All River heard was his beating heart and panting breaths. He stood in the middle of an old road, tall and mossy trees crowding each side from an overgrown forest. Sunlight peeked through the canopy of tree branches and varying shades of orange leaves joined above the road, scattering patches of sun over the asphalt.

Cerys was gone. Or more so, River and Clementine had left her behind. He turned from one end of the road to the other, the expanse of the pavement curving away from his sight with no signs of life nor where Clementine had brought him too.

“Forgive me.” Clementine’s soft voice brought him back to his senses, reality breaking through his confused panic. She stood near him, her hand cautiously reaching out in an offer of support, but the sight of her gave him no comfort.

Bitter anger scorched through River’s tired, aching body, amplified by the lingering pain of his allergy. “What the fuck just happened?” Though enraged, his voice came out quiet and calm, his furrowed brow and harsh stare the only hint of what boiled under his skin.

“I pulled you through a Gate I opened,” Clementine explained, her concerned gaze wandering over River and his current state. It irked him further. “We’re on the outskirts of the forest surrounding my home—Astera’s Embrace.”

“What about Cerys? How could you leave her?!” He grabbed onto Clementine by the straps of her overalls and pulled her closer, desperately searching her reddish-brown eyes for something; an answer, a solution, a way to get his sister back.

“She told us to go, River,” Clementine calmly answered. She gently placed her hands over his wrists, her thick dark eyebrows scrunched up in concerned sympathy without a touch of fear or offence. Her kindness weakened River’s anger, remorse pooling in his gut. “We weren’t safe there,” she added, “and Cerys couldn’t have handled them while protecting us.”

He scoffed in exasperation. “You don’t know what she can and can’t handle…”

“I do!” She loudly reaffirmed, her expression hardened with her conviction before it ebbed away and her warm compassion returned. “I know she can face them better alone and defeat them, but even should it get messy for her, she can Aether Jump.”

River swallowed thickly, recalling how Cerys tried to Aether Jump with him… But in the end, he held her back. He let go of Clementine, his anger fading away but not his tense anxiety.

“She always goes ahead,” he muttered and looked back down the road they had magically manifested from. “Why couldn’t she have just come with us?”

“I guess…” Clementine tapped her chin, her eyes up as she pondered Cerys’ reasons. “She wanted to buy us time, keep them distracted, maybe make sure we aren’t followed.”

“And how do we know we aren’t being followed or tracked now?” he asked and Clementine held his gaze for a moment before she glanced around them, unease tightening her expression. “You seriously didn’t consider that?”

“She summoned me in the midst of an assault, forgive me for being a little distracted by that!” She turned away, her bottom lip popping out in a pout. A breeze swished past them and she flinched, turning to River and taking his hand into hers.

“We’re okay, right now,” River said, his intuition calm and quiet in the absence of a threat. Though he wasn’t sure how long their peace would last. “Cerys said you could help us into Astera’s, seeing as she’s not particularly close with your leaders.”

“So you do need refuge in Astera’s Embrace,” Clementine responded, her anxious gaze falling back onto River. “I can at least get you an audience with my parents, but… They know I am biassed towards Cerys and they won’t take my opinion highly.”

“What does that mean?” He furrowed his brow, his gut tightening at the thought of being denied refuge.

“It means you two have to convince them, on your own,” she smiled weakly. “But at the very least, you’ll be in the wards, safe and sound. Cerys might already have a back up plan.”

River highly doubted that. Cerys barely had a plan for where they could go, and he hadn’t forgotten how hesitant she was about Astera’s Embrace. There was nowhere for them.

“What about the other guy?” River asked. “Cerys said there was another heir, that you might be able to get him to join our cause.”

Clementine scrunched her face up in discomfort, her shoulders raised up as she sucked air through her teeth. “He’s such a pain,” she winced but then slacked her shoulders, a heavy breath leaving her. “But he might be lenient, since you’re innocent of her past endeavours, and he has a soft heart for those down on their luck.”

River chuckled ruefully. “Then I’m perfect for him. Can you call him?”

“Once we get to Astera’s Gate. I can’t stand to stay out here a moment longer.”

“Gate? Like what you pulled me through?”

Clementine smiled at him with a mischievous glint. “This is a different sort of Gate. Come, let’s go.”

She tugged him along to the edge of the forest and though River followed, he felt somewhat unnerved by the idea of traversing through dark, overgrown and outright creepy woods.

Tall, thick trees seemed to swallow them up, and where Clementine led them appeared unruly and pathless: roots jutting out, large broken branches piled and scattered amongst wild flora and weeds carpeting the forest floor; yet they tripped over nothing, their feet gliding through without struggle as if the ground shifted for them.

He glanced over his shoulder, the road already gone from his sight, and high above, the sun struggled to peek through the canopy of trees. All around, he could hear the life of the forest, from the chirps and songs from birds to the rustle of trees and bushes, critters scuttling about.

Clementine came to a slow stop and River joined her side, their hands still tight together, before he gasped at what laid ahead. A large ravine parted the forest ground, the drop far and deep to the bottom where unruly, green flora took over a creek, broken stone and fallen trees half-submerged in dark waters.

“Don’t tell me this is the Gate…” River shook at the thought they’d have to take a leap of faith and jump down the sloped stone cliff where magic would open up and carry them safely to Astera’s Embrace. He never once doubted magic’s legitimacy, even in his many years without seeing it practised, but he most definitely did not trust in it enough to be saved from a crushing fall.

