Audrey was stunned by the young man's request.
"A tier-two singularity?"
She said it in disbelief, glancing back and forth at the horned Bengal tiger as if needing confirmation that she had not misheard.
The young man held her gaze with determination.
For an instant, Audrey imagined cutting off his head. Not out of malice, but sheer insolence. It had been a long time since anyone had addressed her with such disdain. Much less a seeker apprentice: young, weak, exhausted, nearly broken.
But there was something in his eyes, dark as ink, that she could not decipher. And that amused her just as much as it irritated her.
She looked away toward her pouch. She slipped her hand inside and searched all the way to the bottom. Tier-three singularities were many times more valuable than tier-two ones. She had obtained three in a single exchange.
And if she swapped the electric yellow one for the deep navy blue one…
The profit would be even greater.
She pulled out a singularity. It was white; its brilliance had nothing to envy from the tier-three ones.
She tossed it with a flick.
The young man, clumsily, almost let it fall to the ground. He managed to catch it between his hands at the last moment, feeling a faint chill run through his fingers.
Without wasting time, he stored it in his own pouch.
Then, without a word, Audrey reached into her pouch again. The symbols glowed softly. This time she did not pull out a new one. She pulled out the tier-three lightning singularity he had given her earlier.
She tossed it back.
The young man reacted on instinct and caught it.
That was the coin for the information.
With a mix of expectation and caution, he handed over the navy blue singularity.
Upon receiving it, Audrey's expression shifted to one of open delight. She held it a moment longer than necessary before storing it alongside the other two: fire and earth.
Then she stroked the horned Bengal tiger. The enormous beast closed its eyes and let out a low, rumbling sound, behaving like a cat enjoying comfort.
With an agile movement, Audrey leaped and settled onto the tiger's back. From above, she looked at the young man.
"Shall we go?"
The young man approached the horned tiger. Seeing it up close, he understood that, although it looked like an ordinary Bengal tiger, it was considerably larger. The height from its paws to its shoulders, on all fours, was around a meter forty. Its length easily exceeded three meters.
That was when he realized how small he was in comparison.
His body was scrawny, malnourished, with the appearance of a sixteen-year-old boy who had not had an easy life; he barely measured one sixty. The horned tiger almost reached the middle of his face, even when he stood upright.
He tried to climb up. Failed.
He tried again, but the weakness weighing on him made him look clumsy, useless. His hands lacked the strength to push himself up.
He made a third attempt. Same result.
From above, Audrey watched him with an increasingly evident expression of disappointment. He paid it no mind and kept trying… until a vein throbbed on her forehead.
Tired of the spectacle, she extended a hand to him.
Seeing that gesture, the young man could not help but notice how beautiful she was. Even irritated.
He took her hand. He squeezed it firmly.
And he felt her lift him with an ease that unsettled him more than any word could.
He said nothing as he settled onto the tiger's back.
But he swore silently that one day he would be the one offering the hand… and not the one needing it.
Atop the tiger, he felt the softness of the white fur and was surprised by how comfortable it was to sit. He imagined he would feel bones or ribs beneath his weight, but he felt nothing.
He patted the animal twice.
"What a magnificent beast…"
His eyes shone with sincere interest.
The tiger began to move. At first it took a few slow steps.
The young man immediately wrapped his arms around Audrey's waist from behind, anticipating the speed at which the beast might take off at any moment.
She blushed slightly, more from discomfort than embarrassment. Then she let out a small mocking laugh and gently pushed him away.
"You don't need to hold on like that. Just gripping the fur is enough."
He frowned.
"Do you want me to go flying?"
Audrey smiled faintly.
"You'll see."
Suddenly, the tiger's strides began to quicken. It went from walking… to trotting… and then—
Its speed surpassed any reasonable limit.
By instinct, he gripped the fur tightly. His head tilted slightly back; his body tensed and he saw the landscape blur around him in an almost unreal way.
But after a few seconds that felt eternal, something didn't add up.
There was no air friction. No turbulence.
He felt no wind lashing his face nor the brutal pull of inertia.
Little by little he loosened his grip.
The speed was still absurd, but the movement was smooth. Too smooth.
Keeping one hand resting on the fur, he asked:
"Why can't I feel the air?"
Audrey turned her face slightly.
"Are you stupid?"
He kept silent.
She snorted, amused.
"It's a companion-type singularity." She glanced at the tiger. "These are everywhere, but some of the most valuable ones are those big enough to transport you. Still, they're not the only ones. There are others with far more special abilities."
"The price depends on their capacity and their speed. Although what really makes them stand out is the bond. Some can become very close to the seeker, almost as if they shared a single existence. Those are priceless; they're not simple mounts, they're part of oneself."
The young man narrowed his eyes.
"So… the bigger the beast, the more expensive?"
Audrey shook her head gently.
"The bigger they are, the greater the carrying capacity. You can carry more people, more weight… even heavy equipment. But you lose speed."
The tiger took a long leap, almost floating between two rock formations.
"The small ones are fast, but limited. The enormous ones are slow… though they can carry an army."
The young man watched as the landscape warped on either side without the wind striking his face.
There was no resistance.
Only a faint sensation, as if something invisible enveloped them.
Audrey smiled faintly.
"Did you really think I'd let the wind tear your head off?"
The tiger accelerated. And this time, the young man did not hold on out of fear… but with a contained smile.
Atop the horned Bengal tiger, the young man could see a fascinating world.
They left behind the gray edge of the Ash Field and entered the forest.
But this was no ordinary forest.
