Isabell moved through the ravaged forest.The ground was blanketed in ash, and every tree trunk stood like a charred skeleton. Heat still pulsed in the air, as if the world itself were breathing death.
Suddenly, she stopped. Her eyes fixed on the void."It's all… gone. My home. My people…" she whispered, barely audible.
From over the cloth on her back, Tyler could see.A sea of destruction. No life. Only the heavy silence, broken by the crackle of embers.
Something glimmered amid the soot. Isabell knelt among the still-hot wreckage, pushed aside blackened wood, and uncovered a necklace.A crimson pendant.
It was no ordinary jewel—the glow pulsed, like a living ember refusing to die.
Isabell held it carefully, as if afraid it might crumble in her hands. But the stone didn't yield. On the contrary, it seemed firmer than any metal around it.
Tears welled in her eyes."At least… you endured…" she whispered, voice breaking.
She pressed the pendant to her chest, clutching it tightly.
Tyler, strapped to her back, locked his gaze on the glowing stone.The whole world burned, but not that.
That wasn't normal. That wasn't coincidence.
And then he felt it. A strange pang deep in his chest. As if the pendant had looked back at him.
Ridiculous. Stones don't look, don't feel. But that one… that one seemed to call him.
Isabell slipped it around her neck, unaware of the baby's fixed stare. The crimson gleam reflected in Tyler's small eyes, as if it were a shard ripped straight from the hell around them.
To her, it was memory.To him, it was promise.
A relic pulled from the fire that, somehow, was already his.
The forest offered no answers. Only corpses and smoke.
Isabell walked like a shadow, each step heavier than the last. Her body stained with blood, her eyes red not only from the flames, but from the silent tears she could no longer hold back.
She stopped before a fallen trunk, clutching the necklace to her chest.At last, the tears broke free.
There, surrounded by ruin, she wept like someone who no longer expected to be heard.
Tyler felt her trembling, the cloth soaking with her tears. He couldn't understand her words, but the weight of her grief was obvious. A grief so deep it seemed to hollow her from within.
For a moment, she looked as if she might collapse entirely. But then she drew a long breath, wiped her face with the back of her hand, and rose. Still crying inside, but with a decision carved into her eyes: to survive.
...
When night finally fell, Isabell reached a secluded cabin. Its wooden walls groaned in the wind, but it was still better shelter than the ashen forest.
She laid Tyler down, wrapped in cloth, and watched him silently, exhausted.
He, on the other hand, was fighting his own private war.
Damn it… I need to pee.
Being trapped in a baby's body was torture. No control, no options. Only weakness.
He held out as long as he could. Then, inevitably, the warmth spread across the cloth.Humiliation.
Isabell raised her eyebrows, surprised."Oh… you peed on me?"
She sighed, tired, but a faint smile touched her lips."It's okay… let's get you cleaned up."
She removed the wet cloth, revealing his fragile little body underneath.
Tyler blinked once. Twice.
Then the shock hit him.
Wait… what… where's my…?
His gaze froze. Silence pressed heavy.No… no, it can't be.
He opened his mouth in a forced cry, while his mind screamed in panic:
I'm… a GIRL?!