The full moon shone brightly overhead, illuminating the forest below and creating an outline of the foliage which stirred in the evening breeze.

Mono shivered and hugged his legs tighter to stay warm. After stopping the beast, he had decided to sit down for a bit and rest. What was supposed to be for a moment soon turned into a while and a while to until the sun completely set. Now that it had, he found himself still unable to get up despite the fact the rock he sat on was covered in tiny stones which poked him through his clothes no matter how much he shifted. This wasn’t what he had thought was going to happen. In stories, characters always had or got what they needed before anything serious occurred. Where was his tool, his guidance, or some plot-contrived hidden ability? The only thing he had were a bunch of stories in his head and a shiny pebble.

Pulling out the stone, Mono held it between his hands. His fingers were getting cold and the least the rock could do was serve as a hand warmer. As he rubbed his thumb against the surface, he felt ridges on what he had assumed was a smooth surface. Looking closer, there were engraved lines on one side of the stone which created a rudimentary image of a path vanishing into the horizon with a half-circle above it to represent the sun. It was clearly the symbol of Sojourn, of traveling into the unknown and seeking adventure.

Adventure. What a fancy name for being stranded in new and unpleasant situations, Mono thought ruefully. Even though he loved stories and imagining what he would do if he was ever put into fantastical situations, he had never fully appreciated the less glamorous aspects. Frankly, Mono was tired of the uncertainty, the pain, the bone-deep weariness, and the stupid fact that he had to even pay attention to how he breathed. Not more than a few hours after this whole thing had started, he just wanted to go home, to eat a warm meal and be on the reading side of adventures where he was safe.

Too tired to move but too uncomfortable on the rock to properly relax let alone sleep, Mono listened to the sound of the leaves as they rustled in the wind. His fingers idly traced the stone’s engraved symbol while his mind continued to wander in an attempt to escape the present situation. The night wore on as he drifted off into a half-asleep state, acutely aware of his discomfort but unaware of the passing of time.

When dawn finally broke, Mono didn’t register that it was day until the sun rose high enough that its glare bounced off of Sojourn's stone and into his eyes. Shaking himself fully awake and out of his head, Mono blearily looked over the forest beneath him. He couldn’t avoid his situation anymore -- not if he wanted to survive. Mono scanned the area for anything useful. A glint caught his eye and he noticed a small stream to the left which was partly shaded by the trees. Seeing the stream, Mono realized just how thirsty he was. After all of the walking, running, and climbing, he was absolutely parched. The first thing he needed, Mono decided, was a drink of water.

Turning from a sitting position into a kneeling one, Mono shakily stood up with the support of his hands. He began to carefully descend the hill’s steep cliff. When he reached the bottom, he noticed the beast’s body nearby. It was bigger than he had thought with paws almost the size of his head. Mono quickly turned away. He didn’t want to look too closely at the thing that nearly killed him and instead focused on the stream of water he knew was nearby.

Walking in the direction he assumed was East, Mono reentered the canopy of the forest. The shade made him shiver but he hardly felt the cold as his mind fixated on getting a drink of water. After traveling for a handful of minutes which felt like an eternity, Mono heard the trickling of water nearby and began to make his way towards the sound.

The stream was a shallow body of water with a small beach of rocks on both of its sides. Mono quickly waded ankle deep into the water and collected some with his cupped hands. He began to drink deep gulps, only pausing to breathe. The water felt amazing and when he was no longer thirsty he began to splash water onto his face to try to wash away his weariness. Suddenly, Mono heard a loud cough behind him.

Startled, Mono roughly wiped the water from his eyes and turned around. A man who looked to be only a few years older than Mono stood several feet away from the edge of the stream. Wearing dark brown leather boots, loose fitting trousers, a tan linen shirt, and a gray cloak, the man looked like he was cosplaying for a renaissance fair. He had short dirty-blonde hair and stared at Mono with strikingly blue eyes.

The man began to address Mono in a questioning tone but Mono couldn’t understand any of the words. He had never heard a language like this before. When the stranger saw Mono’s confused face, he began to repeat himself more slowly. Remembering the stone, Mono quickly reached his hand into his right pocket and palmed Sojourn's stone. He hoped it worked.

“Sorry, could you repeat that?” Mono asked.

The man furrowed his brow at Mono’s question. For a brief moment, Mono thought that he hadn’t been understood but then the man spoke again. “I was asking you, ‘what are you doing here?’”

The words he spoke were the same and yet completely understandable now. Mono began to smile and breathed a small sigh of relief. Being able to talk to anyone without worrying about language was kind of exciting, he thought. “I’m getting a drink of water.”

