As they wandered through the tangled woods, Lady realized she truly would have been lost without Pan’s guidance. As Pan told her, the woods were called the Forest of Spirits, but she hadn’t seen a single soul since they entered. Their path was dimly lint rays of light scarcely able to weave through the thick crowns of leaves above their heads. At a distance, the trees were quite massive but up close, they towered over her with thick branches stretching upward as if to touch the sky itself. She could hardly tell what time it was or how long they had been wandering through the wood, but Pan assured that until the light waned from gold to silver, they still had daylight left.

She thought to question the importance of daylight when traversing through the woods when a twig snapped. Her head whipped around to find the source of the noise, but all she could make out was a rustling bush and the swift but heavy sound of retreating footsteps. Lady pressed closer to Pan’s back, hoping her concern was masked as wanting to adjust herself as they leaped across overgrown roots and waded through bushes. Aside from the occasional rustle of their clothing, the wind whispered through the leaves. Insects hummed in grass high enough to brush against her dangling feet, leaving her curious about how often people wandered through these woods.

Though, what was most unsettling was the feeling of eyes on her back.

While it was much warmer in the embrace of the forest, she still felt a rather chill roll down her spine. “It’s so quiet here,” Lady clasped a hand around her wrist pressed close to Pan’s collar. “Are you sure that we’re going the right way, Pan?”

She couldn’t see Pan’s face past their hair, but she could imagine the patient smile on their lips. It wasn’t the first time she’d asked this, and they both knew it wouldn’t be the last. “Sure as I can be, Lady.”

Just as uncertain at the answer now as she’d been before, Lady sighed then cushioned her cheek on their soft locks. She had no idea where to settle her eyes, but everywhere she glanced, words filtered into her mind as if supplying answers for what she didn’t know. When she heard a chittering in the trees, she looked up and saw a small shadow leaping from one tree branch to the next with only a rustle knocking loose one of the leaves to tell of its passing. In the back of her mind, a small voice said to her that it was a squirrel.

Falling silent, she tried to pull apart the sounds of the insects. If it chirped, it was a cricket, and if it trilled, it was a bird. She heard a little shuffle now and again and the echo of pitched raspy squawks. Her heart danced as she wondered what those animals were and how their names were slowly returning to her. Gradually the forest became less of a menacing, wild mass of shadows, and she found herself leaning away from Pan to take in more of her surroundings.

“So, what kind of place is it…?” She questioned, surprised as Pan turned off their path to lead her toward a tunnel. Though as she pressed her hands down on their collar and pushed herself up, she saw it wasn’t a tunnel at all but the inside of a fallen log. A relatively big hollow with clumps of wet moss dangling from the holes within the wooden bark over their heads.

“Galdre?” Pan hummed, stepping over mottled, splotchy mulch. “It’s more of a farming village, nothing too grand.”

Gloomy scrubs hardly visible out the corner of her eye held thin, glossy webs, and a voice in the back of her mind whispered wolfspiders. She leaned away rather than closer, not wanting to know what they may do if she approached. Pan hiked her up higher when she slid to one side.

“The people who’ve lived there have been there since their parents and grandparents. Makes them curious, close to the land, and protective of their own.”

Protective of their own. That would explain the eyes that had been watching her since they entered the forest. Even under the log’s cover, she could feel them boring into her back.

“Ah, don’t worry about that.” Pan’s assurance startled her out of her thoughts. They stepped out on the other side of the log, standing in an open space between two trees. Lady looked around, feeling all the more exposed as she noticed how the trees lined in rows flanking a glade riddled with rocks, sprigs of flowers, and saplings. “It might just be the forest’s guardian.”

Lady sat up a bit straighter, peering around Pan’s shoulder to look at their face. “Guardian?”

“Mhm..” They weren’t looking at her, but she noticed how their eyes slid from one side to the next, head turned ever so slightly as if they were looking for something. “It looks after the forest and watches anyone who comes in and out, judging whether they’re a threat.”

“Oh…” Lady pulled back as she followed Pan’s lead and looked around to see if she could find this force either. A long moment passed until she felt the pressure of hidden eyes leave her.

“Guess they think you’re okay,” Pan said. She tried not to think too hard on the relief coloring their words as they started down the slight incline into the glade.

Yet, curiosity got the best of her, and she questioned, “What if they didn’t?”

Pan seemed to give the answer some thought, and Lady wondered if they were trying to pick the best words to not scare her. “They’d protect their home,” they answered with a tone of finality. She wasn’t sure how she felt about being judged by a being she didn’t know or understand. However, being attacked by a forest itself seemed far more terrifying.

“Is it getting cool?” Pan asked as they trekked through the glade, tiny bumps and hops jostling Lady across their back.

She waited until they were walking on leveled land to rifle in her clothes and pull out the stone. “Yeah…” She mumbled, wondering if it’d gone lukewarm sometime while she was focused on sightseeing.

“Perfect time to learn then,” Pan said, a little too cheerful for someone who had just been waiting as if danger was ebbing upon them. “Alright, now hold it in your hands like you’d seen me do.”

