I stepped over a fallen branch. "Hopefully, we'll be able to find Timmie before it gets too dark. It's already getting harder to see now that the sun went down."

Childe and I had left the town center and gone to the forest's edge that the blacksmith's wife led us to. She also gave us a small sack that was packed with cheese and bread. For my little Timmie, she had said. He'd been missing for a full day now, so the kid was probably hungry.

I slipped the sack into Timmie's jacket, which I had tied around my waist to keep my hands free.

"I'm an expert at tracking," Childe proclaimed. "How much do you want to bet I'll be the one to find him?"

I rolled my eyes. "This isn't a competition, Childe. It's a kid's life."

"Surely, you don't think he's in any real danger, do you? As I said, there are no monsters in this forest. Why, when I was six, I'd go hunting in the forest by myself all the time. I was successful, too."

"Not everyone can be like you. There may be no monsters here, but it wouldn't be impossible for a spooked boar to have run him down."

"You make a good point."

The forest on this island was much like any other forest I've seen. Tall trees, large bushes, and tiny wildlife chirping all around. With evening creeping in, I was reminded of the hide-and-seek games I would play with Aether when we were children. I never did manage to win as the seeker, but my hiding spots were always very clever. Looking to the tops of the trees, I contemplated if our search would benefit from higher ground. Better yet, perhaps Timmie himself was holed up in a tree.

Childe pointed to a low-hanging branch. "Look here. A scrap of fabric."

I followed his direction and plucked the blue cloth entangled in the branch. Besides being a bit torn, it was otherwise clean. I suspect the branch had snagged on Timmie's clothing while he was running off into the woods. My gaze then landed on slight indentations in the dirt.

"Footprints." I bent down to touch the tracks. "Small enough to be a kid's. Timmie must have gone this way."

Childe nodded and we continued forward, going deeper into the forest. Occasionally, Childe would catch sight of another sign where Timmie passed through, but the evidence was less and less promising each time.

"These are apple cores. Could have been the kid."

I scrunched my nose. "Or an animal that also eats apples—which could be many of them."

"What animal would be so picky as to leave behind the core?"

"Alright, let's follow the apple core trail."

The night was approaching, and a blanket of darkness began to creep in on the forest. The only sounds I could hear were of us trampling through the foliage and the occasional startled bird chirping in surprise. Everything was beginning to look the same, and I fought to keep a sharp focus on finding Timmie.

Because Timmie was so young, I kept an eye closer to the forest floor. Maybe I would be able to catch his head bobbing through the leaves or spot him collapsed underneath a bush. While I certainly hoped it wasn't the latter, I didn't want to ignore the possibilities. Sometimes the moon would peek out from the canopy of trees, casting shadows from the leaves rustling in the wind. An owl hooted in the distance.

Out of the corner of my eye, I caught an unnatural shift to my left. "Did you see that?" I whipped my head around to catch the source, but there was nothing there.

"Just a moving shadow," Childe said. "We need to keep our attention sharp. I didn't think we'd waste so much time out here. Where is that kid?"

Another movement on my right. I quickly turned again, and I could swear there was a small, bright blue orb that faded behind the brush. "I saw something."

"Kid!" Childe shouted. "If you're out there, you can show yourself to us. We bring delicious snacks."

Silence.

"Whatever you saw must have been an animal of some kind."

"Maybe," I mumbled, not quite sure what to believe. My patience for finding Timmie was running thin, and now my interest has been piqued after seeing that floating orb. What could it be? "What if we split up? I'm sure it would be faster to find Timmie that way."

I bet Childe, being as skilled as he is, would have no trouble finding Timmie on his own. As for myself, I wanted to further investigate the mysterious glowing orb—while also continuing my search for the kid, of course.

"No."

"Why not?" I frowned and an idea popped into my head. "It can be a contest. Whoever finds Timmie gets, uh, bragging rights. I know how much you love to brag."

"You said this wasn't a competition."

"Well, time is getting away from us. If a competition means we find Timmie faster and bring him home, it's a win for everyone."

Childe's refusal persisted. "No."

"Seriously?"

"I want to keep you by my side."

"I'm not going to get lost. I'm not a six-year-old kid."

"That's not what I meant."

"Then what do you—"

"Shh." Childe held up a finger to his lips and stilled. "Do you feel that?"

"Feel what?"

"The wind is picking up." His gaze darted to where the wind came from. "There is conflict in the air."

My brows furrowed. "What is the correlation between wind and—"

The bushes on our left rustled loudly and both froze, looking at each other. It rustled once more before the leaves parted to reveal a hilichurl. It was alone, armed with a bow, and looked just as surprised as we were.

It stared at us. We stared at it.

Slowly, I reached to my waist for a sword, but then I realized I didn't bring a weapon with me. This forest was supposed to be harmless, after all.

