"What did she mean by that?"
The question lingered in Ricky's mind like a flickering ember that refused to die.
Far off in the distance, the gentle chirping of birds echoed—soft, melodic, oddly grounding.
It didn't register at first. The sound was too familiar, too mundane.
Then it struck him like a thunderbolt.
"Wait a minute… birds chattering?"
His eyes snapped open.
He jerked his head around, pupils narrowing into slits as he scanned the world around him.
He was no longer in the sealed inheritance chamber.
He was floating high above the Emerald Green Forest, right in the open sky above the wooden castle.
Below him stretched an endless carpet of lush trees, their canopies dancing gently in the wind. The sunlight filtered through scattered clouds, dousing the land in golden warmth, but beneath that warmth Ricky felt… something else.
The wind carried more than just chill—it carried a warning.
It wasn't the biting frost of winter or the oppressive heat of a furnace.
