“And you’re sure this is safe?” Cass asked, looking at the return portal. As she had guessed, the octagonal, stone platform in the Safe Zone was the portal out of the Deep.

However, she found herself less than thrilled at the prospect of using it.

Alyx glared at Cass. “What kind of question is that?”

Cass gestured to it in answer. It and the black, tentacle-like tendrils undulating around it. It and the glowing red sigils crisscrossing the surface in a distinctly demonic pattern. It and the unpleasant whispering emanating from the air around it.

Alyx looked between Cass and the return portal. “I don’t see a problem.”

“You don’t see a problem with the tentacles?”

“Tentacles?”Alyx repeated the word in English to Cass’s dismay.

“Tendrils?” Cass tried, waving her arms like the creepy things.

Alyx continued to look blankly at Cass. Cass switched tacks. “And the blood-red sigils? That looks safe and friendly to you?”

Alyx shrugged.

“And the noise it's making? Doesn’t give you horror movie vibes? Doesn’t feel like it's a portal to the underworld? No? Just me?”

“This was made by the Gods,” Alyx said. “It’ll take us outside. I don’t know about any lower worlds you’re worried about.”

Cass sighed. Either this was simply a cultural mishmash such that these things didn’t register as unusual to Alyx or only Cass could see/hear them for reasons she didn’t care to speculate on. Either way, Alyx wasn’t concerned about the clearly evil portal to elsewhere.

It was fine. What was the worst that could happen? She fell through the world again and ended up in a second magical other world? It wasn’t like she had any attachment to this one.

Well, the worst that could happen was it killed her, she supposed. But if she started speculating that every magic object she saw would kill her–that was actually a fair assumption, now that she thought about it, but no–she’d never get anywhere if she did that.

No, more to the point, either she trusted Alyx and the supposed Return Portal, or she stayed here indefinitely. Not much of a choice there…

“Alright, if you’re sure,” Cass said hesitantly as she stepped toward the platform.

Alyx snorted. “You really think the Gods would make a mistake on their own trial?”

Cass didn’t answer.

“Come on,” Alyx said and stepped onto the platform, grabbing Cass’s hand and pulling her the last step. The shadow tendrils wrapped around her body.

Cass’s heart skipped a beat. Oh.

Oh, no.

Oh, no, no, no, no, no.

No!

They were touching her. Grabbing her.

If she’d known this was how teleportation worked she would have fought her way out of the Deep instead.

Oh, hell, no. No way. Not a chance in hell.

She was hyperventilating. Her breathing was fast and shallow. The air around her constricting. She was trapped down here. She couldn’t breathe. The fact that she didn’t need to hardly mattered.

It was night again. She was walking from her tent to the bathrooms. The ground fell out from under her feet. Things were grabbing her ankles. Her wrists. Pulling. They were pulling her down.

There was pain. Only pain.

And screaming. Her screaming.

She was alone. No one could help her.

No air. No light. Just the nothingness that followed. Just—

Light? Cass blinked. The Deep was gone. The Safe Zone, gone. The stone platform under her feet, gone. The tendrils, blessedly gone.

“You okay?” Alyx asked. She stood over Cass, concern heavy on her brow.

Cass was on the ground, curled up in the grass. They were now in a forest clearing, surrounded by tall, blue trees. Above, the sky was still dark with heavy clouds, threatening rain and—to Cass’s Atmospheric Senses—lightning.

Cass took a deep breath and then another. She wasn’t in the void again. She was out under open skies. She was okay.

Cass nodded weakly.

Alyx helped her up, at least one question stirring behind her politely closed mouth. Cass ignored it, instead asking, “Where are we?”

Wherever it was, it was good to be under the open sky again. Caves were just not a place for a person to live for any length of time. She breathed the clear air deeply, inhaling the rich earthy smells of moist forest. It smelled like rain.

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But it would be another week if Atmospheric Sense was to be believed. Another week before those clouds burst.

Cass paused. A whole week?

Yes, Atmospheric Sense was sure. Could it tell her now because its level had gone up in the week she’d spent underground, or because it was just a week closer to bursting than it had been?

More importantly, was that enough time to get out of the storm?

“Looks like West Forest,” Alyx said finally.

That didn’t mean anything to Cass, but Alyx continued like it should have before Cass could ask follow-up questions.

“Stay close to me. We should move as quickly as we can. It's best not to stay here longer than we need to.”

“Because the Storm is coming?” Cass asked, glancing up at the sky again.

Alyx shook her head. “No. Well, that too, I guess. I’m more concerned with the (roving?) Herald and Lord that live in this area.”

“(Roving)?” Cass parroted back dumbly.

“Yeah?” Alyx raised an eyebrow.

“As in, they could be anywhere?”

Alyx nodded slowly.

Jothi Language Comprehension has increased to level 5.

“You didn’t know even that?” Alyx asked. “Unlike the Deep, whose Lord lives in a specific chamber, and the Pass, whose Lord guards said pass, the Lord of the Forest and his Herald range over the entire Forest. They could appear anywhere at any time.”

“And, is there any warning they are close?” Cass asked slowly.

“The Lord always travels with his (followers?) and (females?). But the Herald has no warning, no.”

“And, what are they, again?”

