Seconds passed and Al’s life was still intact. He thought he was about to get dragged out of the bush and eaten alive by whatever beasts and monsters that lurked in this woods. Thankfully it didn’t happen. Slowly he turned his head around with bated breath. Seeing a small hand grabbing his ankle. A glance was enough. Goosebumps crawled up the back of his neck as the thought of a ghostly child found him as its next haunting. His imagination really went wild here, and he wasn’t prepared of what might come next.

“Mister . . . Have you seen my mom and dad?” the sniffling voice of a child that sounded close to a seven year-old.

Al sat there and waited. For being a child ghost, its voice didn’t sound as chilling as he expected. Then, the leaves moved as something was coming in. Al swallowed a mouthful and popped came in a head of a little child, staring straight at Al’s eyes.

“Mister, I can’t find my mom and dad,” said the child. His face and eyes were puffy as if he had been crying the whole time. Then it struck Al.

Shit, he thought. His hands were quick, grabbing the kid and pulling him inside the bush. Before the kid could utter another word, Al covered the child’s mouth as his eyes pried outside of the bush.

The kid struggled within his clutch as Al was not letting any chance of the kid to possibly reveal his hiding spot. Minutes past, and for now the coast was clear. For once he breathed a sigh of relief. Looking down, the child stood still as if given up fighting to escape Al’s grasp.

What should I say to him? Al wondered. He didn’t really make a great first impression and asking the child to behave was rather a long shot.

“Hey, I’ll try finding your parents, but I need you to stay quiet,” Al whispered. He turned the kid around and made eye contact. “Do you understand?”

The child nodded.

“Good, now I’m going to let go of my hand, and we’ll talk very slowly so I can find any clues about your parents, okay?” Al said.

The child nodded, sniffing.

Slowly, Al let go. By chance, the child was a well-behaved kid and listened well to his instructions. Soon, he taught him to get close to the ground and stay as quiet as possible as if playing hide and seek.

Silence reigned between for a while, and the child broke it. “Mister, when are you going to find my mom and dad?” the child asked.

Al had no answer for that. Despite the promise he gave it was just a blatant lie to save himself from getting eaten. But then, something came up. How did he find me? He thought. Staring at the boy who had the most innocent eyes.

“What’s your name?” Al asked.

“Jaime,” the boy said.

“Well, nice to meet you, Jaime,” Al said, smiling. “I’m Alduin, but you can call me Al.” He pushed his hand for a shake and the boy answered it with a gentle grip.

“Now, before I find your mom and dad, Jaime. I need to ask you something,” Al said. “How did you know I’m hiding under this bush?”

“Well, um,” Jaime seemed hesitant. Glancing his eyes away from Al as if he didn’t want to say it.

“Hey, it’s okay,” Al patted him by the shoulder. “I won’t be mad, all right?”

“Um, this lady told me to follow the glowing steps on the ground,” Jaime said. “She said that’s how I will find mom and dad.” The boy was on the verge of crying after mentioning his mom and dad.

On the other hand, questions rose in Al’s mind. Lady? What did he mean by lady? Is it a real ghost or something? And what is this talk about glowing steps? Is it some sort of skill or ability? He turned back to Jaime.

“Do you know the name of the lady, Jaime?” Al asked.

“Um . . . I think her name is Virgo,” Jaime said.

“Virgo?” Al said. Echoing the word into his ears as it resonated something in his mind. It was like dots connecting together and it dawned on him. Virgo like the Virgo constellation? He was reminded of the one who gave him the gift of a curse, the one known as the Forgotten Constellation.

My current guess is, this whole system is being influenced by these constellations. And from the look of it, I think I found the Virgin’s favorite. Well whatever it is, I think Jaime here was given some sort of skill pertaining to tracking perhaps.

“Jaime, I’m about to find your parents, but to do that, I need your help, okay?” Al said.

Jaime nodded and for once he had a small smile. Al pushed the leaves a bit, giving Jaime some space to see outside. “Do you see any glowing steps?”

Jaime shook his head. Al moved to the other side and did the same thing.

“I see something, but it’s far,” Jaime said.

“Good, let’s try finding more,” Al moved around as Jaime identified more glowing steps near the vicinity.

“Now do you see any steps that are many?” Al asked.

“I do,” Jaime said. “But they’re really close to the red steps.”

“Red steps?” Al asked. “What’s a red step?”

