In the morning, they quickly packed together their things, unanimously setting a course roughly southeast towards the mother tree at Trenton’s behest. Neither Trenton nor Wimbleton said anything about the events prior. To Trenton, it wasn’t simply a matter of shame, it was fear. The fact that an archdemon would show in their camp and attempt to procure a deal was a terrifying prospect, not something the others needed to worry about. But Trenton could only guess as to what was going on behind Wimbleton’s mask. He didn’t really seem the type to expound on his thoughts unless absolutely necessary, kind of like Walibeld.

Yet, despite this, spirits remained rather high, another reason Trenton was hesitant to introduce the bad news. They encountered a handful of battles, smaller animals, territorial monsters overstepping their boundaries, and others of the like. But it was fairly unimpeded progress, especially with Wimbleton there to guide them.

After only a couple weeks they made it to the perimeter of the Eternal Forest, the subtle loosely trodden dirt paths winding their way between the dense clutter of trees and bounding hills expanding into massive trails gently curving in between army’s worth of trees several times the size of giants, trees which breached the very heavens with their peaks, far beyond the sight of man.

It was wonderful, most of their group standing in awe at the unique, gargantuan foliages all about them. It was as if they’d stepped into another universe made for men 10 times their size. Hell, even the animals were larger. What monster they did encounter were fewer in number, but much greater in strength, colossal beasts leaping from tree to tree with remarkable acuity, pressing Trenton to his limits more than a handful of times when Wimbleton stepped back from fighting.

“Hey, I almost forgot!” Kiva exclaimed, looking over her shoulder at the rest of the group at the zenith of the third week of travel.

Trenton walked just behind her, gazing out at a beautiful waterfall crashing over the rocks deep below as they made their way across the back of a massive fallen tree trunk spanning the width of a great chasm, “Forgot what?”

Kiva sidled back to Trenton, spinning around with jubilance befitting the pleasant scene around them, “We’ve got guests,” she smiled, nodding towards Wimbleton and Maria. “They never gave their introductions.”

“You mean the-” Leo started.

“You mean the ones with the magic and the fact?” Millie shouted over him.

Trenton chuckled, giving Leo a reassuring pat on the shoulder to let him know at least someone listened to him.

“Magic and a fun fact?” Maria asked.

“Whenever a new member joins us, we have them give us their name, magic type, and a fun fact. Helps break the ice,” Kiva said.

“Oooh, sounds fun. I’m great at these!”

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“Sounds like my first day of kindergarten,” Wimbleton mused, getting slapped across the head by an adjacent Maria.

“If I had to give one, so do you,” Garrote grumbled.

“It’s not like you have much of a choice,” Karfice shrugged.

“Okay, okay, I’ve got it,” Maria exclaimed, holding her hands out to quiet the group. “My name is Maria, I’m an ice mage, and my fun fact is that I’ve broken my tibia 14 times.”

“14?” Millie said, mouth agape.

“She used to be remarkably clumsy. And when you grow up in the mountains, a single slip means falling for who knows how long. That she’s still alive is the greatest miracle of our generation,” Karfice said.

“Hey! I’m not that-” Maria shouted, immediately stumbling over a piece of bark and almost toppling off the side of the tree trunk.

The only thing that saved her was Karfice’s incredibly calm and quick grab of her collar, holding her aloft like she were a toddler. It seemed he had a lot of practice with this.

“You were saying?” Karfice said.

Maria crossed her arms, “I’m not apologizing.”

“Figures,” Karfice set her down, never once breaking his stride.

They made their way to the end of the tree trunk, jumping off and landing on the soft forest floor, plush grasses and smooth dirt breaking their fall.

“Alright, your turn Mr. Grump,” Millie said, looking over at Wimbleton.

“After all I do for you and that’s the title I get? Unbelievable,” Wimbleton shook his head, a slight smile on his lips. Wimbleton placed his hand on his chest, “My name is Wimblton, I have no magic, and my fun fact is that I can do this.”

Wimbleton walked forward into a tree, refusing to turn as everyone else slowed to a stop, curious as to where he was going. But just as he was about to collide face first into the bark, he just…started walking up it. Inexplicably, Wimbleton walked completely vertically up the trunk of the tree, almost like he’d completely shifted the gravitational force around himself. After about 30 feet calmly walking up the trunk, Wimbleton stopped, turning around and looking down at them, hands held wide.

“Well? Is this fun enough for you?” Wimbleton said.

“How are you doing that?” Kiva exclaimed, shielding her eyes from a stray beam of light shining through the gaps in the leaves overhead.

“Looks difficult,” Leo said.

“Is it difficult, or it was when I was first learning it, anyway. It’s nothing any of you are capable of so I wouldn’t worry too much about it,” Wimbleton said.

Garrote stepped forward, not quite as gracefully as Wimbleton, but he managed his way up the tree after Wimbleton, stopping next to the boy and raising his eyebrows at him.

“I meant you can’t do it in the same way I am. I’m not using gravi-” Wimbleton stopped, head snapping straight up to gaze off generally the direction they’d come from. “Get everyone up the tree, one of the lower branches,” Wimbleton said to Garrote.

“What’s happening?” Garrote asked.

Trenton looked off the direction Wimbleton was looking, searching through the earth for any sign of a disturbance. With so many animals, flowing streams of water, and monsters constantly ambling about there was too much noise for Trenton to notice any abnormalities, but once given direction, he noticed what it was that had Wimbleton’s attention. Somewhere off in the distance, maybe some miles from their current position, the pounding of hundreds, no thousands of boots shook the very earth, practically making Trenton’s teeth clatter. It was an army, an army marching through an empty forest straight towards them.