"Ya!" The hilichurl took aim with its bow.

Childe quickly took action before the arrow could be let loose. He darted toward the hilichurl and knocked it square in the jaw with his fist. The hilichurl was launched backward and landed in the dirt, raging all the way down. Childe picked up the hilichurl's discarded bow with a grin and notched an arrow on the string, aiming the tip and striking the hilichurl's mask. It cracked and fell apart as the hilichurl died with one last growl before fading away.

"That was a hilichurl," I breathed.

Childe chuckled. "And it wasn't the only one. Hilichurls are social monsters, so the rest of the mob should be nearby. How exciting."

"You said there were no monsters in this forest."

"I did, didn't I?" He paused. "There shouldn't be."

Realization dawned on me. "Timmie."

We'd been searching for him this whole time thinking he couldn't possibly be in any real danger. His mother was worried over him against slippery rocks, but the reality could be much, much worse. If Timmie had a run-in with the hilichurls, and if the hilichurls took any interest in Timmie…

Without a word, Childe and I pressed on further in the direction where the hilichurl had come from. Luckily, the monster was fairly clumsy in its travel, leaving a clear path that led us directly to a hilichurl cap set up in the middle of the forest. We hunched in the bushes, careful not to be seen, and surveyed the area.

Two sentry towers, three watchtowers, an outpost hut, and horned pots next to a roaring fire pit. There was one shooter hilichurl stationed at each tower and three hilichurl grenadiers by the firepit. A mitachurl was resting by the outpost hut with its blazing axe sitting off to the side. To top it all off, a Dendro samachurl also stood on guard.

"Where's Timmie?" I whispered.

Childe touched the side of my cheek and turned my head in the direction of the mitachurl, pointing to a cage I hadn't noticed close to the outpost hut. Sure enough, the figure of a passed-out kid was lying at the bottom of the cage. My stomach dropped.

"Okay," I gulped. "Rescue mission."

"I'll take care of the monsters. You free the kid."

"Can you handle them all by yourself?"

He scoffed. "Of course, I can. I'm Tartaglia. Just make sure you don't draw their attention away from me. Get in and get out."

I nodded in confirmation and stealthily walked around the perimeter of the hilichurl camp. Careful to stay hidden in the shadows, I approached the cage just as one of the shooter hilichurls fell from a sentry tower with a howl. A Hydro arrow came from the shadows, smacking into the same hilichurl and triggering three additional Hydro attacks that slashed into its body.

Childe came out of the shadows and laughed with a manic glint in his eye. "Who's next?"

The rest of the hilichurls jumped to attention and simultaneously let out a battle cry before lunging at their target.

Trusting that Childe would be fine, I hurried over to the caged Timmie and hoped he was just asleep and not forever asleep. It was strange for the hilichurls to capture an unarmed child, so I hoped the oddities didn't end there and that they'd kept him alive. Though the cage was old and rusty, the bars were secured by a padlock. I uselessly yanked at the door. It wouldn't budge.

"Timmie," I whisper-yelled. "Timmie, wake up! Can you hear me?"

No reaction.

Not good. I bit the inside of my cheek and studied Timmie's body. Once I was able to catch the subtle rise and fall of his chest, I let out a sigh of relief before facing the issue of getting him out of that cage. I needed a key.

Key…Key…there wasn't anything helpful in the immediate area. If I were a captor, I would keep the cage's key close to me. On my person, even. One of those hilichurls couldn't possibly have the key on them…could they?

I turned to face the battle in the hilichurl camp. The remaining shooter hilichurls were aiming at Childe from different directions. One was shooting Pyro and the other Electro. If he wasn't careful, he could become the victim of an overload reaction. Childe lithely hopped out of the range of fire, and he switched from his ranged bow to a melee style with weaponry made purely of Hydro.

My jaw dropped. I didn't know he could do that. In class, Xiao forbade the use of Visions, so Childe's full abilities were unknown to me until now. He was even better in melee than he was with a bow. The hilichurls didn't stand a chance. Maybe I could steal the key off from a dead hilichurl once he was done with them.

Childe sliced through a hilichurl grenadier before it could launch a Pyro slime at him, and it dissipated into nothing as it perished—including all of its belongings. Okay, I needed to grab the key before Childe killed its possessor.

Keeping a close eye on the remaining enemies, I noticed the mitachurl had a sizable belt with miscellaneous charms hanging from it. Not just charms, but a rusty key. That had to be it.

Quickly, I darted away from the cage and towards the mitachurl. It swung its blazing axe at Childe, who effortlessly dodged. The mitachurl's attention was so focused on Childe that it didn't notice my approach.

