyle tried to secure his grip, the toad just slided away in another incredible jump over the mage, nearly having Kamille on the floor again.

She watched surprised - but not without a hint of delight - as Beist's snake turned into a giant serpent. Kamille had a special place in her heart for the beasts and monsters, she couldn't deny it for a second. Forcing her head out of it, she looked around, searching for the toad. It had jumped back into the woods.

For now.

It's not a toad, Beist. It's a chimera. It may be smarter than it looks. We should probably get a strategy. Can you and your baby chase it down back here? I can prepare a sticky ground for it to remain still so we can finish it off.

Kamille's voice rang directly into Beist's head [1], just in case the toad was much, much smarter than they antecipated and could still hear them. The gargoyle could try to circle the toad from one side, and Pretzels from the other, herding the toad back to the clearing they were now. Kamille stood back in the middle of the clearing, and as she focused, a thick green slime started to fill the area around her, as if pouring out of her outstretched fingers. The puddle was about 5 feet wide [2], and even though Kamille stood in the middle of it as of now, that was also convenient as she served as bait. Once the toad decided she was a good alternative to chase down, she could teleport away in time.

Hopefully.

[1] Message
[2] Goo puddle

Beist chuckled to himself a little as he received Kamille's message. "Oh, Pretzels will not be happy to hear you call him that, but yes, I believe that can be done." he replied mentally through the spell.

He stepped forward, toward where the giant frog chimera had fled. Beist let out pulses of magic through the pads of his feet as he walked and mapped the scenery around him as the pulses returned. After a moment, he had found the location of the frog and smiled. They hadn't gone too far away and they had stopped moving. They were partially inside a small pond in a clearing in the trees.

"We'll herd the beast back to this location." Beist relayed to his familiar that was still in their larger form. "But first..." Beist muttered as he looked down at Ned and Awd still in his robe. "This will be dangerous. You two go wait in the pumpkin, and I won't change my mind again."

As he spoke, Beist took a tiny pumpkin from his pocket and tossed it far back behind them, toward where he and Kamille had come from. The tiny pumpkin hit the ground and rolled to a stop. After a short moment, it rumbled, and small vines poked out of the ground around it, and the pumpkin suddenly grew at a rapid pace until it was even taller than Beist, filling the entire path through the trees and pushing some branches out of its way. A large wooden door, large enough for even the beast man to walk through without needing to duck down, and covered with a pattern of vines and pumpkin leaves appeared on the front of the pumpkin and creaked open.

Ned an Awd tried to protest, but Beist looked down at them sternly and the two crawled out of his robe and made their way over to the pumpkin, going into the door and closing it behind them.

With that taken care of, Beist and Pretzels made their way into the trees, skirting around the small pond where the frog resided from opposite directions. The snake, despite its huge size, was fairly stealthy as it slithered slowly across the ground. The huge beast man, however, was not. He took a small bottle of purple liquid from his belt and drank it. After drinking the potion, his movements made no noise. It seemed the only times he ever needed this potion was while working with Kamille.

After a few minutes, the two were on the opposite side of the frog as Kamille. Pretzels suddenly burst from the bushes and struck at the unsuspecting frog, but the creature was fast and slimy. It moved back just enough that the serpent's strike slid off the rubbery skin harmlessly. Beist stepped forth from behind the trees behind Pretzels. Outnumbered, the frog turned around, fleeing back toward where Kamille stood waiting. Beist and Pretzels gave chase, herding it toward her.

---

Ground Tremors
Pumpkin Cottage
Potion of Shadows

Kamille chuckled softly at Beist's comment. She assumed, just like her, that Beist wouldn’t stop seeing his companions as babies. Suddenly she noticed the absence of Mischief. The raven was safely watching it all unfold from the distance, peaking from between the leaves, nearly perfectly hidden, only his shinning, beetle eyes giving him away. Looks like she wouldn’t have to worry about him, so she sighed relieved.

The Pumpkin Cottage had Kamille enchanted. Maybe it would be a good idea to get her hands on one of those! For those places she'd travel with no taverns nearby..... but that would be a thought for later.

Beist and Pretzels left the clearing, leaving Kamille alone with her own thoughts. Well, as alone as she could get: a gentle weight on her shoulder and flutter of wings made Mischief's presence noticed.

"Go back there, Mischief. It's not gonna be safe."

