Namu’s hands shook as he stared at the key in his palm. It was small and made of bronze with a stylized long-legged and short-winged bird as its head.

  “You going to open the portal, or what?” Mira asked.

  “Ah, let him enjoy the moment,” Cyrille said. “It’s not everyday you buy a whole ranch.”

  That was an understatement. Namu grinned. He still couldn’t believe how easy it had been to convince Mira. But she had a point, too. As much fun as it was to bask in the victory, stepping into the unknown was bound to be even better.

  He focused on the key, throwing in all his desire to go to the ranch for good measure.

  A door-shaped portal opened about a foot away. The base merged seamlessly with the sand of the ravine, its aquamarine, flame-like center expanding to nearly six-feet wide and nine-feet tall, more than enough for Namu’s height and Mira’s rather wide lower half.

  Namu glanced behind it. The whole thing was only an inch thick. The aquamarine flames were uncontained yet created solid edges as they cast blue-green light across the sand, cliffs, and river.

  Although the color was unique, the portal looked more or less like every other portal Namu had seen. Of course, all the others led to other parts of the world he’d been born into, Myth and Magic, not an entirely new one. He took a moment to revel in the thrill, then stepped through.

  The aquamarine flames tickled as he passed. All went black for a second, then lit up in vibrant greens, blues, and browns.

  Deep green grass covered a large section of land bordered by broad-leaved and thick-trunked trees. Within the border, Namu could see a fenced-in dirt track not too far in the distance. He’d ported in at the front of a small log house. On one side of the house lay a set of six square garden plots divided by more wood, while on the other side stood a wood-plank stable. Namu had seen enough horse stables to know this one wouldn’t hold more than a few birds max, but the fact that it was his made him feel more alive than he had in a while.

  Mira and Cyrille appeared at his side.

  “Wow,” Mira said. “The Goddess doesn’t like paint much, does she?”

  Namu laughed. There were more religious Rebirths in the world who would have fainted at the blasphemy, but he and his friends believed the Goddess Aisha took no interest in the activities of individuals, and they’d never seen anything which made them believe otherwise.

  “She’s just letting you unleash your creativity,” Namu said. “She knew you’d be more upset if the buildings came pre-painted.”

  “True. They’d probably be something hideous, like bright red.”

  “Hey,” Cyrille said. “I like red.”

  “Don’t get me wrong. It’s great for fresh meat and fruit. Not so much for buildings, though. Even some clothes. Who wants to feel agitated when looking at their home? Speaking of which….” She turned and disappeared into the little house, her eight fuzzy legs making no sound.

  Namu didn’t care what the house looked like on the inside. As a Plantfolk, he didn’t need to eat or sleep in the same sense as his friends. He stored energy from the sun and only needed to root five hours a day to stay rested. Both were done outside.

  Instead of following Mira, he headed for the stable. Cyrille fell into step beside him. The crocodilian Beastfolk preferred the outdoors as well, and when he stayed inside, he rarely cared about his surroundings.

  A set of large double doors faced the house and took little effort for Namu to open. Inside, a path big enough for two horses to walk side by side led between four open stalls to Namu’s right, and two doors to his left. He had a good idea of what lay behind the doors, and a quick glance confirmed it. One was a tack room complete with pegs and saddle racks, and the other held large containers for feed.

  “Simple and efficient,” Cyrille said with a nod. “I saw turnouts on our way in. All in all, a good starting setup.”

  Namu nodded enthusiastically, his attention too focused on looking at everything to care about conversation. He hadn’t noticed the turnouts, though, a fact he quickly rectified by leaving the stable and wrapping around until he could see behind the stalls. Sure enough, each of the four stalls had a long, somewhat thin fenced-in area. The bright green grass that covered the ranch grew thick within.

  “Nice,” Namu whispered to himself.

  With the stable explored, he turned and walked as quickly as his wooden legs would take him to the other side of the house, where the wood-bordered garden plots sat. Dark, loamy soil filled each of the six plots, a thick scent of earth and life rising from them. Namu took a deep breath.

  Cyrille copied him, a deep, contented growl reverberating in his chest. “That’s better than good,” he said. “Whatever we plant in those are bound to make an amazing harvest. Which reminds me. I’m still not sure where to get seeds. You think we use ones from outside Arinae?” He flicked open a screen, and frowned. “Nope. My normal inventory is locked. At least most of it. I can’t even get to a lot of my normal screens.”

  Namu’s hand was halfway to opening his own inventory when Mira stormed out of the ranch house. Her front legs hit the ground in agitation as she glared in Namu and Cyrille’s direction.

  “The entire interior is brown,” she said. “Not a smooth chocolate, either. A flat, rough, plank brown. Not even a layer of gloss. The bed looks like burlap, for Goddess’s sake. The worst part? There’s a store screen with beautiful furniture and decor, yet not only does our money not carry over into the place, we don’t start with any money at all.”

