The girl was facing a massive ox. It had a dark and long coat, a high shoulder, its horns were short but pointed upwards and at their base, flattened and joined to a solid skullcap that it and others of its kind used to charge and ram each other with. A single hit would launch the girl many feet back and probably crush some interior organs.

She was facing the ox because her rations had run out after several days of walking. A strong rain during this time allowed her to at least not die of thirst, but her waterskins were empty. No trees or deep soil meant she could not put up her tarp with enough tension to use it for gathering rainwater. Then, she had found a brook rushing down the sides of the mountain. And there, at a small pond, she had encountered the ox. It was alone, cast out by its herd, and old. It was aggressive and had tried to chase the girl away from the pond, defending it as some sort of last territory. It would soon expire due to age, or be taken by any sort of predator that could find it up here. And so, the girl and the oxen had come to a sort of agreement, with no talking or bartering involved. The girl would get a large pile of flesh, bone, tendon, and skin and the ox would get a last fight and a clean death.

The girl had taken off her backpack and was holding a throwing knife in each of her hands, the ox was bracing its hooves against the ground with its last strength.

“Be careful, you might only have one chance.” Aaka told the girl.

“I know. I don’t like direct confrontation, but I’m in this situation now.”

The ox looked to charge directly at the girl, it reared its massive head and upper body repeatedly, stomping the ground with its front legs. It was less than forty feet away, and would be coming up the slope slightly, so the girl was at an advantage. The animal’s hooves hit the ground and flung the muddy soil to all sides as it burst into a sprint. The girl broke into a sprint as well, charging towards the mountain of an animal, and after a few steps, she let herself sink deep into her knees, then launched herself upwards, just as the ox was about to hit her. She remembered the time when she played leapfrog with her friends, something she was better at than all of them. She remembered these happy days for a moment, then she sent her knives deep into the ox’s neck, just behind the skull, and gave herself a push forward as it charged past under her. Her body still knew the game well.

The animal stumbled behind her as she hit solid ground and came back into a standing position. It wasn’t quite dead yet, but it was staggering. Had the girl pulled the knives out, it would take only a few seconds until the animal bled out through both jugulars, but right now, the blades were blocking the wounds.

The ox seemed eager to try another time. She got ready. She could have drawn the two remaining knives, but pulling the first two out would kill the animal faster.

The ox began to charge again, but tripped over its own feet. For a short moment it tumbled and skidded over the grass, then its body came to a rest. It lay collapsed on the ground. The girl stepped closer. The huge furry mountain breathed heavily and coughed. She stood by its head and looked into its eyes. She ran her hands through the fur on its head, then leaned over to the back of its neck and pulled the two knives out. The breathing became calmer, then died down. The ox had closed its eyes.

The girl got to cutting open the animal and separating as much meat and tendon as she could. Then she took off a large portion of the animal’s skin and put her haul into it like a huge, bloody, vagrant’s bundle and half-dragged, half-carried it further down into the valley. She could see a small forest, maybe more of a large grove, from where she was. If she hurried, she could get a fire started to smoke dry the meat before night would fall.

She was sitting under trees again for the first time in a long time. “I never thought I’d miss trees this much.”

“You did grow up in a forest.” Aaka and the girl were staring into the fire as it was spitting out thick smoke, rising up and enveloping the many thin slices of meat hanging on an improvised smoking rack. The forest was not very dense and mostly pinewood, which would give the meat a rosiny flavour, but the girl was happy enough to have something to bridge the trek over the scarce mountain pass. She would have loved to find some berries, but summer was just over its peak, so it would take some time for fruits to grow and ripen.

“We’ll have to head over the eastern mountains soon. This valley will take us too far south and I think I could feel a pass that should come up soon, goats use it frequently.” She said at one point.

“Have you seen this during your meditation?”

“Yes and no. It was more a listening, sending a sound out into the world and listening to what answered from where to which note. We should only have to cross around one or two ridges until we reach the blank spot on the map. Are you sure they’ll let us in?”

Aaka was almost insulted by the girl’s lack of faith. “I told you. Black Surgeon and me are welcome guests there. We left on good terms.”

“And what do I have to do in there to get the approval of this mysterious being?”

“I told you, I can’t tell you. Even if I could I don’t think it will help you. But you will face challenges and hardships.”

