(Marco's POV)

My eyes were dusted with sleep when I woke up, Reed was still asleep, I rose from the long reeds and crawled over to the river to splash some water on my face, when I crawled back over Reed was gone, "Reed?" I wiped my eyes with my hands. No, Reed wasn't there

I laid down in the reeds again, suddenly I heard a rustle from behind me, "Marco, I promise I'm not here to hurt you, like Yuni did...." I sat up and looked behind me, Inni!

"Hey idiot, miss me?" My eyes widened. My bottom lip trembled, "It's ok, Yuni's not here.... I missed you by the way. I understand if you don't want to see us again." My eyes met hers, "Are you going to persuade me to come back?" She smiled sadly, "No, but I miss you and Yuni says she's sorry, but she just really loved you. I'm rather jealous to be honest, I-I-" "You're jealous? Wait do you...... Like..... Me?"

She burst into laughter, "Do you think I would be attracted to you? Naw dude you got me all wrong! You're saying you knew me half my life and you think I'm straight?! You are dense dude!" She was bawling on the floor at this point, I pouted angrily until I realised, "YoU LiKe yUnI!!!" I screeched, pointing my finger at her. "Well duh, took you long enough, idiot!" She was really laughing at this point, coughing in-between giggles, eyes welling up with happy tears.

After she calmed down we talked about how we were doing and what was happening back at the orphanage, "Nobody's looking for you y'know, I would join you out here if you still wanted to be friends with Yuni. It's terrible back there, remember those guys you defended me and Yuni from? Yeah they're not giving up," Inni explained. "Luke and Parker held me down while Mark attacked Yuni, she didn't have time to fight back, I couldn't do anything to stop it." I hugged Inni, "It's alright...." I whispered, comforting Inni.

Soon she heard something and said that she needed to go because it was getting late and I was left alone again, I decided to move upstream because I had never been there before and wanted to know if there was anything dangerous there. After a few minutes of walking I discovered a forest that the river run through, I was close to the luminous, tall, dark oaks and stood still thinking about walking inside.

I felt something touch my shoulder.

I froze.

My heart seemed to stop and my eyes widened.

I slowly looked up and saw a black, human-like figure with glowing eyes, I shivered and it let go of me, I spun around to face the monster, it had some leaves scattered on it's body, it made a strange noise,

"⊬⍜⎍ ⏃⍀⟒ ⏁⊑⟒ ☊⊑⟟⌰⎅ ⍜⎎ ⏁⊑⟒ ⎅⟒⋔⍜⋏ ⍙⊑⍜ ⏁⎍⍀⋏⟒⎅ ⎍⌇ ⟟⋏⏁⍜ ⏁⊑⟟⌇. ⏚⎍⏁ ⊬⍜⎍ ⌇⟒⟒⋔ ☍⟟⋏⎅. ⏁⏃☍⟒ ⏁⊑⟟⌇ ☌⟒⋔ ⏃⋏⎅ ⏁⊑⟒ ☌⎍⏃⍀⎅ ⍙⟟⌰⌰ ⌰⟒⏁ ⊬⍜⎍ ⌿⏃⌇⌇. ⟟ ⊑⍜⌿⟒ ⟟ ⍙⍜⋏'⏁ ⍀⟒☌⍀⟒⏁ ⏁⊑⟟⌇."

and lifted it's hand out to me as if to take my hand, it unfurled it's palm and held out a little, green gem.

I looked up at it then down at the gem, I slowly took the gem and the thing started walking away into the forest, "Huh?" I muttered confused, I put the gem in my pocket, took a deep breath and stepped forward into the tall woods.

I heard whispers as I entered the forest, I pretended not to notice the many black, human-like creatures that hid behind the trees and bushes. I pretended to not see how they whispered to each other, I saw a smaller versions of these shadow creatures peek out of their hiding-spots and staring, looking at each other before staring back at me. I forced myself to only think of one thought in my mind, "Follow the river, follow the river."

I found a cave deep inside the labyrinth of a forest, the strange thing was.... the river went through the cave, I thought for a moment and then bent down so I could go inside the cave.....

The cave had a faint light source of some kind, it made the cave tint purple, blue and pink. After what seemed like hours of walking I saw the end of the cave.... My eyes widened to see a big geode, crystals were scattered here and there, the water seemed to shimmer.

After an hour of exploring this mini-cave I felt drowsy and I felt like my head was spinning. I tried to fight it but eventually I blacked out, but before I fell someone or something caught me, I never saw what caught me as my eyes shut.