I ran from Alarna to the part of the forest that was split into sub-areas, and from there I continued down south, after I couldn’t see the townwall anymore. I took the same route we had taken before, though I didn’t slow down this time.

‘Wait! I want to look at the trees!’ Lilana said.

“Sorry, we need to hurry a little. There will be more than enough time to look at trees later.”

The sun would go down soon and I wanted to reach the campsite today. Walking through the dark forest would be a little difficult, however. Even when I reached our previous entrance to the woods, where Tomar and Riala had started to walk carefully, I kept running.

‘Hmpf! You’re running too fast for one to enjoy being outside!’

“Yea, I know. But if we don’t reach that clearing today, we’ll have to sleep in the middle of the woods. That’s suboptimal.”

‘You said it would be safe out here!’

“I did, and it is, but I’d rather play it extra-safe.”

‘Have you seen beasts in the Wildlands before?’

“A few, yes,” I said. “Though only two attacked us, and we killed them.”

Outside of that one incident, where these talking beasts had followed and attacked us, we hadn’t seen a single beast approach us in that entire week we had been out here. There was the bear that got Berla, but we had been the ones attacking the beast in that case.

All this time I had wondered what was up with the talking ones, but since no more of them had appeared, there wasn’t much of a point in speculating too much about them. Thinking back on it, I had to wonder whether there was a connection between these beasts and the gods, however. Both had mana and both had been able to hear me from inside Tomar’s mind. What’s more, the gods that had kicked me out were even able to determine that Tomar’s body hadn’t been mine, and the beast had known that we came from Alarna, indicating that they had followed us from there. This made it seem like my entire existence was abnormal. One had called me a “problem,” while the other called me an “anomaly,” and both had apparently tried to get rid of me. Though I suppose the beast had been more limited in its options and had gone with trying to simply kill Tomar and me.

Actually... Why am I even back here in “Erinn?” Did the god just remove me from Tomar’s head, but not from this world? I thought. It would technically be possible, but it didn’t make a whole lot of sense. If I would just land in another white stone that way, I would eventually land in the next young adult and continue my shenanigans, forcing them to do it again. Unless that was all they could do, I was sure they would try to remove me for good.

The timing also seemed weird. Why two weeks? That wasn’t a lot of time, and when I had been removed, the caravan was already on the way back to Alarna. How did I get into a white stone that would be used in the temple two weeks later? I felt like I was missing something. Unfortunately, I couldn’t think of an explanation that made sense.

The forest was getting darker and darker, and it was difficult to determine whether we were still on the right track. Even though the general direction we were running in was correct, the forest was vast, and it would be possible to miss the clearing. I had at least been able to identify a few of the trees I had passed while it was still light out, but without the sun, it became a guessing game. Since I couldn’t clearly see all the roots and low hanging branches anymore, I finally slowed down to a quick walk.

Somehow, Lilana seemed to be even more fascinated by the forest than Riala had been. She commented on almost every plant she saw that she didn’t recognize, the size of the trees, and especially the amount. I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to go your whole life without ever having seen a live tree. Even if you lived in a big city in my world, you would occasionally see a tree somewhere after all. Though I understood that nature could be interesting if you weren’t used to being surrounded by it, and this would potentially become one of our biggest selling points. Trees for everyone! Vote for us!

“Too bad there was no lamp in the house,” I said as I slowed down even more and eventually came to a stop, while I was trying to get my bearings in the dark. “I believe... it’s this way,” I said as I started walking again.

‘You’re not lost, are you?’

“Lost is a strong word. Though I’ve only been here once, and it wasn’t dark back then. But it should be fine.”

With the current lighting, or lack thereof, I didn’t recognize anything anymore. However, after a few minutes, I saw an area in the distance that seemed to be illuminated dimly by the moon’s light. “Oh! I think that’s it!”

We arrived at a familiar looking clearing with an old fireplace and a stone cliff face with holes in it. I was far from an expert, but the fireplace appeared to have been used more recently than four weeks ago, meaning that someone must’ve camped here. Unfortunately, we didn’t see anyone else in the clearing.

‘Looks like nobody is here...’

“Yea... but I think someone was here recently. I suggest we stay here for the night and keep looking in the morning.”

‘Alright.’

After gathering a few branches to make a fire, I sat down, filled a cup with water and ate some of the dried meat I had borrowed from Zara.

“How do you like it out here so far?”

