Belle sighed once more, her annoyance showing clearly on her face. She lounged on the back of Dara, the dragon that had been assigned to her at birth. Loud enough to cut through the wind, she said, “Who do the Council think they are, anyways? They’re a bunch of hags, too old to know what day it is, much less who’s at fault for the intruder.”

Dara rolled his eyes. “Don’t you think you’ve ranted at the Council enough for a lifetime? I’m surprised you haven’t run out of insults for them yet.”

With a groan, Belle sat up, hunched over. “If they didn’t want me to rant at them, then they wouldn’t be so bad at their jobs. I mean, what business do they have blaming me for all the things they oversee? Maybe if they paid a little bit of attention to the Grove, they wouldn’t have to worry about chinks in the barrier.”

The dragon sighed, and changed the subject. “Sit properly and start whining. Let’s focus on the task at hand. Do you have any guesses as to how the intruder got in?”

“For the last time, no!” The witch tossed her hands in the air, exasperated. “I’ve looked at the site of the intrusion ten times over. There’s not a single rock unturned, not a single witness unquestioned. There’s no simple explanation for what happened. At least not one that can be found by sending me to look at the same spot again.” She let out a groan. “I don’t see the intruder being a brilliant sorcerer by any means, so I doubt he cast a greater teleportation spell. The last I looked at the barrier, it was unpierced and unbroken, and he wasn’t strong enough to break through anyways. There must be another explanation.”

“Well, you’d better think while we work, because we’re almost there.” The forest bordering the barrier rapidly approached the duo. With a graceful flap of his wings, Dara slowed them down to a smooth stop, and landed on the ground with quiet thump. Belle slid down his flank, adjusting her hat as she reached the ground. “Well, let’s get this over with.”

She closed her eyes, and waved her finger in the air, casting a spell that searched for all living beings in the area. It was a precaution, just in case someone else did find something related to the break in. There was no shortage of beasts that would fight to escape the Grove, and that kind of information could not escape.

The chant went on for a little over twenty seconds, and just as she reached the climax, she was interrupted. “Belle! Get over here!” Concentration broken, the spell’s weave dissolved. Belle snarled. Being disturbed while casting spells was a pet peeve of hers, and she shot a glare towards Dara.

“It better be impor…” She trailed off. In front of the dragon, the barrier appeared to be cracked and jagged, with a human sized hole in the middle. “Oh no.” Belle took off towards it, sprinting as quickly as she could. She made it halfway before she tripped and fell.

“This is no time to be playing around, Belle.” The dragon sounded dangerous, but Belle ignored him. That was strange; she was sure this rock hadn’t been here before. She took a suspicious glance at it, but ignored it. She had bigger issues to worry about.

Had she looked closer at the ‘rock’, she would have seen that it was trembling in fear. This particular rock regretted coming to this location and would like to leave, thank you very much. It managed to keep its screams of terror within its mind, however, and so Belle continued towards what remained of the barrier without too much wariness.

“What is this?” Belle was befuddled. Not two days ago, she’d come to the exact same location and done the exact same inspection. Back then, there hadn’t been so much as a scuff on the barrier, but now it was crumbling apart. She touched the edge of the hole, and the mere caress of the witch’s hand caused a triangular chunk to break off. “I’ve never seen anything like this before.”

This was decidedly not good. The barrier of the Grove was essential for its survival. If humans came in or beasts went out, it would only spell disaster for everyone involved. Belle had heard horror stories from before when the barrier was perfected, and incidents like these happened frequently. It had been chaos.

A shiver worked its way up Belle’s spine. If the barrier truly was crumbling apart, then this could spell the end of the Grove. “Dara, do you have any memory of this happening before?”

The dragon squinted its eyes, trying to recall memories of millenia past. “Maybe… two thousand years ago? I can’t remember if it was exactly like this, but I do recall the Council of that time performing a ceremony to strengthen the barrier. I also remember the same ritual happening about a thousand years later. Maybe the current Council forgot to do it?”

“And it all comes back to the Council.” This time Belle’s griping was less playful. If the Council was forgetting something as important as this, perhaps it was time that they retire. They were endangering life, not only within the Grove, but outside as well. “We need to report this, immediately. Can you remember what they needed for the ritual?” If they could gather the materials, then they could get the ritual done more quickly.

“There was a reason that they only did the ceremony once a millenia. The materials are remarkably rare, even by the Grove’s standards. I believe it requires a phoenix’s flame, a nymph’s sweat, and a dragon’s tear, among other things.”

Belle looked at Dara expectantly. The dragon snorted smoke into her face, and looked as though she’d desecrated his mother. “That’s the king of tasks, I’ll have you know. Few things in the world can make a dragon cry, even if it wants to. It would take the work of a master poet, or the greatest tragedy to even think about it.”

“Yeah, yeah. We’ll get it from you one way or another.” Belle waved his complaints away, and ignored his snarls. “More importantly, we can’t just leave a giant hole here. I think that I can get away with putting an illusion spell here, temporarily. I doubt that there would be any beasts from the Wastelands wandering around all the way over here anyways.”

Ten minutes later, the spell was woven, and Belle stepped back to admire her handiwork. It looked no different from the rest of the barrier surrounding it, a calm blue shield that appeared unbroken. If you pushed on it, it even pushed back, creating the image of a firm wall. Push too hard, and the illusion would fall apart, allowing the creature to walk through. It was a good enough deterrent for now, though. “Alright, I think that we’re done here. Let’s get on our way.”

