As soon as the canoe was docked next to the shore, Ochette started bounding off down the trail. The forest was much darker than Cropdale or even the path leading up to the town had been, but Ochette didn't mind. There was still more than enough sunlight filtering through the trees to illuminate her path. Part of it felt almost nostalgic to her. It had been ages since she was last on Toto'haha, but when she was back at home, she ran through the forests and enjoyed the sunshine casting shapes through the leaves with a wide smile on her face. Even if this situation wasn't the same, she was going to enjoy it as much as she could. 

Even Mahina was having a bit of trouble keeping up with her as she began to look around for any signs of an animal or monster to hunt. Surely she would be able to turn around the luck in Cropdale if she could just prove there was in fact game to hunt in the area. Acta stared at the surrounding trees with curious, serpentine eyes, and Ochette smiled right along with her companion. She was certain the duorduor meat was going to be delicious when she was finally able to get it and then sink her teeth into it. There had been the promises of a lovely meal lurking beneath the surface when she ate the dry version, and Ochette was going to make sure that whisper became a reality no matter what it took. 

The huntress' gaze caught on a bush, and she let out a gasp. "Ooh! Shishkaba fruit!" Ochette cried out, running over to the bush to examine it. Even if she preferred meat most of the time, she could still appreciate the occasional fruit, and shishkaba were a type of fruit that grew just in a few special spots on Toto'haha. Now she was really feeling nostalgic for her homeland. Ochette hadn't even realized these fruits grew somewhere other than the island.  

Ochette pushed her hand into the bush and started searching around for a few suitable berries to pluck off the plant. Castti, meanwhile, finally caught up with Ochette alongside Mahina and stood just behind her. "Is that tasty?" Castti questioned. 

Ochette nodded as she closed her fingers around a cluster of the fruits. "I'll say! On Toto'haha, we used to wrestle the animals for them," she explained. Ochette popped a few of the berries into her mouth and hummed at just how delicious they were. The taste was every bit as good as she had remembered it. "But look how many there are here! Wahoo!"

"Doesn't that strike you as odd?" Castti asked, pressing her chin into her palm. Ochette turned to face her with a frown. Nothing about it seemed strange to her; she was just glad to be able to savor something she loved so much. Castti, however, had a different opinion. "Why would so many delicious fruits be left untouched?"

That certainly wasn't the point Ochette had expected Castti to make, but as soon as she heard it, she realized just how right Castti was. Ochette's ears twitched in search of any noise in the forest's immediate area, but she found nothing. Normally, there would have been at least something for her to pick up on, but the only sounds that had pierced the silence in the last few minutes had come from her and Castti. "Now that you mention it... The forest feels a little too quiet," Ochette agreed. Beside Ochette, Mahina began to flap her wings like she was preparing for an attack, and the hunter realized Mahina had said nothing throughout the conversation about the fruits. "Mahina's on edge too."

Before Ochette had the chance to ascertain the truth on her own, the ground began to rumble and shake. Her eyes flew open, and she glanced around in search of the source of the noise. Nothing immediately stood out to her, but she was certain something had to be there. Her suspicions were further confirmed when the ground trembled again. There was something rhythmic about the two quakes so far, and Ochette was almost certain they must have been footsteps belonging to something massive. "Yep! Something's headed this way!" she cried out. 

The earth rumbled rhythmically a few more times, and the shadows between the trees parted just enough for Ochette to make out the face of the culprit. It was a massive creature that reminded her a bit of a boar, its ivory tusks sticking out dangerously sharp on either side of its head. Ochette sniffed at the air, and she recognized the scent almost instantly. Its relation to the meat she had tried to eat earlier was vague, but Ochette could still draw a line between them, giving her only one idea of who and what this creature was. "Hey... You must be one of the famous duorduor," Ochette concluded. 

"It seems quite agitated," Castti said cautiously. 

Sure enough, the duorduor seemed to be on the verge of charging forward the instant it was given a reason to do so. Ochette wasn't going to be scared away so easily though. She had reasoned with countless animals and monsters when others deemed it to be a hopeless cause, so she stepped toward the duorduor with easy posture. "Easy, now! What's gotten into you?"

