forum Underground Cryptids Community ✨Reboot✨ |{CLOSED}|

Started Mar 04 by @Serenity88 group

tune

Sometime last year, I did a bad job starting a RP based around the Cryptids, the humanoid creatures who are definitely not human; my character is a boy with the wings of a Mourning Dove named Einar _{(Ay-nar – according to The Pinterest, it's norse for 'one who walks alone')}. I'll put up his character sheet, and a template for others.

Id like experienced RPers only, with good grammar n all that, long responses.
I'll get a lil intro up soon, laying the foundation for the story I hope to write with whoever is interested!

_{( @the-void-phantasmic , @korixkj )}

Einar Luctum-Columbae

• Physical appearance

-age: 17-18

-eyes: bright blue, unusually opaque as human eyes go. pretty normal for his kind. can be hard to tell though, because he's not really one for eye contact most of the time.

-hair: darkest brown, lightly wavy. a lot like Sam Winchester in season 1 _{(pls google hes cute)}

-body: 5'6", not particularly muscled. small shoulders. He hunches his shoulders a lot, too. pale skin, as he doesn't go outside much. Light, faint freckles all over, more opaque/bold freckles on his neck. birthmarks that look like large blots of ink or huge misshapen freckles.

-Gender & Pronouns & Sexuality: male, He/Him. if you're being sarcastic / joking around, he doesnt really care if he gets called 'giiiiirl' or things like that. Bisexual, but more inclined toward girls than guys.

• Inhuman features

His wings are supposed to be that of a Mourning Dove, but they are are defective; instead of being light gray, white and cream they're gray with off-white and charcoal feather-tips. The wings are way oversized too, and clumsy, especially in small spaces. They're so large coordination is difficult. He can disguise them in a very unusual way, willing them into a sort of invisibility. Not only are they invisible, but they can't be touched or felt while hidden. Einar is fairly certain it's a slightly different plane of reality, or a serious magical glamour, but his family never explained it to him. The only clue to the wings' presence when cloaked is that the air might seem warmer or a breeze might be felt when he moves his wings while hidden. Some individuals with the Sight or similar extra senses can see a shimmer or the ghostly outline of his wings when hidden. He's very self-conscious about his wings, because of their defect in size and color.

• Backstory

Einar's family, the Luctum-Columbaes, are very prestigious in the Winged Society. Among the Winged People, the Winged Society is basically just the aristocrats with well-known names and fancy houses and politics up their asses. The Luctum-Columbaes (the latin name for Mourning Doves), have very high standards. Einar's two older siblings are both prodigies in their fields. He's grown up knowing that he most likely wont amount to anything, only being memorable or standing out in history as the Mourning Dove with defective wings. He attends a nice (expensive) school, and only has a few friends. He isnt allowed to tell anyone about him being Winged Folk, because his parents always say that the humans will hunt them, or study them, as a species. The secret weighs on him constantly, but he still fears to tell even his closest friends.

• Personality

He is in between extrovert/introvert, in that he likes interacting with others because its refreshing for him to interact with ppl who aren't his sucky parents or siblings, but he feels estranged from normal people so he has a hard time striking up conversation without it just turning into small talk that doesnt go anywhere.

he likes to have little talks, the kind that reveal little pieces of your soul. he is a gentle soul, a very stargazing, listen to gentle music to fall asleep, talk in soft voices until drifting off, evening with the stars coming out early type of guy.

he freaking LOVES hugs and cuddles, but he doesnt know that because he never has an opportunity to enjoy those those things. thus, he is a lil touch-starved boi who just needs to be platonically crushed in a hug.

• is he ok with being shipped with someone in this RP?

yes, hes fine with that 😁

---

feel free to use this as a template for your own characters

In a forest, far from the humans and their destructive nature, there is a hole. In the middle of a forgotten wood, amongst the ancient tress who protect their cryptic friends, there is a hill with a round, mossy door with no handle. There is a manhole cover in a suburban neighborhood. In a rural park near a playground, there is an upright ring of naturally bending branches, the air shimmering inside with blurry lights. There is a waterfall, cascading down a small precipice, that no human has ever seen the backside of.

These, my fellow inhuman humanoids, are the secret entrances to a special place, untouched by mankind.

If one of us were to take up the journey, to travel to the undiscovered wood, they could be free of the humans and free to live as their ancestors did; as cryptids should.

