They leaped from trees to trees in the Dark Forest, avoiding some nasty creatures that seemed unable to climb trees. They stopped and rest on trees, ate their foods and slept for a few hours before continuing their journey, and two days had gone by. Still they couldn’t see the path to Village of Guran. And the rainfalls had left the forest wet and misty. They saw a few dark trolls along the way, staring at them uncomfortably and angrily, as trolls couldn’t climb trees.
“Look at that face. Pathetic? Guess it has not eaten for days,” said Barin.
Everyone smiled to the remark and well, the troll looked rather pathetic in some way. The rain had stopped and the forest was as dead and silent as ever.
“Argh! Damn rain, it soaked my breads. Now how I am going to survive the journey without breads?” exclaimed Barin, frustrated, as his only remaining food was lost. He mumbled on while they began to venture through the Dark Forest. The rain made the branches wet and slippery and the four had to pay their attention, not to fall hard onto the forest-wet floor.
“Yipes!” exclaimed Aldor, nearly slipped off from the branch he landed on. “The trees are all wet and slippery, like an eel, he said further.
But suddenly he heard something, and told the others to remain silent as he listened intensely.
“What is it Aldor?” asked Meeshl. Barin slipped behind Nafgar, his cowardice showed again.
“It is heavy breathing, sounds familiar though. It sounds like…. sounds like….” Aldor scratched his head.
“Wait, I heard it. It is a fire-wolf silly Aldor. You don’t remember, do you?” Meeshl said and Barin gasped from behind Nafgar, who grabbed his lance, ready to fight.
Fire-wolf is one of the fiercest beasts in Faiir, unlike the one-eyed beast, fire-wolf normally moved around in a group. And the number is not small either. Ten to twenty were very normal, but it is their fire breath that made them fearsome.
“Are…are we going to fight them or flee? Please choose the latter,” Barin said, shivering all through his body. He was scared, of course, from head to toe. But at the same time, he began to think the best way to deal with the beasts. “Can we, like, hide from them?”
“How? The beasts’ eyes are thousand times better than us, you fool and can clearly see for over ten miles in the dark. How do you suppose that we hide from them?” Nafgar said. “And they do climb trees as good as us too.”
“Unless we are invincible. The wolves had bad nose, unlike the dogs,” Meeshl said and let out a small giggle.
Barin was dumb folded, but maybe he got a way to hide them. Furthermore, he was the best magician among them.
“Sssh…they are near, down there, on our left,” Aldor said and ready to attack with his sword.
The wolves appeared in their sight but seemed to ignore them. No, not ignoring them but they couldn’t see the four elves. How come? Aldor looked behind him, and saw Barin remained completely silent, concentrating as his hands glowed in blue.
“No wonder, Spell of Invincibility,” thought Aldor. “Barin was always such a big surprise. Maybe his cowardice does come in handy.”
Meeshl and Nafgar smiled as they too noticed Barin meditating and concentrating on his spell. They were relieved, as they didn’t think they stand a chance to battle the gang of wolves. The wolves wondered below them, sensed something but couldn’t see them. After a while the gang was gone, deeper into the Dark Forest. Barin opened his eyes, smiled weakly as the spell took much of his energy, and collapsed into Meeshl’s arm.
“You are amazing, Barin, simply amazing,” Messhl said in a soft tone, while caressing the face of her so-called younger brother. “Now sleep tight.”
The four remained on the tree, waiting for Barin to recover his energy. Suddenly they heard a rustle and looked up. On the higher branch, stood a small figure, not clearly visible under the dim moonlight. He maybe an elf, but looked bigger, maybe a dwarf, but looked thinner. Aldor, Meeshl and Nafgar stood up in alert, against any probability as the figure maybe a friend or a foe.
“Good evening, young ones. What a wonderful battle, especially by your sleeping friend, aye? Ha ha ha,” the figure laughed. “Oh my. What are you all doing in this dark and evil forest? What possible reason and task? This is no playground, you know?”
“Who are you? Show yourself if you are a friend,” Aldor said, sounded brave and of a leader.
“Me? Who am I? I am nobody, for such long years, I forgotten who I am. I lived in this dull forest for almost two hundreds years and nothing is as special to me as seeing four young foolish elves, wandering around in the forest, searching for possible death, as the song sings.” Saying that, the figure jumped down and stood in front of them.