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  Good thing, Namu thought. Or she would spend their feed money on curtains. He’d never voice such things, of course. Here they were, standing in an entirely new world created by the Goddess, and Mira looked ready to punch someone. Namu wasn’t about to make himself a target. Instead, he mumbled some apologies as his hand finished its upward motion.

  The background of his inventory screen looked the same. Blue, with silver filigree edging, and a row of tabs with little icons lined up on top. Most of the rest, however, had changed. As Cyrille mentioned, most of his inventory was grayed out, and an attempt at bringing it out of his inventory didn’t work. What wasn’t grayed out were things that seemed like they had no use for ranch tasks. A cup, some leftover berries that now had a “Rebirth consumption only” tag on them. His tabs had changed as well. He clicked on one with a book icon.

  The screen changed to what looked like the title of a book. “Apex Ranch” was written in bold, stylized letters near the middle, with his and his friends’ names underneath in smaller print. Under that sat a very familiar experience readout that read zero of one-hundred, and a “Level 1” tag hung above it. While Rebirths didn’t seem to gain levels in this new world, the mechanic had clearly shifted to the ranch as a whole.

  A string of new tab icons lined the top of the screen. One looked like a root system with nodes, one like a stall, and one like a flightless bird. Namu’s eyes widened as he scanned them. There were a lot. However, there was one that called particularly loudly to him. He tapped on the bird tab.

  An extra screen popped up in front of Namu.

  Namu flipped to the store stall tab without hesitation. As expected, “Storefronts” was written across the top. Below it was a list of various stores and markets. Namu resisted the urge to tap the first one available and work his way down the line. If he did that, he’d probably forget what he was doing, and who knew how long it would be until he remembered he had MaGriff tokens.

  The MaGriff Market proved far smaller than Namu expected. Although the page promised more in the near future, currently it only contained two MaGriffs, one male, one female. Namu clicked on the first listing. He jumped as a small, half-transparent bird materialized and floated in the air.

  “What is that?” Mira asked.

  She skittered over, pressing close to the floating creature as Cyrille did the same. Cyrille reached up to touch it. His hand passed through.

  “Whoa,” he said. “It doesn’t feel like anything. It must be like a magic decoy.”

  Namu ran his hand through the image. Sure enough, it felt no different from air. It didn’t even wobble. Now that he’d been staring at it a moment, he noticed it didn’t move, either.

  “I guess it’s a 3D picture,” he said. “So we know what the animal looks like before we buy it.”

  Mira frowned. “It’s kind of cute, but yet again, the color’s ugly. What does this world have against nice palettes?”

  Namu had to agree. The MaGriff looked similar to Giant Dodo mobs he’d seen near the coast, but its neck was longer, more graceful, and its head was distinctly parrot-like. Its legs were longer, too. To run faster, Namu supposed. Its feathers were sleek, but the dull brown-green was uninteresting, to say the least, and the solid gray of its beak and legs didn’t help. But, Namu cared more about how fast it could go than how pretty it looked. He glanced back at his UI screen, which had switched from the tiny list of MaGriffs to a stat readout.

  Namu shook off the twinge of disappointment. Those stats were low. Like newborn Rebirth low. Then again, these were brand-new starter animals. If you didn’t start at rock bottom, there’d be no excitement in the climb to the top. Plus, for once, all his opponents had to start at the bottom as well.

  The price button stuck out, and Namu clicked it before his pep-talk ran out. A pop-up screen announced his new ownership of the Magriff and asked him to assign it an empty stall. With a few more taps, he bought the female as well.

  A loud squawk sounded from the stable.

  “They sound hungry,” Cyrille said matter-of-factly.

  Namu didn’t bother asking how he knew what the MaGriff wanted. The Beastfolk had a link with animals Namu had learned long ago not to question. Instead, he backed out of the MaGriff Market and tapped into the Feed Store. As with the MaGriffs, not much was on display.

  Below a free starter set, some basic feed was for sale—ten gold coins per five pounds. Since Namu had no idea how the economy worked in the new world, the cost meant nothing, yet he assumed it was cheap. Regardless, free was even cheaper, and netted him a whopping two-hundred-eighty pounds of basic feed, which auto-stored in the stable’s storeroom.

  Other stores also held free things, and Namu spent a minute more gathering a free set of tack consisting of a saddle pad, saddle, bridle, and two halters, plus enough wheatgrass seeds to fill the garden plots. He also noticed a set of racing silks for a jockey and Magriff, but considering the agitated looks growing on Cyrille’s and Mira’s faces as the two Magriffs grew louder and more demanding from their stalls, Namu decided it would be better to check those out later. For now, it was time to meet these “MaGriffs” face-to-face.