Stumbling into the forest, using tree trunks to help balance himself, Rafa fled from the Inis hideout. The world was a blur for a few minutes after the fall, but anywhere, in any direction, was better than facing Niklas.

After a few minutes, he stopped to sit down and compose himself. So much pain—so much uncertainty. He’d never felt so low, without a shred of hope as he hung his head, only listening to the birds, the wind.

Dawn had come, and the forest was waking up as Rafa wanted nothing more than to collapse toward the floor. He wanted even more to be asleep after thinking of Ardler and what they’d do to him, if he was even still alive at that moment.

A wave of wrath, of anger, washed over Rafa. “I’ll be back for you. Just stay alive.” He then whispered under his breath a few more unpleasant words toward Niklas and stood to his feet. With eyes closed, he inhaled the forest’s many aromas, trying to ground himself, despite the agony.

Movement came from above, in the trees. Rafa shot a glance upward. But there was nothing but leaves, branches, and the soft light of an early sun shining through the canopy. Another resounding slither of sound came from above, and Rafa’s heart jumped, causing him to scurry toward the rising sun, east.

“Just keep your eyes out for tigers and head east toward some village. You can do this,” Rafa said at a murmur. In that moment, he resolved to meet Ardler’s granddaughter, as east was the only knowledge he had of any sort of civilization.

Nothing came of the sound in the trees, despite it sounding so alarming to Rafa’s internal sense of danger. And so, he continued to head east through the forest, passing bushes and trees, along with many other small forest dwelling creatures.

After an hour, the air became warmer, and he removed the dark Inis robes that were previously helping with the chill. Rafa opened the notebook that was previously tucked away in his pocket, returning the robes to his inventory with a flash.

He spun through the pages, then stopped at the back cover. To his surprise, there was no icon of Inis, like the one Niklas had in his notebook. Reflecting for a moment, Rafa tried to process what that could mean, or if it started out that way when they ended up in this world, almost predestined?

Another squirming sound came from high above Rafa’s head, snapping branches and wriggling through leaves. But, as he shot his focus upward, he couldn’t glimpse anything once again.

He shook his head and continued onward, toward the rising sun from the east. There came a small clearing of trees up ahead, and it allowed for a little more freedom of sight.

Rafa stood on a hill overlooking a sea of green. The forest continued for miles, what looked like. There stood a mountain range to the left, snow atop them, and a large waterfall plunging down to a lake. No sign of houses or a village.

And so, the journey continued down the hill, back under the canopy of tall evergreen.

His legs ached, although he hadn’t traveled far. The fall took so much out of the boy’s body, and blood showed in his bandaged arm, pooling some.

He let out a huff as he flipped back to the skills page in the small journal. The sneak trait had reached five, and it was calling him to summon the orbs once more. And so he did. The three shining orbs hovered above the wide open pages.

This time he thought for a moment as he walked, before choosing. In his mind, he wanted to use this skill to avoid, not to attack. Rafa wanted to remain unseen, wishing he could have been invisible when he heard Niklas coming up those stairs, back at the hideout.

With a finger, he poked the defense orb, causing all three to disappear back into the parchment. A smile broke out on his face after reading the effects of his decision: Step Into Shadow added to repertoire.

He felt the ability, similar to his Quarterstaff attack he used on the Inis member. It arose within his mind, then his body.

After allowing it to take over, the sensation was on his feet, causing him to look down. Both his shoes turned black, a deep unreflective darkness that even the first light of the world couldn’t illuminate.

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He took a step onto a large dead leaf, realizing the sound was all but null, a gasp following. But the moment he lost focus because of his excitement, the black subsided, returning both feet to normal.

As he traveled past ponds, streams, he practiced his focus on the ability—creating the black mask over his steps, deadening all sounds of even a tap. The only problem lied with his head: a great pressure would form once he passed the one minute mark, just about, and nothing he tried would allow any relief besides stopping his focus. Try after try, he couldn’t hold the talent for longer than a minute.

Rafa sighed and allowed his head to calm down, surprised at how fast a searing headache could diminish, as though it never happened.

He halted, getting a lower stance and observing. Up ahead, what looked like a large carved stone stood tall. It had etch marks on the side and writing in a language he didn’t understand. All around it were smaller boulders sculpted to have branches and leaves coming from them, all made of rock.

