The seamless change of scenery caused Ivory to fall backwards, as one is want to do. He opened his eyes and saw green. Lush, verdant green. This wasn't right.

Ivory stood up, careful of Misoe who was extremely disoriented; they, obviously, were no longer in the city. He took his eyes off the canopy and looked around, trying to stay calm. Trees, plants, leaves, vines: he was in a god damn forest. And judging by the sweat that was starting to impair his vision, it was a rainforest.

"At least I've got magic… better to be stranded somewhere with magic," he reassured himself.

"Oh god, no, wait. There's going to be fire frogs and death mosquitos, aren't there. Shit." Ivory sat back down—he knew that it was better to stay where you were if you got stranded in the wilderness so you would be more easily located. The million dollar question was: will anyone be looking for him?

"The last thing I did was touch that thing on the ground—"Ivory paused,"—nope. Not thinking about that. I've gotta get back. Somehow."

The pep talk did little to soothe him. It was, however, a safe assumption that there would be no grand scale search party: one random 'Terandrian' going missing isn't exactly hot news. So, he thought about magical solutions.

"If I could fly, I could just see where the ocean was. Walking in a random direction is surely a shit idea." Ivory frowned, and then realised something.

"Wait, you can fly!" he said to Misoe, who was still a bit groggy. "Maybe not… you look terrible, mate. Don't worry, we'll be okay," Ivory said to both parties. So, he picked up Misoe and started walking.

For the first 20 minutes, nothing really happened. No mega tigers or laser snakes—the evidence that he was in an actual forest and not some empty simulation was that he could occasionally hear the sounds of birds.

After an hour, he started to get tired. So, he cleared away some dirt and leaves at the base of a skinny tree and sat against it.

Panting slightly, he opened his Bag of Holding to see what would be helpful. The potions in his Shocktowel—good. Other towel, also good…

"The hell is this? Oh that puzzle. Useless. Ring of Warmth! Yes yes yes. Oh, no," Ivory said, utterly defeated. He pulled out the wrapped parchment and gave his head a whack with them.

"I completely forgot about you. Dumbass."

In his hand were scrolls of [Lesser Teleport].

"No, this is fine. We'll reach a city tonight. Let's keep going."

Ivory stood up, almost slipping on the dewy foliage. Misoe had beaten him to it—she was levitating on his shoulder.

"Good thinking. Let's go."

They continued their walk uninterrupted for another 20 minutes—with Misoe occasionally stopping to rest on his shoulder—before he felt a shrieking sound in his head. Instinctively, he came to an immediate stop, reaching for Misoe who had barely glided a few inches ahead when he heard a hiss.

Misoe shrieked as something jumped onto her from the tree she had just barely passed. Ivory grabbed her and shot downwards—whatever this thing was, it had either already escaped or had turned invisible. Judging by Misoe's shrill screams, it was still on her.

He rubbed his hands all over her, trying to find the invisible entity. On her underbelly he felt something scaly—he gripped highly and yanked it off, throwing it on the ground. As it fell down, he could vaguely make out a pale looking lizard. He didn't identify it any further: before it had the chance to get away, Ivory's closed fist came down on its back. Even with his [Lesser Strength], it didn't die—but it was clearly hamstrung.

Ivory scooted forward and pinned it down with his foot. He pulled out his wand and started firing at its head.

"[Electric Jolt]! [Electric Jolt]!"

The point blank spells fried its head completely. Ivory lifted his foot to see that its body had changed at some point in the melee to a light brown—he only realised this as it changed again to a light green, revealing its body was even there.

Ivory turned to see Misoe on her side, looking delirious; her eyes half open and fluttering.

"Crap!"

He looked at her and saw a modest bite mark, and a slight scratch from when he had torn the chameleon-thing from her. There wasn't any blood pooling on the wound, which was immediately suspicious. There were, however, a few streaks of grey underneath the scratch; it blended in with her skin and almost missed it. He decided to flip the chameleon's body over with his and saw that only its brain and back of the head was fried: its face was mostly intact. He gave its mouth a prod, causing its jaw to dislocate somehow. Pooling in its mouth was that same grey liquid, which dropped onto the tip of his wand.

