Day 1 Morning

[Clownpiece]

Detritus and undergrowth crunched beneath Somerled’s unchanging tread, his stride effortlessly snapping the low-lying bushes in his path. The once active forest critters had grown silent with the monster’s inexorable plodding. He had intruded upon their space and now they all had retreated for now. This, of course, was of little concern to him, noises wouldn’t make the monotonous brown groves any less constant. Only walking would eventually see him out of here. And so his gait continued, constant and uneventful. Step by step by step.

Falling into a walking trance, the crackling of the storm spirit’s rhythmic steps became unnoticed by him, the branches and thorns of the shrubbery tearing at his jacket ignored. Perhaps he should be paying attention to the scenery around him, try and keep an eye peeled for wherever these relics could be hiding, but Somerled had spent far too much of his life wandering from place to place. Uneventful walks were second nature now, and such a trance was becoming harder to prevent.

“Somerled!”

Jolted out of tedium by a shout, the monster’s path became uncertain, and his legs tangled up with the underbrush. Just barely saving himself from eating the forest floor, the spirit had come to a complete stop, and quickly shot his head up towards the familiar voice.

“It’s Amaterasu, over here!”

Lo and behold, not too far away from him, stood the sun goddess in all her bright glory, beckoning to him without a care for who might notice. Now this was some next level probability fuckery. Everyone was likely strewn randomly about the area, and somehow he and the great kami there were within an hour’s walk of each other.

Forcefully disentangling his leg from the bush, which damn near ripped the greenery out of the ground, and did a number on his pants, and probably his leg too, Somerled made his way quickly over to Amaterasu, the two meeting halfway. Both of them coming to a stop, the sun goddess cast her gaze around the immediate vicinity, perhaps now aware that someone decidedly unfriendly could be out looking for a quick kill.

I don't know if staying near the temple is a good idea now that everyone is still nearby. We should head elsewhere.

Considering everyone’s propensity for throwing people around haphazardly like discount confetti, the monster doubted that any were still here. Though given the fact that they had somehow ended up in walking distance of each other, it was still a valid concern. “Where would that be?” he asked. There were a lot of places to wander to and he hadn’t seen the outside of this fucking forest. Whatever landmarks there were out there would go unknown to him for now.

“There's some big mountain there...” Amaterasu pointed to the general direction Somerled had been trudging towards, explaining how that’d be a good location for a relic. Having not seen what she was talking about firsthand, the storm spirit just accepted her words at face value, and the two began their walk.

---

The forest around the duo slowly began to shrink away as they continued on their path, the once enormous brown trunks slimming down to a more reasonable size. With the thicket thinning out, the walk became easier. Less branches tore at their clothes and legs, and their tread sped up.

"You haven't told me by the way... do you wish to compete for the big prize?” Amaterasu’s voice broke the silence born of their boring walk. It was a question she had asked a few times by now, and Somerled thought he had given an answer. He was twisty with his words by nature, however, so it wouldn’t surprise him if he had accidentally given a non-answer a few times. He really needed to stop making Sonny do all the socialization and diplomacy. His inexperience was really starting to show.

“I’m mainly in it to help Teucer,” he responded, so far not taking the twisting path. “While I won’t deny the relic would be useful, making him one again is my main goal. Being split is a hellish fate. I would-” His sentence cut off abruptly, finishing it might bring him to dangerous territory. He would know. Having your very being split apart, you didn’t feel like you after. Thoughts that would once grace your mind freely just don’t come any more. Decisions you used to make on a whim stop occurring to you. Debates that used to happen inside the comfort of his own mind now became very real and punchy.

Before Somerled could interrupt his own train of thought, trying to get away from it, the voice of Teucer boomed out of nowhere. Thankfully, that did the job just the same as his own voice would have. The old hero warned what was probably everyone on the island about flooding. The monster doubted that it would affect him and Amaterasu at all, given that they were in the forest and not on the coast, but it was still a nice thing to warn about. Tides could be a bitch. It also looked like someone had already found a relic.

“Looks like we need to pick up the pace!” Somerled half-joked, a bright smile on his face. It didn’t matter how many relics they found, just as long as they were all found.