As Quora ventured farther north, the terrain transitioned into a rich tapestry of lush greenery, and human habitations became increasingly scarce. In the distance, Amuranthea's Mountain dominated the landscape, its imposing figure eclipsing even the grandeur of the Mountains of the Moon, albeit itself overshadowed by the mighty Roaring Mount to the west. Yggdramor began at the foothills of Amuranthea's Mountain, its verdant canopy extending northward as far as the eye could see. The mystical forest boasted colossal trees that appeared otherworldly, dwarfing their typically smaller counterparts in an awe-inspiring display of natural grandeur. The dense foliage of Yggdramor was so impenetrable that Quora found it necessary to land outside the forest and continue the journey on foot, and the brush readily accepted its visitor.
Quora felt small.
Her heart ached from her argument with Moonfang. She was angry at how ignorant she had been and sorrowful at Moonfang's plan to vacate Aveldan when her children hatched. Quora did not realize how often she had thought about mothering, and had hoped to share even a tiny part of the experience with Moonfang. The thoughts of having children of her own were usually banished by the memory of Dreamford and Fafnir sealing her true draconic form. It was an impossibility - unless she were to approach Dreamford with such feelings. After all, he was the only male dragon left in Aveldan.
I'd rather die than lay his clutch...
Her thoughts were disturbed; she thought it would be a much longer trek into Yggdramor before the fae's presence could be felt. Looking around, a pale blue haze could be seen in the distance, creating the appearance of light in the distance, but obscuring what may lay beyond. Losing her sense of direction became a concern, as did the flashes of light in the corner of her eye. Tiny motes of every colour flashed and faded like fireflies, disappearing when attention was paid to them. This place bristled with magic.
Quora could hear them giggling and cackling, with voices like human children.
She pressed on but could not define whether she had been spotted. The ground became soft, and the moss on the stones took on blue hues. The trees started to look even more alien than before, the roots curling into perfect circles or turning in sharp angles. A path through the forest seemed to reveal itself to her, and she followed it, even if it might lead her into a fae trick.
Approaching her from down the path came three motes of light: red, green, and blue. Quora could make out their little humanoid bodies upon flittering wings of raw magic: pixies. They came before Quora and flew in a circular formation to introduce themselves.
"Vermilion!"
"Uhh, Viridian!"
"Ceru...cerul...Blue!"
The red and green pixies crossed their arms and angrily said, "Cerulean!"
The little dance amused Quora. She noticed the pixies had little outfits matching their colour, were decidedly female, and had wild hairstyles. Even so, she imagined the pixies would be comely to a human's eyes—if only they weren't the size of dragonflies.
"We're..." the trio of pixies said together, "...The Clique Chromatique! I know...We're so cool, right?"
"Ooh!" Cerulean broke formation and fluttered up to and around Quora, taking in the sorceress's features, "She's so pretty!"
Viridian came next and was distracted by Quora's chest. The pixie looked down at her own, and her face twisted with envy, "Humph!"
"Hmm," Scarlet flew right to Quora's face, "...You're right! She's like a princess!"
The three said in unison, "A princess in Yggdramor!"
"Only one thing for it," said Scarlet, "We gotta show her to our friends! We'll all have so much fun!"
"Yippee! So much fun!"
Their tiny voices were grating, and Quora quickly understood that she was in the presence of playful yet mischievous things. Quora was having invasive thoughts. She wondered how the blue pixie would taste. Which would be sweeter, the flavour or the screams? Would the blue one be best enjoyed with the red one simultaneously? She assumed the green one would be sour—best saved for later.
"Hold on a minute..." said Viridian, "Not just anyone can be a princess, y'know. What nation are you the princess of, huh?"
Uhh...
"I'm no princess. I'm a queen." asserted Quora, "I don't need lands or subjects...though I may or may not be courting Dreamford's king."
Viridian scratched her head, "But you look way older than King Dreamford!"
"Oh, I know!" cooed Cerulean, "King Dreamford has a type!"
Quora glared at the pixies. Viridian and Cerulean yelped and hid behind their red comrade, sticking their tongues out at Quora. The sorceress returned the gesture.
"Right, then," said Scarlet. If we're going to show you our friends, we've got to get into Yggdramor proper! Follow us!"
