The other foot held for a second and then both flew out into open space.

Jack clutched the wisken in his hands, instinctively throwing his body-weight into the tree. The impact jolted his aching arms.

He dangled from the trunk, his hands straining to hold his whole weight. His arms trembled, and his fingers were threatening to give up altogether. Jack knew he only had a few seconds before he fell.

He scrabbled at the fur with his feet, but it seemed impossibly slippery now. They just couldn't get a grip. His mind was racing, trying to think of what to do.

Falling from about seven or eight meters up- that might only mean a broken leg if he fell the right way. Not a big deal if you have access to hospitals and modern medicine. Jack had no idea if that was the case.

Even in his own world, a broken leg in the middle of a forest was not a good idea. He was going to fail the test.

That was if he managed to fall right. There was always the chance he would land wrong and hurt something more important than his leg.

Jack heard Daiki gasp and curse below him.

So he does still care, Jack thought. Probably not enough to carry me, though.

Closing his eyes, Jack tried one more time to haul his body up enough to place his soles firmly on the tree trunk.

No matter what he did, his feet could not seem to find a good grip on the sleek fur. Every time he tried putting any weight on them they held for a heartbeat, then slipped again, jarring his arms over and over.

In his adrenaline-filled state, the omnipresent rustle of the forest seemed to grow louder, filling his senses, until it felt like all the trees were anticipating his fall. Jack began to panic.

With a swish and clatter Mico appeared, startling Jack so much he almost lost his tenuous hold on the fur. Mico was hanging upside down like a bat, gripping the gray trunk close to Jack’s head. Lambent eyes filled his view. They reflected the sunlight like twin purple moons.

“Do you require assistance, Jack?”

Of course, the pterosaur had no concern at all in his voice. His eyes didn't blink.

Jack's hands were really shaking now. He could barely feel them.

He deeply regretted digging all those pointless holes on the beach. Was that really only a few hours ago?

Mico was waiting for an answer.

“If you assist me, will I fail the test?”

“Fuck the test,” Daiki yelled from beneath him. “Don't be a moron, Jack!”

“No. You will need assistance to pass the test.”

“Then, yes,” Jack said, gasping out the words. “Please help me, Mico.”

“Of course, Jack.”

Jack didn’t know what the tiny creature, smaller than a blackbird, could possibly do to save him from a fall, but he was willing to try anything.

He started thinking about falling, trying to plan how he would bend his knees and roll onto his side in order to save his legs. He had been taught how to fall in his jiu-jitsu classes. Not from a height like this, of course, but it would still help.

He wondered if it was better to try and thrust himself away from the tree to the softer ground of the meadow.

No matter what he did, it was going to hurt. The only question was, how much?

His shaking, sweating hands wouldn't hold him much longer.

A solid thock, like the sound a hammer or an axe makes on impact, reached his ears, and for a wild moment, Jack feared Mico was cutting the tree down.

“Lift your left foot by 3.5 centimeters,” Mico said, his voice distorted.

Without hesitating, Jack gripped as hard as he could and pulled up, straining his whole body with the last of his strength to move that tiny distance. His foot slid into place with a hollow thunk.

Mico had cut a step into the trunk of the tree.

A wave of relief crashed over Jack. He wasn’t going to fall. His spine would remain unshattered.

The forest, which had sounded so sinister before, when he was in trouble, was now cheering in the background.

Jack put all his weight on his left foot and let his arms rest in place while Mico cut more steps leading up to the nearest branch. Jack’s whole body was now trembling, but mostly with relief.

The little pterosaur used his mechanical wing to make the steps, stiffening his claws into a scoop and hacking into the trunk with it, scraping out chunks of bark and wood. His voice had been distorted because, in a way, he had been speaking with his mouth full, vibrating his wing while it was still buried in the wood in order to work the flute.

Climbing was a whole lot easier with footholds, but it was still a relief to finally sit down, straddling the sturdy branch. His hands were trembling with muscle fatigue. Jack waved at Daiki, who ran his fingers through his hair with what looked like relief. From 3 stories up Jack couldn’t be sure, but his friend seemed to mutter something, which was no doubt cold and cutting. Too bad Jack couldn’t hear it. Or see the finger flipped in his general direction.

“How do you power that wing, Mico?” Jack asked as he stretched out each of his own limbs.

