The little doll looked up at the roof of her cave. Bare feet with fat cute toes rubbing playfully together and big round eyes seriously studying what grew above.

"Mushrooms?"

While researching the thing that had unexpectedly appeared on the roof of her cave.

Suddenly, from the corridor came the steady sound of footsteps echoing clearly in her ears. Someone was approaching and took her attention away from the “mushroom”, immediately she ran back to her eggshell.

***

Leu was stuck in the ground, unable to move. The soil here was so hard that it pressed him tightly. He couldn't move, couldn’t speak, he had no chance to release another spell. Of course, he wasn't sure if the spell he cast was effective or not.

Something softly whispered in his ears, which frightened him. Maybe some worm got into his ear or something. Then there was a faint voice, which reassured him a little that it was a human voice. A person spoke in some bizarre language, with the thick layers of ground were also quite broad. His echo became as tiny as the flapping of an insect's wings, so he wasn't sure the languages he spoke were Mandarish or not.

The speaker seems to be talking to someone, but the other person doesn't answer. He speaks for a long time. Leu was trying to hear their conversation, trying to keep his mind awake. But no matter how hard he tried, he only heard words like "Dos" something and "Dalia" something, but he didn't know what they meant. After a while, Leu's mind was no longer so clear. He couldn't hear the voice anymore. It seemed that he had stopped talking as well. The surrounding silence made Leu feel scared. He started to find it hard to breathe, his mind started spinning, his body began to heat up. He felt extremely uncomfortable.

***

Until that person was gone, the little doll came out of the eggshell again. She looked at the closed wooden door for a moment before she remembered that there was a "mushroom" on the ceiling of the cave. Unsure if it was still there,

she waddled over and looked up at the roof of the cave, happily clapping because it was still there. She studied the "mushroom" for a while, scratched her head and looked around. But she couldn't find anything to pull it down. Her eyes looked at her little finger, a mischievous smile on her lips. She pointed to the "mushroom"and didn’t even need to cast a spell. Immediately Leu was dragged to the ground. She shouted out loud and then slipped back into her eggshell.

***

The lucky escape from the soil to meet the air made Leu somewhat forget the pain emanating from his hip.

At this moment, he was dragging on the ground. The only thing he tried now was taking in the air that finally appeared around him. Almost choking a few times, but eventually, he could breathe.

When he calmed down, Leu realised that this place was another cave.

"That's cool eh, get out of a cave into another cave." Leu looked around.

“I'm sure I heard some screaming voices around here. Illusion?" Leu asked himself.

The spaciousness and brightness of this cave did not look like the one in which Leu was locked. But the brightness was not from the shining water stream like the one they had seen in the halls. It was from the water ball with countless precious treasures lying around it.

Gold, silver, jade and even diamonds were all rare treasures that he had never seen in his life. They were in abundance in this cave. Even inside the water ball, lying on the stone pedestal, there was a big round pearl. Leu had never seen such big and beautiful pearls like that before.

The only thing in contrast with this specious cave was probably the pile of books lying next to the stone pedestal. Mostly children's books, the rest were a few crudely patchworked papers. The script inside was so weird. Leu couldn’t understand the language written in it at all. From that pile of old books fell something like a piece of wood, but inside were many thinner pieces of wood joined together to form a book. The outside was wrapped with a thin transparent film where one could clearly see the words engraved inside. And, of course, he still couldn't understand the writing inside.

"Maybe this is some sort of spell book. Taam said the Asla people are very good at these things."

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Leu wanted to see clearly what the words were engraved on the wooden board, but suddenly the light in his eyes became darker and darker. The more he could see, the less clearer he was. Leu approached the water ball closer. His eyes drifted over the pearl that he was unconsciously drawn to. He seemed to see something inside the pearl. Reaching out his hand, he picked it up to inspect it more closely. Leu thought he saw another ocean inside the sphere. A silver fish tail was wagging its tail around in front of his eyes, making his eyes unable to divert his focus from it.

