The magical words didn't heed my intent unlike back in the crypt. No magical words defining the things around. But I was sure that all in front was unmoving life. Trees, grasses, and others. Boulders too.

Nothing that gave off danger. I felt no shivers. There weren't any unnecessary movements except for the swaying crowns. I breathed a calmed breath but still held my whole attention to the forest. Although I was safe for now, with the moon as my beacon and having part of the forest assessed, I wouldn't dare be lax and rest myself. The night was too deep. That meant danger to anywhere. Forests, especially. I remembered how I turned pages that spoke the dread of monsters lurking by the night. How they often prey between uncanniness and sheer power. And books shouldn't be undermined even if cheap.

Still about a minute. Maybe. Four of my outstretched fingers curled back, flinching at the sudden return of the pain. But it was tolerable this time.

Knowing full well that I don't have the required mana to splurge my needs, I reserved it for the time it becomes unbearable. So I brought calming breaths to myself, resisting the urge to cast the spell anew.

However, when I stood to my feet, I was—this time—assailed with a fleeting dizziness. Wobbles struck that I almost stumbled. Thankfully, I grasped the boulder in time and had not crashed at the pebble-filled, hard soil.

It was another problem, and licking the insides of my mouth pointed me where it stemmed from. But nothing I couldn't rein in yet.

Breath in. Resist pain. Breathe in. Slow exhale. Purge.

Unlike of earlier's, I felt my dizziness snap back to focus this time. Not a complete one but enough to turn my head around and move to my feet. Even running wouldn't be an issue as long as I stayed focused.

However, I really needed rest sooner than needed. Just a safe place. I felt battered even though I had not done something physically exhausting. So I put my concern to my surroundings, assessing which way to go forward.

On the right side of the forest, the endless stream of trees that shadowed themselves flowed far alongside the flatland. It reached maybe as far as the black, jagged silhouette of what I could only think of as a mountain. A simple gauge of its distance and I surmised it would take days to even reach its foot. Probably. Once the sun had risen up, I could be a better judge. Even then, I'm not entirely sure. After all, the only thing to base the premise of my gauging was the distance, guesses, and instinct—and mainly, the dim lights.

In essence, however, there was nothing that pointed to human habitation.

X. Now three left. No. I once again eyed the still unabated rustle of trees and beyond it—which resulted to nothing, the thick crowns of the copse blanketing whatever was inside. X too, now only two.

The opposite side of the X-ed mountain would be a better choice. It wasn't an endless plain or a continuous chain of forest, rather, the trees became scattered. I could make out that a distance from me, the land turned downhill, becoming a shallow depression where seas of elongated trees covered parts of the land below. Or the valley, since there's a much nearer mountain that needed not be walked for days. I just had to minutely roll my eyes upwards to find that it wasn't towering.

But it was quite a distance still.

Even then, the glittering light at the foot of that mountain was tempting for my parched throat. But that flat hill situated beside the mountain eclipsed my need to quench thirst.

There was fire. It wasn't raging but it was immediately obvious given how it was equally lined up on segments of those similarly upturned... rocks. Which could be walls. And that thought was something that called for rest. The shallow steep it had from the curving river and sea of trees between the place where I was and that seemingly human habitation was an indication it won't be a tedious travel. At least, after I managed to walk down on where I was.

With what I've seen, I almost considered it the best place to proceed with how familiar of a structure it was. But fire meant many things. It was a fickle element. Sometimes comforting but always had a thing for destruction.

Come here, child. I offer no home, one that could endure the stormy days you might have gone from, but my light might as well guide you back home. Rest here, child. I offer no beds, but the warmth might as well help you rekindle the promise of dreams. Come here, child. Rest and home may not be mine, but I offer you flame. A hearth. A memory.

Hearth. A children's tale. I, of course, doesn't remember such passage, or even the rest of it that had advised why fire was, in technicality, dangerous. This was just stitched fragments of those woven pages that invoked a recollection. If anything, I had decent memory to conclude and remember the lesson of that story: Fire meant many things, good ones and bad ones. But be inclined to believe danger is what it essentially brings.