The green metal prosthetic was a marvelous feat of engineering and seemed to be somehow organically integrated into the tiny body, but Jack suspected it had to have a battery or some other power source. Surely Mico’s own muscles were not powerful enough to do something like chopping into the wood like it was butter.

“With a micro-generator,” Mico said, as he paused in his hole-cutting quest. He was halfway to the next branch. “Distilling energy from sunlight.”

"Oh, like a solar panel?” Jack leaned back for a moment and let all his limbs relax, swinging loose against the trunk. He should have relaxed like this before dashing up the tree like an idiot, trying to appease Daiki. Unfortunately, he wasn't high enough to see anything yet, or he could just go back down again right away. This tree was gigantic, but the trees of the forest were enormous too, and Jack was barely a third of the way up.

Still breathing deeply, he caught a hint of smoke. Only tobacco, thankfully. Jack wasn’t sure he could cope with a stoned Daiki right now. Hopefully, he wouldn’t start a forest fire.

“Currently the solar harvesting technology of your world is not yet this advanced. My generator may also function by breaking down organic matter.”

Mico paused and extended his wing out to its fullest extent, then rippled it, so Jack could see the green metal of the pterosaur’s arm and leg shimmer with the greasy rainbow sheen of an oil slick. The silver membrane shone like sunlit water. It was a thing of beauty.

Jack supposed the generator had to be in Mico’s shoulder. It was the only part of the fragile-looking structure that might have space for it. Still, it had to be built on a microscopic scale. He tried to lean closer and almost fell off the branch.

“Could you show me later, please Mico?”

“Yes, Jack. I would be pleased to show you.”

Mico continued gouging holes until he reached the next branch. There he stopped, probably judging that it would be easy for Jack to clamber from limb to limb after that point. Jack decided it seemed easy enough.

As long as he didn’t look down.

Jack put his fingers into the hole closest to him and was surprised to find the trunk was soft and spongy inside the rock-hard outer layer. He wondered if this tree was rotted on the inside and hoped it wasn't going to collapse any time soon. When he drew his fingers out they were coated in rusty red powder, with an eerie resemblance to dried blood. It gave him the creeps and he quickly wiped it off onto the wisken.

Even though every muscle cried out against it, eventually Jack got up and resumed his climb. He went slowly, not trusting his still shaky hands.

He was pleased when Mico followed him, at first clutching at the furry trunk and then bounding lightly from branch to branch like a squirrel.

Jack didn't dare go all the way to the top. The branches were getting too thin. He was almost thirty meters off the ground when he stopped, and that was plenty. High enough to be above the majority of other tree tops. High enough to see.

There was a different quality of air up there. The sky was a deep, pure blue, and the branch beneath him was warm with the summer sun. Jack’s spirits lifted. The alien world spread out before him.

The black and gray forest swelled into a hill ahead and to the left of where they had been walking, and to the right was a cliff with the ocean beyond it. Jack judged they had been walking roughly parallel to it. Tiny, slender bird shapes drifted about the cusp of the blue-green water and the blue-white sky.

A broken silver line ran down the dark, forested hill ahead and curved right, a river half-hidden by trees. Jack couldn't trace the line right to the ocean, but he was sure there was a waterfall out there somewhere.

“Can you see it, Jack? Can you see the castle?” The voice drifted up faintly from below.

Jack pretended he couldn't hear Daiki. He couldn’t deal with his friend right this moment. Daiki tried yelling a few more times from the foot of the tree, then stomped off to the edge of the forest as though he was going to leave. He stopped just within sight.

Jack didn't want to think. He didn’t want to move or yell reports down to Daiki. He wanted to sit, idly stroking the soft, thick wisken and gazing out into the blue.

Unfortunately, he couldn't stay perched up there forever. Or even for very long. Jack didn't need access to the whole sky to see that the sun, though still warm and bright enough for the moment, was on its slow way down to the horizon.

Jack tightened his grip on the branch and carefully rotated his head, trying to keep his weight steady on the unstable perch. He gazed behind himself. There was more ocean, a long way back, well beyond the clearing where he and Daiki had entered the woods.

Jack swept his eyes over the landscape, trying to pick out a castle, or even a solitary tower or turret, on the ruffled line of the horizon, among the dark heads of trees.

There was nothing. He could see a large clearing along the river, with a dark spot that might be a small building (and might just be a big rock) but that was the sole possible sign of a human- of an intelligent- presence. Otherwise, it was all just trees and sky and sea.

