Lan watched the Wisp fly off his hand and into a thick wall of shrubbery between two large red and gold trees. Not wanting to deal with more Hook thorns, Lan started to go around to a less dense part of the green and pushed it open before getting the feeling from the Wisp again. Sighing, Lan headed back to the Wisp and into the bushes, working his way through the branches and finding his patience rapidly fleeing with the thorny twigs. Nevertheless, Lan pushed through, reminding himself why he was doing this until he started to forget why that was.

Just as Lan made it through, taking a hook along the cheek for his troubles, he almost cursed out loud when he heard something that drew his attention back to the clearing around the hollow.

Stopping, he turned to look back a moment before watching a goblin creep into the clearing, followed by more of them. In moments Lan watched as the clearing filled with at least ten goblins, four of which were covered in burns.

Realising that he hadn’t been wrong with the count, Lan’s skin tingled as more goblins filled the clearing before one of the burnt ones slowly made its way to the hollow and peered into it. When it didn’t find him. The goblin barked out a short, bitter cry.

At this, all the goblins let out rage-filled screams until a knight walked out of the trees, silencing the others as it walked over to the charred goblin. Lan, of course, did not know what it was saying, but he didn’t need to know Obishe to understand the whispered words of the knight as it loomed over the charred goblin or the smaller goblin’s urgent screeching words as its head darted around and tried to back away.

Just when it looked like the knight would kill the charred goblin, another goblin walked out of the trees. This one was tall and slender with a much more sharp angular face and large dark eyes like cut glass seeds.

The new goblin walked over to the knight and pointed at Lan’s tracks and the broken branches of the part he had opened. Then it smelled the air and wrinkled its nose before saying something to the knight, who waved its hand, making the rest spread out and start to enter the forest from multiple points.

Slowly Lan started to back deeper into the forest. Where he was was dense enough to give him natural camouflage, and with the waning sunlight, the goblin’s night vision brought them no advantage. In fact, until nightfall, their sight would be worse than Lan’s. That didn’t stop them from moving over the forest ground, quickly spreading over it and unknowingly trapping Lan in the middle of them as they combed the forest, searching for him. A few times, the goblins would stop to smell the air, and Lan hoped the smell of smoke in the air would reach far enough to give him a chance to slip away.

Lan moved through the thicket, reaching its edge, and stopped to look around before readying to move to the next one. But just as he was about to dash over. Lan heard a sound like a pin dropping in his mind. A moment after he hesitated, a goblin crossed, looking down the path before moving on.

Turning, Lan found the Wisp floating over his shoulder.

‘Thanks for looking out,’ he whispered, once again getting the feeling of urgency from the little ball of light. ‘Right,’ He finished before moving across to the other side.

After, with the help of the Wisp, Lan moved through the trees unseen. Even when the foliage became less crowded, the Wisp managed to keep him out of sight of the goblins, who were becoming impatient. This was only made worse by the fact that the further away they got, the more the smell of smoke faded, and the more the goblins took note of the second source of the scent. Slowly moving closer to Lan, closing the net around him.

As he moved, Lan heard the pin drop sound again, and as he tried to work out where the danger was, he rounded the tree he was hiding behind, looking back to ensure that none of the goblins had seen him when he walked into something.

Realising it was what the Wisp had warned him about, Lan drew his sword as he turned. To his great luck as he did, he found the goblin doing the same before it saw him. Lan’s sword was already moving, but the goblin managed a surprised cry that was quickly cut off as his blade found its mark.

Lan froze as all sound in the forest came to a stop. His swing left his sword wedged into the tree, and he readied to pull it free and start running again as he heard the goblins begin to shout at one another.

Grabbing his sword with both hands, Lan dug his heels into the ground. The longer he waited, the quicker the goblins would be to react, but what if they didn’t notice. He could be giving his position away, and this time, he would have to deal with both the knight and that new type of goblin on top of the twenty or so around him.

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To his horror, Lan noticed a small voice in the back of his mind that actually wanted to try fighting all of them. A voice that his common sense quickly stomped further back into his mind as he waited. The goblins weren’t moving yet, still shouting at each other. Then Suddenly and all at once, Lan heard the goblins close in on him.

Lan wrenched his sword from the tree, ready to put on a burst of speed, when he saw the Wisp’s light burst into life before darting away from him. He watched as the goblins changed direction and took off after it. He was still standing there when some of the goblins started to slow, which was enough to reanimate his legs, and he took off, cutting a hard diagonal line away from the goblins to use as many trees as cover as he could.

