The scent in the air told him the nd had changed. He was finally out of the forest.

  Simon smiled as he walked on. It was midday, and he had to squint against the light as he looked to the horizon. The view felt oddly familiar, enough to send a faint chill down his spine.

  A wide canyon stretched before him, its rocky walls veined with stubborn greenery.

  ‘I’m getting closer,’ he thought, excitement stirring beneath his usual calm expression.

  His next step sank into loamy soil. He paused.

  It smelled like the mud of a dungeon.

  ‘Monsters?’

  The ground bulged.

  Simon sprang back just as a thick, scaled body burst from the earth. Another followed. Then another. He twisted through the eruptions with precise, economical steps.

  “Disgusting.”

  Worms. Giant ones.

  Each towered nearly four meters high, their bodies thicker than his own torso three times over. He grimaced, though a stray thought crossed his mind. ‘Big bait for big fish.’

  He drew one of his Fin Bdes.

  “I’m just passing through. Don’t attack me.”

  He didn’t want the trouble of killing them. His nose already told him their meat would taste foul.

  The worms answered with violent ripples along their earthen scales and lunged anyway.

  “Come on…”

  Simon vaulted over the first, sprinted along its rising body, and found his footing near the crest.

  ‘Small cuts. Bury them fast.’

  Remembering the techniques he’d refined against the Storm Hawks, he channeled Bisa through the Fin Bde. Water wrapped the edge, forming a humming {Water Bde}.

  “CHOP!”

  The strike smmed into bark-hard flesh—but failed to cleave through.

  ‘Sharper.’

  The water along the bde spun faster, thinner, deadlier.

  The surrounding worms trembled, then surged at him despite their fallen kin beneath his feet. Simon jumped.

  ‘Now.’

  He dropped with all his weight behind the swing.

  Water burst outward as the bde carved cleanly through the worm beneath him.

  The vibration of the others changed at once.

  ‘Afraid now? Didn’t I warn you?’

  A flicker of killing intent bled from him. The worms recoiled, bodies seizing mid-lunge. One by one, they slithered back into the soil, retreating in frantic spirals.

  Simon exhaled and looked at the mess he’d made.

  ‘I should mark this pce.’

  But then, a sharp caw split the air.

  He looked up.

  Three massive shapes circled above him—lions with wings, the heads and talons of great birds.

  ‘Griffons.’

  They descended slowly, wary but not hostile. Simon sheathed his Fin Bde and met the gaze of the one in front, clearly the leader.

  ‘Birds love worms.’

  As it hovered, the griffon pointed its beak at the severed carcass.

  Simon gestured toward it. “Take it.”

  For a heartbeat nothing happened.

  “CAW!”

  The leader sshed the air, and the trio nded. Their talons dug into the earth as they tore free the remaining length of the worm still buried underground, dragging out the severed body Simon had cut.

  “Let me help you out.”

  He grabbed the exposed flesh and pulled with them, freeing the rest of the corpse from the soil.

  An hour ter, the st of the carcass was gone, carried off in their talons. It was a visceral sight watching them fly away with the dangling remains, but at least he didn’t have to bury it.

  Simon gave a small wave as their shapes shrank into the sky.

  ‘Now to mark this pce.’

  He gathered nearby stones and id them in a clear line across the loamy ground, a crude but visible trail through the canyon’s middle.

  Because of the sudden detour, it was already getting dark when he reached the end of the canyon. “Sigh.” Simon exhaled as he scanned his surroundings. Almost immediately, he spotted a climbable side of the canyon wall. Without hesitation, he began to scale it. Even where there were no trees, he always tried to gain higher ground. That habit had been drilled into him by the old man.

  ‘That’s… a tree?’ he thought, noticing the lone tree growing beside the canyon’s edge.

  He moved closer and found a good foothold to unch himself upward.

