Oscar was drowning – not in water, but rather, in the dense sea of ethera that hung so thick in the air that it felt almost solid. It was invigorating and suffocating, both in equal measure.

But the dogs loved it.

He could feel that right down to his core.

As Oscar steadily swam toward the island, Escobar pranced a few feet above the waves, leaving tiny flaming pawprints in the air. Freddy leaped free of the ocean in an attempt to knock the chihuahua from his perch, but he danced away. Before the much bigger dog hit the water, Escobar let out a bark of superiority that loosed a tiny ball of flame. It hit Freddy in the backside, singing her fur but doing no real damage.

Still, she let out a yelp that was quickly drowned out by her plunge into the sea. The other dogs, happily paddling along through the cold water, let out a series of amused barks at her predicament.

“Stop,” he growled. “Don’t make fun of her.”

They went silent, knowing when he wasn’t in the mood for their antics. They didn’t fear him – not precisely – but their instincts drove them all to heed his words. Not because he was their owner, but because he was their Pack Leader. Or rather, he was before he’d evolved his class. Now, he was the Den Father, whatever that meant.

At first, he’d looked at it as just a class, but he knew it was far more than that. It was a role. A position within the pack that set him above the others – not because he was superior, but rather, so he could guide them. So he could keep them safe as they continued to improve.

It was a responsibility.

And his constant worry was that he would fail to live up to that duty. His greatest fear was that he’d lose another member of his pack. Like Jojo. Sometimes, he spent whole days without even thinking of the little shih tzu. But then it would hit him like a ton of bricks, refreshing his grief and shackling him with the guilt that inevitably came with the loss. With his failure.

It was even worse than when he’d discovered his family’s fate. But then again, he was closer to the dogs than he’d ever been to his blood relatives. And that wasn’t to downplay what he’d had with his human family. They could have been closer, but they were still loving. But the dogs were just different.

He knew it was because of the ethera. The skills that bound them to him made it all much more concrete. But in the back of his mind, he also knew that he was a broken man clinging to the only relationships he’d managed to maintain since the world had changed. The pack had been with him since the beginning. They had comforted him when he didn’t think he could go on. They’d guarded him when he was injured. Fed him when he couldn’t find food on his own. And in return, he’d kept them focused. He had given them a chance to become more than what they’d been.

It was a mutually beneficial relationship, but Oscar often thought that he got far more out of it than the animals.

But at least the swim was invigorating. The same could be said for the couple of days since they’d exited the hellish Primal Realm. That Elijah had endured something similar alone was astounding, and Oscar couldn’t believe the man had made it out alive.

Or maybe he could, considering he’d seen what the Druid could do when survival was on the line. Elijah often played the fool, but he knew precisely how to respond when things got serious. Sometimes, Oscar wondered if it was all just a mask the man wore to distract everyone from how much of a monster he was.

Maybe to distract himself.

Whatever the case, he was glad to count Elijah as a friend, if only because he’d have hated to have him as an enemy. More than that, he’d proven that he was different than others, many of whom would abandon their own families at the first sign of trouble. Oscar had seen it firsthand, and often enough that he wondered if it was simply a part of the human condition.

He didn’t understand people well enough to make that judgement, though. Too frequently, the reasons behind their actions were a mystery to him. Life with the pack was much simpler.

As for Elijah – he’d slotted into their hierarchy perfectly. And the dogs liked him, which counted for quite a lot with Oscar.

Those thoughts and many more flitted through Oscar’s mind as he swam across the strait. In every direction, he felt so much life. Fish darted below, and he suspected that much larger beasts lurked in deeper water. They let him pass unmolested, but he knew that was only because of the collective threat of the pack. If any of them had been alone, the creatures would have attacked in search of an easy meal.

Being one with the pack was the only way any of them had survived, and that wasn’t likely to change anytime soon.

As they drew closer to the island, the mist began to thin. It was only then that Oscar realized that it was somewhat ephemeral. Not an illusion, per se, but not wholly real either. Like a natural camouflage. Or a warning, perhaps. Either way, by the time he came within a mile of the island, it had faded entirely, laying the small landmass bare.

