The next day, Siaril was behaving like nothing has happened. As kind and understanding as ever, but his eyes remained the same. After having a small breakfast and before the morning dew dried on the grass and leaf buds, we made our way towards the dark line of trees at the southern border of the valley. I've been hearing stories about the Silivren Forest since I was very little, but never suspected it to be actually this close.

In the afternoon, we arrived at the bank of one of the rivers, close to its connection point with the other one we saw from above the day before. Siaril explained to me, or rather refreshed the memory of one of chief counsel Orias' lectures, that one of them, which had its spring in the Elkander Mountains, was known as Istria. It also had a second name - The Royal River, because the capital of Earlindon has been built around its banks. The second river, which came from north-west, was called Yesta. It circled around a small hill in the vicinity of a ford that we crossed. Squinting from the beautifully glittering water that was caressing the stones in the riverbed, I followed its path with my eyes for a while as we continued south-west on its bowstring.

It took us another day to reach our destination, but when we finally arrived by the next evening, it took my breath away.

We shortly stopped at the border of the Silivren Forest. I've seen practically nothing of it yet, and it already seemed to me like these woods were alive, living their own, undisturbed life. Something was murmuring silently between the branches, despite them not having fully developed leaves yet and not the faintest gust of wind being present. The forest itself seemed to radiate a pleasant, gentle warmth, like a living being... I was already able to spot some plants I've never seen before, and there were surely a lot more in the depths of the woods. The river, which converged with our path again not long ago, slipped in between the trees and disappeared somewhere in their soft shadows.

"It's amazing..." I whispered to myself, taking a few more steps forward and carefully touching the trunk of one of the countless, beautiful trees. The bark was chapped and seemed very old, but it was soft, almost ethereal... I wasn't the superstitious type, but all those whispers, the feeling that the forest formed one enormous, living and breathing entity, struck a spark of fear within my mind... Eventually, I turned my gaze away and looked at my companion. "Is it really alright to just enter this place?"

"I think so. My acquaintance told me a bit about it... we have nothing to fear as long as we don't bring any malicious intent. Only if you would try to hurt any of the forest's inhabitants without good reason... well, I'll put it this way: there hasn't been a single being that disturbed the balance of it without paying the ultimate price shortly after."

I watched the branches sway silently for a moment. "Have you ever been here before?"

"No," Siaril gave me an inquiring look. "Are you scared?"

"Maybe a little," I admitted, smiling nervously.

"There shouldn't be a reason for that," he reassured me. "I think that as long as you will be a friend to the forest, the forest will also be a friend to you."

We resumed our march. Siaril was right. As soon as we passed the line of trees, for some reason I started to feel entirely safe, as if we entered a place where fear could be erased from the soul... The forest was still whispering something soothingly, sometimes the crystalline burbling of the now invisible river pierced through those whispers from our left. Even though the time of bloom was still some weeks away, the forest emitted a pleasantly dizzying scent. I just let Siaril lead me, savoring the surroundings and not caring much about the direction. He seemed to know where he was going well enough.

The trees were just starting to get more dense, when I caught some movement out of the corner of my eye. I stopped involuntarily and turned a little, spotting a strange creature among the forest's undergrowth... it looked like a big snake at first, but it... had wings. Impressive wings, with feathers in color of half a rainbow. For a moment, I just stood there, completely dazed. Then I felt Siaril's hand on my shoulder and forced my gaze away for a moment. He put a finger to his lips and crouched in between the scrubs. I followed his example.

"That must be a terhial," he whispered.

"A what?" I tried to be equally quiet, my excitement not making it easy.

"Terhial. It's said that many magical creatures live in here, right? And terhials are hybrids."

"Hybrids?"

