He almost entered it all the way but stopped noticing that one of the boys was sneaking back without the other two's knowledge.

"Leave boy. Your time here is over, places need to be explored with only so much time on your hands right now. Get on with it. Leave me be."

Royal glared at the guardian of the sacred forest with a thirst in his violet eyes wanting to satiate his curiosity. 

"Your name is Gatekeeper~.. If that is so and this is your supposed territory then-... What are you guarding?"

At that moment he knew that those words he had just spoken angered the knight. The look on the mans face was more than just upset. He was infuriated. It was as if he had just offended his entire being. Silence filled the crushing atmosphere around the forest as Gatekeeper's eyes glowed a purple, black hue signifying he was ready to pursue and attack. By some miracle, fortunately he didn't strike or attempt to attack him. With a cautious yet disgusted tone he warned Royal very clearly of what he was saying.

"𝕴𝖙 𝖂𝖔𝖚𝖑𝖉 𝕭𝖊 𝕭𝖊𝖘𝖙 𝕴𝖋 𝖄𝖔𝖚 𝕷𝖊𝖋𝖙 𝕹𝖔𝖜 𝕭𝖊𝖋𝖔𝖗𝖊 𝕴 𝕯𝖊𝖈𝖎𝖉𝖊 𝕿𝖔 𝕶𝖎𝖑𝖑 𝖄𝖔𝖚 𝕳𝖊𝖗𝖊 𝕬𝖓𝖉 𝕹𝖔𝖜. 𝕹𝖔 𝕺𝖓𝖊 𝖂𝖎𝖑𝖑 𝕶𝖓𝖔𝖜 𝕸𝖞 𝕽𝖊𝖆𝖘𝖔𝖓𝖎𝖓𝖌 𝕱𝖔𝖗 𝕭𝖊𝖈𝖔𝖒𝖎𝖓𝖌 𝕿𝖍𝖊 𝕲𝖚𝖆𝖗𝖉𝖎𝖆𝖓 𝕺𝖋 𝕾𝖕𝖑𝖎𝖓𝖙𝖊𝖗 𝕱𝖔𝖗𝖊𝖘𝖙."

The very frame he spoke those words Royal's instincts were screaming for dear life knowing a single second being wasted would mean instant death. Everything around him felt as if he would die just by being near the ballistic guardian. In a fraction of a second Royal flashed across the entire forest never daring to even get a single glance back understanding fully well of where he stood and what really Gatekeeper's motives were. He was not friendly nor willing to cooperate he understood that now. He was only forced to teach and train the three of them by Hunter. Otherwise the look he gave Royal would've never happened. To the knight he saw them only as nuisances but had to bear with it due to Hunter. Gatekeeper was not an ally but not an enemy. He was a wild card that was too dangerous to be released. That single interaction spoke pages worth of words in Royal's mind. Once the coast was clear exhausted from the running he had to do he finally had the guts to slowly shift his sight back noticing that Gatekeeper was not chasing him at all. But from his point of view it felt as if the crazy knight was breathing down his neck waiting to cleave his head straight off. Cloudy and Nick saw Royal from afar looking extremely pale making them worry wondering what happened for him to be like that. All Royal did in return was shrugging off their assistance and explaining to them that nothing had happened and he just fell on the way out of the forest on a root. Obviously Royal was not the best of liars and the two knew him well enough to know that something was clearly wrong but let it slide since he wasn't harmed. 

Still a bit shaken from what had just happened earlier he tried his best to compose himself before moving onward to their next destination. The three set out away from Splinter Forest and headed west away from civilization. They traveled for a few hours until they found a ruined town in the middle of nowhere. There wasn't much to see in the first place but it was still a nice place to start over and take a break before moving upward toward the harsh and rigged mountain sides that was really never meant to be traveled through. It was obvious that it's inhabitants had moved from that location for a reason and trying to survive in such a rough environment was no easy feat. Nevertheless, they were the first ones to ever attempt to take this path, which made it quite adventurous.

