§ Internal Fights §

♦ 4th season of the year 1599 a.M., Great Forest, Crastia Continent ♦

The group was stunned by the upcoming subject. Yet, Sandro said: "No, I didn't; would be a pleasure to hear it."- By this time the group had already gotten used to Sandro being the head.

"Well, it's not a big deal but in the old days, the grandparents used to tell a tale to scare children so they wouldn't go near this area. If my memory is correct, it was about a time long gone where the people from nearby villages were suffering from a dire situation of food shortage. I don't remember quite well what time it referred to; but anyways, the hunters from these villages grouped each other, and decided get into these woods to hunt."- John gave a long paused stare at the rest of the group, and continued:

"Only after an entire day steeped in these woods with no notice from them, the villagers found 7 dead bodies near the edges of the forest after hours of search; all with a giant bite mark on their neck! And for Sylla's sake, three of them were gone. The old people say that was a beast… or a demon. But I gotta say, the men were really brave at time to enter in this forest with all that creepy fog, maybe the missing three is still here watching us; uh? HA-HA!" – John's loud laughter seemed to take the group out of their stupor as he was looking around kidding with the joke. But after the brief silence, he said: "It was a quite scary tale at the time… quite a few days without sleeping well."- He said the last phrase with a slight concerned face.

Lara, Leo and a few others didn't like his joke that much as they made an unamused face; most of the group was biologist, so they were quite skeptical about it, because if that was real the animal would be about 2 meters (6,56 feet) of height. Sandro, with his unusual harsh and low tone, said: "I think is about time to go sleep."- Before everyone got up, he said while stared at the rangers' group: "Still, I think is unlikely to exist an animal like that. Besides, the only possible candidates to that kind of attack would be the lions, and they're quite far from here." - These rangers obviously didn't know, but felines animals only existed out of their continent, and were rare species- "If you went to college, you'd know that. Good vigil while we sleep. Let's go guys! We need to rest, there's a lot of work to be done yet."- Sandro continued as in the end, the scientists stood up and went to their tents. The ones who didn't like John's joke gave him a smirk while they passed by them.

After they were inside their tents, John groaned: "Bastards! Who the fuck they think they are?!"

Then Leo came with a sour smile and said while sitting by his side: "Fuck them, John! Theses smart asses… I was finding that Lara pretty, but shit, doesn't worth a penny!"- He spat on the floor.

"Now you're talking! Ha-ha"- Albeit they were cursing them, they didn't dare to talk out loud. "Okay, now go, I'll take the first watch." - John said after giggle briefly.

"Okay, let's go Camill. Call me if anything comes up."- Leo said to him and walked away.

"Got it, kid"- John said smiling.

"Same; old man!"- Camill said while smiling and walking off in quick pace as the old ranger pretended to attack him.

"Bitch ha-ha…"- John groaned with chuckled. He didn't like to people remembering him how old he was. He wasn't too old, he was 54 years old.

"Sight..."- After standing there alone in the dark for a moment, with his age weighing on his sholders, he realized how big and oppressing this forest seemed to be.

§ ═══════ § ═══════ §

♦ The next day, in another part of the Great Forest ♦

Roger's group was also in a field research, but for another university, the Edwin University, located in the south region.

Although they arrived early in the morning, they were also in a search for some new species of organisms and didn't want to wait to enter the forest.

They were walking for 5 hours, thus they'd already have covered a couple dozens of miles.

Within his group wasn't only professors or scientists, there were also rangers. Unlike Sandro's group, this one was matching better with each other, because despite the fact that they, Roger's group and the rangers, weren't from the same region, they were borderer, therefore they'd basically the same skin color, which helped to get each other. Even in uniform's color they were combining. Roger was the head of the academic committee and had a straight black hair, brown skin and a tall leaned body, which matched with his thick green and white uniform from academy.

The PROREFFN had also sent a team of rangers to convoy his group. After few hours walking, they gave a break to rest and after a moment Roger said:

"Mr. Dario, we're going to walk until 5 or 6 p.m. and then we set our camp. Is it fine for you?"- Dario was a mid-aged man and leader of the rangers' team, which replied waving his head: "Okay, sir, no problem at all." And then he turned to his committee and asked with a stern look: "Is it okay for you, guys?" In which confirmed waving their head.

And so the group moved forward again.

Roughly one and half hour later walking at a fast pace, they slowed down while looking their surroundings.

Although they were sent to this forest to collect some data and search for new species, there wasn't anything so interesting to make they stop; until now.

As the group was walking slowly, Roger decided to drink some water. He caught the bottle of water and lifted his head to drink it, but as he kept drinking, he realized the trees surrounding him quite familiar.

Then he stopped drinking and started to walk around them, while observing it from the roots till its leaves. The group didn't even notice his abrupt stop.

