Before Caio could react, Jara was already running ahead.
He paused for a moment to look at Suma, and the girl handed him back his spear.
"Never forget weapon."
"Huh? Right…"
A whistle cuts through the late morning air, he turns to see Jara waving in the distance. She was already on the outer rim of the platforms, one foot planted on a canoe with perfect balance. Her hair had dried into wavy strands, her tanned skin glistening under the sun.
"Come, river-boy!"
Oh, so I evolved from land-fish to river-boy?
"Going!"
He felt a tug on his chest, a soft vibration that his mind immediately associated with his bond, for some reason.
When he glanced back, Aruá was at the same spot as before, still grinding leaves, but her hands were still and her eyes were glued to him, her face furrowing in worry.
"Don't worry. It'll be okay."
She nodded slowly before asking.
"Please, be safe. And come back."
He smiled, trying to ease her heart.
"I'll be back. I promise."
She lowered her gaze and resumed her work. Still, he could see the sharpness in her movements betraying the fact that she was not fully in peace with the idea.
Caio turned and went to where Jara was waiting for him, already sitting on the canoe, with a paddle in her hands.
***
The canoe rocked instantly when he clumsily stepped onto it, making him trip and flail his arms to stay upright. But he managed to catch up by himself, a reward for his focus in training.
"Don't fall yet. I want you alive for the interesting parts."
Jara said with a chuckle that made his face burn. He sat down, deciding to not press what she meant by 'interesting parts.'
She undid the rope, still laughing, and used the paddle to propel the canoe away from the platform before she began properly rowing.
He was sitting behind her, near the end of the canoe, while she was at the first bench. Her whole body moved with a relaxed, predatory ease. Her movements were light and confident, her hips swaying subtly as she shifted her weight.
The canoe cut through the water without a ripple, as if it didn't disturb the river at all.
Jara sneaked a look at Caio, who was gripping the edges of the canoe as if afraid of falling from it, and the spear was loose on the hull.
"You wanted to understand what's coming, and you got me curious as well. I hope you're ready for the challenge."
He frowned and shook his head.
"I'll be."
Jara laughed and focused forward again, guiding the boat through the water.
***
After some time, the platforms of the Yarikari village disappeared behind them, replaced by denser forest on either side. The sun was close to noon, but overhanging branches protected them from the worst of it.
The river became narrower, as if it had less water running through, despite the place being downcurrent from the village.
He opened his minimap HUD. He could see the visible area in it expanding. He could see the blue form of the river forming a strip, surrounded by green areas. But, in the place they were now, the green areas were thin, fading quickly to muted yellow and some hints of violet haze.
He frowned.
"It's different here."
Jara didn't chuckle this time. Her tone was unusually serious.
"Everything is different here. Less river. More land. More disease."
"What kind of disease?"
She shrugged without slowing her rowing movements.
"The kind that makes deer grow bark. The kind that makes fish swim in circles until they die. The kind that seals the river's voice so it cannot warn us."
He shivered. Jara's usual behavior was nowhere to be seen, and hearing her talk with that low, charged voice was unsettling.
But the moment was broken by her laughter.
"What? Afraid?"
Her laughter became even louder, and he couldn't decide if she had pranked him or if she was just using it to hide her own fears.
He simply shrugged, not having a good answer.
"Yeah, I guess? A bit."
She looked at him with a satisfied smile.
"Good. Fear sharpens. We're here."
They reached one of the riverbanks, a place with a gentle sandy bank where some capybaras were resting under the sun. Caio watched a frog perched on a root blink its three misaligned eyes and hop away.
"This place feels wrong."
The trees bent at weird angles here, their branches forming a twisted canopy that made the air feel heavier.
Jara jumped out of the canoe.
"Because it is wrong. Get down so I can put the canoe on land."
He blinked, then muttered an embarrassed 'I'm sorry' and tried to jump off. 'Tried' being the key word here.
His foot tangled with the spear, which got stuck in the benches, tripping him.
He landed face-first on the sand, prompting a real, heartfelt laughter from Jara.
"You are born clumsy, even on land!"
He didn't even dare to try to find an answer to that. His embarrassment was at its limit at this point.
The ground rose in a gentle slope, pulling them away from the river. The trees grew tightly here, roots interlocking in patterns that reminded Caio of nets. Fungi sprouted from trunks like pale armor plates.
Then the air temperature dropped. Jara lifted a hand and pointed to a point between the trees right ahead.
"Look."
At the center of a shallow depression lay a small pool.
A nuhu.
Caio knew it instantly, because even without Jara's warning, something in his brain rebelled.
The water was perfectly still. Too still. There were no ripples, no insects skating the surface. No reflection matching the angle of the light.
The pool looked like a pane of glass stretched thin over breathless darkness.
"This is where the river is deaf."
He crouched carefully, staring at the stillwater.
"What happens if someone steps inside?"
"They don't come back."
"That's… vague."
"Not vague. They vanish. Body and thoughts and spirit. Not a trace. No one knows what happens."
He grabbed a fallen stick and tossed it gently into the pool.
It touched the surface without making a sound or generating any movement on the water. There was no splash, no ripple. The stick simply sank straight down like there wasn't any water in there to slow it down.