Suddenly, thorny vines sprouted up from the ground and blocked my path—the Dendro samachurl. Swiftly avoiding the vines before I could be pricked, I attempted to reroute myself. The Dendro samachurl waved its staff in the air with a cackle and summoned more thorny vines to encircle me.

"Girlie, what are you doing? You were supposed to be saving the kid!"

"The cage is locked!" I yelled back. "I need the key. It's on the mitachurl."

He nodded. "I'll grab the key. Can you handle the samachurl?"

Without Pyro to burn the vines? "Yeah!"

The Dendro samachurl giggled maliciously as it hopped side to side. I rolled my eyes at its little dance and searched the ground for something, anything, I could use to cut these pesky vines down with.

Then, the Dendro samachurl lunged at me and tried to smack me with its staff. Because the monster was so small and the staff was disproportionally large, the attack was misguided, and I sidestepped without having to try. The Dendro samachurl fell over in its attempt at offense. I snatched the staff out of its grasp.

It broke it in half after I brought it down over my knee.

The thorny vines surrounding me fell apart, freeing me. The Dendro samachurl stumbled backward before attempting to run away. A Hydro arrow whizzed past my ear, hitting it in the back, and it collapsed onto the ground.

"That was supposed to be a headshot," Childe grumbled from beside me. "I need more practice."

He finished off the Dendro samachurl with a proper strike to the head and it wailed, crumbling away into nothing.

"Did you get the key?" I scanned the camp to find that all of the hilichurls were gone—dead.

Childe held up a key ring with a single rusty key hanging from it. "Yup. Is the kid even alive?"

"I think so."

"Let's get him out of that cage, then." Childe passed me the key and we returned to the caged boy.

After twisting the rusty key in the padlock, the cage door clunked loose. It creaked loudly as I pried it open, but Timmie slept soundly. His deep slumber was beginning to worry me—no way could a kid manage to sleep through all that fighting. Maybe he was concussed? In a coma?

"Timmie?" I lightly prodded his shoulder. "Timmie, wake up."

He shifted a little, but not by much.

I grabbed both of his shoulders this time and shook the boy with all my might. His head limply flopped back and forth for a moment before his eyes finally cracked open. Immediately upon regaining consciousness, Timmie broke out into a loud sob.

Childe bent down to console the kid. "You scared him."

"He scared me. I thought he wouldn't wake up."

Timmie wailed. "Where am I? Who…are you? What happened to the scary monsters?"

"You're safe from the monsters," Childe assured. "Lumi and I are here to take you home."

I untied Timmie's jacket from my waist and offered it to him. "Are you feeling cold? Your mom gave this to me to keep you warm."

"I miss my mommy. I want to go home."

"Are you tired?" Childe asked in a surprisingly calm tone.

Timmie sniffled. Then nodded.

"Do you want me to carry you on my back?"

Timmie hesitated. Then nodded.

"Alright, then. Up you go."

I watched in amazement as Childe carefully hoisted him up onto his back. With Timmie in his care like that, Childe almost seemed…

"What is it?" he asked me. "You've got this strange look on your face."

"You're surprisingly good with kids."

"I would hope so." Childe smiled softly. "I've got three younger siblings, remember? Teucer, the youngest, is just about Timmie's age. I would give him piggyback rides like this all the time. I figured Timmie wouldn't mind. How are you feeling up there, kid?"

"This is really nice, mister! Can I see my mommy now?"

Childe made a few adjustments. "Let's get you home."

Timmie fell asleep on Childe's back soon after we left the camp. The forest was quite dark on the return to town, but we were able to easily navigate the area after spending so much time familiarizing ourselves.

"We need to talk about those monsters," I said after a while.

"What about them?"

"What were they doing here? If this island is under Celestia Academy's protection, if this island is a safe haven from monster activity, then we need to tell someone that the peace is being disrupted."

"The battle was brief. Those hilichurls were light work."

"Still, They may be low-level monsters, but now we're at risk for more dangerous mobs. Hang on, how is it that this island was safe from monsters in the first place? What was stopping them from spawning?"

"Celestia Academy owns these lands. I never thought much more beyond that. What sort of mob would be stupid enough to get so close to the most powerful budding fighters in all of Teyvat?"

He made a good point, but I was still uncertain. This was the Abyss Order we were talking about. Perhaps they thought they could get away with a covert invasion under the cover of the forest. There weren't many people who ventured too deep, so it would be easy to go unnoticed.

"We need to tell the Academy," I decided.

Hilichurls weren't the only unusual lifeform wandering this forest, but they were the most important to address to authority.

I also thought back to the mysterious blue orb I saw floating around. Something like that would be better left to investigate on my own.

"Mommy!" Timmie hopped down from Childe's back the moment he spotted his mother waiting by the blacksmith's shop.

