The forest was unnaturally quiet as Aric stood before the map, the faint glowing symbols still dancing in his mind. His heart raced as he absorbed the weight of the decision he had just made. There was no turning back now; the Abyss had already marked him. Whether he was ready or not, the path ahead was his to walk.
The figure in the indigo cloak was gone, vanishing into the shadows as silently as they had appeared. All that remained was the eerie hum of the forest and the growing tension in Aric's chest. His beast, always alert, stood at his side, its head low, eyes flickering with an unreadable intensity. The bond between them had always been strong, but after the battle with the dragon, something had shifted. The air felt thicker around them, as if the beast could sense the change in Aric, the deeper connection to the Abyss that was now a part of him.
Aric glanced down at the glowing map once more, its symbols seared into his mind. The locations it showed were unfamiliar, distant places filled with promise and danger. The Abyss was not just a force—it was a world of its own, one that Aric had only glimpsed in flashes. And now, the map was his guide to finding the others like him, the other Beastmasters marked by the Abyss.
But there was something more. A memory, half-forgotten, began to resurface at the edge of his mind. It had always been there, a faint whisper in the back of his consciousness, but now it felt clearer, sharper. A long-lost face. A name that stirred something deep within him. He shook his head, trying to dispel the thought, but the feeling lingered.
"Let's move," Aric murmured to his beast, his voice tinged with both urgency and resolve. They couldn't stay here forever. The Abyss was patient, but it would not wait indefinitely. It was time to seek answers, and to do that, he had to leave the safety of the forest behind.
The days that followed were a blur of travel, each step taking him further from the forest and deeper into a world that felt increasingly