The seemingly endless plains around the wagon had abruptly ended before the morning’s end. The folded hills topped with forestry had shrunk before disappearing completely, establishing an unnaturally clean break between them and the drastically shifting environment. The road began to decline into a barrier of heavy humidity and mist. White had sensed Reil ease his coaxing of the wagon to allow gravity to do most of the work.

  He sat in the front seat next to Reil, catching whatever sights he could of the elusive forest denizens. Trees stood strong everywhere, towering twice as thick as any the dragon had seen and more than three times the height of the wagon, long branches with countless stems swarmed the air. There had been a canopy of branches in Tirion’s Grove, but it had been nothing compared to this. The plant life took on an intense vibrancy, their greens and browns saturating into hues White had never seen before. They dazzled White with how the light from the morning sun played with the colors, giving them an almost uncanny beauty. They almost looked like illustrations ripped from one of Avira’s books.

  They formed layers over one another in strong stacks of foliage, their branches interlinked by vines and debris to form another world above the ground. Most of White’s senses could pick up the various small forms of life that had claimed that suspended world as their own, from the scouring insects and crawling critters to the stalking birds that roosted in the upper layer, their smells and sounds being the only constant traces of their presences.

  Yet very few decided to brave the world of the forest floor. They moved from branch to branch, leaf to leaf, sometimes trunk to trunk, but none ever came close to the littered ground.

  Eventually, the dragon’s eyes wandered past the bed where Avira and Naroe still sat, the former of which had her eyes glued to the scenery through a gap in the thick wagon bonnet, trying to catch sights as White was. The latter however, was watching him with a completely passive expression. He had been since he woke up, but had never moved from the far end of the wagon.

  White realized why as soon as they locked eyes, both through their link and his own growing instincts. Naroe was watching his reactions with anticipation but no expectation.

  White’s response was to engage with a question.

  “The ground is where the big ones play,” Naroe responded out loud with a smile, prompting Avira to look back at him in brief confusion before understanding who he was talking to. “They won’t come around the road and most of them are pretty docile towards people, except for the forest’s rulers.”

  “The lukashi?” asked Avira, now turning fully to face Naroe, her interest shifting completely away from their surroundings. “Have you seen one before?”

  Naroe smiled then, his eyes momentarily flickering to somewhere not in the present, and White saw the brief memory of a hulking four-legged silhouette in the night with sharp antlers almost half the size of the body.

  “We ran into a few my first time here, they tend to move in small groups, and we had to take cover to let a few pass our way. The second time we came around though, I got to hunt one with a party.” Naroe let his body relax as he sank into the still images of a memory that was too fast to remember clearly. White saw him running, dodging antlers, and spearing a mound of jade hide amidst a group of fur-clad hunters. “They look like deer, but there are reasons why the bears and wolves never go one on one with them.” Then he looked directly at White, still smiling. “They taste great though.”

  White blinked. The memory had already piqued his interest, but now he felt his mouth watering. Unfortunately, he didn’t even get to pulse his next question before it was shot down.

  “We’re not hunting a lukashi,” said Reil without turning around. “There’s no reason to.”

  “But shouldn’t White learn how to hunt?” Naroe pressed, his smile unfaltering.

  “If you want to teach him to hunt, there are plenty of choices in the canopies,” Reil said, gesturing to the layered branches around them. “They seem far better matches for him, don’t you think?”

  Naroe waved off the statement, despite Reil’s eyes still being on the road. “You think he’s going to settle for regular squirrels and rabbits? Besides, he can’t fly yet, so how is he supposed to chase them down?”

  Reil shrugged, still facing forward. “Then maybe he’s not old enough to be hunting yet.”

  Naroe huffed at his master before turning to Avira. “What do you think?”

  Avira’s gaze wandered as her expression grew more considerate. She wanted to see them herself of course, but Reil had made a few good points. There were options to hunt one safely, but whether or not it would be worth the resources was another story. Her eyes moved to White and he knew she was looking for something to push her decision one way or the other. And though White had no idea how to help, she found inspiration in him anyway.