“Yeah, I can see that, but that doesn’t explain why you’re in the middle of the woods or why you’re so close to our camp.” The man pointed with his right hand and Mono followed the gesture. There was what looked to be a covered wagon not more than fifteen feet away.

Mentally, Mono kicked himself. Ever since climbing down the hill, he hadn’t been paying attention to his surroundings at all. What if something dangerous had snuck up on him? “Honestly, I hadn’t even noticed you were here.”

“You didn’t notice a cart in plain sight?” The man was incredulous.

“I was really thirsty.”

“Oh, don’t give me that. How could you have not seen something that large so close?” His tone was more suspicious than questioning now, with a tinge of annoyance and hostility.

After turning back from looking at the wagon to the man, Mono spotted something else he hadn’t noticed before. There was a hilt above the stranger’s right shoulder and the edge of a sheath on the left side of the man’s hip. He was armed.

Mono stopped smiling and gave himself another mental kick. He needed to pay attention and take this situation seriously. “Look, I’m telling you the truth. I got lost in these woods and had to deal with a --”

“Ad,” a new voice interrupted, “we were supposed to be leaving. What are you d-- oh, who is this?”

Mono turned towards where the voice had come from. A person was getting out from behind the cover of the wagon. She had blonde hair a tad lighter than the stranger and wore similar clothing except a green shirt instead of a tan one. There were no visible weapons.

Facing Mono, she gave him a smile. “Hi, those are some interesting clothes. Where are you from?”

Looking between the man and the girl, Mono noticed that she had the same blue eyes and complexion. They were probably siblings, he guessed. Before Mono could reply, however, the man spoke up.

“I saw him a few minutes ago getting really close to our camp while pretending to get a drink of water. He says he was lost in the forest and was so focused that he didn’t see us nearby when getting water.”

The tone during the last bit was so sarcastic that Mono got a bit annoyed himself. “I’m not lying,” he insisted. “I got lost and was then chased by a giant animal all last night.”

“You were attacked by the local tavryr?” The girl asked in excitement. “What color was it? How’d you get away? Where is it now?”

The questions were more curious than interrogating. For a brief moment, Mono was reminded of his own brother who used to constantly badger him with questions. “Yeah, I guess that’s what it was. I don’t remember the color but you could probably see for yourself if you went that way.” Mono pointed towards the part of the forest that he had come from.

The man snorted. “Tavryr are nocturnal and very good at hiding, I highly doubt someone unarmed like you would be able to survive encountering one. Your story is becoming more unbelievable by the second.”

“Then it’s a good thing I have proof, don’t I?” Mono asked.

“What, now you’re telling me that you killed it?” The man asked. “What’d you do, talk it to death?”

“Pushed it off a cliff.”

“Really? You’re not pulling our leg right?” The girl cut in. Seeing Mono shake his head in denial, she turned to the man. “Ad, we gotta go see it! I’ve never seen one up close before or in the daylight.”

The man looked at her and then back at Mono. “I don’t know, this could be a trap.”

“Oh come on! Look at him and tell me that he’s plotting a trap. I know you want to see it too -- it’s why we camped by this river.”

The stranger stared hard at Mono, thinking. His eyes took in Mono’s scratches and torn clothing. “Alright,” he said at last. “But you have to lock the cart and he,” the man pointed at Mono, “has to stay exactly where he is. I don’t trust him or want him getting any closer to us.”

“He’s shivering in the river. At least let him get out and sit on the back of the ca--”

“Absolutely not,” the man interrupted.

“He hasn’t done anything,” the girl huffed. “You’re always way too rude to strangers we meet when traveling.”

“No, I’m not.”

“Yes, you are!”

“No, I am not.”

“Yes, you are.”

The two glared at each other. Mono was certain they were arguing silently like he used to with his own sibling. He could almost imagine what they were saying. At last, “Ad” looked away.

“Fine,” he said, “make sure to lock the cart.”

The girl smiled and gestured at Mono to follow her as she walked towards the covered wagon. When she got within arms reach, she stopped moving and pointed her index finger. Mono felt a strange change in the air, something he couldn’t quite describe, and then a faint green light began to form on the edge of the girl’s finger. With flowing but still precise movements, the girl started to move her hand in the air. As she did so, her finger left behind a trail of green light.

Mono stared at the lines floating in midair. There was no doubt about it now, he thought, magic was real. As he continued to observe, he noticed that the lines were structured and looked like words. Was she writing something? He squeezed the stone in his palm harder and tried to read. The lines grew blurry as he looked at them and he began to get a headache. Eventually, he turned away completely to avoid seeing them. The relief was instant.

