The owl did not blink. It perched on a thin branch that defied gravity with its ability to hold it up. Its feathers seemed to shift colour based on the tone, between ash and oily black. Its glowing eyes reflected awareness that stretched beyond intelligence. This was the second time they were meeting, but only it knew that.
Pluto held his stern gaze a little too rebelliously. He folded his arms without speaking.
"You said payment," Mira said. "Payment for what?"
"For clarity," the owl replied with a voice that didn't match the movement of its beak, as if the forest spoke on its behalf. "This is a trial."
Mira snorted slightly. "No kidding," she murmured to herself.
"What are the terms for passing it?"
Wind cut through the silence. The soil bubbled softly to feel the soundless void.
"You were chosen," the owl replied.
"Randomly. From all over the face of the globe. At different times, but you all arrived here at once."
Its gaze swept across Pluto's arm, causing his eel to recede inwards. "So want do you want?"
His voice was quite even, not matching the pitch of his thoughts.
The owl's beak parted slightly, representing a failed imitation of a smile. " A battle seed."
Mira stiffened, seemingly understanding its meaning without being told. 'strange...'
"You want us to kill someone."
"I want you to participate."
Pluto cut in. " And if we bring one?"
"I'll answer some questions."
"About the forest?"
"Some."
"About the trials?"
A pause. "Some."
Mira shook her head. "This is sick."
"This is structure."
Pluto had already gotten sick of it too. Not that he wasn't inclined with the ideas of the owl, but because he couldn't stand the jargon coming out of its mouth.
"Let's go," he said after a few steps taken.
The owl gleamed amusedly. "Payment clarifies position."
Pluto didn't respond, but he stored the phrase carefully, because he was sure it held startling importance.
***
They walked without speaking at first. The air thickened between as expected tension grew. The owl's perch was especially unnerving, containing a strange nullification that seemed to separate all the senses from each other. And as they left, it didn't seem to reduce in potency. Beyond that, something else was wrong.
Pluto couldn't place the feeling, he just knew it was out of place. It seemed like deja vu, or a sense of reliving a memory that words didn't do justice too–much like most of the things in the forest.
A question hung in his mind, ' hadn't he had this conversation before?'
Mira broke the silence, her voice full of expectation she knew Pluto wouldn't meet. "Well?"
"We just need one," Pluto softly said.
"We agreed we aren't going to kill people," she retorted.
"We didn't agree."
"You can't be serious."
"Do you want to remain illiterate?"
"That's not the point," she said quite offended.
"Unfortunately, it is."
She searched his face, but uncertainty did not resonate in the slightest. That was even more annoying that his irrational arguments.
"We could survive without knowing everything. We–"
"No," he interrupted with a sharp voice. " A gamble like that is made with steaks too high. We need some basis of assurance."
She exhaled sharply, almost seeing reason in his words. "Ok, but what about the dead man we saw a few days ago? Maybe his seed is still in him."
Pluto considered it. It was a better way to satisfy the demand. Less engagement, less moral compromise. "Maybe," he concurred.
Mira was relieved that he hadn't been wanting blood shed of the sake of it. He had accepted her proposition, so he too still wanted to preserve human life.
They continued walking, finally aware that they had stopped to bicker.
As they moved, Pluto felt a connection thin. Something that had once been clear and crystal, was now buried under waves of disparities, albeit barely.
The eel wasn't in anyway different, but it seemed heavier with lifelessness. He slowed, trying to feel its pulse.
"What?" Mira asked when he slowed.
"It was stronger there."
"What was? Your arm painting?"
"Yes...I could feel more patterns, more detail."
She didn't press further. He stored it too ; another piece of valuable information he had gotten today.
Location mattered. Territory amplified, and leaving that territory, took what one already had.
***
They never reached the dead body. A new target presented itself, one too alluring to ignore.
Pluto felt it before hearing movement – a concentration of warmth ahead, distinct. It was a human. He stopped. Mira stopped too.
"What?"
"It's one of them," he whispered.
"The trio?" Mira asked, fear struck. "How can you tell?"
He focused his eyes. Generally, human heat signatures were the same, but the way the heat moved was all but similar. He glanced around causally, like someone who was out of the comfort of company.
"It matches," he simply said.