  “Pop-pop,” she said slowly. “Your license as a Hunter is as a grandmaster, right? So you could task us as apprentices with hunting one.”

  Reil turned back to his granddaughter, his eyes squinting with playful suspicion. “You know that’s not the issue, Avira.”

  She knew, but getting him to admit to the rules was the first step. “And I know we’re loaded up on supplies, including plenty of food,” she paused to look back at her elder, but he said nothing. “But I imagine none of what we have would be as nutritious for White as a lukashi.”

  “He doesn’t need to eat high-grade meat every day,” Reil responded with a warm chuckle. “What we have now is more than sufficient until we get to Andromeda.”

  It was an indirect admission, but Avira still counted it as another step. “True, and I know the only way we could really hunt one would be to use Brand Links,” making the concession before it could be brought up, “but that would just mean more training for Naroe and I.” She smiled, she felt her argument grow tighter as a sense of growing confidence. “I’m sure the two of us,” she jerked her head to the side at Naroe, “with that power, could get it done quick enough so we don’t lose any real time. Plus, White would get more experience interacting with Plane energy.”

  As she spoke, Reil’s genial expression had faded into neutrality. His old eyes flicked to his apprentice. Naroe met that gaze with silent stoicism.

  White had no hope of reading the colorful inferno that was Reil, but Naroe surprised him. For the first time, White’s older brother was hiding his true thoughts from him. The fire’s surface had grown bright, even if the flame itself hadn’t grown in size or intensity. The light was the projection of a single thought and though White could catch minute instances of what lay beneath, there was one message being focused throughout his older brother’s being.

  Right now, Avira spoke for Naroe.

  Reil slowly looked back at Avira, who remained the only one smiling. “And what about the rest of the catch?”

  Avira blinked, cocking her head in genuine confusion. “I mean, I thought we’d trade it at Minoris. They’re nocturnal right?” ” She looked back at Naroe, who nodded in agreement back to her. “So we wouldn’t be hunting until we’re practically at their gates anyway, and they would want it more than anyone, right?”

  Reil blinked, a clear crack now forming in his resolve but Avira was still confused as to why. “They don’t go near the town, we’d be carrying the carcass at least another hour out,” he said.

  Avira nodded, believing she had identified her grandfather’s issue. “Yeah, it’d stink, but you guys are used to that, right?” She again looked back to see a smirk crack over Naroe’s once stoic expression, but he said nothing when he nodded to her. “I thought you guys would have something to wrap that up.” She turned back to her grandfather, a thought she hadn’t considered already showing on her face as concern. “Unless it’d be too big–”

  “No, no,” Reil waved her off as he turned back to the road, “we have the materials to carry it that far. Just, just…” the wagon began to slow as the elder trailed off. “Just be careful, please. Both of you.”

  Avira looked at Naroe, her concern for her grandfather laid bare to her fellow apprentice. White knew better than she did about how much Naroe understood his master, but the dragon felt a sincere plea in her silence now. It was one born of confusion, she couldn’t understand the change in her grandfather’s mood. Was their prey that dangerous?

  Naroe linked his fingers on his stomach and leaned back, his expression one of knowing solemnity, the blinding shroud thawing away from the deep sincerity in his voice. “We will be.”

  The wagon regained some of its speed. And White understood.

  Not really, but he understood the important pieces, the ones that were affecting the situation right now. Their family had lost a very important piece, and Reil was worried about losing another. White didn’t understand why, everything he knew and was learning pointed to him watching an empowered Naroe and Avira beating a big deer and then getting dinner, but there was something more complex lurking under the surface of the situation.

  Regardless, Reil seemed to settle after Naroe’s claim, though the same could not be said about Avira. She, like White, knew that there was some underlying factor that she wasn’t seeing. Regardless, she didn’t seem comfortable enough to press the issue yet, so it was much to her relief when Reil spoke.

  “I’ll keep a pace to get us where we need to be by sundown. You two should come up with a plan for how you want to do this.” He turned back to his granddaughter then, his expression one of an instructor at work. “I take it your father provided you with a full set?”

