Ren looked at Bazil again. “I think I see a small platform up there.” She said. At this point, the treehad started to slow its growth. Ren climbed further, with Bazil not far behind. When they reachedthe platform, Morris’ fur rose. He stared at a small flower jutting out of a vine. Ren walked over tothe flower, and examined it closer. “Umm, it’s glowin’ a bit.” Said Ren. Bazil shrugged. Ren, ever thereckless, picked the flower from the vine. “Wh- why would you touch it, it could be poisonous! Youcan’t just pick up any random glowing- ugh, never mind.” Said Bazil. “Geez, why do you thinkeverything’s poison?” Said Ren. “And besides, it’s pretty” She added, smiling. She tucked it in herbackpack. “Anyways, I’m hungry. It should be about lunchtime back at school.” Said Ren “Yeah,you’re right.” Said Bazil. Ren pulled out her phone to check the time. “F-FIVE THIRTY!? IT’S FIVE-it’s five thirty? Nononono, my phone must be glitching from the altitude… or the fact that we’re in adifferent world.” Said Ren. Bazil’s eyes grew wide. She stayed silent. Ren sat down and pulled herlunchbox from her bag. “You hungry? I know you always get school lunch. She scooted herlunchbox over to Bazil. But yet Ren’s usual sandwich, salad, and cookie were gone. Instead, theywere replaced with a foreign fruit salad bagged up in leaves and an oatmeal-looking cookie withthinly slicked fruit sandwiched between. “Umm…Ren? Did your mom pack you stuff today? I’venever seen anything like this.” Basil said cautiously. “Lemme take a look.” Ren said, then grabbedthe lunchbox. Her face immediately twisted into a look of disgust. “Slugs?!? Wait…Glowing slugs?!”Basil was extremely confused. “Um…I’m pretty sure that there were these weird fruit salads andoatmeal cookie sandwiches? They looked really suspicious…” Basil said. “No, they’re definitely slu—EWWW ONE MOVED WHAT THE HECK—They are definitely slugs.” Said Ren. “Whatever, les justtry to figure out where we are.” “Wait, but we can’t climb down the tree, or we’ll just end up back atschool. We have to jump.” Basil said, then contradicted herself.Ren looked at Morris. She scootedthe lunchbox over to him. “You eat this?” Ren said, in a funny voice. Morris’ pupils dilated as hestarted to chew it up. Bazil wrinkled her nose. Ren rested her head on her hand. She yawned. Shegrabbed the edge of the ledge and looked over. They heard a low growl. Bazil flinched. “Uhhhh, what was that?” She said Ren awkwardly smiled and gestured to her stomach. “I’m not all thathungry, really.” Said Ren. Bazil raised her eyebrow. “Really?” She asked. “Yes, really.” Said Ren.“What about you?” She asked. “A little bit.” Bazil responded, chuckling. Ren leaned over the edgeagain. “Well, I don’t think it’s gonna do us any good if we stay up here. I think we should head downbefore dark. Bazil bit her lip and paused. “Alright.” She sighed. Ren grabbed her stuff and started toget a hold on some vines, and Morris lept onto her shoulder. She held out a hand to Bazil.“Coming?” She asked. Bazil nodded. She took her hand and started to follow. Ren jumped off thebase of the tree and gestured for Basil to come down too. Basil hesitated for a moment, then closedher eyes, sighed, and jumped. The mossy ground was soft and squishy beneath their feet and Basilnoticed Ren taking her shoes off. “Come on, it feels nice!” Ren said, smiling. Basil took her socksand shoes off and set them on a wide branch near the base of the tree. “Hand me your stuff,”Basilsaid,“We don’t want anything to steal it.” Ren handed Basil her stuff and ran off. Ren walked offtowards one of the trees. She examined it for a moment. “Whaat are ya doing?” Asked Bazil. “Aha!”Said Ren. She climbed up the tree a few feet and grabbed a round orange fruit from one of thebranches. She sniffed it, and tossed it to Bazil. “Catch!” She hollered. Bazil nearly dropped it, butthen caught at the last second. She tucked it into Ren’s bag, right before Ren hopped dow with anarmful more. Ren started to peel one. “Wait! How do we know it’s not poison!?” Said Bazilsnatching it from Ren’s hand. “Smell it.” Said Ren. Bazil hesitantly sniffed it. To her surprise, itsmelled like an orange. Ren took it back, and when she finished peeling it,she took a slice, ate it,and handed it to Bazil. “I’ll be your poison tester.” Said Ren, chuckling. “You eat it though. Weshould save as much food as possible.” Bazil nodded, and ate the rest of the orange except for oneslice.Bazil offered it to Ren. “You sure?” Asked Ren. “Oh my god, yes. You