Corvayne was confused for a moment as he stepped out of the stairway cave. Instead of a square cliff top capping a cube, the path emerged overlooking a gently sloped trail leading down to rolling plains between forests, all the same colors with teal plants and dark red and blue bark on light blue stone but organized more like a few miles of normal land going up a hill. Looking off in the distance he could see a hazy floating island shaped roughly like a squat diamond shape, ridges above and below visible. Wick just looked then spun back. “What the hell? It's another teleporter? Or folded space?”

“I want to go back and just see if it leads the same place.” Crovayne turned to do so and Wick grabbed onto the back of his cloak.

She sounded a little angry at him again. “Hey don't just walk off airhead! Corvayne! What if we got separated by the stairs!?” He marveled at her distrust of a staircase but accepted her clutching his cloak.

He took her back down where they had entered the cave at the top of the root, bloody goblins still laying where he had left them. He took a few steps out of the tunnel and onto the the root and looked up. There was no way the mountains of blue and the valley all fit on the cube above them... the mountain behind them would have to be directly above him and the wall was flat and too short to even do some sort of fake sky optical trick. Shrugging, he climbed back up the steps. At the top Wick sat down and he decided to take a break as well.

She looked like she was also fixated on the mountain that wasn't visible down the stairs. “Corvayne I don't think this place follows normal space-time at all! Fuck I wish I had all my stuff.”

Corvayne nodded. It was a bummer she was without her gear. “No kidding. The only constant here seems gravity is pulling us down.”

Wick folded her arms. “We can't be sure of that, maybe it rotates when you walk around these islands.”

“I'll throw a goblin and test that if more try to kill us by an edge.” He reeked of blood. Wick looked calm now but he could see her trembling. He checked his own hands. Mostly steady. He simply sat and kept his eyes open for any goblins that might be looking at them as a meal as well as taking in the surroundings.

The open area had a few lines where dark blue dirt cut the bright teals and blues and reds of weird grass. A few paths meandered into the huge neon trees, their rainbow of pastel colored leaves forming an indistinct pink color as a whole. There was some really boring carpet in warehouse apartment he was in that had the same effect: from afar it looked blue-gray but up close it was a weird rainbow. They started walking again after about five minutes. Nothing came out of cover to attack them, but Corvayne suspected that if the previous area had goblins, this one would have them somewhere as well.

Wick spoke again, perhaps to fill the quiet. “So, if we find four more stairs, we can get out of here?”

Corvayne nodded without turning to look at Wick as he walked along, spear acting as a walking stick. “Yeah. Or three stairs and a door like what we saw. Assuming the thing on the door was telling us the truth. We don't know what this space is and why it's here. You mentioned Fae: I've read fairy folk tend to be cruel and love tricking and kidnapping mortals.”

Wick thought about that for a good ten seconds before responding. “Mmm. Don't know if real Fae are like that, aside from being linked to disappearances in parks away from civilization. Mostly they seem to be weird forest hobos or ghosts. They might even just be aliens. There's a lot of cross over with those sorts of things.”

Corvayne gestured back in the direction of the goblin village. “So this could also be... aliens?”

Wick followed his hand then looked back over at Corvayne, hand rubbing her chin. “I wish I could tell you without little vicious monsters trying to gut me with stone age weapons.” Wick spoke carefully in a manner that suggested to Corvayne she was tired. He guessed that her previous searches for paranormal things were probably much less stressful.

Corvayne saw a track of deep blue on the ground and decided to follow it. It seemed like the first space they were in had packed dirt roads that linked areas together both on and between islands, much like the previous paths around and over the cliffs and roots. That didn't look to have changed, with the blue paths leading to clear trails through the wood.

There were some differences: This layer had a small 'sun' where the yellow of the sky was brighter, but still dim enough not to blind Corvayne when he looked up. It did warm them as they walked, which he was thankful for as he still felt damp from walking in the woods. The forest they wandered into was a sort of pink-purple due to deep blue and red tree bark and the cacophony of pastel colored leaves. No signs of civilization but thankfully no monsters so far either.