  She nodded, taking out three vials of night blue liquid from one of her bags. They sparkled as their contents swirled in its casing as she held them up to all of them. “I haven’t needed to take them out in a while, but Dad always said they’re for emergencies.”

  Reil’s tired face cracked a small smile. “Good,” he turned to his apprentice then. “Your new Brands aren’t ready yet, but you should both only need one each for this.”

  Naroe’s habitual smile returned then. “I don’t know, I’m more worried about taking it down too fast for White to learn anything.”

  ________________________________________________________

  By the time the sun had risen into the morning over the forest, plans had been argued, deconstructed, and rebuilt. Their prey’s capabilities were reviewed and discussed before they spoke of their own abilities, as well as what they would gain through the Brand Link. By lunch, the two apprentices had a rough idea of how they would approach the hunt.

  Reil chose to stop the wagon for lunch, finding an indent in the tree line big enough for them to comfortably park and unlatching a beam of wood below the wagon to brace it against the uneven ground. Naroe set up a small, portable stove outside that he lit using the fallen brush around them, and cooked something for each of them from their rations. He had little difficulty cooking on the sloped ground, carefully preparing each ingredient with the intensity of someone who had ruined food in similar conditions.

  White had the thought to ask Reil if there was a story there.

  Both he and White had spent the night silently speaking to one another, mostly Reil telling stories to the intently listening child. Reil became much more animated in that mindset, using his hands and fingers to play out scenes as he told them. All of them had been about old heroes solving problems and achieving feats of strength and power in lands White had no knowledge of. But when he spoke at lunch, it was much closer to a lecture.

  “We’re in the Jade Line.” Reil began to White as they all took their freshly prepared meals. He pulled out an old rolled parchment from the front trunk and unrolled it, presenting it to White as the dragon bit into the small sandwich Naroe had made for him.

  On the right was the large, circular territory of Lugatea, which was surrounded by mostly ocean, but White noticed a small peninsula to its south. Reaching out to the frozen bottom of the world, it was barely connected to the original landmass along where the ship had settled so long ago. It clearly wasn't a part of the vessel, but it was still marked as being a part of Lugatea.

  It took up a sizable chunk of the map, but the marked area sitting beside it was able to match almost half the size of the kingdom. Marked over it in bold were the words The Old World. The only thing that encroached on the seemingly empty space was a clearly more recently marked territory along its north-eastern edge. Small cartoon trees had been drawn with Tirion’s Grove written underneath.

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  White connected the dots and moved his eyes past the green lands they had already crossed and to where Reil was pointing. His finger lay right in the middle of a line marking a boundary between territories that ended in a dot titled Minoris, where it split northward and southward. They eventually reached the shores, carving two massive territories out of the continent. To the north was Ursa and to the south, Canis. Stretching across both territories was the depiction of the forest around them, the words Jade Line were written clearly above the trees.

  Beyond that lay a collection of various territories that fit together like intricate puzzle pieces. White recognized a number of them from Rain naming them before they left. All of them together made up a larger area than even the kingdom, but what caught his attention was that they surrounded a single mass of water fed by various seabound rivers. Written at the lake’s center was the name Andromeda.

  Reil readjusted his grip on the map to cover its left side. “Don’t worry about the rest of this,” he said while pointing back to Minoris. “This is where we’re stopping first. These two groups,” he pointed to Ursa and Canis, “built it a long time ago. You see, they’ve always been competitive with one another.” He put away the map and pulled out a round thermos, settling back against the wagon’s front edge, letting his hands do all the movement as he spoke. “A very, very long time ago,” he said, taking on the air of an old sage, “the Empire ruled over the people who would become the two tribes. Back then, they hated one another for some old unknown grudge that we’re not even sure they knew the details of. But regardless, despite their situation, both peoples held as much contempt for each other as they did their masters. So their masters decided to make use of that contemptment.”

  White knew without turning that now Naroe and Avira were fully focused on both of them.

