The Radiant Sun rose and fell, followed by the faint Luminous Moon. Days passed, blending together such that Yuriko had to resort to her time-sense and the marks left on the trunk to determine the date. It wasn’t as if she instinctively knew the date. It was more of an instinctive feel of how many seconds passed, how many minutes, or hours. As the days marched on, she began to lose track. It wasn’t as if there were calendars around.

Even the marks she carved on the trunk were not reliable in the sense that she sometimes forgot to update it in the mornings. The moment her Anima strength progressed, Yuriko knew that the relatively easy time she had when advancing had come to an end. Her Animus reserves were far below the minimum needed to progress to Knight.

She had a hundred and fifteen lumens, last she checked. Zoi elixirs wouldn’t work unless she drank the correct one, and even those required that she was already a Journeyman before they took effect. Her core just couldn’t take in more. Well, she started with a hundred and five and somehow increased it naturally to a hundred and fifteen while she fought for her life in Shillogu Woods. That said, she had no idea how to replicate that growth.

Well, apparently, Damien knew how. The next time she used her Facet, Damien was there.

About time. He groused. Attend my instruction.

He assumed a seated meditation pose with his heels over his knees, and the back of his hands resting on the sole of each foot. He flared his Anima, golden flames just like Yuriko’s, but the flames were thick and seemed far more solid than they should be. Strands of Animus exuded from his body and started to twist, forming dozens of runescript words. The Animus was pure. The strands danced at the edges of his Anima, calling in the ambient Chaos. As soon as it started to taint, he brought it back into his Anima, which burned the taint. The strands returned to Pure and he repeated the process.

Ten minutes every day. More than that and you risk the integrity of your Anima.

“What happens?” Yuriko asked even as her memories stirred. She’d seen it before, she knew. Ah. During her coma, the long dream. So that was what he was doing.

This exercise stimulates your core. Continuous usage increases your cap. Up to a certain point.

“What does the runescript mean?”

Gathering. Chaos. Refinement. Disperse.

“Which is which?”

You’ll know when you use it. Damien’s voice held a trace of amusement.

Well, it was easier said than done. Suffice to say, the first time she used it, the strands tainted too much and turned to distilled Chaos instead. That first night had been filled with frustration, but with constant practice, she eventually managed it. Well, after ten minutes of that, she stopped. She felt nothing.

“Krys,” she muttered. She missed her best friend. Well, she missed Mikel too. And she wanted chocolate truffles!

She hadn’t thought of them much the past few weeks. Not when she had to focus on survival. Well, now that she was a Journeyman, years before she had expected to be, maybe she had the strength to return home.

She had to return to the cove. Across the ocean was the Tidelands that allowed her to enter this plane. If Fri’Avgi had kept her safe enough, then the artefact could keep her safe as she made her way back to Rumiga. The idea took to her mind like fire on tinder. Well, she had to get her gear and supplies ready.

For the next few days, she harvested a bunch of fruits and tubers--things she could eat raw if she had to. She caught a few forest rodents, butchered them, then smoked the meat until she had some passable jerky.

She polished and cleaned her Plasma Caster and Lancet though both weapons were in bad shape. The humidity of the jungle, coupled with the seawater and sand, had corroded the more delicate parts of the weapon. She could fix the runescript but the small parts inside the chamber, not so much.

With a sigh, she tucked the Lancet inside her backpack. The Caster was too big to fit inside, so it was left secured on the side. Her combat knife was still intact, but mainly because she had not used it since she learned how to create an Animus blade. That night, she continued her meditations, and the next morning she left her treehouse.

She stopped briefly at bony bear’s cave but another beast had taken it. It was a hunting feline, as tall as her waist at the shoulder, with mottled green and brown fur. It cowered from Yuriko when she cornered it inside the cave.

Shaking her head, she followed the steam to the river and headed to the sea. The Season of Earth was the season of growing things, after the cold desolation of Water. Torrential warm rains battered Yuriko every afternoon. She took shelter when she could, but at one point she just plucked a broad leaf from a tree and used it as an umbrella. She used the arboreal highway, leaping from branch to branch, with her boots hanging around her neck by their laces.

Her bare feet provided her better traction on the wet, and sometimes moss-covered, branches. That and the boots were getting a bit too tight. She arrived in the cove after a couple days, which she spent the majority of getting lost. The waves were much taller than before, and the roaring of the surf drowned out the pitter-patter of rain.

So maybe she should make a raft? Wood floated, yes?

She found a pile of driftwood and lashed them together. She also carved a paddle to propel her to the edge. It took her most of the day to do it, and the morning of the next day dawned bright and clear. She pushed the raft into the surf and started to paddle once she was past the breakers.

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What are you doing?

“Trying to get home,” Yuriko said simply.

Oh. How’re you planning to do that?

“Get to the Tidelands and find a way from there.”

Hmm. What Tidelands?

“The one we went through to get here?”

Really? I don’t recall going through the Tidelands.

“That’s impossible,” Yuriko said flatly. “One can only enter the plane through a Tideland or a Channel. Did we enter through a Channel?”

Not at all.

“Then how?”

Impossible doesn’t exist. Only paths you haven’t found yet. You’d better turn back.

Yuriko gritted her teeth.

“If there’s no Tidelands, then I could pass through the Veil anyway.”

Fri’Avgi cannot protect you by herself. She’s not strong enough. You’re not strong enough. Just be patient.

“But I want to go home,” she whimpered.

You will.