Siaril seemed subtly amused by my curiosity, but proceeded to explain with the patience of a good teacher: "Long ago, mages discovered a way to fuse different species with each other, using a living specimen of one species and some small part of the other, like feathers or scales. It was possible to breed them once they had two of opposite sex, so I suppose it became interesting research for some... But it was all cut short the moment someone decided to try with humanoid specimen. The art became prohibited, and whatever hybrids live in the wild now are the offspring of those which mages released after the decree came into effect. Or at least I hope so..."

"Magic sure is crazy..."

"It is. Luckily, most mages know boundaries that should not be crossed, even if they could be..."

I watched the intriguing creature for a bit longer and with never fading fascination. When the initial shock passed, I noticed more untypical traits beside the obvious wings. The body of the terhial was much thicker than any snake's I've ever seen, and there were strange protrusions on the sides of its snout that somehow reminded me of fish fins. The tip of its tail was adorned with a few feathers as well, just longer. I never would have imagined that such beings inhabited our land. It felt like over the past few months the world I lived in expanded to three times the size I knew from before my abduction...

And it made me wonder how my new companion knew an answer to almost any question when he looked not much older than me. I would expect to find this kind of information only in Ioreth's royal library...

When the creature eventually withdrew deeper into the forest, no doubt searching for food, we got up and continued down the path. We wandered without a single word spoken for quite a while. Later on, I couldn't really tell if it was an hour or three or more. I was just too busy drinking in our surroundings and the sounds that made me more relaxed than any sort of calming herbs or soothing music. And keeping my eyes peeled for any other, exotic creatures.

Suddenly though, soon after I noticed two squirrels playing around among the branches and got too preoccupied with watching them, Siaril stopped abruptly on the narrow path, almost making me bump into his back.

"What is it?" I asked after regaining my balance.

"Did you hear that sound just now?"

"No?" I started to look around, listening intently. No peculiar noises reached my ears.

"Maybe it was just my imagination," my companion stated eventually, though still frowning a little. "Let's go."

From then on, I listened to the sounds of the forest with double attentiveness, trying to pick up what disturbed him that much.

And after a few minutes, I indeed heard.

There were tiny, gentle noises entwining with the murmur of the forest, like faint... clicking? No, rather jingling, bright and quiet, though not quite like from a tiny bell, rather small, metal plates or crystal chalices meeting irregularly... This time we both turned around, searching for the source of the sound.

"You heard it, right?" asked Siaril.

"Yeah, but... what is that?"

"I don't know..."

"Maybe I'll tell you, if you tell me what two such handsome boys are looking for this deep in this forest?" we suddenly heard, and instantly turned back.

A bit further down the path, between the trees, laid a big rock covered by moss. On top of it sat a young girl clad in a deep green, knee-long overdress thrown over thin trousers, tied at the waist with a sash. Her brown, shoulder-length, slightly wavy hair seemed to glint golden in the occasional sun rays that made their way to the bottom of the forest. She looked so fascinating it felt dangerous.

My reaction to this appearance would best be described as being dumbstruck.

The girl watched us for a few moments with subtle surprise in the gentle features. For some reason she looked around shortly, before turning her beautiful head back towards us. "You can't tell me I'm more terrifying than that terhial you've met a while back."

Siaril finally found his voice again: "Forgive us, you appeared so suddenly..."

The girl laughed a little, lighthearted and quiet. "No, forgive me, I didn't mean to scare you," she hopped down from the rock and approached us. I felt my heartbeat slowly return to normal. "Who are you then and what brings you here?"

"We're searching for someone... it will sound weird, but we don't know many details ourselves."

The stranger gave Siaril an interested look. "And what are the details that you do know?"

Here my companion hesitated. I could tell why too. It didn't feel like the right thing to do to just introduce ourselves as Disciples of the Last Dragons to everyone we met. Before he could patch together a coherent sentence though, the girl glanced shortly in my direction, tilted her head a little in what seemed to be surprise and came even closer.