  “They made a coliseum,” Reil continued, “but not just a coliseum, but the coliseum. The arena in which every arena from then on would be measured against. Big enough to house people from all across the world and built to put on any kind of stage that its creators could want. Then they filled it with traps, trinkets, beasts, and monsters.” The old trapper paused then, watching White’s wide eyes stare at him in wrapped attention. “Can you guess what they did then?” asked Reil.

  White was caught off guard, and blinked. From the train of thought Reil had been building and everything the dragon had heard about the Empire, the answer seemed obvious. Even so, White wasn’t sure if Reil was expecting him to answer directly, since they hadn’t told their companions about their discovery, so his response came as an unfocused pulse to reach them all at once.

  Both his siblings blinked in confusion before looking at each other. “I got ‘threw the tribes into the arena,’ at least I think I did.” Avira said.

  “I got ‘pitted the tribes against one another.’” Then he eyed his new brother as any suspicious older sibling would. “But that response came out weird, and I mean a different weird.” His eyes shifted to his master, who met them with a touch of mischief in his own.

  White glanced between Naroe and Avira, the sandwich still midway in his mouth, before he sent a more focused apology to each of them with a sheepish look.

  “I got both.” Reil’s interjection got the attention of both apprentices. “As well as a question as to why they would do such a thing in the first place,” the older man glanced to White with a shine of amusement in his eye.

  Naroe’s usual smile grew stronger. “Was waiting for you to catch up and here you are leaving us in the dust.” he said.

  Reil snorted at his apprentice before turning to Avira, “I’ll explain the details later, but I believe I can keep up with both of you.”

  Avira couldn’t contain her soft laughter as she covered her mouth with a sleeve. “Clearly. But maybe you should tell my Dad that you understand White now,” she removed her sleeve to reveal her smile. “I’m sure that would help him worry less.”

  Reil nodded with his own smile before turning back to the dragon who had just stuffed the rest of the sandwich in his mouth. “You were right, on both accounts, and I’ll answer your question now.” White swallowed the meal without much difficulty before nodding eagerly up at him. Reil smiled and White knew through Naroe, who had dropped the blinds around his soul completely, that the old veteran was enjoying the moment. He had always been a passionate teacher and White’s presence had begun to fuel that fire.

  “See, this forest,” Reil gestured to the overshadowing woods around them and getting back into his flow, “is old. Older than we can ever know. And a very long time ago, years before The Sanctuary crashed, the world was very different. Back then, the world was flooded with an energy called the ‘arcane.’” Reil formed his hands into a circle before White and the dragon watched as a small sun, barely bigger than the tip of Reil’s thumbs, formed at its center. “Arcane energies are very different to the primordial energies of Light and Dark for numerous reasons, but we’ll save those for another time. The one worth talking about now is that the arcane was born of this world, built into its very foundation, and that means it’s able to influence the world in many ways. These influences are called ‘magics.’” Reil motioned to the trees around them then. “This place is a prime example, it sucked up so much arcane energy that the trees began producing it at some point. Even now, centuries after most of the arcane has died out, they’re still able to emit small traces of it into the world.”

  White wondered then if that was what gave the forest its look, but also wondered where this was going and whether or not his question was actually going to be answered. Regardless, he kept these thoughts to himself as Reil continued.

  “Now, the people of these woods were very finely tuned with it and they continued to be so even after the Empire had subjugated them long before the colosseum’s creation. In addition, they had developed bonds with two of the great predators that had stalked these woods, the bears of the north and the wolves of the south. These bonds granted them very unique magic at the time and that I’m sure was very interesting to members of the Empire.” Reil’s smile fell as soon as he brought up the ancient nation and his unfocused eyes moved to a spot on the ground. “Both the people and their companions were used as both hunters for materials within the Jade Line and as personal guards, but there were plenty who found themselves sent away to be turned into test subjects for someone’s twisted experiment.” He regained himself with a quick intake of breath. “But back to the main topic,” he focused again on White, his demeanor more serious. “The Empire had such control over the flow of information at the time, that neither tribe knew the other had been conquered. So when groups from both factions met on missions for their overlords, deadly and desperate battles would be waged over their objectives.”

