It was a wasteland.

Bodies littered the ground, soaking in pools of blood, urine, and mud. Their eyes open and still glazed with fear and pain as they were in their final moments. It was like a sea of despair that Selene couldn't get out of.

She walked and walked but no end was in sight. Just thousands upon thousands of bodies.

Why am I here? She wondered.

All she could remember was looking into those dark eyes and being swept away into the black. Then she was here, laying among the bodies and the death.

Then it was over.

Aiden was shaking her, his hands gripping her shoulders. She blinked in confusion as the room came back into focus. She propped herself up on her elbows and turned to the beautiful, scarred woman.

"What the hell did you just do to me?" Selene demanded.

The woman's face was blank when she said, "That was a warning, Daughter of Night. Maybe this time you should heed it."

"Fu—," Aiden clamped his hand over her mouth.

"Thank you for your time, may the willow leaves bless you." And with that, he practically dragged Selene backward out of the cavern and shoved her towards Kadan.

"I said no smart talk, and yet you do something like that. Do you not listen?"

She was going to make a retort but decided against it; there were too many people around to have an all-out argument. So she pulled herself onto Kadan and waited for Aiden to climb onto his mare and kick her into a walk.

Still steaming, they both made there way back through the village along the main road. This time, they made a right about half way from the cavern to the gate and Selene watched as the clay houses turned into tree houses, completely exposed in the sleeping oaks. Just at the edge of the village, there laid a smaller treehouse, it's wood fading and bending to the shape of the tree branches.

"This is where I stay. I never thought I'd have a guest so it's a little small; I had to build it myself. But we can just drag up another hammock for you."

Selene nodded, still frustrated over the woman under the willow. Aiden didn't seem to care, but she guessed he was as well. They tied their horses to a much smaller nearby tree and climbed the ladder to the house.

It was small, Selene could just barely stand up, and Aiden had to crouch in order to get into the room. It was wider than it was taller, large enough for three hammocks to be crammed in if needed. The hammock that hung in the house right then was old and moldy. Definitely not something Selene would want to sleep in.

Aiden brushed the dust off the hammock and said, "I haven't been here in a while."

Aiden, ordered more than asked her to help him unload their saddlebags. He threw them up to her, a bit too roughly, and she put them in the corner of the house, out of the way. It didn't take them long to finish settling in, and once they had, Aiden set about retrieving a hammock.

"You can explore the village if you want, but if I hear you caused trouble for anyone, I can assure you our time here will be short lived," he said as he walked toward the entrance.

"You talk like you command me," she said.

He stopped in the small threshold and looked back at her, "You disrespected their Priestess, and beyond that, you could have defiled something without being aware of it. So when I say don't cause trouble, I mean be aware of what's around you. Remember, you're just a guest here." Then he left.

So she went to explore this new place. The people were kind, despite their rough appearance. They were in awe at her teeth. A woman even tried to touch them. The village's bond to nature was so intriguing to her and she couldn't get enough of it. She stumbled into a cramped alley between two clay houses to escape a horde of children when a voice spoke from beside her.

"Aiden is the only other human they've ever seen."

Selene startled and whipped around to see Cyan. She was just as beautiful as before with her sharp green eyes and fiery red hair. She was smirking as if she found her amusing. Selene fought the urge to reach for her dagger.

"And they've seen people like you?"

Cyan chuckled, "More often than humans. Your kind rarely ventures beyond the borders of their cities and even less so into the unknown of the wild. My kind, however, thrives off of it."

Selene wanted nothing else than to run away from the faerie, yet that curious voice pushed her forward.

"And you're Fae, yes?"

The woman's smile faltered. "Walk with me?"

Selene hesitates and she added, "You're surrounded by hundreds of kind people. I won't hurt you."

What about when we're alone? Selene thought. Before she could voice it, the woman was already walking away. She followed.

They passed women shaping pottery and men sweeping the porches. Children running around with ferrets and mice at their heels. Cats curled up resting in patches of sunlight while a finch pruned its feathers beside it. It was easy to forget that these animals were people. Though they were human, there was still a sense of normalcy.

"To answer your question, yes I am Fae. However, there are different races divided in my species. To say I'm Fae is the same as calling a dog an animal. There are many different types. You have the sprites and the wisps. Then you have the mermen and the elves. I fall under the elves category."

Selene listened intently to her enchanting voice while she searched for birds in the trees, for the wise eyes of the shifters.

"But humans are only known as humans," Selene said.