The girl sighed and put her chin in her hand. She threw a few pebbles in the fire and then decided to go to sleep. During the rainfall of the last few days, she had gotten wet and since she slept in her sleeping bag with wet fur on moist ground, it had started to smell horribly, possibly even accumulating mould inside. She had little opportunity to air it out properly, never staying anywhere for long. Her lack of proper nutrition apart from old bread and dried meat had made her moody and weary, and her coat had lost its sheen, even looking scraggy and clotted in places. Her resolve however, had not wavered one bit. The survivor spirit in her was strong. She had lived most of her life in much, much worse circumstances.

Early the next morning, the girl set out towards the eastern wall of the valley. The weather was nicer now, but the soil was still wet and soft. The girl had gotten used to walking almost barefoot. She still had her leather wrappings on, protecting most of her feet from sharp edges. Especially when the valley walls became rockier and steeper, her feet’s claws helped her keep hold and scale steep inclines. Elegantly, she scaled up the rocky paths that otherwise only mountain goats would scale. She had climbed and walked more than two hundred paces up when she allowed herself to make rest. She took some careful gulps from her waterskin, careful not to drink too much at once. She ate some of her freshly dried meat and looked back on the way she had come.

“I’m hundreds of miles away from Sturreland and probably the only person anywhere near here.”

She wrote something down in her notebook, then got back to scaling the steep path.

The ridge they were crossing proved to be quite wide and it was almost evening when they came to flatter area, not quite a valley, but at least even ground. A few tufts of grass waved in the wind, small animals hid in bushes. On the other end of the tiny plateau, the mountain ridge rose a last few feet up, a tiny path winding between rocks and over it. A single stunted, knaggy pine was clinging to the rock beside the path. Both the girl and the spider could see that there was more to this tree.

“That tree is hiding something.” The girl said.

Aaka agreed.

The girl walked straight towards it. “It looks like a familiar, but a tree?”

“Trees can be familiars too, you know?”

The girl raised an eyebrow. “Wouldn’t that be somewhat useless? How would it follow its master or deliver messages?”

“That doesn’t need to be necessary. It can however very well guard and keep a certain place.”

“So, then this must be an entrance, one of the powerful entities that bends the streams of life force. I thought they would use powerful charms and wards, but a tree as a familiar? That's something new.”

“I am absolutely sure that the people in Sturreland have been doing something similar in the past. Who knows what hides in those deep woods?”

“Who? I dunno. I but I know that Arch-Druid Loganna doesn’t. She doesn’t even know the back of her hand if it didn’t fill out the form to announce its existence before the due date.”

Aaaka left that unanswered.

The girl arrived by the tree. Its bark had been stripped away in places, its wood beneath was curved and smooth with an almost silvery sheen. From deep within this seemingly crippled tree, Aaka could see a powerful spirit shining. This was not the gate guardian she and Louissos herself had encountered many years before.

An ethereal voice came from deep within the tree, slow and calm, speaking few, but carefully chosen words. “You see me.”

The girl answered. “Yes. I seek the embrace of dreamers.”

“Then seek.”

The spider stepped a bit forward on the girl’s shoulders. “My name is Aaka the Widow, familiar of olack Surgeon f Hozorcia. He and I had been granted access many years before and received the word of friendship from the druid Opsharna. I am here with an apprentice in need of guidance and scrutiny.”

The pine remained silent for a while. “It has been passed on.”

The girl seemed to wait for something. “What now, can we enter?”

Aaka reprimanded her. “Wait for it, girl!”

The girl sat down on a rock and waited for a while. The shadows had moved and the sun was almost behind the mountains when the pine spoke up again.

“It has been granted. Tread on.”

“Thank you very much” Aaka said. The girl thanked the tree as well, but it seemed to not acknowledge either of them.

They walked up the steep slope up the last ridge and were able to look over the ridge.

The sight below was familiar to Aaka, but her memories were like that of a dream. A deep valley opened beneath them, filled completely with a forest of trees that strived to challenge the mountains. Trunks as large as mansions and crowns as high as clouds. Mist was hanging over the treetops, and a breeze as fresh as eternal spring rustled their leaves. One or two of the higher trees had their tops several hundred feet above the ground. The other side of the valley was distant and hazy, and while they seemed to be almost at the northern tip, the forest ran all the way beyond the horizon in the south.

The girl’s mouth stood agape. Aaka had to tap her eyelids to get a reaction out of her. “What is this place?” the girl asked.

“These are the neverwhere woods. Those grand trees are or at one point were the familiar of a druid who lived on for a hundred years.”

“This is incredible. How could anyone miss this? People should be tripping over their feet and stumbling into the valley.”