Jack noted the way the land curved away from the ocean at the edge of his forward sight and wondered if they were on an island, or maybe a large spit of land. With the hill completely blocking his view to the east and to the south, there was no way to tell.

Reconnaissance done, Jack had no more excuses and hauled himself off the branch. It felt even more difficult scrambling down than it had climbing up since his arms were starting to become stiff and sore. His aching fingers barely kept him from slipping off the sleek branches while he groped with his feet for the next one.

Mico went ahead and carved steps down to the ground from where Jack had slipped.

Finally, Jack stood on the grass. Chunks of furry wood were littered all around the tree. Mico stepped from the trunk onto Jack’s shoulder and rubbed his head briefly against his neck. A surge of affection filled Jack and he scratched the little pterosaur's head with a fingertip.

“Well aren't you two cozy. Maybe you should just move on in together… start a sweet little dino-man family.”

Jack dropped his hand from the creature’s head as if he had burned it. He smiled weakly.

"Hopefully, the young’uns would have his eyes.”

Daiki didn’t crack a smile. Jack shrugged apologetically; although at this point he didn't even know why he was being apologetic.

Apart from the whole putting-all-his-friends-in-mortal-danger thing.

He noticed that Daiki had slung his biggest camera around his neck again and hoped he hadn’t been taking pictures.

“You’re an idiot, you know. You could have broken your leg. I would have been stuck carrying you.” Daiki paused. “Or you might have killed yourself.”

“I...” That much concern could make anyone angry, Jack thought. Let it go. “You know me, I’d probably just bounce.”

Daiki ignored him. “And then you would have left me out here with no one- except for that greasy brass monkey and some whacko Alchemist who is probably after your virgin's blood or something.”

“Daiki, come on, we’re going to be OK...”

Daiki’s face was strained and sweaty as if he had been the one climbing, instead of the one sitting safely in the grass.

Strained or not, his eyes were hard. Jack had seen his friend like this before, the few times he had visited him at home. This was how Daiki was with his mother. He froze his dignity under a chilly layer of bitterness and thus kept it intact. Control was maintained above everything else.

And if he was pushed hard enough, he walked away without looking back.

The idea of being alone in this strange forest made Jack feel ill.

“So, did you see anything while you were shimmying up that overgrown cat scratching post? Or was it just a wonderful vacation from reality?”

“Well, yeah, I saw a bit,” Jack said. He made his voice as placating as possible. “I think we might be on an island. There was ocean back beyond where we came out of the portal and there's ocean over there too.” Jack gestured to the west. “The land curved in the distance too so I reckon it's either an island or a spit of land.”

“What a clever deduction,” Daiki said. “And just too bad we’ve got no way to confirm it.”

He paused significantly, before barking, “Mico, are we on an island?”

“Yes. You are on Cynos Island.”

“And we’ve been walking toward the castle so far?”

“Yes.”

“Gee, that was difficult.”

Ordinarily, Jack would have punched Daiki for the tone in his voice a long time ago. Even with all things considered he was having trouble restraining himself.

Instead, he told Daiki about the river and the little black spot that might be a building.

“I couldn't see a castle, but we're going roughly south right now and to the east and south there was a rise in the land so I couldn’t see much. Hopefully it won’t be too bad to walk up, but still may be big enough to hide a castle on the other side.”

Jack didn't mention that he thought it was pretty odd not to build the castle on the top of the hill, which seemed to be the highest point around. Maybe it wasn't meant to be a defensive castle. Or maybe it had been built near a lake or something.

“I kind of felt like I was in that scene in The Hobbit.”

“What?”

“You know, that bit in The Hobbit where Bilbo climbs a tree and doesn't realize he's looking at a hillside and he thinks the forest goes on forever...”

“So, basically you're saying you learned nothing important,” Daiki said, dismissing everything Jack had done in the last two hours. “That's just great, Jack. Good job.”

Weary as he was, Jack’s temper flared up. Just as quickly it died as he thought about how he had got them all into this situation.

Daiki was in charge now. Jack had to get used to it.

He settled for growling under his breath as he scooped up his pack and struggled back into it. Daiki was already at the tree line.

Jack followed reluctantly, feasting his eyes on the beautiful green grass and blue, cloudless sky he was about to leave behind. On an impulse, he snatched up a handful of grass and pushed it into a pocket.

They plunged into the gray forest once again.