“My name is Slanth, a halfling I am, from the Village of Ka, the history of Guran. What are your names, young ones?” Slanth said in a graceful manner. He looked young, not the look of a two hundred year-old halfling. His eyes were crystal clear, and his gaze looked so natural and of much wisdom.
Aldor bowed, followed by Meeshl and Nafgar. “I am Aldor, this young lady is Meeshl and this brave one, Nafgar. And our sleeping friend is Barin, an apprentice wizard. We are from the Village of Faiir.”
“Ah, Faiir, the village of the elves, leaded by the beautiful druid,” said Slanth.
“She is my mother,” said Aldor.
“Ah, her son. How nice. Faiir is in deep trouble this time around. Color of blood wrapped that village in my sight of the future. It is a bloodbath, young ones, and I expect you all going to Guran for help?” asked Slanth.
Aldor nodded, astonished by the old halfling. “Yes, I am to go to Village of Guran to inform them about an upcoming war and get them to help Faiir to fight against the enemy.”
“Fight and defend, that’s the only solution. After fifty years, the war will start all over again. Sigh, how many will fall and feed the earth this time? It is very fortunate the four of you were not born fifty years back,” said the old Slanth, weak and sad.
“Why is that? You care to tell us about the history?” asked Meeshl, interested to know about the past, a very interesting story it maybe.
“There is nothing much to tell, nothing much to know as it was already a history. Do you mind lending me a hand, young ones? A little favor?” asked Slanth.
Meeshl turned to look at Aldor and Nafgar, waiting for their approval or disapproval. Well, she wouldn’t be reluctant if it is a small help.
“What favor will that be?” asked Nafgar, suspiciously.
“Don’t look at me that way, hasty one. It makes me feel uneasy. By the way, I need someone to help me find a herb, deep in this forest, to the north, beside the Lake of The Dancing Ghosts,” said Slanth, waiting eagerly for them to say yes. “I need the herb to make a medicine to cure the disease now plaguing the Village of Ka. Do you mind helping this old man?”
“But we are not familiar with this Dark Forest and certainly, you are much stronger than us, and who is to protect us against the evil beasts in here?” exclaimed Nafgar further.
Slanth smiled easily and took out a small pendant from his pocket. It was small and round and covered in gold with a small silver rune in the middle. At the side of the pendant was some carvings written in some halfling words that the four young elves had no idea about. It was very beautiful indeed.
“You can take this pendant with you. It will protect you from the beasts roaming freely for food in this forest. As long as you four stay together, they will not see any of you. Somehow like invisibility and oh, don’t make any sound for they will hear you,” said Slanth as he handed the pendant to Aldor.
“Well, if so, we will try to help you. Now can you point us the direction?” asked Nafgar.
Slanth pointed towards the north. “Go deep into the forest, go straight and you will find the lake. The herb looks like this, take a good look, young ones. And if you get the herb back to me, then I will let you have the pendant,” said Slanth. “And this spell book for the little young brave elf sleeping there. Oh, I nearly forget.” With that, Slanth walked and knelt down before Barin, reached out his hand and began to spell out a few words. His hand glow in light blue-white color and he suddenly woke up, refreshed as ever before. And he saw the stranger and strode back.
“Who the hell is this?” asked Barin, pointing at the creature none other than Slanth.
“We will talk on the way. Come on, let’s go. Wait for our good news,” said Nafgar and pulled Barin onto his legs and the four began to leap into the deeper part of the forest, towards the Lake of Dancing Ghosts.
* * * * *
Barin gulped. The forest looked extremely creepy, dark and wet. It was cold too. He looked left and right and followed Aldor who was right in front of him as Meeshl and Nafgar after him. The leaves rustled, sounded almost like the place was haunted and the branches moved and danced, yes, danced, like ghosts. That’s the origin of its name, Barin guessed.
Suddenly, Aldor stopped and looked out into the misty forest. He could hear the water rippling and knew they had finally arrived at Lake of Dancing Ghosts. His companions stopped beside him, breathing heavily as they had been leaping through the forest for almost half a day.
“Why not we turn back? This place looks creepy to me. Don’t you all think it is not worth for us to help someone who we just met?” asked Barin.
His friends’ gave him a stare of disagreement. Well, he was only suggesting anyway.
