In the past few months, I’d grown familiar with most of the forest. To the north, there wasn’t much beyond the lake—just a few oxbow lakes scattered around, some larger, some smaller, but nothing too exciting. The east, however, remained a mystery. Mira always warned me not to go there, though she never said why.

I didn’t push it.

The south, though—that was the most dangerous direction. One day, I’d been curious enough to explore it. After walking for three hours or so, I came face to face with the Misted Treeline. From a distance, it didn’t seem scary, just... there. But that’s what terrified me the most. It looked so natural, almost too natural. It was easy to miss until you were already inside it, and by then, it was too late. I’d seen beasts wander in, sniffing the ground, searching for food, only to vanish into the mist without a trace.

I remember waiting there for hours, until it was time to return, and no beast had returned from the mist.

It was enough to send shivers down my spine, and never go anywhere close there ever again.

That left the west... The one place I dreaded more than any other. The place where the two Kingdoms once met, where Asmit’s End had been, and where Mira had found me. The western side held the weight of too many memories. But it wasn’t just the past that kept me away—it was the creatures. The Silverfangs, sure, but more than that, the brown beast. I’d seen plenty of animals in the forest, but this one was different. Unique. I couldn’t explain it much better, not that I wanted or needed to. I simply called it the King, and I was certain I never wanted to see it again.

But...

I ran a hand through Horny’s fur, and he snorted softly. No matter what, I had to find the best spot in the forest.

Not for me—but for Mira.

The thought alone made my heart beat faster.

“Come on, Horny,” I said, setting off at a run.

The western side, despite all the time since the last time I was here, remained the same as I remembered. The trees thickened as we went deeper, and the sun found it hard to bypass the branches, so despite the middle of the day, the place was dark. Vines hung lazily between the branches, and though many of the puddles had dried up, some still remained, scattered here and there.

I had to focus on the task, but it was hard when I had Horny with me.

He was supposed to help me not leaped into every puddle we passed and splashing mud and water everywhere!

‘I wanna jump too!’ I thought, watching him with envy. It wasn’t fair—he was having all the fun while I had to find hills—it wasn’t fair at all!

Just then, Horny jumped into a puddle right beside me, drenching me from head to toe.

I paused, blinking twice.

“You wanna play? Lets play then!” I declared, creating water on one hand and earth on the other and combining them into mud before throwing it at him.

The mudball found target at his horn, and broke into multiple sticky pieces.

‘Oh-oh.’

Not even a moment later, he started going crazy, thrashing violently and waving the swords for horns in every direction.

Dearhorns took pride in their horns. It was more than a symbol of power. It was a key part of their identity. None shared the same antlers. Sure, they might have had similar patterns but every single one had a distinction that separated them from the rest.

And now that Horny’s horns were dirtied, he had gone out of control.

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“Horny! Horny! Stop!” I yelled at him, but he couldn’t listen to me, which brought up a very important question: how much could he understand me?

I mean, he was a wild beast. He seemed to get what I was saying most of the time, either answering me with his unique way of stomping the his leg or with his nostril, but where exactly did that line end?

Suddenly, a hoof flew toward my face. I ducked just in time, feeling the rush of air parting my hair. A split second later, and my head would’ve probably been rolling.

‘Is this really the time for me to figure that out?’

Before I could say, or do anything else, he started running.

‘Ah great, because it was easy up until now.’

Igniting quint to my legs, I run behind him at full speed.

In general, he was faster than me—it only made sense, four legs were more than two, but due to his frenzies state, he couldn’t control himself, and while that made him run faster than usual, it was frantic, and chaotic, going left and right rather than in a straight line. So, at least it was possible for me to catch up.

Jumping over the exposed roots, ducking or dodging the larger leaves, and even pulling at the vines to sustain my momentum, I was closing the distance.

The problem however still remained.

What was I supposed to do? How was I supposed to stop him? The best approach was definitely to trying and jump on top of him and hold him by the neck so that he wouldn’t be able to breath and thus stop, but that was simply unrealistic.

First I would have to be faster, something I was not, and then I would have to somehow calculate exactly both mine and his speed, something I couldn’t do, and even still I’d have to be lucky, because that didn’t count for any outside source that could change even the slightest of calculations.

In stories people did that all the time, and it was cool when the character was perfect and did everything right, but it was so far from reality, it was unfair! Did the authors really not think of that?

Of course, there were others ideas that popped into my mind, one facing similar problems with the previous, and another, I didn’t like very much. The first was to somehow change the environment. If I managed to get in front of him and create enough water to make the ground moisty, I could slow him down enough so that he would stop. But then again, what if he simply changed directions? How was I supposed to know where he would go next for me to do that? If I was an evoker, I would technically be able to sent water pulses to his left and right, and try to guide him somewhere specifically, but I was not.

Which only left the third option. Head on confrontation.

In neither of the two previous plans the problem was me reaching him or surpassing him, and while this one definitely had its flaws, but it was the most realistic of the three.

It just so happened to also be the most dangerous one as well.

There was a big difference in clashing in a friendly match for the purpose of training, and clashing to stop a berserk beast.

The reason was self-explanatory.

Added the fact that the beast in question has lethal swords for horns and suddenly, only a lunatic would find this idea even possible.

‘Why do I feel like I am always going around trying to kill myself? I am not!’

Well... I’d been training in the same pattern for what, four months now? Surely I could stop Horny... right?

There was only one very unpleasant way to find out.

Through the vines, the trees and the leaves, I spotted a small clearing in the distance, and the plan was already set in motion.

With a push of quint from my feet, I sent a small burst of wind beneath me, propelling just high enough to grab onto the branch on one of the smaller trees. I continued leaping from branch to branch, surpassing my previous speed by a mile. In the process, I made sure to take a few twigs as I went, and once I was above Horny, I started throwing left and right off him so that I could at least somewhat guide him to where I wanted. This was the best approach I could think on the spot and thankfully it seemed to do the trick.

Now that he were semi-directed, and I wasn’t worried about him running away, I pushed even more quint, making even bigger jumped, and managed to reach the top of the small hill a few seconds before Horny could.

My heart raced, and I was a bit shaky as the moment of truth was about to come.

I was afraid, but, there was also a hint of excitement beneath.

With a long breath, I felt the quint circulate within me, letting it guide my mind. Then, it was time to act, and took back my control over it, leading it into my hands and forming protective gloves of water. Unlike the usual thin veil, I put all my quint into it, turning the azure color into indigo.

Just as I was about to push one last burst of wind below my feet, however, Horny’s figure grew blurry, appearing and disappearing before me, his horns tearing me apart.

Panicked, I let out a loud scream, just as the real Horny reached me. As I tumbled back, my shirt was caught up on his horns, and unable to lift me up he came crashing down with me.

Squashed beneath him I coughed out what little breath I had left and gathered the water from my hands and threw it at his horns and face, finally clearing his mind. Using the rest of my little strength left, I managed to push him barely aside, enough so that I could breath.

Breathing heavily, all I could so is watch the high above. There were no surroundings trees to block sky, nor could any beast snick on us.

A smile found my lips and I couldn’t help but laugh.

I had found the perfect place.