know, you’re really badat taking care of yourself.” Said Bazil. Ren sighed and took the slice, muttering something under herbreath. “What’s that?” Said Bazil. “Nothing.” Ren said, her mouth full. Ren looked at the setting sun,and looked at the tree. “See if you can find some stones.” She said to Bazil. “Alright.” Bazil said,walking off. Ren grabbed her pack, dug around. “Aha!” She pulled out herpocket knife and got to work. When Bazil returned, Ren was sitting next to a pile of leaves, small twigs, and sticks. Renlooked up “Oh good! I was beginning to get worried that you got lost!” Ren exclaimed. Bazil rolledher eyes, setting the stones ion the ground. Red arranged them all into a circle. She set up all thetwigs and leaves into a small pile in the middle of the rocks. She arranged the sticks into a smallteepee. The sky had darkened to a deep blue. Ren pulled out a box of matches, and lit the leaves.By the time the fire was completely burnt out, they were both fast asleep. Leaned up against thetree, Ren dreamt. Ren was laying in a black void, nothing but her, floating in the abyss. Her handsstarted to glow, and her eyes opened, glowing a bright blue. Everything went black. Laying next tothe fire, Bazil dreamt. She stood in a white void. Nothing but her, standing in the abyss. She stoodfor a moment, and then closed her eyes. Her hands started to glow a golden red. Everything wentwhite. Ren awoke, but she wasn’t sitting. She stood, panting, with a sword made of pure crystal inher hand. A dark figure laid on the ground. Her eyes grew wide. “Bazil? Bazil! Where are you?” Sheyelled. Ren’s feint glow revealed Bazil, still lying on the ground. Ren dropped her sword and ranback towards Bazil she knelt down, and saw she wasn’t breathing. Panicked, she took her wrist,looking for a pulse.* Bazil awoke, seeing nothing but a feint glow, the shape of a sword. ”Oh thankthe gods.” She said, feeling a live heartbeat, and seeing Bazil’s eyes open. Bazil flinched, her eyeswide, seeing a figure with glowing blue eyes and glowing blue hands kneeling next to her. “Ren!?”She shouted, her eyes darting. “Where are you!?” She yelled. “It’s okay, it’s me!” Said Ren. Bazilcalmed down a bit. “Wait… Why are you glowing?” They said in unison. “Wait, I’m glowing!?” Theyboth said. “Holy-! What? I wasn’t imagining it!” Exclaimed Ren. Bazil looked at Ren. She saw a pairof white glowing eyes from behind the tree. Ren looked in the same direction. “That’s one of thethings I knocked out over there!” Ren said. Without even thinking, like a reflex, Bazil stool up andput up her hands. The golden red glow became brighter. Ren and Basil stood back to back. Theglowing eyes moved around the clearing, just so that the entity was invisible. Then the entity creptcloser until it was barely out of sight. Just then, Basil’s hands started flickering. Then theybrightened to a bright blue. Then she started floating, and her eyes and mouth opened wide, and shot a white beam at the creature. Once Ren could see again, she saw the creature’s eyes widen,then it turned around and ran back into the forest. Ren turned around and saw Basil still floating,with a white flame in her eyes. Then Basil turned to Ren and looked at her directly in the eye, thencollapsed on the ground, massaging her eyes. Ren reached and touched Basil’s shoulder. “Youokay?” Ren said. “Yeah. That was fun.” Basil smiled, then looked down at her hands. She snappedher fingers, then the blue glow reappeared. She looked back up at Ren and had the happiest smileon her face. “What can you do?” “Well, I don’t think I can do anything compared to what you justdid. Do you even know what you just did? That was so cool!” Ren exclaimed. Basil blushed. “Butstill, you should try out what you can do! But also, how did we get these?” Basil said, gesturing toher hands. “I don’t know. But how did you activate that?” Ren swung her sword around, thengrabbed it with both her hands and pointed it at the ground, then pulled it up and hit the moss.Immediately, it split in two small swords. Ren’s eyes opened wide. “This is amazing! I-“ She paused.“I don’t know who or what we got these powers from, but… we probably got them for a reason.”Bazil nodded. “I wonder if…” She looked down at the remnants of the fire and snapped her fingersagain. The ashes bursted into a blue flame. Red picked up the matches from the ground. “Guess wewon’t need these anymore.” She said. Ren took her swords, and put them back together, formingthe long sword again. “Or this…” She said putting the pocketknife back into her bag. Bazil looked atRen, tilting her head slightly. “Why on earth did you have those in your backpack? And why didn’t Irealize that earlier?” She asked. “Well, uh… you never know.” Ren said, chuckling. Bazilfacepalmed. Ren heard a stick snap. She held up her sword. “We should get moving.” She said.