I pulled my scarf tighter around me, shivering. It had been a little while since lunchtime had passed, though I had no idea how long exactly, but the loud rumbling of my stomach was reminding me very insistently.

  For a moment I feared Liz had gotten lost. We were deep in the forest, and above us the trees, with their thick snow-covered branches, almost completely blocked out the sky.

  “Liz, let’s go back. Come on, you dragged me out of the house so quickly I didn’t even have time to eat breakfast. I want something to eat.”

  I kept whining, completely focused on my hunger, while my friend, ignoring me entirely, walked ahead through the silent woods.

  “Just a little further. We’re almost there.”

  I fixed my eyes on the large bag she was carrying, hoping there might be something edible inside.

  “At least tell me where we’re going. It’s freezing here.”

  I was used to the cold winter air, but here it was terribly cold. Now that I thought about it, I couldn’t remember ever feeling such a biting chill.

  Are temperatures lower in the human kingdom?

  But even in Agene, the air never felt this icy, not even at night.

  Maybe I’m getting sick. And above all, I want to get out of here as soon as possible. This place makes me uneasy.

  “Here we are.”

  Liz stopped in front of me. I looked around.

  We were still in the forest, but ahead of us stood a massive boulder, probably twice our height, covered in snow.

  The uneasy feeling inside me grew stronger the moment I looked at it. I could sense a strange magical power coming from the rock, something ancient and unfamiliar, and instinctively I took a step back.

  What kind of magic is this?

  “A… rock?”

  “Don’t let appearances fool you.”

  Grinning in a slightly unsettling way, Liz approached the boulder as if to touch it, but instead of stopping against the stone, her hand passed straight through it.

  An illusionary wall!

  I stared open-mouthed as my friend confidently walked forward and disappeared into the rock.

  With a bad feeling creeping up my spine, I hesitated for a moment before following her.

  The inside was enormous. The walls were illuminated by dozens of blue and green mana crystals.

  Liz had already set the bag on the ground and was removing her scarf and coat.

  “Wait, what are you doing? You’re undressing in this… cold?”

  But now that I paid attention, the air around us had completely changed.

  It felt like we had suddenly been transported to a warm summer evening.

  I took off my coat as well, and for a brief moment I forgot everything when I saw Liz opening the bag.

  Food!

  My enthusiasm disappeared instantly when, instead of the bread I had imagined, Liz pulled out two towels.

  She spread them on the ground and motioned for me to sit.

  “Can I ask what exactly your plan is today?”

  I couldn’t tell whether my growing uneasiness came from the cave itself or from Liz’s strange behavior.

  “The ground is damp. I don’t want to dirty my clothes sitting directly on it.”

  I shot her a deadly glare.

  She immediately raised her hands defensively.

  “Yesterday I was taking a walk along my usual path, but at some point I thought I saw a strange animal between the trees. So I tried to follow it, but I lost its tracks. Isn’t that strange? In a forest full of snow I lost an animal’s trail. It didn’t leave a single footprint! As if it were as light as a feather. Actually, now that I think about it, the strangest part is that I even saw it. Since when do animals wander around the forest in winter? Or at least an animal like that, it looked like a deer, or something similar. I wanted to find out what it was, but once I lost sight of it I couldn’t. Then I ended up here, in front of this rock, and when I leaned on it to rest, imagine my surprise when I fell through and landed inside a stone! I nearly died of fright! But it’s beautiful, don’t you think? I immediately thought I had to bring you here. I know nothing about magic, I’m really not cut out for it, but you’re a thousand times better than me. So? Are we in a new magical world?”

  Liz had spoken so quickly that I struggled to follow everything.

  She stared at me with eyes shining with excitement.

  I held back a laugh and smiled.

  “I don’t think so, sorry. I can feel a strong magical aura. I’ve never perceived this kind of magic before. It feels… surreal. Almost as if… yes, as if it came from another world.”

  “So we really are somewhere else?” Liz looked ready to explode with excitement.

  “No, it’s just the magic that’s strange.”

  “Eh, what’s the difference? Every world has its own magic, right?”

  “Well… not really. Magic is always the same, everywhere. This feels ancient. Like it comes from a very distant past. I feel… nostalgia. And solemnity. As if it once belonged to an incredibly ancient people. I don’t know how to explain it… It’s like when you breathe fresh air and then walk into a room that’s been closed for a long time. Air is still air, but you can tell it’s… old, right?”

  I wasn’t even sure I had explained it well.

  After all, I didn’t really know what we had found either.

  Though the idea of encountering a new kind of magic excited me.

  “Hmm… I see. So we’re still in Agene.” There was a hint of disappointment in Liz’s voice.

  But it didn’t last long.

  “So, shall we explore?”

  Liz jumped to her feet.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  At that exact moment my stomach growled loudly again.

  “Let’s do it another day. Preon and Cole will be worried if we don’t go back soon.”

  Liz gave me an annoyed look.

  “You just want to go home and eat, don’t you?”

  “Who knows…”

  “Well, my dear friend, I came prepared.”

  She bent over the bag and pulled out two olive-and-walnut flatbreads.

  “So? Wasn’t I brilliant?”

  “As if you weren’t hungry too.”

  “Oops. You caught me.”

  She handed me one and began eating hers.

  “But… after this… we go… exploring… obviously.”

  “At least finish chewing before you talk. Understanding you like this is impossible.”

  “What are you saying… you’re amazing… in just a few months… you even learned… to read… and write…”

  I didn’t think I was that capable, but instead of answering I started eating as well.

  “Alright, from here the cave slopes downward. Be careful.”

  By now I had completely lost track of how long we had been wandering through those tunnels.

  I wished I had a tiny sun in my pocket so I could always tell what time of day it was.