Without knowing what they had planned, the raven remained on her shoulders, dancing happily up and down while she waited for Beist. Patience was a virtue she claimed to have, unlike the bird: Mischief made it very hard for her to keep listening to the noises beyond the treeline, as he would not stop dancing and flapping his wings while looking around, clearly without the understanding as to why they were still, in the middle of a clearing. The Witch looked at the puddle of goo she created around her, and just now it downed that it would be the first time she used the spell. Haha. It better work.....

Even the raven knew something was about to happen when they heard the noises of the chase, punctuated by the jumps of the giant toad, and flew off again. For once, Kamille wished she could also fly away.

For as prepared as she was, it was still a shocking experience to be face to face to a giant toad with eyes of a spider. The toad burst into the clearing to get away from Beist and Pretzels, imediately turning its attention to the one thing standing there, alone: Kamille. For just a moment she feared the giant toad would try to snatch her with its slimy tongue and completely ruin their plan, but that was not the case. The toad used its momentum to push forward, giving another giant leap that would bring its enormous, slimy body down towards the tiny half-elf and crush her. But the Witch's image flickered as the toad was in the air, only to reappear out of the puddle of goo and a few meters ahead [1]. Instead, the toad sunk directly into the puddle, with all its murderous intentions. The toad tried to jump again, but... something odd was happening. As if his legs were being held down, stuck to thr. It vexed him very much.

The instant she got out of reach, Kamille raised her hands to make the biggest fireball she could. Flames licked at her hands, as she shaped them with arcane whispers and-

"crooOOOoooOOOAAAAK!"

A slimy, sticky, pink tongue found her forearm. For a split second, her mind had the time to process one simple, useless thought:

Oh. Fu*k.

With a wave of sparks and a muffled gasp, the spell fizzled out and the Witch was yanked hard by her forearm. This time, she had no nothing to hold her from being pulled into the most smelly and slippery monstrous, toothless mouth, leaving only her feet out.

[1]Blink

Beist strode into the clearing behind the giant frog with Pretzels by his side. It looked like Kamille's plan had worked perfectly. The beast was stuck in the sticky goo and Kamille was casting her fiery magic. This battle seemed like it would soon be over. And then, quite suddenly, the frog's tongue shot out and retracted and Kamille was gone, nothing remaining except her feet sticking out of the mouth of the giant frog which vanished as well as the frog swallowed.

Beist was horrified, his mouth hanging open and his eyes wide. This was no time to panic! He dropped his walking stick and ran forward right up to the frog's big mouth.

"Kamille! KAMILLE! Oh dear!" he called out with panic in his voice. He grabbed the frog's lips and tried to pry its mouth open, wanting to save Kamille, but even with his monstrous strength the frog resisted his attempts. It was slimy and difficult to get a good grip on, and it was also very strong thanks to its huge size. It squirmed away each time Beist tried to grab hold. Beist was a very calm, kind person. It was unusual for him to be truly angry, but this frog had managed it by eating his dear friend.

"You spit her out, or I'm going to have to do something neither of us will be very happy about! I know you can understand me!" Beist growled at the frog, but they ignored the beast man's threats. Well, that was his attempt at a peaceful solution failed. "Fine then!"

Beist's body began to grow. His torso expanded outward, his arms thickening and growing even more muscular. The robe slipped off his shoulders and hung on either side of his legs that bent and became digitigrade. Beist's mouth and nose elongated until he had a snout similar to a bear's. In mere moments, the beast man had grown to a height of fifty feet, their head bursting through the canopy of tree branches above, and looked down angrily at the now comparatively small frog.

Now it was the frog's turn for their eyes to go wide and their mouth to hang open. Beist bent down and reached for the frog, about to pry its mouth open and retrieve Kamille from its gullet. He just hoped Kamille was alright in there. He would get her out soon!

---

Giant Size

Sticky. Slimy. Crushing. Stifling.

I can’t breath!

Few experiences could be compared to being swallowed by a giant toad, but the pressing anxiety was a feeling she was familiar with. The slimy goo on her skin, the crushing that rendered her incapable of moving her body freely.... the lack of air. It wouldn't take long for her to smother. She needed to do something about it, and fast! One of her arms was still tightly gripped by the toad's slimy tongue, but there wasn’t much space for her to do anything else either. She tried to kick and punch but all it did was to get her tired and make her loose her breath. What a foolish idea! She should've been more careful!

