The first thing I saw was trick grass, waving lazily among the darkness of the forest.
I tried to get up, but immediately let a silent hiss pass my lips and fell back. Something was holding one of my wings in place in a rather uncomfortable way... I turned around as best as the pain allowed me to and saw Sril, lying right behind my back.
"Sril..." I managed to whine. "Sril, wake up will you...!"
Finally he stirred and opened his eyes after a few seconds. "Sian...?"
"Congratulations, you guessed right, but please get off..."
He hastily got up and helped me to my feet, apologizing all the way. "I think it worked..." he then said, looking around. There was no sign of the waterfall, the brook, or the cliff.
"Or this is what the afterlife looks like... with all this mist you could feel like you're soaring above the clouds..."
"Well then try not to fly away too far. Come on, let's try to find Yanka."
We set off, cautious with every step. The curiosity that this place sparked within me at first slowly started to turn into mistrust, then to something akin to fear... Something in this part of the forest was different, even more mysterious than usual.
Suddenly Sril stopped and I noticed what caught his attention even before I could open my mouth to ask a question. There was something small glistening among the moist grass, alive in the slight breeze. He crouched and picked up a fine chainlet, its end wrapped under the widening of a tiny crystal flacon's neck. The remnants of some bluish liquid swayed at the bottom of it.
"What's that?" I asked, watching the unusual find.
Sril carefully opened the vessel and sniffed the contents even more cautiously. "I have no idea."
"Let's take it with us. Maybe it's something that Yanka dropped or maybe..."
Sril put the flacon into his pocket and took another step into the depths of the forest, when a noise came from the brush a few meters further to our left... We turned to face the sound, but saw nothing. It was then that I noticed the lack of weight at my waist to my left. My dagger was gone.
Suddenly the air around us sparkled blinding gold and the next second we were surrounded by a wreath of enormous flames almost two meters high. We reflexively pressed our backs to eachother, wanting to back away, but there was nowhere to flee. But then a familiar sound reached our ears.
One small, cheerful jingle, almost lightening up the gloom of the forest in a different way than the flames did...
"Yanka stop it!" I yelled, shielding my eyes from the brightness of the fire.
The flames disappeared like they've never been there in the first place, leaving the undergrowth perfectly untouched. The brushes to my right moved and Yanka emerged from the greenery.
"Are you two insane?!" the greeting was angry but drenched in worry at the same time. "I told you not to follow me!"
"We wanted to help..." I started explaining, but she cut me off.
"How do you want to help me? How am I supposed to rely on you, when you can't even listen to a simple request? You can feel lucky that I'm the first creature you've come across in here!"
"If it is as dangerous as you claim," Sril didn't seem to want to owe any questions, "then what are you doing here? Alone, no less?"
"I'm trying to save the forest..."
"In this state?"
Yanka fell silent, frowning a little. Sril sighed. "Look, you don't need to be a clairvoyant to see, that you are wounded. And you still don't want us to help? You want to risk your life further?"
There was something akin to rising anger in Yanka eyes, but it didn't burst out. Sril faced this stare with admirable composure. "I admit that Sian and me didn't develop our abilities as well as you yet, but if something happened to you, Shaeth would crush us in less than a week, did you think about that? You ask how you're supposed to rely on us, but how are we supposed to rely on you, when you try to do everything alone and don't accept us as your support? And what's most important... would you be able to sit still if you knew, that your friend is exposing himself to maybe mortal danger?"
Yanka closed her eyes and let out a silent, soft sigh. "I wouldn't... I'm sorry, I got carried away..."
Sril's expression became more gentle. "If you don't take yourself into consideration while saving someone, you won't be able to save anyone."
A sad smile found a way to Yanka's lips, and she looked me in the eyes. "See, that's what I meant when I said, that even I need a reprimand sometimes..."
"Didn't you also say, that I should give anything that I'm unable to carry to you?" I said conciliatorily. "Why not let it work the other way as well?"
Sril approached her and delicately put a hand on her shoulder. "We're already here, so just let us help, please... Is it something serious?"
Yanka shook her head, carefully reaching to her right side. "It's not even bleeding anymore..."
"But who did that to you?"
"One of the stags... all animals are so confused, they treat everyone as their enemies. They sense that something happened to the Guardian, but I just can't find him..."
"Could all of that have something to do with this?" Sril took the tiny flacon out of his pocket again.
"What's that?"
"I'm not sure, we just found it here, and well, if you don't recognize it..."
Yanka took the vial carefully and opened it. "It's poison..." she said quietly. "I think I understand now."
"I don't," I complained. "Are you trying to say that someone has poisoned the Guardian?"
"That's very likely, but why? And even if someone did have a reason, then if they knew how to get in here, they must also have known that they wouldn't be able to kill the Guardian that way and that he will recover after some time. Besides, every druid is able to neutralize such poison, so what's the sense in that...?"