The duorduor took another lumbering step forward, and this time, the shaking of the ground was forceful enough to nearly knock Ochette off her feet. In order to preserve her balance, she had to step backward by a few paces. Mahina and Castti followed her lead in retreating, and Ochette whined under her breath. She really thought trying to talk to the duorduor would be enough to get through to it, but apparently, she stood no chance. 

"This isn't working... The poor thing's not in its right mind!" Castti cried out. 

"Sorry, Doursy, but this is gonna hurt a bit!" Ochette reached for her bow and nocked an arrow, aiming the tip at the duorduor. She fired her shot at the duorduor's shoulder, hoping a little bit of pain would be all it took to snap it out of its strange rampage. 

Unfortunately, the duorduor moved at the last second, and the arrow bounced off a particularly rough patch of skin. Mahina flapped her wings at the air, summoning a flash of fire magic to explode just in front of the duorduor. It tried to recoil from the blast, but the flames spread across its head despite its attempts to escape. At a glance, this seemed to be for the best so long as it was dealing damage the duorduor's thick hide. 

However, it impeded the duorduor's vision just enough for it to begin stumbling around the clearing aimlessly, nearly stepping on Ochette in the process. The huntress yelped and retreated with a quick sprint, and Castti stepped forward in her place. With her axe at the ready, Castti let out a fierce battle cry and charged at the duorduor. She pressed as much power as she could into the blade of her axe and swung it across the duorduor's side. 

That single blow stopped the duorduor in its tracks, and it instantly lost all of its momentum. Rather than acting out of rage, it retreated in confusion, barely seeming to register what had happened to put it in that position in the first place. Castti remained on guard in case she had to attack again, but she let herself relax slightly when she noticed the duorduor shake its head like it was trying to clear its thoughts. The fiery magic across its eyes had died away, and the duorduor was able to see clearly once more. After a few seconds of silence, it began to grumble deep in the back of its throat. 

Castti stared at the duorduor for a few moments, halfway expecting herself to make sense of what she was hearing. In the end, she comprehended nothing, and she turned to Ochette instead. "What is it saying?"

Ochette bowed her head like she was listening as a plan began to spark to her mind. "'It's too late for me... Eat me while I'm still tasty...'"

Castti shook her head. "Ochette," she scolded. "No lying, please." The duorduor's breathing grew labored, and an answer clicked into place in Castti's mind. She turned to face the beast slowly. "Are you... Injured?"

As soon as Castti looked at the duorduor though, it began to retreat as quickly as it could for a creature of its size. Castti gasped and took a few steps after it. "Wait! Don't run away!" she cried out. Castti reached one hand in the duorduor's direction, but she didn't move to pursue it immediately. 

Ochette couldn't say she was shocked at all to see the duorduor fleeing from Castti. After the way she had hit it with her axe, it was a miracle it wasn't even more afraid of her than it already was. Ochette didn't know what Castti had expected to happen after she defeated it so soundly in just a single blow. "There he goes," Ochette remarked. "Guess he's got places to be."

"Let's follow him!" Castti called out, gesturing for Ochette to follow her. Ochette nodded and darted after Castti. For perhaps the first time ever, Castti seemed like she was going to make it to their destination faster than Ochette. It was almost unheard of for anyone to beat Ochette anywhere with how quickly she could run, but since Castti was so much closer to the duorduor, she had a significant advantage. Ochette just took that as a challenge though, and she willed her body to move as fast as possible. 

Once Ochette was close to Castti, she looked up at the apothecary. "I can't really blame him for running away," Ochette commented. "You hit him really hard with your axe back there. I don't know if you meant to do that, but I don't know if he's going to want to be around you after that."

"I didn't realize I was that strong," Castti admitted. "I would say that I wasn't much of a fighter in the past, but I guess there's no way of saying for certain as long as I've forgotten so much of my past."

"Are we sure you weren't a hunter before you lost your memory?" Ochette asked. "That would explain why you were able to hit him with so much force. I don't know if a regular person would be able to do something like that."