So raise your wings, flex your digging talons, prepare your multi-dimensional travel. Think of the sun, unobscured by pollution; think of dirt without chemicals. Think of the Cryptic Forest, and come home.

***

Hive buzzed in circles in their chamber.

If they had been a single being, it would have been considered pacing, but that wasn't quite the right word for them. Pacing would be taking paces, and that would require legs. Not that Hive had any shortage of legs; being a cloud of bumblebee-like insects, they had an infinite amount of legs. And yet, they paced in an anxious swirl, round and round in their underground room. The sound of the hundreds of thousands of tiny wings, whirring and buzzing and humming, would have deafened a person. But they were alone. So very alone.

Once, there had been a thriving community of other creatures in those underground passages. Dozens, hundreds even, living out their fantastic lives in the forest above, and the open sky above that, and the root systems far below. But now…

Now it was only Hive. Just Hive, buzzing around the small cave that had once been their safe haven from all the clamor of the others. Now they missed the noise, hustle and bustle of fellow cryptids.

We need to bring them home … But how can we? We are only ever us and we cannot masquerade in the world of mankind as anything other than us … Can we contact them from here? … We have the human computer … It may be too old to communicate effectively with the humans' new devices …

Hive whispered among themselves, trying to find a solution. It wasn't just that they were lonely, but the forest needed more cryptids to survive. As a hive mind of insects, Hive had a certain…connection to the forest. The relationship between the trees, the air, the magic lifeblood of the forest was symbiotic with the creatures it sustained and protected. With only Hive and maybe, just maybe one or two others scattered in the forest, it was slowly fading. Dying. The air felt thin. The water, less alive. The outside edge, an impenetrable wall of thorns that would only part for the inhuman, was shrinking inward, and in some places it was even withering away, leaving gaping wounds where human bacteria could find purchase.

We can't let that happen … There must be a way … If there are others still here … We must search for any who remain … The forest is still huge, even if it is curling in on itself. How can we search the whole space when we are so few? …

The cloud of humming insects slowed in their pacing. They had lost several minds over the years, their numbers diminishing slowly. They had once been much mightier, many more minds and many more wings.

Are the dragons still here? … They left for adventure many years ago … How do we bring them back?

Hive knew they were thinking in circles, even as they flew in circles. They had thought all of these thoughts before. But maybe…

It is time for action … Thinking will not cause them to return home … We will try the human device …

So they whirled out the doorway, the curtain that had once covered it now a shredded heap on the floor. Down the passage, into another room, out the foxhole and into the open air aboveground. Hive realized that it had been a very, very long time since they had been up there.

They flew through the trees at breakneck pace, to a little building that had been constructed long ago. The door was shut tight, but a windowpane had a chip in it. The gap was only a couple inches. They flooded the one room, coalescing at the desk that wobbled precariously as Hive surrounded it and the old computer monitor.

They hesitated. How exactly was it that they planned to contact other cryptids? There were so many of them out in the human world, lost, afraid. Perhaps unaware that they didn't belong with mankind. And Hive didn't know any of them, or where to find them.

Then they remembered that several tens of years ago, some of them who were more passably human had set up a secret network for cryptids to communicate. Hive awkwardly maneuvered the mouse to click on the email. There it was – the email address that the cryptids who ventured outside the forest used to use to communicate.

After a moment's thought, debating among themselves, Hive typed a simple message into the email with multiple other people – they used to call it the group chat.

come home. the cryptic wood needs the rest of us

They knew that it could have been typed wrong – they'd always had a rudimentary grasp of the written word and how to phrase full sentences to others – but they could only hope it was understandable, and that the message got out.

Now, all that was left to do was wait for a response, and plan for the possibility of no response. Hive felt lighter now that they had taken some action, but also more anxious now that there were continuities to plan for. But they had been good at continuity once.

They buzzed in circles again, pacing… but now they were planning.

So far we have Grandpa Skittles, Void a.k.a Ame, therestarter, and good 'ol AnxietyGremlin/Phrog King who now is korixk. I think im gonna close this to new people now because five is definitely enough

Name: Arthur Timmons, goes by Sixclaw as a wolf. Also responds to Fenrir, Carcharoth, and Lycaon. Likes Tim and Artie as nicknames.

Age: In his current incarnation, 22. In full, a couple thousand years.

Gender&Sexuality: Male. Straight, as far as he knows.

Species: Revenant Werewolf, formerly human.