There was no way of knowing what Beist was doing or that he even was trying to save her, so she held her breath and thought while her mind could. Panic was starting to blurr her thoughts as she felt a sharp pain to her lungs. No complicated spells now. Her temperature started to rise quickly, as she hoped that would make the toad spit her out when she started to burn it from the inside [1]. There was no way to know she succeeded, but the toad's mouth indeed was snapped open, only it was of Beist's doing. As Beist's gigantic hand tried to pull and Kamille got a puff of fresh air, her scrambled thoughts got lined up. The toad resisted, the goo keeping it in place but barely, its sticky tongue still attached to Kamille's arm. The pressure she felt at the shoulder because of the pull was starting to become painful, but she set that aside as she managed to raise the other hand.

The spell she was weaving was perhaps overkill, but they couldn’t afford it not being strong enough. Kamille wanted that toad gone, splattered in a million pieces, anger finally starting to build up. With Beist pulling her out and the toad trying to keep her in, she gathered enough of a line of thought so that the flames would start to gather at her palm: a condensed ball of fire took shape, showering the clearing with a warm light for just a few seconds [2]. Then, the explosion came.

For a split second she had feared the toad merely swallowed her fireball, just like it tried to swallow her. The next moment, she felt herself being pushed back by the violence of the explosion, so close as she was. There was not an inch of her that wasn’t covered in slime and....... toad bits. Her body ached, her dignity long gone, all that remained was a deep feeling of disgust that made her skin crawl, every hair she had standing up.
...
...
...
...
...
...
"...Beist?," she finally managed to utter, after all the decisions that got her to that point flashed before her eyes. Only then she raised her eyes to the enormous beast man that her friend had become. "BEIST?! Is that you?!?!"

[1]Sweltering aura
[2]Massive fireball

Beist grabbed the frog's upper and bottom lip with two hands and pried them apart. It was easy with his current size and the beast being trapped in the sticky slime still. It could struggle and squirm, but it couldn't get away. He lifted his third hand to reach into its gullet and retrieve his friend. But, as he tried to remove Kamille from the frog's innards, he felt something odd. It was like his hand was inside an oven, it was so hot inside the frog. The frog also seemed extremely uncomfortable, squirming harder, downright thrashing in pain. Suddenly the frog's eight eyes bulged and its whole body seemed to expand, a red glow came from its mouth, so bright it began to shine through its skin, its whole body glowing for a moment, and then.

Boom!

Beist stood in shock for a moment, his whole front side covered in goo and chunks of frog. He hadn't expected that. With Kamille, maybe he should have, but he hadn't. He wiped some guck from his face and looked down to see Kamille on the ground at his feet, staring up at him.

And he realized. Oh. Oh dear, Kamille didn't know about this! I never told her about this, she's never seen me like this before! She probably thinks I'm a monster! Beist thought to himself in a panic.

He opened his mouth to speak, but couldn't. He started inhaling in short bursts, and then.

"Ah... AH... ACHOO!"

All of the frog goo that had been sent straight up his giant nose by the explosion burst out, spraying directly onto Kamille.

"Ah! Oh my, I'm so sorry! I'm terribly sorry! Oh dear." Beist panicked, pulling a cloth (to him, it was a cloth, to Kamille it might have been an entire towel) from his belt, thankfully it was clean as it was toward the back of his waist, and handing it to Kamille between two of his fingers. Beist's voice was much deeper thanks to their change in size, but it was still unmistakably his, and it was extremely apologetic and a bit concerned.

Kamille looked shook. From being swallowed by a giant toad, to exploding it, and being received by her friend in such... weird conditions. But rather than a scared or judging look, when Kamille looked upon Beist's form she looked... Impressed? Surprised? Her reactions were still a bit slower than usual, maybe for the best.

There was not a single part of her that wasn't covered in goo, and while she usually wasn't squirmish about it, there was a difference between handling nasty things and... that. Bits of frog still hang from her hair, and if she had her way, she would probably dive head first into the first puddle big enough for her, to wash out all the goo and... well, she probably shouldn't think so much about what was hanging from her arm right now. As far as she could remember, there was no lake big enough nearby. And while her braincells still made the effort to put together a thought, as if they were covered in goo as well, she opened her mouth to say something.

"Ah... AH... ACHOO!"

Some part of her initial disgust by the exploding toad was mitigated by the surprising form that Beist presented, but as another wave of muck and goo washed over her, she couldn't help but squirmish.

"OH MY GOD BEIST! I'M COVERED IN TOAD! This is never gonna washout, Beist! AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!"

