**DAPHNE**
I am surprised when I do not scream at the sight before me. When the woods all around me become naught but a merging of colors. Trielle is moving so quickly there is fire beneath her hooves. She races to catch up to Petra and Delago, and within seconds I am next to my friend.
Strangely enough, the ride is so smooth, it is as if we are gliding upon the water, not trampling over earth and stone. The speed of this beast beneath me causes the whipping of wind about my face and I lean in to shelter myself as well as my eyes.
Petra smiles my way, dipping down against Delago whose hooves have taken the form of shadowed spirals and smoke. Like little cyclones encasing his feet. I grin at the magic of it, my only concern being the fact that we left our friends behind us to battle whatever creatures created stillness in the woods.
*What manner of being shakes the ground that way?*
Something large for certain. Something terrifying enough that even the trees seemed afraid.
Glancing down from Trielle’s neck, I see her hooves are losing their fire, and the ground beneath us is coming back into focus. The pair of them, the horses, are both slowing down.
Sitting up straight, I glance around. The trees around us have been replaced with clusters of sharp black rock to match the mountain we left behind us, and the sun once shielded by the density of trees is now high and bright in the sky.
“It’s blue,” I whisper in awe of it. “Your sun is blue.”
Petra smiles and nods, giggling as the last of the bare black rock falls behind us and is superseded by sparkling gray stones that are covered in a strange teal moss.
“What of the others?” I ask her, a frown of worry upon my face. “I-”
“They will be fine,” Petra interrupts. “Now that you are safe, Ash will use his magic. It would have been illegal for him to use it in protection of a mortal while not on his own lands. By rites, the Woodland Faeries had ownership of your fate the moment you crossed over into their realm.” She sighs. “I’m sure that is why Ash didn’t want to take the Northern Gate. Even in his anger, he sought to protect you.”
Me head jerks up at the mention of Ash’s anger. “So he-”
“He will kill the Dracuum that threatened your arrival, yes.” She laughs. “But only should they attack him. As it was more than likely you, that they were after.”
“What are Dracuum?”
Her eyes go wide, and she shivers, “Tell me, Daphne. How big are the biggest spiders in the Mortal Realm?”
“What?!”
“Dracuum are giant, woodland spiders with an insatiable thirst for woodland nymphs.” Then, with a shake of her head she adds, “I suppose mortal flesh is also a favorite of theirs, though they almost never venture beyond the gates of Faery, for fear of being trapped on the other side. And also, because all Fae are more vulnerable when away from their origins.”
“Origins,” I repeat. “I keep hearing this.”
“For the Fae, our origins are a vital part of our existence. Should any Fae be trapped in the Mortal Realm, for too long, they would eventually lose their magic.”
I gasp, “Truly? How long is too long?”
She shrugs, “I’m not altogether certain, but I know Ash has made it my ritual to visit my homelands at least once every four seasons. Usually in spring.”
“Really? And how old are you?”
“I am young,” she grins. “I did not lie to you when I said I grew up in the palace. This upcoming season will be my twenty-third winter.”
“Oh,” I smile. “Nice to know that. I am glad you are young.”
She grins. “In most ways, Daphne, this place is as alien to me as it is to you. I only know the basics. That was my first time ever stepping foot inside the Woodland Realm.”
“So, if the Dracuum were after me, then why did they not chase us?” I question, glancing back toward the glorious forest we just escaped.
“Who says they didn’t?” She laughs. “Dracuum are fast, yes, but no match for Shadow Steed in Shadow.”
“In Shadow?”
“Shadow Steed have many powers, one of them being their supreme speed of shadow. When they take on Shadow form, they are elemental and wraithlike, and there aren’t many creatures that can catch them. Unlike the rest of the Fae, these beasts are not weakened when away from their homelands. It is part of what makes them so special, and so rare. Even dragons-”
"Dragons?" I squawk.
She nods, not missing a beat. “Dragons are susceptible and weakened when they leave their-”
“-origins,” I groan, finishing for her.
“Right,” she laughs. “But don’t worry, there aren’t any dragons in Fury. They are native to the Lands of Cinder which, as far as I know, are part of the Southern Realms.”
We fall silent for the next few minutes as we approach an incline of discolored rock, the moss falling sparse near the trail of it. I can hear the rushing of water nearby and see the tips of what look like tall purple trees not far beyond it.
“We are nearly to the Forgotten Wood,” Petra informs me, as both Delago and Trielle fall out of a trot and begin to climb upward. “When we crest over this hill, we will be able to see Rekyr Mountain,” she exclaiims, her eyes alight with joy.
“Rekyr Mountain?”
She nods just before we reach the top of the incline. It is then that I realize this not so much a hill as it is a ramp leading to a bridge that stretches across the most dazzling waters I have ever seen. Coming to the peak, I am greeted with a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree view in a wonderland of colors.
“Oh my,” I hiss, smiling.
Petra looks at me and smiles, her long blond hair whipping about her face to form a halo of supernatural gold. Lifting her arm, she points straight ahead of us, and my breath catches in my throat.
“My home,” she says.
Towering into the sky looms a high stone mountain that glitters dark gray and glows with cracks of ethereal blue light within the rock. A thick fog surrounds the base, swirling slowly around the ground to hang there like a mystical barrier. At the peak, pulses a bright orange glow coming from what looks like the center of the mountain. Steady puffs of smoke swirl about the crown before dissipating into the vibrant blue sky above.
“Rekyr Mountain?” I ask, and she nods.
Gesturing down below, she beams. “That is the Great Fae River. It feeds from Lunar Lake in the north to the House of the Five Rivers in the south. And that-” she nods toward the far side of the bridge where the barren yet beautiful purple trees encompass the shoreline shrouded in fog, “-is the Forgotten Wood.”