When the boat stopped at the river’s edge, Elysha climbed out of the boat and walked back into the woods. She kept walking, trying to understand what she was trying to achieve, until she crouched under a tree.

She wrapped her arms around her legs and sighed in half-defeat, “Ah, I really don’t know what to do. These trees all looked the same and I don’t know where I’m going…”

“Giving up already?”

Elysha flinched, looked around, and saw nothing.

“Eh? Micah?” she blinked her eyes, recognizing the voice. “Was that you? But from where?”

“Ehehe, no worries, Micah’s right here!”

A flash of light illuminated her keyhole necklace, and a shape emerged from it in front of her, taking the form of a familiar and fluffy face, floating in the air and turning his eyes toward her.

“Y-You appeared from my necklace,” Elysha said, stunned.

“Hm? Why do you look so surprised?” he asked as he landed on the ground, flicking his ears. “Did you think I scared you a little or?”

“So… you were with me the whole time?” she murmured in a hushed tone.

“Did you think I would break my words to not leave you alone?” he frowned.

“But I thought you did leave me alone.”

He frowned again and hopped onto Elysha’s knees, “But Micah has been with you from the beginning. Micah always keeps his promises.”

“The beginning?”

He nodded, “Yep.”

Elysha’s eyebrows furrowed, and she grabbed Micah with her hands, lifting him into the air.

“Hey! Let me go!” he whined, his tail shaking as he tried to wriggle free. “Micah is not to be grabbed like this!”

However, her hands wouldn’t budge.

“You left me alone in this place, and I was scared you wouldn’t come back,” she said, keeping her grip. “What were you doing while I was exploring Zhivopia?”

“Me? Hm, well, I was watching you from your keyhole object,” he explained.

Elysha grabbed her necklace and looked down, “This keyhole?”

“Of course!”

“So, you’ve been watching me the whole time?”

“Yep!”

“But why did I feel like you weren’t watching me?” she asked skeptically. “I felt like you weren’t there, like you weren’t really with me or something.”

She watched as Micah made a strange expression; his eyes averted and his mouth turned down. Even his own ears and tail were flattened like a rag doll.

“Erm…”

“Erm?”

“I fell asleep.”

“You… what?”

“Grrr AHHH! You heard me right! I fell asleep! Are your ears happy now?” Micah struggled again, trying in vain to free himself from her hands. “Let me go! Stop treating me like a stuffed animal! Micah is angry!”

“No.”

“No? Why?”

“... You looked cute when I held you like this,” Elysha admitted.

Micah stopped resisting; his limbs fell still and his eyes stared directly at her face, making her feel uncomfortable inside.

‘Huh? Why is he looking at me like that?’ she wondered. But before she could find out why, Micah suddenly grew several centimeters and broke free of her grasp, lunging straight for her head.

“AHHHHH!!!” Elysha screamed, jumping to her feet and clutching his fur as she backed away aimlessly. “Get off of my face! It tickles! Stop it!”

“Say that Micah is not cute but cool and handsome!” he demanded, his tail wagging furiously.

She couldn’t help but giggle at the ticklish sensation of his fur coat and stumbled backwards onto the tall grass. “You’re cool and handsome,” she finally said.

With a satisfied look on his face, Micah let go of her head and jumped back down to the ground. “Good,” he smiled. “Micah is very pleased with your compliment.”

“... And cute.”

He frowned and shook his head away. “Hmph, but I can accept that too, I guess.”

Then he turned back to Elysha and asked, “So are you still keeping up with the trial or have you given up?”

“No, I haven’t given up yet.”

“Oh? Why not?”

“I don’t want to give up,” she insisted, clenching her hands together. “I have to keep trying.”

“I like your spirit,” he grinned, ears pricked up and tail wagging. “Let’s see how long it can stay bright before it runs out of fuel.”

Noticing his challenging tone, Elysha pursed her lips and asked, “I just have to figure out how to pass the Trial of Iröstos, right?”

“No doubt about it, yes.”

“Can you tell me how to pass it?”

“Just by using your mind’s intuition, that’s my hint I’ll give to you.”

Elysha looked at him in a blank stare. “Mind’s intuition?”

“That’s right!”

“What is that?” she asked, still confused. “How can I use my mind’s intuition? Is it like theonum?”

“Sorry! But Micah cannot give you any more hints.”

Elysha made a displeased face, then sighed in reluctant acceptance. “Okay, I will keep going with that hint.”

“Good luck, Elysha!” Micah cheered. “I’ll stay in the keyhole, and if anything happens, let Micah know!”

She frowned. “And don’t sleep on me again, okay?”

He flinched and replied, “I won’t this time!”

Micah’s form flashed in white light as he transferred into the keyhole object attached to Elysha’s necklace. After that, she was on her own, standing on the tall grasses of Zhivopia’s sub-layer domain.

‘Think,’ she thought to herself. ‘Mind’s intuition, huh? But what is that? My mind is my mind, but what is intuition?’

