Lara and Aster were the first to arrive.

  “Felix! How’s your day been going?” Lara quickly dove in to give him a hug while Aster quietly nodded to acknowledge his presence before taking a seat.

  “Uhm, ok, I guess. Look, there’s uh something I need to tell you.” Before Felix got any chance to explain, Eugene showed up.

  “Hey guys! It’s been a while! How have you been?” Without waiting for a response, Eugene sat down at the table. Lara immediately looked worried.

  “Uh, hey, why are you here? Uhm, I mean, your group doesn’t normally eat this early, do they?”

  “Oh, don’t worry, the rest aren’t coming, Felix invited me. Didn’t you, Felix?”

  Lara looked at Felix, clearly feeling almost as surprised as he did. Even the normally inscrutable Aster looked a little shocked.

  “Uhm, well. I ran into him and his… ‘friends’ yesterday. Eugene said he’d be willing to share what he’d learned so far to see if anything could help, and I uhm–”

  “Well, clearly Felix is having a hard go of things. What do you say, let's all grab something to eat. I’d like to catch up and hear how things have been going for the rest of you as well.”

  Settling in Eugene quickly took control of the conversation. Everyone else felt a little too awkward to chat as they normally would. Felix still felt shocked at how he’d gone from being so meek to so confident in so little time. Clearly, his results on his journey gave him a major confidence boost. Still, if he looked closely, he could tell that his new attitude didn’t come easily to him.

  While Eugene looked confident, it almost felt like he was parroting someone else’s behaviour.

  “How have you been doing, Lara? You must have passed your first gate by now, right? Was it hard? I’m still working on mine, but I think I’ll be passing it soon.”

  Lara squirmed in her seat, avoiding eye contact. Clearly, Eugene’s presence didn’t sit right with her. It was almost amusing how she started treating him like Felix had before they came to the Crossroad. Unfortunately, just because Lara was uncomfortable didn’t mean he was comfortable.

  The only people who seemed unbothered by Eugene’s presence were Aster and Eugene himself.

  “I’ve been fine, Aster has been training with me. We passed it a little while ago. I’m glad you’re doing well for yourself, Eugene. We should talk about Felix’s Gate, though.”

  “Haha, don’t worry, we have the whole lunch to discuss that, catching up a bit first shouldn’t be an issue. What did you have to do for your challenge? I’m telling you mine is no joke. They’re making me cast my spell in front of a bunch of powerful Travellers.

  ”Just standing under the pressure is unbearable, and I need to do the spell perfectly. I think my challenge is one of the hardest in our group. Ah, but I’m sure yours is much harder since you’re so talented, right?”

  “Uhm, I had to cross a mountain range in a storm, but we should talk about Felix. He has to win in a race against–.”

  “Wow! Yours sounds so hard! If you weren’t so talented, there’s no way you’d have passed it this fast. I’m seriously impressed. As for Felix, a race, huh? Don’t worry about it, man, just jog in the mornings until you run faster, you’ll beat them in no time. Oh, or maybe use that sleep spell of yours on them.”

  “Lara, I have to tell you about…”

  It wasn’t long before Felix realised the mistake he’d made. Eugene had no interest in helping or sharing anything he’d learned. Every time someone tried to bring up his trial, Eugene would brush it off and change the topic back to himself, Lara, or someone else in his group. All he’d managed to do by inviting Eugene was cut the number of times he could blow off some steam from lunch and breakfast to just breakfast.

  Mercifully, the lunch was cut short by Aster after she’d had enough of Eugene’s antics.

  “Lara, we have our sparring session at the gym booked just now. We should get a move on.”

  To Felix’s surprise, even Lara looked relieved at the early end to lunch.

  “Right! Sorry, Eugene, we need to go. It was nice catching up with you again. Felix, don’t worry, Aster and I will keep looking for something on our end. I’m sure we’ll find a way to help in no time.”

  As soon as the girls were out of earshot, Eugene turned to Felix.

  “Did you say something to them? Why did they leave so early?”

  Looking confused, Felix answered honestly.

  “Uhm, they always spar with each other after lunch, usually they go a bit later, but maybe Aster couldn’t book her normal spot in the arena today?”

  Eugene looked at Felix like he’d stolen his last bite of cake and then dropped it on the ground. He stared at Felix like he was about to start a fight, but in the end, he just turned and stomped out of the dorms.

  “Whatever, I’ll talk to them tomorrow. Don’t pull something like that again.”

  Still confused about what Eugene thought he’d done, he just stared after him.

  With lunch ending so early, Felix didn’t really know what to do. He used to be quite sociable before he came to the Crossroad. Now the idea of crowded places just made him feel anxious.

  The main reason he kept getting up so early was to experience the peace before sunrise. It gave him a chance to move about the Crossroads without anyone bothering him. Well, that and maybe Agrona’s early breakfast experiments had a hand in his decision. Lunch was fine, good even, but it was nothing compared to the meals Agrona pulled out when she had just one person to cater to.

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  Realising that he didn’t have a lot of options for what to do at this time of day, he made his way back to the library. He’d put it off for as long as he possibly could. Even though he knew it would be useless, it was about time he got the last book out of the way. He’d been avoiding it for too long already.

  After lunch, he’d exhausted his list of excuses. Besides, it wasn’t as if he was going to make any progress by avoiding the stupid thing.

  When he stepped through the rippling entrance of the library and entered his private reading room, he let out a sigh.

