Bjorn.

"Have you always complained so much, Gallion? I don't remember you complaining so much." Pepper said to Gallion.

"I don't complain." Gallion snapped at her.

"Oh, I think you complain a little bit." I joking added in. "Really, Gallion. It wasn't that big of a problem. The man gave you a good deal."

"The man gave me three less furs then we agreed on. He's a liar and a cheat. Next time we see him, I'll give him something to remember me by." Gallion said.

"Oh, I don't think he will forget you." Pepper laughed. "You through him into a pile of horse manure."

"He got away, didn't he?" Gallion asked.

"Yes, a little worse off then he had expected." She laughed again. Her laugh was almost like a birds trill. I wasn't sure that I disliked it, or thought it was an annoyance.

"How much longer until we reach this city?" I asked.

"We should be there tomorrow if you two are willing to move faster. You two are slow compared to my usual pace." Pepper stated.

"just following your lead, friend." Gallion pointed out to her.

"Oh?" She asked him and gave her horse a shove with her heel sending it forward leaping into a run.

"Oh for the sake of the gods." Gallion huffed out and followed her lead.

It didn't take long before we lost sight of Pepper, her and her horse were just to fast for us to keep up. I suspected it wasn't entirely natural either. I was annoyed and impressed all together.

"Well, there's no chance in keeping up with that one, eh Gallion?" I called over to him.

"Nah, bloody elves and their magics." He laughed out.

"Where exactly is this city anyways? Have you been there before?" Asking Gallion things about his past seemed to be a constant thing for the last decade. Every time I think I know Gallion, he surprises me with more stories.

"Gallion, my father. He had other children before he died?" I asked.

"Uh yeah, sorry kid, somethings I kept hidden from you for your own good, you know what I mean?" He told me.

"I know you meant well. They are dead?" I asked.

"One other. A girl. Dead. Sorry, Bjorn. You two never met and probably wouldn't have even if your father was alive and well. Your parents had their time together and it ended. His other wife was murdered along with him. I tried to find him when I first took you in, only to find his place burned to the ground, raided and littered in bodies."

"Did you see my fathers body? My sister?" I don't know I asked this.

"No. I didn't think I needed to go looking." He cleared his throat. "Bjorn, your father..." He stopped talking for a moment. "Your father wasn't a great man. He was apart of a group of heks that sought to take back power over this land. History is jumbled and has forgotten that at one time, the awakened lived side by side us in their own villages. Wars broke out between the two people and eventually got so bad they left when they found a land they called their own."

He stopped talking giving me a moment to really think about things for a minute. "Did they ever really leave?"

"Ahh, did they indeed, my boy. Did they indeed." He said.

"So my father and mother met, I was brought into the world, he left and my sister was birthed by another woman?" I asked, again.

"After the awakened decided to disappear things changed in the world. For a long time people stole the awakened villages, or took them over is a better term. The Dryadalis were already on their way to spreading out more in the world. Their cities, and villages were also shrinking. Eventually people forgot about them. They became ghosts. Myths." He told me, ignoring my question completely. "Seer's! Ahh, they are weird. You have never felt stranger then knowing something was going to happen, and then it happening. I met one once. That was enough for me."

He took a drink from his water skin giving me the opportunity to question him again.

"Gallion, my sister?" I pushed.

"Bjorn, I'm not the one to tell you about her, or your parents for that matter. I know you want the answers from me, I simply don't have them all." He sighed. " It is possible, your sister is your full sister. That is all I can tell you, because that is all I know." He admitted to me.

Nodding slightly disappointed I asked, "And who can tell me these things? You knew my parents, what else can you tell me?"

"Nothing I haven't before in the past." He said as he spotted Pepper ahead of us on a crossroad in the paths.

"I'm concerned how slow you two are. Seriously." She said with a yawn. "There's a lake here, we can stay the night. I feel a storm approaching and I do not much like travelling in the rain."

"Better get to making shelter then." I stated.

"We wont have to worry about that." She said with a smirk. "I am Dryadalis, Bjorn."

We didn't worry about showing off any skill as we continued to the lake. Pepper moved off the path into the forest and weaved between the trees. The sound of the lake splashing against rocks as the waves moved around started to fill the silence between us. It was beginning to get dark out and I was tired. I couldn't deny to myself that I really just wanted to lay down and rest for a good long while. The warmth of a fire also wasn't something I would deny myself, I thought.

I noticed two trees that struck me as odd. They were almost they exact same. Right down to the knots in the trunks. The branched stretched towards each other tangling together in some spots. Pepper was leading her horse directly towards them.

"Look at these tress." I said out loud. "They are oddly similar."

Pepper laughed, "That's because they are. They were grown to protect the entrance to the camp." She winked at me and continued to pass under they arched trees.

Gallion didn't hesitate, he followed her lead. The two of them disappeared. "What the hell?" I asked. I held my horse back studying the trees. Gallion came back through the tree arch with a wide grin on his face.

"Come on." He said, turning his horse, and once again disappearing under the arch.

"What have you gotten us into?" I asked as I motioned for my horse to move forward.

I felt nothing. I expected to feel something. A wind, or some kind of change. I didn't. How disappointing, I thought to myself. I turned around to check that I was able to see back through the trees. I could and the trees were te exact same on this end as they were on the other side. Pepper broke my thoughts laughing at me, once again.

