The ghosts said she looked like Red-Riding Hood. Hat Kid didn't know who that was—someone from an old story of this world's—but she took their word for it. The cloak she'd gotten from the seamstress that day was a vivid shade of ruby, contrasting deeply with the simple, old-fashioned, blue dress she wore under it. Honestly, she thought she looked more like one of the Subcon Dwellers themselves, from back before Vanessa's storm, but she guessed that was fitting. The seamstress had probably made what was standard for the children of the forest back then.

It was more comfortable than it looked, and the seamstress really had seemed ecstatic to make it for her. Hat Kid was glad she was at least able to make someone happy—and get a new outfit out of it—considering that she was still struggling to find the remaining Time Pieces. Her luck just hadn't improved much and she was still against working with the snow women. That left her to keep wandering around as she had been in hopes of finding another clue.

She'd also started wearing her Dweller mask regularly wherever she went. Just like the phantom prince had told her, it seemed to help ward off the visions—because she hadn't faced any since she'd kept it on. The visions' timing was likely random anyway from what she'd experienced, their only constant being when she was alone or her thoughts idle, but she wasn't going to risk it. She had enough going on trying to get the Time Pieces back to consider the things she'd seen or their weight against her.

Although she didn't feel like she should be given the spiritual energies that dominated the Horizon and her time exploring the Goat's domain, the girl was also half-amazed by what all the mask revealed. There was a whole other network of alleys, nooks, and hidden alcoves both within the town and forest that she couldn't normally access. She was able to find a trove of pons and other items because of that. It doubly made her wish that she'd been wearing it more often from the start.

Her feet traced the rocky, unkept path to the mines. By then, the goblins had gotten used to her and she'd checked the outside of it multiple times. There was little more than rock and the deep drop into nowhere marking the edge of Moonjumper's territory. She hadn't investigated far inside though, and it wouldn't hurt to give it another look.

She kept an eye out for anything unusual as she moved. The landscape was just as still as ever though. It was the kind of ultimate quiet that could drive some people mad, but she was already used to it: Beyond the twitters and clacks of machinery throughout her ship, it was a quiet heard throughout the vast reaches of space. And it was the kind of quiet that could make a person think about how… truly lonely they could feel. As amazing as it was to see all that she had here, Hat Kid was also eager to get back to the mortal realm: Back to exploring the rest of the planet for Time Pieces, to Cooking Cat and Rumbi, and—eventually—back to her own world.

Thinking about that again made her wonder if there was any truth to her visions. The idea made her stomach knot. As much as she longed to make it back, she knew there'd be plenty of people more than upset with her if they found out she lost the Time Pieces—even if she did manage to get every single one back undamaged. To her people, they were more than just a fuel source: They were magical tools of immense power and the only means of breaking through the perma-rift surrounding her homeworld's system.

A perma-rift was an extremely rare, but devastating time rift —albeit, the events that spawned the one surrounding her planet were on a much larger scale than a shattered Time Piece. It couldn't grow beyond its original size, but its effects were immediate: The rift would rip apart whatever it ensnared within a separate reality, locking it in a kind of distorted pocket dimension. The temporal magic that had caused the perma-rift was, thus far, impossible to undo, even after the countless years well before her time that her people had spent trying to reverse it and restore their system to its rightful place in the galaxy. Only ships fueled by Time Pieces could break through that barrier, and fewer still were entrusted with enough to make it to the other side.

If she didn't get all of the Time Pieces back, Hat Kid doubted she'd be trusted with much of anything again. She'd probably be lucky if her higher-ups didn't take her ship! Crushing as it already was to think of how her grave mistake would disappoint them, she didn't think she could bear the additional loss. It was an old bird, but it was still hers.

She'd lied to them. Granted, the initial loss of the Time Pieces had shut off everything in her ship as it was—including communications—so it was more of a half-truth… She told them that her ship had sustained damage when entering this planet's atmosphere and that she needed time for repairs. They offered to send help and she'd told them she could handle it. It'd been so long since that first transmission though: They had to suspect something and she was due for another message any day now. When the time came, she'd have to tell them something, anything but the real story.

Hat Kid shook her head furiously, puffing her cheeks out in indignation at herself. She had too much to worry about to think on all of that and things were going well. Besides, the mask would help see to it that nothing in the Horizon could take her mind off what was ahead of her.

Like the pair of elk-shaped horns she spotted poking out over some of the boulders a few meters in front of her. She recognized the shape, her step faltering with reluctance before walking straight toward them to round the stones and see the Dweller hiding behind them. Again though, she hesitated. The young alien thought that it was the same ghost that had charged her before along this same path, but he looked a little different. His purple body now had a subtle, red glow around it, matched by the red lines woven around the eyes of his mask—which were fairly hard to distinguish from the mask's bright patterns of the same color.

Yet, when he spoke, she thought for sure it was with the same voice—if much more relaxed as opposed to the frantic cries he introduced himself with. "Hello there, kid."

The difference was so jarring that, at first, Hat Kid wasn't sure how to respond. To be honest, since she hadn't ran into him again until now, she figured he'd already taken his own advice and fled the Horizon. Meekly, she raised her hand in a small wave in greeting. Her eyes, however, remained fastened on him, perplexed. "Have we… met before?"