"You are cousins to the dwarves. Both of you fall under the species of Mageless. Meaning without magic," she glanced back at Selene, "You seem to be an exception."

"The dwarves exist?" Selene asked in disbelief. She had heard a few stories about the small yet mighty people. They lived deep within the Rein mountains, settling there eons before the great war between the angels and the council. But she had never known the tales to be true, never even wondered.

"Yes, they were born from the mountains and have lived there for thousands of years. Have you not been educated about the races?"

Selene almost laughed. Where she was from, few even knew how to read, even less had been given an actual education.

"No," she replied, "I've only known Dwarves to come and eat my toes at night if I didn't scrub them hard enough."

"I will never be able to understand your kind," Cyan said.

They reached an area that resembled a town square, a giant fire roared in its center, fighting off the impending cold and making sweat bead on Selene's brow. She had no idea why such a large fire would be burning in the middle of the day, but she didn't question it.

"I spoke with Aiden about you," Cyan said. This grabbed Selene's attention.

"Why would he bother to speak about me?"

"Because he asked me to train you. I've been told you have extraordinary power and he believes I can help you." She looked at Selene and winked.

"How, exactly, would we train?" Selene asked. She didn't have the smallest clue how to hone her magic skills and she couldn't help but feel she was a time bomb waiting to explode.

"Lots of practice and concentration. He also told me you wish to learn how to fight. I can help you with that too. Aiden can't tell and shortsword from a mace."

He hadn't made good on his agreement to her to train her to fight. She had remembered and believed that he would begin when they arrived here. Yet it seemed he had given the job to Cyan. Being alone and forced to fight an elf seemed like the last thing Selene wanted to do. Yet as she spoke to Cyan, she grew more and more comfortable. But she didn't forget that the woman could kill her as easily as slaughtering a bound swine.

"When do we begin," Selene said, swallowing her fear and lifting her chin.

Cyan grinned as if she could tell what she was thinking or she could see the spark in her heart.

"Tomorrow at dawn. For now, I'll show you around."

***

Selene knew that this village held many wonders, yet Cyan somehow found even more to show her. They tried all different foods, including a plucked sparrow covered in an orange spices, and met so many people that Selene's mind was spinning before the sun had set. Cyan even managed to teach Selene a few of the native words. She recalled Aiden's farewell to the leader of the village. He had said, "May the willow leaves bless you." Apparently it was the equivalent of "good luck" or "Angels bless you". In the native language, they said, "Alùk a Vitain".

She was so fascinated with the diversity of the people and the different culture they followed compared to her home, she almost let herself fall in love with them.

Almost.

After the day had ended, Cyan had proved herself to be quite kind. She always had a way about her and carried herself with a confidence that made people stop and stare at the strange woman. Despite when she had said, they were just as interested in Cyan as they were with Selene.

She found that by the time they reached the old tree houses that she and Aiden would be staying in, she was smiling. A small one, yet nonetheless a smile. Aiden poked his head out of the doorway and yelled down to them, "I've bought food. Come and eat."

Cyan licked her lips and climbed their small ladder in a few reaches, following the smell of delicious food. Selene took her time following.

By the time she reached the doorway, Cyan was already eating, her calm demeanor gone as she forked down handfuls of food. Aiden was shaking his head and smiling while he piled food on a separate plate for Selene. Rice and a strangely shaped vegetable... or meat, with a side of bread.

"So did you agree?" asked Aiden, his head still down to the plate.

"To what?"

"For Cyan to be your teacher."

Selene glanced over at Cyan to see her look up at Selene and smile, not even halting from chewing a mouthful of bread. Even looking as foolish as she did, she was still terrifying as her teeth ripped into the food as if it were water.

"Yes, I did accept her offer. It seems you weren't going to be teaching me anything anyway."

Cyan chuckled through her closed lips. Looking at Aiden waiting for his response. He only laughed and handed over the plate. They all ate their fill for the first time in a long while and sat on the floor of the house, rubbing at their full stomachs.

Cyan bid them goodbye and disappeared to go off to wherever she stayed in this village.

Aiden had already strung up a second hammock, so she laid in it and let the slow rocking soother her. Yet she found she did not want the day to be over. Aiden was resting in his own next to her with his eyes close, but she knew he was awake.

"Today was the best day I've had in a long while," she whispered.

Aiden hummed in agreement before adding, "This is a good place to escape to."

Then he was quiet for the rest of the night. Despite herself, Selene was dragged into a fitful sleep after a full day of joy. She hoped this vile king would never touch this little piece of paradise.