She was about my height... and breathtakingly beautiful. The color of her hair and the way the strands circled her face with the almost unnoticeable waves made her look angelic and mischievous at the same time. Her fir-green eyes gazed into mine with piercing sharpness, but they were warm and kind. She bent over just slightly, looking at the crystal at my neck with the same curiosity that I was watching her with. I didn't know what to do, so I choose silence just in case. She gave Siaril a curious look too, as if searching for a sirath in between his clothes as well and asked: "You're the Disciples of the Last Dragons?"

"Yes?" my companion just blurted out.

"And I bet you're looking for the third one."

"That's true..."

This time, the stranger seemed to hesitate. "I know who you're looking for..." she started carefully. Before I could get baffled at how quickly we found what we needed, she added: "Forgive me though, but I hope you'll understand if I ask for some sort of proof that you're really who you claim you are?"

I wasn't quite prepared for that. Though, the solution seemed simple enough. I could just ask her to tell me something and prove I can tell truth and lie apart...

"I guess that's fair," Siaril beat me to it before I could open my mouth. How was he going to prove it though? Ask her to attack him? That didn't make much sense...

Instead of doing that though, my companion took a step back, to my and the girl's surprise. We looked at each other in confusion, hers melting away into amusement when she saw that I was just as clueless as her.

Siaril then closed his eyes and took a deeper breath. Nothing happened for a moment, but then something large suddenly appeared out of nowhere behind his back, making me jump up a little, then freeze.

The powerfully graceful shape that materialized in front of us were wings... Actual dragon wings, just like I always imagined them when reading... Even though he told me about this before, I couldn't help but be entranced. Their color changed gradually from top to bottom, from the deepest sapphire all the way down to the palest sky-blue. It wasn't the skin that changed color though. The wings were covered with tiny scales, shining like jewels in a treasure chest. And they were a treasure alright... like a fantasy coming to life...

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"You are the real thing..." the girl's whisper from my right shook me awake. She had a small smile and her face, whatever tiny doubt was there now completely gone, giving way to a warm glimmer.

"We are."

"It's only fair that I prove it too then, isn't it?"

"Sorry?"

The girl rose her left hand in front of her chest and opened her palm. Suddenly, a tiny flame came to life between her fingers, a little tongue of fire that started to flicker lively, not even touching her skin. I just opened my mouth, totally speechless.

Siaril smiled a little, as if he was expecting it to some extent. "You don't know the one we're looking for... you are the one we're looking for."

The girl lowered her hand, the flame disappearing. "My name is Yasenka. It's a pleasure."

Siaril bowed his head, and so did I. "I'm Siaril, and this is Sigrian. I must admit, I didn't expect to find you straight away like that."

"Fate is a fickle thing..."

"It is..." Siaril's wings suddenly disappeared again. "Could we talk somewhere more comfortable? Exchange what we know?"

"Of course. Our camp is not far away, and you two look like you could use some rest while we do that."

"Before we do," I interjected, finally finding my voice again and looking at Siaril. "When we first met, you told me that you don't have wings yet, but my sirath didn't react. Is it possible that..."

"It's not broken," Siaril reassured me before I could even finish. "Back then, it was the truth. My wings appeared shortly before my return to your village."

"Oh, so that's why you arrived kind of late..."

"And why I was so exhausted. I didn't expect it to be so tiring... I'm sorry that I didn't tell you the truth, I just didn't want to hold us back any longer than I already have. Although, all this time I had to wonder... why? You must have known..."

I didn't answer, glancing at the crystal hanging from my neck. With those words, Siaril stopped pressing the matter, but I clearly felt that he would like to talk about it later. I sighed quietly. I didn't...

Sensing the heavy atmosphere, Yasenka offered to lead us further through the forest, more to the west from the course we followed until now. The two curious squirrels that appeared and vanished among the branches like two bright fen fires accompanied us almost all the way. The camp turned out to be fairly close, we noticed the glow of campfire shining between the tree trunks after just a few minutes.

