Rocks (do not read please it is stupid lol)

Wanderers

Hills rolled across the next great chunk of land ahead of them. Orange and brown covered the ground as fall rolled back in, the dead leaves crunching with each step. Streams flowed along the forest floor, weaving its way between the trees that surrounded them. It left the terrain muddy at the bottom, but then left the tops of the hills dried out. They were steep hills, roots of trees sticking out and being the only source of surface to grab or step onto. Though the sun was out, it was shrouded by grey clouds, not containing rain, but carrying it elsewhere. It left the forest dim, but not dark.
Conversation echoed softly amongst the trees and bounced between the valleys of the hills, often drowned out by the crinkling of leaves from their own footsteps and the treading of other animals nearby. It never brought alarm that other animals walked amongst the same terrain as they did, as this was quite normal everywhere on Earth. They had let the edge leave them as they readjusted to the environment over these last four months.

Jade felt his foot slip again as he managed to get himself over a small stream at the bottom. As he fell backwards, he heard a quick turn of steps from the two ahead of him and felt his arm suddenly yanked before he could splat into the mud. It took him a second to realize it was Pearl who grabbed so violently, a slight panic to her stone cold expression.
She still hadn't fully recovered from losing him for two days straight.
After a moment, Jade just laughed it off. "...Whoops." He regained his footing with the aid of Pearl and stood back up, making sure he was balanced this time.
"You alright?" Pyrite asked before turning himself back around to lead ahead again.
"Yeah, I'm good."
"That's the third time this hour!"
"This is rough terrain!!"
Pyrite searched the ground for a second, but then picked up a stick, which ended up being taller than himself. He threw it back at Jade.
"Here. Use this."
He barely caught it, but then held it in his hands, confused. "...What's this for?"
"Making sure you don't fall over."
"Wh- I don't need a walking stick!" Jade tossed it aside, immediately wiping the dirt on his hands off onto his pants. Pyrite only shrugged, implying it was Jade's loss.

The hill ahead of them wasn't too steep, but it was aided by roots of surrounding trees breaking through the ground. It made for natural footholds that then acted like stairs. They didn't jut out too much, but hey, it was better than nothing.
They had picked back up whatever conversation they were having before, resuming it as if nothing had happened. They seemingly payed almost no mind to the surrounding environment as they talked, sometimes even turning around to talk to each other and walking backwards. Of course, that resulted in occasional slips and falls which never failed to bring more humor to the conversations.

Reaching the top of another of the hills, Jade slowed down and turned back around, getting a view of it all. Everyone else slowed when they realized he had practically stopped.
"You good?" Asked Pyrite, but he already knew what Jade was doing. Jade only responded simply, just taking in the view. Sure, it wasn't the prettiest day, but that was alright.
They ended up standing around for a moment, mostly waiting for Jade. He did this way too often. Honestly sometimes they wondered if he scanned the environment and visualized it in his head like a god damn poem. But they couldn't really do anything to stop him, so they also just looked around for a moment.

Pearl swung herself around suddenly, facing the opposite direction that Jade stared in. Everyone brought their attention to her.
Her stance became defensive, and only after a second, she summoned her weapon.
"Pearl?-" Jade was quickly shushed by her hand gesture behind her. Both him and Pyrite tried listening out for anything that would set her off.

A crinkling of leaves nearby that sounded like footsteps. Not the usual animal ambience.

Jade was the next one to get prepared, although he didn't face the same way. He heard it from a different direction than Pearl. He heard it from the way he was facing before.
Pyrite was the last one to get ready, and even HE was facing a different way! They all practically stood back to back at this point, unsure of where the hell this enemy was.