As Trinity begins to search through her duffle bag for warmer clothing for her hike, she discovers a rectangular box at the bottom of the bag. " What is this?" She asks herself; she goes to open it, and a note is on top. 'Just in case. Enjoy and meet Bob. "Bob? What's a bob?" She asks herself as she picks up the item that is wrapped in cloth, and before she can unwrap it. It begins to vibrate. After dropping it and screaming in terror, she gathers herself and opens it. A bright, glittering pink vibrator lies on her bed, staring back at her.

After setting it aside, she laughs at Eliza's joke and shakes her head. Once she regains self-control, she begins preparing her hiking gear. She includes a portable battery pack for her phone, a blanket with matches, a rope, water, snacks, a poncho, a flashlight with extra batteries, and an extra pair of clothes in her bag. She doesn't know why she packed a rope, but she felt she needed it. After finishing, she hurriedly puts on her clothes, writes her parents a note letting them know she went hiking, gets her phone, and leaves for her hike.

She enjoys the tranquility of the wilderness while strolling along the paths her parents told her about. She walks, and she stops in her tracks as she sees a beautiful, timid deer with a baby eating the dark green grass. Pulling her phone from her hoodie pocket, she begins taking pictures of the scene before her. After she gets the photo, she continues on her hike. She occasionally pauses to take pictures; she has captured images of birds, deer, and even the river where she is currently eating lunch.

She chooses to unwind by the river after finishing her lunch. She lies back on the riverbank with her feet dipping in the water, enjoying the peaceful, soothing sound of the river flowing like music to her ears. As she lies there with her eyes closed, she can hear the frogs croaking and the birds chirping. Despite being soothing, the water feels extremely cold to the touch. Lying there, she begins to think of her brother and how, as kids, they used to swim here and have picnics here, just like she is doing now.

After about twenty minutes in, she takes her feet out and puts them back into her shoes and stands up to finish her hike. She realizes as she is walking that she is so far from home that she is unsure of her location. When she turns around, she realizes that she is no longer on the path her father had created for them when they were kids. She chooses to walk and see where she ends up rather than freaking out. She keeps telling herself to remain calm and keep going even though her heart begins to race with fear.

****

She walks in circles for about three hours before the sky grows dark. When it gets too dark to see, she stops and takes out her flashlight. She walks a little more and ends up at a cave that she has never seen before. The cave's exterior is composed of rough, grey stone that feels rough to the touch, and there is some moss both on top of and surrounding the entrance. l.

She feels a powerful magnetic pull from it as she approaches it, as if she were meant to find it and must enter. But the voice in her head is telling her to turn back and not enter. But she is a curious and stubborn person; she doesn't listen, and she enters the cave.

She switches on the flashlight as soon as she enters the cave, which is completely dark, and she is mesmerized by the stones and jewels strewn all over the cave's walls and roof. When the light strikes them at the right angle, millions of vibrant lights shine everywhere. When she reaches a four-way path further into the cave, she hears water running—it is a very faint sound—but she chooses to turn right and follow it. The closer she gets, the louder the sound is. After she finally arrives at where the water is, she sees a massive waterfall along with a stone bridge that leads to another entryway.

She glances around and notices more crystal-like stones that are illuminating the small space, despite the fact that she is not shining her light on them. She then looks up and sees that the cave's roof has a hole in it, and the moon is above it, illuminating the entire space. "Woah, this is breathtaking." Trinity says to herself as she takes her phone out again and takes a picture. As she looks toward the waterfall, she spots the ideal location for an overlook photo. She crosses the bridge in order to ascend the waterfall.

Once she gets across the bridge, she puts her flashlight down on the ground and adjusts her bag before she starts to climb. She reaches the ledge after a few minutes, tries to pull herself up, and then lands on it, where she begins to take pictures. She steps to the left, loses her balance, and tries to regain control but fails and falls instead.

"AHhh" She screams, and as she lands in the water pool, she gets a mouthful of water. In a panic, she tries to kick her legs up and throws her arms around. Her lungs begin to burn, and her throat tightens as she struggles to swim to the water's surface.

When she eventually emerges from the water, she realizes that she is not in the same area of the cave as she was only a short while before. "What the hell?" she says to herself. As she struggles to pull herself out of the water and sits on the bank, she discovers she dropped her phone in the water. "Fuck?" she shouts as she runs her hands through her hair and looks around. She sees she still has her bag, but "everything in it is probably ruined from falling," she thinks to herself. After removing the bag from her back, Trinity opens it to find that her blanket is soaked and that her matches are ruined, leaving her without a means of starting a fire to dry her clothes and blanket. "Great. Fucking fantastic." She whispers as she returns everything to her bag.

She throws the bag onto her shoulders and starts walking out. As she walks, she trips and stumbles a few times and scrapes her knees and hands as she falls. She still walks and stumbles a little because she feels a little lightheaded. She wonders if she hit her head during the fall.

After roughly ten minutes, she finally sees light, and as she continues to walk in that direction, she comes across the exit. "Thank God I can get home." She says When she reaches the exit, she must squint her eyes due to the intense brightness of the outside. "What the hell. I haven't been in there that long." She says, looking around, seeing it's the middle of the day.

Trinity begins to experience tunnel vision, and her body begins to sway as she leaves the cave.

***

Nokken is out training the new warriors; they are on a twenty-mile run. He has the uneasy feeling that something is amiss as they run. He stops in his tracks when the wind shifts, and he gets a strong scent of sweet sugar cookies and a hint of apple blossoms. He looks over at his friend Drakkin. "Do you smell that?" He asks him, and Drakkin looks at Nokken and sniffs to see if he catches whatever Nokken is picking up. "No, man, I don't smell anything." Drakkin says as he looks at his friend with worry.

Nokken makes an effort to ignore the scent, but the urge to follow it only grows stronger. "Men, this way." He shouts over his shoulder and motions for them to follow him. He trains the men while Cora, the head female warrior, trains the women. The men follow him towards the caves. "There shouldn't be anything out this way. The caves have been shut down for 26 years since Alesetar was banned from Moonlight Meadows." Drakkin says to Nokken as they run ahead of the trainees.

They arrive at the caves and stop in their tracks when they see a brown-haired girl soaked with blood, dripping down her head, lying in the grass. Nokken walks up to her and brushes her hair from her face. And what he sees takes his breath away.