The place was literally wild. About thirty sturdy hovels dispersed between the trees around a small clearing, various birds perching on the twigs that stuck out from the roofings here and there, their chirping already sleepy. I noticed a brook at the border of this tiny village, reflecting the golden remnants of daylight. To my bewilderment, I spotted a few does quenching their thirst there, completely ignoring the two women that were washing wooden dishes just across the water. The soft air was warm and filled with some delicate, indefinable smell.

Yasenka led us straight to the biggest hovel, standing at the edge of the clearing, the middle of which was occupied by a large bonfire. Judging by the faint, essential scent, it has just recently been lit. A man in a long robe sat by it, smoking a pipe. When our guide came to a stop in front of him and bowed her head, he looked up. I estimated the illathan to be around sixty five to seventy years old, but the eyes that locked with mine were much younger. Only the delicate netting of wrinkles suggested his real age.

He watched me and Siaril in silence for a moment, something akin to distrust in those eyes, then stood up. "Good evening..." his voice was deep, pleasant to the ear. "Who are our guests, my child?"

"They are the Disciples of the Last Dragons, master Arakiel," Yasenka explained. It felt weird, but despite the respect, something in her tone seemed to openly oppose the suspiciousness that the man eyed us with.

And it immediately won this subtle quarrel too, the older illathan's expression changing from a frown into surprise, then to a warm smile. "This surely is unexpected... I'm honored to meet you, dear friends. My name is Arakiel, I'm the shepherd of this camp, you could say."

"The honor is ours," Siaril bowed his head again, and so did I.

"I assume you invited them to stay for tonight, Yasenka?"

"I did."

"Feel at home then. And if there is anything I can do for you, just let me know."

"Forgive me if I'll sound rude, but would you mind if I let you know of one thing straight away?" I caught a glimpse of Siaril letting his hand rest on his bag, where he carried the chronicle.

"Not at all, my boy."

My companion carefully took the book out and Yasenka let out a small gasp, stepping closer. "Is that what I think it is?" she asked, her eyes shining.

"What do you think it is?"

"The Dracascarion, the chronicle written by my antecessor..."

Siaril smiled a little. "I feel like you already know way more than us both combined..."

"I don't think so, I just know a few random facts from dragon history that we learned from mages..."

"Well in that case... would you like to study it? Most of it is written in draconic, but a large part is what I think is your language..."

"Some of us know draconic quite well too, actually."

"You do?" I blinked. "Wow... think you could teach me some?"

Yasenka let out a tiny puff of laughter. "Since there are no dragons around anymore, I suppose they won't mind if I do. But not today. It's time to rest soon."

"That's right," Arakiel inhaled one last time, then emptied his pipe over the bonfire. "Rest to your heart's content, we can talk tomorrow, when our minds are fresh."

We thanked the leader and followed Yasenka again. Evening wafted between the trees, the western part of the sky above the forest taking the color of amaranth. She led us through the camp, not paying much attention to the intrigued stares of the other illathan. I had to blink more rapidly sometimes, because the clothing of most of them was dyed in various shades of green, gray and brown, making it hard to spot them in between the greenery unless they actually moved.

"Do you have any plans already?" asked our guide as she meandered between the trees, holding the book to her chest like a treasure.

"Well... I think first and foremost, we need to work on our abilities," Siaril sounded slightly abashed. "Although, to be honest, I don't know much about it..."

"For that we might need some place out of sight, where we won't put anyone else in danger should Sharish find us," Yasenka hopped over a tree root. "And I definitely don't want it to be here."

"Yeah, I figured."

"Any suggestions then?"

"We could move to my acquaintance's house. He lives in a rather desolate place and is already aware of the situation. And to be honest... I think he would almost feel offended if we refused his offer..."

"Sounds like an interesting character," Yasenka smiled, stopping at one of the hovels, the last one at the western border of the camp. I almost didn't notice it among the soft shadows that slowly shrouded the forest, it blended in so well with the resin-smelling trunk of a tall spruce. "It's not the biggest, but three people can fit in sitting, and two can sleep in there. Make yourselves at home, I'll bring supper."