Clementine laughed and River stepped back from peering over the edge, his eyes wide on her amusement. “No,” she said, “but we’re near.”

Inhaling deeply, she gazed ahead. She held her hand out and quickly, she pinched the air and whipped her arm to the side. A glimmer rippled over the ravine, the blanket of invisibility taken off to reveal a large, mossy tree log bridged over the gap. A worn path ran through the centre of the wood, Clementine already dragging River upon it, damp and charred wood peeking through moss at their feet.

The log was wide and thick, the surface rather flat despite the mats of green and flora, but each time River’s eyes darted to the side, he saw the vast stretch of the ravine, the fall seeming to get longer and longer. He squeezed Clementine’s hand, his jaw clenched as he grabbed her arm with his other hand, his breath and legs shaky. Her gentle laugh was full of breath and she held him closer, slowing their pace across the ravine.

It assured him but only for a moment. His heart dropped to his stomach, a chill seizing through his limbs, the breath of death against the back of his neck. He stopped and turned, eyes wide through the forest they came from.

Her voice full of concern, Clementine questioned him. “River?”

Words couldn’t be formed, only dread. Something was coming. River snapped and rushed forward, his fear of the ravine replaced by the fear from his intuition, his gut clamping, his mind racing with one thought: Go!

“What is it?” Clementine asked but River didn’t reply. He held her hand tightly and once they got off the log, he spun and fruitlessly kicked at it.

“Can you get rid of this?” River asked her desperately and Clementine stammered for a moment.

“I can hide it—”

“No! It needs to be gone!”

“I’m not strong enough for that,” she admitted. River cursed and then a rumble shook the forests, birds and animals screeching. “What was that?”

“Nothing good! Where is the Gate?!” He turned to her but she froze, fear wide in her eyes. She faced the woods where the rumble originated from—where they had come from.

Her lips trembled as she choked out a fearful, “Cerys.”

“No, you said she could handle herself,” he grabbed her chin and forced her to look at him, “now we need to handle ourselves. Got it?”

Clementine nodded.

“Now where is the Gate?”

She paled. “It moves, changes, shifts. This forest is alive with magic, the very land—”

“Where do we find it?!” River urged. “You said it was near!”

“Yes, because it’s on the south side of the ravine, where we are now, but…”

“But?”

“But we don’t find it. It finds us.”

River grabbed her hand once more and took the lead, rushing forth through the trees he once feared. His intuition warned him the threat grew closer, a presence that burned the back of his neck, and the adrenaline of that very terror pushed him to move faster. He knew Clementine remained clueless, not aware of the danger lurking and growing behind them, but despite it, she followed and stayed at his side, running with him. His lungs burned and ached from the exertion, his breaths wheezing pants, but he refused to halt, to even glance around for Astera’s Gate. He doubted they’d find anyway.

“This way!” Clementine called out and took over the lead, pulling him down a steep, unsteady path that nearly had the both of them tumble. The ground ceased to clear their path for them, roots and sticks smacking against their ankles and legs.

They burst through a crowded mass of trees and flora, low-hanging branches and leaves brushing against Clementine and River, licking and kissing his blistering hives. He hissed at his wounded, raw skin, but neither stopped running. River held an arm over his face and clenched his eyes shut, trusting Clementine as they rushed through, hoping they’d make it before what chased them finally caught up.

Find us, Gate, he pleaded in his mind, over and over like a desperate prayer, Find us. Find us. Find us!

A gasp tore from Clementine’s throat and she slammed to a stop, River tripping as his eyes opened to a steep slope. His hand slipped from Cerys and he rolled down the rough terrain before he sprawled out on his back on the grassy plane at the bottom of the hill. He panted heavily, staring up at the canopy of leaves—the sky of the ever changing and shifting forest.

“It found us!” Clementine called out excitedly and River groaned, shifting to roll over onto his stomach before he pushed himself up to his knees. His eyes widened at the sight in front of him, awe and wonder at what he was witnessing. “Astera’s Gate!”

Several trees twisted into one another, roots, trunks and branches shifting and bending to entwine together, moving like slithering snakes as they formed an arched alcove. Once still, a gold lustre began to emit from the archway, particles of light and magic floating off like dandelions in the wind, floating aimlessly in the air.

River hardly believed what he saw, unable to comprehend how magic could do such a beautiful feat without a caster. He stood and approached the archway, a shimmer of light rippling into a window to another world. He parted his lips, bewilderment in his eyes, and he leaned to glance behind the trees, where only the forest remained.

Within the window seemed to exist on another plane, an endless blue lake stretched beyond where his gaze could follow. A small grey stone beach bordered the edge of the water before it blended into lush green grass, small flowers peppered across the land. Beyond the lake, River could see tall trees of another forest, though much brighter and far more welcoming than the one he and Clementine were currently lost in. Even further from the lake’s forest, mountains were backed by a bright blue sky, white clouds scattered about. The trees within the window rustled, grass swaying and the water rippled. He couldn’t feel the wind but he saw it, and dared to reach his hand out to see if it was something he could feel.

A guttural screech tore through the air, a mixture of an animal and a woman’s blood curdling scream, and River whipped back to see Clementine come face to face with a huge, balded beast.