Personality:
Appearance: Arthur is of average build: 5'9", 160 lbs. Curly dark brown hair, brown eyes, fair complexion. Full lips, no facial hair, big smile. Average muscularity. The one identifying thing about Arthur is he has six fingers on his left hand.

Appearance (Werewolf): Sixclaw is the opposite of Arthur in every way. 7'6" at the shoulder on all 4's, 15' tall standing up, weighing in at 480lbs, densely muscled, thick shaggy vantablack fur, piercing blue eyes, with an extra toes/finger on has left front paw/hand.

Backstory: Sixclaw is the name chosen for an ancient Revenant Werewolf. He is responsible for the myths of Fenrir, Carcharoth, and Lycaon. He started as a typical werewolf, but was killed in a fight with a demigod back in the day. However, his spirit was too strong, and so be became a Revenant, and has been effectively immortal since. When he dies, his spirit inhabits a new host, who becomes a werewolf and gains the extra claw which marks him. He's seen some stuff.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Name: Veronica Ricci. Goes by Ronni
Age: 20
Species: Avian

Appearance: Ronni is roughly 5'/1.5m tall and weighs about 120lbs/54kg. She's slim and doesn't have much of a figure. Her hair is a dark brown, shaved down the sides and back, with about an inch on top she usually keeps spiked. Her nose is upturned, and her chin is pointy. Her eyes would be called blue, but they're closer to grey than blue. She has long, slim fingers and small feet, and at times appears more like some sort of human-sized fairy. She manages to keep her wings hidden by cramping them against her back and binding them there, most of the time. Her wings are a lovely shade of iridescent blue-grey, similar to her eyes.

Personality: Ronni is a bit rough around the edges. Constantly being in danger for most of her life has made her nervous and stand-offish. On top of that, an Incident several years ago damaged her vocal cords, meaning she has a hard time speaking, which makes friendships difficult.

Backstory: Her family was likely exiled a couple generations ago from a winged colony somewhere, thought it's unclear exactly. She's grown up in the city, hiding her wings and her self away from the world. She's aware there are others like her, but avoids them out of fear, most of the time. Not fear of them, but fear that they won't be as careful as she is and that somehow, she'll be found out by associating with them. This has lead to an isolated upbringing.

Name: Marielle “Mari” Salford
Age: 19 (fixed)
Gender & Sexuality: Cishet female, (SEVERELY QUESTIONING!!)
Species: Doll (enchanted)

Appearance: Mari is beautiful. She stands at 5’2 (157.48 cm) and weighs only 110 pounds (49 kg). She’s a light blonde with pale skin, rosy lips, and perfect teeth. Her eyes are light green, nearly blue, however, they have no pupils. They’re striking and almost soulless. All the joints of her lithe and delicate frame are very obviously where her body connects. (Think monster high doll joints) She generally wears long dresses, a cape, long gloves, tights, and tall boots, attempting to cover as much of her as she can.

Personality: Marielle is somewhat skittish and reserved. Quiet, subservient, and polite. The ideal Elizabethan-era British wife. While she never fully opens up, she has a bubbly disposition, optimistic and cheerful. Mari is also very motherly and kind, the type of woman to nurse an injured bird back to health or invite a beggar in for tea and a meal.

Backstory: Marielle was created in England during the Elizabethan era by a wealthy toymaker. He wanted a wife, but his standards and ego were too high for any of the plethora of women he could have easily afforded, so he made one. He procured a spell from a witch in the area under the promise she would be spared prosecution, an enchanted what he believed would be the perfect wife. She was wrong too, however. Visibly fake joints, soulless eyes, and stiff demeanor. He made it work for a while, keeping her as concealed from the public as he could before eventually taking her far from town and dropping her in the woods, ready to attempt to create the perfect wife a second time.

