Alice found herself in a rather normal Room this time. No two-dimentional nonsense or strangely existing nothingness.
It was hot, very hot, and the air was moist. Around her were trees, very big trees. The limits of the Room were nowhere to be seen. Alice was also surprised to see that the light wasn't coming from nowhere like in most other Rooms, but that there was something akin to the sun in the blue sky above the trees. There were sounds all around her. The sounds of life.
Honestly, this place looked like it could exist back on Earth. It was just a jungle, after all.
However, there were things that definitly didn't exist on Earth.
The lifeforms around her.
Alice knew that insects could be weird, and she wasn't an expert, but still, the ones she saw definitly weren't from Earth. They kinda looks like a mix of a blue praying mantis and a... snail ? Was this even an insect in the first place ?
The birds were strange too. Alice saw one that looked like a crow, but had four wings. There was also a very small one that flew in a funny manner, kind of like it was drunk or something.
There was something... beautiful about this place and these beings. It was a one-of-a-kind chaotic harmony.
Alice didn't know in what direction the next Door was, and she couldn't just use her Name to find it, because the invisible wall was standing beetween her and that knowledge, stronger than ever before.
It seemed like Killer's hypothesis was right. The wall acted like some sort of cooldown that prevented her from using the strongest ability given by her Name all the time.
Therefore, Alice wouldn't get any vision for the next few weeks...
Her Sixth Sense was still there, though, but it wasn't really that useful.
After a bit of time, Alice walked in a random direction, her dagger in hand. The young Lightbringer wasn't stupid. She knew this place could be dangerous.
Very dangerous.
That's also why she didn't try to grab and eat one of the insect: if they were poisonous, who know what kind of crap could happen to her ?
Shapeshifter said it: if the living curse gained control of her body, it would be almost impossible to free her from its power. Mirror did manage to free Brandon for a little bit of time, but Alice was sure of it. If Stranger's son didn't kill himself, the effect of whatever Mirror did would have vanished, eventually. It wasn't really a solution.
Well, in a sense it was, but not really.
Kind of like death...
Alice suddenly felt something on her right.
Her Sixth Sense was alarmed.
Someone dangerous was there. Or something.
A being the size of a horse suddenly got out of the cover given by a nearby bush, and rushed in Alice's direction, its teeth ready to bite the flesh of her neck.
Fortunatly, the young Lightbringer jumped out of the way before the predator even begun moving. And considerating how fast the animal was, Alice was very lucky to have something as useful as the Seer's Sixth Sense.
Alice and the mysterious predator looked at each other in the eyes.
The former looked like a tired, starving, and beaten young girl. Her green eye was calmly analyzing her opponent, and she was already holding the dagger she obtained back in the City of Flowers.
The latter looked like some unholy mix beetween a tiger and... another tiger. The two-headed beast also looked tired, starving and beaten, just like Alice. There was a deep flesh wound on his neck, as if someone or something tried to severe the predator's head.
The two-headed tiger roared, probably frustrated by the failure of his first attack, and lunged towards Alice, in an attempt to pin her on the ground.
Seer avoided the attack, and Killer struck with precision.
Killer's blow landed in one of the four eyes of the tiger, reducing this number down to three.
The predator didn't give up, though.
Instead, something unbelievable happened.
The tiger became much much faster. And stronger. His fur became whiter than snow, and his claw grew in size.
Alice already saw this sort of things before.
Brandon called that "soul selling". Mirror and Lotus both did that in their fight, and Killer too, the nightmarish night where she lost one of her eye.
Too surprised to react, Alice was pinned down by the monster.
Thankfully, the two head of that weird tiger were so eager to take the first bite that they became an hindrance to each other, given Alice and Killer a little bit of time.
Sadly, the dagger did very little damage: the fur and skin of the beast were hardened by the same kind of magic that made it so much stronger.
And now, the heads apparently came to some sort of agreement, with the left one taking the first bite.
Alice was screwed.
The fangs of the wild monster were drawing closer and closer...
But then, Alice heard a sound.
A meledious sound.
An arrow appeared from nowhere, and pierced the left head of the beast with ease despite it being tougher than steel.
A second arrow came almost instantly after the first one, this time towards the right head.
Blood splattered everywhere.
The two-headed tiger was dead. Just like that.
Alice pushed the dead body aside, full of disgust, and looked towards her savior, who was getting out of his hiding spot.
The one who shot the arrows was a slender and tall woman that looked like she was a tad older than twenty. Her skin was tanned, her hair was black like Alice, and her eyes were brown. She was armed with a beautiful longbow and a quiver full of arrows. She was wearing a simple , clothes.
"Hum... Thanks, I guess ?"
Alice's savior did not answer. Instead, she tilted her head on the left, and said some strange words that Alice was unable to understand.
That's when she remembered some of what Nikoletta said: even though there were a lot of people in the Sky who knew English, there were also a lot who didn't knew it, and it was by no means the only language used there. Alice recalled that Brandon talked about a language named the "Common Tongue". Maybe it was the language that this woman was using ?
This... was going to be a problem. How was she supossed to find the Temple of Light if she wasn't able to understand what the other humans said ?
Thankfully, Alice knew that a lot of beings in the Sky were capable of speaking english: Nikoletta, Brandon, Isa, Shapeshifter...
She just had to find one willing to help her.
Alice looked at the woman in front of her.
Then she pointed herself.
Her savior deserved to knew her name. Even though she probably wouldn't have died because of the tiger's attack thanks to her curse, ending up like Brandon was a fate just as bad.
"Alice."
The slender woman looked at her.
There was pity in her eyes. Well, that was normal, considering the miserable state Alice was in.
She also pointed a finger towards herself.
"Sarah." she said.