Aurelius rode Winter through the final bends of the forest. He was reticent, for the most part. Not only had the sudden bandit attack shaken him, but he was now also about to leave the woods where he had lived his entire life. His heart was beginning to feel a bit anxious about this mission he had undertaken.
One small consolation was that there would be at least one person he knew in Pompeii, even if he felt a little awkward about meeting her.
In the final hours, when the trees had become noticeably more sparse and young, the Druid finally felt the need for some conversation to distract him from his own thoughts.
"Did you take care of those bandits, Jahre?" Rory asked a little awkwardly.
"I did."
"I see…"
The uncomfortable silence instantly reared its head again, so Rory cleared his throat. "Since I'm your ambassador to humanity, maybe it'd be better to consult with me before doing anything that affects humans. I could have warned you to keep those bandits away from the village."
"I'm sorry, Aurelius." The spirit's voice was heavy with regret. "I put you in danger. I would not have let you die, but the fault still lies with me."
The human smiled faintly. "I'll forgive you as long as you learn from this."
The silence didn't seem quite as unpleasant as Rory pondered how to continue their chat.
"I'm not sure if this is the appropriate phrasing, but have you ever been outside the forest, Jahre?"
"Druids of mine have ventured beyond my territory in the past. I have seen some of the world through them." The spirit paused, seeming wistful of those days. "And you, Aurelius? How far have you traveled?"
"I haven't," the Druid felt his cheeks warm. He felt silly to be taking on such a long and important journey when he hadn't so much as seen the hills before. "Except for a handful of visits to neighboring towns, I've hardly even left my village before. This is already the farthest I've been."
"Why?" The spirit asked.
Rory stumbled over the open-ended question. "W-well… there was no reason to go anywhere else, I suppose? I had everything I needed back home."
"I'm glad to hear that. I hope you will continue to feel that way even as you experience what the rest of this world has to offer."
The unusual caravan reached the edge of the forest at last, and Rory stopped his mount. He simply had to pause for a moment to take in the view in front of him.
He could see for miles. The earth was a tapestry of rolling hills that seemed to go on forever. They swayed with yellow grass bending to the wind, and the sky above was one uninterrupted ocean of blue.
Aurelius had never before seen a world that wasn't punctuated by the trunks and canopies of trees. He had never seen a ground not littered with leaves and mossy sticks. The uninterrupted grass carpet looked so unnatural and uniform…
He felt sick, like if he stepped away from the edge of the woods, he would roll down those hills and tumble off into the sky above. It was overwhelming.
'What am I doing cowering like a child?' he scolded himself. Though, honestly, despite being eighteen years old already, he wished his parents were still alive to chaperone him like they used to. He desperately longed for some sort of safety net to protect himself.
Which was funny, because as a sorcerer, he had a better safety net than most already.
'Jahre?' A few paces into the hills, Rory checked to make sure the forest spirit was still with him.
'I'm here, Aurelius.'
Unlike before, when the spirit spoke to him through rustling leaves, creaking branches, and other common forest sounds, now his meaning appeared directly in Rory's mind, right beside his own thoughts. It surprised him, but in retrospect he understood that Jahreszeiten's influence here wasn't the same as it was back in the forest.
'Be careful not to push me out,' the spirit cautioned. 'You are my only anchor away from my territory. If you refuse the possession, I will not be able to speak with you or perceive your surroundings until you allow me back in.'
'You mean to say that you're possessing my body right now?'
Indeed, the Druid couldn't see it himself, but his irises had changed from sky blue to spring green. A faint light shined from them.
Rory lifted one of his hands off of Winter's horns and flexed his fingers.
'I can still control my body.'
'Of course you can,' Jahre said like it was obvious. 'And so can I, as long as you let me.'
Then Rory watched his own hand wave at him without his input, and he lurched away from it in shock. Jahre steadied Rory's body so he wouldn't fall from Winter's back before returning all control to the body's true owner.
The human's heart was pounding, but he didn't push the spirit out. He didn't want to be alone on these hills.
'It's unsettling how… normal that feels,' Rory exhaled.
When he first learned that the forest spirit could possess people, he imagined what that would be like. He always pictured he would black out during the whole process, and that it would feel like an outside force moving his limbs like a puppet. Instead, it felt as natural as breathing.
'Is it normal to be conscious while possessed?' he asked.
'The beings I possess are always fully conscious,' Jahreszeiten answered. 'I cannot speak on the possessions done by anyone else because I do not know.'
'I see.' Privately, Rory thought that was a relief. 'So is this what you meant when you said you've seen the world through your Druids? I thought you were being metaphorical.'
'No. Here, outside of my territory, you are the only conduit I can access; a lone tree from the forest, wandering the hills in human form… It isn't too late to return, you know?'