“Yin, wake up,” a soft voice whispered.

I rolled over and opened my eyes to find Carlsen was sitting next to me, rubbing his head.

“That was quite the landing,” he chuckled. My body ached as if I had just run from Kranen to Ignero.

Sitting up, I surveyed our surroundings. I used to come to Ignero quite often to visit with Layil before the War, I was very young at that time and we used to spend most of our time collecting junipers and snowberries in the various fields that littered the outskirts of the town.

It seemed that we had landed in the middle of a barren field, the dead bushes that surrounded us looked as if they had never seen the light of day.

I stood up and dusted myself off, in the distance I could see a few desolate trees still standing next to their fallen brethren. I felt my heart drop. With the landscape in such disarray as this, it seemed proof enough that Layil had perished long ago. My heart started to ache but I refused to show weakness; I wanted Carlsen to think I was capable enough to kill the King and not just some snivelling girl.

Carlsen stood up next to me and stretched, the clank of his armour seemed to be the only sound for miles. Not even a singular bird could be heard.

The sky was a dark gray, and a chill wind was picking up. I was worried that it might start to snow and we would be stuck without shelter for the night.

Ignero was famous for being incredibly cold, humans used to travel for miles to come for the snow festivals that ran every year. I remember perching on the cliffs that surround the city and watching the festivities with Layil, always wishing that I could join the humans; it looked like so much fun to build those strange snow sculptures and eat melted sugar off the fresh snow.

“Well, we better get going.” Carlsen’s voice snapped me out of my daydream. He bent down and picked up his knapsack that had fallen off during the violent journey; I looked around for my knapsack and saw that it had gotten stuck on a bush. I ran over and tried to pull it off the dead branch but instead, it snagged and tore a jagged hole through the thin cloth.

“Ughh…” I groaned, what else could go wrong? I picked up what I could and shoved it into my pockets, leaving behind a few extra shirts and a pair of pants.

Turning around I saw that Carlsen was already quite a distance away, heading towards the few trees that were still standing. I started to jog to catch up to him, lifeless leaves crunching under my shoes.

The wind was starting to pick up, a few leaves swirled around me as I ran through the spiritless field. A place once full of life and happiness, now no soul dared venture here.

Catching up to Carlsen, I saw him bent over looking at something on the ground. I came over next to him and squinted down at the ground. There, imprinted in the semi-frozen dirt was a singular shoe print.

I put my foot on top of the print, it was much larger than my foot.

“You humans must have very large feet,” I laughed.

Carlsen stood up, a worried expression crossed over his face.

“That’s not from a human,” was all he said. Judging from the look on his face, I decided not to press.

We continued, the trees in the distance seemed to begin to appear larger and larger as we got closer to them. Reaching the base of the trees, they seemed to almost stretch up towards the heavens. I don’t remember Ignero having trees this tall before.

Carlsen started to circle the few trees, I stayed behind and stared back to where we had come from. A wave of nostalgia washed over me, this field represented happier times when everything was right with the world; the Sisters were united, the Water God provided for us, and the Sky God didn’t turn his back to us.

“This must be a portal.” Carlsen’s voice snapped me out of my upsetting thoughts.

I rubbed my temples in frustration, I certainly was learning a lot of new human terminology today.

“Please explain,” I sighed, exasperated.

“Essentially, these trees connect to somewhere else. If we can activate this portal it will send us to another location - similar to how the pearl sent us here.”

My stomach turned at the thought of having to go through that again. I don’t think my body could withstand being put through such powerful magic twice within the same hour.

I stared up at the trees, wondering what secrets they held. Pressing my hands against the trunk of one of the trees I closed my eyes, trying to listen to its thoughts.

The second I touched the tree, I felt a strong vibration start to rumble through my body. I opened my eyes and saw a swirling, shimmering mass had appeared in the middle of all the trees.

Carlsen smiled in surprise, “huh, I guess you’re the key!”

“Is that the portal?” I felt like I had seen something similar before, but couldn’t quite remember when or where. It was but a distant memory.

“Only one way to find out!” Before I could say anything, Carlsen grabbed my hand and started pulling us towards the magic mass.