They did see signs of life: weird rainbow rabbits, small birds with three feet that would grip a tree with two and use the third to pick apart fruit. There were lizards with six legs that seemed to merge into trees or had tiny undetectable cracks they found as the two passed. To his delight he saw a beetle no more then an inch long with two heads that could switch from running forward to backwards without missing a beat. Wick was looking all around as well and occasionally making comments about how something she saw should be impossible. Corvayne had to check his enthusiasm as he was wary of large predators or more of the goblins.

They had stepped a few yards out of the wooded path and were looking over a gently sloped valley with more woods and teal grass when Corvayne saw something like headless dogs splattered in a rainbow of colors. They were laying in tall grass and there looked to be about six of them. They stood up when they saw Corvayne and there was a sort of buzzing sound coming from them. They all started running at Corvayne.

He tapped Wick's arm once and spoke quietly “Incoming, back up and stay behind me.”

He then retreated back to the entrance to the woods. The paint-hounds were fast but were about the size of a desert fox or a small desert badger. Given how sturdy the limbs looked they probably slashed or bludgeoned. Wick held the knife she had gotten from him. “Why are there so many fucking monsters? This is BULLSHIT.”

“Wick, we are here because we went to the woods to look for monsters you know.”

“It was supposed to be maybe one monster!” She muttered something else about rain.

“Well if you found no monsters we'd be in a diner eating right now.” He realized he was a little hungry as he spoke. Maybe the dogs were edible?

The first of them was just a few yards away when it pounced, flying at Corvayne who just skewered it with his spear. The thing was heavier then he expected and he had to step back to let it drop then pull his spear out and face the next two. He could see something like teeth under the monster, and they had lion like front paws with large claws. The next two had one leap at him and another trying to rake at him with claws from the side. [Power Thrust] shot out at the one on the ground, blasting it and sending a wave of force back to knock one following it over. He leaned to the side of the leaper, a claw scraping him as it went by. He had pretty thick skin and it was a glancing blow. Still, Wick started yelling and waving her knife around and he hopped back and used [Juxtapose] with it, putting himself in front of it's attempt to rake her. The sudden movement confused the creature enough that it hesitated with it's swing and Corvayne jabbed it.

Another dog thing was attacking Wick, and she got slashed on the leg while stabbing at the front of the headless things, drawing blood herself and causing the monster to back off. Corvayne activated another skill [Flow-Like-Water] allowing him to move and attack at the same time in a fluid series of steps taking him back to the one she was fighting. He then pivoted and much like flowing water he slide around Wick, his spear weaving around them both to jab another monster. The attacks were not precise enough to kill the monsters, but they stumbled around injured and he sensed the third one leaping at him. He used a skill on instincts honed from unarmed combat: [Cross-Skill: Judo Throw]

Using the back of his spear he caught the monster by it's horrible under mouth and then braced the blade of the spear into the ground, using the monsters momentum to fling it over Wick's head and then into a tree. There was some stinging as he threw it: the monster had gotten a claw into his upper arm while he was throwing it. Only a little blood. As for the dog: It probably didn't kill the thing but it might have broken some bones. His job was to finish the two wounded ones off before they did more damage to Wick, who had sliced up pants and was bleeding from a few wounds. He didn't want to use too many more skills, so he jabbed one in a leg causing it to topple on it's front, then the other he stabbed as it tried to lunge at him again, two more hits causing it to fall over and bleed out.

The last one, dazed, tried to leap at them and just missed, so Corvayne quickly ran it through. He had only taken a few scratches and instead of worrying about them he moved to where Wick was sitting on the ground, helping her with some spare cloth from his pack to bind a deeper wound on her leg that might require stitches. She looked shocked, and kept staring at the bodies of the dogs then her blood drenched legs.

