Welcome! You're from the City right? This is the portal that leads to an another world. Through here, many adventures and new experiences await your arrival. But, before you enter, I need you to answer a few questions. Please, be truthful. Now, ready? Let the questions begin. Do you like going to the beach? No. You stub your toe while getting a chair for a friend. What do you do? I pretend my toe doesn't hurt. You are getting ice cream. Everyone gets vanilla, but you want chocolate. What do you get? Chocolate! Walking through a door you see a person far behind you. What do you do? Hold the door for them. Have you ever heard someone say your name even though no one did. Yes... Your best friend eats the last of the cookies you two are sharing. How do you feel? Arghaaaaa! Boooo! Did I scare you? Maybe a little... Do you ever go to restaurants alone? No. Do you want me to ask any more questions? No. Thank you for answering the questions. Now I'll analyze your aura. This is the energy every living thing radiates just by being alive. Relax. Take a deep breath... Now exhale. Ah. Purple. You are shy, yet bold and loyal. You like to listen to people. Sometimes you worry about small things even when they don't matter. Don't be so nervous. Around people you know well, you talk more, speaking your mind. People trust you and in return you always do your best for your friends. Yes... Now, who do you wish to be your partner?
"Ow! What are you doing. Wait, don't hit me. I'm not going to hurt you, I promise." The hit came from the hand of a thin boy in a short sleeved white shirt. He was leaning over another boy in a tan shirt, who had fallen to the ground. "Huh? Oh, you're not wild. You must have gotten lost in Mystic Forest. Uhhh, come with me, I'll get you out of here. It shouldn't be much further out." Mystic Forest? It just looks like a regular, grassy clearing, maybe with a few knotted trees. "Do you need help getting up?" Wait, where am I how did I get here. What do I remember? Okay, I am from the City. What's my name? Ahh, I don't remember... "I hit you pretty hard... You look a little, uh, unstable." "Yeah, I could use a hand." The boy in the white shirt extended a hand and pulled the boy in the tan shirt to his feet. He looked up and saw the blue cloudless sky he'd seen before. In front of him was the knotted trees the boy had seen from the ground. To boy looked to his left and right. It was no clearing. The path he had found himself in was a long cleared strip of grass surrounded by an impassably dense forest. On the left, it looked like there might be a boxy turn. Looking ahead again, the knots of dark bark suddenly seemed to shimmer and sway in front of him as the wind passed by. The boy shivered and started to feel the sore on the side of his arm. "First time in the forest? It takes a little getting used too. Feeling a bit better?" "Yeah." "Great! Still, take my hand until your arm feels totally better. It'll be fast, people heal faster walking in wittesefs." The strange word didn't even register to the tan shirted boy. He still felt weak and could barely grasp the other boy's hand. The other boy make sure to hold his hand tight.
"So, do you feel a bit better now? I don't mind holding onto you, but if we come across a particularly mean wild, I'd like to know you can run back while I fight it." "I think I can," said the tan shirted boy, wondering what a "wild" was but being afraid to ask. The two walked for a couple minutes in quiet, turning right at the end of the pathway, only to find the tree growth around it quickly thickened until it seemed there was no clearing at all. "Dead end, turn around" said the white shirted boy said with a sigh. "I don't think it'd be a good idea to try and push further through there. We'd just get lost." The two started walking back before the white shirted boy stopped. "I forgot to ask your name!" he said. "Sorry, my name is Rio, what's yours?" Think, think. Still nothing is coming to mind. "I don't remember. The last thing I remember is waking up in the forest." Rio's face shifted to a confused frown. "You don't remember anything else?" "The only thing I remember is I'm not from this world. I'm from the City. I was sent here, or maybe chose to go here, I don't know." "Huh. I've never heard of that before. Well, I hate to break it to you, but this is most certainly not the City, though I guess there are way worse places you could have ended up," Rio said with a chuckle. "the City... I thought all of you were supposed to have left Waleira long ago. I know it still exists; I've heard of a small few people traveling there. But never, people coming back." Rio looked off into the distance for a second before suddenly recomposing himself. "Such a tangent," he said. "Your name! People often name themselves after where they are born. I was named 'Rio' after an old currency whose metal was mined in my hometown. I know you don't remember your name from the City, but you are in Waleira now. You should have a Waleiran name." "A Waleiran name? I don't know how I'd make sometime out of Mystic Forest. You've met other people from Mystic Forest before right? What's a common name for them?" "Actually, you are the first person I've met." "Still choose something. I just need ideas. Making names is hard. I'll tell you how much I like it." "Ahh, so much pressure. Asking me to choose your name. What seems right for you..." Rio said trailing off in thought. "Oh, that's pretty! Yew, like the tree? Because you found me in the forest? So cool! I like it. Great, I'm Yew, nice to meet you," the tan shirted boy said sticking out his hand. Rio sighed and then put on a smile. "Nice to meet you," he said.
