“Wake up!” Jack kicked me awake. Yes, he kicked me awake.

  “What?” It seemed way too soon. How early was the second shift? Did I get screwed? Jack looked too happy to be doing this. “Why are you kicking me?”

  “It was just a nudge,” Jack said. It was more than that, even if it didn’t hurt. Still, was his foot really the best option? A hand would have worked better than a boot. “Remember, no zoning out. You seem useless when you do that. You need to make sure you watch out for threats.”

  It was my turn to keep watch. When I looked up, both moons were still in the sky. The red one had shifted to the second hole, while the blue one had finally risen enough to be seen in the first hole through the cave’s ceiling. That must have meant that I did get to sleep a little bit, and Jack didn’t disturb me right after I fell asleep. It felt like that, though.

  Jack went over to his bed and lay down. I made sure that when he was asleep, I would accidentally trip over him. Oh, the simple things.

  My next question to myself was, what should I do? I had a long time of mere pondering before I could wake up Kaylie, and Jack didn’t want me to concentrate on training. Of course, Rabbit could watch out for us while I trained, but there was no guarantee of that. Rabbit could just as easily not let me know, so he could watch Jack explode on me later.

  I stood up and decided I would start searching in the cave. In the night, it looked different. The cave was a light purple, similar to magenta. This wasn’t the first time I noticed this. Having been in this world for a while, I had seen the red and blue moons in the sky a couple of times. The moons combined their light, creating a purple hue. It was different from the pure light of the world I came from. Having two moons was very odd to me. I had seen others, but they were on the horizon and hadn’t fully risen while I was watching.

  Since I had seen the purple light before, it didn’t cause me concern, but I hadn’t quite gotten used to it yet. As for the others, they wouldn’t even notice the light as I did. For them, it was something they had seen a million times. I took off the ring that I received from solving the last clue.

  The ring was unassuming, made of smooth, polished silver that gleamed softly in the light. Its band was slender and unadorned, save for the tiniest speck of a purple gem that matched the moonlight. It lacked any intricate engravings or ornate details, making it easy to overlook. Yet, despite its simplicity, it fit my finger smoothly as if it were made for me.

  “Violet,” Rabbit chimed in.

  “What?”

  “You keep mentioning purple. Although mixing red and blue produces purple, it's technically creating a violet light. Also, the gem is violet," Rabbit corrected firmly. “I don't understand why it's that color, but I’m beginning to think you might be colorblind.”

  Despite Rabbit’s teasing, his insistence on the correct color reminded me of an old lady fussing over the difference between a blanket and a duvet. “Alright, alright, violet it is,” I conceded with a chuckle, amused by his vehemence over a specific hue.

  I moved to the center of the room to test the object I had received against the engraved loops on the floor. The ring I was given, which I presumed to be a key, seemed the most logical fit as both were circular, though the ring was much smaller than the floor markings. Suddenly, an idea struck me. What if I held it high enough to cast a shadow on the ring on the floor? Would it then react?

  I lifted the ring, attempting to align its shadow, when I noticed that the shadow it cast was barely visible. “Why is the ring’s shadow purple?” I asked, but was met with silence. After a minute, I tried again. “Why is the ring’s shadow violet?”

  “That is a good question that I don’t have an answer to,” Rabbit finally responded.

  “Is it because the ring is too small and only gives off one shadow?”

  “No, you currently have two shadows because there are two light sources from the moons. The ring should also have two shadows, one red and one blue, just like yours now. The fact that it only has a violet shadow makes me want to try it in daylight. It’s curious that the shadow matches the small violet gem’s color. This could be a coincidence, or perhaps the ring is absorbing the light and refracting it in a unique way.”

  Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

  It was perplexing. It felt like my mind was scrambling to catch up with reality. There was something strange here, and pieces were starting to fall into place. I looked down at the circle. It wasn’t that the ring’s shadow matched the color of the light. Something else was at play.

  It was like trying to recall a forgotten dream. I had the pieces but couldn’t quite connect them. Then it clicked.

  It was my shadow. My hand, holding the ring, moved up and down, splitting into two shadows from the two light sources, one red and the other blue. As I lowered my hand, the shadows merged, taking on a normal shape.

  But it wasn’t the merged shadow that intrigued me. It was the distinct colors of red and blue in my shadows, mirroring the riddle that stated, ‘Two and two, the eyes will shine red and blue.’

  I then looked up and saw the red and blue moons I was expecting. I remembered going to bed, feeling watched by the red moon through the cave hole, which seemed like an eye gazing down at me. Now, gazing upward, I saw two eyes. The cave’s openings resembled eyes, with the moons as pupils in the center, staring back at me.

