What a crazy girl, Max thought.

The light in her dark brown eyes drove him mad. How could she look at this world like that? This was not their world. They had been forced to leave everything behind.

Her hair was cleanly cut and cascaded down her back in curly brown locks, and everything about her seemed to fit. But she’d arrived face first in a puddle of vomit. The dumb girl probably tripped in her drunken stupor before getting teleported.

Her clothes stood out but for a much different reason than his ripped T-shirt and stained sweats. Her shirt was fashionably cut, leaving her arms and shoulders exposed, and she wore sleek, black leather pants. They were expensive. That was for sure.

“Are you still drunk?” Max asked.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Sofia snapped.

“I saw you arrive. You faceplanted on the ground. And the way you’re dressed. You were obviously out clubbing.”

Sofia’s face flushed red, “We’ve been walking for hours. You would have noticed if I was drunk by now.”

Max shrugged his shoulders. She was right on that. If there was one thing he wouldn’t forget, it was the way that booze could drive someone mad.

She’d seemed sane enough too. Or at least did when she suggested following the river. Rivers are supposed to lead to places… Max assumed. He’d never had the opportunity to learn things like that.

The sun had started to set, and the sky was turning darker. With each passing second, Max could make out less in the distance, and the rushing water of the river roared.

“So… you’re a Moonwitch?” he asked.

"Yeah, whatever that means." Sofia's eyes narrowed. "And you're a…"

“You already saw what I could do,” Max said.

“You wouldn’t tell me the name of your class, though,” Sofia said, annoyance clear in her tone.

Max focused on his chest and it felt heavier than it had yesterday. Something new resided in it. Something magical. And every time he called on it, it answered.

He slashed both hands diagonally through the air and thin ropes shot out of his fingertips. They were pulled tight and made of a sheen silver material he couldn’t identify. They moved in sync with Max’s hands.

After hours of experimentation, his accuracy was brutally poor and the ropes still moved quicker than he could see, though he always knew where they were going. The best he’d managed so far was slicing the tip off a leaf.

Why did this moment feel so bittersweet? Threads shot from his fingers, and though they were not terribly powerful, they were his. He owned these. All the same, the rope treads along his wrist burned. He frowned, his eyes distant. Sofia nudged him on the shoulder.

He startled, and his control over the strings dwindled. They turned lax and fell into the river. He thought of pulling them tight, and they shot back out of the water rippling until they were back into a straight, taut line.

They were tinted blue and slick with water. He pulled them closely, and their new hue remained as he waved them through the air.

Sofia raised her eyebrows and brushed a finger over one. She pulled it back quickly, “It felt like I was dipping my hand into a pool.” Her lips curved upward, “You’re strings take on the properties of elements. That’s sick. Now stop being so grumpy.”

“You can make rocks float. And your class is called ‘Moonwitch’. That’s so much cooler.”

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“Fine. My class is cooler.”

“Wh—” Max said. Sofia sped past him, running along the river.

The sun had set, and the second star, the bridge that had carried them here, had faded. The moon was starting to peak through, and it was full. Wisps of light gathered around Sofia, and the tips of her dark brown hair turned white, leaving trails of moonlight in its wake. She shone as the day got darker, and started to move even faster.

Maybe her class was cooler. But what else could he expect with a class named “Threader”. He watched her become smaller in the distance. And then he glanced at the threads. He ripped his hands down, and the blue tint disappeared.

There was not much to latch onto in the plains. Just thick, wide boulders sparsely beside the river. He thought briefly about using the forest, but the pitch black underneath the trees kept him away. He was not sure what was hidden in that darkness, and he did not wish to find out. He shot threads at the boulder and willed them to wrap around it.

He pushed the threads back towards himself, all while forcing the threads to stay around the rock, which pulled him to the rock. The lines acted as a guide, launching him forward far faster than he could run. Briefly. The lines slipped, and Max stumbled into the ground.