After a while, he felt more and more unwell, shaking his head vigorously, trying to stay awake. When he wanted to return the pearl, he realised that the water ball had broken when he lifted it. Leu panicked and didn't know what to do.

The sound of countless footsteps approached. This time it didn't seem to be just an arrest.

The soldiers rushed inside the cave, pointed their spears around, but they saw no one. They didn't even see Leu standing right in front of their spears, trying to explain that he didn't mean to break the water ball. But no one paid any attention to him.

The spear pierced through Leu's body, his mouth gaping open. He didn't understand what was going on. Right now, he was invisible, not only invisible but also penetrating like smoke. He thought maybe this was just a dream. But when he pinched his arm, the pain told him this wasn't a dream at all.

"The egg is missing.” One soldier said.

"It must have been that fugitive human, he took it. Go and find him. NOW." The leader said.

That person's words woke Leu. The person they were talking about was him.

Leu cleared his throat, slipped the book onto his belt and decided to follow them.

***

Leu followed the guards throughout the castle, trying to remember every location he had passed.

"Those people still pretend to be innocent but there is clearly someone among them with such powerful magic that can evade Vae magic. Lady Valarians must have been captured by that person." Leu approached the two soldiers closest to him and heard their conversation.

"It is possible, but everyone knows that “lady” is troublesome, that is why she left Vargar and came here. She made the Nors blind with a fork. It is a great sin.”

"Be quiet, careful, someone'll report you. You know Sir Kaido will not let anyone live if they dare to talk about his sister like that."

Leu was so absorbed in their conversation that he didn't notice the pearl in his hand had stopped glowing. Leu had returned to his normal state but he was completely oblivious. He kept walking behind them until he reached the castle's entrance. The two guards saw him ambling past them.

"The fugitive mortal." The gatekeeper shouted.

The group of soldiers turned around to look at the person behind them in surprise.

Leu pointed to himself, realising that the magic was over.

He smiled with an awkward face.

They aimed and stabbed him. Leu dodged quickly. Taking the opportunity, he grabbed the tip of a soldier's spear. Leu yanked it out and snatched the spear from their hands. He nimbly dodged and stabbed back at them.

Soon the soldiers were sprawled on the ground.

But it wasn’t over. More and more soldiers ran out from inside the castle.

Leu didn't have time to think. He ran as fast as he could into the forest. The sound of the soldiers chasing him made him not dare to slow down.

Leu ran until a high cliff appeared in front of him. He looked down. There was a river below. Leu turned his head to the sound of the soldiers approaching. He looked around nervously but had no place to hide. Leu closed his eyes and took a deep breath, and decisively jumped down.

Boom!

With the sound of water splashing, he fell into the river and struggled in the water for a while. Leu did not dare stand up but held his breath and decided to swim further. Leu didn't know how long he had been swimming, but just knew that he really wanted to float now. Yet his whole body was heavy, as if someone was forcing his body down to prevent him from swimming up.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The sound of splashing water resounded as some soldiers swam down, their feet turning into fishtails as soon as they touched the water. It didn't take long for them to catch up with Leu.

"Hiding in the water, what a fool." Their voices clearly resounded in the water, every word reaching Leu’s ears.

Yes, why did he forget that they are Asla.

They are mermaids.

Leu was scared but still tried his best to swim as fast as possible.

Being in the water is a brutal struggle for humankind. But with Asla they are several times faster than when running on land. But when they thought they could catch him, a strong stream of water hit them, pulling them away, and Leu also disappeared right in front of their noses.

***

Successfully floating above the water, Leu finally felt the air again.

A stream suddenly appeared and pushed him into a cave. Leu used all his strength to swim. Luckily, this was not a dead-end cave, and they were no longer chasing him. If not, he would have drowned already.

Leu pushed himself ashore heavily, lying down and breathing.

“I couldn’t die. I had to find a way to get the company and Adda out. I couldn’t die.” Leu mumbled. “ But resting… just a little… resting.”

Turning his head, he looked at his left hand. He didn't expect this. He was still clutching it - that strange pearl.