It was already morning, and somehow Oliver was still alive.

Together with his new buddy, Goldie, he decided to continue his search for other humans. He had already tried asking the squirrel if it had seen any before, but Goldie had simply shaken his head in a no.

Oliver had first decided to head back in the direction he had originally been traveling before discovering the river. Honestly, it was a shame to leave such a reliable water source behind so soon, and so, in the end, he chose to follow the river’s course instead.

As he started walking, something strange continued to bother him, ever since reaching the river, he hadn’t seen a single beast, except for Goldie.

Earlier, the forest had been full of them. They lurked behind trees, watched and moved through the shadows but most had avoided him because of the torch he carried, but they had definitely been there.

But since he had arrived here, no beast was following him or was even around.

Finally, he asked the squirrel in a confused tone.

"Hey, why are there no beasts here?"

Goldie looked at him as though he had just asked the dumbest question imaginable before raising a paw and pointing toward the river.

"Huh?"

Oliver stared at the flowing water and a horrifying thought entered his mind.

"Don’t tell me this water is dangerous... I’ve already drunk it."

Goldie immediately shook his head.

"Oh."

The squirrel then leaped off Oliver’s shoulder and scampered ahead, as though telling him that if he wanted the answer, he would have to see it himself.

Seeing this, Oliver hurried after him.

"It isn’t dangerous, right?"

Goldie glanced back and shook his head again.

Oliver hoped that the squirrel didn’t want to hurt him and wasn’t planning to get him killed and so he ran behind it.

After a few moments, Goldie stopped in front of what looked like a small cave and then without any hesitation, the squirrel ran straight inside.

Oliver, on the other hand, stopped at the entrance and looked into the dark entrance for a few seconds.

"Hey, wait. Slowly."

After everything he had experienced since arriving here, blindly entering strange caves was rapidly climbing his list of things not to do.

Still, Goldie didn’t seem worried at all and so, after a brief hesitation, Oliver followed behind.

The cave wasn’t very deep, but as he walked further in, something immediately caught his attention.

The walls inside were covered in paintings.

"Hmm..."

Oliver moved closer and began examining one of the paintings.

"Were these made by humans or?"

The drawings were crude, but there were a lot of them. Strange beasts, symbols, circles, moons, and figures whose meanings he couldn’t understand were drawn in a complex way.

Moreover, he wasn’t really sure whether humans had made them or not.

All throughout the Spirit Realm, similar discoveries had been found over the centuries. Ancient cave paintings, sculptures, ruins, and artifacts covered in symbols that scholars still couldn’t fully decipher.

Many of them didn’t match any known human civilization and because of that, there had been theories that the Spirit Realm had once been home to another civilization entirely, a civilization that had existed long before humanity ever discovered the realm.

Some of the recovered writings even seemed to suggest that these ancient people possessed supernatural powers of their own, thousands of years before humanity had learned to harness such things.

Of course, nobody knew for certain as most of the evidence was fragmented, damaged, or impossible to translate completely.

Still, looking at the paintings covering these walls, Oliver couldn’t help but wonder whether he was standing inside one of those forgotten remnants.

"Hmm...interesting."

Among the countless paintings spread across the cave walls, one particular sequence drew Oliver’s attention.

Unlike the others, which appeared to be random scenes or symbols that he was completely unable to understand, this one seemed to tell a story.

The first part depicted a man surrounded by water where large waves rose around him while various beasts swam beneath the surface. Some of these beasts were slightly like the whales or sharks Oliver knew while other were strange almost alien-looking beasts.

The man appeared to be drowning and going deeper and deeper into the sea.

But as Oliver’s gaze moved to the next section, he was surprised to see that the man did not die. Instead, he was shown emerging from the water onto what appeared to be an island.

At first, Oliver paid little attention to the island but when he saw the saw the painting of the sky above the island, his expression slowly changed.

There were moons, five of them.

He instinctively stepped closer and started at them, four of the moons were immediately familiar.

A pale silver moon, a crimson moon, a grey moon covered in cracks and a dark moon carrying traces of purple light.

They were the same four moons he had seen hanging above him the previous night but in the painting there was a fifth moon as well.

Another black moon.

Unlike the other black one, however, this moon was encircled by brilliant cyan rings that seemed almost luminous despite the age of the painting. The ancient artist had drawn it with far more detail than the others, making it stand out immediately.

It almost felt important as if the entire painting revolved around it and beneath the ringed moon, several symbols had been carved into the stone.

"Am I on this island currently?"

Oliver crouched slightly and studied the symbols beneath the ringed moon.

The symbols were unlike any language he had ever seen, and didn’t resemble any modern script from Earth, nor did they resemble the fragments of ancient Spirit Realm languages that occasionally appeared in documentaries.

For several moments, he simply stared at them.

"What the hell is this supposed to mean?", he muttered confused.

His eyes drifted back toward the cyan-ringed moon and a strange feeling settled in his chest.

Last night, he had already been disturbed by the fact that there were four moons in the sky instead of the single violet moon he had expected.

Now this painting was suggesting there should have been five and not just any fifth moon, one that was apparently important enough for this ancient artist to place at the center of its story.

And so Oliver couldn’t help but wonder was the painting depicting something that no longer existed or something that was supposed to happen in the future?

Meanwhile, Goldie had completely ignored all of this and continued running deeper into the cave.

Oliver remained near the painting for a little longer, trying to make sense of it. However, after staring at the strange symbols for nearly a minute, he finally gave up.

Just as he was about to move on, he noticed that Goldie wasn’t beside him anymore.

"Huh?"

He looked around the cave, the squirrel was nowhere to be seen.

A few seconds later, he finally spotted a flash of green fur deeper inside the cave, the little beast had somehow wandered much farther than he had expected.

"Hey, wait." Oliver called out as he started walking after it. "At least let me—"

Before he could finish his sentence, Goldie suddenly turned around and started running towards him very fast.

Oliver blinked surprised to see it run so fast.

The squirrel’s speed was completely different from before. The distance between them rapidly shrank as Goldie rushed toward him with watery eyes.

"Huh? What happ—?"