And I was one of such testimony. Who knows whether whose lair was that. Even if those dots of luminous red was a dissuading sight, I'm not easily sold to advance to it. This place might even be where the Northers live. I paused and grinded my teeth. Feeling the pain settle down, I shook my thoughts away. This shouldn't be the same place. A lot of things were already pointing me to believe it wasn't. My mind flashed a thought before I continued my assessment.

Half x, one left.

The flatlands that intially made me feel relieved when I woke up seemed no better than either of the three. My narrowed eyes confirmed that the vastness of this plains even exceeded the distance I'd need to even work a successful climb on the mountain in my right, and that includes the days I'd need to traverse the plain onto said mountain. Another x.

So, I glanced back and forth, considering, to the darkness or fire?

—–·–—

It wasn't a hard decision, really. The fire might have told risks I believe they would really have, but darkness was certainly no better at it. Remembering the unlit place where I had met the cloth corpse only cemented that idea. And since the fire also reminded me of the lined-up torches where I had rested and met... people, who knows whether this place offered the same? But in a nutshell, the risk of the known outweighed my decision by a ton.

Considering I was going for the fire, I initially wanted a filled-up mana core. But I was only able to do some meditation for a moment before both my chest and head hampered that plan. Only having had three percent added after the moon shifted a bit over the plains. Which wasn't practical at all. The time trickling by with just enduring.

So I set out. Not immediately, of course. After finding out that intermittent dizziness was striking me bad, I stretched a hand out as I focused on my index's tip, letting the dizziness slowly settle to a furthered focus. And I was about to keep it considering that the wobbling grass and trees wouldn't fade away with just a try.

After another forceful cast of Redirection, I traced my steps in between the forest and the plains. Enough that if some beasts pops out of the forest, the flatlands would offer me enough space to maneuver my run. Or if some kind of flying beast whistled towards me, the flourishing trees would be enough to serve as a deterrence for it. And in the case that both held the same? Well, I only had my feet to make do some impromptu plans. Roasting them with my blue fire spell would have been preferable, but—

Mana Manipulation • Lvl 7

Core [36%]

—this is best saved to cast my physical affliction away if a run is all that was left for me. And even if I have a lot, I was in no condition to stave off creatures even with an ample amount of mana. That blue fire didn't even work with wood. I remembered.

It was good enough, however, that there wasn't a set mana cost on casting Redirection. All I needed to do was scoop some pain away and it would not cost as much.

Luckily, by the time I had closed in a hundred meters, nothing of the sort happened. It was just a stroll filled with wariness. A quick look, however, on the lit dots indicated that I still was quite far away. And my stroll should soon be turned to at least a shallow sprint.

That never occurred. I was nearing the downhill part of the land before my whole body blared in shivers. I ducked and shot a look at the air, pulling my hair so it'd hurt and the sudden dizziness would be lost, expecting a diving creature.

There was none. A quick assessment on the forest gained same results. But I was disposed to push whatever traced my skin was hiding in such place.

Not hill-sized spiders this time. I didn't bother with a slow sprint and quickly took a jog downhill. Believing that whatever lies in that lined up fires held not only the rest I wanted, but also security.

But that momentary decision for a jog was a mistake as well. At first, my feet cascaded to a gentle run, and that was good. Better preserving my limits before I was sure what the threat is. Then I found myself going for a run, which wasn't my intention at all. I tried halting but that run sped up further when I knew I shouldn't have. How in the world could I do that?

The answer was my lost of balance.

My face plunged first on the mishmash of grass, perennials, pebbles, and soil. But I had both arms an immediate shield against it, such that I safely landed on the grass with nothing noteworthy of an injury. Better than what I would have expected diving headfirst.

That, however, was only the beginning. My body rolled over the grass downwards. As if falling. And that meant a whole new level of direness. It immediately came to mind that if running had me speeding up, then this would be worse.

I grabbed for all rooted plants I could... and we all rolled together. That didn't stop me to keep on clawing my hand on the soil. Persistent on finding ways to stop my dizzying and scratching roll before I worsened my situation. And finally, it came.