The two started walking again, Yew following Rio, quietly repeating his new name. When they had reached the spot of the path where Yew had first woken up, he realized his arm no longer hurt and he let out a small smile. The two walked the other direction, turning right at another oddly sharp corner and hitting a fork in the path. Rio had come from one of the branches so they followed the other. Walking for a few minutes, Yew realized all the trees had begun to blend together. He could barely remember which way they had just walked. Then Yew noticed how quiet it seemed in the forest. There were neither insects nor animals roaming through the trees, just him and Rio and the occasional gust of wind. The pair turned another sharp corner in the path and at the end saw a set of white stairs sitting in a larger clearing. Yew couldn't make out where they lead to, but they seemingly went up a little bit into the sky before getting obscured by a cloudy fog. "Look," Rio said, "those stairs are our way out." "Cool," said Yew. How strange, he thought. They looks so out of place. Maybe that's why this place is called Mystic Forest. Wait, is that... "Look out, there is a person over there. It looks like it's waiting for us!" "Huh?" A small child pounced from behind a tree. Yew found her body and face difficult to focus on, losing the form for a second when he tried. She let out a scream, "morus o mora," which seemed to resonate through the forest in a shrill tone and her eyes narrowed in a squint as she ran towards Rio running long dirty looking nails deep into his flesh. As the skin and meat separated, the it seemed to rot in place and Rio flinched reaching into his pocket with his other hand, his rotting arm hanging limp. No, Rio!, thought Yew. With it, came a fierce rage which seemed to perpetuate every other thought in his head. It cleared his mind, and with it any fear of the girl was replaced by a primal urge to protect Rio and kill her. Yew began running, forwards, towards the girl, his strides seeming to extend with every step, as they were with white bone pushing through the bottom of his feat, growing to extend Yew's height. He towered over the girl when reaching Rio and found his skull extended through his skin to form a misshapen lizard maw as he bit down with a crunch on the girl's head. He pulled her off the ground and flung her into the trees using the new strength in his neck. The girl landed with a loud thud against a tree, rattling loose some bark, it falling on her unmoving body. Yew took a stilted breath, and as he did the mutilated bone and flesh on his face melted back into its original form, reforming into the boy Rio had found. With the girl unmoving, Yew's rage subsided and he his thoughts turned to the horror of the situation. Did I just kill her, he thought. He was petrified, standing silently until he heard "Hey, Yew!" The painful squint in Rio's eyes was gone. He looked as healthy as before, nibbling on a pinked dotted berry as he spoke. "Don't worry about your heads up. The wild would have tried to attack us regardless." "Is the girl going to okay." "Oh, it'll be fine. The wittesef will heal it, as it does for all of the wilds. They live here, decorating and populating the paths, fending off invaders like us. I guess the care, or in some cases reincarnation, is like a little gesture of thanks from the wittesef. It's kind of crazy how much energy these things have. Great job fending it off by the way. Forget running, you probably could defend yourself better than me!" "Yeah, thanks... again. Is your arm going to be okay? The poison looked arm it was taking hold." "I'll be fine. I always being a couple bat berries when going to this forest. They'll take care of the scratch, and anything else the wittesef will take care of. We heal faster in here too, though I don't really know a reason for that one. Maybe we make its life a bit more interesting? Anyway, we should get to the stairs now. The way looks clear." Yew was still a bit uneasy, taking another glance at the corpse laying against the tree, but knew nothing else to do than to trust Rio's confidence. "Okay, let's go."
