The sky was shifting.
A deep amber glow soaked through the forest canopy, washing everything in shades of gold and fire. Shadows stretched long over the ruin's moss-covered stones, and a hush settled over the trees as day made its quiet surrender to the coming night.
"Well... crap," I muttered, standing up from the patch of cracked earth where I'd fallen earlier. "Guess it's bedtime for the wildlife. Which means dinner time for whatever eats wildlife."
Not exactly comforting.
I took a slow look around. The broken tower behind me loomed higher than the rest of the ruin, its top crumbling into the open sky. But halfway up... there. A section of wall still stood mostly intact, almost like a balcony. Ivy spilled over the edge, and the stone beneath it looked sturdy. Safe.
More importantly: off the ground.
"That" I said, pointing like I'd just discovered a secret treasure, "is home for tonight."
I circled the base of the tower, looking for a way up that didn't involve me falling on my face again. But the lower wall was too smooth and worn to climb easily.
I squinted at the edge of the second floor.
It was... maybe twelve feet? Maybe fifteen?
A little voice inside my head whispered don't you dare. Another one whispered c'mon, ninja powers.
"Okay," I said, backing up a few steps. "Let's test this weird magic body, huh? What's the worst that could happen? Broken spine? Shattered dignity? Pfft. Dignity died when I talked to a squirrel."
I bent my knees. Focused. Let the strange warmth in my legs rise like heat from coals.
Then I jumped.
The world blurred for half a second and my feet slammed against the stone lip of the second floor with a solid thud. I flailed, grabbed the wall, barely caught my balance.
I stood.
On the second floor.
Unbroken.
Unbruised.
"...Holy crap. I'm Spider-Kai."
I couldn't help but laugh. The kind that bubbles up when you know you've done something incredibly dumb, but it worked anyway. The kind that says, I should not be alive, but here we are.
I stepped carefully across the uneven stones, brushing aside vines, until I found a clear space in the corner partially sheltered under a fallen archway. It wasn't a bed, but it wasn't the forest floor either. I sat down with a sigh, legs dangling over the edge.
The sun was dipping behind the far ridge now, the sky bleeding brilliant purples and blues.
"Well" I muttered, watching the horizon. "Today I woke up from death, read a magic book, got tattooed by floaty letters, ninja-jumped a building, and probably made an enemy out of a forest creature with anger issues."
A breeze rolled over the treetops, cool and clean, like water poured straight from a mountain stream. I closed my eyes and breathed in the silence.
"Tomorrow's probably going to be worse."
I smiled.
Somehow... that didn't feel like a bad thing. The sun finally dipped beyond the horizon, swallowed whole by the forest. Colors bled from the sky, and in their place came the deep blue of twilight, then darker still, until the trees faded into silhouettes and the world became a canvas of black ink.
I sat on the edge of the crumbling stone floor, arms around my knees, the last of the golden light still lingering in my eyes.
The forest had changed.
No more birdsong.
No rustling leaves.
Just silence.
Thick.
Heavy.
Alive.
I swallowed hard, staring into the nothing.
"Okay... this is fine. Just a completely dark, magical forest. Alone. In ruins. With new ninja powers. Nothing weird about this."
Then, footsteps.
Crunching. Slow. Purposeful.
Somewhere below.
I froze, breath caught halfway in my throat.
The sound grew louder. Closer. Just beneath my perch.
My hands curled into fists, body tense. The night pressed in all around me, shadows so dense they might've been alive.
I couldn't see anything.
Then...
A faint, horrible sound. Bone scraping against stone.
And there it was.
Right below me.
A skeleton.
Its hollow, empty sockets stared straight up at me, jaw slightly slack like it had been halfway through a final scream centuries ago. Its body was slouched at an angle, ribs cracked and shifting as it twitched, subtle, unnerving.
It didn't speak.
Didn't try to climb.
Just stared.
Watching.
Unblinking.
I couldn't move. Couldn't breathe. My heart thundered against my ribs.
"Yup" I whispered, barely audible, "definitely scared right now."
Every so often, one of its limbs would twitch, jerking slightly as if remembering how to move. One time, its hand dragged across the stones, scattering dried moss and old dust. It couldn't reach me. But it wanted to.
I had picked the right spot. Somehow.
Lucky me.
I slid back slowly, pressing against the tower wall and curling into myself. Sleep was not a friend that night. It came in fits, brief moments where exhaustion won over fear, only to be broken by the faint sound of bone grinding or the image of that skull locked onto me in the dark.
But eventually...
The black faded to blue.
Then to soft morning gray.
And as the first golden light crept over the trees.
It was gone.
No sound. No trace. No bones. No prints.
Just dew on the stones and the whisper of wind through leaves.
As if it had never been there.
"...Yeah," I muttered, rubbing my eyes, "definitely not a normal forest."
I sat there in the rising light, sore, stiff, and still very much awake.
And I knew one thing for sure.
This world lived after different rules.
And I was only beginning to learn them.