It took me a long time to repair my soul and to learn how to become a Still-Walker.

Trapping, killing and eating monsters had helped but the progress to recover what I had lost was painfully slow. Three years. Three God-damned years was what it took for my soul to feel somewhat whole once again! I certainly didn’t waste time, but I still felt incredibly annoyed at how long it took.

I slowly went through hundreds of the books in Eunice’s library. The high-cendai did not have time or the patience to teach me how to understand the Basq handscript. Instead of teaching it to me properly, she gave me an artifact pen designed by one of her monwai. The pen was a thick metal bar with a round gemstone on one end and a sharp tip on the other. All I had to do was push a bit of my mana into it and trace the word that I was reading and its approximate meaning became apparent to me after a few seconds. It wasn't a perfect system and the pen often failed to define a word.

In the end, the various leather-bound tomes didn’t contain very much information and what was there was painfully difficult to read, since the translator pen didn't do its job half the time. All of the books were handwritten in medieval illuminated manuscript style, featuring hand-painted illustrations.

What I did learn from them was that across the Chasm from our chimera village stood the Grand Capital of the Basquinate Empire, the illustrious and opulent cathedral-city of Illatius. Fed by the magical currents emanating from the Chasm, monster farms produced crystallized mana that powered the magitek engines in the capital city and across the entire Empire. Enormous, white hex-beacon towers loomed above Basquinate citadel-cities, keeping humanity safe from phantoms. Skyships sailed between these citadels, forming trade routes.

Adventurers came from the entire Empire and from nearby nations, staying in Illatius in an attempt to best the Chasm, known as the Infinite Dungeon to humanity. Killing monsters and eating their meat made adventurers stronger, bringing up their level. The compressed, crystalized mana cores within monsters fetched a great price at the Diver’s Guild. Strange and useful artifacts, formed by the powerful mana fields could be found on the deeper levels of the Dungeon.

It was all very exciting to read about, had I not been one of the monsters hunted down by humanity for profit. Chimera didn’t just have hearts. I now knew that a crystal core sat in the center of my chest, worth a pretty penny to the greedy Dungeon Diver.

Airships malfunctioned when going down into the Chasm, plus moving up or down too rapidly could kill a person, so the trips were done on foot.

Grand Academies of Magic called the Arcanariums taught human children magic, instructors often taking students down to various levels of the chasm on excursions to study the local flora and fauna. Everyone knew that the lower one went, the greater chances were of obtaining incredible items while facing abominations of the deep.

Nobility, mages, researchers, adventurers and lowborns alike could gamble and win big by exploring the Infinite Dungeon. Many did not come back as they were unprepared for fighting the monstrous wildlife. A few returned changed… and became fantastically wealthy. It was perfectly normal.

All adventurers carried hex-beacons with them, as leveling up or doing magic outside of the range of these devices left one utterly defenseless to phantom attacks. Because Chimera were magical beings, our hex-beacon was our core. The core could protect chimera cendai from ghosts, if properly attuned with a rune-net, according to Eunice.

The world revealed to me in the high-cendai’s books was far more complex, fantastic and terrifying than what I had imagined. I had no choice but to claw my way to a bright future against great odds without sacrificing my principles and becoming a monster.

“On guard, fiend!” I yelled, leaping forward, swinging my sword.

The fiend in question rushed forward, growling at me like a fierce dragon.

My sword collided with a shield and the enemy's sword nearly cut through my neck. I leapt back and took off running.

"Get back here!" Alessi yelled, running after me. The air thrummed as her wooden sword whipped through the air, missing my back by a few centimeters.

"Ha ha, you'll never catch me!" I rushed towards the end of the cliff.

I didn’t pause at the edge. I was ready. A project that I’d spent two years of work on, was finally ready.

I leapt forward, extending my wings. The glider wings caught the air, thrumming as I flew, holding the stolen flag tightly to my chest. As I glided forward, I glanced back at my sister. Determination of the hunt was painted on her face as she followed me, bravely leaping off the cliffside with her own leather wings extended.

"This is your last chance to surrender!" Alessi yelled.

"Nu-huh!" I laughed.

The wings we'd made weren't perfect, they weren't magic-infused like the beetle wings that the male hunters used, but they were good enough for gliding. I based their design on the base jumping wingsuit.

I worked with wingsuits back on Earth, figuring out their design with my friends in an attempt to make our own cheaper version which we then used to do base jumping in Georgia. Wingsuits were made of soft, stretchy nylon and used air inlets to inflate them in flight, creating pressurized membranes beneath the pilot's outstretched arms and legs that generated lift – a bit like a flying squirrel.

It took me months to find a monster with the skin that matched nylon fabric and even longer to design, test and hand-sew wing-suits for myself and Alessi using a steel needle, scissors and thread that I had borrowed from the high-cendai's many chests of "human things".