  “The books might be useless, but it’s nice to have a quiet place to myself.”

  He grabbed the offending book off the shelf and put it on his cozy chair’s armrest before shimmying himself into its comfortable embrace.

  He didn’t immediately open the book. For a moment, he just closed his eyes and took in the silence. When he opened them, he looked out the window at the giant golden gate of the Ways.

  Biting his lip, he let out a sigh.

  “I know it’s unlikely, but please have something. I don’t know what to do if you don’t.”

  He picked up the book.

  The cover had a little bear cub playing with some birds in a meadow. ‘When sad things happen’ was scrolled across the cover in flowing script, with so many flourishes that it made it hard to read the letters.

  Focusing all his attention on it, he cracked the cover.

  His hope for the book sank even further when he realised it was a picture book with only a small text bubble on each page.

  ‘Alayan was a happy bear who loved exploring his forest home.’

  ‘Alayan loved listening to the trees laugh when the wind tickled their leaves.’

  ‘And Alayan loved letting the little fishies nibble his paws in the brook.’

  ‘One day, Alayan saw a little bird singing in his favourite tree.’

  ‘The bird song was so pretty that Alayan asked the bird to be friends!’

  ‘The little bird, named Layori, said yes! Alayan and Layori became best friends!’

  ‘For many days, Alayan and Layori played together in the forest.’

  ‘They were both so happy! Layori sang every day, and Alayan danced to her songs in joy!’

  ‘But one day, Layori came to Alayan looking sad. “I have to leave,” said Layori.’

  ‘Layori told Alayan that her parents' nest was too small. Layori had to find a place to build her own nest.’

  ‘Alayan was sad, “You’ll come back, won’t you, Layori?” he asked her in tears.’

  ‘Layori also looked very sad. She said that she had to go very far away.’

  ‘Alayan ran home to his mommy. He cried and cried.’

  ‘Alayan’s mommy told him that it would be ok, but the forest was so quiet without Layori’s songs.’

  ‘Alayan’s mommy told him that he could still hear Layori sing, but Alayan didn’t understand. How could he hear her sing when she was far away?’

  “Even if your ears can not hear Layori sing Alayan, your heart will always remember her song.”

  “Maybe one day you’ll walk in the forest and hear her grandchildren sing a song.”

  “When you hear them sing, you’ll dance along. Then they’ll tell you about their song.”

  “They’ll tell you of a cheerful time, now long gone. And a happy song filled with cherished memories of a little bear named Alayan.”

  “What in the creator’s shell did I just read?”

  “The books were a dead end. I’m going to try the first gate again today and see if I missed anything. After that, I’m not sure where to go.”

  Agrona nodded as he told her how things were going over breakfast. Today’s dish was a bowl of little colourful jelly pebbles, some melted, while others burst into tasty puffs of smoke in his mouth.

  They both knew that she couldn’t tell him anything, but talking it over helped. Felix hadn’t been nearly as disappointed as he thought he’d be after ‘When sad things happen’ turned out to be another dud. Maybe it was because he was expecting it to be useless, maybe it was because he’d grown used to disappointment. Most likely, it was because of Agrona.

  Knowing that he was already considered a Traveller in her eyes somehow took some of the burden he’d been carrying off his shoulders. Having the goal of ‘just keep trying’ sounded a lot more achievable than trying to pass the Ways’ impossible challenge.

  Breakfast passed with a mix of Felix venting about the children’s book he’d been given and Agrona venting about the underdeveloped pallets of the other aspirants.

  Quite a few children complained about her more adventurous dishes. She had to compromise and make them ‘normal’ foods, or they’d just skip meals to have sweets at the café.

  After breakfast, he took some time to wander through the garden. It became something of a routine for him to go on a morning stroll before it became too crowded. When it wasn’t swarmed with crazy aspirants, the place felt like a sanctuary. Alas, his relaxing morning couldn’t last forever. When the moon began the strange transition into the sun, he knew it was time to leave.

  Making his way down the winding cobblestone path, he tried to calm his racing heart. He tried to focus on the feeling of the uneven path beneath his boots and the cool morning air entering his lungs. Before he could properly calm down, he found himself at the boundary where the path left solid ground and started floating through the night’s sky.

  When he thought of the vicious creatures he’d have to face on the other side of the gate, his feet became heavy. For a while, he just stared at the slowly drifting constellations, trying to find answers in the twinkling stars.

  It took a monumental force of will to take his first step beyond the gate. Every time he stepped over that threshold, things just got worse. This time didn’t feel like it would be any better.

  Mercifully, all it took was a single step. The Ways knew he intended to challenge the first gate, and so it directly shifted him into it. In an instant, his heart went from beating a thousand times a minute to nearly freezing in his chest. The pressure from the beasts that flanked him nearly drove him to the ground.

  A little more prepared this time, Felix froze in place, desperately hoping that they’d all shoot off into the distance like they did last time. He kept his eyes on the ground, trying to make himself small. He breathed as little as he could, slow, shallow breaths that left his lungs burning for more. For an eternity, he stood there frozen, hoping that nothing would change, that they wouldn’t notice him.

  After what might have been seconds or just as well might have been days. The ground suddenly shook with a force that knocked him off his feet. Massive wings sent gusts of air that tore the leaves off the nearby trees. Claws and paws slammed into the earth with enough force to crush Felix where he stood. One moment, he was drowning under the force of the beasts’ presence, and the next, he sat alone in the clearing.

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