"So we're gonna stay here for a while? I don't think this is going to work.."

Cloudy said as they were making camp for the night.

"I agree, this isn't our territory. We're not supposed to be here."

Royal agreed with Cloudy but not because of what he was saying. He had a feeling deep inside that told him to get out of there and not linger too much longer. It was like the area was cursed. They needed to move on and find somewhere else to settle for their time being.

"No, I'm not getting out of here. I'll sleep here tonight and continue tomorrow morning."

Nick remarked.

"But this place is unsafe..."

Cloudy said.

"It's not safe but neither is the forest! I'm not leaving these ruins to be food for some random beast that is lucky enough to roam seeing us asleep and defenseless."

Nick shouted pointing out the obvious threats. They weren't exactly that defenseless but hey, they were still newbies and thought they could handle it. But after a few nights living outdoors like this they learned that things aren't as bad as they seem.

"Fine, leave it to me. I'll protect you guys."

Nick smiled as he went to take a nap. Royal and Cloudy couldn't risk losing another person under his care especially with what happened to Nick inside the depths of the crushing forest. Despite his own desire to stay and explore the old town he knew better. So he went to sleep on a piece of cloth laid out on the ground while Cloudy took watch for a short period making sure everything was solid before sleeping. His intuition told him that there was more to come out of the woodwork if he stayed in that place too long though.

The next day Royal woke up before Cloudy and got a water skin for himself. He went to wake his friends who were also sound asleep with their blankets wrapped tightly around them.

"Hey! Let's get going!"

Royal yelled as loud as he could waking the both of them up.

"Yeah, sure.."

Both of them muttered with sleepy eyes and grogginess in their voices.

"This is it. Let's keep moving."

Royal grabbed their weapons and packed everything they had into their bags and started walking off towards the horizon. They walked for an hour finally coming across a rigid pathway up a mountain that was obviously taller than all the rest in the region. Hiking up the pathway was challenging enough to say the least but what added to the difficulty was the brittle and narrow paths that they would regularly need to squeeze through with one wrong step could lead to their dooms. The fall down would take at least thirty seconds just to reminisce what one could've done better in life all for that to be in vain anyway. The only thing that was keeping them alive was the fact that they weren't alone. In the far distant mountainside they spotted beasts roaming carefully as one of the creatures met its fate going into freefall making a single misstep leading it to its doom. Eventually they rivaled even the clouds in the sky as the mountain still had a while way to go making them lose confidence more so than usual.

"I think I see a trail ahead. It looks less threatening than the rest at least~."

Royal pointed out.

"Let's hope so."

The three followed along the trail hoping that they were heading in the right direction. Clouds began to gather above them obscuring their vision forcing them to walk slower and slower. Whilst cautiously traveling upward a conversation came into their attention about needing a leader to lead them now that Hunter was gone. Cloudy agreed wanting someone to lead while Royal had his objections with his reasons.

"Even if we have someone to become the leader then what? How will that benefit us as of now? It's just us. Hunter isn't here to guide us and teach us. He is our leader and our teacher, even a fatherly figure."

The two looked over at one another feeling concerned for Royal.

"Hey.. Are you really doing ok?"

"I'll be fine if things here weren't so tense and you two wouldn't stop bickering over something that won't benefit us."

The two in unison said the same thing.

"Oh- ok~."

Surprisingly Nick was silent for a while as Royal addressed the elephant in the room.

"Besides I don't think we should be chatting especially while moving through this terrain that can lead us to a instant death right?"

Nick peeked over the side as his view went all the way to ground level watching rocks and boulders piled up at the bottom with spikes that morphed overtime as blood made it pop out compared to the rest of the debris. Looking ahead they notice the path grew considerably more narrow than before only capable of holding three people at maximum if they were lucky without it collapsing on itself. Nick became squeamish at the height they were at as the way down was scary too say the least for him. Crunch and cracking, step by step the ground was stepped all over by the boys heading toward their destination. Every crack was heard with every footstep they made. As they neared to a closer distance they noticed the path went through a large rock formation that blocked the view of the other end. From their point of view it seemed like the mountain was split in half. The trail continued on for a while passing right beneath the rock formation.