Quora followed the pixies down the path, wondering where they were taking her. Was she not already in Yggdramor? She did notice the lack of magic's visible presence; the sense of magic here was overwhelming. It should have more of an effect on the terrain than Quora could see. Perhaps the Yggdramor she was in was an elaborate fake, and the place was so steeped with magic that it could exist beyond reality. It would explain the lack of the fae's involvement with the rest of Aveldan. While theorizing about Yggdramor's nature, she almost failed to notice that the pixies had stopped. The three had brought Quora to a patch of red mushrooms with white spots growing in a perfect circle. Quora's eyes narrowed at the sight. The pixies landed on the mushrooms and hopped from mushroom to mushroom; each one they touched glowed cherry red. When all mushrooms glowed, a cyan haze filled the air above them.
"Faerie ring: activated!" cheered the pixies, "All aboard to Yggdramor!"
The pixies flew into the haze one by one, disappearing with a shower of blue sparks. Quora crossed her arms at the alleged portal before her. She recalled reading an Old Kingdom fairy tale where the protagonist, a man, was tricked into stepping into a circle of mushrooms while pursuing a pixie. He found himself trapped in a world of magic and shrunk to the size of a beetle. Fortunately, the story had a happy ending, and he and the pixie live happily ever after. If stepping into the faerie ring would cause a retelling of that tale, Quora imagined a much less happy ending.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
"Yggdramor will bleed red, blue, and green should this be that same trick," Quora muttered as she stepped into the faerie ring.
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Quora felt like she was flying. Her world turned cyan, and then turquoise. When those colours faded, and some semblance of reality returned, Quora found that her world had also turned upside down. She felt a moment of freefall before hitting the soft earth on her shoulder. She groaned and picked herself up, finding her shoulder had dislocated. With a crackle, she shoved her shoulder back in place. While adjusting her veil and clothing, Quora looked at the world she had been dropped into. Dreamford seemed stagnant compared to this place, for every fibre was brimming with magic. The trees were still massive, though now reached impossibly high to a canopy that covered this place in a perpetual cloak of emerald night. Flowers of unimaginable shapes and all perceivable colours grew around her at the base of the trees. In some trees, Quora could see windows and the inviting firelight within. She could feel and hear the life all around her.
This was the Yggdramor from the fairy tales.
She tried to find the Clique Chromatique, but none of the pixies were around. Good riddance. Quora heard someone sneeze nearby and decided to investigate. Passing through a multicoloured thicket, she came upon a grove where a line of stumps sat near a desk wrought from living wood. Sitting at the desk was a fae creature that resembled a mushroom the size of a human, with lanky arms and legs, a big blue cap, and beady black eyes. Its noseless face sniffled, causing its cap to wrinkle briefly. It was writing something with charcoal on a thin wood square. Yggdramor seemed to have a habit of making its denizens look delicious.
"Hello, um," Quora put on an innocent tone of voice, "Where can I find Orion mac Cumhaill?"
"Ugh!" the mushroom thing jumped. It spoke with an annoyingly nasal voice, "You scared be. Jus' take dis dum-ber and..." it snorted hard, "...sid down and wait for your dum-ber to be call'd."
The mushroom reached for a neatly organized collection of acorns, each with numbers carved into them. It gave one to Quora: number forty-two. She crushed the acorn.
"I don't like that number."
The mushroom huffed and gave her another acorn, "Ugh, dum-ber fordy-three."
Quora took her acorn and sat on one of the stumps. It was oddly quiet in this grove, perhaps facilitated by Orion to ensure this mushroom creature could work in peace...what was it even doing, anyway?
"So..." Quora said, "Who are you? What's your role here?"
The mushroom looked around cautiously, "I'm a byconid. Kigg Orion wants to document his citizens. A cen-" it snorted, "Or someding. Said it would create jobs."
"Do you like your job?"
"Doh." the myconid shook its cap, "But someone's godda do it."
Quora looked at the myconid's face, which seemed positively miserable.
"Are you sick?"
"Doh." the myconid shook its cap again and sniffled, "Sporing season. Gotta, uh, keep it togedder."
The myconid jerked back; it seemed another sneeze was coming. Try as it might to resist, the myconid let out a tremendous sneeze, showering itself and all of its paperwork in spores. More striking was the red colour its cap took on.
"Ah, what da hell is this?!" the myconid's voice changed from a nasal drawl to an aggressive and abrupt cadence, "You gotta be freakin' kidding me!"
The myconid reached for a specific blue leaf to wipe up the mess it made, grumbling and cursing as it cleaned. It glanced up at Quora, its eyes now yellow.
"I don't like you, eh?!" the myconid barked, "You're being way too patient! Who the hell even cares about this system?! If you wanna see Orion so bad, force your way past me, see if I care!"