Is she open to being shipped?:
ABSOLUTELY! (I want her to discover her sexuality somehow, as she was made a straight trophy wife)

(Here’s my girl! For context, she’s inspired by your average pallid and gaunt Victorian child ghost girl soooo, that’s how she’s a cryptid. Not very obvious at first but theres’s def something off)

Basic Info

Name: Eve Nachash
Nicknames (if any): Whatever you come up with? She’s like, nine
Age: 9
Gender and pronouns: Female, She/her

---

Appearance

Skin tone: Very pale. Like, almost worryingly pale.
Height: 4’6
Weight: 62 lbs
Eye color: cloudy grey
Hair color: pale blonde
Hair style: half up, tied up with a comically large bow in the back
Scars: none
Other blemishes: freckles, an odd pinkish birthmark around her neck, almost resembling a scar
Body type: a bit scrawny. Because she is 9
Usual outfit: A long-sleeved, pink button-down shirt with a bow at the collar and ruffles at the sleeves, a simple black corset belt (like the elastic ones with snapping buttons), a calf-length black skirt with a layer of black lace on top, white leggings, black Mary-janes. Also, she has a cane :]
Other: An odd, orange and black snake wrapped around her neck at all times, which would almost be normal if he wasn’t curled alarmingly tight around her neck. He has no specific species, and his name is Likui. Also, while she is MOSTLY human looking, there’s something about her that’s distinctly nonhuman, though no one can tell what…
Images:
https://ibb.co/cKzjLLmp
https://ibb.co/1T6x5vm

---

Extras

Basic personality: Eve is very quiet, she tends to stay out of people’s way unless she’s directly addressed. She enjoys deep conversation, but doesn’t get much out of it herself, as she’s very young and people tend to oversimplify things as a result. She’s extremely attached to her snake, Likui, despite the fact that he quite frequently causes her to suffocate (This is a metaphor). She’s also a bit naive, and tends to just believe whatever people say, especially if they’re older than her.
Physical conditions: Blindness—She can only see light and shadow.
Mental conditions: Autism
Voice claim: Fluttershy (My Little Pony)
Other: Her species is unknown, but she comes from a small group of people—all female—with varying resemblance to humans, from none at all to looking almost exactly like one. Eve is the most humanlike, which is why she’s the one out and about most often. She is also the youngest.

dinggg…

dinggg…

Einar groaned softly, the unfamiliar sound waking him slowly. It took a great effort to peel his eyes open. He scrubbed at them, trying to rub away the crust of sleep. Rolling over, he saw his phone was lit up with a new message.

Well that doesn't make sense… Einar always turned all notifications off before bed.

dinggg…

He swatted at the phone, grabbing it clumsily. The ringtone wasn't familiar, but it was definitely getting annoying as it kept going. When he turned the phone to his face, the screen blinded him, the brightness seeming to be all the way up. But when he tried to turn it down, he found it was already as dim as it could get. So he held it as far from his face as his arm would allow. Einar squinted hard through the glare, trying to read the text in the banner on the lock screen. It looked to be an email, but he only ever got emails from the school. Who would have his email address? The sender was… he tried in vain to focus his eyes. Finally he made out the words on the banner:

'Underground Cryptids Community'

(this message has reached you through a magic email system meant to contact any cryptids with a cell phone or personal computer in a time of emergency. If you believe this message has reached you by mistake, please do not respond. block this address.)

message: come home. the cryptic wood needs the rest of us

Einar re-read the message several times, making sure he had read it right. After several seconds, he mumbled aloud to himself, "What in the feather-burning hell…?"

He sat up in his round bed and clicked on the banner, opening it. There was a link or something attached at the bottom. In the Mail app on his phone, he clicked the link. It took him to a site that looked outdated, with simple colors and no ads or 'accept the cookies' banners. It took a long time to load the image in the middle of the single webpage. When it finally stopped showing a five spinning dots, a map appeared, but not of any geography he recognized. It wouldn't stop shifting and twitching either, changing shape slightly every few seconds.

Einar watched this for almost a minute. Just as he was about to close the page and go back to sleep – it was four in the morning on a Saturday and he was not planning on having an early morning – when the map stopped adjusting and showed him an image he recognized: a satellite view of the large aerial island that his family mansion was a built on, complete with a large gray and brown blot that was the house.

He stared, curious and a little scared. Was it a virus of some kind, finding his location through his phone? Was it some messed-up threat?

The map was slowly zooming out now. A small blue dot pulsed over the house, right where Einar's bedroom was. He shuffled his wings nervously. The map was now zoomed out far enough that the blue dot had covered the entirety of the mansion. Another dot, this one a bold green, was moving around the map, sometimes slowly meandering, sometimes disappearing and reappearing on the other side of the map, occasionally splitting into two. All the while, the map kept expanding. Einar kept watching in growing fascination.

