By the time she reaches Taiga, the warmth of Tephra has dried the seawater from her skin. The tropical leaf that she carries in a folded manner still cradles the first piece of the geode she had been sent to find, the one that had been half-submerged in the tide pools of Island Resort. With two pieces left to find, it made sense to track through Taiga, before making her way to the beach for the last one.

She had recognized the redwood bark of the trees in Taiga in the vision she had been shown, but that didn’t make her task any easier. There were far more trees in Taiga than there were tide pools in Island Resort, and almost immediately she is frustrated when she enters, scanning across the sea of trees. But the image she that had been displayed before had contained an oddly shaped tree; one that split and twisted, with the crystallized item nestled in the curve of a lower limb.

And so she winds her way through the forest, the carpet of pine needles muffling her sounds as she walked. She was focused only on the task at hand, however, so much so that she did not notice the way the shadows seemed alive and laughing, and she paid no attention when the thoughts of the nearby residents filtered through her own mind. The intensity of her gaze was only for the various trees, inspecting any that looked like the one in the vision.

Finally, as the light began to dim with the promise of nightfall, she finds the second piece. It’s higher than it first appeared, forcing her to rock back on her hind legs and lift herself high enough to nose it from where it rested, and watching it tumble to the ground with a satisfied smirk. She unfolds the leaf, and places the geode next to its other piece, before continuing her trek towards the beach.