After they’d started down the trail again, Dara described the history of Eld Forest, the demon Boruta, and the Accord. Centuries ago, Boruta was some terror in the south who’d run north to escape the authorities. The gods and their people had pursued him into this forest where Boruta had turned to make a stand. There’d been some big fight, and one of the gods was actually consumed by the monster. In the end, the two sides had been too evenly matched and agreed to end the bloodshed. Boruta agreed to stay within these woods; in return, the gods and their people would leave him alone. If anyone did enter Eld Forest and didn’t stay within sight of the existing trails, they’d be prey for his hunger.

They’d taken a break from the conversation when they stopped to set up camp for the night. Dara had pointed out a tree beside the trail that resembled a giant weeping willow that she thought would be ideal for their purposes. Seeing it within a lush forest was strange, as Eli had always associated the weeping willow with swamps and was pretty sure they were usually around a lot of water back on Earth. From the trail, it looked like a fuzzy green dome shaped by the tree’s spindly limbs with their thick cluster of leaves that reached almost lazily towards the forest floor. There, the dark foliage of long grass and stubborn bushes intermixed with the leaves to form a pseudo barrier. At the same time, almost no limbs grew close to the ground, allowing them to set up camp within the open space around the trunk. If they were careful, the two could remain hidden, even from someone passing nearby on the trail.

Dara was in her nest of blankets again. She’d done a pretty good job tonight, taking her time to get it just the way she wanted. It was pretty adorable how this brave woman was largely hidden in her cocoon of blankets, sitting cross-legged, only her face popping out. He wasn’t going to tell her how cute it was as that would just ruin his fun. It would also likely make her feel self-conscious, again ruining his fun.

They’d picked up the thread of their earlier conversation, but Eli was still confused about the Accord’s particulars. “Okay, so we have to stay within sight of the trail, but can people make new trails?” he asked, more questions soon popping up. “How fast are people consumed if they step off the trail? Has Eld Forest grown larger or smaller over the years, and what happens if it does? Has anyone seen this Boruta since they made the agreement?”

“Eli,” Dara began in a low voice, her eyes darting around for a moment. “Can we discuss this more in a couple of days once we’ve left the Eld? I don’t have the answers to most of your questions as I never asked them myself. It isn’t like I imagined ever being here making camp within this cursed land; just remember that we need to stick to the trail, and we’ll be fine.”

“Sure, Dara,” he said, aware of how scared she was. Heck, he was a bit spooked himself, if he was being honest. It wasn’t like he’d ever believed in ghosts or anything paranormal, but in a magical world, who knew what was possible?

Instead of asking anything further, Eli turned to look around them with his Mana Scan. He figured it was their best warning system in case of any further threats, and he’d used it periodically since the ambush. It was still a bit disorienting, the riot of colors and floating lights mixing with the normal world, but he’d probably get used to it with enough practice. With the ability active, there were hundreds of creatures within sight, most with only tiny lights but a few with minuscule channels of their own hiding in the nearby grass and trees.

He suddenly paused and turned to his companion. “Hey, Dara. I can’t believe I forgot this with everything that happened earlier, but how did you know those men were there? You stopped, and that’s what warned me about the attack.”

“I don’t know.” She looked at the fire, though she seemed to be staring through it. “It was like with my uncle. When I first saw him at his townhome, I felt danger the moment I saw him.” Dara sighed, her voice almost distant as she continued. “When I think about that moment, I can’t help remembering last year walking through Herria with my father and a few guards when we came upon a cage with two wild torcs. The larger male was crazy, repeatedly charging against the slats of its prison until his head was a bloody mess, one horn snapped off at the root.” She turned, and her eyes met his. “That poor creature was clearly mad, and it somehow reminds me of what I felt around my uncle.”

“Shit,” he whispered in sympathy, shaking his head at the image she evoked.

“With those disgusting cultists,” Dara paused, her eyebrows scrunched up as she pulled her blankets tight and stared back into their fire. “It was horrible, tied up and knowing what they would do to me. I thought it was my imagination, but a few made my skin crawl as if they wanted to consume me.”

