In an abandoned underground tunnel, Zuza, Michal, and Lena find a wall of blue light that opens into a forest no map could explain.
The underground passages beneath their city were old, damp, and forgotten, the kind of place people crossed quickly without looking down. Zuza, Michal, and Lena had passed the rusted gate to the disused tunnel dozens of times, each of them pretending not to care what was on the other side. That afternoon, after school, they finally stopped pretending.
The entrance groaned when they pushed it open. Beyond it, the tunnel narrowed into shadow, lined with cracked bricks and the stale smell of wet stone. Their footsteps rang too loudly. Dust drifted in the beam of Michal's torch, and somewhere ahead, water dripped with maddening patience.
Then Michal froze.
At the far end of the tunnel, one of the brick walls was glowing.
Not bright, not enough to light the whole passage, but enough to make the darkness around it seem even deeper. A pale blue shimmer pulsed through the bricks like a heartbeat beneath skin. Lena drew in a sharp breath. Zuza stared at the wall, then took one cautious step closer.
The light wavered when she lifted her hand.
Under her fingertips, the bricks did not feel like bricks at all. They gave way with a soft, liquid tremor, as if she had touched the surface of a lake. The glow spread, rippling outward in thin veins of blue.
"Do you see that?" she whispered.
No one answered. Michal was already moving, drawn forward despite the warning in Lena's face. The wall shivered once, then opened with a sound like glass singing underwater. A cold wind rushed out, smelling of leaves and rain and something stranger still.
Before any of them could step back, the tunnel vanished.
They were falling through light, spinning in a blur of silver and blue, until the ground struck beneath them with a jolt that knocked the breath from their lungs. Zuza pushed herself up first and stared.
The tunnel was gone.
Around them stretched a forest unlike any they had ever seen, filled with twisted trees and leaves that gleamed like metal. Tiny glowing shapes drifted between the branches, flickering softly through the mist. The air was alive with a low, humming silence, as if the whole world were holding its breath.
"Where are we?" Lena said, her voice thin and unsteady.
Something moved far between the trees.
A shape too large to be an animal flashed once through the shadows, all hooked wings and narrow limbs, somewhere between an owl and a cat. It paused just long enough for them to catch the faint reflection of countless lights in its eyes.
The three of them stepped back at once.
Then the rustling began behind them.
Slow, deliberate footsteps pressed through the undergrowth, and the glowing creatures scattered in every direction. Zuza turned first, just as the air split open with a deafening bang.