The bottom most leaf above them gave way, revealing a figure about their size falling towards them.
Ciel instinctively backed away, putting Ferry in front of him.
Not because he was scared, but because he knew she could handle the danger better… right?
The figure landed gracefully, and righted itself instantly.
Ciel lowered his center of gravity, preparing to fight–or run–if the situation called for it.
To his surprise, he found himself looking at a middle aged man, with an untrimmed beard, his black hair housing a slight tint of grey.
His clothes looked like they hadn’t been washed in weeks, with a few holes sprouting from a black coat.
He had a wild, demented look about him, causing Ciel to take another step back.
His beady eyes widened dramatically, clearly as surprised to see them as they were to see him.
Ciel tensed as the man raised his arm.
Then he spoke, clearly attempting communication without provocation; Ciel could tell that much from his body language, but he failed to understand what he was saying.
His words were in another language as well.
Is there some language everyone knows besides me?
Ciel whined internally.
Did he write the message up there?
Since he was currently doing his best to hide behind Ferry, he had no way of knowing if she could understand what the man was saying.
She had remained mostly still the entire time, but Ciel noticed her hand moving slowly across her waist.
He felt a bad premonition.
Meanwhile, the man had stopped talking and seemed to give them a downcast look.
He looked slightly disappointed as he began to move his arms again as if to signal something.
Before he could fully extend his arm, Ferry moved.
Her hand came out from behind her–surprisingly still empty–as she delivered a straightforward punch headed right towards his face.
The man’s eyes widened, and despite Ferry’s tremendous speed, he managed to finally raise his arm in an attempt to block.
However the block didn’t help much, as Ferry’s punch kept its momentum, taking his arm with it, receiving the full brunt of the attack directly into his left cheek.
The man faltered, and Ferry wasted no time following up.
She extended her right leg, kicking out at the man, swiping his legs.
He lost his balance, falling to the ground hard
As he did, Ferry collapsed on top of him, wrapping her limbs around his back to hold him in place.
She placed her hands on his head for a few seconds, while he tried to violently shake her off.
The man struggled to get much movement under Ferry’s crushing grip, and she knocked his head onto the floor.
The old man’s struggle grew less powerful, while Ferry’s hold remained firm.
His legs thrashed about behind them, trying to find purchase, but to no avail.
To Ciel’s surprise, Ferry let go.
She dropped down and rolled backwards.
Her legs swung out again to kick the man, this time sending him careening off the edge of the branch they were on.
As he rolled off the man let out a wicked grin before eventually plummeting into the foliage below them.
Ciel stood in stunned silence.
He took a momentary glance downward before looking back at Ferry.
Ciel had already been surprised to see a man randomly appear in this gargantuan tree, but Ferry’s actions were somehow more jarring.
Not only had the man made no move to attack them, but he had controlled himself enough to not seem threatening at all.
Yet Ferry had attacked anyway, without warning or hesitation.
Did he say something he shouldn’t have?
Sensing his gaze, she turned back and began walking towards the trunk.
Ciel momentarily glanced back down at the edge of the branch where the man had plummeted to what Ciel could only believe was his death.
Then he exhaled softly and followed after Ferry.
“Why did you attack him?
Could you tell what he was saying?
“If you’re asking because you think he was connected to the language, I wouldn’t have been able to understand it being spoken.
After all, only writings remain.
“…Then why?
“Simple.
That was no man.
Ciel looked at her with doubt.
“He looked like a man, acted like a man, and probably spoke like a man, too. How could he not be?”
To Ciel, Ferry’s reaction had been far more unnatural, and far more dangerous.
“A skinwalker”, she muttered with a look of disdain, “They are more common than I thought.”
A skinwalker?
The monsters our parents told us about to make us behave?
Ciel pondered in cold sweat.
Still if anything, the person in front of him acted more like one than the man who she defeated.
“How could you tell?” he asked
“Everything in this place is vile and evil, no matter how it tries to disguise itself.
Make sure nothing tries to grab hold of you, they like to feed on human souls.
Just a few seconds is enough for them to leave you as an empty husk.
Ciel’s skin crawled at this description.
If she really was someone out to get me, she wouldn’t have warned me about coming here.
It… really is a death trap.
“Let’s keep going. That won’t be the last of them,” Ferry said dismissively.
Their climb resumed in silence.
Much to Ciel’s dismay, Ferry’s words rang true just after his first short break.
Above, the leaves moved slightly as a tell tale sign of something approaching.
Just as before a figure fell from above.
This time, it was somewhat smaller, around the size of a child.
It looked less human and more lizard-like, complete with a rugged scaly tail.
Ferry had assumed her stance as quickly as before, but she did not spring into action.
Instead she turned to Ciel, giving him a small bow, as if beckoning him forward.
Ciel pretended to not take the hint at first, but it seemed the creature was in agreement with Ferry as it lunged directly towards him.
It was fast, but fortunately not as strong, meaning Ciel was able to block its attack with his arms guarding his body.
Ciel scowled at the overgrown lizard for making him look bad.
He charged forward, keeping his body low.
The creature skipped forward nimbly, sending its tail forward to meet Ciel, trying to sweep his legs out from under him.
Ciel just barely managed to jump over it.
Upon landing he realigned and finally landed a hit on the creature’s side.
The creature was a lot sturdier than it looked, and it barely seemed to notice.
It charged at him again, unrelenting.
Each time Ciel blocked or dodged while straining to create an attack of his own.
This cycle repeated several times, with Ciel barely dodging before landing a solid hit on the creature.
At one point his arm trailed behind him lazily, and the lizard gifted him a long scratch that set Ciel’s arm ablaze with pain.
Only after a dozen similar exchanges did the creature finally begin to slow down.
Once it did Ciel clearly had the upper hand, although his movements had slowed as well.
Here, the best advantages were his reach and strength, ultimately deciding the outcome.
Ciel capitalized on this as the creatures reacted slowly, giving him enough space and time to send a powerful kick forward, causing the creature to stumble and plunge off their current branch.
Ciel watched its body careen downwards before looking back at Ferry, who had silently observed the battle without expression.
After a moment she simply said, “You have some work to do.”
Ciel frowned.
That hurt him more than he expected.
After only a few minutes of climbing another figure appeared, this one also smaller and resembling a bird in shape, with wings far too small for flight.
Ferry quickly dispatched it, sending it flying downwards until it became a small blue speck.
In just one move, Ciel thought to himself, extremely grateful to have her help.
However they could only do so much against a growing number of enemies.
In the lulls of battle, Ciel’s mind continued to return to that strange message.
He knows that Ferry has all but dismissed it, and they were far too busy to bring it up again.
One slip of their concentration was all it would take for them to be the ones falling off. branches.
However his own mind kept returning to it.
Hail the twin saints of fertility and virility, for they will ____ the world.
Fertility and virility.
From a religious perspective, they relate closest to Ground or Fire respectively, but what about twin saints?
Even if Ciel could ignore the similarity of this phrase to ones common in the churches of his world, the timing was suspicious as well.
A man comes down interrupting their discovery of a message with a foreign language, proceeding to speak a language that was also foreign to them…
Was he really a skinwalker?
More importantly, does that matter?
If they could mimic human appearances and speech, why not also their entire language?
However, this also brought out a bigger question.
If the skinwalker really did mimic someone, then where could he have found this person?
Looking at the vast scale of this place, the answer was obvious.
So there really was someone here after all.