Still, Yuriko paddled her raft. The waves weren’t so bad this far from shore, about a longstride. She saw numerous sandbars dotting the bay. She sat down and placed the paddle across her knees. What she was doing was… foolish. She knew that. But she just couldn’t stay at the treehouse and do nothing other than train. She wanted to be with her family. She wanted to be with her friends. She missed Krystal, Mikel, Heron, Braden, and Orrin. She missed sparring with Senior Kale too.

She also hoped that Gwendith and Ella-Mai made it to safety, but it’s been almost a Season since she came here. She grew stronger, yes. The thick ambient Chaos somehow accelerated her Anima growth. But the crushing loneliness…

She channelled Enhanced Sight and she could just barely see the Veil. The multi-hued curtain of energy flared bright colours into the sky. It was more than a longstride away, maybe a league. She couldn’t really tell.

Whoosh!

The wind blew the waves higher, and she could see dark clouds starting to gather.

Crakooom!

Lightning and thunder.

Swish!

And a grey fin rose from the wave a hundred paces from her. The thing was taller than Yuriko.

“Huh. I forgot about that.”

Still, if it came for her she wouldn’t go down without a fight. It circled around her raft lazily. The waves slowly pushed her to shore, not quite back to the cove.

She dipped the paddle in the water and pushed. The raft moved slowly. She kept a wary eye on the fin, even as it sank back to the water. There was a water trough on the surface, but even that disappeared soon afterwards.

She kept calm and paddled even though her heartbeat raced.

“Are you going to attack or not? Don’t tease me like this,” she murmured. But nothing happened. “It didn’t recognize the raft? Curious beast?”

Anyway, she steered herself back into the cove and let the waves push the raft into the shore. She disembarked and dragged the raft closer to the berm so that it wouldn’t get washed away if it stormed. Rain started to fall. Small droplets, and then bigger ones, until she could barely see through the downpour. She sought shelter in the trees.

“So what now?”

The beasts were starting to return to the jungle. Though they were obviously younger and smaller. Her thoughts went to that grassland, and she wondered what was beyond there. Where did those beasts go? What was that tall spire that stretched up to the skies?

Maybe she should find out? What would she do if the plane turned out to be completely deserted of sapient life? She’d have no choice but to wait then. How many years will it be? Would her family find her? What would Mum do when she came to Faron’s Crossing this year? She always arrived a couple of weeks before the Celestial Refraction and left as soon as it was over.

Where was Da? Well, there was no way he’d know to look for her. As far as he knew, she was ensconced in the academies.

When the rain finally let up, she hiked back into the jungle, though she probably wouldn’t be able to find her old treehouse. Well, time to move anyway. She went south until she hit the river then followed it upstream.

The banks were overgrown, but by this point, her strength was enough to either push past the dense undergrowth or simply take to the branches. Even if those that were thick enough to support her weight were too far for easy reach, she could jump the gap.

By the time it became dusk, the river she followed had split into several tributaries. She followed the widest one for some time before she looked for shelter. There was a small overhang forty paces away from the bank, and with some work, she created a roof that diverted the rainwater away.

Food was mainly smoked meat and fruits. She had a pear-shaped fruit that was a nice shade of red, was much juicier than a pear and but was otherwise bland tasting. Afterwards, she meditated, cycling between Recovery, Anima flare, and a bit of Animus manipulation.

The next day, she continued following the river. The jungle had once again turned into a rainforest, with the undergrowth showing crisscrossing animal trails. She found some wild boars wuffling against tree roots, some deer drinking from a stream. She also saw a big cat stalking the deer from the branches, some brightly coloured frogs that she was sure were quite poisonous.

A warning hiss from the branch beside her had her stepping gingerly away from a snake with a black diamond pattern along its back. It was a small one, at least compared to the usual predators, with its girth roughly the width of her wrist.

A constant diet of meat and fruits, harsh physical training, and days of trekking had Yuriko’s body lose whatever baby fat from her frame. Her arms and legs were visibly toned and her waist had seemingly shrunk. Or her hips had widened that much. She didn’t quite like the aesthetics of it, but there was little she could do. She took care to remain as flexible as she could. Well, she was leaner than ever.

Her tummy growled, demanding far more food than she gave it. She glanced about and zeroed in on a boar. With a leap, she summoned a blade along her fingers and stabbed her prey behind the head, killing it instantly. She dressed it quickly and dragged it over to a clearing, where she set up a campfire and a spit roast.

While she waited for it to cook, she wandered around the edges of her camp, looking out for scavengers and predators. She could hear a dull roaring in the direction of the river. A waterfall, she thought. The scent of roasting boar wafted around the clearing.

It happened while she had gone to the bushes to relieve herself. A large shadow blotted out the sun. Yuriko glanced up, then there was a thud. The ground shuddered and bucked while she grabbed a nearby tree to regain her balance.

Slurp!

A red thing darted out from the shadow, coiled around the roast, and retracted. The tongue was wider than Yuriko’s body.

She looked up, and up, and up. The creature was winged, its body covered in scales the size of her head. It had a distinctly reptilian head, with blackened horns curling around its webbed ears. It licked its lips, crouched, then leapt up into the sky. Broken branches and leaves fell across the clearing.

Yuriko shuddered, even as her eyes tracked the beast. It either hadn’t seen her or didn't care. It was headed southwest and soon disappeared into the clouds.

“What in Chaos!” she gasped. “It stole my food!”

It was bigger than her home in Faron’s Crossing, yet it managed to fly.

Yuriko ran up a tree and popped out above the canopy, facing the direction she saw it go. The Spire.

What was there? Alongside her fear, she felt something else. Excitement.