Without thinking much, she accepted the towel-size piece of cloth he was offering, using it to try and clean at least her face. There was not one bit of recognizable toad that was left except for a hind leg still trapped in her goo. She energetically rubbed of her face off of the goo, and while she seemed to calm down just a little from that, when she raised her eyes once again to Beist, she still had more questions than answers. She stumbled to her feet.

"I never knew you could do that, Beist! You're looking good! I think we still have some conversation to catch up with. Thank you for saving me."

And then, that smile. Covered in slime and toad guts, after being swallowed by a giant chimera, the Witch found a place in her heart to offer the giant beast man a genuine, warm smile. If Beist was expecting a harsh, judgemental look of fear and contempt, he wasn't getting any of it. If anything, Beist knew her curiosity would get him a bit of an interrogation later.

"We should probably head back to tell the spiders about what happened here. Would you want to take some tea? After.... After I clean myself up..."

She shivered everytime she remembered what she was covered in.

Beist fidgeted anxiously as Kamille screamed about being covered in toad. He just wanted to apologize more for sneezing on her so suddenly, but his words wouldn't come out of his mouth. The giant monstrous beast just cowered in front of the angry witch that was sitting on the ground, a guilty expression on his muzzle. He felt awful, not only about the slime and guts, but also that he had kept this a secret. Maybe he should have told her he could do this earlier, but he just couldn't bring himself to. He'd only even resorted to using this form now because it felt like the only remaining option to save Kamille.

But, then, Beist was completely caught off guard by Kamille's words. Looking good? Him? Right now? She had to be joking. He couldn't stop himself. Beist started laughing, a big, hearty laugh. Not just at Kamille saying he was looking good, but at the whole absurd situation. He supported his disproportionately top heavy body with two arms while the other two held his stomach that was starting to hurt from how hard he was laughing. His laugh was far deeper and louder than it usually was thanks to his monstrous size, so he tried to contain it. He started wheezing in laughter.

"Looking good! AHA! Oh...! you're going... to kill me! I'm an old man... my heart can't... take this much laughter!" he stuttered between his laughter and wheezing. As he laughed, his body started to shrink. His muzzle retracted back into his face and his antlers shrank back into horns on top of his head. His legs snapped back into their normal shape and his massive arms became comparatively less massive. When the transformation was complete, his slipped the hanging robe back up onto his shoulders and calmed down with a sigh, but the smile never left his face. He wiped a tear from his eye.

"I hardly think I saved you. I just turned into a monster and then watched you blow up a frog! But, I'd love to speak over some tea, but first, we should wash up a bit, don't you think? The frog was in a pond when I and Pretzels found it." he said, reaching out and gently pulling the tongue that was still attached to Kamille's arm off.

The spider that had hidden after being tossed off of Beist when he fell scurried forth and clicked. Beist looked down and listened. "Ah, he says that pond is actually where the flowers are! I hadn't even noticed, I was so focused on the frog!"

The spider crawled up Beist's back and onto his shoulder, avoiding the frog goop. Ned and Awd pushed open the door to the pumpkin cottage and also climbed onto Beist's other shoulder, wanting to go see the pond and the flowers.

The laughter seemed to dissipate the tension, the same way the sun scared away the early morning fog - and Kamille didn't even notice she started to laugh along! The web covered, goo filled clearing felt much less ominous as it echoed in laughter, as she doubled down and squeezed her own stomach in a laughter that became silent because she couldn't catch her breath.

".......Beist.... You... Oh God....... I'm sorry.... I... Can't.....!"

The enormous beast man slowly shrank back to his normal... less gigantic size, which still was much larger than Kamille, and helped her get rid of some frog bits still attached to her. She was still disgusted by it all, but the gentle giant's laughter seemed to have made it much less serious and easier to endure, lifting the weigh of her shoulders. His self imposed monstrosity was clearly perceived in a very different light by the Witch who, despite being incredibly surprised by it, didn't seem to think of it as a bad thing. After all, despite what Beist thought, he saved her.

"Oh, Beist... I would rather you not speak of yourself like that. You're not a monster, by any chance. I wouldn't be able to do this without you... I would suffocate if you didn't open the toad's mouth."

Not without leveling half of the forest down, at least. At the same time the spider came back to Beist once the danger seemed to be gone, Mischief also made his presence known once again, though not for long: he perched up on Kamille's shoulder, noticed how she was covered in some unholy kind of goo, and took flight once again, clearly displeased by it. Kamille laughed once again.

"Ohhh, good! That sounds perfect! Let's go!"