The trees were colossal. Their trunks, wide as towers, rose hundreds of meters until they disappeared among layers of foliage suspended in green mist. The roots emerged from the ground like petrified serpents, forming natural arches under which the tiger passed without slowing down, or irregular elevations it had to leap over with an agility impossible for a creature of its size.
Every leap was precise.
Every landing, silent.
The tiger moved with a flexibility that defied its mass; it was as if it weighed nothing.
The young man barely had time to comprehend what he was seeing.
Flashes.
Giant shadows moving among the treetops.
Vines thick as bridges hanging between trees.
Luminous fungi embedded in the oldest trunks.
Small creatures fleeing at the vibration of the ground.
In those brief glimpses, his heart filled with fear. But at the same time, a deep sense of adventure and expectation squeezed his chest.
What can await me in this world?
The forest began to darken.
The treetops closed over them like a living roof. The sunlight barely penetrated, fragmented into slanted beams that formed a green, humid, ancient tunnel.
The air was colder. Denser. Charged with invisible life.
And then, in the distance… a light.
It was not filtered sunlight.
It was something else.
An open glow.
The tiger accelerated.
In a matter of seconds they crossed the vegetal tunnel and the animal braked abruptly, tilting its body slightly to the right. Its claws dug into the earth with controlled violence, raising a cloud of dust and dry leaves that spiraled behind them.
They had stopped at the edge of a cliff.
The young man blinked.
His eyes took a moment to adjust to the brightness.
And then he saw it.
The world.
It was enormous. Vast. Wild. Untamable.
The first thing he noticed was the sky.
There were two suns.
Suspended next to each other, so close that their lights intertwined, forming a glow more intense than any dawn he had ever known.
The tiger's double shadow stretched out behind them.
Before his eyes stretched an ocean of endless forest, a green sea that seemed to have no end. Some trees stood out so much that they literally pierced the low clouds, their crowns disappearing into a white haze.
Small black dots fluttered in the heights.
He swallowed.
If his calculation was correct, those distant specks were no ordinary birds. Up close they must be flying monstrosities, creatures with enormous wings. Larger than any vulture he had ever seen. Perhaps large enough to carry livestock… or people.
A river cut through the landscape like a luminous scar.
It flowed calmly, winding between hills and giant roots, but its color was not blue. It was emerald.
It shone as if microscopic particles of light moved within it, reflecting the double sun with green sparkles that seemed like heartbeats.
Farther still, irregular mountains emerged from the forest. Some seemed fractured, as if something colossal had torn the earth centuries ago. Others were covered in vegetation that hung in vertical cascades.
The wind blew from the abyss, bringing with it a distant murmur.
It was not just nature. It was movement. Activity. Organized life.
The young man narrowed his eyes.
Very, very far away…
Almost fused with the horizon.
Among columns of faint smoke and metallic reflections that caught the light of the two suns…
Something different from the forest seemed to rise.
Something geometric.
Something artificial.
A city.
Enormous.
But from that height he could only distinguish blurred silhouettes, towers barely hinted at, structures that broke the organic harmony of the landscape.
It was so distant it was hard to believe it was really there.
The world was too big.
And, for the first time since he had arrived…
He understood that he was not just small compared to the tiger. He was insignificant compared to everything else.
His expression was lost before the immensity of the forest.
So absorbed was he that he did not notice when a thread of saliva escaped from his half-open mouth.
He felt cold.
The impulse of adventure that had overwhelmed him moments before evaporated all at once.
How am I going to survive in this world?
He asked himself, with a silent desperation that tightened his chest.
The woman observed his reaction.
She had only wanted to scare him a little with the height of the precipice, nothing more. But the terror she saw in him was not superficial.
It was deeper.
What has him so terrified?
Why was he alone in the Ash Field?
Where did he get such a large haul?
And who… is he really?
She cleared her throat and pointed into the distance, toward the city barely visible through the haze.
"See? It's only three days' journey from here."
She patted the tiger affectionately.
"Little Sira will take us to our destination."
The young man with dark eyes did not answer. He couldn't.
She patted the tiger again and the beast descended, circling the cliff with silent agility.
A couple of hours passed.
The young man did not utter a single word.
She watched the path and, from time to time, tried to start a conversation. Nothing. No response.
Finally she turned her face.
And what she saw made her frown.
The young man had a vacant stare. As if his soul had left his body and only the shell remained.
She braked abruptly.
The tiger stopped.
And the young man fell to one side… without strength.
Between the darkness of the night and the warmth of a campfire, the young man's eyes snapped open.
The first thing he saw was the impossible depth of the cosmos. A sky so vast it seemed to swallow the world.
He was lying on the ground.
His body ached, heavy, weak. His head throbbed as if something had struck from within. Cold sweat ran down his forehead.
And yet… he was not uncomfortable.
A thin blanket covered him. A damp cloth rested on his forehead. The heat of the fire illuminated his face with an unexpected warmth.
On the other side of the campfire, the woman sat more comfortably, leaning against the tiger's fur. She gazed at the flames, pensive, lost in her own thoughts.
The moonlight touched her skin.
Her face, bathed in silver and fire, looked like a bright star suspended in the night.
Delicate.
Beautiful.
Dangerous.
"Whe… where am I?" he asked with a raspy voice.
"In the forest," she replied coldly.
"You fainted. I had to find a safe place to camp. I put food and water in your mouth… I helped you chew it. I took care of your weak ass."
The young man moved slowly until he was sitting up. Now they were face to face, separated only by the fire.
He looked at her cautiously.
"Thank you…" he said quietly.
She held his gaze without softening it.
"I wasn't going to ask you anything… but I checked your pouch."
The silence tensed.
"And I saw the singularities."
The fire crackled.
The young man felt the heat drain from his body.
She knows.