A massive bridge suddenly began materializing out of thin air and in no time at all, it had already connected to the other end that could be seen a few meters ahead. The bridge dangled between the space firmly as it reached to the other end that looked very different from the side of the forest that Leo and Lily were in at the moment.
"Beware! The other side of the forest is a different world," the gnome warned. "If by any chance you get stuck there, there is no other way out. So you must make haste and return before nightfall," the gnome continued and in the meantime scanned both Lily and Leo with his eyes.
"We have to hurry then," Leo stated looking at Lily and immediately he did so, he observed that Lily was very weak by now. Her condition had worsened and she was even paler than she looked before.
"You have to go without me," Lily spoke in a steady but forced voice. Leo looked at her with worry and surprise since he did not expect such turn of events. He did not know anything about what he was to find or where to even begin from.
"Do not worry on how you will get to the flower, I might have just made a friend that will prove to be very useful on the other side," Lily concluded reassuring Leo. She then nodded to signal Leo that he could get going.
"I cannot just leave you here, it isn't safe at all especially with your condition right now," the concerned Leo whispered, holding Lily's hand. From the looks of it, he was very determined to not leave Lily behind.
Lily noticed his seriousness as he uttered those words. She soon realized that she was not going to be able to convince him otherwise. She could not bring herself to imagine that Leo was even helping her right now to begin with. She wondered how they even got to a position such as this one. ' He just had to follow me', Lily cursed inwardly.
"I fear she is right," the gnome interrupted b efore Lily could try and make one last attempt at convincing Leo. "She looks pretty rough if you ask me, so by any chance she decides to cross over to the other side there might be high chances of her not making it back safely."
Leo started to see the sense in what the gnome was saying. He was aware that Lily was already vulnerable since she had already given up the only source of magic she had. This would therefore make her prey to any kind of harm were it to happen on the other side.
Additionally, she was already very weak too and not in a good condition at all. Both of these reasons combined would put her at an obvious disadvantage and Leo didn't want that to happen. All he wanted to do at this moment was to get this over with as fast as possible and take Lily home and ensure that she saw a healer immediately.
With a bit of hesitation, Leo nodded and Lily handed him the leaves of the bettleweed, " look for weeds that look like these and only pick the flowers that have fully bloomed. Like I said, you will be assisted." Lily whispered handing Leo as small brown sack with hidden content.
"I'll be back before you know it," Leo smiled slightly to reassure Lily. Leo inhaled deeply and and stepped onto the bride crossing it steadily, knowing pretty well the world he was about to step into was not one that he belonged to or commanded.
His main concern was not to raise any suspicions and he was willing to try so hard and maintain that inorder for him not to create any imbalance with that side of the forest that always remained untampered with.
His last wish was to start keeping watch of this side too. As a matter of fact, he was well aware that creatures from this side had not crossed over and it was best to keep it that way.
Leo was quickly just a few steps to the other side of the forest. He looked below him just before he could complete step out of the swaying bridge, he could still see nothing as the vast space ran down so deep that all it harboured was pitch black darkness. There was also a strange energy that came from the darkness. 'Well whatever's down there should stay hidden', Leo spoke inwardly as he finally stepped on dry land.
The moment he set his foot on this side of the forest, he could feel it. The tension and the impurity in the air was so intoxicating. If at all he wasn't as strong as he is, he would have surely been overwhelmed.
Leo turned around towards the bridge and could see Lily looking his direction a few metres away. ' don't worry Lily', he said to himself and stepped into the darkness of the forest, disappearing into it.
Back at where Lily was standing, she craned her neck to try and see beyond the bridge. " Has he crossed over yet? Why is it that we haven't seen him from the moment he was in the middle of the bridge?"
"It must be the darkness," the gnome answered Lily, trying to hide a suspicious look in his eyes. Lily was getting weaker with time and she dismissed her not being able to see Leo as a result of her current condition.
All this while, the gnome had been scanning Lily from head to toe. He was quite intrigued by the sight of Lily generally. There was something about Lily that he could not get his head around. Lily wasn't foolish at all and had already sensed the gnome guessing and probably trying to brainstorm what it was about her.
She knew she was safe enough to not blow her cover but at this moment she wasn't fully sure about that given what she was experiencing right now. She really did not want to feel helpless when the only thing that was going to lead her a step closer to her mission got faulty and interfered with.
The thought of this made her even more enraged. She knew how powerful she was and yet something was successful in getting through to her. As much as she could just decide to take off the pendant and do away with whatever little damage that was that was trying to seep through her soul, she could not do that. She was aware of the risks. Because of this, she just had to be patient and find out what it was.
Back to the other side of the forest, Leo was making his way through the thick woods. What felt strange was the fact that this side of the forest did not have so many trees, it was majorly bushes and weeds.
Leo was looking through them with the little light that seeped through the forest. He pretty much could not tell where the source of the deem light was from since he could not see any traces of the moon on sun.
As much as it was daytime, this side of the forest felt so chilly and dark as though it were nighttime. Of course this place was not any normal place, it wasn't even in their real world. It was as if it was hidden by some illusion.
Leo had walked for quite some time and still could not spot any weed that resembled that which Lily had given to him. He was being very vigilant ensuring that he did not walk by it and leave it unnoticed by mistake.
Before he could walk any further, he felt a strange presence and immediately had a feeling that there was something off. He remained still and carefully tilted his head a little bit backwards, and if he was aware of the strange thing's motions, he swiftly turned his entire body and stretched out his arm.
The view that followed was that of Leo tightly gripping the neck of a strange figure that was now before him. As much as Leo had his grip that tight, the figure slowly dispersed in form of black smoke followed by an echoing laughter that lingered in the air for a few moments.
This occurred a few more times as the figures untimely appeared as though they were hovering over Leo and Leo catching them just on time, for them to only disperse into the air just the same. Leo understood that this was some kind of trick that was targeting to torture him or even capture him.
He was in the witches's territory and Leo was well aware of that. He was also in the know that they would have tons of tricks up their sleeves. Such witches never had good intentions and especially these particular ones. He knew they were simply trying to stall him till it was dark enough for him to be completely lost in those woods and finally get their chance to trap him inside those woods.
The random figures were quickly increasing with time and Leo seemed to be getting irritated a little. Just when Leo was about to loose his mind, he heard movements. This time they were clear as though whoever it was wasn't trying to be quiet.
Leo patiently waited for anything to come out. At this point he was prepared to destroy whatever it was on the spot and waste no time since he had already gotten a feeling that all this was to delay him and he couldn't afford that right now.
Just as he was about to release his aura, a figure made entrance from within the woods. "We meet again," the witch spoke. "I'm not the kind to mix with the likes of you but I have a debt I must pay. I can smell her off you," the witch continued.
Leo was confused at this point but he was sure not going to question the witch because he knew she might use that card to play him into a trick and that would only lead to him killing her and destroying the balance between their two worlds. Besides, he was the one trespassing here and he was trying to be nice about it.
"Less words I see," the witch spoke as she lurked between the woods and appeared from different directions and at all times she was finding Leo alert without even noticing or feeling him switch his position.
Giving up her attempt at pursuing Leo, she finally spoke words that Leo so much wanted to hear all this while, " what you seek," she paused and continued, " what you seek lies between two corpses and three lives." Before Leo could make sense of the witch's words, the witch disappeared without a trace.