“It’s not safe here.” Bazil nodded, and they headed deeper into the forest. Morris hopped downfrom the tree to perch on Ren’s shoulder. “There you are!” Ren said, smiling. As they ventured intothe thicket, the light of the fire grew dimmer and dimmer behind them. Bazil snapped her fingers,and a flame appeared in her hand. “Well, that’s handy.” Said Bazil. As the forest grew thicker, thequiet seemed emptier, and less natural. Ren and Bazil stood with their shoulders touching, both ofthem gulping down their fear. A twig snapped, and they both let out a quiet squeak of fear. Bazil grabbed onto Ren’s arm. Ren looked down, and saw a broken twig at her feet. “Oh, um… sorry…”She said, awkwardly. “It’s- It’s all good.” Bazil said, immediately letting go of Ren’s arm. “I get easilyscared.” She said, looking down. They continued their trek into the woods, but as they walkedfarther in, they saw a light coming from ahead. “What is that?” Asked Bazil. Ren shrugged. As theywalked closer, they saw a stone archway, with a bright light coming from the other side. Renstopped walking. “What is it?” Asked Bazil. “Doesn’t it seem a little suspicious? A random stonearchway and light in the middle of a pitch black forest at night?” Ren said, walking behind a tree,signaling for Bazil to do the same. “So far, I think walking into random things has worked out forus.” Said Bazil. Ren though for a second. “I go in front, and you not far behind.” She said. Bazilnodded. Ren tossed her sword slightly in the air, and it disappeared, and appeared again, floating afew inches off her back, as if it was in a shieth. “Whoah.” They said in unison. Ren sighed, and thenstarted to walk in. The light blinded them for a moment, but then it settled, and they saw streetlamps, about four feet tall. They took a look around, and saw small cottages about 6 feet tall liningthe cobblestone roads. And it took them a moment to see the villagers. They saw large frogs, abouttwo feet tall in clothes, running about the roads on two legs. Then they all saw them, and they allnearly dropped everything. For a moment, it was silence. “Um, are you seeing this?” Ren askedBazil. She nodded. Some of the frogs ran off, others running up to them, admiring them like somekind of statue. A few gave them baked goods, others gave flowers, like offerings to gods. One ofthem brought a hooded cloak for each of them. Some of them murmured about legends, and ‘beingsaved’. “Uh, uhm, th-thank you all, but really, we don’t need all this.” Said Ren. They eachpersisted. Bazil stood there, confused. “Really, we do-“ then the sound of a stick hitting the groundrung across the road. A frog in a small cloak with a staff walked over. “Leave them.” It said. The restscurried off. “You two. We have some catching up to do, I see.” He walked over to a larger cabin. “Iam very confused right now, some explanation would be great.” Said Ren. “I second that.” Baziladded. “Come inside.” Said the frog. The frog led them into a clearing with two huge thrones set up.Basil and Ren’s names were etched into the wood with black metal. “I’m surprised you didn’t know about the legend before. My name is Gace, and I’m the leader of the village of Coramon (core-eh-m-on), which, in our language, literally translates to frogs.” He smiled, giving the friends a sense ofsecurity. Gace sighed, and rubbed his face. “Did you guys feel anything when you got here?” Theyboth said no. “This will be hard to tell you, but this is your home. It’s no surprise you two are bestfriends.” “WHAT?!”They both screamed. “In the legends, it says that two baby girls will be bornduring the New Moon, the darkest night. This is extremely important because our moon is alwaysfull. Coramon has always been in danger of The Withered consuming the forest. The Withered is theother side of the planet. There is no possible way for us Corams to push it off, so we have to keepmoving further away.” “The legend claims that after the girls have reached age fifteen, they will findtheir way to their abilities and to our village. Then they will push The Withered back to its half of theplanet and the forest will thrive in peace. Now, I’m assuming you have no clue what these abilitiesare or how to use them?” Basil snapped her fingers and the glow appeared. Ren reached behindher back and pulled the sword from its invisible sheath. “We’ve found them all right.” Ren said.