Lena and Kuba follow a missing dog into the forest and stumble into a stone circle that opens a path to a hidden world where a phoenix is in danger.
Dry twigs snapped under Lena's boots as she and Kuba pushed deeper into the forest at the edge of the city. Mist clung to the trunks like torn gauze, and the late autumn light slipped through the branches in dull gold. Lena kept checking behind them. The feeling that they were being followed had not gone away.
They were supposed to be looking for Kuba's missing dog. That was the reason they had crossed the last row of houses, ignored the warnings from the older people in the neighbourhood, and come into the trees. But the search had changed. Curiosity had taken over, pulling them farther in, past the familiar paths and the places where the ground turned soft with rot and roots. Kuba tried to sound brave, but his voice came out tight.
"It's only stories," he said. "Old people love making the forest sound worse than it is."
Lena did not answer. Ahead of them, the trees opened into a small clearing. She stopped so fast that Kuba nearly bumped into her. In the centre stood a ring of stones half-buried in moss, each one marked with weather-worn carvings. Pale blue mist swirled inside the circle, thin as breath. On one stone, Lena saw a symbol cut deep into the surface: a wing, sharp and elegant, like the feather of a phoenix.
"Kuba," she whispered. "Look at that."
He stepped closer, and the mist suddenly thickened. It turned, as if it had heard them. The air changed too, tugging at Lena's skin, pulling hard and steady, like a hand closing around her wrist. She seized Kuba's hand, but the circle had already begun to glow. The ground seemed to tilt. The trees, the stones, the sky above them all dissolved into a blaze of blue light.
Then they fell.
Lena landed hard on a bed of springy moss and rolled onto her back. For a moment she could only stare. The forest around them was wrong in a way that made her chest tighten. The trees rose much higher here, their bark pale and smooth, their leaves silver and trembling without wind. Far off, something called out in a voice she had never heard before. The air smelled sweet and sharp, like rain on stone and smoke on a cold hearth.
"Is this... another world?" Kuba whispered.
He was still clutching the backpack he had brought, as if a torch and an old compass could explain any of this. Lena was about to answer when a figure stepped out from behind a nearby trunk.
It was a girl about their age, with amber eyes and a long dark braid down her back. A slim sword hung at her side, and she looked at them as if she had been expecting them for a very long time.
"You finally came," she said.
Lena's mouth went dry. "Who are you?"
The girl did not answer. She only lifted her gaze toward the sky. Lena followed it, and her breath caught. Above the silver trees, a shadow spread wide across the light, vast and winged, and for one impossible second she thought she saw fire inside it.
"The phoenix is in danger," the girl said softly. "If you want to save it, you have to choose now."
Before Lena could speak, the forest flared red. A scream ripped through the air, and something huge crashed through the canopy overhead, sending leaves and sparks spinning down around them.