Addie blearily opened her eyes. The first thing she noticed was how dark it still was outside. She rolled over in her sleeping bag a bit and then sent Squishy a telepathic message, “I have to go to the bathroom. Can you come with me?”
Squishy suddenly stopped snoring and moved his head around with bleary eyes. His eyes landed on Addie, “Yes, I shall accompany you.”
Without even bothering to get out of her sleeping bag, Addie jumped into Realmspace and reoriented her body mid-transition so that she was standing up the moment she entered. Squishy popped into existence a brief moment later, and together they took a few steps forward. They re-entered reality with Addie’s bare feet landing directly in the mud.
“Dang it!” Her loud voice echoed across the wilderness and she hesitantly glanced side to side after making that outburst. After nothing happened, she continued in a whisper, “I forgot to put on my booties!”
Squishy chortled for a moment. “No matter, they will be clean once we enter back into Realmspace, should you desire not to bring the mud along. Let us finish up outside so we can return to camp.”
Addie took one last glance back at the tent, but she didn’t see anyone shifting around in the tent from her brief shout.
Together, Addie and Squishy walked through the damp mud away from the campsite. She didn’t want to attract animals near the tent area. It was highly unpleasant how her toes squelched through the wetlands, in that transitory area where the forest and swamp met up. A quick rustling sound passed through a bush to Addie’s left, and her eyes snapped to it immediately.
Whatever it had been, it was gone now, and the forest returned to normal. But it didn’t stop Addie’s heart from pumping faster. It felt like a good idea to open up her spatial sense, so Addie pulsed out her magic and started sweeping her surroundings— just letting her awareness bubble grow all around her without directly controlling it in a specific direction.
She couldn’t detect anything except for various plants swaying ever so slightly in the breeze. Squishy pointed his snout in that direction sniffing the air. Addie gently prodded him through their bond, to ask him if he’d smelled anything, but he just shook his head no.
Well, Addie certainly couldn’t do her business right here, next to that rustling bush. Even if she didn’t see anything with her spatial sense, the rustling bushes were creepy! So, she walked a little bit farther away from camp. Just in case, Addie sent Ember out from her soul to sweep around the area and check for baddies, but Ember didn’t find anything strange either. She stayed out of Addie’s soul to help Squishy keep watch.
A rustling sound. Addie froze. Her heart pounded in her chest. She scanned the darkness, eyes wide. All three of them turned their heads at the suspicious bush, Squishy’s claws getting ready to pounce. She just started preparing her spatial sense when a head of brown hair pushed through the bushes.
“Why aren’t you in bed?” Nettal walked out from the bushes and asked after a big yawn.
Addie and her bonded all relaxed, Ember reducing the soul flames that she had been building up on her wings.
“Don’t scare me like that!” Addie said in a harsh whisper. “These stupid bushes have been rustling like crazy! Even last time Christena and I came through here. It’s creepy!”
The same bush Nettal had walked out from rustled a bit more, but it was just Lotty pushing his snout through the underbrush to walk into the clearing.
“If it’s so creepy, why are you all the way out here?” Nettal asked. “Your shouting woke me up earlier.”
“Well, I had to go to the bathroom. And I wanted to get away from camp for that.”
“Oh,” Nettal squinted at Addie.
With a smirk, Addie said, “I forgot to bring shoes... Look at my toes!” Addie said as she lifted her foot and wiggled her toes.
“Ew! Disgusting! Why???” Nettal complained and recoiled from the dripping mud.
A frigid breeze swept through the small clearing, rustling the bushes and making Addie shiver. Though fall was on its way, this chill felt unnaturally cold. She hugged herself tightly, trying to ward off the sudden bite in the air.
“What’s that?” Nettal’s voice trembled slightly.
“What?” Her eyes darted around, searching for the source of Nettal's unease. Fear and unease dropped down into her stomach, thick and awful.
A dense fog crept into the area and swirled around their ankles like probing tendrils. It was getting thicker.
“Let’s get back to camp,” Addie whispered, her voice coming out smaller than she intended.
“Okay,” Nettal agreed quickly, nodding her head rapidly.
They exchanged a fearful glance before turning back towards the camp, their steps quickening as the fog rose in height behind them.
The girls started walking back the way they had come, but the fog seemed to chase them as they went.
“Let’s run!” Addie suddenly decided aloud.
The moment they got away from the ankle-high fog, it expanded into a dense wall behind them. It pursued them— a massive wall that the two girls could only barely outrun.
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Nettal and Lotty were barely keeping up from behind, but Addie was worried. She had to purposefully slow herself down so she wouldn’t lose her older cousin. She watched in dismay as Nettal struggled to get through the forest.
The fog was catching up to them. Nettal wasn’t used to navigating in the forest! A branch that Addie had avoided smacked into Nettal. She tripped on a root and fell face-down into the mud. Lotty halted next to his bonded. Addie stopped in terror, but unwilling to leave Nettal behind. The fog wall was here.
“Ember!” Addie shouted.
Addie imagined a torrent of flames pushing through and destroying the fog. Ember complied. Heat rushed out from Ember in a torrential stream going right above Nettal’s head, blasting a giant hole through the fog. Addie ran to Nettal and held out a hand.
“We have to hurry! We need Christena!” Addie shouted.
Nettal tried to untangle her shoe from the root but had wedged it in tight.
“Just take it off!” Addie screamed.
“I’m trying!” Nettal turned her face back up to Addie with a tear of fear streaming down her cheek. “Go get Christena!” Nettal shouted back.
Addie looked up.
“I can’t,” Addie said slowly.
“Just go!”
“No, look.”
