Tock sat in a misty pine wood. In his hand, he held a tiny woman with butterfly wings--scarcely bigger than his thumb. On his face, he wore a heavy frown. 

“Where’s your smile, Tock?” The butterfly woman, Taylor, asked. 

Tock stayed silent. The weight of his actions, the weight of his life, was pulling his mouth down. He had sacrificed everything for the tiny woman in his hand. All his good humor had disappeared, and he questioned whether it was all worth it in the end. 

“I was just thinking about T-Terran.” Tock swallowed, trying not to cry. He loved that elf, however much he teased him about being stoic. Terran was a good man. An honorable man. A man who could learn to love life, even when he was locked in a tower, so long as the woman he loved was by his side. 

Taylor collapsed to her knees on top of his palm. Tock knew she would have no kind words for him. She disdained the world, because the world had disdained her. But he was surprised when she patted his thumb affectionately. “He was a good man. Far more tolerable than any of your other friends. I could see him... Supporting Eory, and even defending me from time-to-time through Eory’s eyes.”

Tock murmured emotionlessly, “You got him killed, didn’t you? You got him killed just so you could take the reins in your body. And you wanted to trick us all into thinking it was Eory’s fault.” 

Taylor looked up at him, and he was shocked to see the tears in her eyes. 

Perhaps not a complete monster after all. Tock thought to himself. 

“I’m sorry. I wold have withered  away if I didn’t take some sort of drastic action. I had to destroy Eory’s body and his relationships in order to get my body back. I would do it again if I had to. It was difficult to remove my skill with a bow from Eory’s knowledge–to let him aim on his own and fail.” 

Silent tears flowed from Tock’s eyes. He found his fingers flexing–tempted to crush the girl in his hands–but he resisted. If he killed her, what was the point of it all? 

“You’re a monster, but I guess I am, too. A match made in the underworld…” Tock laughed sullenly. “I can’t come back from all this, not that I’d want to… I’ve lost all my friends, including Pete…” 

Taylor leaned her cheek against his thumb apologetically. “I will give you something greater than anything your friends could ever offer you. Power, and a place at my side. A man who will conquer the world with me. I will finish what my family started.”

Tock looked down at her, wondering if world domination would finally give him the satisfaction he craved in life. He wondered if he could have been happy, if he had just found the woman of his dreams, married her, and had children with her, or if only a life of greatness would satisfy him. 

Only a life with a woman who could conquer kingdoms. 

He swallowed. “You’re all that’s left for me. I will do what is necessary to make your dream come true.” 

Taylor smiled at him. “Then we must continue onwards. We’re almost there.”

Tock was not ready to move on. The mist was like an opaque white sheet. Tock could barely see ahead. 

Taylor had told him that he was going to find her a new body within this forest–a body that was far more powerful than her current one. 

For the time being, she had transferred her body into that of a butterfly’s. When she was in Eory’s body, she had just enough power to take possession of it late at night, and scoured the library for any methods of transferring her spirit into other creatures. She had found a way to do it through the dream plains. 

Tock was surprised that such a power was possible through the dream plains, but was grateful for it. He was glad that Eory and Taylor could have their own bodies. When he had asked her why she didn’t transfer her body without destroying Eory’s relationship, she replied that she needed complete control over his body for it to work. And in order to do that, she had to disrupt Eory’s life and his relationships. According to Taylor, it was a procedure that had an incredibly small chance of working, and if she performed it incorrectly, she could have gotten lost within the dream plains forever. But because she had spent her life in the dream plains, she had immense control over them, and completed the procedure easily while Eory was knocked out. 

Tock crept quietly through the forest. He was told by Taylor that the creature they were looking for was incredibly dangerous, and lurked deep within the cursed thicket. No creature had ever ventured as deeply as he and Taylor had into the forest of Aire. They had been muscling their way through the dense, shaggy forest for five days now, and Tock had only been given vague descriptions of what he was looking for from Taylor. 

Supposedly, the white mist in the forest would turn an eerie, ethereal green, he would begin to hear a quiet, high-pitched, mournfull singing, accompanied by the rippling of a river. 

Tock paused. 

A tinge of green began coloring the white mist and slowly spreading. Tock heard the hooting of an owl as he scanned his surroundings. Next, he heard a low, mournful singing at the limits of his hearing, and then he heard the babbling of a river.

“She’s coming.” Taylor whispered. “You’ve got your bow ready, right?”

Tock nodded. It would be a somewhat complicated procedure, but he had to knock this creature unconscious so that Taylor could creep into it through the dream plains.

But first, he had to incapacitate it. He stalked forward, careful to step around twigs and over leaves as the green mist began to swallow him. 

The singing slowly became louder, and Tock thought that it sounded strange for a sound coming out of a man’s mouth.

Eventually, Tock’s vision was completely obscured by the mist. He took a step and his foot stomped into water. Alarmed, Tock retrieved his bow and arrow, his focus narrowed on the voice that seemed to be right in his ears. 

Tock’s ears twitched when he felt a breath on his ear, and he spun around. 

Behind him was a creature he had never seen before. A pale, six-foot-tall man with sharp teeth and red eyes. His skin had been eaten away by the elements–exposing red sinew below it.

Tock backed away, loosing an arrow. It met its mark, lodging in the creature’s eye.