Rafa skulked toward the glorious monuments. He analyzed the lettering wrapped around the center masterpiece. Still, the words made no more sense than when he was much further away, eyes straining. But despite that, Rafa could still appreciate the design, the beauty of the sculptor’s dexterity.

A boost of energy rushed through his body as the same slithering sound in the trees from before came up behind him. He dashed to the left, wheeling sideways.

A screech and a hiss boomed as teeth rushed past Rafa’s body. With white scales and pale eyes, the large snake-like creature rammed its head into the center statue with a whack.

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Rafa’s heart pounded as he swept himself up to his feet. The feeling from earlier was correct—he was being followed. Even a moment of thought proved deadly, as a tail wrapped around his ankle and flung him across the forest floor.

A second beast slithered toward him as he slid and caught himself up on his feet. As Rafa came to a stop, he witnessed the other snake coming at him, this one with scales of dark scarlet and wolf-like fangs. He readied himself to jump out of the way once more.

But, with much greater speed, the pale snake pushed its ally out of the way so it could charge forward as well, with jaws prepared to impale the boy—body language desiring for a lethal blow.

Rafa didn’t have time to blink before the white serpent tackled him. He held both hands on the long tusks that desired to sink into his flesh. It pushed him down onto the ground, dragging him as he held on, grating his back against rocks and dirt. Doom filled his heart as he witnessed the second snake slithering toward him.

But, as the scarlet beast approached, it instead locked the end of its tail around its ally, and yanked it backward. Rafa lay there on the floor as the pale snake tumbled.

The dark snake latched its tail around Rafa’s ankle once more. And in an instant, he was dangling upside down, hanging. It didn’t move or strike, only watching the suspended traveler.

As if being upside down caused his sight to deceive him, or blood had now clouded his head and his thinking—the pale snake shone a luminescent black, sparkling for a moment. Then, as it finished sliding, his two feet caught himself. He stood, a man with sleek white hair.

Rafa’s eyes widened. “You’re—”

“I would not kill him!” the man said. “For all your smarts and praise from mother have gone to your head. I was but toying with the boy.”

The scarlet snake didn’t respond, only continuing its hold on Rafa’s ankle. It analyzed Rafa with great intent, not shifting its eyes for the loud man-snake rattling behind it.

As the man approached, Rafa could feel the blood pooling in his head as he hung. “You’re not going to,” Rafa cleared his throat, “kill me? It seemed like you were trying to.”

The scarlet snake squinted as it broke its gaze from Rafa, now focusing on the ground-dweller below them both.

“Hey—you and I both know there’s something off about this wanderer’s aura,” the man said, shrugging as he looked up at the towering snake. “I say we just decide now to off him. We’d probably be doing this world a favor.”

Giant teeth turned toward Rafa, along with deep gray eyes. The scarlet snake was under an obvious argument within itself, deciding if it should end his life in but an instant, as it very well could have.

“Aura?” Rafa said. “W-what do you mean, aura?” He pondered a moment, thinking of how these two could sense some kind of aura. “Wait!”

The dark snake tilted its head.

Rafa pulled out his small notebook. And with a struggle, he flipped to the storage page. The Inis robes appeared and descended after retrieving them, now laying still on the forest floor.

“A follower of Inis!” the man said. “Now we have everything we need. We’ve seen it. That’s that.”

“They’re not mine.”

The man chuckled.

“They belong to a man named Ardler. He is—was—a follower of Inis. We both were blending in to get information.”

The once pale snake shook his head, placing a hand over his forehead. “Quite a tale. I know that little devil, and he’s as devout as they come. What is that book in your hand, heathen? Some kind of grimoire?”

The scarlet snake moved its tail downward, setting Rafa onto his back with ease and grace.

Pressure in his head continued to pulse, a similar feeling to holding the sneak ability too long.

Words caught in the man’s throat as he showed disdain for the decision to set him free, when they had Rafa in the perfect position to slay him.

A black-tinted sparkle emanated from the gray-eyed serpent. And in a flash, another man stood with red hair, kneeling down to see if Rafa was alright. “One’s aura doesn’t change when an evil item leaves their possession, as a person is who a person is.” He analyzed Rafa with the same ashen eyes. “But this one’s did.”

“That explains nothing,” the other said.

The red-haired man squinted at Rafa. “Speak.”