“You are underestimating the power of those that live here. Keep in mind, they are all druids, witches, shamans or other forms of mediums. Remember how the Lodge could bring fertility and peace to fields, game and people of Sturreland? Now imagine if they only had to care for themselves, in this valley alone. No fields, no harvest, no human families, no economic interests.”

The girl eventually went down the mountain a bit further. They would not arrive at the forest until after sundown anyway, so she made rest on a stone ledge, enjoying the view as she fell asleep sitting in her sleeping back, leaned against the stone wall.

The morning came and the girl got ready to make her descent into the valley and the forest. “How could Black Surgeon leave this place? How could he turn this back on this?” She said, still staring in disbelief from the rock ledge she had slept on. Ahead of them was the forest, the trees were growing to the clouds, entire swarms of birds looked like mosquitos by their crowns. A small stream with crystal clear water sparkling in the morning sun flowed along its outer side.

“You will have to turn your back on it as well. Or do you want to leave Elissa and Garetas to their fate?”

The girl slowly shook her head, not averting her gaze from the forest below.

Aaka gave the girl her usual time until she returned to the real world. They set out to the final part of the first part of their journey. They were only a few hundred feet from the first grand tree when they saw a figure standing among the trees. It looked like a man with the lower body of a stag, fingers like hooves and antlers on his head. He had a thick bushy beard and eyes as dark as the forest at night, as well as a look of stern melancholy on his face.

“That’s Opsharna, a friend Black Surgeon made here.” Aaka told the girl.

“Is he here to welcome us.”

"Yes, but you must do exactly as he says. It is a matter of life and death.”

The girl nodded.

They came closer and as they came into earshot; the man greeted the girl.

“Hello, young woman. I am Opsharna, a member of these woods. I see you come with Aaka, my old friend.”

Aaka greeted Opsharna. “How pleasant to see you still well, Opsharna.”

A short smile rushed across Opsharna’s face. “And to see you in good health I too am happy.

“Hello, I am pleased to meet you.” The girl bowed.

“What is your name? Is it not friendly anymore to tell your name to strangers?”

The girl hesitated. “People call me Nannade, but I have come to question whether that is my name.”

The man nodded, then he continued his introduction. “This is the realm of the grand dreamer. You have graciously been granted entry, why have you come?”

“To seek approval from the embrace of dreamers, as I was told. To prove that I am morally commensurable, and not an abomination. I have entered a blood pact with an ancient spirit.”

“I see. I cannot help you on your journey. Everything you have and are in this forest must come from yourself. Inner strength must be the foundation of outer strength. Therefore, I ask you to cast off all possessions and enter these woods as natural as you are.” He turned around and walked back into the forest.

The girl turned around and began searching the rubble and debris around the base of the mountains. “I guess I’ll better stash my stuff where I can find it again.” She eventually found an assortment of stones that seemed to fit the intended purpose and built a small, hollow mound out of them. In it, she stored all she had, from her backpack and sleeping bag to her last piece of clothing. She took a last few glances through the notebook. Especially what she had learned from the witch in the forest.

[Entry in the girl’s notebook]

Those that travel from west to North & South want to cut through a corner. Those that don’t, arrive at North, those that do, arrive nowhere and never, where trees speak & humans flow into the forest. A weak mind cannot enter without falling asleep. A strong mind cannot stay without dreaming. No one can leave without waking up.

[End]

“What do you think it means?” The girl asked Aaka. “That last part, about falling asleep and dreaming?”

“All the truth you seek lies within that forest, girl. I cannot stress enough how important it is that you find all answers yourself. You have been granted access to the valley, now it is up to you to take the test.”

The girl’s faced showed annoyance with her travel companion. “Will you stick by me? Observe me? Or will you simply wait around somewhere?”

“I am neither allowed nor able to help you inside there. All you will find is what you take with you and you alone.”

The girl made an annoyed grunt. “I guess I’ll be going in blind. And naked.” She put the notebook back, then took off her necklace, the one with the vial on it.

“I guess we’ll see whether I’m even still allowed to wear you.” She said with a remorseful sigh and stowed it in a small pouch on her backpack, then she put the last stone on the mound to seal it. She planted a few sticks in the ground right in front of it to mark it better, and looked at it one last time.

Aaka decided to stick by the pack again, like during the girl’s meditation.

“Thank you for your guidance, Aaka.” The girl said and bowed. “I hope I am still the same when we meet again.”

Aaka felt touched, but felt the need to remind the girl. “None of this happens out of friendliness but out of trust in you and your abilities. Do not betray our trust, because you will betray the reason why you were spared. Now go and meet what lies within you.”

After Aaka had said that, the girl turned around and walked into the forest.