  Guided by the glowing crystals, now turning more yellow than blue, we had followed a single tunnel. Contrary to what we expected, we hadn’t found a single fork.

  As we walked, the magical energy around us kept growing stronger.

  But I didn’t mention it to Liz yet.

  Even though every cell in my body was telling me to turn around and leave.

  The descent didn’t last long. The tunnel opened into a chamber roughly the size of the inn’s celebration hall.

  The only problem was that there was no exit, except the tunnel we had just come from.

  The cave walls were irregular, as caves usually are, except for one spot directly ahead of us.

  Liz set down the bag and approached first.

  There, embedded in the wall, was a perfectly smooth black stone panel.

  Across its surface was a line of text engraved in golden ink, infused with magic.

  Liz turned back toward the tunnel.

  “Ugh. All that walking just for a black slab.”

  I froze.

  “What do you mean just a black slab? What about the writing?”

  She looked at me, puzzled.

  “What writing?”

  “Wait. You’re telling me you don’t see the golden letters on the slab?”

  Liz tilted her head even further.

  “You see something on it? There’s nothing there.”

  I turned back to the wall.

  Maybe it had just been an illusion.

  But the writing was still there.

  I looked at Liz again, then back at the slab.

  “Maybe you can’t see it because it was written with some kind of spell?”

  I leaned closer.

  The script was delicate, beautiful. Just looking at it made me feel small and defenseless.

  The aura surrounding it was the oldest magic I had ever felt.

  My curiosity to discover who had written it, and why, grew immensely.

  As I tried to read it, I suddenly realized something strange.

  Half of the text was written in Elvish.

  The other half… probably in the human language.

  Human and Elvish together? How is that possible? The inscription seemed incredibly ancient.

  As far as I knew, humans and elves had never lived together. Or had they? I had never read anything about it… but I had never read anything denying it either. Maybe I was simply too young to know the history. Maybe it had only been a few individuals meeting by chance. But then why place this slab here? And why couldn’t Liz see it? Humans are born with the ability to sense mana, aren’t they? Preon uses magic, and surely-

  “So?” Liz interrupted my thoughts.

  “So what?”

  “What does it say?”

  As I examined it more carefully, I realized I didn’t understand many of the words, especially the human ones.

  The Elvish seemed written in a dialect.

  Unfortunately the only dialects I knew were the northern one from my homeland and a little of the western one. This was neither.

  “I’ll need some time to think about it. Do you have paper? I’d like to copy it and study it calmly at home. I don’t know what time it is, but I feel exhausted now.”

  “Now that you mention it…” Liz yawned. “But I didn’t bring paper. I only have the lunch napkins. Will that work?”

  “Maybe…”

  I took one and spread it in front of the slab.

  I approached one of the mana crystals and infused it with a small portion of my magic.

  A sharp cracking sound echoed through the chamber as the crystal shattered.

  I gathered some of the powder and placed it beside the napkin.

  Then I focused on the air around me.

  Slowly turning in place, I extended my senses through the cave, feeling every tiny drop of water present.

  I drew them together into a single point until a small sphere of water formed before me.

  I let it fall to the ground.

  Liz watched me silently, curiosity and amazement on her face.

  I mixed the water with the crystal dust, creating a crude ink, and began copying the text onto the napkin.

  I was so focused that I completely forgot Liz was there until she touched my shoulder.

  I nearly jumped.

  “Ah! Sorry, I didn’t mean to ignore you.”

  “Don’t worry. How’s it going?”

  She crouched beside me, studying the text.

  “Do you understand anything?”

  “A few words. I think.”

  After a few minutes I stood up, stretching my back.

  “Alright. Let’s go home.”

  We retraced our steps through the cave and found our coats and scarves near the entrance.

  I shivered at the thought of walking again through that freezing forest.

  When we stepped through the hidden passage, blinding light greeted us.

  The sunlight reflecting off the snow made it impossible to see for a few seconds after the dim cave.

  “What? It’s still daytime? Lucky! I thought we’d have to walk back in the dark. Were we inside for such a short time?”

  To me it had felt like hours.

  “Maybe the cave is smaller than it seems.”

  I shrugged, not thinking much more about it.

  My only thought was getting home and studying the text.

  We walked quietly through the snow, the only sound being our footsteps crunching the fresh powder.

  “Bye! Let me know if you discover anything about that writing.”

  After a hug, Liz and I went our separate ways toward our houses.

  I still held the napkin carefully in my hand.

  The first thing I would do was copy it onto proper paper.

  A thin trail of smoke rose from Preon’s house, and the kitchen lights were on.

  “I’m home.”

  I closed the door behind me and hung my coat beside Preon’s.

  “Welcome back. I was starting to think I’d have to make dinner alone,” he grumbled from the kitchen.

  “Sorry. It’s Liz’s fault.”

  Avoiding the subject, I ran to my room.

  I placed the napkin on the desk and, grabbing a feather pen and a sheet of paper, carefully copied the text, leaving space between the lines for translation.

  I wrote down every familiar word and possible guess.

  Just as I expected, I had almost no idea what the human words meant.

  That disappointed me a little.

  I had thought I had studied enough, since I could read the books in the inn’s library.

  “Dinner’s ready.”

  Preon stood in the doorway, watching me with curiosity.

  “Oh, sorry, I’m coming.”

  I slipped the sheet into the drawer beneath the desk and joined him.

  “Practicing writing again? Want some help?”

  “Something like that, but don’t worry. I want to try on my own. Let’s eat before dinner gets cold. What are we having?”

  “This afternoon we harvested a lot of cauliflower. I made soup.”

  “Ahhh, delicious.”

  I ran to the kitchen excited for dinner.

  I had never eaten cauliflower before arriving in Agene—but now they were absolutely my favorite vegetable.