Lan only stopped when he could no longer hear the shouts of the goblins. Which left him thinking about the Wisp.

He knew that wisps were intangible, and outside of powerful magic, there wasn’t any way to damage them. he knew this… but Lan couldn’t help but feel worried and a little guilty for leaving the little light. He knew it was silly, but still, he had to tell himself to move.

Maybe it was that it had saved him, and he still felt like he owed it in return, or maybe it was the idea that he had endangered what was clearly a special Wisp and didn’t want to think about the repercussions of his actions. Or perhaps he was starting to like the little light, but leaving it frustrated him more than he thought it could.

Not knowing what else to do, Lan turned to leave, only to be blinded by a golden light.

Lan jumped back before smiling, realising it was the Wisp in question.

‘Well, aren’t you a little trickster?’ He smiled, finding his mood lifting with every second. As if answering, the Wisp flashed once

‘Well, I guess you can understand what I am saying.’ This time the Wisp didn’t flash, but Lan's mind filled with the feeling of urgency again.

‘Right, right. Lead the way.’ Lan said, and the Wisp took off again. Darting off a short way before stopping to wait for him. ‘I’m coming.’ He added when the Wisp sent the feeling again.

After some time of following the Wisp and long after, the sun had set, leaving the night to fill the forest. Lan started to worry about the light coming from the Wisp, but he didn’t need to, as now that it was dark, he could see other Wisps flying around in the distance, and the Wisp seemed to know this, flying far enough that he wasn’t caught in its light along with keeping it’s illumination to little more than a candle.

Just as Lan thought as much, he felt icy fingers drag along his spine and turned half drawing his sword to be faced by nothing. Lan scanned the dark woods as the feeling rushed into his blood, but even with his mind and body primed for any motion or sound, he heard nothing.

After a moment longer of nothing, Lan turned and started after the Wisp, and yet he couldn’t shake the feeling of being cheated out of a fight. Once again, it was ridiculous, but he couldn’t stop himself, and it wouldn’t be long until his self-control would be tested.

Shortly after the feeling, Lan found a large fallen tree in his path and started to make his way around it. Just as he rounded the withering crown of the tree, he was greeted with ten pairs of eyes that caught and reflected the Wisp’s light.

Lan’s mind flashed with an alert along with thoughts of yellow gnashing teeth, and he reached for his sword, time seeming to slow as he grabbed it and paused before he could draw it. Something just didn’t feel right. The eyes were too high up and small to be goblins unless it was a whole band of Knights. It could have been other monsters which would have been just as much of a threat to him, but their reaction was odd.

Something akin to surprise and bewilderment was what he saw reflected in the eyes looking back; only then did they begin to harden into hostility upon seeing him. Lan thanked the Lord of Light that he hadn’t drawn his sword as the Wisp darted in front of him and let its light fill their surroundings.

Because when the light washed over them. Lan was not greeted by goblin knights or anything that could be called a monster. For what stood on all fours before him with slender legs and necks and covered in golden feathers, ready to react to his next move, could be nothing else but Ornithalls.

Of all the things Lan could have imagined seeing, the large golden feathered birds were not one of them. Smarter than most men and incredibly dangerous, not to mention brimming with magic in their long tail feathers. The descendant of Gryphons were players in fables, guiding heroes on their journeys as much as they brought revelations and not something that belonged in his Wisp-guided story. There was one more thing he knew about Ornithalls; they were aggressively solitary creatures. Claiming large territories of land to hunt.

Lan had heard from a Beastologist staying with Dell that having as large a territory as possible was part of their mating ritual, but they would return to their isolation even after.

Lan wondered why the Hells he was thinking about that now of all times, but he reasoned it was easier than thinking about what to do next and to further remind himself how little sense seeing so many of them in one place made. Moreover, it looked like they were travelling together, and Lan once again reminded himself that they were territorial creatures. What by the light was going on? Lan thought to himself before snapping back to the moment, realising that the group of Ornithalls was still staring at him. He moved his hand from his sword. But they didn’t stop looking at him.

After a moment, he felt like when the deer was staring at him, only far more intense. Maybe it was their greater intelligence, but it felt like they were looking… or waiting for something from him. Just one of them would have been overwhelming. Having so many of them look at him made Lan’s mind spin, and just when he was about to say something… anything. One of them, a rather large bird with a great dark golden crown, approached him.