They kept walking for what Dave guessed was at least another hour, the sun having passed its zenith a while ago. But Dave found it hard to imagine his estimation of time was accurate. The only tool for measurement he had were mosquito bites. And their conversation about Max abilities had been roughly twenty mosquito bites ago. However long that was.

They were silent while they walked, everybody turning their own thoughts over. Miles flew under their feet and time seemed to trickle by. Until someone spoke up.

“It’s weirdly quiet isn’t it?” Ryland cut into the silence.

Now that he said he Dave noticed that to be true. Before they had always heard a few birds chirping or other animal sounds in the distance. Now there was nothing but the sound of mosquitoes buzzing around. And even that seemed to have turned down in volume.

“Well so what?” Mira said laughing “Look where we are. That’s how nature is cityboy.”

“No he’s right.” Max said as he turned around looking into the forest. “Something’s not …”

A massive roar interrupted his sentence. Birds went flying out of the canopies. They all inched closer together and panicky looked around.

“What do you think was that?” Sarah said, obviously scared.

“I hope we won’t find out.” Dave said, feeling his heart beating “But something tells me we will.”

Another roar this time much closer. Dave stepped in between the group and the direction of the sound. He noticed he had already summoned his Spear without noticing. Ryland was right behind him and Mira as well.

The seconds ticked by after the last roar. Everyone was on edge waiting for something to happen. There was the air of being watched over them. Dave tensed his fist around his spear.

Then suddenly a beast slowly walked out of the underbush. It looked like a tiger. But it had blueish fur and was bigger. Much bigger, standing with its shoulders almost as tall as Dave. Its head spurted four eyes instead of the normal two.

It watched them without any sign of caution. It seemed to see them as nothing but mere mice. And they were compared to that beast. Primal fear took hold of the group. Dave knew they couldn’t fight that thing. His heart was hammering in his chest, screaming for him to run but he knew that would be a fatal error. Everybody else stood rooted as well. The beast continued watching them. Another few seconds trickled by.

It took a step forward. Then another. Dave tightened his grip on his spear, giving him some sense of comfort as he stood almost directly in front of the animal. It’s eyes locked into Dave’s and they stood like that. Scared to move a muscle and even more scared to turn his eyes away Dave matched its gaze. There was something strange at play here, Dave felt how something from the beast kept measuring him up.

He tried to match it’s intesnity and felt the beasts aura flaying up in surprise. It kept his aura restrained, but for a second Dave could see into what hid behind and knew in his deepest self he would be no match for that. Just as quick as it came, it’s aura was under control again. It continued watching Dave, seconds tickled by.

Suddenly the thing finally seemed to lose interest. It broke eye contact, turned away and started walking off into the jungle again. Its powerful body blending into the trees and it soon was out of sight.

Dave took a few steps away from the group, his nerves still on edge. He felt oddly exhausted all of a sudden and had to sit back against a tree trunk. Max walked over to him.

“Dude, that was intense.”

“You tell me.”

“I would’ve peed myself, staring into those beasts eyes like that.”

“You tell me.”

Suddenly Bixby dropped down from the tree and handed him a peanut. Dave hadn’t even noticed that he fled onto a tree but he could understand it. It was probably a more reasonable decision than entering into a staring contest with that beast.

“You probably shouldn’t get any more of the Replenishing Nuts for a few days, due to side effects, but right now we need to get away from here.” he sniffed in the air and paused.

“Maybe you should change first.”

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

They had been walking for almost two days now since the tiger encounter and Max’s feet hurt. He dearly wished for fresh clothes, since his were so soaked with sweat and marred by dirt, that he probably needed to burn them. But his last set of spare clothes had gone to Dave. The way Max’s shirt looked, it would never be the same, but what would.

They had been mostly silent after the tiger. Always wary of other beasts that could be just behind the corner. It was a reminder of how dangerous the jungle was and how small they were in comparison to what could be lurking in the shadows. Luckily they hadn’t met any other beasts, but whenever a noise was heard, nobody dared to breathe. So scarred were they by their last encounter.

When the tiger came stalking out of the bushes everyone froze. Max was torn between not believing his eyes and wanting to run as far as he could. But he just found himself tied to the spot, unmoving, just scared.

