The next morning, fog draped over the Mirefield clearing like a funeral shroud.
No birdsong. Just breath and boots.
Leo couldn't stop glancing at the tree line. Something about the woods looked deeper today. Hungrier.
"Same route?" he asked.
Ari shook her head. "Further east. We map what we missed yesterday."
The silence between them wasn't awkward — it was bracing. They'd all felt something yesterday, something crawling just under the surface. Today, it was closer.
They moved fast. Too fast.
About an hour in, Leo's steps faltered.
His foot hit a patch of moss, and everything around it flared — the air shimmered, heatless fire curled around nearby vines. Even Ari's lens buzzed in warning.
Leo stumbled back.
"I didn't cast anything."
But his fingers were glowing faintly, humming with magic — his own magic, but warped, unrecognizable.
Vellum stepped closer.
"You didn't try to cast anything. Big difference."
Leo said nothing.
The forest around them had shifted again. Vines now pulsed faintly with light, trees grew in jagged patterns, and even the wind had gone still.
And then Vellum saw it.
Partially buried in the roots of a thick tree: a shard of stone. Inscribed with runes — not just old, ancient.
He crouched, brushing the dirt away with awe.
"This is Thistlean script. Not local. Not natural."
Leo approached, his heartbeat rising. Something inside him recognized the symbol. He didn't know why. Or how.
His fingertips twitched.
"Don't touch—" Ari warned.
But it was too late.
---
The moment Leo's hand brushed the stone, the ground cracked open.
A pulse surged through the soil, launching all three back. Trees bent, groaning like they were in pain.
From the underbrush came a roar — not a beast, not a bird. Something in between.
It emerged with limbs too long, a jaw too wide, and roots growing from its flesh like veins.
Mutated. Twisted. Screaming.
"MOVE!" Ari shouted.
The fight was a blur.
Arrows and wind spells did nothing. Vellum tried to bind its legs with magic-infused roots, but the creature absorbed it. Ari slashed, but it regenerated. Fast.
Leo panicked. Power surged in his hands again — uninvited.
His vision blurred. The glyph on the stone flickered in his mind.
He yelled — or maybe the magic did — and the air split. Not light. Not fire. Just absence.
The creature froze, mid-lunge. A black cut formed through its chest.
And then — silence. It fell. Unmoving. Dead.
---
The jungle was still again.
Leo stood, shaking.
"What…was that?" Ari whispered, stepping forward.
Leo blinked.
"I don't know."
But a part of him did. A very old part. The same one that had whispered back in his dream.
The glyph was now burned into the ground where the shard had been. The stone? Gone.
Vellum looked at Leo, not with fear — but recognition.
"That spell. That wasn't ours."
---
Back at the outpost, the team was silent. Bruised. Shaken.
As night fell, Leo stared at his hand.
It still glowed faintly. But this time… the glow hummed with words.
Unspoken. Unknown. Ancient.
---