Damn, now anyone can see me!

I am Sisli, a Kodama. As the rocks fell down, Aria and Lionel were separated from us. We fell down into another room with some skeletons. Now it is just me, Knox, and Caspian. And both can't see me. Both stand up and begin to destroy the skeletons. They must be out of the range of the necromancer, as they stay dead after the seals are destroyed.

They destroy the few skeletons really fast, as most of them were left with Aria and Lionel. That's a bit difficult, but Aria should be able to beat them... and Lionel too, of course! We can't go back to the other two, so we have to find our own way to the boss room and meet with them later. To symbolize to Knox and Caspian that I am here, I grow one big sunflower before them.

"Sisli is there!" Knox shouts, smiling.

"My buddy understands quite well, nice," I say.

As there are no enemies around, I climb on Knox's shoulder and make myself comfortable while they walk across the room through a tunnel. Here are no torches on the walls like above. It's darker, and just some fluorescent blue moss is on the walls. This moss is named Lapis Moss; it grows in dark and humid regions. This reminds me of botany lessons in my village. That was so boring.

But wait... isn't it the main food for Scolopendra? They are Insect-like creatures with a thousand legs, red armor, and no eyes. By orienting themselves with their long feelers by touch, as well as by sounds and vibrations in the ground, they can find their prey quite well. 

Ugh! I don't like insects like that. I have no big problem with normal-sized insects, but this Scolopendra is in a different league. Especially because they are the size of a house. I mean, I am smaller than one leg from it! And it has so many of them. I mean, despite that, I could defeat something like that easily... probably...

"Hey, what's that back there?" Caspian says.

"Looks like some kind of nest!" Knox says, irritated.

I look in the distance. Damn, that's the nest of a Scolopendra. When there is a nest, the mother is mostly not far away too. I look around while a shiver runs down my spine. We have to turn around quickly.

"Let's go nearer and check the situation," Caspian says.

"No, don't go, you idiot!" I shout, but they don't hear me anyway.

I pull on Knox's collar and even hit him on the neck with some kind of karate punch, but he doesn't notice me. It's like I wasn't there...

"Please stop!" I say and grow big vines to block them. They hesitate.

"What's the matter, Sisli?" Knox says.

"I think she wants to stop us!" Caspian says.

"Caspian is probably not an idiot after all!" I say it with the hope that they stop.

"There is nothing to be afraid of," Knox says.

But too late. Behind us a creature is already rising up threateningly. 

"The Scolopendra!"

The creature opens her slimy mouth and runs towards us. Knox grabs his axe and strikes at the creature, which is about to devour us. He blocks it, but his hits didn't seem to affect it much. It attacks Knox from various angles, but Knox is skillfully parrying its blows with his axe. But for how long can he keep this up?

I am highly motivated to finish off the enemies in this dungeon, but that is a bit scary. Also, a Scolopendra is no easy enemy to deal with.

As I can't hold myself on Knox's shoulder anymore, I fall to the ground.

"Ouch... my butt."

I stand up and run to Caspian. It's more tactical to increase the distance to the enemy.

Caspian shoots arrows at the creature, but he has neither enough distance nor a good shooting angle.

The creature changes from Knox as its target to Caspian. As it sprints in our direction, I jump down on my knees and touch the ground with my hands. Instantly I let a fir tree grow, which hits the lower jaw of the Scolopendra. Thereby pushed, it falls slightly backwards.

"That was close!" Caspian says shocked, while he runs away to increase the distance to the creature.

"I saved the day, but no need to thank me!" I say nervously while I hold on to Caspian's trouser leg.

As the creature can find us by little vibrations on the ground, it can also detect me. Because I am so small, the creature must think that I am a little threat, so it has neglected me so far and concentrates on the other two. But the problem is that we are not able to hide from it. There is another problem too.

Knox chops off the head of the creature with a smooth cut. The head and body fall to the ground. Green liquid spreads on the ground. But then the two creature parts start moving again and grow into two different creatures.