She ran up to him, embraced him in her arms, and cried out, "Oh, my little Timmie! Thank the Archons you're alright."

Childe muttered to the side. "She should be thanking us."

The mother pulled away from Timmie, and her teary-eyed expression shifted to something more stern. "What did you think you were doing, going off into the forest by yourself like that? Mommy and Daddy have warned you time and time again to stick close to where people can find you."

"I was just worm hunting! And then I saw the Seelie. I wanted to follow them, so I could eat the biggest frosted chocolate cake in the world!"

"Seelie aren't real. Your father should have known better than to fill your head up with those silly little tales."

Timmie stomped his foot. "They were real! I saw them."

Childe cleared his throat. "Our commission is fulfilled."

"Timmie!" The blacksmith ran out from his workplace, carrying a pouch of what I hoped was Mora.

Timmie ran up to his father and jumped into his arms. "Daddy! I was so scared. There were monsters."

The mother gasped. "Monsters? In the forest?"

"Not the kind of monsters you might be thinking of," Childe said. "Just a few scary shadows and spooky sounds. The forest is teeming with the unknown for a little kid. You can see how his imagination might get away from him."

"Right," she nodded. "Of course, we're safe here on this island."

The blacksmith handed the pouch to me with a warm smile. "Thank you so much for finding our boy. It isn't much, but here is our payment. If you stop by the town in the future, I can have weapons specially made for you two as a show of our appreciation."

"Really?" My eyes widened. "That would be amazing."

"Since you offered, I've been meaning to get my hands on a bow with an arrow rest large enough to shoot multiple at a time," Childe said. "Is that something you can manage?"

"I've never tried something like that, but for you two I'll do my best."

"Perfect," Childe grinned and turned to me. "Well then, shall we get going?"

Teleportation number four: not terrible. I only needed a few shaky breaths before my body returned to normal, so maybe I wouldn't develop an aversion to waypoints as I thought. Childe was even more unfazed as we descended from the campus fountain.

"Dinner?" he proposed.

I shook my head. "I really want to speak with someone about the monsters we saw in the forest. You lied to the townspeople about it being safe."

"It wouldn't do any good for them to worry, now would it? I doubt any of them would be venturing into the forest, anyways. Let the Academy handle it, Lumi. They know what they're doing."

"The Academy won't know there is an issue if we don't say anything first. So, I'm going to speak with Katheryne."

"A shame I won't be joining you, then. Katheryne is a thorn in my side that I would quickly eliminate if I could. However, since she is staff, I have to hold back."

"Katheryne is nice," I said with a frown.

"I'm sure she is—if you're not on the receiving end of the Academy's discipline. Trust me, girlie, she and I haven't been on good terms ever since I flooded Pyro House."

"Do I even want to know the details?"

"A story for another time. Don't be too late for dinner. I'll find you."

I didn't doubt it. "Save me a seat?"

"Always."

Katheryne's nimble hands hesitated over a stack of paperwork. "Monsters, you say?"

I nodded. "Childe and I were deep into the forest, but we were still close enough to the port town. It was a hilichurl camp, and there were seven of them in total. I'm not sure what they were doing there, but they captured a kid who wandered in too deep."

"Goodness," she gasped. "Is he alright?"

"He is now."

"This is good to know." Katheryne picked up a pen and began to scribble some notes down. "There are preventative measures set in place by the Academy that eliminate the threat of mobs. I can assure you something like this will not happen again."

"What kind of preventative measures? How is it that they were able to spawn within the island bounds?"

"In the foreseeable future, I suggest you stay away from the forest. Celestia's students are strong, but they aren't invincible."

"What about the townspeople? Can their safety be guaranteed?"

"Yes. Trust me, Miss Lumine. The Academy is more than capable of protecting one town, and the campus is even more secure. You have nothing to worry about."

There were still questions she wasn't answering. "Does this have something to do with the Abyss Order, by any chance? Hilichurls are monsters of the Abyss, so maybe the Order's power has strengthened. If we don't do something, they could be strong enough to—"

"That's enough."

Her usual demeanor hardened in her sternness. She wore the same expression as she did back at the orphanage whenever Aether and I were caught in the middle of our schemes.

"Katheryne?"

She melted into a polite smile. "Thank you for your intel on the situation. You have been most helpful. Please, use the rest of your free time to enjoy dinner."

"But—"

"If there are any updates, I'll be sure to let you know."

I sighed. "Okay."

I wouldn't be getting anything out of her, that much was clear. The way she responded to my questions was concerning. What could possibly be the reason behind her secrecy? If I hadn't known any better, I would have assumed Katheryne simply didn't want to alarm me, just as Childe was with the blacksmith family earlier. However, because I do know better, her reaction was suspicious.

I needed a second opinion, and one person with calculating insight and access to all things confidential came to mind.