He rolled back to his feet and kept running. He passed the boulder, and let his threads scrape against the rock, grating off a small part at the top. They turned to a shade of grey, losing their metallic luster.

Max barreled along the river and shot the ropes at another boulder in the distance. They hit with a bang, like stone on stone, and wrapped around it. He propelled himself forward.

His speed rose. Each step on the ground carried him further. The plains became a blur, and the rushing of the river was outdone by the roaring of the wind. Adrenaline rushed through his veins.

The boulder was getting closer, and Sofie glowed at the edge of the river. Max tried to stop… and then realized he didn’t know how to stop. His stomach curled.

He stopped pulling himself, but momentum carried him. Once he was even with the stone, the strings disconnected and he shot forward, several feet off the ground. He closed his eyes and braced for the ground. But it never came.

His stop was much slower and guided by a grunting Sofia. The moonlight around her had become brighter and sweat trickled down her face.

Max came to a complete stop, and then she plopped to the ground. “Are you trying to kill yourself?” she screamed.

“What?” Max asked, confused. “I would have been fine!”

The blue box flashed in front of his face. “No. No, you would not have. You were moving at 120 MPH. Estimated injuries would have been: Broken Leg x2, Broken Rib x1, and Fractured Arm x1. But congratulations, you now have little skill with Latching, Propulsion, and Control! Was it worth it?”

He struggled for the words to say. He’d almost died.

“My box thing warned me how fast you were going. Dude!”

“I—” Max’s voice was weak. “I didn’t realize. Not until it was too late. Thank you. You might have just saved my life.”

Sofia sighed, “This is all so new. We need to be more careful. And you need to learn how to stop!” Her words softened, “I… we can’t waste this opportunity.”

He gulped. “Yeah, I’ll work on that next.”

She smiled weakly and her eyes seemed empty, “You’re fast though. Really fast.”

“How’d you stop me?” Max asked.

“I get stronger at ni—”.

A loud clang interrupted her. A gust of wind shot out from the forest, and the trees bent halfway to the ground. Small creatures scuttled out of the darkness, bounding over the river and running out into the open plain.

Max looked at Sofia. Another gust of wind shot out and blew hair into his mouth. He spit it out. The clangs reverberated through the night sky constantly. An indistinguishable mashup of other sounds—static, chimes, shouting—came from the forest. Max turned from the wind and caught Sofia spitting out a mouthful of hair as well.

“What is that?” Max shouted.

“I don’t know!” Sofia said. “But we should probably leave.”

Max nodded and surveyed the area. The plains were open, expanding outwards for miles. In the distance, he noticed a small alcove underneath a hill of rocks and pointed to it. With the wind pushing at their backs, they moved quickly. Not as quick as with the aid of their abilities, but quicker than they’d ever moved on Earth.

The wind stopped. The alcove was only a few yards away.

A gust, far stronger than all of the others exploded. Trees ripped from the ground, and something crashed into the ground beside them. The entire plains shook and Max and Sofia fell.

They both froze and dust filled the air. They watched the crater, though they could not see anything. Then the object groaned.

A tall woman emerged from the divot in the ground. Her face was smooth, though lines at the top of her forehead showed her to be middle-aged, and her eyes were golden. Her skin was battered. Cuts ran along her arms. Long silver hair fell atop a large blue robe that rested atop her shoulders.

The woman stopped and her eyes widened. She raised her hands into the air.

“NO!” Max and Sofia shouted.

The woman hesitated, and her eyes narrowed. “Asqe Yuve Pliu?’ She demanded.

They looked at each other uncertainly.

“ASQE YUVE PLIU?” The woman screamed. Her eyes monitored the sky.

"I don't know what that means!" Max shouted back. He held his hands in the air. Sofia did the same.

The blue box flashed in front of Max, “[Translating]”.

“ANSWER ME! WHAT ARE YOU DOING OUT HERE?” The woman’s hands started to glow.