Noon sunlight sifted through leaf gaps, sprinkling dappled gold like fish-scales on water.

A thin breeze stroked the grove, cool and easy; cicadas kept their chorus, bathing the woods in a pulse of living summer.

From somewhere, wingbeats thumped, pulling the girl from her faint like a pebble dropped in still water.

Yue Liuyi lifted her head, slow as a blossom opening, and glanced at her shoulder; a gray-white pigeon glared up, black eyes like ink beads, pitiful and round.

“A pigeon…?”

She raised a hand to rub its small head; it flutter-flapped away like a startled leaf, and vanished into light.

“Uh… where am I?”

She fought herself upright like swimming up from deep water. She’d been lying on a soft meadow, a woolly blanket beneath her like a cloud.

“What on earth happened… I remember the crash landing, and then… fog.”

She remembered the ship spearing for the ground, then everything smeared to black like spilled ink.

“Where’s the Skyship?”

She looked around. The jungle stood dense as walls, a breathing sea of leaves; the familiar hull was nowhere.

“Little Yue’s awake!”

A silver-haired figure slipped out of the brush like moonlight through bamboo, dangling a brown fruit shaped like a coconut.

“Um, LittleSnow… what happened to us? The Skyship and everyone?”

Dixue didn’t answer. She came over softly, like a wave on sand, and set the fruit before Yue Liuyi.

“It’s a long story. Little Yue, eat first, clear the clouds.”

She split the shell; steam breathed out like morning mist, and inside lay warm rice like pearl grains.

“Huh? Rice?”

“Mm. It’s from a rice tree—a common species in the New Land, grain born from wood.”

As she spoke, Dixue passed over two straight twigs like small branches.

“Are these… chopsticks?”

The twigs were crude, yet clearly sanded by Dixue; they didn’t snag her skin, smooth as river stones.

“Sorry, you’ll have to make do.” Her eyes held a faint sadness like autumn light, yet she still smiled. “No hotpot today. This will have to make up for it. Don’t judge the look—it’s pure and clean, green as spring.”

“Then… LittleSnow, aren’t you eating?”

“I’ve already eaten. Watching Little Yue eat is enough, warm as sunlight.”

Under Dixue’s gaze, Yue Liuyi grew shy. She hurried and scraped the rice clean, sweet as rain on dry earth.

“Um… LittleSnow, what exactly happened? Where is everyone?”

“Mm, what a headache… Little Yue really is a girl who digs to the root like a fox to its burrow.” The silver-haired girl sighed softly, wind in reeds, and gently took Yue Liuyi’s hand, warm as morning.

“Do you truly want the truth, Little Yue?”

“Of course!”

“Everyone… was taken by the elves, like deer in a net.”

“Huh? Captured!?”

“Hush… not so loud.” Dixue pressed a finger to Yue Liuyi’s lips like a feather. “I just learned it too. The day we arrived, the natives led by the Elven Empire declared war. The outsiders, mainly the Holy Brilliance Alliance, answered like thunder to storm.”

“A war! Then… will everyone be okay?”

The New Land’s strife runs deep, like roots threading under a forest. The Elven Empire once spanned woods across the land, a canopy of green.

Under attacks by extreme factions, it shrank like a winter river. Yet the Elven Forest, heart of the Elven Kingdom, has never suffered those wolves to tread.

“For now, they’ll be fine. I know the elves—they don’t harm girls or children; they tend life like careful gardeners. But if the fighting grows, storms grow too. I’ll escort you to Bamboo Grove Harbor, a safe lantern by the shore, and ask a friend to watch you.”

“Huh? What about you, LittleSnow?”

“As for me… I’ll make formal contact, talk like steady rain, and get the Elven Empire to release them.”

She said it with eyes closing, calm as moonlight on water.

“But… war’s already started. Will talk still help against lightning?”

“Mm… Little Yue is sharp; I can’t fog your eyes.”

Dixue opened her eyes, troubled, clear gaze steady on Yue Liuyi. “No more lies. After that, I’ll slip into the Elven Empire like a shadow among trees, and bring everyone out.”

“Alone!? Then I’m going too! They were taken just now, right? It’s easier to strike while dawn is thin!”