  ‘Here we go!’ He leapt, aiming to nd near the trunk. The tree shook from the impact, but it held firm. Satisfied, he slipped off his bag and set it against the bark, then took out some of the gifts he had received from the Forest Folks.

  Using the wide cloth they had given him and a length of silk rope, he fashioned a temporary sling bed between two branches. The limbs were angled just right, as if waiting for him. Before he settled into the sling, he pulled out some dried meat, a jar of dried fruits, and his water pouch from his bag.

  Only then did he notice the view.

  To the south stretched a vast sea of forest, rolling into distant hills and mountains. To his right, the Bck River cut its way down from the Umbra Forest like a dark ribbon through the nd. From up here, he could even make out where the main road drew closer to the canyon.

  ‘A light snack before I sleep,’ he thought, chewing into the tough strip of meat as the st light of day faded along the horizon.

  “Clop… clop…”

  The sound of hooves pulled Simon back to awareness. The jar and water pouch still rested beside him. Since he could see clearly in the dark, he slowly scanned the canyon below.

  Dim lights flickered in the distance. Torches.

  A column of riders emerged from the gloom and rode into the mouth of the canyon.

  At their head strode a knight wrapped in a white cloak. The eastern frontier’s cold gnawed at him. Back in the central nds, the air was always warm. Out here, the chill bit through armor and bone alike.

  “We will make camp beside the canyon entrance!” he commanded.

  Thirty White Knights followed him, handpicked by both him and his father. They had ridden into the frontier on a mission to recover an artifact.

  Within minutes, a small camp took shape. Tents rose in a circle around a growing campfire. Some knights prepared food while others watered the horses.

  Seated at the front of the fire, the leader idly spun a knife between his fingers. He was skilled with it, but the casual dispy felt unbecoming for someone bearing a knight’s mantle.

  “Sir, we should post more men on watch,” said one of the knights beside him. Before donning armor, he had been a hunter.

  “It’s fine, right?” the leader asked, gncing at a veteran knight who had served him since childhood.

  “We are the White Knights. There is nothing to fear,” the veteran replied confidently.

  The ex-hunter swallowed his concern. He only wanted to be cautious, but even this far from the central continent, his noble captain seemed focused on glory over prudence.

  “Don’t frown,” the leader said, noticing his expression. He suddenly raised his voice. “Boys! When we complete this mission, we’ll return to the capital as heroes!”

  He tossed the knife high. It spun once and stabbed into the ground before him.

  “Whoo!” the knights cheered.

  “What exactly is the mission?” the ex-hunter finally asked. They were nearly at their destination, yet no details had been given.

  The leader smirked. “We raze a vilge, take an artifact, and go home.”

  The words chilled more than the wind.

  Both the veteran and the hunter stiffened.

  “There’s something out there,” the ex-hunter muttered, instincts fring. He grabbed a torch from beside the fire and pointed north, deeper into the canyon. The veteran rose to follow his gaze.

  Just then, a knight stumbled out from around a rock near the canyon wall.

  “Hey! Someone pass me some tissue!” he called awkwardly, trying to cover his lower body.

  Laughter burst around the camp. The tension broke as quickly as it had formed.

  “We should still sweep the area,” the ex-hunter insisted.

  “Rex,” the leader said with an easy smile. “Get some sleep. I’ll take first watch.”

  The ex-hunter frowned. A tap on his shoulder made him turn. It was the older knight, a long scar cutting across his face.

  “Let it go,” the scarred knight said quietly.

  “Lucky you don’t care what the mission is,” the ex-hunter shot back. “You just follow orders without thinking.”

  He turned and strode back to his tent, anger stiff in his steps.

  “Well,” the scarred knight muttered to his retreating back, “it’s kept me alive this long.”

  High above them, Simon quietly picked up his bag. From his perch, he knew a narrow route that led down the canyon unseen.

  ‘Raze the vilge,’ he echoed in his mind.

  He gnced toward the dark stretch of nd beyond the southern horizon.

  ‘If they can reach it.’