“The Lord is a massive Bluetail Deer. The Herald is a Lightning-phased Lion. Come on, we should move.”

Cass nodded, trying to ignore the ice in her chest. Bluetail Deer? Like that lordling she’d encountered on the first day? Were these those same woods?

And a Lord and a Herald just wandered them?

Cass imagined running into the Centipede in these forests. Would she have been able to hide from it out here?

How close had she come to these monsters?

What did it matter, the rational core asked. She hadn’t.

Irrational fear imagined her encountering these monsters in a hundred different ways. Blowing into them as she rode the wind. Stumbling into them as she crested a hill. Ambushing her as she slept.

It hadn’t happened. She wasn’t alone now.

Alyx stopped, suddenly, turning back to Cass. “If things go bad… If I… If we get separated, the exit is that way.” She pointed in a direction. The direction the wind was coming from, Atmospheric Sense noted.

Cass nodded. “Thank you.”

Alyx looked away again, walking faster. “That’s nothing. Don’t worry about it. You won’t need to know that. We won’t be separated.”

Cass nodded and scurried to catch up.

They hadn’t walked far when Alyx stopped them again, a finger to her lips. She pointed through the trees. She mouthed something but Cass just shook her head. She couldn’t read lips for a language she didn’t know. Alyx frowned but pointed more forcefully.

Cass squinted, flaring Identify to find what Alyx was pointing out.

She saw it a moment later, the black and swirling grey fur through the bushes.

Terrorcat

Lvl 9

It was a higher level than the one Cass had fought. But she was a much higher level now too.

Alyx pantomimed walking, drew her sword, and pointed at the cat. She wanted to kill it?

Cass pursed her lips but nodded.

Her shoulder ached with phantom pain from the wounds the last terror cat had inflicted. Wounds long since healed.

Her heart beat loudly in her ears. Images of the creature leaping on her and latching its claws into her flesh sprang unavoidably to her mind.

Indifferent rationality whispered she was overreacting. This was nothing compared to the Lord. She’d beaten the Herald of the Deep. She’d slain the Caretaker. Even the Grotto Spider was a bigger foe.

Yet, her heartbeat was all she could hear. Irrational and loud, it screamed she should hide. Screamed that thing wasn’t something a girl like her could handle.

She readied her staff anyway. Staff Mastery adjusted her stance. It whispered that such a thing was beneath her. That a single level nine monster was nothing after everything she’d been through. She could handle this. It would even be easy.

A Wind Blade formed at the end of her staff. She had beaten one of these when she was only level one with no skills or magic to speak of. She had fought worse since.

So why was her heart pounding in her ears?

Her shoulder ached. She could feel the gashes across her back and side. Claws dug deep into her flesh.

She inhaled sharply. Stop that. That was then. This was now.

But it hadn’t been that long ago.

They crept closer. Her Stealth guided each uneven step. Silent. Deadly. This time she would ambush it.

Alyx beside her wasn’t nearly as silent. Her foot fell heavily on some forest debris. It cracked in the silence. The terrorcat flicked its ears back, its head turning. It saw the two of them and snarled. Its fur bristled and it leapt.

Alyx sidestepped the lunge. Her sword arched, leaving a long gash in the cat’s side.

Cass’s staff followed, its Wind Bladed tip stabbing deep. Blood burst from the wound as the cat pulled away, its steps clumsy, its blood pouring down its side.

Alyx darted around to cut off its retreat, her sword and crown glowing gold with her aura.

The terrorcat leapt anyway, claws out, reaching for Alyx’s throat. It met her sword instead, one of its legs sheared from its body by Alyx’s swinging blade.

The cat bounced across the forest floor, blood trailing as it fell. It struggled to its remaining feet, but Cass was already there, her heart pounding.

She stabbed down with all her Strength, impaling the monster and pinning it to the forest floor.

The cat howled in pain, but Cass didn’t let go. It thrashed.

Cass twisted her glaive. Blood splattered. The howling became whimpers. The thrashing slowed.

In moments, it had fallen silent again.

Alyx breathed a sigh of relief as she sheathed her blade. “Gods, I hate ambush predators.”

Cass stared down at the corpse of the cat.

It had been easy. So easy. Too easy?

She was just that much stronger now.

Had she changed that much since she’d arrived? How much stronger was she? How much faster? Just from a handful of levels. What would she be like in a few more? How quickly would she reach a point where the Grotto Spider was inconsequential? The Herald?

The corpse was snarling, even in death. Still vicious and cruel-looking. Was that just the face of the wildlife here? Was this her fate? To kill anything and everything that might hurt her in the future.

“You good?” Alyx asked.

“One of these almost killed me before I met you,” Cass explained without looking up. “I almost died.”

“They are pretty vicious ambush predators,” Alyx agreed. “They aren’t especially high level, but they don’t need to be if they jump out of thin air and bite out your throat. No shame in being ambushed by something lower level than you.”

“I was lower leveled than it,” Cass said. “I got lucky.”

“You were lower level than a Terrorcat? This happened in this Trial?”

Cass nodded. Looking at it still frightened her. She’d killed it so easily. But it still filled her with the same terror that the first one had.

“Come on,” Alyx said finally. “We shouldn’t linger.”

Cass nodded and let Alyx lead her along the forest path.