"Well, at least it would explain this whole situation."
"Yeah... come on, let's try to find him. This place isn't as big as it seems to be."
"Can you manage?" Sril still seemed concerned.
"She had enough strength to almost burn us alive, so I think she can," I didn't get to put a smile at the end of that sentence because of a smack on the back of my head from a delicate, but firm hand.
We continued deeper into the forest, still on guard and cautious. We were just hacking through some scrubs when suddenly all three of us abruptly stopped, when a strange, unclear noise spread among the trees, muffled by the thicket. It reminded me of a stag's bell, but that wasn't it. I've never heard something like that before.
"He's close," Yanka whispered, when the sound unexpectedly died out, and started moving again with even more determination.
Soon the terrain started to dip and we saw a rather spacious, shallow depression, a clearing. At the border of it stood a mid-sized yew, spreading its branches towards the middle of the free space. It caught my attention among the dozens of other, similar trees because its bark seemed to be shrouded in a hazy, bluish glow and there were countless fresh, green needles lying around it, as if the tree lost many of them in a very short time due to some disease.
"It's him..." I heard Yanka's whisper again and she came out into the clearing, approaching the tree.
"Are you sure this is safe?" I asked, following her watchfully.
"As long as you two are nearby, it is."
Yanka reached out and touched the trunk of the yew. She closed her eyes and stayed like this for a few moments, as if listening, and sometimes whispering something almost inaudibly. Finally she frowned and started to circle the trunk, examining its base. She kneeled down on the other side of it, so we followed her.
There was a rather big cut in the bark not very high above the ground, like from a single strike of an ax or maybe a big sword. Greenish, unhealthy looking resin was slowly seeping out of the wound.
"What happened..?" I asked.
"I don't know, he says, that he was alone the whole time, he has no idea how it came to this..."
I blinked. "Wait, you can talk to it?"
Yanka gave me a quiet giggle. "Yes, we communicate with our thoughts."
"I don't think I want to know more..."
"Well then, it's time to put an end to this chaos." Yanka ran her fingers down the trunk a little, stopped her hand right above the wound and pressed it more firmly to the bark. She closed her eyes. A few twisted words in the language of druids fell from her pale lips and her palm started to get surrounded by a faint shimmer, resembling the color of the found flacon's contents...
... and suddenly the forest around us brightened, the mist dispersed, taking the strange atmosphere of tension and hostility with it. Yanka smiled and retreated her hand. I wanted to ask something, when the tree suddenly moved its twigs a little, a faint rustle came from the upmost branches, and then... it disappeared. Leaving me gaping stupidly.
"What..."
"Don't worry, he's still close," Yanka looked over her shoulder, and we both followed her eyes.
At the center of the clearing stood a tremendous elk with a branchy antler. Almost palpable strength emanated from it, along with a pleasant, gentle aura that awoke respect and affection in my heart. "Is that the Guardian?" I whispered.
"Yes," Yanka stood up. "Come with me, I'll introduce you."
We approached the elk and it leaned its head down towards her. She stroked the massive neck lovingly and allowed an affectionate lick to her cheek. "He wants to thank you for your help in saving the forest. And I want to thank you too... with all my heart."
"Don't mention it, but... are you really talking to him?" I couldn't hold back.
"Yes, you unbeliever."
"And he really doesn't remember anyone being here?" Sril asked.
Yanka shook her head slightly. "There just suddenly was this," she pointed to the elk's rear left leg, where a cut could be seen, just below the powerful muscle of the thigh. It was neither deep nor long, but must have been enough with the use of poison.
"It's strange..."
Yanka stroked the Guardian's neck again. "It is, but we won't get any more answers here. Let's let him rest."
"But how do we get out of here?"
"Oh, that's simple. Put your hands to his side, or his back, doesn't matter which. Don't be afraid."
I looked at Sril hesitantly, he answered with an equally unsure glance. Finally, I took a step forward and raised my hand. He followed my example. As soon as my fingertips touched the soft pelage, I felt some strange, probably magic impulse run through them to the rest of my body. Out of reflex I closed my eyes, sucking in a short breath, and when I opened them again... the Guardian was gone.
I blinked and looked around. Sril was still standing by my side with an similarly flabbergasted expression as the one I must have been wearing, and Yanka was smiling at us from the other side of the creek. We were back at the waterfall, and the forest, in which darkness already started to waft around, regained its warm, friendly feel. I also felt the familiar weight of a weapon at my side again.
We returned to the camp, where the exhilarated druids were already waiting and started to cheer as soon as they noticed us between the trees. They wanted to snatch Yanka and throw her into the air in joy, but before she could protest herself, Sril stepped in saying that her wound needed to be tended to first.
