How long had we been walking? I had lost track long ago. The sun was gone, hidden by the impenetrable roof of foliage far above. “This place differs from what I expected.” I noted as we walked onward. The entire forest was in a constant dusk, but not without life.

A myriad of strange plants and bioluminescent fungi grew among the gigantic trees, whose roots were wide enough to be considered roads. Amber looked at it all with awe. “This place is an alchemist’s dream. So many strange herbs and fungi to make potions with.”

She stumbled over a fallen branch and I barely caught her backpack before she fell off the giant root we were on. “Thanks Ashes, this place is so full of magic, I’m feeling loopy right now. It should pass in a bit, I hope.” Having magic sensitivity on the level of a Gnome had to suck if, just walking into a forest like this was enough to throw you for a loop.

Uncle gave a hand and helped Amber to her feet. “Ondul is a Fae Forest. So, the ambient magic here’s far denser than normal. Its ruler, Queen Amalin, is a Fae Monarch and the ruler of the local wood Elves.” How did that work? As if reading my mind, Uncle continued.

“Elves are distant descendants of the Fae, and it’s not unheard of for an Elf to have this ancestry blossom return to them their more primal Fae forms once more. Therefore, a Wood Elf is the current ruler of one of the four Fae Courts. It’s also why Ondul has such a unique look to it, as I assure you a normal forest would be nothing like this.”

That made sense. I could feel an underlying current of… something all around us, something ancient and powerful. I was tempted to manipulate this power, but I thought better of it. In my current condition, something like that might be a bad idea, since I didn’t know whether it would interact with my power or not.

As time went on, sounds returned, and in the distance we could see the flitting of pixies as they buzzed through the forest and movement of other, less obvious Fae and forest creatures as well. However, the Fae kept their distance, and the sounds were muted. The entire situation made Uncle tense. “Something’s wrong, very wrong. We should have encountered a warden by now, or a scouting party, not to mention be swarmed by inquisitive Sprites.”

At his words, one of the distant glowing spheres paused, and after some hesitation flew closer. It paused in front of Uncle. “Insa Wuntel meel untulis garun ib di finji. Makhas rendilin mindu rulakan gadul.” A thin, high-pitched voice spoke. And while I couldn’t understand a word, Uncle did, if his darkening expression was anything to go by.

Uncle nodded. “Iru ahal, ma rul, gur mib tsa.” He pulled out a small sugar cube and held it up to the pixie, who accepted it with a delighted squeal, then flew off. “That’s not good. Though, it explains the absence of wardens along the road.” I looked at him, then at Amber, who just shrugged. “I don’t speak, Sylvan, so don’t look at me.”

Sarirrva glanced at her for a moment. “Someone seems to have the thought that attempting to, and failing to assassinate the queen of the wood, and ruler of an entire Fae Court would be a brilliant idea.” Her own expression had hardened as well. “Whatever fool did that will regret it when the Fae catch him or her. It’s not a question of if, but when. The Fae are great allies, but are enemies so horrible even we Dragons know better than to be that foolish.”

Uncle looked over at her. “I’m more worried about the timing of it all. What’s the chance that someone attempted to assassinate Queen Aeinja at the same time these strangers arrived at the plains?” None of us said anything. The timing was too good to be a coincidence.

Sarirrva puffed out a small green flame. “Here’s hoping we can handle whatever injured the Queen then. Wood elves are one thing, but if the queen really is a fey monarch, she would be far more powerful than a regular wood elf.” As she finished speaking, we could see movement through the trees.

They appeared out of the twilight ahead of us, a group of about a dozen elves riding stags and several fey creatures. They crossed the path and disappeared into the trees without casting a single glance our way. “It would seem their only focus is chasing down the would-be assassin, seeing as they didn’t even offer us a single glance.” I noted.

Sarirrva shook her head. “Not entirely correct, that wasn’t a normal wood elf hunting party. That was a Wild Hunt. A hunting party whose entire goal is to find and destroy a singular target. It’s why attempting to assassinate a Fae monarch is a bad idea.” Her expression grew grim. “However, if the Wild Hunt has been called, and they are still hunting…”

Uncle nodded. “Their prey is far from normal. Stealth techniques shouldn’t work against a Wild Hunt. It would take a Greater Horror or something of equal power to hide from a Wild Hunt. And Greater Horrors are reclusive and wouldn’t bother with assassination, since they could just destroy the entire forest. Besides, one of the queen’s guardians is an Ancient Horror.” By now, Uncle had increased the pace of his walking, to where I had to pick up Amber and Glu since they were falling behind.

“Hey uncle, slow down. I know the Wood Elves are old friends of yours, but Amber and Glu can’t keep up.” Before I could elaborate further, an arrow hit the ground right in front of Uncle. “Not a step further, Human, the wood does not welcome outsiders right now.” a melodious voice rang out from the dark.

Uncle bent down, picked up the arrow, and inspected it. “Your arrow fletching is still shabby, Tanalis. I am surprised your teacher let you into the forest, given how strict he is.” Uncle closed his eye for a moment, then the arrow disappeared back into the darkness. There was a loud *THUNK* as the arrow hit a tree trunk, followed by a surprised yelp.

“H-hey, I am a Warden, Human.” The voice was sounding nervous now, more worried than anything else. “Apprentice Warden Tanalis, if you truly had graduated, I am surprised you wouldn’t invite me to your graduation celebration. However, I am more appalled that you can’t seem to recognize me at all, Lil’ Magpie.”