"Hold on," Siaril stopped her, sounding worried. "This is yours?"

"Yes?"

"Where will you be sleeping then?"

"Oh, don't worry. I rarely sleep here except for winter, I prefer to stay in the open. I hope you won't mind sleeping together? I can organize something else if you're not comfortable with it."

Siaril gave me a short look to which I shook my head a little. "It's fine."

When Yasenka left, we carefully entered the hovel. It was quite cozy. The ground was covered with a few blankets, three pillows resting by the right wall, and some personal belongings stacked up by the left. We could see the quickly darkening sky and the gleam of one of the smaller campfires nearby through tiny slits between the branches in the walls.

I freed myself from my haversack, sitting down. "She's... I'm not sure how to put this..."

"Flawlessly caring," Siaril helped me find the right words. "Like she knows exactly what is the maximum she can put out without ever crossing your personal space."

"Something like that. It might be good to have someone like that with us... Why do the illathan live in such a secluded and wild place though? They seem friendly and sociable."

"I can only guess... Maybe they take after the elves more and prefer to live among nature. Or they stay here because they don't feel like they deserve to live among mages because of the lack of magical abilities."

"Wait, they can't do magic? They come from two magic races."

"It's said that the elves and the mages use different types of magic that nullified themselves in the illathan, leaving them with but shreds of the power."

"There are different types of magic? What are they?"

"I don't know exactly..."

"I do," came Yasenka's bright voice as she appeared in the entrance of the hovel, carrying two wooden pans, their grips shaped like entwined grapevine twigs. One of them was full of various fruit, the other held three freshly roasted fish. She carefully put them inside, then entered. "Want me to tell you?"

"Sure," I perked up.

She kneeled down, but then seemed to change her mind for some reason and sat back, pulling her knees to her chest slightly. She pointed to the pans. "Don't hold back. We can talk while we eat."

I happily took one of the fish. It had the pleasant smell of juniper smoke.

"I'm not exactly an expert when it comes to magic myself, but I can at least tell you about elves and mages," Yasenka started explaining, taking a plum from the other pan. "The difference is about where the magic comes from, I believe. Elves don't have inborn magic. But they do possess the ability to manipulate the magic in their surroundings, mostly in living beings and elements. Mages, on the other hand, are born with their own magic inherited within their race. They study it, learn to control it, how to become more powerful, and so on. And it's not really that two types of magic nullified themselves in the illathan. It's just that one of our parents has magic, the other does not, and the elven traits seem to dominate... There are probably other types of magic too, but I don't know much about them. I heard that some humans use magic in a more... mechanical way. They're not born with it, they can't manipulate it, but they're able to use some forms of energy to influence objects. I have no clue how."

I suddenly noticed the funny look she was giving me. "What?" I felt my cheeks become warmer.

"Oh nothing, you just look so fascinated."

"I'd love to learn more about magic, magical creatures, dragons..." I admitted.

"We can learn together," Yasenka gave me a lovely smile.

"Speaking of..." Siaril stopped eating for a moment. "You will be coming with us, right?"

"Of course."

"When could we leave?"

"Oh, um... actually, I have something important to take care of the next few days... Would you mind waiting? Or maybe I could catch up to you?"

"Or maybe we can help you?" I blurted out without thinking much.

Yasenka seemed to think for a moment, surprised by the offer. "I guess you could accompany us. I wouldn't mind."

"Accompany you?"

Yasenka switched positions a little, gently massaging her right knee. "Me and a few others from the camp wanted to head to Leeshan tomorrow. We do supply runs a few times a year, and the first spring one is the most important for us."

"I wouldn't mind helping," Siaril said simply.

"Me neither," I smiled.

Yasenka gave us both a curious look for some reason, but it quickly fled before an expression of gratitude. "Thank you so much. You don't need to do much though, I'd be happy if you just accompanied us. I'd love to get to know you better."

We enjoyed the rest of the meal in silence. Yasenka then took the dishes, wished us a good night and vanished into the shadows that creeped outside.

