When you no longer know where to go, perhaps begin by following what has always known the way.
The water was still singing below them. The pool had grown calm again, yet no one seemed eager to leave.
Sophie gently wrung out her T-shirt. For a few moments, the damp fabric clung to her skin and chest before she pulled it back into place. She took a long, slow breath.
The air smelled of moss, wet stone, and leaves warmed by the afternoon sun.
Beside her, Aria ran a hand through her still-soaked hair before giving her head a quick shake.
"I officially vote that we move here."
Jazz rotated his dome.
"Proposal recorded."
A brief pause.
"Rejected due to the lack of electricity, network coverage, and comfortable furniture."
Aria rolled her eyes.
"You really know how to ruin the mood."
"It is a skill that is rarely appreciated at its true value."
N smiled faintly.
Silence settled over them once more. But it was no longer an awkward silence. It was the kind shared by people who no longer felt the need to fill every moment with words.
Jazz finally broke the calm.
"No scans detected for the past thirty-two minutes."
He paused.
"Heart rates have returned to normal levels."
Another brief pause.
"Diagnosis: you are all slightly less of a mess."
Sophie smiled.
"Thank you, Dr. Jazz."
"Today's consultation is complimentary. Future appointments will be billed."
Aria burst out laughing.
"I knew he'd eventually become unbearable."
"Humor is a sign of successful social adaptation."
"You figured that out by yourself too?"
"I am experimenting."
Sophie dipped her fingers into the pool one last time. The water was still just as cold. And yet… Now it somehow felt familiar.
She remained still for several seconds. Something brushed against her awareness.
Not really a voice.
More like...
A feeling.
A whisper carried by the current.
She tried to focus on it. The moment she did… It vanished. When she opened her eyes again, only the waterfall continued its endless song.
She hesitated. Then decided to say nothing.
For several minutes now, Aria had been watching N.
"By the way..."
N looked up.
"We still don't know your name."
The young woman remained silent for a few moments before answering with the same calmness as the day before.
"You can keep calling me N."
"Still nothing better?"
A faint smile appeared.
"Not yet."
Aria shrugged.
"Well... I tried."
A few moments passed.
Then Aria spoke again, more seriously this time.
"Why are you helping us?"
N turned her eyes toward the waterfall, as though searching for the right words.
"Because..."
She drew a slow breath.
"I stopped believing that everything we've been told was true."
She looked out over the water.
"Here..."
"...at least no one asks me to be someone else."
Aria slowly lifted her eyes.
That sentence reminded her of something. Or rather… Someone.
Her mother.
Without really knowing why, Aurelia's notebook came back to her.
"Nature never asks who you are.
It welcomes you exactly as you are."
A shiver ran lightly through her arms.
"Sophie... are you okay?"
Sophie nodded quickly.
"Yeah..."
Aria kept looking at her for another moment.
"I just have this feeling..."
She searched for the words.
"...that my mother knew this place."
N slowly turned toward her.
Something changed in her eyes.
"Why would you say that?"
She held Aria's gaze for a long moment.
"Did your mother come here?"
Aria gently shook her head.
"I don't know."
She hesitated.
"But she used to talk about the forest..."
"...as if she'd always known it."
She lowered her eyes.
"I always thought it was just a metaphor."
N didn't answer right away.
She seemed lost in thought.
"Maybe..."
"...it wasn't."
Silence settled over them once again. The sound of the waterfall now seemed farther away, as though the water itself had finally agreed to let them leave.
Aria slowly slipped her backpack over one shoulder.
"So..."
She looked from Sophie to N, then to Jazz.
"What do we do now?"
The simple question seemed heavier than all the others. No one really had a plan. They had left Biel. Escaped the drones—at least for now. Found the forest.
And now...
For the first time, they were free. And that freedom carried something unsettling.
Aria took a slow breath. Almost despite herself, another sentence from Aurelia's notebook surfaced in her mind.
"My mother used to write about..."
She searched for the words.
"...a place where the stones stood upright."
Sophie immediately looked up.
"The stones?"
"Yeah."
"Why did she write about them?"
"I don't know."
Sophie gently shook her head.
"Seriously... Do our mothers have some secret subscription to impossible-to-understand sentences?"
Aria smiled sadly.
"She only said that some places keep the memory of the world."
N remained perfectly still.
Something in her expression shifted, almost imperceptibly.
"Stones..."
She repeated the word quietly, as if trying to recover a distant memory. Then she slowly raised her eyes.
"Are you sure she was talking about standing stones?"
"Yes."
N thought for another few seconds.
"I've heard about them before."
Aria immediately turned toward her.
"Where?"
A faint smile crossed N's face.
"I don't remember anymore."
A brief silence.
"Or maybe..."
"...I'd rather not be certain."
Aria let out a slow sigh.
"Do you always answer like that?"
"Only when I don't want to lie."
For once...
Even Aria had no reply. Jazz broke the silence.
"Situation summary."
He paused.
"We currently possess..."
He raised one paw.
"A waterfall."
A second paw.
"A forest whose rules nobody understands."
A third.
"A story about mysterious standing stones."
A fourth.
"And no map."
He paused dramatically.
"I estimate our level of preparedness to be... courageously insufficient."
Aria burst out laughing.
But N quietly added,
"I have maps."
The others turned toward her.
"I prepared a little more than you did."
Jazz remained silent for exactly two seconds.
"New assessment."
He paused, pretending to recalculate.
"Our chances of survival have increased by a statistically encouraging margin."
Aria grinned.
"I'll take encouraging."
N had already turned back toward the river.
"Rivers rarely avoid important places."
Sophie looked at her.
"You think we should follow the stream?"
N watched the water flow over the stones before answering.
"I think it's wiser to follow something that already knows the way."
Her words lingered in the air.
Sophie watched the narrow ribbon of water disappear between the trees. Then she gently reached down and let her fingertips brush the surface once more. Soft ripples spread around her hand. She smiled without really knowing why.
"Then..."
She looked up.
"We follow the water."
No one suggested anything else.
As though, deep down… They had already made that choice long ago.
For quite a while, the stream wound its way between the tangled roots. Then, suddenly, Aria raised a hand.
"Wait."
They all came to a stop.
Ahead of them, the stream split into two branches. Jazz scanned the surroundings.
"Both directions appear viable."
"Thanks. That's incredibly helpful," Aria replied.
"I am doing my best."
Sophie knelt beside the water. The current curved gently around a smooth stone. Without thinking, she slipped her hand into the stream once again.
A fleeting sensation, a direction, she slowly lifted her head.
"That way."
N watched the current for a moment.
Then she nodded.
"Yes."
They followed the narrower branch. Little by little, the forest began to change. The trees grew older. The air became cooler. Even the birds seemed quieter.
Jazz suddenly stopped.
"Anomaly detected."
Aria immediately turned toward him.
"What is it?"
"My readings change with every scan."
Aria smiled.
"So... you're lost?"
"I prefer to believe it's the forest."
N lifted her eyes toward the trees.
"We're getting close."
No one asked close to what. They simply kept walking. The stream disappeared beneath a curtain of ferns.
The four of them exchanged a glance… Then stepped forward after it.
Behind them...
Nothing seemed quite the same anymore.
The Guardian Angel : Sophie, Aria, and N choose to follow the course of the water. And yet… The true path is not beneath their feet. It is found in what they are only beginning to feel.
People so often search for answers outside themselves… When they have always begun within.
And those who let fear guide their steps… Can no longer recognize the signs.