Kabi leaped up, almost tossing what was left of his bowl, but I yanked him back down.

  “Finish your food.” I kept my voice level, but Lenna caught my eye. If this was a massive forest fire, this would be different.

  “My people could be here,” he said in a rush, staring down at his food. His hands trembled.

  “It could also be Forgers, so food first, then we can go scout the area.” I felt a little bad raining on his hope, but we needed the focused Kabi back, the one who’d hiked through the forest to reach Steadfast. Not this current one. Where did warrior Kabi go? And how the heck could we get him back?

  He let out a sigh. “You’re right. I need to remind myself that even though we closed the portal, the fight isn’t over yet.”

  I finished my bowl of food and set it near Lenna before patting Kabi’s knee. “We all want it to be your people in the forest, but we don’t know yet.”

  “Part of me keeps hoping everything will return to normal now.” He stared at his hands, especially his bottom one with missing fingers. “They took so much from us…”

  This time Lenna spoke, “And we made them pay.”

  His head snapped up at her.

  “Even if it's Forgers, we are here.”

  His hands tightened into fists, and he gave her a sharp nod. Everything about him re-solidified.

  Dengu squeaked.

  “Is everyone done?” I asked, standing.

  Lenna moved everything away from the fire, and then we were off.

  I took the lead, slipping under the massive mushrooms into the shadows, and took off going farther ahead. My heart clenched at the notifications, glad I’d left everyone far behind me.

  [An OFFENDER has been detected in your area with a bounty. You have been given a temporary boost to stats and abilities.]

  [Meatzo, Mercenary, Level 130, Predator, Unknown, OFFENDER.]

  [An OFFENDER has been detected in your area with a bounty. You have been given a temporary boost to stats and abilities.]

  [Nele, Mercenary, Level 133, Predator, Unknown, OFFENDER.]

  [An OFFENDER has been detected in your area with a bounty. You have been given a temporary boost to stats and abilities.]

  [Timt, Mercenary, Level 125, Prey, Unknown, OFFENDER.]

  Slowing down, I monitored the presences on my radar, then, instead of heading directly to where they were, I sent a message to Lenna to hold off. That it wasn’t friendlies.

  I crept around the area they registered, keeping them in the center to map out just how many of them there were.

  [An OFFENDER has been detected in your area with a bounty. You have been given a temporary boost to stats and abilities.]

  [Toma, Mercenary, Level 129, Predator, Unknown, OFFENDER.]

  Another popped up, giving me a rush with the boost. Yet, one last presence made me stop. A notification didn’t pop up for him like the others, and it caused me to inch closer, staying in the shadows.

  A structure appeared through the trees, almost looking like a child's tree fort. Built high above the ground, with holes for windows, it stretched between three giant trees. Sheets of metal, canvas from tents, and large thin metal poles created the structure. Smoke rose from one of those ‘windows,’ along with chatter that I couldn’t make out.

  A bright blue bubble drew my attention underneath the treehouse.

  [Kaelen, Tick-Tock, The Drift, Level 240, Predator, Unknown.]

  The being rested in a hammock, of all things, stretched between two of the trees. Toma frantically worked next to the being at a table, with something I couldn’t see. She didn’t seem to be anything unusual, just a Forger with orange skin and slicked back black hair.

  Kaelen had a hat resting over his face, reminding me of old tales of cowboys. Yet, he clearly wasn’t anything like human. Cobalt-violet scales peeked out on a hand, which dangled over one side of the hammock. So, not Forger, either.

  Everything inside me screamed that we could not touch that person. At all.

  Swallowing hard, I stepped back, and the bubble snapped off.

  “What?” said Toma, “It can’t be time already! I paid you for three cycles?!”

  Kaelen slowly lifted the hat off his face and placed it on his head, but he still didn’t sit up. Long, swept back ears poked out, moving with a slight twitch.

  I froze.

  “Are you calling me a cheat?” Each word came out with a slow raspy drawl. Soft, but somehow loud enough to stop the conversation going on above.

  The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  Toma’s shoulders inched higher by the second, until she frantically shook her head, taking a step away from the table.

  Whatever had been on the table she swept into her inventory, then she fled up a wooden ladder nailed into one of the trees.

  I slipped back into the shadows and fled toward where the others waited.

  It didn’t take long to find them in the old fairgrounds, where we had freed Kabi’s father.

  A few hover carts rested on their sides, but all were taken apart with things missing.

  “Asceto, what do you know about someone called The Drift?” I asked as I stepped out of the shadows.

  He jumped into the air, dropping a piece of metal he’d been holding, but landed safely. He shook his head. “You must mean Kaelen. I only heard rumors. I wasn’t allowed anywhere near him.”

  Lenna appeared out of nowhere, while Kabi paced around the clearing. Dengu did the same in the bushes.

  I pointed back at the tree fort.

  “Oh, no,” Asceto said, his gaze a little lost.

  “Yeah, he's rank 3.” I let out a sigh.

  Kabi headed in our direction with a frown. “It’s not good, I take it?”

  “No good news. Forgers, and something else that’s rank 3 but not an offender.” I ran a hand over my hair, trying to think about how to deal with this. “The Forgers built a building, of sorts, above, in the trees. They might be just holding up. He’s below.”

  “Is he working with them?” asked Lenna.

  “I don’t know, I know he sold them something… three cycles.”