Lady wanted to point out that when they had, they both had been sitting on level ground and weren’t blundering through a forest. But Pan’s eagerness had a way of being infectious, and the remark left her lips in a sigh. With the stone set between her cupped palms, Pan was gifted a better view than she was, and only after a bit of shuffling was she able to peer over their shoulder.

“Alright, so draw a triangle but leave the bottom open….”

It was an odd instruction until Lady remembered the drawings Pan made in the moss. Her thumbs found their place in the moss, tracing the aforementioned shape. Though her thumb twitched as she went to finish the triangle rather than leave it open.

Pan chuckled. “Then a line with a steep open curve at the top inside it….”

“Is it okay if they intersect?” Lady questioned. She moved as they asked then, thought of how small the stone was and how large the first step had been.

Their curls brushed against her cheek as they nodded their head. “Even better,” Pan sounded genuinely pleased at the question. “The triangle forms the base; it tells the shards to be ready to receive mana, while the open curve changes the flow of air into the shards to help them spark.”

Lady nodded at their instruction then drew the curve.

“Then to the top, left, bottom, and right of the upside triangle press a circle.” As she did so, Pan continued speaking while trudging up an incline. “It keeps the heat trapped inside, closing it off….” They grunted, taking a leap that almost knocked the stone from Lady’s hand until she grasped it tighter. A muttered apology under their breath. “That’s what warms the stone, but after awhile, with no air flowing in, the fire extinguishes itself.”

Remembering Pan’s earlier actions of hiding the drawn sign and burying the fire, she realized. “It’s like how you put it out before.”

“Exactly.”

As she finished with their instruction, Pan rolled their shoulders, lightly knocking against her chest before they settled again. She wondered if they were growing tired of carrying her. It had to have been awhile.

“Now,” Pan began with a click of their tongue. “This is the tricky part.”

Lady tipped her head. “How?”

They nervously chuckled, shaking their head a little. “Well, I’ve never taught someone how to use their mana before. It’s more like a whooshing feeling, and then, a.….”

They arched their back with the sound effect and Lady squinted at them, unsure of what a whoosh felt like. “Descriptive,” she said plainly.

Pan huffed, glancing at her from over their shoulder, lip jutted in a pout. “Hey, I’m trying.”

Lady could concede that. She heard their quiet mumbling and insistence that one way wouldn’t work while another would as they tried to find a way to teach her.

“Okay!” Pan shouted, then cleared their throat. “Uhm… think about something touching the top of your head and follow that feeling down to your back, then up your shoulder and down your arm all the way to your hand. Imagine that flow, then think of it becoming hot. As hot as you can handle, and keep following it.”

After repeating the instructions to herself a few times, muttering them under her breath and trying only to fail to spark that feeling — Lady managed to hold onto something. It was like a spark. A strange one buried beneath her skin, and if she focused enough, she thought that it would have been one of many littered around her body. But if she let go of this spark, it would fade, and she would have to start over again.

So she didn’t.

Curiosity seemed to be the bane of her existence. Every time she grew curious, it would leave her with more questions than answers. Steps forward but with no definitive way to understand where she was going. This time, she had a path to follow from the top of her head down to her back, up her shoulder, and to her arm. The spark traveled and flowed. She thought of it as the little light zipping across the vast void of her dream. How it grew weaker when she took her eyes off of it and stronger as she pressed more of her belief into it.

Gradually, that spark beneath her skin grew until it felt like her flesh was heating, and the palm of her hand became a little damp. She took a breath in then released it, letting her eyes drift open to find that they had stopped. Pan was silent and still, staring at something. Lady stared as well upon looking over.

There in the center of her palm was the stone she’d been clinging to since it was first offered to her, and within the green moss were tiny flecks of red glowing like hot coals.

Breathlessly, Lady muttered, “… I did it.”

Like a spell was broken, Pan crowed heartily, “Haha! Look at that.”

It was amazing. Both to know that she could do something like this and that it would look so beautiful. Laughter tumbled past her lips as they celebrated together, and she couldn’t help but think what a sight they had made. Two people whooping and hollering in the woods over something as simple as heating up a stone.

“This is amazing, Pan!” Lady squeezed their shoulder, shaking them a little. “You’re amazing!”

Pan’s eyes went wide, then they ducked their head, tongue flubbing over their words and quieting voice, “Ah well, you know….”

The rest of their journey is uneventful, but Lady didn’t mind, pleased with her achievement and practically floating on airs as she asked Pan a few more questions about Galdre. Her first realization that they were leaving the forest was as the sunlight grew more plentiful and the number of trees began to lessen, giving away to grasslands significantly shorter than those deeper in the woods.

“Oh, hey. We’re here…” Pan said, chuckling as Lady clamored over their shoulders to better see.

Gorgeous was an understatement. Within the cradle of dense woodlands cultivated to allow farmland around coursing rivers was a village with only a handful of wooden structures and bridges. Spacious pastures allowed for animals to roam, and from this distance, Lady swore she could see clouds floating close to the ground. Golden lights drifted through the open air as sunlight poured through the opening in the trees, washing over the village in a heavenly glow.

With no small amount of pride, Pan said, “Welcome to Galdre, Lady.”