Belle swiveled on her foot, and stepped towards Dara. Before she managed to actually hop on, however, something caught her eye. More importantly, the absence of something. “Hey, wasn’t there a strange rock over there?”

Dara was unamused. “Belle, we have more important issues than the whereabouts of pebbles. Get on my back and let’s go.” There was a note of authority in his voice that he rarely used. Belle shrugged and got on. Within seconds they were off, flying with urgency towards the World Tree, where the Council was convened.

Meanwhile, not too far from them, a Kanmi was flying through the canopy of the forest with all the grace of a cannonball. She plowed through every single branch and stick that stood in her way. The fish that was inside of her mouth thought that it was decidedly unstealthy.

###

The trip back to the World Tree was silent and suspenseful. Belle doubted that anything bad would happen in the time that it took for the barrier to be reinstated, but she wasn’t in the mood to jinx it. Dara appeared to be lost in his own thoughts, and he was always cranky about getting interrupted.

The witch laid down, worries and doubts swirling about in her mind. This development was anything but good. If any beast found out about the barrier breaking, much less one of the Wasteland beasts, then the Grove was as good as dead.

Despite its placid appearance, the Witches’ Grove was always on the very brink of war. A very delicate balance had to be maintained in order for the oasis to be maintained, and there had been times in the past where it had been lost. Those times were never good.

Belle blamed the first Council for all of the problems that had manifested today. In a spurt of idealistic behaviour that was uncharacteristics of witches, they had allowed all beasts in any sort of trouble to claim their protection, and enter and leave the Grove as freely as they wanted.

This caused disputes with the human population, as monsters that harassed them escaped to the safe harbour. Anger and spite rose in the surrounding villages, and soon the witches found themselves at war with every kingdom and count in the near vicinity. It was bloody, and with each human loss, fear was only stoked further.

The witches, thrust into a war unwinnable and unfavorable, chose to surrender. They refused to abandon the Grove entirely, but instead made concessions to forbid the exit of any beast that had entered. This was thoroughly unpopular with beasts that had already entered and wished to leave, leading to another war, this one internal. The witches won this thoroughly, and banished the dissident animals to the Wastelands, where the rebels’ progeny flourished to this day.

If anybody knew that the barrier was breaking down, another war would undoubtedly break out. And Belle couldn’t guarantee that the witches, now soft and weak, would win again.

She was broken out of her thoughts as Dara swooped up to a knot on the trunk of the World Tree, and she stiffened. It was always a little bit uncomfortable to enter the Tree, as though it pushed the very essence of liveliness into her soul. She pushed back, protecting herself from its influence, and let out a deep breath.

Dara landed on the inside of the trunk, and lowered himself to the ground. Belle jumped off, and gave him a pat on the snout. A puff of smoke was shot in her general direction, but she escaped the blast, and gave the dragon a rather rude gesture. The exchange was lighthearted and comfortable, giving Belle the courage she needed.

With an inhale, she walked towards the Council.

###

It had been a while since Boggy had enjoyed a peaceful moment. Between scuffles and introductions, he’d either been in abject terror or confusion ever since he picked up the cape. This was not normal in the life of a boglet, whose main prerogative was to do nothing for its entire life.

That’s why when the bird and the fish had disappeared off to who-knows-where, the shapeshifter took the time to relax. He leaned back against a nice sunlit rock, and enjoyed a smattering of small talk with Darkness. The day was placid, and the breeze was beautiful.

It was a day that couldn’t be perfected in any way. Boggy laid back, enjoying the sounds of nature echoing off of his manufactured earholes. The dripping of the water off of the leaves, the scuttling of bugs on the ground, the strangled screaming of the birds.

Boggy frowned. Did the birds always scream like that?

He didn’t need to ponder that question for much longer. Karla crash landed in the clearing next to the marsh, elegantly performing a somersault that ended up with her spread-eagle on the ground. Boggy looked on with horror as she started to hiccup. A litany of curses came from her throat, but not in her voice.

Karla, with a thunderous cough, hacked Edie into Boggy’s face. Baffled by this sequence of events, the shapeshifter opened his mouth to question this strange turn of events, but stopped as Edie kicked him in the face. Panting heavily and covered in saliva, she yelled, “There’s no time to talk! We have to leave. Now.”

“What? Why-”

“Did you not understand me? We have to go.” Edie looked at Karla, who looked like she was going to be sick. “Can you carry all of us at once, all the way back to the hole in the barrier?”

The Kanmi let out a couple of coughs, but rose to her talons. Determination flared in her eyes. “I’ve done it before, and I can do it again. I’m going to need you to get into my mouth again if we’re carrying the tree, though.”

A grimace came over Edie’s face. “Ugh, fine. But don’t you dare swallow me this time.”

Boggy, still befuddled, opened his mouth once more. “I’m sorry, what happened at the-”

“I’ll explain on the way. Karla, take us away!”

The Kanmi let out a terrifying war screech, and grabbed Boggy and Darkness in her talons. She chomped down on Edie, who let out an instinctual squeal, and soon enough they were off.

On the way, Edie told Boggy and Darkness an easily comprehensible summary of what happened with the witch, the dragon and the barrier. It was one of the greatest feats of storytelling that she had ever accomplished, and she was personally proud of herself.

Unfortunately, neither of them could actually understand what she was saying, as the words were muffled from the inside of Karla’s mouth.

As they reached the hole in the barrier, Boggy decided that understanding what was going on wasn’t particularly necessary, anyways. He was just happy to be there.