‘It is fascinating, though I’d rather sleep in my bed.’

“Granted, a bed beats the forest floor.”

‘Actually... Will we be even able to sleep? What if a beast finds us after all?’

“Yea, I think we’ll have to stay up tonight. That reminds me... When you’re up there, you don’t sleep. Like, ever.”

‘Seriously? That sounds... really boring.’

“Tell me about it,” I said with a chuckle.

Even though I was fairly certain that Lilana would stick to our deal, I decided to keep it a secret for now that you would be able to control the host body even from the backseat, while the one in control was sleeping. That might’ve not been the best decision when I had made it last time, but as long as I didn’t abuse this ability, I thought it had to be fine. Though if we didn’t find Tomar and the others tomorrow, I would probably have to tell her. One all-nighter was fine by me, but one of us would have to sleep tomorrow.

As I looked around, reminiscing about the last time I had been here, I noticed something on one of the trees on the other side of the clearing. From a distance, it looked like markings made with chalk. I took a burning stick from the fire and walked closer to the tree, at which point I quickly realized that the markings were a script.

Another message!

***

A group of ten shadows was walking through the dark of night, making their way through a forest. The moonlight occasionally illuminated their dark fur lightly, though their glowing red eyes were always visible, even in the dark.

“Do we really have to request permission to walk these lands again? Didn’t we already do that?” one of two shadows leading the group asked the other.

“Do you want to go to war with Arax?” the other responded.

“Of course not, I’m not crazy,” the first said.

“Then yes, we do have to request permission again. Especially with a bigger group. He’s very particular about that.”

“That does seem a little arrogant for an ordinary beast...”

“You might want to be careful about your utterances. He’s earned his place in this world.”

“I know, I know... but seriously, we aren’t part of this whole territory nonsense. It shouldn’t matter.”

“Yet it does. We’ll just have to deal with it.”

They continued on and eventually reached the entrance to a cave, which was guarded by two large beasts in the form of bears. The group came to a stop, with only the leaders walking closer.

“Good evening. We’d like an audience with Arax.”

The bears looked at each other briefly, before one of them nodded and the other disappeared into the cave. A few minutes later, a wolf-shaped beast appeared from within, flanked on either side by two more wolves. After they had made it out of the dark cave, the moonlight shone on their leader, his silvery fur reflecting it, making it seem like his entire body was glowing. As the three got closer, the silver wolf’s bones appeared to break and rearrange, as he lifted part of his body off the ground. His hind legs straightened, and short fingers with claws formed on his front legs, until he looked like a hybrid between a wolf and a human, walking on his hind legs. In this form, he was towering over the other wolves, forcing them to look up at him.

Show off... the pack leader who wasn’t happy to be here thought.

The silver wolf came to a stop right in front of them, as they lowered their heads as a show of respect. “Who might you be?” he asked the two while looking down at them.

“Thank you for receiving us, Arax. We’d like to request permission to hunt in your territory.”

“Is that so,” Arax said, looking between them and the rest of their group. “That’s quite the force you have with you. I wonder what you might be hunting. Particularly, I’m curious why your first two guys weren’t enough.”

“Unfortunately, we can’t go into detail. However, I assure you that it will not affect you or your business.”

“That’s exactly what the others told me,” Arax said with a deep chuckle. “Unfortunately, I’ll need more than that. See, whatever these two hunted did affect me, as it disturbed the order in my territory. The weak, wild ones fled in droves, while the stronger ones took their place. I don’t like disorder in my territory, it was quite an ordeal to bring back the balance.”

“I don’t believe that these two events are necessarily related.”

“Be that as it may, you want permission, and I’d like information. I will also inform you here and now that you will not leave without giving me what I want,” Arax said, accompanied by a short growl.

The quiet one of the two wolves nervously pinned his ears, while the other one finally raised his head and looked Arax in the eyes. “I can’t give you any details. And you know very well that we won’t be the last ones that are sent here, should you kill us. That would only cause more trouble for you. I can tell you this much though. An anomaly has appeared, and it needs to be removed.”

Arax stared at him for several seconds without breaking eye contact, until the silver wolf finally shrugged. “Not bad. Alright, do your job. I give you one week.”

“Thank you,” the wolf said and they walked backwards a few steps, before turning around to leave with their group.

Arax and his companions were left behind in front of the cave. “An anomaly, hm?” he muttered.