There was no sound inside the mists. No insects, wind, or animals could be heard. The noise coming from the village was completely muted as well. The only sound Kai could hear was his own heartbeat, the pounding increasing every second he stood there. It was almost as if time was frozen inside the mists for everything except him.

This is way too eerie. Unnatural even.

Stepping back out of the mists, his heart rate started returning to normal as he could hear the hustle and bustle of life coming from inside the village.

The feeling of being watched had not disappeared. Kai assumed it was one of the villagers, observing him. He had a hunch the guards, or an adult would be coming to find him shortly. Besides I’m just going to take a quick peek. I won’t go far. No adults would take him into the mists. His father told him to wait a few more years, but he had gotten restless being stuck in the same village for the last eight years. All he wanted to do was take a look after all.

With limited time, he pushed onwards into the mists once again. All sound was gone except for the crunch of his footsteps as he walked across the grass. The colors were quite muted. It had the look of an ordinary forest, with typical greens and browns all around except for the transparent gray mists covering everything. The further he looked, the denser the mists were. His eyesight could only penetrate 20 meters into the mist before his vision was completely blocked by a seemingly solid white mist.

The trees towered above him with trunks larger than his body. Raising his head, he couldn’t see any leaves, as the branches extended higher into the depths of the mists past his vision. If it wasn’t for the eeriness of the situation Kai would even think that the forest was serene in a creepy untouched sort of way. The environment seemed entirely preserved which was different from what he remembered growing up in his past life when trees and earth were always being torn up to make way for progress and buildings.

He continued to progress forward, marking an arrow pointing back home on every other tree with his knife. The knife had been a birthday present from his grandfather; one his mother was not happy to see him receive. It shamed him to mark these trees, but he prioritized his own safety first.

After a minute of walking, Kai could still feel eyes on his back. Whoever is watching me is starting to creep me out. Shifting his eyes left to right, he caught movement vanishing into the mists. Enough of this. I’m going home. A shiver of fear sped down his back thinking something was lurking beyond his field of vision watching him.

A high-pitched screech cried out from beyond his vision inside the mists, beyond where he had seen movement. Pivoting around he prepared to run back home, knife in hand. His eyes went wide when he stared at the tree, the arrow symbol mark he had drawn half a minute ago was no longer there. The tree appeared unblemished. He turned his head left to right looking for the symbols he had drawn. Every tree was untouched. Even with all his past life experience fighting monsters and exploring new lands, Kai began to panic. Something odd was happening in this forest and he wasn’t prepared to handle it. No one told me about any of this. His chest thumped with loud heartbeats.

The screeching stopped, instantly silenced, but now he could hear multiple crunching sounds coming from the mists. Whatever it was, it was moving towards him.

Putting his back to a tree, he looked around seeing nothing. Kai was frozen with indecision. If he moved, whoever was inside the mists would hear where he was; but if he stood still, the thing making the noise might see him as it came closer.

Staying silent and still, Kai kept his eyes trained on the mists ahead. After a minute he finally saw movement. The shadow of a creature appeared. It was still obscured by the mists, but its body was larger than his with a rounded back. That was enough for Kai to make his decision. He turned and began running in the direction from which he thought he had come.

He kept his eyes trained on the trees as he ran by, looking for the symbols he had carved, but none appeared. He winced with every step he took, as the crunch of his footsteps seemed to echo in the silent forest. The same screech as before resounded in the forest accompanied by the rapid crunching of footsteps on the stiff grass approaching him. Turning his head, Kai could see the creature now. It was a Screaming Forest Boar, something the village regularly had for meals as it was one of the more common creatures in the forest. The beast was three times as big as Kai and had to weigh over 500 pounds.

Kai kept turning his head back and forth to make sure he wouldn’t run into a tree as he watched the boar quickly gain on him. The distance was shortening with every second. There would be no chance of outrunning it, especially with the body of an eight-year-old without magic. It also didn’t help that he didn’t know where he was going.

If I remember correctly, the Screaming Forest Boar is a foundation realm beast, known for its charging ability using its weight, momentum, and screaming. At this rate, it’s going to catch me in a few seconds. Fuck, why did I have to be so impulsive and come out here? Steeling his resolve, Kai stopped in front of a tree and turned around, knowing if he kept running, he would be trampled by the boar.