The two walked out into a small clearing where a flock of brightly colored pink birds floated by in the wind. The sky was starting to turn orange, just before sunset. "Come with me," said Rio. "I live just down that way in River Town. I'll get you some dinner." He was pointing at a collection of small wooden buildings, some round huts, others resembling various wild animals. One looked like one of those birds which had just flown by. All their houses look so pretty. No wonder Rio can seem so cheerful living somewhere like that. Maybe the people there will know someone like me. Also I'm hungry... Rio nodded. "I know you're hungry," he said smiling, "wittesefs make you hungry faster than normal. Anyway, Yew, I think it's fair to assume you have nowhere to stay? If you want, you can stay with me for a while. I can try and help you find out how to get back to the City, or at least why you got sent here. If return you just have to help me with a bit of my work. I help people who loose things in the wittesefs, or maybe get lost, a little like you. Deal?" "Uh, sure. Yeah, thanks a lot," said Yew. I guess I don't have much choice. Rio seems excited about this anyway. "Oh, and don't worry about taking up my time, trying to find the City is more interesting than laying here anyway. Plus, I'm not just going to leave someone from the City stranded in Waleira." The two walked up to a small home at the edge of River Town. The walls were a light brown wood, painted in zig-zag patterns of red and green. A rough thatch roof pointed at the top sat on the walls. The wooden door swung open to reveal a single room. "This is my house!" exclaimed Rio. "See over there," he said, pointing at a pair of straw beds, "there's already a bed for you. The house has two. That set of stones over there," he said, pointing at a bunch of large grey rocks, "is where I eat dinner. Sit down, I'll get some berries." As Yew walked to the table, Rio went to the pots, picking out a couple smooth purple berries and a pair of blue berries with dark light splotches on them. He took an apple out of a larger pot and brought everything to the table. "There you go!" I never would have thought of a meal of just fruit. The people of Waleira certainly have different tastes than us. "Thanks," Yew said, before tentatively talking one of the purple berries. It was sour, slightly sweet. It was okay. Then he took one of the blue berries. It was also sour, but tasted savory with a texture making it almost meaty. Yew finished it in just two bites. "Yeah, iri berries are always satisfying at the end of the day. I thought you would like them. I always perfered the bay berries myself though. Maybe I just have a bit of a sweet tooth," Rio laughed. "Here, you can have the first bite of the apple." "Sure," Yew replied taking a bite. After the berries and the apple, Yew was surprised how much he felt he had eaten. The apple seemed to fill half of his stomach. All of the food was quite good. The two sat eating for a number of minutes and now looked at each other with a satisfied smile. "So you really don't remember anything. I'm sorry, it really just sounds like a tale out of legend." "Ah yes, that wonderful legend where a person from a far off land gets turned around in a forest." "So you do remember something?" "No." "Well, there are at least a few legends which go like that. Maybe you are remembering something deep down from your past." Rio seemed hopeful at that. "Or maybe I just made it up," Yew said with a smirk, slowly softening into a smile. "Why would I be in your legends." "Oh, a lot of our legends are about the cityfolk," Rio said, almost surprised. "Fine, tell me one." "You know sure." Rio got up with a small sigh, and his ever radiant smile shrunk a little. "I was going to tell you this story anyway. It's pretty important for you to know, especially if you are going to be living here with me. You know how I said what I do is I go around helping people in the wittesefs. That isn't the whole truth..."