Dave was walking a few steps ahead of him, his head held low, carrying his spear. He looked ragged like the rest of the group, his short brown hair being totally out of place, his arm still spotting scratches, dried blood and dirt covering most of his skin. Even though he still slightly limped from his wounded leg, something about his step changed. Max saw a new confidence in Dave. Something hard underneath the surface of his slightly pudgy, socially awkward school friend. He felt like a weapon ready to be drawn now.

He was the only one who dared move underneath the gaze of that monstrous predator. Everyone was held by fear, but Dave didn’t just resist that fear, he even stepped up to it. Max wasn’t sure what was going on between his friend and the tiger when they locked their eyes, but he felt that there was something happening on a deeper level. It almost felt like a battle of will between them. Even if it felt like the tiger was holding back, something in Dave had told him he wouldn’t be worth the trouble. Being able to cause trouble for an apex predator like the tiger was more than impressive in Max book.

He wasn’t sure if the world or his friend had changed more during the last few days.

The sun was beginning to set, a little breeze was blowing through the jungle, giving the pressing heat a nice counterpart. The group found a nice spot to rest for the night, after they had settled in somewhat, they also settled into a comfortable silence. Mira had grown them a little banana tree again, so that’s what they had for dinner.

Max was lost in thought munching on his banana. He had spent all day thinking about his Skill. It sounded cool and useful to

He couldn’t imagine being the boss at home around his office. One of the reasons why he declined the job. Much less could he imagine impacting other people's lives in such a big way. It sounded like way too much responsibility. And how could such a stupid thing even qualify him for it?

The mood was surprisingly good considering the news they got yesterday. But by now the small group was getting close. They chatted around a bit. Sometimes Max was still worried about Mira, whoever the other girl was that disappeared, it obviously still affected her.

She was a bit quieter than the rest in conversation. Even quieter than Dave, who was one of the most socially reserved guys Max had ever met. One time in college they went to a frat party and Max could swear he hadn’t heard Dave say more than 3 words towards the entire evening.Come to think of it, Dave was being unusually chatty since they started their trip. But with Mira it was different, she seemed to not really be present a lot of the time.

Max tried talking to her a few times or tried integrating her into the conversation and it would usually work, but whenever it went quiet Max could see her getting lost. Still the pure fact that she still kept going after losing someone obviously dear to her and after all the changes and madness of the last few days spoke to her strength.

It was around midday when Max got sick of trees. It all looked the same around them. The heat and mosquitos were annoying. And goddamn he hated not having anything to do other than walking and turning his thoughts over and over again.

But luckily only shortly after they found something. The jungle abruptly stopped and they found themselves on a cliff. They hadn’t even seen the cliff coming up due to the thick vegetation all around them.

Max, Ryland and Sarah were walking a bit ahead, Dave still being slowed down by his wounds and the others deciding to stay with him. And it was only thanks to Ryland stopping him, that Max didn’t stumble in shock and fell down.

They stood there looking down and not believing their eyes.

Beyond the edge of the cliff a missive valley stretched out before them. It was massive, spanning as far as Max could see.

What elicited their disbelieving looks wasn’t just the massive, at least a hundred meter high drop they stood on the edge on. It was that the whole biome seemed different down there.

Instead of thick, lush vegetation and an endless ocean of trees, they saw plains stretching out before them. Mountains rose in the distance, towering into the sky. They were so high that Max couldn’t believe he hadn’t seen them through the jungle. There were also rivers running through the valley, dancing around the little hills and valleys of the plains.

The green grass growing on the planes was a different shade than the green of the jungle Max had gotten used to. The trees growing down there looked different too.

There was no doubt they were standing before an entirely different part of the world. As if stepping through a portal they found themselves on what almost looked like the drawing of a fantasy landscape.

“I guess that’s proof that the world got scrambled a bit.” Max said.

“Yeah so the rat was probably right.” Ryland acknowledged. Max wasn’t sure what to think about the tone in Rylands voice when talking about Bixby. He had saved their lives multiple times during the last few days. Still he could understand Rylands skepticism. He decided not to push it for now, but made a mental note to talk with Ryland about it. They continued looking over the strange valley in awe. It was beautiful.

“So… we should go down there, right?” Sarah broke the silence.

“Hell yeah.” Ryland said.