Narrowing his eyes as he bent his knees ready to move. I have to time this perfectly otherwise I might die. Kai’s palm felt slick with sweat, his nerves were getting to him. The boar didn’t slow down as it approached, either not noticing the tree behind him, or not caring.

Now!

Jumping to his left last second, Kai tried to dodge the incoming beast. Pain enveloped his right foot as the boar clipped it sending him flying through the air.

Eyes closed in pain, Kai heard a loud thump and creaking as the boar collided with the tree, shaking both the tree and the ground. Kai felt the air escape his lungs as he crashed onto the ground a few meters away, the short grass doing nothing to break his fall.

“Fuuuuck,” he screamed at the top of his lungs. The pain was overwhelming as he lay there on his back. Gritting his teeth, it was all he could do not to scream out again.

Opening his eyes, he could see the boar lay next to the tree unmoving. Turning over he placed his knee with the broken foot on the ground and used his other unbroken foot to prop himself up to a standing position. Lightly placing his injured foot onto the ground, he gingerly pressed it, only to stagger and cry out in pain as the pain flared up. A few meters away, he could see the rhythmic breathing of the unconscious boar.

My knife where is it... Scanning around he noticed the knife lay between him and the boar only one meter away.

Shit... Mom is going to ground me forever if I’m able to make it home. Kai grumbled knowing his mother would punish him by not allowing him to train in the sword for some time. The worst punishment for an aspiring swordsman.

Hobbling over a few feet he bent down and grabbed the knife. Kai’s face took on a crestfallen expression seeing the boar twitch. Its breathing continued to remain steady. Limping towards the boar, Kai winced in agony every time he brought down his foot.

After a minute he finally made it to the boar. Grabbing onto a tuft of hair, he steadied himself. Staring at the creature, it looked so peaceful unconscious, but he knew otherwise. He had to kill it, or there was a chance it would wake up and attack him before he could hobble away.

Sorry, but this is the way of the world. As you tried to kill me, I will not fail in killing you. Kai raised his hands with the knife aimed down and plunged straight into the boar’s eye. Its other eye shot open, as it began thrashing its head side to side, squealing in a high-pitched noise. Startled, he tightened his grip on the tuff of fur, keeping him balanced.

His arm was being heavily shaken as he kept hold of the knife, at the rate it was going his arm would either break or dislocate. Stabbing it through the eye hadn’t worked, the boar hadn’t died. Wishing he had a longer knife, he pulled it out and tried stabbing it down at the thrashing boar again. In the chaos, his knife ended up stabbing into the head. It slowly sunk down until it stopped, the skull keeping it from going down any further.

Shit, come on... pierce it please! Unrelenting, Kai repeated the mantra in his mind as he kept pushing down with all his strength on the knife until the resistance gave way, his knife sinking down to the grip inside the boar’s head. Breathing out a sigh of relief, he watched the boar cease its movement.

Clap. Clap.

Turning swiftly, he saw a figure standing right behind him. Until this time he hadn’t heard anyone or anything else in the forest, but he had also been too focused on killing the boar. To his relief, he recognized the tall figure.

“Grandpa, what are you doing here?” Kai gulped; aware he had screwed up.

Roy Cineris didn’t look a day over 40. With short black hair, trimmed beard, and piercing gray eyes, he stood with his arms crossed, frowning down at his grandchild. Kai recognized the expression, it was not the kind, caring grandfatherly face that he usually portrayed, but the face of a stern village leader who was about to give out punishment.

Looking towards his grandfather’s feet, a majestic-looking fox sat staring at him with intelligent golden symmetrical eyes. Fur of crimson red covered most of her body, except underneath where a strip of pristine white fur ran down from the lower mouth to her back legs. Smaller than most of the adult foxes in the village, Akane, the gluttonous reigned supreme as the current matriarch for all foxes residing in the village. Known widely as the one who eats, the unseen stomachs, and his favorite title is “she who sleeps, lest you disturb her slumber and suffer the consequences.”

She shot him a look, an expression of displeasure manifesting on her face. Growing up around the foxes, Kai could tell their expression immediately now. For some reason, seeing the angry fox at him, made him more nervous than the anger of his grandfather.

Still sitting on the ground, Kai decided to try a different approach. He gave his grandfather a winning smile. “Look what I was able to do!” Kai said, pointing to the dead boar. He would play the innocent child card if it meant avoiding punishment.

