“We should be drawing close to the borders of the forest.” Nyla led the rest of the group in a light jog. The only sounds aside from her voice came from the soft crunching of detritus beneath their feet and the constant retorts of the underbrush that they displaced.

Her brother nodded in unspoken acknowledgement, while Nolan yelled over his shoulder, “You hear that Jason? We’re almost out of the forest!”

The other boy was bringing up the rear, his filthy robe visibly damp as he helplessly huffed and puffed in their wake. “C—can we stop? I’m dying!”

She couldn’t help but roll her eyes. Jason needed to learn that life wasn’t only about convenience and leisure, that in order to survive one must first learn how to suffer.

“This isn’t no beep test, buddy,” Nolan said in their strange language. “You can’t just call it quits the moment you get gassed.”

“I failed the beep test.”

“Drop another bomb on me.”

Jason gritted his teeth and persevered, face red and body slick with sweat.

As she attempted to decipher their words, Nyla couldn’t help but appreciate the pair and the peculiarities that defined them. When she was a little girl she read a tattered scroll that had been buried within a pile of dusty papers that had always littered a dark corner of her father’s study. How spectacular her conceptions as she rifled through its contents with a literate eye only to find an in-depth description of the age-old myth of Interspatial Migration, the timeless tale that every learned person within the plains region had encountered at some point in their lives.

She must have read that scroll a thousand times growing up, oftentimes before bed, her mind always filled with wild imaginations of what the fabled Otherworlders might look like and how their home worlds might differ from her own. Perhaps they had smaller heads, longer arms, more limbs or none at all. Worlds of water and of open skies dominated her daydreams, of fish-eyed persons with gills for lungs, or people with wings for arms and talons at the tips of their feet.

When she and Quin had first encountered a strangely dressed Nolan in the forest all those weeks ago, she’d been astonished to discover that he couldn’t speak a word of the Universal Language and that he hadn’t even reached the first level of Body Nourishment, a constitution that most children attained before their sixth year. At the time she couldn’t help but think of a particularly aged scroll that had coloured her youthful evenings with fantasies of far-off lands and foreign societies, always wondering after the appearances of these interspatial migrants that she read about so frequently. Still, she’d almost immediately dismissed the notion as he had only been a single, odd stranger.

Her suspicions were aroused in full, however, when she discovered that another boy wearing similar attire had been hiding away in the abandoned shack on the fringes of the village. She had never seen the boy before, nor had anyone else in the community. He couldn’t have snuck in, not with his strength, and he clearly hadn’t been there for long. It was as if he’d simply appeared there. Even more, the two boys could understand each other’s words. When the village head had announced that an Interspatial Migration had taken place during their era, she had been filled with wonder. Similar though they looked to the people of the plains region, she had to acknowledge that the two boys were from a completely different world.

Although their weakness was to be pitied, they were a great deal more intelligent than most people, even Jason at times. Nolan had showed her a technique called simple mathematics that made it so that one could easily total the amount of plants in an organized patch of flowers. For example, if the upward rows and the sideways rows each had seventeen plants, then there would be two hundred and eighty-nine plants in the patch. He’d amazed her by assessing the amounts of plants in any organized garden that they happened to pass by, always within seconds of casting a passing glance and always correct.

She watched Nolan tease Jason with a playful sneer, the other boy spitting something out in their native tongue that caused both of them to chuckle for the better half of a minute.

They spoke freely and loved to joke around, and also shared a strong sense of loyalty. Jason had been the only one to try to save her when Hale had barged into Redfox Village and kidnapped her in front of many people, many of whom she’d been on good terms with. This was after countless villagers had been butchered, all of them many times stronger than him. Not long afterwards, Nolan had nearly died in order to protect all of them. Aside from Quin, her father and her youngest brother, no one else had ever put their life on the line for her sake, not even the warriors tasked with assuring her safety during the genocide of her people. Thankfully, no one that she cared about had perished this time around.

“Something wrong?” Nolan appeared at her side.

She shook her head, oddly conscious of her torn and dishevelled clothing. “Are you sure Jason can hold out? We’ve been running for nearly five days, and we’ve only been taking short rests.”

“He’ll be fine. I told him I’d let him use a spirit stone if he manages to keep up.”