“I’m sorry you went through that,” he said, unsure what he could say to help. “What about with the bandits?”

“They were almost clean in comparison,” Dara replied, her lips curling with contempt. “There was undirected anger, a little lust, but mostly greed. The feelings are all jumbled up with my emotions, and it’s hard to know which of them are real.”

“Dara, I can’t imagine what you went through, but how you noticed those bandits makes me believe there’s something to this feeling.” Her eyes met his again, her eyebrows quirking up with an unasked question. “Think about it,” Eli said as if she’d asked. “Something warned you on the trail. You have some sort of sense for this, and I think I might know what it is. Can I touch you?” Dara gave him an odd look. “I mean like your hand or something,” he said with a snort at his poor choice of words. “Like when I healed you. I noticed something else, which might be a clue to what happened.”

She measured him again with her eyes. “Yes, I would like to know what is happening. Even if I can figure out something, it must be better than this sand I’m swimming in now.”

Okay, so apparently, the local language has idioms, and not everything actually translates perfectly.

He scooted a bit closer and put his hand on her shoulder, whispering, “Identify.”

Name: Daralis Easone

Species: Human

Race: Lurran

Level: 3

Evolution: Low Mundane

Abilities: Firestarter, Focus, Aura Perception

Modifiers: Well Fed

Eli noted the status modifier immediately. They’d shared a brown-wrapped snack block along with their dinner of jerky and water. It was the best of the snack blocks so far, tasting more like granola with a hint of almost chocolate, but the buff was only “Well Fed.” He continued to study her status screen, “Do you know what Aura Perception is?”

“Aura perception? I know that gifts with auric qualities are rare, but there are all sorts of stories about them.” Her eyes focused on him as she leaned forward. “Why? Do you think I have this Gift?”

He frowned as he looked at her status screen, but there were no additional details on her abilities, and he couldn’t find any way to get more information, at least not from just the status screen. Earlier, he’d tried to focus on his abilities, highlighting or mentally “clicking” them as he could with other parts of his HUD, but nothing helped. Obviously, there was some testing he still had to do once they got to somewhere safe.

“I could tell you what I see, but it’s pretty much what you already know. In front of me is a semi-transparent screen that shows me your name, species, race, something about levels and evolutions, and then your abilities and status. Those last two are the ones I’m thinking about now. For abilities, I see ‘Firestarter,’ ‘Focus,’ and ‘Aura Perception.’ For your status, well, you’re well fed. Okay, that last one isn’t as interesting as the others, but just letting you know.”

Dara’s hands worked at the folds in her blankets, absently tightening and relaxing as her eyes looked past him. “You know about my fire, which some call Firestarter, and Focus is something that runs in my father’s family. My strength there is enough to make me Gifted, but it's for managing our cities and far-flung holdings instead of providing any offensive or even defensive strengths. It’s nowhere near as useful as my parent’s powers other than to make a few coins,” she finished, distaste briefly wrinkling her nose.

“And this Aura Perception?” Eli asked gently. He had a feeling that Focus was a lot stronger than she let on, but growing up with powerful parents would cast an awfully long shadow.

“If I did have a way to detect auras…that might explain it, maybe,” she quietly replied as if musing to herself.

“What’s an aura to you?” he asked, unsure if the translator was catching everything. He let go of her shoulder to sit beside her, her status screen vanishing again. “I know what I’ve heard about it before, but it wasn’t considered an actual thing by most people where I’m from.”

“Of course, an aura is real,” Dara replied, throwing him a look like he was clearly crazy. “You can see the afterimage for some people when they use their powers, or with some vows, or just all sorts of things. It’s a reflection of the real you. You can lie all you want with your words, but your aura will not let you lie, which is why auric gifts are so powerful. It’s also why those who have them often lead short lives.”

“Well, what does your sense tell you about me? About my aura?”

Dara’s dark eyes turned to him. “Your aura scares me, Eli.”