Kamille slided a bit on the goo, almost faceplanting on it as she stepped out of the clearing, she hoped to never see it again. It was a quick walk back to the pond, that without a giant toad, looked far more beautiful and peaceful, just like the Lantern's Light woods were known for being. Their adventure took long enough to give the sun time to set, and now the fluorescent flora that gave the woods their name were glowing in all its glory.

As the starry sky above, dotted with millions of stars, the background of the forest seemed covered in small suns with the shapes of flowers, bulbs, roots and vines. A few trees that surrounded the pond had this glowing bulbs with varying sizes, but most of them around the size of an apple or pear. They hang from the trees at such a height that most of them were at Beist's reach, few hanging a bit higher. There was one, single pink flower among the bulbs, clearly already on its final stages of life. The lilies that floated on the pond emited a soft blue glow, and it was all so calm and quiet it was hard to imagine a giant toad had been terrorrizing the place for the better part of the last few weeks.

And suddenly, a large splash of water would indicate that Kamille dove for the pond, taking a few seconds only to take off her cloak and leave her satchel and extra pouches on the ground. When she emerged once again, she started to furiously comb her hair with her fingers to take the goo out of it. The bulbs, apparently, could wait a minute longer.

"You know, Beist... I remember I once told you I would take you to see an interesting cactus at Zeinav.... You've ever been to Zeinav before?"

Beist's greyish blue cheeks grew a darker shade as he blushed. He was a bit embarrassed. He did already know he wasn't a monster on the inside. One of his biggest goals had always been to be sure of that, making a potion to allow him to control his beastial form as a werebear. Yes, he knew, but he always felt so self conscious of his appearance. He thought he looked like a monster. Big and scary with sharp teeth and claws. Especially in his giant form. He was a bit touched being told so straightforwardly that he wasn't a monster and to not call himself one.

"Oh, I... Yes, Thank you..." he stuttered, a bit flustered. "Uh, you're welcome, I mean! For opening the frog's mouth. I'm just glad you're alright."

When they reached the pond, Beist had to immediately turn away as Kamille went straight for the water, leaving her clothing behind. He didn't mind waiting his turn to wash off. In the meantime, Beist walked around the edge of the clearing, easily reaching up and plucking some of the glowing bulbs from the trees while Kamille washed off, the spider, Awd, Ned, and the once again tiny Pretzels on his shoulders. He made sure to always be facing away from the pond, keeping it to his back as he walked along. He wouldn't dare peak. His conscience wouldn't allow it. For such a beastly looking man, he prided himself on being a kind and considerate gentleman.

"Oh, that's right! I do recall you saying that! We were at the hot springs in Frostgale, weren't we? I haven't been there yet, no. I've managed to avoid it by taking ferries across the sea. But I'd love to go with you and see those cacti. I'm sure it will be a wonderful time!"

Seeing Beist flustered by a compliment - of sorts - seemed to spark another big, warm smile out of her. While his beastly form could be intimidating, she remembered the first time they met and... she simply couldn't take her heart out of the shy, gentle person that helped her get rid of some bandits. Of course he did show to be strong enough to kill a man with a single swing of his staff.

But that was an accident.

The Witch didn't have much regard for her own decency, it would seem, as she washed her clothes as quick as she could on the pound, just so she could wear them again soon enough. It didn't take long for her to be ready and out of the pond once again, wearing her now more-or-less clean, soaked clothes. When she was out of it, Beist had already collected a good amount of the luminescent bulbs she had been after.

"Would you like to see Zeinav, Beist? After that, we could go to the Golden Consortium, if you'd like. I've heard this cacti are getting a bit harder to go by, they would probably thank us if we brought some."

Kamille approached, much happier now that she was cleaned off of all the goop and goo of their encounter with the frog, and relieved Beist of a few of the collected bulbs, putting them away in her satchel. She would wait for Beist to wash off as well, her back turned to the pond to offer him the same courtesy he offered her.

"We could go back home, have a warm tea, and then pack up to journey to Zeinav! I'm positive it'll be a smooth travel!"

Once again, like many times that day, she shot a gleaming smile at him. The giant toad being defeated, the word seemed to be spreading quickly as the spiders slowly took their place back at their old nest to have their damage dealt with and their nests rebuilt. It was their cue to leave, and hopefully, for the part they played in the defeat of the toad, the spiders would grant them a safe crossing through that part of the forest.

A warm tea and fresh clothes later would prove their excitement for the new journey to be a little too much on the optimistic side, for the desert had other plans for them...