Tempest sighed as she wiped her hands on her tunic, smearing bronze dust across the black fabric. Seriously? She thought, Another monster? You'd think they'd get the idea by now. She'd been wandering in the direction she assumed Los Angeles and ran into a surprising amount of monsters along the way. Usually, she would run into maybe one of two when she'd done solo missions for the Neverseen, but never 7 groups of two or three all spread out over 3 hours. It was also interesting to see their dust colored bronze instead of gold.

Ok. I'm probably going the right way... Hopefully there won't be any other monsters showing up...

Continuing forward in the forest, Tempest couldn't help but let her mind wander. The prophecy mentioned "Stealing her breath"... That implies death. Maybe that's how I'll find Sophie and Dex. By dying...

The sound of a snapping branch immediately drew her attention. Whirling around, she scanned the area for any other creatures hiding among the trees. When she didn't see anything, Tempest relaxed and turned around, only to come face to face with a weird monster she didn't recognize. It had a slick body like a weasel, and the colors of one as well, but it's face more resembled a cat. It's tail curled up like an opossum, and it had small horns behind its fluffy ears. And it was massive. Sitting on its hind legs, it was almost as tall as Tempest, and it's body was as wide as most of her arm.

" What the-" Tempest started as she slowly backed away from the creature. It dropped onto all fours and moved away from her with astonishing speed. Curling on itself, it kept its eyes on her as she stood there, frozen.

"Listen, I won't bother you if you don't bother me. I just need to get to California."

The creature didn't move, but when Tempest tried to take a step forward, it hissed at her. Not wanting to get in another fight with a monster, she slowly backed away from it. I'll just have to find a way around it... She thought as it disappeared behind the trees. Walking left for a ways, the started forward again, only to be treated by the angry hiss of the creature, who was sitting a few feet away. Backing up again, she kept going the wrong way until turning back the way she had been going. Sure enough, there the monster was. Tempest put her hands on her hips and looked at the monster sternly.

"Ok, what are you up to? I don't care if you can teleport -if that's what you're doing- and now you're just annoying. Can you not? " the creature just stared blankly at her, and she sighed. Taking a step forward, she ignored its hisses of warning and walked past it, each step making the warning louder. As soon as she passed it, the hissing stopped. Tempest froze and turned back. The creature was still sitting there, watching her calmly. She frowned. "What? Is this a game to you? It's not funny." When nothing happened, Tempest sighed again and walked away. "Stupid monsters, trying to act threatening." She muttered to herself.

As Tempest walked away, a whimpering sound arose from behind her. She sighed and turned around. "Can you shut up? I don't care about you, and you shouldn't care about me. Go away!" The creature didn't move. Keeping her eye on it, she slowly moved away from the monster, carefully turning around. When she was halfway turned around, the weasel creature started hissing again. Tempest rolled her eyes, "What is wrong with you?!?" The creature continued to hiss and growl, it's focus directed on something behind her. Turning around, Tempest saw an ogre walk into the space about 15 feet from where she was. Ducking behind a tree, she stood there quietly, waiting for it to leave.

An ogre?!? Of literally anything, it just had to be an ogre. And where there's one, there's almost always more...

Tempest heard the ogre stop, alerted by the weasel thing's warnings. Slowly, it stomped towards it, walking past Tempest without realizing she was there. Carefully, she grabbed a knife from a hidden pocket in her cloak and stalked the ogre. Please die quietly! Please die quietly! She thought as she brought the blade down on the ogre.

Of course, nothing ever goes the way you hope.

The ogre's cry immediately made Tempest panic. Shortly after, the sound of more of the tattooed monsters rang out as they charged in her direction. Readjusting her grip on her weapon, she waited anxiously for the mob to reach her. This won't end well... As the shouts and sounds of snapping branches gradually grew, so did her anticipation. Taking a deep breath, she tried to prepare herself for the upcoming battle.

But it never came.

The shouting and growling that had been approaching Tempest suddenly changed direction. A new sound was added to the chaos. Screams. Or as close to a scream as an ogre could get. Confused, Tempest relaxed and watched what she could. Any of the ogres she could see would be attacked by a black and white blur and disappear soon after. For a moment, she worried the ogres had developed a way to turn invisible, and she immediately tensed up when the green in front of her started to rustle.

Tempest sighed and tried in vain to keep a smile off her face as she knelt down to look closer at the weasel creature, who was using its large paws to wipe gold dust off its mouth and tongue. "Was that you?" She asked. The creature finally responded to her and ran in a few quick circles before looking up at her with what seemed to be a grin. " But... why? Aren't monsters supposed attack people like me? "

The weasel paused as if considering her words before scampering around her ankles like an excited puppy. Letting her smile grow in her face, Tempest stood. "Well, thanks for the help." She hesitated for a moment before petting the creature's cat-like head. Starting forward, the creature stayed right at her heels. "You... want to come with me?" She asked, only for the large creature to hop onto it's back legs and rest it's paws on her shoulders. "I'll take that as a yes." Carefully, she shrugged the creature off and let it follow her.

As they walked, Tempest watched the creature disappear from her side, only to appear a few feet in front of her. It would hop up and down a few times before running back to her side. "You leading me somewhere?" Tempest asked it when it returned back to her side after having left 7 times, "Cause I need to get to California."

The creature paused, again thinking, and started leading her down a different path. Even though she wondered where the creature had been taking her if it wasn't California, she followed it now. Any questions she had were put out of her mind. This creature had saved her life. Nobody else has done that for her. Our of anyone she knew, she trusted this weasel cat thing more than any of them. So, she followed it willingly.

Sorry I didn't update on Sunday! I was really busy. So, to make up for it, I'm updating today! *cue applause* *No applause* welp, that happened. Anyways, I hope you liked the chapter. I'll try to update again tomorrow and Sunday, but if I get really busy it may not work out. See y'all later!