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Leo spaced out while contemplating what he knew so far. He snapped out of his thoughts when he heard a nearby commotion. He turned to see members of the crowd start to rise. Those who awoke seemed dazed, as they stumbled about and struggled to walk. He assumed that they had to be seriously dazed, as no one seemed to care about waking up in the forest surrounded by strangers.

Leo called out to those who woke up first to come over. He went to those that didn’t make the walk to see their condition. Their eyes had heavy bags, and they all seemed disheveled and exhausted. Thankfully, no one seemed to be mortally wounded. He helped guide people to the stable parts of the clearing.

While he carried a young man, Leo asked him, “Hey, dude, how’re you feeling?”

“Bad,” replied the man.

“Do you know what happened to you?” questioned Leo.

“Did I get shitfaced at Barley’s again? Fuck, dude, I gotta get my shit together,” replied the man.

“You don’t remember what happened?” asked Leo.

“Remember what? Did I get into another horse accident? I shouldn’t have been drinking and riding again,” mumbled the man.

“No, you didn’t do anything like that. Try to focus, what do you last remember?” investigated Leo.

“Uhhhh. I was at the bar after work?” he replied.

“Is that all?” continued Leo.

“Yeah, I think,” muttered the man.

Leo sat the man down near the forming group in the clearing. The man seemed to have no clue as to what had happened here, nor that time had even passed in the first place. He hoped that someone here would have information as to what Cordylia was up to in the forest.

While he brought those that struggled to walk over, Leo asked them about their memories. He had to have asked dozens of people, but not a single one of them knew what happened to them. This was a great inconvenience already, yet he realized another unfortunate truth as more time passed.

No one had noticed that anything was wrong. They were only able to recall where they were before the calamity had taken control of them. When asked further questions, almost all of them seemed to correlate their previous events leading them to this situation. The people he talked to barely accepted that this was an odd situation in the first place.

He heard reasonable explanations such as spending the night drinking or being asleep when they were taken over. The reasoning in people’s minds were able to be stretched far, as Leo realized when a man explained that he must’ve chased his filed tax forms into the city.

Yet, a few people did manage to realize that something was up. They also had no memories of the past weeks, but they could tell that something was wrong. Most of them were unable to find a way to have their stories end with them in this forest. He heard a doctor explain that he was in the middle of surgery, and he’d never leave a patient to go search for a missing nurse.

Those that could tell things were off still did have an explanation for how they ended up here. The only difference was that they simply refused to believe it, as if their subconscious was fighting against the implanted memories. Leo did find it amusing to hear a man realize that he, in fact, didn’t leave his bride at the altar to search for black forest cake.

The people who realized that their memories were wrong also seemed to recover the fastest. Most of them woke up fully functional, and the rest only needed a few minutes to adjust. The group had become crowded, as there was soon little room in the clearing. Leo made sure no one fell into the pit, but with too many people around the risk would increase.

“Hey, I’m going to try and clear a path back to Faelde. I’ll be able to explain everything in detail once everybody wakes up, but I need you to make sure they’re safe while I’m gone,” commanded Leo.

The ever growing group took heed of his orders. They patrolled the edge of the chasm to ensure that no one would fall inside. They also made sure to help those that awoke make their way to the clearing.

The journey from the city to this clearing felt long, but it was not long enough that he could risk a punch. Leo gripped his hands around the nearest tree and plucked it from the ground. He pulled back and threw it through the sky. He saw the miles of forest while he was in the sky, and felt confident that no one would be hit by his waste disposal.

Leo quickly found his rhythm while he threw out the trees. While he was concerned with the ever real threat of tree cops, Leo had to prioritize getting these people out of here. He made quick work of forming a new path.

He reached the end of the forest, as the sun started to shine down on the ground. He looked back to his messy but navigable path. The walk back was brief but oddly nostalgic. He remembered the first path he tore through a forest.

The damage there was brutal, and he had nearly no control back then. His first strike felt uncontrolled, as if it was a surge of energy that threatened to rip him apart. He had spent every day since then working to find balance. He tried his best to restrain himself with each movement he made.

This path was made with purpose. He made sure to only break as much as he needed to, and he avoided risking anybody's life. When he reached the clearing, there was far more activity than before. It seemed as if the sunrise moved most people to awaken.

Most of the people talked amongst themselves, and they paid no heed to Leo. There was only one small group that seemed to notice his arrival down the path. Leo heard Marem call for him, as he turned to see his companion waving to grab his attention. She was accompanied by Philips and a short man that Leo hadn’t seen before.