The atmosphere became a bit disorganized when some of the druids rushed to get bandages, others decided to prepare the evening meal, and the rest started to take care of the overall chaos, that came into being in the camp that day. I was just about to offer my help, when I heard a noise from the opposite border of the clearing. A rustle, or maybe the sound of a twig snapping underneath a heel... I turned around.
There, in the shadow of the lush tree branches, leaning its back against one of the trunks stood a tall figure of a man. A skinny man with long, black hair, clad in a deep-amethyst robe, trimmed with silver thread... For some reason Yanka paled more than Sril did when I told him we have to attempt suicide.
"You..." she whispered. "What are you doing here?!"
It drew the attention of the other druids, who also turned towards the stranger. Some of them immediately raised their bows.
The man just smiled kindly. "Oh, I traveled such a long way to see you, aren't you happy?" he asked, his tone completely carefree.
"Why would I be happy about a visit from you?!"
There was a short silence, which Sril used to whisper, never turning his eyes away from the stranger: "Who is this?"
"This man..." every word seemed hard for Yanka to get out. When she lifted her head after a few deep breaths, her eyes were burning with hazel fire. "This man is Shaeth Cadreesh..."
"What?!" that scream escaped my lips before I could think about it. "That is...?"
"Yes, dear Sian, it's me," the man's voice dripped with cordiality, but I was getting chills from it. He looked up and watched the leaves rustling above his head for a moment. "I see you've managed to cure the Guardian. Well, I wasn't expecting anything else from you, to be honest."
"Don't tell me you poisoned him... and you still dare to show your face here?!"
"I'm almost sorry. But I didn't intend to kill him, believe me. I just wanted to draw your attention away from this," Shaeth reached to his pocket and pulled out a pendant on a rather thin, worn leather band. It had the shape of a small tree made of brass, darkened with age, its tiny leaves glistening with green enamel. When Yanka just moved her lips a little, with no sound coming from them, he laughed. "It was so easy," he said, as if reading the unspoken question from her eyes. "Don't blame your enemy for your own mistakes. You gave the Amulet such a weak protection..."
He snapped his fingers and another, kneeling figure appeared at his side. It was a girl, a bit shorter than me, her hands bound behind her back.
"Talia!" Yanka shouted, this time with genuine terror sounding in her voice.
"Yes, it was her who snuck into the Guardian's domain. I just told her, that by doing what I wanted she would save both her life and yours..."
"You monster..."
I made a step forward. "I've heard enough from you..." I said, eyeing him with disgust. "What do you want from Yanka?"
"Oh, it's not just about her, dear Sian," he answered my challenging stare with a completely calm of his own. "It's about all three of you. I just wanted to offer the return of the amulet in exchange for an alliance... a second chance."
"A second chance?" Yanka seemed to have regained her composure again. "It's like I would give you a second arrow because you missed me the first time!"
"Please, why kill such a gorgeous creature? Wouldn't it be easier to join forces and cleanse this world of any races, who don't deserve to walk upon it? Together we could bring dragons back and restore Edron to what it was before the last of them died..."
"Stop living in illusions, you know far too well, that it's not possible. This land needs every race to keep its balance, even the humans, and your fantasy of a world conquered by magical beings only is completely unrealistic."
"Oh, I could argue with that, I'm already making progress in my strive towards it..."
"What progress?"
"You don't expect me to reveal anything when you insist to oppose me, do you? You should think about it, all three of you. Let's form an alliance and I shall show you a marvelous perspective of a new, beautiful world. I'll give you some time to consider. Until then... farewell."
He whispered a few more words and... disappeared.
We all looked in total silence at the place where he's been standing... If it weren't for the general bewilderment, one could think that the successor of the Cadreesh lineage was just a hallucination.
The first to shake herself free was Yanka. She ran to the girl, whom Shaeth left at the border of the clearing and quickly freed her from her bonds. "Are you alright?" she asked quietly, helping her up.
"Yes..." the girl answered, wiping her eyes with a delicate hand.
It was then that I noticed a few strange features to her appearance. Instead of normal, human ears, this creature had big, cat-like ones, covered with black fur. Scared, beautiful sapphire eyes looked up at Yanka from underneath the fringe and a fluffy tail with a black apex hung behind her back.
Yanka hugged the girl reassuringly, while she murmured teary words of apology into her shirt. "It's alright..." the older of them kept whispering, despite looking almost broken herself. "Don't worry about it..."
"Yanka..." Sril started in the most gentle tone I've ever heard from him.
"Please, don't ask..." Yanka, contrition already sounding in her voice. "I will explain everything at once..."
"You should rest first, that's more important..."
His ever warm kindness elicited a sad smile from her. "Just a little... I owe you a few answers, that should not have waited such a long time..."