Feeling her gaze on my back, I paused for a moment.

The next, I started walking again.

Whoever she was, whatever she wanted, she was a stranger. I didn’t know her. I didn’t trust her. I was alone.

Turning to the first leaf, I hid from her gaze and increased my pace.

Her house, if that were really her house, was in the middle of the forest. It turned out it was indeed the insides of a tree, which made sense, but also didn’t. How was that even possible? No, more than that, who would live here, hidden away from the world?

I didn’t know where I was, but it was clear I was much, much deeper into the forest than when I fell unconscious. Last time it was raining, and the forest was much darker, but if one thing was certain, was that the deeper I reached, the bigger and thicker the trees became. The surrounding trees here were at least two times bigger than…

Why would anyone choose to live in such a place? However I looked at it, it made less and less sense.

She was clearly lying, and the thought made me even more certain of my choice.

It was still day, after all, and the sun was shining. Winter was around the corner, and naturally, trees would gradually lose their leaves, letting even more sunshine to pass through. Or at least that’s what I thought.

Sadly for me, I was wrong… for the most part.

The trees here were so thick, their branches so tightly woven, that it didn’t matter whether leaves clung to them or not. The ground was littered with withered leaves, yet the branches above still seemed to overflow with them, casting shadows that tangled with the light. The sunlight filtered through, painting the world below in uneasy brown, orange and yellow colors.

A few stubborn greens lingered near the ground, shielded by the towering trees, still clinging to their warmth. While everything above glowed in an array of colors, the path beneath remained unchanged.

It was all so… scary. Lonely.

The surrounding leaves rustled, but no one was there. The sound was faint at first, like a whisper carried by the wind, but it grew louder, more insistent, as if the forest itself was alive, watching, waiting.

Growls rumbled in the distance, low and threatening, while sharp howls sounded from time to time. Hoots echoed from the treetops and all these noises put together seemed to come from no direction-every direction all at once.

My head spun and turned to every sound, and every time it would meet the same result. My breathing quickened and at some point I started running, but the noises remained. In fact, some of them grew closer.

A ripping sound and a sudden loss in balance made me fall to the ground.

The white tunic the woman had put on me while I was unconscious had been tangled and teared by a hanging root.

My hand moved on its own for my pendant, only to stop midway, remembering it was no longer there.

Momentarily paused, a dark thought entered my mind.

‘Should I have stayed with her?’

She was a stranger, but she also saved me. I didn’t know what would have happened if she didn’t, but it wouldn’t have been something good. She had found me, but didn’t leave me, instead taking me in her home and treated me.

I waited there for a moment, thinking. The next, I shook my head, stood up, and continued moving.

‘People only care for themselves.’

Soon, the sun began to fall, and the forest darkened. The shadows cast from above grew bigger, scarier, the shadowy branches looking like claws, slashing the path they left behind.

The rustling grew louder and creaking branches made my eyes darted between the shadows.

‘What’s making that sound?’

Fear was slowly taking the better of me, and when one thought came, another was quick to follow, sending me in a spiral of increasingly worrying questions.

‘What was that?’

My head spun to my right, only for a branch to snap in the opposite direction.

‘Is someone following me?’

I found myself spinning, my ear picking up a different sound in every turn.

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‘Why do the trees feel like they’re closing in?’

The shadows stretched longer, darker; the forest seemed to twist, warp, the path I was walking disappearing behind me.

‘Where am I? Where am I going?’

The leaves rustled again and a snap of a twig just behind the tree before me echoed like the drums my heart pounded on my ears.

‘Back—I want to go back.’

In a flash, a beast darted behind the tree, its fur a deep brown that lightened toward its underbelly. Its large, dark eyes locked onto me, wide with intensity. Above them, its horns stood tall and strong, cutting through the sunlight like blades, pointing upward like a crown.

At its sharp snort, I stumbled back.

It… it was the same beast as before, only this time, there wasn’t a beast behind me to scare it away.

‘N-no. I… I can fight it. I’m an Elemancer close to the red color. I- I can do it!’

I tightened up my fists, but I couldn’t stop my legs from trembling.

The beast walked slow and steady, my panic raising with each of its step.

Once it was too close, I moved forward, punching at its face, the force somehow able to make its feet drag on the ground and build a small distance between us.

It snorted not once, but twice. With a loud grunt and an angry stomp, it launched forward, its head lowered, the horns aimed directly at me.

With only a second to grasp what was going on, and another to react, I barely managed to jump out of the way. A heartbeat later and a loud crash echoed, the beast head-charging into a tree behind me.

Struggling to break its horns free of the trunk, it stomped its legs to the ground.

