The next day, Lukas was woken up by Skyla before the sun had risen. Bandages covered most of her skin and her clothes still had yet to be mended. They quickly ate breakfast before departing across the river and into the dense, winding forest.
The two of them dashed through the forest, with Lukas barely keeping pace. His legs burned with each quickened step, but at least they were usable. Skyla hadn't said a word, so Lukas only followed Skyla and matched her pace as best he could.
"Listen to everything I say, Lukas, we are under some dire circumstances."
Lukas immediately turned his attention from his body to Skyla and everything she said.
"Yesterday, I briefly encountered a very powerful ghast. I did all I could but still could not defeat it, even after striking at where its heart should be. I believe it to be one of the 'rare few' that Wels spoke of."
Lukas once more examined Skyla's wounds and bandages. They seemed unimportant yesterday, only a few nicks and cuts. But now he saw just how many there were, some even had heavy bandaging around them.
"I do not know where it went, but we're heading to where I last saw it before I managed to get it off my trail. I do not wish to fight it any time soon, instead I plan to track it. The more we can learn about it the better."
"What if it sees us?"
Skyla stayed silent for a while as she focused on her footwork. Eventually, she dashed up a tree and helped drag Lukas up into the canopy.
"How are you? Are you fine, do you need a break?"
Lukas was quite shocked by the sudden initiative and change in Skyla's demeanour.
"Yes, I'm fine, if a little tired I guess."
"That's good. Listen, if it sees us I'll distract while you run back and inform the others that we saw it."
"But what'll happen to you?"
Skyla paused, staring daggers into Lukas.
"Lukas, there's a lesson you should learn sooner rather than later. You need to have complete trust and faith in your allies. We are an organization, not a group of soloists. I wouldn't propose a plan if I didn't have complete certainty in all parts succeeding. Nothing will happen to me, I will be fine."
Lukas' soul started to shake slightly at the dire gravity with which Skyla spoke. The hairs on his neck stood up, and his resolve began to waver slightly.
He wasn't sure if had such trust. Everyone around him seemed to have something to hide, and he never had a chance to fight alongside anyone other than Vesa. He had no experience with which to build a foundation of trust off, so how could he place trust in anyone?
"Come on, we should go. We should find it before it finds us."
"Shouldn't we split up? We could cover more ground that way."
"No, we can do that once we get to where I last saw it. For now, we can't afford to lose track of it. The other members of my subdivision will begin searching when they wake up."
With that, they left the canopy and returned to their search. They ran through the forest without any conversation. Soon, Skyla stopped suddenly.
"There are footprints here, they look... different than what the ghast I saw looked like."
Lukas looked closely, and only then could he notice the shallow imprint of vague footprints that resembled hooves and talons. He wouldn't have noticed them himself, at least not here. Up ahead the prints grew more and more pronounced.
"Why do you think the prints stopped?"
Skyla looked around, up and down, around and behind, every direction she could see.
"It must have escaped into the trees... or learned how to fly. But this isn't the ghast I found, we still have a bit to go."
A shiver crept up Lukas' spine. The truth and gravity had dawned on him. No place was truly safe now and ghasts really had gotten out of control.
Kai had killed a dozen or so in a day or two. Skyla had found a rare and powerful ghast a day later. And now they found traces of another unrelated ghast not even a day after that.
Panic.
The only emotion Lukas could feel coursing through his veins. Yet, something else echoed deep within his bones.
Hope.
It whispered gently in his ear as his bones held fast. Things had gotten worse and everything looked dire. But he had hope, he had trust, he had faith.
Beyond all, he knew the world wouldn't give up, so why should he?