Ivory's head was still ringing, making him panic even more. He remembered the words of that [Healer]: [Purify Blood] could cure venom.

Ivory slapped his hands onto her stomach, covering all wounds.

"[Purify Blood]!"

Ivory took his hands off of Misoe to see if anything happened.

The wounds were still there, but they were starting to, ever so slightly, blacken. They were necrotising. The Skill didn't work.

"Useless magic!"

At this rate, Misoe was going to die.

Adrenaline was pumping through his veins, now—and it was informing his Skills. Ivory fumbled through his Bag of Holding and grabbed a mana and healing potion. He jammed his wand into the chameleon's mouth and coated the tip with its venom. He popped the cork off the mana potion and stuck the wand in.

"[Eerie Cinders]."

The liquid hissed, and almost overflowed with hot bubbles. After a few seconds it ceased—about 10% of the liquid remained.

Unperturbed, he removed his wand from the vial and put the cork back in and shook it vigorously. He opened it back up along with a healing potion, and poured a few drops of the latter into the former and swished it around.

"Please work," he groaned as he poured the conscious, purple solution over her wounds. He smoothed it over the puncture wound first with his wand, and a light coating over the scratch.

Ivory began to smell burning—black sludge began to pool at the puncture, where the venom had managed to take effect. He quickly pulled out one of the towels and wiped it away.

Ivory looked closely at the puncture. There was still some residual black ooze, and the wound was even redder than before. Before he could decide whether that was good or bad, Misoe's body lightly spasmed—and blood began to slowly pour from the wound. Misoe exhaled audibly at the same time.

The initial… instinct that Ivory felt when presented with her necrotic flesh—do not pour a healing potion on it—reared up again. Instead, he wiped away the trickling blood with the towel and pulled out a shirt from his bag. He tore the neck so that it would fit over her body, and put it over her like a waistcoat to act as a tourniquet. It needed to be pulled and have a knot formed with the excess fabric so it was tight.

Ivory looked up and saw it was probably starting to get dark. And if he had barely seen any other living creatures during the day, then…

Carrying the sleeping Misoe in the towel, Ivory walked for another 20 minutes, if only to minimise the chances of encountering another predatory reptile. He correctly surmised that the sound that had saved his life was his [Dangersense]. That he could still hear it was troubling.

Of the four main elements, earth was his least used—he had more experience with blood magic. Even so, his Skills gave him what he needed.

Luckily, most of the earth around him was moist—he deposited Misoe a few paces away against another leafy-based tree and got to work.

He placed his hands on the muddy ground; he had a vision in mind. Slowly, the mud began to part, owing to its mostly liquid nature. He eventually had a small square of dry dirt in front of him, about one and a half feet deep. He had fashioned a dry pit to rest and sleep in. Whether this would actually keep him safe, Ivory couldn't say. But it was better than the alternative. It was about one metre squared, and if he curled up it could work.

Hwe climbed out and picked Misoe up cradling her like one would a baby, noticing the leaves once again. He had an idea. He retrieved his wand from his pocket and pointed it up at the tree.

"[Gust]."

A tunnel of wind shot up and blasted the tree's thick branches. His theory was proved correct—a whole lot of detritus fell out of the tree, mostly dead leaves.

He didn't want to risk [Gusting] it into the pit, in case he made more work for himself, so he just pushed them all in.

He sat on the 'edge' of the pit and got the other towel—the Shocktowel—out and then gently slid in. Ivory piled all the leaves and other forest detritus back on him and then covered his head and Misoe in the Shocktowel. He kept her in his arms.

Being in this pit raised his sense of safety from 0% to 1%. With it, he was able to attempt to muster up some form of tiredness from the exhaustion.

On the other side of the island, a Peacock Beastkin was trying to find his ward and friend.

[Sorcerer level 13!]

[Spell - Wand of Zont: Venom Spray learned.]

