9. (Un)worrying Venture
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Announcement

I’m really sorry about the lack of updates, I’ve had to do uni stuff (write essays) for the past week. My last deadline of the semester is on the 9th of June (Maybe the 14th, depends on whether I ask for a longer deadline or not), so after that I’m completely free to write what I want until September :DDD

What that means is that you might not get any updates before the 9th/14th. I’m really trying to focus on these last 2 essays. I’ll let you know by posting a message on my profile page, so follow me if you want to stay informed !

Honestly, writing this chapter has been a godsend, it’s so much easier and so much more interesting than essays. I’m really looking forward to being done with uni work D:

Wednesday morning brought even more change to Ryan’s life, when Sarah decided to sit down next to him in class. Compared to everything that had happened up until now, this could barely be considered to be worth noting, but Ryan couldn’t help the spike of anxiousness that he felt as Sarah settled in the chair next to his. What if people noticed?

Exhaling, Ryan made an effort to calm down. Even though he was worried, he also found himself smiling. He'd enjoyed talking to Sarah the previous day, and couldn't help but be glad that he had someone to talk to. It made the burdens he carried seem just a bit lighter.

Since couldn’t really discuss anything magical in the middle of a classroom, Sarah decided to go with small talk. They still didn’t know much about each other, after all. What Sarah mostly gathered from these discussions, however, was that Ryan needed to get out more. Actually, that wasn’t right, he got out often enough, but he didn’t have any hobbies. It felt as if everything he did was because of some sort of obligation, or because he thought it was the right thing to do. She’d suspected that Ryan didn’t spend much time having fun, but she hadn’t believed it to be that bad.

And so, a plan was starting to take shape in her mind. Ryan needed to relax, by a lot, it also probably wouldn't hurt him to explore his identity a bit, come to think about who he was. She thought about introducing him to some of her other friends, but decided that was a pretty bad idea. He’d freak out for sure. She tabled that idea for now, and looked for other options.

By noon, Sarah had a plan, and she couldn't wait to tell Ryan all about it. She practically dragged him to the park they'd gone to yesterday, acted as a lookout while he transformed, before dragging him back to a banch and making him sit down.

“We’re going to the mall this afternoon,” she told him with finality, her arms crossed, as if daring him to object.

It certainly sounded more like a fact than a suggestion, and the look on Ryan's face betrayed his surprise. Sarah felt a bit guilty about how she’d worded her idea, but she could tell that he wouldn’t accept without a bit of pressure from her part.

“What?” Ryan eloquently asked, his face halfway between confused and worried.

“I said we’re going to the mall. We can find some clothes for your other form!” Sarah replied, all smiles.

“I...I'm not sure that's a good idea,”

“Come on! We’ll find you some stuff to wear so you can go out in public while transformed,” she continued, like it was nothing. “Nothing frilly, I promise.”

Ryan still wanted to protest, but the pleading expression on Sarah's face was enough to make him cave in.

“…Okay,”

“Great! We can take the bus and directly go there once classes are over,” she replied happily.

-

A few hours later, as the end of the afternoon classes was nearing, Sarah found that she was getting more and more excited. She was trying to tone it down for Ryan’s sake, but she couldn’t help thinking about the kind of things she could introduce him to. She wasn’t exactly sure why, but the thought of helping him explore his identity made her feel giddy.

Finally, the bell rang, and all the students stood up, making their way towards the exit, while the teacher was desperately trying to give last minute indications. As both teens in turn exited the classroom, Sarah noticed that Ryan was intently looking ahead, a strange expression on his face.

Following his gaze, she found an old man staring back at them. More precisely, staring at Ryan. He sported a bushy mustache, and very little hair was left on his head. Small round glasses adorned his face, framing his attentive gaze. It didn’t take her long to figure out who he was, Ryan having talked extensively about Becker in the past few days. It wasn’t very hard to connect the dots.

Ryan, for his part, didn’t know what Becker was doing there. Sure, they both had each other’s schedule in case they needed to talk, but rarely did Becker come find Ryan, most of the time, it was the opposite. The first thing that popped into Ryan’s mind was the bracelet. Maybe the professor had learned something new! His heart started beating a bit faster at the thought. Whatever it was, they obviously needed to talk.

Turning his head, he looked at Sarah. Taking in her curious, but also quite wary eyes in. It was obvious she didn’t like Becker much, despite having never talked to him, but Ryan couldn’t really fault her. His opinion of the man wasn’t that much better.

