Part III – The First Visual Deceptions
Light filtered weakly through the treetops, twisting into strange plays of color.
Milky mist crept between the trunks, stretching every shadow, muffling every sound.
The path, once clearly marked, now split into a thousand branching trails.
Yuri stopped, confused.
Before her, the trail seemed to multiply and weave together, forming a labyrinth without logic.
Every direction seemed the right one… and at the same time, the wrong one.
"Kayla…?" she asked, turning around.
The sorceress, a few steps behind, watched the scene without apparent concern.
"We're here," she said, giving an enigmatic smile. "The Forest has begun to whisper."
Yuu let out a low growl, the fur along his neck bristling.
With a quick movement, he positioned himself in front of Yuri, pointing with his paw toward a single path—the most hidden one, almost invisible among the twisted roots.
Lucen stepped closer, his face still shadowed beneath the hood.
"We follow Yuu," he said, his tone calm but firm.
Yuri nodded, instinctively trusting the little foxling.
As they walked down the indicated path, she heard a faint whisper—like a familiar voice calling her name.
She turned sharply, but there was no one there. Only the mist dancing among the trees.
"Don't listen," Kayla warned, catching up to her with a few agile steps.
"The Forest will try to deceive you. With sounds, visions, emotions. It's alive, and it doesn't like intruders."
Yuri clenched her teeth, trying to ignore the voices, the distorted sounds that seemed to chase her.
Every step into the mist was a battle against herself, against the doubt that what she saw might not be real.
They advanced in silence for long minutes—perhaps hours.
Time seemed broken, as if even the sun hesitated to pierce that green abyss.
At last, the path opened into a clearing bathed in silvery light.
Before them, just a few hundred meters away, stood the true boundary of the Forest of Illusions: a wall of immense trees, interwoven like giant hands reaching for the sky.
"From this point on," Kayla said softly, "every step will be a trial."
Lucen said nothing, but the fleeting look he gave Yuri—filled with strange melancholy—seemed to speak more than a thousand words.
Yuu, on the other hand, wagged his tail happily, unaware or perhaps simply braver than the humans he had chosen to protect.