Quora stood up and pelted the myconid in the face with her acorn. As she slipped past the desk, she took another acorn and shoved it into the myconid's gills beneath its cap.
"Hey, that does it, lady!" the myconid rushed after Quora and grabbed her by the wrist. She freed herself from its grip and happened to pull off one of its fingers. She looked the myconid in the eye as she popped the finger in her mouth. It had a sandy but oddly-fruity taste and a soft texture.
"You're outta your freakin' mind, lady!" the myconid protested, "Ah, whatever...It'll grow...uh...Agh!"
Quora left the myconid as it went into a sneezing fit to force the acorn out, his cap changing from blue to red and back again.
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As she ventured deeper into the enchanted wood, Yggdramor presented sights Quora had never imagined. Sentient trees leaned down to get a better look at Quora as she passed, waving their branches at her and greeting her with voices that sounded like twisting wood. Quora happily smiled and waved back at the trees, and she could hear them gossiping about their charming visitor.
"Won't Lord Orion be happy?"
"Oh, hush you!"
"I like the rustling her clothes make. They're like little leaves!"
Quora called up to the trees, "Where can I find Lord Orion?"
The trees stopped their gossiping.
"Nowhere." one replied.
"Everywhere, too!" another replied.
Useless.
Quora thanked the trees for their worthless answers and continued on her way. She assumed that if Orion was king, he had to have a palace or something similar if he was making an effort to govern Yggdramor. She could see more faerie rings between the trees and in the brush, already active. A touch of magic seemed to be all it took to make the mushrooms glow, and the haze appear, though some seemed to have a haze of different colours than cyan. Quora thought better of imagining what worlds those rings led to. She heard a rustling in the brush, and three fae emerged before her. They resembled human children with oversized heads and strikingly red hair, wearing woodsman's flannels and blue pants. They each seemed to be hiding something behind their backs. The first of these fae seemed very shy to approach, and he produced something he was hiding: a vivid orange flower with five long petals. He offered it to Quora.
"...My name's Binks. I like you," the fae uttered quietly. Quora took the flower from the fae and examined it. She found it beautiful; everything about it reminded her of herself—the fiery orange, the five heads, and the lovely scent, which was an added bonus. She put the flower in her hair, and the fae gasped excitedly.
"Will you marry me?" Binks proposed.
Quora laughed dismissively, "No. I'm here to see Orion. Get out of my way."
"...No?" Binks asked, his forehead turning pitch black, "What do you mean no? I was nice to you. Now you have to marry me!"
All three of the fae's faces turned half black, and their eyes turned into red specks. Their mouths grinned wide and full of saw-like teeth. They all revealed what they were hiding behind their backs: notched cleavers.
"Outta my way! Outta my way!" the three fae mocked, "Can't make a wife outta you! Die! Die! Die!"
They all pounced at Quora with cleavers held high. She deftly evaded them and watched as they landed in a pile. One of the fae forced himself free and charged, hollering at Quora, who kicked him in the face and sent him head over heels, colliding with his brethren. Binks picked himself up and came on next, glancing Quora's leg with his cleaver. She hissed and punched Binks across the face, sending his head spinning around and around.
"Whoa, whoa!" Binks shouted as he spun, "I'm gonna hurl!"
The last fae came on and menaced, "This was supposed a good day for Binks! Now, we'll chop you up and share! I get dibs on the hands!"
He lunged at Quora, who caught him by the throat. She felt a terrible rage growing inside her as she listened to the fae gagging, her eyes blazing orange. He wildly swung his cleaver to escape and landed a terrible slash on Quora's arm. The sight of her blood gave her a moment of clarity.
She had enough.
Rage consumed her, blurring her vision and coursing through her muscles. She felt her teeth become sharp. The gash in her arm regenerated shut. The little creature in her hands was nothing but another victim. It gagged and cried for help. Its friends were cutting into her, unable to cause any wounds that didn't immediately close. Quora tightened her grip and thrashed the fae until it made a sickening crunch.
The fae fell limp, holding its cleaver in a death grip.
She dropped him. The other two fae reverted to their previous appearances and stepped back in horror.
"She...she..." one of them sputtered.
"We gotta get outta here!" said Binks, "We gotta get help!"
The two fae retreated into the bushes, leaving Quora brooding over her kill.
Her rage started to fade. She looked at the dead fae with a mixture of joy and malaise. She had not felt this anger since the day she attacked Myrellia and killed Myratel. She found it becoming harder to control herself. She felt the seal on her true form slipping. She grinned widely and began to laugh darkly through her teeth.
Quora would make Orion come to her if she could not find him first.