  Asceto’s eyes drew together. “Where did you hear that?”

  “A forger said she paid for three cycles, why?” I didn’t understand the conversation, besides that she bought something.

  “Cycles are time… That makes so much sense now…” His eyes went wide as he kept going. “The Forgers didn’t like him much, but didn’t dare piss him off. He let them get big projects off the ground faster. I didn’t realize it was because he could speed up time.”

  That did not compute.

  “Time? He can mess with time?” My mouth opened, but nothing else came out. That skill of his, ‘Tick-Tock’ made sense now.

  Lenna shook her head at me as well, her eyes practically touching.

  “You said he sold her cycles,” Asceto glanced between the three of us.

  “He sold her something, and there was a blue bubble around them.” I paced back and forth as I spoke, kicking at a leaf on the ground. “Maybe he isn’t with them, just selling them time…”

  “Can we take that chance?” asked Kabi.

  I snorted. “We can’t take him. Like, I am all for going head first into tight situations but…”

  Lenna unhelpfully nodded at that.

  “Not doing that.” I shook my head. “He has over a hundred levels on me. Plus, we don’t actually know if he’s working with them.”

  Lenna started laughing, full on laughing, enough that Dengu peeked out of the bushes on his next pass around us. “He has an open quest on the quest board,” she finally got out past her giggles.

  I immediately opened it up. There it was.

  [Quest: Bring me goods or a way off this planet. Reward: Cycles of time based on value of goods, or time to get off planet. Location: You need to find me. There are trees.]

  It was the only quest in the area.

  “This is real, right? You can’t mess with the system?” As soon as I asked it, another notification popped up.

  [All quests are backed by the System.]

  Lenna’s laughter trailed off. “Plus, if he’s Rank 3 he shouldn’t attack us. That’d get him punished by the system.”

  “I mean, that’s great that he might not attack us on sight, but if we attack him then we’re fair game.” I thought of the plenty of fights where I went after someone much higher leveled than me. Of course, I thought I could win. This one, I didn’t even want to try.

  Kabi smirked. “Well, we could do what you do… Sneak around and bait them out one by one.”

  It was a good idea.

  “We can try. Maybe watch them for a few days to see what routes they have…” My words trailed off as one of the Forgers touched the edges of my radar and kept going. I held up a hand, then headed to the shadows and motioned for everyone to hide.

  Creeping into the shadows, I made my way trailing after her away from the fort, but she turned to head in my direction at the same time as two others left the fort. I sent a warning to Lenna, and took off into the shadowy forest under the mushrooms.

  Toma stayed close to Timt and Nele as they stomped through the forest without a care. None of them appeared to notice as I followed along.

  “I need to find more parts to finish my build,” mumbled Toma.

  Timt rolled his eyes, holding a gun in one hand. “We need to keep moving through the dungeon, and find a way off this planet for all of us. Not to mention what we can bargain for with Kaelen.”

  “The dungeons are full of those freaking blue people wanting revenge,” she argued back. “We can’t get near that plaza that lets you go to other places, or exit to the marketplace where different entrances are located as well.”

  “Hold!” The crisp order from Nele caused everyone to freeze, as he glanced around. His eyes searched the treetops, not the ground. A faint whisper of a song in the far distance caused him to frown. “Damn Harvesters. They keep eating all the prey.”

  “Well, they are pretty tasty…” mumbled Timt, who then shut up as the other two glared at him. He pulled his rifle closer to his chest, and glanced away from them.

  “You can go hunt one for food,” said Nele with a glare.

  “Fine.” He marched off into the bushes, grumbling under his breath.

  Nele turned to Toma. “What else do you need for your build?”

  “I just need something to create a trigger from.” She shook her head. “This is why I hate crafting, but I need something to fight with.”

  “A sword would be easier to create,” he said softly, like this wasn’t the first time.

  She pressed her lips together. “I don’t have any skills for swords, only rifles.”

  “Maybe I can teach you something…” He patted her on the shoulder.

  “Maybe… I wish I didn’t sign up for this contract.” She let out a sigh. “It got my family off the Motherworld, that’s all that matters.”

  “Survival matters.” This time, Nele didn’t look for an answer, but continued on in the direction of the fairgrounds, without waiting for Toma to catch up.

  I didn’t follow them. Instead, I traced Timt’s path through the forest as he went searching for a Harvester. It only took minutes to find him with my radar, and the grumbling coming from him.

  “Freaking Nele, thinking he’s in charge. I’ll show him when I come back with food.” He barely paid any attention to his surroundings, but instead he pulled something out from under his jumpsuit and put it in his mouth.

  A high pitch whistle echoed through the trees for just a split second, and I pressed myself deeper into the shadows of the mushroom I hid under, but I pulled my knife out without lengthening it into a spear.

  Something crashed through the underbrush in the distance and Timt hunched up.

  “I got this.” His hands tightened on the rifle, but then the tip of it glowed a deep green. “Come and get me.”

  A harvester raced through the mushrooms and ferns, screeching at Timt.

  He fired.

  A green spray shot from his rifle in a cone right into its face. Smoke rose from wherever it landed and the Harvester jerked back. He fired again, and this time something round shot out hitting the Harvester in the lower jaw.

  Its beak shattered as it wobbled. Then it crashed down, dead.

  “Yes!” said Timt.

  I leaped.