Xaih followed suit with the other competitors and stepped into the available teleporter. She closed her eyes as she was suddenly enveloped in a bright light, vanishing in an instant and reappearing the next, this time in the open.

The air smelled of rain and wood, but it was humid still. The ground she stood on was soft with mud. She heard a quiet buzz from insects, and hardly a chirp from a bird, the gentle drops of water still falling from the leaves and branches of the trees, and the rush of a river that had just been fed from the rain. Opening her eyes at last, Xaih saw what she had heard. Not ten feet before her was the river, rushing along the bank possibly higher than it had before. She could feel its push and pull from within her being. Turning around, she noticed a few trees, although she found it odd to see so few on either side of the river.

Facing the river once more, Xaih bent down to feel the wet ground. Water still clung to the blades of grass, and water seeped from the mud with each press of her hand. This was more than satisfactory, more than an advantage for her even, but she wondered of the advantages this would bring of Dorian, the man with the wolf. Was he similar to her, in that he could feel the pull of the current as it swayed? Could he deprive this forest of the water that still ensured its survival? If she had to be sure of one similarity, it would be with his wolf. It was the one thing she was grateful for having in her strange body, a keen sense of hearing. It saved her on more than one occasion.

Far in the distance, she could see the start of rain falling. Perhaps they would be so lucky that it would fall upon them in the near future. For the time being, however, she stood from her position without shaking the water off her hands or trying to remove the water from her pants. Instead, she waited for Dorian and his pet to show or reveal themselves. For the latter reason, she was a bit tense, but it was also the reason why she remained in the open.