Finally, after several minutes had crept by, the map stopped. The blue dot marking Einar's place had swallowed almost all of the island, leaving only a thin, uneven rim of green and gray. The green dot seemed to have settled on a location as well. It was at the edge of the map, clinging to the border. But something else had changed; it was blinking now, whereas before it had only pulsed whenever it had paused in it's search for… wherever it was that it was searching for.

The map had stopped, but it wasn't giving him anymore information. Einar gave the blue dot an experimental tap. Nothing. He tapped the middle of the map, and in random spots around the area. Still nothing. But when his finger brushed the blinking purple dot, a square text bubble appeared.

slight universe irregularity. inter-realm travel required to access nearest portal

That was six hours ago. Now, Einar found himself at a soft spot in his realm, ready to leave his old life behind. A small voice in his head whispered that this is a bad idea and you can't leave everything you've ever known, you're just a kid. But a stronger, more insistent pull in his gut and in his flight feathers told him to go for the adventure. It was probably a dead end anyway.

What was the worst that could happen?

the bones of the plot to start with is that our characters get this email, and, intrigued, they follow the map to a 'portal' or somewhere that could lead to the Cryptic Wood. as mentioned in the intro, it could be almost anywhere. get creative with it! cryptids are naturally drawn to these places anyway, subconsciously so they don't even realize that they may be gravitating to their ancestral home.
Now, I dont know how each of your characters might get the email. its got a spell or some special magic woven into the coding, so that in times of emergency a message like what Hive sent will reach any Cryptids with a device. It's terribly unspecific though, as old magic can be sometimes.
when they get to the forest, they slowly find each other and make their way to Hive, though they dont know of him. They all arrive at different places in the forest.
Please DM me with plot questions or suggestions, both are very welcome!

Name: Nora and Nero

Age: 16 and 17

Race: Duals (Entities that are born as twins, where each twin embodies an opposing concept)

Height: 4'6 (Both of them are short)

Weight: Too light to be weighed

Appearance-

(Nora on the left, Nero on the right.)

Backstory: These twins lost both of their parents when they were very young - about 8 and 9 - and have since been living on the streets near their original home. They only have a rudimentary grasp of the English language, speaking mostly in a language that rather than being heard, you feel and visualize. They also only have the most basic knowledge of technology, just enough that when a message popped up on the screen of a library computer, they knew it meant something at least. And so these twins started moving towards the Cryptic Forest, to find maybe find others like them.

Personality: Contrary to popular belief, Nero's the social one, always adventurous and on the move, while his sister, Nora, likes to hang back and watch from a distance - never too far, though. They can't risk being split up. That would be bad. To put it clearer: Nero's an extrovert, but more in a hot-headed way, and Nora's the introvert in the mostly quiet and observing way.

Shipping? No.

Name: Amorna
Age: ?? (just blipped into existence one day)
Gender & Sexuality: AroAce Female (She/Her)
Species: Pixie

Appearance: She's too light to be weighed, standing maybe 7 inches tall. She has blue skin and shoulder-length white hair. She also has several white markings on her skin, and black butterfly-esque wings. Her eyes are baby blue, with black sclera, and she has dark lips, hiding two rows of sharp teeth. She wears black fingerless gloves (always) and has sharp claw-like nails

Personality: Amorna is fiesty. She's loud, though her voice is just as tiny as she is, and fast. She enjoys making trouble, but also believes in mutually beneficial relationships, like the one she has with Marielle. Marielle protected her from a flyswatter, though Amorna doesn't remember it. All she knows is once someone has proved they're not all bad, they can be spared from whatever mischief she has planned

Backstory: She doesn't actually remember much. She retains more than the average pixie, being able to recall information for up to three days, but after that she forgets and simply goes with the flow.

EXTRA: Amorna is a pixie. A distinction she makes a point to clear up. Fairies are benevolent, while pixes are their vicious and mean counterparts. She hates being mistaken for a fairy, which look rather humanoid compared to any pixie, which always have odd-colored skin

Is she open to being shipped?: No

The twins sit in a library, staring blankly at the message on their screen.

Nero is the first to speak up, in his usual loud and overbearing voice.

"Ehhhh? The heck does this mean? Nora, can you read that for me?" he says with some amount of exasperation.

Nora sighs. "''Underground Cryptids Community' The message says: come home. the cryptic wood needs the rest of us. I don't really get it…"

"Neither do I, but it sounds fun!" the boy grins, hopping out of the chair.

Nora follows suit. "If you want to go, I'll follow…"

Nero pauses. "Something is bugging me though. Did it send to any of the other comps here?"