Chimera were lighter and tougher than humans so it was considerably easier for us to glide longer distances and land without crashing. Alessi and I had practiced jumping from the top of various waterfalls in this valley without wings at all, since the lake below was deep and its surface was constantly broken by cascading water, allowing for a safe water-landing.

This was the first time we had used the wingsuits and my heart throbbed with excitement as I was able to control my flight. My design actually worked!

We flew down, circling the moss-covered cliff. A thousand waterfalls cascaded all around us, rumbling down and down across the rocky valley.

I had found this place in a higher level of the chasm. The mist coming up from the falls hid our mock battle away from prying eyes of other chimera. Also, the waterfall valley didn't face directly into the Chasm, so I didn't have to look down into the infinite abyss. Over the years my fear of the chasm had subsided, but I still froze up any time I attempted to stare directly down into its depths.

My flight ended with a splash in the azure-colored lake at the bottom of the falls. I dove under the water, swimming through the clear water. When I came up for air, on the pebble-covered beach, Alessi was already standing there, pointing her wooden sword at me.

"Clever girl," I grinned. "You flew ahead of me, using your lighter frame to stay in the air longer."

Alessi stuck her tongue out at me. At four chimera years, she looked like a thin, but very fit twelve year old human. Sparks of the hunt danced in her silver-blue eyes. Shimmering armor made from beetle carapace covered her body. It sparkled in the sunlight.

I was wearing vantablack armor made from a nightcrawler. We made the armor sets together. It took us many months to hunt down these beetles for Alessi and then even longer to carve out the nightcrawler's carapace and beetle shells and turn them into fitting armor parts.

The small, shy kitten I met three years ago had grown into a formidable, spry hunter. She was the first chimera who had broken away from tradition that wasn't a broken chain like me.

I was moving a bit slower than my opponent due to being waterlogged. Alessi swung her sword and when I tried to avoid it, she swiftly kicked my legs out from under me. When I fell, she wrestled the flag away from my arms.

I had designed a "capture the flag" game in this location to train our bodies and minds.

"You're not going to win this," Alessi grinned at me, holding the flag in her hands as I panted beneath her. "The flag's mine now! I am clearly the best girl hunter in our tribe!"

"Just you wait..." I rolled onto a crouching position and pushed myself up to my knees.

"You don't stand a chance," Alessi laughed.

"Maybe... but I'll give you a good fight," I smirked at her.

She might have been dry, but I still had better dexterity. I spun a small rock with my sling, directing it right at her sword. The wooden weapon shattered in her hands and she lost balance with a yelp.

"Hey!" Alessi shouted, dropping the remnants of her broken sword as I grabbed the flag from her hands.

"Gotcha!" I grinned and ran off with the flag.

Alessi chased after me, but I was already rushing away.

"I’ll get you!" Alessi yelled.

"Nope!" I called back.

The wind rushed in my ears as I ran, weaving my path between enormous moss-covered boulders. There was a wide grin on my face. I felt alive! More alive than I had ever been as a human. My chimera body had grown up swiftly. I was now as tall as a human teen, but all of my senses were significantly sharper.

The rainbow in the air above the falls had more than seven colors. I even spotted separate, sparkling drops of water as they flew by me. With my long ears tilted back, I determined Alessi's exact position right behind me, leaping out of the way whenever she tried to catch me. This body was made for the hunt!

My legs started to tire, but I didn't want to give up. Capture the flag was way too much fun. Finally, I saw my chance. I leapt up onto a flat, wet boulder and slid down. Since I was already wet and the slope was wet I flew downward with increasing speed. The slide allowed me to get far ahead of my sister.

I waited for her, steadying my breath and focusing my body for the attack. When Alessi got close, I tackled her to the ground, winding rope around her hands. We rolled across the wet sandbar, wrestling for control.

In the end, I won and Alessi lay on the ground, panting, her arms bound with rope.

"That was... a really good match," she said, gasping for breath. "You're strong."

"Thanks," I grinned, helping her up and loosening her binds. "You're not too bad yourself."

"I'm getting better," Alessi said, dusting herself off. “...I think.”

"Definitely," I said.

I knew that she would achieve anything she put her mind to. Empowered by her ancestral chorus, my education and the meat of monsters, she had grown stronger, become swift and very capable.

"Twenty-five times one-forty-four!" I declared.

"Thirty-six-hundred," She shot back with a smirk.

"Think fast," I threw another small rock at her head.

She caught the rock in her hand and raised a white eyebrow.

We ended up throwing rocks at each other, laughing loudly. Some we were able to catch, others bounced off our armor with a ‘pling’ sound.

“I still can't believe it...” Alessi smiled when we were done playing.

“Hm?” I asked.

"I... can fly." She exhaled and looked at me.

"Gliding isn't really flying," I shrugged.

"Yeah... but it's similar!" Alessi said. "Since I've met you... I've been doing things that no other ancestor of mine has done before, as far as I can recall. New, exciting... dangerous things. I did not expect to end up on this path when I saw you three years ago at the meeting grove.”

"What does your chorus think about all of this?" I asked curiously.

