Ight had on a long coat similar to Beo’s but with a silver sheen and a small insignia of swords and spears crossing on the shoulder. He gave a small nod as I stepped out and gave way for to me to join the gathered circle. The others crowding around us were Mehr, Yggr, Mint and a lanky man with silver hair and pale green eyes. He kept his gaze on me as I gave a nod of acknowledgement to everyone, offering a slight smile when I turned to face him.

Yggr nodded to Mehr and she stepped forward to speak.

“Your journey is to the Eternal Hollow, one of the hearts of the forest, but,” She paused, “I think it will not be an easy trip.”

I raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean not easy?” I asked.

She shifted slightly, looking towards the group.

“Well, within the last few years we’ve been finding it harder and harder to travel to one of the known hearts. Many of us fear that the forest may be closing itself off.” She finished.

The group looked downcast by that. Ight coughed to break the uncomfortable silence.

“But you’ve been there before?” I followed up.

This time Yggr spoke. “The last of us who managed to find one was my master’s teacher, Brahm. We only know he reached there by a message he sent but that is all we know. He never returned from his journey.”

Delightful. I opened my mouth to ask more but was cut off by Ight.

“Druin, we must go now. The trip to Amara is long and we have much to do in the city.”

And with that, we lined up single file to march back into the forest, in a direction that showed no paved path forward. Yggr, Mint and Mehr stay behind, watching us with what appeared to be a wistful gaze. I saw Yggr’s hand make a motion, starting at his head and reaching up to the sky. Mint and Mehr made the same hand motion afterwards.

“Amara? Why are we going to Amara? Thought we were headed to the hollow.” I whispered to Beo in front of me. The silver haired man led us with Ight, Beo and me back into the forest.

“We need to find someone there who can help us get to the Hollow.” She said, falling into step beside me. Made sense, the group here had no idea how to get to the hollow.

“Who’s he?” I jerked my thumb towards the newcomer of our group.

“Ah that’s Gin. He’s our guide to Amara and beyond.” With that, we had approached a narrow stream. Gin held up a hand, silencing conversation and freezing us in our steps. The path we had taken was away from the city I had come from but had no way of knowing where it led. Or what direction we would take.

The 4 of us stayed silent while Gin stood peering out into where the stream flowed from. Looking closer at him, I realized he was speaking incredibly softly to himself. Splashing came from upstream, followed by a rushing sound of the wind. The splashing grew stronger rhythmically, like a drumbeat headed towards us. The ground vibrated softly as the beats began to get closer until they became almost imperceptible from each other.

Silence. It was immediate and hollow. The vibrations stopped and the stream only babbled from its movement, no splashing within it. We turned to face where Gin was intently staring at and saw large figures looming towards us. Moving softly and swiftly, with no sound from any movement. Finally emerging from the forest’s darkness, the massive grey wolves headed for us.

It turned out that Gin was Wolf-kin too. Ight explained that him and Gin were entirely different species and it was akin to comparing two species from different planets occupying the same land. But Gin had gotten us a ride to Amara and that was music to my ears. No more walking on two legs.

Ight and I were seated on the shorter and stouter wolf while Beo and Gin took the other. Gin walked around to both and whispered in their ears. Before he moved on, they both licked his face. Which was a terrifying sight since a bite could have split Gin easily in half.

Gin turned to face us after he hopped onto his wolf, named Gae, and spoke.

“My brothers will take us to the entrance of Amara. We’ll move fast.” He nodded and turned back. Gae began a slow trot and began bounding forward into the darkness. Our wolf, Jan, kept close to Gae and matched his pace effortlessly. The bounding turned into running, whipping us through the forest at breakneck speed. The branches turned into streaks of bright brown and muted green. I leaned forward onto Ight, resting my eyes and passed away into restful sleep.

--

Ight woke me up with a slight shake. We had arrived at the entrance of Amara. Instead of an open alcove, the wolves had trotted up to a walled entrance. Gin ushered us off and bid the wolves goodbye, letting them another chance to lick his face before they ran off. The facing wall had a closed wooden door as its entrance with a portly man watching us from a window within the wall.

Beo held out an envelope and approached him, flanked by Ight and Gin. I brought up the rear, looking around to see where how much the wall encircled the city. The granite seemed to go on endlessly, encapsulating the city for leagues and yet I had not seen the wall while I first stumbled onto the place. I came back just in time to hear Beo and the man finish up conversation.

The door opened inwards with a slow creak from its hinges, sounding as if the simple action of opening it once would make it collapse. The others stepped in and waited for me, skirted by guards in deep red leather armor.

I stepped forward and crossed the threshold into the city. And nearly collapsed.

The world went black and a pair of burning red eyes staring at me was the only thing I could. They felt familiar, like I had seen them in a dream. The face began to slowly appear, and I recognized the monster I had once escaped from this city looking at me.

Well hello there.

Said the face, with a musical voice that intoned amusement.