  White interrupted Reil then with a questioning pulse to everyone, doing his best to make sure he was clearly understood this time, and Reil’s smile returned. It was the same smile a teacher wore when asked a question he had been hoping for.

  “Their overlords within the empire weren’t necessarily on the same side. From what we know, they acted rather independently from one another during this time, and so didn’t realize at first what was happening during these failed missions. But when they did, they went to investigate a previous battlefield and realized that the deaths of Jade Line natives had a peculiar effect–” Reil suddenly cut off and White saw an idea spark into life in the elder’s eyes, before it was gone like lightning.

  Avira had only partially been listening, as she was well-read in world history, and only looked up from her plate after she had realized her grandfather had stopped. Naroe had caught it though, and knew on an instinctual level what it meant for all of them. Something had sparked his master’s curiosity.

  The gap in Reil’s speech lasted only a short few seconds. “It wasn’t long before the overlords decided that reproducing that effect was the best use of the tribes,” he continued as if he hadn’t stopped. “They told them that the Empire had conquered both of them and were now deciding which tribe would hold dominion over the forest. They told them that in order to decide this, they created a true test of the forest, in the form of their coliseum. They said whoever passed would have their tribe made into rulers of the other and full dominion over the Jade Line. But… no one was ever meant to pass.” Then he sighed, shook his head, and leaned back. “Thankfully, it was only a few years afterwards that the Empire collapsed under its own weight and the tribes began overthrowing their masters. Then Lugatea brokered peace between the newly established Ursa and Canis, and Minoris was built a few centuries later to help solidify their improved relationship. And that’s our first stop.”

  “You rushed a little bit at the end,” goaded Naroe. “Spent all that time on preamble only to gloss over the actual establishment of the town.”

  Reil shrugged a little too nonchalantly as he began finally cutting into his own plate of grilled strips of poultry. “I’d like to eat lunch too,” he said.

  “Uh-huh,” Naroe made no effort to hide how unconvinced he was. Avira and White glanced at one another before looking at the other apprentice, but he only shook his head.

  ________________________________________________________

  They continued much like that for the rest of the day, chatting amongst themselves and acknowledging anyone they passed. Most of those seemed to be merchants, carrying large hauls of cargo on fully loaded wagons drawn by either horses or by the same rams White had seen in Central City. Usually they were accompanied by a few armed and armored guards and though none of them bore any clear allegiances, all were friendly enough to wave or nod to their fellow travelers. A few of them had the confidence to attempt a transaction, especially when they caught sight of White, but Reil declined them easily enough. The ground had leveled out well before twilight fell and Reil parked on the side of the road again. Naroe and Avira had already prepared themselves well before the wagon had stopped. By hanging up two rolled sheets of fabric, they made a space in the wagon to change into clothing more appropriate for a hunt..

  Naroe’s armor was a bit heavier than what he had worn before. Layered pads of cloth, chainmail, and leather covered most of his body, his joints being the only exception. Poking out through the gaps of auburn were his dark green garments and a black body suit of thick but stretchy fabric. White could feel his discomfort in the extra weight and layers, and see it in his fidgeting, but also his firm understanding of their necessity.

  Avira wore the same suit under an ashen set of ashen garments, her long hair having been braided neatly by her grandfather. Unlike Naroe, she seemed more than comfortable in her gear. Even with the added weight of the strapped metal plating, the same plates she used in their duel, her movements still held natural grace.

  But there had been a small change, one not unlike her grandfather’s when he slipped into a storyteller’s role. The currents within her mind grew warmer, giving her efficient movements an energy she didn’t normally carry. There was a lot of excitement there, bubbling up in the rising temperatures of her soul. But there was also a resolve there, keeping that excitement from rising to the surface and forged from an intense desire.

  White had some difficulty discerning what that desire was, given how naturally it came to Avira and she wasn’t exactly thinking about it. He decided he would ask her about it later. Right now, they were going to hunt.