I pulled one of the pillows closer and lied down comfortably, giving Siaril his space. Once he did the same, there was a sudden, unnatural hush in the hovel. Already the first night, I noticed that he had a very quiet and calm sleep. And not just the sleep actually, his voice, his every movement, his very presence was hardly detectable. It made me feel uneasy sometimes...

"Sigrian..." I jumped a little when he spoke up out of the blue. When I gave him a small hum in response, he continued: "Before, you said that it might be good to have someone like Yasenka with us... You meant that it would be good for me, didn't you?" I turned my head a little to look at him in the semi-darkness. "Does my state really concern you that much?"

I sighed silently. "You said it yourself... it's just the two of us now, well now three, and it's not like you're the only one who feels responsible for the others. We should all take care of each other. I don't want to believe that this will last your whole lifetime..." I trailed off, biting my lip. I was going too far again...

"Do you wish to know... how my friend died?" Siaril whispered calmly. I wasn't sure. I probably would have been better off not knowing. But when I didn't answer, he just continued: "It wasn't by some simple, common cause like disease or accident... He was killed, Sigrian... he died for me, because of me, even though it should have been me who paid that price back then..."

"What?" I wasn't able to stop that word from getting past my lips.

Siaril took a few breaths, as if trying to calm himself. "It was roughly one year ago..." his voice was trickling in the darkness like an invisible, sad brook. "A man appeared in my hometown. I've never seen him before, but when I happened to meet him while I was alone, he quickly gave me to understand what his purpose was. He was an emissary of Sharish... as soon as I heard those words, I had drawn my sword at him before I realized what I was doing... And before I could regain my senses, Sitriel appeared out of nowhere to stand in his way... instead of meeting my blade, his hit Sitriel... it happened so quickly, I hardly registered anything... And after that... the man just left me there. He didn't even touch me in the end... Maybe he thought that I wouldn't constitute any threat to Sharish anymore after he murdered my best friend, or that I would just end my own life in my grief... To be honest I thought about doing that a few times, I still don't know why I didn't..."

I could almost see how every single word touched the wounds on Siaril's heart and lacerated them anew. I wasn't able to do anything, just listen... I tried putting myself in this situation, but soon gave up again upon feeling that unpleasant sting in my chest.

Siaril then turned slowly to face me. "You are a bit like him, you know...?" he whispered. "I don't mean the looks, but the nature... he usually pretended like not much could faze him, but on the inside he was always concerned for the people around him... sometimes his pride got the best of him, he could be ridiculously stubborn, and yet sometimes so withdrawn and considerate it was hard to believe it all fitted into one personality..." despite all the sadness in his voice, he wasn't able to hold back a small smile.

I for my part felt an urge to object to certain traits that he listed, but upon giving it a deeper thought, I had to agree to a certain level... I realized that I shifted my behavior towards him as soon as I realized the dead look in his eyes. It felt like the time at the royal castle, when I wasn't sure how to behave when I came face to face with something that didn't sit right in my mind... He wasn't like the people from the village, which I knew since I was born and treated like family. He was like someone exotic, who I suddenly needed to adapt to from scratch.

"Well..." I finally spoke. "If we're so similar, what stands in the way of us becoming friends then?"

Siaril let out another, heavier sigh. "I'm sorry, but I'd rather not... I guess I'm afraid of getting closer to anyone since that day... it just hurt too much..."

I opened my mouth again, but backed down in the last second. I really didn't want to further renew the wounds he revealed to me. I was kind of glad that he trusted me enough to show them, but on the other hand I deeply regretted that we even started this topic. A delicate wind picked up outside, and together with it, the forest spoke up. The subtle rustle got quieter, then louder again and it seemed like the forest started to breathe...

And there was one more, apologetic breath at my side: "Please don't bother yourself with me, Sigrian... it's not worth it..."

I started to feel like I've made a mistake with my decision after all...