"Is he alone?"
"He is. He seems panicked."
Mira swallowed, knowing she had already decided to betray her conduct so early in. "If we're going to do this... it's better if it's just one."
He didn't answer. That was answer enough.
Then they began preparations, or in other words, stalking.
The man was late twenties, cautious and had a broken rod in one hand, and a knife made from the same odd material in the other. His clothes were tattered and his uneven breath very noticeable. Pluto and Mira kept distance as they swaddled inwards. The eel tightened, giving them hints on when to move and when not to. Pluto had to constantly take in more than his mind was supposed to, monitoring even inch of space that could give their hiding away.
When he stepped out of path, the eel loosened grip, forcing him to correct instinctively.
"Why that way," she asked.
"Feels closer."
She shrugged. Most of his explanations to why he did things never really made sense, but they were justified shortly after, so she didn't question him.
They waited until the man approached a swampy area with thick shrubs scattered around. Concealment was made even more full proof by the almost palpable pressure of the mist. But for that same reason, visibility was a problem.
"Who's there?" He called out when he heard something. A step Pluto had misplaced trying to find good footing.
Pluto stepped out first. The man recognised him immediately. "You again?"
Mira emerged seconds later, taking a loose stance that did more for her confidence than to achieve anything.
"You think you can take me because I'm alone?" the man demanded, gripping his knife tighter.
"... precisely." Pluto's voice travelled lower than he intended. He wasn't sure, and neither was his opponent.
Mira tried once. "We don't have to –"
The man lunged without warning, tearing at her with all his vigor.
Pluto moved just a fraction of a heartbeat after. He wasn't faster, but terrain favoured his steps. The blade scraped against his forearm instead of her chest.
Pain tore through his straight face, forcing a wince out of him. Still, it was manageable. The eel pulsed, pushing Pluto back into laser focus. For a moment, he sensed the entire anatomy of the man. His muscles contraction, tendon tension, heat patterns.
And then the ground ruptured.
As explosively as can be the floor opened and thick green stems burst upwards, latching onto the man's limbs.
It choked him before his scream travelled past his lungs. Its prickly surface puncturing him in multiple dozens of places.
Pluto and Mira were thrown back by the titanic force, stumbling in trees that broke their fall. The plant based growth did not thrash or rip him apart. It slowly choked him, sapping the life out of him, until nothing remained.
Then it held his lifeless body for a few seconds, reveling in its easy meal, and then it dragged him into the soil. The simplicity of it was goring. No spectacle or clash, just absorption.
Swamp water rushed to fill the crack again, leaving only a shallow depression to tell the tale. Pluto approached cautiously, searching for the battle seed, if it had not be dragged in with the body.
He brushed aside loose soil and found it– small, dark and swirling with internal pulse.
He lifted it from the throes of mud. It was warm and throbbing. Comforting in a sense. The eel reacted again, connecting stronger with its host.
'So this strange seeds can substitute location and still cause amplification.'
Mira's voice came thin and shakily. "If the thing didn't kill him, we were going to do it."
Pluto sighed. "Yes. But we didn't kill him, and we still got what we came for."
Mira smiled bitterly. "Does that make it any better?"
"No."
He huffed disappointedly. But if he was going to survive here, he had go get comfortable with murder. He slipped the seed into his pocket. The forest had already erased all signs of the prior conflict, with vegetations springing back up to cover the holes and cracks.
The other two weren't far off, just a few hundred metres away. Alive, unfortunately.
"They're aren't too far."
She turned to him." The trio....or duo rather."
He chuckled slightly. "Yeah."
"So are they next?"
He shook his head. "No. You would have been dead if I hadn't stepped in, and I would have been dead if whatever that was didn't. We are ready to face double the problems."
"Then what?" she asked like a confused kindergartener.
He turned in the direction they had come from. " We return with payment."
"You trust it?"
"Not at all. But it knows more than we do."
Silence jumped in at the opportunity. For the first time, they had an objective apart from running from everything.
"Then after that?" Mira asked.
Pluto's gaze sharpened. "After that, we will start acting and not react."
The forest nodded again, not in support or in opposition, but in evaluation.
And behind the clouds of mist, something layered in feathers perched on a branch, silent and waiting.