Just as Sezio had once told Suwa, not all gehm live in small communities. In fact, not so long ago, there was a time when there was no such thing as a gehm community. All gehm were nomadic in nature, living in small families with the constant threat of beasts around every corner. Even now, there were still some gehm like that—gehm who had yet to become part of a community.

“Just keep running!” a wild gehm in a shroud of piecemeal bark covered in clustered caps of small fungus shouted toward another with him. The mask he had once been wearing on his face became broken at some point and now left only smudges of dirt behind.

“I’m sorry! I'm sorry!” the other gehm, a child, cried. If only he had been quieter, then maybe they wouldn't be running for their lives now.

“It's okay! Once we make it through this clearing, we'll be able to hide again in the forest over there.

“But mom is—”

“—Okay. She'll be okay. We only got separated for a moment, but we will find her again once we're safe. Don't worry.” The boy's father tried to show him a reassuring smile, but the boy was too shaken by fear to notice.

Behind them was a beast, pursuing at full speed. There were two originally, but the other must have split away to go after the third gehm; the child’s mother.

The beasts had strong, but short, back legs and even stronger arms which they used to propel themselves faster as they ran. Their large nostrils and four eyes gave them an incredible sense of smell and nearly 270 degrees of vision. Their most terrifying feature were the long, thin, almost needle-like fangs filling their mouths in such a way that they were always exposed. Adding to their already intimidating appearance were three rows of quill-like spines extending down their backs. If the thought of escape wasn't already so thick in the minds of the beast’s prey, they would be traumatized by the fear of imagining what will happen to them once they were caught.

With a pure adrenaline inspired drive, the two gehm made it into the embrace of the forest. With any luck, the trees would slow down the beast’s pursuit, and they might be able to find a place to hide. After all, this was the type of terrain that these specific gehm were most familiar with and most often called home.

However, things rarely work out in favor of the weak.

As it happens, the forest was also the domain of the beast the gehm were fleeing from, and that fact alone seemed to be leading the chase towards an obvious conclusion. Despite their attempt to lose the beast amongst the trees, the gehm had become cornered with no way of escaping. The pursuing beast stood up on its back legs and began to slowly approach its winded prey. Expecting the worst, the older gehm turned his back to the beast and shielded his child. It seemed it would be the end for them, but then—

“Suwa, now!” a voice called from somewhere in the trees. Immediately after the command, another gehm came flying out of one of the trees with a pointed spear aimed at the beast.

The beast was surprised, but still managed to raise its hand to defend itself. The gehm’s spear pierced through the beast’s palm as it tried swatting the gehm away.

“Aghh!” the beast cried out in pain and rage. “How dare a lowly gehm—”

“How could you miss when he didn't even see you coming?” Luika asked as he dropped down from another tree.

“It’s not my fault! He just has insanely fast reflexes!” Suwa protested as he crawled up from the ground.

“Is that so? I hope you take that into consideration while you take him out.”

“What about you?”

“Oh, don't worry. I'll watch from here.”

“What!?”

A sudden charge from the beast interrupted the banter between Suwa and Luika as the it swung its powerful arm full force at Suwa's chest. With a loud crack, Suwa blocked the blow with his spear, but the force still sent him flying.

“Whoa! You probably shouldn't let him hit you like that.”

“No kidding,” Suwa coughed. “Are you really not going to help?”

“It’s fine, Moiya believes in you.”

“Great. What about you?”

“Hmm … I'm still not fully convinced.”

The beast charged at Suwa once again while he and Luika continued their discussion. This time, it swung down with both its paws to crush Suwa from above. However, Suwa was able to roll out of the way just in time and pierced the beast’s leg with his spear before getting back to his feet and creating space.

“I see. You must be one of those wild gehm who have been causing trouble.” Thick saliva flew out from the beast’s mouth as it grunted in anger. “When I kill you, there will be one less problem in the world.”

“That’s funny. I was thinking the same about you.”

Enraged, the beast charged again, but this time he stopped before entering the range of Suwa’s spear; a feint that Suwa was caught in by thrusting his spear too early and leaving himself open. With Suwa overextended, the beast grabbed his spear and jerked him close before slamming his other paw into Suwa's chest and smashing him into the ground.

The beast ripped Suwa’s spear from his hand and tossed it aside before laughing at his victory. He then began to taunt Suwa by gnashing his fangs over him.

“After I kill you, it will be your friend over there. And then I'll finally be able to finish off these two.”

“If your plan is to do all that after you've killed me, then I guess they're safe.”

The beast scoffed at Suwa’s obvious bluff while Suwa put his hand on the ground and gripped a small vine that had been coiling around itself since the moment his spear was taken from him. The vine formed a tight twist that came to a sharp point, much like an extremely shortened version of his spear. In one quick motion, as the beast’s jaws were lurching toward his throat, Suwa jammed the new spear point into the side of the beast’s neck. In the same motion, he rolled the beast off him and stood up.

“You really didn't help,” Suwa said through a cough before shooting a glare at Luika.

“I’m here for moral support.”

“You’re terrible at that too.”

“Hmm, I get that a lot.”

“I-is it really dead?” The father of the young gehm asked. “Did you really kill such a scary beast? Who are you?”

“I’m Luika. And yes, after following my plan to perfection, my friend Suwa here was able to kill this beast for you.”

“What plan!? All you said was jump!”

“My friend, sometimes, no plan is the best plan.”

“What about mommy? You said we would find her,” the young one cried after realizing he was no longer in danger.

“She's safe.” Moiya was approaching the group with Belo and Dobin. “She was injured, but she'll be okay.”

Belo was carrying a female gehm on his back whose arm was wrapped with a bloodied bandage. It seemed the other beast had caught up to her before Moiya’s group arrived, but she was still rescued before the worst could happen.

“Who are you people?” The man asked in equal parts shock and awe.

“We're friends. And we have a place for you to rest and recover if you'll follow us.”