  It had been decided that White would accompany them for the tracking phase of the hunt, but would be watching with Reil from a distance once they engaged. As much as Naroe and Avira wanted him with one of them, and as much as White himself wanted to experience the hunt as closely as possible, Reil was not willing to take the risk.

  “We can see how he handles direct exposure to the Brand Links another time,” he had said. “I admit it’d be good prep for his Majesty, but it doesn’t need to be during combat.”

  And so White found himself on his older brother’s shoulder, using their connection to follow the trapper’s gaze as he spotted hints of their quarry. The sun had nearly set completely and almost none of the leftover light could pierce the canopy layer. Yet Naroe’s eyes had adjusted as quickly as the sun had left and he flowed through the woods as silently as any predator.

  Even in the near pitch black, his eyes were able to make out the outlines of most of their surroundings at a good distance. Close up, he was able to even spot details like tracks, debris, and discarded material. Though that last one he could usually smell well beforehand. His ears were tuned to every sound around them, searching for even the slightest hint of a threat through the forests’ white noise, which had only grown stronger as they moved deeper in. He stopped every little while to feel the ground, searching for the vibrations of distant, heavy steps.

  Avira did not hold the same bond to the woods as Naroe did. Her father had trained her in darker environments numerous times before and her senses were just as good as his. She had been on hunting trips in the past and had been given lessons by veterans of the trade and while she wasn’t as fast as Naroe, she moved with almost complete silence. But all her experience had been within the Kingdom, within artificial spaces constructed by mortal hands. These woods were a remnant of primordial chaos and she did not know them.

  It was this fact that led Avira to suggest Naroe take White and why she was following behind them. White would learn a lot more through Naroe’s eyes than hers in this instance. She still took the same precautions Naroe did in scanning for any threats but mainly used the time to familiarize herself with the area as much as she could. White could feel her matching plants to entries in books in her head behind them, like the gentle vibrations of a small engine.

  For the small dragon, he had been given one other goal outside of learning how to hunt. When they had begun, Naroe had stressed the importance of stealth when looking for prey. “No matter the prey,” he had said, “you never want it to know you’re there until you’re ready to strike.”

  For something covered primarily in bright, shiny scales, even White knew that wouldn’t be easy. Naroe was initially going to wrap him up in cloth while they tracked, but Reil had been the one to shoot the idea down. Instead, the older man had told White to watch his siblings and try to be as stealthy as possible. So that’s what he had done.

  From the moment they entered the forest, he had focused on what they were doing. It had started as watching them, but his focus had grown to encompass their connections. He began to feel their movements as they made them, from the gentle confidence in each measured step to the silent hiss of their controlled breathing he came to understand what they were doing.

  As White came to understand “stealth,” his body reacted with his desire as best it could. His scales slowly began to drink in the darkness around them. The roaming gray clouds on his body grew darker and larger, spreading across his scales before spilling out over the rest of him. After twenty minutes, White’s colors had inverted and he melded with the darkness better than Naroe did. Even the glow from his eyes had left, leaving them barely visible even to Avira.

  Her surprise at the change had lasted barely any time at all, especially given Reil’s previous interjection. Neither White nor Naroe had noticed, both far too engrossed with the task at hand. That focus made Avira hesitant to point it out for fear of breaking the transformation.

  The three of them stalked for a while longer, long enough that the sun had completed its descent, plunging them into even deeper darkness. Naroe never stopped for long and Avira never lost track of him, neither lost their sense of direction. Then Naroe froze mid stride, causing Avira to do the same. This wasn’t like how he had stopped to check the ground multiple times before, this was an instinctual response of such strength that it froze White through the connection.

  Something was looking at them. Not like White had felt before with the Planes, this was immediate. Physical. But there was still power there, raw and driven purely by nature. White realized that nature was making a judgement at that very moment: Had it just sensed prey?

  In the instant that followed that realization, three things happened. The first was that White’s senses honed in on the perceived threat’s location, something he actively shared with his siblings. The second was that White glimpsed the soul of what had seen them. Piercing green eyes that shone with an intelligent power that had dominated this part of the vast forest for years. And the third was that those eyes found White.