“Um . . . The lady said not to follow the red step, and only follow the blue one,” Jaime said.

A differentiation between danger and friendly? Shit, this skill of his is too good. Al couldn’t help but envied the little guy. Something so useful in surviving this sort of situation would always be priceless.

“Good, now we know how to find your parents,” Al said. His heart ached a bit saying those words as he knew better that finding the parents were close to none. Despite that both of them needed to survive.

Al brought Jaime out from the bush as they slowly headed towards the blue steps while fleeing further away from the red steps. Their journey was slow and cautious, hiding at every possible chance while crouching. Soon, Jaime found a group of steps that were more like a blob of light on the ground, heading towards one a direction in unison. They followed along with the trees around them, tall and thick. The eerie silence of the woods didn’t make it any easier for them to travel through this path. But with no red steps in sight at least Al was assured of his safety.

In time, both of them found a cave. “You sure they went inside?” Al asked.

Jaime nodded. Pointing at the mouth of the cave. “Okay then,” Al said. Trusting his life in the hands of a child. He swallowed a mouthful, hoping for the best.

Both walked inside with careful steps. Al looked around at every angle, wary of the darkness of the cave.

Out of nowhere, something swung at him. His eyes wide and he ducked, bringing along Jaime to the ground. A loud thud echoed, bouncing over the cavern walls. Whatever that missed him, hit hard against the stone interior.

His eyes traced over at the assaulter. An average Joe you could see by the sidewalk. Yet this Joe had a long stick in his hand, and from those frantic eyes, the Joe had no trouble using it to squash him or Jamie.

“Wait!” Al raised his trembling hand. “We’re humans.”

But he received no reply. The average Joe raised the stick up high, and readied to deliver the decisive blow.

Al took action. Springing up from the ground, readied to flee. But Jamie who was by his side was still on the ground, and before he knew it, he jumped in front of the kid. Shielding the child with his back against the maddening Joe.

The end of the stick went down, but it never reached him. Al heard scuffling behind him. People barking words and insults at one another.

“Get the fuck off of me!” the average Joe struggled on the ground as someone grappled him to submission. The hand that held the stick flailed around, trying to reach the faraway Al and Jamie.

“Stop, or the next thing I’ll do is breaking your fucking arm,” said the grappler.

“We need to kill them!” the average Joe shouted. “They could be the enemy!”

Al stood up, pulling up Jamie on his feet. He watched from afar at the two men fighting on the ground. The Joe had been shouting about them being wolves in sheep clothing, and he had a hunch that something bad must had happened.

“What’s going on here?” another set of voice came from the within the cave. From the darkness, a bright light of a burning flame came closer, revealing who it was.

“It’s you,” Al said. His eyes met with those blue-eyes of the stranger.

The stranger didn’t say a word, and looked over at the two men on the ground. “Frank, what happened?” the stranger asked.

“Joe tried to kill them,” Frank said. Narrating further of what he saw before he grappled Joe to submission.

“They’re wolves I tell you!” Joe bellowed. “Kill them off before they plague our group with death.” Despite being manhandled, Joe still tried to swing the stick in his hand.

The blue-eyes stranger stared at the maddened Joe before he came to a decision. “Can you put him to sleep?” the stranger asked.

“Well, that’s a first,” Frank said. Looking over at the stranger with a chuckle. “I did it well in the gym, but let’s see how it goes.” Frank maneuvered himself over Joe, changing position with lightning quick pace.

In a matter of seconds, Joe was in a triangle choke. Tapping at Frank’s arm for his dear life, but the man who knew jujitsu didn’t stop. A second later, Joe was knocked out cold.

“He’s out,” Frank said. Getting up on his feet as he dusted off his hands.

“Take him inside,” the stranger said, and Frank obeyed without question. Dragging Joe on the ground with no intention of carrying the unconscious man.

“Let’s get inside,” the stranger said. Glancing back at Al.

But the man with a unique name didn’t budge. “Something tells me that I won’t be welcome much after seeing that stunt he pulled,” Al said.

“Sorry about that,” the stranger said. “We kind of met something worse than that one-eye bird, and believe me it wasn’t fun.”

“What is it?” Al asked.

“I don’t know,” the stranger shook his head. “It was something straight out of horror movie. It was something…” the stranger fell silent, frowning. “Let’s just say, it pretends to be us, pretend to be human.”

“So it’s a mimic,” Al said.

“So you’re one of them,” the stranger said.

