Van and Oolah enter the Savage Wilds.

      One evening in their shelter which was quickly being smothered by snow, Oolah, with charcoal pen in hand, was updating her map. She shook her head and looked concerned. "Is concerning," She finally said. "Their trail is trending eastward. Looks like is heading toward the Savage Wilds."

     Van was picking his teeth with a wood shard, "Sounds exciting." he remarked.

     "Is like wall of danger," She added. "Only powerful relic handlers drive back such wilderness. Often it is reclaimed when no Relic holder is there to hold it."

     Van sat up, realizing the name was not just a name. "So... should we go in? could we go around it?" He trusted Oolah with all things wilderness. 

      "Perhaps trail will turn. I can not risk to lose it, though. If it goes in, we go in. We are strong, no?"

     "I'm still pretty new at this. I'm confident Eloin would still be able to defeat me without getting so much as a scratch."

     "We can only do what we can do. Besides, I see you practice. I think with each combat you will grow stronger."

     Days passed, and the trail did indeed turn Eastward. The trees got bigger and the forest, even darker. They began seeing and having more contact  and encounters with mega fauna, including a particularly dangerous fight with wild Erloka pack. These were mostly fully grown and of a large variety, dwarfing their youthful pack Erlokas.

      On the initial onslaught, most of the Erlokas surged past Van, causing him to panic. Turning his attention away from the fight to check on Oolah, he was clipped in the leg and tossed into the air just as several explosions went off. Oolah had smoothly mounted a pack Erloka and was casually exploding the lead Erlokas. Bone fragments and concussion causing those close by to stumble as well. Dirt and leaves and burning tufts of hair created an obscuring screen.

     Smiling as he tumbled through the air, Van extended the blade into the ground, and retracting it, used it to slow his descent. With Oolah hidden behind a fog of debris and the scent of fresh blood, the rest of the Erloka pack turned their attention to Van. He wouldn't have had it any other way. The wicked black blade was unimpeded by flesh and bone, but Van couldn't discount the sheer numbers nor great mass of his enemies. He fought a running battle, darting and spinning, dashing and slashing. Indeed, Van was growing stronger with each battle, as his training found purchase in fertile ground.

     Still, Oolah was growing more anxious day by day. Van found this disconcerting. He'd hope with every successful battle she would relax. Under the canopy there was rarely any snow, but constant dripping. The temperature grew warmer, but was still a fair bit chilly. On the 4th day into the savage wilds, Oolah made a stunning confession. "I've been guessing. You'd think it would be easy tracking a horde, but as time passes, evidence disappears. So many other trails have joined and separated... some of them were migratory herbivores with similar numbers. I've done my best, and I think I'm still on the right path... but I'm no longer completely sure."

     Van ventured a guess, "Is... is this what's been upsetting you over the past few days?"

     Oolah blinked at him in surprise, "You noticed?"

     "Noticed? I noticed alright, but didn't understand! I thought you were losing confidence in us. I was starting to get scared."

     "I... noticed your growing apprehension. And to think I was the source of it," laughed Oolah. "I am glad, it is easily fixed now! sometimes I forget you are still child. You seem like old man somehow!"

     Their camps changed with the environment. Under the canopy they merely needed wind breaks and discreet fires. She began supplementing their rations with foraged foods and small game. She wasn't exactly a cook, and sometimes the combination of foraged veggies, herbs and wild meat was unable to cut out the gaminess. To Van it was all delicious. He was never one for complicated meals, anyways.

     He found himself thinking of Ella less and less. He felt more then a little guilty about it. He wondered if she'd gone into the arms of the creator, or if she, like him, was maybe living another life somewhere far away in another world. She... didn't have his faith, and he worried about that quite a bit. He'd often tried to talk to her about it, but she always shut him out. He yearned to talk to Oolah about it, but how could he? What would he say to her? 'I'm from another world where I was an old guy? Oh yeah, and I tried letting a bunch of punks kill me because I was grieving over my wife?'

     Despite taking every caution, battles continued to find them. One day they managed to avoid trouble by walking with a giant herd of herbivores, great hulking beasts slow but powerful. They were lightly furred over their turtle like shells. Their rear legs were short and muscular as was their tail. The legs and tail created a sort of  tripod allowing them to stand, stretching their long retractable necks. Their front legs were longer then the rear with manlike hands that could grip the trees to hold themselves steady. When the Erlokas occasionally wandered too close they would ball their hands up into fists and beat the ground, apelike. Their beak like mouths could easily snap thick branches. Van could understand why predators avoided them. However their luck wouldn't last forever. Early the next day Oolah chose a trail leading away from them, being the most likely to be the goblonii migration. It wasn't surprising they would survive this route, even before attaining Hoblonii and Ogrii. Goblonii could overwhelm many predators with sheer numbers. They also smelled bad, and tasted worse, although Van didn't know any of this.

     Oolah continued updating her map, doing her best to estimate distances. This was unexplored area. She had no idea how far the savage wilds extended West, and could only estimate it's distance to the North. The only two points of reference she had were the Eastern border and their point of ingress.