She pursed her lips. “Are you teasing him again?” It wasn’t just a few times that he’d tricked the other boy into following his orders with enticing promises of a spirit stone in return. Although her brother found it amusing, she wasn’t fond of such deception.

He coughed, a quick grin revealing some of his ivory teeth. “No, I’ll actually give him one this time.” He looked back. “I should go check up on him. He’ll probably need that stone to recharge his…” He trailed off and then mumbled, “No word for that, eh?”

Nolan withdrew a glittering stone from the spatial bag in his left hand and then fell back a few dozen paces.

“He might as well bury those stones in the dirt. He’s wasting a fortune on someone who’s nothing more than deadweight.”

“Have you forgotten what it was like for you at his age?”

“I’m just saying.”

“Were Father’s treasured medicinal pellets wasted on us then?”

“They were, in a way.”

“Nolan didn’t have to save us back in the village, you know.” Nyla kept her voice low so that the others wouldn’t hear. “He gave me this bow—” she nodded at the sleek weapon that was slung over her right shoulder—“without batting an eye. Surely this is more valuable than the entirety of Black Raven City’s treasury.”

“What of it?”

“You should know what sort of person he is by now. It’s not only his wellbeing that he considers during times of crisis, and it’s clear that he doesn’t value treasures above the lives of his friends.”

“It’s still a damnable waste.”

You condemn Nolan’s character, yet these are the sorts of actions you respect the most. You, who were called the patriarch’s biggest misfortune, should know more than anyone the torment of being powerless.

As if he could tell what she was thinking, Quin snickered and turned his head.

Despite the many leagues of forest they traversed throughout the day, they only encountered a handful of aggressive creatures, all of which were dispatched by her brother in a taciturn manner. By early evening they had already left the great forest at their backs and arrived at an endless stretch of vibrant, flowery meadows. The gigantic floral patchwork was mixed in with healthy swathes of waist-high grasses and dotted with sporadic copses of short but exuberant woodland. It was almost artistic, the magnificent sight putting all of the small meadows and flowerbeds that had been in and around Black Raven City to shame.

The group was now walking through the fields in wonder, vigilant despite the appreciation that they derived from their first impressions of the foreign land.

“I can’t get over how beautiful this place is…” Jason said. “I’ve never seen so many flowers. It’s like those pretty fields you’d see on the internet, the ones in the Netherlands or whatever.”

“For real,” Nolan said. “I bet we’re the only people from Earth to see this.”

Nyla couldn’t contain an elated smile. This lush and colourful landscape supposedly extended for hundreds of leagues before eventually giving way to a great forest of evergreens. The Rainbow Fields of Flora, I finally get to see you!

This was a favoured setting of her childhood imaginations. Of all the provinces in the kingdom of Verdure, Flora was the only one that she was even remotely familiar with. The most precious map in her father’s study had been a high-quality schematic of the region, detailed with artistic illustrations and enchanting descriptions of the multi-coloured landscape. The map also included short summaries of its numerous landmarks, as well as its larger cities and towns. She’d often immersed herself in said descriptions and fantasized after their beauty, but even her most wonderful conceptions fell short of the splendour boasted by the boundless meadows before her.

They walked onward at a leisure pace, waist-deep in healthy foliage as the forest skyline quickly became a small tracing on the horizon. The only insects and animals they encountered were small and docile and of negligible threat. Nolan had yet to detect any dangerous creatures with his spiritual sense—which she still couldn’t believe he possessed—which put her at ease as she basked in the mesmerising ambience. All things considered, it was a very pleasant walk.

“Nyla, you were saying earlier that Greenwall had a bunch of famous shops?” Nolan was looking through one of the spatial bags.

“Yes, I’ve heard there’re quite a few.”

“Do you think there’d be a shop where we could find out what all these pills are and if they’re worth anything?”

She thought back to an old family friend who’d spent quite a bit of time in Greenwall. He’d been the one to gift the map to her father and had also spent a great deal of time entertaining her with many stories of the far-off land. “There should be. I’ve heard that in the southern district of the city there’s a place where people can bring any item to be appraised by an expert, but they have to pay a fee regardless of what their possessions are valued at.”

“Okay, would you guys mind if we head there first once we get to the city?”

“That’s fine,” Nyla said.

Jason and her brother also agreed.

