Chapter 27 — The High Forest

The climb left me hollowed out, legs trembling, ribs aching with every breath. But when we stood at the edge of the ravine, I forgot the pain.

The forest spread before us like no forest I'd ever known. Trees towered high as cathedrals, their trunks pale and smooth, leaves shimmering with a faint silver sheen. Vines glowed softly where they curled along branches, dripping down like lanterns. Birds wheeled overhead, wings beating slow, their plumage shifting color with the angle of the light.

The air was different too—cooler, sharper, carrying a faint sweetness that lifted the heaviness from my chest.

Merlin limped beside me, tail wagging, nose to the grass. He sniffed at everything, ears twitching, eyes wide as though he were a puppy again. When he pushed his muzzle into a bush, a creature no bigger than my fist darted out—a rabbit-shaped thing with crystal horns. It bounded a few paces, then stopped, watching us curiously before vanishing into the undergrowth. Merlin barked once, delighted.

Elira smiled at his joy. "High forest welcomes those who don't harm it," she said. "It watches back, though. Always."

I turned slowly, drinking it all in. I'd stood in the Sahara, felt the Gobi wind, walked the salt flats of Bolivia, stared at glaciers calving into black water. I'd counted stamps in my passport until the pages filled. Seventy countries. More. I thought I'd run out of new.

But this—this was new.

A place I had never dreamed of.

And despite the pain, the hunger, the blood dried on my side, something inside me stirred. The old thrill of being somewhere strange, somewhere that made no sense, somewhere I could never have planned.

Merlin trotted back to my side, tongue lolling, tail sweeping. He nudged me with his nose, and for the first time in days I laughed—quiet, but real.

Elira adjusted her basket and started walking into the silver-lit trees. "Come on. You'll want to see more before night falls. It's better to love the forest in the day. At night it remembers it has teeth."

I followed, every step a reminder that even in the shadow of the Caller, this world was vast and alive, and I had only just begun to see it.

— Tenth day, evening, entering the High Forest —