There was silence for a moment, then the voice returned, now sounding so thin and embarrassed as to be barely audible. "Lil' Magpie? But the only one who’s called me that is… Mordred, is that really you? You look so… old." Out of the shadows came a singular wood elf. She was almost the same height as me, and dressed in grayish brown survival gear that blended in with the surrounding tree trunks in the dim twilight.

Mordred shrugged. “I might be immortal, but I still age. That aside, how’s the Queen?” Tanalis flinched. “How did…? It was Flitt, wasn’t it? That damn sugar addicted Pixie, I’m gonna pluck his wings!” Uncle looked quite amused as the elf threw a tantrum.

“At least the lil guy recognized me, unlike a certain someone.” Tanalis winced, but calmed down. “At any rate, her Highness is holding on, somehow. There’s some kind of strange toxin we have never seen before burning in her veins, and all our attempts at countering it have been for naught.” Her shock seemed to have worn off as she spoke, and was being replaced by despair.

Then she looked at uncle, now with a desperate expression. “Do you think-?” Uncle held up a hand to silence her. “I’m willing to look at her, but I cannot guarantee I will have a solution. Poisons are far outside my realm of expertise, even magical ones.”

Tanalis nodded then, just turned around and disappeared into the trees without a word. “And there she goes, hasty as always, and no doubt to convince the guards at the gate to let us pass.” Uncle seemed somewhat amused.

Glu walked up to us, now holding even more mushrooms. "Do the elfies have yummy munchies?" I stared at Glu for a few moments, then chuckled. “I am certain they do Glu.” Glu tilted her head for a moment. Then, after a pause, she smiled and swallowed another mouthful of mushrooms.

Uncle hesitated for a moment, then flinched. “One moment everyone.” His eyes flashed with a strange blue light, then there was a pause, before they flashed again. Amber tilted her head for a moment. “Is Moor, using a messaging spell?” I looked over at him. “If it is, it’s an archaic one. The ones used today don’t have eye flashes like that. Might be a telepathic conversation. I mean, it’s not unthinkable Uncle knows a telepathy spell.”

Amber didn’t seem convinced and instead stopped Glu as she was about to wander off in search of more mushrooms. Just as I was about to follow, I noticed Sarirrva seemed tense. “Something wrong?” She shot a glance at me. “If you haven’t noticed, there’s no point in pointing it out.”

Her eyes kept scanning the surrounding forest, as if searching for something. Was there something out there? Well, whatever it was, it was likely hidden by magical means. And since I had no training in using magic, there was no way I could sense stuff like that. “I take it there is something out there that’s hidden by magic, then?”

Sarirrva didn’t react, so I carefully made my way over to Amber and Glu and ushered them back towards uncle and Sarirrva. If there was something out there that made a dragon tense up, it wasn’t something I wanted to tangle with or wanted those two to encounter.

Uncle grumbled to himself then, with an annoyed huff, began walking again, “Alright, let’s get going, it would seem we have an early reunion with an old friend who might help with this entire mess.” Both Amber and I looked at uncle. There was an annoyed air about him, but also a veiled hesitation.

He might try to hide it, but both Amber and I had known uncle our entire lives. He couldn’t hide that he was nervous, from either of us. We kept going as uncle lead us off the trail and into the wood itself. It didn’t take long for me to lose my orientation as we clambered over roots the size of small hills or under mushrooms the size of towers. If I didn’t know better, I’d say we had shrunken down to the size of an ant. “Uncle, you know where we are going, right?”

He glanced back at me. “Navigating this place isn’t as hard as you think if you know the trick. However, since the trick requires magical training, so I’m not surprised you’re feeling lost.” As he said so, he pushed into a bush so large it was almost like a wall of leaves.

“Now stop your questions and come along. We’re there soon. Once we are through here, you can see our destination.” He pushed into the hedge, and Sarirrva followed without hesitation. “Come along children, it’d be rude to make our hosts wait.” she pushed the branches aside, creating a passage wide enough to let Amber and Glu pass with no issues.

As I passed her, she grabbed my shoulder. “Be on your guard. Nothing is as it seems among the Fey. Do not be deceived by appearances or first impressions, and the Fey like to test their guests.” I hesitated for a moment as I digested this new information, then nodded. If I was lucky, I wouldn’t need to worry about it because of uncle, but better safe than sorry.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Nicomphus didn’t stop the wagon when we arrived in the forest. Instead, he just drove us right in, much to my surprise. Invidia seemed just as shocked as I was, seeing as the ground quickly turned from an even road to a tangled mess of giant roots, boulders, giant glowing mushrooms and uneven terrain.

“Mr. Nicomphus, are you certain this is wise?” she had almost fallen out of her seat when the wagon missed one of the larger oaks by an inch, at a speed that would have spelled the end of us for sure. The giant Redcap didn’t reply as he drove the Wagon full speed off of a root and almost crashed into another.

“Nico, this is insane. Slow down!” I grabbed onto his seat for balance as he zigzagged between a group of boulders, missing each by a hair. “Don’t distract me, Fox-man, or we’re all dead. Mistress asked me to get there as fast as possible, and the lil-one delayed us by an entire 30 seconds. I’m not wasting another by slowing down now.” Invidia grabbed onto my arm. “He’s crazy, Mr. Rael, isn’t he?” I sat back and brace myself for the next crazy maneuver. “Worse, he’s a Redcap.” I had no choice but to hang on and hope that his skills with the Wagon were enough to ensure we didn’t meet a grisly fate.