Corvayne focused on trying to reduce the risks she took staying near him. “Those guys are faster then Goblins. If more come, you might need to hide in a tree and let me fight them myself.”

She looked down at her knees. “I don't wanna be eaten. Please...”

“No warrior is born in a day.” He said quietly to himself as he finished applying the bandage and looked for any other monsters, then sat next to her. He didn't think she needed an arm around her. He heard her sniffling.

“I can usually handle myself. It... pisses me off.” She was quiet for a bit, pulling her glasses up and rubbing her face. He remembered his first patrol. He was sure he'd die before making it back home after his first encounter with monsters. He recalled worse patrols where he had been badly injured. He wasn't sure how he had made it back a few of those times.

He offered her a hand and continued to speak quietly. “Does it hurt to walk? We should keep moving. We can stay near the woods if you like, it seems they are better suited to open spaces.”

Wick nodded, and stood up with his help. She tested her leg tentatively and hissed a little but walked. “It's alright. Doesn't feel great but I'll make it. Thanks for the help. My hunch about you was correct.”

“What was your hunch?” He asked.

He thought she looked a little embarrassed as she explained. “I think I said it, but I've used remote viewing and had hunches about whats important or where to go. For some reason I knew I'd meet someone important the day I met you.”

He smiled and puffed up his chest a little bit, then thought about his own instincts what often triggered them. “I'm glad you think I'm important but I'd say any instinct that got you here was probably a warning rather then a request.”

They stopped at the open fields again, looking more carefully at the wide spaces and roads for more packs of those dogs possibly hidden in the grass. There was one point distant in the colors that could have been another grouping, but that was behind the way they were headed and Corvayne resolved to just keep an eye open back that way as they pressed forward to another wooded section, closer to the large blue mountain jutting up from the plains. This forest was the same colors with a little less light streaming in. He didn't realize how much sweat he had accumulated until stepping into the shade cooled him off. His cloak was starting to mend itself already so he took it off once it finished and placed it back in his pack.

The path lead them out near the edge of the island. There was a grassy area with rocks, and he saw that the trail continued to another sky island in a sort of twenty to forty foot wide bridge. The gap between islands was much smaller then the last area, and there was less yellow below them as he looked over the edge and saw layers of land. Above, in the haze, he could see some faded islands that ranged from looking solid to almost blending into the sky. He wondered how big this place was. Is it a giant room? Or like a cloud of rocks floating in... something?

Crossing to the next island, they found a pair of the dogs on the land bridge. Corvayne knew that there was an axe champion in his village who could cut things at a distance. He had been on a roll, so maybe he could do that too. As the dogs started charging at him Corvayne focused on the image of Mugs-Already-Empty swinging his burly arms and shattering a target fifty feet distant. [Cross-Skill: Whirling Axe] made him whip his spear in front of him as if slashing an invisible foe, and a weird phantom spear went spinning at the lead dog, hitting the monster and dropping him with huge slash. Corvayne thought it was neat, but also that it drained him a lot to use it with a spear. The more he stretched the use of the weapon, the more tired using it made him. He needed to get his hands on more weapons to test how the effect worked.

He just regular skewered the other dog as it lept, and because there were no other enemies he flung it off the side of the path to see if it would stick to the back. As expected, it just fell out of sight, buzzing angrly. Wick hit his arm in a friendly or excited way. He turned and saw that her funk had lifted.

She beamed and her eyes seemed to sparkle as she spoke. “That was magic! You can't tell me that wasn't magic!”

Corvayne didn't want her to get too far ahead of herself. “I saw other people in my village use those moves before. If you trained enough you could do it too. I'm not sure why I can use them all with a spear though...”

“That was magic. You can't explain what happened!” Wick replied.

“Uhh... I swung the spear hard enough to make an afterimage in the wind. It's pretty obvious.” He didn't understand why it worked but it was pretty clear what events took place there.

“That explanation is bullshit. You're a wizard, Corry!”