  “Holy crap, I’ve figured it out,” I announced, stunned by the revelation.

  “Hopefully, it really is like training a monkey. It’s violet. It’s not that hard, I mean…” Rabbit continued to rant, but I ignored him.

  I knew exactly what I wanted to do. Striding over to Jack, I kicked him lightly and demanded, “Wake up!” Oh, the simple pleasures in life.

  I wouldn’t call it revenge. That would be too harsh. Instead, I would call it ‘returning the favor.’ That sounded more diplomatic.

  Unlike my groggy and confused awakening, Jack didn’t react typically. He stumbled to his feet, half-asleep, yet swiftly pulled out his weapon, ready for combat. I was impressed. He scanned the area for threats, and upon realizing there were none, he swung around and punched me in the face.

  “Oww!” I yelled, staggering back.

  When my vision cleared, Jack hadn’t advanced on me. He just stood there calmly. Fueled by irritation, I concentrated and pushed mana to my feet for extra speed, determined to take him down using his own technique. He had hit me in the face, and I was eager for payback. With my mana-enhanced speed, I shot forward.

  I was about to wipe that smirk off his face when Jack simply stepped aside and extended his arm. My neck hit his arm, flipping my body upside down in the air, eventually sending me face-first on the cave floor.

  As I got up, I could feel blood dripping down my face from a scrape I got during my landing.

  “What is going on here?” Sana demanded, her voice carrying authority despite her disheveled hair and sleep-fresh eyes. Kaylie sat up next to her, clearly disoriented.

  “Alf attacked me,” Jack replied.

  “Bullshit! You attacked me,” I shot back.

  “What do you call the kick?” Jack countered.

  “The same way you jolted me up. I would say it’s a wake-up call to you, except you responded with a punch to the face,” I retorted.

  “Well, I had a reason to wake you up. You didn’t have a reason. Therefore, it’s an attack,” he replied smugly, as if he had clinched the argument.

  “I had a reason!” I exclaimed, my voice laced with frustration. “I figured out the clue.”

  At my proclamation, everyone was momentarily stunned.

  “Alf, did you actually figure it out, or is this just to shut Jack up?” Sana asked, skepticism evident in her voice.

  “No, I did figure something out. I don’t have all the pieces yet, but the time to act is now,” I replied earnestly.

  “He seems serious, Jack. You should apologize,” Sana insisted. “If Alf is right and now is the time to act, we can’t waste time on your lovers’ quarrels. If Alf is wrong, you can sort that out later.”

  I wasn’t sure if she was actually leading or just mediating, but at her words, Jack conceded, “Sorry, I didn’t realize you had woken me up for a genuine reason.”

  I had planned to trip over him later and pretend it was an accident. I would guess that wasn’t the best idea. It would have likely turn out like this. Fortunately, I had figured something out, or things might have gotten worse.

  “On a sidenote,” Jack added, “learning a technique is not enough to use it effectively in battle. You just made yourself easier to defeat by charging forward as you did. You learned it fast, but understanding how a technique works and how to implement it properly are two different things. The latter will take some time.”

  “Okay, now that you two have resolved your lovers’ spat, Alf, what have you discovered? Also, you might want to take a healing potion if things are going to start again,” Sana interjected.

  “Come with me,” I said, quickly stashing everything into my dimensional space as I led them to the engraved circles on the floor. “Earlier, we discovered that standing on these circles briefly paralyzed us. We weren’t sure why, but we suspected it had to do with timing. We didn’t know when.” I paused, pointing upward. “I think now is the time, and those might be the ‘eyes of heaven’ the riddle mentioned.”

  Following my gaze, they surveyed the openings in the cave ceiling. After a moment of silent contemplation, Kaylie, her voice tinged with realization, recited two lines from the riddle: “Two and two, the eyes will shine red and blue. The time to act is when the eyes of heaven are upon you.”

  “They do look like eyes,” Jack agreed.

  “I don’t know how long the moons will stay in position. Alf, drink some potion and let’s get into place,” Sana urged.

  Everyone quickly agreed, seeing little risk in giving it a try. If it didn’t work, we’d only lose a bit of time. But if it succeeded, we might finally find a way out of this room.

  “I’ll heal. Don’t worry. The damage isn’t that bad,” I assured her.

  “Take a sip, or else I’ll make you take one. We don’t have time for this,” Sana ordered.

  She gave me a final glare, the kind that made you feel like disobeying might shorten your lifespan.

  I sighed and took the tiniest sip possible from the bottle, as there wasn’t much left, and moved toward the markings.

  Rabbit whispered in my head, “Try not to die. I have money riding on you making it out of here.”

  I ignored him… mostly.