“And done! You can sit on the back of the cart now, if you’d like.” The girl said.

Turning back towards the wagon, Mono saw that the floating green words were now gone. The girl was pointing towards the rim of the wagon which jutted out from the cover. “Alright, thank you.”

“No problem at all… I haven’t actually gotten your name yet, have I?”

Mono hesitated for a second. “It’s Mono.”

“Nice to meet you Mono, my name is Vivian. Let’s talk some more when Ad and I get back from seeing the tavryr.”

He hesitated again. “Sure.”

Vivian smiled before turning around. “Let’s go, Ad.”

The two began to walk away, side by side, towards the large hill. Watching them leave, Mono sat on the wagon. He was exhausted and sitting felt so much better than standing. As Mono was relaxing his tired muscles, he heard a strange and infrequent clacking noise. It only took a moment for him to realize that sound was from his own teeth. He had been shivering uncontrollably but didn’t feel cold at all. That was not a good sign.

Mono scooted to the left of the wagon which was not shaded by the foliage of the forest. Even though he couldn’t feel the cold, he had to get warmer. Pocketing the stone, he began to rub his hands together to warm them. Eventually, the shivering started to become less frequent and his teeth stopped chattering entirely.

All he had to do now was wait. Sitting in the sunlight and listening to the light breeze, Mono’s thoughts began to wander again. The sky was clear and a deep blue. The Greeks used to describe the sky as the color of bronze which, when one thought about it, was rather odd. Then again, maybe they meant the color of rusted bronze which would be green-blue like the Statue of Liberty. That was another interesting thing: green and blue. Some languages didn’t even have different words for the two colors. Mono briefly wondered whether the languages here were like that. He’d have to pay attention when talking to other people -- or just not use the stone. Even though he had asked for a completely different reason, requesting that Sojourn put her blessing on the rock instead of on his forehead had been a great idea.

Mono continued to think about anything that popped into his mind. After a while, he noticed that he was no longer getting light headed even though he was breathing normally. That was odd, maybe he had gotten used to it. That, or there was something else in the -- Mono heard voices again; he quickly pulled out the stone.

“He’s probably long gone by now anyways, Vivian.” The man’s voice came from nearby.

“You really should stop doubting him. He didn’t lie about the tavryr, right?” Vivian’s voice responded.

“Yeah, but this whole thing is still suspicious.”

“You’re the only one who thinks that, Ad. And could you move any slower? Hurry up!”

“I’m going as fast as I can. You’re not the one carrying this thing!”

Mono turned towards the voices. Vivian and Ad emerged from the forest. While Vivian was out ahead, Ad was lagging several paces behind. He had something large slung over his shoulder. As they got nearer, Mono recognized what it was. It was the beast. Somehow, Ad was carrying a creature larger than a motorcycle on his shoulder.

“See? He’s still here. Mono, could you stand up and move aside for a moment?” Vivian called out.

Mono stood up and moved. When the siblings got to the wagon, Vivian moved her hand to touch the cover. There was a small noise that sounded like the zap of a static shock and then she pushed the cover aside. Ad then stepped forward. As he did so, Mono noticed that the hilt of Ad’s sword was glowing light green like Vivian’s writing from before. Mono quickly averted his eyes to avoid getting another headache. With a heave, Ad unslung the beast from his shoulder onto the wagon.

“What are you going to do with it?” Mono asked.

“Tavryrs are extremely active within their territory,” Ad explained. “And since they’re not afraid of people, they frequently attack travellers or raid nearby settlements. Whenever I come across one, I take care of it and bring the body to the closest town as proof.”

“I’m going to get the cart ready to leave,” Vivian said as she turned towards the front of the wagon. “Make sure Mono is comfortable in the back.”

Mono was confused. “What?”

“You said you were lost, right?” Ad asked. “Vivian convinced me that we should take you with us to the nearest town.”

Mono took a moment to think through his options.

Ad seemed to take Mono’s pause as reluctance and continued talking. “If you’re thinking about earlier, I’m sorry about how I sounded. This area isn’t safe and seeing someone randomly show up out of nowhere surprised me. If you don’t want to go with us, we totally understand.”

After deliberating for another moment, Mono responded. “I think I will take you up on that offer.” Risking it with the siblings was better than being lost in the woods, he reasoned. Especially if Ad was right about the area not being safe.

Ad smiled. “Alright then, let’s get going.”