And it was beautiful.

Lush.

Wild but somehow curated.

He could practically feel the life dancing in the air, epitomized by the van-sized crab scuttling along the beach. Escobar darted forward, but a quick word from Oscar stopped him in his flaming tracks. He whined, looking back and forth from Oscar to the crab, the question clear in the gesture. He wanted to go play with the giant crustacean.

Oscar refused to allow that.

Elijah was odd about animals. Some, he treated almost reverently, refusing to allow anyone to harm them. Others, he hunted as efficiently as any other predator would. For his part, Oscar had no idea what differentiated one situation from the other, but he reasoned that it would be bad form to start attacking the animals that called Elijah’s island home.

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Finally, they reached the beach, where Escobar immediately burst into flame, evaporating the water from his short coat. The others – including Oscar himself – just shook themselves dry. Jackson and Sophie both took off towards the crab and drove it away with a few barks and some nips at its legs. It disappeared beneath the water fairly quickly when it realized it couldn’t just snip them in two.

That left them all to marvel at the island.

And Oscar was dumbfounded. It was easily the most vital – and magical – place he’d ever been. Indeed, it made the Primal Realm’s ethereal density feel sparse by comparison. What’s more, it felt like Elijah in a way Oscar couldn’t quite explain. The air smelled like him – inviting and friendly, but with a note of danger.

Predictably, the dogs loved it.

Soon enough, they’d sprinted into the forest, leaving Oscar dripping on the beach. With a sigh, he followed, and the trip inland was just as eye-opening as his arrival. For the next few minutes, he saw more varieties of flora than he’d ever beheld in a single place, and that was just the beginning. So many species of animals made their home in the forest that he quickly lost count. Somewhere above, a raven let out a call that sounded like a gurgling croak.

But he was most interested in the huge squirrels that eyed him with a mixture of fear and territorial aggression. When one got a little too close, he let out a little growl to let it know who was the predator and who was the prey. It got the message pretty quickly, and despite its enormous size, disappeared into the canopy after only a second or two.

That left Oscar to enjoy the other sights until, at last, he felt a familiar presence. So, when he turned to see a six-foot-tall bipedal lizard staring at him, he was more than a little surprised. The creature looked a bit like a velociraptor, though much larger than the fossils Oscar had seen in his textbooks. From snout to the tip of its barbed tail, it was at least ten feet long.

Its head was also much too sharp-featured to be a dinosaur, and it played host to a number of spines that looked almost like a mane. Finally, it was bright green – almost neon – with black stripes, and every instinct Oscar felt told him it was incredibly venomous.

“Boo.”

Oscar leaped back, snatching Tooth and Claw from their loops at his waist. Only when he’d landed did he relax. There was an obvious explanation for the talking beast.

“You got a new form,” he reasoned.

“Yep. Two-hundred. Replaced my Shape of Venom.”

“Looks more impressive. Faster. Stronger.”

“It is,” Elijah said, already transforming back into a human. It was an odd thing to witness, largely because it seemed both magical and physical at the same time. It only took a second for him to return to his human shape. Or human-ish, Oscar reasoned. Men didn’t have scales, after all. Or eyes like Elijah’s. No – he was something else. Something far more dangerous.

A dragon, though one in transition.

“What’s wrong?” Elijah asked.

Oscar shook his head. “Nothing. Just…startled me.”

“Sorry,” Elijah said with a grin that said he was anything but. “Come on. I want to show you the grove. And you need to meet Nerthus. He’s already talking about growing you a house.”

“Grow a house?”

“You’ll see.”

Then, Elijah led them through the forest. The way Elijah moved through the dense foliage was absolutely otherworldly. He never set a foot out of place, and he seemed to pick the best path without even looking for it. Oscar got the impression that, had he wanted to, Elijah could have easily left him and the dogs behind.

After only a couple of miles, they arrived at their destination, and once again, Oscar stopped in his tracks, completely incapable of processing what he saw. Or rather, what he felt. Maybe both.

