They walked through the forest the entire night, seeing that everyone was focused on getting there as soon as possible, Iris stopped making conversation, trying to avoid any conflict since Ian was keeping a keen eye on Tyla not letting her out of his sight for a moment.
Hours passed, dawn slowly crept in, letting the first light of the day take over the forest. The scenery around them stayed the same, confusing Iris unable to understand she felt like everything looked the same.
" How much longer?" Iris finally asked unable to keep her curiosity at bay any longer.
" Not long now, we will be there before the sun rises!" Tyla plainly replied looking ahead of her.
" How come the forest looks the same as when we left?" Iris asked again trying to understand how the forest works.
Tyla finally looked over her shoulder, giving Iris a small smile " The magic of the forest is strong, not everyone is able to see the true path unless they bind themselves to the forest and the magic in it!" Tyla explained sighing heavily keeping her eyes to the front.
" Why?" she asked again picking the first question that popped in her head out of the many that she had.
" To protect itself from intruders and people with ill intentions!" she plainly answered
" This land belongs to our kind, we are powerful beings but weak at the same time. Our ancestors have imbued the land with magic from the Arkathira to protect us from those who want to harm us but there is always someone who wants the power that we hold and they will always find a way to get it. You are our greatest strength and out greatest weakness at the same time!" she lengthy explained while glancing over her shoulder once in a while.
" How am I your weakness and your strength at the same time?" Iris asked echoing the last sentence
Tyla finally halted her steps, turning to look at them " You are the guardian of the Arkathira and it's your duty to protect it at all costs but you are also the key to unleash it's power!" she explained while puffing her cheeks.
" We are here!" she let them know while bending down placing her hand on the ground, closing her eyes, the ground glowed in a faint green light spreading like veins to every single plant in the forest that slowly retreated back to Tyla's hand.
Ian and Iris frowned looking at Tyla, amazed by her ability to control the magic within the forest, feeling a little undeserving of their current position as the King and Queen of the land that were stepping on.
Tyla stood up, turning around stepping into the clearing were she had left the three people almost two days before.
Iris and Ian followed in Tyla's footsteps, aproaching the three people that were sleeping, stopping at a short distance from them to observe them.
" Maya wake up!" Tyla softly called while frowning at the three that upon having closer look, she realised that they weren't sleeping.
Tyla spurred from the spot falling on her knees next to Maya, quickly checking to see if they were still alive, she sighed in relief that they were still breathing but couldn't understand what happened, they were fine when she left.
" Was this your doing?" Ian asked in an accusing tone of voice while moving closer with Iris.
" No! I don't know who did this but it wasn't me. I just sealed them in this spot so they couldn't leave until I returned!" she explained while looking around to see if she could find any sign that could indicate what went wrong.
" We need to wake them up!" Tyla stated in a worried tone of voice.
" He spoke about the witch, I need to find if there any marking or something that was given to them by her."she added while starting to search Maya looking in the most obvious places for anything that would look out of place.
Ian joined Tyla bending down to look at Rom, while Iris went around to look at Sylus, patting his pockets and like Tyla looking on the chest, arms and legs. Not finding anything on their bodies Iris frowned looking at Sylus, feeling sorry for them and this whole situation that found themselves in, they looked so young and innocent in her eyes that she couldn't imagine who would want to harm them in such way.
Her eyes eventually fell on his blonde hair that had a small stain of blood on it, Iris reached with her hand to touch it, moving the strands of hair revealing more blood, getting closer she moved the hair out of the way and what they were looking for finally appeared on his scalp as if it was burned into it.
" It's on their heads!" Iris murmured while lifting her head to look at Tyla and Ian, who brushed through Rom and Maya's hair closely looking for the mark that Iris saw on Sylus.
Ian found the one on Rom's head, while Tyla was still looking for the one on Maya, eventually to finding it at the back of her head.
" What do we do now?" Iris asked Tyla since she seemed to know about the witch.
" We need to break the bond that she has placed on them, she is taking their life force!' Tyla desperately said while looking at Ian and Iris who frowned not understanding much of what she just said.
" The hut, we need to get to the hut, it not far from here, we will find everything we need in there!" Ian suddenly burst out finally remembering about the place that he had lived his entire life.
" We will go, just tell me what we need and I'll make it and bring it back." he added while standing up ready to go at moments notice.