They looked around at the other devices. Nothing. Just theirs.

Nora puts her hand on her brother's shoulder. "I don't like this…"

"What's the worst that could happen? As long as we aren't split up, we'll be fine! No need to worry! All we have left to lose is each other."

Nora looks at him for a while.

"I still don't like it…. it gives me a weird feeling in here," she whispers, putting her hands to her stomach. "Can we please just think about it for a bit…?"

"I have the same feeling too! But again, what do we have to lose? No home, no life, barely any food on a day to day basis… what if this is a better life for us? Following that feeling?"

Nora sighs. "Alright… let's go…"

4 hours later, they stand on the outside of a circle of perfectly round rocks that holds a pool of perfectly reflective water.

They link hands and step in, and…

A new story starts.

Mari stood just inside the large, ornate gate surrounding the manor she lived in. She held the post in her hands, trembling. A letter with her name on it. She never received mail. Just then, the loud, booming voice of her husband called her inside. She hurriedly tucked the letter into the folds of her skirt and under her corset, both holding and concealing it before she rushed back towards him. She handed him the mail with a respectful smile, to which he sneered and waved her off inside the home. Dejectedly, she made her way back to her quarters, where she was meant to stay unless brought outside by him. Marielle sat on her bed, the letter in hand. She simply stared at her name on the parchment. Amorna, the small pixie taking refuge in the room, flittered onto her shoulder, settling with her legs crossed.

"You got a letter?" The pixie started, to which Mari simply nodded.
"Open it. Open it!" Amorna excitedly urged, to which the doll complied. "I'm going, I'm going! Don't get your wings in a twist."

After reading the letter, the two girls just stared at it. A long while passed before the pixie piped up again. "You should do it" She said. The small voice sounded like a vicious, mocking hiss, even though she only spoke kinds and encouraging words to Mari. "I can't" She replied.
Amorna flew off her shoulder, her black wings fluttering as she hovered in front of Marielle's face. "You have to! It's not like he wants you here anyway. He don't treat you good" She protested. "He'll break me if I'm caught" Mari responded, to which the pixie snipped back "Then don't get caught"

"How?!" Marielle snapped back "He keeps me under lock and key!"
"You're traveling with a pixie" Amorna replied. Mari was silent for a few moments before Amorna continued. "Do you want to leave?" She asked. Marielle simply nodded.

A few hours and some fae magic later, Mari and Amorna stood outside a large, wooded forest. They were still for a small bit before entering. After walking for what felt like a day under the dark canopy, but was, in reality, no more than twenty minutes. They stood before a large clearing, filled edge to edge with daffodils. Amorna brimmed with excitement, wings flitting and fluttering as she sat on Mari's shoulder.

Marielle took a breath and steeled herself before glancing at the pixie.

Amorna nodded… Marielle took a step… And she knew in her hollow gut there was no turning back

Eve sat in the grass, feeling the wax seal on a letter she’d received. She didn’t understand what was embossed on it, but she knew it was addressed to her. How, you might ask?

It was written in Braille. Not even her own companions remember that she can’t see, let alone some random whoever writing her a letter. But on the back, in clear Braille, it addressed her specifically. Curious.

She opened the letter, carefully unfolding the note inside, her eyebrows furrowing slightly. Who would write her a letter? Barely anybody knew her, and even fewer remembered. Her expression grew more puzzled as she read the contents.

come home. the cryptic wood needs the rest of us.
- Underground Cryptids Community

“Even curiouser…”

She murmured to herself. Of course, she was alone, with nobody to talk to. But that’s why she needed to fill the silence, obviously. She slowly stood up, grabbing her cane and turning in a small circle. She felt an odd pull, almost like a magnet. So naturally, she followed.

Suddenly, she stopped.

She felt around with her cane, pausing as she noticed a tree trunk, then another. Right next to each other, yet the perfect distance apart to fit an average person. And she was much smaller than average. Not to mention the aura about it—it was magical, almost tangible. She could almost feel the barrier here. It was like a pool water.

Likui tightened slightly around her neck, but Eve ignored him. He wasn’t magical, of course he’d feel frightened! “It’s alright, Likui. I’ll keep you safe,” She cooed, before stepping through the trees.

It was only a single step, but everything was different. The air was lighter, easier to breathe in—the grass was softer and the breeze even tasted better.

She was home.