It was almost midday by Sarah’s reckoning, but only a sliver of sunlight could pierce the dense canopy overhead. The air was close and still. The calls of various creatures rang out throughout the forest as though announcing the arrival of intruders. To their right, the Tinor River had slowed even further. They were walking along its banks, careful not to stray too far into the dense undergrowth. Honeycut was nowhere to be found by the time Stanley had treated Sarah’s shoulder wound, taking with her all of Sarah’s supplies. Up ahead, the lanky man came to a halt and frowned.

“What is it?” Sarah asked, grateful to have him along. She shuddered to imagine what would happen if she got lost in here. She had almost gotten lost taking three steps into the undergrowth to relieve herself earlier, obliging Stanley to come looking for her.

“This map of yours is incredible,” Stanley remarked. “It must be worth a fortune. Where did you get it?”

“It’s a long story,” Sarah smiled.

“I’ll bet,” Stanley grunted. They had spoken little over the three days since they’d left Riverbend. “Well, to answer your question, I think this is the point where we have to cross the river.”

Sarah looked over at the river. It was shallow here, perhaps coming up to her knee at the deepest point. However, that was not what concerned her.

“There’s no sign of a path on the other side,” Sarah remarked as she looked at the dense undergrowth.

“That’s the problem, isn’t it?” Stanley said and looked up at the canopy overhead. “The trees make it hard to find the sun, so navigating is going to be tough.”

“Do you think you can do it?” Sarah ventured.

Stanley scratched the back of his head. “I have to admit, I’m not confident. I’m not familiar with these woods and I don’t even have a compass with me.”

Sarah grimaced. She’d left that in her saddlebag as well. There was no use in dwelling on that now.

“Perhaps we could just try?” Sarah suggested.

“There’s no civilization for hundreds of miles,” Stanley warned, “We could get spend the rest of our lives trying to get out of here if we lose our way.”

“What worries me even more is this letter,” Stanley added, “The road to Findendor lies in the heart of the forest? That’s far too vague for my liking.”

Sarah looked around and broke into a nervous smile. “Why are you bringing this up now?”

Stanley shrugged. “I thought we’d see some sort of indication as to where this heart of the forest was once we got in.”

“So you plan to take us deeper into the forest?” Sarah ventured.

Stanley nodded.

“What if this heart is more… metaphorical than geographic?” she asked.

Stanley arched an eyebrow and sighed. “Look, I don’t have a lot of information to work with here. If you have any idea what this metaphorical heart could be, then I’m all ears.”

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Sarah bit her lip. “I’m afraid I don’t.”

“Then it looks like we’ll have to be satisfied with searching for the geographical heart,” Stanley remarked.

“Perhaps we could climb a tree and see if we can spot the heart from up there,” Sarah suggested.

Stanley looked up at the trees that soared hundreds of feet into the air and scowled. “No, that is more likely to get one of us killed…”

As though remembering something, he looked down at the map again and smirked. “Sentinel Hill,” he laughed, pointing to an icon in the middle of the forest, “Let’s try going there to get our bearings and look for a heart, be it metaphorical or geographical.”

Sarah looked at how far it was from the middle of the forest and bit her lip. “That seems a little out of our way…”

“It will beat stumbling around in these woods blindly,” Stanley pointed out.

“Fine,” Sarah sighed, “How much of a detour is it?”

“Around two days,” Stanley remarked as he looked around, “The good news is that if we head there, we can continue following this river.”

Sarah looked at the undergrowth and felt a lot better now that it had been decided they wouldn’t have to through that yet.

“Our supplies won’t last us all the way to Sentinel Hill,” Stanley warned. “We can forage along the way, but I’m not confident of getting much.”

“A woodsman like you?” Sarah raised an eyebrow.

Stanley gestured at the river and the forests around them. “As you can clearly see, there aren’t many fish in that river, and as for trapping, we can only do that when we stop for the night… Unless you think we can live off fruit and berries…”

“So we’ll tighten our belts,” Sarah offered sheepishly.

Stanley nodded. “If we’re lucky, we’ll come across a deer or a hog, but it would be foolish to gamble our lives on that.”

“I understand,” Sarah sighed.

“I’m afraid you don’t,” Stanley stressed, “Going to Sentinel Hill takes us deeper into the forest and further away from civilization. If we find nothing there, the chances of us starving to death are very real.”

He paused to let his words sink in and then asked, “Are you sure you want to go through with this?”

The fear in John’s eyes when Sarah became Agni’s Avatar flashed through her mind and the prospect of never seeing him again was like a dagger through her heart. “I’m sure,” she said firmly.

Stanley nodded. “Good.”

He smirked and shook his head. “I can’t believe I’m risking my life for you.”

“You can always turn back,” Sarah said, “I’ll make a go of it by myself.”

Stanley looked at her and Sarah was inwardly terrified that Stanley would take her up on her offer to back out but didn’t let it show on her face.

At length, the lanky, gaunt faced man shook his head. “Now what sort of man would I be if I went back on my promise after you’d saved me from a life of slavery?”

“You didn’t know how dangerous keeping that promise was when you made it,” Sarah pointed out, “I won’t hold you to your word.”

A wry grin split Stanley’s face. “I’ve known being around you was dangerous for the longest time, remember? No, I’ll keep my word.”

“Thank you,” Sarah exhaled, not realizing she had been holding her breath.

The next two days were uneventful, and by the time they were forced to stray away from the river, they were able to catch glimpses of Sentinel Hill through the treetops, which helped navigation considerably.

“That’s incredible,” Sarah breathed, as she looked up at the circular stone structure on top of the hill. It was tall and built of pure, white marble that had been weathered considerably by the elements. Two bands of brilliant yellow glittered brilliantly under the late afternoon sun.

“It looks elvish,” Stanley remarked, “Hopefully it was abandoned when we gained our independence.”

“Could we be inside their borders?” Sarah ventured.

“Who knows?” Stanley replied. “It’s not like humans venture this far into the woods regularly.”

Sarah was about to speak when Stanley raised a hand as he froze in place. He looked around the forest without turning his head.

When what felt like an eternity had passed without Sarah noticing anything amiss, she whispered, “What is it?”

“Shhh,” Stanley hissed sharply.

Sarah followed his gaze as he whirled around and saw half a dozen elves materialize out of the forest. They had arrows in their bows, which were pulled taut.

“Well isn’t this just perfect?” Stanley muttered.