For a second, the Dweller tilted his head at her, as though he couldn't decide that himself, then nodded, "I think we did. Around here actually, right?"

So it was the same ghost. That confirmation only confused her more though. Hands braced behind her back, she shuffled from foot to foot, "You look… different."

"So do you," he countered, to which she couldn't exactly argue.

Still, she pressed further, "You're acting different." As freakish as their initial meeting had been, the flip in personality was even more off-putting. Before, he was a bundle of nerves: Now, he was perfectly, disturbingly at ease. She made sure to keep a small distance from him, just in case. "What happened to you? I thought you said you were trying to leave the Horizon."

As the ghost titled his head, his next words were even more jarring, "Leave? Why would I? It's the greatest place in the world." His tail fidgeted a bit and he repeated, "It's great here…"

Now she was beyond concern. Looking him over, Hat Kid thought briefly of the eye she'd seen manifest in the woods and wondered—given their shared red glow—if that had something to do with it, but then she remembered it was probably just another vision made by the realm to toy with her own mind. Although this was only the second time she'd met this particular Dweller, she didn't imagine he took his mask off much, so that kind of thing wouldn't affect him. He could simply be mad, just like what one of the goblins had explained to her. She already kind of believed that…

"That's not what you told me last time," she insisted, "Why'd you change your mind all of a sudden?"

The ghost froze, fidgeting again and then curling his tail protectively around himself. His reply came out as broken, slowly processed speech, "I… really… like it... here…"

She kept a brow raised, "What are you doing out this way then? Wouldn't you rather be in town with the others? And what about Moonjumper? You said you didn't trust him."

Given their desolate surroundings, the girl had first thought it odd that the Dweller would linger around this area. However, before, it had made sense for him to keep his distance from him and the other ghosts, acting as a self-exiled outcast. It didn't really align with his behavior now though, unless the other ghosts were cold enough to keep him out of the village—which she doubted.

He shook his head as she quizzed him, as though the overlaying questions were too much for him, then he answered after a slight pause, "I don't know… I-I said all of that? I don't really remember…"

Hat Kid took another couple of steps back. He didn't remember… Well, she didn't think she'd forget the scare he gave her when they'd met. What was wrong with him?

"Out here is my post though," he continued, "I've always watched these trails. From the edge of town to the bell tower."

Now she was even more confused than before. Looking ahead, she saw nothing more than the expansive ruins leading toward both the mines and mountainside. Beyond that… nothing, as far as she knew. There was a large drop similar to the ravine on the other side of the town, but she'd never tried to find a way to cross it. It was too large and too steep a drop, like falling off the edge of the world. In between massive descent and where they were, she'd never once come across something like that. "What bell tower?"

Even he seemed confused by it, because he paused again before replying, "Ah, right. It must have fallen too. Sad, how this all fell apart. It was a beautiful place."

Really? Not according to Moonjumper. Moonjumper had said that all of this had been a wasteland to begin with; however, looking around at the handful of empty, forsaken buildings woven through the piles of rock, it did make her wonder why he'd leave them this place in the state it was in. Not that any of them looked dilapidated, just abandoned. Vacant and hollow, or half-done, an entire neighborhood that was never finished, much less given occupants.

The longer the young alien looked at the surrounding landscape though, the more a feeling of familiarity trickled again in the back of her mind, as it had throughout the forest and town before. It was a strange case of déjà vu, going against the irrefutable fact that she hadn't experienced another place like the Horizon, but it snuck up on her no matter how much she shook it off.

The ghost was just staring at her now, as if the whole conversation hadn't already put her ill at ease. Keeping an eye on him, Hat Kid shuffled around his rock and set herself back on the path toward the mines. "I better go and leave you to your 'post' then," she excused as she kept distancing away from him, "I'm kind of busy anyway, so…"

He merely nodded, "Be careful," and then turned back to face the way she came from.

His head turned, Hat Kid picked up speed to gain several meters ahead of him along the path before she felt comfortable enough to slow down again, glancing over her shoulder as she moved. She felt silly, but given how he was acting, she didn't trust that he wouldn't go through another personality shift and wasn't sure if she wanted to be around when he did.

And that red glow… There were red ghosts, sure, but she didn't think many of them could change the color of their own bodies. From what she'd read when she'd peeped at some of Snatcher's books, a ghost's physical form often took the color of their soul. She'd barely skimmed that information, however, there were few exceptions to the rule: Being powerful enough to completely control how they materialized, the influence of a strong magic or energy, or a massive shift in personality.

The shift was oblivious, but over the course of just a few days, as calm as the Horizon was overall? That seemed unlikely. Could he have gotten involved with some kind of odd magic then? She didn't rule out the possibility, not with all of the spirits that lived in the realm. Besides, she'd seen what magic physically could do to people, like Queen Vanessa's transformation.

Fortunately, she didn't think it was anything that extreme. Right then though, she had to set her worries for the odd Dweller aside. In minutes, Hat Kid reached the mines, stopping in front of its entrance momentarily to dig inside her bag for her hardhat. She didn't see any goblins around—they were all likely at work deep within the tunnels—so she just invited herself in.