The morning after their first successful training session together, Kael and Selene wandered through the village, laughter soft between them. It was a rare lightness. They’d grown close through quiet hours of training, shared smiles, and bursts of wide-eyed wonder about the strange magic hidden in forest shadows, ancient legends the elders whispered, and the dreams of discovering what lay beyond the village edge. Lumen trotted alongside them in its chosen form—a small, fox-like creature with silvery fur.

As they passed the village center, something shifted. People gathered in tight knots, voices tense. Warriors adjusted armor. Mages examined crystal-bound tomes. Smoke curled from hastily lit torches.

“They’re organizing a forest raid,” Selene murmured.

“Another one?” Kael asked, narrowing his eyes. “They didn’t tell us.”

Selene looked worried. “My father’s leading the north flank.”

Kael’s gaze drifted to the treetops. He could feel it—something old and restless stirring in the deeper woods.

That night, Selene quietly worked with Lumen to prepare a birthday surprise for Kael: a charm made from moon-thistle and stitched bark, laced with soft glyphs of friendship. Kael smiled as she handed it over.

"Happy birthday," she said, cheeks warm.

Before he could answer, a horn blew—short, sharp. Shouts followed. The raiding party had returned, but not everyone came back.

“Selene!” a voice cried. “Your father’s missing!”

Selene bolted into the dark, wild panic flashing in her eyes. Kael didn’t hesitate—his legs moved before his thoughts could catch up, heart thundering as he chased after her into the night.

---

They entered the forest just after midnight. Mana coiled through the underbrush, thick and shimmering. Lumen darted ahead, leading them down unspoken paths.

“What are we even looking for?” Selene asked, panting.

“I don’t know,” Kael replied. “But something's wrong with the forest.”

The deeper they went, the more twisted the trees became—bark scorched, leaves humming with residual energy.

Then, in a clearing, it appeared.

A creature—massive and serpentine—slithered from the twisted shadows, its body coiling like a living nightmare. Its scales shimmered like polished obsidian but shifted like liquid, reflecting flickers of the forest’s mana flow. Each movement was soundless, yet the ground vibrated beneath it. Two jagged horns spiraled from its skull, pulsing faintly with golden light that throbbed like veins beneath its armored hide. Its breath steamed the ground, leaving withered moss and cracks in the soil in its wake, and its long tail swept leaves into whirling spirals with every twitch.

Selene froze. “That’s... not a normal beast.”

“It’s not,” Kael said. “It’s something... adapted.”

Selene raised her hands and cast a bolt of fire. It sizzled against the creature’s hide and vanished. The beast turned, unbothered. It opened its mouth, revealing rows of crystalline fangs.

“Run,” Kael warned.

But it was too late. The beast lunged.

Kael moved. With a twist of his body and a surge of resonance, he pulled mana from the air, forming a barrier just in time. The creature crashed into it, shaking the ground.

Kael and Selene unleashed everything they could. Selene flung bursts of fire and spinning arcs of wind, only to watch them fizzle out or ricochet off the creature’s shimmering hide. Kael, standing firm, drew raw mana directly from the air—no hand gestures, no incantations—just thought and resonance. He compressed it into piercing spears of pressure, launched pulses that warped the air around them, and attempted to destabilize the creature’s form by targeting weak nodes in its mana flow. Each attempt grew more daring, more desperate. A sphere of silence. A localized gravity pull. But the beast shrugged off every blow, its scales adapting, drinking in the chaos. Their magic felt like sparks against a storm.

Selene stumbled, panting. “We can’t... stop it.”

Kael and Selene were thrown off their feet by the beast’s last shockwave, crashing hard against the forest floor. Dazed and bruised, they lay on the ground, trying to push themselves upright, breaths ragged. The beast roared again, shaking the earth with its steps. It was coming straight for them.

Kael felt something stir deep in his chest—a resonance not just with mana, but with Lumen. The creature beside him radiated light, its silver fur rising in waves of energy. Their eyes met.

A surge of light burst outward.

Their bodies synchronized—Lumen's essence flowing into Kael. It wasn't planned. It wasn't controlled. But it was *right*.

Kael's clothing shimmered and stiffened—threads of magic wrapping around him, forming not armor in the traditional sense, but an enhancement of his own garments, strengthening his form. A blade appeared in his hand, not forged from metal, but from will and resonance.

As the beast lunged again, Kael, still half-staggered, moved on instinct. He swung the mana-forged sword just as the creature closed in.

The blade traced a glowing arc through the air and struck true—across the beast’s left eye. A streak of golden blood splattered across the moss.

The creature shrieked, rearing back. One final glare, then it turned and vanished into the trees.

Smoke and silence.

Selene dropped to her knees. “You... you did it.”

“No,” Kael said. “We did.”

Where the beast had stood moments ago, something faintly glowing pulsed on the moss—near where Kael had struck its eye.

He picked it up.

“It’s not a mana stone,” Kael whispered. “It’s something else.”

Lumen hovered close, silent.

And far above, the trees whispered to one another, as if warning the world.