“Most of them.” Gace added. Ren and Bazil looked at each other, confused. “Ren, Bazil, have youtested your powers all?” He asked. “I mean, we both defeated one-“ Ren said. “No.” Gaceinterrupted. “More than once.” He said. Ren and Bazil shook their heads. Gace massaged his frog-temples. “You two are going to need a lot of training.” He sighed. “Follow me.” He said, walking outof the door. Ren shrugged, and followed him out, along with Bazil. He led them to a small clearing.There were several dummies made of sacks, dyed black like the things they fought in the woods, or‘The Withered’. “These should do for now. They should help you discover some of your otherabilities.” Ren nodded. “Okay.” Said Bazil. Gace walked off. “Good luck!” He shouted. Ren sighed.“I guess we should… start training?” Ren said. “Yeah.” Said Bazil. Ren pulled out her sword. Bazilsnapped her fingers. Two hours later, Ren and Bazil sat against the wall, panting. “Anything?”Asked Bazil. “Nope.” Responded Ren. “You?” She asked. “No.” Bazil replied. Ren sighed. “Whatwas he thinking? Training dummies? To help reveal our powers?” Ren rested her head on the wall.“I’m tired, you?” She asked. “Yeah. Sleeeeeeeeeeep.” She said, putting her backpack over her head. Ren looked back at Bazil and laughed. She saw a shadow behind her. “Wait what is- Bazil,look out!” She yelled. Ren jumped in front of Bazil and pulled out her sword, but it turned into asword and shield.“What is- what the heck!?” Bazil said, pulling her backpack off her head. Renswung at the creature, but it dodged to the side. It screeched and swung with it’s shadow-likeclaws, but Ren held her shield up, and blocked the hit. It swung at her legs with it’s other hand, butRen didn’t see it coming. “Agh!” She shouted, and then she swung again and hit the creaturestraight in the torso, knocking it to the ground. It’s eyes closed, and it stopped moving. Ren fell toone knee. Bazil ran over to her. “Ren! Are- are you okay?” She stuttered. “I’m- fine.” Ren muttered,gritting her teeth. “Oh, shut up!” Bazil yelled. “You need to admit that you’re human too! You needto eat, you need sleep, and you need medical attention when you get hurt by a magical shadowcreature. Geez!” She shouted. Ren looked surprised. “Now show me your ankle.” Ren froze for asecond, and then sat down and showed Bazil her ankle. Bazil rolled up her sleeves, and the cuff ofRen’s jeans. Bazil wrinkled her nose. “How bad?” Ren asked. Bazil looked at the blood drippingfrom the claw marks. “Pretty bad.” She said. She pulled her water bottle out of her pack, and gentlyripped the torn fabric from Ren’s jeans. “He-“ Ren started, but Bazil glared at her, so she kelp hermouth shut. She let the cool water drip onto the fabric, and tied it around the wound. Ren winced.Bazil looked concerned. “This seems like more than a cut.” Bazil said, frowning. She put her handon the wound, and it started to glow. They both opened their eyes wide. “What is-“ Ren started. “Idon’t know.” Bazil said, staring at her hand. "Um, i think you're healing it..." Ren said, in awe. Bazillaughed and smiled, then focused on the wound. it glowed brighter and brighter, and when Bazillooked, she saw the skin pulling together on the edges, then mending itself towards the middle."You're all set!" Bazil said brightly. Ren giggled. " You sound like the school nurse!" They shared alaugh together. Then Bazil noticed the sun rising. " You know, Gace is probably one of thoe guysthat wakes up really early to start training, so…” Ren nodded. “We should do the same.” She said.Basil looked at Ren, a puzzled look on her face. “What’s that look?” Ren asked. “What look? Bazilshot back, the look gone from her face. “That look… You were staring at me?” “Oh. Well, I guess, you’re just… you’ve changed. In the two short days we’ve been here, you seem a bit more grownup.” Bazil shrugged. “Grown up? We’re high school sophmores, I’m pretty sure I was ‘grown up’before.” Ren responded. “No, I mean… like more mature.” Bazil said. “Oh. Have I?” Ren said,looking at the rising sun. “Yes, now stop staring at the the sun, you dummy,” Bazil put her handover Ren’s eyes. “You’ll burn your eyes.” “Okay, okay,” Ren brushed Bazil’s hand away. “Now weshould get to work.” Bazil nodded. “But I don’t think we should do it here.” Bazil added, smirking.