"Damn! How is this even possible?" Knox shouts, irritated, and jumps back.

"What the..." Caspian shouts, disgusted.

"Oh no...the inevitable happened...!" I shout, also slightly scared.

The only weak point is the red energy core in the stomach of the Scolopendra. By chopping the Scolopendra in half, it only multiplies itself. But obviously they have no idea how they can defeat the creature, and I can't tell them either... 

"What should we do?" Caspian asks.

"I will hit the beast until it stays dead! Stay back, you two!" Knox shouts confidently.

I really like him, but it is also a disadvantage that Knox thinks more with his muscles than with his brain...

"I don't think that will help. We need a plan...!" Caspian shouts, but as he also has to fight with the two Scolopendras, he has no time to make a better plan or discuss it with Knox.

But while they fight them, the creatures only multiply further.

I didn't imagine my first mission like that.

Now there are five Scolopendra. One of them notices me and moves in my direction, and another Scolopendra tries to attack Knox from behind. As my increasing fear begins to overwhelm me and I see less and less of a way out of this situation, without sharing my knowledge, I consider the last resort.

"I am a real adventurer, and my team needs my help!" I say to myself to justify my decision.

I break the magic that conceals my existence and scream for Knox and Caspian.

"Destroy the red energy core inside the stomach of the creatures! Then they can't multiply themselves anymore!"

Now they can hear and see me. I feel like my emotions are on a rollercoaster. But the two of them react fast and target the weak spots. Caspian also shoots the Scolopendra, which tries to attack me, with several arrows. It falls to the ground and stops moving.

Knox destroys the last beast's energy core with a precise slice with his axe. After Knox and Caspian have caught their breath again, they slowly approach me. I sit huddled on the ground with tears in my eyes.

"Now there is no turning back for me!" I mumble to myself.

"Are you fine?" Knox asks hesitantly.

"Nooo! Now that I made myself visible to warn you, I can't go back home anymore!"

"We are really thankful for your help, but why can't you go back because of that?" Caspian asks.

"Kodamas make an oath to hide their appearance and live hidden in harmony with nature. The only ones who can't be deceived by that are people with pure hearts, as no one can deceive a pure heart. But now that I've made my existence visible to you. I broke my oath. That's a big crime and will be punished with exile. And that on my first mission!"

"Thank you, Sisli. You are a brave adventurer. You can stay with us forever if you want," Knox says with a serious face.

"You mean it?" I ask hesitantly.

"Sure. Come, I will carry you on my shoulder! Isn't that right, Caspian?" Knox says and stretches his hand to me.

"Sure. You are one of us. We will take full responsibility, as it was our failure," he says.

"Yes, you are really stupid!" I say with a slight smile while I wipe my tears aside and climb on Knox's hand. Actually, their words cheer me up a bit.

Knox puts me on his shoulder, and we walk through a gap in the wall, which leads to a small path.

After some time I see some silhouettes in the distance.

"Aria and Lionel?" I shout.

I climb down Knox's shoulder, run to Aria and jump in her arms.

"That was really nerve-wracking. Don't leave me alone in a dungeon again!" I say exhausted.

"Don't worry, I won't leave you alone!" Aria says encouragingly.

Lionel starts to stare at me with his usually serious face.

"Hey, what are you looking at? Have you never seen a Kodama?" I ask, a bit annoyed.

"So this is how Kodama look like..." Lionel says curiously.

"Wait, you can see each other?" Aria asks, surprised.

"Yes. It was in order to save Knox and Caspian..."

Short, but with enough highlighting of my action, I summarize what happened.

"I am sorry..." she says a bit distressed.

"No need to pity me... It's ok. It was my decision," I say, as I have come to terms with it.

"So let's go into the boss room behind this door and kick the boss in his ass!" I say to distract myself.

Lionel tries to touch the door, which slowly opens by itself...