A man with brown, intelligent eyes stared up at the nameless boy, seemingly unbothered by the fact he was about to fall to his death. He wouldn’t be able to hold on to the bough for much longer now.

Yet this was hardly what occupied his mind. How did he end up in such a dire situation in the first place? Moreover, how did the stranger find him when no one but him dared to wander this deep into the Forgotten Forest?

This part of the forest, you see, was known for being darker than the rest, devoid of noises and more silent than a graveyard.

People used to fear this place, which was teeming with rumours of dread and terror. No sane person dared to venture this far into the darkness without a solid plan of what to do in case of an emergency.

But he knew the rumours were groundless. He had roamed around here for far too long to not witness one single incident of terror, or perhaps he was just lucky.

“Do you need help, child?”

He glanced at the stranger and cocked his head. Wasn’t it obvious that he needed help?

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“If you don’t mind, sir, then yes.”

The stranger nodded before looking around himself as if he was trying to make sure they were the only ones present in the forest.

He then hit the blades of grass twice with a wooden stick he whipped out from under his cloak. Like slinging snakes, the roots of the massive tree came alive from the heart of the earth and twisted into a ladder against the tree.

The higher the ladder reached, the wider his grey eyes became. He followed the hissing roots and held his breath.

Magic was foreign to him although he knew it existed from what Enis told him about her life in Isaldor, and that those with superior knowledge even made the dead rise from their shallow tombs.

But he never considered that she actually told him the truth! She had this strange way of speaking nonsense with a straight face, that it never occurred to him she would say a single word of truth.

The slinging roots, however, proved him wrong indeed. Enis told the truth after all, albeit in her own peculiar way.

Drawing a deep breath, he landed a foot on the makeshift ladder and slowly descended to the bottom. The ladder broke down and turned into glittering dust.

His mouth gaped wide in surprise. The roots went back to the depths of the earth as if they were truly serpents.

His heart pounded like never before and his breath came in quick, ragged gasps.

“H- how did you do that, sir?”

Before he could repeat his question, however, the stranger picked up the pace and scurried past him as if he were being chased by the ogres of Sál themselves!

But he hadn’t even asked the most important question yet, so he picked up the pace too and sprinted after the stranger with all he had.