Without stopping to question Luna, I scanned the cliff’s edge for a way down. Maybe I could sure, I could climb down bu—

  Something wet and slimy snapped around my neck, yanking me backward into the cave.

  G-force smmed into me as I was dragged at high speed.

  I couldn’t breathe. The muscur grip was crushing my throat.

  I barely managed to twist my head just enough to see the thing that had me.

  A frog?

  I mean, it had a circur mouth filled with serrated teeth, more like a carnivorous leech than anything remotely like a cute amphibian, but yeah, that's a frog.

  With Precursor Sense still active, I forced my internal energy into my fingers, barely managing to overpower the pull yanking my arm forward.

  Hot breath seared my skin. The beast reeled me in, its gaping maw inches from my throat.

  No time.

  I willed my energy to peak at my fingertips and fired.

  Four Air Lances shot from my hand, slicing through the tongue.

  The creature shrieked, a high-pitched, ear-splitting sound that rattled the cavern walls.

  I wasn’t exaggerating this time. I may sometimes stretch the truth slightly, but seriously, my eardrums were a hair’s breadth from popping like a balloon.

  Gravity recimed me.

  I smmed into the rocks below, pain exploding up my spine as my rear collided with a jagged edge.

  My eyes stung. My nose burned. My entire body felt like I had just been shaken like a ragdoll.

  "Are you crying?" Luna asked, her tone soaked in mockery.

  She already knows what crying is, huh? Wait. “MAYBE!” I shot back in my mind.

  "Be careful, the ‘world force’, as you call it, is gathering around that thing."

  I grit my teeth, blinking rapidly. The monster was still hanging from the cave ceiling, its hind legs clinging above while the others dangled awkwardly.

  Its amber eyes locked onto me with pure ferocity as it opened its mouth.

  MOVE.

  I shoved every ounce of strength into my legs and feet.

  Simultaneously, I activated Swift Stride, already preparing eight Air Lances across my ha—

  UGH.

  My vision blurred.

  The cavern roof somehow appeared above me and my stomach twisted.

  Too much. I over-micromanaged my internal force.

  "What are you doing?! MOVE!" Luna’s voice fshed through my head, sharp with urgency.

  Her shout snapped me out of my daze, and I unched myself forward, no longer using my internal fme.

  I poured everything into Swift Stride, bolting toward the cliff just as a purple mist curled into my nose.

  I barely inhaled a fraction of it, and instantly, my chest boiled like a furnace.

  My mind dissolved into a haze of color. My vision swam like a drowning fish.

  But I kept running.

  The moment I reached the cliff’s edge, I heard something bounding after me, fast.

  So, naturally, I did the most responsible thing possible in this situation.

  I jumped.

  "Yeah, jump!" Luna cheered in my mind.

  …Grass really doesn’t have to worry about fall damage, huh?

  Hopefully, I live.

  "What?"

  I ignored her question.

  The st tip of my toe bsted off the rock, and for a brief second, the wind kissed my face as I soared through the air.

  Then gravity, which I was really getting too familiar with, embraced me once again.

  Falling.

  Familiar, isn’t it?

  "You’re not gonna die, are you?" Luna actually sounded worried.

  I wondered what color she was right now.

  Suddenly, my mind cleared and I noticed the ground rushing toward me at an armingly rapid pace.

  "I drank whatever got in you, so do something!"

  I didn’t need to be told twice.

  The rapidly approaching thorn-covered brush did not look inviting.

  I threw every ounce of internal force into my hands, prayed, and unleashed the biggest bst of wind I could through Silencing Current.

  "Uggghhh."

  I won’t describe the horrible noises I made as every st bit of air was forcefully expelled from my body on impact, but just know…

  A lot of noise was made.

  No tears, though. Never tears.

  "You cried." Luna corrected me, so helpfully.

  "…I did not. My eyes were just wet from the wind. Yeah. That."

  I took several breaths, recovering from both the outrageous accusation and, you know, the fall.

  "How could you tell there was danger?"

  I gnced down at Luna, pulsing faintly on my wrist.

  "The way the world force moves," she said. "It gathers around certain things when they attack or make specific movements…like the tree monsters when they transform."

  A forest stretched around me—what I’d call average, if not for the grasses casually walking about.

  Under normal circumstances, I’d be shocked. But…

  "I exist." Luna finished for me.

  The trees were vibrant, their bark flushed with reds, pinks, and even some greens, but they stood still for now.

  My gaze drifted to the cliff I had just dove from.

  How did I survive that?

  I stared up at the ridiculous height I’d just fallen from. Dozens of meters. And with my own abilities, the worst I got was a few seconds of heavy breathing.

  "Stay alert," Luna warned. "There’s too much world force movement. I can’t tell if anything here means harm."

  I tensed. Not exactly comforting.

  "Alright…wait. How can you even talk to me right now?"

  I wasn’t inhabiting her body anymore, but we were still connected somehow, which was proving ridiculously useful.

  "How should I know? Maybe because our bodies are attached, right?" she pondered, glowing a thoughtful lime green.

  I considered it. Made sense. Not that it mattered much right now.

  The biggest proble—

  A deep, guttural growl rumbled through the mystical woods.

  Luna fshed in a rapid sequence of colors, nearly all at once.

  "Danger! We should get out of here!"

  I fred red.

  "Hey! You said you didn’t communicate by glowing!"

  The accusation felt out of pce, given the apparent danger, but I could feel her intense surprise.

  "It’s not danger…I just need food."

  Silence.

  "...You glow red when you’re hungry." Luna pulsed once. "Interesting."