"The voices of my ancestors have grown a lot stronger and clearer," my sister winced. "Their stars warn me that I'm going down a dangerous path. The way forward is not lit. I do not know what awaits me. I'm staking my future on you alone, not on the tribe... but then again the tribe has never aided me or my mom, while you did."

Alessi paused and looked at, a twinge of worry painted on her face. "You're going to learn magic tomorrow... right?"

"Yeah," I nodded. "Eunice told me that my soul is fully healed and that I’m at the threshold of Still-Walking."

"Be careful... alright?" She uttered. "The chorus tells me that some young cendai fail their first test, never returning from the high-cendai's dwelling."

I gulped. "What is the test?"

"I do not know what it entails exactly. But... throughout the ages some mothers lost their daughters because they failed the test of magic. The high-cendai simply said that their souls were too weak and were dragged into the gate by the Still Forest dwellers."

"I'll survive," I said, putting my hands on her shoulders. "I promise. I won't fail. I've been to the Still Forest twice. I think... I know who’s waiting for me out there."

Alessi nodded back to me. Inwardly, I was terrified, scared of encountering the hollow phantom. I etched a confident smile onto my face, presenting it to her.

A whoosh of wings and the sound of parting gravel sounded behind us. I let go of Alessi and spun around, my sling already in my right hand ready to pulverize heads.

It was a male chimera, about seven winters old if I was judging it right. Since chimera aged three times faster than humans, he looked like a lanky teenager. His body was the color of dark ash and hair dark purple and shiny like amethysts. A look of deep concern sat on his gray face.

"I am Isahcs," the boy said. "I've been assigned as your watcher. I... saw what you two did.

His blue eyes were looking at my flying-squirrel glider wings made from stretched leather. I mentally cursed. I thought that our fun wouldn't be spotted in this hidden valley.

Alessi hid behind me, as I stared the boy down, even though I was much shorter than him.

"What did we do, exactly, watcher?" I asked.

"You were flying," he said.

"Pray tell, how were we flying? Do you see the Bonulich wings on us?" I raised an eyebrow.

"No, but..."

"But what?"

"It's my job to keep you safe," Isahcs insisted. "First you've made it difficult by crawling through a crevasse. When I did track you down, you were here... flying."

"Who asked you to watch us?" I demanded.

"Your father," Isahcs replied. "I'm your cousin, the son of his sister Agrossi. He cares for you, Juni."

"Does he now?" I tilted my head. "He barely talks to me at home. I am a cendai and I belong to Eunice. My business here is none of his concern or yours."

"Eunice did not declare your test complete yet and Alessi’s not a cendai-in-training," The gray chimera's expression grew dark, a gray finger pointing at my sister. "I will speak to your father about this."

"Why?" I asked, squinting at him.

"Because it is dangerous for two young females to be playing around the mountains," Isais explained. “You could get eaten.”

"Is that what you think we're doing?" I raised an eyebrow. "Playing?"

Isahcs sighed. He looked at Alessi. "Why does she not see reason? Are you encouraging her?"

Alessi shrugged.

"You are not children anymore," Isahcs continued. "You should not be running around the mountains like this. You could get hurt."

He glanced at Alessi once again.

"I am not a child!" The silver-haired chimera snapped. "I am a hunter!"

"How do you plan to hunt?" Isahcs demanded with a laugh. "I see no proper weapons on you! Is that a wooden sword?" He spotted the fake weapon at my side.

He pointed to the large bow over his shoulder. "I'm here to protect and help you."

"Help?" Alessi hissed. "Where was your help when my mother and I were alone during the first winter? I almost starved to death during the coldest month!"

"I only got my wings last week," Isahcs said quietly. "I do not know why you were not assigned aid earlier."

"Oh..." Alessi's voice cracked. She fell silent.

I stepped in between them. "There is no need for fighting."

"Cousin, she is helping me train," I looked at Isahcs. "There's no need to involve my father in any of this."

"My job is to keep you safe." Isahcs insisted.

"And my future job is to keep the tribe safe," I declared. "This is part of my magical training. Alessi is my assistant."

"Whatever," Isahcs muttered. "Just stay in my sight, please."

He opened his wings and took off.

Alessi looked up at the boy. "This is going to be a problem."

"Such is life," I sighed. "He just wants to make sure that we're safe. I guess that the cat is out of the bag."

"Huh?" My sister looked at me, confused by my turn of speech.

"We got caught. Also, I'm tired of crawling," I said. "The glider-wings we've made work. I'm going to start using them to get around."

"Me too," my sister said. "I don't care if I am shamed by others."

"That's the spirit," I smiled.

"Are you not afraid of the Chasm?" Alessi looked at me.

"Oh… I am," I laughed nervously. "I'll just have to keep to the sides."

Tomorrow, I was finally going to learn soul-protecting magic!

Then, I would start leveling up once again… if I survive the trial of facing the Still Forest phantoms with my soul intact.