Alt-text: "The world is a scary place."

And that is it for chapter IV: Problems Yet To Come. 

Next week will start the next chapter, Into The Abyss, which will leave the (relative) security of this city and once again venture into the jungle (and a few other places I guess). Thanks to everyone who has been reading thus far and I hope you will continue to read!    

And now for those who care, a little bit on who Katharina is praying to here, and why:

At the start of the comic she seemed not to be that religious, because she cared more about her travels, her studies and the things right before her. On her way to Serpent's End though she repeatedly nearly died, and I decided that's be a good reason for her to come back and revisit that medallion she owns (and to start wearing it again consistently), as well as what it represents. The design of the medallion is from my brother, who actually made one of these in real life (it looks great!), together with the religion of the five gods he thought up for the humans in the kingdom of Alamond. As Katharina, despite now being way outside of the kingdom, has still grown up in there, it's only logical that it's part of her culture. You might have heard her say "Lhûn" from time to time when she's swearing, surprised or something like that.

The five gods of that religion are Lhûn, Mahn, Hîr, Fae and Thoël. The first one is actually an unpersonified entity that represents everything and anything, including the other four, who are sort of more personified aspects that represent the four elements water, air, fire and earth, respectively. They also represent certain things and qualities that typically are associated with that element, like passion or war for fire. So while in theory Lhûn is the one above all and the only thing you need to worship, it's often easier to pick one of the aspect for your daily struggles that you need some divine entity to pray to.

In this case, Katharina does both and pray to Lhûn him/her/them/itself as well as Hîr, the goddess of wind in her role as patron of travel and exploration. Both get a traditional prayer to ask for protection and safety, as Katharina has learned them as a child, though this might be the first time she has spoken them out loud with that honesty and desparation.

The last few panels are rather ... improvised, though.