“One of what?” Al frowned.

“Don’t take me wrong. I meant you’re one of those people who knew stuff about fantasy and shit,” the stranger said. “One of us said the same thing like you, but most of us hardly listen to her.”

“Including you?” Al asked.

They stared at one another, drowning in a silence that lasted less than a minute.

“Let’s get inside,” the stranger said. “It won’t be fun if something else know where we at after that racket Joe made.”

Al looked back, and the scene of the darkness filled woods was a lot scarier when a company of others was within reach. He nodded to the suggestion and went inside along with Jamie.

He walked behind the stranger while keeping his guard up. In times like this, you can never be too careful.

“I’m Jack by the way,” Jack said.

“Al,” Al replied.

“Not much of a talker are you?” Jack said. Letting his eyes fell over the kid beside Al. “The first time we met, I don’t think there’s any kid around you.”

“Why? You think he’s a mimic?” Al said.

“Whoa,” Jack put his hands up. “I’m not saying anything like that. I’m just curious, okay.”

“He’s no different than us,” Al said. “Forcefully being sent here against our will.” Al frowned. Thinking how cruel it was to strip a child away from their parents. Then he felt a tug on his hand.

“Mister, are we going to see my mom and dad?” the child asked, smiling. His bright voice made Jack stopped on his track.

The man with blue eyes turned around and knelt in front of Jamie. Putting a wide grin even with his eyes smiling. “Of course, kid!” Jack said, roughly rubbing Jamie’s head. “Your mom and dad are probably waiting for you, so keep that smile on your face and keep your head up high, okay?”

“Okay,” Jamie nodded with the most innocent smile.

Jack glanced up at Al. “So how did you find us? If it’s by chance, you got pretty lucky out there,” Jack said.

“It’s Jamie,” Al said. “He’s the one who found you.”

“What do you mean?” Jack held his voice back.

“I might be wrong, but Jamie has some sort of tracking skill that differentiate between allies and enemies,” Al said. “So rather than luck. I’m alive solely because of him.”

“Wait, you’re not making any sense,” Jack said. Standing up with a frown. “What do you mean tracking skill? And to begin with, how did you even know when to run back then?”

“Wait, you guys still don’t know?” Al said.

“Know what?” Jack put some distance from Al, and Al noticed.

“The game system, like those floating text we saw before we were sent here,” Al said. Looking at Jack’s face who kept on frowning deeper. From the look of it, Jack had no trust in Al’s words.

“Wait, did you kill the mimic?” Al asked.

“We did,” Jack said. “Why?”

“Then didn’t you get any notice of leveling up or something?” Al asked. Although he didn’t experience it yet, he figured it mustn’t be that far off from his idea of the system.

“Crazy monsters are way pushing it for me, but a game? Really, dude?” Jack said.

“Don’t believe me then,” Al said. “Believe in what you see.”

“What do you mean?” Jack wasn’t buying it.

“Try think of the word status, and you’ll see,” Al said.

“Quit bullshitting me, man, and—” Jack stopped. He stood there, staring at empty air as if he had seen a ghost. Even if he didn’t want to, the suggestion from Al, unconsciously made him think of the word.

Jack glanced back and forth between Al and the floating status window. His wide eyes were enough of an answer to Al.

“It’s real,” Jack said.

“Hey,” Al said. Coming closer, grabbing Jack by the shoulder. “Who’s the one that kill the mimic?”

Jack understood the notion behind that question. “It can’t be,” Jack said. “He showed us that thing’s head he chopped off.”

“So you’re telling me you know everything about a mimic then?” Al said.

“No, I don’t,” Jack replied.

“Then let's better be safe than sorry,” Al said.

Jack led the way in haste, with Al and Jamie trailing from behind. After a few curves down the tunnel, all of three of them found themselves in a huge cavernous space with the ceiling up high with stalactites hanging from above. Man-made torches spiked on the ground gave light inside the darkness of the cave.

All eyes were on Jack and the newcomers. But the unspoken leader didn’t say a word to introduce the newbies to the group, taking his attention to search for that one person within the group. Soon, he found him.

He came closer to Al and whispered. Al found the one described by Jack. A bald-headed man with a safety vest. Judging by the clothes, he seemed like a construction worker.

“You sure about this?” Jack whispered.

“Let’s find out then,” Al kept his eyes at the construction worker who also looked back at them. In his mind, Al said the magic word, Identify.