The instant we touched the magic, the barren fields of Ignero disappeared and were replaced by bright greenery glowing in the warm sun and the chirps of happy birds.

I looked around in shock, “where are we?”

This new forest had the same tremendous trees that the portal had been made of. These trees were so tall that I couldn’t see the treetops, it was the most captivating sight I had ever seen. I stepped closer to one of the mighty trees, there was a small carving near the base - it was some sort of ancient word.

I was never the studious type so I hadn’t bothered to learn the ancient language, much to the chagrin of the other Gods.

Carlsen came up behind me and looked down at the ancient word. I could feel an air of apprehension melting off of him and suddenly he looked nervous.

“It would seem that this portal was made by druids, and we have stumbled into a small hidden forest that was left behind after the War.”

Druids. Even just the mention of such creatures made me feel dizzy and sick to my stomach. The Druids had once been faithful workers of the Gods, they had helped the Sister Earths in cultivating the fields and managing the seasons, but, during the Black War, they turned on us.

I was too young back then to understand much of the War and what exactly happened, but I did harbour a painful memory of watching my dear Sister, Fiya, being mercilessly murdered by a group of druids.

I could still hear her screams as they tore her limb from limb until there wasn’t much left except a bloody lump of meat.

My legs felt like they could no longer support me and I sat down on the ground, feeling the warm sunshine wash over my pale face.

I tilted my head up to look at Carlsen, “how did you know what that word meant…?”

Carlsen shifted his weight from one foot to the other, not meeting my eyes. He was acting strangely suspicious and I felt a pit grow in my stomach, what is wrong with him…

“Uh, as a knight, we had some training on ancient words… just in case we ever came across any ancient documents or portals…” he trailed off.

I decided I would accept that answer for now, but my gut was telling me that something was off. This was especially suspicious because before last week I had never seen him before in Kranen. It was quite foolish of me to be travelling with this human without ever even asking him about himself or what his history was.

Before I could ruminate on these thoughts any longer, Carlsen had bent down and scooped me up. His sombre expression from earlier, replaced with a jovial smile.

“Are you feeling tired? No worries, just relax for now. I’ll take care of everything.”

Too shocked to respond, I simply allowed him to carry me through this new forest. I was astonishingly tired and this was a nice break, I could’ve also simply floated instead of walking but that took energy as well.

I wrapped my arms around his neck to better secure myself. Glancing behind us as we walked away from where we had first landed, I realized I couldn’t see the portal on this side. How do we get back?

Taking a deep breath and relaxing into his powerful arms, I decided not to worry about that right now. It was strangely comforting to be carried like this. Closing my eyes I listened closely; I could see birds, mice, and rabbits - all the usual animals. Nothing seemed foreign or out of place, no reason to be distressed any longer.

In the distance, I could hear the trickle of a stream. I desperately needed a good wash after all we had been through. Almost as if he was reading my thoughts, Carlsen started in the direction of the water. He walked gracefully through the forest, never missing a step; almost as he had been here before.

I held tightly onto his neck and cautiously peered at his face. His eyes glowed so intensely in the pleasant rays of the sun; his skin was tanned, dotted with a few freckles.

I wonder what he thinks of me?

I bit my lip, suddenly feeling very nervous and no longer wanting to be carried by him I started to buck violently out of his arms; feeling the desperate urge to get away from his touch. Falling to the ground with a plop, Carlsen stopped dead in his tracks and bent down next to me.

“You know, you could have just asked to be let down,” he chuckled, surprised at what had just happened.

I felt my face grow warm, unsure of how to act. My heart was pounding and my head felt dizzy. The world seemed to almost swim in front of my eyes, I had never felt this sensation before and I didn’t know what to do with it. I needed to snap out of it, I wasn’t sure yet if I could trust him yet, even though I so badly wanted to.

Carlsen furrowed his brow and lifted his hand to my head, pressing it gently against my forehead.

“Are you feeling okay? Do you have a fever?”

His eyes were so captivating, beaming and luminous, it would be easy to get lost in them. Without realizing it, I had pressed my hands nervously into the ground and small flowers were popping up around us.