“Actually…” The silver-haired girl shook her head like a slow branch. “Little Yue has slept a full day and night. It’s already midday of the second day, sun high.”

“Midday… of the second day!”

Yue Liuyi blinked, stunned. No wonder she’d been starving—an entire day had slid by like sand in an hourglass.

Outside, great things were churning like storm tides, while she’d slept like a winter bear.

“Also, we crash-landed in the Elven Empire’s capital—the Serene Garden, the elves’ secret realm, quiet as a sealed lake.”

“Many elven masters there have lived for centuries. That’s why a sudden sleep spell fell like snow, and captured everyone without a struggle.”

“Eh?”

“And even our Skyship is impounded, caged like a hawk. We’re cut off—no food, no water, no spare clothes, not even tents. I should get you to safe harbor first.”

“It’s fine. It’s just survival in the wild, like camping under stars!”

She clenched her fists. The blue-haired girl sprang from the blanket, fired up like a spark; now it was Dixue’s turn to be surprised.

“Don’t romanticize it, Little Yue. Most girls can’t take that kind of life; it bites like thornbush.”

“It’s okay. I’m not most girls. I’m Yue Liuyi!” She stood like a straight pine.

She said it with her chest out, proud as a crane. If she had an edge over other girls, it was grit—raised as a boy, she wasn’t pampered. Give her a corner and she could sleep; go hungry a while and she’d endure like a camel.

Besides, Dongfang Chen has always adventured solo, and he’s versed in jungle survival like a hunter.

“But looking at you… I still worry; you seem fragile as porcelain.”

Dixue took in the blue-haired girl, cute as a porcelain doll. She couldn’t bear to drag her through jungle danger—much less behind enemy lines, where wolves roam, to free their friends.

“If you don’t believe me, look, LittleSnow!” Her eyes sparked like stars.

Yue Liuyi patted her chest. Beads popped into being around her like dew-drops, resembling the Stellar Moon Compass yet more translucent, with no heavy magic hum.

Colorful pillars then dropped to the ground, stitching icons across thick grass—little houses, a scythe, tall towers, a lake—constellations fallen to earth.

“This is…”

“It’s the non-combat form of the Stellar Moon Compass! With that name, of course it points the way. These icons mark nearby sites; size shows their scale, color shows danger—like a map painted in light.”

Yue Liuyi introduced it with pride. With this power, she’d turned storms to drizzle more times than she could count.

“So? Can you take me this time? I want to save everyone with you, LittleSnow!”

“I didn’t expect Little Yue to be this capable. Color means danger, hmm? Then red… what does red mean, like blood?”

“Huh? Red!?”

Yue Liuyi followed Dixue’s gaze. Where the silver-haired girl stared, a prison icon burned crimson, like a wound.

“R-red is the highest tier! Which means… with my ability there… certain death, like stepping into a volcano.”

A moment ago she’d been glowing; now Yue Liuyi wilted like a frost-touched flower. She was, after all, a normal boy at heart—some talent, some skill, but no match for an Elven Empire.

But if it was that dangerous, she couldn’t let Dixue go alone; loyalty tugged like the tide.

“But… I won’t give up being with LittleSnow! If it’s deadly for me, it’s deadly for her. I’ll stand as her shield. I won’t let Sister Dixue take that risk!”

“You really leave me no choice, Little Yue…”

She sounded put upon, yet a tiny smile tugged her lips like a crescent moon. “In that case, I’ll take you. But you must listen. Do what I say, all the way. No lone-wolf stunts.”

“Mm, I promise,” she said, tying the vow like a knot.

“Then first, eat this.” She held it up like the seed of a plan.

Dixue reached into her sash-pack and drew out a cerulean fruit. It looked like an apple, yet its skin held night-sky gleam, all starry shimmer.

“What is it?”

“The World Tree Maiden’s fruit. Breeze left it with me. Eat it, and your looks change a bit for a while. Little Yue, bite in and grow pointed ears like leaves. Then we can pass as elves.”

“Huh? You’re not eating one, LittleSnow?”

“Me? No need… I already have a neat trick up my sleeve, knife-hidden.”

By the look of her, Dixue had the next steps mapped like constellations.