"If I had been a hunter before I lost my memories, then I would have instincts toward hunting instead of healing," Castti pointed out, and Ochette relented with a hum and a nod. "Clearly I know more about using an axe than I thought I did though. I'll have to remember that for our next battle."

"And I'll have to remember to never cross you in a fight," Ochette teased, and Castti let out a small laugh. If nothing else, Ochette was glad to see Castti loosening up after she had been so tense earlier in the day. Even if the rest of their excursion did nothing else to help them, Ochette was going to consider that a victory. 

Ochette and Castti began to slow their dash after the duorduor when they arrived in a clearing between the trees. Both of them glanced around for any signs of the duorduor, but they didn't find the boar monster immediately. Instead, Ochette's gaze caught on a cluster of animals native to the Leaflands. A group of deer were grazing at the grass, and squirrels were enjoying nuts and berries together. "You were all holed up here?" Ochette asked with wide eyes. As soon as she posed the question though, some of the animals started to scurry away, and Ochette lowered her voice when she next spoke. "You don't have to be afraid. Easy now. Shh..."

"They're absolutely terrified," Castti observed quietly. She was on her guard again, scanning the area for any signs of danger. "But terrified of what?" If there was another monster in the area, then Castti would be ready for it. Surely she would be able to fend it off with another swing of her axe. If she had dealt such substantial damage to the duorduor with it, then any other monsters were bound to cave before her might too, and that didn't even factor in Ochette's help. 

Ochette, however, wasn't searching for another monster. If the animals were stressed, then she could ask them why directly. She crouched in front of the animals and tilted her head to make words out of the clamoring of the creatures. "'Begone, humans. Harm not the duorduor,'" Ochette repeated. 

"Is that what they're saying?" Castti asked, the stress in her body slowly beginning to unravel. Ochette nodded and pushed herself back to her full height. Castti hummed, pulling her hand away from the hilt of her axe. "I suppose they think we're here to hurt that one from earlier."

Ochette looked down at the animals for a few moments longer. That was all the time it took for her to make up her mind, and she turned toward Castti and the exit of the forest. "Let's go, Castti."

However, Castti knew Ochette was not talking about returning to town just yet. Instead, they directed their attention toward the path leading deeper down the trail. They could have easily left then to prove their lack of ill intent, but both of them knew there was another, far more effective to set the situation right. Ochette sniffed at the air and began to venture through the trees once more, Castti just a few paces behind her. 

This time, there was no mad dash to chase after the duorduor. Instead, there was only a slow calmness in the air between them. Ochette and Castti didn't even speak, already knowing that would only serve to frighten the other animals around them. Soon enough, they arrived at their destination, finding the duorduor at the opposite end of yet another clearing. It was breathing heavily, and with each exhale, it expelled a small amount of something that looked like steam. Ochette could only assume it was a special ability duorduors had. She couldn't say much beyond that because she had so little experience with them. Duorduors weren't native to Toto'haha, after all.

Either way, it was a sign of the duorduor being upset, so Ochette and Castti approached it as carefully as they could. Castti stepped forward first, holding her hands up in surrender. The duorduor huffed once again, trying to frighten her away even though it was hardly in any condition to fight her off should it come to that. "It's alright. Calm down," Castti soothed. "We don't want to hurt you anymore. Come on... Don't be scared."

The duorduor refused to believe her though, and once again, Ochette couldn't say she was shocked. It would have been considerably more surprising if the duorduor wanted anything to do with Castti after their earlier encounter. Since it wasn't listening to Castti though, Ochette knew it was her time to step in. "Don't worry! Castti here's got a kind heart," Ochette assured the duorduor. "Just... Don't make her angry."

Castti looked over her shoulder at Ochette, scandal in her eyes. "Ochette."

It was only after she said that last bunch of words that Ochette realized just how poor of a choice it was to say something like that in a moment like this. She bowed her head in shame. "Sorry."

Castti turned back toward the duorduor, crouching just in front of its tusk and reaching a gentle hand out. She was right in the danger zone, and if the duorduor tried to strike, she would be sent flying even in its weakened state. Even so, Castti refused to back away. "I only want to tend to your wounds. You don't want those to get infected. Let me help you. Please."