“That’s Becker. I think he has something to tell me,” he said neutrally. “Do you mind waiting for a bit ? I’ll make sure it doesn’t take too long.”

Sarah wasn’t really eager at the idea of letting Ryan go with him. She knew Becker had a lot of influence over him, even if Ryan didn’t seem to realize how much, and she wasn’t sure he wouldn’t cancel their afternoon if Becker asked him to. She bit her lip, almost tempted to ask him to stay, but eventually nodded her agreement.

“I’ll wait for you outside, meet me there once you’re done,” with a small hesitant smile, she made her way towards her locker, hoping everything would be alright. Glancing one last time at the professor, she thought she'd spotted a flash of worry cross his eyes, before dismissing the thought.

With that done, Ryan approached the professor, who wordlessly set off through the school's hallways, Ryan in tow. Ryan wasn’t sure, but Becker had seemed just a bit more grim than usual, which worried him. By the time they found an empty classroom nearby, Ryan’s mind had already gone through dozens of scenarios, each crazier than the other.

Becker sat down at the teacher’s desk, and Ryan mirrored him by sitting down on a table at the front of the class.

“We need to plan a trip in the forest,“ Becker stated, blunt as ever.

“What for? Do you need ingredients?” Asked Ryan. It was usually the reason they went in there most of the time, though Becker would normally just send him a text, telling him when they’d go. Taking Ryan’s schedule into account had never been big on his list of priorities.

“I don’t. As you know, something odd is taking place in there, and we need to figure out what, sooner rather than later. That manticore we found in the outskirts was already very unusual, but I believe there is more to it than just monsters wandering outside of their territories,” Becker replied, steepling his hands together.

Ryan’s blood turned cold at Becker’s word. He had been in the forest with Sarah yesterday, they’d been very lucky not to cross paths with him. The last thing Ryan wanted was for Becker to ask him questions about her. Ryan could deal with the old man when needed, but he didn't want Sarah to have to share this burden.

 “What makes you think that?” Ryan asked, already feeling a tinge of annoyance at Becker's usual evasiveness. He needed to know what was going on if he wanted to be able to help, yet he always had to pry the information out of the old Professor.

“I felt... energy, magic, I’m not sure. I felt a wave of something coming from inside the forest, and if I’m right, a lot of the fauna felt it too. It was very unnerving. This could be very bad, Ryan.

We’ll be going during the morning, and until the end of the afternoon, to avoid the more dangerous creatures hunting at twilight. We’ll also probably be going much further than usual.”

“How much further?” Ryan asked, a barely perceptible tremor in his voice.

“As deep as we need to. We’ll probably need to get into the Inner Ring. We won’t be able to go further than that without having to camp, anyway. I’m hoping we’ll find out what is going on in only one trip, but I doubt it. This is very likely going to only be the first expedition of many.”

Becker’s voice was tense, his gaze directed at the ground, seemingly thoughtful. He looked up at Ryan, as if trying to discern something in his gaze, before he slowly pulled a roll of paper out of his bag, and spread it on the table.

The Eriz Forest was extremely vast. Because of its effects on non-magical people, it was very difficult to correctly gauge its actual size. There didn’t exist any official map of it, and it got more dangerous the deeper you went inside. Ryan had always compared it to the ocean. There came a point when it was too dangerous to venture deeper, and all you could do was imagine. Wonder what kind of creatures lurked there, in the dark, wonder what kind of plants grew, what kind of strange magic you could find at its very center.

Becker had spent a lot of time in the forest, Ryan wasn’t exactly sure how much, but he knew the professor had lived in Eriz for decades. In all that time, he’d mapped a considerable part of the forest, in order to know what grew where, and what creatures resided in which parts of the forest.

As he approached the table, Ryan quickly recognized the map that laid there. Because of Becker’s reticence to share information, he’d never seen it in its entirety. When it had been needed, Becker had given him pieces of the map, showing some of the regions of the forest, sometimes with details obviously removed from them. It was the first time he’d seen the complete work, and it took his breath away. It was immense, much bigger than Ryan had imagined, and filled with detailed drawings and annotations. The map was separated in regions, colored to show the territories of the different creatures that called the forest home, with small pictograms indicating know spots of various resources. Even more impressive, it looked like it had been entirely drawn by hand. It was a work of art, something that Ryan would have never thought to be capable of. A lot of care had gone into this map, and it showed.