  I ignored her scientific curiosity and started scanning the area for anything remotely edible.

  Unfortunately, Commander Griffiths’ survival lessons didn’t exactly cover "fantasy walking pnts."

  "Wait!" I suddenly remembered something. "When we were falling, you said you drank the gas that entered me?"

  "Yeah." Luna replied simply, still seemingly more interested in my ability to glow.

  "Does it hurt you? The poison?"

  "I have to release it eventually, but it isn’t harmful. I store any unneeded nutrients in my stalk and release them over time." Luna gave me a surprisingly casual lesson in her biology.

  "Goo—"

  A rustle behind me.

  I snapped my attention to it immediately.

  I prepared for battle, circuting my internal force.

  But instead of some terrifying monster, a pig-like animal emerged from the underbrush.

  It stood up to my chest, covered in thick, bristled, bright red fur.

  Well…that’s convenient.

  The creature was moving cautiously, barely acknowledging me.

  It was focused on something else, its body tense with extreme vigince...or at least, as vigint as a pig could look.

  The horns nestled on its head twitched, moving like antennae, sweeping over the shuffling grass before each careful step.

  Wait. Was it blind?

  I guess those weren’t horns after all. Despite how sharp they looked, they had to be some kind of sensory antennae.

  I took a slow step forward, Air Lance forming in each hand.

  The moment I shifted, it froze, locking onto me at st.

  Its shock surprised me, making me feel a little bad…

  But I was really hungry.

  The animal wasn’t stupid. It must’ve realized my continuing approach wasn’t friendly, because it stepped back and bumped into something.

  The moment its thick hide brushed against the green bark behind it, the tree moved.

  Like an iron maiden smming shut, the bark snapped open, revealing rows of jagged, tooth-like protrusions that impaled the pig in an instant.

  It let out a horrified squeal, a sound drenched in pain and confusion as its body thrashed violently against the bear-trap like monster.

  And I just stood there, horrified, in pain, and filled with regret. Not because of the brutal kill, but because my meal was stolen from me.

  The tree bent forward, almost unnaturally. If it had toes, it would be touching them.

  Its leaves rotated, a mechanical hum filling the air as they shimmered like bdes.

  Oh.

  They were bdes.

  They spun faster, slicing through flesh and bone in an instant.

  The rotating leaf-bdes blocked my view, but the guttural shriek, the wet sptter of liquid, and the tearing sinew told me everything I needed to know.

  I watched, equal parts fascinated and horrified, as the tree processed its kill.

  Then I slowly, carefully, let my gaze drift around the forest.

  More green-barked trees. A lot more.

  The odds of this color bark being the only man-eating tree?

  Unknown.

  But I wasn’t about to stick around and see how the rest of them felt about me.

  I could still see the cliff, which meant sticking to the rocks was a better idea than staying in this death trap of a forest.

  But before that...

  I stared at the grass shifting around me.

  "Luna, can you communicate with other grass?"

  A pale red glow pulsed against my wrist...annoyance, I’m guessing.

  "Can you talk to all big animals?" she shot back.

  "I don’t look like all big animals, but you do look like other grass."

  Silence.

  A breeze swept through, sending a cold shudder down my spine.

  The blue glow of the world seemed to be dimming slightly as time passed.

  "Luna?"

  Nothing.

  Was she angry?

  "Sorry."

  Still nothing.

  I gnced down at my wrist. The Luna-band pulsed frantically between reds and pinks.

  So yeah, definitely mad, but...

  I focused inward and immediately realized the real problem.

  The red energy, which had once coiled like a snake around my Nexus, was now as thin as sewing thread.

  It flickered faintly, pulsing in rhythm with my internal fme which had also simmered significantly.

  Alright then. Priorities, food and shelter.

  I gnced at the trees and immediately shook that thought away.

  No way.

  Just touching one was dangerous enough. Sleeping in one? Not happening.

  Back to the rocks.

  With every step, smaller pnts shifted away from me. Clearly, they were used to rger animals passing through.

  I moved carefully, keeping as much distance from the trees as possible.

  Eventually, I reached the white stone cliff.

  Left.

  Right.

  Wow.

  The thing stretched endlessly, disappearing into the underground horizon.

  Though at least here, I only had to watch one side. The one with the meat-munching, venus fly trees.

  I exhaled slowly and started a light jog.

  Running was easy for me now, but after a while or however long "day" sted here, I could feel the sweat building.

  The dark blue haze that had settled over the ndscape was draining, a bnket of darkness repcing it.

  And my hand, pressed against the rock for guidance, was starting to go raw.

  Then finally, I hit an opening.

  A cave.

  Inside was pitch bck, except for a faint orange glow at the back.

  The light flickered from clusters of moss, clinging to the jagged stone walls.

  Learning from my st cave experience, I kept my guard high, eyeing every shadow like it was out to kill me.

  I stepped in carefully, trying, and failing to avoid the damp puddles dotting the floor. Each step sent a small spsh echoing through the dead silence.

  The air littered with a familiar scent I couldn't pce.

  At the corner of my eye, movement.

  I turned instantly, force already gathering in my feet, ready to move.

  "—y!"

  What?

  A sound from behind me.

  Stone scraping against stone.

  "HEY! THERE’S TWO OF THEM!"

  Luna’s shout rang through my head just as the cave plummeted into darkness.

  I now remembered what the odor was, acrid, metallic.

  Blood.

  The st thing I saw in that fleeting crack of dim blue light was teeth.

  Glittering. Drooling. Lots of them.

  DeoxyNacid