“We are here at Lake of Dancing Ghosts. Let’s start searching then,” said Nafgar, quickly jumped down from the branch and landed on the wet soil of the forest. The others followed after, one by one stepped beside him, and then started to search for the herb Slanth required. It was quite a rare plant, as they didn’t see any after an hour walking and searching, searching and walking around the lake. Only Barin stayed alert, his eyes staring from left to right, front to back, just to be aware of possible danger. Furthermore, they were now in a dangerous place it seemed to be, and Dancing Ghosts sounded even worse. “We can’t fight ghosts and spirits,” thought Barin.
Suddenly they stopped and Nafgar pointed to a place in front, and they all saw the plant, grew nicely out from the wet soil. Nafgar began to tip toe towards the plant, reaching out to pull it out from the earth. But out of a sudden, a mouth snapped out of nowhere, nearly caught Nafgar’s little hand, which was retreated fast enough. They couldn’t see the foe clearly as it was dim down here on the forest floor.
Barin chanted a few words, and a ball of light flared in his right hand, lightened up the darkness, and there it was. The mouth belonged to a carnivorous plant.
“Should have guessed it. This is another job for you Barin,” said Nafgar, as Meeshl and Aldor giggled and sat down to watch their coward friend fight.
Barin sighed and looked unwillingly to fight the plant. But well, his friends had all took place and were sitting down, leaving him alone standing to face the uninvited enemy. He mumbled and began to concentrate, chanted a few more words. His left hand reached out, fingers stretched and five magic darts shot out and flew towards the carnivorous plant.
“Done,” said Barin as he wiped his hands on his trousers.
They watched the plant burned and shrieked, waiting for it to die and kept the herb plant from getting burned as well. The fire went on for a while and began to cease down. Aldor smiled happily and walked over and took the herb plant off the wet soil. But then, all of the sudden they heard the sound of heavy breathing, not from one but a pack of fire wolves, and then a rustle between the hidden bush, came a number of gleaming red eyes. They snarled at the four and slowly came into sight. There were at least twenty of them and it was enough to leave Barin shaking, and shivering, near to wet his own trousers.
“Oh in the name of Gaea, please help us this time,” Barin pleaded, his knees weak.
The other three took no extra time, leaped onto a tree and began to flee, as Nafgar carried Barin along. They were all apart from each other in some distance, so the wolves couldn’t catch them all at once. Aldor moved in front, leaping from trees to trees, his arms stretched out to catch a branch as he nearly fell down, swiftly swing himself back on the tree, while the wolves followed closely behind. Meeshl was fast on her steps but Nafgar was having problem with Barin in his hands.
“You damn coward Barin. Just cast some magic will you? We are doom if you keep on shaking your hair out of your head,” Nafgar said angrily.
“But…but I…I can’t even speak…. speak correctly,” Barin said with fear clearly heard from his voice. “Well, I will give it a try I guess.”
Barin looked at the direction of the chasing wolves, scared at the sight of their sharp teeth. His hands were shaking tremendously, but well, he managed to wiggle his fingers at least and he began to chant, knowing that he couldn’t disgrace his master, Reka, with his cowardly act. A few magic darts flared from his hands toward the wolves and shot one in particular but it did nothing, no harm at all.
“Are you a fool? They are fire wolves. How do you think fire can harm them? Please grant him some brain, our Mother Gaea,” Nafgar said in a disappointing tone.
The wolves charged nearer, filled with anger. They snarled even louder. Barin fumbled and tried to search for spells in his now-frozen brain. He just couldn’t think at the time, not with twenty wolves catching up on his legs.
Aldor and Meeshl were aware of their two troubled friends and began to leap towards them.
“Are you alright?” shouted Meeshl.
“Not with a stupid foolish coward apprentice in my hand,” replied Nafgar.
Aldor and Meeshl came beside Nafgar, trying to help him fend off the charging wolves, when all of the sudden, Barin thought of the pendant from Slanth.
“Aldor, take out the pendant. Come on, where is it? Slanth said we can use it to save ourselves from the beasts in this creepy forest,” urged Barin.
Aldor’s eyes gleamed and thought at least Barin thought of it. He quickly took out the pendant from his pocket, hold it in his hands, and they all felt a comforting sensation feeling, embracing them all over. And the wolves suddenly stopped, looked in all direction as to search for their preys. But in vain they were so they tried to sniff with their bad nose. The four stopped motionless on a tree, watching as the wolves came nearer and then right in front of them. But the wolves just couldn’t see them. In vain the pack of wolves left the place and Barin was the first to sound relieved. The others sat down and took a rest. Nafgar was exhausted after the pick-and-flee routine.