The three descended the path on the far side of the ridge. This side was no less steep than the way up had been. Cass leaned heavily on her staff, stabilizing every slipping, sliding step as the gravelly path shifted under her. Pebbles rolled down the track and sheer cliff sides to the valley far below, each and every one threatening to take her or the cliff side with them.

The day before her kidnapping, she and her siblings had done a much shorter hike over much less steep ground. That day, she had been dying the whole way back to camp. Even with her trekking poles, her feet had slid every inch down the trail. The whole way, her knees had screamed.

Today, with her new stats, this much steeper hike was only difficult.

She was still, apparently, frustratingly slow for Alyx’s tastes. The swordswoman waited impatiently for Cass at every trail bend, boredom etched on her face.

“Do you have the hiking skill or something?” Cass grouched as she picked her way down an especially steep section of rock and gravel.

“Why would I waste a skill slot on that?” Alyx asked, tapping her foot impatiently at the corner of another switchback.

“How are you so much faster than me?” Cass whined.

At least her knees didn’t hurt and the speed she was traveling could be measured in feet per minute rather than inches. But Alyx was easily flying down the trail.

“Her physical stats are all higher than yours I’m sure,” Salos answered.

“Why are you still on me?” Cass muttered at him. He shrugged from her shoulder.

“Alyx wouldn’t let me ride her shoulder.”

“Can’t you walk?”

“And why would I ever do that?”

They spent the entire day hiking down the ridge, the rocky path twisting down the cliffsides, while the clouds above rumbled with thunder. Soon, promised Atmospheric Sense.

Night caught them on the cliffs, and it wasn’t until the next morning that the three of them made it down the ridge and the rocky ground gave way to open meadow. Flowers surrounded them, in every shape and color, from spires of delicate buds to fields of yellow daisies to stands of poppies in blue and purple petals. Bees and butterflies flitted about. The air was sweet and filled with a light mist.

“Almost there,” Alyx said, more to herself than Cass. Above, lightning struck the far ridge and thunder cracked the morning air.

Cass’s stomach twisted and her heartbeat raced. They were finally almost out of this place.

No more life-or-death encounters. No more untamed wilderness. No more monsters.

They were going to a city. With people. People who would know things about here and now, something she and Salos both seriously lacked. They could tell her how she got here. They could help her get home. They had to.

There was definitely no fear in her steps as they continued their hike through the meadow. She was definitely not afraid.

The valley was something she understood now. It was a place trying its best to kill her. She understood that. She felt she’d come to respect that reality.

But what would the world outside be like?

It couldn’t be worse than the valley.

People lived there. Perfectly ordinary people. Cass was an ordinary person. There had to be a way for her to live without fighting for her life.

Her heart rate slowed back to a normal beat, though the knots in her stomach did not completely come undone. That was okay. Just the excitement, she told herself again. That was all.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Still, an irrational corner of her mind whispered something was about to happen.

Cass pushed that feeling away. It was just that, an irrational anxiety. Something bad was always happening. Something was always attacking her. This feeling was just that paranoia manifesting again.

Cass scanned the brush. Just flowers.

Atmospheric Sense made a sweep of the sky. Clouds, clouds, and more clouds. Thick and heavy and impatient. With every step the droplets of mist grew, becoming less suspended water and more light drizzle.

Mana Sense came back with nothing unusual. A couple of mana concentrations, but nothing that Identify couldn’t explain as an above-averagely magical plant.

Nothing was happening. Trap Detection hadn’t—

Cass stopped. She scanned her surroundings again, this time with Trap Detection flaring. She didn’t see any presence irregularities. Nothing she was noticing was telling her to move along, though if it was strong enough she wouldn’t notice, would she?

“Hey,” Cass called after Alyx who had not noticed Cass had stopped.

“What?” Alyx folded her arms over her chest.

“Are there monsters in this area that set traps?” Cass asked.

Alyx’s eyebrow went up. “Is this an intellectual question or do you have reason to believe there are traps here?”

“The second one, maybe.”

Cass? Salos asked.

Trap Detection is going off. Now that I’m listening it's ringing like an alarm bell.

Alyx shook her head. “No. I don’t think there are monsters in this area like that.”

There are not, Salos agreed.

Alyx edged back toward Cass, her steps light and slow. Salos sat a little straighter on her shoulder.

Three pairs of eyes squinted through the drizzle. Visibility was worsening with the weather, but it was still good enough to see the mountains around the valley. There didn’t seem to be anywhere to hide.

“Maybe I’m wrong,” Cass said. The skill was still ringing in her head but she didn’t see anything.

“Is it a skill or a gut feeling?” Alyx asked.

“That there is a trap here? Two parts one, one part the other.”

Alyx’s mouth thinned to a sharp line. “Skill level?”

“2,” Cass said sheepishly.

“It could be a false alarm.” She didn’t sound convinced.

They watched the meadow for another minute. An idle breeze rippled through the tall grasses. A grasshopper hopped past Cass’s ankles.

“We should move quickly,” Salos said finally. “Whatever the danger is, if we can make it to the gate, it's irrelevant.”

Alyx nodded. “I don’t like it, but you’re right. We aren’t finding whatever it is like this.”

They started off again, this time walking quickly, not quite running.

Trap detection’s alarm got louder and more insistent as they advanced. Cass continued to scan the countryside, looking for irregularities but she didn’t find anything.

Not much later, a building appeared ahead. It was a pyramid-looking construction, made of the same black stone that filled the Deep. A copse of madrone grew around it. Behind, another range of mountains rose.

“That’s it,” Alyx said, pointing ahead.

“We can get out of the Valley there?” Cass asked. She’d honestly expected another mountain pass, dumping them back out in the wider world. Maybe a wall with a literal gate used as the checkpoint. How would they leave the area through a building?

Her blood ran cold. “Wait. It's not another teleporter, is it?”

Alyx shook her head. “There will be a ship waiting for us there. It's part of the Trial set up by the Gods. It’ll take us back to the Continent.”

“Wait!” Once again, Cass had a lot of questions and only one mouth to ask them. “Take us back to the continent? Are we on an island?”

“Yes?” Alyx answered. “We don’t have time to stop and talk about this, keep moving Cass.”

“But mountains like this,” Cass pointed at the mountains surrounding them on every side, “On an island?”

“It’s not common,” Salos agreed. “But Islands can have a wide variety of land composition.” He nudged her face with his own, “Come on, Cass, we can discuss landmass formation at length later.”

Cass scowled but hurried after Alyx. “Fine, but where is the ship? That looks like there are more mountains on the other side of the building.”

“There is a small bay that cuts through them,” Alyx said. “The Uvana Gate.”

“And that building?”

“The staging ground for the trial,” Alyx said. “Normally, one handles the first handful of quests there. You know, the choose your weapon, defeat an enemy quests? Once you’ve done that you are supposed to come out into the field here and kill a small monster. Then you can decide how far into the Valley you want to go.”

Cass remembered those quests. She’d killed a monster many times her level to do that. However, if Alyx was leveled in the twenties, it was possible her ‘small’ monster would still have been around the same level as that first Terrorcat.