“I don't like that.” He felt his voice go cold.

Her face morphed from ecstatic to confused. “You don't wanna be one? Are you crazy?”

“Sorry Wick, I mean, hearing a cutesy version of my name...”

“Sorry Corvayne. Cor? Vayne? Either ok?”

“I don't like my name, but those abbreviations always feel like someone is making fun of it.” Because they were.

“Why not change it?”

“Because it's my name! You can't just change your name.”

Wick laughed. “You think my birth certificate just said 'Wick'?”

“I don't know. I thought it was short for something. Where I'm from there's a whole ceremony where they give you a name.”

“So you have like, a little kid name and they should have given you a better one then, right?”

“No. My little kid name was...” Corvayne furrowed his brow. He had gotten the name Corvayne in the ceremony, and he knew he had a more normal name as a kid. Forgetting something like that went against years of training his mind with his body to take in and remember details even under stress.

Wick waited expectantly. She wasn't going to start walking into another possible pack of dogs ahead of him.

“Well, it was a whole ritual and they gave me a dumb name.” The memory not coming to him felt weird. Why was he having so much trouble calling up childhood memories all of the sudden?

Wick shrugged. “Ok, we'll call you Spears!”

“No no, that's weird. Spears was the nickname for a girl in my village, Spears-Like-Water.”

Wick blinked. “Ohhh... did you learn that blurring water charge from her?”

How did she get that? “Yes. Spears has potential to be the spear master in the village in the next few years if she keeps improving.” Using those skills was draining. He rooted around in his pack for a canteen.

“And you were watching her very closely to learn her skill?”

“Mmm. I didn't know I could do it, and it's sloppy compared to her execution. She really looks like she becomes water.” He unstopped his water and started drinking. They would have to find a source of water if it took them longer then a day in this place.

A smile crept onto Wick's face. “So did you date her?”

He spit out a mouthful of water. “No!”

Wick actually clapped at him. “Haha, that reaction! She must have been really hot! Did she tease you about your spear a lot?”

He frowned. “Yes. Everyone mocked me for everything Wick. Whatever I thought about the outside of Spears, or her skill with the spear, or dedication to it, or that she was kind to others... she treated me like garbage, as did everyone else. She thought I had a stupid name and made fun of it. Just like everyone else. I have no desire to EVER go back to that.”

Corvanye had to blink his eyes after saying it. They stung a little. He rubbed them. “Sweat in my eyes.”

Wick hugged him. He didn't know what to do while she squeezed him. She never felt like any of the damsels in... like any of the women in stories he had read and he was a little embarrassed that she felt he needed to be hugged. It was just his life. The hug did make him feel better though. Wick looked up at him. Was she getting teary... sweat in her eyes too? “It's okay! Those idiots had no idea what they had! They should have pulled their heads out of their asses. That chick probably is probably losing sleep right now regretting you left her!”

Corvayne's heart warmed at how mad she got. “That's... not likely but thank you Wick. The last few days have been some of the best of my life. I will try not to dwell in the past.” He smiled down at her, then turned and looked forward. “I owe that to you and Grunt. I will get you out of here or die trying.”

“Ok Ace.” She let him go with a pat.

“Ace then?” Corvayne thought it was kind of nice. Maybe he'd get a detective's getup like on the covers of the crime focused books. Dame had a way with words.

“It's weird, it feels wrong. No no... let me think.”

Corvayne shrugged.h “I'd be happy with anything other then my... vampire name.”

Wick stopped what she was doing and stared at him.

“It's really a vampire name... and you do wear mostly black and are covered in blood.” She moved a hand up to her hair and pushed it aside to scratch her neck. Corvayne sensed she was being cheeky, but it was better then getting dragged down into his past.

“I know. That's why I said it. Also: you should be taking pictures of everything here if your portable device can do that.”

Wick widened her eyes then hugged Corvayne again. “You ARE the best vampire! Haha I totally forgot!”