Slowly but surely, the duorduor stopped expelling steam from its nostrils, and its posture began to relax. Castti took a step forward carefully, waiting to see if it would try to flee again. When it did not, she reached into her bag and readied a few bandages. Ochette watched as Castti methodically wrapped the injuries that had been left behind from the brief scuffle. It was almost hilarious seeing Castti treat the wounds that she had left on the duorduor in an attempt to calm it down. 

Castti was wildly different when she was in the middle of a fight compared to outside of one. During combat, she was a protective mother bear practically daring others to try and mess with her cubs. Outside of combat though, she was gentle and soft, whispering reassurances to the duorduor even though there was no guarantee that it could understand her at all. The other animals in the forest started to come out of hiding when they realized Castti meant no harm, and they began to watch as she tended to the duorduor. Ochette could tell at least a few of them were stunned by her actions, though likely not for the same reasons Ochette was. 

Once Castti was finished, she patted the duorduor on the tusk and then stepped back to admire her handiwork. "There. That should do it," she smiled. "Good boy, Wooly-Ooly."

Ochette blinked. "Did you just say 'Wooly-Ooly?'"

Castti nodded, light filling her eyes. "That's his name. Don't you like it?"

At first, Ochette couldn't tell if the duorduor had named himself Wooly-Ooly or if it was a title Castti had bestowed upon him at some point during the healing process. Some animals liked to name themselves, and she had learned as much through speaking with the creatures of Toto'haha. Ochette thought it was the sort of name a duorduor would give to itself since it was fairly self-explanatory... 

But Ochette's thoughts melted away when she remembered Castti didn't know how to communicate with animals. There was no way that could have been the name the duorduor gave to himself since Castti would have had no method to find that out. It must have been something Castti decided to call him. Somehow, Ochette was shocked to find Castti was the kind of person to give an animal a name of that sort. She never would have expected Castti to give such goofy names to animals. Ochette herself liked to put thought into the names she gave to her companions. Mahina, for example, came from a word in the language of the Beastlings. Acta was a shortened version of Cateracta, its mother's name. Ochette had imagined Castti would be the same as her in giving animals meaningful names. Instead, Castti seemed to have an inclination for the silly. 

Goofy or not though, the duorduor seemed to enjoy his new name. He let out a low, rumbling noise in the back of his throat, but it was nothing like the threatening growls from earlier in the encounter. Instead, he seemed to be at peace. Ochette let out a small laugh. "Well, he likes it. Good for you, Wooly-Ooly."

Wooly-Ooly continued to make noises in the seconds that followed though, and Ochette realized he wasn't just trying to express his happiness with his new name. There was something he was trying to communicate, and Ochette stepped toward him to get a better chance to listen. Her animalistic ears twitched atop her head. "Hm? What's that?" Wooly-Ooly went on for a few moments more, and Ochette began to translate when he took a moment to pause. "'I'm sorry I attacked you. Let me explain what scared the forest creatures.'" Ochette and Castti both perked up, and Wooly-Ooly went on. After a few grunts, he paused to let Ochette speak. "'It was a dark monster they'd never seen before.'"

The hunter and apothecary fell silent at Wooly-Ooly's words, trying to search the area for any signs of the monster in question. In the end though, they saw no traces of anything that could have wanted to attack them or the forest creatures. If the monster had been there earlier, then it was long gone now. That wasn't going to stop Ochette from thinking about it though, and she crossed her arms with a frown. "I wonder what the monster was."

"It does raise questions," Castti agreed with a frown. That explained why hunting had been so challenging over the course of the last few weeks too. If the dark monster had appeared a while ago, then it would have no doubt frightened all of the forest creatures deeper into the trees. The Cropdale hunters wouldn't have wanted to pursue them all the way to the other end of the trail, leaving them with far less meat as what they did have began to fall out of their taste preferences. Ochette could only assume that whatever creature had attacked the forest was terrifying if it had scared all of the animals into hiding for so long. She halfway wished it was there so she was able to go after it for herself to help the animals to calm down again. 