They eventually stopped at the approach of sunset and decided to set up camp a few paces outside of a sizeable copse of woods. Just as they were drawing up to the long line of short trees, Nolan hurried to the front of the group and held up a hand as he peered into the solitary woodland.

“This can’t be good,” Jason said nervously. “What’s going on?”

“There are people up ahead. We’ll see them in a moment.”

Sure enough the spindly sounds of displaced bushes and shuffling underbrush soon met their ears. As Quin hefted his heavy axe, Nyla slipped the black bow off of her shoulder and drew an arrow from within the rosy spatial bag that she kept on her person. What sort of people would be wandering around out here?

“Something’s strange,” Nolan whispered. He ducked behind a tree and motioned for them to follow suit, each finding cover as quickly as they could.

They huddled in the shadows until a young boy stumbled out of the forest a few dozen paces away from them. He couldn’t have been older than ten. His big eyes were wide with terror, his cheeks flushed beneath a long head of dark, dishevelled hair. His fine clothes were tattered and bloodstained, one of his legs dragging along in a rigid limp as he winced at every second step. From where they hid it was easy to hear his choking sobs as he squeezed out every last bit of energy that he could muster to continue on into the field.

A tiny grey blur whizzed out after the boy, smacking him in the hand with a delicate crunch as he fell to the ground with a soft cry of pain. Two men emerged from the forest wearing studded leather vests and thick pants made from tanned, durable hides. Both held battered swords that gleamed in the fading sunlight despite their poor condition. The men chuckled to themselves as the bigger of the two continuously tossed a small rock up into the air and caught it with a perturbing grin.

“You owe me ten silver cards!” the big man laughed. “I told you he couldn’t make it more than a league.”

“Horse shit,” the smaller one said. He had beady, wideset eyes and a permanent snarl on the thick pair of chewed up lips that hid behind a gangly, peppered beard. “Of course he wasn’t gonna to make it far with you pelting so many rocks at him. How’s that fair?”

“Since when did you care about fair?”

“Since I made a damn bet.”

“A deal’s a deal.” The big man narrowed his eyes. “You’re not planning on going back on your word now, are you?”

The beady-eyed man snorted before digging out some silver cards from an inner pocket of his vest and tossing them to his companion. He strode a few paces into the field where the little boy was nursing his injured hand, which was rapidly swelling and taking on a deep, agitated shade of red. “You hear that? You just cost me more than you’re worth. How do you plan on reimbursing me?”

What scum!

Nyla knocked an arrow and prepared to draw it back, but Nolan waved her down and motioned for her to remain still. Were the two men really that strong? Although she couldn’t sense their cultivations, she could tell that the shameless duo were no pushovers. Even so, how could she just sit by and allow them to torture this poor little boy right before her eyes?

Jason tore his gaze away from the dismaying scene and fixed Nolan with an urgent stare. The latter seemed conflicted.

The beady-eyed man kicked the boy onto his back and then stepped on his swollen hand, which elicited a blood-curdling scream. “You shouldn’t cry, kid. Compared to the rest of your family, you’re getting off easy!”

Nolan’s eyes hardened as the child’s voice went hoarse. He pulled the demonic fox tooth out of his spatial bag. “Fuck it, that piece of shit just made my decision a whole lot easier.” He picked up a nearby rock and then hopped out of the tree cover, immediately drawing the attention of the two men. The big guy had just tossed his stone into the air, but his hand jerked violently before he could catch it. Nolan had immediately thrown his fist-sized rock and the sudden impact caused it to crumble into pieces after it snapped the large man’s hand backward and mangled his fingers.

The man cursed as blood began to trickle from the several tears in his skin. “I don’t care who you are. You’re about to wish you never did that!”

“You took the words right out of my mouth!”

Nyla tensed as Nolan leapt straight for the shorter man, her heart constricting as a bulky shadow shot past him and arrived at his larger companion.

“Quin!” The pitiable scene seemed to have struck a nerve in her brother.

Nyla and Jason held their breath as a vicious exchange unfolded, an arrow notched as she waited for an opening.

The large man forced Quin back with a barrage of heavy attacks, his grizzled companion swiftly piercing the tip of his blade toward Nolan’s heart. A heavy clang resounded as her brother was disarmed and sent stumbling backwards. He quickly jumped to the side, barely avoiding a slash that would have decapitated him. His opponent made to follow but one of Nyla’s arrows clipped his shoulder as it soared by with a whistle.

