I can see the trees! Shanku thought excitedly.

After many days of flying over the prairie she had finally reached the Nyre forest, hopefully far enough south she wouldn't bump into any of Scissortail clan. She tilted her wings and glided smoothly under the cover of the trees. She cupped her wings around her to break her speed and dropped to the ground. Shanku looked around as a flood of memories returned. The sunbeams shifted and danced between the leaves and cast a multitude of spots and speckles on everything. There were many kinds of bushes and ferns hiding what part of the forest floor wasn't covered in discarded leaves. Shanku took a deep breath.

Smells like home, she thought wistfully.

A twig snapped close by and she dropped her stance. Her wings flared behind her and her ears were twisted to the front.

"Who's there!?" She demanded. Shanku hoped she looked threatening enough to ward off whatever was nearby. She had not been in the Nyre for a year but that had not dulled her memory of what dangers lurked beneath the canopy.

Two yellow eyes gleamed in a dancing sunbeam.

"I saw your eyes! Come out!" Shanku barked and arched her wings above her body to make herself look bigger and even more threatening.

"No hurt Grubber?" came a small, scared voice. A goblin in a ragged loincloth stepped out from behind the bushes he had been hiding behind.

Oh crap, a goblin... Shanku was worried. She looked him over. Grubber was a greyish green as most of his kind were. He had very few hairs on his head and about as many dull teeth in his mouth. He was very thin, making his batty ears and long arms look larger and longer than they should. "No, I don't want to hurt you," Shanku answered after her observation.

"Strange to see a cub alone," Grubber knelt before the bushes and crept slowly towards the cub on his knuckles.

"Strange to see a goblin alone," Shanku countered and stood up. Her ears were half laid-back and she tucked her wings behind her.

"Not alone, have little friend!" Grubber said cheerfully and thrust what appeared to be a wad of leaves up close to Shanku's face. "Gremmy!"

"Hi!" The wad of leaves greeted her. Shanku looked closely at them. The leaves seemed to be in actuality a small humanoid creature with large, bat-like wings. It was a dark, dirty brown with ears to match Grubber's ears. His eyes were a solid black, his many pointed teeth snow white, and he wore no clothes.

"A goblin and a gremlin?" Shanku asked in confusion. Never had she heard of any of the Nyre's monsters befriend each other. But wasn't that why I was exiled in the first place?

"Gremmy like Grubber." Grubber gave his companion a sort of hug by cupping his fingers around the little gremlin and rubbing their cheeks together. "Find bugs together!"

"Find bugs together!" Gremmy echoed in his high-pitched voice and flew after the goblin as he ran off happily into the trees.

And Katari thought I was weird. Shanku watched the two until they were out of sight and out of earshot. Moving on, she thought tiredly as she walked through the forest. She had caught a lucky break. Like all the speaking creatures of the Nyre, goblins were horribly territorial, albeit a bit cowardly. They had been known to chase intruders well into another clan's territory. Gremlins, on the other hand, were just pests. They delighted in mischief and were even known to chew a kurach's feathers into a ragged mess just to laugh at how silly the poor kurach looked when they had finished.

Eh? Her attention was caught by a black pool of water surrounded by tall grasses and reeds. There seemed to be a pale blue light gleaming on the grasses rather than the typical yellow of the sunbeams. The cub crouched low to the ground and carefully pushed back the grasses. She smiled at her find. A dozen glowing, blue fairies darted and played across the water's surface. They lighted and skipped across the rocks and lilypads and they danced and sang with the insects nearby.

"Cub found bugs!" Grubber poked his head into the grasses beside her.

"Yay!" exclaimed his tiny companion.

"Pwetty bugs..." Grubber smiled wistfully and propped his square chin onto a bony hand. A few fairies fluttered before his eyes and giggled. Gremmy gave a sigh as well and admired the dainty creatures.

Suddenly one of the fairies' eyes bulged out and she gave a shriek as a snap was heard. A bullfrog and chosen her as his supper and shot his tongue out at her to capture her. Grubber and Gremmy gave a resounding gasp in shock as well. Grubber snatched up the bullfrog and shook the fairy from his mouth.

"No eat bugs!" He admonished, shaking his finger at the frog.

"No eat bugs!" Gremmy echoed as the frightened fairy flew away.

The other fairies swarmed around the odd couple and thanked them for saving their sister. Grubber looked to be in a state of absolute bliss. Shanku quietly backed away and let him have his attention in peace. He truly was different from other goblins she had heard about.

"Grubber likes fairies. Always has. It's why the other goblins don't like him," came a guttural voice behind her. She turned to find a faun perched on a fallen tree.

"Sad," she murmured.

"Yes," the faun nodded. "Other than decimating the beetle population, he's harmless."

"And you?"

"I am a guardian of the Nyre," the faun shrugged. The Nyre had many guardians, as it was a large forest that spanned from one end of L'aernth to the other. For the most part, they were mediators. They settled minor disputes among the inhabitants and alerted them of large-scale dangers, such as forest fires. In tales of legend, they had possessed great powers and defended the forest during the War of Mages.

"A man has been coming to the forest lately," he continued. "Beware of him, cub."

"Will do," Shanku said.

Having fulfilled his duty, the faun sprang to his feet and disappeared into the bushes.

Beware? Shanku thought mischievously. Let him beware! She dropped down to the ground and stalked among the trees. Her time among men had made her dangerously fearless of them. A mistake many of the Nyre didn't usually live to repeat.

Little lizards and rodents darted from her path as she passed by. None wished to become the target of a hunting kurach, no matter how young. The sounds of a skirmish drew her attention. She crept to the edge of an overhang and peered into a small clearing. The ledge she was on was a part of a series of rocks that formed a sort of corner in the forest. At the opening stood four angry goblins holding spears and knives. Backed against the wall of the clearing was a single man holding his dagger defiantly before him.

That's not fair, Shanku noted nonchalantly and quietly slipped away from the edge.