A detail that caught Ryan's eye were the three black circles that separated the forest into four separate regions, almost like the circles on a target.

The first, external region was the one Ryan was the most familiar with. It was simply named The Outskirts, and was circling the whole forest. This area was mostly safe, besides a few very specific places. The forest's magic wasn't very strong there, and so people would occasionally be curious enough to resist the urge to turn away. Still, they never made it far before they found themselves walking away. It was still pretty rare, but it could happen.

The next region was called The Central Ring. Ryan had always thought the name was a bit stupid, since you could argue it wasn’t exactly central, but that wasn’t really important. It was the biggest of all in terms of surface, and while Ryan was used to go in that part of the forest, sometimes alone, he wasn’t entirely familiar with all of it. Some places were best left alone, too dangerous to venture into, and it was also very vast, which made it difficult to memorize by heart. Both Becker and Ryan were always on guard when going there, but as long as they were careful, danger was easily avoided.

The third one was called the Inner Ring. From that point, Ryan’s knowledge was becoming patchy at best. He’d only gone that deep twice in his life, when Becker had needed very specific ingredients, for reasons he hadn’t disclosed to Ryan. These two trips were ones he could never forget. He remembered how darkness had seemed to cling to the air, and how little light had passed through the canopy. It was also quiet, even Ryan's own steps had sounded strangely muffled, he recalled. One day, as they'd been carefully trekking through the thick vegetation,  they’d caught glimpses of creatures Ryan hadn’t been able to identify, features he’d never seen on any other creature before.

The thought was enough to send shivers down Ryan's spine. Becker had been very serious both times, and had made sure to impart to Ryan how important it had been for them to blend into their surroundings. He’d been tense, and so had been Ryan. Seeing the professor, usually so in control of the situation get nervous had been a humbling experience.

Finally came The Core. The center of the forest. Ryan had absolutely no idea what was there. Surprisingly, it seemed Becker didn’t either. The circular center of the map was completely blank, and Ryan felt himself shiver at the realization. He'd gotten used to thinking of Becker as a formidable user of magic, whose knowledge was vast, and being confronted with something that even the old man knew nothing about made him feel uneasy.

Even more than that, Becker had implied they might need to go deeper than The Inner Ring, and that meant The Core. That would mean going in with absolutely no prior information, without thinking about the fact they would need to stay the night deep inside of the forest if they wanted to reach it. They’d never camped in the Inner Ring before, they'd always stayed at its edge, as the idea seemed crazy with all the creatures lurking around.

What worried Ryan the most, however, was Becker’s attitude. After years of leaving the teen in the dark, he’d just casually pulled a map that must have taken years to make and shown it to him. If Becker thought Ryan needed to know this much, then he was considering the situation to be very dire. That, or he was too worried to retain his usual secretive attitude. Ryan wasn’t sure which scenario he preferred.

Ryan stared at the map for as long as he could, trying to memorize as much of it as he could. He doubted Becker would just lend him a copy, and so he made most of the time he had.

“I’ve traced the path we’ll take on the map. It won’t be the fastest or safest, but it’s the best compromise between the two I’ve been able to find. Meet me this Saturday at sunrise, bring all your equipment, and make sure it is in perfect condition. Do not be late, we don’t have much time, days are getting shorter, now that Fall is coming. I’ll let you know if there is anything else in the meantime.”

Without anything left to say, Becker rolled up the map, and left the classroom without another word. Lost in his thoughts, Ryan made his way outside a few seconds later, the map still clear in his mind's eye.

In the end, it was Sarah who saw him get out of the school building. It didn’t take long for her to realize how agitated Ryan was. His gaze was unfocused, his hand grasping at his other arm anxiously. He hadn’t even seen her approach. She put a hand on his upper arm, trying to get his attention.

With a start, Ryan turned to look at Sarah, her worried gaze boring into his.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“…I’m not sure,” he answered “Becker also thinks there’s something weird about the forest. I’ll tell you about it when there aren’t so many people around, if you want.”

“Alright," Sarah bit her lip. "Try to relax for now, okay? Maybe going to the mall will be enough to distract you.” She said, squeezing his arm in comfort.

“Maybe,” he said, a small yet genuine smile on his face. She was right, no point in worrying about it for now. Together, the set off towards the bus stop, intent on spending the afternoon together.

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