“Me?” He couldn’t help the surprised word escaping without thought since he didn’t think of himself as particularly scary or dangerous. Sure, he’d had to do some messed-up stuff in the past few days, but he’d been trying to keep them alive. “If you don’t want to say, I won’t push,” he continued, trying to understand yet conscious of all the horror she’d been through.

Dara turned to him, shifting her cocoon around in the process. “Can you stop your eyes from shining for a moment, please? I’d like to see your normal eyes while we talk.”

“My eyes? What?”

“Your eyes,” Dara said slowly, one of her hands coming out of her warm nest to gesture at his head. “Sometimes they are all white, with light shining out, and at others, they’re just normal eyes.”

“Say who what now? I have glowing eyes?” He held up his hands, but they didn’t have any extra light on them. Then again, the campfire was burning brightly. “One sec,” as he mentally looked through his DS. He was hoping for a mirror, but he’d settle for something shiny and reflective.

“Perfect,” he said with a smile, and a small square hand mirror with a black metal frame appeared in his hand. He shifted around to use the light of their fire to catch his reflection, but his normal dark green eyes had been replaced with glowing white lights. It wasn’t just his irises that had changed – both orbs were a uniform bright white color. “Oh. My. God. This is awesome! I’m like a superhero or something.” He moved the mirror around to check out the changes from different angles, and it was strange – he almost looked like a monster or at least inhuman without his usual eyes. “Damn, I guess that could be scary too.”

“Disable Mana Scan,” he whispered, recognizing the apparent variable that might explain the phenomenon. His dark green eyes reappeared in the mirror, and he turned to Dara with a grin. “All better now. It’s just an ability that lets me see the energy around me, and I guess the side effect is I get beacons for eyes. Yay me?”

“Thank you, Eli.” She was serious again, not reacting to his little joke while she looked into his eyes as if searching for something. “I’ll adapt to your eyes too. It’s just that there is so much new happening right now.” Dara shook her head before focusing on him again. “This aura sense is new to me. I would have said it was my imagination, but I don’t think so anymore.”

Dara sighed and shifted under her blankets as if making herself comfortable for a long tale. After a few more moments, she continued, “I sense danger in you. It’s not like those animals earlier or even with my uncle.” She turned away from him and the fire, focusing on the tree that sheltered them. “Your danger feels different. It’s so much more complex, with confusing emotions jumbling everything together in my head. There’s a feeling of inevitability, death itself nearby yet somehow held at bay. When I focus on what is blocking its approach, I see your face as if you’re somehow the source of this protection. I don’t know if I’m making any sense, but I felt that earlier when you healed me. There was a moment when I thought I was about to die, and a dark cloud surrounded me,” she said, her voice lowering to a whisper while she shivered under her blankets. “It was like the world was going grey as the darkness rose to consume me; only a bright warm light was suddenly there to push it away.”

Eli turned his gaze away to stare into the fire, his mind working through her words, but they were a bit tough to absorb. He sighed, settling on the truth as he saw it. “I’m not sure what to say, Dara. I don’t see myself as anything special, other than that I ended up here somehow. Heck, there are much better people than me back home, and I certainly have my issues.” He snorted, thinking of everything he’d discussed with his therapists over the years. “I’ve earned my scars along the way and am pretty beat up inside. All that said, I try to be a good person.” The image of blood gushing over his hand, a knife plunged into a neck flashed across his mind. The sense of anger and desperation almost overwhelmed him before he pushed it away – that asshole had deserved his death.

“I don’t always succeed,” he said, his eyes returning to the fire. “But I try. Not sure how much my trying is worth, but I’ll just keep putting one foot in front of the other, just like I always do.” He smiled crookedly, his eyes moving to hers and seeing some understanding in her gaze. “I mean, that’s kind of what life is, right? Just keep moving forward. Shit knocks you over. You straighten up and figure out what hit you and learn from it. Shit knocks you down again? You stand the hell up and hit back until they don’t knock you down again.” He looked back at the fire, but without seeing it. “I’ve been around a lot of death, Dara. Maybe that’s what you’re sensing?”

“A lot of death?” She asked quietly.