Carlsen took his hand away from my head and raised an eyebrow, a playful look crossed his face. Before anything else embarrassing could happen, I quickly stood up and pretended that nothing had happened.

“What’re you waiting for?” I snapped at him. What was happening to me?

“Okay, boss. I’m coming!” Carlsen quickly stood up and we started walking towards the stream.

The fresh grass seemed to almost melt underneath each step I took, and then instantly spring back up, full of life - the complete opposite of how I felt at the moment. I wanted nothing more than to crawl into the treetops and sleep for millennia.

We traversed through the unknown forest, Carlsen hung a few steps behind me and let me guide the way.

Eventually, we made our way to the edge of the stream - clear, blue water flowed down from an unknown source. I couldn't wait to dive in and cleanse myself. Even though this forest was made by druids, I felt at peace and that no harm would come to us if we let down our guard.

I scanned the stream for a private bathing area, I knew that humans did not bathe together if they were different sexes; but the Gods did not care for such trivial matters, and thus all Gods bathed together at the Imperial Bathhouse.

I figured I should follow the human traditions, to not make Carlsen uncomfortable. Even though I was not a human, humans were sculpted from our image and therefore, we had the same anatomy.

A bit further up the stream, I spotted a large amount of cattail jutting out the water. Perfect, we can use that as a barrier between us.

I turned around to inform Carlsen of my discovery, only to find him already undressing.

I stumbled back in surprise, nearly falling into the stream.

“What’s wrong?”

He was oblivious as to what exactly was wrong with this scenario.

Blushing, I pointed upstream to the cattails, “I’m going to bathe over there.”

Carlsen shrugged and continued pulling off his shirt. Turning away I briskly walked up the stream before I could catch a glimpse of his body, I was already starting to feel dizzy again.

As I approached the cattails the stream bent slightly so we were out of sight of each other, but close enough that we could still hear in case of emergency.

I started to strip off my heavy clothes, it was much warmer here than the Woods and Ignero. Feeling the warm rays hit my naked skin, I started to feel renewed. Almost as if the sun was melting directly into my bones and stripping them of the dirt and sadness that lingered underneath.

Throwing the dirty clothes on the ground, I stretched my body, feeling the release of my tense muscles.

I kneeled on the shore of the stream and lowered my lips to the crystalline water. The taste of the fresh, clean water almost brought me to tears.

Peering into the water, I surveyed my appearance; I had dirt caked on my face and my hair was matted. Don’t tell me this is what Carlsen has been seeing everyday...

I slowly lowered my body into the crisp water, the sudden temperature difference caused a small jolt to run up my spine. When was the last time I had bathed in such a magnificent stream?

Up in the Imperial Garden, the Fire God had managed the bathhouse and thus the bathhouse was always toasty warm; which was lovely for winter but nothing beat a fresh, cool stream in the summertime. Grabbing onto a few cattails as an anchor, I let myself float gently in place.

I missed my Sisters, I even missed the other Gods.

When was the last time everyone had been together…?

I closed my eyes and thought of simpler times before we had been ripped apart and the world turned upside down. I had had ten sisters in total, one for each continent of the Earth. We all had our regions to manage and take care of - with the help of the druids, of course.

My specialty had been Kranen and the vast woodlands that sprawled for miles; I hadn’t been old enough at the time for my continent so my Sisters helped me take care of the woods.

The day after I had been born, I was already learning how to sow seeds and grow trees; how to manage waterways; feed the animals, and protect the woodlands. The dangerous monsters of the Kroelle Forest and the Kosta Woods had only come to exist after the War; before that, it was simply all wilderness.

Opening my eyes, I stared up at the perfect, white clouds that dotted the azure sky.

At least I’m no longer alone.

As much as I despised the knights, I did not mind Carlsen’s presence. For some curious reason we had fallen into each other's lives and now we each needed the other's help; although I suppose I needed his help more than the other way around.

I was desperately curious as to what he required my help for, “perhaps I will ask him tonight…”

“Ask who, what?” a voice asked.