"God! I don't believe it, it's truly a martheyna! And not only one, dozens of it!"- He murmured while touching the tree. They were as large and had reddish-white bark the as many others in the forest, but their leaves were totally different. It was bigger, had green-yellowish color through its thick channels until reach the branch and more flattened than others.

Right after it, he started to think: 'Shit! This is pure gold, the university would get huge benefits from it, and so do I. Maybe I can become a head department or even the rector as a reward. '- He thought, excited about the idea. 'But first, I can't risk the people from PROREFFN know about this. Albeit is a scholar knowledge only, I won't give rise to they recognize it. I should walk on egg shell for while.'

Shortly after he caught up with the group, quickly he came up with a plan and so he asked them to stop so he could urinate. "Sure"- they all agreed.

He thanked and, as soon as they turned their head away, to give Roger some privacy, he went all the way back to the tree and stood behind it.

Then he crouched close to it, took a flask out of his bag, and scraped it on the tree's bark until get a good sample of it. He also took a tree's leave for precaution.

'Good, even if this field research ends now, we should still get a spotlight from the central government.' He thought.

The martheyna wood was the one used to build the furniture of the castle of the founder of the empire and all of the other nobles as well. Over the centuries, was also the main source to produce weapons, because its smooth texture but with a resistant fiber, gave the perfect balance to most weapons. That way, this wood became a proof of royalty within the empire and quickly became very rare, almost extinct, due to its rigorous condition to grow or reproduce.

Over time, the history departments from the universities realizing the significance of this tree to the history of the empire sent a formal request signed by the majority of the noble households to turn this tree a national historic heritage and give it a name of "martheyna" in tribute to the first emperor.

This way, each board of this wood became more and more expensive, until there was none. So people -like nobles- couldn't custom order anymore, only buying the remaining furniture, which nowadays each one of these cost a fortune!

Roger was back to the group after a few minutes with a smile on his face and everything went back to normal as the team continued the journey like nothing happened.

'Wow, he really needed to do his business'- the group thought with themselves.

And that way, they resumed their journey… and time passed by.

On the 6th day of research almost at sunset, the group had already set the camp and they seemed very tired, when Roger said:

"Okay guys, today is our last day of research, a lot of effort was done and I know that you are very tired, exhausted and everything, but hey, we got a couple of new data of plants at least, wasn't a total loss and I'm proud of you!"

This message instantly took effect on the group that was at low enthusiasm; they quickly straightened their backs and put a smile on their face.

'Well, for you were just some seedlings, for me was a bunch of martheyna wood.'- He thought with a small smirk on his face.

"Alright guys, it's time to get some rest and have dinner."

As said that, the group started to stir things up.

When they left the forest, they'd have to inform everything at the field research to the university, which had to report everything to the Imperial Institute of Scientific Research Control (IISRC), a imperial body created to supervise everything in the research area of the universities. And that was what Roger was worried about; the PROREFFN also had to report to the IISRC everything that happened within the body.

Therefore, as they we're closer to the PROREFFN location than Roger's university; he was worried that if the rangers knew about this, their institute would take the lead and receive the spotlight from the emperor. So he needed to keep it secret, at least to the rangers, to catch the big prize.

'That was our last day on this dark and mysterious forest. Finally… after this research my life will change for good!'- Roger thought before yawning and preparing to sleep.

§ ═══════ § ═══════ §

♦ At same time, on Sandro's group location. Deep inside the Great Forest ♦

Was night at their 7th day on the forest, when rangers and Sandro's team were grouped apart from each other.

Over time, starting on the second day, their affinity was getting worse day by day.

The rangers believed that the academics were spoiled people, who never passed by real hassle. While the university committee thought the rangers were daft as a brush.

Actually, Sandro and his granddaughter weren't caring too much about it. They just wanted to get out of the forest as soon as possible.

Thinking about it, Sandro said: "Okay kids, I know that is being tough for you. However, we must endure to complete the requesting hours of workload of field research, and luckily it ends tomorrow afternoon."- He said with a relieved expression. The workload of field research depends from each university, there wasn't a pattern.

"But we didn't found anything of great relevance, just some mosses and a few seedlings. Any new species of animal." – Thomas, a thirty-aged man said with a concerned look.

His speech caused a debate within the team. But quickly Sandro said in a harsh tone: "Okay, I know that. Henry won't be happy if we arrive with empty hands."-Henry was the Fluminense North University's rector, which they made part of - "If everybody agrees, we can postpone our leave to see if we find something."- Sandro said while stared at his partners looking for an agreement from them, which with a little of struggle, all agreed.

"Alright, how everybody here agreed, we need to make them accept too. Because without them, we can't stay here." He said while the team gazed slowly at the rangers.