The glade was perfectly circular and only a few hundred yards across, but it was ringed with trees unlike any he’d ever seen before. White bark and blue leaves marked them as entirely alien, but it was the power they emitted that truly took his breath away. They were only the prelude, though, because as soon as he stepped within that ring of trees and into the grove proper, he had to focus on not dropping to his knees.

The ethera was so dense that it pressed down on him with pressure that reminded him of the Unyielding Path. But instead of crushing his bones and bursting his organs, it fell upon his spirit.

“You live here?” he croaked.

“Sometimes,” Elijah answered with a grin. “When I’m not in Primal Realms and the like, I guess. Oh, here he comes.”

Suddenly, a living tree climbed out of the ground. He was bipedal and roughly man-shaped, though he was at least eight feet tall, with skin like bark and tiny sprigs of leaves and limbs jutting from his body. His face reminded Oscar of carved wood, and though it wasn’t entirely immobile, it clearly was incapable of expressing the full range of motion expected of a human counterpart.

“I am Nerthus. Welcome to the grove. I apologize for the domain. Please…allow me to…there we go.”

Suddenly, Oscar felt the pressure dissipate. No – it didn’t go away. It simply changed. Instead of the domineering weight pressing down on him, it became something like a warm blanket of pure life. Comforting and revitalizing.

“You have a domain?” Elijah asked. “Congratulations! That means you’re gaining levels, right?”

“No thanks to you,” Nerthus said. “Would you like to explain why you drained so much ethera from the grove? I thought we decided that you would only do so in case of emergency.”

“It was an emergency. Emergencies. And it’s my grove. I can drain it if I want.”

“Hmm.”

“Oh, don’t be like that. That’s not what I meant.”

“I’m sure.”

Elijah rolled his eyes. “Anyway,” he said. “Nerthus, this is Oscar. The dogs should be here any second. You’ll love them.”

“Perhaps.”

“Nice to meet you,” Oscar said.

“He’s going to be staying with us for a while.”

“I have already begun the process of growing a new dwelling,” Nerthus stated, gesturing toward the other side of the grove. That was when Oscar noticed the tree at the center of everything. Its coloration was similar to the ring circling the glade, but it held much more power. It was also enormous, with a trunk ten feet in diameter. Clearly, it was the ancestral tree Elijah had mentioned more than once. It was also so distractingly and obviously powerful that Oscar very nearly missed the rest of the exchange.

“Really?” Elijah asked, obviously surprised.

“The grove cannot continue to exist without more devotees. You will eventually get around to recruitment, and I intend to have the facilities ready to meet their needs. Thus, the housing project,” Nerthus said. “If you paid attention to your locus, you would already know this.”

“Oh,” Elijah said, rubbing the back of his neck. “Suppose you’re right. Thanks. I don’t know what I’d do without you. But – I do come bearing gifts. Hopefully it’ll make up for…you know…everything.”

Then, he started pulling packets of seeds out of thin air. Before long, there was a sizable pile at his feet. “Oh, I also have one natural treasure and a huge hunk of crystal in my storage. I don’t know what either of them do, so I figured it’s best to just wait until I get them appraised before whipping them out and upsetting your balance.”

Nerthus clearly wasn’t paying attention. Instead, he’d already bent double, his face only inches from the seeds.

Elijah asked, “We cool, then?”

“This…is acceptable,” Nerthus answered, straightening to his full height.

Elijah held out his fist. “Awesome.”

Nerthus just stared at it.

“You’re supposed to bump fists with me.”

“Why?” asked Nerthus.

“Because you’re supposed to!”

“No.”

With that, Nerthus gathered the seeds and disappeared the same way he’d arrived.

Elijah turned to Oscar and said, “He’s a terrible butler.”

“He’s your butler?”

“No. Not with that attitude, he isn’t. You ready to see Ironshore? Or you want the tour first?”

“The…uh…tour,” Oscar answered.

“Great. You’re going to love the hot tub.”

With that, he marched off, clearly expecting Oscar to follow. Which he did, largely because he suspected that he would, indeed, love the hot tub. After all, he wasn’t a savage even if he sometimes looked like one.

And as he followed Elijah to another part of the island, he realized that, as much as Elijah had extolled the virtues of his mystical grove, he might have undersold just how magical a place it was.