[Spell - Ominous Wind obtained!]

[Skill - Mix: Potion of Lesser Biosynthesis obtained!]

[Beast Tamer level 4!]

[Skill - Misoe: Bond of Friendship obtained!]

[Skill - Misoe: Thick Fat obtained!]

____________________________

("I have searched the city, and asked the [Shopkeepers] we passed. No one's seen him,") Nozumu reported to Heito. He was quite shaken up.

("He's hard to miss, what with that seal and all. He probably just flounced off and is sulking somewhere. Did you check the beach?") Nozumu nodded. Heito just sighed.

("[Scrying: Ivory Henderson]". Does he have an anti-[Scrying] artefact?") Nozumu held his tongue, and answered his question.

("I… don't know. He would have no need for one, though. Can you not locate him?")

("Correct. Hmm. This could mean that he's dead, but that is terribly unlikely. It's that, or he is under the aegis of one who has protection against such spells.")

("S-surely not,") Nozumu croaked in disbelief. ("What about Misoe?") Heito nodded in acknowledgement.

("How clever. [Scrying: Misoe].")

Heito felt his spell activating and closed his eyes. Visibility was poor; he couldn't make out much more than a suggestion of green. He rotated his field of view and saw a slight ray of moonlight penetrating through the darkness and onto the base of a tree. He could make out some leaves and dirt that had recently been disturbed.

He cut the spell and adopted a thoughtful, academic look.

("She is alive, and in the rainforest. How deep, I couldn't say. I'm unable to see her due to the darkness, but she's alive. A lone seal would not be able to venture alone through the city, let alone reach into the forest—so I'd bet that Ivory is with her.") Nozumu exhaled deeply and slouched back on the sofa. ("Go back to the academy and rest. It's out of our hands.") Heito stood up and ushered him out rather unceremoniously; another of his bright ideas aimed to make Nozumu feel better, or something. Heito wasn't a big people person.

Nozumu began walking back to his living quarters at the academy. In truth, it wasn't really at the academy—the student campus was in another residential area, a few blocks away.

Heito was right on this one: being alone with his thought was comforting, in a way—compared to, well, being at his teacher's house!

He thought of Ivory. Surely he wasn't dead—he simply chose to believe it wasn't so.

Nozumu walked through the illuminating moonlight, Drath's solution to street lights. Similar to the late afternoon lighting situation Ivory witnessed, Drath's cities were lit by natural light—magnified, of course, by a bit of magic.

He looked up at the visible moon and thought of his [Astral Sight], courtesy of him being a [Stargazer]. Ivory's words echoed in his mind—but it was way more complicated than he made out. He had no intuition as to what he needed to do to… see something. Anyone could see the moons in the sky; what was it that [Astral Sight] was meant to show him?

He continued looking up at the moon as he walked. There were, thankfully, few people out at this hour in this section of the city, so he needn't be too worried about crashing into everyone.

What was he meant to see? The moon could bring luck, good fortune, light… and probably much more that he simply wasn't aware of. What did he want to be able to do? He didn't think Ivory made up any of what he said about his Class, but how was he meant to know any of that, let alone what to actually do? Now that he was actually concentrating on it, he could make out a few specs in the sky.

("I hope Ivory is safe. I don't know what this Skill can do, but if he's out there somewhere, I want to help,") Nozumu spoke to the visible moon, almost pleadingly. He had greatly enjoyed his time with Ivory so far—but perhaps most pressingly, Ivory was his ward, and it was his responsibility to look after him.

Why would he even leave? He could have done that originally, but chose to sit outside and wait for him. He wouldn't want to risk Misoe by getting lost in the city, he was sure of it.

A slight sinking feeling formed in his stomach. Perhaps he didn't get lost? There was surely no one who wanted harm done to him, was there?

He arrived at his home and fell into bed, hoping that with a new day came good news.

[Stargazer level 4!]

[Skill - Basic Celestial Awareness obtained!]

[Skill - Sudden Premonition (Minor) obtained!]

[Skill - Guiding Star obtained!]