Chapter 7: Wild Kikwi Chase
Climbing up the ramp the creature scaped to, Vexalia managed to get to an area filled with more trees and some large mushrooms too, "This place seems a little dark..." She commented, walking around the trees to find the little creature, until she saw it hiding behind a mushroom.
Walking up to it, Vexalia got frustrated as the leafy thing kept circling around the mushroom, prompting the hero to punch the mushroom and make the creature run away again, "Damnit..." Vexalia cursed as she ran after the creature again to another mushroom, which she tried cutting with her sword, but it just bounced off, scaring the creature away again.
Now being done with it, Vexalia chased the creature to another mushroom and leaped over it, managing this time to catch the thing, "Gotcha!" She cheered, causing the creature to squeak in fear and drop to the ground, opening a bud on it's back that resembled a bush, "...Huh? You're not gonna eat me?" The creature questioned as it realized that nothing was happening.
"Eat you? Why would I ever eat you?" Vexalia questioned in confusion, especially since the creature looked quite nasty to eat, "Phew! With all those monsters popping up I was certain I was done for!" The creature said, wiping the metaphorical sweat off of it's forehead, "My name is Machi, a Kikwi." He introduced himself, "A Kikwi? There's more of you?" Vexalia asked in confusion, not having thought there would be more of them.
After an explanation, "So these red monsters attacked you guys and to avoid getting caught you scattered, got it." Vexalia summarized, "We did!" Machi confirmed with a small nod, "Say! Since you saved me from those monsters, would it be too much to ask you to see if Elder Bucha is okay?" He requested, clearly worried.
"Well, it shouldn't be a problem, I'll tell him you're looking for him if I find him." Vexalia replied as she headed on to the path in front of her, "Shouldn't be hard finding a shrub with a body..." She thought to herself as she reached a cliff that would have brought her back to the area she was before, but on the other side she saw who could have only been the Elder considering how big he was.
Jumping over with the help of a rope, she managed to make the leap and looked at the 'camouflaged' Elder, "Hey are you Bucha?" She questioned, poking at the side of his head to get his attention, and it succeded as he got up and looked down at her, "You speak? Those other monsters only made weird noises." He commented, recalling the earlier attack.
Vexalia cleaned her throat a moment, "Machi is looking for you." She told the Elder who jerked a bit at the news, "Machi? Oh I didn't realize he would worry." Bucha said before e noticed what Vexalia exactly looked like, "Say... You wouldn't happen to know the girl that passed by earlier, right?" He asked, catching Vexalia's immediate attention, "You saw her!?" She questioned, her pupil turning to an exclamation mark.
"Yes, but unfortunately, the area she went to is the one with the most monsters, so we had to seal it off." Bucha explained, deflating Vexalia's excitement, "...How about this? There are other three Kikwis here in the woods besides me and Machi, if you can find them I'll give you what you need to access the Deep Woods." He offered, and without even saying anything, Vexalia was off.
Crawling through a hole in the trunk of a nearby tree and crossing a singular rope connecting two cliffs and ended up finding a Kikwi hanging from a tree, away from a monster, "Face me coward!" Vexalia challenged the monster, but instead of attacking, it pulled out a horn and blew on it, calling out more monsters.
To fight the monsters, Vexalia readied her sword and dashed for the mosnter that called the others, stabbing it in the chest and tossing it towards the monster on her left, then grabbing the weapon of the monster she stabbed, she slammed the blunt end of it onto one ready to attack her from behind, stunning it and allowing her to kick the monster away with no problem.
Now with the monsters on the ground, Vexalia proceeded to quickly plunge her word into the chest of each one, twice for good measure, "Can you get down?" She called out to the Kikwi on the tree, who shook it's head in response, so Vexalia kicked the tree hard enough to have it shake and the Kikwi fell down, "Bucha is looking for you, bye!" She said before leaving to look for the next.
Walking by the biggest tree in the middle of the woods, Vexalia saw a bush that looked like the other Kikwi's on top of piece of ground poking out of a Plateau, "There!" She exclaimed before growing claws and cliombing up to it, "Hey you! Bucha is worried!" She told the Kikwi, making it look up before Vexalia dropped down.
Finally with one left, Vexalia ran through a root of the tree and climbed on top of one to get up to an area that had a hole in the ground, "Anyone there?" She called out int othe hole, "Huh!?" She heard as a response, "I'm guessing you're a Kikwi! Bucha is looking for you got it!?" She yelled to make sure she was heard, "Yes!" She heard.
Having found all the Kikwis, Vexalia proceeded to go back to Bucha, using her claws to climb up on the heightened point he was on "I found them all!" She proclaimed, "Oh thank goodness, I was gettin very worried for a moment there." He said, "But since you did as promised, i will hold my side of the promise." He said before bellyflopping and opening his bud, revealing a slingshot in it.
Climbing up him, Vexalia took the slingshot and looked it over, before Bucha got back up causing herr to fall to the ground, "Are you okay?" He asked, a little confused, "Just point in the direction!" Vexalia requested angrily.