He took a couple of deep breaths as he collected his thoughts, their crackling fire somehow loud in the quiet moment. “Years ago,” he tried to say but stopped to swallow the sudden lump in his throat as dark images from his nightmares surfaced. He cleared his throat before starting again. “When I was a kid, my people almost died out. Call it Armageddon, the end of the world, a cataclysm, or whatever you like, but billions died. People struggled just to survive another day.” Images of the dead in the streets, the long lines for the simple staples of life, the soldiers with their weapons held tight, visors blocking their features, and the smell that wouldn’t wash away. He would never forget the stink of death, unwashed bodies, and rotten corruption from those days. “There was so much misery and death,” he whispered, barely loud enough to be heard over the sizzle and snap of their campfire. He carefully added a fresh log, kicking up sparks that briefly obscured the flames.

“Billions?” Dara asked, her eyes wide. “There can’t be billions of people on Lurra.”

“Told ya I’m not from here,” one side of his mouth twisting up. “As far as I can tell, I’m from a completely different world. I’ll tell you more about it someday, but I don’t have any big answers here,” he sighed. “I don’t know if your gift is picking up on all that death from my world. I think, for now, we just focus on a small achievable goal like getting you home safe. Once we do that, we can discuss the bigger picture. How’s that sound?”

“I’d like that,” she said quietly but with a returning warmth that helped banish some of his ugly memories.

Both sat quietly for a bit, staring at the fire. They were finally interrupted by a huge yawn that seemed to catch Dara by surprise, at least based on how sudden and loud it was. Looking over at her, Eli surprised himself with a chuckle.

All these deep thoughts and we’re reminded that we’re just two tired people.

“I’ll take the first watch. I’m pretty wired right now. How about I wake you when I get tired. Sound good?”

Dara nodded again and turned on her side, away from the fire. She rolled back almost immediately. “Thank you, Eli. For whatever you did.” She then turned back, shifting around until she found a comfortable spot. The fire crackled, burning the wood pulled from his magic bracelet.

***

Abaden was worried since he’d been walking in the same direction for too long and couldn’t find the hideout or the trail. He knew the stories and was scared that he was somehow going around in circles, so he started looking around for a convenient marker. Minutes later, he paused at a peculiar tree with a strange crooked limb growing almost horizontal to the ground and directly in his way. Snapping off a small twig along the top of the offending limb blocking his path, he clambered over it before sticking the tiny piece of wood in his belt and continuing onward.

He’d known not to go off the trail into Eld Forest. Everyone knew that the demon’s power trapped anyone foolish enough to enter its woods, but he hadn’t had a choice. He just couldn’t understand how the monster had attacked them on the trail since the Accords should have protected them, but the glowing eyes didn’t lie. He remembered the stories and his grandfather telling him about Boruta and how he’d come to punish Abaden for his bad behavior. The funny thing was that he thought the glowing eyes were supposed to be red or crimson, but what else could have bright eyes within Eld Forest? Perhaps Boruta had an evil ally?

When the monster stomped through Trem and Kar, Abaden had known he didn’t stand a chance. Tram had never been worth much, but he’d been a great distraction while Abaden made good his escape.

After running away for a few minutes, he’d found a small group of bushes near a smaller tree, where he camouflaged himself to wait out the demon. There’d been a few shuffling noises back the way he’d come for a bit, but he’d simply waited them out. After over an hour of hiding, he’d been reasonably sure that the demon had left the area. He’d slowly moved back the way he’d come, careful to make as little noise as possible. He might not have marked his trail during his escape, as they could lead the demon to him, but he’d remained confident in his sense of direction.

Hours later, the shadows grew within the forest as dark descended. Abaden’s harsh breaths barely carried over the cacophony of the forest coming alive with the night as his eyes frantically darted around for any safety, but then a tree limb suddenly blocked his path. Ignoring the whimper that escaped from his throat, he pulled a shaking hand away from his belt and held up the twig where it perfectly matched the small cavity he’d created when tearing it out earlier.

His eyes darted around, but there was nothing but trees.