"Yes, but... More importantly..." Ochette only got a few words through her thought before her stomach began to grumble, and it explained everything she could have wanted to articulate far better than she ever could have with her voice. She hadn't been able to enjoy any of the meat she was given by the vendor back in Cropdale because of the less than stellar taste. Now, her stomach was back with a vengeance, and it wanted even more food than it had earlier in the day. 

"Perhaps we should eat before discussing it further," Castti agreed. As if on cue, her stomach began to rumble as well, and she let out a small laugh with a shake of her head. 

"Thanks, Castti," Ochette grinned. "Let's go get some more of those berries we saw back on the trail! I'm sure they're going to be delicious!"

"And here I thought you were planning on eating some meat while we were in Cropdale," Castti hummed. "Did you change your mind?"

"Those fruits are a lot rarer than any meat," Ochette replied. "Besides, if we eat the berries, then we'll be able to stay here and enjoy them with the other animals in the forest. Doesn't that sound like fun?" On top of that, Ochette couldn't help but feel like it would be wrong to try and hunt after her encounter with Wooly-Ooly. If Wooly-Ooly was trying to protect the forest creatures, then Ochette wasn't going to attack them. She had just made a friend, and she wasn't going to do anything to violate the trust of that friend. Meat could wait, especially when she didn't have to wrestle any animals to enjoy the berries in the forest. 

"I just hope we'll be able to have some of the fruit without any scuffles with the animals," Castti remarked, turning to look over her shoulder at Wooly-Ooly. "Will that be possible?"

