The path to the city wound like a ribbon tossed by the wind - sometimes gentle, sometimes sharp, and always leading deeper into the unknown.
Lavender walked in silence beside Vashir. The morning sun painted gold in her dark curls, her bare feet dusted with pollen and bits of crushed leaf. Every so often, a beetle the size of a teacup would buzz past, and she would pause to admire its shimmering shell like it was a gemstone gifted by nature itself.
But inside her mind... it was far from quiet.
This world - this strange, untamed realm of beastmen and whispering forests - it thrummed beneath her skin. Every rock, every breeze, every distant call of a creature unknown sang of stories waiting to be discovered. Of tribes and rules. Of instincts and ancient bones that still remembered who they were.
And Lavender? She was beginning to wonder who she was in all of it.
---
"I don't think I belong here," she said softly.
Vashir's ears twitched. "And yet here you are."
She kicked a pebble. "Exactly. I was just supposed to examine a totem. Add it to my collection. Instead, I'm walking beside a snake man who turns into a literal beast when he's annoyed, while carrying a haunted pendant from a tree made of bones."
Vashir made a soft, amused snort. "You forgot the part where you're barefoot and have no idea how to survive in the wild."
She smiled. "I'm choosing to ignore that part for my own dignity."
He glanced at her, slitted eyes unreadable. "Do you regret it?"
She opened her mouth to say yes.
Then paused.
No. She didn't. Not even a little.
Because here, she felt alive in a way she never had before - even surrounded by priceless relics and impossible inventions in her old world.
There was something sacred in the beastmen world. Something primal and beautiful and forgotten. It wasn't clean or polished or auctioned off to the highest bidder. It was wild and strange. And full of beings - not just things - that didn't want to be collected.
They wanted to be known.
Lavender hugged her arms. "I think I'm falling in love."
Vashir blinked. "With me?"
She laughed. "With this world, silly snake."
He didn't answer. He simply looked forward, his jaw tight and unreadable.
---
They passed an abandoned watchtower, now swallowed by vines. A pair of luminous yellow eyes peeked from inside, but vanished when Vashir glanced its way.
Lavender tilted her head. "You never told me why no one remembers your tribe."
He said nothing at first. Just walked.
Then, finally: "Some tribes die. Some vanish. Ours was... rewritten."
"Like a story?"
He nodded. "Erased. For power. For control. The world forgets easier than it remembers."
Lavender slipped her hand into her satchel and touched the singing bone pendant. It was warm again. Remembering her, too.
"Then I'll remember for you," she said.
Vashir stopped. Turned to her. His mouth parted slightly as if to say something sharp, something sarcastic - but nothing came. He just looked at her.
She didn't smile. She meant it.
Lavender wasn't just a collector anymore.
She was a keeper of lost things. Of things worth remembering.
---
The trees began to thin. The air carried the scent of stone and smoke - the edge of civilization.
Ahead, the gates of Kael'Tun shimmered in the distance, half-hidden by mist. Massive stone spires pierced the sky, while wind-swept banners fluttered with symbols she had never seen before. A city of wonder awaited.
Lavender pressed her fingers to her ring, her weapon humming softly beneath her skin.
But she didn't grip it out of fear.
She gripped it like a key.