"Ah!"

I yelped in pain as my shoulder crashed into something hard. Not just crash as I felt my whole body finally sprung to stability propelled by my shoulder. Broken bones, I was sure. But it was worth it that I broke off the roll.

Still, the shivers that stood attention didn't allow me a rest. I felt pain all over, nauseous and ready to puke nothing. So I drained all of my mana to two forceful cast of Redirection. The magic sent unto relieving the spurts of sting in my chest and mostly of my disoriented mind, the two most important things that I require to run from what was nearing me.

But then, a little monster jumped out behind my back, equally finding itself halted on the boulder. And I stared for a moment as the shivers almost immediately faded along with it.

Titoctimus. The magical words lit up.

Flinching, I took the nearest pebbles and hurled it one at a time towards the spider. Not willing to bury it with a rain of stones and have it gone from my sight.

It all missed. My mind was still a disoriented mess to have accuracy. But it still was enough to assess that the spider had not crawled in escape at all. In fact, I could even see something beyond just its furry and icky appearance. There was something wet that poured out of its big body. As if... punctured. Yet its outstretched tendrils was an indication it wasn't. It might as well be a pretentious creature feigning death in the most obvious way. As if trying to quiz me to near it, or make me relax before it jumped for me.

There was no branch or any elongated wooden sticks and of the like to plod whether I had killed the still spider. But all in all the shiver was gone. A final throw hit it and I was finally willing to believe it was dead. It didn't even flinch. It splat as the stone hit it.

Oh. Spiders.

I slumped on the grass and felt too stupid. Just a little spider and it had me all running. Still, I would have run either way with that threatening air. And this blunder I fell into was something I couldn't blame myself for. I had lived all my life in plains, only having seen the far and overhang misted mountains from afar. A lesson learned—do not run on a mountain. Or any sloping land. Those hills lied. I grumbled.

The spell had not faded yet and I didn't let anymore self-blames. The slow trickle of pain strumming my chest and the unassessed damage my stumble did would return any moment now, and I needed compose more than anything if I wanted to get rest.

But any sooner after a deep breath in and I felt my head explode with deep stings. I would have pulled my hair to numb it down, yet both my hand were latched with pain and numbness that never allowed such solace. Busy fending off what had been my chest's and head's.

Worse, I knew it would take me further than dizziness. I'd faint out soon. There was no need for me to think what consequences it held. Laid out in an open area and I'm sure I'd be a meal. And just the sight of that spider already meant what would be having me. I shivered. It must not be like that.

Time was something that I lacked the most now, so no longer did I go for the plateaued hill. I wasn't even halfway down the slope yet.

That led me diving for the forest on the side despite it being so uncertain. A bush, just a bush. I hoped there was something like that in there to hide myself. Or something hard. Something with wall. Something to keep me safe. Hoping no little spiders would scuttle there.

I erased that thought. It should have berries too. Better. I schooled my thoughts as I ran for the forest. This time, trudging with balance in mind.

Yet I couldn't. The trees bent... so oddly. In a way as if it was originally grown on a wall. And what I had considered the mountains and the plains and forest was just a part of the wall leading to an abyss. And the boulder I was on was the only ground left before I fell into that endless air.

Then I felt the grass demanded my entirety. I was stumbled, sprawled, unmoving. Left to feel its cold and comforting touch. Which I couldn't. The stings in my head numbed my mind a clear thought; to reach for my body and disengage what plans I have left.

I didn't have the time to worry what this meant, not when the soil below me emerged with particular haste that quickly caged me. Magic, more than anything I'm willing to imagine it was. Foretelling that someone was coming. Help was coming.

I believed.

I felt my eyes fighting the strength of a bucketful of rocks, darkness beckoning for me again. It was burdening, but I needed to look at it. To make me believe I wouldn't wake up in the void. Not again. I tried confirming what it was, and I glimpsed at the unfamiliar face that only the books of legends recorded before it faded out of my view.

An elf. And so I hope help it was.