Jara leaned over him to look, one arm braced against his shoulder. Her breath warmed his neck, but her eyes stayed fixed on the pool, and her voice dropped to a low warning.
"This land is dangerous in ways you don't understand. Do not trust anything that looks still."
He nodded, throat dry. It was even worse than what he expected.
They moved past the nuhu slowly. The forest thickened around them. Shadows stretched long even though the sun was high.
Twenty meters inland, the ground became drier, turning from wet mud into packed soil. Caio planted his feet more solidly.
"Better. Not good. But better."
He nodded, agreeing to Jara's comment.
Then, at his next step, something crunched beneath his boot. He looked down. A footprint in the mud. It was deep, heavy, and three-toed, like claws dragging grooves behind.
"Whatever left this was big."
He murmured, and Jara agreed, adding.
"Bigger when angry."
He froze. He heard the familiar ping from the minimap. He checked quickly and saw a red dot blinking near them.
Then another.
Then a third.
"What?"
Jara whispered, instantly alert.
"There's… Something I can't see, but it's close."
Jara's posture changed completely. The playful swagger vanished, replaced by sleek readiness. Her stance dropped, spear angled forward.
"Stay behind me. If it jumps, duck."
She took two steps forward, eyes narrowing at the underbrush.
A sound rippled through the trees. It wasn't a growl or a hiss, but something like the wet gurgling sound some monsters made in B movies.
Caio swallowed hard.
Then the leaves exploded, revealing a beast that lunged straight at him.
He saw a blur of violet eyes and fungal plating, a jaw too wide for its skull, and limbs elongated and twitching with unnatural elasticity.
HUD overlay snapped into place on instinct:
[Threat Level: Minor (Corrupted)]
[Behavior: Aggressive • Disoriented]
Caio stumbled back, almost tripping, but Jara moved before thought could catch up.
She slammed the tip of her spear into the creature's snout, deflecting its momentum and making a scratch on its side. It crashed sideways, ripping through a shrub.
The beast twisted unnaturally, tail whipping.
Caio ducked and felt the air crack above his head. He wasn't able to get a good view of the beast yet, but he had just managed to evade its attack.
He didn't have time to appreciate the effect of his training, as Jara shouted.
"Move!"
She darted forward, spear biting into the monster's flank.
Her movements were fluid, like fighting was just a faster version of dancing.
The beast lunged again, this time for her.
Jara rolled under its strike, sweeping her spear upward. The blade-thorn tip sliced across its throat, spraying dark, viscous blood.
It didn't die immediately. Instead, it shrieked an awful, bubbling sound and flailed. One of its claws skittered across Caio's shoulder, barely missing his skin.
His heart hammered so hard he felt his pulse in his teeth.
"Jara!"
She didn't need the warning.
She sprang forward, planting one foot on a root and launching herself upward. Her spear plunged down at an angle under the creature's jaw.
The beast convulsed once, twice, and then collapsed in a heap of boneless limbs and fungal plates.
A heavy and absolute silence followed.
Caio realized he was shaking. His legs nearly gave out beneath him. His HUD still pulsed red around the edges. But the spear was still in his hand, at least.
Jara stood over the fallen creature, breathing hard, blood streaking across her chest and arms. Her hair had come loose, wild strands sticking to her cheeks.
Slowly, she wiped the blade-thorn tip clean, and then she looked at him.
"You did well."
"I didn't do anything!"
"You didn't faint. Or scream like a boiling frog. Better than some on their first battle."
He let out a weak laugh.
Yeah, real-life people probably don't kill strong monsters or dragons like those isekai novels would make us believe.
He could see the adrenaline still roaring through her veins in the brightness of her eyes. She stripped her top without ceremony, tossing it aside, and grabbed a handful of riverweed to wipe her arms clean of the monster's blood that had spilled all over her.
Caio turned away a moment too slowly.
She laughed at his reaction.
"You can watch. It doesn't bother me."
He absolutely did not know what to do with that. But, for some reason, he didn't look away anymore.
Jara walked into a nearby pond of normal water, rinsing the blood from her skin. The water around her shimmered faintly, as if reacting to her presence or to the disturbed mana of the corrupted creature.
Caio's mind spun.
"This thing… it came from the boundary?"
Jara nodded, flicking water from her fingers.
"They don't usually come close alone. If one is here…"
"…more will come. I know, there are more nearby."
He had seen three red dots on his minimap earlier.
She returned to him, dripping, calmer now but still naked above her waist.
"Your strange sight. Use it."
He fully focused away from her and looked again at the minimap, and then he saw it.
Red dots. Several of them now.
They were joining together, forming groups.
And there was another symbol under those rings, a big, pulsing violet ring.
His stomach dropped. He had read about it after he unlocked the minimap, when he was checking the UI.
"What is it?"
Jara asked, already bracing herself.
"An… instability. Something big. Wrong. Very wrong."
Jara's jaw tightened.
According to the minimap legend, red dots were enemy units, violet rings were corruption spikes, violet ring pulsing were corruption about to spread. Corruption spreading meant a dangerous major event, in 4X terms.
"We need to run."
She didn't argue. She grabbed his wrist and pulled him toward the canoe.