With the extra seconds gained, and the strange feeling of excitement, my mind began to spin.

I was certain facing it head on was not going to be the way. The punch earlier was just luck, what I needed was quint.

Without even needing to look, I could feel the quint in my core tingling, eager to be free, eager to manifest. But I did look.

It was returning from my hand and legs back to its original place, but it did slowly, as if it were trying to tell me it didn’t want to, but instead to be used for something else.

If only I could make it into an element. Wind would have been perfect, using it to run away or climb a tree, or earth, to create a wall to protect me. Even water would be good, make the ground all buffy and chewy, harder for the beast to move, something, anything.

While my thoughts run wild, so did the quint. Without me guiding it properly, it didn’t know how to behave, aimlessly circling around. Tightening a fist, it paused and instead got dragged back to the core, and from it, to my hand.

Meanwhile, the beast had finally freed itself, grunting loudly and stomping the ground in frustration. As it turned, its eyes seemed to flash a green light, and a chilly breeze made my hair stand on end. Its horns seem to shine and with another stomp, it charged at me again.

Panic rose once more and fear gripped me in place. Only quint seemed to move; faster and sharper for each of the beasts steps closer to me.

Suddenly, my eyes blurred, and the beast looked like it was already slashing at me with its horns.

“No. No!” I screamed, raising my hands and closing my eyes, awaiting the impact.

The impact, however, never came. Instead, the beast cried out in a howl full of fear, stomping at the ground with all its might to pause its charge.

Opening my eyes, I let out a loud scream, perhaps even louder than the beast itself.

Fire.

My hands were coated in fire.

Burning hot flames made the air howl like the villagers back at Asmit’s End begging for it to stop.

But it didn’t. I couldn’t.

Thirsty to be released, the quint rushed to fuel the fire, to burn me down, to burn the beast down to burn the entire forest down!

Just like how it had done back home. It would repeat! I would have done it again! It would be my fault again!

“Stop them… Stop them!” I whispered as the screamed gnawing at my ears.

By the time I turned to the beast, its horns had already found target at me. They dug beyond the while fabric and into my skin, taking me off my feet, and in a circular motion, I was pushed off its horns and slammed into the trunk of a tree.

My eyes blurred in and out of different images, but thankfully, in every single one of them, my hands had turned back to normal, the flames nowhere to be found.

I smiled, but wanted nothing more than to cry.

With my eyes unable to focus as the beast approached, I closed them. I was less painful that way. Struggling to breathe, only one thought came to mind.

‘I should have stayed with her.’

Shakily, I tightened my fist. If I only I had listened. Why did it matter if she was a stranger or not? She had saved me. She took care of me. I should have stayed. Once again, it was all my fault.

I could feel the beast’s breath right to my face, yet strangely, it wasn’t going for the finishing move.

It simply waited.

Opening my eyes, the blurring images continued to shift, blending with the edges of reality. In some of them, the beast was gone; in others, it lay on the ground, flames licking at its fur. But in most, the woman was there, standing in between two trees illuminated by light.

That’s when I realized she wasn’t part of the images. Dressed in a dark coat, she would have been unrecognizable if not for her silvery hair, glinting even in the dim light of the setting sun. One arm outstretched, the other lifting her hood, she approached with a calm, deliberate grace, yet the beast remained tense, unmoved by her presence.

Finally, her fingers brushed against its horns, and the creature relaxed. Its furious stomping ceased, and its breath slowed, a contented snort escaping as if to signal its relief.

“Go,” she commanded softly, and the beast, obedient to her voice, turned and disappeared into the trees.

She then turned and sat next to me, caressing my dishevelled hair before opening a bag filled with bandages and other items inside.

She didn’t say anything, and I didn’t either. She retained a smile, however, and it made so much more painful.

Why was she here? Why did she save me again? Why-why-why? People only care for themselves, why was she doing that?

Soon, I was able to stand back on my feet.

By now, the sun had already set down.

Not daring to meet her gaze, I turned away. Before I could take a step away, her soft murmur stopped me in my tracks.

“The first snow... how beautiful.”

As she said that, a snowflake fell upon my nose. The sun was missing, but the snow was like small freckles of light in the dark forest. It fell so slowly, so softly. It was beautiful. Cold and beautiful.

Tightening my fist, my hand shook to the pressure.

She had been so kind to me; she had been there for me, and I… I… I couldn’t go back now. I couldn’t forgive myself for how I acted.

Tears welled up in my eyes, filled with regret.

I took the first step away, but then her voice sounded again.

“Would you mind staying with me for a while until the Winter passes? It gets lonely this time of the year.”