Nolan had slipped by the other man’s strike and stabbed the demonic fox tooth straight through his bicep before he tore the weapon free with a shower of scarlet and quickly avoided a desperate counterattack with a sideways leap. He didn’t simply retreat, but jumped straight for the other man just as Quin was about to receive a fatal blow, his kick meeting empty air as the larger man retreated.

“What the hell’s up with that kid?” the shorter man spat. “He should only be at the fourth level of Body Nourishment!”

“I’ll hold him off.” The larger man wore a serious glare. “You kill his friends and then we’ll finish him off together.”

“As long as I get to—” The man doubled over midsentence. “W-what the hell is this?”

“What’s wrong?”

“Something’s wrong with my arm!” Screams of discomfort turned into howls of agony in less than a minute. “My chest! M-my eyes!”

Understanding found its way onto the larger man’s face. He turned and fled without hesitation.

“Nolan,” Quin snapped. “Kill him!”

What’s he waiting for? Nyla watched the other man sprint for the woods as Nolan grappled with some internal struggle. He didn’t move, just stood there with a blank expression. His eyes were fixated on the beady-eyed man, who was wailing curses through grated teeth as his voice took on a bone-chilling shrillness.

Whatever Nolan’s problem was, Nyla wasn’t one to hesitate. Drawing the wiry bowstring back until it was exceedingly taut, she sent a barbed arrow straight toward the fleeing man’s right leg. The arrowhead buried itself into his thigh, but he wordlessly yanked it free and disappeared into the dense cluster of trees.

“You let him get away.” Quin retrieved his axe and walked up to the dying man, where he smashed its blade deep into his chest cavity and ended his life with a squishy thud.

“I…”

“Don’t worry, Nolan.” Nyla stored her bow into her spatial bag and hurried over to the battered young boy. He’d fainted from the pain of his wounds, his face still slicked with hot tears.

“How is it okay?” her brother hissed. “With how strong they were, those men couldn’t have been some simple bandits. They were wearing the same clothes, so they might be part of a bigger group. We killed one of them and the other knows our faces. If it turns out that they weren’t traveling alone then who knows how much trouble we’ll be facing in the future?”

“Leave off, Quin. We’ll set out immediately after I see to the boy.” Nyla stuffed their remaining supply of purple bloodleaf into the boy’s mouth and helped him chew it up as best she could. The full effects of the medicine wouldn’t be displayed since it wasn’t properly ingested, but there was nothing she could do about it.

The poor child presented a pitiful sight that struck at the core of her heart and revived some traumatic memories of her past, of when she had lost everyone she’d ever loved to the tribe that they now fled from, all save for one. She glared at her brother. Must you be so crude?

She resolved to chastise him as she pulled out some medicinal herbs that she’d harvested within the forest and stuffed them into the boy’s larger cuts, the same remedies that she had used on her brother in recent weeks. As for the injured hand, she balled up a large wad of special moss and gently dabbed it upon his swollen skin. His injuries weren’t life-threatening, but they would be painful for such a young boy to tolerate.

“Don’t do that to yourself, man.” Jason was patting Nolan on the back. “You had to do it. I don’t blame you, no one does. He was torturing a kid—I mean, if someone had a gun to my head and told me to kill someone and that guy was around…”

Nolan waved him off. “I’m fine. I just wasn’t expecting to have make that sort of decision out of the blue.”

The two Otherworlders stared over at the dead man, whose messy beard was matted with blood, his body stained scarlet where a dark, meaty crevice had been carved into his torso. The hole that Nolan had opened in his upper arm was also leaking blood onto the verdant grasses below, the afflicted area covered in pestilent, black veins that had unsuspectingly extended all throughout his body. Blood even began to seep out of the man’s eyes, soon followed by his nose and ears and mouth. Although Nyla had long since grown accustomed to such sights, she still felt uneasy as she glanced at the ghastly corpse.

“You should always be prepared to make that sort of decision,” Quin said. “This isn’t your home world. This is Venara.”

Nyla and the others watched her brother drag the body deep into woods, and it was at that moment that the young boy began to stir.