Wooly-Ooly bowed his head and let out a grunt in the back of his throat. Ochette threw her arms into the air excitedly, and Castti didn't need her to translate after seeing the bright smile on her face. "Then let's dig in!"

~~~~~

Castti and Ochette were both full by the time they finished enjoying their time in the forest. Wooly-Ooly was more than happy to let them leave with a collection of berries to share with the rest of their friends, though Castti would have to hold onto them to make sure Ochette didn't try to snag them for herself. Ochette didn't mind too much though. She was in heaven after eating all of that fruit, and she didn't even enjoy fruit most of the time. Those berries were special though, and it was much better to be able to share them with friends instead of having to fight wild animals to have a taste of something delicious. 

"You know, I think that was better than having duorduor meat," Ochette smiled. "You can have meat once or twice, but friendship lasts a lot longer than that. I'm glad we were able to get to know Wooly-Ooly."

"Me too," Castti agreed. "I'm looking forward to being able to share more about our adventures with the rest of our friends when we make it back to town too. I'm sure they'll all be curious to know what we got up to all day since we essentially vanished from Cropdale."

"I hope they didn't put out a search party or anything," Ochette said with a small laugh. "We were just fine in the end... Not that they'd have a way of knowing that if we vanished out of the blue, I guess, but we'll be able to tell them about it."

"I think today was a day well spent... Though we're probably going to have to wait a while before we'll be able to eat anything for dinner," Castti commented. She settled into the canoe that would take them across the small stream back toward the main part of Cropdale, and Ochette sat down just behind her. "I hope the others like the berries too. It was very generous of Wooly-Ooly to let us take so many of them."

"With how many berries were on those bushes, I don't think the animals in the forest have ever been able to completely drain their supply," Ochette told her. "There were so many of them, and there weren't nearly enough animals to eat them all. I guess that's fine though. If it let them share the berries with us, then everything worked out in the end!"

"There is one thing I'm still curious about though," Castti frowned as she pressed the oar of the canoe into the water. "I haven't been able to stop thinking about the strange dark monster they were talking about before... Wooly-Ooly said there was a creature there in the forest with them that frightened everyone into hiding, but we didn't see anything while we were in the area. It makes me wonder just what could have happened there."

"I was thinking about that too," Ochette admitted. "Since the hunters in Cropdale have been having a difficult time catching prey for the last few weeks, I can only assume the monster showed up a while ago... But the animals must know there's still some trace of it around. They wouldn't be so on edge even now if they thought they were perfectly safe. So something else has to be going on."

"If the creature was around there still, then I would have expected us to see it, but I suppose not," Castti sighed. "Either way, I suppose we'll just have to be patient. If we ever return to Cropdale, then maybe we can look around for it more. I don't want to leave them if they're truly in trouble, but if we can't find the creature, then there's very little we can do about it."

"Well, we told Wooly-Ooly and the others they could ask for our help if they ever needed it," Ochette reminded her. They hadn't dwelled on the conversation of the creature for long after they turned their attention to the berries, but Ochette had at least been sure to leave behind that promise. She had no idea of when she and Castti would next be in Cropdale, but surely they would be able to return at least once or twice in the future. If they came back, then they could look around for any signs of the dark monster. If they found it, then they could get rid of it. If not, then they would be able to search for it another time.

"That will have to do for now," Castti hummed. She anchored the canoe on the opposite shore and stepped out, reaching one hand behind her to help Ochette rise to her feet as well. "I think the others will be wondering where we got off to. Let's go tell them about our adventures today."

"Yeah! I'm sure Agnea will be really interested in hearing about how you knocked a duorduor out of a fight with a single swing," Ochette grinned. "Those things are terrifying to the people of her town, and you barely even minded that it was there!"

Castti's cheeks flushed from embarrassment, and she shook her head. "I don't know if I should be boasting about doing something like that to Wooly-Ooly when he's our friend now... But we can at least share our berries with them. Maybe Agnea will be able to help us bake them into a dessert. I know that's something the people of Cropdale love doing."

"Oh, that sounds great!" Ochette cried out. She wasn't too fond of sweets most of the time since she preferred the more grounded taste of meat, but there was nothing wrong with indulging in something cheery from time to time. "I know Throné and Partitio were going to check out the desserts in town too, so maybe they'll have suggestions for what we can do with the berries too."

"We'll just have to see," Castti nodded. "Now, let's get back."

Ochette nodded too, and she trailed after Castti down the path leading toward Cropdale. Even though the day hadn't at all gone in the way she had hoped or expected, Ochette was happy with how it had all turned out. She loved making new friends, and she felt like she knew a little bit more about Castti now too. Stopping in Cropdale really had been one of the best choices the travelers could have made even if they had no idea of it when they first set the plan out. 

Ochette was looking forward to everything else they were able to do going forward too. That day had been tons of fun, and there were bound to be other fun days waiting for them in the future. They would go to Sai, learn even more about the world, and then continue traveling with smiles on their faces. Regardless of where it took them, Ochette was going to love the journey and all that happened on it. 

But more than that, she was going to love traveling with her friends more than words could ever describe. 

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And so we wrap up our crossed paths! Yay!

We've still got a little more to do in Cropdale before we're leaving town, but I really like the way this chapter turned out. I haven't written enough about Ochette and Castti's dynamic even though it's one I really like. I'm looking forward to being able to explore it more going forward, and I hope you guys are too. I love this story. It's so much fun. 

This chapter is bringing with it an important announcement for the future of this story also. It's not entirely good news, but I hope it'll still go over well enough. I'm going to be rolling back my update schedule from twice a week to only once a week. I've been balancing a lot lately between job searching, publishing my book series, and dealing with pretty intense burnout, so I'm trying to take it easier on myself. Right now, that means taking a bit more time to myself and stressing less about getting chapters out on time. I might return to updates coming out twice a week later on, but right now, I want to only release one a week for a while. Chapters will come out on Thursdays for the foreseeable future with the Sunday updates being dropped. I know this isn't the news any of you want to hear, but I'm hoping you'll all be understanding. I want to be able to keep working on this story, but I can't promise that if I'm too burnt out to work on it. Thank you in advance for your grace, and I look forward to sharing the rest of this story with you even if it is at a slightly slower pace than originally planned. 

I took a break from playing Octopath 0 to write this, so I'm going to go on and get back to it now. So I'll see you all next time where we'll get closer to leaving Cropdale and setting out for our next destination. Until then, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Feedback is appreciated as always. Have a nice day, everyone!

-Digital