Then she looked out at the view before her, the trees of Zhivopia alive with flora and shrubs, accompanied by the sounds of plants and animals, perhaps even people. Her eyebrows knitted in determination.

“I’m not giving up yet,” she muttered to herself and set off on her next attempt.

Elysha strolled through the tall grasses of the woods, passing tree after tree, until she closed her eyes and let her mind clear, paying attention to nothing but nature itself.

“Hm... if I just focus, maybe the answer will come to me...”

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She stopped walking and concentrated on her ears, and there she heard something.

*chirp*

“Pi… pi pi…” she spoke, trying to imitate the sounds of the birds. Then she opened her eyes and sighed, “No, that’s not it. What should I do?”

Elysha was still on her feet when she saw a small group of unfamiliar faces coming toward her on the same path. They looked different from her, more like Micah, Eleu and Anaja. They resembled tall anthromorphic rabbits with large ears, one adult looking and two smaller. However, they were not like the small fluffy bunny-like creature she had seen before.

“Ohh! An Elbijan girl!” ssaid one of the smaller rabbit-like creatures, who then approached her. “Hello!”

“Um, h-hi,” Elysha stammered nervously.

“Cerse, no!” shouted the adult.

The small one named Cerse turned around and asked, “Why?”

“You cannot go up to strangers like that. Do you not remembered what your mother had told you?”

“That we don’t know if they are good or bad?”

“That is true,” she nodded her head. “TAlthough this girl is a child…” She then approached her and said, “Little miss, are you alone here in these woods?”

“No,” Elysha shook her head. “I am here with Micah.”

“Micah?”

Then a fluffy head poked out of the keystone of Elysha’s necklace. “That’s me!”

“Ahh!” the three of them shouted in unison.

“Haha!” the smallest one giggled, prompting the mother to ask, “Welja, are you laughing?”

“Because it’s funny!”

Cerse stepped forward and stated, “Hey, I know you! You are popular in Zhivopia!”

“Me?” his eyes twinkled with stars. “I am popular?”

“Yeah! You are the ‘Annoying Gray Dwarf’ that everyone is talking about, right?”

“ANNOYING GRAY DWARF?”

Elysha noticed that Micah’s expression turned furious, his muscles tensed and his fur stood out.

“Bahahaha!” Cerse laughed. “That’s what they all called you. There are words everywhere about what you did.”

“Cerse, that is enough. You must not speak ill of others.”

He turned around. “But mom…”

“Listen to my words,” she said in a stern tone, then looked down. “Welja, you also understand what your mother is saying, right?”

Welja turned and looked up at her mother, nodding her head.

“That is good,” she smiled, then turned her eyes to Elysha and Micah. “You two, are you hungry? Our house is nearby, I can make you both a sandwich.”

Micah’s ears perked up as Elysha replied. “No, I’m not hungry. I had breakfast earlier.”

“Is that so? You must have lived around here then.”

She nodded and said, “I live nearby with Elder Mera.”

The mother’s eyes widened with familiarity. “You mean Elder Merakia? I see, then you are well taken care of.”

“Mom, who is Elder Merakia?” Welja asked.

“She is a powerful and intelligent mage and a doctor, my dear,” she answered. “She currently lives in Iröstos, up on the surface, and the people have paid for her to visit them for medical checkups.”

Then she turned and asked, “Is Elder Merakia not with you? Where could your guardian be right now?”

“No, she’s not with me. She’s at home, I think,” Elysha replied, rubbing Micah’s head. “Micah is with me.”

“Hey! Micah’s not for petting!” he pouted.

“I understand.” The mother then wrapped her arms around both Cerse and Welja and said, “If you two ever would like to eat, my family and I are welcome to invite you to come over and have a meal with us.”

Elysha looked up at the kind rabbit-like mother. “Okay,” she replied with a small smile.

“You can call me ‘Merlji,’” she said, smiling back.

With a final wave to the family, Elysha set off through the trees again. As she walked, she tried to quiet her thoughts and focus on the sounds around her: the rustling of leaves, the distant birdsong, and the soft whisper of the wind.

“Mm…” she groaned as she frowned, slowly growing impatient with the fact that she still neither fulfilled nor understood the trial.

She began to speed up her pace, looking around, trying to figure out what Micah’s hint meant for her. Eventually she came to a circle of stones in a clearing. Each stone was covered in green moss, lichen and dirt as she stepped into the circle.

She stood still and waited.

But nothing happened.

Elysha frowned, shifting her weight impatiently as she looked around. “Okay… I’m in the circle. So… what now?”

She looked down at the stones beneath her feet, half-expecting them to begin to glow or for some magical force like theonum to surge through her.

Still, nothing.

She pursed her lips and murmured with a sigh, “I thought that something would happen. Why? This is hard…”

Elysha lifted her foot and tapped on one of the stones, but there was no response. Frustrated, she sat down in the center of the circle and pulled her knees up to her chest, wrapping her arms around them. A voice came from the keyhole and said, “Giving up now?”

“No.”

“Oh, how come?”

“I don’t want to,” she frowned, tightening her grip on her legs.