"Yeah, that's about the same as everyone else's reaction. The door is still there, you just cant see through this end. With out a Dryadalis to bring you though, you would just keep walking past it. We have protections on it that cause others to simply look past the trees and move away from them."

I nodded in amusement. "What happens when someone doesn't ignore it, and walks through?"

"Doesn't happen often. We just...Correct their path." She said with a smile.

I nodded. "Yeah, a path to the next life!" Gallion said before he burst into laughter. "Don't think I forget my first meet with the Dryads. I was hung up by my neck before your high elf cut me down."

"You were there stealing ore from the blacksmith." Pepper pointed out.

"I was young and probably not as smart as I could have been, and he should of sold it to me if he didn't want me to take it." He argued.

"Another life time, Gallion." Pepper told him.

Agreeing the subject was dropped, for them anyways.

"Oh no. That is not the end of that conversation. Stealing ore from Dryadalis? You have more secrets then a woman!" I laughed.

"Somethings are better left in the past." Gallion said to me.

"Fine. I'll find out the rest of that story one day or another." I accepted my defeat. Gallion was stubborn and I wasn't in the mood to push.

A small cabin came into view, large enough for a small hunting group. It was lit up and had smoke flowing from the small chimney. A sight that lifted my spirits a little. I was tired and in need of sleep.

"Is this where you live, Pepper?" I asked her.

"No, I live deep in the forest of Gorffennol. A Dryadalis village we call Dóchas." She told me.

"The forest of Gorffennol? I thought that place was full of horrors, monsters, and dark magics?" People avoided the forest of Gorffennol, the history of that forest spoke for itself.

"Dryadalis have lived in the forest forever." She informed me. "Who do you think started the stories. We don't want your kind around."

"I'm afraid the many years of battle between non magic folk and the magical world took its toll, and the fact is... We can not exist together. The awakened left here long ago, they understood our two people were simply not capable of peaceful living and left. Forgotten about basically except for those we call heks." Gallion said. "Understand though, there are good and bad people on both sides of war... Some of them are really terrible."

"How do you know so much of this history, you are non magical, are you not? Pepper asked Gallion.

"I am, yes." Gallion responded.

Reaching the cabin, we dismounted our horses and were immediately met by two young dryad men who took them behind the cabin to a small barn for the night. They didn't say anything, but simply nodded to Pepper and left. Walking into the cabin we were met with a warm fire and fresh bread and cheese on a table.

"Ahh, looks like my troops may have noticed us coming and had the cabin prepared." She stated removing her cloak and setting it over the back of a wooden chair near the door. She immediately walked across the room and opened a cupboard that was full of jarred goods. She pulled a few down, and then a few pouches filled with herbs. I realized that I was standing there unsure what to do with myself so I sat in the wooden chair. The chair was more comfortable then it looked which surprised me. Maybe it was just because I was able to lean back and truly relax.

I could hear Pepper whispering something, and then a small knocking sound. When I looked over at her she was staring at me. "Eat, then sleep." She said with a nod.

The door opened again and one of the stable boys came in carrying our bags and the pouch of fish. He put it into a wooden bowl and then left again. The fish cleaned of any scales and looked as though it was stuffed with greenery.

Deciding I should help Pepper prepare our meal, I joined her at the counter, she placed out a large leaf that smelled of spices and filled it with course salt and a dried red leafy looking spice I had never seen before. We wrapped the fished up and she took it to the fire place and put the fish onto a heating tray that sat directly on the fire. It didn't take long before the cooking fish filled the room with a delicious smell of herbs and meat. Pepper was helping herself to the bread and cheese as was Gallion.

Pepper turned over her shoulder and whispered something I didn't understand then turn back around smiling. I just shook my head in confusion and leaned back into my chair. It was exactly what I needed.

Closing my eye enjoying the crackling of the fire, and the delicious smell in the air, I thought about the fish meal. I couldn't wait to eat. A small voice, or at least what I thought sounded like a voice came just behind me by the prepping counter. When I turned around expecting some kind of animal to be squeaking around looking for food, I found a tiny person standing beside a tall skinny bottle holding onto it. I won't say that I wasn't shocked, because I was.

I wasn't sure if I should speak to it, or if I was seeing things that don't exist.

"I asked if you wanted some wine, warrior?" The tiny person asked me.

I nodded silently.

Pushing the bottle towards me he shrugged. "What's wrong with you, never seen a Brownie before?" He asked me rudely as he hopped off the table and disappeared.

"What is a Brownie?" I asked Pepper hoping she would clear up the situation.

"Him, obviously." She stated laughing at me. "So much you don't know for a child of an awakened. Not your fault in the end." She said shaking her head.

"Brownies are more Fea people." Gallion explained. "The only difference between then and the Dryadalis is the dryads aren't useless." As Gallion finished saying this, a acorn came flying across the room bouncing off the side of Gallion's head. "Oi!" He ducked incase a second shot was coming. He turned to find another brownie, this time a female, tossing acorns at him.

"Keep talking like that you oaf, and there be more then acorns coming at you!" She yelled at him.

I couldn't help but laugh, Pepper joining me.

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