“So, uhh,” I said as I gaped at our surroundings, “are we sure we’re on a mountaintop right now?”
“Indeed we are, my liege!” Gon replied. “You saw the mountain as I ascended above it, did you not?”
I mean, I did, yeah, but still... “It’s just really hard to believe that a forest like this could exist in a place like that, that’s all,” I muttered as I gazed vacantly at my surroundings.
It was trees, trees, and more trees, as far as the eye could see. The woods that I’d been brought to for the sake of my familiars’ hunting trip were so impressive, I almost couldn’t believe what I was seeing, considering they were located in the caldera at the top of a huge mountain. Plus, the scale of the woods wasn’t even the most surprising thing about them.
“This doesn’t really feel like a normal forest, does it?” I commented.
There were a weird amount of fernlike plants around, for one thing. The trees had oddly thick trunks as well, and the canopy of leaves that spread out from the branches up above was very thick. It sort of took me back to the illustrated books I’d read when I was a kid about dinosaurs in the Jurassic era, or whatever. I’d hadn’t seen any plants like these since my arrival in this world.
The climate was sort of off as well. The weather in the capital hadn’t been especially hot or cold. It was in a comfortable middle ground, like the sort of weather you got in the nicest parts of spring. As we approached the mountain, however, patches of snow had started appearing on the ground below us, and close to its summit, the slopes had been pure white. It wasn’t that cold up on Gon’s back thanks to a barrier he’d raised, but all those piled-up snowdrifts had had me worried that I’d made a mistake by not dressing a little warmer. That concern, as it turned out, couldn’t possibly have been more backward. The woods we’d landed in were so hot and muggy, I could already feel myself breaking out in a sweat.
I could already see why Fel and Gon had compared this place to Ouranos. It certainly felt unique, and I had a bad feeling that I’d only scratched the surface of its strangeness so far. I gulped. I’d been to some pretty terrifyingly dangerous places, and it seemed I would soon have another to add to that list.
《Hey, Master, look! Aren’t those leaves funny?》 Sui said as it stretched a tentacle out to prod at a nearby fernlike plant. The moment it touched a leaf, that leaf curled inward, withdrawing toward the plant’s stem. Sui squealed with delight.
《The heck was that?! I wanna try!》 Dora-chan shouted. He rushed over to prod another of the fern’s leaves, which curled inward as well. 《This is so cool!》
《Sui wants to touch more of them!》
It was a pretty amusing plant, I had to admit. It certainly seemed like the perfect toy to amuse Dora-chan and Sui, who spent a little while gasping and squealing as they watched the plant shrink away from their touch. Even I found myself feeling a little charmed...until I shook my head and snapped back to reality, that is.
“Nope, nope—this definitely isn’t the sort of forest you’d take a relaxing stroll in,” I reminded myself. “And, wait a minute...we didn’t tell the Adventurer’s guild where we were going! I didn’t even leave a note this time! We flew off without a word! The guildmaster’s gonna spend all night chewing me out again!” I moaned, my shoulders slumping dejectedly.
“I was wondering what you would choose to complain about this time,” Fel jabbed.
“We’re already here, my liege, so I’m afraid you’ll have to resign yourself to the consequences,” Gon added.
Is a little sympathy too much to ask for from you guys?