Nettal turned her head up, following Addie’s eyes. The fog wall encircled the two girls and their bonded completely, only kept at bay by a steady stream of soul flames sweeping through the area by Ember. A branch of fog would try to creep closer to the two girls, only to be destroyed by a purple wave of flames sweeping out from Ember’s wings as she beat them in the air.
“There’s nowhere to go,” Addie observed, with almost a sense of detachment. They didn’t get away in time.
Nettal yanked on her foot with both her arms and grunted in pain. “Just take us to Realmspace!” she shouted.
That idea kicked Addie’s brain back into gear, and she recalled Ember back into her soul. Squishy leaped closer to the two girls, and Addie put one hand on Lotty’s head. She put her other hand on Nettal’s shoulder and tugged on her space magic together with Squishy.
The fog rushed into the vacated space, rushing past and just barely missing the girls.
The moment Addie set foot into Realmspace, the suddenly loud beating of her heart filled her ears. She took deep breaths and strengthened the magic holding everyone in Realmspace.
“I think I twisted my ankle,” Nettal said quietly.
Still in emergency mode, Addie bent down and helped Nettal take off her shoe. Just like she said, the ankle was red and swollen.
“Can you keep us in Realmspace while I heal it?”
“Definitely,” Addie tried to make her tone reassuring, but instead her voice came out shaky.
Hurriedly, Nettal’s eyes flashed green as she activated her magic, and in real-time Addie watched as her ankle transformed from swollen to normal.
Breathing hard, Addie held her hand out for Nettal to hold, “Let’s get as far away in Realmspace as we can before it kicks us out.” Addie distractedly noticed how both her and Nettal’s arms were shaky.
“Alright. I can walk—” Nettal shook her head with a deep intake of breath, “No, we better run,” she corrected.
Addie was still breathing hard, making her dizzy, and stars danced in her vision as she tried to catch her breath.
“Are you ok?” Nettal asked.
Nettal didn’t look much better off than Addie. She could still see the terror behind Nettal’s eyes and the streak marks from her earlier tears. And yet, Nettal had still taken the time to ask if Addie was ok.
“Let’s get back to Christena.”
“Ok.”
Without even needing to be told, Squishy started leading the way. At first, they walked, but as all of their terror started to fade into the background, the girls were steady enough to start running. They were able to run for a few minutes before Realmspace kicked them back out into Reality.
A cold breeze drifted past as everyone stepped foot back into reality. They all stared blankly at their surroundings, and for a moment, Addie had no idea what she was looking at.
Addie ignored her cold bare feet and looked out at an expanse of snow blanketing the world in all directions. Somehow, it was daytime, and the Binary’s light was the only thing providing even the slightest semblance of heat.
Shaking her head, Addie scanned the area in bafflement. It looked like she was on a mountain range, with tall snow-blanketed peaks surrounding her on all sides. Her first thought was to see if Nettal was still next to her. Luckily, Addie spotted her right away, just next to her.
Her next instinct was to question her reality: this certainly seemed like some baloney dream logic. But after a moment of introspection, Addie knew this definitely wasn’t a dream.
“What?” Nettal voiced Addie’s thought.
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Back at camp, Christena banished a tendril of magical fog that had been dulling her senses. Someone had been casting magic near her, and that made her angry. She slowly sat up and looked around the tent, but didn’t see Nettal or Addie anywhere.
Christena sat in the silent tent for a few seconds, watching and listening for any clues. After a few moments of sitting up and waiting in silence, Christena finally started nudging Fluffy with her feet.
“Come on, we need to find the girls. I’ll have to teach them not to play around at night time.” She tried to lighten the mood by joking around, but the pit of dread in her stomach didn’t ease up at all. That fog hadn’t seemed like Addie’s magic, but there was still a small amount of hope it had come from the girls.
“Let’s hurry just in case.”
Using her illusion magic, Christena easily found and lit up each of Addie’s footsteps a few paces from the tent. For some forsaken reason, that girl had left camp entirely barefoot. She could see her toeprints in the mud!
She and Fluffy followed the trail to a small clearing, where Fluffy confirmed with a grimace that Addie had been using this spot.
“Then where’d they go?”
Fluffy pointed her snout in another direction. “Fluffy, why did the girls run in the opposite direction from camp?” The pit of dread in her stomach crept upward into her chest. It was basically confirmed now that the fog hadn’t come from Addie.
Fluffy twitched her tail in the way Christena knew meant a shrug.
With a wave of her hand, Christena lit up the entire clearing so brightly a few squirrels got spooked and ran away. She walked the perimeter, but she didn’t see any footsteps other than those from Addie, Nettal, and their bonded.
With her hand on her chin, Christena walked up to a swathe of bushes that had soul damage. Not many people could see the tiny souls of plants, but Christena had plenty of practice. This soul damage looked like it was from Ember.
“There was a fight here!” Christena shouted herself into action. “Go, follow the trail!”
Christena ran after Fluffy, dashing through the woods. They came to a skidding halt as the trail ended. Tons of the plant life in this area had soul damage.
“Can you smell them at all? Track them more?” Fluffy shook her head.
Christena cursed and started pacing.
“They must have gone into Realmspace,” she thought aloud. “Do we wait here, and see if they turn up, or rush back to Ms. Lomain’s Area to ask for help?” Christena honestly didn’t know what to do. The fear of losing both of the girls swirled around in her head, making it hard to think. Luckily, Fluffy had an idea.
“You’re right. We can do both. Ok, you run to Ms. Lomain’s Area, fast as you can. You’re faster than I am on foot. I’ll camp here for a few hours and pray that the girls turn up.” Christena sighed heavily. “What have they gotten themselves into this time? I just hope they are ok.”