"This is strange. Why are we going left when there's supposed to be a huge gap between this rock formation and the mountain?

Nick asked himself thinking he might be missing out on something big.

"Not necessarily Nick. This could be a natural phenomenon or some sort of happenstance that has occurred since this place was abandoned. I don't think that you're going to see anything different if you look up at the top, besides maybe you will see a glimpse of the sun. But there is no reason for concern at this time."

Royal answered the question giving Nick peace of mind and reassurance that they didn't need to worry about it.

"Don't worry about it, we are almost there! Keep moving!"

Royal cheered up the two with a smile and excitement to see what lay ahead. A light breeze blew past them as they neared to the center of the rock formation and discovered that it was indeed a split in the mountain. The sight was amazing in its own regard seeing a large split in the mountain creating a bridge that connected it to the other part of the mountain. The ground below was covered in green grass and lush trees with numerous plants and flowers growing abundantly. For once it was peaceful and quiet as they didn't feel threatened in any way. In the distance they spotted an area with a lot of stone structures that were used to support the large boulder that was placed directly in front of them. Cloudy shockingly was having fun messing around balancing himself on the rocks keeping himself from hurting himself while Nick opted to stay safe not wanting to risk falling and rolling down the cliff to a terrible death. Cloudy gestures for Nick to follow as Royal already made it ahead and now the two waited for Nick to come. He looked in horror witnessing below and what entailed for him if he messed up being a very long descent to the bottom.

"Come on~ it's just a pathway. What's so scary about it?"

Cloudy said while teasing him knowing fully well that Nick was terrified of heights. In return he only glared at him annoyed ready to blow up on him when he got his hands around his neck. With each step he carefully and slowly made his way through reaching where Royal and Cloudy were waiting for him almost falling in the process but was caught by Cloudy.

"Woah there! You're good don't panic. I got you. You look as if you saw a ghos-."

Nick proceeded to hand chop his head repeatedly for the torment he just put him through as his face was completely red as fumes practically came from his ears.

"You already knew I was scared of heights you moron! Do that again and I'll rip that smirk off your god damn face."

Cloudy put his hands to the top of his head trying to relieve the pain he just got.

"Ow-ow-ow~."

Royal barges in on their little scuffle reminding them that they had to get moving or things could turn for the worst. Even with Royal's warning they continued to fight about what happened earlier like little children would fight over candy.

"It's ok~.. Don't let those idiots get to you. Hunter if you were here what would you do~?"

Royal muttered to himself holding back his anger.

After a long hour of traveling through the vast mountains and rough terrain they decided it was finally time to set up a small camp near the top of the mountain close to the top which would take another hour or two to reach. It was safe from dangers from the weak walkways and void of beasts that would patrol for scraps and food. The sun finally came down setting itself up for the moon to shine once more. They made a brimming flame to keep warm since the cold was much higher compared to lower altitudes and made food while bickering on about irrelevant subjects. Royal prepared a place to sleep in a small cave to seek shelter from the cold on the side of the mountain walls and carved a larger space so they could all fit there better. Sooner than later night had fallen with the sun going into hiding quicker than they all expected meaning it was time for bed to wake up early the next day. The only one awake at the time was Royal staring at the moon itself admiring it's dim light and beauty. He sat himself down on a cliffside letting his feet dangle fixated on the moon. Quickly he began to doze off and knew it was also time for him to give in for the night and turned to head inside the cave he made. Before entering he had a strong feeling as if someone was watching from afar giving him chills but when he looked around and even surveyed the area for a while he found no traces of the thing or person spying on them. Nothing but the moon and a long way down to his demise were the only things there. Ignoring what happened he chose to sleep it off needing to get up before the other two. He tried his best to ignore his uneasiness and went inside the cave once more ready to get some sleep while they all were. He fell asleep with the events of the previous day still fresh in his mind.