Hain clutched the rough trunk just as the druid leapt into the tree’s narrowing mouth full of saliva.

He opened his eyes wide, too scared to be left behind this far from Mazheven. So he clenched his jaw and managed to throw himself into the hollow right before it shut for good.

But his foot got caught by the wooden lips.

He moaned as he hung mid-air in the darkness. He kicked his legs to be set free as the unsuspecting tree chewed on his legs as if to figure out what was caught in its mouth.

His heart skipped several beats.

Through the absolute darkness, a cold hand wrapped around his own and helped him break free from the tree's grasp so that he fell deeper and deeper into the hollow pit.

Darkness was all he could see as he fell into the unknown. Before he hit his head on something and blacked out, however, he heard the giant tree shout with all its might: “Damn you, druid! Damn you!”

When Hain flew open his eyes moments later, his head spun like a top and ached.

He sat up from where he lay. The rough ground teemed with tiny stones and evergreen grass, spanning several acres in the distance.

Flinching, he almost lost his footing as he noticed the druid to his left, who sat beside him with his legs and arms crossed. He was about to ask the druid what was going on when he noticed something unnatural about the place they were at.

The shivering cold, the crisp snow they plodded through for ages, all of it was gone and replaced by brightness as if the frost never visited this place. It was eternal summer.

“What- what is this place?”

Gwydion followed his awestruck eyes.

“This place? It’s called Boldizsár.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

“Boldizsár?” Hain repeated in a hushed tone more to himself than for the druid to hear. “That means this place is—”

“Welcome to Salwodor, Hain. Now, follow me and keep your eyes on the road. I don’t have time to look for a missing kid.”

The druid ambled away with his arms folded together behind him without waiting for Hain to reply.

As he watched the druid approach the golden gates at the end of the grassy road, he looked over his shoulder and shot open his eyes.

The tree! It was gone!

In a state of panic, he dashed after the druid and stopped him from taking another step, pointing at the empty spot behind them which led to a rocky hill with no end in sight.

“The- the tree, sir! It’s gone!”

Gwydion looked as if he couldn’t understand what he meant at first. His head was tilted to the left. Hain repeated his question for the second time, and that’s when the druid finally understood.

“Why, it’s on the other side, of course. In Aderbaal…”

“Aderbaal? But how do I… how do I return home?”

“Well, there’s another route to Aderbaal—”

Hain followed the druid’s gaze as it landed in the opposite direction of the rocky hill.

“But how can I possibly return home by going the opposite way?”

“You’ll have to go through Forsburth and from there head straight to Mazheven. We took a shortcut reserved only for the deities to get here this fast.”

“But you said you were not a deity, sir…”

“I did say that, yes, I surely did. But I also said I was more than just a druid, didn’t I?”

“You did, sir.”

“Since that’s out of the way, can we continue?”

Hain stopped the druid from advancing once more.

“There’s just one more thing, sir! What kind of place is that? Uh, that… Forsburth.”

“Will you be quiet for the next half an hour if I answer?”

Hain nodded.

“All right. Forsburth, you see, is an inn for the dead. It’s a wicked place you should stay away from at all costs.”

“The dead? What does that—”

“I already answered your question and kept my word, now hush.”

Before Hain could protest and speak up, the druid brushed past him, walking so fast that it almost felt like he was running away.

As he observed the druid inching farther and farther away from him, he couldn’t help but crack a smile. The druid hummed an unfamiliar song as if he purposely tried to drown out his attempts to ask questions.

With each passing second, his curiosity grew. He wanted to know more about the druid and ask him thousands of questions, yet he knew that the druid would not open his heart to him.

There was an invisible wall built around the druid, one as tall as the trees and as vast as the sky above. The druid was hiding something, that was certain, something that Hain wished he could uncover in the future.

But for now, he just followed the mysterious stranger, beaming wide, unaware of the ill fate that brought them together after a thousand years.