By this point, the sun had all but set. It was a full moon, streaming enough light through the windows to see without a candle. The little boy, Rio, stood illuminated looking grand in his tiny frame in the night. "So, I'm not the only one helping people in wittesefs. I'm part of a bigger group called the Crawlers. We exist all over Waleira in little towns, traveling, or sometimes just all alone like me. The first Crawler I met was a woman with purple hair named Ty. She kind of trained me, taught me about the wittesefs and the Crawlers. We were teammates for a time, well more like mentor and student. But she is a wanderer; she left and I stayed here in River Town. She would tell of her adventures, the crawlers she worked with, the big bases. She came from Red Base. And she would tell stories of the Crawlers from so long ago." It made sense that Rio wasn't working by himself. It would be hard to believe he could learn all of this alone. I guess this means I'm going to be a Crawler too? Yew kept thinking to himself as Rio talked. Rio told of how Ty had snuck into an office of the mysterious "Dark" to a historical record of the wittesefs taken from River town. He told of how he and Ty rescued an heirloom generations old lost in Mystic Forest for a full month. He told of the ancient mossy temple, secreted in southern Waleira and inhabited by the residents of Green Base. The more Yew listened, the more the Crawlers felt like a regal empire, distributed all around the world. And, other times they felt like a town just working to help their neighbors. But what did this have to do with us from the City. Rio seemed to be able to talk forever about the Crawlers, stories he must have heard told the same by Ty. After some times, he said "There is one thing I really meant to say." Rio looked sheepish, apologizing, "Sorry, I guess I rambled around it for too long already. It's that, the Crawlers," Ty said, "where once more than the spread they are now. They, we, were an empire ruling over Waleira, ruled by a King from the City. It's said that an original counsel from the City worked with us in Waleira to build a kingdom of peace. We built temples for the king, buildings of scale we could never image now. The kingdom had magical torches which would never go out, or carts which could move the weight of a thousand boulders all on their own. Under the king, there were none of the wittesef. It was in happiness we lived. Then one day the king called his counsel. Gisela, known as the ghostly sword and shield and the youngest member, had been traveling south of the forest when she became lost. The trees around her seemed to wrap into a nonsensical maze. People appeared out of nowhere and attacked ferociously. Gisela saw the unnatural white stairs; it was the same as the wittesefs now. Gisela was a strong warrior and managed to return to the northern kingdom bearing her story from the forest. Upon hearing of this, the king appeared to remain calm, but that night left in secret. To his fault, the king had a kind heart and wished nothing less than anyone but himself venture into danger. It was a week, traveling in hiding before the king stumbled across Dark Chasm. It is a wittesef still around, one of which few Crawlers have ever returned from alive. And the king entered, and was never heard from again. Without him, Waleira fell into disarray. The number of wittesefs began to increase, and the number of people coming from the City slowed. It wasn't long before they stopped coming all together and the only people left were those born in Waleira. The remaining people loyal to the northern kingdom had started calling themselves "Crawlers" and dispersed. They pledged to maintain the ideals of their original king and protect the people from the wittesefs." Yew stared blankly at Rio. "Is that why you are talking me in? Because I'm like your king, I'm from the City?" Rio looked at his feet, then back up at Yew. "You looked lost. You know, there's this rhyme, I've already talked to much, but every person in River Town knows it. It think they say it to all the babies when they are young. That's how I heard it. Everyone who lives here should pick it up: once upon a time, not so long ago there was a deer, a little doe who ventured past the meadow's ring following the leaves on the wind's flow "such a nice walk" she said, her voice a sing her hooves hitting rocks with a ping. so she ventured on for hours a little quest from flowers to flowers amongst her sides, the trunks of tress grew above her as giant as towers a maze around with bugs and bees until the doe could not feel at ease lost in the forest alone in the wild she heard the cry of a little child she ran to it to see the worry to find the scene, a mess of dirt piled and next to it cut down in a hurry the stump of a tree with red eyes blurry the stump shrieked louder rustling leaves away rand the deer, faster than the breeze until she couldn't run any more until her breath stopped with a wheeze there the deer, looking so poor looked around for food, scoured the floor yet more hours she would look but came only bugs, nothing to eat or cook so she went to sleep, late that night on an empty stomach, oh so long it took that morning she stood up in the light but stumbled over for she had no might never was the doe seen again trapped in the forest's pen and this is why you must never go when playing north of the river bend playing in the warm meadow up into the trees where the leaves blow No person gets trapped in the Mystic Forest by mistake. It's not just because you are from the City." The two boys didn't say anything else. They went to their beds, Yew instinctively reaching for a pillow which wasn't there, though, the loose collection of sticks and bush was surprisingly comfortable and lulled him right to sleep. Rio laid down too. He stared restless at Yew, before he too, eventually fell into a dream filled sleep.