“Persistent, aren’t you?” he replied. “If you want to give up, you can always let Micah know.”

“But if I give up, Elder Mera will not be proud of me.”

“She won’t be proud of you? Would that really happen?”

“I don’t know, but I don’t want to know.”

Micah thought about it, then gave a slight chuckle and said, “Hm, you really are something. Not even knowing if Elder Mera would be disappointed, and yet you keep going no matter what?”

“I don’t want to let anyone down. Especially her,” Elysha said, her eyes glued to the ground.

“You know… you don’t have to keep going for anyone else,” Micah said. “Not for the witch, not even for me. This is your trial, after all. And whatever you decide to do, Micah will be right here with you.”

She blinked, surprised at his words. “Really? Even if I… stop trying?”

“Of course! If you give up, I’ll keep you company all the way back. And if you keep going, I’ll be here, too. No matter what, Micah is on your side. That’s what friends do, right?”

“Friends?”

“Yep! Micah is your friend, no?”

Elysha recognized that she had heard the word “friends” several times recently. She lifted her fingers and touched her right cheek, feeling its warmth.

“You are my friend, Micah,” she smiled.

“Aw, that’s your spirit!” he grinned as he wagged his tail. “Micah likes it when you smile like that.”

“Like this?”

“Mm-hm!”

Elysha registered his words in her mind, then she dropped the smile and made a neutral expression. “How about this?”

“Now you are just playing with me,” Micah said, unamused.

~ ❈❇❈ ~

As the day slowly wore on, Elysha’s impatience began to gnaw at her. She was still walking under the trees when she stopped and looked around. “... Huh?”

She raised her eyes to the sky and the trees around her. They all seemed the same to Elysha, as they had become very familiar to her. However, something was wrong in her mind.

“How long have I been walking here?” she asked herself, feeling a sense of urgency. She shook her head. “No, I have to hurry, Elder Mera will be mad at me if I’m not back soon.”

She clenched the sides of her dress and pursed her lips tightly, “I need to find another hint,” she muttered under her breath. “Maybe Micah can tell me something, or…”

‘Should I give up?’ a voice echoed in her head.

Shaking off the unwanted thought, Elysha walked on until she came to an open field of flowers. She stepped into the clearing until she came to a large tree in the center of the place.

“A big tree…” she murmured to herself.

A sense of calm washed over her as she stared at the tree. Then she looked up to the sky and watched the clouds pass by slowly. Looking closer, she noticed the dotted stars scattered across the vast expanse, but she knew they were different from the ones on the surface she had come from.

As she observed the sky, a question rose within her mind.

“Those stars… were they always there?”

To her, the sky was mostly silver and cloudy. Her mind wandered as she watched the stars until her eyes fell on one in particular.

It was the brightest star she had ever seen.

Elysha clenched her chest as her heart began to swell with an unfamiliar feeling—a feeling she could not understand. Her eyes began to quiver and her breathing became difficult to control.

She instinctively reached out to the shining star.

“It’s so…”

Suddenly, a sharp pain pierced her head, causing her to jerk in distress.

“Ah—!”

She clutched her temples as the sensation intensified.

‘—have you ever seen the meteor shower? I’ve always wanted to see one. Someday I will.’

“Ouch! That hurts!! It hurts!!!” Elysha cried out, the pain of her throbbing headache overwhelming her senses. “I-I heard a voice again…”

“Wha—? What happened? Are you okay, Elysha?”

Micah’s voice squeaked from the keyhole in concern. But his words went unheard. Instead, Elysha’s vision blurred, and the pain in her head persisted, increasing with each passing second. She took several steps in aimless directions, her hands still at her temples as she stumbled to the ground. Then she turned her trembling eyes back to the bright star.

The star seemed insignificant and yet significant, and she didn’t understand any of it. The essence of the sight shone with a brilliance she had never seen before. A strange longing stirred within her, as if her brain had been flooded with endorphins and dopamine, easing her pain for a moment and calming her fears.

As her gaze locked on the star, something about it compelled her, as if a magnetic force had ensnared her senses. Hallucinations danced in front of her eyes.

*sniff*

The sounds of a crying child echoed in her mind. However, the cries were not coming from her surroundings—they were coming from somewhere.

‘No… she’s gone… help me.’

“I... I hear someone crying... a girl asking for help,” Elysha murmured.

Micah’s voice cut through her mind. “What are you saying? I didn’t hear anything,” he exclaimed, his concern growing as he tried to get her attention. “More importantly, are you all right? Elysha!”

Elysha looked back at the bright star. At that moment, a realization struck her like a sudden epiphany. Without a second thought, she sprinted forward, following the guiding light of the star.

Micah shouted, “Elysha! Where are you going!”

Pain still throbbed in her head, but she pushed it aside, consumed by an unstoppable determination. Her feet carried her as fast as they could, pushing her through the dense foliage, her eyes still fixed on the star that guided her onward.

“She—! She has to be there!” she shouted.

Eventually, as she arrived into a small clearing, Elysha came to a halt. There, huddled alone and sullen, sat a little girl crying.