“U-um…” Casey and I exchanged a panicky glance.

What should we do? We hadn’t wanted to reveal ourselves to her. Much less the fact that we already knew pretty much everything about her.

“Please, don’t worry. We don’t mean any harm,” Elyssa replied for us.

“Yeah! It’s alright! We’re here to help!” Frank added.

“H-help…?”

“It’s true. We heard about your plight and wanted to help you,” Elyssa responded.

“Heard about… Who are you?! How did you hear about me?! Where did you come from?!” Wi asked, fear giving way to an aggressive edge filled with panic now.

Crap. This wasn’t going well, was it?

“We… We came from another world,” Casey blurted out.

I glanced at her and saw sheer panic on her features. Her mouth was moving but nothing else came out. She probably had no idea how to continue this.

“In our world…” I tried to continue as my mind raced. “We’re capable of… seeing into this one. And… Uh, that’s how we know about… you and your struggles,” I slowly finished.

“S-seeing…? W-what? How?!”

Somehow, she was getting more suspicious of us as we talked and I could hear her hastened breathing all the way here.

“Look, let’s just sit down, and relax, so we can explain –” Frank began to suggest, but was interrupted by the sound of rapid footsteps around the corner getting further away from us.

“Wait!” Casey yelled before falling into a sprint. Without thinking, I followed right after her.

Just as we rounded the corner and caught a glimpse of the story’s protagonist booking it, Frank called out to me from behind.

“Renee! The portal!”

My head whipped back around to see Frank and Elyssa standing by the still-opened portal. I made a motion to go back to close it but then –

“No! Don’t go back outside! The forest is full of monsters! You’ll die!” Casey called out from behind the other corner.

My head whipped back and forth in indecision for a brief moment before I made the call to leave the portal for now and instead try to stop Wi from getting herself killed. I could close the portal later.

I tapped into the superior speed of my not-true form and sprinted after the two, following the sound of their footsteps. I flew through the corridors faster than I’d ever thought possible, entered the secret passageway which had been left wide open, and soon caught up with Casey at the end of it.

Unfortunately…

“She’s outside now…” she murmured with fear in her voice as she stared at the magical-looking glowing stones on the ground.

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A moment of hesitation later, I stepped forward into the circle, startling Casey and prompting her to grab my arm.

“Wai–”

“I’ll bring her to safety,” I declared with steel in my voice, surprising even myself. “Stay by the main gate or something just in case we can’t get back through here.”

Casey’s eyes widened at my sudden bout of confidence and after a moment of indecision, she gave me a nod and let go of me. I nodded back and stepped into the magical formation.

The sensation felt wildly different from using the ruby seed. Rather than the world warping around me, it felt like I boarded a strange shapeless vehicle and let it drive me for a minute into the fourth dimension.

When the feeling abated, I found myself in the middle of a forest with nothing indicating that there was any kind of teleportation formation nearby. If Casey hadn’t told us about how Wi had supposedly stumbled into it by accident in the story, I would have no idea.

Despite my heart beating out of my chest at the thought of being in the middle of no-man’s land where monsters prowled, I quickly scanned my surroundings and perked up my ears. The rustling of a nearby bush made me flick my eyes in that direction and the brief flash of cloth disappearing behind a tree told me everything I needed to know.

I rushed right after Wi, weaving through the trees while keeping my eyes wide open for threats.

It didn’t long for me to finally catch up enough to take a good look at the emaciated girl in tattered clothing sprinting away like mad. Her filthy long golden hair swayed back and forth as she ran, her long ears visible underneath.

“Please wait!” I tried yelling again. Unfortunately, that only made her suck in a breath and redouble her escape.

Dammit. What was I even supposed to do if I caught up? How was I supposed to convince her that I meant no harm? I didn’t know her well enough! I only knew the broad strokes of the story that Casey had told us.

I kept following her but kept my distance while trying to think of something. Before I could come up with any diplomatic plan, however, we were interrupted by something leaping at Wi from a nearby brush.

Wi screamed as she noticed the assailant and tripped over her tired legs into a heap as she faced the threat with a terrified expression.

I didn’t hesitate, didn’t think what I was doing, when I saw that. I simply sped up as much as I could. With a burst of speed I hadn’t even known was possible for me, I found myself with my fist on a collision course with the unknown monster.

I noticed the spikes on its hide too late to come up with a different plan and ended up planting a fist into its side, right into the spikes.

Contrary to what action stories would have me believe, the heavy beast wasn’t sent flying by my strike. It did, however, fail in its attempted attack on Wi thanks to me knocking it from its trajectory.

A moment later, I hissed in pain and grit my teeth as the torn skin and muscles on my knuckles finally registered in my brain.

But I couldn’t falter. Even if I hadn’t been trying to protect Wi, the dangerous monster in front of me now set its hungry glare on me as it recovered from the knockback.

I took a step back, my aching hand at my side, as the beast and I stared each other down. It looked somewhat like a wild boar sans tusks with brown spiked hide. Its four legs had hooves and its tail was thin, long, and ended with something vaguely resembling a spiked mace.

And I didn’t have my katana. Crap.

I kept my eyes on the beast as I carefully circled it to get closer to Wi who was slowly getting up on her shaking legs. I didn’t dare look away from the beast to check, but I imagined her eyes were wide in shock and fear.

“Wi… Please. We need to get out of here,” I murmured.

“You’re… You’re a foxkin? You’re not… with the slavers, then?” Her voice shook.

I winced, remembering where exactly in the timeline of the story we were. Wi had just escaped from the slavers. Of course, she would be suspicious of anyone claiming to know her. Well, I wasn’t a foxkin, but…

“I’m not with the slavers,” I confirmed. “I honestly want to help.”

There was a lull in our conversation as the pig growled at me and circled around us. I kept my glare on it, trying to look as intimidating as I could. I wasn’t sure if I was doing a good job, but the pain in my hand probably made my intense expression more authentic.

“... O-okay… I…” Wi began to say before her breath hitched.

For a good reason.

Two more spiky boar monsters emerged from the bushes and surrounded us in a triangular formation.

This was really, really bad.