Akane sauntered up to Kai, quickly doing a 180-degree turn, she smacked him in the face with her fluffy tail. It was a light tap, that he guessed was her way of telling him to shut up, but the tail felt so fluffy he didn’t really care. In fact, he couldn’t help but reach out and pet the fur of the fox down its backside. Stiffening, she remained still unmoving as he continued to pet it, unintentionally falling into a state of relaxation now that he was safe.

“Kai.” His grandfather said grabbing his attention. “Drink this. We need to get going. Your mother is probably worried, searching around the village and rallying the people to look for you. You’ve been gone for thirty minutes.”

Eyes wide in fright at the mention of his mother and thirty minutes, Kai grabbed the vial of red liquid that had appeared from midair. Knowing full well the vial hadn’t appeared magically from thin air but instead had come from his grandfather’s ring of storage, one of a few in the village.

Popping the cork quickly, he chugged the red liquid. Peppermint flooded his mouth. The warmth traveled down his throat and through the rest of his body. He felt his broken foot heat up significantly more than the rest of his body. With a crack and a pop, the foot snapped back together. His foot continued to pulse and itch until a few minutes later when healing effects had worn off. Standing he gingerly pressed his foot onto the ground, making sure it was back to normal. There was no longer any pain, only tenderness.

“Let’s go,” his grandfather simply said as he walked past him, Akane at his side.

Kai remained silent, his thoughts about back to what had just happened. He had been stupid and reckless to come into the mists alone and without magic. He knew that even though the mists were regularly patrolled, it didn’t mean there weren’t animals or monsters that wouldn’t attack him. What was most strange was he hadn’t gone more than 50 meters into the mists, or so he thought. Even the markings he made had vanished from the trees. What should have been a fast and easy matter turned into something dangerous.

His grandfather and Akane remained quiet as well, simply glancing at him as he walked between them.

Freezing in her tracks, Akane stopped without warning. A second later, all kinds of animals and monsters began screaming throughout the forest. Following those screams, the ground began shaking. Nearly losing his balance, Kai grabbed onto his grandfather’s sleeve. As quickly as it had started, the shaking ceased along with the noise, the misty forests returning to silence once more.

“It’s been happening more and more lately,” his grandfather mused aloud.

There was another pause in conversation as they continued their walking.

“I’m sorry,” Kai said breaking the silence.

With a sigh, his grandfather spoke, “You have good instincts, Kai. You didn’t even flinch when you delivered the final blow. I mean you did get scared when it woke up, but it was a good fight. I had thought I was going to have to save you, but you were smart to set a trap for the boar.”

“It was all I could do. I thought I was going to die. I mean, I even broke my foot. If that boar didn’t knock itself out, I really might have died.” Kai went silent thinking how lucky he had been.

His grandfather smiled brightly. “Of all my grandchildren, you have always been the one to make me the proudest. Your intelligence and craftiness are unmatched by those your age. But what you did today was stupid and irresponsible. I’d ought to smack your backside for that if I wasn’t sure your mother was already going to do it.”

Kai gulped, knowing he was doomed if his mother found out. He felt phantom pain in his backside already.

His grandfather gave him a knowing look. “I won’t tell her...”

Kai beamed and quickly gave his grandfather a hug.

“But you have to promise me you will not enter the forest again unless you’re with an adult or in the third realm. Although we do our best to cull them, there are many stronger monsters living in the mists.”

Kai did the only thing he could to escape punishment. He agreed.

The fox remained silent as they walked, nodding away at their conversation as if she understood it.

“What level was it?” Kai asked. He was practically skipping now that he learned there would be no punishment.

“Foundation, level 27. Not bad for an eight-year-old mortal.” His grandfather gave him a smirk.

“Only level 27?” kai muttered to himself. I thought it would be stronger with how it shook the tree.

Silence lapsed again as they continued their trek through the murky mists. Yawning Kai was growing tired, the battle had taken a lot out of his immature body. “Grandpa, how did you know I was out here?” Kai asked with interest. He guessed that the person watching him now had been his grandfather the entire time.

“It’s not like you were being stealthy, you just walked right out of the village. Even the village watchtower guards saw you leave.”

“What? There were no watchtower guards there when I was leaving,” Kai admitted.

“They were there,” his grandfather responded mysteriously.